So, my friend is holding a fundraiser for the American Red Cross for the Oso victims. If y’all are in Seattle on the 9th, you should probably go. And if you’re not able to go or don’t want to wait until the 9th, you should probably consider donating at the link.
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Goldy, in 2006 you were critical of Aaron Reardon’s unqualified political appointee to Snohomish County’s Dept of Emergency Management John Pennington.
Last month I filed suit in US Fed Court after requesting Pennington’s emails and discovering that he was criminally harassing me on the County’s dime just as Kevin Hulten.
Please do another story on Our Little Michael Brownie otherwise known as John Pennington.
also see my civil rights complaint filed in US Fed Court titled Block v Snohomish County, John Pennington, al etc
@1 First of all, your clients think very highly of you. I’m impressed by that.
http://www.avvo.com/attorneys/.....views.html
In your legal battles with the City of Gold Bar over the Open Meetings and Public Records acts, so far you’re 0-for-2. Hmmm.
http://www.courts.wa.gov/opini.....arch=block v. city of gold bar
I see you’re not a John Pennington fan — if this is you and your blog:
http://www.goldbarreporter.org/
Or a fan of his girlfriend, either, if this is you too …
http://goldbarwashington.blogs.....-hill.html
Oh man. Oh rabbit, I mean. There’s no politics like small town politics. Whew.
For what it’s worth, Snohomish County has pissed off thousands of people living in the Richmond Beach Neighborhood of Shoreline, in King County, and Woodway, in SnohomishCounty, by railroading through permits for a massive residential development where the Point Wells tank farm is currently located. They’re suing the county, and the case is currently before the state Supreme Court, with a decision expected soon.
Due to a geographical quirk, Point Wells is located in Snohomish County, but the only access to it is through King County. Steep bluffs bar any other access.
This geographical quirk means Snohomish County will get all the tax revenues from the Point Wells development, while Shoreline (in King County) will get all the traffic.
Snohomish County has issued permits for 3,000 residential units that traffic engineers estimate would create 11,000 additonal vehicle trips per day. Upon leaving Point Wells, the only access this traffic has to the outside world is via Richmond Beach Drive, which has one lane in each direction, for the first several blocks. From there, it’s approximately 2 to 2.5 miles to Aurora Avenue, I-5, transit routes, and the eventual light rail route, and there is only one 4-lane arterial to carry all of that traffic: Richmond Beach Road. It’s not possible to add lanes to Richmond Beach Road or to build additional arterials because the surrounding area is completely built up.
The Point Wells development, as approved by Snohomish County, would increase the City of Shoreline’s population by 12% to 14%. Snohomish County officials don’t have a problem with jamming 10,000 or 12,000 people into a confined space and adding nearly that many cars to a single four-lane arterial that’s already busy during commuter hours. Why? Because they won’t have to live with the traffic.
Nor will they have to build schools, or provide municipal services (police, fire, etc.), or anything else to that population. All of those costs will fall on King County taxpayers. Snohomish County will get to pocket millions of dollars of new property taxes as pure profit.
They aren’t making themselves popular with the residents of north King County, but they don’t care, because those people don’t get to vote in Snohomish County elections.
The problem is, they broke the law when they issued those permits. One can only hope the Supreme Court decides those permits are invalid. When elected officials have no conscience, all you’ve got left is recourse to the courts.
Yeah, I think Goldy should do an investigative piece on Pennington. Sure sounds like there’s a story there. And with Oso rapidly turning into our own local version of Katrina, there’s already a tangible and disconcerting reek of scandal in the air.
Roger’s points are good.
I would add one more, at laast as a word of caution.
I do not donate to the Red Cross and esp. do not donate to the fund raising that appears in emergencies. I do note that Patty Murray is recommending contributions to the United Way of Snohomish County
and the United Way does allow you to designate your gift solely to this effort.
This reflects a bad history the Red Cross ahs of crossing the lines between profitmaking and charity. In previous situations like this, donors found their contributions going to the national organization rather than then local need.
Also, here in Seattle, we got rid or the ARC’s blood donor program because of many issues including the question of whether they were truly a for profit.
Finally, there have been issues in Switzerland where the Christian dominated Red Cross refused Israel’s participation unless the Israeli equivalent would use the cross. This was settled in 2006 but still left a bad taste in my mouth.
I would also like to recommend this list at the Everett Herald.
The official death toll has risen to 18 and the “missing” list has been reduced from 90 to 30.