The Keep Our Care Act

There’s an action item here

Erin Sellers in a February 11 article in RANGEMedia.co titled “We both could have died” nails the article’s theme with a quote from Joni Mitchell:

You don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone

It is no secret that healthcare is becoming big business through mergers and buyouts. It is also no secret that healthcare doesn’t even resemble a “free market.” A free market requires a willing buyer. Many (or most) consumers of healthcare, especially reproductive healthcare, seek help to remedy a health issue, often an urgent one. They are not in a condition conducive to comparison shopping, nor are many patients equipped to thoroughly evaluate what is offered. As hospital systems consolidate and healthcare insurance becomes more restrictive choices are further constrained.

Access to some basic healthcare may be lost in this swirl of business. M. Seller’s article tells the story of an older woman who is pregnant with a fetus that has a undeniably lethal genetic abnormality. Carrying the fetus is a significant risk to the woman’s life—the more so with each passing month. But here’s the catch: Sacred Heart (Providence) refuses to allow the procedure (a dilation and curettage or D&C) unless the pregnancy is “immediately life threatening.” Her health insurance is through her husband’s job with a Catholic employer. It will not cover the cost of the procedure at Deaconess Multicare where a D&C would be allowed in a case like this. Cost at Deaconess? Quoted at around $8000—out of pocket. Instead, the patient has the outpatient procedure at Planned Parenthood in unfamiliar surroundings and without the attending OBGYN physician who had been taking care of her. 

It is a fair bet that this particular detail of insurance coverage was not at the top of the list of considerations when this patient’s husband acquired family health insurance through his employer—or, for that matter, when he took the job. What if, thanks to healthcare mergers and acquisitions, this couple lived in a region with only one hospital, that hospital were a Providence institution, and the nearest Planned Parenthood Clinic were a two or three hour drive away? 

It would be harder to turn back the clock and unwind concluded mergers and acquisitions—but we can prospectively scrutinize a proposed acquisition for evidence that it will result in a curtailment of medical services—and intervene to prevent that from happening. That’s what “Engrossed Senate Bill 5241—The Keep Our Care Act” would do. [“Engrossed” just means “as amended”, in this case, “as sent on to the House”.] Click the link. There you will see that ESB 5241 passed the Washington State Senate on February 8. It has moved to the House in the hope of passage before the end of this year’s “short” (60 day) legislative session. 

Here’s where we come in. On that main page on the upper right there is a green elongate button that says “Send a comment on this bill to your legislators.” You don’t need to write a thesis. Just let them know you’re watching, you’re invested, and you approve. If you have the time and inclination, explore the other links available on that main page. It is an education in how legislating actually happens—something most of us (including me until recently) are pretty clueless about. M. Seller’s article “We both could have died” is well worth reading to understand more of the background.

In Washington State a woman’s right to make her own medical decisions in consultation with her doctor is enshrined by a referendum passed in 1970—but what good is a right if, by virtue of healthcare mergers and acquisitions, one’s ability to exercise that right is inaccessible?

This is an important bill. Indeed, “You don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone.” Recognize what we have and protect it.

Keep to the high ground,
Jerry

What Happened Last Week?

A lot

For some in eastern Washington the top of a heap of news last week was U.S. Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers’ (R-WA CD5) surprise announcement that, after 20 years in the U.S. House, she will not seek re-election this fall. Unsurprisingly, she declined to reveal any reasoning for leaving at what will be the age of 55. She wrote only that after “much prayer and reflection” she has decided not to run for re-election but to serve “the People of Eastern Washington…in new ways.” Speculation over what exactly might have tipped her over the edge was abundant—and, I submit, mostly pointless. She will most certainly will not write a book like Liz Cheney’s exposé. After all, McMorris Rodgers was the person who glowingly nominated Mike Johnson to serve as Speaker of the House (behind the closed doors of the Republican caucus). If, somehow, McMorris Rodgers were disillusioned by the MAGA Republican dysfunction in the U.S. House, it seems unlikely we would ever learn of it. 

There was some speculation that behind the scenes, she had anointed a Republican successor. After all, she was essentially offered the job by retiring Republican U.S. Rep. George Nethercutt in 2004. Perhaps she did anoint someone, but if she did it was kept very quiet. Emry Dinman’s article yesterday (February 11) on the front page of the Spokesman certainly suggested clammer and disorder. Dinman contacted no less than a dozen local Republicans and more than five Democrats. We knew that Carmela Conroy, Dr. Bernie Bank, and Ann Marie Danimus were already registered for the August Primary to challenge McMorris Rodgers—but the article offered little clarity on who else will throw in a hat. The filing deadline is May 10, 2024, for the August 6th top-two Primary Election. 

