The Spokesman review is reporting: SEATTLE (AP) — A King County Superior Court judge is scheduled to hear oral arguments Friday over the constitutionality of Washington’s new charter school law. A coalition of parents, educators and community groups say it violates the state Constitution by diverting public school dollars to private organizations that are not…
On a trip to Olympia on Friday, I saw outside the capitol protesters dressed in red advocating for more tolerant treatment of medical marijuana. This woman explained to me that she needs to take special breeds of marijuana for her medical condition; recreational marijuana that the state has legalized will likely not have the correct…
Virtually Speaking reports that Washington State’s Darcy Burner played an important role in Harry Reid’s move to fix the Senate filibuster. Click here to hear filibuster experts Joan McCarter and David Waldman’s analysis. Listen from 10:30 to hear the discussion of Darcy’s role. Here’s an excerpt: To me Darcy Burner was instrumental in moving us…
Steve Zemke and I went to Olympia on Friday and met, briefly or longer, with about a dozen legislators, including Maralyn Chase, Bob Hasegawa, Gayle Tarleton, Frank Chopp, Reuven Carylye, Cindy Ryu, Joe Fitzgibbon, Judy Clibborn, and Tana Senn. We spoke about tax fairness and accountability for tax loopholes. We had in-depth discussions with a…
At last night’s meeting of the 41st LD Democrats there was a discussion about how to attract more people to become PCOs and about how to get more existing PCOs to attend meetings and work on campaigns. The discussion began with the question: what’s the purpose of the 41st LD Dems? One guy said: to…
WHEREAS, Washington State relies on the sales tax, the Business & Occupation Tax, and property taxes to fund state government (see A Citizen’s Guide to the Washington State Budget); WHEREAS, sales taxes are regressive — meaning that the middle class and the poor pay a higher proportion of their income in sales tax than do…
A few months ago, I published an article Blame Poverty, not Public Schools on OpEdNews. A conservative (Bill Johnson) wrote a comment that I think is worth quoting. As I see it, a liberal is a socialist and most socialists are liberals. Both are democrats. Same thing. Same philosophy. And they wonder why conservatives don’t…
Senator Bob Hasegawa explains his opposition to the Governor’s bill to extend tax breaks to Boeing: http://blog.senatedemocrats.wa.gov/hasegawa/hasegawa-explains-vote-against-boeing-tax-cuts/ Hasegawa said the bill is being rushed; there are 9 billion dollars at stake. There’s insufficient data to back up the claims of a 3-to-1 return on investments. There’s no guarantee that Boeing won’t make room for 777…
Monday evening I went to a great Town Hall in Seattle with John Nichols and Robert McChesney. The topic was Dollarocracy: how money has corrupted politics. Dollarocracy is their name for what’s become of America’s democracy.  Instead of one person, one vote, we now have one dollar, one vote. Jimmy Carter was overheard saying that…