– Don’t let the NRA have this one

– Wait, is Jesus the 12th Man?

– It’s not the biggest deal in the world, but it seems neat to let 16 and 17 year olds preregister to vote (TNT link)

– That really is the only conclusion to draw from opposition to hate crimes laws based on the fear that hate crimes will criminalize preaching

– 6 Shocking Realities of the Secret ‘Troubled Teen Industry’

– So, I don’t want to make a big deal about this, but I just realized that I’ve been blogging for more than a decade (although there was a break between blogs 1 and 2).

In the wake of the DREAM Act passing the Washington State House, I had a pretty cynical response assuming that it would die in Rodney Tom’s Senate. Well, I still think that’s probably the bill’s ultimate fate, but unlike me, Andrew at NPI took the opportunity to write his Senator (Senator Tom, as it happens).

The DREAM Act has to do with education. So it’s within the purview you outlined to the Seattle Times’ Olympia correspondent, Andrew Garber.

Do you have a fallback excuse to explain why this legislation won’t be coming up for a vote this session, even though the House of Representatives has just voted, giving the Senate ample time for consideration?

If you’re truly the majority leader, as opposed to majority leader in name only, you should be able to bring this bill up for a vote in the Senate.

I mean, besides you, just one other vote from your caucus would be needed, and then together, with the Democrats, there’d be twenty-five votes for this bill.

The instinct to push forward, to write, over the instinct to just throw your hands up is one I wish I had shared with Andrew. So here’s my letter to a Seattle Democrat who would almost certainly support it anyway if it comes up.

I’m writing you today to ask that you do whatever you can to support the Washington State DREAM Act recently passed by the State House. I understand that as a member of the minority party there is only so much you can do, but common decency demands that you do as much as you can. People who are in this country, who came here through no fault of their own, deserve the chance to make it in this country, and in this state.

It’s good for the state’s long term economic prospects to have a highly educated workforce, and this will help provide that. It’s in our interest to be the kind of state that attracts the best people no matter their background. But mostly, it’s the right thing to to.

Thank you

Carl Ballard

If you want to write your Senator, or one or both of your Reps — on this or anything else — you can find them here. My recommendation is be polite but tell them exactly what you want.

Goldy has the details.

With the Washington State Legislature proving absolutely incapable (unwilling?) of addressing our transportation needs, King County Executive Dow Constantine is rolling out a proposal that would ask voters to approve $130 million a year in new local taxes to avert a 17 percent cut in Metro bus service, while providing additional money to maintain deteriorating city and county roads. Constantine will also ask the county council to approve a new low-income fare category—$1.50 per trip—that would provide a substantial discount to as many as 100,000 Metro riders who are struggling to cope with recent fare increases.

[…]

Rather than the more progressive motor vehicle excise tax (MVET)—a tax on the value of your car—that Olympia had promised King County but never delivered, Constantine is proposing raising revenue under the county’s existing but unused Transportation Benefit District (TBD) authority. The TBD would raise a combined $130 million in 2015; $80 million from a $60 annual vehicle license fee (VLF), and $50 million from a 0.1 percent increase in the county sales tax. (The $60 VLF would come after the current $20 “congestion relief charge” expires in June, so vehicle owners would only see a net $40 annual increase in their car tabs bill.) Sixty percent of the money raised would go toward filling a projected $75 million a year shortfall in Metro revenues, with the remaining 40 percent going toward city and county roads, allocated based on population.

The election to decide that will come up pretty soon, so that might be more interesting than whatever is happening, or not happening, in the legislature. I wonder if the opposition to the license fee will be out in as much force as it was in the Seattle election a few years ago. I hope it turns out better. Will the people who opposed it because it was regressive but haven’t lifted a finger to push Olympia for a better option be out again?

Will the promise of a lower bus fare make this package more progressive, so easier to swallow? In that election, there were vague promises that City Light would look into better rates for lower income people to offset some of the problems with the flat rate license fee. In this package, the lower rates are baked in. Goldy didn’t mention it in the piece and I forgot to ask him at Drinking Liberally, but I wonder what the mechanism will be for enforcing the different rate. It seems intrusive to have to prove that you deserve rate, but maybe it wouldn’t be. And with ORCA Cards, it’s probably a bit easier to just bloop the thing (THE TECHNICAL TERM) than to have to show a separate pass. Of course lower income people are probably less likely to have ORCA Cards, by and large.

