What went on last night? The elections, dummy. If you haven't heard the results yet, pull your head out of the sand and take a peek. Also in today's headlines: Silas Potter pulls a Harrison Ford, a victory for student publications in Washington, Sen. Murray's staff gets cozy with lobbyists, and lions. No tigers or bears. Sorry. more ›

Seattle Times opinion writer Joni Balter, not a favorite among our city's progressives, wrote an op-ed against I-1125 today. While her opinion was on the right side of the ballot, the cheap, stretchy angle of her op-ed came at the expense of the identities of our state's women. more ›

Your ballot is due in less than a week. And if you haven't already filled it out, let me tell you that you're in for a sort of bumpy ride. There are a couple non-candidate matters (propositions, initiatives), all of which could greatly impact our region. It's a lot to ask. more ›

Infamous local anti-tax crusader and initiative-pusher Tim Eyman is at it again with this little nugget of anti-rail spite. On the surface, it simply requires that every toll increase be approved by a legislative vote instead of by the Washington Transportation Commission, but the implications run much deeper. If passed, it would block Sound Transit from being able to build light rail on the I-90 bridge through a little, hidden clause that says highway lanes funded by highway tolls and gas taxes cannot be used for "non-highway purposes," like rail. And, surprise surprise, 90% of its money comes from your friend and mine, the King of Bellevue* and notorious light rail opponent Kemper Freeman, Jr. more ›

Here at Seattlest, we care about our readers. But more than our readers, we care about the city's most influential people, like politicians and journalists and public figures that are also hot messes. In fact, we care about them so much that we've come up with a list of Halloween costume suggestions for them that we think the masses would really enjoy. Also, because it is Friday afternoon, we decided to write a nice, fluffy softball article of no real relevance. more ›

Everyone's favorite bus app is officially funded, The Port joins the list of groups opposed to I-1125, we have a new contender for the toughest cyclist ever, a man is shot in Tacoma after a confrontation with police, and coverage of last night's Occupy Seattle protests. more ›

Seattle cyclists are steadily increasing, as is support for I-1125. The $60 car tab fee lands a big (and surprising) endorsement, while a Seattle lawyer is tackling some dairy farms who have done some allegedly despicable acts. King County and Seattle are looking at changing the way they deal with prostitution, and state universities get some positive financial news, for which they are long overdue. more ›

The Storm wins, school busses lose and Tim Eyman is taking on red-light-cameras. Welcome to Monday. more ›

Initiatives, agreements and amendments, oh my. Today, everyone was in talks and meetings--and some came out smelling like roses. more ›

People shot in South Seattle last night, potentially longer bar hours, more Kemperwatch, a series of alleged Fred Meyer gropings, an admitted child molester being allowed to watch his own video evidence, libraries, A LOT OF TOLLS and more in this morning's headlines. more ›

An outside auditor has issued a positive opinion on Seattle City Light financial statements, the highest assurance that can be given...At a glance, this news appears to be in sharp contrast to state auditor reports released earlier this month that concluded the utility exercised inadequate controls over its reduced-rate programs. more ›

In today's ridiculously long morning headlines: the Space Needle pride flag, the City Council race, Gregoire signing a lot of things, how screwed we are in an earthquake (still), officer-involved shootings, and more. Plus, an adorable video of a lioness failing to eat an adorable human baby. more ›

Kemper Freeman, Jr has given $500,000 to the inaptly-named Voters Want More Choices, the committee to pass Tim Eyman's latest measure, an anti-tolling initiative, the Seattle Times reports. Freeman says that he likes "the spotlight that I-1125 puts on" strengthening transportation, but this seems beyond just liking -- that kind of money is unprecedented in the developer's giving history, which rarely goes above a couple of thousand dollars, according to PDC records. His company, Kemper Holdings, had already given $25,000 to the initiative in March. According to PDC records, Kemper Holdings also gave a total of $500,000 in three separate contributions to Voters Want More Choices; since the Times article says Freeman's contributions haven't shown up in the PDC database yet, we're not sure whether those are separate from the contribution from Freeman. more ›

Let's begin with an admission of gullibility and credulity: Yes, when I initially read this essay posted on Crosscut's site, I misconstrued it to be factual and not satirical, as it has since been identified. In my defense, I cite Poe's Law, and reference this fine essay on credulity written by Roger Ebert (acknowledging that, in this instance, I am the type of person he describes therein). more ›

This Friday morning, the courts are king (and in King County), with law-related headlines abound: The city and the SPD are headed for a stand-off over the privacy of officers accused of misconduct, a teenager sues a local private school for ignoring verbal and physical harassment, and Washington state Democrats are setting the stage to legally challenge a Tim Eyman initiative. more ›

The end of the Legislative Session dominates this morning's headlines -- 4Culture, pot, liquor -- but keep reading for an evacuated SIFF screening, what Tim Eyman is up to, some unhappy cops and a robbery at an Aurora Avenue KFC. more ›

