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March 18, 2016
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CapitalPress.com
Washington
Washington FFA chooses its national candidate
State adviser:
Process is ‘intense’
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
Washington FFA lead-
ers are sending last year’s
state president to the orga-
nization’s fall convention in
hopes that he will be chosen
a national oficer.
Apolinar Blanco of Chel-
an, Wash., will represent the
state at the FFA nationals,
held each October.
“To me, it means an op-
portunity that not a lot of
people get the chance to
take,” Blanco said. “It’s hum-
bling, prideful, joyful, but at
the same time, it means more
than I ever imagined.”
He was the 2013-14 Chel-
an chapter president, and the
2014-15 Washington state
FFA president.
Blanco has been attend-
ing Walla Walla Community
College and hopes to be an
agriculture teacher and FFA
adviser. He hopes to rep-
resent the diversity of the
state’s agriculture industry
and members.
“Apol is a hard worker
with a service heart,” said Ab-
bie DeMeerleer, Washington
FFA executive director. “He
connects well with students,
understands the diversity of
agriculture in Washington
and has a passion for advanc-
ing FFA. He also understands
the responsibilities that come
with potentially becoming a
national oficer and is willing
to give up a year of college
in service to FFA if elected.”
National oficer candi-
dates go through a nearly
yearlong selection process,
Washington FFA adviser
Rebecca Wallace said. It in-
cludes a knowledge test, a
writing test, group and one-
on-one interviews, workshop
facilitation and duties at the
state convention in May.
Washington AG cites farm labor in
immigration brief to Supreme Court
Ferguson: Order
helps agriculture
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
OLYMPIA — Washington
Attorney General Bob Fer-
guson on Tuesday continued
to be the lead spokesman for
states seeking to uphold Pres-
ident Barack Obama’s immi-
gration orders, as his ofice
iled a brief
with the U.S.
Supreme Court
arguing
that
undocument-
ed immigrants
hold
low-
skilled
farm Ferguson
jobs that would
otherwise go unilled.
“Immigrant workers in
low-skilled jobs beneit the
economy by lowering the
cost of living, with negligible
impacts on low-skill native
workers,” according to the
brief.
The Supreme Court will
hear oral arguments April
18 on whether Obama act-
ed lawfully in 2014 when he
suspended the deportation of
some 4.4 million illegal im-
migrants.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court
of Appeals has issued an in-
junction blocking the presi-
dent’s orders.
While Texas has taken the
lead among 25 states chal-
lenging the immigration or-
ders, Washington has supplied
the written arguments for the
16 states and the District of
Columbia that are backing the
president.
Washington’s filing Tues-
day reprises arguments the
state has made in earlier
briefs, though the state had
not previously singled out
agricultural workers.
Obama’s immigration or-
ders will expand the pool of
workers at the “upper and
lower ends of the scale of
worker skill level,” according
to the brief.
“At the (lower) end of
the scale, immigrants play a
crucial role in illing the de-
mand for low-skilled work in
a range of ields, especially
in agricultural positions that
would otherwise go unilled,”
according to the brief.
The brief also argues that
legalizing the undocumented
immigrants, including an es-
timated 105,000 in Washing-
ton, will keep families togeth-
er and create new taxpayers.
“Each day that these re-
forms are delayed harms
Washingtonians who seek to
emerge from the shadows and
live and work legally to sup-
port their families,” Ferguson
said in a written statement is-
sued Wednesday.
Ferguson’s brief accused
Texas and other states of try-
ing to “achieve a political goal
that they could not achieve
through democratic means.”
In its written arguments,
the Texas Attorney General’s
Ofice claims that Obama has
failed to faithfully execute the
law.
“The executive claims the
power to ignore the statutes and
unilaterally deem lawful the
presence of any unauthorized
alien it chooses not to remove,”
according to a brief Texas iled
with the Supreme Court.
Texas claims that it was
directly harmed by the pres-
ident’s directives because it
will have to bear the cost of
issuing driver licenses to as
many as 500,000 newly le-
galized residents. The state
subsidy is more than $100 per
license, according to court re-
cords.
