It’s a shame Washington citizens, and particularly voters, don’t take the time to look behind the curtain at think-tank reports. Do they actually know it is a word game, or cooked-up findings?
Yes, it comes from both sides. The conservative think tanks take a data set, twist the numbers, and ...
By: Jim Boldt | Washington State Wire | Sept. 3, 2010
It’s back to school time, and as a parent of children in our public school system, I’m shocked and dismayed by the “Not the WASL” test scores just released by the Superintendent of Public Instruction. And the most disturbing thing is not the performance of our kids, but the behavior and beliefs of ...
By: Melvin G. Ashton | Washington State Wire | Sept. 2, 2010
1. The head of the Port of Seattle gave us all a moment of relief when he announced he would not accept a raise this year. He went home, sat down at the table and realized he could get by with his meager $334,000 a year. That of course is just the salary, the monthly nut. I feel better knowing he wo...
By: Jim Boldt | Washington State Wire | Aug. 25, 2010
We are all cognitive misers – that means our brains are lazy. We like things to follow a pattern, and we don’t like to spend time reviewing the data looking for the exception. So when we develop a ‘truth’, we tend to stick with it even when the data doesn’t support our lazy view of the world. ...
By: Melvin G. Ashton | Washington State Wire | Aug. 25, 2010
O.K., boys and girls, what did we learn from this year’s primary election? I suppose that literally we learned who came in first, second, and third in a few political races, but that’s not really worth much in the long run. No, I mean to ask the question in the way a businessperson asks about less...
By: Melvin G. Ashton | Washington State Wire | Aug. 24, 2010
OLYMPIA, Aug. 23--In a sharply-worded press release, issued in conjunction with a media briefing and a 10,000-page report, Washington Department of Ecology officials criticized the Legislature for failing to understand the difficulties they face in implementing the state’s latest environmental initi...
By: The Beet: Stuff That Could be True | Washington State Wire staff | Aug. 23, 2010
Here is what we can tell you about the general election in November. The ballots will be counted on November 2nd, and it will be raining. That’s it. We can be sure about the weather during the election, because folks will be voting over a three-week period, not just on the 2nd. It’s just that the ba...
By: Jim Boldt | Washington State Wire | Aug. 18, 2010
Our story yesterday about Lynn Kessler’s frustration over the squeeze being put on her party does not reflect a new emotion for state legislators. Years ago a group of pro-choice Republicans starting meeting and calling themselves “Mainstream Republicans”. Kessler’s comments to our reporter Erik Sm...
By: Jim Boldt | Washington State Wire | Aug. 17, 2010
At approximately 9:05 a.m. west coast savings time, a van of Republican party legislative leadership members overturned on the freeway exit near the office of Department of Information Services (DIS) for Washington State. The headquarters is the office of over two hundred underemployed, poorly manag...
By: The Beet: Stuff That Could be True | Washington State Wire Staff | Aug. 16, 2010
Editor's note, Jim Boldt: CapitolStuff.com welcomes all, even closely sane, opinions about the function, make-up, and nature of deliberative bodies. Sorry Harold, it's the noise of yes, a democracy. This editor sides with Dr. Hillsteat.
First, having known Jim Boldt for over 20 years I am su...
By: Dr. Harold Hillsteat | Guest Commentary | Washington State Wire
There is surprisingly little empirical data about mail ballot voting. Sure, there’s been plenty of research about increased participation. Like that’s a surprise. Anyone who breathes can get a ballot now, and the only barrier to voting seems to be possession of a postage stamp. Of course more people...
By: Jim Boldt | Washington State Wire | Aug. 12, 2010
The question is not just philosophical. Washington voters are being asked this question very directly in the form of Initiative 1053, which would require a 2/3 vote of the legislature in order to take certain actions, namely increasing taxes. Opponents say this is impure, that democracy is built o...
By: Melvin G. Ashton | Washington State Wire | Aug. 12, 2010
I can only tell you what is printed below is a truthful account of a discussion with a second-level manager at a major state agency. Of course, for reasons you will understand, I'm not going to tell you who it was, or which agency. And I just talked to the one. I didn't call others. But here's the s...
By: Jim Boldt | Washington State Wire | Aug. 6, 2010
1. Someone tell my old friend Joel Connelly of the e-PI that even though the GOP does use terms lacking the respect given in deep urban areas, a person who is in our country illegally is in fact a person who has, in the vernacular, broken the law, and thus, maybe not politely, but can be referred to...
