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If Seattle businesses are closing up shop in response to our $15 minimum wage, you wouldn’t know it from our falling unemployment rate:

King County’s unemployment rate reach[ed] a low not seen since April 2008, data released Tuesday by the state Employment Security Department show.

King County’s unemployment rate in April was 3.3 percent, compared to 4 percent in March and 4.1 percent in April 2014.

Okay, monthly unemployment data is not seasonally adjusted, so the rate will surely rise in May and June as college and high school graduates join the workforce (like it does every year). And of course, it will take years—maybe even a couple decades—to fully suss out the employment effect (if any) of Seattle’s phased-in $15 minimum wage.

But again, if employers are cutting back on hiring in anticipation of rising labor costs—like $15 critics insist a rationally self-interested employer would—you wouldn’t know it from our falling unemployment rate.

But, you know, one crappy chain pizza place closed, so screw the data.

[Cross-posted to Civic Skunkworks]

Michelle Obama works out.

Thom: G.O.P. calls out Faux News as propaganda.

Texas-style Crazy:

• Hey Texas…Are you okay?
• Dickipedia: Ted Nugent is a DICK:

• Young Turks: Stunning numbers believe Texas will be invaded by its own country
• Is there no cure for Texas?
• David Pakman: Texas BANS Tesla from selling directly to consumers

The many accomplishments of Vladimir Putin.

Mental Floss: Misconceptions about Disney.

White House: West Wing Week.

MinutePhysics: Why rain drops are mathematically impossible.

Thom: Debt slavery is the new norm for college students.

The 2016 Klown Kar:

• Maddow: Home state animus burdens governors with eyes on 2016
• Chris Hayes: Who will be cut from the Debates?
• Young Turks: Rick Santorum gets frothy over FAUX News decision…and he is kind-a right.
• David Pakman: Jeb Bush insanely claims George W. Bush was MISLED into war
• Sam Seder and Cliff Schecter: Jeb Bush can’t stop flop-flopping on Iraq
• David Pakman: Jeb Bush goes full bigot on same sex marriage
• Mark Fiore: Jeb Bush and brotherly love.
• David Pakman: Jeb Bush says it is arrogant to acknowledge climate science consensus.
• Thom: Can any GOP presidential candidate handle the Iraq question?
• Sam Seder and Cliff Schecter: Jeb Bush, “Believing Science is Arrogant”!
• David Pakman: Jeb wants to replace Obamacare with Apple watch
• Young Turks: Jeb Bush backtracks on climate change science
• Matt Binder: Rick Perry to Glenn Beck, “Jade Helm proves you can’t trust government.
• Young Turks: Chris Christie wants 9/11-style fear to rule all of our lives
• Sam Seder: Lindsey Graham is running for President because the world is falling apart
• Pap and Farron Cousins: Marco Rubio’s RNC spending spree
• David Pakman: Rubio implodes over Iraq war
• Young Turks: Mike Huckabee still supports child molester Josh Duggar

Thom: The Good, the Bad and the Very, Very Epicenely Ugly!

Kimmel: This week in unnecessary censorship.

Sen. Franken (D-MN): End NSA bulk phone surveillance.

Pap: GOP voter base is dying off.

Unsolicited advice for Bristol Palin.

Boy Scout President calls for end to gay ban.

Fifteen Now:

• Sam Seder: Debunking the “higher minimum wage hurts the economy’ myth
• Young Turks: Minimum wage workers get a raise in LA
• Sam Seder: Big living wage win in LA

Ann Telnaes: Spinning the Iraq War.

Thom: End the Bankster’s “get out of jail free” card!

SNL: Hillary Clinton’s summer.

Slate: Inside the Hubble telescope’s strangest image.

President Twitterer:

• @POTUS: The first Tweet.
• The pros and cons of tweeting President Obama
• Jonathan Capehart: Obama joins Twitter….Here come the racists.
• David Pakman: Racist asshole conservatives welcome Obama to Twitter.

Mental Floss: 23 weird celebrity businesses.

Sam Seder: Did Bill O’Reilly beat his wife?

Congressional hits and misses of the week:

Maddow: Outrageous news.

