“Starting Jan. 1, 2026, Washington state shoppers will see a 4-cent increase in the price of plastic film carryout bags at restaurants and retailers, raising the minimum cost to 12 cents per bag from the current 8 cents.”
Several comments have been posted with the article above.
From an earlier blog:
Really like the jalapeño cheese bagels at Safeway.
Normally pluck out one or two and they go into a plain paper bag similar to what we carried for school lunches back in the 70s.
Yesterday, these plastic bags were stocked in place of the regular paper ones. I am confused now about what version of bags are meant to be used or avoided based on saving the planet. In the 70s we were taught not to be a litterbug. Recycling was a thing.
The plastic bagel bag was a dandy for cleaning out the cat litter box today. We promise not to throw it all out the window as we blast down the highway, or leave it at the beach next time we go out.
A local Mom and Pop’s restaurant is still using the banned and evil plastic bags that are best suited for their customers to carry home hot menu selections.
Will Northwest HIDTA be shut down when cartel drugs stop entering the US? Have recent US Dept. of Homeland Security efforts reduced the need for Northwest HIDTA services?
Love Fort Ebey State Park. I’ve been going out there for years now. Gravel road to lower beach area has been trashed for an extended period of time. Any plan to get that taken care of?
Wondering if something like 89 cents of each dollar collected for daytime parking fees goes directly towards funding of the manufacturing, installation and maintenance of enforcement related warning signs, kiosks, pay boxes, fluorescent placards, and the manufacturing and distribution of enforcement related literature, blank forms and documentation materials.
Park shown above: Rosario Beach
Daytime parking pass fees are also used to fund the manufacturing, installation and maintenance of sturdy gates to keep you and your annual parking pass out of selected parks during winter months.
Park shown below (Rosario Beach) is located at sea level.
Skip the reservation and fee for an assigned space. Pick your own spot when you are ready. If anyone asks you to move, tell them you are living in your home. Have the Police Chief and social workers come out and talk to you. Have Park Rangers try to reassign people who paid for a reserved spot months in advance. See if you can be a squatter for seven days.
Zero questions from small or large newspapers. Zero questions from TV newspeople.
The small papers will say they need more support from subscribers and advertising dollars or cash from the federal government to stay alive. All this because COVID or the internet or lack of newspaper sales, or a free and independent press that needs taxpayer support.
People who take no public funds, private donations or advertising dollars are free to ask questions at any time. Why not the press? Call for unpaid volunteers and you’d get better news coverage than what we have now.
This public parking area is adjacent to where the El Matador ferry landed on the Ocean Shores side back in 2008.
Representative Nance,
What port facility on the Ocean Shores side would be suitable for the new ferry landing? When is the last time you toured this area? When is the last time you met with Ocean Shores political leaders?
Representative Nance,
Have you been over to Westport to look at a community that faces the same concerns Re: tsunami zone, global warming, sea level rise, climate crisis, king tides, coastal erosion, El Niño/La Niña, winter storms and did not let any of that get in the way of keeping things maintained on their working waterfront?
Representative Nance,
When and why was a decision made to turn away from maintaining the 1916 jetty adjacent to public parking areas at Damon Point?
Representative Nance,
Were you aware that $6.3 million in federal cash went for a used Ocean Shores hotel in late 2022?
Were Washington State lawmakers consulted prior to this deal going through?
Unlike many cities of its size, Port Angeles maintains a significant Homeland Security/CBP/Border Patrol presence.
Are newspeople forbidden to ask questions related to Port Angeles Homeland Security funding and performance?
Newspeople have a long history of not asking questions in this area.
New Port Angeles USBP Station opened more than a decade ago. Has the new station been able to prevent cartel drugs from entering the Olympic Peninsula?
Newspeople remain silent.
After a Port Angeles CBP buildup that took place more than a decade ago, is there any follow up made by the press to inform the public on whatever results have been achieved?
If you run a government operation-these are the reporters you want to see on interview day:
When is the last time the Port Angeles Border Patrol made an arrest linked in any way to the US/Canada border?
Has massing US Border Patrol agents at the southern edge of the Strait of Juan de Fuca played any role in reducing Clallam County drug overdose numbers?
Have opioid lawsuits played any role in improving the situation?
How do cartels react to opioid lawsuits?
Are passports/enhanced/REAL IDs effective in keeping cartel drugs out of the US?
Standard driver’s licenses have not been accepted at the border since 2009.
When is the last time the Port Angeles Border Patrol made any seizure that kept any amount of fentanyl, heroin or any opioid from entering Clallam County?
