Podcast appearances and mentions of Brandon Block

Recorded live, completely unfiltered and brought to you by Deus Lodge & Sole Clinic. Today's Off Script episode features three extraordinary men: Brandon Block, Chris Billam-Smith and Jay Morton who share their deeply personal journeys through mental health challenges.  From Brandon's battle with addiction to Jay's military experiences with PTSD and Chris's struggles with perfectionism as an athlete, this episode offers a raw and compassionate look at men's mental health.  Tune in to learn how to recognise personal struggles, the importance of community and the courage it takes to be vulnerable. Plus practical strategies for anyone facing their own challenges.  More than just a conversation, this episode is a testament to resilience, self-acceptance and the power of reaching out.  All proceeds from the live event went to Dorset Mind. If you enjoyed this episode, you can continue to support them by donating

Rich talks with Josh Polk, a lawyer with the Pacific Legal Foundation representing a rum company in Hawaii which has filed a federal lawsuit over the Jones Act. Later, reaction to President Trump's speech and an update on tariffs, from long-time Trump advisor, Bruce LeVell. We also look at the connections between poor sleep, aging, and dementia with Dr. Brandon Block, clinician at Carpathia Health. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week we welcome our guest Loz Seka. Hailing from the Midlands, UK, Loz Seka has already released three times on Toolroom (breaking the Beatport top ten Tech House twice). Seamlessly combining percussive, almost hypnotic, driven house music with deep rumbling baselines in his DJ sets. Loz has developed a quiet confidence in the booth, one that expertly tempers the energy that is unleashed in his sets which deliver every time. Throughout his career he has brought his sound and energy to some of the UK's most prestigious venues including 02 Academy Brixton for MK's Area 10 brand, Motion Bristol and has supported house music artists such as Paul Oakenfold, Brandon Block, Pete Griffiths and Marshall Jefferson amongst many others.

Courageous Church is back in person this week as we hear a special message from guest Pastor Brandon Block.

As August fast approaches here on the white isle, we find ourselves at the midpoint of a summer that has been filled with unforgettable moments, From Legendary sets by some of the most respected artists in the industry to the next generation of DJS joining us for the pre parties, This summer has certainly given us memories that will last a life time, who know what's in store in the next couple of months as we continue to celebrate our 30th Year on the sunset strip. This Month Café Mambo Resident Ryan McDermott is back once again bringing you a roundup of what's hot right now. This Month's music features incredible releases from Riccardo Paggi, Henry Hacking, KC Lights and Milton Shadow to name a few. On guest mix duty this month, we have legendary Duo Brandon Block & Alex P with an incredible 30-minute session filled with their hand-picked favourite tracks featuring percussionist Bongo Ben recorded live from the Iconic Mambo Booth. Then finishing off the show we have a brand-new track from London Grammar with this month's Mambo sunset Track. So sit back, relax and dream of sipping a Strawberry Daquiri on the terrace to the sounds of Café Mambo. We are Café Mambo… We are Ibiza! Follow us at: www.instagram.com/mamboibiza www.facebook.com/mambo www.twitter.com/mamboibiza Plus get more of the best electronic music 24/7 on Café Mambo Radio – www.cafemamboibiza.com/cafe-mambo-radio

Brandon Block sits down with Chris to discuss his career from his first night in Ealing through to his chart success in the 90s and his work around drug abuse. This episode is sponsored by Flare Audio. How to DJ is a Listening Dog Media production. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In Washington, millions of dollars in child support payments are intercepted by the state from custodial parents who receive Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, a federal assistance program that includes cash benefits. Lawmakers are considering a bill with bipartisan support that would redirect a portion of future child support payments back to families. Brandon Block is an investigative reporter at Cascade PBS. He has reported on the bill and joins us with details.

Brandon Block is a world-famous DJ & Danny Gould is the founder of Clockwork Orange hosting parties for the last 30 years. We talk about dominating Ibiza and their crazy, rockstar lifestyle. They both reveal their battles against copious amounts of drugs and the demons that follow. They two were infamously known as being the craziest pair in Ibiza for over a decade. This is the Eventful Lives of Mr Brandon Block & Mr Danny Gould.YouTube: Dodge WoodallInstagram: @Dodge.WoodallWebsite: DodgeWoodall.comTikTok: @DodgeWoodallLinkedIn: Dodge Woodall Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this conversation, Brandon Block discusses his journey as a DJ, his struggles with addiction, and his path to recovery. He shares insights into the early days of DJing in Ibiza and the impact of fame and notoriety. Brandon also emphasizes the importance of self-care and the need to detox from technology. He highlights his work in mental health advocacy and the creation of support networks for those seeking help. In this conversation, Brandon shares his journey of personal growth and how it led him to help others. The importance of mental health and self-awareness is discussed, highlighting the need to prioritize our well-being. Finding balance in life and setting authentic goals are emphasized as key factors in achieving personal fulfillment. The conversation also touches on the power of DJing and meditation in promoting self-discovery and presence.