America’s nicest men’s rights activist (MRA) explains the cause.

Pap: The public HATES the Supreme Court.

Iraq Intelligence:

• Maddow: Republicans ignore Iraq war lies
• Thom: Former CIA Deputy Director admits the Dick Cheney pushed him on Iraq.
• Michael Brooks: CIA Official, “George Bush misled on Iraq and I knew”.
• Sam Seder and Cliff Schecter: On Iraq, they knew then what they knew now.
• Young Turks: Government lies and the reality of Iraq

Young Turks: Ireland may vote to legalize same sex marriage.

Sam Seder: Nutjob Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), I trust the Ayatollah more than Obama.

Last week’s Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza can be found here.

– Emmett’s piece on how different people see Downtown Olympia probably scales to other downtowns.

– You need to know how to parallel park before you get on the road, Maryland drivers.

– The only Republican answer on Iraq that would make any sense is that it was the wrong decision. It’s surprising how few can do that.

– Top 5 Irritating Agency Operations Habits

– The diverse crowd of advocates, business owners and community leaders shows that the tide has turned overwhelmingly in favor of taking bold action to make Rainier Ave safer. This is a street where safe streets advocates have long felt resistance. It takes a big shift in mindset for communities to realize busy, scary streets can and should be made safer for everyone. It’s beautiful to realize that shift has happened, and this dangerous street’s days are numbered.

– It’s sad that one only need replace “back then” with “nowadays” and Assata could be describing life in 2015, not the 1960s of her youth.

Hey, is anyone surprised Sen. Michael Baumgartner (or an intern in his office) is writing press releases in support a bill to dock teacher’s pay during strikes? No, nobody? I’m going to make fun of it anyway.

OLYMPIA… On the same day that teachers in the Seattle School District are planning to walk off the job, the state Senate Commerce and Labor Committee will hold a hearing on a bill that would dock their pay.

On the same day that Michael Baumgartner is violating his oath by not supporting the paramount duty of the state — AKA, any day — he still managed to find time to complain about the people who actually educate children. Yes, he has helped make sure that teacher pay has been frozen for years. Not for nothing, but he’s literally using a special session where he’s supposed to find ways to fund education to try his hand at cutting teacher pay.

The work session and public hearing on Senate Bill 6116 is set for 1:30 p.m. Tuesday in Senate Hearing Room 4. Officials of the Washington Education Association and other education groups have been invited.

The bill, sponsored by state Sen. Tim Sheldon, D-Potlatch, would for the first time impose a financial penalty on teachers who choose to break the law by going on strike. The proposal is especially timely this year, said committee chair Michael Baumgartner, R-Spokane. Teachers affiliated with the WEA have voted to stage one-day walkouts in 55 school districts.

It’s like he isn’t aware that it’s the middle of a special session to fund education, and failing super hard. The most timely thing about this bill is a strike? Is he even trying? He’s aware that we can read, right?

“Let’s leave aside the political arguments for a moment,” Baumgartner said.

Seems unlikely, but let’s see what “leave aside the political arguments” looks like:

“The fact is that these strikes use our children as a political football. The teachers walk out and the parents have to stay home. The union is hoping parents will take out their anger on the Legislature. It’s a nasty game they play.”

So leaving aside the political argument is blaming someone else for your own shortcomings. Great. Again, if the legislature did their job, we wouldn’t be in this mess.

Teachers are protesting a Senate budget proposal that gives them their first cost-of-living increase since the Great Recession. The problem is the Democrats in the state House are offering them more. At the same time, both parties balk at paying for Initiative 1351, a class-size reduction measure backed by the teacher’s union that narrowly passed last year. The measure would require that 25,000 additional teachers and school employees be hired, costing $3.8 billion every two years when fully implemented.

Oh right. You’ve not passed teacher raises despite inflation still being a thing for the better part of a decade. Now you’ve decided that instead of fully making up that gap and paying for the other things you haven’t funded for a long time, not to mention what people just voted for, just dock teacher pay for a one day strike that will be made up at the end of the year anyway.