Sure, I realize that there may be more important issues than this, but shit’s important to me. The other day at work, I sent an email with “obvs” like I do on HA sometimes. A coworker thought it was important to let me know that the proper abbreviation of obviously is “obvi.”

Now, I don’t want to besmirch my workmates, but that can’t possibly be right, can it? Maybe?

There are a few things that make me worry that I maaaaay be wrong. First, the spelling: “Obvi” clearly cuts off in a logical place. “Obvs” really doesn’t. Second, when my coworker told me it was “obvi” I could pronounce it correctly. It took me 3 times to pronounce “obvs” and it’s my word. Finally, I’m not sure where “obvs” came from. I feel like I’ve always just abbreviated it that way.

So in conclusion, why am I talking about this? Good night!

– SPD has pictures from a person of interest in the Neighbours NYE arson.

– If only we had more people guns in movie theaters

– The Washington State DREAM Act passed the House (h/t). Anyone else excited about it dying in Rodney Tom’s Senate, despite having the votes to pass?

– 137% of people agree that Fox News is bad at polls.

– When evangelicals support Phil Robertson…

– Mark your calendars, the NPI Spring Fundraising Gala is 4/25

So, the legislature has started up again, and as night follows day, Rodney Tom has said something stupid.* Regarding the $15 minimum wage, Genius McGee had this nugget of, um, let’s say gold.

The majority leader looked down his nose at the current drive in Seattle for a $15-an-hour minimum wage. It was spurred on last week by Seattle Mayor Ed Murray’s executive order that city departments implement that wage level for about 600 city employees currently below it.

“(Mayor Mike) McGinn filled up our (Eastside) office towers and a $15 wage will fill up our retail space,” Tom quipped.

As Joel notes:

Actually, if Tom walked around the downtown Seattle neighborhood where the City Club held its luncheon, he would find plenty of recently located retail business and lots of buildings going up nearby in such places as South Lake Union.

So, either Rodney Tom doesn’t know that Amazon has expanded within Seattle proper, or he doesn’t care. Either way, holy shit, this fucker is making economic policy for the state! The GOP gave power to this asshole who either doesn’t know that Microsoft has a presence in SLU or, I guess just forgot. I mean, every state GOP senator voted as their leader this person who is unaware of the Russell Investments’ move.

Now there are real problems in some neighborhoods with attracting storefronts. Pioneer Square — for example — is mostly full in the offices, but they still haven’t been able to refill the old Elliott Bay Books location, or other places. At the beginning of the recession a lot of stores near me closed, and while most have come back, some are still vacant. So there might be an argument about the $15 minimum wage scaring people away.** Still, the whole thing is based on faulty assumptions, so I wouldn’t put much faith in it.

Now, to be clear, I hope for only good things for his district and for the rest of the state. We’re in it together, and all that. If the offices are as full on the Eastside as Tom says, great. More jobs for people. More tax money for education and social services. More money for Metro.

In any event, I don’t know how you can wish a poor wage on so many of your constituents. I mean, there are plenty of people who live in Redmond and Kirkland — hell, I bet even parts of Medina — who make below $15. It must be awesome to be told by their State Senator that they’re worth so little.

Finally, dumbfuck is a STATE legislator and the ostensible leader of the entire Senate. He’s supposed to work for the interests of the entire state. If the state’s largest city were hurting as badly as he claims — and again, it’s not he’s just either stupid or dishonest when he says it — he should be sad, not gloating. He should be trying to figure out how to help.

[Read more…]

– Many Republicans and Christie admirers aren’t sure how best to respond, but they’ve taken a long look at the available evidence, and have decided to ask the question that matters most to them: “Isn’t President Obama awful?”

– In case you’re wondering why the GOP’s only plan for health care is repeal the ACA, well it’s because their other ideas are crap.

– Feminized culture made it not OK to cause traffic on the GWB?

– The EPA is Evil. Save me EPA.

– Regardless of your stance on prosecuting online hate speech and/or explicit threats, we, as a society, need to start accepting the fact that the internet is real. The internet is not a fantasyland without consequences—it’s a real place of real joy and real danger where real flesh-and-blood people exchange real ideas and real threats.

– Emmett has another metanomy piece on Olympia.

I suppose in a way it’s progress that the GOP are pretending to give a shit about the science of global warming instead of just sticking their fingers in their ears and yelling “we’re in the majority in the State Senate, so lalalala I can’t hear you.” But this seems more like a PR friendly version of that.

