Gluesenkamp Perez, Ciscomani Introduce Bipartisan Legislation to Expand Medicaid Benefits for Working Adults with Disabilities

From the Office of Congresswoman Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (WA-03):

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Last week, Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (WA-03) and Rep. Juan Ciscomani (AZ-06) introduced the Ensuring Access to Medicaid Buy-In Program Act to expand work opportunities and benefits for working adults with disabilities.

Specifically, the legislation would lift the age limit for the Medicaid Buy-In program for working people with disabilities. This would incentivize adults with disabilities to continue to work, if able, and would allow individuals over 65 years of age to continue to receive Medicaid coverage and benefits as long as they pay a premium.

Current law allows people with disabilities whose jobs pay above traditional eligibility to keep key benefits, like long-term care services that are not available through private insurance, so long as they pay premiums for their Medicaid coverage. However, once these individuals turn 65 years old, they can no longer participate in the program, leaving them to wait two years until they can receive Social Security benefits at age 67. This ultimately penalizes individuals with disabilities who may want to continue working.

“For people with disabilities who rely on home-based and long-term care through Medicaid Buy-In, an age cap for the program at 65 can present them with the difficult choice of either limiting their income to receive much-needed care through Medicaid or losing coverage by continuing to work and remain independent,” said Rep. Gluesenkamp Perez. “By introducing this bipartisan legislation to expand eligibility for Medicaid Buy-In beyond 65, we can help more folks across Southwest Washington stay in their communities and have the choice to keep working until their Social Security benefits kick in or longer.”

“No one should have to choose between a paycheck and their benefits,” said Rep. Ciscomani. “By lifting the age limit for the Medicaid buy-in program, this legislation ensures that individuals with disabilities over the age of 65 can continue, if they choose, to work while maintaining vital Medicaid benefits they deserve. Ultimately, this allows individuals with disabilities to stay in the workforce and receive a paycheck, closing a gap in benefits that would have otherwise hurt them and take them out of the workforce.”

Full text of the bill is available here.

Yelm Dog Park Grand Opening May 2nd

Event by City of Yelm – Government and City of Yelm Parks and Recreation

Yelm Dog Park 902 Rhoton Rd

Join Us for the Grand Opening of Yelm Dog Park!

Get ready to unleash the fun at the grand opening of Yelm Dog Park – your furry friend’s new favorite hangout spot!

Date: May 2, 2024
Time: 11 am
Location: 902 Rhoton Rd

Bring your pups and join us for a tail-wagging good time as we celebrate the opening of Yelm Dog Park with a day filled with excitement and furry camaraderie!

Here’s what you can expect:

Ribbon Cutting Ceremony: Witness the official unveiling of [Dog Park Name] as we cut the ribbon to mark this special occasion!

Pawsome Playtime: Let your furry friends roam free and make new pals in our spacious off-leash play areas designed for maximum tail-wagging enjoyment.

Photo Booth Fun: Capture precious memories with your furry friend at our doggy-themed photo booth.

Treats to Go: Get a special doggy bag to go sponsored by Grocery Outlet of Yelm

Don’t miss out on this bark-tastic celebration of community, companionship, and canine fun at the grand opening of Yelm Dog Park! Bring your furry pals, friends, and family for tail-wagging excitement.

Spread the word, leash up your pups, and let’s make memories together at Yelm Dog Park Grand Opening! See you there!

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+ NVN: Yelm’s dog park celebrates opening, debut of size-specific areas – Mayor talks launch of off-leash area, upcoming projects

Trump on Trial – Frustrated because he is not in control

+ Editor’s note: Trump lamented being in the New York courtroom during wife Melania’s April 26th birthday was last week. Trump is on-trial for covering-up his payments to women with whom he had sex while married to her, prior to the 2016 election.

What does this say about America that this country has a prospective party’s Presidential nominee who had extra-marital sex with a women (Karen McDougal) when Melania was carrying his child (Barron), and again after Barron was born (Stormy Daniels)? Then he paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to cover-up these facts from voters ahead of his 2016 election, which is illegal and a felony.

Falsification of these business records is not a crime. Using those records to commit a crime is. What came out in direct examination last week was David Pecker, former CEO of AMI (publisher of the National Inquirer) admitting that he conspired with Trump to buy and kill stories of his sexual escapades, and then cover-up this information with false business records to keep from the voters, interfering in a national election. This is election interference, a felony in the State of New York.

