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Law and Justice

Crosscut most recent

House marriage vote and the GOP mom who backed it

Posted Thu, Feb 9, 2 a.m.

Gay marriage supporters cheered. But big money and advice is coming from out of state to help undo the legislature's votes and eradicate Republican senators who voted to support it.

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Komen fight opens door to election showdown on women's rights

Posted Tue, Feb 7, 2 a.m.

The issues of abortion, birth control, and women's rights could play large in the presidential and Senate contests, including in Washington.

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When there's no cost to them, Olympia's liberals stand strong

Posted Tue, Feb 7, 2 a.m.

On gay marriage and other social issues, they are all in. And that's good. But what about paying for education, social services, investing in our future? Leave that to ... Bill Gates Sr.

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For Ed Murray, the long-awaited moment on gay marriage

Posted Wed, Feb 1, 10 p.m.

How the Washington state Senate's only openly gay member helped achieve something he once thought was beyond dreaming about.

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Can we say goodbye to Washington state's own shameful McCarthyism?

Posted Wed, Feb 1, 11:30 a.m.

Washington state helped set the pattern for the national abuse of personal liberties during the Red Scare days. Gays were among the targets, so it would be fitting to time repeal of state laws that served as a model for McCarthyism with approval of gay marriage.

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Judge rules in DESC's favor on crisis diversion site

Posted Tue, Jan 31, 2 a.m.

A group of neighbors contested the location of the Crisis Solutions Center in the Jackson Place community. King County Superior Court ruled in DESC's favor, but the delay (and cost to taxpayers) continues.

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Wedding planning day: Gay marriage picks up key vote

Posted Mon, Jan 23, 10 p.m.

Monday was scheduled to be a day for arguments about a state gay marriage bill. One senator's decision overshadowed that.

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The Supreme Court's education decision: Deja vu?

Posted Fri, Jan 13, 2 a.m.

The Supreme Court ruled last week that the state legislature isn't fully funding education. Why the decision isn't the windfall for Washington education that it seems.

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Seattle police: what they're doing right with troubled people

Posted Thu, Jan 12, 2 a.m.

Appropriate tactics with mentally ill people increase police officers' satisfaction with their work, steer the sick to needed care, save time and money, and boost citizen faith in the force. Training works, but police also need to have other kinds of public support in place.

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Beyond church-state separation: a fresh role for religion in public life

Posted Thu, Jan 12, 2 a.m.

Whether shaped by religious faith or not, our world views are relevant to how we make public choices as well as personal ones.

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Tough times call for troubled minds

Posted Thu, Jan 5, 2 a.m.

Psychiatrist Nassir Ghaemi explains why a mentally ill president may be just what we need, and how mania and depression have driven the triumphs and the tragedies of Lincoln, Churchill, Hitler, JFK, MLK, and, maybe, Newt Gingrich.

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Washington's Senate will be the battleground for legalizing gay marriage

Posted Wed, Jan 4, 3:41 p.m.

Gov. Chris Gregoire called for gay-marriage bills to be introduced in the Washington House and Senate next week, but some lawmakers say the legislation will need to win more votes to pass in the Senate.

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Go south, young musician

Posted Tue, Jan 3, 2 a.m.

Mazatlan meets Mahler, and two formerly frantic freelance viola players from Seattle find steady work and communal musical bliss in Mexico, where orchestras thrive while their counterparts in the U.S. are struggling.

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New Orleans is from Venus, Seattle is from....

Posted Wed, Dec 28, 2 a.m.

This town couldn't be another NOLA and wouldn't want to, but maybe it can learn something about life and living from the battered Big Easy.

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Best of 2011: A new world in South King County

Posted Tue, Dec 27, 2 a.m.

Welcome to Kent, frontline for the forces transforming America's suburbs: poverty and hardship, global diversity, and exciting new energy and innovation.

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Is there a leader for the police issue?

Posted Thu, Dec 22, 2 a.m.

As tangled and dramatic as events have been, there is potential for moving the city forward. But it will require the right approach.

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Want to do the crime but not the time in Washington? Be white

Posted Wed, Dec 21, 2 a.m.

A new study finds that blacks and Latinos face much greater likelihood of winding up in prison compared to whites arrested for the same crime. At each step through the criminal justice system, race may subconsciously play into the decisions, adding up to gross unfairness.

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Two big shockers for Seattle schools and cops

Posted Mon, Dec 19, 2 a.m.

The Department of Justice lands, clumsily, on Seattle police, and Seattle Schools Supt. Susan Enfield opts out of the fray. Here's the story behind these two bombshells.

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DOJ probe raises deeper issues, starting with D.C.'s drug war

Posted Mon, Dec 19, 2 a.m.

The probers found excessive force problems, but wouldn't share how they came to the conclusion with the very people who requested their help. As for bias in the justice system, D.C. should should look in the mirror.