Were Clallam County drug overdose death numbers higher before the US Dept. of Homeland Security was established (2002) or are the numbers higher with a $51.6 billion (every 12 months) US Dept. of Homeland Security in place? This giant federal agency now has more than two decades of experience and lessons learned in working to prevent cartel product from entering the US. More overdose deaths now, or before DHS?
Urban legend: The US Border Patrol stopped the Millennium Bomber at Port Angeles-
Ahmed Ressam was captured at the traditional port of entry at Port Angeles by Customs Inspectors wearing blue uniforms- not by Border Patrol Agents wearing green uniforms.
“…he debarked from the MV Coho ferry driving a rental car filled with highly-volatile explosives.”
How many US Border Patrol agents were stationed at Port Angeles in 1999?
Pre-911 staffing levels got the job done.
Love to see newspeople out asking questions.
What we get now is sort of a press release style of news reporting where a statement is prepared by whatever agency was involved in the latest policy update, drug bust/federal grant money award, etc.
Newspeople post this statement as is. A 5th grade book report would require more in the way of asking questions.
JFK speaks about the role of the press in a free society:
These areas had small, local newspapers and those papers featured active, online comment sections. Paying for a newspaper subscription was OK with me. There were basic rules for commenting, but it did not seem to matter what name people went by. I never cared.
Various newspapers in the Puget Sound area have gone with this trend.
Suppressing comments, getting away from asking questions related to public policy and telling us they need more support in the form of grant money, subscription and advertising sales, etc.
A description of cartel activity in WA is provided at 18:54 in the video above.
Remember,
No matter what elected officials have decided to do Re: enabling drug use in WA, a $51.6 billion (every 12 months) US Dept. of Homeland Security has been on the job in recent years.
Unlike many local newspapers, alternative media is good about maintaining open and active comment sections. More than 1000 comments are posted with the video above.
Bay Area Transparency is out asking questions. Well worth watching on YouTube.
CA Lands Commission:
CA Lands Commission part two:
Operating A Camera In A Public Place.
Best part begins at 35:14 below.
James Freeman is out asking questions:
Bay Area Transparency is out asking questions again. Well worth watching on YouTube.
John Swett School District:
Operating A Camera In A Public Place:
What is here may be seen as controversial by many people.
If people were taught to have a complete understanding of their rights and limited government prior to graduating from high school, that would help to clear things up.
If newspeople were in the habit of providing honest news coverage, that would help people to have a clear understanding of what is and is not legal in public places.
Photo-
Symbol of the American mainstream press over the past 20 years.
If a right to vote has always been protected by the brave men and women who serve in our Armed Forces, how come women were not allowed full voting rights at the end of WWI?
Why the need for a 1965 Voting Rights Act if overseas military operations somehow secured voting rights?
If a right to vote is protected by the US Armed Forces, what becomes of that right when the US leaves Syria, Lebanon, Somalia, Vietnam, Afghanistan, etc., without a victory?
KIRO appears to allow comments. “No one seems to have shared their thoughts on this topic yet” is what I see over and again.
College-educated people in WA are not able to keep the ferry system running. They are not able to keep drug addicts from camping on the sidewalk. Not too impressive. People want to Say No to more funding? No Means No?
Time to change the rules to keep the cash coming in.
If a right to vote has always been protected by the brave men and women who serve in our Armed Forces, how come women were not allowed full voting rights at the end of WWI?
Why the need for a 1965 Voting Rights Act if overseas military operations somehow secured voting rights?
If a right to vote is protected by the US Armed Forces, what becomes of that right when the US leaves Syria, Lebanon, Somalia, Vietnam, Afghanistan, etc., without a victory?
“Washington has turned into an HOA. I didn’t sign up for this.”
Governments at various levels are now in the habit of setting deadlines for new restrictions, bans and mandates.
As time goes on, the consumer choices we have are becoming more restricted by a combination of government and big business policies, not Saddam Hussein, Osama bin Laden or the next bad guy DOD will be going after in distant lands.
Not asking about the oath of enlistment. Asking about what happens after the oath has been taken.
Love to see newspeople interview elected officials and let us know how sending US Troops to Syria, Lebanon, Somalia, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, Bosnia, etc., is somehow defending the constitution.
Look for newspeople and school teachers to ask zero questions in these areas.
Photo-
Symbol of a society that can’t stop bragging about freedom, thanking the troops for freedoms, fighting wars for freedoms, staging military jet flyovers at sporting events for freedom, etc.
We recently watched a stand up comedy event that was taped sometime after the end of COVID restrictions. The comedian did a bit about what it was like to be on lockdown.
That bit stirred my own memories of that time in Washington State.
