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It's always gratifying when a major news organization cuts through the political spin and informs readers of what is really happening with government budgets. Amid loud claims of a supposed state budget deficit, a Seattle Times editorial on Sunday correctly notes that "...tax collections for public services are up." Only in the public sector is a slowdown in the rise of expected tax revenue called a "shortfall." For most of us a rise in household income of say, 8%, instead of an expected 10%,...
OLYMPIA–Amid impending federal changes to immigration policy, state Senator Phil Fortunato is reintroducing legislation to protect Washingtonians by removing violent criminals who are in the state illegally. Senate Bill 5002 aims to repeal Washington's sanctuary status and remove barriers that currently shield violent offenders from being apprehended by federal authorities. In 2019, Governor Jay Inslee signed an executive order that prohibited certain state agencies from cooperating with f...
Well, this doesn’t help me like Washington state’s Paid Family and Medical Leave (PFML) any better. A state audit published Nov. 14 found that more than 2,000 people who tapped a fund that benefits only some workers with up to 18 weeks off work with pay — while harming the paychecks of most other workers, including those with low incomes — violated state law by taking money from the state’s unemployment insurance (UI) program at the same time. They had their PFML and ate up UI benefits,...
Tomorrow is the sixty-first anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas. Like Pearl Harbor for my parents’ generation, and September 11 for our sons’ and daughters’ generation (an ours, of course), you remember exactly where and when you heard the news: Jeannie Hofer’s mom Ginger told Jeannie and me on the lawn in front of Waitsburg High School when Mrs. Hofer came to pick Jeannie up from Kindergarten. Like 1963, this year’s November 22 is a Friday. Hundreds of books have been written on the subject and my dad was fascinated...
Dr. Pam Kohlmeier Special to the East Washingtonian and Dayton Chronicle Suicide has rocked my family. In memory of my child, Katie Thew, who battled chronic pain and died by suicide on Oct. 6, 2022, I offer this article to help other families avoid this grief. Rampant mental health challenges including depression and anxiety, along with more and more communities recognizing they lack adequate resources to help when help is needed, inspired the creation of a month devoted to suicide prevention. Suicide Prevention Month (September) has just...
Since Joe Biden was inaugurated, it has been like watching a train wreck in slow motion. Thousands started streaming across the southern border. No amount of exposure of this disregard for our nation’s border and the laws that keep them secure had any effect. The vice president was put in charge of the border and she did nothing. For three years, we watched helplessly while migrants from around the world waded across the Rio Grande. This went on until Kamala Harris was repositioned as the presidential candidate at the national convention, a...
To the editor, Are you better off now than you were four years ago? Due to Biden/Harris policies, the cost of living has risen. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the S and P, and Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index, home prices from January, 2021, when they took office, until March, 2024, were up 33.9% (Shiller). Household energy from January, 2021, to May, 2024, was up 29.8% (BLS). Vehicle Maintenance and Repair from January, 2021 – May, 2024, up 30.5% (BLS). Motor V...
Thursday: Rain. High near 52. Southwest wind 7 to 13 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. Thursday Night: Rain. Low around 35. South wind 7 to 9 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New precipitation amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch possible. Friday: Rain. High near 50. Chance of precipitation is 90%. Friday Night: Rain, mainly before 11pm. Low around 34. Chance of precipitation is 90%. Saturday: Rain likely....
To the editor, Since I do not claim to walk on water like some who write to you do, I just want to suggest that people do their own research to find out how the Project 2025 would affect their well being. If you care to enlighten yourself about how the GOP/Trump plan to severely change the American society and how government would do this, please follow this path to find out. First enter onto your search engine the words "2025and me". Click on this site in your choice menu. This will give you a...
I have been watching and listening to arguments over the presumptive utilization of a governing plan called Project 2025. I have read most of Project 2025. Yes, it takes an extreme position, and some parts are bold. Each election cycle, the Heritage Foundation typically authors a new position paper, such as Project 25, to make corrective alignments aimed more with how the United States Constitution was written and intended. Project 2025 has NOT been adopted by any president, in whole, that I know of, or has anyone solicited the Heritage...
To the editor, I am disappointed in the coverage you have given to the Lower Granite Fire or Dub fire. First, I am told that it destroyed many buildings on a farm that I am very familiar with. There were about eight buildings on this farm and I believe your coverage should have pictured these along with naming this farm. In addition, this fire started somewhere on the upper South Deadman Creek. This fire needs an official designation as to cause as this might affect legal rights to recovery of d...
It's a bit premature to say the bell tolls for community newspapers. Sure, big city media printing the same diatribe you see on television is declining. (That's because the city media moguls have forgotten their place in society.) And sure, with the Googles of the world, cellphones and social media have impacted our advertising, which, by the way, is how we pay our bills. But in our community newspapers, we haven't forgotten our place. Our reporters shop in the same stores, eat in the same...
Will prices at the pump fall if voters pass I-2117 and repeal the state's CO2 tax? One of the largest donors to the campaign to keep the carbon tax admits they will fall. Significantly. One of the main messages of the campaign to keep Washington's CO2 tax, known as the Climate Commitment Act (CCA), is that there is no "guarantee" that gas prices will go down if I-2117 passes and the CO2 tax is repealed. Rachel Smith, the head of the Seattle Chamber of Commerce, made this implausible claim in fro...
