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All the increased costs Washingtonians experienced during the past year were accompanied by a $1.3-billion hit on workers’ paychecks. The widespread pay decrease in Washington state was compliments of a new payroll tax that began in 2023 to fund a program called WA Cares. In a recent meeting, the Employment Security Department told the Long-Term Security and Supports Trust Commission not to get used to higher-than-expected income, in case wage and employment information c...
School Districts in Eastern Washington are again starting to see boys and girls differently, especially when it comes to sports. The Kennewick School Board got the ball rolling back in July, following boys participation and victories in girls track events. Only a month or two before, a Methow Valley boy won a girls event in Cashmere, claiming he is “transgender.” Then an East Valley boy also competing under the transgender caveat, beat a West Valley girl to win the girls sta...
Most down ballot elections draw little attention, but not this year when it comes to Washington’s Public Lands Commissioner. Heading into the November balloting, former Congresswoman Jaimie Herrera-Beutler, a Republican from southwest Washington, faces Democrat King County Council member Dave Upthegrove, who in the last primary election recount, had a razor-thin edge (51 votes) over Republican Sue Kuehl Pederson. It has been the closest statewide Washington election in two d...
Seventeen states and the District of Columbia have joined in an agreement to award their Electoral College votes in a U.S. election to the winner of the national popular vote. The National Popular Vote compact, NPV as it is called, has gained steam over the past 25 years, lead mostly by liberal leaning states eager to work around the Electoral College. The legislation, which is identical in each state, requires the state to award its electoral votes to the candidate who receives the most popular votes nationwide. This could...
My family’s farm received a letter last fall seeking interest in leasing land for another wind project down along Union Flat Creek in Whitman County. When I returned home from the harvest field on the evening of Aug. 27, there was a message on my answering machine asking the same thing, yet again. People, it is well past time to make your voices heard. If Whitman County is to remain an agricultural area and not become a wind/solar industrial catastrophe, the masses must rise up and fight. Contact the commissioners and tell t...
Spokane, Reardan, Davenport, Harrington, Odessa. Schools across the region are tackling the issue of cellphone addiction among students, at least while on campus. Well, maybe tackling the addiction is a bit strong. Let’s just say school boards here in Eastern Washington and elsewhere are finally taking action to keep phones out of students’ hands in classrooms. At issue in many districts is whether cellphones should be allowed in class, at lunch, on buses or even on cam...
At their Aug. 15 meeting, members of Washington state’s ongoing Universal Health Care Commission talked about recommending further expansion of, and money for, a Medicaid-like program for low-income adults who are undocumented immigrants. The program, called Apple Health Expansion, is shouldered by Washington state taxpayers alone, unlike Medicaid. Medicaid is funded by a federal-state partnership and is not available to people who entered the U.S. unauthorized or who were l...
An extensive study published by the National Bureau of Economic Research concludes that universal basic income, the government gifting of taxpayer dollars, doesn’t have the effect that proponents of forced re-distribution of wealth would have hoped for. In fact, the opposite is true. A universal basic income promises a government guaranteed income which is supposed to improve the economic situation of those receiving the money, typically median or lower income families. The s...
As someone born and raised in the Spokane-Cheney area, now serving as an executive dean at a California Community College and a former Naval Officer, I’ve always valued the importance of strong leadership and sound decision-making. These principles are crucial in education, especially when it comes to supporting those on the front lines — our teachers. My sister, Sally Wall, a dedicated teacher in the Cheney School District, embodies the selflessness and commitment that every educator should be recognized and supported for...
Under outgoing Gov. Jay Inslee, the state has been greenwashing just about everything it can. What is greenwashing? It’s the act of using false or misleading claims that an action will have a positive impact on the environment. This November, voters will have an opportunity to undo some of the greenwashing done by the Inslee Administration and state agencies. Two initiatives on the ballot are designed to restrict government agencies from continuing policies that have l...
Kelly Ortberg’s appointment as new Boeing CEO and the company returning its headquarters to Seattle are promising steps toward rehabilitating the aerospace giant started over a century ago. The Seattle Times editorial summarized it best: “Dare we hope?” Ortberg has a sterling reputation, vast aerospace experience, and a record of accomplishment. Hopefully, his experience and success pave the way for Boeing to re-emerge as the pinnacle of aerospace---where it was before the C...
The demise of the Olympic Games The Olympic Games is the mountain top of the athletic realm. After all, when you consider the thousands of young people who dedicate their lives to become a participant in those games and the millions of spectators who eagerly wait every four years to watch these wonderful athletes perform, it must be a world event. Then came Paris. In the opening ceremony, when then mockery of the “Lord’s Supper” — which in my mind had nothing to do with the Olympics — it avalanched the entire ceremony...
When we travel, as Americans we often visit the landmarks of our heritage. I’m not different. I spent most of the last two weeks on the road visiting family from here to Iowa, Minnesota and back. Along the route, I visited the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, the Corn Palace, Mount Rushmore and other truly American destinations. But I also stopped at a couple places that were of this world, almost. One of my stops on my way back was at Devil’s Tower, north of Sund...
