Wage Increase & Status Quo

Wage Increase & Status Quo

Wage Increase & Status Quo plus Food Forethought. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

Well it’s the New Year and with all the resolutions of losing weight and quitting smoking you can also expect to see more in your paycheck as the minimum wage in both Washington and Oregon goes up today. Oregon’s wage climbs 15 cents to $8.95 while Washington officially has the highest minimum wage in the country now at $9.19. That’s almost $2 over the federal minimum wage of $7.25. Oregon is now second just behind Washington.

With last weeks announcement that EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson was stepping down it seemed there was a collective sigh of relief from what a lot thought of as overregulation. But American Farm Bureau Deputy Director Dale Moore does not expect Jackson’s departure to change much.

MOORE: We don’t think for a minute that we’re just going to set aside all the issues we’ve been fighting on water in the U.S., on spray drift, on other issues that are frankly still outstanding that that’s going to change with her stepping down.

Now with today’s Food Forethought, here’s Lacy Gray.

It is hard to believe that it’s 2013. Harder yet when you consider how far we “haven’t” come in the last 100 years. Granted we do things today that our grandparents would find unbelievable, like visiting with friends and family via the internet and web cams, and knowing what’s going on halfway around the world the second it happens. But so many things haven’t changed, they’re just in fancier packaging. We still travel around in “boxes” using the gasoline powered internal combustion engine placed on four wheels. True, today’s models are a far cry from the original, with our seat warmers, built-in GPS, and entertainment packages, but it’s still the same basic principle. Telephones have changed dramatically with the onslaught of cell phones, but most businesses still operate with good ol’ land lines, which are still connected for the most part via wires stretched on tall wooden poles. Disturbingly, people are still rolling dried leaves up in paper, lighting them on fire, and inhaling the smoke. And let’s not forget one of the most obvious things that hasn’t changed since Mark Twain used it for comedic fodder on the speaker’s circuit over 100 years ago, politicians. Happy “not so” New Year.

Thanks Lacy. That’s today’s Northwest Report. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network. 

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