The Sunday Lookout

The Sunday Lookout, 6/7/2026

We're going to start this week at the gas pump, because Governor Ferguson just turned down another push to pause our climate program for some relief at the pump, and I want to talk about why a gas tax holiday is mostly a mirage, and what I think we should do instead.

Then we'll come home for an update on the public safety sales tax that's building momentum at the county. I'm on record supporting it, but there are details buried in this thing that will decide whether it actually fixes our budget or just resets the clock for three years.

After that, we’ll keep close to home, with Centralia's new crisis relief center. The state is piloting a new behavioral healthcare experiment here, but the half-baked funding model risks setting the whole thing up for failure before it even gets off the ground.

Then we'll head to the other Washington for a story I'm calling "it's your money," because while folks here are squeezed on gas and groceries and healthcare, the federal government is busy building a ballroom and a cage-fighting arena.

And we'll close with something bigger picture. Bernie Sanders just floated an idea about who should own artificial intelligence, and I want to use it to talk about how we ought to think about AI out here, beyond just "AI bad."

Music I use: Bensound.com

License code: HN2TEEIAPTOLPBOU

Artist: : Marcus P.

The Sunday Lookout, 5/31/2026

 We're going to start this week close to home and close to the heart, where it’s been a heavy week with the disaster at the paper mill in Longview. We’ll talk about what we know so far and what it should mean for all of us who live in a part of the state built on this kind of work.

After that, we'll head to Washington, DC, where the Postal Service just took its first real step toward carrying out the president's order to clamp down on mail-in voting, and I'll tell you why the people you elect to run our county elections suddenly matter a whole lot more.

Then we'll come back home for an update on cannabis retail, because I went and testified at the Planning Commission hearing this week, and I want to tell you how that went and where this thing goes next.

After that, we'll talk about the gambling apps that are quietly hooking a lot of young men around the country, and the one reason most of us in Washington aren't seeing the worst of it.

And we'll close with some good news, because someone many of you follow just got recognized for the kind of digging that keeps local government honest, and she deserves every bit of recognition.

Music I use: Bensound.com

License code: HN2TEEIAPTOLPBOU

Artist: : Marcus P.

The Sunday Lookout, 5/24/2026

 This week, we'll start in Packwood, where two residents drained their retirement savings to build a flood berm that protected hundreds of homes during the December flooding, and where the county is now telling them they may have to permit it after the fact or tear it out. We'll connect that to a bigger story about how little of the state's flood aid has actually reached the people who needed it.

Then we'll head to the courthouse in Chehalis, where the commissioners voted Tuesday to put taxpayers on the hook for the legal defense of officials named in the Paul Bromm lawsuit. I covered the failed version of this vote a few weeks ago. This time it passed, and there's new national context that tells us a lot about what we might be signing up to pay for.

After that, we'll talk about Timberland Regional Library, where the two administrators the community spent months asking the board to remove have instead been promoted into the top two jobs. I'll explain why that decision may have just killed the one thing that could actually save the library system.

Then we'll check in on the sheriff's race. The Tracy Murphy story keeps generating headlines, and I want to use that as a jumping-off point, because there are only eight weeks until the primary, and I'm worried we're so busy watching the scandal that we're forgetting to actually vet the people asking to run the largest law enforcement agency in the county.

And we'll close with a fight over a word. A prominent meteorologist is insisting Washington isn't in a drought, the state says it is, and I want to talk about why arguing over the terminology is a distraction from the thing that actually matters.

Music I use: Bensound.com

License code: HN2TEEIAPTOLPBOU

Artist: : Marcus P.

The Sunday Lookout, 5/17/2026

 This week, we’ll start in Centralia, where the city council finally filled the District 1 vacancy on Tuesday night. Jan Nontell is the new councilor, and her appointment closes a saga that has stretched on for over two months.

Then we’ll head to federal court, where a judge is being asked to throw out Washington’s legislative district maps, three months before the August primary. The response from the state has been blunt and the stakes for our region are real.

After that, we’ll talk about the federal government’s official cancellation of the Public Lands Rule. The Bureau of Land Management is now formally permitted to manage 245 million acres without considering conservation as an equal use, and a former oil and gas congressman is on his way to running the agency.

Then we’ll talk about data centers, eminent domain, and what’s already happening to rural communities in Georgia, Wisconsin, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. None of this has hit Washington in a serious way quite yet, but it will, and we need to be ready.

