Fish declined before dams
The discussions about removing and breaching the lower Snake River dams are interesting to follow.
Whichever of these options is done, returning the lower Snake River to its natural flow conditions will end both barge navigation and power production on the river. And even though the dams are left in place, their ability to produce power will be negated without some form of water surface elevation difference created between their upstream and downstream portions.
Back in the 1870s, federal reports were being prepared based on investigations being made back then regarding “the decrease of the food fishes” within the Columbia River basin. These reports are available through major libraries, such as the Seattle Public Library.
Long before the lower Snake River dams were constructed, there were concerns being raised about the declining numbers of salmon in the system. The maximum harvest of Columbia basin salmon occurred in 1883, and has been in general decline since that peak harvest. This information is available in published reports as well.
No matter which option is utilized — be it breaching or removal — hopefully some thought will be given to the fact the salmon numbers were decreasing long before the lower Snake River dams were constructed.
Gene Spangrude
Walla Walla
Legislators did not listen
During the past legislative session, numerous Idaho residents testified against Senate Bill 1385, making abortion a felony.
Citizen after citizen testified that the new legislation was unconstitutional. But the legislators did not listen.
Last week, the U.S. Justice Department filed a lawsuit against Idaho stating that Idaho’s restrictive abortion law conflicts with a federal law “requiring doctors to provide pregnant women medically necessary treatment that could include abortion.”
So yet again, Idaho will be required to spend taxpayer funds defending yet another unconstitutional law.
I have a better idea: Let’s make Idaho great by respecting and trusting women to make their own decisions about their own bodies.
Idaho women are strong, independent and perfectly capable of making their own medical decisions without any interference from politicians.
To make this a reality, I am making sure to vote this November for candidates who respect and trust women. I vow to work against any legislator who thinks he or she should have more control over my body than I do.
Will you join me in making Idaho a welcoming and nurturing state for all women?
I hope so.
Heather Stout
Moscow
Try this ‘baseless rant’
Hey Mark Lorenz, you lay down a pretty good rant yourself.
To blame all the country’s woes the last two years on Sleepy Joe is typical GOPer MAGA rhetoric on the same level with the crybaby biggest loser traitor still claiming he won the election. ...
Under former President Donald Trump, the country had not yet felt the full impact of COVID-19 and the economy was benefiting in large part from his welfare for the rich, and economic policies enacted by the Obama administration.
COVID-19-related disruption of the supply chain pipeline, severe labor shortages, rising wages and increasing demand for goods and services, price-gouging and refusal of the oil companies to ramp up production to meet increasing demand and price gouging by manufacturers have caused inflation to soar around the world.
And then there is Ukraine.
The Federal Reserve kept interest rates too low too long and is now scrambling to catch up.
I’m not a big fan of Joe Biden, but after the bloated Bozo into the White House and what a disaster he was, “anyone” was better next time around.
The Afghan debacle was not pretty, but it was brokered by the Conquistador of Crap himself directly with the Taliban. ...
Everything Biden and the Democrats try to do for the good of the country, like taxing the wealthy, lowering the cost of health insurance and prescription drugs, the hypocritical Repubes oppose.
Want a “baseless rant?” How bout the right-wing wingdingers’ “ ‘big lie’ of the stolen election? ...”
Mike Epstein
Clarkston
Read it again
In Jess Stone’s Aug. 7 letter, he writes that the Second Amendment is an independent clause by quoting, “The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”
Independent of what? The 13 preceding words?
Sorry, but you cannot cherry-pick one sentence to try to make your point. The entire Second Amendment reads as follows: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
He is correct about the right of individuals to lawfully possess firearms. This right was affirmed in the landmark Supreme Court ruling, District of Columbia v. Heller in 2008.
However, the late conservative Justice Antonin Scalia, who wrote the majority opinion for the Court, added this caveat: “Like most rights, the right secured by the Second Amendment is not unlimited. The right was not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose.”
So, maybe banning certain weapons may not be a Second Amendment violation after all.
Patrice Yeatter
Kooskia
