Bruce Chapman

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Retro old tv on circus vintage wall background. 3d illustration
Image Credit: Rawf8 - Adobe Stock

The People’s ‘Right’ to a Show

It’s time to sit back, put our feet up and watch the rape trial of William Kennedy Smith. Thanks to television we now can observe real crimes covered on videotape, real arrests in progress, and real trials, live. The formats also can be combined, as when the Los Angeles Police Department was caught on amateur videotape clubbing a motorist over Read More ›

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Aerial view of a nuclear power plant with cooling towers emitting steam.
Image Credit: Александр Марченко - Adobe Stock

Nuclear Inspectors Have a Mandate but Need Money

One might expect that the United States, which led a $50-billion Gulf War and then assigned the job of nuclear weapons searches in Iraq to the United Nations, would supply its share of funds to do the job. But, while inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) are still in Iraq, the IAEA director general, Hans Blix, reports that Read More ›

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Location Mexico. Green pin on the map.
Image Credit: Zerophoto - Adobe Stock

The Mexican Connection

Back in 1956, when I spent a summer there as a high school student, Mexico really was “the land of eternal spring,” beautiful, though poor, and full of hope. The population, then at 34 million, was already growing fast and shifting from the countryside to the cities. Mexico City held 4.5 million. Today, the population of Mexico is nearing an Read More ›

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Moraine lake panorama in Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada
Image Credit: aiisha - Adobe Stock

The new binational regionalism

Everybody knows these days that one of Seattle’s advantages in the recession is the relative health of the Northwest economy as a whole. Boeing and Microsoft pull in dollars from both coasts and from overseas, but it is also nice to have a regional market that is still strong enough to want our products close to home. But what “everybody Read More ›

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shanghai skyline panorama in sunset
Image Credit: chungking - Adobe Stock

Careful trade contacts will encourage Chinese freedom forces

Two decades ago, the Port of Seattle decided to trade with the People's Republic of China, a business relationship that now has positioned Washington as the biggest exporting state to the PRC (nearly $800 million in 1988), and one of the biggest importers from that country (over $1.21 billion). Puget Sound ports are closer to China than are California's, and Northwest business people have a sustained personable style that results in the long-term trust the China trade requires. Now comes an opportunity for the Puget Sound region to become the major U.S. gateway for the burgeoning China trade in the 21st century. The PRC has asked to follow up contacts with Washington officials, such as Secretary of State Ralph Munro, and with private citizen groups, such as the Spokane-based Citizen Ambassador Program and the Washington State China Relations Council, and send an exploratory trade mission to Seattle. Read More ›