Eastern Adams County's Only Independent Voice Since 1887
Eastern Adams County's Only Independent Voice Since 1887
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When thinking of England’s fabled Sherwood Forest, the medieval images of Robin Hood and his band of archers and swordsmen hiding in the woods giving the sheriff of Nottingham a hard time comes to mind. Who would envision a crew of young American oil workers concealed among the giant oaks drilling oil wells? However, the crude production from those wells was essential in helping fuel the D-Day invasion launched from English shores in 1944. Until Guy Woodward and Grace Steele Woodward published “The Secret of Sherwood Forest ...
It has now has been over 530 days since Gov. Jay Inslee proclaimed a state of emergency and again issued another order without going through the Legislature. He ordered that all state employees and healthcare professionals working in private facilities must get the COVID-19 vaccine or face termination. Workers have until Oct. 18 to show proof of full vaccination. If they do not, they will likely be shown the door with “non-disciplinary dismissal.” It is beyond debatable that the governor has abused his emergency powers and...
When stopping the spread of the COVID virus mattered most, Washington state officials failed badly Key Findings 1. State mortality data show that the governor’s restrictions may have increased the number of deaths by 50% during the COVID pandemic. 2. While some lock-down requirements may have helped, they were not as meaningful as has been claimed, and states that imposed fewer restrictions had lower per-capita death rates. 3. The strict lock-down restrictions imposed a health cost of their own, with state data showing that f...
Liberals in Congress are actively campaigning to force price controls on drug manufacturers. The House has already passed bills that would limit the amount of money pharmaceutical companies can charge for drugs. The fate of this proposed legislation is uncertain in the U.S. Senate. At the same time, the Biden Administration and others on the political left are attacking the companies that have made the COVID-19 vaccines. They seek a waiver to the 1994 TRIPS Act, which was accepted by all countries in the World Trade...
Mr. Ed Schweitzer, who founded and leads Pullman-based Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories, recently pointed out how the new long-term care tax will have an extra-bitter taste for people who call Idaho home but work in our state, in border cities like Clarkston or Pullman. Those include a significant number of SEL’s employee-owners, he wrote in a letter to Gov. Inslee, who will be forced to pay the tax but can never benefit from it if they don’t reside in Washington. His let...
Massive forest fires in the western parts of our country are not only choking us with layers of thick smoke, but are leaving behind millions of acres of scorched hillsides, ridges and valleys. Simply, there are not enough trees to absorb CO2 and prevent erosion. According to the Arbor Day Foundation, record wildfire seasons in recent years have destroyed millions of trees. Many forests have burned so severely that natural regeneration is not possible, which makes replanting...
There was some good news recently coming out of a meeting concerning a 2019 law creating a state-run, long-term-care program to be funded through workers’ paychecks starting in January. In case you’re not in the loop, a payroll tax of 58 cents per $100, with no income cap, begins Jan. 1 to fund the Washington Cares Fund. Statutory employees earning $50,000 a year will pay $290 annually, those who make $100,000 will contribute $580 each year, and so on. Some workers who pay...
Homelessness is a growing problem in virtually every state. Nowhere is it more pressing than in California, which in the past three years spent more than $13 billion, roughly $30,000 annually for each homeless person, to address it. Tragically, its “housing first” approach is a colossal failure. Overall, says the state auditor’s office, California’s homelessness programs are disjointed and poorly managed. Despite little progress, policymakers keep throwing more money at the problem. Rather than adopting Califor...
The elected board of the Chehalis School District has responded to the concerns of parents and passed a resolution banning the teaching of controversial Critical Race Theory in public school classrooms. The new policy, passed June 15th, provides that schools will not teach that some students are inherently good and others are inherently bad based on their outward appearance. Further, district officials declared that political ideology has no place in public schools and that te...
Over the last 16 months, each one of us has suffered through endless chaos and uncertainty of COVID-19 and the seemingly endless monarchical restrictions affecting every facet of our lives. We’ve all borne witness personally in some way — sick and dying loved ones (not just from COVID); economic insecurity; long-term isolation from family, friends, church and helping each other in time of need; loss of personal freedom; watching individuals and families struggle with job los...
A friend of mine, let’s call her Mary, began college at the University of Washington in 1967 and graduated with an undergraduate degree in 1971. According to the university’s records, she paid $3,160 (in 2020 dollars) for her final year of in-state tuition. Mary’s granddaughter, Emma, graduated after four years from the University of Washington in 2020 and paid $10,630 for her final year of in-state tuition. Essentially, school administrators more than tripled tuition at the state’s premier public university during that 50-ye...
Contrary to recent claims that Snake River Spring Chinook runs are on the path to extinction, returns increased for the second year in a row, continuing the recovery from the recent low point in the population cycle. The Spring Chinook salmon run for the Snake River concluded yesterday, with more than 29,634 salmon passing the Lower Granite Dam. This is a 27 percent increase from 2020 levels and 55 percent larger than 2019 returns. That number is also only 495 Chinook short...
