A heartbreaking question prompted me to re-examine student loans, particularly since borrowing is on the minds of students, parents and grandparents. The question came from a borrower with Sallie Mae (SM), the bank that lends and processes transactions for $182 billion in student loans. She wrote, “Is it legal to apply all of our payments to interest and none to the principal? I've done their online calculator, and we have been paying more than the necessary amount every month [on their ...

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My regrettable performance last Mother’s Day led me to confess to Karen and readers of my column that my children have the responsibility to honor their mother. She recalled hearing that sentiment years ago and it still hurt. I committed to honor her and fumbled into discovering that imperfections are one reason Mother’s Day is important. Thursday I purchased a bouquet of flowers. Flowers from Thursday’s supplies are fresher than Saturday’s remnants. I purchased a jacket sprinkled with spring flowers from the clothing store where past presents have brought her compliments. At Christmas I’d bought her a bracelet from a jeweler’s wife, so after asking her husband to check his records, I purchased matching earrings. By Friday morning the jacket sat on the floor by the living room fireplace and the earrings and cards graced the mantle. She noticed. Before we left to meet our children Saturday night in Seattle, she sat in her lazy-boy with cards and presents in her lap. She smiled. “This feels different. Do you remember last year?” That wounded me, but she enjoyed the difference. << MORE >>

Just before Karen and I joined Wenatchee’s 2010 May Day marchers shouting slogans demanding that a bipartisan comprehensive immigration bill be introduced, she said, “If shooting starts, hit the ground.” Her joke was rooted in public fear and hysteria, both of which may explain why many people who support reform stayed home from this year's march. The unyielding positions in the controversy also explain why Congress has been unable to solve three major issues: a secure border, systems that provide adequate numbers of documented workers and a plan that offers undocumented workers in the U.S. and opportunity to earn citizenship based on work and community histories. Frustrated Arizonians reacted with a law narrowly focused on documentation. << MORE >>

Recently I joined a group of fifth graders to watch the Hubble 3D movie at the IMAX screen in Seattle’s Pacific Science Center. Hubble 3D creates the experience of riding through space based on 20 years of photographs recorded by the Hubble telescope from its orbit 350-400 miles above earth. The IMAX experience dwarfed my sense of wonder. I’m still overwhelmed, but one small conclusion is the budget we are spending is reasonable for its scientific value. Our ride from earth traveled from our solar system spinning into our Milky Way galaxy. That surprised me because my most vivid view of the Milky Way was from the shoulder of Little Sister Mountain in Oregon. The pasty white endless stream of stars was way up in the sky. It’s not up there. We’re in it here. My home galaxy has more than 100 billion stars and a diameter of 100,000 light years. One hundred billion felt large until I compared it to our nation’s debt of one trillion. << MORE >>

Mom briefly worked in my dad’s tire shop when she couldn’t balance our family’s modest budget. Dad did a great job of selling tires and expanding his, but our family was borrowing money. She told him to set priorities, cut costs, raise revenue, and reduce borrowing. He disagreed. She left for a job as research librarian and solved our budget crisis. Mom turned out to right about Dad’s business also. Consequently I decided to use Mom’s principles to review the 2010 Washington legislature’s budget balancing. She’d praise, scold, and shake her head in disbelief. Mom’s first praise would be for balancing the budget. << MORE >>

Steve McLaughlin trains citizens to be responsible weapons owners, particularly for Washington’s concealed pistol licenses (CPL). Naively I asked whether Washington required training before approving a license. He fired his answer with the controlled force of his military training. “No, and that’s the way it should be.” For educators like me that’s backwards—people should get trained first, then get a permit. Steve is a retired Navy commander who has worked in special forces combat in the Balkans, Africa and Iraq. “Lots of times I’ve fought where people may not carry guns. Without the second amendment, the first amendment, freedom of speech, would not exist.” Last week I experienced why our nation’s founders chose the first two amendments. << MORE >>

Experience with my new Bank of America affinity credit card has reinforced my opinion that we need stringent financial regulations. Proposed bills would add regulations and immediately assess giants like BOA to avoid putting taxpayers at risk if they fail. The financial behemoth brethren are pressuring congressional conservative policy makers to gut the regulations. They argue integrated firms offer more comprehensive financial services and shouldn’t be penalized for being big. Besides the financial crisis has already made them more responsive. My trivial experience convinces me BOA has improved some financial transparency, but other practices demand consumer protection. Read about my experience and you judge. << MORE >>

This Easter season message of peace for all people is from a profoundly diverse common ground. The message is, “You are my hands.” My wife and I heard the message in Turkey with about 35 others on a pilgrimage in the footsteps of Paul. Our spiritual leader was the Very Reverend Canon Marianne Wells Borg from the Episcopal Diocese of Oregon and Director of the Center for Spiritual Development. She briefly diverted us from Paul’s footsteps to a shrine for Christians and Muslims called Mary’s House near Ephesus. Many people believe Mary, mother of Jesus, lived there in her last home, although others believe her final home was near Jerusalem. Mary’s House is a shrine for Christians because in 1896 Roman Catholic Pope Leo XIII made a pilgrimage to the site and Pope John XXIII subsequently elevated it to its current status as a Permanently Privileged Holy Place. Mary’s House is a shrine for Muslims because she is a symbol for piety and submission for Islamic women. << MORE >>

    My wife and I plan to take our twin 12-year-old grandsons to Washington DC and have scheduled visits to Capitol Hill and the White House.
    We want them to respect the balance of powers embedded in our constitution. Our first visit is to Capitol Hill, where Congressional performance is rated unfavorable by 64 percent of the people (Rasmussen Reports). But building grandson respect should be easier after Congress passed healthcare reform.
    Before ... << MORE >>

Despite looming cost increases to reform national healthcare and tax increases to balance our state budget, a man blasted the Census Bureau about a letter alerting us to complete the census form on April 1. The blaster blamed the government for wasting postage, trees, and labor to mail what could have been included with the survey. He laughed at himself for focusing on a trivial letter, but his emotion is understandable because he had to slash his organization’s budget and salvage what he could from Olympia’s proposed spending. Did he expose another example of bureaucratic waste? No, according to a federal spokesman from East Wenatchee. More importantly, he insists, the marketing is to motivate us to save taxpayer money and simultaneously bring in $1,400 per person to our communities. << MORE >>