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The sequestration cuts to the FAA are forcing the agency to close 150 control towers at low-volume airports (including 5 in Washington state). As a consequence, some Republicans are discovering their inner socialist.

Exhibit 1: Rep. Dennis Ross (R-FL-15).

What really bothers Rep. Ross is that Flordia’s Lakeland Linder Regional Airport will lose its control tower. The airport is a relatively low-volume airport, except for one week each summer, during the annual Sun ‘n Fun aviation convention, in which it becomes one of the busiest airports in the world. To put the traffic volume in context, Lakeland Linder has an average of 208 aircraft operations/day making it is slightly less busy than the Tacoma Narrows Airport ( 216/day) and the Renton Municipal Airport (221/day, where the 737 is manufactured).

Ross whines (my emphasis):

The state’s largest convention, SUN ‘n FUN, which is held in April at Lakeland Linder Airport, not only provides incredible economic value to Lakeland, but it serves our children by investing $1.4 million dollars annually in education. It is unacceptable to close this important control tower. Sun N Fun will now have to pay the FAA $284,000 in order to keep this control tower functioning during the convention. This is more money that they must raise that will not go to help our children who are struggling in school.

Really? He wants to keep the control tower so that my tax dollars and your tax dollars will subsidizing the local school systems in Florida’s 15th Congressional District?

FUCKING SOCIALIST!!!!

Exhibit 2: Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-TX-27). He is…

deeply troubled by the proposed actions of the FAA regarding smaller airports, like the one in Victoria, Texas, as they have long played a vital role in local economies across the country.

At 125 aircraft operations/day Victoria Regional Airport, it isn’t even as busy as Olympia Regional Airport (131/day).

No doubt the airport does play an important role in the economy, but why should my tax dollars be subsidizing the economy of the Texas 27th Congressional District?!?

You’d have to be a FUCKING SOCIALIST to want that kind of Big Government solution to a regional problem!

Exhibit 3: Michele Bachman (R-MN-6):

One-el Michele frets over airport tower closures:

I am deeply disappointed with the FAA’s decision to close the air traffic control towers at the Anoka County-Blaine Airport and St. Cloud Regional Airport. Throughout this decision-making process, I have been in touch with FAA and DOT officials urging them to focus first on eliminating waste and trimming non-essential items in the FAA’s budget before they even consider shutting down essential safety operations.

Wait. WE have to pay for safety in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District? Can’t the regional or local government do that even better?

Yeah…the Anoka County-Blaine Airport is goddamn busy with an average of 536 operations/day, but It isn’t the Anoka FEDERAL airport. What part of “COUNTY” doesn’t Michele understand?

And St. Cloud Regional Airport?!? Give me a fucking break. At 87 operations/day it hardly warrants a paved runway (and federally subsidized, no doubt), let alone a labor-intensive control tower. St. Cloud is nothing compared to Yakima’s McAllister Field (126/day) and Spokane’s Felts Field Airport (156/day).

I have to ask…where in the Constitution does it put the federal government in charge of county safety? Clearly you can only justify this by abusing The Commerce Clause.

You know, I think the major newspapers of the country need to investigate these members of Congress to find out if they are pro-America or FUCKING SOCIALISTS!

BTW: those five Washington state airports whose control towers will be shut down? Renton Municipal, Olympia Regional, Tacoma Narrows, Felts Field, and McAllister Field.

– But if punching down at the less-wealthy women in his congregation is the price of indulging in smug self-congratulation, that’s a price Rick Warren is happy to pay.

– Comfortable Shoes and the Gender Gap

– Money is speech unless it’s used against the NRA.

– How Sea‑Tac Airport’s substandard working conditions hurt our region and how other major airports changed course toward growth and prosperity. (PDF)

– Bidness owners who want increased revenue from the state. (point 2)

– I’m sure most of you who care already know, but PZ Myers is coming to town this week.

I’m super provincial and I don’t care. I love that Washington was mentioned as a point of hope in this otherwise dispiriting roundup of reproductive rights at the state level.*

Finally, a bit of good news! From the state of Washington, legislators are seriously considering mandating that insurance companies must pay for abortion services just as they are required to pay for maternity services:

The Reproductive Parity Act, as supporters call it, would require insurers in Washington state who cover maternity care — which all insurers must do — to also pay for abortions.

