February is known as the “love” month, with Valentine’s Day right in the middle of it, and I’ve been thinking how I can tie that in with just how much God loves humankind. I found one of the best pictures of God’s love and care for his followers is in Psalm 23, which compares God to the “good shepherd” and those who follow him as his “sheep.”

American news media are in crisis, and the cities and towns news organizations have served are seeing those organizations shrink to mere shadows or cease to exist altogether.

It has been hard for me to watch the pictures, videos and posts in terms of the devastation the recent earthquake has caused in Turkey and Syria. Mostly, we are seeing more of Turkey’s destruction all over media outlets rather than Syria’s. Initially Syria had slow aid due to the sanctions. However, after four days, there is a relief on those sanctions for a limited time.

Recently I’ve been preparing for the inevitable. Last month, I reached an age at which I can say, “Four score and seven years ago, my mother brought forth on this continent a new baby ...” That was me. I’ve never been 87 before, never dreamed I’d make it this far. I’d wondered whether I’d see the turn of this century! But I did, so what’s next?

The origin of evil as described in Islam goes back to the early times when Allah, SWT (God), created Adam from clay. He then asked his other creations, Angels and Jinn to prostrate to Adam. All did except “Iblis,” Iblis was a Jinn and believed that hence he was created from fire, an element superior to clay, so then, why shall he prostrate to someone who is created from mere clay.

Capacity expansion of a natural gas pipeline running under southeast Spokane Valley and western and northwest Liberty Lake will be the subject of a “People’s Hearing” on Monday evening, Feb. 13.