On February 5 Spokane County Commissioner Al French put to rest a contrary rumor by announcing on Facebook that he would run again for the District 5 (western part of Spokane County) seat he now occupies. I’m told there is a very promising but still undeclared challenger. French is arguably the most powerful elected official in Spokane County. He likes to exercise his power out of the limelight. He holds positions on a number of county and state boards and touts his expertise in advancing the interests of the business community. Apparently that includes trying to cover up and slow down efforts to research the extent of PFAS contamination from Spokane International Airport that has poisoned the well water of a good number of his constituents. Business über alles. An architect/developer by trade, French is also seen as pushing development in the Latah valley without supporting needed infrastructure. 

Depending where you put your focus last week, McMorris Rodgers’ and French’s news was either overshadowed or was overshadowed by a plethora of national stories: Speculation about Taylor Swift and the upcoming Super Bowl lit up right wing media. Tucker Carlson (a modern day Father Coughlin?) went to Moscow and was given an extended and faulty history lesson by Vladimir Putin. The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments last Thursday over Colorado’s efforts to bar Trump from the ballot based on Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment (with “Justice” Clarence Thomas having the gall to start the questioning rather than recusing himself). President Biden was exonerated in the classified documents investigation by Republican Special Counsel Robert K. Hur in one sentence—followed by a couple of hundred pages in which he opined as if he were Comey 2.0. I recommend Heather Cox Richardson’s post on Hur’s political hit-job

Keep to the high ground,
Jerry

Homelessness and State Legislation

Advocate! A chance to weigh in.

NOTE: This post is coming out on Thursday in the hope of offering an extra day to act before a deadline next Tuesday. I do not plan to post tomorrow, Friday, February 9.

Homelessness and SB 5961:

Here’s another chance to usefully register your opinion from the comfort of your own desk.

All the local efforts to help our homeless fellow citizens are sorely needed and entirely laudable, but the “supply” of people rendered homeless, the other end of the equation, must also be addressed. Otherwise the number of people made homeless will continue to exceed the number who find housing. A key piece of the supply equation is the precipitous rise in rents as wealth chases ever greater profit.

There is a bill before the Washington State Legislature, Senate Bill (SB) 5961 that represents one good step toward stemming the flow. Here’s the summary:

Improving housing stability for tenants subject to the residential landlord-tenant act and the manufactured/mobile home landlord-tenant act by limiting rent and fee increases, requiring notice of rent and fee increases, limiting fees and deposits, establishing a landlord resource center and associated services, authorizing tenant lease termination, creating parity between lease types, and providing for attorney general enforcement.

SB 5961 made it out of the Housing Committee. If I understand correctly (and I think I do) SB 5961 was “read…into the record on the floor in house of origin [the State Senate]” ahead of the January 31st deadline. Now, to keep SB 5961 alive it must be voted on and passed by the Senate before 5PM next Tuesday, February 13th. It will still need to pass the House and be signed by the Governor to become law—but one hurdle at a time. This year is an even-numbered year “short session” of 60 days (compared to 105 day “regular session” of odd-numbered years) so the race to go from bill to law is much compressed. Once the end of this session comes around on March 7, (absent the calling of a “special session”) all bills go back to square one, that is, all bills would need to be re-introduced (with attendant new numbering) to be considered in 2025 by a newly elected legislature. 

Here’s Where We Come In

Click here to see the main page for SB 5961. On that page there is a green colored link “Original Bill” that will take you to the actual 32 page text. On the right near the top of the main page is a horizontally elongate green button that says, “Send a comment on this bill to your legislators”. Click that link, fill in the form, click on the name of your senator, indicate your support, make a comment (no need to write a thesis) and click Send Comment. It’s that simple. 

For those of us living in District 3 (very roughly corresponding with the City of Spokane, click here for a map) our Senator, Andy Billig, is also the State Senate Majority Leader. It is not hard to imagine that he holds some sway over which bills get a vote.

I thought that this from FUSE Washington (the folks who publish the Progressive Voters’ Guide) was clear:

People who rent their home or own a manufactured home cannot wait 15-20 years for new housing supply to lower rent costs. We need stabilization now while we build much-needed new housing.