On this week-in-review, Crystal is joined by state politics reporter for Crosscut, Joseph O'Sullivan! They discuss Tacoma for All winning their lawsuit over competing renter protections on the November ballot, mobile home communities organizing against economic eviction, and Washington auctioning off $1B of carbon pollution credits. The conversation continues with reflection on people's concerns over the closure of the Larch Corrections Center, how Bruce Harrell and Dow Constantine's ideas add delay and expense to voter-approved Sound Transit light rail expansion, a questionable use of COVID relief funds for Emerald Downs horse racetrack, and Cruise robotaxis coming to Seattle streets. As always, a full text transcript of the show is available below and at officialhacksandwonks.com. Find the host, Crystal Fincher, on Twitter at @finchfrii and find today's co-host, Joseph O'Sullivan, at @OlympiaJoe.   Joseph O'Sullivan Joseph O'Sullivan is Crosscut's state politics reporter. Before joining Crosscut in 2022, O'Sullivan spent nearly eight years as Olympia bureau reporter for The Seattle Times. Before that, he covered government and politics at news organizations in Spokane, Wyoming and South Dakota. Resources “The Childcare Crisis with Dr. Stephan Blanford of Children's Alliance” from Hacks & Wonks   “Judge kicks Tacoma council's competing renter protections off ballot” by Heidi Groover from The Seattle Times   “Judge issues ruling in ballot fight between Tacoma, renters group. Here's the decision” by Becca Most from The News Tribune   “WA mobile home communities organize against 'economic eviction'” by Farah Eltohamy and Mai Hoang from Crosscut   “WA's third carbon auction should push pollution credits over $1B” by Donna Gordon Blankinship from Crosscut   “‘Blindsided' by a Washington prison closure” by Laurel Demkovich from Washington State Standard   “Prison closure plan stokes wildfire response worries in southwest Washington” by Laurel Demkovich from Washington State Standard   “Harrell, Constantine light-rail ideas add years, money to Sound Transit planning” by Mike Lindblom from The Seattle Times   “$1.1M in COVID relief steered to Auburn horse racing track” by Brandon Block from Crosscut   “The Capitol Hill Autonomous Vehicle Zone — More driverless robotaxi testing comes to Seattle” by Justin Carder from Capitol Hill Seattle Blog   Find stories that Crystal is reading here   Transcript [00:00:00] Crystal Fincher: Welcome to Hacks & Wonks. I'm Crystal Fincher, and I'm a political consultant and your host. On this show, we talk with policy wonks and political hacks to gather insight into local politics and policy in Washington state through the lens of those doing the work with behind-the-scenes perspectives on what's happening, why it's happening, and what you can do about it. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to get the full versions of our Tuesday topical show and our Friday week-in-review delivered to your podcast feed. If you like us, the most helpful thing you can do is leave a review wherever you listen to Hacks & Wonks. Full transcripts and resources referenced in the show are always available at officialhacksandwonks.com and in our episode notes. If you missed our Tuesday topical show, I welcomed Dr. Stephan Blanford, Executive Director of Children's Alliance, for a wide-ranging conversation on childcare - its importance, what makes it inaccessible and expensive, and how we can make an impact and fix this crisis. Today, we're continuing our Friday week-in-review shows where we review the news of the week with a co-host. Welcome to the program for the first time, today's co-host: state politics reporter for Crosscut, Joseph O'Sullivan. Hey! [00:01:22] Joseph O'Sullivan: Hi, how you doing? Thanks for having us. [00:01:24] Crystal Fincher: Excited to have you on today. And I wanted to start off by talking about a lawsuit related to a local election in Tacoma - a tenants' rights initiative called Tacoma For All won a lawsuit against the City of Tacoma. This has a bit of a backstory. Tacoma For All collected thousands of signatures to put a pretty substantial tenants' rights initiative on the ballot, only to find out that the City of Tacoma City Council then decided to put their own competing measure on the ballot. At the same time - implementing that measure immediately, depending on what happened with the ballot if that happened. With the Seattle election, with the ranked choice voting or approval voting - and do you want to implement any of these - it's just a confusing thing for a lot of voters. Similar competing measures happened in the Seattle measure - that was basically put on to stop the initial measure. It looks like that was really the intended purpose of the City's measure against the Tacoma For All initiative. They were able to nip that in the bud with a judge finding that, although the initiative part of it seemed okay, the way they adopted the ordinance had some problems and issues. So it will not be allowed to appear on the ballot. What are your thoughts on this? [00:02:43] Joseph O'Sullivan: I was interested just reading in The Seattle Times that the City's initiative they approved actually took effect right away. And they didn't really state that clearly. I don't know if it was the ballot language or whatever might have appeared when it was going to go before voters, which - I can't remember having seen something specifically like that, which seems a bit odd and adds to your point that that would be really confusing for voters. At the state level, you can have dueling initiatives go to the ballot. Those are complicated enough as they are, even when they're clearly explaining - you can choose this one, or this one, or neither. But this one seemed pretty unique. [00:03:17] Crystal Fincher: It also seemed pretty unique to me, especially in that - usually, to your point - in the state context, people think of those more as referenda. There's an existing policy that we're going to vote to continue or to stop - I give a thumbs up or thumbs down on. This was not the case. Another interesting aspect of this, which is an element in litigation related to elections, is that the timing really matters. In this, the City could choose to appeal and they have not answered whether they intend to do so or not. But a bigger consideration is their time to appeal before it's time to print these ballots and get this stuff out. There's a lot of administrative work that needs to happen to get ballots out to people on time and that work starts very soon - whether this litigation can even happen before that happens is a question. But very interesting. This is certainly being viewed as a big win for tenants' rights in Tacoma - I certainly think it is. I don't know that I love the precedent, and I guess people will do what they feel to do. I felt like it's justified before - was happy with some results when it happened. It's not like I've universally condemned this before. But always interesting to see the reaction to citizen initiatives. And that sometimes being viewed as a threat to power or not being viewed as legitimate - it's very tangential. But also reminds me of what's happening in Atlanta with Cop City and that initiative there and the challenges that the City of Atlanta has been presenting for those people who collected signatures in that whole process. So just very interesting to see the state of initiatives, both local and statewide, across the country and locally. [00:04:48] Joseph O'Sullivan: Yeah, and here in Washington, we just have such a robust initiative and referenda cultural and legal institution. We've been doing these for so long that it really is sort of a feature of direct democracy, where if you're an elected official, you're always thinking about this - the prospect of voters saying - Hey, we're going to take the decision out of your hands and try and answer it ourselves. And I think the broader thing with this, too, is that - why is rent control being discussed so much now? It's because rent's too expensive. And housing is too expensive all over the state - urban and rural, big city and small. If elected officials can't deal with that - they certainly haven't in the last 10 or 20 years in the way that it needed to happen - you're reaching a point where you're going to have people try and come up with their own solutions. [00:05:28] Crystal Fincher: Absolutely. Also want to talk about a story that was written this week in Crosscut about Washington mobile home communities organizing against economic eviction. What is this and what's happening? [00:05:41] Joseph O'Sullivan: So there is a Port Orchard-based company that has