Alumni Sandstorm ~ 12/20/14
    5 days till Christmas ~ Tomorrow is Winter Solstice
  Accepting entries now for Christmas Day Sandstorm and the 26th
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2 Bombers sent stuff:
Pete BEAULIEU ('62)
Betti AVANT ('69)
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BOMBER BIRTHDAY Today: Anne COLLINS ('60)
BOMBER BIRTHDAY Today: Larry LaROCK ('61)
BOMBER BIRTHDAY Today: David RODRIGUEZ ('69)

12/20 CINNAMON BEAR - Listen to "Santa Claus" Today
      http://www.radiolovers.com/pages/cinnamonbear.htm  

BOMBER CALENDAR: Richland Bombers Calendar
    Click the event you want to know more about.
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>>From: Pete BEAULIEU ('62)

To: Frank WHITESIDE ('63)

Re: Gas Prices

Thanks for your insights and sentiments with which I mostly
agree. (1) On our discretionary spending, math wizard economists
assert that every penny saved from costs at the pump translates
into One BILLION Dollars of alternative spending in the U.S.
economy (disregarding savings or reduction of credit card debt).
(2) Regarding oil trains, projected coal and oil hauling trains
for export have hit some stiff head winds in the bottleneck
trackage and politics of our Seattle area. Not to mention the
plummeting international price for coal as well as oil (another
story, centered in China and India).

Now a tedious point, (3) the current or a possibly increased
federal gas tax does not contribute to the budget deficit or the
overall national debt. However, while the 18 cent federal gas 
tax is a user-charge restricted to transportation projects, in 
recent years the rest of the federal budget has been raided to
compensate for the declining value of this fixed federal gas tax.
This 18 cent/gallon amount has not kept pace with overall cost
inflation or with the better gas mileage of newer cars (declining
revenue as road demand increases). The Alaskan "bridge to
nowhere" was the poster child of politics at the trough, and
worse still was the deficit-exploding $800 Billion "stimulus
package" of "shovel ready" projects which you mention. (It is
said that the only real shovel ready projects were in cemeteries...)

In Washington state (one of seven states still escaping a state
income tax) we happen to have one of the highest state gas taxes
at 37 cent/gallon. Here, at least, I find myself thinking that
any marginal addition to this or the 18 cent federal gas tax
would be almost lost (background noise) in our familiar market
fluctuations to the total price/gallon at the pump.

-Pete BEAULIEU ('62)
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>>From: Betti AVANT ('69)

Re: Birthday Greetings

To: David RODRIGUEZ ('69)

Here's to a happy birthday. We first met in kindergarten at Jason
Lee in Mrs. LeClair's class.
    http://colhi69.tripod.com/69JL0Kam-LeClaire.html

-Betti AVANT ('69) ~ Richland
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That's it for today. Please send more.
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