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By: Erik Smith | Washington State Wire | Sept. 1, 2010
Looks like thirst has no season. The soda-pop industry continues to pour money into its grocery tax-rollback campaign, Initiative 1107. Latest PDC reports show another $4.2 million for the effort, the biggest-spending single initiative campaign in state history.
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By: Erik Smith | Washington State Wire | Aug. 31, 2010
The beer biz puts ANOTHER $2 million into the campaign opposing the shutdown of the state liquor stores -- that's $4 million in the last week. And it looks like the distributors are backing away, ever so gingerly, from I-1105, a measure that aims in part to take votes from the free-marketing I-1100.
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By: Erik Smith | Washington State Wire | Aug. 27, 2010
State Sen. Jean Berkey, D-Everett, knocked out in last week's primary by a phony Republican mailer, has filed a complaint with the state Public Disclosure Commission alleging serious misconduct by the firm responsible. Seattle-based Moxie Media is playing a shell game to conceal the real source of money, she charges -- an enormous independent-expenditure effort backed by the state's labor unions and activist organizations.
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By: Erik Smith | Washington State Wire | Aug. 27, 2010
They all agree -- watch out for the whiplash if I-1098 passes in November. One reason it might not stay a soak-the-rich tax for long.
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By: Erik Smith | Washington State Wire | Aug. 26, 2010
The state and its public employee unions drew even firmer lines when they met behind closed doors this week. The state now wants workers to pick up 26 percent of the cost of their health-insurance premiums -- another big bite from paychecks -- and after two years of hits, this is one the unions say they aren't going to take sitting down.
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By: Erik Smith | Washington State Wire | Aug. 25, 2010
A fake mailer from the left appears to have destroyed state Sen. Jean Berkey in this year's primary election. But we'll never know who paid for it, at least in an official sense. The state's campaign-finance rules won't force full disclosure.
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By: Erik Smith | Washington State Wire | Aug. 26, 2010
It's not that the Department of Commerce is taking sides on I-1098. But it says no income tax is one of the best things the state has going for it.
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By: Erik Smith | Washington State Wire | Aug. 25, 2010
The beer biz is going all-in in its effort to defeat a pair of initiatives this year that would close the state liquor stores and allow hard-liquor sales in supermarkets. The $2.5 million that showed up in yesterday's reports shows not only that there's going to be fierce opposition to I-1100 and I-1105, it also crossed the line and set a state record. This now is the biggest-spending initiative campaign season in state history. Overall $23.8 million has been raised -- and there are still ten weeks to go.
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By: Erik Smith | Washington State Wire | Aug. 26, 2010
A shadowy 'citizens group' is trying to beat a ban on red-light cameras -- but it appears a faux campaign is battling a real one.
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The BP report is the first of several examinations of the Deepwater Horizon accident to be published in the months ahead. The U.S. Department of Justice is one of a number of U.S. bodies that are conducting their own investigations.
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What seemed virtually certain is that his proposal for initial spending of $50 billion on planes, trains and automobiles isn't going to gain much preelection headway in Congress, and most likely will wait until next year.
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The agency said it does not have legal authority to regulate ammunition under the Toxic Substances Control Act, the law under which the petition was filed.
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In order to keep tabs on the city's effort toward sustainability, in 2008 Mayor Ava Frisinger assembled a panel of community leaders to develop a long-term vision of sustainability, as well as recommending metrics to track the city's progress toward specific goals.
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Metro drivers rank third nationally in wages, with a top rate of $28.47 an hour, and the average yearly income, including overtime, is almost $61,000 a year.
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| By: Washington Post Columnist |
George Will writes that Professor Walter Mead, who says that he is a skeptic about climate policy rather than climate science, says that the environmental movement has "become the voice of the establishment, of the tenured, of the technocrats."
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The Puget Sound Partnership is broken, but the Sound really needs better eco-monitoring and new land-use patterns. And that will require the hardest change of all: cultural change.
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It never made sense. Washington state is spending millions of dollars to clean up and preserve Puget Sound, yet at the same time, the city of Victoria, B.C., every day is dumping millions of gallons of raw sewage into the waters.
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More drivers have bought their way into car-pool lanes on state Route 167 in recent months, although the state still is far from breaking even on the project.
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With less than a week to go before the deadline issued by the banks that own the property, the Whidbey Land Trust is still trying to raise $525,000. One donor is willing to throw down an additional $100,000 if the pledge can be matched by someone else.
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This year's run of Pacific lamprey is among the lowest ever recorded at Bonneville Dam. That continues a steady annual decline in the number of the eel-shaped parasitic fish returning from the ocean to spawn.
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Twenty years after northern spotted owls were protected under the Endangered Species Act, their numbers continue to decline, and scientists aren't certain whether the birds will survive even though logging was banned on much of the old-growth forest in the Pacific Northwest where they live in order ...
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Soon, the U.S. government will publish its first-ever national rail plan, laying out a vision for the future of freight and passenger rail. The major plans for new rail lines in the United States center on California and Florida.
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The US Environmental Protection Agency is planning to introduce further greenhouse gas regulations, but will not deliver cuts in emissions on the scale that would have been achieved had Congress approved a dedicated climate change bill.
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At a "Third House" lobbyist briefing last Tuesday, House Speaker Frank Chopp confidently noted that the Primary Election went "better than expected" for Democrats given that the "bulk of the activity was on the Republican side." Republican speakers countered that in the eight key Legislative Districts, the Democratic Primary turnout was actually higher than in 2008.
Meanwhile, Sen. Karen Keiser, speaking for the Senate Democratic Caucus expressed her displeasure at the "below the belt" tactics used by the funders of the last minute campaign against Sen. Berkey. Nonetheless, she predicted the PDC complaint will not result in a new election.
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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.
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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.
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By: Bob Keefe | Washington, D.C.
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.
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| 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.
So today’s announcement by the Washingto...
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| 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...
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| 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 ...
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| 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...
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Democrat Heck Faces Surprising Uphill Battle in Congressional Race
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Appeals Court Denies Stay -- Friday is Big Day
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Reverses Previous Gallup Poll Showing Republicans 10 Points Ahead
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| By: Seattle Post-Intelligencer |
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Editorial: Best Chance for Tax Reform in Four Decades
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| By: Seattle Post-Intelligencer |
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Would Make it Difficult to Compete With National Drug Chains
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Insurance Commissioner Claims I-1082 is Ploy to Refill Organization's Coffers -- Hogwash is Rejoinder
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A Bit Too Secretive, Admits Report
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Holds Firm on Demands -- Republicans Hope He'll Disappear
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Says West Virginia Town Name Violates Code of Conduct -- City Fathers Outraged
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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.
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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.
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The waiver is only valid for one year, and plans must reapply annually "in accordance with future guidance from HHS."
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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.
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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.
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When generics first come on the market, the rebates on brand-name drugs may still make them less expensive.
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Double-digit rate increases are hitting most individual health-insurance plans in Washington state, hurting jobless workers and worrying insurance regulators.
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Nonetheless, the Washington Federation of State Employees, which is bargaining on behalf of about 40,000 workers, has rejected the governor’s offer.
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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.
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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.
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| By: U.S. News & World Report |
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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.
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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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