been buying up mobile home parks. We had a great story by some of my colleagues about residents in these parks. They're getting rent increases, they're seeing fewer services, more fees - like utility fees that weren't broken out and now they're added on to the rent that's already gone up. I don't think we've had a lot of this in Washington state, but when you have these big investment firms or real estate companies that buy up rental houses and then raise the prices - and you've seen that in other states a lot - there seems to be a little bit of a flavor of that in just this one kind of company that's doing this. And again, to go back to what we were just talking about, housing prices and the price of rent are probably certainly the single biggest cost issue for people in Washington state. And so this sort of dynamic is agitating and people are trying to find ways to respond to it. [00:06:29] Crystal Fincher: Absolutely. And especially with mobile homes - a long, long time ago, I was a land use and planning board on Kent's planning commission, and we had an issue like this - couple issues like this come before the board. It was then that I learned just how tenuous these situations, particularly in mobile home parks, are just because it's a bit of a different situation than homes. I think we need action on all of it. But mobile home communities and people who live there are particularly vulnerable because they're bringing their mobile home - it's theirs, generally, or sometimes they rent it - but it's not their land. So people go - Okay, well, just move the mobile home. It's a mobile home - it's mobile. You can't make it there, move it somewhere else. And mobile homes are notoriously difficult to move, depending on the condition. They may not be able to withstand a move. It's not as simple as just moving it. But you have this situation where - okay, if someone gets evicted and you can't move it, or it's really expensive, cost prohibitive, what happens? You potentially don't just lose your right to be on that plot of land, but you can lose everything. If you can't move the home, you can't be there. It can be destroyed. It's really a troubling situation. And so to have these situations with economic eviction, where it's nothing that the tenant has done - there's no "you did something wrong, you haven't been paying your rent," - it's we're jacking up the price that we know you can't afford, knowing that we're going to get you out of there and get in a tenant who's going to pay these new high prices. So it's basically just built-in displacement - that's what an economic eviction is. And so part of the conversation - this is where people live, this is a basic need that people have. And treating it as just a commodity - Well, it's a business and we have a right to make a profit and you can do that - is that where we want to be as a society with housing and the problems that it's causing? [00:08:22] Joseph O'Sullivan: Yeah, and I don't think there was data on this in the story, so I'm a little anecdotal. But it's also not like an apartment where maybe there's some 25-year olds and your rent's getting jacked up. And that's bad - that's an issue. When you're 25, you're younger, you're more resilient, more of your life is ahead of you - maybe you can figure it out. But at least some of the families in here - older and maybe have less mobility in their life, or maybe have been through enough things or have enough burdens on them too - so that kind of adds to what you're talking about too, is the instability of it. It's a potential to do pretty bad damage when you displace people. [00:08:55] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, people who fall into homelessness after being evicted - especially with an economic eviction from mobile home communities - that's not an insignificant number. There has been organizing around this in various communities for a while - certainly a number that I'm aware of in South King County, was an issue in SeaTac not that long ago in elections in the past few cycles. So I'm happy Crosscut wrote about this. I hope that we continue to raise not just consciousness about this and awareness, but that policymakers see the need to address this in a meaningful way. And in the absence of that, you see what happened with Tacoma for All or in Federal Way with their renters' rights initiative, or so many other cities - where if the people who are elected fail to address this, residents will. And it's a crisis now - I think we need to center the people who are at risk of homelessness or at risk of economic disaster and really find a way to prevent economic eviction, make housing more affordable across the board. Also want to talk about - we've been dealing with wildfires, smoke off and on, including this week. What's supposed to be helpful in this whole process is the state's relatively new cap and trade program - cap and invest as they call it - which creates these carbon auctions. So Washington's third carbon auction looks like it's going to push the total amount of pollution credits over $1 billion. Big number. What do you think about this, what's happening? [00:10:24] Joseph O'Sullivan: Big number. The policymakers and the lawmakers are probably pretty happy about that. But they're so early in a very new and complex law - and the obstacle state officials and politicians will have to clear is to take this money and find ways to use it that will actually really meaningfully impact emissions and also provide more resilience to safeguard communities. We're probably a ways away from seeing how these investments that are just starting to be made now - how they pay off down the road. [00:10:51] Crystal Fincher: Yeah. What we were sold were there would be some short-term gains, some immediate investments that could have immediate impacts. Overall with this - I've talked about this several times on this program before, many people do know how I feel about this - but we have a lot of evidence that suggests that the cap and trade system itself is not effective at reducing emissions. What can, potentially, are the investments from this revenue that is raised. If it's invested in the right way, that perhaps can impact this. And this is so much money - these cap and trade programs are great at raising revenue, and this revenue is exceeding projections. Does that also mean that we're going to have pollution exceeding projections, that there's more pollution going on than we accounted for that needs to be lowered? Don't know. We'll have to see. But really the bottom line is we need to reduce the amount of carbon that we're releasing into the atmosphere. We need to do it really quickly. We're already experiencing the impacts of climate change, and it's going to get worse before it gets better. And we better act quickly and very intentionally to make sure that it does get better without getting worse than it has to at this point in time. So we'll see. There were certainly a lot of promises, a lot of talk, a lot of concern, especially from frontline communities, those impacted most - Indigenous Native communities, BIPOC communities - who are the ones who are generally hit worst and first by climate change. And so we'll see if they live up to their commitments to meaningfully invest in these communities to mitigate the damage that is already happening. But I hope a lot of people are paying attention to this. I hope people are engaged in this. This is a significant issue, significant investment. As we've seen with so many other things, a lot can go right and a lot can go wrong - it just really depends on how they are. We also see when there's money like this available, some people see the opportunity for a cash grab. And like with some COVID relief funds, see an opportunity to get their hands on some stuff. I hope that our policymakers, that people in these departments managing this, are really careful and intentional about that. And most of the time, they are and they tend to be. I just hope this is something that everyone keeps a close eye on and holds our Legislature accountable to in the long term. [00:13:10] Joseph O'Sullivan: Yeah, I think that, to your point also, where money shows up, power does too. And even within the Democratic caucus, probably even within progressives within the Democratic caucus, you can find different approaches. Everybody has a different priority for the climate projects they want to do, or - Oh, we'll focus on transportation versus communities, or with a limited amount of dollars. Then you're trying to find consensus within your own team or among the people that are administering the money. And it's probably not going to be