WACD Reading List

OLYMPIA — The Public Broadband Act, HB 1336, took effect Sunday to help ensure families and businesses throughout Washington state have access to high speed internet. “Washington state now joins the majority of states that allow unrestricted public broadband. This is long overdue. It will help people across the state have cheaper and better options for internet access,” said bill sponsor Rep. Drew Hansen (D-Bainbridge Island).

Due to extreme fire danger and ongoing drought, The Nature Conservancy is temporarily closing all recreational and public access to lands it manages in Eastern Washington, effective July 23. This includes Central Cascades Forest lands on both sides of I-90 around Cle Elum and stretching south to Highway 12, the Moses Coulee/McCartney Creek, Beezley Hills complex of preserves, and other preserve lands scattered through Eastern Washington.

The eruption of COVID-19 last year caused the proportion of people working from home in the U.S. to nearly double, with the shift most pronounced among college graduates and workers in such fields as finance and professional services.

A significant and far-reaching heat wave is poised to build across much of the continental U.S. during the next few weeks, and it could be the most expansive in the country so far during this unusually hot summer, aggravating drought and wildfires.

There are more than a dozen fires burning in Eastern and Central Washington, Idaho and Montana. According to the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center, Washington state had six large wildfires on July 19, 2020. But as of July 19, 2021, it's reporting 17. That means fire crews are responding to more large fires, earlier in the season.

How do those rejected employees respond? They respond poorly, at least in the short term. After all, no one wants to be turned down for a job, and the sting is often greater when you are told “no” by your current employer. Studies have shown that internal rejection leads to reduced job satisfaction and reduced commitment to the organization. Rejection can also engender feelings of envy toward the workers who “beat them out” for the job or lead employees to engage in counterproductive work behaviors, such as stealing from their companies. If employees stick around a few months after rejection, however, these negative attitudinal effects tend to fade away.

Dorman Products‘ constant detective work to see which automotive parts are failing in large numbers on which models has allowed them to grow into a big operation—where they know exactly which parts on your car are likely to break first, why, and how to make them better, giving consumers not only cheaper prices at the garage, but the freedom of DIY.

NESPELEM – The Chuweah Creek Fire, burning northeast of Nespelem on the Colville Indian Reservation, had charred about 36,690 acres of land as of Thursday morning, July 22. Containment was at 40 percent, according to Northwest Incident Management Team 12.

The Grant County Health District issued an air advisory Thursday in response to several wildfires in Central Washington causing the air quality to deteriorate. “The smoke is kind of in the area and lingering,” said Misty Aguilar, Public Information Officer. “We want folks to pay to what’s going on in their surroundings and plan accordingly.”

MAZAMA, Wash. - A 20-mile stretch of the North Cascades Highway is likely to remain closed at least through the end of the month by the Cedar Creek Fire burning in north central Washington, officials say. The highway, also known as State Route 20, is closed from milepost 185, seven miles west of Winthrop, to milepost 165. It is the only U.S. roadway across the Cascade Mountains north of Highway 2.

A fire that started early Thursday morning in Whitman County north of Colton ballooned to approximately 2,000 acres and was still growing. The blaze, officially titled the Steptoe Canyon Fire, is zero percent contained and has prompted Level 1 evacuations, according to a news release from the Washington State Fire Marshal’s Office.

Demand for COVID testing is seeing a major uptick for the first time in months. Many more people are testing positive for COVID too, with most of the cases caused by the Delta variant. The surge in demand is also leading to slower turnaround for test results at some locations. The city of Seattle’s website says: “We are currently experiencing longer turnaround times than usual that will continue through the weekend. Expect results in 24-48 hours.”

Living in a perpetual state of disruption, uncertainty and grief can test anyone's mental health. And events of the past 16 months have delivered all of those in spades thanks to a steady stream of horrors, including but hardly limited to the deadly pandemic, George Floyd's murder, the January 6 Capitol insurrection and attacks against Asian-Americans. They've also catapulted employee mental health to the top of many employers' list of concerns and priorities.

There’s an increase of evacuation notices in the Cedar Creek Fire which continues to grow near Mazama in Okanogan County. It includes several Level 2 (GET READY) and one Level 3 (Evacuate NOW ) alerts. A Red Cross shelter is available at Methow Valley Elementary School. The fire covers more than 8,400 acres and is 11 percent contained as of Wednesday morning. There are 351 people working the fire.

