May Day is a name for various holidays celebrated on May 1 (or in the beginning of May). The most famous of these is International Workers' Day, which is the commemoration of the Haymarket Riot of 1886 in Chicago, Illinois and a celebration of the social and economic achievements of the international labor movement.From Wikipedia:
The 1 May date is used because in 1884 the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions, inspired by labor's 1872 success in Canada, demanded an eight-hour workday in the United States to come in effect as of May 1, 1886. This resulted in a general strike and the riot in Chicago of 1886, but eventually also in the official sanction of the eight-hour workday.
May Day has long been a focal point for demonstrations by various socialist, communist, and anarchist groups. In some circles, bonfires are lit in commemoration of the Haymarket Riot usually right as the first day of May begins. In the 20th century, May Day received the official endorsement of the Soviet Union; celebrations in communist countries during the Cold War era often consisted of large military parades and shows of common people in support of the government (ed. particularly at Red Square in Moscow).
Mayday is an emergency code word used internationally as a distress signal in voice procedure communications, derived from the French m'aider. It is used to signal a life-threatening emergency by many groups, such as police forces, pilots, the fire brigade, and transportation organizations. The call given three times (mayday, mayday, mayday...) in a row indicates significant danger (for example, a threat to life).Monday night, May 1, the Moscow City Council will vote on the request by CLC Associates to rezone the 77 acre Thompson annexation from agricultural/forestry to motor business. This rezone, while theoretically having nothing to do with Wal-Mart, is a necessary step in CLC's plans to develop a Moscow Supercenter. The Moscow Planning & Zoning Commission has already voted against it. The rezone request is also being actively opposed by the No SuperWalMart group (and various Pullman sympathizers)
Opponents appeal city, hearing examiner’s decisions
The Pullman Alliance for Responsible Development will challenge Wal-Mart in court at 9 a.m. June 22.
Judge David Frazier signed an order Thursday setting the date to hear PARD’s appeal. The appeal challenges the city of Pullman and Hearing Examiner John Montgomery’s decisions approving Wal-Mart’s site plan and environmental checklist.
Montgomery presided over the first round of appeals in January. PARD members, local residents and business owners testified for three days about the pros and cons of bringing a Wal-Mart Supercenter to Pullman. Montgomery decided in February the store could proceed, with the condition the retailer builds a traffic signal at the intersection of Southeast Bishop Boulevard and Harvest Drive.
Wal-Mart submitted its application to build a 223,000-square-foot store and 1,000-car parking lot on Bishop Boulevard in October 2004. Local residents formed PARD in January 2005 to oppose the retail giant’s plan.
Members of PARD have argued for more than a year that a Wal-Mart store in Pullman will drive away other businesses and create urban blight in the city. They repeatedly have called for the city to commission an independent fiscal impact study that would examine the possible economic effects a Wal-Mart would have on Pullman. PARD members argued such a study is required by the State Environmental Policy Act.
Others in the community welcome a Wal-Mart store and believe it will be good for Pullman businesses. Pro-growth group Businesses and Residents for Economic Opportunity formed in October to provide residents an outlet to express their support for Wal-Mart.
Create loopholes for irresponsible development (and more traffic!) that will harm our quality of life now and for future generationsBoy, does that sound familiar.
A rewarding community serviceYou can read about some of the fun the PFD has planned for the next few days here.
I have been a Pullman fire reservist since 1999. It has been a great experience to serve the greater Pullman community. I have participated in community service events and helped people in their time of need. It is one of the greatest jobs anyone can have.
I have a hard time calling it a job. It is more of a passion – a labor of love. I work full-time as a computer programmer and fulfill my duties of being a reserve firefighter in the evenings.
The Web site – www.pullman-wa.gov/FireReserves – has more information about being a reserve firefighter. It also has a large number of photos from training classes held during the recruit academy.
I am writing this letter because the Pullman Fire Department is accepting applications until Monday for being a reserve firefighter. To anyone looking for a way to help his community, I strongly suggest checking into the Pullman Fire Reserves.
Scotty Anderson, Colfax
"The Lamb opened one of the seven seals, and I saw four horsemen and they said, as with a voice of thunder, 'Welcome to Wal-Mart.'"When will we have a column in any local newspaper that takes a straight up or down look at the LOCAL benefits or harm a Wal-Mart Supercenter would have for Pullman and Moscow, without getting into China, sweatshops, globalism, or how big the company is?