Sheldon noted that state law has always prohibited teacher strikes. In addition, most local schoolteachers’ unions have agreed to no-strike clauses in their contracts. Those rules are rarely enforced. When teachers walk off the job, strike days are generally made up at the end of the school year in the same manner as snow days, with full pay and benefits. Sheldon’s bill stipulates that no state money shall be used to compensate teachers when they go on strike. The intention is that teachers shall not be compensated when they make up strike days, he said.

In the previous paragraph he said he wouldn’t fund I-1351, despite it being state law. Throughout the entire press release, there’s no way to meet the Constitutional requirements spelled out in McCleary. Yet somehow, he’s super concerned with obeying the law? Also, is he saying strike days shouldn’t be made up, or just that the state shouldn’t pay for it? Either way, the bill is seeking to harm school districts to prove some sort of nebulous point. And have I mentioned how they’re failing their paramount duty?

“This is really a bipartisan concern,” Sheldon said. “I know of no other profession in which you get paid to go on strike. I’m glad we’re holding this hearing the same day the Seattle teachers are protesting the Legislature. Some of them may actually come down here and do it. That will give me a chance to ask why they think taxpayers should pay them to play hooky.”

Can whoever wrote this press release ask Tim Sheldon if he still gets paid by Mason County while he’s playing hooky in the legislature?

In case you’re wondering, the Seattle Times editorial board isn’t too pleased with today’s one-day teacher walkout in the Seattle, Mercer Island, and Issaquah school districts, because the children!

The only clear consequence of Tuesday’s walkout by Seattle teachers is that students will lose one precious day of instruction.

Oh no! The children are going to lose one precious day of school!

This one-day protest extends the last day of school from Monday, June 15 — ending on a Monday is a strange decision itself — to Tuesday, June 16.

Wait. Um, doesn’t the second sentence in their editorial totally contradict their first? (Not to mention their entire thesis?)

I know, I know… their argument is that moving the day from now to then makes the school year functionally one day shorter, but that’s just plain stupid. Their lede is factually wrong. Jesus. What a bunch of fucking morons.

I was going to fisk their entire editorial, but if they’re not going to take their work seriously then neither am I.

Much to William Shatner’s surprise, Washington State Governor Jay Inslee declared a statewide drought emergency last week, what with the state’s average snowpack only at 16 percent of normal and the national weather service predicting a hotter than usual summer.

Anticipating a decline in snowmelt, Seattle took advantage of winter rains to fill its reservoirs to above normal levels, so the city won’t likely face any water restrictions this summer, but our future water security is less certain. The mountain snowpack is by far our state’s largest reservoir, and as climate change shifts much of our winter precipitation from snow to rain, snowpack levels are expected to steadily decline over the coming the decades. But fortunately for the region, at least one of our leaders was thinking ahead.

At the time, former King County Executive Ron Sims was the target of a fair bit of criticism for the planning, execution, and cost of our state-of-the-art Brightwater sewage treatment facility, and one of the design decisions that added to the expense was its then-unneeded water reclamation capacity: up to 21 million gallons a day of Class A reclaimed water. Class A reclaimed water isn’t certified as potable, but it’s safe to drink, and it wouldn’t take much more processing to get it the rest of the way there. Diluted into the 140 million gallons a day Seattle Public Utilities currently delivers, we wouldn’t notice the difference at the tap, even as reclaimed water made up 15 percent of the supply.

With our population growing even as our source of fresh water shrinks, reclaimed water will become an ever more valuable resource.

Building that reclamation capacity into Brightwater wasn’t cheap, but it was a helluva lot cheaper than adding it on later. At least, that’s what Sims told me a decade ago when he explained that the county had to start preparing now (well, then) for the inevitable impacts of climate change. And a declining snowpack, Sims said, was inevitable.

To be clear, Sims was no latecomer to the issue. Way back in 1988, when he was just a county council member, the Seattle Times editorial board excoriated him for proposing that the county spend a mere $100,000 a year to study how to prepare for climate change:

IF THE “greenhouse effect” is exacerbated by political hot air, the world is in real trouble.

The hyperbolic clouds of rhetorical gas belched out on this issue in recent weeks could easily choke someone – or at least cloud the vision of otherwise rational people.