By: Jim Boldt | Washington State Wire | Aug. 3, 2010
If the money, more of it, again, doesn’t come from Congress to make our state budget whole, will the governor call a special session and when? As anyone who reads this blog knows, if she doesn’t call a special session, and if she wants to balance the fiscal hole, she has two options:
1. Cut...
By: Jim Boldt | Washington State Wire | July 27, 2010
State government is clearly in a pickle. We don’t have enough money to continue doing the things that we’re currently committed to do. But that isn’t stopping some from proposing that we add more to our plate.
As legislators and advocates begin forming up their proposals for next year, the...
By: Melvin G. Ashton | Washington State Wire | July 26, 2010
As a former legislator, lobbyist and yes, school board member, I am fascinated by the use of money in formation of public policy. If you don't look at it as the new fourth leg of the stool, you could get sick to your stomach.
First, the hypocrisy: The leftist blogs out of Seattle start out th...
By: Jim Boldt | Washington State Wire | July 23, 2010
I took a call on my cell phone yesterday while driving down the freeway, and rather than use my speakerphone option, I held the receiver to the side of my head. I know what you’re thinking, and it’s true. I’m a bad man.
But when I exited the freeway, a Pierce County Sheriff was behind me, a...
By: Melvin G. Ashton | Washington State Wire | July 19, 2010
Recent reports in Seattle’s news/blogs show us that 65 percent of people polled trust state run stores to sell booze “responsibly,” and 55 percent trust private owned stores. What? One hundred and twenty-one percent of total responses? Must be a smart group of folks. Actually, it is two questions, n...
By: Jim Boldt | Washington State Wire | July 13, 2010
By revealing just how you’ve been duped, I may be branded a heretic and cast out of the temple, because the false god that I will cast down has been elevated to the top of our pantheon of economic deities.
The change was so subtle that it was...
By: By: Melvin G. Ashton | Washington State Wire | July 13, 2010
For well over 30 years I have watched the superior court judges of Thurston County uphold all things government, left, labor, and green. This week the Olympian newspaper reported that a brave superior court judge ruled against a pleading by largest state employee union seeking to halt work furlough...
By: Jim Boldt | Washington State Wire | July 8, 2010
I love it when I hear something that suggests that my bad habits are actually good for me. For instance, research from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine indicates that one to two units of alcohol consumption per day saves 15,000 lives a year, giving protection from coronary heart d...
By: Melvin G. Ashton | Washington State Wire | July 8, 2010
I confess. I missed it. Somewhere back there, probably while I was watching the Bush administration turn a bind eye toward billion-dollar stock brokerage firms and banks, and allowed people who had no business buying a house to buy one, the liberals re-branded themselves. Maybe it happened while Sea...
By: Jim Boldt | Washington State Wire | July 6, 2010
We hear it all the time from the right – “Government should be run like a business!” I disagree.
Any business the size of our government would use its massive market power to quickly snuff out its competitors, and then begin expanding into new markets. Government has a monopoly on industria...
By: Melvin G. Ashton | Washington State Wire | July 3, 2010
The Washington Federation of State Employees, the largest union working for public workers in this state, is suing Washington state government (that's all of us, by the way) to stop the planned furloughs of its members. I guess that is the role of unions in this new world.
Oh, the claim uses ...
By: Jim Boldt | Washington State Wire | June 29, 2010
There is something wrong in PUD-land. It's not apparent to the general public because, as has been the case for over 75 years, electricity from public utility districts is available at the nation's lowest prices, the domestic water is clean and flowing, the fiber-optic backbones are carrying our 21s...
By: Jim Boldt | Washington State Wire | June 28, 2010
A blog post this week about the technological backwardness of certain mid-to-right political groups caught some people's attention. Some folks raised an interesting question. Remember, success has a thousand fathers and failure is born an orphan.
Who or what is responsible for the low-tech ap...
By: Jim Boldt | Washington State Wire | June 25, 2010
Why don’t conservatives, Republicans, and right-to-middle folks in this state understand the impact of technology on politics? Seriously, it’s embarrassing.
On any given day, from any one of ten or more progressive groups, the emails fly, telling their story, their point of view, framing the...