I was never on lockdown, not even for one day.
Earliest days of WA COVID concern: We were told that COVID-19 was a life and death concern requiring regular people to stay home from work and school while marijuana and booze sales were designated as essential. This policy may have made people wonder about the science here.
Each day of every month, there was an opportunity to pump a tank of gas, shop at the grocery store, buy lotto tickets and go out to walk on state parks trails.
People who are free to show up for all of the above every day of every week are not on lockdown.
People who had ties to a school or place of business may have seen these facilities shut down. Even if that was the case, it did not place anyone on lockdown.
We learned that we could take off the mask when seated at a restaurant. Germs remained at a level in the room that would impact people when standing/not sitting.
Here at Oak Bay Starfish, we have been posting Re: WA State Ferries for years. A favorite story was the auto tollbooth upgrade at Mukilteo. Here is what we found on the web:
Keeping regular people in place for safety while a $49.8 billion US Dept. of Homeland Security fails to keep cocaine and crystal meth from moving into the US from Mexico, and later into Canada.
“The investigation began in November 2020 and police alleged tractor-trailers were equipped with hydraulic traps capable of smuggling as much as 100 kilos of drugs in one trip.”
Looks like a $49.8 billion (every 12 months) US Dept. of Homeland Security played zero role in preventing product from moving into the US and later into Canada.
What role do US fusion centers play here?
US press remains silent.
Welcome Home Troops
Thanks for risking your ass in Iraq & Afghanistan-working to keep bad people from coming here to do bad things.
Don’t worry-The Super Bowl and public affairs will be safe:
Has General Milley’s Operation Macho Swagger reduced access to cartel product anywhere in the US?
Has there been enough time for newspeople to ask questions?
Newspeople remain silent.
April 1, 2020 C-SPAN
WWII costume reminds us of a time before decades of undeclared/unwon wars stacked up.
The Department of Defense track record goes back to 1949.
Has anyone ever seen the Puget Sound area press ask questions about Whidbey water quality impacted by sewage treatment plant outfalls?
Has anyone ever seen any government agency, elected official or volunteer organization seeking answers related to one or more sewage treatment plants sending unsafe product into the waters near Whidbey Island?
Has anyone ever seen the Puget Sound area press ask questions about Whidbey water quality impacted by sewage treatment plant outfalls?
Has anyone ever seen any government agency, elected official or volunteer organization seeking answers related to one or more sewage treatment plants sending unsafe product into the waters near Whidbey Island?
I will purchase a subscription to any Puget Sound area newspaper working to inform us on Whidbey water quality impacted by sewage treatment plant outfalls.
Has anyone ever seen the Puget Sound area press ask questions about Whidbey water quality impacted by sewage treatment plant outfalls?
Has anyone ever seen any government agency, elected official or volunteer organization seeking answers related to one or more sewage treatment plants sending unsafe product into the waters near Whidbey Island?
Has there ever been a news story to inform the public on the Saratoga Passage Marine Stewardship Area?
Looks like a significant area.
Image above:
I found this sign posted on 4/2/2020 at the west end of Penn Cove. The sign has been there long enough to become faded from the weather.
WDFW has posted this permanent sign showing a dark shaded area in the eastern part of Penn Cove. The dark shaded area indicates a location that is unsafe for clam & oyster harvest.
Interesting that the part of the cove farthest from open waters is the part where the water is cleaner.
This sign remains in place even during the driest months of the year.
I will purchase a subscription to any Puget Sound area newspaper working to inform us on Whidbey water quality impacted by sewage treatment plant outfalls.
“…LeVine, a 51-year-old former Microsoft and Expedia executive and U.S. ambassador to Switzerland and Liechtenstein for three years in the Obama administration, is a longtime player in Democratic politics. She and her husband, Eric LeVine, gave more than $400,000 to the Biden campaign and other Democratic causes in 2019 and 2020, according to federal campaign records.”
Jan 2021
“And despite steady calls for her ouster following the fraud and other ESD problems, LeVine maintained the support of Inslee. LeVine “led the Employment Security Department through an extremely challenging time and I never doubted that she had the best interests of working Washingtonians at the heart of all her endeavors,” Inslee said in a statement Friday.”
“Employment Security Department (ESD) Commissioner Suzi LeVine, who came under fire for delays in unemployment benefit payments and the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars to fraud during the pandemic, is leaving her position to join the administration of President Joe Biden.”
Being on watch for fraud at Washington state’s Employment Security Department seems like it would be a normal part of the job, even if there was no pandemic.
