Bringing an end to bullying - everywhere

Editor's note: This is the speech Coeur d'Alene School District Trustee Tom Hamilton gave Thursday to the Kootenai County Republican Women. When he was done, Hamilton received a rare standing ovation.

2019 State of the State and Budget Address - Governor Brad Little

Mr. Speaker, Mr. Pro Tem, Madam President, honored legislators, my fellow constitutional officers, Mr. Chief Justice and members of the judiciary, my family, friends, and my fellow Idahoans.

SILENCE: Isn't golden

Where are our Congressional reps? They are missing. We have been writing, calling, and visiting their local offices without result. They will not schedule any town halls. We need our voices heard and they need to do the job they were elected to do, which is listening to their Idaho constituents, not blindly following our troubled president.

FIRE: Proved a painful point

The Cape Horn Fire has really shown our community how dependent we are on our cell phones. It’s time Verizon stepped up and provide Bayview area with a cell phone tower to improve communication in our area. There are places in the area where a tower would be hardly noticeable. Come on Verizon, let’s do this!

HOSPICE OF NORTH IDAHO: A wonderful resource

My family and I would like to extend our sincere thanks and gratitude to the staff of Hospice of North Idaho and the Schneidmiller Hospice House for the care given to our loved one in our time of need.

Sleep - a magical potion

Food for Thought

I have a miracle drug. This drug does not have to be ingested, has no side effects, increases mood, pumps up one's immune system, makes one more alert and more productive, decreases auto accidents, strengthens personal relationships, makes one more attractive and feels great. What is this magical potion - sleep.

Waking up to wellness

MaryJane's Everyday Organic

While perusing the health news segment in a popular magazine recently, I found myself cringing at the headlines. Insurance, radiation, prescription drugs and myriad gloom-and-doom medical findings - the topics sent shivers down my spine! How, I wondered, is any of this "health" news? Even as our collective consciousness is blooming with enthusiasm for more nutritious food, safer homes and healthier habits, it seems that an alarming number of people are still outsourcing the care of their bodies to the medical industry. In large part, it's a matter of convenience. Instead of investing time and effort into restoring one's natural health, it's easier to ask a doctor to prescribe one (or more) of the many pills touted as quick cures. I think there is also a significant fear factor involved here. Over the past century or so, modern medicine has managed to convince us that physicians hold the key to creating wellness, and if the average Jane wants access to her own health, she must come crawling into the doctor's office with her pocketbook open for business.

Fourth: Foundation of our freedom

Today marks 237 years since, in the words of President Lincoln, "our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal." Mr. Lincoln spoke those words on Nov. 19, 1863, on his visit to Gettysburg, Pa. This was the site of a great battle in the American Civil War that was surely testing whether "any nation so conceived and so dedicated could long endure."

Tasting in the Willamette

Mary and I just returned from the Oregon Coast after a Lancaster family reunion. We broke away from our time with family to go and visit a couple of our favorite producers in the Willamette Valley, a premier wine region that I am mildly embarrassed to admit we have never visited. It was our kind of tasting, too. We visited only three locations, two for one winery and one for another. It was an off-day Friday on an off-weekend with no big special events going on.

Minnick: America is not too big to fail

We are about to learn that deficits do matter.

Market continues to encourage

When we started this column in 2008 it was predicated by the need for accurate local information. The real estate market had begun falling in many parts of the country in 2007 and the resounding crash was evident in newspapers worldwide. Of course we are not the rest of the world and it would be many months before our local market began its decline. At the end of 2007 our Multiple Listing Service reported the average price of all residential listings was still 4 percent ahead of the previous year. Ten months later, we found our market had shifted. By the end of 2008 our average sales price had declined by 5 percent. Although our declines were not as rapid or severe as in other areas, we had to admit that we were headed for tougher times.

A fun academic year for NIC

Your Community College

Real estate recovery continues locally

As you no doubt have heard, parts of the country are experiencing growth in the housing market. The same holds true here although, like the nation, our recovering areas are in pockets within our local geography.

Living in the real world

Judging from Bonnie Bogart-Brown's July 28 My Turn [When Human Management Isn't Such a Good Thing], she'd be just as happy living in a cave. More power to her, but most of us - me included - aren't interested in rolling the clock back 5,000 years. We enjoy life's little conveniences: food on our tables, a roof over our heads, clothes on our backs and, more recently, computers, cell phones and a host of life-saving advances in medical technologies that would have astonished our forbearers.

What a contrast in style and substance--Bush and Trump

With the passing of former President George H.W. Bush, much of the nation has reflected upon his life and accomplishments. It was hard for many of us to not make comparisons between Bush 1 and our present chief executive. The things that pop to mind are deliberative vs impulsive, empathetic vs narcissistic, and truthful vs not so much, to name a few.

Attention Congress: America desperately needs your help

President Ronald Reagan would have been repulsed by the spectacle of an American president kowtowing to a murderous dictator like Vladimir Putin. If Russia had attacked our democracy, Reagan would not have meekly stood by for months denying it. He would have taken swift and effective action to punish the attacker, rather than appeasing and praising the tyrant.

Women of action

Our Women's Entrepreneur Day: Coeur d'Alene and Spokane Group is in full swing, preparing for our November event in Spokane this year. Each year it will alternate between each city, and last year it was our inaugural year here in Coeur d'Alene. This amazing group of women dare to make a difference in their particular fields of business or professions. What does it take to be a Woman of Action in your community, home and work? What does it take to have the drive and confidence to step out of your comfort zone and choose to make a difference? When we see a cause or injustice, will we stand up to intervene?

Ushering in the North Idaho new year

As I wrap up my first year in Coeur d’Alene, we close another chapter in our community, nation and world. Fittingly, much is to be celebrated during this time of year, and it’s important to reach out to those very special people and organizations that make a difference in our lives.

Return Idaho to our true values

Last weekend was to me one of the best weekends in Kootenai County. It truly was a countywide effort to peacefully fight back against hate and some distorted views about what democracy means.

MY TURN: June is for gratitude and humility

One of the ironic consequences of the promotion by politicians and educators of their version of diversity, is that our cancel culture has abandoned the beautiful and many-faceted history of our region in particular, and our country in general. Ironically, progressives scream for diversity and inclusivity, but this is defined by what they deem worthy of inclusion, meanwhile severely limiting or denigrating any appreciation of our rich (and truly diverse) history and culture.