In the fourth quarter of 2020, retail sales came roaring back in Wahkiakum County. The small county in southwest Washington saw nearly a 30% jump in taxable quarterly sales compared to the previous year.On the opposite side of the state, Lincoln County reported a little more than 25% quarterly growth...

This summer, with severe drought and hot temperatures throughout the West, the threat of wildfires is once again at the forefront of everyone’s minds. Tens of thousands of acres in Washington alone were burning in late July.While the causes of wildfires can be unpredictable, there are ways to reduce the...

The 2020 Toyko Olympics were billed as the “Hydrogen Olympics.”Then along came Covid-19 and sporting events worldwide were put on hold. The summer games were delayed until 2021. Postponing the games cost Japan billions and thwarted its efforts to showcase the Japanese “green growth” strategies.Japan, like the United States, plans...

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....