Throughout the past week, in honor of Thanksgiving and in protest of Black Friday, we’ve been taking a critical look at excessive consumerism and the consequences it portends for ourselves as a society and planet Earth. We’ve covered the plight of Wal-Mart’s underpaid and poorly treated workers (some of whom have gone on strike), talked about […]
Monthly Archives: November 2012
Posted inHolidays
It’s Brave Friday! Learn about the consequences of overconsumption by watching The Story of Stuff today
It’s a good day to think about the environmental cost and consequences of our use it up and throw it out culture, which is extremely wasteful and unsustainable.
Posted inEconomic Security, Policy Topics
Stay home and sleep in this weekend: The Black Friday madness isn’t worth it (literally!)
This weekend is Thanksgiving weekend, traditionally one of the longest weekends of the year (owing to Thanksgiving always falling on a Thursday). It’s also traditionally the beginning of the Christmas shopping season, and is thus a very important time of year for retailers. Since the turn of the century, major retail chains have gone to […]
Posted inMedia & Culture
“Seattle’s Progressive Talk” to be shut down; CBS Radio converting AM 1090 to sports
Last week, as we reported a few days ago, Clear Channel pulled the plug on progressive talk radio in Portland, converting AM 620 KPOJ (“Portland’s Progressive Talk”) to a Fox Sports affiliate after more than eight years of serving as a home for popular hosts like Thom Hartmann, Ed Schultz, Randi Rhodes, Norman Goldman, Rachel […]
Posted inEducation, Elections, Policy Topics
Randy Dorn says I‑1240 is unconstitutional; he may go to court to overturn the initiative
Washington Superintendent of Public Schools Randy Dorn is contemplating legal action against I‑1240, the charter schools initiative financed by Bill Gates, Paul Allen, and Jeff Bezos, Q13 Fox’s C.R. Douglas reported last night. “Creating a new agency under the governor’s office to oversee ten to forty public schools, to me, is a clear violation of […]
Posted inEconomic Security, Policy Topics
Occupy offshoot launches “Rolling Jubilee”
Last week an offshoot of Occupy Wall Street launched Rolling Jubilee, a new project billed as “a bailout for the 99%”. The project, which has been generating considerable interest in the financial press, aims to help out ordinary Americans by purchasing and abolishing their debt. It’s a novel idea: Banks sell debt for pennies on the […]
Posted inBreaking News, Elections, Public Service
U.S. Representative Suzan DelBene sworn into office as our newest member of Congress
All of us at NPI would like to extend our warmest congratulations to our good friend Suzan DelBene, who, as of today, is the newest member of Congress from the great state of Washington, succeeding our governor-elect. Suzan, as most readers likely know, was easily elected to serve out the remainder of Jay Inslee’s term […]
Posted inPolicy Topics, Technology
Research in Motion to launch new BlackBerry 10 smartphones on January 30th, 2013
Big news out of Waterloo, Canada today: Research in Motion has just announced via press release that it has set a launch date for BlackBerry 10, the company’s next generation mobile-operating system, which BlackBerry fans like us have been anxiously awaiting for many months. BlackBerry 10 marks a clean break from RIM’s older BlackBerry OS, […]
Posted inMedia & Culture
Clear Channel kills progressive talk in Portland; activists rallying to bring it back
Clear Channel has struck again. Last Friday, without providing any explanation, the radio and outdoor advertising conglomerate trashed the entire programming lineup for KPOJ 620 AM (“Portland’s Progressive Talk”) and converted the station into a Fox Sports affiliate. The sudden format change means Randi Rhodes, Mike Malloy, Thom Hartmann, and other progressive hosts can no […]
Posted inBreaking News, Elections
Rob McKenna concedes gubernatorial race; congratulates Governor-elect Jay Inslee
Republican Rob McKenna is finally throwing in the towel. After having spent several days maintaining that there was still a viable path to victory over Jay Inslee, McKenna and his campaign team have come to the same conclusion that we reached when we assessed the race during the last few minutes of November 6th: Jay Inslee […]
Posted inElections
Rob McKenna’s camp still hanging on to hope of victory; Team Inslee says Jay will win
Today is the third “day after” the 2012 general election. Ballot counting continues in most of Washington’s thirty-nine counties, as county elections officials open mail, verify signatures, and tabulate votes. In the meantime, the outcome of several races remains uncertain (particularly the contest for Secretary of State). The gubernatorial race is not as close as many […]
Posted inElections, Meta
Congratulations, Gael!
Last night, as the first election results were released, one of our own learned that she will almost certainly be the next freshman state representative from Washington’s 36th Legislative District, which encompasses neighborhoods like Magnolia and Ballard as well as much of Queen Anne. On behalf of all of NPI’s other board members and all of NPI’s […]
Posted inElections
Secretary of State contest very close: Democrat Kathleen Drew trails, but could reclaim lead by end of the week
Over the last few days, I’ve heard several people predict that Washington’s 2012 gubernatorial race would likely be as tight as the 2004 contest between Chris Gregoire and Dino Rossi, which dragged on for weeks as ballots were counted and recounted. It doesn’t look like that will be the case; Jay Inslee has a lead […]
Posted inElections
Record number of Democratic women headed to U.S. Senate for 113th Congress
Exactly two decades after the 1992 presidential election, sometimes called the “year of the woman” or “year of the women”, the American people have made history by electing a record number of female candidates to the nation’s upper legislative chamber. Nearly all of them are Democrats. Voters enthusiastically reelected Senators Maria Cantwell of Washington, Kristen […]