Monthly Archives: February 2017

Posted inMedia & Culture

Three days ago, HuffPost asked: What would happen if a presenter announced the wrong winner at the Oscars? Now we know…

by Andrew Villeneuve

Talk about fore­shad­ow­ing. On Fri­day, the Huff­in­g­ton Post ran an arti­cle ask­ing, What would hap­pen if a pre­sen­ter announced the wrong win­ner at the Oscars? The arti­cle, writ­ten by Matthew Jacobs, dis­cussed sev­er­al hypo­thet­i­cal sce­nar­ios that might result in the kind of gaffe that loomed over the finale of last night’s Oscars tele­cast. Quot­ed in […]

Posted inPolicy Topics, Public Planning

Excavate away: Digging begins on tunnel that will carry East Link under downtown Bellevue

by Andrew Villeneuve

Let the min­ing begin! That was the sen­ti­ment today at an event host­ed by Sound Tran­sit for media out­lets around the region in down­town Belle­vue, where Atkin­son Con­struc­tion is begin­ning the exca­va­tion of the tun­nel that will even­tu­al­ly car­ry ST’s East Link light rail under down­town. The tun­nel is being part­ly financed by the City of […]

Posted inPolicy Topics, Public Planning

Senate Republicans advance new scheme to mess with Sound Transit’s governance

by Andrew Villeneuve

Pick­ing up where Mary Mar­garet Hau­gen and Ed Mur­ray once left off, Repub­li­cans on the Sen­ate Trans­porta­tion Com­mit­tee vot­ed today to advance a bill that would wipe out Sound Tran­sit’s fed­er­at­ed board of city and coun­ty lead­er­ship and replace it with a pan­el of trans­porta­tion czars elect­ed from eleven new­ly drawn trans­porta­tion dis­tricts in King, […]

Posted inAnnouncements, Elections, Party Politics

Camp Wellstone returns to Seattle this May — don’t miss this premiere training opportunity!

by Andrew Villeneuve

Camp Well­stone — the sig­na­ture train­ing offered by the orga­niz­ing genius­es at Well­stone Action — will be return­ing to Seat­tle for the twelfth con­sec­u­tive year, Exec­u­tive Direc­tor Edith Sar­gon tells us. The 2017 camp has been sched­uled for May 19th-21st, coin­cid­ing with the end of Fil­ing Week here in Wash­ing­ton State. It will take place in […]

Posted inLegislative Advocacy

Tim Eyman offers tacit backing of Republican levy swipe scheme he once opposed

by Andrew Villeneuve

Dis­graced ini­tia­tive pro­mot­er Tim Eyman today revealed mid­way through an email to his fol­low­ers that he’s on board with Wash­ing­ton State Sen­ate Repub­li­cans’ plan to swipe prop­er­ty tax school levy dol­lars from urban and sub­ur­ban school dis­tricts and send them to rur­al school dis­tricts they hap­pen to rep­re­sent. After shak­ing his fist at the Senate […]

Posted inElections, Legislative Advocacy

Rural Republicans: Tim Eyman’s I‑747 is choking the life out of our cities and counties

by Andrew Villeneuve

Yes­ter­day, the Sen­ate Com­mit­tee on State Gov­ern­ment held a hear­ing on leg­is­la­tion that would replace Tim Eyman’s arbi­trary cap on prop­er­ty tax­es with more rea­son­able lim­its tied to dri­vers of local gov­ern­ments’ costs. The leg­is­la­tion, Sen­ate Bill 5772, is prime spon­sored by Sen­a­tor Jamie Ped­er­sen and cospon­sored by Repub­li­can Sen­a­tor Mau­reen Walsh, among oth­ers. As […]

Posted inBreaking News, Civil Liberties, Litigation, Policy Topics

Trump loses again: 9th Circuit refuses to reinstate discriminatory travel ban

by Andrew Villeneuve

Don­ald Trump’s uncon­sti­tu­tion­al and dis­crim­i­na­to­ry trav­el ban will remain unen­force­able for the time being, the Ninth Cir­cuit Court of Appeals ruled today. In a unan­i­mous deci­sion, a three judge pan­el ruled that Trump’s regime “has not shown a like­li­hood of suc­cess on the mer­its of its appeal, nor has it shown that fail­ure to enter a […]

Posted inBreaking News, Litigation, Policy Topics

State of Washington wins restraining order against Trump regime’s immigration ban

by Andrew Villeneuve

Hand­ing Attor­ney Gen­er­al Bob Fer­gu­son a pre­lim­i­nary vic­to­ry in his efforts to stop neo­fas­cist Don­ald Trump from stomp­ing all over the Unit­ed States Con­sti­tu­tion and fed­er­al law, U.S. Fed­er­al Dis­trict Court Judge Judge James L. Robart today grant­ed the State of Wash­ing­ton’s request for a tem­po­rary restrain­ing order block­ing imple­men­ta­tion of key pro­vi­sions of Trump’s […]

Posted inEducation, Legislative Advocacy, Policy Topics

Washington State Senate passes Republicans’ school levy swipe scheme on a party-line vote

by Andrew Villeneuve

Thanks to the arrival of new­­ly-mint­ed Sen­a­tor Shel­ley Short (R‑7th Dis­trict; north­east Wash­ing­ton) and the return of Doug Erick­sen from the Dis­trict of Colum­bia, Repub­li­cans in the Wash­ing­ton State Sen­ate were today able to pass the school levy swipe scheme they intro­duced late last week with no votes to spare. Sub­sti­tute Sen­ate Bill 5607, con­cern­ing education […]

Posted inPolicy Topics, Technology

Tim Eyman acquires email list of Democratic activists, begins sending them his propaganda

by Andrew Villeneuve

Hav­ing decid­ed he’s not enough of a pub­lic nui­sance, dis­graced ini­tia­tive pro­mot­er Tim Eyman today sent a large list of Demo­c­ra­t­ic activists a copy of his lat­est email appeal, which is for the most part a rehashed ver­sion of what he sent on Mon­day announc­ing his lat­est scheme to dev­as­tate pub­lic ser­vices, I‑1550. We know […]