Eastern Adams County's Only Independent Voice Since 1887
Eastern Adams County's Only Independent Voice Since 1887
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Public safety agencies across America face the same problems as other employers—finding enough qualified workers. The difference is our safety is increasingly at risk. Law enforcement leaders are working harder at recruitment, yet they are drawing fewer applicants. Big city departments are not alone. It is the same story in smaller communities such as Leesburg, Virginia., where the number of applicants dropped 90 percent over the past five years. A decade ago, the Seattle Police Department had 3,000 applicants for 10 o...
In 1962, songwriter Bob Dylan composed “The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind.” It was a Vietnam War protest song suggesting the ambiguous answer to ending war and living in peace and harmony was “blowin’ in the wind”….somewhere. Today, wind power is an important part of our nation’s electricity generating system and it will be essential in the decades ahead. The question is how much of it can we reasonably produce to meet our nation’s growing electrical demands? While people support wind power they aren’t hip about s...
In January, the American Association of Railroads or AAR published its first-ever state of the railroads annual report focusing on the industry’s economic value, innovations and emphasis on safety. The nation’s railroads have been around for about 180 years and maintain 180,000 miles of track. Trains move over 51 million tons of freight each day which is about 40 percent of the nation’s freight. Rail has been a vital transportation link in the Pacific Northwest since 1883. That year President Ulysses S. Grant drove in the f...
The seemingly endless stream of Obama Administration rules to circumvent Congress and states is driving people away from finding practical solutions to problems and into courtrooms filled with high-paid attorneys waging a “paperwork” war. Case in point: EPA and Army Corps issued long-awaited rules in March 2014 seeking to clarify Clean Water Act regulatory jurisdiction over additional bodies of water, particularly those that are seasonal or dependent on rain and wetlands near streams. Opponents of the rules, which range fro...
In 2001, Boeing shocked state and local leaders announcing it was relocating its headquarters to Chicago. Suddenly, the company with its deep roots in our Puget Sound region was housed on the shores of Lake Michigan. That move coupled with Boeing’s worldwide search for sites to build its next generation of commercial airplanes prompted then Gov. Gary Locke (D) to form a competitiveness council. Its mission was to recommend ways to improve our state’s competitiveness primarily so Boeing’s production and jobs would remai...
Seattle lost an icon earlier this month when Dick Spady, the 92-year old founder of Dick’s Drive-In restaurants, died. He was an entrepreneur who took a risk, worked hard, treated his workers and customers well, sold an excellent product at an affordable price, and did his part to make his community and country a better place to live and raise a family. Dick Spady was a pacesetter in the fast food industry, which developed a full head of steam in the 1950s. He was quick to recognize a business opportunity and believed that pe...
When Boeing rolled out its first 737 MAX last month there was little fanfare. Nevertheless, its importance to the company’s future and our state can’t be understated. The good news is Boeing delivered more airplanes last year than Airbus and it has a backlog of 5,800 orders. However, yellow flags goes up when it comes to the 737 MAX. It is behind the A320neo in development and sales. According to the Seattle Times, “Not counting Airbus sales in December, those figures are still to come, the European jet maker’s A320neo...
It was good to be a merchant this Christmas, but it was even better to be a shopper. According to MasterCard Spending Pulse, retail sales were up 8 percent over 2014 while the Bureau of Economic Analysis’ price index shows that product prices were 3 percent lower. Interestingly, a National Retail Federation (NRF) analysis reveals that while fewer dollars than expected came in because of deep pre-holiday discounts, the volume of purchases were up. Simply, while lower prices for sweaters, toys or electronic gadgets brought i...
As we approach 2016, we need to stop and look at what it takes to keep manufacturing in America. Our country has advantages, which include higher product quality, shorter delivery times, rising offshore wages, lower inventory, and the ability to be more responsive to changing customer demands. But there are some glaring disadvantages, which include higher taxes, mounting costs of government regulations, and increasing electricity prices. Nowhere is that more evident than in Washington state. Our state and local politicians...
On Dec. 12, Montana Congressman Ryan Zinke patiently waited two hours in line with 70,000 volunteers at Arlington National Cemetery to collect wreaths and secure them to headstones. Thousands of others across our nation joined those at Arlington honoring soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen who died while serving America. In all, nearly one million wreaths were laid this year. Wreaths Across America is a privately funded charity that accepts no government money. As part of the project, truckers volunteer to haul the...
Just before Gov. Jay Inslee (D) flew to Paris for the global climate summit, he met with Washington business leaders who sought assurances that his proposed carbon cap rule won’t wipe out good-paying manufacturing jobs and send even more industrial production overseas. Unfortunately, the governor offered no encouragement, the Association of Washington Business (AWB) reported. Instead, he surprised many in the room by proclaiming that “nothing” had been accomplished in Washington with regard to climate protection since the a...
Pacific Northwest fishermen have good and very good news this Christmas. The good news is timely releases of stored water from reservoirs like Lake Roosevelt behind Grand Coulee Dam kept stream levels up and water temperatures down. That helped young salmon migrate to the ocean and adults return home to spawn. Overall, 2.3 million mature salmon passed through Bonneville Dam, making it the second strongest year on record for the entire Columbia Basin. The return numbers were positive upstream as well. According to the East Ore...
