Category: Breaking News

Posted inBreaking News, Elections

VICTORY!!! I‑1515 backers throw in the towel, anti-transgender initiative FAILS!

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

Back­ers of Ini­tia­tive 1515, a right wing scheme to legal­ize dis­crim­i­na­tion against trans­gen­der indi­vid­u­als in Wash­ing­ton State, have can­celed their appoint­ment to turn in sig­na­tures after con­clud­ing they did­n’t have enough to make the bal­lot, the Sec­re­tary of State’s office announced only min­utes ago. “The I‑1515 (‘bath­room ini­tia­tive’) cam­paign has can­celed their Fri­day appoint­ment and will […]

Posted inBreaking News, Elections, Open Government

Tim Eyman broke the law with ad campaign against Democratic legislators, PDC confirms

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

Ini­tia­tive prof­i­teer Tim Eyman has once against been bust­ed for seri­ous vio­la­tions of Wash­ing­ton State’s pub­lic dis­clo­sure laws. Staff at the Pub­lic Dis­clo­sure Com­mis­sion — Wash­ing­ton’s equiv­a­lent of the Fed­er­al Elec­tions Com­mis­sion — have fin­ished inves­ti­gat­ing a com­plaint filed by NPI part­ner Wash­ing­to­ni­ans For Eth­i­cal Gov­ern­ment sev­er­al weeks ago which alleges that Eyman and his associates […]

Posted inBreaking News, Media & Culture

KPLU SAVED! Deal with KUOW is off, 88.5 FM to become an independent NPR affiliate

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

A major vic­to­ry for media diver­si­ty and inde­pen­dent jour­nal­ism has been won today with the news that Pacif­ic Luther­an Uni­ver­si­ty has agreed to sell NPR affil­i­ate KPLU to the non­prof­it group Friends of 88.5 FM, which suc­cess­ful­ly raised $7 mil­lion in the span of just a few months to keep the sta­tion inde­pen­dent. The just-announced […]

Posted inBreaking News, Elections

Bernie Sanders wins Washington’s 2016 Democratic presidential precinct caucuses

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

Ver­mont Sen­a­tor Bernie Sanders will like­ly wind up with a com­mand­ing vic­to­ry over for­mer Sec­re­tary of State Hillary Clin­ton in Wash­ing­ton’s 2016 Demo­c­ra­t­ic pres­i­den­tial precinct cau­cus­es, ear­ly results sug­gest. Wash­ing­ton Demo­c­ra­t­ic Cau­cus­es — Pre­lim­i­nary Results Sat­ur­day, March 26th, 2016 Can­di­date Per­cent­age Leg­isla­tive Del­e­gates Nation­al Del­e­gates Bernie Sanders 74.7% 5,536 (so far) 18 (est) Hillary Clin­ton 25.1% 1,931 […]

Posted inBreaking News, Elections

It’s Super Tuesday! Here’s a rundown of who is winning in the fourteen states voting today

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

We are now out of Feb­ru­ary, and into the sec­ond month of nom­i­nat­ing sea­son. The pres­i­den­tial sweep­stakes con­tin­ue with Super Tues­day, one of the most impor­tant events on the cal­en­dar. Eleven states are hold­ing pri­maries and cau­cus­es today. Most of those states have both Demo­c­ra­t­ic and Repub­li­can con­tests, but a few only have con­tests between […]

Posted inBreaking News, Elections

Hillary Clinton projected as the narrow victor in the Nevada Democratic caucuses

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

For­mer Sec­re­tary of State Hillary Clin­ton will wind up eking out a nar­row vic­to­ry over Sen­a­tor Bernie Sanders in the Neva­da Demo­c­ra­t­ic cau­cus­es, if pro­jec­tions by cable and broad­cast news net­works are accu­rate. With 72.4% report­ing, Clin­ton had 52.3% sup­port, com­pared to 47.7% for Bernie Sanders. When all is said and done, she will probably […]

