A good business will invest in the future, even when times are bad.
A little over a year ago in this space, I wrote about Kent city officials who were forced to shut down marijuana dispensaries due to state and federal laws prohibiting them.
I finally finished a four-week road trip around the country this past week, driving nearly 8,000 miles. It was great, and I learned a lot of things I didn’t know before, such as:
I recently used this column to suggest that our towns aren’t interesting enough, and that our business leaders should be more creative. Most of the readers’ emails were supportive, but one of them thought it was terrible, and that if I thought I was so smart, maybe I should come up with my own ideas (thanks, Mom).
Last week, I hit the road and drove around the west coast and the southwest, armed with a book on scenic drives and another book on interesting places in the USA. Forget what you hear about a slowdown in summer travel — nearly every motel was full.
When I first read about the 75 medical marijuana supporters who visited the Kent City Council chambers last week, I sympathized with their cause, and with the Kent officials who were forced to shut down the marijuana dispensaries.
When I first came out here 20 years ago, my uncle took me tubing down the Cedar River on some tire tubes we found in the barn. For a beach bum from Florida, it was a real change of scenery, and I’m still convinced it’s the best way to see nature in Washington.
While driving through Maple Valley this week, I noticed the banner ads announcing “Maple Valley Days”; the city’s annual fair coming up on the 10th. As soon as I saw it, visions of fair food flashed in front of my eyes.
Just a few years ago, you couldn’t drive a few blocks without seeing a “We Buy Houses” sign on the…
I’ve been trying to avoid the Tahoma school district’s $125 million bond issue for a few weeks now; both before the voting and after the measure failed.
Last week’s news about a cyberstalking case in Issaquah made the headlines, mostly due to the young age of the accused “cyberstalkers”.
I’ve been watching “American Idol” on TV this season (it’s not what you think; I only watch it for the articles), and was disappointed when Kent’s only remaining contestant Stefano Langone was booted off the show.
Last week, the online version of this newspaper ran an informal survey, asking, “Should the federal government make cuts in the Medicare program to cut the deficit?” The overwhelming response was “no.”
Sure, it’s unscientific, but with a 62 percent no vote, that’s a landslide. Don’t cut my bennies, bro.
Even if legislators wanted to it’s too hard to make cuts to that program. If any of them say “I want to cut Medicare benefits,” they’ll be on the fast-track to becoming private citizens again.
I’ve tried not to pick on our state legislators too much, since they have an incredibly difficult job to do right now. Faced with a $5 billion hole in the budget, we’ve declined their offers to help pay for it. We rejected their attempts to tax our Twix bars and Fiji water and even tied their hands by requiring them to get a two-thirds majority to pass any new taxes or fees.
At work, I get a lot of phone calls from sales representatives. They’re always trying to sell stuff of course, but lately they always ask, “So, how’s business?”
Fine, I say. Sales are steady, profits are slightly up. What do you hear from your other customers? “Oh, most of them are not doing that great. You know, Macy’s and Amazon are doing all right, but most of the little guys are struggling.”
Sleepy voters, it’s time to wake up again. The school levy machine is gearing up in the Tahoma school district and school officials are looking for $125 million to construct new schools and remodel others. That sounds like a lot, until you learn that Kent just passed a school levy last year that will collect around $240 million and that’s just to keep the schools operating.
After attending the town hall meeting in Maple Valley this past Saturday morning, I had planned to write about “citizen apathy” this week.
That’s because only about twelve people showed up to hear Rep. Jay Rodne and Rep. Glenn Anderson talk about what’s happening in Olympia. Plus, half of those were either connected to the paper, the building we were in, or work with the representatives themselves.
Our First Amendment got a major test last week, when the Supreme Court upheld a lower court’s reversal of a multi-million dollar judgment against the Westboro Baptist Church. If you don’t already know, the father of a fallen Marine sued the church leaders for “intentional infliction of emotional distress, intrusion upon seclusion, and civil conspiracy” after seven church members protested his son’s military funeral. The protestors’ signs included, “Thank God for Dead Soldiers” and “God Hates You.”
If you’ve ever been to a local government meeting of any kind you already know how incredibly boring they can be. Attendance at these meetings is always low, unless there is some issue at hand that directly affects someone, and they’ll stay just long enough to hear about their issue. I don’t blame them.
“I, for one, welcome our new computer overlords.”
So said Ken Jennings, the second place finisher to IBM’s “Watson” supercomputer in last week’s Jeopardy game show contest. This win was more significant than the 1997 defeat of the world chess champion by a different IBM supercomputer, because the format of Jeopardy requires the contestant to understand weird nuances of the English language.
Years from now, we might remember this week as “The Battle of Donut Hole.” Or not.
It’s hard to predict, since Maple Valley is still in the middle of a tense standoff with King County over the 156-acre Donut Hole property, and it likely won’t be resolved before the ink has dried on this paper. The final showdown of this three-year, three-way chess match could happen this Sunday.
“There are rules on the books that are needlessly stifling job creation and economic growth, we will fix them.”
President Obama said this in a speech to the Chamber of Commerce this week, and even the IRS agreed with him on one particular rule in last year’s health care law. It requires all businesses that spend $600 or more with an individual or company during the year to fill out a 1099 tax form.
If you missed Monday night’s trail safety meeting at the Lake Wilderness Lodge, I’m happy to give you the executive summary: the trails are safe, gangs haven’t taken root in the area, and we have a minor heroin problem.
