Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
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Those hoping for tax relief in Washington state in 2024 might want to watch paint dry instead. Current state leadership is choosing to tax us more even in times of budget surplus. Contrast this with the many states, including Idaho, California and New York, who recently chose tax relief for their state residents. Or compare Washington’s tax ways with the state of Oregon, where taxpayers are used to tax refunds of hundreds, even thousands, of dollars in budget years with r...
In the 1990s, “things go better with Coca Cola” was the catchy slogan dairy farmers dreaded. At the time, milk producers were in a head-to-head battle with soft drink giants and losing. Milk consumption had steadily declined over the previous two decades. One key reason was aggressive advertising by bottlers of iced tea, water and pop. In 1993, nationwide milk consumption declined 20% and was down to less than one cup per person per day. So, in 1993 California’s dairy indus...
Washington’s State Building Code Council has once again adopted rules designed to eliminate natural gas energy for new residential and commercial construction. The original proposal was modified when a similar regulation adopted by the city of Berkeley, Calif., was overturned by the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Like the previous version, the new rules were pushed through the process without providing adequate information about the costs of the new regulations. For exam...
This month’s article isn’t so much a Mythbuster, but a retrospective on where we’ve been with cow type and the implications of the changes over time. As I write these lines it’s only several days before Thanksgiving. It is the holiday season and in my line of work, it is really easy to find a lot of things to be thankful for and have hope for a great future in agriculture. I’m the eternal optimist, I also acknowledge that immense stressors are facing our agricultu...
School choice programs give families between $4,000 and $8,000 per student to cover the cost of private education. These programs provide families public assistance to select a private school if their zip-code assigned public school is not a good fit for their child. In the last two years, school choice has exploded across the United States. In 2019, private school choice programs in the U.S. served only 500,000 students, less than 1% of the nation’s school children. Today, 2...
It is that time of year when people put up their outside holiday lights and displays. Judging from our neighborhood they are decorating more than usual. In our country 90 percent of individuals say they plan to celebrate the holidays this year. Total retail sales between Thanksgiving and Christmas are projected to reach $957 billion. The setting for the National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation is reminiscent of bedecked suburban communities. Clark Griswold decorates every foot o...
We had a great crop of apples this year and more pumpkins than we could give away. Blackberries from the Westside and home canned cherries from early summer and have we got our pies! America is a land of plenty and we love to eat at ball games, movie theaters and other community gatherings. For some, this lifestyle is catching up to us and we're dealing with extra pounds, which is leading to health problems. We have to find a way to help people stay healthy and avoid terrible...
As we prepare for the upcoming holidays, we must be grateful for what we have and focus on our needs rather than fixate on what we want and crave. Being thankful starts with an appreciation of why our families came to America in the first place---our freedoms and opportunities. Legendary singer-song writer Neil Diamond hit single; “America” was performed in 1981 to help welcome home 52 American hostages that Iranian militants held for 444 days at the U.S. Embassy in Teh...
While the last veterans who survived the “surprise” Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor are dwindling rapidly, we cannot let their sacrifices and the memories of that horrific day which propelled America into World War II fade into history. On December 7, 1941, 350 Japanese aircraft descended on Honolulu’s military installations in two shocking waves. More than 2,400 Americans were killed, and 21 ships were sunk or damaged. Our soldiers, sailors and pilots who fought and won W...
Editor’s Note: See last week’s newspaper for Part 1 of this series. Feed and Water In winterizing the cow herd, calculation of forage needed to make it through the winter is also a priority. This can be harvested or standing forage. Either way, determination of how much a beef cow will eat is related to her size and the quality of feed (always rely on a forage analysis so that you know the actual quality of the feed you are dealing with). Remember that lactation, body con...
Like many businesses across Eastern Washington, Free Press Publishing is going to winter hours. Effective Nov. 8, our Whitman County Gazette office will resume Wednesday closures through cold-weather months. And beginning Nov. 10, our Cheney Free Press office will be closed Fridays. Our Lincoln County Record-Times and Ritzville Adams County Journal offices are already closed Fridays. Closing our offices one day a week for the winter doesn’t mean you have any less news coverage...
What a year it has been, wet, to drought, a veritable bounty of variety. That’s what living in Eastern Washington is all about. Sometimes it lulls us into a false sense of security, weatherwise. And for sure this influences our responsibilities and approach to managing our cow herds. I remember my dad reminiscing about one fall in the 1950s when the temperature changed from the mid 50°F range to minus 10°F or so in a couple of days. The implication was that the newly see...
What’s the hourly wage of a Paid Family and Medical Leave recipient in Washington state? It’s higher than I’m comfortable with. Lawmakers should explain to all workers why they think it is good policy to take money from low-income workers and give their money to people with ample resources. Using hourly wage estimates from the state Employment Security Department, here are the earnings of people who took the program’s tax dollars in the past fiscal year (July 2022 through...