The GOP statement from Sen. Ericksen and Rep. Short said CLEW’s work assignment—crunching the data on any proposed solutions—needed to add another year. In their press release, Sen. Ericksen, also chair of the senate’s environment committee, said: “It is vital that legislators receive accurate information about the economic costs and the potential environmental benefits surrounding any carbon-reduction efforts.”

Some of the things in the mix: a carbon tax, a cap and trade system, expanding hydro capacity, investing in nuclear power, and foregoing “coal-by-wire”—transmitting coal-generated electricty from out of state. (The legislature passed a historic bill back in 2011 phasing out the state’s last existing coal-powered plant.)

And look, I’m all for studying things more. Yay! We can, and should continuously update legislation. But at a certain point, complaining about the fact that we don’t know for certain all of the possible impacts of a policy is just a way to kill that policy. For we also don’t know all of the impacts of doing nothing for another year. In any event, if that was a concern before, they could have raised it before.

It isn’t like we’re stuck with any policy for ever. If a cap and trade strategy is as bad as Ericksen pretends to fear, it can be adjusted or gotten rid of. I’m glad to see that the Democrats will actually push for something.

Ranker’s press release, which came second in the volley (he says he got a text from Ericksen the previous night alerting him that the Republicans thought the CLEW process should continue, but was caught off guard by the press release which he disparaged as “negotiating in the media”), was brief:

“I was surprised to see the press release from the Republicans on the CLEW committee, especially considering all sides were still talking and weighing options. While I’m disappointed, I’m also optimistic that Gov. Inslee, Rep. Fitzgibbon and I can continue to work on solutions to this very serious issue that impacts every person in our state and planet. Doing nothing is the only option not on the table.”

If the GOP were willing to show themselves as good faith actors, their let’s wait another year theatrics might be worth something. As it is, it’s probably fair to say they’re hoping to have an excuse to not do anything until the next election.

I suspect there will be more and more demands to study things as an excuse for inaction in the coming session. That’s really too bad.

The State Supreme Court issued an order that the legislature isn’t on track to fully fund education by 2017:

“The State clearly made strides in 2013, which should not be overlooked: But the court is very concerned that measured by the current rate of progress, the state is not going to be in compliance with the constitution by the 2017-18 school year,” wrote Chief Justice Barbara Madsen.

The order, signed by eight of nine justices — conservative Justice Jim Johnson did not sign — told the Legislature to deliver a plan by April to phase in a full school funding plan.

The Legislature did budget $982 million in 2013 to bolster education, but the court noted that this amounted to only a 6.7 percent increase over the current, constitutionally inadequate level of support to the state’s public schools.

In the post looking forward to the legislative session, I’d said that there probably wouldn’t be too many accomplishments, and that probably still holds. But maybe this will actually shake some money loose for education. Hopefully it doesn’t come from further dismantling the social safety net. I’m not sure that education works as well as possible for hungry children.

If you’re interested in taking a bus or a train to the playoff game, Seattle Transit Blog has the pertinent details.

Metro will once again be providing $4 (each way) cash-only shuttles from Northgate Transit Center, Eastgate Park&Ride, and South Kirkland Park & Ride, leaving each lot from 11:25 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., and then picking up at 5th Ave S & S Weller St (on the east side of International District / Chinatown Station) after the game.

Sounder will once again be running pre-game trips to Century Link Field and post-game trips back to all Sounder stations. The schedule may look familiar because it is identical to the regular season game-day schedule. The only difference is this game is on a Saturday.

For those flying in from out of town, Link Light Rail gets you from the airport to Century Link Field. You can get an all-day ticket on Link at any ORCA vending machine, including the ones at Seatac/Airport Station, for $5.50. Set Seatac/Airport Station and Westlake Station as the termini of your trips so that you can travel anywhere Link goes all day. The best station for getting to the stadium is International District / Chinatown Station. Stadium Station is designed for the best connection to Safeco Field (where the Mariners play), but is also a decent option if you will be in the south end zone.

Obviously, good info if you need it. But it also makes me think of public transit’s ability to scale up. While there is more need for car infrastructure in SoDo, it’s not something you can just build more for the game. On the other hand, you can add more buses and trains for a peak time.

– Is this process for picking a new police chief going to produce different results than the last one?

– Jeff Merkley is a real hero on unemployment insurance, but it’s godawful that it has to come up at all.

– Oh my am I glad the people who gave us the Iraq war aren’t in power right now.