Ferguson argues that states
are still free to deny driver
licenses to whomever they
wish.
If Obama’s immigration
orders are blocked, millions
of people will be prevented
from “receiving the substan-
tial economic, social welfare
and public safety beneits
that will low” from the pres-
ident’s actions, according to
Ferguson’s brief.
California and Oregon are
also among the states support-
ing Obama’s actions.
Idaho is among the states
seeking to block the presi-
dent’s immigration programs.
One program would allow
illegal immigrants with chil-
dren who have legal status to
apply for lawful standing. The
other would offer legal stand-
ing to children 16 and young-
er who entered the country
illegally.
“It’s deinitely on the
proposed candidate’s side to
be a self-starter,” she said.
“Back at the national level,
the process the candidates go
through is intense.”
Blanco was the only appli-
cant from Washington.
“We’re always proud of
our candidates, regardless of
if they’re elected or not,” she
said.
Washington’s
national
candidate last year, Rebecca
Foote, made it to the inal
round of the selection pro-
cess, the farthest a candidate
from Washington has pro-
gressed in several years, De-
Meerleer said.
Most states usually select a
candidate for national oficer
each year, Wallace said.
Oregon FFA Executive
Secretary Lee Letsch said her
state will make a decision in
April.
Idaho FFA adviser Glenn
Orthel said his state usually
selects a candidate after the
state convention in April.
California FFA adviser Jo-
siah Mayield said his state
usually selects a candidate in
June.
Washington typically se-
lects its candidate at the state
convention in May, but Wal-
lace said the FFA board decid-
ed to do it early this year.
Matthew Weaver/Capital Press
Apolinar Blanco delivers his
retirement address May 16,
2015, after a year as Wash-
ington FFA’s president. Blanco
will represent the state as a
candidate for national oficer
in October at the nationals in
cndianapolis, cnd.
Hemp bill among legislation vetoed by Inslee
No budget to sign, so
out comes veto pen
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
OLYMPIA — Legislation
to legalize hemp farming was
among a batch of bills Gov.
Jay Inslee vetoed last week
to punish lawmakers for not
passing a budget before the
regular session ended.
The setback for hemp ad-
vocates may only be tempo-
rary. The Legislature can re-
pass the bill during the 30-day
session that began March 11.
All told, Inslee vetoed 27
of the 37 bills legislators sent
him during the just-concluded
60-day session.
“Given legislators’ inabil-
ity to complete their number
one job, I measured these bills
against the importance of the
budget and set a very high
bar,” Inslee said in a written
statement.
“I recognize this is perhaps
the largest single batch of ve-
toes in history. None of these
vetoed bills were as important
as the fundamental responsi-
bility of passing a budget. I
continue to hope legislators
Don Jenkins/Capital Press
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, shown here in a 2015 ile photo, says
lawmakers’ failure to deliver a budget during the just-concluded
regular session drove him to veto 27 bills, including one to legalize
hemp farming.
will focus on negotiations and
reach agreement as quickly as
possible.”
In a boilerplate veto mes-
sage, Inslee said the hemp
legislation was a “worthy
bill,” but not more import-
ant than the budget. “Until a
budget agreement is reached,
I cannot support this bill.”
In a tartly worded email
to members, the Washington
Farm Bureau scolded Inslee
for an “overstepped power
play” and for failing to fulill
the governor’s role of being
the “grownup in the room.”
“Our current governor
continues to show an uncan-
ny ability to drive a wedge
between his ofice and leg-
islators,” according to the
Farm Bureau.
The Farm Bureau took a
poke at Inslee’s passion for
cutting carbon to curb cli-
mate change. The Farm Bu-
reau said all the fuel, elec-
tricity and “hot air” invested
in passing the 27 bills were
“wasted by the stroke of a
pen.”
Section of Roza canal gets facelift
By DAN WHEAT
Capital Press
MOXEE, Wash. — A little
more than a mile of the Roza
Irrigation District canal near
Moxee has been cleaned
and cracks sandblasted and
sealed in preparation for the
start of the irrigation season,
March 15.
