Posted Wed, Jul 6, 4:44 p.m.

You seem to misunderstand the legal system when you say the defense attorney "rallied slightly with a tighter closing presentation — one still lacking any effective rebuttal to the state's case." The defense doesn't need to rebut the state's case, only to create sufficient doubt. The defendant is presumed innocent ...

Posted Fri, Jul 1, 12:35 p.m.

I'm skeptical about yet another nonprofit with big funding and buzzwords, but God knows the South end schools need help and focused attention. One aspect of the schools problem the article doesn't address is that Seattle Public Schools are stuck in a low equilibrium -- low participation in public schools, ...

Posted Thu, Jun 30, 10:04 a.m.

But can McKenna make the Republican base happy without saying something more about climate change? Lots of Tea Party types seem to think climate change is a socialist conspiracy.

Posted Tue, Jun 28, 9:57 p.m.

My point was that bike lanes aren't very expensive and anybody who says we're going to pay for expanded trade outreach by cutting funds for bike lanes is just being silly. It's just popular in some circles to mock bike lanes because they are the mark of the Devil (whose ...

Posted Mon, Jun 27, 12:50 p.m.

Bill, you dance around the fact that the state's got no money. We aren't going to have an expanded trade promotion mission in a state government that's laying people off right and left. Hint: cutting money for bike lanes isn't going to get you much except Republican fans and Democratic ...

Posted Fri, Jun 24, 4:44 p.m.

Your Vietnam parallel doesn't mean what you think it means. Nixon drew down the war in Vietnam, the North Vietnamese took over, and after much suffering, a peaceful country has emerged with a developing economy. We could have had the same outcome quicker and easier if Nixon had ended the ...

Posted Thu, Jun 16, 4:16 p.m.

The current school board will have to defend their oversight of a school system that has lost millions of dollars in two separate, highly suspicious situations -- the small business program and the MLK school sale. I give them credit for booting Dr. Goodloe out, but none for their performance ...

Posted Mon, Jun 13, 10:11 a.m.

The low retention for TFA teachers is a big problem for me. My son attended kindergarten in a class with a first -year teacher who could not have been sweeter but had serious trouble maintaining order in the classroom. If we are going to load up SPS with lots of ...

Posted Sat, May 28, 1:54 p.m.

Why should Mariners and Sounders fans subsidize basketball fans? The teams and players won't pay a bit of it.

Posted Fri, May 6, 12:56 p.m.

Good one! I'd like you to follow with more articles about these things.

Posted Fri, May 6, 12:53 p.m.

Below Joel's usual standards. He can't cite a single example of intolerance and resorts to bashing anonymous Seattle secularists.

Posted Thu, May 5, 2:15 p.m.

I would like your article better if it actually talked about McKenna's policies and didn't spend so much time speculating about what a Red-State governor did that McKenna might seek to emulate. Attacking collective bargaining in Washington doesn't seem like a winning issue for him, in any case.

Posted Fri, Apr 29, 2 p.m.

Anti-transit folks always regard trains as deadly, even though they're loud and follow a totally predictable path, unlike cars, bicycles, or Great White Sharks.

Posted Wed, Apr 20, 2:54 p.m.

This is why the system is so messed up: every tax loophole has a Richard Davis, or someone like him, attached to it to explain why consumers will suffer if this particular loophole is closed. It's his job.

Posted Fri, Mar 11, 5:22 p.m.

Get Seattle off the hook for cost overruns, and I'll call Mayor McGinn myself and tell him to back off. Until that happens, I see McGinn as standing up to the know-it-alls and outsiders and I'll support him.

Posted Thu, Mar 3, 12:27 p.m.

Three points, especially about #4: One: starting thoroughgoing, controversial reforms without a superintendant in place only guarantees that the reforms will fizzle because the new guy feels no sense of ownership for them. Parents are fed up with this, because our kids suffer the dislocation, but the promised improvements never ...