What is it with liberals, Wal-Mart, and Biblical analogies?
Wal-Mart may not be a sign of the Apocalypse, but you couldn't tell that from the wailing and gnashing of teeth in Moscow and Pullman. Death, famine, pestilence and war would receive warmer welcomes than the proposed supercenters.
Well, if Wal-Mart is the Antichrist, I wonder if Henderson has noticed there are a lot of Satanists on the Palouse? Look at the all the letters to the editor from Moscow residents in support of a Supercenter there in the last few weeks. Pullman and Moscow are both university towns with the usual liberal professors and students. What part of “vocal minority” does Henderson not understand? What he should be commenting on is how warm of a welcome the proposed Supercenters have received in what should be hostile territory.
The lamentations can be heard far beyond the Palouse. Few things polarize Americans like politics, religion and Wal-Mart.
More accurately, few things drive the local leftist fringe crazier than President Bush, Christ Church, and growth and development.
Political activists are spending millions on polling, micro-targeted ads, e-mail, direct mail and grassroots organizing designed to build Wal-Mart up or tear it down.
Henderson conveniently ignores the fact that these “activists” tearing down Wal-Mart work for labor unions seeking to revive their failing movement by unionizing Wal-Mart and its 1.3 million employees. It’s money, not ideology, which motivates this fight.
"Our opponents have organized the likes of a political campaign against us," says Bob McAdam, vice president of corporate affairs for Wal-Mart. "It would be nonsense for us not to response in a similar fashion."
Well, that's one strategy.
Wal-Mart is right to defend itself. The management has a responsibility to stockholders to do so (Wal-Mart is the fourth most widely-held stock in the world. Many people’s retirement income is tied to Wal-Mart, a fact often overlooked in the Wal-Mart debate).
Another might be to admit Wal-Mart is not the Mary Poppins of corporations and take steps to improve its behavior. Even the most passionate defenders of Wal-Mart and free enterprise must realize that smiley face has a dark side.
“Improve its behavior?” What about all the money Wal-Mart donates to charity? What about its response to Hurricane Katrina? It would be hard to find a better corporate citizen than Wal-Mart. In any case though, doing business in a capitalist society is not like a Disney movie. There are winners and losers and very often no happy endings. If Mr. Henderson naively chooses to believe that Wal-Mart has a “dark side” because they are successful, so be it. But “evil” companies don’t survive very long (look at Enron). Wal-Mart has adapted to the demands of its customers and the free market and must continue to do so to survive.
Wal-Mart sells cheap merchandise made by underpaid workers.
That's a sweeping and silly generalization. Many of the items sold at Wal-Mart are the same name-brand items sold in more expensive stores. And “cheap” and “underpriced” by whose standards? Find me ONE store on the Palouse that doesn’t have SOMETHING made overseas.
In China's Guangdong Province, workers make toys for Wal-Mart for wages averaging 16.5 cents per hour. Wal-Mart certainly isn't the only company to take advantage of cheap labor, but it's one of the biggest.
This is always the liberals’ uneducated and hysterical mantra about globalism. Did Mr. Henderson consider what that worker in Guangdong Province might have been doing prior to working in the factory? How about walking behind a water buffalo holding a plow for much less than 16.5 cents per hour? Is Mr. Henderson aware that the percentage of workers in China making less than a dollar a day between 1981 and 2001 dropped from 79% to 27%? Perhaps he should keep his opinions to himself until he is better informed.
If Wal-Mart were a country, it would rank as China's eighth largest trading partner -- ahead of Russia, Australia and Canada.
Only a liberal could bemoan the fact that an American company is more successful than Russia.
Chinese workers get no health insurance. American workers fare a little better. Bowing to pressure, Wal-Mart execs recently announced they will force part-time employees to wait only one year before being eligible for health insurance instead of two.