By: Jim Boldt | Washington State Wire | June 23, 2010
It’s so much easier to avoid getting addicted in the first place than it is to kick the habit.
Recently, the government in British Columbia changed their local tax structure in a way that made their Canadian citizens eligible for a tax break that has been on the books in Washington for almost...
By: Melvin G. Ashton | Washington State Wire | June 21, 2010
Washingtonians are a progressive lot, especially when it comes to environmental issues.
We started recycling in the dark ages when municipal landfills were still openly burning trash in unlined pits. In 2010, we’re into the 2nd or even 3rd generation of citizens who are committed to reducing...
By: Melvin G. Ashton | Washington State Wire | June 17, 2010
The pop tax ought to be repealed. Not just because it is one more new tax. The reason is transparency -- and believe it or not, fairness.
Remember that the pop industry was told that an amendment would be drafted to the tax bill that would handle the economic problems on the “little guys” in ...
By: Jim Boldt | Washington State Wire | June 16, 2010
I’m reading the same state and national news and blog posts you are. Yes, they are full of stories about unhappy people of all stripes gearing up to challenge incumbents. And supposedly they are angry, or at least upset and lacking confidence in the status quo.
So where are they when the prim...
By: Jim Boldt | Washington State Wire | June 14, 2010
I saw this question on a poster in a state office building, touting the Combined Fund Drive. I think it’s one of the most important questions I’ve considered in a very long time.
What it triggered for me were thoughts about HOW the world is...
By: Melvin G. Ashton | Washington State Wire | June 6, 2010
Almost every industry or business has come to the realization that customers, or people in general are now empowered and equipped to interact, collaborate and participate in decisions ranging from local soccer practice times to intentional events and actions. The tool is the Internet, the term is ch...
By: Jim Boldt | Washington State Wire | June 5, 2010
Below is an actual email exchange between a retailer of “Nutrition Bars” and the state Department of Revenue. The question, of course, is application of the new “sin tax” – the sales tax on candy.
It's worth a read. The final determination is that “nutrition bars” are taxable if they have any...
By: By: Jim Boldt | Washington State Wire | June 3, 2010
Prologue: We have learned that U.S. Senate candidates have been arrested for DUI. Our superintendent of public instruction was convicted of it. Elected officials face charges for assault, for drug use, even drug-selling. And now, finally, the Washington State Republican Party has decided it’s time t...
By: Jim Boldt | Washington State Wire | June 2, 2010
Can there be anyone in Washington state who does not know of Dino Rossi? I mean, anyone who is breathing and votes.
If it there is any chance to put partisan politics aside, it would be interesting to drill into why Rossi's opponents are talking more about his real estate business than the i...
By: Jim Boldt | Washington State Wire | May 27, 2010
I had to go to a wiki to find out what all the fuss was about this Race to The Top thingy. The education community calls it R3T. How cool.
Well, unfortunately, it is just what most of us thought. It's an application for school districts to apply for more borrowed money from China (oh, there I...
By: Jim Boldt | Washington State Wire | May 24, 2010
First, you have showed us how un-smart you are. (You like that, kind of backward-PC, get it?) Let’s go over this again. THERE IS NO PRIVACY IN AMERICA ANYMORE. ALL GONE BYE-BYE, WHAT HASN’T BEEN STOLEN WE HAVE GIVEN AWAY. O.K.? Why don’t you read the “terms of ...
Yes, it will set you free. Yes, it has power beyond our understanding. If it is a lifestyle, it is a healthy one.
Its absence is a bomb waiting to go off. Void of truth, all communication comes to a surprising and dismantling end. What’s worse, the trust that supported any untrue communicati...
By: Jim Boldt | Washington State Wire | May 21, 2010
Oh listen to them! All those reporters, bloggers and analysts. A couple of upsets in a couple of primaries, and all of the nation's incumbents are in peril. Really?
First – let's see how good-old, always-strong, common-sensed, John McCain does in his primary. It's down to a single-digit diffe...
By: Jim Boldt | Washington State Wire | May 19, 2010
Probably in an interest to wrap something around his new book advertisement, Scott Rasmussen of Rasmussen Reports reported Sunday that one of his latest surveys found 51 percent of the people say America is the last best hope for mankind (his word).
But more intriguing is that 24 percent aren...
