Monthly Archives: October 2014

Posted inEducation, Live Coverage, Policy Topics

Happening now: Washington State Supreme Court hearing oral arguments on constitutionality of charter schools initiative

by Andrew Villeneuve

This after­noon, the Wash­ing­ton State Supreme Court is hear­ing oral argu­ments in League of Women Vot­ers, et al. v. State of Wash­ing­ton, a law­suit brought by a coali­tion of orga­ni­za­tions that con­tend that Ini­tia­tive 1240 (which autho­rized the cre­ation of char­ter schools in Wash­ing­ton) is uncon­sti­tu­tion­al. If you’re inter­est­ed in watch­ing or lis­ten­ing live, tune […]

Posted inBreaking News

Eighty-seventh school shooting since Sandy Hook leaves two dead at Marysville Pilchuck

by Andrew Villeneuve

Today, some of the worst fears of par­ents, teach­ers, and stu­dents in Sno­homish Coun­ty’s sec­ond largest city were real­ized when a stu­dent, said to be a fresh­man and a mem­ber of the Tualip Tribe, opened fire in the cafe­te­ria of Marysville Pilchuck High School, killing and wound­ing sev­er­al peo­ple before appar­ent­ly tak­ing his own life. […]

Posted inNational Defense, Policy Topics, World Commmunity

Canadian authorities lock down the heart of Ottawa after shootings on Parliament Hill

by Andrew Villeneuve

Author­i­ties in Cana­da have locked down Par­lia­ment Hill, the heart of the coun­try’s nation­al cap­i­tal, Ottawa, after a yet-to-be-pub­­licly-iden­ti­­fied assailant fatal­ly shot a sol­dier guard­ing Canada’s War Memo­r­i­al, then entered Cen­tre Block and began fir­ing at peo­ple there before being killed by secu­ri­ty. Fit­ting­ly, the man who took the gun­man down was said to be […]

Posted inPolicy Topics, Public Planning

Without Metro & Sound Transit, the Eastside’s traffic problems would be much worse

by Andrew Villeneuve

The Seat­tle Times is run­ning a sto­ry in tomor­row’s print edi­tion about the 48th LD state Sen­ate race, which pits well-liked State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Cyrus Habib against Repub­li­can Michelle Dar­nell, an attor­ney. Habib, who cap­tured over 63% of the vote in the August Top Two elec­tion, is con­sid­ered to be a shoo-in, but that’s not stopping […]

Posted inCivil Liberties, Policy Topics

Republican Andy Hill a no-show at NARAL’s 45th District candidate forum in Redmond

by Andrew Villeneuve

Last night, NARAL Pro-Choice Wash­ing­ton held a can­di­date forum in Red­mond to give can­di­dates run­ning for the Wash­ing­ton State Leg­is­la­ture in the 45th Dis­trict an oppor­tu­ni­ty to share their views on wom­en’s health and repro­duc­tive rights. The six can­di­dates seek­ing to rep­re­sent the dis­trict in the 2015–2016 Leg­is­la­ture were all invit­ed to par­tic­i­pate, but unfortunately, […]

Posted inEvents, Live Coverage

Vice President Biden visits Renton Technical College with Senators Murray, Cantwell

by Rennie Sawade

Vice Pres­i­dent Joe Biden spoke at Ren­ton Tech­ni­cal Col­lege today late in the morn­ing. He spoke on the state of the mid­dle class and the need for skilled work­ers in the com­ing years. He plugged com­mu­ni­ty col­leges as the most flex­i­ble edu­ca­tion­al insti­tu­tions in the unit­ed states. Biden said that we are no longer talking […]

Posted inPolicy Topics, Public Planning

Ridership on Sound Transit’s Central Link light rail line keeps climbing, defying naysayers

by Andrew Villeneuve

Back in mid-July, we at NPI joined with Sound Tran­sit and many pro-tran­sit activists to cel­e­brate the five year anniver­sary of Cen­tral Link, which opened to the pub­lic on a sun­ny Sat­ur­day morn­ing to thou­sands of eager rid­ers. More than six­ty months lat­er, Link is doing spec­tac­u­lar­ly well. Rid­er­ship just keeps going up, pleas­ant­ly exceeding […]