That’s ridiculous. The Chinese government mandates that state-owned enterprises with more than 100 employees provide full health insurance benefits to workers. Most large enterprises with over 1000 workers have their own hospitals and smaller enterprises have free outpatient clinics. The biggest problem with health care in China is that free market reforms have not been applied there as they have been elsewhere. And “forcing part-time employees to wait a year for health insurance?” Again I ask, how many part-time employees of any business in Pullman, Moscow, Lewiston, or Clarkston get benefits, including those who work at WSU?
As it is, health insurance is optional for employees. Getting health insurance means getting less of an already slim paycheck.
What an absurd statement. Thank God health insurance is optional. The alternative is France; with high unemployment, a poor economy, and rioters burning cars in the streets. And yes, paying for insurance means it will take a bite out of your paycheck. If you get something for nothing, nothing is about all you will get in return. Has Henderson ever been out in the real working world? These are the kinds of decisions families make every day. Wal-Mart’s low prices help ease that burden a bit.
Wal-Mart is hardly the devil with the blue vest on.
Only rational thing Henderson says in the whole column.
Americans spend $35 million at Wal-Mart every hour. We're the ones who prefer low prices to corporate ethics. We're the ones who helped force 888 other grocery stores into bankruptcy between 1990 and 2000.
Yes, Americans choose low prices. Only liberal elitists have the luxury to shop according to their political ideology. I’m glad Henderson acknowledges that it was consumers that shut down those grocery stores. Wal-Mart has never “forced” a single business to close.
Wal-Mart is obviously not going to change its ways. It's up to us to change Wal-Mart.
Wal-Mart will change its ways as they see fit, and they are, but not because a handful of union activists or leftists tell them to do so. Only the customers can do that.
The fault, to paraphrase Shakespeare, is not in stores, but in ourselves.
If your delicate conscience prevents you from shopping at Wal-Mart, then don’t do it. Just don’t try to stop the rest of us. Don’t forget about those favorite iberal buzzwords “tolerance” and “diversity.”
Grassroots initiative would imprison for life first-time, violent sex offenders
Chelsea Fanara believes it is her duty and her right to protect her children from sex offenders.
The 24-year-old Malden resident and mother of two is collecting signatures to support Initiative 921, a proposal that would mandate life sentences without parole for first-time violent sex offenders.
The one-strike initiative, also known as Dylan’s law, was filed by Tracy Oetting, a resident of Skykomish, Wash. who is fed up with seeing sex offenders released from jail only to offend again.
“If you know they’re going to reoffend, why not do the right thing and pass a one-strike law?” Oetting said.
Critics of the initiative argue the proposal is too broad and not all first-time sex offenders deserve a life sentence.
Pullman lawyer Steve Martonick pointed to the crime of indecent liberties with forcible compulsion, one that would garner a mandatory life sentence if the initiative passes. Under existing Washington law, a man who fondles a woman in a bar without her permission can be charged with the crime. It’s a reprehensible act, he said, but not one deserving of a life sentence.
“That’s patently ridiculous for indecent liberties,” Martonick said. “That includes a lot of offenses.”
A life sentence already is an option for some violent sex offenses in Washington, but sentences are determined based on a scoring system that includes numerous factors, including whether or not the conviction is the person’s first. Fanara said that doesn’t go far enough when violent predators are set free and commit the same crimes again.
The initiative is named for Dylan Groene, a 9-year-old Coeur d’Alene boy who allegedly was murdered by Joseph Duncan III, a parolee from the Washington prison system.
In a case that captured national attention last year, Duncan allegedly kidnapped Dylan and his 8-year-old sister, Shasta, after killing their mother, brother, and their mother’s boyfriend. Shasta Groene was found with Duncan about seven weeks after she was reported missing. Dylan Groene’s body later was recovered in a remote wooded area in Montana.
Fanara heard about the case in the news and wanted to do something to make sure nothing like it happens again.
“If we had had this law in Washington before the Groene case, children’s lives could have been saved,” Fanara said.
As a mother, she is concerned about statistics that say one in six children will be raped or molested before they turn 18.
“I have two kids. Those odds aren’t good,” Fanara said.
Oetting has tried twice before to get a one-strike initiative on the ballot in Washington. Both times she failed to get the required 250,000 signatures. If she fails this time, she’s giving up, she said.
