In an attempt to drum up revenue in the face of a staggering budget gap, Washington State attempted a bold move this summer--to make a new program to charge for parking at every state park, and give it a really fun, pioneer-y sounding name. Unfortunately, the combination of a shitty summer of rain and blerg, and the fact that Washingtonians don't like to pay for things like parking at parks, have rendered the Discover Pass less than effective at raising necessary funds, the Olympian reports. more ›

This is less of a "wtf?!" and more of a "ooooh, how lovely!". Kickstarter is a service that allows artists to submit their proposals for creative projects, which can cover anything from "art, music, design (fashion, product, game, app, etc), film/video, food, journalism, and other projects that spring from the imagination." more ›

KOMO News is reporting that a day after the nation's largest ferry system got snubbed by the feds, Sen. Patty Murray has secured $7.6 million in federal transportation funding. more ›

Seattle PostGlobe's Kery Murakami follows up on his earlier story about the Tenants Union travails with the good news that an anonymous donor has handed over $25,000.The Tenants Union helps out renters with a range of advice and aid (hotline: 206-723-0500 ); not everyone knows their rights as a renter and not every landlord is scrupulous about the law. When King County cut their funding recently, the Union was sent scrambling for cash, raising about $17,000 before they hit the $25,000 jackpot. Anonymous donor, you're one of us. more ›

Polling of grant funders revealed that they'd lost about twenty-two percent of their assets in 2008 and forecast losing another ten percent in 2009. Because they base their funding on rolling three-year intervals, artists and arts organizations can look forward to seeing the impact of these losses in 2011 and 2012 (in addition to an immediate ten-to-twenty five percent decrease in individual giving this year). God help you if you're a new organization, or are looking for funds from new sources, because the prevailing wisdom was that funders weren't looking for new opportunities. more ›

Seattle's transportation projects and politics tend to be the Achilles heel of progress in this city. Ironic, isn't it? On Friday, the state House passed a $4.9 billion two-year transportation budget, with the intentions of funding select mega transportation projects (ferries, viaducts and the 520 bridge, oh my!), as well as restoring the funds (per voters request) to move I-90's HOV lanes to prep for the East Link light-rail route. A win in Sound Transit's column, although we are beginning to see those pesky politics and pet-projects--yes, House Speaker Frank Chopp and your one or two billion dollar 520 Tunnel idea, we're talking about you--try to take precedent over the November 2008 voter-approved transportation initiatives. Here we thought a complete transit system was in our foreseeable future (sigh). more ›

A teacher friend of ours, who is in fact National Board certified, is all hot under the collar about HB 1410 and SB 5444, two bills that are touted as steps toward education reform elsewhere. more ›

Everyone knew it was going to be harsh. For weeks, arts orgs around Seattle have been struggling with the fallout of the recession and its impact on their projected budgets for 2009. Now hard figures are coming out, and they're not pretty. Over on the Slog, Brendan Kiley has a report on the budget cuts at some of Seattle's largest theatres. ACT Theatre, following the wildly successful run of their annual Christmas show, , is in better shape than some others: It only had to chop 20% out of its budget. The Rep, by contrast, may be looking at up to a 40% cut to make ends meet, though there's no hard numbers yet. No information was available from the Intiman. more ›