ARTICLES BY THOMAS FANCHER

Lead

Standing naked in the world

Shocking title! You are not physically without clothes in public, but your digital identity is visible and unprotected. In a way, you are standing nude in the digital world. You need clothes, that is to say, protection to absolutely control what information companies collect, use, store, sell or give away. …

COLUMBIA BASIN HERALD | UPDATED 6 YEARS, 9 MONTHS AGO

Lead

School safety is critical

The number of school shootings seems to have recently increased exponentially. Daily strip searches of students, staff, and visitors for guns, knives, and other weapons will not eliminate problems. Weapons are not the problem, human behavior is the problem. “Weapon free zones” create killing fields. One or two armed police …

COLUMBIA BASIN HERALD | UPDATED 6 YEARS, 10 MONTHS AGO

Lead

Every vote did not count

The Moses Lake school bond election held Feb. 14, 2017 demonstrated problems with Revised Code of Washington (RCW) laws. In the past, elections were held on specific days at polling places. Voters were verified prior to dispensing ballots. Ballots were not counted until poles closed. Absentee ballots and problems were …

COLUMBIA BASIN HERALD | UPDATED 6 YEARS, 11 MONTHS AGO

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Judicial misbehavior

“United States Constitution, Article 3, Section. 1. The judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish. The Judges, both of the supreme and inferior Courts, shall hold their Offices …

COLUMBIA BASIN HERALD | UPDATED 6 YEARS, 11 MONTHS AGO

Congress versus health

People need good medical care, but health insurance is not medical care. Nothing in either the Declaration of Independence or Constitution provides for government healthcare or insurance. The Constitution doesn’t prohibit individual states from making laws, and doesn’t prohibit charity organizations from helping people.

COLUMBIA BASIN HERALD | UPDATED 7 YEARS, 5 MONTHS AGO

July 4 reflections These truths are still self-evident

We will soon celebrate the 241st anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. It reads, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” The …

COLUMBIA BASIN HERALD | UPDATED 7 YEARS, 6 MONTHS AGO

A message from the Grant Co. Committee of Safety

This election is different from all others we have seen in our lives. National security, health care, jobs, immigration, education, and taxes are all items where the two candidates have totally different thinking. Even more important, the balance of the United States Supreme Court will be impacted for perhaps the …

COLUMBIA BASIN HERALD | UPDATED 8 YEARS, 2 MONTHS AGO

'Dump Trump' supporters lack respect

We have just been watching some of the “Dump Trump” demonstrators who shut down a highway in Arizona. I don’t know whether they are supporters of Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton. They may be Democrats, communists, socialists, or anarchists. What they are demonstrating is a total disrespect for the United …

COLUMBIA BASIN HERALD | UPDATED 8 YEARS, 10 MONTHS AGO

The federal government's (lack of) thinking regarding gun control

No law has ever prevented a person with evil intent from committing murder, assaults, theft, or any other crime. People were murdered long before firearms were invented. Guns are inanimate objects, capable of being used for both defense as well as evil acts.

COLUMBIA BASIN HERALD | UPDATED 11 YEARS, 12 MONTHS AGO