Growth has been a common refrain in the Tri-Cities over the past decade.Population has climbed, as Benton-Franklin Trends laid out, from 262,500 in 2012, to the estimated of 308,800 today. Similarly, the average number employed, has risen from 120,474 in 2011, to 130,516 in 2020. And median household income has...

You cannot read the news today without finding another story of a company besieged by a malware infection: their files encrypted, and the company brought to its knees by cybercriminals.We’ve recently seen a large pipeline company forced to shut down all operations and a U.S. government agency suspending operations for...

I imagine historians looking back at the decades spanning 1990-2020 will describe those years as the most unimpressive of the past two centuries in terms of technological progress.In medicine, we witnessed life expectancy plateau and even decline for a period of years. Energy production via fracking became more efficient but...

What is a charitable giving technique that doubles as a wealth transfer technique to avoid estate taxes and at the same time works especially well in a low-interest rate environment (as we find ourselves in now)?The charitable lead trust.First, let’s set the stage.This type of trust is usually implemented after...

In pandemic year 2020, the population in the greater Tri-Cities grew among the fastest of all metro areas in Washington state. For Benton County, state Office of Financial Management (OFM) pegged the count at 209,300 residents; for Franklin County, at 99,500. That’s a gain of over 6,300 in 12 months.These...

What a difference a year makes. As Washington emerges from the pandemic, one of the biggest challenges facing many employers is finding enough qualified workers.It’s a dramatic shift from a year ago, when businesses were forced to close their doors to slow the spread of the virus, leading to an...

As climate change concerns grow, researchers are turning to small tree farmers for help. Actually, tree farms have been helping for nearly a century, but their efforts have largely gone unrecognized.For decades, the American Tree Farm program has emphasized sustainability and managing lands for water quality, wildlife, wood and recreation....

“Exciting” isn’t the word most people use when describing market and investment conditions, but it fits the description for the first half of 2021.GameStop dominated the news cycle for weeks, and its controversy culminated in congressional hearings.Distant relatives morphed into CNBC commentators as they waited for the price of Dogecoin...

One common concern for investors is seeking a reliable source of passive income.Sometimes it is not immediately evident to those investors that an investment account can easily produce passive income.Many investors who are new to investing in the broader stock market like to evaluate the investment alongside other investments for...

Kirk WilliamsonImagine yourself facing a busload of people all wearing masks. You’re wearing one, too, of course.You were tested for Covid-19 on arrival. You’ve been introduced to the bus driver, and you’ve helped the first 45 guests from the American Empress cruise boat board the bus.You take a deep breath....