The carpenters’ strike at St. Joe’s Hospital continues. They are also striking several other construction sites around Bellingham. The dispute is over the construction industry association reducing th
Posted here because the Bellingham Herald has now ignored this for two days. Of very high importance to Bellingham - and with significant developments.
that provide national and international news that is most important and not always available. One site is truthout and it depends on visitor donations to continue. No ads, no popups, no commercial spo
St. Joe’s Hospital will probably be facing fines for venting toxic gas into the construction area of their new addition. Our Bellingham Herald has not reported a bit of this. Rumor has it that one or
If you have info on candidates or possible candidates, send it in. The list to the right will be maintained through the election. We gripe about the actions of elected representatives - well, here is
as I will be out of town. Upon return, my first interest will be updating the candidate listings in the right-hand column. If you have info on a candidate - or a person considering running - then plea
The Bellingham city council passed the Public Facilities District (PFD) agreement last night. What was passed was 100% what the mayor, last September, told the PFD board to propose. They obeyed. The b
Welcome back. I thank you for visiting Whiner Net - as it is called around Bellingham City Hall. Even the mayor has endorsed that name in our local government corridors. Seems they check the site ofte
he will run for Mayor of Bellingham. He has resigned his news job at a local radio station. At the end of his last broadcast this morning, the station ran his paid political ad. There will be a cam
The Bellingham City Council last night voted 5-2 to support the Clean Water Alliance legal action against Whatcom County’s designation of Sudden Valley as an Urban Growth Area (UGA). Grant Deger and B
The Bellingham City Council will finally hold its very first public hearing of the Public Facilities District (PFD) proposals next Monday, May 19, 7 pm at city hall. Really - the
The Bham Herald admits sitting on - covering up - for months the headline story today about developer Rick Westerop being a Canadian felon and being barred from entry into the US. This was one of the
our government can be. Fox news isn’t telling you about how the US military will not allow a Belgium plane to fly to Iraq with medical equipment and medicines. Why? Oh, come on. Because Belgium oppose
Elections this fall could bring positive change to Whatcom County and Bellingham. In particular, we need a new Mayor and we need a new Port Commissioner. The challenge is not convincing the voters
The American media are reporting the basics of the massacre of unarmed Iraqi civilians by our US Army two days ago. Finally. But they are using the lowest reported numbers - not the higher and more re
and the US news media cooperated in the big lie. As the war ended around mid April, the truth was revealed but you probably did not read it anywhere.. About April 9, the US wounded was listed a
We have liberated Iraq. Now we should work to allow them to rule themselves. We should turn their country over to them quickly. We don’t have to teach them anything.
Writer's notes: The candidates for State Representative in the 40th District Position 1 are: Dusty Gulleson (prefers Republican Party,) Chuck Carrell (prefers Republican Party,) Doug Revelle (prefers Happiness Party,) Mike Newman (prefers Republican Party,) Kristine Lytton (prefers Democratic Party,) Tom Pasma (prefers Democratic Party,) Thomas Boucher (prefers Democratic Party,) Justin Van Dyk (prefers Democratic Party,) and Donna R. Miller (prefers Republican Party.)
What follows are the two responses to questions I submitted to Chuck last Mon, Aug 2.
Why should I vote for you?
"I’m running this year because the Legislature and Governor continued their out of control spending habits despite our troubled economy, and we need to stop it.
The only way it will stop is to start electing strong leadership to the Legislature that can make the hard choices that will be needed.
I will not support any new taxes unless they will completely eliminate an existing tax and make the amount less overall to the people they affect.
I think people are taxed to their limit right now and the real long term solution is to have the state and local governments cut their spending and get back to the essential functions of what state government is supposed to do.
I will not accept money from, or be a representative for, any PAC or special interest group. That’s important when figuring out where to trim at least $3 billion dollars from our state’s budget next session.
When making cuts, these candidates will feel obligated to keep unnecessary programs due to the financial aid they received during their campaigns. The problem was highlighted this year, and electing those types of candidates will only bring the same issue to the next Legislative session."
What is important to you?
"The most important thing to me this next Legislative session is getting our fiscal house in order.
We need to simplify the tax structure and then get an accurate assessment of what the state budget will be.
Then we need to REALISTICALLY balance the budget. This means that we fund our most important things such as education and public safety first and then continue down until everything is funded or there is no more state money left.
When the state budget is down to zero then we stop funding programs. No matter how badly we want to fund a program, if the state budget is spent then they will have to get their funding someplace else besides state government.
Even within our top priorities we need to look at how to consolidate these agencies and programs to make them more efficient. We also need to look at reducing the middle management in these agencies and what I term “inner bureaucracies.”
Years of these types of hiring practices by state and local government has created an enormous drain on our resources and is not sustainable. Nor can we rely on Federal grants like we did this year to balance the budget."
