My son is a soldier who deployed last fall to Iraq. While he was gone, I generously let his ex girlfriend move in with since she was expecting his child. My son briefly got a leave to come home in January to meet his new baby and then off to Iraq again. Before I tell you what happens to my son, let me frame things for you. The ex girlfriend moves in with me in August 2008, has my grandson in December 2008 and continues to live with me until March of 2009, ALL rent free~bill free, my dutiful son starts paying child support from his sons birth and gets his son the Army medical benifits, BUT remember, this is his "EX".

As I said, after a brief leave home in January my son must return to Iraq. During his time home, he discusses with the "EX" marriage and determines that he in fact does not want to marry her. Of course she is hurt but he was honest. "One Week" after my son returns to Iraq, he is injured, he is medi-flighted to Germany then home.

As you can see my son to this point has been through alot, we as a family have been stretched emotionally. Now with my son stateside, the "EX" continues her ploy of winning him back, and she fails. She becomes angry which ends up resulting in her keeping the baby from my son. One day my son can see him whenever he wants and the next like a light switch he cant. Yes, Yes we are getting a lawyer.

Here is the kicker, so we call KPD, they say this on only a civil matter. So me, being curious look it up. RCW 9A.40.060 custodial interference. I reaproach the KPD with this information. They baulk, saying the law is unclear. the officer calls the DA"s office thier response is the same, the law is unclear. Hmmmm? Interesting, seems clear to me.

So, does is make a difference that in this case the father is a soldier? Should he recieve special treatment because he fought and was injured while in service to his country? And to make all of his wounds worse his son that he was just starting to bond with is torn from him and our family is devastated once again.

I am posting this for several reasons, maybe someone will read this and have information and how to help us. Also, as a mom of a soldier, I have had to hold the line here at home and not say much, but this time I had to. Maybe the media will become interested and research other soldiers who are going through similiar things and the response from the law and the community.

~~NOTE~~ to be fair, the last officer I spoke to at KPD was very empathetic, though still would not take the report

For the past week people in the Tri-Cities have been asking themselves the same question, “What is it?” “It” has been on the radio. A building on Clearwater Ave. was wrapped in “It just works for me” – and nothing else. No name. No logo. No clue where “it” came from or what “it” means.

The big reveal: “It” is The Union Credit Union, an all-union not-for-profit, is celebrating its arrival to the  Tri-Cities today.

"It just works for me," tells hard working union members in the Tri-Cities that The Union Credit Union moved to town and works to help them keep more of their hard earned money.

It came to the Tri-Cities from Spokane where it saved hard working families over $2 million just  by helping them get out from under their high-interest credit cards.  Now unions, union workers, their families and employers in the Tri-Cities have a not-for-profit alternative to the  big corporate banks that trapped many of them with high-interest credit.

Seeing good families being hit by these crazy 28 percent credit card interest rates shows how important it is for hard working people to have a place to bank that’s not out to take advantage them. It just works for me’ is about all that unions and the union credit union do to ensure working families are taken care of.


Unions and credit unions have shared history. Union membership provides individuals the ability to maintain or improve their working and employment conditions. We can all thank unions for child labor laws, public education, 40-hour work weeks, vacation time and minimum wage – just to name a few.

Members of Bricklayers Local 3 in Spokane started the not-for-profit The Union Credit Union in 1968. The credit union is still run by union members, for union members. It is unique in Washington state and quite possibly the only financial institution in the country that is run and managed by an all union staff and board. Even the CEO is a union member, which is representative of the credit union’s membership. The credit union serves union members and their families, unions and union employers.

The CEO told me that union members deserve better than high priced banking, outrageous credit card rates and payday lenders. Instead of giving dividends to shareholders they give profits back to the union workers in the form of lower interest rates on home and car loans and Step-Up Loans for workplace equipment such as laptops, stethoscopes and other tools.”

The Union Credit Union is saving the average family $13,600 or about  $200 a month through a Need Relief credit card balance transfer program which helps families to get out from under high-interest credit cards by transferring them to the not-for-profit. This is a program they are proud to bring to working families in the Tri-Cities.