perfect, whatever it is. I think some of these things - we may not be able to look until 10 years from now. Did we electrify our transportation system? Did that happen? Did we do enough resilience? Because what happens if five of the projects go really well and five don't? How do you assess that? And how do they tweak it down the road? I think some lawmakers, at least - if not most of them - that were working on this law, hope that someday it'll join up with some of the other cap and trade markets, like in California, in Canada. Does this become part of a larger system? Is that a way that's going to be effective and move forward? Is it not? I think some of these things, unfortunately, time will tell. [00:14:16] Crystal Fincher: Time will tell. We are linked with California. That may create some issues. California has notoriously oversaturated their market with credits and are now trying to deal with that, which basically means that there is more pollution that they have in their system, that they baked into their system, that they have to now reduce. But we'll see. And to your point, sometimes with this, any little thing that goes wrong, people are prepared to jump on to - if they don't like the policy overall, that's a reason to get rid of it. I think what's fair to say is that in any big undertaking, no matter what it is, there are going to be challenges and roadblocks. And it's really about how vigilant people are being to spot them and find those before they create too much damage or waste too much money - that they course correct when that's happening. This is new. So there is - in any new thing that you're putting together, whether it's in the public or private sector, there are going to be lessons learned, there are going to be things that happen. But they don't have to be big boondoggles. We don't have to justify the wrong thing just because it's something that we did. So I hope that there is a recognition that - hopefully most of the things do go right - some things will go wrong. How do we address it when it does? How do we correct it? How do we hold ourselves accountable? So we'll see how that proceeds. We'll continue to pay attention to it. I hope everyone everywhere pays attention to it because, my goodness, the impacts that we're already enduring from wildfire smoke - to just the wildfires and the devastation that we've seen globally, but even just in our state have been pretty horrific - to extreme heat, to extreme cold. It's just concerning. And our infrastructure is not up to it today. So hopefully we spend and meaningfully invest in fixing that. Also want to talk about a plan for prison closure that was just announced - that has some people raising their eyebrows to the plan, and other people raising their eyebrows to the reaction to the plan. What's happening here? [00:16:13] Joseph O'Sullivan: The Department of Corrections announced that they were going to close one of our 12 prisons, large corrections facility, which is down in Southwest Washington - Clark County. The announcement was made either last month or in June - that drew some immediate outcry from the Teamsters Union that represents corrections officials. It's not like if you're an employee, you can transfer five miles down the road - you would have to move probably across the state somewhere to get a comparable job at another facility if you wanted to keep doing that. More recently, Public Lands Commissioner Hilary Franz has noted some concerns about the move since some incarcerated wildland firefighters are based down there. Of course, Southwest Washington - you're near the Columbia River Gorge and some pretty vast tracts of forest land and wilds, and they get fires down there. And the Public Lands Commissioner is concerned that this is going to take some capability to quickly respond to fires. The Inslee administration has signaled that our numbers are declining for incarcerated people, they don't need all the space that they have right now. And so, yeah - I don't know - it's a tough decision either way. But when I did an early story on this, and then I was reading - the Washington State Standard had some good coverage on this - it's just like when you have to consolidate school districts or something too. Nobody's ever happy to lose the school in their community. And there's a little bit of a feel of that too. [00:17:26] Crystal Fincher: There's some of that. For me - and maybe it's a different perspective than a lot of people have - I was dismayed in reading this because we've talked a lot about incarceration and its effectiveness on this program. And incarceration doesn't do a good job of reducing recidivism rates. Evidence shows that's not the case, which is why - looking at low-level offenses - sending people to prison for that is more likely to create more crime than it is to reduce it, which is one of the reasons why this low-level facility is closing. For the amount of money that we spend to incarcerate each person each year, and for that to not result in making us any safer is a problem. What I find so problematic with this is that we are talking about several reasons for keeping a prison open that have nothing to do with public safety. We're not doing it to keep the community safe, but we're keeping it to improve the economic conditions - through jobs or through support or through others - of other people. Wow, that's really troubling. Incarcerating people as a jobs program, which is - Oh man, we're going to have to relocate. We're going to have to do different things - that's not the purpose of incarceration. And not that those changes are not real in those people's lives - they absolutely are, and that's unfortunate - but to do so at the expense of incarcerating someone and making our community less safe doesn't seem like it makes much sense. And then also talking about - Well, these people are critical to wildfire fighting. Okay - it was in 2020 that the rate for a fire, an incarcerated fire[fighter], was $0.62 per hour. Particularly troubling because until very recently, we then prevented them - if they got out - from working as firefighters. So we're calling what they're doing so important and critical, yet we're not treating the people who are doing it that way. That just seems like expendable bodies. And if it's more convenient for us to keep people locked up and take away their freedom because it gives us benefits as a community that have nothing to do with public safety but are economic or others, then we start getting into conversations about slavery. And like the documentary 13th, which does a good job of talking about this, which I just find troubling. This was a decision that I know some people were very unhappy with - that's certainly a conversation to be had for here in the long term. But I just can't condone or agree with or get with the justifications that I am seeing in here that this is critical. And then even trying to say - Well, it's good for the people who are working. Well, if we really cared about that, then wouldn't we be paying them a fair wage for what they're doing? Wouldn't we be fast-tracking them into this career once they got out? We aren't doing those things, so it doesn't really seem like we're doing this because we care about them. It seems like we're doing this because some people feel it's more convenient for us. And that's not something we should be doing with people's freedom, in my opinion. [00:20:26] Joseph O'Sullivan: And interesting - as we're talking now, I'm thinking just covering wildfires and covering prisons. And there's both of them. Wildfires is a little different recently as more houses are burning and more acreage - people are starting to key in. But for many years at the Legislature, the Department of Natural Resources couldn't get more funding for more wildfires - this was even predating Hilary Franz, back to Peter Goldmark - they'd come begging the lawmakers in budget season - Hey, we need more capability to fight fires, we need more help, we need more staff, we need more resources. And the Legislature, after years of that, has started just in the last couple of years. And at the same time, properly funding the prisons so they deliver the services that they need to, like health care, is also something that's often on a lower priority. There's not a lot of special interests or big lobbying push to make sure an incarcerated person is getting the cancer treatment that they need or able to get to doctors' appointments. And that doesn't necessarily win you votes at the ballot box. And that's not to say that lawmakers are all cynical and they don't want to do that stuff ever. But every program is competing for limited money