Posted Wed, May 20, 11:15 a.m.

Compared to other states, Washington tends to fall in the middle third of scores nationally on the NAEP tests. Well, considering that Washington state is something like 49th out of the 50 states in terms education spending per student, that performance isn't so bad. Imagine what our kids could accomplish ...

Posted Fri, Mar 27, 7:54 p.m.

Mr. Vance, Yes, both parties contributed to this problem. Except for the part where the last administration blew all previous records out of the water, while its party nominally endorsed fiscal responsibility. And the part about how this administration's budget makes it much much worse? Just two months into it? ...

Posted Fri, Mar 27, 7:56 a.m.

Brian and Mr. Baker are spot on. The country is reaping the full measure of Reagan's voodoo economics and George Bush's absolute unwillingness to show any fiscal responsibility. For a great explanation of how we got into the debt mess we're in today (and will be in the future) I ...

Posted Wed, Mar 18, 10:44 a.m.

Now there's an amazing job offer in this day and age! If, while employed by you, I can continue to receive an income that solidly puts me in the top <1% of income earners in the USA--BEFORE BONUSES--even though my incompetence drives the company into the ground--please, let me know ...

Posted Wed, Mar 18, 7:43 a.m.

AIG as a corporation needs life support from the government specifically because it is unable to meet the contractual obligations that it entered before the economic meltdown. Presumably those contractual obligations have been reevaluated as well. Asking the American taxpayer (median household income: ca. $45K) to foot the bill for ...

Posted Thu, Jan 1, 10:09 a.m.

Mr. Vance, up there in paragraph four you list the culprits for our current bad situation. I notice they rank as follows: overspending families, overspending government, overspending businesses (as a result of that pesky overreaching labor). No mention of capitalist overreaching? No mention of that the pro-business, laissez-faire, deregulation fundamentalists ...

Posted Thu, Dec 18, 5:44 p.m.

Performance versus ideology?? The shitty performance of the Bush administration is a direct *result* of their ideology. What was that line from Reagan that McCain trotted out? "The most fearsome nine words are 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help?' " For the last 30 years Republicans have ...

Posted Wed, Nov 26, 7:38 p.m.

The affluent kids in the north end have an abundance of good choices. One of the major reasons why schools in the south end generally suck is that the middle-income and affluent families have abandoned them. I think (hope) GJ is trying to get them to come back. Robin Hood ...

Posted Wed, Nov 26, 10:50 a.m.

One of the reasons enrollment in central and south schools is so low is that most middle-class and affluent parents (mostly, but not entirely, white) in these parts of the city have little faith in most of the neighborhood schools as they currently exist. The few public schools that do ...

Posted Mon, Jun 23, 7:27 p.m.

Answers to your questions: My take on 'em, anyway: 1. So, is it wrong to ogle at the one or two cyclists who are particularly hot? Naked people who choose to traverse a parade route in front of thousands of people expect to be looked at. Ogle away. 2. Second, ...

Posted Mon, Jun 23, 1:50 p.m.

RE: Aren't there plenty of R.O.W. areas which need tending?: The hillside garden on MLK way at McClellan is a great example of guerilla gardening in a (steep!) public right-of-way turning into a more formal garden, and quite a community asset. If you google "mount baker hillside garden", at the ...

Posted Mon, Jun 23, 1:43 p.m.

RE: I hope things are "a changing": Sorry to hear about your frustrating PPatch experience. My husband and I were P-Patch gardeners for about decade in the 90s and over the years had gardens in several of the gardens--University, Picardo, Hillman. As you might expect from an almost entirely volunteer-run ...

Posted Fri, Dec 21, 8:36 a.m.

RE: Seattle City Council Bill 116090: Technology startups need reasonably priced space to nucleate and to grow....You can already forget about the U-District, South Lake Union, and downtown. Ballard and SoDo were all that was left. Wow--I didn't know that contemporary maps of Seattle still had "Here Be Dragons" stamped ...

Posted Thu, Aug 30, 7:16 p.m.

The strangest gift from the windstorm: Last December during the big windstorm, I was awake off and on during the night to watch the crazy chaos brewing outside our front window. The power was out all night long, of course. About 3 a.m., the storm had mostly passed and there ...