Posted inBreaking News, Litigation, Party Politics

Right wing U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia dead at seventy-nine

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

Unit­ed States Supreme Court Jus­tice Antonin Scalia, the most senior jus­tice on the Roberts Court and a reli­able vote for the Court’s right wing bloc, has died, accord­ing to a state­ment released today by Chief Jus­tice John Roberts. “On behalf of the Court and retired Jus­tices, I am sad­dened to report that our col­league Justice […]

Posted inBreaking News, Elections, Live Coverage

Bernie Sanders, Donald Trump projected to win in New Hampshire after polls close

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

Now that most of the state’s polls have closed, Amer­i­ca’s cable and broad­cast net­works are pro­ject­ing that Bernie Sanders and Don­ald Trump — who each fin­ished sec­ond place in the Iowa cau­cus­es last week — have won the Demo­c­ra­t­ic and Repub­li­can 2016 pres­i­den­tial pri­maries in New Hamp­shire. Ear­ly unof­fi­cial results show both Sanders and Trump ahead. […]

Posted inBreaking News, Elections

Eyman cohort Don Benton announces his retirement from the Washington State Senate

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

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 […]

Posted inBreaking News, Elections

U.S. Representative Jim McDermott announces his retirement from Congress

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

Wash­ing­ton’s cur­rent longest-serv­ing mem­ber of Con­gress has decid­ed to retire after near­ly three decades of ser­vice to the U.S. House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives. Con­gress­man Jim McDer­mott, sev­en­­ty-nine, announced at a press con­fer­ence today in Seat­tle that he won’t seek reelec­tion in 2016, set­ting the stage for what will undoubt­ed­ly be a crowd­ed Top Two elec­tion to […]

Posted inBreaking News, Elections

Spokane City Council adopts resolution opposing Tim Eyman’s I‑1366

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

Great news to share this evening: Moments ago, the City of Spokane put itself on record as opposed to Tim Eyman’s incred­i­bly destruc­tive I‑1366 by vot­ing unan­i­mous­ly to adopt a res­o­lu­tion urg­ing a NO vote by Novem­ber 3rd. The Coun­cil act­ed after hear­ing tes­ti­mo­ny from pro­po­nents and oppo­nents of I‑1366. League of Women Vot­ers of Washington […]

Posted inBreaking News, Civil Liberties, Policy Topics, Public Planning

At least ten shot dead at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon; more injured

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

Gun vio­lence has once again left dozens of peo­ple dead and wound­ed at a place of learn­ing, this time right here in the great Pacif­ic North­west: An inci­dent with an active shoot­er has tak­en place at Umpqua Com­mu­ni­ty Col­lege in Rose­burg that has left at least 10 peo­ple dead and more than 20 injured. According […]

Posted inBreaking News, Education, Elections, Litigation, Policy Topics

Washington’s Supreme Court strikes down I‑1240 (charter schools) in its entirety

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

Once again, the Wash­ing­ton State Supreme Court has rid­den to the res­cue of Wash­ing­ton’s belea­guered pub­lic schools sys­tem. In a mon­u­men­tal­ly impor­tant 6–3 deci­sion released late this after­noon, the Court struck down Ini­tia­tive 1240, a char­ter schools mea­sure vot­ers nar­row­ly passed in 2012, as uncon­sti­tu­tion­al in its entire­ty. The deci­sion means that Wash­ing­ton’s exper­i­ment with […]

Posted inBreaking News, Elections, Litigation

Washington’s Supreme Court allows Eyman’s I‑1366 to proceed to November 2015 ballot

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

This morn­ing, the Wash­ing­ton State Supreme Court ren­dered a pre­lim­i­nary ver­dict in Huff v. Wyman, the scope chal­lenge to Tim Eyman’s I‑1366. The Court has ruled unan­i­mous­ly that plain­tiffs’ request for an injunc­tion should be denied, which we under­stand means that I‑1366 will appear on the Novem­ber 2015 bal­lot. The Court entered the fol­low­ing order: This […]