By: Jim Boldt | Washington State Wire | May 17, 2010
There is a not-so-thin line between being vigilant in defense of copyright and trademarks, and being absolutely asinine. Saks Fifth Avenue is the latter – clearly.
Sometime over the last few weeks the giant multi-national retailer demanded that a one-off hair place in Olympia cease-and-desis...
Polling is fun. I’ve been part of a dozens of them, mostly statewide peek-a-boos at what is happening. Eventually, by education or experience, you come to understand what they really are. And that would be a list of answers to questions developed by people who spend a lifetime trying to ask question...
By: Jim Boldt | Washington State Wire | May 7, 2010
The Supe (sic) of Public Instruction announced today that about “one in four” (that's 25 percent) students taking the math and reading tests will do so online.
DISCLOSURE: This blog supports doing away with the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction. It is in the constitution but ...
By: Jim Boldt | Washington State Wire | April 30, 2010
We here at Capitol Stuff have been thinking about this move by Chris Hurst. He announced last week that he is going to become, or file for office as an “Indpendent Democrat.” Just what does that mean?
The News Tribune story (that’s the Tacoma paper) reports that Hurst will still “support Spea...
By: Jim Boldt | Washington State Wire | April 28, 2010
When you read that the U.S. Supreme Court is taking up a case about whether the names of people who sign an initiative petition should be made public information, and then read the Morning News Tribune’s column about the Public Disclosure Commission looking into whether J.T. Wilcox has to disclose t...
By: Jim Boldt | Washington State Wire | April 22, 2010
Where does the real action on issues take place in the state of Washington? Is the Legislature, as a participant in the state’s public policy, really serving up sustainable ideas and solutions?
At least 54 initiatives have been announced since the beginning of the year. I hope the pace slows,...
By: Jim Boldt | Washington State Wire | April 20, 2010
This is an easy, short and sad blog post to put up today. The Legislature digressed below the mean, put a patch on the hole, put a spin on the problem, and left town. Oh yes, some of them worked long hours to save our state, to use their phrases. The fact is, if you step back and look, they actually...
By: Jim Boldt | Washington State Wire | April 14, 2010
In this world of social networking and sharing of information sometimes people just throw stuff up… because they feel they have to?
Representative Jeff Morris shared critical new information about the “go home” tax proposal on his twitter site. The members of the traditional news establishmen...
By: Jim Boldt | Washington State Wire | April 9, 2010
Choppsters win the pool! Of the fifty people who participated in my legal, virtual tax pool, 47 chose Chopp and the House on the question of, “who wins the sales tax battle?”
Now we get to ask why? Did the guv get Chopp and Lisa in a meeting room, all alone, Persian carpets, high-back chairs...
By: Jim Boldt | Washington State Wire | April 8, 2010
I had to write this yesterday and wait until this morning to read it again and post it. Why? Because I could not believe the issue is real and that we actually have to remind the Democrats about their core values.
A tax increase on beer? Is there anything more American, more blue-collar, more...
By: Jim Boldt | Washington State Wire | April 7, 2010
Rasmussen Surveys reports today that 38 percent of American voters are more likely to be involved in campaigns in 2010 than 2008. This means money and time. Right!
Don’t you love surveys? You get asked questions like, “Are you going to be a good American, and actually vote this fall?”
...
By: Jim Boldt | Washington State Wire | April 6, 2010
The beauty of a non-exclusive (or is that inclusive?), diverse group of guys getting together for coffee is that if everyone keeps it civil, you get to talk to a non-exclusive, diverse group of guys. Because they feel a sense of fairness in the room. (Diverse? Well, as diverse as a group of men-only...
By: Jim Boldt | Washington State Wire | April 2, 2010
You've all heard the phrases – “The House will vote for anything.” “The Senate will prevail because it is the Senate.”
Those days are over, at least for now. Most people, for various reasons, will put their money on House Speaker Frank Chopp for bringing forth the more politically defensible ...
By: Jim Boldt | Washington State Wire | March 30, 2010
Unless you are all tangled up in the federal healthcare issue, there was little going on in the political world this week. At least little that seemed good:
Randy Dorn got busted for driving while drunk – or to be technical about this, it is alleged he was drunk. He blew a .11 and he needs to...
By: Jim Boldt | Washington State Wire | March 26, 2010
Bloggers get it wrong sometimes. And evidently I have. Maybe it's because I am a product of public schools, or took the wrong courses, or the three businesses I have started and successfully operated in the last 40 years were just lucky flukes. Whatever the reason, I must say I guess I misunderstand...
