The Bellevue Reporter is the local freebie weekly newspaper.  It has some real reporting, as well as editorials and letters-to-the-editor.   In the past the Bellevue Reporter has been quite conservative: they ridicule taxes and government, and they’ve written articles in favor of Rodney Tom and Tim Eyman. But recently, I’ve sensed some moderation. This week…

Goldy at the Slog is reporting: If you want a good indication of how much is truly riding on SeaTac’s $15 an hour minimum wage initiative, you need look no further than who is fighting it: The ultra-conservative billionaire Koch brothers and the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the corporate-funded lobbying group behind “model legislation”…

1107 1st Ave, Downtown Seattle, 6:30 – 8:00 PM. It’s important that Sen. Schlicher wins the race against ALEC co-chair Jan Angel.

Yesterday I again got a glossy flier in my mail box containing propaganda against I-522, Washington State’s initiative to require GMO food labeling. At the bottom of the flier, it says, “Top five contributors: Grocery Manufacturers Association, DuPont Pioneer, Dow AgroScience LLC, Monsanto Company, Bayer CropScience.” The flier contains an anti-I-522 quote by Ken Eikenberry.…

STOP the coal trains in their tracks WHAT: Scoping Hearing On the Millennium Bulk Terminal in Longview, WA. WHEN: October 17th!! (Doors open 4:00 p.m.; Hearing starts at 5 p.m.) WHERE: Tacoma Convention Center (1500 Broadway, Tacoma, WA 98402) Involved Democracy is announcing: There will be a Rally at Tollefson Plaza which starts at 3:15…

The far-right think tank Washington Policy Center has announced a Solutions Summit on November 12 featuring Democrat-in-Name-Only Senator Rodney Tom. “This half-day conference will kick off with a breakfast featuring Senate Majority Leader Rodney Tom and Bob Moore of Moore Information.” What a betrayal by a supposed Democrat.   It seems to me he shouldn’t be…

Enjoying the gridlock on I-405 and I-5? Wanna see more bridges collapse, like the Skagit River Bridge did earlier this year? Happy about the mentally deranged man who stabbed two people in Pioneer Square, killing one of them?  Or about the practice of “warehousing” mentally ill patients due to the lack of psychiatric beds in…

In Are Occupiers aiding Grover Norquist? I presented a critique of anarchism, claiming that anarchist Occupiers were unwittingly aiding right-wing libertarians and ignoring the benefits of government. Dave Fryett responded to my analysis in On the Appeal of Anarchism, a Response to Don Smith’s “Are Anarchists in Occupy Aiding Grover Norquist?”.  In this article I…

All but 15 Republicans voted to cut foodstamps.  See http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2013/roll476.xml All Democrats in the House voted against the bill. In Washington State, Republican reps Reichert, Hastings, and Rodgers voted to cut food stamps; Herrera Beutler did not vote. http://my.firedoglake.com/cranestation/2013/09/22/food-sunday-house-republicans-and-the-food-stamps-vote/