Monthly Archive: June 2005
In a Seattle PI guest editorial titled Complete Picture for Viaduct Funding Davd K.Y. Tang and Steve Leahyin urge Washington residents to contact their congress critters and ask them to support federal funding for the Seattle Viaduct project. Why, though, would anyone pick up the phone, write an email, etc., based on the incomplete information in this piece? How much money are they asking for? What will be the total cost of the project? How will the so called regional share be funded? Why should federal money be involved at all? Could the entire project be funded by tolls? If...
She stole $143,000 from the Edmonds School District and is going to jail for 14 months: Lewin, a former district bookkeeper, has no criminal history, and she stood to spend just three months or less in the county jail under the state’s sentencing laws. By law, Bowden was able to go beyond the standard sentencing range because Lewin had agreed that what she did was a major economic offense against the school district. Deputy prosecutor Adam Cornell asked for only four months in jail. Lynnwood defense lawyer Michael Mulvihill recommended three months or less. Bowden acknowledged that Lewin cooperated with...
Timothy Goddard notes: Regardless of what happened Monday morning, the gubernatorial election showed that Washington is very evenly divided between red and blue–but the fact that only a three of our nine person delegation to the House of Representatives is Republican doesn’t bear that out. However, there’s a man who aims to make that score a little bit more even. That man is Doug Roulstone, and he is challenging Rick Larsen for the 2nd District House seat. Based on the rest of the post he does look like a strong potential challenger to the the incumbent. But I’ll save discussion...
A gentleman in Boise recently became somewhat wealthier: There’s a lot of “if I won the lottery” talk in Boise these days, what with an unidentified, 30-something Boisean holding a $220.3 million Powerball jackpot ticket. The unnamed winner has to decide whether to take his winnings as a single, $125 million payout (before taxes) all at once, or a 30-year annuity that would total the full $220.3 million, made in equal payments of $7.3 million a year for 30 years. Congratulations and may you live a long and fruitful life. However, how do you feel about being lied to. Folks,...
I like the idea of Instant Runoff Voting. It makes a lot more sense than the voting variant enacted last election in Washington and certainly would have eliminated the long and wasteful argument over the 2004 Washington contest for governor. Brian at Washblog points out this animation that describes how IRV works.
Sequim politicians are planning to build a new city hall: A new building would allow city offices to be consolidated into one building and could also provide space for expansion as the city continues to grow. And City leaders have promised that the public will have a say in planning for a new City Hall. The public should just say no! What happens in Sequim that requires 40 employees for a population of 4585? Perhaps the city would be wiser to scale back regulation and services and let the residents spend the money on things that lead to productive jobs....