By: Jim Boldt | Washington State Wire | March 20, 2010
Did I mention it was raining and snowing out here? The last three days have been winter, winter, early spring. And I’ve been down south, so no one at Friday coffee cares much. We are just starting to see the rich folks in Lilliwaup, returning from their villas and condos on the shores of exotic Mexi...
By: Jim Boldt | Washington State Wire | March 12, 2010
The Washington State Senate took a baby step in the right direction yesterday when it showed the courage to at least discuss an income tax. For those in attendance, or virtually attending, we heard the same old crap. Yes, our state’s sales tax is regressive; yes, our constitution probably requires a...
By: Jim Boldt | Washington State Wire | March 5, 2010
As the House Democrats roll out their economically-counterintuitive tax increase in the middle of a the great recession, it could be praised by advocates as a simple little tax. There is nothing much complicated or new about it. The proposed substitute bill for HB 3191 raises a lot of money, and fro...
By: Jim Boldt | Washington State Wire | March 2, 2010
During the push of getting a budget out, the legislators need to go outside and walk around the lake. I did decades ago as a member of the budget committee. I did it to think about what an old-timer had told me. He was a very conservative Democratic old-timer from Eastern Washington. I was young and...
It is evident that the Legislature has chosen to bypass its once-in-a-century opportunity to reboot the entire state-government machine. The same alleged citizen-tolerance for tax and fee increases they assume exists is the same political environment that would have accepted real cutbacks, consolida...
Not a cloud in the sky this morning. I need to mention we had our first inquiry from a woman about joining our all-male (not by design) coffee group. When I told her who the regulars are she said, “With that group, I'll think it over.” I start with this, and one other point, so you know we are equal...
Where is it? Where's the bottom of the barrel, the end of the tunnel, the point at which Washington's moderates, or even a few liberals say, “enough is enough?” Fortunately for the children of the state most of the school funding ballot measures passed last week. It would be nice if they were actual...
1. Washington citizens went to the polls yesterday. Well, that's not exactly true. They mailed in their ballots over a three-week period, and in most cases decided to renew or impose new property taxes for the kids. Most of them don't know that over 80 percent of each school district's budget is H...
Holy K-12 education, Batman! I thought this would be a fun Friday coffee meeting. We move out here to Lilliwaup to kind of get away from things. A local tavern – well, the only tavern – has a quote on the bottom of its menu; “XXXXX Saloon, conveniently located in the middle of nowhere.”
Last week a fair number of newspapers reported on the guv’s campaign violation – soliciting funds for Denny Heck, candidate for Congress in the Third District, in the middle of our current legislative session.
Basically her campaign committee (like it is some arms-length foreign operation) ...
It was a nice day Friday morning. We had a good turnout for coffee. I should remind anyone reading this that yes, this is rural America, and yes, this coffee klatch is a generational thing. It is a men's coffee klatch, and most of the guys are retired. Of course no women have asked to join us. Frank...
The people of the state of Washington have to feel good about their Legislature. There is so much hard work and money that goes into getting bills introduced, and even scheduled for a hearing. Think about it – the staff time, the room rental.
The reason the citizens should feel good is that ...
I normally don’t go in for the listings in news stories about the crazy ideas that well-intended legislators have drafted and introduce as legislation. But Sen. Adam Kline, Democrat of Seattle (where else?), has introduced SB 5960. The bill’s short title is “an act requiring law enforcement officer...
Forget what the people say – the Legislature knows better. Just watch what it does this session.
A group of energy, resource and alternative-energy types have been meeting forever about changing the renewable-energy initiative, Initiative 937. That piece of work, passed by the people in 2006,...
Putting aside Joel Connelly’s unconscious and habitual defense of all things ingrown, I was a little embarrassed by the report that the governor remarked that Tim Eyman should run for office. He’d be a caucus of one, and his head-on with Olympia reality would surely produce an instant resignation, o...
1. This story isn't supposed to be about politics, but it is. It was on a back page in the Olympian. Real Estate section maybe. Probably most people read it and wondered, “how does the east Olympia area maintain its property values, when the rest of the state is just starting to come back from 20 pe...