The non-caped conservative is at it again. Who will stop him this time? Here's hoping it's the voters. more ›

State democrats introduced a house bill today that would repeal "certain tax exemptions" to bring in extra money to fully fund K-3 class-size reduction. more ›

Happy Legislative Session opening day! Naturally, your friend and mine Tim Eyman is on the prowl with some new filings -- but he seems to be running out of ideas. First, he reintroduced his old $30 car tabs, which was at least somewhat of a forgotten classic. And today, he decided to cover all his bases by filing I-1053 again, reports the PI. Yes, the one that voters just passed by 64% in November that requires a two-thirds legislative majority to raise any taxes. Eyman says he's just re-filing in case his precious initiative is overturned -- gee, I wonder why he's worried, perhaps because his initiatives tend to be a pain in the ass for lawmakers and progress and have been declared unconstitutional before. If it's not overturned, he says, he'll wait until 2012 to bust out the initiative once more. more ›

If there's one thing you can say about Tim Eyman, it's that he's not a quitter. Dancing on top of the success of I-1053, the initiative passed this month which preserves the two-thirds legislative majority for tax increases, Eyman has hopped right back on it, doing the same thing he does at the end of every election season--whip up a new batch of initiatives. One of them reopens an old local politics wound: the $30 car tab. And this time, after a similar success in Mukilteo, he's thrown red light camera fines into the mix--those would also be capped at $30, under Eyman's proposed initiatives (there are several that involve both the $30 tabs and the $30 fines). Seattle Transit Blog has a solid rundown of I-473, the most recent of the proposed initiatives, and PubliCola explains some of the finer points of the included "Vehicle Owners' Bill of Rights." more ›

Well, this is fun. Remember how we speculated that the legislature in Olympia wasn’t going to be so happy about Gov. Gregorie’s plan to raise taxes to balance the budget? The discontent has exceeded our expectations in the form of this ridiculous video of Gov. Gregoire signing a bill that will allow the Legislature to increase taxes. Standing behind the presumably oblivious Governor, conservative activist Tim Eyman holds his nose and gives a thumbs down, like a six year old girl who’s just been given the cooties at recess. more ›

As someone who waits for Election Day like other people wait for Christmas, Tim Eyman's ballot initiatives are always the best presents under the tree. Every year, just like clockwork, Seattlest gets something right between a giddy thrill and a warm, fuzzy feeling from voting against the perpetually ill-conceived, often downright draconian ballot measures Eyman makes his living inventing. But voting against Eyman himself? That's the dream. more ›

Via Political Buzz, we learn that the Initiative King's 2009 run will target property taxes in what he says is "our last, best chance to gain control of our government." From his preliminary press release, it sounds like the plan is to put a revenue cap on the state government and use any revenue above that cap to magically lower property taxes. Eyman is claiming his initiative will provide tax relief for poor people, slow the growth of government, stimulate the economy, bring sight to the blind, and restore life to all dead puppies in the year 2009. Guess we'll see about that. more ›

Transportation professionals say Initiative 985 will make traffic worse. Tim Eyman says, "I-985 implements common sense reforms based on recommendations from Sonntag's thorough investigation." The P-I says, "Voters should decline to join Eyman in blowing this multi-toxin poison dart at themselves." But what do you say? Yea or nay? Our poll closes tomorrow at noon, and don't be shy about voicing your opinions in the comments. (More on I-985 here) more ›

There are two weeks until Election Day, and two issues in our state's gubernatorial race (three if you count Eastern Washington's concerns). Each week we'll be taking an award-winning look at where the candidates stand. more ›

King County has eight count 'em eight amendments on the ballot this year, and it's not always easy to tell what they are going on about. We've fielded a few emails from people who wondered what we thought, and we offer you the fruits of that conversation. A caveat: we didn't overthink these. If there wasn't a compelling reason to be fer it, we were agin it. more ›

Sightline's Clark Williams-Derry has discovered a funny thing that will happen if Eyman's iniative passes--eastern Washington will be paying for Eyman's scheme to "fix" Seattle-area traffic congestion.

And whatever Mr. Eyman might hope or claim, I-985 would wind up shifting about $180 million in revenues from the rest of the state into greater Seattle. Over 5 years, we expect that the average family of four outside of the Seattle area will ship about $229 in tax dollars to pay for Seattle-area road projects.

The papers in town have lapped up this story, so we're doing it too. The difference is that we are using it solely as a vehicle to deliver a more accurate graphic. more ›

Not only will you be voting for a new president in November (finally!), but a few new measures have been added to the local ballot. more ›

The great folks at Seattle Transit Blog tipped us to this month's yet another audit conducted on Sound Transit. Independent auditor KPMG LLP gave the agency high marks. Since the corrupt private sector is naturally suspect, we're glad that this week's audit comes on the heels of a previous one released in January by State Auditor Brian Sonntag. more ›