… many reputable scientists dispute the reality of the greenhouse effect. Others seriously question its long-term impact …

The point is that the sky-is-falling, icecaps-are-melting, oceans-are-rising rhetoric must be tempered by common sense.

If Sims and Laing want to study the greenhouse effect, they should buy themselves some tomato plants and a bag of steer manure – which shouldn’t be at all hard for such experienced politicians to find.

It’s not so much the wrongness of the editors that stands out, but the utter eye-rolling contempt in which they attacked Sims’ foresight.

Fortunately, Sims wasn’t cowed by the editorial board, and continued to stick by his convictions (and the science) throughout his years in office. And so on that inevitable day some years hence when reclaimed wastewater starts flowing through our faucets, I hope the editors of the Seattle Times join in raising a glass of recycled pee to the vision and perseverance of Ron Sims.

It’s not easy for politicians, facing the present day demands of taxpayers, to keep the needs of future generations in sight. But on many issues—from transit, to education, to income inequality, to the environment—that is the only way to assure that our region continues to thrive well into the future.

[Cross-posted at Civic Skunkworks]

– It’s nice to see the district organizations giving incumbent Seattle City Council members so much shit.

– Speaking of those elections, the only thing I took away from this, is I won’t have to leave my 7th District ballot blank.

– I for one look forward to the next year of the GOP out phoney tough guying one another.

– Good on the anti-Shell rig people (also the #shellno hashtag on Twitter is probably going to be active all day).

– Rasmussen’s Anti-Density Conservation District Bill Screams “Unintended Consequences”

– It’s sort of strange to celebrate a safety feature for after a truck hits you, but OK.

– Anyone else going to Folk Life, and what’s the best clog dancing troupe?

Young Turks: Obama speaks the truth about FAUX News.

Jon feeds FAUX News from its own ‘Rich buffet of bullshit’.

Mark Fiore: Obama trades transparency.

Vsauce: Counting.

Young Turks: FAUX News guest so vile and sexist that even Hannity cringes.

Thom: The Good, the Bad, and the Very Very Neoteinicly Ugly.

Mental Floss: Misconceptions about health food.

Chris Hayes: Seattle ‘KAYAKIVISTS’ face down shell’s ARCTIC drilling rig:

Sam Seder: The myth of the absent black father.

Chris Hayes: The new G.O.P. War on Women™.

A Get Well Soon message for George Zimmerman.

The 2016 Clown Parade:

• Bill Maher: What did they do with Rand Paul?
• Young Turks: Rand Paul staffer licks camera of tracker
• Jon on Jeb Bush’s bizarre admission: “It’s like wearing an ‘I Fuck Dogs’ t-shirt”
• Ann Telnaes: Jeb’s foreign policy brain.
• David Pakman: Jeb would have invaded….
• Jon to Jeb: “Thank you…was that so hard?”
• Maddow: Bush stumbles raise questions of campaign competence.
• Sam Seder: College kid schools Jeb Bush about his brother
• Jeb’s terrible, no good, very bad week.
• David Pakman: Jeb Bush confronted by 19yo
• Thom: Jeb Bush isn’t a moderate…he is an extremist neocon
• Young Turks: Santorum thinks baby daddies are sexual predators

WaPo: The hydrogen powered car of the future?

The minimum wage should be $15/hr.

Thom with the The Good, the Bad, and the Very Very Patripotestally Ugly.

Mental Floss: 30 strange scholarships.

Young Turks: George Stephanopoulos sorry for secretly fighting AIDS.

Thom: Reaganism caused the train crash.

Jon: UK election extravaganza.

White House: West Wing Week.

David Pakman: Study shows every Republican Obamacare fear-mongering prediction was WRONG:

Reid: NFL more concerned about Deflategate than a racist team name.

No-Sex Education:

• David Pakman: CA Judge says Abstinence-Only ed isn’t sex ed.
• Young Turks: Judge rules abstinence-only “sex ed” is illegal.

Maddow: Reproductive rights remain brightest partisan dividing line.

Everything you need to know about Seymour Hersh’s Bin Laden report.

Thom: G.O.P.’s food stamp hypocrisy.

Mental Floss: Why are calculator and phone keypads the opposite?

