Category: Public Service

Posted inPublic Service

Please accept our heartfelt wishes for a speedy recovery, President Carter!

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

Today, for­mer Pres­i­dent Jim­my Carter, who served as Amer­i­ca’s thir­­ty-ninth Com­­man­der-in-Chief shared some tough news: he’s been diag­nosed with can­cer  and will be spend­ing the next few weeks under­go­ing treat­ment. “Recent liv­er surgery revealed that I have can­cer that now is in oth­er parts of my body,” Carter said in a brief state­ment. “I will […]

Posted inAppreciations & Remembrances, Public Service

Beau Biden: 1969–2015

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

For­mer Delaware Attor­ney Gen­er­al and Delaware Army Nation­al Guard Major Beau Biden, the son of Vice Pres­i­dent Joe Biden, has died after suc­cumb­ing to brain can­cer, the Vice Pres­i­den­t’s office has announced. He was only forty-six. “It is with bro­ken hearts that Hal­lie, Hunter, Ash­ley, Jill and I announce the pass­ing of our hus­band, brother […]

Posted inPolicy Topics, Public Planning, Public Service

Sound Transit CEO Joni Earl to retire next year after University Link opens

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

One of the most trans­for­ma­tive, dynam­ic, and capa­ble civic lead­ers the Pacif­ic North­west has ever seen will soon be step­ping down, leav­ing behind a great lega­cy, but also giant-sized shoes in need of fill­ing. Joni Earl, six­­ty-one, has been at the helm of Sound Tran­sit for near­ly a decade and a half. Under her direction, […]

Posted inCivil Liberties, Policy Topics, Public Service

Loretta Lynch confirmed as the United States of America’s new Attorney General

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

Well, it’s final­ly hap­pened. After many con­temptible delays, the Unit­ed States Sen­ate final­ly took up Loret­ta Lynch’s nom­i­na­tion today and vot­ed to con­firm her as the nation’s next Attor­ney Gen­er­al, which means that incum­bent Eric Hold­er can final­ly pack his bags and leave office, as he has want­ed to do for many months. A relieved […]

Posted inBreaking News, Party Politics, Public Service

King County Council unanimously backs Carol Gregory for 30th District House vacancy

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

After speak­ing with all three of the can­di­dates nom­i­nat­ed last week by the Wash­ing­ton State Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty to suc­ceed the late Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Roger Free­man, the King Coun­ty Coun­cil this after­noon unan­i­mous­ly vot­ed to back Car­ol Gre­go­ry (the par­ty’s first choice) to fill the vacan­cy in the 30th Leg­isla­tive Dis­trict. Because the 30th is a joint […]

Posted inBreaking News, Elections, Party Politics, Public Service

Eric Cantor to resign as House Majority Leader within weeks as David Brat celebrates

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

Fol­low­ing his defeat in last night’s Vir­ginia pri­ma­ry, House Major­i­ty Leader Eric Can­tor has decid­ed to step down as Major­i­ty Leader in advance of the end of his term in office, set­ting off a scram­ble for his posi­tion between mul­ti­ple Repub­li­cans. In the cau­cus that holds the House major­i­ty, the posi­tion of Major­i­ty Leader is […]

Posted inHealthcare, Policy Topics, Public Service

Seasoned Microsoft executive Kurt DelBene tapped to manage Healthcare.gov

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

For­mer Microsoft exec­u­tive Kurt Del­Bene, who has capa­bly served as the pres­i­dent of the com­pa­ny’s Busi­ness divi­sion for many years, will take over man­age­ment of Healthcare.gov, the Oba­ma admin­is­tra­tion announced today at a meet­ing with top tech­nol­o­gy exec­u­tives, includ­ing Microsoft gen­er­al coun­sel Brad Smith. Del­Bene will suc­ceed Jef­frey D. Zients, who has been serv­ing as a […]

Posted inBreaking News, Party Politics, Public Service

Are Senate Republicans — including Rodney Tom — telling top nonpartisan staff to get lost?

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

This is dis­turb­ing news. From Andrew Gar­ber at The Seat­tle Times: Sen­ate Democ­rats raised con­cerns Fri­day that the GOP [Republican]-led major­i­ty in [the] Sen­ate is get­ting rid of top non-par­ti­san com­mit­tee staff man­agers. Sen­ate Demo­c­ra­t­ic Leader Sharon Nel­son, D‑Maury Island, said it was her under­stand­ing there was pres­sure from the GOP [Republican]-led major­i­ty cau­cus to […]

Posted inParty Politics, Public Service

U.S. Senate’s Pacific Northwest delegation votes along party lines to reform the filibuster

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

As men­tioned, Democ­rats set up a his­toric vote today on curb­ing the fil­i­buster, which Repub­li­cans have been using to pre­vent the Unit­ed States Sen­ate from con­sid­er­ing Pres­i­dent Oba­ma’s exec­u­tive and judi­cial nom­i­nees. The vote was a suc­cess, with fifty Democ­rats and two inde­pen­dents back­ing the rules change. Sen­ate Major­i­ty Leader Har­ry Reid orches­trat­ed the vote […]

Posted inBreaking News, Party Politics, Public Service

It’s done! Senate Democrats have — at long last — voted to implement filibuster reform

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

After years of talk, fil­i­buster reform has final­ly become a real­i­ty. Today, the Unit­ed States Sen­ate took a huge and momen­tous step towards becom­ing a more demo­c­ra­t­ic body. By a vote of fifty-two to forty-eight, sen­a­tors vot­ed to change Sen­ate rules to abol­ish fil­i­busters of exec­u­tive and judi­cial nom­i­na­tions, except Supreme Court nom­i­na­tions. The move […]

Posted inBreaking News, Party Politics, Public Service

Sharon Nelson chosen to succeed Ed Murray as new Senate Democratic Leader

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

Sen­a­tor Sharon Nel­son (D‑34th Dis­trict, Mau­ry Island) has been select­ed by her col­leagues to serve as the new leader of the Wash­ing­ton State Sen­ate Democ­rats, the cau­cus announced today. She suc­ceeds Ed Mur­ray, who, as of next Tues­day, will offi­cial­ly be the May­or-elect of the City of Seat­tle. Nel­son, six­­ty-two, rep­re­sents West Seat­tle, Burien, Vashon […]

Posted inParty Politics, Public Service

Filibuster reform might really, actually, finally be on the verge of happening in U.S. Senate

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

Great news from Greg Sar­gent: With Sen­ate Repub­li­cans block­ing a third Oba­ma nom­i­na­tion to the pow­er­ful D.C. Cir­cuit Court of Appeals, a senior Sen­ate Demo­c­ra­t­ic lead­er­ship aide tells me Reid is now all but cer­tain to move to change the Sen­ate rules by sim­ple major­i­ty — doing away with the fil­i­buster on exec­u­tive and judi­cial nominations, […]

Posted inParty Politics, Public Service

Obama excoriates hypocritical Senate Republicans following today’s filibuster

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

Ear­li­er today, for the third time in three weeks, Repub­li­can Mitch McConnell and his cau­cus refused to allow the Unit­ed States Sen­ate to pro­ceed with con­sid­er­ing anoth­er of Pres­i­dent Oba­ma’s nom­i­nees to fill one of the vacan­cies on the Unit­ed States Court of Appeals for the Dis­trict of Colum­bia Cir­cuit. The unsuc­cess­ful vote on the […]