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+ Truthout: Is Trump Tithing or Conning His Voters? Either Way, He Aims to Cover Legal Fees.

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+ CNN: Trump’s leadership PAC alone has spent almost $60 million on his attorneys’ bills since early 2023.

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+ USA Today: Government watchdog alleges Trump campaign broke the law trying to hide legal payments

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+ Daily Kos: Trump’s Steep Mental Decline Should Be a Top Campaign Issue – Dr. John Gartner, a former Johns Hopkins University professor of psychiatry, has gathered a boatload of evidence that Donald Trump is currently in the advanced stages of dementia. When you consider the realistic odds that this guy could be put back in charge of our nuclear arsenal, our military, our economy, our foreign policy – our entire government – this reality should terrify voters, be they Democrats, Republicans or independents. These behavioral clues include: “marked progressive deterioration in 4 areas: memory, ability to use language, behavior, and gross and fine motor skills.”

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+ The Washington Post: Trump’s numerous attempts to play the victim on ‘election interference’

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+ The Independent (UK): Trump campaign accused of breaking federal law by hiding millions in legal payments

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+ The Wrap: Supreme Court’s ‘Real Evil’ Is Its Delay of Trump’s Immunity Case, Andrew Weissmann Says

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+ Daily Kos: “He Wrote All of it Down” – Prosecution has Weisselberg’s Handwritten Notes, Spelling Out the Scheme

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+ MSNBC: A lower Manhattan courtroom just dealt a fatal blow to the Trump mystique – His lawyers can call him “President Trump” if they want, but there is nothing presidential about what’s unfolding in that courtroom.

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+ Newsweek: Liz Cheney Issues Warning to Supreme Court

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+ MSNBC: Another primary. Another Nikki Haley protest vote. Another warning for Trump. Haley got over 16 percent of the Pennsylvania GOP vote. That’s what we call a pattern.

• Editor’s note: And Haley dropped out as a Republican nominee 7 weeks before this primary!

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+ Newsweek: Donald Trump’s Polling Numbers Plummet With Independents

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+ MSNBC: Why I joined other former military leaders in rejecting Trump’s immunity claim – If the president is above the law and can issue illegal orders at will and without accountability, then the members of our military can be thrust into a nightmare scenario.

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+ MSNBC’s Maddow Blog: Trump searches in vain for a rescue as his criminal trial unfolds – Donald Trump continues to beg congressional Republicans to rescue him from his prosecutions. Whether he understands this or not, they can’t help him.

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+ MSNBC: Arizona fake elector indictments come at the worst time for Trump’s immunity claim – The Supreme Court should focus on the crimes Donald Trump’s allies are accused of committing when it rules on the “presidential immunity” nonsense he’s selling.

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+ Detroit Free Press: Trump, allies are co-conspirators in Michigan fake electors case, agent testifies

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+ NBC News: Trump says RFK Jr. will hurt Biden. In private, he’s not so sure.

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+ The Washington Post: The murky facts about Trump’s failure to visit American war dead near Paris

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+ Newsweek: Trump Witness Tried to Warn Him About Mar-a-Lago Indictment

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+ NBC News: National Enquirer made up the story about Ted Cruz’s father and Lee Harvey Oswald, former publisher says

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+ NBC News: Judge blasts Trump lawyer’s credibility in gag order hearing

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+ MSNBC’s Maddow Blog: In New York, Trump looks for mass protests that still don’t exist

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+ MSNBC’s Deadline White House: Prosecution plan to make Trump look like ‘jerk and a sleazeball’ with Access Hollywood tape

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+ MSNBC’s Deadline White House: Katie Phang: ‘Trump’s got the dirtiest hands of them all’ in hush money case

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+ The Washington Post: Trump was going to dominate the courtroom. Instead, he is shrinking.

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+ Salon: Trump’s humiliation deepens: In court, he can’t hide from his tabloid roots

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+ The Independent (U.K.): Outside court, Trump tries to command the narrative. Inside, he can only sit in silence [Editor’s note: Trump is not in control in the courtroom.]

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+ Mediaite: Maggie Haberman Calls BS On Trump Lawyer Over Killing Negative Stories In Live Courtroom Updates

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+ MSNBC’s The Reidout: Jim Jordan shows how Trump would pressure private companies to do his bidding – The Ohio representative is trying to use a reporter’s layoff to undermine trust in the news media and offering a blueprint for a second Trump term.