Jan. 22, 2021 The Seattle Times
“Allies say she revived a dysfunctional and demoralized state agency. State Sen. Reuven Carlyle, D-Seattle, said that LeVine, who graduated from Brown University with an engineering degree, used her considerable technical and management expertise to help modernize an agency that had been slow to upgrade its systems.”
“She took an agency that was in the ditch … and I think she did an extraordinary job of turning that ship,” Carlyle said. “And then, [she] ran into the largest global pandemic in world history.”
Why did Governor Inslee allow this agency to struggle prior to July of 2018?
“It’s unclear at this time what job LeVine is taking with the new administration, but she has served as an ambassador for the U.S. government in the past.”
Why are voters presented with issues on the ballot that may not be legally decided by voters?
“But the Washington State Patrol looked the other way, even setting up barriers during the nearly three weeks of nighttime protests on the freeway.”
After enabling criminal conduct, WSP will no longer enable criminal conduct:
“Blocking a freeway is a crime and no longer are we going to enable that criminal conduct to continue,” said State Patrol Capt. Ron Mead, who made the decision to no longer close the interstate. “We are not going to be allowing protesters to access the freeway unimpeded, and there are consequences for criminal conduct.”
Not disputing the mask requirement, but telling us that COVID-19 is a life and death concern requiring regular people to stay home from work and designating marijuana and booze sales as essential, may have made people wonder about the science here.
January of 2021
In the entire history of Washington State, how many times has any group attempted to breach a gate at the governor’s mansion because they were unsatisfied with public policy?
Which Governors have been in office when this has happened at any time in history?
Will elected officials and the press acknowledge that things may be different now?
Both Whidbey papers have stripped away all comments from past articles, and removed the opportunity to post comments to new articles.
This is the trend in the Puget Sound area.
Newspapers are suppressing or eliminating online comment sections. A forum for individual thought is not part of the plan. Newspapers are getting away from asking questions related to public policy while telling us they need more support from subscription and advertising sales.
“The county’s rate of new infections continues to be very low. In the three-week period following the move into Phase 2, only two new infections were reported and both those were the result of people in the same family visiting another county, according to Island County Public Health.”
Sort of like rooting for your hometown high school football team to win the championship, but they can’t do it if other teams in other counties do poorly.
“But the Washington State Patrol looked the other way, even setting up barriers during the nearly three weeks of nighttime protests on the freeway.”
After enabling criminal conduct, WSP will no longer enable criminal conduct:
“Blocking a freeway is a crime and no longer are we going to enable that criminal conduct to continue,” said State Patrol Capt. Ron Mead, who made the decision to no longer close the interstate. “We are not going to be allowing protesters to access the freeway unimpeded, and there are consequences for criminal conduct.”
If the Girl Scouts or the KKK enter the interstate and block traffic/risk public safety people must be able to count on elected officials and LE agencies to do their job.
“Officials with the Washington State Department of Transportation have been considering cutbacks to bridge a revenue shortfall caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.”
It seems typical that the cashier, who handles cash, coins and cards-also places napkins in the to-go bag.
This really doesn’t seem to make sense even before current concerns Re: COVID-19.
Food handler card? Cross-contamination? Health Department? State of the art protocols practiced by global corporations, restaurant management professionals, etc. No one seems to notice.
“Washington Gov. Jay Inslee has again extended the state’s eviction moratorium, this time through the end of March.”
Killing incentives to maintain apartment complexes and homes for rent. Killing incentives to pay rent on time. Killing incentives to be a good tenant.
Love to see newspeople ask:
Have any arrangements been made to cover property owner’s costs for mortgages, taxes, repairs, maintenance, water, trash pickup, sewer, insurance, etc.
Who pays to have the apartment complex dumpster emptied if the property manager cannot collect rent?
Has anyone ever seen the Puget Sound area press ask questions about Whidbey water quality impacted by sewage treatment plant outfalls?
Has anyone ever seen any government agency, elected official or volunteer organization seeking answers related to one or more sewage treatment plants sending unsafe product into the waters near Whidbey Island?
I will purchase a subscription to any Puget Sound area newspaper working to inform us on Whidbey water quality impacted by sewage treatment plant outfalls.
“One of the biggest signs that Trump caved was with respect to the long-secret JFK records of the national-security establishment. Just think — almost 60 years of secrecy based on the ridiculous notion of “national security.” Early on, Trump declared openly that he was gong to release the records, as mandated by Congress 25 years before in the JFK Records Act. And then at the last minute, Trump surrendered to the will of the CIA, agreeing to its demands for more years of secrecy.”
“But the Washington State Patrol looked the other way, even setting up barriers during the nearly three weeks of nighttime protests on the freeway.”