I was invited to write two opinion pieces about Initiative 2124 for The Seattle Times and The Spokesman-Review. Both were published this past weekend to offer readers different perspectives on a Nov. 5 ballot measure that would make a payroll tax and participation in the WA Cares program optional. These guest columns highlight different things about the trouble with WA Cares and the value of I-2124, so if you are interested in the initiative and how it could impact workers, read them both here...
Following up on Washington Policy Centers (WPC) article that shows Washington is the 46th worst state in which to do business, a new study of business startups in the US also shows a bleak history of business growth in Washington over the last few years. What’s more amazing is the report is from the left leaning Center for American Progress who normally champion progressive tax policy. The report details that while the rest of the US is seeing new business start-ups grow, despite of federal g...
In this case, give them $2.2 billion in fuel taxes, and they’ll take your roads too. Attorney General and now Candidate for Governor Bob Ferguson, Senator Andy Billig and other proponents of the state’s disastrous cap-and-trade scheme have crossed the line, threatening Washington families by holding vital road construction projects hostage. They’ve made it clear: if we don’t keep their crony system in place, “every road project, including the North Spokane Corridor, will be in jeopardy....
By Paul Guppy Washington Policy Center Washington voters will soon have an opportunity to have their say on an unusual and corrosive tax the legislature passed in 2021. The controversial tax imposes a levy of 7% on capital gains income over $250,000. While that seems like it would only apply to “the rich,” the legislature has already proposed expanding the tax until it hits working-class incomes. Here’s how we got where we are now. Three years ago, lawmakers passed and Governor Inslee signed SB 5096, creating the first-ever tax on capit...
By Roger Harnack Guest Columnist Special to 2Over Publishing, LLC Under outgoing Gov. Jay Inslee, the state has been greenwashing just about everything it can. What is greenwashing? It’s the act of using false or misleading claims that an action will have a positive impact on the environment. This November, voters will have an opportunity to undo some of the greenwashing done by the Inslee Administration and state agencies. Two initiatives on the ballot are designed to restrict government agencies from continuing policies that have, little-to-n...
Labor Day is a very busy end-of-summer vacation time of year where many take the boat out for the last time, have a back yard BBQ and pool party with friends and family, or grab their gear to head for the mountains, or ocean, or some other destination for the three-day holiday. I also see it signify the beginning of the type of clothing color one wears--no white after Labor Day (an old-money, wealthy-set custom that set the elitists apart from the working class), schedule your sprinkler system blow-out, chimney inspections, furnace checks,...
There are two economic systems at opposite ends of the spectrum, and, surprise! they also mirror political doctrines. There’s capitalism, where one’s ideas, luck and perseverance may be rewarded with money, fame and success. Capitalists should be, and oftentimes are, conservative. There’s totalitarianism, where a ruthless few, through exercise of fear, greed and disregard for human rights, sit atop the heap, kicking boulders down on Everyman. Capitalism is an equal opportunity game. Totalitarianism, not at all. The one thing they have in commo...
By Roger Harnack Guest columnist Truck, truck, truck, Tesla. Truck, truck, truck. Here in rural Eastern Washington, the running joke is that the “T” on a Tesla electric vehicle stands for “tourist.” Indeed, the expensive cars, like their electric Toyota and Rivian counterparts, are an oddity easily picked out among rural residents’ pickups, four-wheel-drives, and older vehicles. But what some rural residents may not realize is that they are paying to charge many of those expensive EVs. Over the last couple years, electric vehicle and utility c...
Dear Editor: It seems to be the too-frequent fashion in local conversation to denigrate our home town. Local folk can certainly come up with plenty of fodder to pinpoint what we think might be missing–what buildings offend, what streets need improvement, what local committees fail to accomplish stated goals–the list is seemingly endless, complaining is easy. Finding the gems among the supposed dreck is more difficult. It is observed with great pleasure that the new Touchet River Valley Visit...
DAYTON–One of Dayton's long-time institutions, McQuary's Grocery, was a victim of the COVID-19 pandemic, closing in June of 2020 after 38 years under the watchful eyes of Wally and Marie McCauley. When the country was ordered to shut down and people flocked to stores to hoard toilet paper, supply-chain problems ensued and eviscerated small stores, especially stores like McQuary's. Wally left us recently, and with his passing, a flood of memories came rushing back. So many wonderful e...
To the editor, Today I am primarily addressing farmers/ranchers in Garfield County. I want to point out some of the agriculture programs parts of the Project 2025 which is the GOP policy "bible" if Trump is elected. One of these parts, for example, (All info in quotes provide by DTN/The Progressive Farmer "Project) "Project 2025 calls on Congress to ban farmers from receiving ARC and PLC payments the same year they also receive crop insurance indemnities. In addition, with fewer subsidies to...
There are things right in front of you, as you navigate life, that you don’t realize until time, growth and maturity brings them into focus. As a parent, you do your best to train up your kids and set them on the path to a productive and fulfilling life. Along the way, unbeknownst at the time, you temporarily hand them off to people who, as it turns out, go on to have a profound impact. Easily said about a number of people I’ve encountered in the numerous orbits I’ve made around the sun. One of them was Jerry Scott, a Dayton guy, though me an...