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Starbucks is closing two Sea-Tac locations, Deschutes County approves 319 acre expansion in Sisters, Oregon seafood plant evacuated after fire, Spokane startup aims to bring driverless Cyber cabs to market, available financing for data centers falls, Montana Commission approves Northwestern Energy merger, 650 mile pipeline gets cautious support in Montana.

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Why some Seattle restaurant owners dream of Boise (KUOW)

“Chefs and restaurant owners say it's hard running a restaurant in Seattle. Diners feel it, too. Seattle has the country's second-highest menu prices, with customers paying 17% above the national median, according to Washington Hospitality Association figures.

What are they up against?

There are a number of different things. I think it starts first and foremost with regulations. It’s not one particular regulation, but a lot of them combining to create a bigger problem.

The one that gets pointed to the most is the lack of a tip credit, which is more recent. That is driving labor costs through the roof. The fundamental understanding is you want your labor to be about 30%. Most operators that I'm talking to are at 50% and above spending on labor, which is honestly just unsustainable.

Couple that with changing consumer habits because of larger economic forces. People just can't go out as much. Dining out is so expensive that diners just aren't going out on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday anymore. So those slow days, it's like, what do you do? How do you keep the doors open? You still have to pay the rent.

Can you break down what a tip credit is?

A tip credit is essentially a provision that allows employers to count a portion of an employee's tips towards meeting the minimum wage obligation. Right now, we've got one of the highest minimum wages in the country, and tips aren't being counted toward that. So essentially, servers, bartenders, back of house, they're getting the minimum wage and they're getting tips on top of that.

From a restaurant operator's standpoint, they're already operating on such thin margins that to add the extra financial pressure on top of that, it really runs the risk of them not having the doors open at all, let alone be able to pay their staff a decent wage.

What is it specifically that Boise is offering that folks are not getting here? 

Well, first and foremost, it's cheaper labor. Cheaper labor also means they can lower menu prices. And if you lower menu prices, you can bring in more customers.

One of the things that was really eye-opening is that Ethan Stowell Restaurants opened a Tavolata in Boise in 2023. To this day, that is that restaurant group's top performer, and they have dozens of locations across Washington and beyond.

That just really stands out to me in terms of where they are seeing success. They're busy every night. I think there's a mental aspect of that, the opportunity for a restaurateur. If your restaurant's doing well, you want to open more restaurants in that city.”

In eastern Montana, Bridger Pipeline carries both promise and risk (MTFP)

“With ranching a gamble and Keystone canceled, many landowners see proposed tar sands pipeline as a safe bet.

Wyoming-based Bridger Pipeline LLC plans to build a 650-mile pipeline to move tar sands oil — a dense mix of sand, clay, water and a molasses-like form of petroleum. The route would connect to an existing Canadian pipeline and run through Montana to an oil refinery hub and trading center in Guernsey, Wyoming. The company has said it plans to break ground within a year. This spring, President Donald Trump granted the project a presidential permit authorizing it to cross the Canadian border.

This is not the first time eastern Montana has been scoped for a tar sands pipeline. Bridger’s proposal follows a similar path to Keystone XL, which would have moved tar sands oil from Alberta through the U.S. to refineries on the Gulf of Mexico. Then-President Joe Biden terminated the project in January 2021, the day he took office. 

Standing in his grain field, Arnold said he was disappointed not to be on Keystone’s path, and excited when a Bridger representative first approached him about an easement more than a year ago. 
“My first thought was, I told him I’m not gonna let you come through unless you do circles out there,” Arnold said. Each length of pipe under his land means more money. 
The Northern Border Pipeline moves gas from Canada to the American Midwest, with 105 miles running through Montana. The check Arnold got for letting that pipeline cut through his land enabled him to continue farming. 

“It was the greatest thing ever,” he said. 

Bridger’s proposed pipeline runs through farm and rangeland where volatile cattle markets, skyrocketing diesel prices and multiyear droughts have made a challenging industry even harder in recent years. Farmers and ranchers who own land along the route say a payment from Bridger could provide meaningful stability.

The amount a pipeline company pays depends on the length of pipe and individual negotiations, which are often private. In 2012, some landowners reported offers of up to $38,000 from the Keystone XL Pipeline. Landowners in Nebraska who held out said they were offered tens of thousands of dollars in signing bonuses, with some reporting offers of more than $150,000.

Bridger anticipates hiring anywhere from 2,000 to 2,500 construction workers to build the pipeline, and those workers, Salvin said, would stay in temporary housing provided by the company, commonly referred to as “man camps.” Salvin said Bridger expects to create 50-100 full-time jobs in Montana to maintain the pipeline once it’s built. 

Economic impacts at that scale are meaningful in rural eastern Montana. The Continental Divide separates more than just the forests from the prairie. Most of the state’s income-generating population centers, tourism destinations and growth are located in the western half of the state. It’s a different story in the east. The oil and gas industry is a major economic driver for eastern Montana, and one of the region’s primary avenues of revenue. Carter County Commissioners said existing oil and pipeline infrastructure accounts for the vast majority of the county’s property tax receipts. The pipeline’s promise to consistently fill county coffers, Fladager said, carries a lot of weight in the eastern half of the state.

The pipeline also comes with risk. If completed, it will begin carrying 550,000 barrels of Canadian crude tar sands oil per day. At full capacity, it could carry more than a million barrels daily. A spill could pose serious environmental and health hazards.”

The U.S. cattle herd has fallen to 86.2 million head. 

That's the lowest level since 1951. And the problem isn't going away, plus ranchers face rising costs and a tightening labor market. 

Yet America still needs to produce beef. 

The equation is simple: Get more from every animal. 

DIT AgTech helps ranchers produce more with less through AI, nutrition automation and real-time data. Its infrastructure boosts herd performance while reducing labor and costs. 

Proven at scale in Australia: 

What drives adoption? Ranchers get the technology free with a three-year nutrition plan. 

Removing the cost barrier allows DIT AgTech to scale adoption faster, generating more data and recurring revenue 

America needs more output from fewer cattle. DIT AgTech has built the infrastructure to make that possible.

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