Eastern Adams County's Only Independent Voice Since 1887
Eastern Adams County's Only Independent Voice Since 1887
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The good news is Washington’s revenues continue to grow and projections for the next couple of years appear promising. That is welcome news, but it is sprinkled with caution about introducing new taxes. Our state’s Economic and Revenue Forecast Council (ERFC) quarterly update shows a whopping 17.3% increase in state income for the current biennium. That welcome announcement comes just in time for Christmas. For background, Washington’s budget is on a two-year cycle. The curre...
As the year draws to a close, here are some odds and ends of updates on District business. In late November, the District held a Strategic-Planning session. Normally, such sessions try to lay out goals, and strategies to meet those goals, for a multi-year period, but this time the focus was more short-term—a year or two—because we will be welcoming a new CEO in mid- 2019, as Gary retires then. The planning was thus left flexible enough so that whoever the next CEO is will be able to put his or her impress on the lon...
Dear Friends, Here on National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day, when we remember those who lost their lives in Hawaii on this day 77 years ago, there is another reason to think of George H.W. Bush, our nation’s 41st chief executive. The attack on Pearl Harbor brought the United States into World War II and what specifically was known as the War in the Pacific – where the first President Bush began his decades of distinguished public service, as a U.S. Navy torpedo bomber pilot. I very well remember his time as the leader of our...
While this year’s election season is over, as I mentioned in last week’s commentary, the general election itself isn’t wrapped up quite yet. As of yesterday the outcome of elections for two Senate positions was still up in the air. Hopefully things will be settled well before November 27, which is the deadline for county election offices to certify and turn in their results to the state. As Senate Republican leader I look forward to knowing exactly how many members will be on our side of the aisle. In the meantime, we are g...
Cell phones have their place, but it can be nice to step back in time by going to a place where my phone simply won’t work. Recently I let my legislative staff know that I would be out of range for a few days, and headed for the Blue Mountains and some elk hunting with good friends. Whether I bring home some meat or not, being out in the field surrounded by God’s creation is one of the things I enjoy most about this time of year (and Colt, my faithful hunting dog, is always up for chasing some birds). Hunting season isn...
While both sides argue over the merits of Seattle’s escalating minimum wage, there are other issues, such as the total cost per worker, which enter into hiring equations. When employers look to add or retain workers, they must not only consider wages, but the added required benefits which they must pay for each individual they employ. They must keep costs on par with their competitors, because employees are a big part of their operating costs. According to a U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (Bureau) report issued last S...
November 11th of this year marks the 100th anniversary of the Armistice that ended World War I. Over the course of that conflict, 116,516 American military personnel lost their lives. The deadliest battle in U.S. history was at Argonne Forest, from September 26, 1918 lasting more than a month, until the Armistice. The battle involved more than one million American soldiers and resulted in more than 26,000 American military deaths. The toll was unimaginable, but the U.S. contribution and heavy sacrifice on behalf of the Allied...
I’ll start with a good word for our regional Department of Transportation folks and the contractor who got the overpass at the Tokio interchange on Interstate 90 repaired and back open this week, ahead of schedule. The bridge that was damaged (in July, by an oversize load) takes Danekas Road over I-90 east of Ritzville. The timing was bad because the vehicles that were forced to take turns going across included trucks hauling commodities from our local farms. But on the bright side, once DOT closed the bridge completely on O...
When our military is viewed as an employer, it has the same problem as the private sector; attracting qualified people to fill jobs. In today’s vibrant economy, there is an abundance of “Help Wanted” signs. Even though our armed forces have stepped up their enlistment bonuses, they still fall short of their recruitment goals. There are just fewer qualified people in the employment pool to fill jobs which require higher educational standards, more skills, a willingness to work hard, and the dexterity to be part of a team....
Last week, I met a couple angels in the Tri-Cities. No, really: I had the opportunity to sit down with James and Angie Sessions of Pasco. A few years ago, James and Angie were inspired to become foster parents after learning about the foster care system while at a local church’s camp for children in state custody. The Sessions fostered two separate sets of siblings who ended up being reunited with family members – an experience that came with the very real emotional toll that can come with providing a temporary home. Even kno...
Shipyard workers in Portland are building the first commercial-scale wave energy buoy which, if it works, could be part of a system providing electricity to communities along our nation’s coastline. Vigor’s shipyard has a $6.5 million contract to construct an 826-ton buoy which can generate 1.25 MW (megawatts) of electricity. Its principle selling point is it generates electricity without CO2 or other greenhouse gas emissions. Vigor estimates each buoy would offset 3,000 tons of carbon releases a year and if tied tog...
Every calendar year, Social Security Administration (SSA) automatically calculates the Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) for beneficiaries based on the consumer-price index, which measures changes in the price level of a defined set of consumer goods and services purchased by households. Earlier this month, SSA announced that it would raise the COLA by 2.8 percent in 2019, the largest COLA increase in seven years. That increase may not sound like a large amount, but it is more than the COLA increase of 2 percent in 2018 and...
Knowing Cougar Nation, it was no surprise that the highway detour on State Route 26 east of Othello had zero effect on turnout for this past Saturday’s WSU-Oregon football game. And once the ESPN network announced its popular “Gameday” show would be beaming from Pullman and Martin Stadium that morning, wild horses couldn’t have kept fans away. Fall is a great time of year to be in the Palouse, even more when the Cougs are winning. The Cougars’ football season has at least another month to go, but our state’s election se...
