Author: Don Smith

It costs about $38,000 a year to incarcerate a person for one year in Washington State (FY2019 Cost per Incarcerated Individual per Day — All Facility Costs). According to the National Institute for Drug...

Some progressive writers have claimed that it’s a myth that Ralph Nader caused Al Gore to lose the 2000 presidential election to Bush. They say there were other reasons for the loss: the Supreme...

The Washington State Voters’ Pamphlet for the presidential primary election barely mentions the costs of wars and military spending. Tulsi Gabbard’s statement says the most about the topic. “Let us enter into a new...

I often see him in downtown Seattle in the morning when I arrive. There were two other homeless guys nearby: one sleeping on a metal bench (like the one you see on the right...

Update: I heard from Rep. Nicole Macri’s office that while HB 2907 is dead for the session, the similar bill HB 2948 is still alive. It too contains exemptions for liquor and motor fuel...

Rep. Tana Senn said she’d start with a “light” topic: taxes. There was a recent encouraging news: high revenue for the state.  Someone in the audience asked if the legislature would return some money...

A former colleague wrote about his conversion from Mormon to atheist and from Republican to Democrat. I realized a few years back that my religion was a bunch of made-up nonsense, and my wife...

On Jan 25 in Tukwila, Rep. Adam Smith gave a town hall to discuss the recently passed National Defense Authorization Act.  The NDAA has been widely criticized by anti-war and progressive groups for compromising...