The news is full of organized protests and street demonstrations demanding a $15 minimum wage. Several cities across the nation have passed or are considering big hikes in their minimum wage. SeaTac was the first in our state to pass the $15 minimum wage, followed by Seattle and the University of Washington. Washington, D.C. now has the nation’s highest “state” minimum wage at $10.50, followed closely by Washington state at $9.47. Supporters say a $15 minimum wage will improve the lives of low-wage workers and boost the e...
When China’s President Xi Jinping flew into Seattle last September, his presidential airliner looked like any other Air China 747-400 passenger jet. That is because it was. The Chinese have a different approach to flying their leaders. Its Air Force owns a small fleet of 737s to shuttle dignitaries on short hauls, but they contract with independently owned Air China for extended overseas missions. In the United States, our government leaders exclusively fly military aircraft, many of which made by Boeing in Washington s...
Alcoa’s announcement that it is shutting down our state’s last two aluminum smelters may be a long awaited requiem for some, but there are other factors we should consider before burying it. First, the Seattle Times reports the decision will cost 1,500 family-wage jobs with good benefits. And even though the trend has not been good for our aluminum industry, we need to look for opportunities to resurrect it. In 2000, Seattle economist Dick Conway found the five largest smelters in Washington employed more than 7,500 peo...
Today, many elected officials are fixated on tearing down coal-fired power plants and replacing them with solar and wind farms. But that isn’t practical, because when there is no wind or sunlight those plants produce no electricity. There is an alternative. Nuclear power plants supply 10 percent of the world’s electricity. But opponents say they are too dangerous and too expensive. They point to the 1986 meltdown of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the Soviet Union, considered to be the world’s worst nuclear disas...
To listen to liberal politicians, such as President Obama and Hillary Clinton, political donations by conservative billionaires Charles and David Koch epitomize what’s wrong with America’s political system. But Obama and Clinton are silent when liberal billionaires George Soros and Tom Steyer do the same. Casting politics aside, the Koch brothers embody the ideals of our free market system, which has made America the economic power it is today. Charles Koch’s book, Good Profit, details his philosophy that consumer choic...
Maybe there is finally something Democrats and Republicans can agree on – fixing the Affordable Care Act (ACA). From the day it was signed into law in 2010, Republicans have tried unsuccessfully to repeal Obamacare, saying it is unworkable and unaffordable. Until this year, Democrats have held the line for the President. But not now. After the President leaves office, change will come. The first is repeal of the so-called Cadillac Tax, the 40 percent excise tax on generous health care plans, which is scheduled to begin in 2...
More than 40 years ago, Washington’s Sen. Henry M. “Scoop” Jackson authored the National Environmental Policy Act, which led to the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). When President Richard Nixon signed the landmark legislation into law on Jan. 1, 1970, he installed Bill Ruckelshaus as the first EPA administrator to implement the new statute and begin aggressively cleaning up the nation’s air, water and hazardous waste sites. Unfortunately, over the decades, things have changed. Today, EPA’s tendency...
U.S. companies are starting to feel the pinch from Congress killing the Export-Import Bank in June. Congress’ move is increasingly putting U.S. manufacturers at a competitive disadvantage. Not only are we losing orders to foreign competitors, but some domestic manufacturers are shifting jobs to countries where those banks exist. General Electric announced plans to move 350 jobs from its Waukesha, Wis., gas engine plant to a factory in Canada, which has its own export-import bank. The company, which supplies jet engines to B...
Later this month, most facilities in Yellowstone National Park will close for the winter. The year’s visitor total is likely to top last year’s 3.5 million people. It may even beat the all-time total of 3.64 million set in 2010. The good news is more people are experiencing the wonders of the nation’s oldest national park established in 1872. The bad news is there is more traffic congestion and trash. To accommodate the crowds, Yellowstone has made a concerted effort to rebuild its roads and construct new facilities. That...
Remember the old saying, “Out of sight out of mind?” How about, “What you don’t know won’t hurt you?” Both of these axioms are problematic today, especially when it comes to things we need for our everyday lives. Here’s why. Recently, a botched cleanup job by a federal EPA contractor made headlines. The crew accidentally breached the wall of a containment pond at the Gold King Mine near Durango, Colorado, sending three million gallons of mustard-tinged muck down the Animas River. Now the EPA has stopped work on 10 old mining...
Tesla is the premium entry in the electric car market, with a starting price of $75,000. According to the Wall Street Journal, the high-end “Signature” model costs $132,000, slightly more than the base price for Porsche’s AG’s 911 GT3. Even with a $7,500 federal tax credit, an assortment of state tax credits and $10,000 in fuel savings over five years, the driver’s investment is over $110,000 – far beyond the reach of the average family. However, Tesla’s luxury styling and impressive performance give high-end buyers the be...
On September 4, the State Supreme Court derailed Washington’s nascent charter school movement when it ruled that charter school Initiative 1240 is unconstitutional. Approved by voters in 2012, I-1240 allowed up to 40 charter schools at a rate of eight per year. The initiative specified that low-income, at-risk students be given priority and charter schools were required to meet the same rigorous certification, performance and teacher accreditation standards as traditional schools. Nevertheless, the state teachers’ union sued...
The next billionaires may be the entrepreneur who figures out how to turn contaminated mine water into drinking water. In the process, they would make part of their fortune recovering chemicals and metals we use in our everyday lives. No one was talking about old mining waste until August 5 when an EPA cleanup crew accidentally breached the wall of a containment pond at the Gold King Mine near Durango, Colorado, sending three million gallons of mustard-tinged muck down the Animas River. Suddenly, the world’s attention f...