Oetting doesn’t know how many signatures she has raised this time around. She has until July 7 to get all those she needs. She hopes to hire a professional organization to circulate the petitions. A statewide yard sale Saturday served as a fundraiser. Steven Groene, father of Dylan and Shasta Groene, attended one of the yard sales in Kirkland, Wash. to support the initiative.
Fanara is disappointed by the reception she has received in Whitman County so far. She believes people who oppose the initiative aren’t well-informed about what Oetting is trying to do.
“A lot of people think it’s the 17-year-old and the 20-year-old, or the drunk peeing in public who has to register as a sex offender,” she said. “We’re focusing on violent sex offenders who prey on children.”
Martonick said the law, particularly as it relates to indecent liberties, isn’t as narrowly-tailored as Oetting and Fanara say it is.
“A life sentence for basically ass-grabbing is ridiculous,” Martonick said.
For more information about the initiative, visit www.citizensforaonestrikelaw.org or contact Fanara at whitman4groenebill@yahoo.com
There is no candidate. There are no ballots. There won't be an Election Day. And yet it may be the hottest, highest-stakes political contest in America today.So go ahead T.V., keep on telling the citizens of Pullman that it is "none of their business" why their tax dollars are being wasted as part of this national political campaign. Keep on denying the obvious truth that the UFCW and its attorneys are allied with PARD in its fight against Wal-Mart. We're not stupid. Take a look again at last year's city council election results.
It's the campaign against Wal-Mart.
A year-old effort to force the nation's No. 1 private employer to change its business practices has evolved into a Washington-style brawl: tens of millions of dollars spent by Republican and Democratic political consultants using polling, micro-targeting, ads, e-mails, direct mail, grass-roots organizing and strategic "war rooms" to ply their trade in the corporate world.
...
Wal-Mart's main opponents are the Service Employees International Union, which started Wal-Mart Watch, and the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) , which funds a separate campaign called WakeUpWalMart.com
After failing to organize employees of Wal-Mart Stores with traditional tactics, the unions decided to use modern campaign and communications methods to drag the company into the public square and to try to shame them into change.
Both groups have hammered the world's largest retailer about its wages, employee health insurance, treatment of workers and proclivity for buying non-U.S. goods. Wal-Mart has responded with counterattacks and a multimillion-dollar campaign to polish its image.
On both sides are some of the best political strategists money can buy.
WakeUpWalMart.com is run by Paul Blank, political director for Howard Dean's 2004 Democratic presidential campaign, and Chris Kofinis, who helped draft retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark into that race.
Their campaign has all the markings of the Dean and Clark insurgencies: a snappy Web site, volunteer action lists and an issues-based, grass-roots campaign.
...
WakeUpWalMart.com claims 212,000 supporters who can be mobilized with a computer stroke to recruit members and be at media events to shine a bad light on the Bentonville, Ark., company.
A goal of the UFCW is to show Wal-Mart's 1.3 million U.S. employees — many of whom have a low opinion of unions or fear retribution if they organize — that unionized labor can change their workplace and lives for the better.
"For years, labor leaders were fighting Wal-Mart the old way, but times have changed," Kofinis said. "Instead of organizing workers, they're trying to organize the nation" against Wal-Mart."
...
In the union camp, both groups send opposition research on Wal-Mart to reporters, e-mail supporters and stage events such as rallies and documentary-film screenings.
The day started early with a tour of the “Home Office.” Perhaps you’ve heard that it is barebones with no fancy furniture like the stores themselves. True. Perhaps you’ve heard about the row of 44 plain rooms where suppliers present their wares to Wal-Mart buyers hoping the retailer will buy them. True. Perhaps you’ve heard that the executives have small, sparse offices instead of enormous corner suites that you might expect at the world’s biggest retailer. True again.The picture at right above is of the conveyor system that runs along the top of the distribution center. The conveyors take items from the loading docks or storage shelf area to he loading dock at about 7 miles an hour, where cameras hooked to computers scan the items to determine which store they are bound for. Metal arms then swing out to divert the item to be loaded on the proper truck. Very efficient and very impressive.
And finally, you might wonder if the home of that smiling yellow face that promises low prices has a friendly face to greet you and say hello when you enter, just like at store. You bet it does. His name is Paul.
