NPI's Cascadia Advocate

Offering commentary and analysis from Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, The Cascadia Advocate provides the Northwest Progressive Institute's uplifting perspective on world, national, and local politics.

Monthly Archives: January 2016

Washington State Democratic Party takes position opposing CarbonWA’s I‑732

Excerpt: Yes­ter­day, dur­ing the mid­dle day of its 2016 win­ter meet­ing, the Wash­ing­ton State Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty went on record as opposed to Car­bon­WA’s I‑732, join­ing the Wash­ing­ton State Labor Coun­cil and IAM’s Dis­trict Lodge 751 in the no camp. I‑732 is a com­plex tax swap pro­pos­al that would levy a car­bon tax while also reduc­ing sales […]
Written by:Andrew Villeneuve
Categories:Elections, Our Environment, Policy Topics
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Eyman cohort Don Benton announces his retirement from the Washington State Senate

Excerpt: Break­ing news out of Clark Coun­ty this after­noon: Entrenched Repub­li­can incum­bent Don Ben­ton, who has long been one of Tim Eyman’s biggest boost­ers in the Leg­is­la­ture, is retir­ing from the Wash­ing­ton State Senate. Via The Columbian: Ben­ton said in a state­ment Sat­ur­day that he will fin­ish his cur­rent term, which expires at the end of […]
Written by:Andrew Villeneuve
Categories:Breaking News, Elections
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Schedule set for Supreme Court appeal of Judge Downing’s decision in Lee v. State

Excerpt: The Wash­ing­ton State Supreme Court has set­tled on a sched­ule for hear­ing the appeal of King Coun­ty Supe­ri­or Court Judge William Down­ing’s deci­sion in Lee v. State, the legal chal­lenge to Tim Eyman’s I‑1366, accord­ing to an order signed by Chief Jus­tice Bar­bara Mad­sen ear­li­er today. Wrote Madsen: On Jan­u­ary 25, 2016, Appel­lant, the State […]
Written by:Andrew Villeneuve
Categories:Litigation
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Washington State Labor Council votes to oppose CarbonWA’s Initiative 732

Excerpt: The Wash­ing­ton State Labor Coun­cil, AFL-CIO, a fed­er­a­tion of more than six hun­dred unions rep­re­sent­ing near­ly half a mil­lion work­ers in Wash­ing­ton State, announced today that it has tak­en a posi­tion for­mal­ly oppos­ing Car­bon­WA’s I‑732, which back­ers have adver­tised as a “rev­enue neu­tral” tax swap that would levy a tax on emis­sions of gas­es like […]
Written by:Andrew Villeneuve
Categories:Legislative Advocacy, Our Environment, Policy Topics
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Sound Transit to inaugurate University Link light rail service on Saturday, March 19th

Excerpt: Flanked by Seat­tle May­or Ed Mur­ray and new Sound Tran­sit CEO Peter Rogoff, King Coun­ty Exec­u­tive Dow Con­stan­tine announced today at a media event on Capi­tol Hill that Sound Tran­sit’s Uni­ver­si­ty Link light rail exten­sion, which has been in the con­struc­tion phase for the last few years, will have its pub­lic grand open­ing on Sat­ur­day, […]
Written by:Andrew Villeneuve
Categories:Elections, Policy Topics, Public Planning
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WAmend’s Initiative 735 certified to the 2016 Legislature, ballot, Secretary of State says

Excerpt: WAmend’s Ini­tia­tive 735 — which would put Wash­ing­ton State on record in sup­port of a fed­er­al con­sti­tu­tion­al amend­ment to end the legal fic­tion that cor­po­ra­tions are peo­ple and mon­ey is speech — has been cer­ti­fied as an ini­tia­tive to the 2016 Leg­is­la­ture, Sec­re­tary of State Kim Wyman’s office announced this morning. Wyman’s Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Direc­tor David […]
Written by:Andrew Villeneuve
Categories:Elections, Open Government, Policy Topics
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Republican Ed Orcutt tries to set up House vote on Tim Eyman’s desired amendment, fails

Excerpt: This morn­ing, just pri­or to the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives’ adjourn­ment for the day, Repub­li­can State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Ed Orcutt of Kala­ma attempt­ed to fast-track a res­o­lu­tion that would amend the Wash­ing­ton State Con­sti­tu­tion to require a two-thirds vote to raise or recov­er any rev­enue, as fer­vent­ly desired and demand­ed by Muk­il­teo-based ini­tia­tive prof­i­teer Tim Eyman. Ris­ing dur­ing […]
Written by:Andrew Villeneuve
Categories:Legislative Advocacy
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Browse with confidence: Permanent Defense and Pacific NW Portal have gone HTTPS-only