Posted Tue, Feb 1, 4:27 p.m.

The current situation is a sweet deal for the rural counties and their lawmakers, who outnumber the urban counties and lawmakers. So it's not going to change, unfortunately. I'd like to see the Seattle Times represent its readers instead of some airy idealized Washingtonian, though -- Seattle is tired of ...

Posted Mon, Jan 24, 2:06 p.m.

Ralph Nader, at this point, gets almost all of his support from the leftist fringe and from Republicans looking for a spoiler. Most Democrats and leftists learned their lesson after 2000. The Tea Party, on the other hand, is a highly energized subset of Republicans who are older, whiter, and ...

Posted Fri, Jan 21, 2:47 p.m.

They moved headquarters to Chicago and outsourced the 787, both big mistakes, but I think the end of the Cold War and the loss of the "Senator from Boeing" would have made time difficult for anybody.

Posted Fri, Jan 14, 12:41 p.m.

Interesting piece. You know, via Wikileaks we now have access to the cable diplomat April Glaspie sent after her famous meeting with Saddam Hussein prior to the war -- which makes it clear that US diplomats never told Saddam that we'd go to war over Kuwait.

Posted Wed, Jan 12, 4:34 p.m.

Every time I see Stand for Children in the news, they are associated with the question of seniority and RIFs. Maybe they are doing good things too, but they seem to spend a fair bit of time picking fights with the teacher's union about an issue that parents and individual ...

Posted Wed, Jan 5, 3:11 p.m.

I'm with Mark, I'd like you to explain how you ended up paying almost 40% of your paycheck to Social Security and the union when nobody else does.

Posted Thu, Dec 16, 1:01 p.m.

Elected judges are beholden to the people funding their campaigns. Acording to the Seattle Times, the amount of money flowing into judicial elections doubled from $83 million in the 1990's to $207 million in 2000-2009. This money is coming from partisan sources and special interests who want to seat judges ...

Posted Thu, Dec 16, 12:53 p.m.

David Cameron's austerity budget is currently causing student riots in London and has probably destroyed the career of Nick Clegg. I respect Chris Gregoire for producing a budget that protects at least some programs for the poor and vulnerable while recognizing the terrible fiscal situation that we, the voters, have ...

Posted Sun, Dec 12, 8:26 p.m.

The actual cost overruns and complications and such are still in the future. Let's see how it goes before we call the tunnel a success -- I'm still fully expecting it to be our own Big Dig fiscal disaster.

Posted Thu, Dec 9, 5 p.m.

Mr. Ballmer is welcome to spend his money how he likes, but the NBA has been pretty clear that they don't want to put teams in cities that aren't willing to put public funds into building solid-gold stadiums.

Posted Wed, Dec 8, 11:45 a.m.

This is good news! The Seattle Times editorial page has been slavering for the legislature to take an axe to the budget and eliminate social service programs wholesale, which would cause tremendous chaos and suffering in the middle of this recession.

Posted Wed, Dec 8, 11:41 a.m.

Patty Murray is good for things other than shipping the swag to Washington by the carload, you know. And senior leadership in the Senate is never a bad thing when it comes to obtaining pork -- doesn't Harry Reid seem to do right by Nevada?

Posted Tue, Dec 7, 3:56 p.m.

Who wrote the headline for this piece? Other than Sue Fenich, not one Republican expressed any concern about the DREAM kids. Less mindreading, more reporting, please.

Posted Tue, Dec 7, 3:50 p.m.

Ted, I'd be really interested in your take on the revelations from the leaked cables. Your musings about how today's leaks disappoint you,compared to the Pentagon Papers just make you seem dated. It's also weird to bring up the Plame leaks without any mention of Bob Novak or Scooter Libby. ...

Posted Wed, Nov 10, 11:13 a.m.

Patty Murray's done a lot for Washington and a lot for veterans. Tough white guys I know respect her because of that, made it hard for Dino Rossi to peel them away from her. Also, he talked a lot about cuts but never got specific beyond the talking points which ...

