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There are two bills in Olympia that recognize that it’s not always in the state’s interest to keep felonies on people’s criminal records. First one that would let members of tribes with fishing rights vacate convictions for fishing off reservation before 1975 (Yakima Herald link). Since they have had their rights recognized for decades now, it makes sense to vacate the convictions of the people who made that possible. Also they had the right to fish there, even if the state didn’t always recognize it. Fortunately, that’s another lopsided vote.

House Bill 2080, which passed by a vote of 92-6, would allow those tribal members to apply to the sentencing court to expunge their misdemeanor, gross misdemeanor or felony convictions. Family members and tribal officials could also seek a vacated criminal record on behalf of a deceased person. The court would have the discretion to vacate the conviction, unless certain conditions apply, such as if the person was convicted for a violent crime or crime against a person.

“We have a responsibility to try and make things right,” said the bill’s prime sponsor Rep. David Sawyer, D-Tacoma. “It simply allows tribal members to apply to have those convictions vacated so they can live their lives in dignity. It’s essentially an apology as well.”

Tribal members and others were roughed up, harassed and arrested in the 1960s and 1970s while asserting their right to fish for salmon off-reservation under treaties signed with the federal government more than 100 years before. At the time, however, those acts violated Washington state regulations, and there were raids by game wardens and other clashes with police. The Northwest fish-ins known as the “Fish Wars” were modeled after civil rights movement sit-ins and were part of larger demonstrations to assert American Indian rights nationwide.

The other thing is a bill to allow prostitutes to clear their convictions stemming from prostitution if they were a result of. This story is a bit sensationalist, and probably makes some generalizations about why people become prostitutes that aren’t great. Not every prostitute is a victim or trying to leave, but this bill is still a good thing.

This session, Washington lawmakers hope to support victims by expanding a law to allow survivors of sex trafficking to clear their records of multiple prostitution convictions. A current law, passed two years ago, only allows for removing one conviction.

The new bill continues the state’s role as a leader in legislation to combat trafficking. So far, only about a dozen states have similar laws on the books. The latest legislative effort also continues a national trend toward taking a “victim-centered” approach to prostitution.

[…]

“The reality is that individuals engaged in prostitution are often caught and arrested and prosecuted multiple times over their time in ‘the life,'” said King County’s Senior Deputy Prosecutor Val Richey, who works exclusively on human trafficking cases. “Allowing them to remove those convictions because they were obtained as result of engaging in prostitution through force or coercion makes a lot of sense, whether it’s one conviction or two or three.”

Richey said he hopes the bill expansion passes through the state Senate. An identical expansion to the bill passed the House last year but got stalled in the mostly Republican-controlled Senate. This year the bill’s sponsor said it has a better chance because a compromise is being sorted out.

In both cases it shows the legislature, or at least some members, see the limits of the criminal justice system. That in those instances, people having a criminal record is worse than the thing that we’re trying to prevent by convicting people and giving them those records in the first place.

I didn’t realize this was even in the works as a possibility, but Jay Inslee has put a stop to the death penalty when he’s in office (Spokesman Review link). While I’d prefer him commuting people’s sentences or the legislature actually passing a ban on the death penalty, this is an important thing, and I’m glad he did it. Still the real work to make this permanent is ahead.

Inslee announced a moratorium today on capital punishment, saying he will issue a reprieve if any execution warrant comes to his desk. He’s not issuing a blanket commutation of sentences, and anyone who gets a reprieve from him could still be executed by a successor.

He expects the moratorium to spark a conversation about the death penalty in Washington.

There was a discussion in yesterday’s Open Thread about how much it means. I don’t know if there’s much of a chance to get something passed this session, but it might be worth letting your legislator know if you want the death penalty ended.

– Maria Cantwell is right that the DC Football team has the wrong name.

– If I were writing for The Seattle Times’ Ed Board, I wouldn’t oppose the minimum wage.

– State Senate Republicans set new date to finish negotiating with themselves on transportation plan they don’t have votes for

– I would hope Gillibrand’s military sexual assault bill would get a vote.

– The NFL Will Never Be ‘Ready’ for an Openly Gay Player

– So keep on bikini-ing, I guess, bikini baristas! And I’ll keep on driving the extra 10 minutes down Aurora to get to a Starbucks or something because all the hometown pride in the world isn’t going to get me to drink crotch-coffee.

As you might have heard, this Wednesday there was a bit of a parade in Downtown Seattle. Given that the crowd was larger than the population of Seattle, getting to and from the event was no small task. Martin H. Duke at Seattle Transit Blog has the early info on how the systems did: Mostly pretty well but he also suggests room for improvement.