Republicans will, of course, be adamantly opposed to this legislation. They will argue that it would interfere with the sacred “free market.” They will conjure a plethora of deleterious unintended consequences due to meddling with it. Currently, the imagined “free market” has failed at the task of providing housing.

Keep to the high ground,

Jerry

Vote!–and remind everyone you know to do the same

And a Swift note

A Short Pre-script:

The response to and readership of last week’s post “I Think I’m Becoming a Swiftie” was entertaining and broad. A friend, Dale Damron, remarked, “I tried seeing you as a shrieking front row adulatory fan with a faux leather “Fearless bracelet”…….I’ll try not to do that again.” The post also garnered one of the highest click rates on one link that I’ve yet seen. The link was to U.S. Representative Eric Swalwell’s (D-CA) video set to Taylor Swift’s “Only the Young.” I still find that YouTube video inspiring and for that reason I offer the link again in case you missed it.

Vote!

Every year for at least the last twenty years a February Special Election has been held in Spokane County. (Source: Spokane County Election archives) This year ballots are due in by next week, Tuesday, February 13th. These elections don’t get a whole lot of publicity for a simple reason: the February Special Elections are locally specific. They usually concern proposed bonds, levies, and local propositions relevant to local school districts, libraries, and municipalities. In any given February Special Election your particular address may not lie within any district for which there is an issue, and, consequently, no ballot will appear in your mailbox at all. 

If your voting address lies within Spokane County, it is likely that you’ve already received a February 13th Special Election Ballot in the mail—as well as a copy of “Your Spokane County Official Voters’ Pamphlet.” Click here for an online version of the Pamphlet, here for more information, or here for access to what’s on your particular ballot at vote.wa.gov. I urge you to click that last link to vote.wa.gov, sign in (or register), and explore. It is an education in itself. Click around, look in the nooks and crannies. There is a lot of information there, including “Explanatory Statements” for each issue and “Arguments For and Against”. 

Just as one example, if your voting address is within the city limits of the City of Spokane your ballot includes “Measure No. 2” offering an amendment to the city charter concerning redistricting. I was a bit leery of it at first, but under “Arguments For and Against” for Measure No. 2 one learns that the two City Council Members who were somewhat at odds over the recent city redistricting process, CM Zack Zappone and CM Michael Cathcart, jointly wrote the “Argument For”. In addition, “After repeated recruitment attempts, no volunteers against the ballot measure came forward to write a statement.” That was good enough for me. I voted “Yes.”

After all the attacks in recent years on school boards and libraries driven by über-conservative, pseudo-religious groups like “Mom’s For Liberty” I consider it my civic duty to cast a “yes” vote for pretty much any bond or levy proposal put before me. I know that is emotional and certainly not strictly rational, but I figure that I helped elect the people who serve on the boards that make these proposals, people serving on these boards without pay, usually as a civic duty. The least I can do is support what they propose. 

I don’t personally spend much time in libraries. I have internet in my home. I have a computer. I usually buy, rather than borrow, books. But here’s the thing: I know there are a lot of people not as fortunate as I who rely on libraries for exactly those things. Moreover, libraries are increasingly seen and used as community spaces for people of all ages. Let’s support that. For more about libraries, levies, and bonds if you have a Spokesman subscription read Emry Dinman’s “Stakes are high for Spokane Public Library as it recovers from pandemic.

Keep to the high ground,

Jerry

The Republican Greed Initiatives

And the wealthy man backing them

This November a package of six initiatives will likely appear on the presidential general election ballot in Washington State. They are “Initiatives to the Legislature” that might best be characterized as the Republican Greed Initiative package. Four of the six of them would overturn or outlaw taxes. The whole package will appear on the ballot thanks to the money and efforts of one über-wealthy migrant to Washington State, Mr. Brian Heywood, and Jim Walsh, the current chairman of the Washington State Republican Party. Initiative Measure No. 2109, “Concerns Taxes.” It is the mostly likely of the six initiatives to offer Mr. Heywood a return on his investment. Here’s the text:

This measure would repeal an excise tax imposed on the sale or exchange of certain long-term capital assets by individuals who have annual capital gains of over $250,000.