Posted Wed, Nov 3, 11:37 a.m.

David, interesting piece but you're starting to sound unhinged about Mayor McGinn. You talk about a "meretricious debate" and compare the Mayor to a "cornered animal." This isn't Redstate, David, you need to pull it together.

Posted Wed, Oct 20, 3:09 p.m.

Does UW really need more ugly modern architecture? I feel like it already has plenty.

Posted Wed, Jul 21, 10:51 a.m.

Interesting article. It's just odd that the author talks about Brooks' quasi-Christian perspective without acknowledging that he's Jewish.

Posted Fri, May 28, 1:44 p.m.

Ted, are people really confused by the @FakeTedVanDyk twitter feed? I would have thought the word "Fake" was a big red flag. Also, Fake Ted claims to have hung out with James Madison. Also, as someone who has participated in many, many online fora all over the internet, I believe ...

Posted Tue, May 18, 1:04 p.m.

It's nice that our state Attorney General has strong opinions about how to fix the health care system. I wish he was this interested in law enforcement issues! I think he's just marking time till he can run for higher office at this point.

Posted Thu, May 6, 10:19 a.m.

False equivalence alert! Racial profiling is wrong, but speaking out against racial profiling is JUST AS BAD, apparently. What would you suggest, Ted? Should Democrats sit quietly and wait for the next election? That worked when Dems were in the minority, but if they're just as passive in the majority, ...

Posted Mon, May 3, 11:07 a.m.

Ted, why shouldn't the Democrats make hay of an unconstitutional, unpopular law passed on a party-line vote by Republicans? If the Democrats try to stay above the fray on this issue, they will turn off their base, turn off Hispanics, and reinforce the perception that they don't stand for anything. ...

Posted Thu, Mar 11, 11:03 a.m.

David, the Mayor still holds a few levers of power, no? And I'm not sorry that the cigar-smoking developers will have to work a little harder; the Nickels administration sometimes seemed to have a drive-through window for big money lobbyists.

Posted Mon, Mar 8, 10:13 p.m.

Austin, what was "Kafkaesque" about the tax proposal? Did it involve people turning into cockroaches or standing trial for crimes they didn't commit? You don't do your argument any favors by using such prejudicial language. @Flyintheointment: of course state costs have gone up. That's what happens in economic downturns, more ...

Posted Tue, Mar 2, 5:04 p.m.

It's weird, Austin (may I call you that?), that you don't acknowledge that Governor Gregoire has already proposed a worst-case scenario balanced budget that does most of what the Republicans propose and cuts a whole lot more. It's convenient for the Republicans to pretend that the budget can be balanced ...

Posted Tue, Mar 2, 5 p.m.

David, have you actually looked at the distance from downtown Bellevue to the closest approach of the "Vision Line"? It's a long, long way, too far for people with handicaps or small kids or large packages. Also, this: "Think about the proposed South Bellevue station at the Mercer Slough park-and-ride ...

Posted Thu, Feb 11, 11 a.m.

The state gave Seattle an incentive to annex White Center; it sounds like Seattle needs to give White Center some incentives to join up in return. You White Center-ites, any suggestions on what you would want?

Posted Thu, Feb 11, 10:49 a.m.

The "broken window theory" of policing seems to work pretty well in other cities, like New York and L.A., that have much bigger crime problems than we do. His idea for improved crime statistics and intelligence is also straight from the William Bratton crimefighting playbook -- it's pretty uncontroversial that ...

Posted Thu, Feb 11, 10:08 a.m.

Mayor McGinn was elected by the people of Seattle, he will stand for election with the people of the Seattle, he represents and answers to the people of Seattle. I'm happy that he is not too worried about what unnamed state lawmakers might be thinking -- they didn't like Greg ...

Posted Wed, Feb 10, 9 a.m.

