Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Our World: Housing coalition's success should inspire city action
By Rufus Woods Editor and Publisher
When it matters most, this community seems to find ways to make important things happen.

If not Fannie Mae, there's always Tina Fey
By Rick Horowitz Syndicated columnist
The names are the confusing part, am I right?

Summer civility and the promise of more to come
By Garrison Keillor Tribune Media Services
New York in July, hot and breezy, the smell of pizza and coffee in the air, and on the subway one is surrounded by women in light summer dresses, the bare shoulders of elegant young urban women whose shoulders tell you they never toted barges or lifted bales, never laid eyes on a barge or a bale except for someone barging into their office and giving them a baleful look. They are swanning along through their 20s and I love to look at them while observing the No Staring rule, five seconds max — but five seconds of a beautiful New York woman burns an image on your retina that will see you through the miseries of the city.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Working through bad news for newspapers
By Gary Jasinek World managing editor
Like every other business, newspapers are subject to costs that rise beyond their control and unanticipated — or poorly anticipated — shifts in the markets they serve.

When neighborliness canceled the deer hunt
By Marc Fisher The Washington Post
WASHINGTON _ You spend time, energy and money on landscaping and flowers, on making your home a respite, a retreat. Then the deer come along and eat it all up. This happens again and again, and finally you go to the state and get yourself a wildlife damage-control permit, which means you can call up the man with the bow and arrow and have him come sit in a tree and take out the offending pests.

What's that smell? It's smoke on the 'time horizon'
By Eugene Robinson Washington Post Writers Group
WASHINGTON — It's not a "timetable" for extricating U.S troops from Iraq that George W. Bush is suddenly talking about, and heaven help anyone who accuses him of proposing a "timeline." No, the Decider says he is now amenable to a "time horizon," which apparently is a whole different kind of time thing — not at all like the sensible course of action that Democrats and other critics of the Iraq occupation have been demanding.

Monday, July 21, 2008
In times of grief, the important thing is just to show up
By Susan Estrich Creators Syndicate
When my father died, so many years ago, my heart was broken. And then it got broken again. In the hours and days after his death, I was comforted by family and friends. But I couldn't help but notice who was missing, people I cared about, people I thought cared about me, who didn't call, didn't come, weren't there. Later, much later, I asked a few of those people why: Where had they been? Why didn't they come? And the answer was always the same.

Saturday, July 19, 2008
Mortgage scandal is a bipartisan affair
By Froma Harrop Creators Syndicate
To borrow a Barack Obama line, "There's not a liberal America and a conservative America, there's a United States of America." That's true — and everyone in it tried to make a quick buck off the housing bubble.

Watch the candidates for signs of emotional intelligence
By Joseph S. Nye Jr. Special to the Los Angeles Times
After Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes was introduced to Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1930s, he famously described the president as having a "second-class intellect, but a first-class temperament." Most historians would agree; Roosevelt's success as a leader rested more on his emotional intelligence than his analytical IQ.

Friday, July 18, 2008
Our World: In Leavenworth, proof that preservation and development can coexist
By Rufus Woods Editor and Publisher
A little more than a week ago, this newspaper ran a story about the volunteer work party that got together and spent time clearing the first section of the Valley Trail connecting the Bavarian City to Wenatchee.

Outrage over a magazine cover: What exactly are they worried about?
By Kathleen Parker Washington Post Writers Group
WASHINGTON — "Damn you and the likes of you to the bowels of hell, you ignorant racist bastard!"

Thursday, July 17, 2008
New: Staff blogs on wenatcheeworld.com
By Gary Jasinek World managing editor
Living the simple life on Badger Mountain.

Peace of My Mind: Just stand back and let me ramble
By Kel Groseclose
I can ramble with the best of them. My old brain is able to wander, traipse, and perambulate with ease. Fortunately during my school years, I was able to focus on a topic. But somewhere between then and now, my mind's become cluttered with all manner of strange yet wonderful information. For example, the other morning I got to rambling about how many mature persons, including yours truly, can't seem to keep pace with this electronic, computerized world. I just about grasp the workings of a basic program or game when, without warning, a whole new, faster, more complex system pops up. It surprises me like mushrooms growing in a dark place. My head hurts from trying to cope with it all. No wonder I chew my fingernails.

In the far north, a reminder of our destructive economy
By Michael Gerson The Washington Post
IN THE ARCTIC CIRCLE — North of Oslo, north of Longyearbyen, almost as north as North itself, the National Geographic Endeavor breaks pack ice in endless daylight through a gray-teal sea. The expedition has been cruising near Svalbard, a group of high arctic islands larger than Denmark — in summer, a land of brown mountains streaked with snow-filled gullies, low clouds that blur distinctions of sky and land, and wide glaciers reaching the ocean in gashes of bright sky blue.