In all, a memorable day for transit. All transportation modes were overwhelmed beyond their capacity. Things might have been much worse had it not been for crowds of riders in good cheer, orderly, and forgiving of systems well beyond their design limits. Moreover, agencies showed uncommon agility in mobilizing for Wednesday on short notice, and the efforts of foot soldiers controlling crowds at Westlake station and other places were nothing short of heroic.

[…]

However well Wednesday made the point that Seattle’s transit capacity is valuable, there were certainly some suboptimal operations. In particular, joint tunnel operations are severely capacity-reducing when demand reaches these levels. Your humble correspondent arrived at Westlake a little before 5 pm; lines criscrossed the mezzanine as police limited access to the platform for safety reasons. These volumes compounded the usual bus friction, with restricted movement on the platform, Metro’ s insistence on adding congestion at the point of maximum stress, and the apparent breakdown of Metro’s sequencing system for southbound buses. It was clear that the surge of novice riders was largely waiting for the train, well in excess of the share of platform time granted Link.

Moreover, the consistent weakness of rider information arose once again. The tunnel message boards spouted useless platitudes. The crowd got restless as train headways widened, with no real-time information to satisfy them. Moreover, the instinct of a savvy rider, knowing that full trains will pass up riders further South, is to head to Westlake, which no doubt added to the overflow there. Sound Transit, in a brilliantly creative move, sent some trains “out of service” through Westlake to clear out the other crowds and ran some trains between Stadium and Seatac only. It might have relieved some of the pressure to let people know that taking relatively empty buses a few stops would not maroon them, and in fact might get them home sooner.

I don’t want to downplay the people who were stuck at stops but still and all, with only a couple days to prep the agencies — some that have faced severe budget cuts recently — got most people who wanted to be there downtown. It is a testament to the agencies and to the individuals who pulled it off.

Given some of the nightmares that came out of New Jersey after the game, it wasn’t a given that this would work. Of course people were able to come in slowly (the route was pretty well attended at 7:00 when I left for work) and were able to enjoy Seattle for a while rather than all going home at once. I don’t think there’s any way this could have run perfectly, but it did run pretty damn well.

Sometimes as a Seattle resident I’m disappointed that my legislators aren’t as full-force liberal as I’d like. But at least I can take comfort in not being represented by Matt Shea, because here’s what he’s telling his constituents.

Democrats aren’t stopping the assault against our freedom with tax increases. They also want every law abiding citizen who owns a gun to have a background check…. Initiative 594 would require background checks whenever a firearm is sold or transferred between licensed dealers or private parties, with few exceptions. Any sale or transfer of a firearm must be completed through a dealer. If you gave a firearm to your son, a brother or other family member, the proposed law would require them to have a background check or be in violation. It would criminalize law-abiding citizens people, such as Gonzaga University students Erik Fagan and Dan McIntosh, who used a gun last year to scare off a six-time convicted felon when he tried to break into their on-campus house for money.

Christ what an asshole. Hank at Shallow Cognitions takes care of most of the making fun of this. The fact that this was supposedly a bad bill of the week, but is an initiative, the fact that the initiative doesn’t apply to gifts to family (although, I’ll say don’t give a gun to your felon family members if you have any), the fact that the initiative doesn’t have fuck all to do with university rules about firearms. He also has a link to Matt Shea’s road rage incident, that somehow I hadn’t heard about.

That’s all correct, and worth talking about. But I’m curious about the politics? This is an incredibly popular idea. Background checks should be a no-brainer. They’re also super popular. I mean I get that in an off, off year recall in Colorado this can have some resonance. But as an initiative that will almost certainly go to the people and will probably pass, what the fuck? Does he realize he has to be on the same ballot as the thing a supermajority of gun owners support?

Even if you’re trying to just get favor from the gun lobby, this seems like a poor idea politically. I mean, speak at their rallies and answer questions, I suppose. But to announce it to constituents who almost certainly are majority on the other side seems unhelpful. It seems like even if he isn’t worried about reelection (he got 56% last time in a GOP year, but I don’t know about the quality of his opponent or the district more generally), it would make him less trustworthy.

This is a bit old, but somehow, I’d missed it.

State Senate Democrats sent out a news release today about a bill introduced by their Republican counterparts that would eliminate the elected office of insurance commissioner, which has been filled by Mike Kreidler since 2001. He began his fourth term in office in 2012.

Since federal health care reform passed, Kreidler has been all about health insurance, all the time. He’s the one who determines which insurance plans get included in the state exchange, and last year rankled some critics when he decided that some plans initially did not have robust enough offerings to be included — effectively limiting the options that were available in the exchange. The four plans that were denied entry appealed his decision, and he later settled with them so they all got included after all.