Wal-Mart HQ is a no frills, barebones, low cost operation. It’s like a warehouse with platform ceilings, low cubicle walls, and signs throughout the complex with quotes from the man himself, Sam Walton – “Listen to your associates, they’re our best idea generators.” Wisdom, indeed. One wall is lined in plaques and awards, while another is dedicated to employees who went beyond the call of duty. Oh, and here and there you’ll see an electronic time clock.
What really impresses, though, is the distribution center. The DC, as it is called, is enormous, reaching a height of 35 feet at the center. Rows and rows of products are stacked to the rafters. More than 200 trucks arrive daily dropping off merchandise, while another 150 trucks pick up those same items for the stores. Wal-Mart maintains a private trucking fleet of 8,000 drivers who logged over 910 million miles last year.
Statement by Working Families for Wal-Mart Chairman, Ambassador Andrew Young, in Response to Union Leader Critics of Wal-MartTechnorati Tags: wal-mart walmart
“Leadership concerned about the poor and unemployed should spend their time on strategies to grow jobs and give leadership to a global economy. Today's comments by union leader critics demonstrate again just how marginalized and shrill their political campaign has become.
"While these union leader critics launch attacks, Wal-Mart is a company busy creating thousands of jobs, offering competitive wages and benefits, and saving working families more than $2300 a year. It’s a company that’s constantly improving, as we saw again yesterday with the announcement of additional health benefit improvements that will expand eligibility for part-time workers and provide affordable coverage for associates’ children.
“Wal-Mart also recently committed to build more than 50 stores in struggling urban areas, expecting to create up to 25,000 jobs in areas desperately needing employment. This is just part of a larger commitment to working families and our communities that should be applauded.
“Even as a lifelong Democrat and union-supporter, I have to say it’s time for Washington, D.C. union leaders to let working families decide where to shop and work.”
In a new interview released today by americansforwalmart.org, author and former Clinton Administration Deputy Undersecretary of Commerce for Economics and Statistics Paul A. London said Wal-Mart’s opponents are threatening America’s economic future by trying to limit retail competition.Technorati Tags: wal-mart walmart
“I’m very concerned about the attacks on Wal-Mart because I believe they are based on the idea that there is some good alternative to fierce competition. But there isn’t,” London said. “In politics and economics, competition is the American idea that changed the undemocratic world, where elites always prevent new people from competing. When people start to think that competition is too intense or that America can’t compete, a lot of what America is about goes away.”
In his book The Competition Solution: The Bipartisan Secret behind American Prosperity (The AEI Press), London explains that bipartisan political decisions in the 1970s to break up monopolies and near monopolies in numerous sectors of the U.S. economy made possible the growth and prosperity of the 1990s. He credits Wal-Mart with leading a “revolution in retailing” which complemented similar changes in other sectors and richly benefited the American people.
Speaking to americansforwalmart.org, London said, “Wal-Mart has been very good for America. It’s a very American phenomenon, a new guy coming along and shaking up 20 percent of the economy. It’s a model of competition that the world envies and is trying to copy. I hope there are always Americans who come along the way Sam Walton did, and the way other people did in other industries, to shake up established companies and make them serve consumers better.”
For the full press release and complete interview, please visit us at americansforwalmart.org.
"Keep Your $$ Local!"Each slogan is amusing in its own way. Moscow residents will most certainly not keep their dollars local without a Wal-Mart. They will continue to shop in Lewiston, Clarkston, and Spokane, where they are not so delicate about big-box stores and out-of-towners money. The whole argument about all the money spent at Wal-Mart going back to Arkansas is absurd. What about people who shop at Safeway, Rosauers, WinCo, Hastings, Ross, Macy's, Office Depot, Staples, etc., etc. Do they think those are Moscow-based businesses? Please. The environmentalists need to be concerned about the amount of putrid BS flowing on the Palouse these days more than Wal-Mart.
"Celebrate Retail Diversity!"
"(Your Reason Here)"
Nap time is over for town of Garfield
Like all small towns dotting the Palouse farm country, Garfield was founded more than a century ago around agriculture, commerce and the day-to-day wants and needs of rural people.
Two major railroad lines crossed here. Farm equipment dealers thrived. Schools flourished. Banks made loans with few questions asked. Local businesses feasted on an agrarian horn of plenty. Life, say old-timers, was as good here as anywhere in small town America.
