Letters for Wednesday, April 1

Baumgartner has political responsibility to farmers

About two decades ago I had a close look at the state of agriculture in our area. As the chair of the King County Agriculture Commission, I was asked to be on the Advisory Council to the Dean of the Washington State College of Agricultural, Human, and Natural Resource Sciences representing small scale and organic agriculture in the state.

It was an eye-opener there to get to know what hurdles faced the large farms, orchards, and vineyards in Eastern Washington – though as a high-schooler I had worked on a 2,200 -acre wheat ranch near Burbank and noted the blood, sweat and tears related to farming – but the farmers on the Council showed me a whole new world with more massive equipment and the new restrictive/”advisory”/contractual/arbitrage roles played by the large banks on whom the farmers relied to purchase everything every year.

If I were farming in this area, I would be angry and appalled at the divorce from political influence farmers have concerning keeping our commodity markets overseas. Our congressional representative or staff meets with farmers, promises to support them, then goes back to the other Washington and consistently ignores their interests.

A few letters to the editor in this newspaper by apologists tout the congressman’s support for generalities the administration stands for, but those letters have not listed the specific actions our congressman has taken to support our farmers and the small-town businesses supporting them … because that has rarely happened.

I urge congressman Baumgartner to help reclaim legal congressional control over the illegitimate wild tariff swings created at the whim of one man in the White House. Weather and banks and equipment breakdowns and labor availability are enough problems. Maintaining traditional markets should not be another one.

Bob Gregson

Spokane

Will KREM serve the public’s interest following merger?

Our local Tegna affiliate KREM (CBS) is, at least for now, part of the conservative media group Nexstar. For the last few years, Tegna’s KREM/KSKN has often been cutting short or eliminating entirely the showing of the CBS News Sunday Morning program, often showing color bars instead of the news program.

WHY? Could it be Tegna/KREM wants to demonstrate their willingness to conform to Nexstar’s right -wing agenda? With an illegal 70% plus market share, Nexstar would have you believe they want to maintain our access to independent local news options. I don’t believe an organization like Nexstar has any interest in serving our local public needs and instead will use KREM to spoon feed us right wing alternative facts. Once Stephen Colbert’s show ends in May I’ll have no reason to watch K f R o E x M.

Leon Schmidt

Spokane

Baumgartner’s waffling on Iranian oil sanctions

I am appalled that the U.S. Government is relaxing sanctions on Iranian oil currently loaded on ships. This action allows enhanced funding for the Iranian government to pursue their war efforts leading to increased hazard and danger to U.S. military assets in the region.

Michael Baumgartner is vocal in his support for the war on Iran yet his silence on relaxation of oil sanctions is curious particularly in light of his sponsorship of House Bill 1422 “Enhanced Iranian Sanctions Act of 2025” passed by the House on March 16 and received in the Senate on March 17. The bill states it imposes “sanctions with respect to persons engaged in significant transactions related or incidental to the processing, refining, export, transfer or sale of oil, condensates, or other petrochemical products in whole or in part from the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

After working for nearly a year working to get this bill through the House, why is there no objection from our Representative to the administration’s relaxation of sanctions on Iranian oil?

If enhanced sanctions were a good idea on March 16, why allow the administration to undermine the U.S. Military in the Persian Gulf on March 20 Representative Baumgartner, you support the war on Iran, therefore do you support oil sanctions to impede the enemy, or relief from sanctions to provide him succor? It can’t go both ways.

Daniel R. Muhm

Spokane