On one of the New Year's Eve specials, they were asking members of Congress what their goals were for 2009.  I was very surprised with how few of them mentioned the economy in any fashion.  I think they need to work on fixing the economy first.  I think it is clearly the biggest issue facing our country right now, and that seems to be reflected in the vast majority of polls.  But Congress just doesn't seem to get it.

Unfortunately, with the many band-aid bailouts that were passed in 2008, Congress seemed unwilling to even consider the long-term effects of what they were doing.  They didn't provide adequate methods for oversight or regulation of how the bailout money was spent.  And since the money was handed out, there have been a lot of news stories about how some of that money was wasted.  It doesn't seem logical to me that wasting additional taxpayer money will create long-term growth for the economy.

Mitch McConnell, the Republican Minority Leader in the Senate, has been one of the few Congressional representatives who is talking about fixing the economy every chance he gets.  He is making two key points.  The first is that we don't waste any additional tax dollars.  The second point is that any economic stimulus/recovery plan needs to be well thought out.  I strongly agree with both of those points.  We need to make sure that any short-term fix doesn't have major negative long-term consequences.

One of the areas I am most concerned about is the power that President-elect Obama and the large Democratic majority in Congress will have to repay political favors.  Repaying those favors may come at the expense of truly fixing the economy.  For instance, labor unions spent well over $300 million to help elect Obama and strengthen the Democratic majority in Congress.  Now it seems the unions expect to get repaid for their support by having Congress quickly pass the Employee Free Choice Act, also known as the "Card Check" bill.

This bill would take away secret ballot elections in businesses where unions want to organize.  I have no problems with unions when the workers decide on their own to form one.  Especially in business sectors involving dangerous materials or processes, unions can serve a great purpose to protect worker safety.  But it doesn't seem to make any sense to take away the workers' right to decide whether to unionize in a secret ballot election.  Just as people were intimidated and coerced to vote certain ways in political elections in the early days of this country, the same thing would happen to workers who weren't able to keep their votes secret.  It would effectively stifle a lot of the debate because people with dissenting viewpoints would be opening themselves up to retaliation.

Plus, the fear of harassment could lead to "push-button" unions in a lot of businesses that really don't require them - like very small businesses.  Small businesses have always been the driving force of job growth and this bill could stifle them under excessive regulations.  And that would really hurt the long-term prospects for the economy.  I saw that the Friends of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is working to make sure everyone knows about the potential negative effects of this bill.  I encourage the other readers to sign their petition or directly contact their Congressional representative and ask them to protect worker privacy, fix the economy first, and fix the economy in the right way to ensure long-term growth.  Here's a link to the petition and some more information about the bill - friendsoftheuschamber.com/email/email4.cfm?id=178

We've all seen amazing stories about lawsuit abuse.  People suing businesses because they spilled a hot drink on themselves, or because they were overweight, or because they didn't exercise common sense when using the products made by the business.  But this week I heard about an example of lawsuit abuse that beats all the rest.  It is one of the most incredible stories I've seen all year.

A couple of Canada geese took up residence outside a small pool maintenance store in Maryland.  The owners of the store tried to get the geese to leave, but their options were limited because of the Migratory Species Act.  The Act makes it illegal to disturb migratory birds, even when they aren't migrating.  So, it was illegal for the store owners to disturb the geese.  And because they weren't being disturbed, the geese stuck around.  Eventually, one of the geese honked at a shopper entering a DIFFERENT store.  The shopper was startled and fell down.  She decided to sue the pool maintenance store for damages, claiming the geese were the responsibility of the store owners.  The lawsuit was for $750,000.

I can't believe that something like that was even accepted by an attorney, much less actually go to trial.  What an incredible waste of the justice system.  Not only did it hurt the pool maintenance store, it wasted everyone's time who had to be involved with the case.  I'm sure that a lot of other cases could have benefited from having a shorter wait for a trial or more access to legal professionals who had to spend their time on this case.  You can see the entire story about the geese here - www.friendsoftheuschamber.com/email/email4.cfm?id=185 . There's even a video where the owners of the pool maintenance store talk about their experiences.  It is such an incredible story, I don't feel like I've done it justice in words - check out the video to see it for yourself.

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