Monthly Archives: February 2012

Posted inBreaking News, Elections

Olympia Snowe to retire; Republican hopes of taking over the U.S. Senate take a hit

by Andrew Villeneuve

Big news out of the Pine Tree State this after­noon: Olympia Snowe, one of Maine’s two incum­bent Repub­li­can sen­a­tors, has announced that she has decid­ed not to seek reelec­tion in 2012, cit­ing a desire to be free of the par­ti­san ran­cor that per­vades Capi­tol Hill these days. Her deci­sion to retire could have a profound […]

Posted inEconomic Security, Policy Topics

Olympus’ entire board of directors resigning to make way for new leadership

by Andrew Villeneuve

Months after the Olym­pus’ ex-CEO-turned-whistle­blow­er began demand­ing their res­ig­na­tions, the entire board of direc­tors of the scan­­dal-rid­­den Japan­ese elec­tron­ics mak­er is final­ly step­ping down, the com­pa­ny said today. “[A]ll the cur­rent direc­tors and cor­po­rate audi­tors express their inten­tions to resign at the end of the extra­or­di­nary gen­er­al share­hold­ers meet­ing and have sub­mit­ted let­ters of res­ig­na­tion to […]

Posted inBreaking News, Economic Security, Elections, Live Coverage, Policy Topics

President Obama arrives in Everett for first 2012 visit to the real Washington

by Andrew Villeneuve

Good morn­ing, every­one, and greet­ings from the Boe­ing plant in Everett, where Patrick, Eve, and I are wait­ing to be trans­port­ed to Paine Field and the fac­to­ry where the 787 Dream­lin­er is assem­bled on press bus­es. We’re here in Everett to cov­er the final leg of Pres­i­dent Oba­ma’s mid-Feb­ru­ary tour of the Left Coast, which […]

Posted inAnnouncements, Events

Save the Date: NPI’s 2012 Spring Fundraising Gala will be April 12th, 2012

by Andrew Villeneuve

We are pleased to announce this after­noon that we have final­ized a date for our 2012 Spring Fundrais­ing Gala, which is unques­tion­ably the best oppor­tu­ni­ty we offer to learn about what we do and sup­port our work. This year’s event will be tak­ing place Thurs­day, April 12th, 2012, at the Mer­cer Island Com­mu­ni­ty Center — […]

Posted inAnnouncements, Meta

Permanent Defense celebrates ten years

by Andrew Villeneuve

Today, we at NPI cel­e­brate a mile­stone like no oth­er in our his­to­ry to date: the ten year anniver­sary of the found­ing of Per­ma­nent Defense, NPI’s old­est project. For a decade, Per­ma­nent Defense has stood as a bul­wark against Tim Eyman’s ini­tia­tive fac­to­ry, respond­ing to anti-gov­­ern­­ment pro­pa­gan­da, refram­ing the debate around tax­es, push­ing for direct […]

Posted inElections, Open Government, Policy Topics

State House passes NPI-supported bill to make ballot advertising more transparent

by Andrew Villeneuve

Good news out of the Capi­tol Cam­pus this after­noon: Wash­ing­ton’s House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives has just approved a bill spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Andy Bil­lig that makes it eas­i­er for vot­ers to find out who’s try­ing to influ­ence them to vote in favor of (or in oppo­si­tion to) bal­lot mea­sures. I tes­ti­fied in favor of this bill […]

Posted inBreaking News, Civil Liberties, Policy Topics

Washington State House sends marriage equality legislation to Governor Gregoire

by Andrew Villeneuve

Joy­ous news to report this after­noon: After many hours of debate, our state House has fol­lowed in the foot­steps of the Sen­ate and approved a bill mak­ing mar­riage equal­i­ty the law of the land of Wash­ing­ton. The vote was fifty five to forty-three. SB 6239, prime spon­sored by Sen­a­tor Ed Mur­ray, now heads to the […]

Posted inElections

Rick Santorum running ahead in Minnesota, Colorado caucuses… and the Missouri primary

by Andrew Villeneuve

After going more than a month with­out a vic­to­ry (or even a sec­ond place fin­ish, for that mat­ter) it looks like Rick San­to­rum will final­ly get to bask in the glow of vic­to­ry for a change. In two states that are hold­ing cau­cus­es tonight (Min­neso­ta and Col­orado) he is cur­rent­ly run­ning well ahead of his […]

Posted inPolicy Topics, Public Planning

Conne family’s ordeal should serve as a reminder to all of us to be prepared

by Andrew Villeneuve

Some hap­py news this week­end: A fam­i­ly that had got­ten lost on the Ore­gon coast while out pick­ing mush­rooms were found alive (though hun­gry and with minor injuries) by search and res­cue teams, who pin­point­ed the fam­i­ly’s where­abouts after they were spot­ted from a heli­copter pilot­ed by Jack­son Coun­ty Com­mis­sion­er John Rachor, who was flying […]

Posted inBreaking News, Civil Liberties, Policy Topics

Washington’s Senate approves marriage equality legislation after long debate

by Andrew Villeneuve

Won­der­ful, won­der­ful news to cel­e­brate tonight: After a debate that stretched for more than an hour and a half, and saw the adop­tion and rejec­tion of more than a dozen amend­ments, Wash­ing­ton’s state Sen­ate has vot­ed to approve leg­is­la­tion mak­ing mar­riage equal­i­ty the law of the land. The vote was twen­­ty-eight to twen­­ty-one. Four Repub­li­cans joined […]

Posted inElections, Events

President Obama’s schedule for February 17th Seattle visit begins to take shape

by Andrew Villeneuve

A few days ago, White House offi­cials let it be known that Pres­i­dent Oba­ma would be stop­ping in Wash­ing­ton State again for a mid-Feb­ru­ary vis­it. They did­n’t announce his itin­er­ary or sched­ule, but we fig­ured it would­n’t be long before the cam­paign began send­ing out invi­ta­tions to fundrais­ers with the Pres­i­dent. Yes­ter­day, the first invi­ta­tions began […]