Monthly Archives: January 2017

Posted inParty Politics, Public Service

Senate Democrats must filibuster Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch

by Andrew Villeneuve

Neo­fas­cist Don­ald Trump tonight announced he is nom­i­nat­ing an arch­con­ser­v­a­tive judge to fill the vacan­cy left by Antonin Scali­a’s death near­ly a year ago, which should have been filled last year, but was­n’t due to the obstruc­tion­ism of Sen­ate Repub­li­cans. Trump’s pick, Neil Gor­such, would be an almost sure vote to “to lim­it gay rights, […]

Posted inElections, Media & Culture

This again: Associated Press pushes another half-baked promotional blurb for Tim Eyman

by Andrew Villeneuve

Around 9 AM this morn­ing, dis­graced ini­tia­tive pro­mot­er Tim Eyman hit the Send but­ton in MailChimp to send out an email to his fol­low­ers, the press, and elect­ed offi­cials pro­claim­ing he was launch­ing a new ini­tia­tive to gut prop­er­ty tax­es — an ini­tia­tive which, if passed, would evis­cer­ate vital pub­lic ser­vices in every city and […]

Posted inLive Coverage

Tina Podlodowski + Joe Pakootas elected to lead the Washington State Democratic Party

by Andrew Villeneuve

Change is in the air at the Wash­ing­ton State Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty. The par­ty’s cen­tral com­mit­tee (WSDCC) vot­ed deci­sive­ly today to set the par­ty on a new course by select­ing Tina Podod­lows­ki of Seat­tle and Joe Pakootas of Spokane to be the par­ty’s new Chair and Vice Chair for 2017–2018. (Full dis­clo­sure: I am a vot­ing member […]

Posted inLive Coverage

LIVE from Olympia: Washington State Democrats choose officers for 2017–2018

by Andrew Villeneuve

Good after­noon from Olympia, Wash­ing­ton. I’m at the Red Lion here in our state’s cap­i­tal to chron­i­cle (and par­tic­i­pate in) the bien­ni­al win­ter reor­ga­ni­za­tion meet­ing of the Wash­ing­ton State Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty, one of two of the state’s major polit­i­cal par­ties. As one of one hun­dred and sev­en­­ty-six mem­bers of the Wash­ing­ton State Demo­c­ra­t­ic Cen­tral Committee […]

Posted inElections

Good news break: King County testing prepaid postage on ballot return envelopes

by Andrew Villeneuve

It’s about time: King Coun­ty Elec­tions is test­ing pre-paid postage with the Feb­ru­ary 14 spe­cial elec­tions in the City of Maple Val­ley and the Shore­line School Dis­trict. Bal­lot pack­ets were mailed on Wednes­day to vot­ers in both juris­dic­tions. Each pack­et includes a return enve­lope with the postage already paid. “This is some­thing I’ve want­ed to […]

Posted inElections, Legislative Advocacy

Brian Dansel resigns; Washington’s Senate Republicans lose their majority (temporarily)

by Andrew Villeneuve

Repub­li­cans are tem­porar­i­ly with­out a major­i­ty in the Wash­ing­ton State Sen­ate owing to the res­ig­na­tion of 7th Dis­trict Sen­a­tor Bri­an Dansel, who has just tak­en a job in neo­fas­cist Don­ald Trump’s admin­is­tra­tion. Dansel’s res­ig­na­tion, effec­tive as of 1 PM today, leaves the Sen­ate Repub­li­can cau­cus with just twen­­ty-four mem­bers, includ­ing Tim Shel­don (R‑35th Dis­trict), who […]

Posted inOur Environment, Policy Topics

Progressive Ideas We Need: Funding a clean energy future through pollution penalties

by Greg Evans

Editor’s Note: Today and through­out this week­end, NPI is run­ning a spe­cial series here on the Cas­ca­dia Advo­cate called Pro­gres­sive Ideas We Need, high­light­ing pro­pos­als that would raise qual­i­ty of life in our region and in the Unit­ed States as a whole. Each post is con­tributed by an NPI staff, board, or advi­so­ry coun­cil member. […]