Last week’s Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza can be found here.

– If inflation, population growth, and economic growth weren’t a thing, that spending increase number might be meaningful.

– Bill Bryant, Who Backed Bringing Shell’s Arctic Drilling Fleet to Seattle, Announces Run for Governor

– Caring about affordable housing isn’t why John Okamoto is now on Seattle’s city council. As always, the public is the last to get the memo.

– You don’t necessarily have your family’s policies if you run for office, but if you can’t get away from George W. Bush, you’re in trouble.

– Reporting from the “My Actual Hell” newsdesk; Cuddle Club.

– I liked the last book by Randall Munroe’s last book, so here’s looking forward to Thing Explainer

Defending Mayor Ed Murray’s crusade to rein in the scourge of electioneering, his spokesperson says that his proposed ordinance is merely intended to remove “confusion” over what political activity is or is not prohibited:

When asked about the bill’s connection to Sawant, a spokesman for the mayor said, “There seems to be some confusion over whether or not political activity related to official events organized by city staff is currently prohibited.”

“There certainly won’t be any confusion after this new language is adopted,” added the spokesman, Jason Kelly.

Uh-huh. Except, here’s the new language that’s being proposed:

No elected official, nor the official’s agent, shall engage in campaign activities at, or adjacent to, any official city public event that is organized by that elected official or any employee of the official’s office. The campaign activities may not occur during the event or at any time that attendees of the public event are present.

The glaring problem with this language is that it defines neither “official’s agent” nor “campaign activities”—and neither does section 2.04.300 of the municipal code that it amends. (Or “adjacent to,” for that matter.) Who exactly qualifies under the law as an “agent” of an elected official? I dunno. What exactly is a “campaign activity?” Beats me. If a Sawant supporter, on her own initiative were to pass out a Sawant campaign flyer on the steps of City Hall at a Sawant organized public forum, would that make Sawant legally liable for her actions? I guess that’s up to the courts to decide.

So much for removing any confusion.

Essentially, this ordinance bars Council member Sawant and her office from organizing any “official city public event” by attempting to make her legally liable for any action taken by one of her “agents” (whatever that means). And it pretty much only applies to Sawant, because she’s the only elected official who can claim any sort of meaningful grassroots support—a base that is at times unruly, undisciplined, and not under anybody’s direct control. Because grassroots!

I mean, seriously, if Sally Bagshaw were to organize a forum, do you really think she’d have to worry about overly-enthusiastic supporters showing up and violating section 2.04.300? I don’t think so.

Only Sawant needs to worry about involuntarily violating this ordinance because only Sawant has a large base of supporters enthusiastic enough to actually show up.

I’m not an attorney, but both the vagueness and broadness of this ordinance strikes me as unenforceable… though that doesn’t mean they can’t create a legal nightmare for Sawant in the process of trying. At the very least, this ordinance would produce an endless parade of bogus ethics complaints. At the very worst, it could ultimately prompt a legal challenge seeking to overturn Sawant’s reelection under section 2.04.500:

If the court finds that the violation of any provision of this chapter by any candidate or political committee probably affected the outcome of any election, the result of the election may be held void and a special election held within 60 days of such finding.

Unintended consequences? Maybe not.*

---

* Full disclosure: I enthusiastically  support Sawant. I mean, like duh-uh.

One of the stoopidest, stoopidest things local voters have done over the 11 years I’ve been covering local politics is to make the King County Elections Director an elected office. This is a position that demands a professional who knows how run elections, not a politician who knows how to run for them. And while it is putatively a nonpartisan office, we all know that’s bullshit.

The last person we want running King County Elections is a director with a political agenda, allegiance, or ambition.

Fortunately, disaster was averted back in February of 2009 when the appointed director, Sherril Huff, won a special election against a six-person field that included the likes of Pam Roach and David Irons Jr. (Irons actually came in second!) And the reason why you’ve heard so little in the press about Huff ever since is that she has done such a damn fine job. Which is why it worries me to read the press release that Huff is retiring:

King County Elections Director Sherril Huff will not seek re-election as King County Elections Director.  She had planned to run for a second full, four year term but will now retire for personal and health considerations.  Huff, who has held the position since 2009, issued the following statement:

“It is with some sadness that I made this decision.  I love my job, my team of dedicated professionals, and the work we do to ensure transparent, efficient elections for the 1.1 million voters in our state’s largest County. I was looking forward to continuing this service, but after consulting with family, friends and colleagues, I am making the right decision to step down after this year.