After enabling criminal conduct, WSP will no longer enable criminal conduct:
“Blocking a freeway is a crime and no longer are we going to enable that criminal conduct to continue,” said State Patrol Capt. Ron Mead, who made the decision to no longer close the interstate. “We are not going to be allowing protesters to access the freeway unimpeded, and there are consequences for criminal conduct.”
Not disputing the mask requirement, but telling us that COVID-19 is a life and death concern requiring regular people to stay home from work and designating marijuana and booze sales as essential, may have made people wonder about the science here.
The state took money from some people, and gave it to some other people.
If your construction crew is working on a project based on any sort of voluntary exchange or honest demand for services, you might have to stay home for a while.
Here in WA, we were told that COVID-19 is a life and death concern requiring regular people to stay home from work while marijuana and booze sales are essential.
The state took money from some people, and gave it to some other people.
If your construction crew is working on a project based on any sort of voluntary exchange or honest demand for services, you might have to stay home for a while.
Updated Restrictions
Seems like mask and social distancing rules have been in place and have been followed in grocery stores for months now. I have not seen any retailer that let up on mask wearing and social distancing protocols. If grocery stores have been doing their part, why pound them with a 75% reduction in grocery store services?
People will now need much more time to spend shopping with a 75% reduction in grocery store services all across WA. For sure, this will encourage people to stock up and hoard items.
There is a nice spot in Leavenworth to stop in for a beer and something to eat. I went to visit this location last week. It was the first time during COVID that I entered and sat down in an eating/drinking establishment.
Old Way
Walk in and select a seat from the large outdoor seating area. Server takes your beer order on a mobile device. Before server has a chance to leave the table, electronic order is received by bar staff. Your beer is tapped and out to your table like magic. We sit and eat and drink for an hour. During this happy hour, we never get up to leave the table. When it’s time to go, we pay and leave.
Would not change a thing. Really enjoy this place.
COVID Way
Everyone wears a mask.
You enter and are offered a table outside or inside. We selected an outside table. We are told that our order for beers and food must be placed with the cashier inside the restaurant by the bar.
Partner goes in to place order while I wait. Establishment now requires a credit card to start order. My turn to pay, so I say I’ll get it all on my card when I go in to order a second round.
Beer and food is still delivered to table, same as old way.
I go in to order a second round. I am unfamiliar with this part of the restaurant. Staff prompts me toward waiting to order/pay holding/staging area. Ordered another round and requested entire tab to be placed on my card. This is an extra step that would not be at all necessary pre-COVID.
If we wanted still another round, one of us would have to get up and return to waiting line to order/pay holding/staging area. We did not want another round after we had two beers and some food. Went back in to waiting to order/pay holding/staging area and used card to pay.
Any Medical Advantage?
How does requiring customers to migrate back and forth into a possibly unfamiliar part of the restaurant each time they want to order a beer or cash out serve any medical purpose Re: COVID?
It seems like the plan is to cause meaningless inconvenience.
If you notice the inconvenience, maybe you will think that the establishment is somehow going out of their way because they care about protecting you.
Still will plan to return to this location in the future.
Don’t miss our companion blog-found here: Old Man Blog
“Local journalism has been the policeman on the beat against misinformation,” Cantwell said in an interview Tuesday. “Keeping local news is too important to let these unfair market practices continue.”
Several Whidbey beaches remain closed all year long for recreational shellfish harvest because of sewage treatment outfall.
Sewage treatment outfall. Not stormwater.
Reporting on this topic appears to be completely off limits to the press.
Has anyone ever seen the Puget Sound area press ask questions about Whidbey water quality impacted by sewage treatment plant outfalls?
Has anyone ever seen any government agency, elected official or volunteer organization seeking answers related to one or more sewage treatment plants sending unsafe product into the waters near Whidbey Island?
Coupeville – just west of Captain Thomas Coupe Park
“Clams, mussels and oysters CLOSED year-round.”
“This beach is within the closure area for a sewage treatment plant outfall and is unsafe for recreational shellfish harvesting.”
If standard fast food restaurants are operating all over WA-how are the ones located on ferries more of a risk?
Mask wearing at any restaurant:
In a restaurant, is COVID-19 risk different while standing and walking than it is while seated, eating & speaking?
Fast food drive-thru:
It seems typical that the cashier, who handles cash, coins and cards-also places napkins in the to-go bag.
This really doesn’t seem to make sense even before current concerns Re: COVID-19.
Food handler card? Cross-contamination? Health Department? State of the art protocols practiced by global corporations, restaurant management professionals, etc. No one seems to notice.
Above: The Cove – Westport
