Results tagged “fail”

Provided with limited information, the state's auditors still managed to unveil a few--okay, a lot--of big red flags within King County's financial system, including poor construction management (What's a statewide construction project and budget tracking system?), poor cash and inventory management (loose control of cash fares collected on buses, the tracking of ammunition inventory for the Sheriff's Office, and top-down oversight on cash receipts, expenditures, and assets), and many more potential opportunities for the County to abuse and misuse public resources.

But we repeat ourselves.

Downplay the bad, highlight the good. Don't let your competitors know too much.That's how the sales game is played, and that's the strategy WaMu was trying to use when it asked the courts if it could refrain from disclosing how much it had cost them initially to purchase some of their assets, which are now again for sale. The feds saw right through the potential ploy, though, and the bank got a giant "denied" stamp on its request. The assets in question were declared not part of WaMu's shaken, shaken core, and therefore confidentiality wasn't going to help them against competitors. It certainly wasn't going to help them get their groove back.

For the past seven years, Seattle public high schools haven't issued a single failing grade. That would be an impressive statement if it was based on student academic performance, rather than a bureaucratic decision to call what would have previously been called an E (the Seattle public schools' equivalent of a F) an N (for "no credit"). The lovely thing about an N grade is that it didn't count against your GPA like that ugly E grade does. The school district is reverting back to the E grade because they found the no-credit mark they'd created actually violated school board policy. Oops...talk about a move that deserves a failing grade.

If you're a teenager, there is nothing better than a few extra days of summer vacation however you can get them. Students in the Bellevue School District are rejoicing (and their parents are scrambling for child care) as the start of school was delayed due to a teacher's strike. Bellevue teachers took the picket line today after a contract negotiations failed Monday night. At the center of the teachers strike are issues regarding salary and curriculum. A mediator will try to bring both sides to the table again today. Bellevue teenagers will be keeping their fingers crossed for failure and a few more school-free days.

• If you got your car towed or ticketed during the uber-failure that was Mayor Nickels' first car-free Sunday, fear not. According to Seattle 911, the city has decided to void the tickets and refund some towing fees.
• Want to know what the view from a nearly $16 million condo (complete with staff quarters) looks like? Follow the links on The Belltowner and prepare to feel very, very poor.
• Speaking of condos, we've found some sick enjoyment in the new local website cheapshitcondos.com. Thanks to Capitol Hill Seattle for reminding us to keep checking it regularly.

• The Belltowner covered the Monorail's latest debacle. If the Monorail is looking for a new slogan, we submit the following: "The Monorail--And You Thought the Ferries Were Busted."
• Phinneywood celebrated the latest artistic addition to their neighborhood: a mural by local artist Ryan Henry Ward. Ward is in the midst of trying to paint 50 different murals in Seattle neighborhoods.
• Central District News warns of coyotes in the neighborhood. Yes, coyotes in the CD. The comments on the post are filled with first-hand sightings.

Remember the Sasquatch/Bigfoot corpse found in Georgia recently? Last week we heard it "failed a DNA test"--and this week, we find it failed the DNA test because the corpse was made out of rubber. That's kind of funny, but far less interesting than if it had indeed turned out to be Homer Simpson (Seattlest commenter zagreusmd's prediction). Are we the only Pacific Northwestern child ever regaled with medium-tall tales about the Quarks that roam local forests? Surely, those are real.

• The Daily Weekly reports that the City of Seattle has successfully sold its scandalous public toilets on EBay....for over $80,000 less per toilet than they'd hoped.
• While we know it means our Seattle Native card could be revoked, we are still less than thrilled that a new clown statue in honor of JP Patches is set to be unveiled this Sunday. We hate clowns, we always have, and since JP Patches was the big local clown during our childhood, we kinda blame him. The idea of having to walk by a creepy clown statue while drunk in Fremont gives us the shivers.
• My Ballard has photographic proof that bike lanes have been painted on 8th Avenue between Market and Leary.

The Slog decided to do their version of "Are You Smarter Than the Standardized Test You Support?" with State School Superintendent Terry Bergeson, and she failed. Bergeson was given three sample questions from Port Angeles WASL tests. One from each WASL group tests 3rd, 7th, and 10th graders. The Superintendent only answered two of the three questions, and she answered them both wrong. Realizing she was busted, Bergeson signed the test with a frowny-face...how very 7th grade of her indeed.