during the budget. And these are examples of things that have been underinvested in previously. The Department of Corrections says they're going to save some money by closing Larch. Where does that money go from here? I think that's an interesting question. And I guess we'll see. [00:21:39] Crystal Fincher: And these are complicated - because if you're just looking at this in a silo, if you're just in the Department of Natural Resources and just looking at your position and your job and the budget - yeah, these are questions that are going to come up. Okay, we do need more wildfire fighting resources. We don't have the budget for that. Where is that going to come from? Something is going to suffer here. And those are real questions that people have. I do think it's the responsibility of leaders to look at the system more comprehensively to say - Okay, what are we actually doing here? And are we getting the impact for our community out of this that was intended? And to say - I know that funding is in silos, I know that these decisions are happening in lots of ways all over the place. But if we're getting to the point where we're keeping people incarcerated because it will employ people at the prison - is that who we want to be as a society? And I think we need to name that and call it out explicitly and deal with it. Not that it's going to be easy to deal with, but ignoring it just really seems incorrect to me. This was an interesting read. And I understand how - in a silo - the reaction makes sense. But I also think that we have to do better. Also want to talk about - this week, Harrell and Constantine going back to the drawing board, at least partially, with Sound Transit planning and that adding millions of dollars and years to our Sound Transit planning timeline - for an initiative that was passed six years ago, I think, that we're still really waiting to get moving on, it feels like. What's your reaction to this? [00:23:21] Joseph O'Sullivan: I think that this is emblematic of one of the biggest issues in American democracy. And this goes back to the housing, too - is that it just takes us so long now to do anything, to build anything, to try and fix any problem, that by the time you get something built, it's like - Oh, great. We got a new light rail line. Then we're going to have half a million more people in the region - that's a number I just made up in my head, but you get the point, right? - it just takes so long to do this stuff. And then by the time it gets done, there's already new problems or other problems. There's so much more growth. And then you just start all over. And we see that with trying to build high speed rail all over America. We see that trying to build just houses and communities. There's a fantastic article I just read about how it was going to take years - there was a school closing down for renovation somewhere, there was space right across the street - a college. But they couldn't send the high school students over to use empty college buildings, because the college is zoned different, and you can't have secondary school in there. And I think this was over in New York or something. It was just - there's an easy solution to a problem, but we have all these local processes that slow everything down and don't allow for communities to nimbly fix anything. Of course, communities also struggle to nimbly fix anything, because everybody disagrees and doesn't want stuff built next to their house or something. And I think there's a little bit of that - at least in The Seattle Times coverage that I was reading about some of these stations - in where you're going to put them, and how disruptive it's going to be. I don't know. How does that get fixed? [00:24:47] Crystal Fincher: We get bogged down in process. And some people are like - Eh, it's just process. There's nothing you can do about it. And if you know me personally, we've had this conversation. So Seattle and Los Angeles started talking about their light rail systems at the same time. Los Angeles has built out a network, and they certainly have their own challenge and they certainly have process. But once they make a decision - and it seems like in other places, once they make a decision - it's less likely to be changed, delayed intentionally - not that cost delays and time delays don't happen, they absolutely do elsewhere. But the process involved with it is just more kludgy here. And people are more likely to say - Okay yeah, the residents here voted for this. This big corporation has a problem with it, and maybe we can change it to make them happy. And we just get so bogged down in that process. And it seems like we have leadership that is comfortable with getting bogged down in that process. And all the time that they took, you look at the - I was here, I think you were too - the drama about the State Route 99 tunnel. [00:25:52] Joseph O'Sullivan: Oh, sure - yeah. [00:25:53] Crystal Fincher: And then seeing what we ended up with, which is not quite what we were sold. And it's not surprising to me that some of the same people involved in that decision and how that ended up are involved in this decision and how it ended up. I think here it's people using process to mitigate impacts to interest groups that they're aligned with, really. It's not like there weren't decent plans here. But it seems like if there are big concerns from money interests - and it's not just on one side of the spectrum, it could be on multiple sides of the spectrum - that can interrupt process more here than in some other places after a decision has seemingly been made. Not that other places don't dither and debate about decisions. But my goodness, after a decision has seemingly been made, we find new and innovative ways not to find a way to move forward. [00:26:46] Joseph O'Sullivan: Yeah, I haven't covered City politics in a while, but I always feel like Seattle's interesting. It always seems to me - just reading coverage from afar - that it's a feature of Seattle politics, where it seems like there's always a lot of whiplash on the issues of the day, where - Okay, we're going to go on this course. And oh no, now we're going to reverse. And then, oh, three years later, we're going to go back to this. It's difficult to tackle really long-term issues. [00:27:10] Crystal Fincher: Then we suffer from the consequences of not addressing those issues, and here we are. So I hope that gets resolved quickly and we get to building. Also, want to talk about a story that was in Crosscut about COVID relief funds related to something we were talking about earlier - where $1.1 million in COVID relief was steered to the Emerald Downs Auburn horse racing track. What happened? [00:27:38] Joseph O'Sullivan: This was part of the American Rescue Plan Act, which was part of the federal COVID relief - which, of course, was just a torrent of money coming into the state - helping state government, local government, schools, and everything stay afloat during the pandemic. A lot was used for rental assistance, other programs, it helped pay for COVID testing and vaccines and stuff. And in Crosscut, we did a story about $1.1 million that go into Emerald Downs, which is the horse track in Auburn, to help them stay afloat or mitigate the impact of the pandemic - there's at least one expert that questions whether the money could be used like that. And maybe that pops up as a question down the road, where the state will have to backfill that money if there's some determination that it wasn't useful there. To me, reading that story, it seemed like an echo of the stadium stories you always have in local politics, right - who's going to pay for these big public things and then taxpayer dollars go toward it or something, or there's a question about that - I don't know. What do you think? [00:28:34] Crystal Fincher: It's interesting. Obviously, maintaining jobs was a priority in trying to - especially for businesses that had to shut down. And I'm not familiar with the particulars of Emerald Downs' operation throughout the shutdown - I think I remember them pausing activity - dealing with that, you could justify that. Was that the most pressing need coming at this time? That's also curious. And was that necessary? is a question. I do think that the bigger issue for me is that - one, accountability, and two, the impact of direct relief versus relief that is filtered through people with a lot of money and allowed to trickle down to people with money. It seems like any time we have a big program like that to - one, I think it's good to get direct money to people who are the most impacted, to the people who are not receiving an income through no fault