Wow... Is there anything tax cuts can't do? This is thin stuff. And you never did explain how Greg Nickels ruined things for the rest of Washington. I think Greg would have been very happy with tax cuts for research firms, especially since they might be located in Seattle.

Posted Wed, Feb 10, 8:25 a.m.

If the jobs are there, the Dems will win. Worrying about the deficit in the middle of a recession is bad politics and bad policy, which is why the Republicans are pushing this issue so hard.

Posted Tue, Feb 9, 9:45 a.m.

Austin, a "Pyrrhic victory" comes at a price which is greater than the victory was worth. Try looking it up in the dictionary! I don't see how the legal finding of the judge leaves education any worse off than it was before.

Posted Fri, Feb 5, 2:40 p.m.

It's fun to watch all the pundits tell us that Seattle needs to shut up and take its medicine. I strongly support the Seattle politicians who are representing Seattle concerns. It's called democracy.

Posted Thu, Feb 4, 5:34 p.m.

Size 12 carbon footprint. Hilarious. What is this, the National Review?

Posted Thu, Jan 28, 7:43 a.m.

For at least the last ten years, the Supreme Court has been activist and partisan. Obama is just acknowledging reality.

Posted Fri, Jan 22, 8:29 p.m.

Historically, when people have told Jews that they'd be better off converting, it was a bad sign. Next came demands to convert, then threats, and finally persecution and murder. That's happened with Roman pagans, Christians, and Moslems. So if America becomes generally a place where Christians routinely criticize one's faith ...

Posted Fri, Jan 8, 5:22 p.m.

NickBob beat me to it. Mr. Eyman won't just go away because this is his JOB. He is an "initiative entrepreneur" who makes a decent living launching initiatives. You also forget his failed attempts to make discrimination against gays legal again and to deregulate slot machines. What do these causes ...

Posted Mon, Nov 16, 1:10 p.m.

Brewster: I imagine that he'll try at first to build a new team of outsiders and activists dedicated to the new agenda of carbon-phobic urgency (transit, walkability, density, pro-developer, anti-suburbs) with a good-hearted dash of inclusiveness, neighborhood sensitivity, and social justice thrown in. It might work, though the McGinn agenda ...

Posted Fri, Nov 6, 1:12 p.m.

Malkin left the libertarian ranch a long time ago, I think -- see her enthusiastic defense of internment camps during WWII. It's always hard to tell with these folks if they actually believe what they say, or just figured out that it's a ticket to journalistic success in an imploding ...

Posted Fri, Nov 6, 7:53 a.m.

It's great you publist St Clair, but this are just lazy right wing talking points. You need to demand more from your contributors, unless you're hoping to get on the Wingnut Welfare program.

Posted Thu, Nov 5, 5:18 p.m.

Dino Rossi was a "prefers GOP" candidate. Susan was a "nonpartisan" candidate. The problem is, they can't run away from the tainted Republican brand fast enough.

Posted Thu, Oct 22, 8:27 p.m.

Good luck! We need new models. But I'd also like to chime in on the requests for transparency. Also, I'd love to see more actual, you know, journalism and less oldtimey opinonating by the likes of Ted and Knute. Right now, Publicola eats your lunch on a daily basis.

Posted Thu, Oct 22, 8:25 p.m.

Aren't you at all concerned about Hutchison's repeated evasions and misstatements? She won't answer many policy questions, she won't say what she did on the board of the Discovery Institute, she won't explain why her campaign headquarters appears to be given to her rent-free by a supporter. She's claimed that ...

Posted Thu, Oct 22, 8:15 p.m.

This is a good way for young politicians to get attention: we already know the bored tunnel is going to take much longer and cost much more. Speak out against it now and look like a damn genius 7 years from now when it's turned into Seattle's "Big Dig."

Posted Wed, Oct 14, 1:03 p.m.

Washington is looking pretty good compared to many states in this recession. It's clearly a lot more fun to be Governor when there's pots of money to hand out, but Gregoire has acquitted herself well.

