Category: Open Government

Posted inBreaking News, Open Government, Policy Topics, Public Service

Jeff Sessions must resign — immediately

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

When Jeff Ses­sions was being scru­ti­nized by the Unit­ed States Sen­ate for the vital­ly impor­tant posi­tion of Unit­ed States Attor­ney Gen­er­al, he was asked by Sen­a­tor Al Franken what he would do if “any­one affil­i­at­ed with the Trump cam­paign” was found to have com­mu­ni­cat­ed with offi­cials of the Russ­ian Fed­er­a­tion. Ses­sions answered: “I have been called a […]

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 inCivil Liberties, Elections, Open Government, Policy Topics

Trump fans, welcome to the backlash against your backlash. It’s only just getting started.

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

Peo­ple all across the Dis­unit­ed States of Amer­i­ca, dis­gust­ed with Don­ald Trump’s vic­to­ry in the 2016 pres­i­den­tial elec­tion, have tak­en to the streets to protest the foul-mouthed neo­fas­cist, with many declar­ing “He’s Not My Pres­i­dent.” In city after city, from Den­ver to Chica­go to Los Ange­les to San Fran­cis­co and Oak­land to New York to […]

Posted inElections, Open Government

State of Washington sues Kim Wyman for public disclosure law violations

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

The State of Wash­ing­ton is suing Repub­li­can Sec­re­tary of State Kim Wyman for mul­ti­ple pub­lic dis­clo­sure law vio­la­tions, Attor­ney Gen­er­al Bob Fer­gu­son’s office announced in a news release this after­noon. “The com­plaint alleges the Wyman cam­paign failed to time­ly file con­tri­bu­tion and expen­di­ture dis­clo­sure reports, as required under the state’s cam­paign finance laws. It also […]

Posted inBreaking News, Open Government

BIG NEWS: Attorney General Ferguson files *three* new complaints against Tim Eyman!

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

Respond­ing to a set of cit­i­zen’s action notices sent ear­li­er this year by Wash­ing­to­ni­ans For Eth­i­cal Gov­ern­ment and Keep Wash­ing­ton Rolling, Attor­ney Gen­er­al Bob Fer­gu­son’s office announced this morn­ing it has filed three new com­plaints in Thurston Coun­ty Supe­ri­or Court against Tim Eyman and his asso­ciates for seri­ous vio­la­tions of Wash­ing­ton’s pub­lic dis­clo­sure laws. “Washington’s campaign […]

Posted inOpen Government, Policy Topics

Attorney General Bob Ferguson requests that Tim Eyman be held in contempt of court

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

Wash­ing­ton State Attor­ney Gen­er­al Bob Fer­gu­son announced today he is ask­ing courts in Sno­homish and Thurston coun­ties to hold ini­tia­tive prof­i­teer Tim Eyman and his asso­ciates in con­tempt of court for fail­ing to ful­ly com­ply with law­­ful­­ly-issued civ­il orders seek­ing doc­u­ments that would shed light on poten­tial vio­la­tions of Wash­ing­ton’s pub­lic dis­clo­sure law. “Despite a subpoena […]

Posted inElections, Open Government, Policy Topics

Hillary Clinton commits to introducing amendment to overturn Citizens United

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

In a video address to Net­roots Nation 2016, played dur­ing tonight’s clos­ing ple­nary ses­sion in St. Louis, pre­sump­tive Demo­c­ra­t­ic nom­i­nee Hillary Clin­ton com­mit­ted to intro­duc­ing a con­sti­tu­tion­al amend­ment to over­turn the Roberts Court’s hor­ri­ble Cit­i­zens Unit­ed rul­ing with­in her first one hun­dred days in office. “Today I’m announc­ing that in my first thir­ty days as […]

Posted inLitigation, Open Government, Policy Topics

It’s official: Attorney General Ferguson has a second case against Tim Eyman to prosecute

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

A com­plaint alleg­ing that Tim Eyman failed to fol­low Wash­ing­ton’s pub­lic dis­clo­sure law back in April when he launched an ad cam­paign exco­ri­at­ing Demo­c­ra­t­ic law­mak­ers for not doing his bid­ding has been returned to Attor­ney Gen­er­al Bob Fer­gu­son’s office for fur­ther action by a unan­i­mous Pub­lic Dis­clo­sure Com­mis­sion. In an ear­ly after­noon tele­con­fer­ence, Com­mis­sion­ers Anne […]

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 inElections, Open Government, Policy Topics

Tim Eyman takes down illegal independent expenditure attacking Democratic legislators

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

Ini­tia­tive prof­i­teer Tim Eyman has pulled the plug on a web­site and series of accom­pa­ny­ing video ads post­ed to Vimeo that exco­ri­at­ed dozens of Demo­c­ra­t­ic Wash­ing­ton State law­mak­ers and urged view­ers to “Vote Them Out!” The ads, launched in mid-April, were financed by wealthy bene­fac­tors Clyde Hol­land and Ken­neth Fish­er, who each donat­ed $22,500 to one […]

Posted inOpen Government, Policy Topics, Public Planning

Senate Republicans trip all over themselves trying to explain Lynn Peterson’s ouster

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

In the wake of yes­ter­day’s sur­prise vote to remove Lynn Peter­son as Wash­ing­ton Sec­re­tary of Trans­porta­tion, Sen­ate Repub­li­cans have been asked, again and again, by their Demo­c­ra­t­ic col­leagues as well as by reporters: Why are you doing this? Dif­fer­ent Repub­li­can sen­a­tors have been giv­ing dif­fer­ent answers, espe­cial­ly in one-on-one inter­views with the press.… even contradicting […]

Posted inElections, Open Government, Policy Topics

WAmend’s Initiative 735 certified to the 2016 Legislature, ballot, Secretary of State says

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

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 […]

Posted inPolicy Topics

CarbonWA is paying a convicted forger and Tim Eyman pal to run I‑732 signature drive

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

The group work­ing to qual­i­fy an ini­tia­tive to the 2016 Wash­ing­ton State Leg­is­la­ture that would levy a tax on pol­luters and use the rev­enue to reduce oth­er tax­es is rely­ing on the sig­na­ture gath­er­ing ser­vices of a com­pa­ny run by a man pre­vi­ous­ly con­vict­ed of forgery who has also done work for dis­graced ini­tia­tive pro­mot­er Tim Eyman, NPI has learned.

Posted inElections, Open Government, Policy Topics

Surprise! Tim Eyman shows up for I‑1366 editorial board meeting with Seattle Times

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

He’s back… sort of. Noto­ri­ous ini­tia­tive prof­i­teer Tim Eyman emerged briefly from his self-imposed seclu­sion ear­li­er today to attend a meet­ing with the edi­to­r­i­al board of The Seat­tle Times to make his case for I‑1366, his lat­est and most destruc­tive ini­tia­tive yet, with extrem­ist Repub­li­can State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Ed Orcutt in tow as his side­kick du jour. I‑1366 […]