And we’ll close with the Chehalis flow-through dam. I watched the presentation that flood control advocates gave to the Centralia City Council on Tuesday, and I want to talk about what they said, what they didn’t say, and why the way the data was presented moved me from cautiously open to a no, for now.

Music I use: Bensound.com

License code: HN2TEEIAPTOLPBOU

Artist: : Marcus P.

The Sunday Lookout, 5/10/2026

 This week, we'll start in Vader. The city council met on Wednesday, and the meeting captured something I think is worth paying attention to. A small town in South County trying to grow itself, on its own terms. It's the kind of meeting that doesn't make headlines, but it's a portrait of what self-determined small-town development actually looks like.

Then we'll talk about the White House ballroom, which has somehow grown from a $200 million project paid for by private donors into a $1 billion ask from federal taxpayers. The same Republicans who can't stop talking about affordability are about to vote on it.

After that, we'll head back home for the latest TransAlta story. The owners of the Centralia coal plant want $20 million to cover the cost of running a plant that didn't actually run. They want regional ratepayers to foot the bill, including all of us.

Then we'll talk about the REI boycott. The biggest sale of the year for the Issaquah-based co-op starts this Friday, and union workers from eleven stores, including the one in Bellingham, are asking customers to sit it out.

And we'll close with a roundup of filing week, which wrapped up Friday. There's a lot to cover, including a sheriff candidate dropping out with a remarkable Facebook post, a new entrant to that race, an eight-way primary in our congressional district, and one or two surprises further down the ballot.

Music I use: Bensound.com

License code: HN2TEEIAPTOLPBOU

Artist: : Marcus P.

The Sunday Lookout, 5/3/2026

 Welcome to The Sunday Lookout. It’s May 3rd, 2026. I’m Zac Eckstein, and this is a weekly show about the political news that matters here in Lewis County, from what’s happening in DC to what’s brewing in Olympia to what’s landing right here in our backyard. Each week I cover five stories, and I give you both the facts and my take on what they mean for us here in Southwest Washington.

This week we’ll start with the United States Supreme Court, which on Wednesday handed down what may be the most consequential voting rights decision in 60 years. The Court gutted the heart of the Voting Rights Act, and the consequences are going to ripple through every level of government for a long time.

Then we’ll head to Olympia, where Attorney General Nick Brown is suing the corporate parent of every Safeway, Albertsons, and Haggen in Washington for allegedly running fake “buy one, get one free” deals that overcharged shoppers across more than three million transactions. It’s an affordability story, and it’s a rural story, even though the headlines haven’t framed it that way.

After that, we’re coming home with a sheriff race that just got blown wide open. Tracy Murphy, the leading candidate to replace Rob Snaza, was fired Wednesday from the Centralia Police Department after 35 years on the job. The reasons why are more complicated than they first appear, and I want to walk through what the case file actually shows.

Next, we’ll talk about the Bromm lawsuit and what happened at the commissioners’ meeting on Tuesday, when one commissioner tried to push through legal protection for those involved in the case. The motion failed in the end, but I’ll explain why it probably shouldn’t have been brought to the floor in the first place.

And we’ll close today with a story about our forests. On one hand, the state’s protections on 77,000 acres of older forestland are getting blamed for hammering rural budgets. On the other hand, the federal government’s new ideological strings on wildfire grants are getting almost no attention at all. One of those is a much bigger problem than the other, and I want to explain why.

Music I use: Bensound.com

License code: HN2TEEIAPTOLPBOU

Artist: : Marcus P.

The Sunday Lookout, 4/26/2026

 This week, we'll start with the DOJ's indictment of the Southern Poverty Law Center. It's being framed as a fraud case, but legal experts across the board are calling it what it looks like: the government using criminal charges to punish a civil rights organization it doesn't like. We'll talk about what the indictment actually says, why legal experts are skeptical, and why this one hits close to home.

Then we'll look at the Trump administration's denial of Washington's flood mitigation funding request. FEMA just said no to money that would help prevent flood damage like we saw last December — and they couldn't even be bothered to explain why.

After that, we’ll look at why Moody's put Washington state on notice this week by attaching a negative outlook to our credit rating. I'll explain why that happened and what it actually means for communities like ours.

Then we'll look at what budget cuts are doing to recreation sites in our own backyard. Several campgrounds near Lewis County are cutting back or shutting down entirely for the year, and there are real costs for the communities that depend on outdoor recreation traffic.

