Results tagged “washingtonstate”

It's being reported all over that the unemployment rate in Washington "dipped" by 0.1 percent, from 9.2 to 9.1 percent. This month-to-month non-change is far more accurately labeled stasis than a "dip"--the real news is that of the 315,000 or so unemployed, thousands are one month closer to running out of UI benefits. Unemployment figures have been politically distorted to the point of absurdity--for one thing, people who fail to find a job for so long that they give up are no longer counted as unemployed. The precision of 0.1 percent change would be laughable if it weren't for the cruel irony that making these announcements is a real job.

X17 has beach photos of Leo sportin' WSU-wear. What's it mean? And who's in charge of the UW's celebrity apparel placement division?

First, check your smoke detector. The Bellevue woman who died in last night's fire had her smoke detector battery in backwards. Next, check with your supervisor: Boeing workers get their pink slips today. That's another 1,100 people who won't be working or shopping much, exacerbating Washington State's projected $8 billion budget shortfall. Check your credit limit, too. Do you really think it' a good idea to be buy all that new Ken Griffey merch?

Surely there are few hardships worse than being unfairly separated from your own flesh and blood. It sounds like plenty of families in Washington State have suffered that fate; a report [pdf] from the Office of the Family and Children's Ombudsman indicates that the local government authorities have too often given custody of children to the foster care system rather than to the kids' relatives without good reason. The office is in charge of investigating complaints about government agencies' actions involving children at risk for abuse or people involved with child protection and child welfare services.

This morning we were down at the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce breakfast and regional economic forecast discussion, which opened with chair Tayloe Washburn being emotionally overcome while talking about how strapped food banks are for donations. (At which point we sorely regretted suggesting the chamber was "populated largely by jaw-dangling idiots," and wished we'd stuck to the rule of vilifying awful ideas rather than the people whose heads they're stinking up.)

Thanks to dramatic state budget deficits, the Washington state Department of Health has decided to discontinue three of its programs: colorectal screenings (poor people don't get cancer), water-contaminant testing, and the state's prescription drug monitoring system. The colorectal screening program--targeted towards low-income communities--and the prescription drug monitoring system were not yet in full swing, and by axing them both, the department will save $14,000. If there's one department we don't want to see make any more cuts, it's this one. Bill and Melinda Gates, have you considered donating to the state of Washington this year?

Washingon "state ranks 12th in the nation--up from 27th last year--in average monthly growth in bankruptcy filings from 2007 to 2008, reported AACER, a bankruptcy data and management firm." So says the Seattle Times, noting that bankruptcy filings are up 40% compared to last year. The story is worth a full read because it details how the more stringent bankruptcy regulations, which the Bush administration enacted in 2005, has resulted mainly in people taking more debt into bankruptcy court. And Robert Lawless coins what could be the best epitaph for both the reforms and the Bush presidency: "not a very good match with reality."

A lot has happened since November 4; we decided to spend $1.4 billion more than we thought we would on November 3, for one thing. State legislators learned of the new $4.6 billion estimate this morning, says the P-I. In response, Governor Gregoire has asked state agencies to look at cuts of up to 20 percent across the board. You already know what the Republicans will say about this, so we turned to the plucky third-party GOP candidate, Dino Rossi. Whoops, nothing there. So back to the Republicans. Nothing there either. It's like these people only care about budgets when there's an election.

Found in our Theo Chocolates promotional newsletter this morning: "Sales of existing houses dropped more in Washington than anywhere else in the nation last quarter, compared with a year earlier, according to a new report. King County's median sale price also dropped roughly 10 percent from a year earlier." Who was saying that Seattle wasn't immune to, but typically lagged the national trends? With the drop, 57 percent of the state's first-time buyers have enough income to afford the median home price.

That should push Gregoire's numbers up even more, as King County is Gregoire country, and while about 370,000 votes have been counted, King County elections estimates they have 380,000 more to go. If that's correct, then about 67 percent of the county's registered voters turned out in the 2008 election. Which is okay. But not great, King County. Not superlative. Here's the statewide voter turnout. Little Columbia County, down in the southeast corner of Washington state, looks to be the GOTV leader so far.

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)

Though we know you're just finishing up reading the transcripts from yesterday's Reichert vs. Burner debate, it's already time for another Washington State debate. Tonight, Governor Christine Gregoire and Dino Rossi will meet in Spokane for the fourth debate in the hotly contested gubernatorial race. It's the second to last meeting for the candidates before the general election on November 4th. The final debate will be held between Gregoire and Rossi next Wednesday in Seattle. With the way things are going, maybe this go-around can be won by a margin of at least 200 votes.

The deadline for registering to vote in Washington State is this Saturday, October 4th. We know all of our readers are well-informed, politically savvy, perpetually active voters, but you still might want to make sure your voting status is up-to-date. If you don't mind using a partisan website, Obama-affiliated VoteForChange is a super-easy tool to verify and update your registration status and address of record. The other options are the Washington Secretary of State's MyVote or the King County voter guide, where you can also update your address. Either way, it doesn't hurt to check. Then, just make sure your poll tax is paid and brush up on that literacy test, and you'll be all ready come Election Day.