The bill passed the state House earlier this month by a vote of 53-43, though it faces an uncertain future in the Senate. […]

“It’s not expanding abortion coverage,” said Democratic Rep. Eileen Cody of West Seattle, the bill’s primary sponsor. “It’s ensuring the rights of women to get what they’re paying for now and to continue their freedom of choice.”

The bill is scheduled for a public hearing in the Public Health Care Committee on April 1st.

So while, as we’ve discussed earlier, this bill got to the Health Care Committee as a way to stop it from getting to the floor, well it’s still being heard in committee. And since it will get a hearing, here are the members of the Health Care Committee. If they’re your Senator, great! Let them know you support this common sense piece of legislation. If not, you can still email them at first.last@leg.wa.gov.

[Read more…]

Good on President Obama for creating a San Juan Islands National Monument.

President Obama on Monday will create a 955-acre national monument in Washington’s scenic San Juan Islands, using his authority under the same 1906 law deployed by President Theodore Roosevelt to begin preservation of this state’s Olympic Mountains and the Grand Canyon in Arizona.

The monument was championed by Western Washington lawmakers after legislation to create a National Conservation Area stalled in the Republican-controlled House Natural Resources Committee. Its chairman, Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., has not even bothered to hold a hearing on the proposal.

[…]

Both federal, state and local officials have backed the monument not just to protect unspoiled places in the San Juan archipelago, but for economic reasons. Preservation is no longer “locking up” land, but rather welcoming visitors. “A national monument increases recreation dramatically,” Ranker said.

It’s quite amazing, and a testament not just to the administration and the legislators who made it happen, but the activists as well.

Last week when I wrote about the state version of the DREAM Act passing the Washington State House, I was cautiously optimistic:

I’m glad that this has passed with bipartisan support. Hopefully the lopsided nature of the vote and the number of Republicans supporting it means that it has a shot in the Senate.

One of the biggest hurdles was getting to committee in the GOP controlled Senate. And now it looks like at least that will happen.

The Wash. Senate Higher Education Committee has scheduled a hearing on the Dream Act for next Thursday, 3/28, per spokeswoman. #waleg

— Brian M. Rosenthal (@brianmrosenthal) March 21, 2013

So, here are the members of the Senate Higher Education Committee. The forces of basic human decency just have to peal one Republican (or Rodney Tom), so if you see your Senator, you might want to give them a call or an email. If they aren’t your Senator, it’s firstname.lastname@leg.wa.gov, but probably don’t mention that they aren’t your Senator. If it gets through then presumably they’d be able to find some GOP members like it did in the House.

Usually when the party out of power in the legislature proposes taxing or spending policy, or a budget, they don’t have to worry about fancy stuff like basic math. It isn’t going to pass or be the basis of negotiations, so who cares? Then the party that was out of power gets some power, and they then have to propose realistic things. But I think the GOP have been out of power for too long, that now they control the Senate again, they’re proposing things, but not paying for them (h/t).

The Senate Majority Coalition rolled out a $300 million plan Tuesday that would partially reverse years of cuts in spending on colleges and universities and hold the line on fast-rising college tuition – but already the signs of conflict are apparent.

[…]

The coalition proposal increases higher education spending by roughly 10 percent, from the current $2.7 billion to $3 billion. Where that $300 million will come from, no one knows – that’s a matter for budget-writers to consider in the weeks ahead.

Seriously, that was the sort of thing you could do when you were the scrappy opposition. But now you have to find someone who can actually use a spreadsheet, or something.

The Seattle City Council has voted unanimously to say that any department (presumably just the police, but I’ve got my eye on you animal control) that wants to have drones or other surveillance equipment has to get it approved by the council and submit a plan for how they’re going to do that.

The Council has set out hoops through which the cops, or any other city department, much jump through before any big brother starts watching. Before acquiring surveillance equipment, the Seattle Police must obtain approval by the the Council. The police must propose protocols that disclose how cameras will be used, how and where data will be retained and stored and accessed.

The Council legislation requires Seattle Police to provide a description of “the nature and extent of public outreach conducted in each community in which the department intends to use the surveillance equipment.” And the police will have to explain “how the department’s use of the equipment will be regulated to protect privacy and limit the risk of potential abuse.”

The police would have to say how long data would be retained, and how it would be labeled or indexed, and who would have access to it.