But most of the farms, which used to be family oriented, got bought up and evolved into corporate entities. Asphalt turned muddy roads into thoroughfares for ever-improving transportation modes. People began to travel greater distances to work, shop and play. The day's bustle gave way to a yawn. And another bedroom community eventually took root.
"You know how the demise of these old towns goes," says Archie Neal, who worked for 35 years for the local J.E. Love farm equipment fabricator company. "When you had a farmstead on every quarter-section back then, it's a little different than one on every three sections today."
"The bulk of the people living here now, who aren't retired, work in Pullman or Moscow," says Forrest Miller, a longtime resident.
And like so many bedroom communities left amid a struggling agriculture economy, Garfield napped into the new millennium until suddenly an alarm went off.
"It was kind of a wake-up call," Neal says of the day the only cafe in town closed its doors. "A restaurant is the central part of a community. Without it, a town doesn't have the soul it needs."
And that's what Garfield was about to become -- a town of 600 people with nowhere to gather, no place to nourish its collective psyche.
Americans are leaving the nation's big cities in search of cheaper homes and open spaces farther out.And let’s not forget those DINKs that crave “Manhattan-style living”:
Nearly every large metropolitan area had more people move out than move in from 2000 to 2004, with a few exceptions in the South and Southwest, according to a report being released Thursday by the Census Bureau.
Northeasterners are moving South and West. West Coast residents are moving inland. Midwesterners are chasing better job markets. And just about everywhere, people are escaping to the outer suburbs, also known as exurbs.
"It's a case of middle class flight, a flight for housing affordability," said William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank. "But it's not just white middle class flight, it's Hispanics and blacks, too."
Richard Florida, a professor of public policy at George Mason University, said smaller, wealthier households are replacing larger families in many big metropolitan areas.Why in the world are some people trying to turn Pullman-Moscow into an “urban area” when that is what people moving here are trying to escape?
That drives up housing prices even as the population shrinks, chasing away even more members of the middle class.
"Because they are bidding up prices, they are forcing some people out to the exurbs and the fringe," Florida said. "Other people are forced to make moves in response to that. I don't have any sense of this abating."
Scotty and I will be interviewing Tracy Oetting, founder of Citizens for a One Strike Law. Her group is attemptimg to get I-921 ("Dylan's Law") on the ballot this fall. This initiative would make a life sentence without parole a mandatory sentence for those convicted of violent and predatory sexual crimes.
Chelsey Fanara, the Whitman County coordinator for the initiative, will also be on the show.
Tune in to KZUU 90.7 FM at 11:00 AM to listen. Or if you live more than 3 miles away from the CUB, you can go to kzuu.org for the streaming audio feed.
Over lunch a little while ago, I was introduced to Wal-Mart President and CEO Lee Scott. I told him we really wanted a Wal-Mart Supercenter in Pullman. He said they really wanted to build one.
I have secretly fantasized for months about traveling to Bentonville, going right to the top management, and telling them to ignore all the detractors in Pullman. I never dreamed I would actually get the chance.
Technorati Tags: wal-mart walmartRemember the huge government warehouse where they hide the Ark of the Covenant at the end of "Raiders of the Lost Ark?" That gives you a pretty good idea of what a Wal-Mart distribution center looks like.
It seems more laughable than ever that Vera White suggested that the current Moscow Wal-Mart will become a distribution center. The one I just toured could fit 15 Moscow Wal-Marts inside it. The Bentonville distribution center is 1.2 MILLION square feet and serves 120 stores.
The only distribution center planned for 2007 within 1000 miles of Pullman is in Cheyenne, WY. Sorry Vera.
Some interesting facts: Wal-Mart has 122 distribution centers in the U.S. with 85,000 employees. Wal-Mart's 8,000 truck drivers drove 910 million miles last year (some of that through Pullman).
Note to Cynthia Hosick: Wal-Mart is installing auxiliary power units in its trucks so that they won't have to idle their engines when unloading.
Technorati Tags: wal-mart walmartI just finished touring the Wal-Mart home office. It is incredibly humble and unassuming for being the nerve center of the world's largest retailer. It kind of reminded me of the Pentagon in that regard (older, not very ostentatious).
