Amazing news today, that Robert Pamplin Sr. and Robert Pamplin Jr. will donate yet another $6.5 million to my employer, Lewis & Clark College, to help it recover from -- well, let's just say some recent financial difficulties.

Of course, there are still some questions swirling around the way the college is run, and there is a way to go before confidence in the place will be fully restored. But to have the Pamplins open up their checkbooks and do something like this is a tonic of the highest order.

The contributions that the Pamplins have made to the life of our city, and to education all around the country, are nothing short of phenomenal. They are successful people who really know how to give back.

To these extraordinary gentlemen, I'm sure I'm joined by the entire college community when I say, thank you. To everybody else I say, can you believe how lucky we are to have friends like these?