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Ex-prisoners give incarcerated parents' kids holiday treat

Posted Sun, Dec 18, 11:30 p.m.

The children "need to feel like they still belong to this community," says Celebrate Kids! founder Vance Bartley, once a lifer behind bars under the state’s three-strikes law.

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Law and Justice Blog posts

Midday Scan: Birth control time travel; Rep. Dicks caught redhanded; caffeine powder hits the shelves

Posted Wed, Feb 8, 12:36 p.m.

The birth control debate moves back in time. How Norm Dicks funneled federal money to his son. Caffeine powder gives us a glimpse of the future.

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Midday Scan: Gay marriage! Religious sensitivities clash and a kill-joy referendum looms

Posted Tue, Jan 24, 11 a.m.

Washington gains a major windfall in the fight for gay marriage. Meanwhile, Washington's between-a-man-and-a-woman purists are already plotting its demise and at least one Westerner is too busy allegedly fomenting Russian revolution to weigh in.

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McKenna rails against sex ads (but doesn't notice who has them)

Posted Mon, Dec 26, 5 a.m. 2011

Washington's AG equates prostitution with rape and human trafficking, but thinks Backpage.com stands alone.

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Lowe's welcomes Muslims in its stores, but not on reality TV

Posted Mon, Dec 19, 2 a.m. 2011

The home improvement chain flails around after falling for a Muslim-bashing boycott. Meanwhile, look who's shopping in its Rainier Valley store.

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Midday Scan: Viaduct museum; see you in court over liquor jobs; Kalakala's 'significance'

Posted Wed, Dec 7, 11 a.m. 2011

Maybe the money for a viaduct museum helps Pioneer Square. Costco's initiative faces a court challenge. McGinn talks police reform. And the owner of the one-time ferry Kalakala speaks of the "global" importance of the dilapidated ship.

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Midday Scan: Coveting tribes' gains; looking busy in Olympia; Everett probers

Posted Tue, Dec 6, 11 a.m. 2011

Now that some tribes are doing a little better, Republicans in Olympia can't stop thinking about how easy life would be if they could just get more of the gambling revenue.  While the legislative leadership spins its wheels on the budget, other lawmakers don't want everyone else to see how little else is being done. Questions about Kitzhaber's death penalty moratorium.

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Judge in key salmon rulings is retiring

Posted Fri, Nov 25, 2 a.m. 2011

Judge James Redden has relentlessly demanded more from government attorneys trying to limit what must be done to protect salmon on the Columbia River.

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Penn State's cratering of college football: real lessons to be learned?

Posted Sun, Nov 13, 3:05 p.m. 2011

UW loses, the Cougars win, but on college football's darkest day when it was hard to care about the games.

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Crosscut Tout: 'Inequality in the Age of Mass Incarceration' at Town Hall, Oct 13

Posted Mon, Oct 10, 9:44 p.m. 2011

Harvard professor Bruce Western (Punishment and Inequality in America) and a panel of local speakers discuss the impact of the "prison boom" that has placed 2 million Americans behind bars and 5 million more under correctional supervision.

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Review: Leopold film revitalizes land ethics for a new generation

Posted Thu, Oct 6, 2 a.m. 2011

A new Aldo Leopold documentary is set to premiere in Seattle's U-District, but can it bring the importance of land use and connectivity home to a new generation of conservationists? 

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Law and Justice | Seattle Legal News Online | Seattle Justice News | Seattle Politics

'Barefoot Bandit' uses emails to mock the system that let him off easy Colton Harris is up for federal sentencing, and a U.S. assistant attorney has filed papers showing Harris writing abusively about the prosecution and police just after an Island County Superior Court judge gave him a significantly shorter sentence than prosecutors had sought.

HERALD (EVERETT) | COMMENT NOW

Oregon's fastest growing inmate population? Women In the last 10 years, Oregon's population of female inmates has grown by 86 percent. And, due to new legislature that doles out longer punishments for non-violent crimes, that number's about to get even higher.

WILLAMETTE WEEK (PORTLAND) | COMMENT NOW

Prescription drugs replace car accidents as leading cause of death For the first time in nearly 100 years, prescription drugs have usurped car crashes as the leading cause of accidental death. The top 10 drugs leading the charge?

ALTERNET | COMMENT NOW

A dark portrait of the 'Barefoot bandit' Erik Lacitis writes, "When Colton Harris-Moore faces the judge for sentencing on Friday, his mother won't be in the small Island County Superior Courtroom in Coupeville."

SEATTLE TIMES | COMMENT NOW

Feds orchestrate multi-county pot raids Stacia Glenn writes, "Federal and local authorities raided at least 14 medical marijuana dispensaries in Pierce, Thurston and King counties Tuesday, targeting those they said were operating illegally."

NEWS TRIBUNE (TACOMA) | COMMENT NOW

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