United Way's mental health focus is wise
United Way of Walla Walla took a different focus this year, pledging to allocate a large chunk of its donations to reduce problems associated with mental health in the Valley.
Case of the patented gene
WASHINGTON — Angelina Jolie’s genes threatened to kill her. But, for the time being anyway, she doesn’t own them. Jolie revealed this month that she chose to undergo a double mastectomy after testing positive for the BRCA1 mutation. That genetic glitch meant Jolie’s risk of developing breast cancer was as high as 87 percent; her mother died of the disease at age 56. Jolie’s news highlights an arcane but increasingly important question of patent law. As the sequencing of the human genome has expanded the ability to test for such genetic susceptibilities, is the discovery of the gene itself a patentable invention?
Paid family leave is not a priority
Legal protections for those needing family leave to be with a newborn or care for a sick family member have already been enacted by Congress.
Who owns your DNA? Not who you think
Asked in 1955 whether his polio vaccine was patented, Jonas Salk replied, “There is no patent. Could you patent the sun?” With that, Salk debunked the misguided notion of patenting objects found in nature.
Why South Korea has already won
On March 30, three days after North Korea severed a military hotline with the South and announced that South Korean President Park Geun-hye “will meet a miserable ruin,” the country declared a state of war. “The time has come to stage a do-or-die final battle,” an official statement said.
Sacramento plays NBA politics well
SEATTLE — In the scoring of the Seattle-versus-Sacramento reality show, who wants to win an NBA team the most probably doesn’t rate up there in importance with, say, who has the shiniest billionaires.
Is state budget being cut or are words being parsed?
As we’ve all heard from the folks in Olympia who are trying to craft a state budget, times are still lean. Revenue isn’t meeting expectations and cuts must be made.
Still time to do good things - and bad - for education
OLYMPIA — Legislators got to legislate, governors got to govern.
Examination of retirement abuse casesis welcome
In the wake of Associated Press reporter Mike Baker’s in-depth look at 11th-hour pay raises that helped to significantly boost local firefighters and police officers pensions, the director of the state Department of Retirement Systems is now examining the cases detailed in Baker’s articles.
To deliver or not to deliver mail Saturdays?
The U.S. Postal Service, like newspapers or the electric company, don’t usually garner much public sympathy. Folks take mail service for granted when things go well but are outraged (or worse) when their mail isn’t delivered on time.