If the Council has approved a request to purchase surveillance equipment, the Seattle Police cannot install cameras until the Council has formally set rules for its operation.

It’s obviously a better protection for civil liberties than the status quo, so great. We’ll get to have better knowledge and a chance to weigh in on future surveillance before it goes into action. Still, it doesn’t forestall abuse by the city. It only makes it somewhat tougher and more transparent. So vigilance is, as always, needed.

Since Shaun is out for a while, I’ma steal his schtick.

Maryland is set to abolish its death penalty.

Maryland is set to become the 18th state in the nation to ban the death penalty. A week after the state Senate approved legislation repealing capital punishment and replacing it with life in prison without parole, the House of Delegates passed the bill Friday by a vote of 82-56.

The news serves as a victory for Democratic Gov. Martin O’Malley, who has been trying to repeal the state’s death penalty for years. He urged the passage of a bill to abolish the death penalty back in 2009, but the measure ultimately failed.

“Evidence shows that the death penalty is not a deterrent, it cannot be administered without racial bias, and it costs three times as much as life in prison without parole. What’s more, there is no way to reverse a mistake if an innocent person is put to death,” O’Malley said in a statement Friday.

Maryland becomes the sixth state in six years to put an end to the death penalty, after New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Illinois, and Connecticut.

Washington should make it 7.

I know this is a few days old, but I want to applaud Seattle for considering allowing more emergency credit before it shuts off water.

The Seattle City Council is now considering legislation that would give a second emergency credit of up to $340 per year for any family registered in its low-income Utility Discount Program with children in the home. Currently, only one credit is available annually per household.

Seattle Public Utilities said it shut off water to 138 households in 2012 that were part of its low-income program. Of those, 68 had children under 18 years old.

Councilmember Jean Godden, who is sponsoring the legislation, said providing a second credit to those 68 families would cost the city about $20,000 a year. She called that a small subsidy in the context of the utilities’ nearly billion-dollar annual budget.

The article goes on to say that number is probably low because some people don’t know they qualify for the program. When people and families fall behind it’s unfortunate. And I’m glad in a relatively wealthy city like Seattle we’re figuring out how to make this situation a little less awful.

I hate that Metro has to go begging the state just to tax ourselves, but that’s the way we do it in Washington, so sure. Representative Farrell has a bill to let localities either have a $40 car tab or in some cases up to 1% of the value of the car go to transit.* She has a post on Slog in support of the bill.

When King County Metro was last facing service cuts, the legislature authorized a temporary congestion reduction fee that temporarily stabilized budgets of transit agencies. It was temporary because the state expected to move quickly to provide a more stable, comprehensive funding source for public transportation.

That state support has not materialized, however, and with transit services in jeopardy, we need to take action to ensure our economy, our environment, and our quality of life aren’t degraded. My legislation would give King County the local funding options they need to save core programs and high-demand service routes.

OK, I’m sold. You can find your legislator here.

[Read more…]

I’m sometimes struck by the difficulty of the mundane for lesbian and gay couples. reading this press release from Patty Murray was one of those times.

(Washington D.C.) – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray, a senior member of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, led a letter to U.S. Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki calling for an expedited waiver process granting same-sex veterans and their spouses burial rights in national cemeteries. Currently, only members of the opposite-sex are buried next to their veteran spouse in national cemeteries.

Christ. It’s 2013 and we’re having this conversation. It’s 2013 and this isn’t an obviously done deal. It’s 2013 and instead of this just being a matter of some paperwork because vets’ spouses should be buried with them as a matter of course if that’s what they want, this is a fight. It’s 2013 and only 15 senators agreed to sign the letter.

When you think of the progress we’ve made in the last few decades as a society in treating same sex couples with basic respect, and then think this is still a fight, it’s jarring. When you think the solution — at least for now — is a waver and not fixing the policy, it’s dispiriting how much work is involved in just getting half measures.

Exodus 32:27-29
Then he said to them, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Each man strap a sword to his side. Go back and forth through the camp from one end to the other, each killing his brother and friend and neighbor.’” The Levites did as Moses commanded, and that day about three thousand of the people died. Then Moses said, “You have been set apart to the LORD today, for you were against your own sons and brothers, and he has blessed you this day.”

Exodus 20:13
Thou shalt not kill.

