In the News

With nearly $630 billion in trade flowing between Canada and the U.S. every year, the ongoing NAFTA renegotiation talks have been closely watched. How are NAFTA negotiations weighing on companies’ investment and innovation plans, and what sectors are being impacted the most? Is an overhaul of trade policy likely to make North America more or less attractive to investors? How are… Read more »

A federal bill aimed at updating the Internal Revenue Service’s decades-old IT systems sets out the duties and responsibilities of a new IRS chief information officer, among other modernization efforts. The tax agency’s IT systems are currently led by a chief technology officer, who serves in a similar role as a CIO and reports to the deputy IRS commissioner for operations… Read more »

The Internal Revenue Service’s online tax filing systems failed widely on Tax Day because of a hardware “glitch” in the part of the agency’s operating system that houses taxpayers’ personal tax records, according to the tax collection agency. The malfunctioning of IRS’s “master file” was discovered around 4 a.m. Tuesday, the biggest tax-filing day of the year. The impact of the problem… Read more »

News Brief: The IRS systems that allow U.S. taxpayers to file tax returns electronically partially failed Tuesday, less than 24 hours before the tax filing deadline, according to numerous reports. The cause for the failure was not immediately clear, the Washington Post reports, but is likely due to an internal technical failure. There is the possibility the failure was the result of… Read more »

For families hauling out and checking the condition of their camping and hiking gear this spring, the news Thursday was welcomed: The Department of Interior has dropped its earlier plans to nearly triple its entrance fees to $70 a vehicle at 17 of the most popular national parks, including Rainier and Olympic in Washington state. Instead, the current fees at most national parks and… Read more »

The FBI was more interested in forcing Apple to unlock the San Bernardino shooter’s cellphone rather look at other options in a time-sensitive investigation, a group of bipartisan members of Congress said Friday. In a letter to FBI Directory Christopher Wray, the representatives said the bureau was more interested in squeezing Apple than cracking the case. After the December 2015 terror… Read more »

A bipartisan group of House lawmakers wrote to FBI Director Christopher Wray Friday slamming the FBI’s handling of the San Bernardino shooter’s locked iPhone, adding that the bureau’s claim that it couldn’t bypass encryption on some 7,800 devices last year seems “highly questionable.” The lawmakers said a recent Justice Department inspector general report on the subject… Read more »

Local Rotarians get a treat each Tuesday morning at their breakfast meetings held at the Grange Hall in Woodinville. A homemade buffet with fellowship and good coffee gets them going from week to week.  A pledge, a song and a prayer for peace ushered in the week’s guest speaker, the Honorable Suzan DelBene from the 1st U.S. Congressional District.  Rotarians care about peace… Read more »

Looking out over Interstate 405 and the new Totem Lake Mall development, participants in a round table on affordable housing with U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene had a chance to talk about how they felt left behind in a rapidly changing region, and how government programs helped them rebuild their lives. The discussion was held on April 3 in Kirkland at the Athene apartments, a low-income… Read more »

U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene recently joined Kenmore Mayor David Baker in a visit to Mary’s Place Northshore, a family homeless shelter that serves the Northshore community. DelBene and Baker toured the facility, which was converted from a vacant King County Sheriff’s Office in Kenmore last summer, and met with several families who are currently staying there. “We know that… Read more »