Letters: Wind turbines, risking salmon, Hunter Biden probe and more | April 29
Make treatment, not jail mandatory
People convicted of drug possession offenses should be sent to mandatory treatment, not jail or prison.
Christine Hawley, Burbank
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Inform state you oppose turbines
Recently there have been quite a few letters to the editor opposing the proposed Scout Clean Energy. This is a great way to get the word out to those impacted by it but to be even more effective, opponents need to let the Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council (efsec@utc.wa.gov or P.O. Box 43172. Olympia Wash., 98504-3172) know how they feel about it. In addition, please send an email or letter to Gov. Jay Inslee, and please sign the online petition (with your name or anonymously) at https://www.gopetition.com/petitions/just-say-no-to-the-horse-heaven-wind-farm.html. Let’s keep the momentum going to defeat this project.
Karen Brun, Kennewick
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Retaining dams risks salmon
“Taking care of our land. Making sure the salmon still come upstream,” says Weston-McEwen High School junior Aiden Wolf (”Heritage on Display,” Walla Walla Union Bulletin, April 18), a member of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, expressing a wish for a healthier planet.
I agree. Removing the four dams on the Columbia and Snake Rivers is overdue. Not to dismantle the dams risks the eventual extinction of the fish with implications for the whole web or chain of life.
Once upon a time, a generation thought constructing barriers across the great waterways was harmless, that such alterations meant little to the natural lives found in these waters. Fish hatcheries and ladders have not solved the crisis of fish diminishing to the point of extinction.
A native American 16-year old could, by the time he retires, bear witness to the emptiness of these once-great rivers now reservoirs of the Pacific Northwest.
We are the virus that created this condition; we can reverse it.
Bink Owen, Walla Walla
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State rating slips as our taxes rise
Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business for February has an article on how Washington has dropped from fifth most desirable state to live in to place 36. California is in place 50. U-Haul knows exactly where its customers are moving to and what states they are leaving. Tennessee, Texas and Florida are most popular states because none of them impose taxes on personal income. Washington has the same, but this state has emergency executive orders which have (us) still in a limited lockdown position. Not to mention land taxes in Seattle have doubled.
So one of my friends pays $6,000 a year in taxes on his modest home and also has to pay $6,000 for his small business. With this increase, his taxes are now $24,000 for his home and business. Yikes.
Judith Schultz, Richland
What happened to Hunter probe?
How is the FBI investigation going on Hunter Biden? We the people don’t seem to hear much about this anymore. Whatever happened to Tony Bobulinski who gave a sworn deposition to the FBI about Hunter Biden and his dad, Joe Biden, and their financial involvement with a Chinese Communist venture capital company with Joe Biden retaining a “10% hidden stake in this enterprise.” Shouldn’t Republicans and news broadcasters be demanding information about this? What if you theoretically substituted Donald Trump for Joe Biden and Donald Trump Jr. for Hunter Biden. Would Democrats and the mainstream media be so silent?
Ira Johnson, Kennewick
Editor’s note: A quick Google search reveals the FBI probe of Hunter Biden’s taxes is continuing with the same investigators as it started out, according to mainstream media reports in the past two months.
This story was originally published April 28, 2021 at 12:48 AM with the headline "Letters: Wind turbines, risking salmon, Hunter Biden probe and more | April 29."