Robert Whale

6 days ago | valleyrecord.com | Robert Whale

Ever since it invented the skid steer loader in 1960, the Bobcat Company claims on its website, it has “helped tackle the most difficult jobs in landscaping, agriculture, forestry, snow removal and more.”Sixty-five years on, I’m sure that’s still true, but for the addition of one teensy-weensy caveat: beware of entrusting the “most difficult jobs” to greenhorns unsuited to the job by temperament and skill sets. We’ve all seen what happens when we fail to do that.

6 days ago | auburn-reporter.com | Robert Whale

At this moment, many of our distracted countrymen glare at each other over a rigid barrier of hardened suspicion and hate. Men and women who, regardless of political persuasion, so prize their own rigidity and unwillingness to bend, they raise it the level of a virtue, and clap others on the back for being just as stiff. Some even compete to be the most fanatically unmovable of all, as if that were a badge of honor. Look around.

1 week ago | auburn-reporter.com | Robert Whale

In 2023, the Auburn Police Department pursued 17 fleeing vehicles, a small number owing to a state requirement that restricted officers’ ability to pursue escaping vehicles whose occupants were suspected of lesser crimes like car theft. Police everywhere chafed under the restrictions. But in June 2024, Initiative 2113 became law as the state Legislature relaxed the requirement — restoring to police the autonomy to pursue fleeing vehicles for less violent offenses such as car thefts.

1 week ago | federalwaymirror.com | Robert Whale

Ever since it invented the skid steer loader in 1960, the Bobcat Company claims on its website, it has “helped tackle the most difficult jobs in landscaping, agriculture, forestry, snow removal and more.”Sixty-five years on, I’m sure that’s still true, but for the addition of one teensy-weensy caveat: beware of entrusting the “most difficult jobs” to greenhorns unsuited to the job by temperament and skill sets. We’ve all seen what happens when we fail to do that.

1 week ago | valleyrecord.com | Robert Whale

Road trips that took the Whale Pod through the heart of Eastern Washington’s one-horse towns a generation or two ago are among the most treasured memories of my childhood. The old Chevy, and later the Oldsmobile, carried the lot — mom, dad, and us, their sometimes squalling but well-behaved (most of the time) offspring.