Quite a lot of background is in order here. Before this capital gains excise tax was instituted in 2022 Washington State funded its schools and roads and everything else it does with the most regressive tax system of all the fifty states. Now it as moved up to the second most regressive. A regressive system of taxation is one in which the least well off pay proportionally more in overall taxes than do the wealthy. 

A progressive income tax, for example, the federal income tax, in which higher levels of income are taxed at a higher rate, is the classical antithesis of a regressive tax. However, in Washington State an income tax was deemed unconstitutional in 1933 by the State Supreme Court (see P.S. below). 

In a nod toward instituting a hint of progressive taxation, in 2021 the Washington State legislature passed, and the governor signed, a law imposing an excise tax (“a tax levied on certain goods and commodities produced or sold”) on “certain capital gains”. (Explore the raw details here in the Revised Code of Washington [RCW].) 

The imposition of a new excise tax on “certain” capital gains might have escaped your notice, since it doesn’t kick in until the “certain” capital gains exceed $250,000 (in one year)—something over which very few of us need be concerned. Worried about tax on the capital gains from the sale of your home or your farm? They’re exempt—as are a host of other capital gains, like those from the sale of livestock, timber, or stocks in your Individual Retirement Account (IRA). 

So what capital gains are taxed? We might characterize them as “abstract capital gains,” primarily capital gains made on the sale of stocks and bonds or other financial instruments, just exactly the sort of transactions that grow wealth for people who are already wealthy. One might point to Mr. Brian Heywood, a former (and perhaps current) hedge fund manager (see P.P.S. below for a basic biography) and the fellow fronting the money to pay signature gatherers to put the Greed Initiatives on the November ballot. 

This excise tax was first imposed starting in tax year 2022 with the revenue first coming in with tax returns filed in 2023. Of course, Republicans representing the wealthy were not going to accept this without a fight. They immediately sought to characterize the excise tax as an income tax—and thereby have it declared unconstitutional. (Even U.S. Representative Dan Newhouse [R-central WA] weighed in as grievously opposed, strategically leaving out mention of the exclusions and exemptions, thereby allowing his entire audience to imagine that their own nest eggs might be threatened by the tax.)

Oh, and take note: The first $500,000,000 (that half a billion dollars!) is earmarked to support public schools with any excess dedicated to school construction. (Public schools are otherwise often funded primarily by local property taxes. Accordingly, public schools in areas with a lagging property tax base tend to be underfunded. The excise tax on capital gains is meant as a least a beginning of a correction.)

Republican whining that the excise tax on capital gains is unconstitutional based on the Washington State Constitution failed to impress the Washington State Supreme Court. In March of 2023 the Court struck down the challenge. Just last month (January 2024) the U.S. Supreme Court declined to reviewthe State Supreme Court ruling—and set the stage for the Republican Greed Initiative effort to deceive the voters into repealing the tax. 

For tax year 2022, the first year of the capital gains excise tax, “[t]he DOR [Washington State Department of Revenue] estimates $889 million [more that twice early estimates] was collected out of a total of 3,765 returns, according to an agency spokesperson.” Do the math. At the tax rate of 7% that implies that the individuals behind these 3,765 tax filings in Washington State scored capital gains totaling an eye-popping 12.7 billion dollars (and that’s just the amount above the $250,000 exemption). (See P.P.P.S. below) For reference, that 12.7 billion dollars would be 18 percent of Washington State’s whole two year operating budget—or more than a third of the State’s annual operating budget. Even if these 3,765 tax returns represent 10,000 individuals, those individuals would represent less than 1/5 of one percent (0.14%) of the population of Washington State—a small fraction even of the fabled wealthiest “1 percent.”

Brian Heywood, apparently resenting that some of his annual capital gains might be used to educate the children of Washington State, didn’t wait for the judgement of the courts. He was busy in 2023 funding “Let’s Go Washington” with 6 million dollars to pay signature gathers. The money spurred ahead the suite of Greed Initiatives filed by Jim Walsh, the chairman of the Washington State Republican Party earlier in the year. 

Mr. Walsh, the Republican Party, and Mr. Heywood are counting on at least forty years of disingenuous Republican anti-tax rhetoric to convince voters to turn out and vote against the interests of their own children. Judging by the crowd listening to Mr. Heywood in this video, you might wonder if he’s right. Don’t let it happen. Get people talking about the Washington State Republican Greed Initiatives coming on the November ballot and the strategy behind them with your friends, relatives, and acquaintances.

