When it comes to drinking water, Portland is an odd duck. Since 1956, voters have consistently rejected adding minuscule amounts of fluoride to their water supply to prevent tooth decay. They again flocked to the polls in May to kill the latest ballot measure.

America is a fluoride nation. In 1945, Grand Rapids, Mich., became the first city in the world to add fluoride to its water supply. As of 2010, the nation’s 30 most populous cities include fluoride in their water supply.

More than 220 million Americans drink fluoridated water every day — except for the 900,000 Portlanders who draw their drinking water from the Bull Run River flowing from Mt. Hood. read more »

The Bremerton Chamber of Commerce will feature a presentation at its monthly lunch meeting June 18 on how the new health care law will affect businesses.

Guest speaker Matthew Heikkala is from Bell Anderson Insurance, and is an expert on the Affordable Health Care Act. He has a very informative presentation about how it will affect your business.

The lunch will be at 11:30 a.m. at Kitsap Golf and Country Club. Register online at bremertonchamber.org. Those who register by June 12th will receive the Early Bird Special and save $4.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation

A report first published in the British newspaper the Guardian confirmed that the National Security Agency (NSA) is currently collecting the call records of every Verizon customer in America. The NSA order forces Verizon to provide “on an ongoing daily basis” all call records for any call “wholly within the United States, including local telephone calls” and any call made “between the United States and abroad.”

And that’s not all. On June 7, the Washington Post and the Guardian published reports based on information provided by a career intelligence officer showing how the NSA and the FBI are tapping directly into the central servers of nine leading U.S. Internet companies. The government is extracting audio, video, photographs, e-mails, documents and connection logs that enable analysts to track a person’s movements and contacts over time. read more »

As the budget battles continue in Olympia, state lawmakers are rightly focusing on the need to retain and expand good-paying aerospace and high-tech manufacturing jobs.

At the same time, we shouldn’t overlook — or take for granted — the considerable economic contributions of Washington’s traditional industries.

For example, forestry was the first economic powerhouse in our state, dating back to 1849.

The Washington Forest Protection Association reports that today more than 50,000 people are employed in forest products, including pulp and paper production. When you add in contractors and suppliers, as well as the economic impact of employee spending, Washington’s prolific forests support 118,548 jobs, paying almost $5.3 billion a year. read more »

Experienced economic developers will tell you to focus your attention on working with businesses already operating within your community to help them to grow and prosper.

Our team at the Kitsap Economic Development Alliance adheres to this philosophy of taking care of our economic base by making sure our existing businesses know they are valued; and, that we are here to help connect them to resources and relationships essential to their continued success. Nearly three-quarters of our alliance’s resources are deployed in executing business retention and expansion activities — chief among those is our Procurement Technical Assistance Program, which last year assisted over 200 local businesses in securing over $50 million in work with government clients. read more »

Kitsap is a little poorer with the recent death of one of its most passionate philanthropists, Ron Ross. I met Ron in 1979 when I first started my business, and he was among my very first clients. He was supportive of both my business as it evolved over the years, and me personally, strongly encouraging my foray into politics. He was an avid property rights advocate and an original member of the Kitsap Alliance of Property Owners (KAPO).

But my most memorable experience with Ron was when he invited me to fish in Alaska aboard his boat the Salmon Spirit. It’s one of the highlights of my entire life. It was strictly catch-and-release salmon fishing, because Ron, in spite of being Kitsap’s personification of evil — a developer — had a very deep respect for nature and our environment. I saw things I’ll never forget as we went five days without seeing another person or boat. I’ve always loved the outdoors, but this gave me a much deeper understanding and respect for the environment. read more »

Two breaking news items reached us just ahead of deadline for this issue, and the view here is they both qualify as good news.

One is the announcement that after several years of work by a host of diligent community volunteers and conservation groups, a deal was signed to buy a prized piece of the 6,700 acres of land that Pope Resources is divesting itself of in North Kitsap.

All the folks involved with the Kitsap Forest & Bay Project — and there are plenty — will savor what’s been achieved, especially since a big chunk of state funding for the acquisition was jeopardized earlier this year when Pope Resources and the Department of Ecology were locked in a staredown over finalizing a cleanup agreement for the old mill site on Port Gamble Bay. read more »

As lawmakers scramble to fund the state budget, some legislators and interest groups are targeting tax incentives designed to attract businesses and create jobs. Meanwhile, much-needed workers’ compensation reforms languish in the Legislature.

Critics say that, in these tough economic times, we can’t afford tax incentives. The real question is, can we afford not to have them?

And while lawmakers claim there isn’t enough time to tackle meaningful workers’ comp reforms, the truth is we can’t afford to wait when rates are set to spike for employers.

First, a little perspective.

In 2012, the state Department of Revenue published a study of 452 tax exemptions in Washington totaling $29.3 billion per biennium. read more »

There’s an old saying that oil and water don’t mix. That may be true, but apparently they coexist quite well.

Traveling through Sweetwater in west Texas, you see an interesting mix of irrigated farming, cattle ranching, oil production and wind energy.

Farmers draw water from wells to irrigate fields and provide drinking water for people and livestock. Scattered across those same fields are traditional oil wells that have been pumping crude since 1921.

Less than 10 miles from Sweetwater is the Roscoe Wind Farm - 627 wind turbines standing in irrigated cotton and hay fields, wheat fields and cattle pastures. The $1 billion project is one of the world’s largest wind farms with a capacity of 781.5 MW — enough to power 250,000 homes. read more »