of their own. But I do think that we do need to do more direct relief, unless we're giving it to the business who then is going to give it to employees. Or we need to do a better job of accounting for - okay, this is to save jobs, it's to compensate employees. Are we making sure that they're doing that and not using it to provide a bonus to executives or to expand a footprint somewhere, upgrade facilities, or something like that? Which, depending on how that happens, the case could be made if they're doing air filtration - that could be argued. But it's just always notable to me how it seems like certain people need to get a cut if relief is going to be provided to people on the ground. So I don't know that this is a boondoggle - I'm not going to say that this was a misuse of funds, not saying that - I don't have enough information to say that. But it just is something else that - did this go through all the due diligence that it should have. And given how much due diligence we make really poor people go through, how much surveillance we put really poor people under - it really is noticeable how different the requirements, the hoops you have to jump through, and the scrutiny is on who we hand out money to and how much is handed out to them, under which conditions based on - okay, this is a big established business, or this is someone who lost their job and this relief is going to make the difference between them having a home or not. [00:30:59] Joseph O'Sullivan: Just broadly, it's interesting - horse racing is a very old school sport, I don't know how long for the world - if it's going to be around in 50 years or not. And it's a unique area where you've got the Horse Racing Commission that oversees it, the track itself is owned by one of the tribes - I believe the Muckleshoot tribe - it just seems like a very unique set of circumstances, too. And I don't know how that interplays with the decisions that are made to put money there. [00:31:22] Crystal Fincher: Yeah. And is fundamentally a betting facility something that we want to be prioritizing? I don't know. They are saying they're looking to the issue of whether it was an allowable use or not - that doesn't seem to be a hard yes, there's a question mark attached to that. We'll see what happens. But I do think it's good to look at where and how we're spending this money, and are we getting the results that were intended - I think that's a good thing overall. Final thing I wanted to talk about today - autonomous vehicles are coming to Capitol Hill in Seattle, which is raising a lot of eyebrows for people. What did you think of this? [00:31:58] Joseph O'Sullivan: I don't totally understand why it's needed. People have been getting around - Uber and Lyft, we did those the last 15 years. And before that, there were taxis. I just don't understand the argument for why they would be necessary for a major life improvement and - I don't know. What do you think? [00:32:16] Crystal Fincher: The promise of autonomous vehicles - philosophically, right? - driving is not comparatively an unsafe form of transportation when you look at the other forms. So if you can do something to make it safer - hey, that's great, right? That was the initial premise. In reality, taking into account that premise is based on functioning, tested, safe technology - oh, these cars are automatically going to be safe. But what is happening is that the cars are not delivering. The technology is not delivering on its promise, at least not yet. And so while it still is not, and while they're having - depending on where they're at - safety problems. And there's lots about Tesla's autopilot feature, which is less advanced than some of these other ones. But for all of them - the reason why they're working in Capitol Hill is because they need more testing. And they need to really figure out wet and hilly environments. So people on the street are guinea pigs while they figure this out? We're seeing in San Francisco, these cars get confused and blocking intersections - couple accidents recently, one ran into a fire truck. And they're behaving in ways that the companies who are designing them are not expecting, which is worrisome, right? We just don't know what we're getting. There's the promise of the technology, and there's the reality of today - those are two very different things. And putting this questionable technology, with vehicles that can kill people - this isn't Amazon testing out a little delivery drone, this is a multi-thousand pound piece of steel that can run over people. And just to put that out with not a lot of scrutiny, no real legislative or policy intention, and basically - okay, if they attest that they'll have a person in the car who can intervene. So with this city really looking like it's a guinea pig for these companies to figure out and iron out their technology, it's just really questionable. And the difference in process for this compared to - look at the process that a bike lane, that the scooter and bike share went through? And evidently for this, you just have to submit an application saying that there will be a person in the car who will be ready to intervene if something happens - which is better than fully autonomous cars that are happening in San Francisco and elsewhere right now - but it just seems like maybe we aren't considering everything with this. But we'll see. It's happening. [00:34:47] Joseph O'Sullivan: Yeah, and to your earlier point, too, technology always gets the benefit of the doubt. The starting point of our thoughts are never is this for-profit thing that's being sold going to increase the quality of our lives? It's never that. This is something new, this is something amazing - and the default is just to accept it. We see that with - the State Legislature debated for a few years to try and pass a data privacy law, never got it for various complicated reasons, couldn't do something. But even that, that they were trying a few years ago - that was 15 years after private companies started taking all of our data for every little thing and using it for their own profit. And we just - as a society - we don't place any skepticism upfront on technology, and we generally newaitit to find out what happens afterward. [00:35:29] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, and the challenging thing is that there aren't people waving warning flags about - we've seen how this play ends before - it's not great. And looking at the challenges happening in San Francisco, but we'll see. Evidently, this is happening. What my hope is is that there are trained employees as drivers who are taking the role of needing to intervene potentially seriously. I think that's better than just laypeople or no one in there. But it seems like we should probably talk about this and figure out - with intention - what we want this to accomplish and what the outcomes are, so we can see if it is delivering what we want it to deliver while we allow a company to use people in our streets as guinea pigs, basically, for their profit. [00:36:17] Joseph O'Sullivan: Yeah, I'm not sure that a solution like this is getting at sort of the root problems, which is often just another thing that - yeah, I don't know that this is going to solve everything around pedestrian safety and traffic congestion. [00:36:31] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, and the fact that - if we're looking at other cities, it may actually make it worse with the current level of technology. We will see and will certainly continue to follow this as it proceeds. And with that, thank you for listening to Hacks & Wonks on this Friday, September 1st - my goodness, September already - 2023. The producer of Hacks & Wonks is the phenomenal Shannon Cheng. Our insightful co-host today: state politics reporter for Crosscut, Joseph O'Sullivan - thank you so much for being on the show. [00:37:02] Joseph O'Sullivan: Thank you for having us. [00:37:03] Crystal Fincher: You can find Joseph on Twitter @OlympiaJoe. You can follow Hacks & Wonks on Twitter @HacksWonks. And you can find me on Twitter @finchfrii - and on most other platforms @finchfrii. You can catch Hacks & Wonks wherever you get your podcasts - just type "Hacks and Wonks" into the search bar. Be sure to subscribe to get the full versions of the podcast of our Friday week-in-review shows and our Tuesday topical show delivered to your podcast feed. If you like us, please leave a review wherever you listen. You can also get a full transcript of this episode and links to the resources referenced in the show at officialhacksandwonks.com and in the podcast episode notes. Thanks for tuning in - talk to you next time.

