Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
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Modern extension of the 1964 civil rights bill Beware of what is happening in Washington, D.C., where the so-called Equality Act is now in the Senate after passing the House with President Biden’s support. This act is supposedly an extension of the 1964 civil rights bill which was to help ethnic groups, not liberal/unconventional groups like the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) folks who think they are entitled to anything they want with little or no discrimination. This act will affect all institutions, public, p...
We are now more than halfway thru the 2021 Legislative Session and have passed the important House of Origin cutoff. This is technically when bills start to die. Among the bills the majority legislative leadership have not deemed worthy of moving are the numerous proposals to reform the Governor’s emergency powers. Despite no serious action to date on these bills, there is still time for lawmakers to act before Sine Die. It is difficult to understand why the majority l...
America’s media is suffering from a truth deficit leaving many to wonder where to go for honest, reliable and accurate information. Unfortunately, it is not the mainstream or social media. Last month Forbes magazine found for the first time, fewer than half of all Americans acknowledge any kind of trust of major media. The information was captured in Edelman’s annual trust barometer. “Fifty-six percent of Americans, for example, said they agreed with the following state...
I was raised in Odessa, and conservative. I manned phone banks in Spokane for Nixon in ‘68. Now, 50 years later, I have a second worldview. I’ve had much more life experience, and am acutely aware of the anger you feel for those who question your long-held beliefs. As children in Odessa, we knew the greatest generation had fought WWII, and we respected the flag in their honor. Unfortunately, we’ve had less popular wars like Vietnam. Coming home, the numbers of American flags waved or hugged didn’t matter much to me. Democra...
At 2 a.m. on Sunday, March 14, daylight saving time for 2021 will begin, clocks will spring forward an hour, and Washingtonians will once again ask themselves how this annual ritual is even still a thing we all must do. The supposed reason for daylight saving time is for us to make better use of natural daylight during the spring and summer. However, the practice of shifting back and forth between daylight saving time and standard time has proved to be a dangerous and...
These days the mere mention of tax incentives for factories touches off a major firestorm in Seattle and you’d better be looking for an expeditious way out of town. Not so in Austin where major international corporations are receiving millions in property tax rebates when they build giant new factories creating thousands of jobs. Similar to Washington, Texas has no income tax. It has a sales tax and relies heavily on property taxes to support city and county governments. P...
Some moments lend themselves to hyperbole. That amazing fishing trip from seven years ago; the winning free throw at a high school basketball game; the marriage proposal when time stood still. Or 2020, when Washington agriculture was fighting for its life after a court ruling forced the dairy sector to begin paying time-and-a-half and left the specter of retroactive pay lingering in the background like an unwanted flu just before vacation. In our state, we are waging a war...
It’s a solution in search of a problem. Lawmakers in Olympia appear to be fast-tracking House Bill 1356, which would ban the use of “racially derogatory or discriminatory” American Indian mascots, logos and team names in public schools in the state. Simply put, the bill is political theater, nonsense that kowtows to the politically correct crowd that’s bent on cancelling our culture, heritage and history. The bill is quickly moving through the Legislature even though I think...
In the past 22 years, by working together with our thousands of heroic supporters, we’ve qualified 17 statewide initiatives for a public vote. They all limited the government’s power over us and saved taxpayers $46.9 billion (see https://permanentoffense.com/about-us/). Our four 2/3-vote-to-raise-taxes initiatives have also saved taxpayers billions more by stopping and deterring tax increases. While other initiatives spend $1.2 million to qualify, we averaged $672,000, bec...
Idaho Congressman Mike Simpson’s $33 billion plan to remove the lower Snake River dams is unwise. However, if he pushes it, he needs include the impact of breaching dams in his home state which completely shutoff salmon and steelhead migration. Simpson, a Republican representing eastern Idaho, announced he wants to rupture the four lower Snake River dams— Ice Harbor, Little Goose, Lower Monumental and Lower Granite—-all in southeast Washington. Those impoundments have fish...
