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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...
By Loyal and Charlotte Baker DAYTON–We got out of Algebra II to watch the Watergate Hearings in the spring of 1974 (fifty years ago!) but were more concerned with other things as sixteen-year olds. Later in August, my vacationing aunt and uncle and cousins paid a visit to me on the job at the Green Giant Cannery, mentioning, oh, by the way, Nixon resigned. Except for it being my birthday, which was usually celebrated in the harvest field with birthday buddy Wincel Abel, August 9 was not that momentous to me that summer of 1974. I heard Nixon h...
By Bob Cox POMEROY––We have lost too many good people lately in Garfield County to sickness and illness – people who devoted their lives to Garfield County. Working on Main Street for 20 years, I saw the hard-working people that kept Pomeroy alive and well. All were volunteers who helped make Pomeroy a better town to live in and who honored those who gave back to our community. Whether it was the Chamber or Pomeroy Partners or SWEDA, they all worked for the good of our special place to live....
To the editor, When faced with controversial issues, it is my belief that a person should form their own opinion based on facts and research. When I became aware of the Appaloosa Solar project being planned in Garfield County, I researched the company and renewable energy in order to find facts and build an opinion based not on arguments but on research. Appaloosa Solar LLC., is a subsidiary company of HQC Solar Holding 1 LLC., which is governed by Hanwha QCells Co., Ltd. Although QCells has man...
Editor's Note: This article is continued from the June 6, 2024 edition. Author Gerald Barron of Save Family Farming (savefamilyfarming.org) presents data that contends the condition of the chinook salmon fishery is impacted by numerous factors and that "habitat," such as the four Lower Snake River dams, is not doing the most harm. By Gerald Barron Save Family Farming –Continued from June 6 The report quoted Katie Howard: "She says between nutrient deficiencies, disease, and heat stress, it's har...
By Eric McKeirnan POMEROY––When I occupied a younger body, and all the troubles of the world were my parents’ concern, movies and TV shows played a role in how I would see the world in future days. Since the recent verdict delivered in New York, a memory sparked from the past. It was a movie titled, “The Devil and Daniel Webster.” This land of the lost we now live in made me recall the gist of that movie. The story is about an honest and well-known lawyer (Daniel Webster), who takes on a client who has sold his soul to Satan. If memory se...
Is it possible that the most popular solutions proposed to recover Chinook salmon will fail if implemented? Most proposed solutions to Chinook recovery focus on habitat. Advocates seek to remove dams, convert farmland into large, inflexible stream buffers, and restrict or eliminate water access. This paper will introduce science studies important to this discussion. It will show: 1) Why most salmon species are flourishing 2) The causes for Chinook decline and failing recovery efforts 3) The prop...
Pam Lewison published an opinion in The Seattle Times on April 15, 2024 sounding the alarm of diminishing farms and food producing land. By Pam Lewison Special to The Seattle Times Fourteen farms a week vanished from Washington state every week during the last five years. The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently released data from the U.S. Census of Agriculture and the numbers are shocking. Between 2017 and 2022, our state lost 3,717 farms and ranches. It also lost more than 102,000 food-producing acres. To put these numbers in perspective,...
OLYMPIA–The function and administration of the federal H-2A farmworker visa program is one of the most utilized yet least understood employment programs in Washington state. The H-2A program provides visas to foreign-born workers to legally find temporary farm work in the United States for up to 10 months a year. Washington state is among the top five users of the program. House Bill 2226, and its companion Senate Bill 5996 – concerning collecting data on the H-2A worker program and from certain hand harvesters – focus specifically on the w...
OLYMPIA–This Earth Day, I am reminded of the words of a judge’s decision regarding Seattle City Light’s claim that it is the “nation’s greenest utility.” After finding the utility wasn’t living up to its environmental promises, the judge admitted the claim was “mere puffery.” It could be said about so much of today’s environmental rhetoric. Washington’s governor Jay Inslee claims the state is a leader in cutting CO2 emissions. In fact, CO2 emissions have increased every year he has been in o...
BELLEVUE—With the Republican State Convention in Spokane fast approaching, three NEW common-sense initiatives to fix what’s broken in Washington are inspiring a renewed sense of optimism among conservatives and Washingtonians of all political leanings. The new initiatives would repeal HB 1589 that phases out natural gas, put an end to squatters’ rights, and eliminate sanctuary state policies that prevent local law enforcement from cooperating with federal immigration agencies. The recent death of Washington State Patrol trooper Chris...
As Washington’s CO2 tax, known as the Climate Commitment Act, heads to the ballot this fall, this logo highlighting projects that received funding from that tax will become more prevalent. And you are paying for it. The use of taxpayer-resources to promote the CO2 tax follows the decision by the legislature to send one-time checks of $200 to utility customers funded by the Climate Commitment Act just two-months before the November election. It is part of a pattern we are likely to see a...
By Eric McKeirnan Special To the East Washingtonian If you read my stuff, you might remember that a group of people, some from Waitsburg, Tekoa, Pomeroy and the Tri-Cities joined about an equal amount from the wrong side of the state and went on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 2018. I will give you the” Boys in the Boat” version of that journey. If you saw the movie the “Boys in the Boat”, you probably watched a young man go to college, get a scholarship by rowing for the U of W, then go to Germany and win an Olympic Gold medal. “Yea!...
To the editor, I am just recovering from a month of agony with shingles. The most painful thing I have ever been through, and the very worst part, it could have been prevented if I had only had the shot. So, I am writing to encourage any of your readers who have not had the shingles shot to run, not walk, to the nearest health provider and ger the shot! Zonia Dedloff Starbuck, Wash....
By Eric McKeirnan Special to the East Washingtonian Maybe one half of the things that I submit, make it to the pages you are holding in your hands. The paper's edition dated, Feb. 22 ran a piece of how to arouse awareness politically and how to pull lefties back into the life raft. The editor attempts to persuade me to believe that my dictionary holds the magic words that can deflect hatred. I kinda wish she would show me which words those are, and exactly how those words are to be lined up?...