Apetri Andrei, has been on the road of music since early childhood. He began by studying the piano, an instrument he got very attached to, and by getting involved in anything related to the vast art of music. After many years, his interest and curiosity transformed into a constantly growing passion for electronic music. He is on a journey of continuous improvement and recently joined "Get Booked Academy" where he is being mentored by Danny Savage, Brandon Block and Roger Sanchez. Keep an eye on Apetri: https://soundcloud.com/apetri_ro https://instagram.com/_apetri_ Listen to more electronic music on Intaresu https://intaresu.com

On this week-in-review, Crystal is joined by Washington State government reporter for McClatchy, Shauna Sowersby! They discuss the failure of an anti-trans referendum campaign, a self-proclaimed white nationalist country musician playing at the Washington state capitol, new state laws going into effect, AG Ferguson continuing to avoid disclosing his donors, and another lawsuit filed against the Washington State Legislature for withholding public records under “legislative privilege.” The conversation continues with federal pandemic relief aid getting funneled into police surveillance technology, no-notice sweeps being ruled unconstitutional by King County Superior Court, and an audit showing that the Seattle Police Department could do more with existing resources to address organized retail crime. As always, a full text transcript of the show is available below and at officialhacksandwonks.com. Find the host, Crystal Fincher, on Twitter at @finchfrii and find today's co-host, Shauna Sowersby at @Shauna_Sowersby. Shauna Sowersby Shauna Sowersby was a freelancer for several local and national publications before joining McClatchy's northwest newspapers covering the Legislature. Before that, Shauna worked for the US Navy as a photographer and journalist.   Resources “PRIMARY WEEK RE-AIR: Teresa Mosqueda, Candidate for King County Council District 8” from Hacks & Wonks   “PRIMARY WEEK RE-AIR: Becka Johnson Poppe, Candidate for King County Council District 4” from Hacks & Wonks   “PRIMARY WEEK RE-AIR: Sarah Reyneveld, Candidate for King County Council District 4” from Hacks & Wonks   “PRIMARY WEEK RE-AIR: Jorge Barón, Candidate for King County Council District 4” from Hacks & Wonks   “With referendum failure, WA just dodged a bullet of hype and hate” by Danny Westneat from The Seattle Times   “‘Heretic' group to offer unbaptisms at WA Capitol Campus” by Shauna Sowersby from The Olympian   “New Washington state laws go into effect Sunday. Here are some of the key ones” by Shauna Sowersby from The Olympian   “WA AG Bob Ferguson should come clean about donors” by The Seattle Times editorial board   “WA judge fines AG's office, DSHS in ‘cavalier' withholding of lawsuit evidence” by Jim Brunner from The Seattle Times   “New lawsuit alleges WA state Senators were ‘silently withholding' public records” by Shauna Sowersby from The Olympian   “Federal aid is supercharging local WA police surveillance tech” by Brandon Block from Crosscut   “Summary judgment in ACLU case could end ‘no-notice' sweeps in Seattle” by Tobias Coughlin-Bogue from Real Change   “Audit: Police Could Do More, Without Hiring Extra Cops, To Address Retail Theft Rings” by Erica C. Barnett from PubliCola   Find stories that Crystal is reading here   Transcript [00:00:00] Crystal Fincher: Welcome to Hacks & Wonks. I'm Crystal Fincher, and I'm a political consultant and your host. On this show, we talk with policy wonks and political hacks to gather insight into local politics and policy in Washington state through the lens of those doing the work with behind-the-scenes perspectives on what's happening, why it's happening, and what you can do about it. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to get the full versions of our Tuesday topical show and our Friday week-in-review delivered to your podcast feed. If you like us, the most helpful thing you can do is leave a review wherever you listen. In preparation for the primary election on next Tuesday, August 1st, we've been re-airing candidate interviews for the open City [County] Council seats all this week. Be sure to check them out if you're still deciding whom to vote for. Today, we are continuing our Friday week-in-review shows where we review the news of the week with a co-host. Welcome to the program for the first time, today's co-host: Washington state government reporter for McClatchy, Shauna Sowersby. Hello. [00:01:09] Shauna Sowersby: Hello, thanks for having me. [00:01:11] Crystal Fincher: I am so excited to have you on the show today. I think I told you before - followed your work for so long and your reporting has been really important for quite some time now, so very excited. To begin the conversation, we will start talking about the failure of a referendum for a piece of legislation that would benefit the trans community. What happened here? [00:01:35] Shauna Sowersby: During the State Legislature this year, there was a bill that was passed, 5599, that was sponsored by Senator Marko Liias. And that bill expanded a law that was already in place and included teenagers trying to seek gender-affirming care as well as abortion care. So it wasn't really a new law, it was just expanding on something that was already there - to try and protect these other factors that were involved. [00:02:04] Crystal Fincher: This is really about protecting populations within our homeless community. This is about shelters and whether shelters have to mandatorily divulge information, or if they wait to determine, or discriminate in any way. So it's not - as it was couched by some people - this is about medically intervening with youth, this is about intervening in family matters, or they wanna take people from your homes. This is about a population that's already unhoused and legislation that's trying to keep teens from really being vulnerable when they're homeless and out on the street with nowhere else to go, which is a very, very dangerous and harmful place to be. This became what a lot of people refer to as culture war stuff - is really what we're dealing with in this whole time now, where people are targeting trans people, trans rights, really the broader LGBTQ community in a lot of these situations. And anything that could potentially make life easier or just not as extraordinarily difficult for trans people in things that they may be dealing with. There are a lot of LGBTQ youth that get kicked out of their homes for that reason - and so if they are there, or people who are seeking abortion care - that can't be a reason for someone to be turned away or submitting information, divulging information to other people. Basically just protecting them like we protect everyone else. But I was happy to see, personally, that this referendum failed. And I think it's just another statement that overall - we don't play that, we don't do that in Washington. Certainly these elements are active, but they are nowhere near the majority of community and we need to keep making sure people know and understand that and make that visible. [00:03:44] Shauna Sowersby: And I just wanted to point out, too, that it failed by a lot - I think it was like 5,000 signatures or something that it failed by. So I don't think it had quite as much support as the writers of that referendum had intended. [00:03:57] Crystal Fincher: When you look at the facts of what is and isn't happening and why, and what gender-affirming care means in the context of the broader community - it's got broad meanings. People who are not even trans access that all the time. It's not a controversial thing. This is not really about kids. This was an attack on the entire community and an attempt to claw back rights. [00:04:17] Shauna Sowersby: And I think the Danny Westneat article in The Seattle Times brought up a really good point too. This wasn't even an issue until gender and reproductive rights got brought into the mix. It wasn't a problem before that. These two things are very popular topics throughout the country right now. [00:04:35] Crystal Fincher: I also wanna talk about a self-proclaimed Christian nationalist country musician playing at the Washington State Capitol. What