Shawn Bills, State Director for Senator Patty Murray, provided a view into her legislative activities.

She was first elected in 1992. He has been with her for the past 12 years. He mentioned the fact that she commutes to D.C. from WA every week, and does not stay there to participate in talk shows. The speaker pointed to the Senator’s bipartisan efforts at compromise, which have been effective, to wit:

• In 2013, when the government headed toward shutdown, she and Rep. Paul Ryan, in a spirit of mutual trust, worked out a compromise to defuse the crisis. It is to be noted that in this, as in other endeavors, Sen. Murray worked with legislators from the opposite party.
• A similar cooperation occurred with a Georgia Republican.
• She and Ryan, on the Budget Committee, created a commission to review federal policy, which led to data-driven methods.
• As head Democrat on the Health, Education, Labor, and Pension Committee, she has jurisdiction over many of these issues.
• With Senator Lamar Alexander, she helped to right the K-12, No-Child-Left-Behind issue.
• As was reiterated, Sen. Murray continues to work with people of different views both at home and across the aisle in Congress.
• The NIH funding has been a project of Murray, Blount, and Alexander. The House has passed it and it is before the Senate.
• Alexander and Murray have campaigned for funding for research and response vis a vis the Zika virus. As a result, an amount of $1.1 billion has been allocated.
• Her interest in veterans’ affairs has been active. She is the first female chair of the Veterans’ Committee. Having met resistance in her effort to aid injured veterans begin anew and start their families, she got it through.
• Her other interests include clean energy, climate change, wildfire control, recreational access, and bringing business to the state.
• She decries the gridlock that has denied Judge Garland a Senate hearing.

In summary: A comprehensive, if slightly partisan, summary of his employer’s activities.

Professors Dan Schwartz and David Ginger, of the UW Clean Energy Institute, took us into the future in regard to solar power and related resources.

Focused on clean energy throughout the world, they spoke of a $17 trillion international commitment. Solar energy is in itself cheap, but factories cost too much. The UW facility is planned to lower the cost.

These are the facts:

• Climate change is a worse threat than international terrorism.
• 20,000 premature annual US deaths are due to the use of fossil fuels.
• The distribution of energy is critical to society as regards health and the economy.
• The world population is growing. Global lifestyles are becoming increasingly similar to those in North America. World energy use is going up.
• The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is involved in the Institute.
• US energy consumption is huge.
• It is cheaper to burn off natural gas than to capture it.
• The dream is to convert sunlight to clean electricity quickly and economically.
• Solar energy has the largest technical possibility of all renewable sources.
• Other sources such as wind and hydroelectric should by no means be ignored
• A solar farm can supply not only electricity, but also heating and lighting. In Kenya, it is being used for light to facilitate education.
• Solar is growing exponentially.
• Renewable energy is projected to keep up with US demand.
• The challenges include storage, grid infrastructure and information systems, and bringing down costs.
• We need to make new materials to enable this technology.
• Some of these are organic polymer inks; carbon and nitrogen based materials; hybrid peroxkites, a crystalline structure.
• The various efficiency of materials in solar cells were considered.

Comment: The world has awakened to the damage done by the use of fossil fuels. The undertaking by this group and others is part of the race to reverse the drastic changes afoot. If this is ever accomplished–and everything depends upon it–it will not occur

Last week we heard from economist Paul Cunnington, a purveyor of pragmatism.

Several of his pronouncements were as follows:

• The media are not honest.
• 95% of what is written or spoken about the economy is either wrong or irrelevant.
• Nothing should be taken for granted.
• Money does not disappear; it just changes hands.
• Those who are informed accumulate fortunes, the actions of Soros, et al, being an example.
• The movement of money runs through the stock and real estate markets. When one rises, the other declines.
• When real estate drops, the strength of the US dollar follows.
• A drop in oil prices was caused by the dollar getting cheaper.
• Chinese investment in the US is in commercial real estate
• As money flows in from China, these currents can change and affect many lives.
• Fluctuations in credit affect the economy more than the supply of money.
• When mortgages are widespread, money comes “out of the air”. The price of goods and services rises.
• Sufficient money must be created to pay principals and interests.
• This cannot go on forever.
• Debt can be used productively to grow the economy.
• Debt is non-productive when it is used for spending.
• Debt cannot pay back principal and interest.
• When debt creation is large, prices rise.
• It takes $3 of debt to produce $1 of growth. This is bad for future generations.
• Rising debt, with people borrowing money to spend it, means higher stock market risk.
• With money not being paid back, recession results.
• The times for recovery from recession loom longer and longer, accompanied by a drop in the economy
• An apparent rise in the stock market does not always mean we are in a favorable growth period.
• A long -term debt cycle recovery time is 60-80 years.
• A lot of manufacturing has left us due to government debt policy/trade deficit.
• With debt rising and the deficit greater, this does not mean we have growth.
• Subscribe to Paul’s newsletter @ http://mygreencapital.com/

Comment: According to the speaker, things are not exactly looking up

Sign up for UW Rotaract’s Annual International Service Scholarship Banquet and Auction on May 6th, 2016. This will be held at the UW Hub Lyceum from 6-9 PM. Tickets are $20 for students and $25 for the general public. There is also an option to sponsor a table (8 seats) for $160. If you sell 2 tickets and if you are a Rotaract member, you get yours for free! All proceeds go toward our student service scholarships and charities!

Your ticket includes access to a live auction, silent auction, raffle, and a buffet dinner catered by Little Thai Kitchen, and one free alcoholic beverage (if you’re over 21)!

If you have not paid yet, please go to tinyurl.com/donateuwrotaract BEFORE the event. Please contact uwhsroto@uw.edu or ssleong@uw.edu for any questions or concerns. See you on May 6th!