Local Posts Walla Walla, WA (zoom)

"I went to apply for my State Park Annual Permit yesterday, what used to be free to us citizens, but now costs us taxpayers because the State doesn’t have enough tax dollars for what it used to have enough for so the budget needs to be balanced. Now the poor can pay what the guy launching his 25 foot Bayliner pays for a permit, same way he does at the gas station for the gas tax, same as he does at the drug store, same as he does just about everywhere he buys something. This is what we call Recessive Taxation. No breaks for the indigent. You know, folks we now refer to as Takers...... More at The Skeeter Daddle Diaries ➜

"A study from the University of Washington, published last week in the Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology, reports the noise from the Boeing EA-18G Growlers and their training drills present a “substantial risk” to two-thirds of Island County residents" More at The Seattle Times ➜
(U.S. Navy Photo)

"...The Washington Legislature is asserting that legislators have a previously unknown personal privilege to withhold from public disclosure the documents they use in their work for the people. No such “legislative privilege” applies to legislative records. Read more

"Northwest SOIL promised to help students with serious disabilities. But when school districts urged action, the state let the private school stay open and receive millions in tax dollars..... For years, the complaints languished with Washington state education officials." ...."Northwest SOIL’s corporate owner, Universal Health Services, has for years skimped on staffing and basic resources while pressuring managers to enroll more students than the staff could handle..." Read more at ProPublica

> How auto dealers’ lobbyist wrote an exemption into Washington’s new capital gains tax law || by Jim Brunner : The Seattle Times

> Tree-Free Paper is rescuing forests and farmers in Washington || by Britany Robinson : Reasons to Be Cheerful

> The PNW is a leader on forage fish management — but it needs better data || by Hannah Weinberger : Crosscut