No Wal-Mart would be complete without a door greeter, and the home office is no exception. He asked me where I was from and what I thought about the hot weather. The smell of popcorn greeted us as we entered the building.
The home office was built in 1970. It is the original building where Sam Walton had his office. Lee Scott sits in that office now.
Wal-Mart has 15 headquarters campus facilities in the Bentonville/Rogers area and employs 11,500. As you can guess, Bentonville and Rogers are booming.
Wal-Mart receives 100,000 visitors a year, mainly vendors wanting to sell products to Wal-Mart. There is a whole hallway devoted to meeting rooms for vendors.
We also saw the auditorium where the famous Saturday morning meetings are held.
Our tour guide was the Executive Vice President of Sam's Club. He started out at Store #1 bringing in shopping carts.
There is definitely a real mythology about Wal-Mart. Sam Walton's benevolent visage looks down at you everywhere you go in the home office. It is in many ways the ultimate success story of our time (Bentonville started off no different than Pullman). There is nothing evil here. The feeling is distinctly All-American. That's probably why the liberals hate it so much.
Pictures later. We're off to a distribution center next.
Technorati Tags: wal-mart walmartI have arrived at the center of the Wal-Mart Universe: Bentonville, Arkansas. The Wal-Mart Vistor's Center is here, located in the store where Sam started it all. My hotel is even on Walton Blvd.
The weather here is much like the infernal region the PARDners must imagine this place to be. It was 94 degrees today, an all-time record for April in Arkansas. It's supposed to be a little cooler tomorrow (88). Quite a shock for me after yesterday's snow in Pullman.
I'll be reporting all day tomorrow as the media conference gets underway.
Technorati Tags: wal-mart walmartEven on the road, I see the cross-border lovefest between the PARDners and the No SuperWal-Mart group over in Moscow continues.
Last week in the Moscow-Pullman Daily News, Peggy Jenkins of No SuperWal-Mart was calling me a liar for saying that PARD's attorneys work for the UFCW.
Today, Pullman resident and former Democratic state representative candidate Gail Rowland urged Moscowans to come out for the May 1 city council meeting and oppose the rezone for Wal-Mart. When we last heard from Rowland she was trying to drum up votes for Judy Krueger and wondering if attending three meetings makes you a member of PARD.
Rowland also had some disparaging words for Pullman. She now joins the Daily Evergreen in recently dissing our town in favor of Moscow.
Besides the extremely disloyal aspects of supposed civic leader Rowland's letter, I am curious as to what makes our local liberal moonbats feel they have the right, and indeed, the obligation it seems, to meddle in the affairs of another city in a another state, neighbors or not.
Maybe everyone in Pullman should write a letter urging Moscowans to oppose Wal-Mart. While you're at it, sign No SuperWal-Mart's petition, just like several thousand Moscow and Latah County residents did for PARD. Running Wal-Mart out of Moscow would be a huge bonanza for Pullman's economy.
Come to think of it, thanks Gail!! Keep up the good work!
Make your voice heardTechnorati Tags: wal-mart walmart
I want to congratulate the residents of Moscow and their City Council, and Planning and Zoning Commission. You all are making a better community of the Palouse with your efforts and thoughtful debate which have created many good decisions, for now, and for future generations.
I just received an e-mail regarding the May 1 Moscow City Council meeting to hear an appeal by CLC Developers of Spokane to rezone77 acres across the Troy Highway from the Moscow Cemetery. I hope all of you voting residents of Moscow become aware of this meeting and voice your opinion. This meeting is to discuss allowing big-box stores, such as a Wal-Mart Supercenter, to locate in Moscow. It appears that you, as a resident of Moscow, have the right, obligation and ability to determine your own future. You have been actively doing that for several decades and that is why Moscow has a very viable, and successful business community. Also, because of the laws you have thoughtfully passed.
We in Pullman, your neighbor, have not been so fortunate to have had your foresight or good judgment and council. Take advantage of your ability to keep Moscow, my neighbor community, a very special place. Attend the May 1 meeting and make your voice heard.
Gail Rowland, Pullman
He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.