Discuss.

– Rodney Tom Hates Teachers

– I haven’t written anything about the sequester, but it’s going to have an impact.

– All that has made the borders, and the sharp disparities between states, more important and complex than ever for gay couples, and for interstate tourism as well. The marriage license office in Clark County, Wash., across the Columbia River from Portland, Ore., had to increase its hours to serve border couples when Washington’s new law took effect.

– So if I understand Scalia’s jurisprudence correctly, the 14th Amendment (which says nothing about race) applies only to racial discrimination (that affects white people) (unless a Republican has a presidential election to win), while the 15th Amendment (which explicitly forbids racial discrimination in voting and empowers Congress to enforce the provision) should not be construed as allowing Congress to prevent racial discrimination in voting, because this would be a “racial entitlement.”

– Congrats to Tom Tomorrow.

Sometimes The Seattle Times has great, important, relevant stories that put a new light on something in the Northwest that otherwise wouldn’t be covered. And I’m going to miss some of those when I don’t read their website behind its paywall. But sometimes they just do hack pieces that they claim are important stories. More and more it’s looking like the Rob Holland piece falls on the hack side.

Except that’s not what happened and that’s not what the report found. Martin did not use Holland’s credit card to purchase anything, and the report Heffter cites actually found this particular allegation to be “unsubstantiated” (PDF, page 25). Martin has repeatedly asked Heffter and Kreamer to issue a correction, and they have repeatedly refused.

“At the end of the day, all you have is your reputation,” Martin told me. And he desperately wants his reputation cleared. The Seattle Times has yet to respond to a request for comment.

[…]

But also, reading their emails to Martin, both Heffter and Kreamer just come off as incredibly confused. “There is a receipt and additional official documentation showing you as the purchaser of camera equipment for the Port, with Commissioner Holland’s Port credit card being used,” Kreamer writes to Martin in a February 25 email, totally ignoring the fact that this so-called “receipt” proves nothing of the kind. “The Port report you cite says the third-party use of the card (by you) was not found to be unauthorized, but we never wrote that it was,” Kreamer continues. “The items purchased were indeed for Port use, the audit found.”

When the Seattle Times goes out of their way to point out stories like this one are vital to the region, so we need to support them, well, you’d think they would at least work harder to get the story right.

In Saturday’s post on the recent DUI updates, I wrote:

And assurances from the police that they’ll only go after impaired folks requires a lot of skepticism given the history of DUI enforcement.

I wanted to elaborate on this a bit, but didn’t want to go off on any other tangents in that post. So I’ll go off on that tangent here. And a recent case from Kent is a good starting point:

Mike Simmons, 31, said Tuesday he was put in jail for 13 hours. Now with towing and lawyer fees, he said he’s out $5,000 and he’s not allowed to drive while he’s out on bail.

All for something he said he didn’t do.

“As soon as the officer came to the vehicle, he asked me to stick out my tongue,” said Simmons.

Simmons thought it was an unusual request but he soon found out he was pulled over for suspicion of driving under the influence.

Simmons said the officer told him there was a green film on his tongue. The unidentified police officer apparently felt that is a telltale sign that someone has been smoking marijuana.

Simmons admitted he had smoked pot three days earlier, but says when he was pulled over he was on a lunch break from work and was stone-cold sober.

We’ll find out more about this specific case as it unfolds, but if Simmons’ recounting of the arrest is accurate, it wouldn’t be the first time an officer has used something ridiculous or imaginary to imply impairment. In this case from Ocean Shores in November, an officer claimed an elderly medical marijuana patient was impaired because – among other things – she was unable to stand on one leg.

To clarify a point that should be obvious to most people, your tongue doesn’t turn green when you smoke pot. So if that’s the evidence that this officer used to demonstrate impairment, and Simmons doesn’t win a lawsuit against the city of Kent as a result of that, then the folks who say that impairment is required to end up in his situation aren’t correct. Because if there are no repercussions for when a police officer does something wrong, it doesn’t matter what the law actually says.

We’ve continually heard from members of law enforcement and others that impairment is required in order to end up in Simmons’ situation. But it’s not hard for an officer to just say, “your eyes are bloodshot!” and use that as a justification to demand a blood draw. These reassurances go beyond being wishful thinking that their fellow police officers won’t abuse their power. They’re close to being outright lies.