Keep to the high ground,

Jerry

P.S. We often hear that an income tax is unconstitutional in Washington State. That statement hinges on Washington State Constitutional Amendment 14, dating from 1930, which states: “All taxes shall be uniform upon the same class of property within the territorial limits of the authority levying the tax…” (from Article VII, Section 1—See pdf page 27 here). Three years later in the early years of the Great Depression, in 1933, 70% of Washington voters approved a state income tax—but a wobbly majority of the Washington State Supreme Court struck down the tax as unconstitutional, basing their decision on the word “uniform” in the 1930 Amendment 14. (See an entertaining version of that story here. For more technical detail, read here.)

P.P.S. What follows is from my post The Perversion of the Initiative Processpublished last November: 

Brian Heywood is a fifty-something year old man with means and motivation. He graduated from Harvard in East Asian Studies in 1991. Before “graduation he spent three years living in Japan as a [Mormon] missionary and as a student. He joined and later served on the board of JD Power and Associates,” a data analytics, software, and consumer intelligence company, with offices in California. In 2010 Mr. Heywood moved to Redmond, Washington, where he works as a hedge fund manager, now serving as the CEO of Taiyo Pacific Partners LP. His current level of involvement at Taiyo is unclear. His employment is variously self-described in Washington State Public Disclosure Commission reports as a horse boarderartist, and as retired.

Speaking at a gathering at the Reset Church in Marysville in 2021 (why is it always a Fundamentalist, non-denominational church?) he said, “I came from ‘the people’s republic of California’. I am an economic refugee. I came here to make money and to be free.”

Clearly, Mr. Heywood knows his way around using money to make money. Now he wishes to use that money and his expertise to change the politics of the State of Washington to suit his own pecuniary and political interests. His donation to the Loren Culp campaign for governor of Washington in 2020 (see page 12 [at that link]) offers a window on his political leanings. In the Facebook video of his Reset Church talk in 2021 [the year before the excise tax on capital gains was first applied] he says, “I and some of my friends have begun to fund” various efforts, including the Washington chapter of the right wing news outlet, The Center Square. He “will be starting” Unleash.com. In his speech, Mr. Heywood likens building back the Republican Party in Washington State to the many years of planning and groundwork in re-building a corporation.

P.P.P.S Even if these folks behind these 3,765 capital gain excise tax returns had zero income in earned wages (on a Form W-2) I posit they were still be able to live very well on that 250K—even after paying around 30K in federal capital gains tax. (Note that the marginal federal tax rate of 15% on capital gains is, for no reason I can justify, universally less than the marginal tax rates for earned income reported on a W-2, which, at comparable levels of earned income, were 22% and in 2022 ramped up to a maximum marginal rate of 37%.)

I Think I’m Becoming a Swiftie

There’s a new anthem

I’m approaching three quarters of century. It is the music of the sixties, especially the of the folk era, that lives on in my head. A phrase like “Come gather ‘round people” triggers the outpouring of nearly all the lyrics of Dylan’s “The Times They Are a-Changin.’” The strains of “We Shall Overcome” evokes vivid memories of campfires and heartfelt singing. Tunes like these were the anthems of my youth. 

Music—and the poetry it carries—is a powerful memory tool and motivational device. Music can bring on tears, waves of nostalgia, determination, and joy. Many a generation harkens back to the music of its youth and pays only marginal attention the music of later artists. Who are the artists worth listening to in the present day? I have nary a clue. 

A few days ago, though, Robert Hubbell in his Today’s Edition Newsletter (a great daily read) wrote that several readers had recommended “this article by Brian Hassett, Why I Love Joe Biden – Brianland.” That blog post by Hassett (a quirky, musically-minded Canadian) is a delightful romp through all the very positive reasons to support Biden and his administration. About halfway through Hassett’s post is an embedded YouTube clip from Miss Americana, a 2020 documentary of which I was entirely unaware. In the clip Taylor Swift is making her case to her father and others, midway through the Trump presidency in 2018, for coming out in opposition to the Trump regime and the candidacy of the very Republican Marsha Blackburn (candidate for U.S. Senate from Tennessee, Swift’s home state). Swift was then 28 years old and certainly famous, but also fully aware of the career damage The Dixie Chicks had suffered after they ventured into politics more than a decade previously by criticizing George W. Bush. The YouTube clip riveted my attention, led me to watch Miss Americana on Netflix (the part with the embedded clip comes up at around 1:00). The clip and the documentary humanized this young singer/songwriter for me and led me to a full appreciation of Swift’s single “Only the Young,” a lament, a chronicle, and a call to action for its (mostly) youthful listeners—an anthem. You can listen on YouTube (with subtitles) here. Even better, in 2020 “Swift allowed the usage of the song for the Biden/Harris campaign free-of-cost, marking the first time Swift has lent her music to be used in a political advertisement.” U.S. Representative Eric Swalwell (D-CA) posted this illustrated video version of “Only the Young.” I urge you to click, watch, and listen. It gave me goosebumps.

