– “I would expect someone who is supposed to run elections to read a bill about elections before launching into testimony,” Rep. Hunt wrote, “Your opposition would at least have had a ring of truth to it.”

– Shock of Shocks, Megan McArdle’s arguments are not very good.

– “We believe the decisions to continue and expand coal leasing from federal lands and authorize the export of that coal are likely to lead to long-term investments in coal generation in Asia, with air quality and climate impacts in the United States that dwarf almost any other action the federal government could take in the foreseeable future,” they wrote.

– Seattle City Hall open house is April 6.

– CNN runs a good story under a horrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrible headline.

– I love Eurovision.

Bell Street between 1st and 2nd Ave is closed off to car traffic as they build a park. It’s going to be magnificent, or at least a nice improvement. Some people I’ve talked to are worried about drug dealing there. While that’s not unreasonable, I think it’ll be a nice place. And anyway, it’s not like there isn’t drug dealing around 2nd and Bell now.

Now the work has begun on the park. The road is being torn up and the trees have been cut down. Right now it’s more construction than park. But I’m excited about what it’ll be shortly.

Still, those trees. It’s sad to see stumps up and down the block on both sides. I can’t wait for the park, but those stumps are tough.

– 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…]

– This Danny Westneat piece is fine as far as it goes, but I think he forgot the part where he takes on the Seattle Times’ governing philosophy.

– Ross Hunter has never been my favorite legislator, but he’s making a lot of sense here.

– NPI’s Spring Fundraiser.

– The Daily Caller is so, so gross.

– Most of the Iraq war boosters are still around 10 years later.

– The Pundit Who’s Always Wrong

In his I-502 update, Lee mentioned Mark Kleiman is going to be the main consultant for implementing the initiative. He hadn’t been on my radar before the hire, but I trust Lee’s judgement on this. So I was pleased to see this clip of him being dismissive of stupid questions on CNN.

A decent interview would have been interesting and enlightening. This was not that interview. A combination of anti-marijuana assumptions and attempted snark when it wasn’t called for sunk the interview from the start. But at least he didn’t take the stupid questions seriously.

I actually think whether people on our team have used cannabis at one time or another or what they think about cannabis legalization is irrelevant to the job they’ve been chosen to do.

That’s me transcribing it since I couldn’t find the transcript on CNN’s page, and any errors are mine. Anyway, I’m glad someone in the interview was serious. I only wish it was both sides.

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.

– Get your questions in to ask the governor.

– In case you’re wondering why people used to call them MSGOP, here’s a reminder of where MSNBC were at the start of the Iraq war.

– Clean up your trash, Yakima businesses.

– Here’s the bad news: The funding for viaduct construction mitigation runs out next fall, at the same time that the temporary $20 vehicle license fee that preserved Metro service over the past two years expires. Combined, the two cuts add up to a “disaster,” Desmond told council members yesterday—45,000 transit hours a year, which amounts to a 14 percent cut in service on the Alaskan Way Viaduct corridor.

– A large road project finished on time and under budget in Seattle.

– The elite political media, past and present, living and dead, should atone in Purgatory for centuries over trying to redeem this vat of squalid poison. Because, over this weekend, we discovered, once again, that the irredeemable barrel that was Richard Nixon had no bottom to scrape.

– Blood-gargling psychopath

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.

Yesterday evening going to Drinking Liberally as it was raining, I caught a crowded bus downtown at its first stop. People started pouring on from under the awnings for half a block around. There were at least 30 people, probably more, and it was already crowded by the time I got on. That’s fine. I’m glad that a lot of people use the bus in Seattle.

Still, getting on the bus was rather annoying. There were several people — who I assume were regular commuters — without a basic understanding of paying. There were people who fished out their ORCA Cards at the machine. There were people who fumbled around for their money once they got to the box.

This is not great behavior in the best of times, but when there’s a line waiting in the rain, it’s really unacceptable. Please, for the sake of everyone behind you, be ready when you get on the bus. If there’s a line where you’re waiting, that should be the time to get ready.

– Pacific NW Portal 5.5 is up.

– And from one of the new blogs at the PNWP, there’s a more accurate name for Chained CPI.

– What is going on with the Bellevue Police?

– Tim Eyman remains awful.

– The Daily Caller remains gross.

– What Chris Hayes Means to the Debate

– However, the Holy See should not be confused with Vatican City, independent only since the Lateran Treaty of 1929. The two entities issue distinct passports, and they have different official languages: Latin for the Holy See, Italian for Vatican City.

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.

– Happy Bus Driver Appreciation Day

– Boo CNN

– I don’t even know what to say about this case, it’s so terrible. I will say about the article, that it should be consistent about using the word “rape” instead of “sex abuse” and “have sex” some of the time, and if you look at the URL, it clearly was in the title at some point, so the decision to soft pedal it happened at some point.

– Oh CPAC, you’re terrible.

– Freedom!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (not for ladies)

– Why does Bill Gates hate capitalism?

– Conservative Mystery Date

Booth Gardner has died.

Gardner died Friday at his Tacoma home, family spokesman Ron Dotzauer said Saturday. He was the state’s 19th governor.

“We’re very sad to lose my father, who had been struggling with a difficult disease for many years, but we are relieved to know that he’s at rest now and his fight is done,” said Gail Gant, Gardner’s daughter, in a statement.

The millionaire heir to the Weyerhaeuser timber fortune led the state from 1985 to 1993 following terms as Pierce County executive, state senator and business school dean.

Since then, he had worked as a U.S. trade ambassador in Geneva, in youth sports and for a variety of philanthropic works. But his biggest political effort in his later years was his successful “Death with Dignity” campaign in 2008 that ultimately led to the passage of the controversial law that mirrored a law that had been in place in Oregon since 1997.

The law allows terminally ill adults with six months or less left to live to request a legal dose of medication from their doctors.

Gardner knew that he wouldn’t qualify to use the law because Parkinson’s disease, while incurable, is not fatal. But at the time, he said his worsening condition made him an advocate for those who want control over how they die.

“It’s amazing to me how much this can help people get peace of mind,” Gardner told The Associated Press at the time. “There’s more people who would like to have control over their final days than those who don’t.”