The Senate Republicans’ Bill 6458, which hasn’t even been heard in committee yet, “creates the state insurance board which will be responsible for the oversight of the insurance code.” It “transfers the powers, duties, and functions of the office of the insurance commissioner pertaining to regulation of insurance to the state insurance board.”

I’m not generally a fan of the way we elect so many executive positions. So I could probably hear arguments that putting that power in the Governor’s office is more logical.

Still, it seems to me that at least part of the reason that this could get 13 GOP co-sponsors is because of the way that the office has kicked ass for consumers. Both on the ACA and long before it (Seattle Times link). But if they oppose him making policy they’ve had 4 chances to take that case to the people. This seems like a pretty silly runaround.

– This is the polite way of saying the CRC is fucked, right?

– I have nothing to add about Dinesh D’Souza, but his defenders make me sad.

– After a while, I stopped linking to Macklemore local-boy-makes-good stories. I mean he was crushing it, so whatever at a certain point. But I will say, I’m glad he’s pissing off the right people.

– Oh, Northwest rate payers are subsidizing Kentucky. Seems fair.

– Will the last Republican woman turn out the lights?

– Who could have predicted that Rodney Tom would keep dicking people around?

– I dig the Seattle buildings turning blue and green, but holy cowThe Empire State Building blue and green.

Sen. Michael Baumgartner has a bill to lower the minimum wage for teens. Because of course he does.

To combat Washington’s high teen unemployment rate and generate more opportunities for teen employment, Sen. Michael Baumgartner has proposed Senate Bill 6471. Baumgartner’s “Teen Summer Jobs Act” will provide employers the latitude to pay seasonal teen workers the federal minimum wage of $7.25 from June to the end of August.

Is there any evidence that our teen unemployment rate is particularly high? I couldn’t find recent stats. He’ll mention them later on in the press release, but not have any link or much context. I mean, our unemployment rate is about the middle of the pack, and probably worse the further East you go. It also wouldn’t surprise me if the teen unemployment rate is higher. But is it higher than in states that have lower minimum wages? In any event this press release certainly doesn’t provide any evidence to support this claim.

“Right now, too many teens are losing the chance to develop a strong work ethic because they can’t find summer jobs,” Baumgartner said. “We need a change that can give today’s teens the same chance at the American dream that I had.”

There was a minimum wage in the early 1990’s when Baumgartner was a teen. It was less than it is now — that’s why we had that initiative to raise it — but as far as I can tell it was the same for teen and adults. So, when he was a teen he had the same opportunity as when it’s now, more or less at least regarding the minimum wage.

Baumgartner, who represents the 6th Legislative District, notes that teen employment has been dropping in recent years, creating what can be described as an “experience gap.” The Department of Employment Security has published data expressing if someone is unable to find a job during their teen years they are much less likely to find satisfying work later in life. Baumgartner says while it may seem counterintuitive, requiring employers to pay a lower wage to workers until their 20th birthday will actually entice employers to hire more teens and summer help.

Don’t worry, he doesn’t link to the DOE findings.

Also, now is as good a time as any to mention that Spokane County went 79224 to 48180 in favor of Washington’s minimum wage initiative. I don’t know how his district went, but I’d guess it was pro the minimum wage. Of course, a lot can happen in over a decade, but I doubt slowly dismantling the minimum wage is the reason his constituents voted for him.

Also, too, holy shit, his bill applies to 18 and 19 year-olds? Good thing nobody ever had to raise a family at 18 or 19. God.

“Statistics for 2013 were just released, showing Washington’s teen unemployment rate at thirty percent,” said Baumgartner, who serves as vice chair of the Senate Ways and Means Committee. “If we don’t make a move to provide more of these kids with job opportunities, we’ll really be doing them a disservice later in life when the time comes to begin their careers and become fully-functioning members of society.”

Again, I still don’t know what that means. I don’t know if it includes every child who is looking for work, or if it includes teens who aren’t looking for work. We still don’t know how it compares to the national average, or if his policy would take jobs away from people being paid higher wages, and give them to lower wage children.

I don’t know if he just made it up.

Anyway, there’s a bit more press release, but I’m done. And look I did a metacommentary piece without any swearing; I must be losing my touch.

The news broke today that Cathy McMorris Rodgers is going to do the rebuttal to the State Of the Union. I think it’s actually a decent choice to not have it be someone who is running for president. The linked piece makes it sound like she’s going to talk about her personal story. The only policy stuff they mention is:

She said through Boehner’s office that she was “honored” to be sharing the Republican vision for the future: “one that trusts the American people and doesn’t limit where you finish because of where you started.”