For the first time in the decades I have been conducting, organizing, reading, and contracting for public opinion surveys in Washington, I am seeing environmental concerns, and green attitudes slipping down to a fourth or fifth-place ranking in the “most important” category.
It’s not an address, but soon probably will be a website address: FirstandBlog.com.
Last Tuesday, while America sloshed through a post-Christmas, pre-New Year’s week, our federal government another stupid step along its path toward incompetence.
I took the week off from the grueling task of blogging, but could not resist sharing the pearls of wisdom from downtown Lilliwaup. The day after Christmas provided us a skinny turnout, but Harry was there. It was good to see Grandpa Harry.
Harry is actually not my legal grandfather. He is ...
Three events have begun to shape the external debate about tax increases in Washington state. Unfortunately, but predictably, none will contribute to a constructive, intelligent debate our state’s repulsively regressive tax structure. A tax scheme that is based on industries that either don’t exist,...
Let me start by reminding everyone that the governor's and the Office of Financial Management’s websites announce that 70 percent of the state budget is “protected.” In other words, this is mandated spending, or “untouchable.” If you look closer the figure actually gets gray somewhere around 50 or 6...
We have it from really unreliable sources that the Clintons are upset and offended by the Washington state governor’s refusal to take Arkansas parolees. In a carefully prepared statement from the Clintons, both shared their pain. They added that they have not been so emotionally disturbed since they...
Rumors are swirling about the state Capitol right now that the state’s $2.6 billion shortfall is going to get bigger – perhaps as high as $3 billion by next week.
Now, this is just a rumor, of course. The whole thing sort of staggers the imagination. How could anything go wrong that hasn’t go...
By: Erik Smith | Washington State Wire | Dec. 2, 2010
I’ve read it as many times as you: “Seventy percent of the Washington state budget is obligated to entitlements and mandates.” What mandates? I’m still hunting. I know they are there. Elected officials would not lie about important matters like this. I mean, constituents are involved.
What’s left of the mainstream media has been doing a good job of saying the same thing over and over in the last few days. The left-leaning group moans on about how taxes have to be increased to fill in the revenue hole of this endless recession. Those in the middle have actually asked what the “c...
The Seattle PI.com had yet another story yesterday about the nature of Washington state’s tax structure. Discussion of taxes, and tax increases, and the closing of tax loopholes is the ultimate “inside baseball” game right now, as the Guv and the legislative leadership look down the barrel of a $2.5...
Posted below are “examples” of ways to cut $1.7 billion from the state budget, from a caucus blog. I think it originally came from a Powerpoint presentation released a couple of weeks ago by the Office of Financial Management. (Right now OFM is warning fiscal players that they better get ready for...
Confession: Every morning I scan about ten regional blogs, all allegedly covering politics, in some form or fashion.
I thought it was interesting that the Senate Republican Caucus blog, or website, whatever they call it, has not has a posting since November 5th. I guess I should add that eve...
If you’ve ever been a Boy Scout, you’ve probably played that game around the campfire where someone whispers something in someone else’s ear, and then he whispers it to the next guy, and by the time the whisper makes the full circle it makes absolutely no sense whatever. It’s supposed to teach you a...
Plenty of folks seem to be writing off Tim Eyman these days, after the spectacular flop of Initiative 1033 in last week’s election. Somehow, in the middle of a recession, he managed to lose with an initiative that would roll back taxes and keep them low for at least the next few years. Kind of aston...
If you have not read the Seattle Times story about Washington labor withholding “support” (meaning campaign contributions) from Democrats in upcoming elections if they do not support pro-labor issues in the 2010 legislative sessions – you better.
There’s an interesting piece in Monday’s New York Times about a group in Texas that is trying to do what we’re doing here at Washington State Wire – launch a website that covers statewide politics. The difference is that there’s nothing scrappy about the “Texas Tribune.” Its managers have gone th...
The counts from last Tuesday’s vote clearly show that the west side of the state is distinctively different from the east (duh!), and the same goes for King County, or Seattle’s impact on Western Washington politics. By the way, we have to call last Tuesday “vote counting day”—it’s not election day ...
I’ve been teased a little about my election-night headline – “Republicans win a critical state House seat.” How could it be critical? It wasn’t as if the vote in the 16th Legislative District changed anything. Democrats still have an overwhelming majority in the state House, and they can d...