Thirty-five attorneys general throughout the nation, including Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson, have banded together in opposition to a proposal by the American Law Institute that would put an end to sex offender registries, notifying communities of a sex offender’s presence, and restricting their places of residence. You read that right: the American Law Institute wants to do away with sex offender registries. Although a proposal of this nature has yet to pass through the Legislature here, several attempts have a...
If there’s one thing Americans can still agree on, it’s that tax policy is one of the most consequential decisions our government makes that impacts our economy and family budgets. With the exception of Washington state, policymakers in the mountain states of Idaho, Montana and Wyoming have been very active the last few years prioritizing tax relief while making fiscally conservative budget investments. While this ongoing tax relief effort is to be commended, more can be don...
The Interstate 405 and state Highway 167 toll lane experiment is losing money. Now, the state Transportation Commission is considering increasing tolls by up to 80% to $18 each way on I-405. The increase will cost an I-405 commuter, using the lanes at peak toll periods, around $720 per month or $8,640 per year. If you travel the entire Highway 167 and I-405 corridor you could see a toll of up to $54. The state Department of Transportation fiscal report for the tolling project...
When Gov. Jay Inslee’s misguided vaccine mandate ended in May, his office said there would not be an outreach effort to rehire the more than 2,000 employees lost because of the condition for employment — even with staff shortages in the state workforce. Instead, fired state workers could reapply for their former jobs or seek new careers with the state just like everyone else. (I thought they should be asked to return, pretty please, and that the ask should be accompanied by...
President Joe Biden’s $65 billion infrastructure bill contains $8 billion for regional hubs to develop ways to produce and distribute hydrogen fuel. One is planned for the Pacific Northwest and should help haulers and truck manufacturers in Renton and Portland in their efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Specifically, long-distance haulers need a network of hydrogen fueling stations (like today’s truck stops) along with affordable trucks and fuel. Hub res...
As parents know all too well, many students suffered learning loss when schools were shut down or relied on virtual learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. This “COVID learning loss” has resulted in lower test scores from Washington students in recent years. Unfortunately, not every possible solution has been deployed to address this problem. One of my Republican colleagues, 8th District Sen. Matt Boehnke, wrote a guest column on COVID learning loss. It mentioned a recent ana...
Apex predators have already saturated the landscape in Northeast Washington. Now, the U.S. Department of Fish & Wildlife and the National Park Service want to add more by reintroducing grizzlies to the North Cascades. Both federal agencies proposing reintroduction of grizzlies into the North Cascades have invoked Section 10(j) of the Endangered Species Act as the trigger for bringing the predators back to Washington. Section 10(j) states federal agencies should, “facilitate r...
Just as memories of COVID lockdowns and mask mandates were fading to the back of our collective minds, the hysteria is returning, and many are wondering how to react. The two new strains responsible for the surge in cases are known as EG.5, or “Eris,” and BA.2.86, or “Pirola.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention numbers show COVID hospitalizations have increased by almost 15.7% in one week, and deaths have increased by 10.5%, although these numbers greatly fluctuate day by day. Director Mandy Cohen said up to 10,000...
Gov. Jay Inslee inappropriately used our state’s building codes to ban natural gas in new homes and commercial buildings. Now, the Biden Administration is going a step further issuing rules that drastically clamp down on natural gas used in heating and air conditioning units. Inslee’s regulations phase out fossil fuels used for heating water and cooking in new buildings by 2030. They were the first steps to eliminating natural gas in and around the house. Biden’s Dept. of En...
While media focus was on Joe Biden's decree putting a tiny plot of land within the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge off limits to oil and gas exploration, reporters ignored the bigger story. Biden's other proclamation forbids tapping more than 10 million acres within the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska, a 23-million-acre area on Alaska's North Slope. That is the area which should replenish the crude oil drawdown stemming from Biden's oil withdrawal from strategic wells...
As the cost of the state's climate law continues to increase gas prices, members of the Inslee Administration are upset when the cost of the CO2 allowances are referred to as a "tax." The governor and others have resorted to convoluted language and logic to avoid using that politically powerful word. For example, the governor's spokesman Mike Faulk recently wrote, "the cap and invest program is not a 'carbon tax'," but "requires emitters to purchase ... permits for their emiss...
It’s been a pretty nice season to go to the fairs around the region—in most cases not too hot and not too cool. Always nice to be able to connect with both our adult and youth producers. The fairs are certainly an American tradition and it’s great to see that people are out supporting them. When I talk with producers, I’m always happy when topics of conversation come up that lend themselves to an article. A recent conversation highlighted that concerns about mRNA vaccine...