Our national debt is spreading out of control like a raging wildfire. Among other things, that added liability impacts our ability to fight those fires and reforest those scorched woods and range lands. Replanting trees is necessary to prevent erosion, provide clean drinking water, reduce CO2, protect fish and wildlife habitat, and rehabilitate public open spaces. It is very costly and under current funding schemes, the money is not available. Our national debt just surpassed...
Okay, readers, hands up if you or your ancestors are/were immigrants to the United States, legal or illegal. All hands up? Even American Indians came across the Bering Straits or by land. They have the best claim to land, however, since they arrived long before Europeans, Africans and Asians. Then, explain the mass deportation signs on display at the Republican National Convention and the anti-immigrant tone to the speeches; and why Republicans just scuttled the bipartisan immigration bill. Should legal and illegal...
In basketball, when an opponent is trying to steal the ball from you, teammates will shout, “wolf!” Last Friday the Washington State Fish & Wildlife Commission ignored the cries of “wolf!” from state agency and tribal scientists, livestock raisers, and others when they voted not to downlist or delist the gray wolf in Washington state. The predators which have enjoyed 15 years of population increases are still considered an endangered species after a 5-4 vote. The most recent population count lists their numbers as “at lea...
“Hello Lou Marzeles.” (Okay, there should have been a comma after hello, but I’m a professional editor highly trained to notice such details in a world that drops punctuation and whole sentence errors by the dozen every second. I was willing to let that go. I figured they were just in such a hurry to share the good news.) “This is Mazie Reddit.” (Hm. Okay, another pause. Really? Mazie Reddit? Reddit is a website. And I’ve never heard of anyone with the name Mazie, though I’m the first to admit I’m no expert on names. Oh, w...
Dams on the Columbia River and its tributaries contribute greatly to the way of life here in Eastern Washington. So, when the federal government says it has reached an agreement on proposed revisions to the Columbia River Treaty with Canada, rural residents should say not so fast. On the surface, the “in principle” agreement announced last week looks good for Americans. Under the proposed changes, the U.S. will get to keep more of the power generated on our side of the border. The proposed agreement says the U.S. will red...
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce looked at the cost of regulations in America and found that excessive protocols are undercutting our economy and costing us jobs. Federal rules alone have exploded, and the Chamber says they cost $1.7 trillion. Unwarranted state labor and employment mandates resulted in a 700,000-job loss. On the other hand, paring back state regulations which exceed federal standards now spawns 50,000 new businesses each year. The Chamber report does not indict...
Truck, truck, truck, Tesla. Truck, truck, truck. Here in rural Eastern Washington, the running joke is that the “T” on a Tesla electric vehicle stands for “tourist.” Indeed, the expensive cars, like their electric Toyota and Rivian counterparts, are an oddity easily picked out among rural residents’ pickups, four-wheel drives and older vehicles. But what some rural residents may not realize is that they are paying to charge many of those expensive EVs. Over the last couple ye...
Scientific experts are prone to bias, overestimate their certainty and government systems are not good at adjusting to new science. Those admonitions come from Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor in a statement addressing the Supreme Court’s refusal to hear the case of Charles C. McCrory v. Alabama. In the piece, Sotomayor asks what courts should do when faced with convictions “resting on science that has now been wholly discredited?” The question offer lessons for how gov...
The Loper family own Loper Bright Enterprises, a modest New England-based fishing business. They pursue the same dream shared by many Americans – to provide their customers with quality service at a fair price while making a good living. Recently, however, the bureaucrats at the National Marine Fisheries Service had other ideas. The agency's budget was tight, so they decided to make the Lopers, along with similar family-owned businesses, pay for a government on-board i...
The gray wolf population in Washington state set a reproduction record, growing by an astounding 44 animals in 2023. The state’s wolf population has increased for 15 years in a row and is now at its highest level since it was listed. The question is, what will it take for the state to change its management policy for the predators? Last year we proposed a state delisting of gray wolves in the eastern-most third of Washington state. We also proposed an incremental, local approach to delisting as gray wolves dispersed...
When it comes to fireworks, there are two classes of people in Washington state, indeed much of the country. In one class are American Indian tribes and tribal members, which sell mortars, Roman candles, firecrackers, bottle rockets and other fireworks with abandon. The other class comprises non-tribal residents, who are generally prohibited from possessing and lighting those same fireworks off a reservation. Predictably, tribes and tribal members are racking up sales to...
When Sen. Karen Keiser, D-Des Moines, opened a work session for the Senate Labor and Commerce Committee, she said the state’s law on long-term care was passed on a “bipartisan basis.” As Inigo Montoya said in “The Princess Bride,” “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.” The law creating WA Cares, proposed in House Bill 1087, cannot be described as bipartisan. By the time the bill made its way through the legislative process, it was passed...