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+ Reuters: Trump allies drafting plans to erode Fed’s independence, WSJ reports

BIRDS OF THURSTON COUNTY

Conserving our owls from invasive species

“We will lose Spotted Owls, and extinction is forever.”

Excerpt from The JOLT News:

Birders love owls, those mysterious creatures that haunt the night. Unfortunately, one of these owls, the Barred Owl, is rapidly expanding its range at the expense of another, the Endangered Northern Spotted Owl. Something has to be done.

In the last months of 2023, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service announced a thirty-year plan to lethally remove around 500,000 Barred Owls in the Pacific Northwest from California to Washington in an attempt to bring back the dwindling Spotted Owl, an iconic Pacific Northwest species that was the subject of serious debate over timber practices in the 1980s and 90s.

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I argue that it is time to step it up, because without this proposed action, there is no question about it: We will lose Spotted Owls, and extinction is forever. Barred has a thriving population in the east; they aren’t needed here, and the ecological pros of removing them greatly outweigh any cons. We need to get the facts right, and see that this is a last resort and the only option left. Nobody wants to shoot an owl, but if given the choice between an invasive species and one that is almost extinct with a direct correlation between the two, I know what I’ll be choosing.

Today our column was written by Liam Hutcheson, a student at Olympia’s Avanti High School who is an avid birder and accomplished bird photographer.  

Normally, Liam’s mentor, George Walter, writes our bird column. He is the environmental program manager at the Nisqually Indian Tribe’s natural resources department; he also has a 40+ year interest in bird watching. He may be reached at george@theJOLTnews.com

Washington sees record EV registrations

Excerpt from Axios Seattle:

Electric and plug-in hybrid vehicle registrations reached record levels last year in Washington, per state data.

Why it matters: Washington saw the biggest increase in EV market share in 2023 of any state, per a report by the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, a transition that climate experts say is critical to taming greenhouse gas emissions.

Zoom in: The Seattle region’s adoption of EVs has far outpaced the nation’s, historically.

• But last year alone, the state saw a 43% jump — from 118,050 in January 2023 to 168,850 by the year’s end — in EV and plug-in hybrid registrations, according to the state Department of Ecology (DOE).
• Manufacturers reported that 22% of vehicles delivered to Washington dealerships for sale in 2023 were EVs and plug-in hybrids, per DOE.
• Washington also ranked among the nation’s top states for the most electric car miles traveled per 1,000 residents on a typical weekday last year, per recent data from mobility analytics platform Replica.

Between the lines: The surge is driven by a number of factors, including federal incentives from the Inflation Reduction Act of up to $7,500 and up to $4,000 in state incentives, said Joel Creswell of DOE’s Climate Pollution Reduction program.

• He also cited the growing number of EV choices from every major manufacturer, including full-size pickups and seven-passenger SUVs, which has increased competition and lowered prices.

What’s next: The state Department of Commerce recently announced more than $85 million in grants to build 5,000 new charging stations, which the state said will make EV adoption more realistic for many.

Intercity Transit set to acquire hydrogen-powered buses, trucks

They are also accounting for possible hydrogen fuel projects in the region so that they could source hydrogen locally.

From The JOLT News:

Intercity Transit’s (IT) board of directors authorized General Manager Emily Bergkamp to purchase five 40-foot hydrogen fuel cell electric buses from New Flyer of America Inc. for $8,950,435 on Wednesday, April 13.

Each bus costs $1,588,228, for a total of $7,941,139. IT is also paying $522,518 for associated diagnostic tools and training and includes a 4% contingency fund on the purchase order.

The buses were procured from a contract facilitated by the Washington State Department of Enterprise Services (DES), while the funds to purchase them were sourced from a $5.6 million regional mobility grant and a $3.4 million green transportation grant from the Washington State Department of Transportation.

According to a document prepared for the meeting, as New Flyer is already laying out its pipeline for 2025, IT will have to secure an order as soon as possible to meet the grant requirements.Fleet and Facilities Director Jonathan Yee also gave an update about IT’s transition to zero emissions status. Yee told the board that they are still working with the Center for Transportation and the Environment to develop their zero-emissions transition plan and are currently working on a fuel demand analysis to determine their fueling needs. Once IT has established the scope of its fueling needs, Yee said that they plan to launch several requests of proposals to acquire various fueling solutions.

