Posted Tue, Aug 2, 2:47 p.m.

Great piece! Thank you so much for this thoughtful, comprehensive, and fair piece. I learned a great deal.

Posted Tue, Sep 21, 10:52 a.m.

Thank you for this piece. This should be a no brainer for McGinn. Nickels wasted a lot of city resources needlessly chasing homeless people all over the city, confiscating and throwing away their possessions, destroying their encampments, and basically punishing people for being poor. McGinn can change course and create ...

Posted Mon, Sep 20, 8:33 a.m.

Saying that McGinn has a conscious strategy to alienate people probably gives him way more credit than he deserves.

Posted Fri, Sep 17, 7:36 a.m.

Yes the dramatic thing that happened in this race is that people returned from their weekend summer vacations/ staycations, sent their kids back to school, and started thinking a bit more about politics after Labor Day. There was never any chance Rossi was going to beat Murray. Sorry if you ...

Posted Thu, Aug 19, 11 a.m.

This is really disappointing. To lump all criticism of Obama together as coming from the left no matter what the issue, to presume that criticism is utopian or even communist just because it is to the left of a center-right Democrat, is extremely anti-intellectual. The Obama admin cares more about ...

Posted Wed, Aug 4, 3:32 p.m.

Thoughtful piece, but you ran off the rails at the end there, Roger, with your claim that the SR 99's section going through downtown is "a highway most people don't want." If the "strange but promising coalition" you describe successfully blocks the construction of the tunnel or a viaduct replacement, ...

Posted Fri, Jul 30, 10:32 a.m.

This article is very casual in its dismissal of problems of police accountability at the SPD, perhaps because its author is not aware of them? Yes, every police department in the country is going to face moments when there are questions about excessive use of force, racial profiling, and illegal ...

Posted Fri, Jul 30, 10:15 a.m.

First of all, the "red tide" relies on low voter turnout. Here in WA state, the defining feature of the mid-term election for federal, state, and local races will be if the proponents of I-1098 can use that issue to stage a massive GOTV for less-than-regular voters who lean Democrat. ...

Posted Wed, Jul 28, 11:33 a.m.

Whereas politicians like Jean Godden are such servants of the public that they inhabit a "no spin zone" where their every utterance is disconnected from the world of self-promotion, policy advocacy, and, heaven forbid, electoral politics. Because they are objective like journalists. Ha!

Posted Tue, Jul 20, 7:43 a.m.

Black hats vs white hats, the damned and the saved, the crass money lenders trying to enter the temple-- this kind of language makes me instantly distrust the author's story, though I know nothing about the issue. A more nuanced approach to explaining the messy politics of balancing competing constituent ...

Posted Thu, Jun 3, 8:29 a.m.

Just as, if not more important, I think, is the comparative frequency of coverage of anything and everything tea party. Just about every tea party event gets media coverage. Very few other public protest-based movements-- no matter what their politics-- receive such regular coverage of their events.

Posted Thu, May 27, 8:38 a.m.

Sean, I think you may have missed this part of Knute Berger's writing for Crosscut.com about the double-standards of enforcement of Pioneer Square's historic preservation guidelines: "Seattle Weekly started as a paid newspaper in the Square, selling newspapers through newsstands, contractors and vendors. No one tried to kick the Weekly ...

Posted Tue, May 25, 11:12 a.m.

"Does it really matter which individual pension fund is short?" Yes, if your argument is that Dunphy was somehow whitewashed the actual state of our pension system. He didn't, as far as I can tell.

Posted Tue, May 25, 10:48 a.m.

To the other commentators: Notice that the Pew report doesn't separate out the plan 1 pension funds that Dunphy reports on above. Calling those a "nagging problem" is hardly dishonest journalism. Neither is reporting on the fact that the other pension funds seem to be in relatively decent shape.

Posted Sun, May 23, 1:52 a.m.

Am struggling to figure out why crosscut publishes drivel like this.

Posted Wed, May 19, 10:28 a.m.

"how successful would a major company or school district be if its key strategy for improvement amounted to war on its employees?" Most if not all major companies have outsourced, offshored, de-skilled, de-unionized, resisted unionization and/ or rolled back union contracts the last 3 decades. Conservatives then compare wages between ...

Posted Fri, May 7, 7:21 a.m.

I don't agree that "Politically, McGinn has no good reason to do anything that validates the work of Burgess." McGinn has every reason to show that he can bridge divides-- after all, that's part of what leadership is about. A major reason why Nickels was kicked out of office is ...

Posted Tue, Apr 27, 7:08 p.m.

To the conservative critics: just because you disagree with an income tax doesn't mean you represent the average voter. How much support did a KING5 poll recently find for I-1077? 66 percent. Could be an anomaly. But also not something you can dismiss out of hand either. http://www.surveyusa.com/client/PollReport.aspx?g=e1aeebb4-a15f-4258-82c2-54058726f3ef

Posted Tue, Apr 27, 6:57 p.m.

Seriously? Another committee to study the issue? That's the best you can offer? And you call the creation of a dedicated fund for education and health care at a time of budget crisis "business as usual"?

Posted Mon, Apr 5, 10:09 a.m.

This piece displays a breathtaking lack of historical awareness. If "the Statue of Liberty "melting-pot" ethic pervaded our country," then why was the Civil Rights Act necessary in the first place? Why did we need a separate Fair Housing Act in 1968? Or another Civil Rights Act in 1972? Hint: ...

Posted Mon, Apr 5, 9:05 a.m.

I agree with BlueLight that Knute is being too sentimental, albeit without BlueLight's right wing spin. While tribes are recognized in US law as "domestic dependent nations," they are still recognized by the federal government as NATIONS. Government in the U.S. (which hopefully represents more than white people!) recognizes tribal ...

Posted Fri, Feb 26, 9:48 a.m.

Oh please. How does further prohibition of panhandling in any way protect the homeless from violence? And the very premise that new "aggressive panhandling" legislation is needed is crass pandering to the law and order sensibilities of a certain part of the electorate. "Generality" does NOT make the current ordinance ...

Posted Sun, Feb 22, 11:12 a.m.

Who the hell commissioned this puff piece?

Posted Mon, Nov 12, 2:54 p.m.

New Demographics: "when most high school students envision college life, they don't see a small college without dorms perched on the side of a hill in the suburbs." Yes, but many many high school students get less financial aid and more loans to pay for more expensive tuition to live ...