So it leaves us guessing exactly what she’ll be talking about. Maybe how the Democrats’ support of strengthening the Violence Against Women Act, The Affordable Care Act and talking about immigration reform, are against American Values. Maybe she’ll talk about made up fetal pain and her party’s plan to force women to stay pregnent. Perhaps she’ll complain about how high taxes are even though Federal taxes are lower for most Americans than they’ve been in a long time. Maybe she’ll talk about her brave opposition to Sandy relief. Perhaps she’ll finally be able to name some of the specific spending cuts she’s for. She’ll probably try to turn the rhetoric of the war on women on its head. Maybe she’ll just make stuff up about marijuana.

– This was published in the Seattle Argus in April 12, 1968. Martin Luther King had literally just been assassinated the week before. I have no idea about the weekly Argus’ news cycle, but it seems at least in bad taste to publish something like this a week after the civil right’s leaders death.

– I know at this point Sarah Palin is just hoping for links to her horrible screeds, but she really has to stop.

– Ever since Roe, and only since Roe, women and men have been able to plan their lives with the assumption that they won’t become parents until or unless they want to.

– You know, if the legislature shuts down the local option for a $15 minimum wage, there probably could be a statewide initiative.

– There’s never been an easy solution to any problems in the Middle East, and the days ahead will once again test the mettle of everyone involved. But in a strange twist of fate, business as usual on Capitol Hill just might be the very thing that paves the road to peace.

– I’m also a sucker for good Samaritan stories.

– Happy MLK Day.

– Hell of a game last night. Still, the celebration was maybe a bit much for the NFC Championship (It wasn’t, you know, winning the Super Bowl, or V-J Day).

– Postgame interviews are probably unhelpful. Also, Richard Sherman is everything one could want in a professional athlete. He is a walking example of the difference sports can make, of how one man can channel fierce intelligence and an almost frightening competitive fire into something productive and riveting. He is precisely the type of person you should cheer for.

– Couple healing up after struck by car while walking across Stone Way

– 10 Questions Bill Simmons And ESPN Should Answer About ‘Dr. V’s Magical Putter’

The GOP in the State House of Representatives isn’t going to pass any legislation any time soon. So it has freed them up to introduce crap and then writepress releases about said crap.

Washington House Republicans introduced legislation on the first day of the legislative session designed to help people who have lost their insurance keep some form of affordable health care.

In the wake of Washington being pretty successful, at signing people up for health care (Seattle Times Link) this is totally the thing to focus on.

Recently, President Obama and Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius have responded to reports that millions of Americans have been kicked off their coverage due to Obamacare. To mitigate the cancellations, both have announced policies that allow people to either keep their existing health care plans or be exempted from the individual mandate tax penalty and buy typically cheaper catastrophic care plans. Washington state’s Democratic insurance commissioner has not been supportive of allowing individuals to keep their pre-Obamacare plans.

Right. Because coverage was bad. The GOP are going to pretend that insurance coverage was awesome before? Anyway, let’s skip ahead from criticizing Obama for being Obama and Mike Kreidler (although not say his name) for not being Obama.

To overcome the Obamacare obstacles Rep. Matt Manweller has introduced two bills. The first would allow Washington residents to buy catastrophic health care plans in other states. The second bill would instruct the Office of the Insurance Commissioner to enter into compacts with other states to facilitate the purchase of health care plans from other states. This bill is similar to legislation introduced by Sen. Linda Evans Parlette which passed the Senate last year and was passed by the House Health Care Committee, but died in the House Appropriations Subcommittee on General Government and Information Technology.

Damn you House Appropriations Subcommittee on General Government and Information Technology!!!!!!!! Damn you to hell.

Oh, actually, really? That sounds like a bad idea. Washington State has worked to make sure that insurance actually means something. But what about states where it hasn’t? Let’s get our insurance from there. And by the way, I’m sure that if your cut rate, out of state insurance doesn’t live up to its promises, the Missouri, or wherever, Insurance Commissioner will be thrilled to take up your case.

I should say, though, I normally criticize the GOP for not having a plan, but this is technically a plan. Not a very good one, doy, but it’s something. Anyway, pressing on.

“The Democrats who control our state leaped into Obamacare before they looked. They drove people off the health care plans they liked and eliminated all the low cost plans they could afford. Even President Obama has realized the mistakes of his plan and offered the American people an out,” said Manweller, R-Ellensburg. “Unfortunately, the plans President Obama said we can keep don’t exist in Washington anymore. Therefore, we need to let people buy them in other states. That will bring fairness back to our health care system.”

We’re doing a better job subsidizing coverage for people who need it now, but in exchange for that, you know, there are higher minimum standards. Therefore, get your insurance from another state, where they haven’t been as good at signing people up in the first place, obviously.

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.

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.

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