As I was writing this the right wing bloggers and talking heads were losing their minds spinning whacko conspiracy theories over Swift, her NFL boyfriend, and the upcoming Super Bowl—and Swift has not even endorsed Biden for re-election. (Of course, given her involvement in 2020 it seems very likely she will.) 

Watch the video that I linked above posted by Rep. Swalwell and you will appreciate why the right wing is so spun-up that some are calling for a “holy war” against Swift. If there is to be a “holy war” I know which side I’ll be on.

I think I’m becoming a Swiftie.

Keep to the high ground,
Jerry

P.S. As if to confirm some of my musings the title of the prior article on Brian Hassett’s website is “Taylor Swift, the Grateful Dead and The Beat Generation.

P.P.S. Wikipedia notes that Ms. Swift’s parents named her after singer/songwriter James Taylor, whose tunes and lyrics figure prominently in my 1960s musical memory.

P.P.S. Here are the lyrics to “Only the Young”: 

It keeps me awake, the look on your face
The moment you heard the news
You’re screaming inside and frozen in time
You did all that you could do
The game was rigged, the ref got tricked
The wrong ones think they’re right
You were outnumbered this time

[Chorus]
But only the young, only the young
Only the young, only the young
Can run
Can run
So run, and run, and run

So every day now
You brace for the sound you’ve only heard on TV
You go to class, scared
Wondering where the best hiding spot would be
And the big bad man and his big bad clan
Their hands are stained with red
Oh, how quickly they forget

They aren’t gonna help us
Too busy helping themselves
They aren’t gonna change this
We gotta do it ourselves
They think that it’s over
But it’s just begun

[Chorus]
Only one thing can save us
Only the young (Only the young)
Only the young (Only the young)
Only the young (Only the young)
Only the young
Only the young (Only the young)
Only the young (Only the young)
Only the young (Only the young)
Only the young
Only the young (Only the young; Don’t say you’re too tired to fight)
Only the young (Only the young; It’s just a matter of time)
Only the young (Only the young; Up there’s the finish line)
Only the young
Can run

Don’t say you’re too tired to fight
It’s just a matter of time (Can run)
Up there’s the finish line (So run, and run, and run)
Don’t say you’re too tired to fight
It’s just a matter of time (So run)
Up there’s the finish line (And run, and run, and run)

Only the young
Only the young
Only the young

The Great Flood–with updated link

A fascinating and pertinent piece of Spokane’s and eastern Washington’s geological history

When this went out earlier this morning the link in the video failed. Here’s a workable link:

https://www.hamiltonstudio.com/firstfriday

No, we’re not talking about Noah’s Flood, although I suppose there are some who might wish to see this bit of fascinating geology through that lens. Instead, the topic here is forces of water that shaped much of the land we live on as well as the downstream “scablands” of central Washington. The story is pertinent because it is intimately interconnected with underground water resources upon which our region depends.

This Friday evening (February 2) at Hamilton Studios (see flyer and video below) Tim Connor, local journalist, photographer, and storyteller offers a multimedia presentation recounting this geologic history and the story of J. Harlen Bretz, the geologist who, working out of Spokane, put all the clues together in the early 1920s.

Since early last year Tim Connor has been using his understanding of local geology and his work in journalism to chronicle the evolving saga of PFAS (“forever chemical”) contamination of West Plains private wells. He writes on Substack under “Rhubarb Salon”. His work on the West Plains saga is available here. His posts are in depth and engaging, a fascinating, evolving story.

For more about this Friday’s presentation click here.

I urge you to click on this video image and watch (it literally just takes a minute)

WHEN
February 2, 2024
6:00PM – 9:00PM

WHERE
Hamilton Studio
1427 W Dean Ave,
Spokane, WA 99201

FREE ADMISSION

hamiltonstudio.com

Keep to the high ground,

Jerry