Prep started a month
ago and $375,000 worth of
sealant work is being done
by Matheson Painting Con-
tractors of Pasco. The state
provided $350,000 as part
of the conservation element
of the Yakima Basin Inte-
grated Water Resource Man-
agement Plan and $25,000
came from the U.S. Bureau
of Reclamation which man-
ages irrigation diversions on
the Yakima River.
The RID canal flows 95
miles from Roza Dam, north
of Selah, to Benton City.
Of the total, 25 miles are
concrete-lined, dating back
to the 1940s and 1950s. A
couple more miles are con-
crete-lined tunnels and si-
phons and there’s about a
mile that’s lined with a plas-
tic, rubberized fabric, said
Scott Revell, RID manager
in Sunnyside.
The remaining 67 miles of
the canal is earthen. Seepage
occurs but is lessened by fast
lowing water creating a hard
pan of silt on the canal bot-
tom.
Cracks in six of the 25
miles lined with concrete
have been repaired since
2006. The intent is to con-
serve water. Revell is pursu-
ing more grants for $5 million
to $6 million worth of sealant
work in coming years.
Take a new look at an old friend.
Pamela Lucht
Oregon Aglink Board Member
Pamela, along with her husband Neal and now
their daughter Lauren, own Northwest
Transplants, a 28-year-old business located in
Molalla, Oregon. NWT is a transplant seedling
nursery growing crops of all kinds on contract
for their commercial farm customers. Their
family operation now produces over 80 million
seedlings and services five Northwestern States and Western Canada.
Courtesy/Roza crrigation District
Sealed cracks are on the sidewall and sandblasted cracks are
ready for sealing on the bottom of the Roza crrigation District canal
More than half of the 25
miles of concrete-lined ca-
nal is in the Moxee area from
Terrace Heights to Konno-
woc Pass. There are portions
near Sunnyside, Prosser and
Benton City.
Beside the sealant work,
the RID has been repairing
parts of the concrete liner
that have buckled over time
from heat of the sun. Some
of that damage was caused
during last year’s May 11 to
31 shutdown and dewatering
of the canal to conserve water
during the drought.
Seventeen
expansion
joints to lessen buckling have
been installed in the canal
this winter and that many
or more will be installed
the next two winters, Revell
said.
Revell is eager for winter
work to be inished and said
he’s “nervous” about the up-
coming irrigation season. It’s
too early to know, he said,
if there will be any water
restrictions similar to last
year.
That’s when the district
cut water to farmers by up
to 75 percent and did the
May shutdown. The district
and other junior water right
holders in the Yakima Ba-
sin received 47 percent of
their normal supply due to
the drought caused by light
mountain snowpack. Crop
losses in millions of dollars
resulted.
So far this season, the
state’s water supply spe-
cialist is warning that little
mountain snowfall in the
past month and higher than
normal temperatures are ac-
celerating snowpack melt by
a month.
Pamela, once a city girl, and a transplant to agriculture herself, believes
the Oregon Ag Link team is doing good things for Agricultural
Education. She and her family are passionate about Ag Education at all
levels, including AgLink Adopt a Farmer Program. “I am proud that our
company jumped at the opportunity to be one of the adopted farms. It’s
fun and exciting to watch students from all backgrounds make a
connection with our small piece of agriculture.” She believes exposing
students to hands-on experiences about where their food comes from is
one of our best ways to develop agricultural literacy.
As an Oregon Aglink board member, Pamela believes in Oregon
Aglink’s message that agriculture is rooted, green and vital. It’s
important to Pamela that Oregonians understand the critical role that
agriculture plays in our economy. Aglink’s Adopt a Farmer program,
the Road Crop Identification Signs and the “I am Oregon Agriculture”
TV ads are ways that Aglink is making this difference.
Become a member today!
7360 SW Hunziker St., Suite 102
Portland, OR 97223 • 503-595-9121
www.aglink.org
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