Excerpt: Last spring, we embarked on an ambi­tious project to strength­en the secu­ri­ty of the North­west Pro­gres­sive Insti­tute’s net­work of web­sites by mak­ing them avail­able only over HTTPS, begin­ning with this domain, nwprogressive.org, and all the pub­li­ca­tions housed under it, like the Cas­ca­dia Advocate. Today, we are pleased to announce that we have done the same […]
Written by:Andrew Villeneuve
Categories:Announcements, Policy Topics, Technology
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Tim Eyman can expect state Supreme Court to uphold ruling striking down Initiative 1366

Excerpt: Yes­ter­day, to the sur­prise of almost nobody except for Tim Eyman, King Coun­ty Supe­ri­or Court Judge William Down­ing struck down Ini­tia­tive 1366, the uncon­sti­tu­tion­al atroc­i­ty that Eyman qual­i­fied for the bal­lot last year with the back­ing of hedge fund man­agers and real estate developers. I‑1366 was an attempt by Eyman to coerce Demo­c­ra­t­ic leg­is­la­tors into […]
Written by:Andrew Villeneuve
Categories:Elections, Litigation
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Tickets to NPI’s 2016 Spring Fundraising Gala (Friday, April 1st) are now on sale!

Excerpt: As of this Fri­day, Jan­u­ary 22nd, we will be three weeks into 2016, and just ten weeks away from our eighth Spring Fundrais­ing Gala, sched­uled to take place on Fri­day, April 1st, 2016 (April Fools’ Day). With the big night rapid­ly draw­ing near, we’re pleased to announce that ear­ly-bird tick­et sales for this year’s gala […]
Written by:Andrew Villeneuve
Categories:Announcements, Events
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CarbonWA’s I‑732 barely survives random sample check, Secretary of State reports

Excerpt: Car­bon­WA’s Ini­tia­tive 732, a sup­pos­ed­ly “rev­enue neu­tral” pro­pos­al to levy a statewide tax on car­bon emis­sions while low­er­ing Wash­ing­ton’s sales and B&O tax­es, has nar­row­ly qual­i­fied as an ini­tia­tive to the 2016 Leg­is­la­ture fol­low­ing a ran­dom sam­ple check, says the chief spokesman for Sec­re­tary of State Kim Wyman. In an ear­ly evening press release, Wyman’s Com­mu­ni­ca­tions […]
Written by:Andrew Villeneuve
Categories:Our Environment, Policy Topics
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Tim Eyman backtracks on brash predictions of victory in Initiative 1366 legal challenge

Excerpt: Some­time tomor­row, King Coun­ty Supe­ri­or Court Judge William Down­ing is expect­ed to issue a rul­ing in the case of Tony Lee, et al. v. State of Wash­ing­ton, et al., the legal chal­lenge to Tim Eyman’s incred­i­bly destruc­tive Ini­tia­tive 1366. Down­ing heard oral argu­ments from lawyers rep­re­sent­ing the plain­tiffs and defen­dants yes­ter­day morn­ing, and promised he’d […]
Written by:Andrew Villeneuve
Categories:Elections, Litigation
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Martin Luther King, Jr.: We have a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws

Excerpt: Today is Mar­tin Luther King Jr. Day, and like we do every year in hon­or of Dr. King’s mem­o­ry, I’m post­ing an excerpt from his Let­ter From Birm­ing­ham Jail. In these pas­sages, Dr. King is explain­ing that not all laws are cre­at­ed equal. Laws are made by humans, and humans unfor­tu­nate­ly have a long his­to­ry […]
Written by:Andrew Villeneuve
Categories:Civil Liberties, Holidays, Policy Topics
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Liveblogging the fourth 2016 Democratic presidential debate from the great Northwest

Excerpt: Good evening, and wel­come to NPI’s live cov­er­age of the fourth Demo­c­ra­t­ic pres­i­den­tial debate of the 2016 cycle. NPI Trea­sur­er Essie Hicks and I will be watch­ing the debate and shar­ing impres­sions of the debate as it pro­gress­es. The debate is being broad­cast by NBC and its affiliates. Cour­tesy of NBC, here’s where you can watch: […]
Written by:Andrew Villeneuve
Categories:Elections, Live Coverage
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