In our zest to quickly switch from gas-powered to battery-operated vehicles and to convert our power grid to wind and solar generated electricity, the impacts of CO2 released from rivers, lakes and streams has been ignored. President Biden wants to transition America to renewable electricity by 2035 and have every car CO2 emission free by 2050. In the world of nature, the focus is carbon gases releases from forest and rangeland fires. In California last year, wildfires...
Shortly after President Biden took office, he issued the sweeping executive order to transition America to TOTAL–-100 percent–-renewable electricity by 2035–-15 short years from now. Translated that means no more power from coal and natural gas ––quite a challenge considering 60 percent of the 4.12 trillion kilowatt hours (kwh) of electricity we generated in 2020 came from burning fossil fuels while 20 percent came from renewables including hydro. Land is the wild card. In...
“Stay tuned” was one of the biggest takeaways from a meeting last week where members of a state commission discussed the status of a new, long-term-care entitlement program run by the state and funded by a new payroll tax on workers. The law’s rules are still being drafted by theEmployment Security Department, and a new eligibility committee was approved to address some of the more controversial aspects of the program, which is now called WA Cares Fund. That move is welco...
New COVID workplace restrictions, issued by Washington State Labor and Industries (L&I) late last Friday, May 21st, require employers to check employee vaccine documents before allowing relaxation of social distancing and mask requirements in the workplace. The new state rules require an employer to confirm, and have employees prove their vaccine medical status. The process used to verify vaccination, and the medical status of the employee’s vaccination record, including t...
China’s growing dominance of critical metals production and its vast stockpiles is setting off global alarms as economies emerge from the punishing COVID pandemic. It is not only fear of the Chinese control of refined rare earth minerals, but more traditional metals such as manganese. Ores containing these elements are located in deposits across our planet; however, the technology to process them is largely in China. As the People’s Republic of China (PRC) under Xi Jin...
We knew it was coming. The moment lawmakers tried to get clever and thought they could gain support for a Low Carbon Fuel Standard (House Bill 1091) and Cap and Trade (Senate Bill 5126) by linking the policies with a future transportation tax package, it was clear what the governor would do – veto the restriction. Never mind the fact it appears to be illegal to do this. But since he has previously issued questionable line-item vetoes, there was never any doubt that he would do...
It isn’t often we hear good news from Hanford, but the Deptartment of Energy recently announced nation’s first commercial advanced nuclear power reactor would be developed on the massive federal reservation north of Richland. Much of the news from Hanford focuses on radioactive waste cleanup and storing it safely. It has accumulated since the 1940s when nuclear reactors enriched uranium for nuclear weapons. While that tedious work will continue for years to come, Hanford sci...
As communities struggle to emerge from the ravages of COVID-19 and the consequent devastation wrought by widespread economic shut-downs, one structural policy continues to impede the desperately-needed innovation, investment and risk-taking that Washington state, and the country, need for long-term recovery. That major impediment is so-called "jackpot justice," the insidious practice of aggrieved parties using the courts to secure, not fair and impartial rulings in a...
The world is beginning to unfreeze after more than a year of physical and economic lockdowns. Many states have ended mask mandates, citing increasing vaccinations and decreasing cases. Others are allowing normal activities to resume. By and large, it seems as though America is ready to turn a corner and return to normal life. That is, unless you're in Washington. As our state Legislature moves closer and closer towards the conclusion of its 2021 session, the Capitol in...
The Senate operating budget for 2021-23 was approved on April 1 by a 27-22 vote, with two Democrats joining all Republicans in opposition. It is fitting this plan (Senate Bill 5092) was passed on April Fools’ Day. The sharp spending increase found in this budget can be viewed as a bad joke on Washington taxpayers. Total spending in the Senate budget is $59.5 billion. It’s $7 billion more than the current budget, or equal to a 13% increase in spending. If the Senate plan is...
The poor are oppressed by the incompetent. It is a phrase that increasingly rings in my ears as I watch government bureaucracies and politicians provide false hope instead of tangible assistance. The people who pay for these failures are often those who can least afford it. The examples in my home state of Washington are numerous, but are not unique. My friend Kim Ngan came to the United States from Vietnam, and although she didn’t speak much English, she knew there was o...
Surprisingly, there is something U.S. Presidents agree upon — America’s economic and national security hinge upon maintaining our technology edge in semiconductors. Those tiny computer chips are the brains of modern electronics. They operate our laptops and smart phones and permeate every sector of our lives from farming and manufacturing to health care and public safety. They are embedded in our military’s most advanced equipment and give us a tactical edge. Semic...
This will sound funny anywhere outside Olympia, but there is a question that for years has stumped half the Legislature. If an income tax is so good for the people of the state of Washington, why do they say no every time they are asked? Advocates of higher taxes and spending have tried just about everything. Big income taxes, little income taxes, income taxes dedicated to noble purposes and income taxes that are only supposed to hurt millionaires. Yet the people keep voting n...