Here's one you have to read to believe, from the Port Orchard Independent. Seems a man dressed as a gorilla has been beaten up by his girlfriend. Doesn't say much for the primates.
It's never OK when a law enforcement officer is shot and killed. Never. Two officers, one in training, doing their job. A car pulls up so close the patrol car door can not be opened.
By: Erik Smith | Washington State Wire | Sept. 8, 2010
In a decision that could change campaign strategies for this year's initiatives, a federal judge has ruled that the state's limits on last-minute contributions are unconstitutional. It's another victory for James Bopp, Jr., the conservative attorney who has been picking away at campaign-finance restrictions nationwide. And in the state's biggest-spending year for initiatives ever, that means the enormous contributions can keep right on coming until election day.
By: Erik Smith | Washington State Wire | Sept. 3, 2010
A lawsuit to overturn the results of the Senate race in the 38th Legislative District became a probability Friday. Phil Talmadge is on the case. He gave notice to Attorney General Rob McKenna and the Snohomish County prosecutor that if they don't sue, he will. All because of a phony Republican mailer from the left that did exactly what it was supposed to -- destroy incumbent Sen. Jean Berkey in the primary.
In this "Letter from Washington," Bob Keefe says America's military involvement in the Near East remains at the forefront of everyone's mind in the nation's capital. Meanwhile, Joe Miller's election as senator from Alaska portends trouble in Republican ranks.
By: Jim Boldt | Washington State Wire | Sept. 3, 2010
It’s a shame Washington citizens, and particularly voters, don’t take the time to look behind the curtain at think-tank reports. Do they actually know it is a word game, or cooked-up findings?
Yes, it comes from both sides. The conservative think tanks take a data set, twist the numbers, and shape the findings. The liberals do the same thing.
By: Melvin G. Ashton | Washington State Wire | Sept. 2, 2010
It’s back to school time, and as a parent of children in our public school system, I’m shocked and dismayed by the “Not the WASL” test scores just released by the Superintendent of Public Instruction. And the most disturbing thing is not the performance of our kids, but the behavior and beliefs of the ‘adults’ running the show.
So, pop quiz. Don’t worry, it’s open book, and you can find a...
By: Jim Boldt | Washington State Wire | Aug. 25, 2010
1. The head of the Port of Seattle gave us all a moment of relief when he announced he would not accept a raise this year. He went home, sat down at the table and realized he could get by with his meager $334,000 a year. That of course is just the salary, the monthly nut. I feel better knowing he won't have to miss, what? A trip to Asia? No, the port sends him there for free. Maybe a new Lexus or ...
By: Melvin G. Ashton | Washington State Wire | Aug. 25, 2010
We are all cognitive misers – that means our brains are lazy. We like things to follow a pattern, and we don’t like to spend time reviewing the data looking for the exception. So when we develop a ‘truth’, we tend to stick with it even when the data doesn’t support our lazy view of the world.
In reading the comments on the latest Seattle Times “Truth Needle” article, plenty of people mad...
Health insurers say they plan to raise premiums for some Americans as a direct result of the health overhaul in coming weeks, complicating Democrats' efforts to trumpet their signature achievement.
In recent years, cognitive scientists have shown that a few simple techniques can reliably improve what matters most: how much a student learns from studying.
About half a dozen states have banned BPA in children’s products, and U.S. Senator Feinstein hopes to accomplish the same nationwide, with an amendment to the food safety bill scheduled for a vote in the Senate next week.
One in five Americans lights up regularly. If all states had prevention programs like those in California and Utah, 5 million fewer people would be smoking, the agency says.
Double-digit rate increases are hitting most individual health-insurance plans in Washington state, hurting jobless workers and worrying insurance regulators.
There is good reason to be scared into action. Every year, 76 million cases of foodborne illness occur, leading to about 300,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths.
The researchers said their estimate includes $45.6 billion in what's known as defensive medicine costs -- when doctors prescribe unnecessary tests or treatments to avoid lawsuits.
Researchers have calculated that more than half of the 354 million doctor visits made each year for medical care, like for fevers, stomachaches and coughs, are not with a patient’s primary physician, and that more than a quarter take place in hospital emergency rooms.
Newly installed Medicare chief Donald Berwick, keeping a low public profile after encountering controversy over his appointment, is moving quickly behind the scenes to seed the US health care system with 100 to 300 sites to test new models of caring for patients.
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