Eastern Adams County's Only Independent Voice Since 1887
Eastern Adams County's Only Independent Voice Since 1887
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Dear Friends, During the five years that our bipartisan coalition led the Senate, we could protect the people from any bad or extreme (or both) legislation that came over from the Democrat-controlled House. Of course, the House would also block the good bills we sent over from the Senate, which was frustrating. But in the end, fewer bills became laws, and those that did leaned toward the political center. In that sense I think the people of our state were served well by having a divided Legislature. Now that the Legislature...
Imagine sitting home and learning Fortune Magazine just listed you among the world’s greatest leaders? That’s exactly what happened to Marilyn Bartlett who led the effort to save Montana’s state employee health insurance plan from bankruptcy. In April, Bartlett was ranked No. 16 on a list which featured global leaders including Bill and Melinda Gates, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, Michael J. Fox and Apple’s Tim Cook. “Our sixth annual leaders list is the home...
Tax Day is a day that has been historically regarded as stressful, complicated, and unworthy of any significant praise. It is a day that is typically dreaded by American taxpayers and business owners. However, on Monday, April 15th, we observed the first Tax Day under the new Republican tax code that was signed into law in December 2017. This is a huge milestone, and for the first time in decades, there is reason to celebrate. I voted to support the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act because our tax code was outdated, convoluted, and...
I recently submitted an Easter article to The Journal that was mistakenly printed early in last week’s edition – and with the incorrect title. When I emailed editor Brandon Cline about it, he apologized and offered to reprint it in this edition along with the correct title. I suggested rather that I submit a new article. He agreed with that ideal, and so here’s my Easter article version 2.0. As I sat down to write another article, I thought how writing a new version is just like Easter itself, for God is into new versi...
On April 9th, we said goodbye to a hero of the Greatest Generation. Retired Lt. Col. Richard “Dick” Cole, the last surviving member of the Doolittle Raiders, passed away at the age of 103. In the aftermath of the devastating sneak attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, the purpose of the Doolittle Raid four months later was to show that American air power could reach across the Pacific to threaten the home islands of Japan. The daring target of mainland Japan was symbolic because the Japanese military leaders had ass...
Dear Friends, While I spent hour after hour this week debating and voting on legislation in the budget committee and in the Senate chamber, a woman from the town of Snohomish was out in front of the Capitol conducting what she calls a “fast in solidarity with starting southern resident orcas.” An elderly woman staging a one-person protest to call attention to the orca situation is bound to attract the attention of the news media. It’s an easy story to tell, with lots of pictures and video to use. But what caught my eye are t...
One of the most famous – or infamous – sermons in American history was preached in 1741 by a Massachusetts minister named Jonathan Edwards. The title was “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” It was the quintessential “fire and brimstone” type sermon in which judgment and hell are stressed. As we observe Easter this Sunday, I think it is the time we can celebrate God’s love. For it was God’s love that was the motivation for his sending Jesus into the world, as we are told in the well-known Bible verse: “For God so lov...
Before lawmakers wrap-up their work in Olympia, they should re-examine their hefty new state spending plan. The budget may not be sustainable even with a substantial increase in taxes. It may force legislators to return to the State Capitol to cut workers, programs and services; or, even hike taxes yet again. It has happened in the past. For example, in the early 1980s, Gov. John Spellman (R) and a Republican legislature were forced to meet in special session continuously to...
The old saying, “the customer is always right” may hold true as a best practice for business, but it just rarely seems to apply to services provided by the government. In my many conversations with farmers in Central Washington, it is clear that one of the biggest challenges they face remains the availability of labor. If the current federal H-2A legal agriculture labor program were compared to a restaurant, then farmers would be frustrated customers demanding to speak with the management, not because they are finnicky eat...
Dear Friends, One of the many flaws in the 2019-21 budget proposed a week ago by the Senate’s Democrat majority was that it lacked new funding to allow 20 more students at WSU’s Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine in Spokane. When the budget came to the Senate Ways and Means Committee on Tuesday, I offered an amendment to fix that. It was rejected. Yesterday, when the budget came before the full Senate for a vote, Senator Jeff Holy from the neighboring 6th District – a proud Cougar graduate – offered the same amendme...
According to the Yakima Herald Republic’s special series, “The Vanished:” “A report from the National Institute of Justice found that more than four out of five Native American women have experienced violence in their lives. In 2016, the Centers for Disease Control reported that homicide is the third leading cause of death among Native American women between the ages of 10 and 24. The Department of Justice has reported Native American women are 10 times more likely to be murdered than other Americans.” The murder and abduc...
Dear Friends, A couple of weeks ago we started using a catch-all term—“Taxapalooza”—to highlight the sheer number of tax proposals put on the table before and during this legislative session. If you were to visit my office at the Senate, you’d see a big poster-sized Taxapalooza sign on an easel a short distance from my doorway, detailing the various ways the governor and his political allies would reach deeper into people’s pockets. Now that we see all the taxes Democratic legislators have proposed as part of the budget pack...
