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Ah, Thanksgiving. Turkey, cranberries, pumpkin pie and family. It’s a time to give thanks and celebrate family traditions. But that can’t happen if you’re glued to a cellphone. As adults, it’s time to set an example and put those devices away. Spend time with your family partaking in longstanding traditions or creating new ones. There’s no need to be spending the day surfing social media. Instead, enjoy real social media with family and friends. Talk together, eat together, enjoy each other’s company. You have a lot to be tha...
Washington’s agriculture is a $12.8 billion business with 33,000 farms — and it runs on gasoline, diesel, and natural gas. The hundreds of big rigs hauling crops and food products are not electric. Even though new trucks have reduced CO2 and other pollutants, some politicians are hastily charging ahead to replace fossil-fueled trucks with unproven technology. According to 2021 Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) data, transportation was responsible for 30 percent of gre...
Four measures on the Nov. 5 general election could make a difference in your lifestyle and your wallet. Here’s what you need to keep in mind when you cast your ballot: Initiative 2066 This initiative would repeal regulations that attack your ability to use nature gas use dryers, stoves, heating systems and more in your home and business. It would also restrict government agencies from implementing policies and programs that promote the use of electric appliances over n...
Motorists in Washington state are sometimes handing over hundreds of dollars for licensing of their vehicle, but only receiving paper plates in return. According to an Aug. 28 legislative report, the state is had a backlog of at least 230,000 standard license plate orders, 10,000 specialty orders and 5,000 personal vanity orders. More than 20 counties (30 counties now) statewide are out of or nearly out of license plates. Still, the state is collecting money for plates it...
There’s a disturbing trend among tax-payer funded agencies that needs to be nipped in the bud. If you haven’t noticed, public agencies like hospital and utility districts, school boards, city councils, and others have been taking steps to insulate — dare I say isolate — elected board members from the public. Have a concern about something in your local school district? Don’t like a utility rate increase? Want to know if your local public hospital is making a profit? Have ques...
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...
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...
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...
“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...
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...
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...
Disappointingly, many Americans are worried about silly first-world problems like where to go boating or what to barbecue over the upcoming weekend. Too many view this up coming three-day break as an excuse to eat, drink and party, never giving a thought as to why Memorial Day is observed. So while you’re anxiously awaiting the long weekend, take time to remember, understand and plan to observe Memorial Day. Memorial Day is dedicated to the men and women killed while serving i...