Posted Fri, Sep 18, 3:52 p.m.

"This is a hyper-cynical proposal on behalf of a system which would be far more costly, and carry fewer passengers, than a simple expansion of bus service to the Seattle neighborhoods involved." McGinn has been a mass transit and light rail advocate for years. This proposal is a logical part ...

Posted Fri, Sep 18, 3:45 p.m.

Greater Seattle/King County is the economic hub of the state, pays more in taxes to the state than it gets back in benefits, and is routinely snubbed in Olympia. This sometimes gets to self-defeating levels, such as when the Alaskan Way Viaduct replacement is left in Seattle's lap, even though ...

Posted Tue, Sep 15, 10:10 a.m.

Do you have any evidence that Gregoire is neglecting Boeing to appease the unions? Is there anything Boring wants that doesn't involve squeezing the unions? What DOES Boeing want, anyway? Austin Jenkins doesn't know or won't say. This reminds me of how people were blaming Gregoire for not "saving the ...

Posted Fri, Sep 11, 12:40 p.m.

Wow, I never thought of subjecting it to that kind of analysis. I don't think it's entirely fair to judge their coverage of a totally mind-blowing and unpredented event so strictly. I think NPR really shined in the days and weeks after 9/11 when there was an enormous demand for ...

Posted Thu, Sep 10, 11:19 p.m.

"Additionally, Bjorn Lomborg has done work with economists finding that it is cheaper for countries like Bangladesh and the Maldives to take precautions against sea level than to take steps to reduce CO2 emissions." Do you have a reference for that, Todd? I frankly don't understand how the Maldives, a ...

Posted Thu, Sep 10, 11:06 a.m.

Shouldn't worst-case and bad-case scenarios be overweighted in any risk/benefit analysis? The risk of my house burning down is slim, but it would be such a catastrophe that I pay for home insurance anyway. You talk like a moderate by saying that climate change is real but we shouldn't do ...

Posted Tue, Sep 1, 4:08 p.m.

Too many lofty plans for South Lake Union and the Big Bore and green cities, not enough service to constituents, I think. By the way, Mr. Brewster, I notice you've picked up that verbal tic so common at Crosscut of talking about how Seattle politics were so much better twenty ...

Posted Wed, Aug 19, 12:46 p.m.

Doesn't the tunnel get any attention? Nickel's willingness to support a zillion-dollar tunnel drilling project where the city will be on the hook for any extra costs (and everybody knows it'll take longer and cost more) was the last straw for me. He has always been too quick to sign ...

Posted Tue, Jun 30, 12:07 p.m.

I liked David Postman better when he was raking the muck, not spreading more of it. But hey, we all gotta eat. And yes, this is just one more time that I feel annoyance that McDermott, Congressman-for-life in a safe seat with a progressive constituency isn't doing something actually useful ...

Posted Thu, Jun 11, 12:05 p.m.

Is there any evidence that the seniority system is the number one problem in public schools today? Personally, I don't think it's even on the top ten list! I totally support anybody who's trying to make schools better, but picking a fight with the SEA about something that is of ...

Posted Mon, Feb 2, 12:48 p.m.

Is this really the time to be pushing highly expensive road projects? That means a big drain on the treasury, and heavy use of Eminent Domain to take people's houses and land away to widen roads. None of that is cheap and none of it is popular with the public. ...

Posted Thu, Dec 18, 2:42 p.m.

Newt Gingrich says this was a "performance election." Isn't that a little glib? It's like the Mariners' manager explaining a lousy season by saying this was a "ball-playing season." For a baseball team, every year is a ball-playing year; for a credible political party, every year is a performance year.

Posted Wed, Dec 3, 7:09 p.m.

I found some of the Rossi ads incredibly offputting -- like the one blaming the Governor for sexual assaults. And of course there were the "Don't let Seattle steal the election" ads, which weren't seen in King County but were well-publicized around the state. Allowing your allies to dump on ...