In tight race for Congress, incumbent MGP leads Republican challengers in fundraising

Gluesenkamp Perez campaign reports more than $3 million in cash on hand at the end of March

Excerpt from The Chronicle (Centralia):

After pulling off the biggest upset of the 2022 election cycle, data from the first quarter of 2024 shows that Third District Congressional Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Washougal, currently leads fundraising efforts ahead of the 2024 election.

Though the primary election is still roughly three and a half months away, the fundraising totals offer a glimpse into who Southwest Washington residents prefer in a race that could determine control of the House of Representatives.

In a filing to the Federal Election Commission (FEC), the Gluesenkamp Perez campaign reported more than $3 million in cash on hand at the end of March, Campaign Manager Timothy Gowen said. In the first three months of 2024, the campaign raised $1.1 million.

“Marie refuses to accept corporate PAC money and funds her campaign with the support of thousands of individual donors who know she puts Southwest Washington first and who believe in her independence from party bosses and big business,” Gowen said in a statement to The Chronicle on Wednesday.

Kent, in his second bid for the seat, raised $429,000 in the first three months of 2024, with a total amount raised of $1.9 million in the campaign so far, according to a campaign announcement.

The fundraising figures include the $421,000 raised by the Joe Kent Victory Fund and $8,600 donated directly to the Joe Kent for Congress account.

According to the campaign, the Joe Kent Victory Fund is a joint fundraising committee that includes Joe Kent for Congress, KENT PAC and the Washington state Republican Party.

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In a Wednesday [April 17] morning press call, organizers cited Kent’s underperformance in the district relative to other Republicans in recent elections, including President Donald Trump and Senate candidate Tiffany Smiley. According to Kristian Hemphill, a lead strategist with the campaign, candidates seeking a rematch against the winning candidate are seldom successful.

“He’s got severe problems with the electorate at large and with the Republican electorate,” Hemphill said.

Nisqually Valley Spring Expo Blood Drive

Bloodmobile at Yelm High School

Saturday April 27, 9:00 am to 3:00 pm

Donors needed.

Click here

Open to the public – donors needed!

Upcoming Spring and Summer Events in Thurston County

Excerpt from Thurston Talk, submitted by Experience Olympia & Beyond:

Experience Olympia & Beyond, Thurston County’s destination marketing organization, welcomes guests near and far to experience an exceptional array of public events this spring and summer – many of them free so they’re accessible to all! These community-centric events range from vibrant festivities to music in the park, lively beer festivals, block parties, enchanting harbor days, and much more, Thurston County promises the upcoming seasons will be filled with excitement.

Rainier

• Rainier Bluegrass Festival: Celebrating its 30th year, all are welcome to enjoy music played continually during the day, corn hole competitions, and more! (Starting Aug. 23)

Yelm

• Nisqually Valley Spring Expo: While celebrating community, local small businesses, and fun shopping experiences, guests can enjoy a car show, a seed-swapping event, and more during this two-day event. (April 27-28)
• Clues & Brews Pub Crawl: You won’t want to miss this new, fun, and exciting pub crawl which starts at Uptown Lounge, benefiting The ACU foundation. (May 4)
• Yelm Centennial Celebration: It’s Yelm’s 100^th year! Gather friends, pack a picnic basket, and be immersed in the vibrant atmosphere of Yelm City Park for a Party on the Prairie! (June 22)
• Nisqually Valley Barbeque Rally: Expect a mouthwatering array of bbq of all kinds for purchase, a beer garden, dance routines from local studios, a pie-eating competition, and of course, a bbq competition. (July 27)
• Yelm Jazz in the Park: Yelm City Park will turn into a relaxing evening in August where visitors will be serenaded by live jazz bands while enjoying breathtaking views of Mt. Rainier. Bring the family and a picnic basket for a zen evening on the grass. (Aug. 2-3)
• To find more events in Thurston County, and specifics on ticket prices, locations, and more visit experienceolympia.com/events.

Second count of ballots released tonight

No ballots left to count

From the Thurston County Auditor:

Yes = 3,036, 49.54%

No = 3,092, 50.46%

Total votes = 6,128

In Pierce County

Yes = 472 voters, 42.04%

No = 652 voters, 57.96%

Total votes = 1,124

Total

Yes = 3,508 voters, 48.37%

No = 3,744 voters, 51.62%

Total votes= 7,252