– I love that building

– In the last open thread, I said that Melissa Harris Perry was right to apologize, and I stand by that. But I also agree that there is a context.

– Holy shit Chris Christie.

– Nine years later he publicly came out of the closet, and has since made it his mission to ensure that lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or questioning (LGBTQ) athletes don’t have to wait until their playing days are over to be themselves.

– Ham proceeds to retcon the early chapters of Genesis, shuffling the chronology a bit and turning parts of Chapter 5 into a flashback preceding Chapter 4 — all in the name of a “literal” reading of the text. But throughout this fast-talking and dealing from the bottom of the text Ham seems to realize that the core problem he’s facing here is the disturbingly Flowers-in-the-Attic scenario necessitated by insisting on a single original family of original humans.

– I don’t mind people taking pictures of everything, but don’t block other people’s view.

I’m not sure where to put the blame for the Gigabit Squared deal falling apart. Murray says it was trouble when he came into office, but I suspect he’ll say that about a lot of things McGinn started did that he doesn’t want to do.

Mayor Ed Murray has declared the city’s deal with startup broadband company Gigabit Squared dead. In fact, the city’s deal with the company may have been doomed before Murray was even elected.

“We understand the Gigabit problems had developed before the election,” Murray told PSBJ reporter Marc Stiles in an interview last week.

Whatever the reason, it’s too bad. I’m a few blocks outside of the coverage area, so it doesn’t hit me personally, at least in the beginning. But regardless, if they can’t provide the service, the need for that high speed relatively cheap Internet is still there. Tech companies and other businesses will have a choice of where to locate, and that will certainly be in the calculus. People will decide where to live, and that will be part of the decision. For people who want to live in the city, it’s a quality of life issue.

Fortunately, Seattle is blessed with a utility in Seattle City Light that is already good at delivering a vital service city wide relatively inexpensively. So it should be easier for us to do this than most places. As such, I was glad to see Mayor Murray say this:

“It’s a utility, in my mind,” Murray said. “The city has done a very good job of providing affordable electric rates because we have a public utility. So I think there are a variety of models, including a hybrid model that might get that affordability.”

When something can and should be done but the private sector can’t or won’t do it, it’s time to consider how else to provide that service. It seems like something Seattle can do as a city.

Bikes passed the counter at the Fremont Bridge 926,025 times last year. It’s quite a bit over 2012 and a testament to Seattle and the region’s commitment to infrastructure for bikes on the government level, and to riding on the individual level.

It’s obviously still a small number compared to the number of cars crossing the bridge, but it is a lot of commutes, day trips, and other outings. Still, because we like round numbers — and goals — I think we can hit 1,000,000 next year.

– I knew that Seattle was GOP territory not that long ago, but seeing that King County went for Reagan is a bit of a surprise.

– What is happening with Don Benton and Ann Rivers (Columbian link)?

– With social media at their disposal, the students are thinking big. They plan to organize, nationwide, a “Z-Day” on Jan. 31 to protest the forced resignation of Eastside vice principal Mark Zmuda after his same-sex marriage last summer.

– Even by The Daily Caller’s low standards, this is pretty stoopid.

– Anyone else going to Reproductive Health and Rights Lobby Day 2014 or any other lobbying efforts in Olympia?

– You have no idea how much I tried to come up with an “it’s Spokane’s fault” joke for the fault line running through it. But no.

– I hate that there was a car crash in LFP but a couple pedestrians on the Burke-Gilman trail are pretty awesome.

– Any thoughts on Cascade’s new logo?

This year’s short session starts January 13. With the state Senate controlled by the GOP even more so than last session, and the House and Governor’s Mansion firmly in the hands of Democrats, I think we’ll see more defense than either side being able to push an agenda. They won’t have to compromise on a budget, so I suspect anything that does get passed will be small and around the edges. Still, they might surprise us. And anyway, there’s no reason to start the session out without a wishlist. Is there anything you’re hoping for or anything you’re hoping gets blocked?

For me, I’m less and less sure that there’s any sort of transportation package that isn’t terrible, but you never know. If I had one thing that in an ideal world I’d have the legislature pass it would be a high earner’s income tax. That won’t happen, doy, but it’s worth saying I’d like it. If they won’t pass that, a local option income tax would be better, although I think localities have the right, because of supreme court decisions made in the 1930’s and political cowardice, they won’t use it without some prompting. Barring that, I’d still like the Reproductive Parity Act but given that when NARAL called me, they weren’t even pushing that, it seems unlikely.