Eastern Adams County's Only Independent Voice Since 1887
Eastern Adams County's Only Independent Voice Since 1887
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Do you have expired COVID-19 tests in your cupboards? Go look. If you ordered “free” tests from the government, know that many of the boxes likely say they’ve expired. People paying attention to expiration dates have been lining landfills with the taxpayer-provided tools (or using tests that have expired). I fear this is going to be happening for a lot longer. That’s because the Biden Administration recently announced that each U.S. household will be able to, once again,...
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 law...
The number of people tapping the taxpayer-provided Paid Family and Medical Leave fund is increasing every year. The paid-leave program was launched in 2020. It imposes a tax on employers and workers, whether or not the workers ever use the program. The money is used to allow some workers taxpayer-paid time off if they have a serious health condition, need to care for people or want to bond with a new child on taxpayers’ dimes. If you build it they will come. And they did. T...
Workers can join labor unions. And unions can charge them dues. Some workers are even required to pay a union in order to hold certain jobs. Union membership is a good option for many workers whose ideals line up with a union that represents their interests. There is strength in numbers. However, membership is a bad deal for workers represented by a union with which they disagree about political donations, workplace details or treatment of a worker’s employer. Thanks to the U...
Would passage of Initiative 2124 kill the WA Cares long-term program? Probably. It's super likely that if the state's new, mandatory long-term-care program was made optional for Washington state workers many would flee, leaving it unable to pay its way in its current form. No argument there. Still, that is what was emphasized when the Senate Labor and Commerce Committee discussed WA Cares in a Tuesday work session. Is the program solvent? And would it be if it becomes...