Have you heard about WISAARD? It's a really cool toy research tool from the Washington State Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation (DAHP) that helps you locate historic sites statewide, searchable by county, city, and registered site name or status. It might not be stylized or streamlined, but WISAARD is just plain neat--and useful, if you're looking for details but don't know precisely which details you're looking for yet. Amateur local history nerds, read on:

The Washington state Supreme Court says you can. They agreed with Chris Clifford, who argued that Port of Seattle commissioner Pat Davis committed malfeasance when she, as commission president, signed an agreement with outgoing Port CEO Mic Dinsmore to pay his salary a year after his retirement. In fact, the Court agreed 9-0 that Davis "intentionally acted outside the scope of [her] duties by signing an agreement with Dinsmore." Clifford now needs to collect 150,000 signatures to get the recall on the ballot; he says the petition will show up on his Recall Pat Davis website. Davis, for her part, says she won't stand for re-election. We wouldn't stand for it, either.

• The West Seattle Blog notes, with great pride, that a West Seattle High School alumnus has been chosen to command the next space shuttle mission. We bet that guy's stories will be hard to beat at the next class reunion. "So Greg, what have you been up to?" "Oh not much, just being an astronaut with NASA, commanding space shuttles in, you know, outer space."
• The Slog reports recently-for-sale Capitol Hill club King Cobra is being threatened by the state over their hosting of a semi-professional wrestling night. The state wants King Cobra to obtain a sporting event license to continue hosting the matches. If King Cobra refuses to comply the state is threatening "administrative action" which, we assure you, isn't nearly as scary as Seattle semi-professional wrestler Billy the Fridge.
• The Mid-Beacon Hill blog posted a crime story under the headline "Don't Read This if You're Having a Nice Day" and it was pretty spot on. Don't do it.

Well, cheaper than it was at its all-time high earlier this month. AAA says the average cost of a gallon of gas in Washington dropped by 12 cents since July 6th. While that sounds great on the surface, don't get too excited...even the cheaper gallon of gas in Washington costs 27 cents more than the national average. The most expensive gallon of gas in Washington can be found in Bellingham ($4.27 per gallon), while the cheapest fill-up is in Vancouver ($4.13 a gallon).

This story reminds us of a line from The Beatles' "Taxman". The fact that it's illegal to collect too much rain that falls on your property because of state water laws seems just as ridiculous as the idea of the government taxing your feet to walk. But these are strange times, friends, because in Washington, the rain that falls is property of the state and up to them to regulate.

We love the quirky names found in Washington State. We never tire of hearing of places with names like Zillah, Hooker's Cove, Sequim, and our life-long personal favorite Humptulips. But Humptulips might have to make way for a new-found favorite, Useless Bay.

While we don't know if Mayor Greg Nickels' latest proposal to ban concealed weapons on city lands will ever become law (we imagine a little thing called the Constitution and this little group called the NRA might have some problems with that one), hundreds of new laws will take effect in Washington this Thursday.

We'll be the first to admit Hillary Clinton's embarrassing statement last week (and other occasions), when she recalled RFK's assassination in June of 1968 as an example of things that can happen late in a campaign. We all know there's a possibility the first viable black presidential candidate could get shot. It's been talked about and analyzed and discussed (and, yes, joked about by the other party). But, somehow, to hear another Democratic candidate (one this Seattlest supports) allude to such a tragedy just kind of crossed a line.

We think this counts as "writing on both sides of your brain." Starting tonight and running through June 1 at CHAC is one of the more unusual solo performer shows we've heard of: former Washington State Insurance Commissioner Deborah Senn (a theater major, natch) has written a play about her experience wallowing in the mud of the election politics.

About those photos we released to the world, implying you were terrorists...really sorry about that. Clearly, you're just innocent European businessmen who appear to be of Middle Eastern descent.

What do you do with hardened, scary misdemeanor criminals when there's no room in the county jail? Create new programs that focus on counseling, job training, and other rehabilitative services? Feed cash to community centers and mentoring programs that help head off the problem before it starts? No, stupid, you build more jails.

Yesterday, the Senate approved a bill that could create the first new wilderness area in Washington state in over 20 years. The Wild Sky Wilderness Area would include 167 square miles in the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest north of Sultan, Wash and would permanently protect 106,000 acres of wilderness.

The 45 year-old man from Mukilteo arrived at Mt. Rainier on March 17th for a day hike and has not been heard from since. A ranger spotted Ossman's vehicle near Kautz Creek, but a search of the area by bloodhounds did not locate the man. The search team did spot tracks at 3,400 feet that they believe belong to him. Ossman may be wearing a flannel plaid shirt, black suede jacket, black scarf, gray cap with white stripes, and wire-rimmed glasses.

This Seattlest just returned from Austin, Texas, for the annual South by Southwest music festival. While enjoying Austin, we were struck by one thing over and over again--how much Texas really wants to be its own nation. Nothing drove that point home more than comparing Texas' Capitol building to our very own Capitol. The state building in Austin is easily three times the size of Washington States and rivals the size of the Capitol building in D.C.

Remember when The Crocodile Cafe closed unexpectedly in December? Remember how up in arms everyone got, yelling about how likely it was that yet more new condos would be the result?

First it was severed feet washing ashore, now it is empty bottles of rat poison. The bottles, which have thus far been empty, have been washing up on Washington shores since last fall. That spring trip to the coast is sounding less appealing every day.

Woot! Slowly, but surely this Seattlest is starting to see some semblance of equal rights for ourselves and others like us, as a bill has passed the state legislature granting us over 100 more rights. Chris Gregoire is expected to sign it, no problemo.