And we'll close today with a good news story out of Morton, where a community group is working to build a skate park — and why that effort is part of a longer tradition of rural people deciding to build the things they need without waiting for permission.

Music I use: Bensound.com

License code: HN2TEEIAPTOLPBOU

Artist: : Marcus P.

The Sunday Lookout, 4/19/2026

 First up, we’ll look at a story about a Washington state man whose seditious conspiracy conviction is being erased and how it connects to a speaker that the Lewis County Republican Party hosted at its annual fundraising dinner. The thread between them runs through one of the most well-documented extremist networks in the country.

Then we’ll look at a box of several hundred ballots discovered next to a dumpster behind a Renton strip mall and somehow ended up in the hands of the state Republican Party chairman. I’ll tell you what I think actually happened, and why the story being told about it is a lot more interesting than the story that’s true.

After that, a good news update on the Timberland Regional Library, where more than 80% of the planned layoffs have been rescinded. But I want to talk about why the underlying pattern — executives protecting themselves while workers absorb the consequences — keeps repeating itself in institutions across this region.

Then we’ll dig into the latest chapter of Trump’s budget proposal. This one’s got a catchy name: Make America Skilled Again. I’ll tell you what it actually does, which is mostly cut job training programs for workers who badly need them.

And we’ll close today with a story about salmon, energy, and what happens when the federal government tears up a deal it made and hands the whole mess to the courts. The Lewis County PUD is now backing an appeal of a court order that was only necessary because Trump canceled a billion-dollar salmon restoration agreement. We’ll talk about what’s actually at stake here and why there’s no easy answer.

Music I use: Bensound.com

License code: HN2TEEIAPTOLPBOU

Artist: : Marcus P.

The Sunday Lookout, 4/11/2026

 First up this week, the state just declared a statewide drought emergency, and it’s even worse than last year. And right as fire season threatens to be catastrophic, the federal government is gutting the research stations that help us fight the flames.

Then I’ll give you a quick update on the Iran war, but we’ll zoom in on the new automatic draft registration rules. Apparently, the federal government figured out how to automatically register every 18-year-old male for the draft, so tell me again why we can’t do that with voting?

After that, we’ll talk about the millionaires tax lawsuit. Regardless of how you feel about the bill passing, the legal challenge everyone expected has arrived, and I want to make sure we’re all catching the irony of who’s funding it.

Then we’ll look at a recall effort against Governor Ferguson filed by professional complainer Conner Edwards. Edwards is wondering why Ferguson hasn’t backfilled 2 vacant seats on the Public Disclosure Commissions board. Typically I’d ignore silly things like this, but this time, Edwards kinda has a point.

And we’ll close today with state Superintendent Chris Reykdal giving the legislature an “F” grade for cutting one of the most effective early learning programs in the state. While spending increased by $2 billion, over 2000 kids lost a vital learning program because we couldn’t find $25 million to keep it running. This is a story about priorities.

Music I use: Bensound.com

License code: HN2TEEIAPTOLPBOU

Artist: : Marcus P.

The Sunday Lookout, 4/5/2026

 First up this week, Lewis County residents were asked whether they support cannabis retail, and the answer was a resounding yes. I’ll give you those results, go through what happens next, and talk about why we should have done this years ago.

Then we’ll dig into the Oke Game farm saga. Two bills aimed at the water contamination problem died in the legislature this year despite overwhelming local support and testimony. I will explain why they died, what we got instead, and why we’re not trying to solve water issues elsewhere in the county.

After that, we’ll talk about SB 5974, the new sheriff certification law that Governor Ferguson signed on Wednesday. Four Eastern Washington Sheriffs have already filed suit to block it, and I attended the Lewis County Sheriff’s candidate forum this past week where all four candidates came out against it. I’ve got some thoughts on that.

Then we’ll flag something that could devastate communities in East Lewis County. The Trump administration just proposed massive cuts to both the National Park Service and the Forest Service. For our gateway communities, this could be catastrophic, especially after the cuts they’ve already been dealing with.

And we’ll close today with a story that should frustrate every parent in the state. The legislature had a chance to do something meaningful about cell phones in schools, and instead order to study. We’ll talk about what other states are doing and why Washington decided to wait.

Music I use: Bensound.com

License code: HN2TEEIAPTOLPBOU

Artist: : Marcus P.