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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....
DAYTON–The Dayton Chronicle is recommending a "yes" vote on the Swimming Pool District's Proposition No. 1. We enjoy so many wonderful attributes in our community-one thing we're lacking is a swimming pool. The current pool bit the dust-literally-in 2018. Pool decking had settled, the gutter needed cracks repaired, and the City Council voted unanimously to close it. After a year out of operation, the City was required to fill the tank with dirt. Subsequent estimates placed the cost of repairs in...
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, 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...
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 and here. What is highlighted in each opinion...
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...
To the editor, What has happened to Dayton's neighborhood streets? Once they were black top asphalt and now a gravelly mess. If you were to ask around Dayton, many theories would evolve. For example, "the road crews are coming back to lay asphalt over the gravel." Another response is "it's called chip seal but the construction company failed the application." I have been told the rock was too large and the crews never came back to seal the gravel. So I ask, "what is the truth?" Could the city...
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....
To the editor, In contrast to many partisan issues in the November election, the levy to fund our new Columbia County Parks & Recreation District is a non-partisan item that deserves our votes. We voters enthusiastically approved establishing the district in 2023, but the district is unfunded until a levy is approved in the upcoming November election. Using levy funds, the district would pursue private and governmental grant funds for pool construction. Those who grant construction funds expect...
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...
OLYMPIA–The average Washington household with two cars paid about $631 more for gasoline and natural gas heating in 2023 due to the state’s new tax on CO2 emissions known as the “Climate Commitment Act.” That amount does not include increased costs for electricity, which vary widely based on geography, or the inflationary impact of higher energy costs on other goods. Those amounts put some context on the payment of election-year rebates touted this week by Governor Inslee, staff at his state a...