We are fast approaching the halfway point of the 2021 legislative session. There have been some challenges conducting business as usual for the Legislature during this unusual time in our lives. The governor’s decision to close off a large portion of the Capitol grounds to the public is concerning, as are his ever-changing metrics and policies when it comes to reopening our state. I’m very pleased that all parts of our state have been able to move to Phase 2 of the latest reop...
Have you bought into Gov. Jay Inslee’s newest coronavirus recovery scheme, his “Healthy Washington-Roadmap to Recovery?” If you haven’t, you’re not alone. In fact, many people around the state are objecting to it. From Whitman County on the Idaho border to Whatcom County in Northwest Washington, county commissioners and local health officials are standing up and objecting to the governor’s attempt to strip local health care authority and give it to those he would appoint in...
The meltdown at the state Department of Employment Security ought to teach us a lesson. It's easy for government to create problems, not so easy for the Legislature to come back in and clean up the mess. We ought to keep this in mind as the Legislature debates some of the big, bold ideas our liberal colleagues are bringing to the table this year - for an income tax, big increases in gas prices, greater government control of industry, and many, many more. Many of these...
Interesting fact: In the last Legislative Session, a bill was passed creating the “Washington State Office of Equity Task Force.” This task force was given the responsibility to create a vision to establish and fund a permanent “Office of Equity.” The legislature specifically designated who would sit on this task force. It included 4 legislators and a representative of a myriad of groups including the LGBTQ community, the Governor’s Office and the Commission on African A...
A new proposed law smells like tyranny. House Bill 1283 would make it illegal for three people or more to open-carry firearms if someone else “feels threatened.” It would be a gross misdemeanor. If a person in “any way participates” in threats or the use of “such force” against a person or property while open-carrying a gun in a group of three or more, then they face a Class C felony. That means the state strips them of their right to own firearms as a convicted felon. The bill seems to be targeting the groups of legal firea...
For a young man, Conner Mertens has had quite an impactful life. Most people know Conner as the brave, vocal activist who made headlines by being the first openly LGBTQ college-football player as a freshman kicker at Willamette University in Oregon. But I came to know the Tri-Cities native when he showed up at my door with an idea for saving the lives of students at risk of suicide, bullying and various other forms of school violence. That idea - a tip line and mobile app to...
The Record supports the passage of all three levies, two proposed by the Odessa School District and one by Lincoln County Hospital District #1 (which is the Odessa Memorial Healthcare Center). Voters in the Odessa area have received their ballots requesting approval of three different levies supporting the local school and the local hospital district. Odessa’s school and medical facilities are important to those living here or thinking about living here. The Educational Programs and Operations levy requested by the Odessa S...
The culture, heritage and history of Eastern Washington — indeed all of Washington and Oregon history — is under fire again in Olympia. I’m talking about an effort this year in the House to erase Marcus Whitman’s significance from the halls of the Capitol building in Olympia and the national statuary in Washington, D.C. Pushed by lawmakers, who obviously lack a full understanding of Whitman’s significance, House Bill 1372 seeks to replace the bronze Marcus Whitman statues w...
British historian Thomas Macaulay famously said, "The best government is one that desires to make the people happy, and knows how to make them happy." That standard is clearly not what people are experiencing in Washington state. For years, leaders in state government have been increasing the tax burden and imposing ever-tighter regulations that limit personal opportunity, lower household incomes and fall hardest on working people, middle-class families and small business...
British historian Thomas Macaulay famously said, “The best government is one that desires to make the people happy, and knows how to make them happy.” That standard is clearly not what people are experiencing in Washington state. For years, leaders in state government have been increasing the tax burden and imposing ever-tighter regulations that limit personal opportunity, lower household incomes and fall hardest on working people, middle-class families and small business own...
Protests are nothing new in Olympia. Each year, thousands of protesters converge on legislative sessions to rally for special causes, object to government activities and generally just remind lawmakers who they work for. I cannot recall a time that the Capitol Building, other legislative office buildings and the state library weren’t available for public access. Indeed, each year I wander the Capitol campus during session to personally deliver a newspaper to those who r...