Your Hospital District is but one of a number of organizations in east Adams County that are concerned, to one degree or another, with health care. Few if any of those organizations have the kind of budget that similar organizations in non-rural areas of the state have, and so any sort of extra funding support they can get is always profoundly helpful. For over thirty-five years, the East Adams County Healthcare Foundation, an all-volunteer group, has put in yeoman work in raising funds for distribution to the various...
Americans across the country and of all faith backgrounds can celebrate the return of our fellow citizens held unjustly overseas –some for practicing their faith. Many prayers have been answered. In October 2016, on the night of his eldest son’s birthday, American pastor and evangelist, Andrew Brunson, was arrested by the Turkish government on charges of espionage and terrorism. Pastor Brunson, a North Carolinian, had worked in Turkey as a missionary for more than two decades, and he denied being involved in any pol...
Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, “We must learn to live together as brothers, or perish together as fools.” Today in our nation, the notion of civility seems to have taken a back seat. It has been more than a year since the shooting of Congressman Steve Scalise and Republican colleagues at their baseball practice, and more than a year since the murder of a counter-protester at the Charlottesville white supremacist rally. In light of such destructive political violence, as citizens, we must come together and commit to civ...
Dear Friends, Last week I mentioned the visit WSU President Kirk Schulz made to Ritzville in late September without noting that it was not his introduction to my hometown. Within months of arriving in Pullman in 2016, President Schulz came up to meet me at the farm, and before Mrs. Schoesler treated us to a terrific dinner I drove him around to some of the good spots for hunting in the area. I’ll probably be back in at least one of those spots this weekend, as one of the many outdoorsmen (and women) in the 9th District who w...
Dear Friends, Let me start with a salute to the WSU graduate who was awarded the Medal of Honor, our nation’s highest military award for valor, at the White House on Oct. 1. Ronald Shurer II, from Puyallup, earned his degree in 2001 and enlisted in the U.S. Army in Spokane in September 2002. He became a Secret Service agent in 2009 after his honorable discharge from the Army and lives in Virginia with his wife and children. I’d like to see our Legislature formally recognize his service to our nation, as we have for other Med...
Give Gov. Jay Inslee and backers of Initiative 1631 credit. They are persistent in their quest to invoke a fee on carbon emissions. Voters will decide its fate on Nov.6. Since Inslee was first elected, he pushed to reduce CO2 discharges---a laudable goal. Two years ago, carbon initiative backers drafted a “revenue neutral” ballot measure which voters rejected by a 59-41 percent margin. Today’s Initiative 1631 simply adds a new fee without cutting any state fee or tax, particularly on gasoline or diesel. For soccer moms commu...
One of the biggest challenges facing healthcare consumers today is the skyrocketing costs of prescription drugs. President Trump acknowledged the problem in his Inauguration address, saying, “One of my greatest priorities is to reduce the price of prescription drugs.” Bringing down the price of prescription drugs will help reduce medical costs for families, and Congress is working with President Trump’s administration to make progress and increase access to affordable healthcare. In May, Congress approved legislation, and P...
In the 1960s, there was a popular movie called: “The Russians are Coming, The Russians are Coming”. The plot was a Soviet naval commander runs his sub aground off a Massachusetts coastal island and sends two English-speaking crewmen ashore to procure a boat with enough power to pull them free. The Russian sailors didn’t exactly blend in and chaos ensued. That was fiction, but today American farmers face the hard facts that the Russians are invading our wheat markets worldwide. Many of us remember Soviet Union colle...
Two of the most important trading relationships in terms of purchasing U.S. manufacturing and agriculture exports are Canada and Mexico. The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) went into effect in 1994 to reduce trade barriers between our three countries. While NAFTA needed to be modernized, the agreement has been critical for our farmers and ranchers: According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, since 1994, Canada and Mexico’s purchases of American agriculture goods has quadrupled to $39 billion. Trade a...
I like a “win-win” idea as much as anyone, and its all the better when the idea has to do with farming, and the source of the idea is WSU. So I was happy to see the recent write-up in the Spokesman-Review featuring longtime WSU faculty member Tim Murray and the research he’s doing in south Spokane County on using fly ash to improve soil quality. I’ve known Tim for a long time, at least back to when he was doing work on perennial wheat. His project, which is another example of the world-class thinking coming out of our sta...
To all of our dear Ritzville Citizens, We appreciate the many ways in which you support our schools, and are especially grateful for the exceptional support involving our capitol projects and the high school renovation. While our facilities personnel did an amazing job of readying the building for construction, we find ourselves waiting for the State of Washington to complete required paperwork so we can get the ball rolling. As soon as that happens the removal of asbestos will begin, followed by the required demolition. We...
While it’s still summer according to the calendar, the football schedule had the WSU Cougars playing their first home game of the season on Sept. 8; a sure sign that fall is not far off. Several weeks ago it looked like members of Cougar Nation who use State Route 26 would have to contend with a significant detour on their way to and from Pullman, while the highway bridge over the railroad tracks about 15 miles east of Othello undergoes major repairs. WSDOT says that project is now on hold until later in September, so h...