Dear Friends, This week brought some happy news for those in the Legislature who like to spend, spend, spend. The year’s first state revenue forecast, released Wednesday, basically predicts there should be another $860 million available for the next state budget, on top of the billions that were already waiting when this year’s session began. I’m encouraged by the revenue forecast for a different reason: because there already was plenty of revenue to pay for existing programs and services, and improve on priorities like...
Throughout this Lenten season the focus of our weekly soup suppers is “Community.” The question you may ask though might be, exactly what is “community”? The dictionary definition is pretty simple: community is a group of people who live in the same area, such as a city, town or neighborhood. It can also be a group of people who share a common interest. So, taking part in the soup suppers is actually being part of a community. In this case, it is a group of people sharing a common interest, whether it be the soup, the fel...
Across the pond, London-based BP and Netherlands-headquartered Shell are looking to invest in innovative electric technology which is very good news. The two international oil giants, both of which have oil refineries in northwest Washington, recognize the growth in battery storage capacity. Their investments should bring down costs for consumers and bring ground-breaking technology to market quicker. Making electric cars and new batteries for homes and power grids is a major...
This week, the Tri-Cities community will come together in honor of U.S. Marine Sergeant Dietrich Schmieman of Richland. In a formal ceremony, community members, family, friends, Marine Corps brothers-in-arms, and local leaders will designate the U.S. Postal Service facility at 4801 West Van Giesen Street in West Richland as the “Sergeant Dietrich Schmieman Post Office Building.” Sgt. Schmieman was serving in the 2nd Raider Battalion at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina when he tragically lost his life in a cargo plane crash in Mis...
Dear Friends, To get a good sense of how the priorities differ this year between the left side of the Senate aisle and our conservative side, let’s look at what happened Wednesday. That was the “house of origin cutoff” day, meaning bills that originated in the Senate had to be voted over to the House – and vice versa – by 5 p.m., or they would be considered “dead” for the year. There were several worthwhile bipartisan bills on our voting calendar, like SB 5589, my legislation to clearly prohibit local governments from imposin...
Historically, international trade issues have galvanized our state’s congressional delegation. Many wondered if that would still be the case today. Fortunately, it seems to be. While Democrats and Republicans are at one another’s throats on most issues these days, it is gratifying when it comes to promoting our state’s products internationally, they coalesce. Boeing is our state’s largest exporter and has strong congressional backing when it comes to leveling the playing...
A member of Congress makes a hateful remark, and House congressional leaders of the same political party respond by swiftly condemning and then strip that representative of all committee assignments—a severe punishment. If you think I’m referring to House Democrats’ response to Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D-MN) widely-covered statement last week referring to American Jews who support Israel as harboring dual loyalties (“I should not be expected to have allegiance/pledge support to a foreign country in order to serve my country i...
Dear Friends, You won’t find me sending a ton of text messages, or using the “LOL” kind of shorthand when I do. But if I had to describe this past week in a text, the abbreviation “SMH” – for “shaking my head” – would be a good choice. Some of what we saw from the Senate majority is almost too much for words. The biggest shock was probably the decision by the chair of the Senate Transportation Committee to have a special meeting of his committee so he and his fellow Democratic members could push the pieces of his proposed $15...
November’s Camp Wildfire was California’s deadliest killing 86 people and destroying 14,000 homes along with more than 500 businesses. The financial fallout is forcing PG&E, northern California’s electric utility, to seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. It is a catastrophe we all hope to avoid. The fire’s probable cause was overhead power lines coming into contact with nearby trees, which is an ongoing problem for powerlines attached to poles and metal towers. While we have...
‘Gridlock’ might seem to be the best word to describe divided government in Washington D.C. these days. However, last week, despite the partisan differences in the nation’s capital, bipartisanship and pragmatism won in what can only be described as a major legislative win for Central Washington. The House and Senate approved of a package of natural resource bills that includes Central Washington priorities. I have worked for almost thirty years with many other advocates on the Yakima River Basin Integrated Water Resou...
Dear Friends, We’d been hearing a rumor that Governor Inslee would make an announcement today about his presidential aspirations. When the Democratic majority in the Senate tried to force a final vote yesterday on the renewable-energy legislation Inslee wants, it was a sure sign that the rumor was true. Keep reading for more about how his run for the White House and the Senate’s agenda are already lining up. For me this week was taken up by votes in the Senate chamber and long hours in the Ways and Means committee, which had...
Darned if you do, or darned if you don’t! That’s the dilemma elected officials face in determining whether to offer tax incentives for companies to locate in their city, county or state. That conflict played out recently with Amazon’s decision to cancel its second headquarters (HQ2) in New York City. On the surface, it seems like a no-brainer. The city and state would extend $3 billion in tax relief to Amazon in exchange for $27 billion in new taxes and 25,000 good-...
Dear Friends, Last week’s commentary mentioned a man who was awaiting Senate confirmation of his appointment to a state commission, despite having lied about his criminal record. I’ll begin this commentary with what a famous radio personality used to call “the rest of the story.” A day after our Senate Republican Caucus chair and I called the news media’s attention to the man’s lack of honesty, he basically backed out of the appointment – which was to a three-year term on the state’s Housing Finance Commission. Tha...