Posted inLegislative Advocacy, Open Government, Policy Topics

Progressive Ideas We Need: Biennial budgets that record tax breaks as state expenditures

by Steve

Editor’s Note: Today and through­out this week­end, NPI is run­ning a spe­cial series here on the Cas­ca­dia Advo­cate called Pro­gres­sive Ideas We Need, high­light­ing pro­pos­als that would raise qual­i­ty of life in our region and in the Unit­ed States as a whole. Each post is con­tributed by an NPI staff, board, or advi­so­ry coun­cil member. […]

Posted inEconomic Security, Policy Topics, Series & Special Reports

Progressive Ideas We Need: Paid vacation leave as part of every job

by Gael Tarleton

Edi­tor’s Note: Today and through­out this week­end, NPI is run­ning a spe­cial series here on the Cas­ca­dia Advo­cate called Pro­gres­sive Ideas We Need, high­light­ing pro­pos­als that would raise qual­i­ty of life in our region and in the Unit­ed States as a whole. Each post is con­tributed by an NPI staff, board, or advi­so­ry coun­cil member. […]

Posted inEducation, Legislative Advocacy, Party Politics, Policy Topics, Public Service

Badly-behaved Senate Republicans are an embarrassment to the State of Washington

by Andrew Villeneuve

It’s only been ten days since the six­­ty-fifth Wash­ing­ton State Leg­is­la­ture con­vened for its long ses­sion, but already, the bad behav­ior of Sen­ate Repub­li­cans sug­gests it’s going to be very dif­fi­cult for the state’s law­mak­ing branch to get much of any­thing done before the ses­sion is sched­uled to end on April 23rd. Wash­ing­to­ni­ans have a reasonable […]

Posted inOur Environment, Policy Topics

Like a scene from The Chronicles of Narnia: Frozen Franklin Falls is a winter wonderland

by Andrew Villeneuve

One of the great advan­tages of liv­ing in the Pacif­ic North­west is the near­ness of nature, includ­ing unspoiled moun­tains and ocean beach­es. Thanks to the work of many sus­­tain­a­bil­i­­ty-ori­en­t­ed Wash­ing­to­ni­ans, Ore­go­ni­ans, and Ida­hoans, we have pro­tect­ed many of our beau­ti­ful and wild places from being scarred or destroyed. One such place is the Moun­tains to […]

Posted inCivil Liberties, Policy Topics

Attorney General Bob Ferguson unveils bipartisan legislation to abolish executions

by Christian Cahua

Flanked by for­mer Attor­ney Gen­er­al Rob McKen­na and Gov­er­nor Jay Inslee, cur­rent Attor­ney Gen­er­al Bob Fer­gu­son today announced a major new effort to abol­ish the bar­bar­ic prac­tice of state-spon­­sored exe­cu­tions in Wash­ing­ton, sup­port­ed by a bipar­ti­san group of leg­is­la­tors from each house. Declar­ing that it is the respon­si­bil­i­ty of lead­ers to lead, Fer­gu­son said the time […]

Posted inAnnouncements, Education, Events, Legislative Advocacy, Policy Topics

Join us tomorrow at the Rally for Student Civil Rights and Amply Funded Schools!

by Andrew Villeneuve

It is the para­mount duty of the state to make ample pro­vi­sion for the edu­ca­tion of all chil­dren resid­ing with­in its bor­ders, with­out dis­tinc­tion or pref­er­ence on account of race, col­or, caste, or sex. – Wash­ing­ton State Con­sti­tu­tion, Arti­cle IX, Sec­tion 1 Read­ers! Do you believe in the Con­sti­tu­tion of Wash­ing­ton State? Do you believe that all of […]

Posted inHealthcare, Policy Topics

Group Health Cooperative is no more: State approves GHC’s sale to Kaiser Permanente

by Andrew Villeneuve

Wash­ing­ton State Insur­ance Com­mis­sion­er Mike Krei­dler today signed off on Kaiser Per­ma­nen­te’s bid to acquire the state’s home­grown health provider Group Health Coop­er­a­tive, which means GHC will be no more as of Feb­ru­ary 1st, 2017. “After an exten­sive and thor­ough review by my office, it’s clear that Kaiser met all of the legal require­ments nec­es­sary for […]