I’m particularly proud of the advancements we have made in ballot tracking, improving technologies to speed counting and processing, and improving accessibility through vote by mail, drop boxes, multi-language voting materials, and other efforts to increase participation.

I know I am leaving the office in a strong position as a state and national leader, and will enjoy the remaining months in office.”

Huff deserves a ton of credit for restoring confidence in the office in the wake of the controversial 2004 election. So my hope is that Huff has a qualified deputy in the office who the political establishment rally behind awfully damn quick before politics and personal ambition have a chance to corrupt this race. I don’t want a political ally—I want an elections professional. And so should you.

Much to the Republicans’ dismay, Washington is a “voter intent” state; but there is still plenty of room for an elections director to suppress the vote in subtle and nuanced ways. We could tighten up on the signature verification standards, leaving thousands more “challenged” ballots out of the count. We could pull back on our multilingual voter outreach efforts, reducing turnout in immigrant communities. We could scale back on the number of drop boxes in communities of color and on college campuses. In the wake of several elections in which the late ballots broke hard to the left, our new elections director could support the Seattle Times’ incessant call for moving the ballot deadline from postmarked by Election Day to received by Election Day.

There is plenty of opportunity for mischief. Or, the new director could follow in Huff’s methodical footsteps by focusing on improving and speeding the elections process.

Low profile races like this tend to fly far under the radar—voter turnout for the 2009 special election in which Huff first won office was only 22 percent. But considering that fair and impartial elections are the heart of our democracy, in the long run this could end up being one of the most important races on the November ballot.

– Any civil libertarian who counts on gun nuts to stand with them against government authority is a fool.

– So in a completely imaginary world where nearly half the jobs at the city are wiped out, pay is pretty equitable and the gender hiring disparity is pretty small! In the real world, meanwhile, pay isn’t equitable and the gender disparity is significant.

– God, how little sense of humor must Mike Huckabee have now if he was upset about Life Of Brian in his early 20’s?

– Anti-vaxxers are more dangerous than you thought

– What the fuck, Rick Scott?

– Baltimore Police Detain Numerous Residents Without Charge (also, you should really check out all of TWIB’s coverage of Baltimore, and maybe give them some money if you can)

– In the end, it’s impossible to point to one closing franchise restaurant as a symptom of a deeper problem.

– The need among Republican states to punish their poor is really disheartening.

– Oh hey, more Patty Murray being awesome.

– I don’t really like the lightening round questions in the candidate debates, but I guess when there’s a large field they may be necessary. Still, Godden should answer the questions.

– Maybe Okamoto should apologize to the citizens of King County for how the Port Of Seattle operated when he was chief administrative officer? No, that would be substance rather than decorum, so it’s not important to The Seattle Times.

– It is traumatic as F*&K to be a Black person who has awareness of what’s going on constantly foisted on them.

– Nonviolence as Compliance

– Inslee’s office really should have done better on the arctic oil drilling fleet.

– Looks like Dow’s State of the County speech was pretty good.

– So Sally Bagshaw both “felt jilted for not being able to join Licata and Sawant on stage at last week’s rent control forum” and thought the forum was an ethics violation?

– Paid parental leave for King County employees

– Droney weighs in

– The oil train bill did pass after all.

– I’ve always thought rightwing media caterwauling about the liberal media is more about working the refs than covering for their own failures. But I guess both are true.

– People driving through the bridge supports to go down a bumpy alleyway is a whole new way to get hurt while biking on the Missing Link and yet another hazard to look out for. Perhaps this happens now because the street is one-way for people driving. I don’t see any reason why the city can’t make some design changes to prevent this from happening again.

– William Wingate Sues Officer Cynthia Whitlatch and the Seattle Police Department Alleging Racial Discrimination

– The backlash is here, and it has lawyers, and things are going to get real ugly.