OLYMPIA, Wash. — The upswing in COVID-19 cases around Washington and the increased danger from the variants is causing some of the state's health leaders to mask up, including those who are fully vaccinated because of breakthrough cases that are being reported.

From Oregon to the Dakotas, hay stocks for hungry cattle are low and ranchers say summer pastures are already dry from the widespread drought. It leaves them little choice but to cut herds now. “People are just scared that we’re not going to have any fall green up [rains that grow grass] either — so it’s not looking good,” Clark says.

PORTLAND — Wildfires in the American West, including one burning in Oregon that’s currently the largest in the U.S., are creating hazy skies as far away as New York as the massive infernos spew smoke and ash into the air in columns up to 6 miles (10 kilometers) high. Skies over New York City were hazy Tuesday as strong winds blew smoke east from California, Oregon, Montana and other states. Oregon’s Bootleg Fire grew to 616 square miles (1,595 square kilometers) — half the size of Rhode Island.

NESPELEM – Rising temperatures, gusty winds and low relative humidity challenged firefighters July 19 on the Chuweah Creek Fire northeast of Nespelem. Lines held, but there was some spotting and fire slop-over, according to Northwest Incident Management Team 12, which is coordinating the fire fight.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Ecologists in a vast region of wetlands and forest in remote Oregon have spent the past decade thinning young trees and using planned fires to try to restore the thick stands of ponderosa to a less fire-prone state. This week, the nation’s biggest burning wildfire provided them with an unexpected, real-world experiment. As the massive inferno half the size of Rhode Island roared into the Sycan Marsh Preserve, firefighters said the flames jumped less from treetop to treetop and instead returned to the ground, where they were easier to fight, moved more slowly and did less damage to the overall forest.

Farmers are among the most likely to die by suicide compared with any other occupation, according to a 2020 study by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. With COVID-19 fallout, record debts, drought, wildfires and a lack of access to counselors, the need for a conversation about mental health and solutions in rural America is more urgent than ever, experts said. "Therapists may not fully get that a lot of these farmers literally would rather die than lose the farm that has been in their family for 100 to 120 years," said McConkey. She said it's vital to provide an understanding of mental health to everyone associated with agriculture. Crop consultants, agronomists, crop insurance salesmen, seed salesmen and elevator employees should all know the warning signs of someone struggling with mental health issues.

WENATCHEE -- The Washington Commissioner of Public Lands, Hilary Franz, has just announced the closure of all Department of Natural Resources-managed lands in eastern Washington effective midnight on Friday, July 23, due to extreme fire danger and ongoing drought east of the Cascades. This closure will apply to DNR-managed state lands, conservation areas, community forests and any associated roads, trails, campgrounds, recreational sites or recreational facilities.

HYDE PARK, Vt. (AP) — Grappling with a changed industry, two brothers operating their family’s dairy farm in Vermont have made the drastic decision to give up hundreds of cows for goats. The Jones family, which had raised cows for 150 years at Joneslan Farm, houses about 1,000 goats in their barn that remains adorned with painted cut-outs of dairy cattle. Fluctuating milk prices paid to dairy cow farmers and rising costs have driven some small family farms to go big or out of business — or get creative like brothers Brian and Steven.

Public lands east of the Cascades managed by the Washington state Department of Natural Resources will be closed indefinitely because of drought and the worsening wildfire season. Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz will announce the public land closure during her visit Tuesday morning to the 12,000-acre Red Apple Fire near Wenatchee. “This is never something we want to do, but we need to keep people safe,” said Ryan Rodruck, communications manager for Eastern Washington DNR.

PORTLAND — The threat of thunderstorms and lightning has prompted officials in fire-ravaged Oregon to ask for help from outside the Pacific Northwest to prepare for additional blazes as many resources are already devoted to a massive forest fire. The 569-square-mile Bootleg Fire is burning 300 miles southeast of Portland in and around the Fremont-Winema National Forest, a vast expanse of old-growth forest, lakes and wildlife refuges. Evacuations and property losses have been minimal compared with much smaller blazes in densely populated areas of California.

MAZAMA – A new fire has joined two burning in the upper Methow Valley. The fire is in addition to a pair of blazes burning west of Mazama near Highway 20 that continue to force closure of the highway, with evacuation alerts remaining in place for Mazama and the Lost River area.

Crews made good progress on the Red Apple Fire overnight and now the blaze burning above Wenatchee is holding steady at 12,228 acres. Department of Natural Resources PIO Ryan Rodruck said the fire is at 83% containment, with just a northern portion of the brush fire still technically uncontained.