- Matthew 28:6
Elected Delegates:
Joe Harrison
Joe Schmick
John Goyke
Larry Cochran
Kelly Messinger
Nancy Gregory
Steve Naught
Susan Fagan
Tom Forbes
Vangee Harrison
Automatic Delegates:
Wes Taylor
Harmon Smith
Jan Smith
Alternates:
Paula Kimmel
Eunice Coker, Auditor, announced her intention to run for re-election. She is being opposed this fall by a Democratic nominee. Eunice warned against complacency with a very active Whitman County Democratic Party out there.
Shirley Bafus, County Clerk, invited people to drop by the county offices to see how things work.
Joe Reynolds, County Assessor, joked "don't bring any knives or guns!"
Dennis Tracy, Prosecutor, said he has made an efficient use of resources at the prosecutor's office. 300 felony and 1400 misdemeanor cases last year. He is also getting an education in land use law.
Brett Myers, Sheriff, said he runs the office with a philosophy of "do what is right," "do the best you can," and "treat everyone as you want to be treated."
Bon Lothspeich, Treasurer, said his office does a tremendous job managing the resources it is given and jokingly reminded everyone to "pay your taxes."
Pete Martin, Coroner, runs the most efficient coroner's office in the state.
We also heard from 9th District State Senator Mark Schoesler and retiring State Representative Don Cox.
Michael Largent 54%
Harmon Smith 33%
Jeannine Larkin 7%
Jim White 7%
Michael Largent, farmer from Colfax. He said we need a candidate who is electable and reflects our values.
Jeannine Larkin, businesswoman from Hay. She said the three biggest myths in Whitmamn County are "The check is in the mail," "I'm a politician and I'm here to help," and "It's easy to build in rural Whitman County." She is pro-business and pro-property rights.
Harmon Smith, a farmer from LaCrosse. He is concerned Whitman County isn't all it can be. Supports living wage jobs and dialog between parties who differ on issues.
Jim White, farmer from south of St. John. Also spoke of economic development and his leadership skills.
Buri is running unopposed for the second position in the 9th District. He was nominated by voice vote.
Joe Schmick 55%
Steve Hailey 26%
Tedd Nealey 16%
Steve Hailey, a farmer from Mesa in Franklin County.
Spoke of rural economic development.
Ted Nealey, a farmer from LaCrosse. Spoke of education, water, and making Washington more business-friendly.
Joe Schmick, a businessman from Colfax. Also spoke of supporting business and improving education. Wants to lower B&O taxes and reform unemployment insurance and L&I. Supporter of property rights.
Susan Fagan spoke on behalf of Mike McGavick.
Shan Kelly, from Cathy McMorris' office, spoke for Cathy McMorris.
Both candidates are unopposed at the state level.
Eunice Coker, Whitman County Auditor, explained that under current state law, anyone can file as a Democratic or Republican candidate. Both parties have sued to overturn this law. It is unlikely that this suit will be resolved by the candidate filing date.
The Republican Party requires that its candidates receive at least 25% of the vote at a nominating convention. That is what we are doing today. The state party has vowed not to let anyone run as a Republican outside this rule. If we didn't hold this process before the law is potentially overturned, we would have to hold another convention.
If nothing else, the candidates selected today will have the official blessing of the party.
The delegates have to be seated at the front of the auditorium, so now I am sitting beside fellow Pullman resident Ron Wachter.
The Public Service Building auditorium here in Colfax is packed out with 58 delegates, 1 alternate and many guests.
I'm sitting in the same row as Whitman County Sheriff Brett Myers, Whitman County Prosecutor Dennis Tracy, State Representatives Don Cox and David Buri, Whitman County Commissioner Jerry Finch, and Whitman County Commissioner candidates Jim White and Jeannine Larkin.
It's inspiring how many of our local elected officials are Republicans.
Yesterday, at 1:40 PM, the sale of 28 acres adjacent to Bishop Blvd. in Pullman from Shoemaker Co. to Wal-Mart Stores was closed. The sale price was $1.4 million, or around $53,000 an acre.
The excise tax paid on the sale was $22,561.65. That was our first financial benefit from Wal-Mart.
That ought to take care of the rumors that Wal-Mart is pulling out of Pullman and heading for the corridor. It should also let PARD know what Wal-Mart thinks of their futile appeal.
Technorati Tags: wal-mart walmart