went on? [00:04:43] Shauna Sowersby: He'll be there Friday the 28th. There was a Rolling Stone article that came out a while ago about him. He was open about being a white nationalist - seemed to be proud of the fact that he is a white nationalist country musician. So he'll be there at the Capitol with Turning Point USA, which I'm sure a lot of folks listening might be familiar with. But the House of Heretics will be there and they will be doing unbaptisms and gender affirming rituals. I believe one of their quotes was something like they wanted whenever Sean plays on Friday night for it to be the devil's ground for him to play on. So I thought that was pretty interesting. [00:05:24] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, it is. And Turning Point USA is a radical organization - you have a self-described white nationalist, like a Charlie Kirk, that is associated with and promoting white nationalists. And it's just not that wonderful. And like I said, these things are here and they're around and people are trying to introduce this in the community, certainly trying to make it seem more mainstream. But it's not. And I think all of our responsibility is making that known and visible. Other news this week - and especially with you as a legislative reporter covering so much that happened in the legislative session - we passed legislation, but there's usually a little bit of time before it's passed and when it completely takes effect. But we do have a number of new laws about to go into effect this Sunday. What are some of the key laws coming? [00:06:09] Shauna Sowersby: Our legislature did a really good job on housing this year. And one of the laws that went into effect on the 23rd was more access to ADUs, so that's a positive thing. That's something that the legislature had been going after for several years, if I remember correctly, but finally got that one. So those are allowed in certain cities with a certain population. Hopefully that will help ease the lack of housing situation that's going on pretty much everywhere around the state. So I think that's a good one. Another one that goes into effect is landlords' claims for damages. So that extends the timeline landlords have to provide documentation to show that they are in the right in retaining a tenant's deposit - which is a really important one, I feel - that's also another thing that they've been trying to get passed for a long time. They also need to keep receipts that they can actually show to their tenants before they can charge them, so I think all of those are really good. It also prevents them from charging past normal wear and tear, which anybody who's ever rented, I'm sure, has probably run into an issue like that. So I think that type of law will be a positive for a lot of renters out there. And then another one I thought was interesting, just because I'd never really heard of this before this year, but they're making pill presses illegal in the state. I had no clue what these were, to be honest with you, before they passed this law. It's basically trying to prevent people from overdosing on fentanyl when they take things that they think might be something else, such as a Percocet. These can look very legitimate with these pill presses, but can include amounts of fentanyl in them that can kill you. So obviously that is another positive law that went into effect just recently. [00:08:04] Crystal Fincher: And that's how people can identify pills. They're registered, marked for different types of pills. You can actually look up and Google them. If a pill gets lost or dropped or something and you pick it up and see markings on them, you can find out what it is by that. But yeah, people have been abusing that to pass off some substances. And when we have such dangerous and harmful drugs out there that can be so easily mixed into other substances or look like something else, that's really important. As well as the accessory dwelling unit, or the ADU, bill - a lot of people think of them as mother-in-law houses, but allowing people to add density or add a unit to their existing property is an important element in the whole web of increasing the amount of density, or preparing communities to responsibly absorb more people living there without having real estate prices go sky high as we've been seeing. So some really, I think, good laws coming in, some progress being made. And so it'll be interesting to see how these are enforced, especially when it comes to those landlord ones - to see if they actually do materially improve the situations that they are seeking to improve. Also wanna talk about Attorney General Ferguson's campaign for governor and a call for him to come clean about his donors, especially in a piece that was published in The Seattle Times this week. What's happening with this? [00:09:27] Shauna Sowersby: The Public disclosure Commission was set to have a ruling a few weeks back that outlined and reinforced the idea that if you're moving money from one campaign to another campaign - so Ferguson moving from going for Attorney General again to governor - so you can move a certain amount of money over into your other campaign without having to disclose those donors. Like you were saying earlier, it's something that could be done - they were saying you shouldn't be doing it this way. And right before that date came in, they clarified that he switched all that money over - and I believe it was $1.2 million, is that correct? [00:10:05] Crystal Fincher: It's about $1.2 million and they received notice that a clarification was coming. They transferred it the day after that notice, which I think was a day before they officially did it. That is a detail that I don't know we all knew and understood before. And it's confusing. With the PDC, there's an underlying law and the PDC issues guidance and interpretations. This entire time, the actual law has not changed. The PDC's guidance about the law is what changed. And a person was looking at the law and looking at the guidance - unconnected to the campaign, I think to any campaigns - and was - Hey, it looks like your guidance does not actually say what the law does, or it leaves a hole. The bigger issue is - say you transfer these things over - we have campaign finance limits. If you can only donate - say a limit is $1,000, it changes year to year - if you transfer money over from some of those same donors, it could put people over the limit for this race and you can't be over the limit. The PDC said - Oh, that is correct. We overlooked that or got that wrong. Called the campaigns to say - Hey, we realized we got something wrong and we're going to be issuing formal guidance tomorrow. After that call, the campaign said - Oh, let's transfer it. Then we find ourself here. There's the law. Should this have been done? The answer appears to be no, but it's also hard because people are following guidance. I followed a PDC guidance before. And so the fact that it was done in the first place - I completely understand you're relying on the PDC for guidance - it's the muddy area of when they say - Ooh, this guidance is wrong. And it's not like they're saying the law is going to change. If it's not the law, it's not the law. It's not illegal if you do it before it's a law. It's a little dicey in that they were notified that they weren't going to be able to do it and then rushed to do it before it was written on paper when basically they got the tip off. [00:11:57] Shauna Sowersby: And now the fact that they're being called on to disclose those donors and they're not doing it - that's another issue as well. [00:12:05] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, it's something that the PDC is taking up again. I believe they're having a meeting - we're recording this on Thursday - I think they are having a meeting today, potentially as we speak. Big issue that we're left with - because the issue of democracy, small-d democracy, is the disclosure of donors. This is foundational to our system. And from near and far, every state has campaign finance regulations. Some are enforced better than others, but this is really important so that within campaigns - there's dark money with PACs - within campaigns, it's really defined that someone can donate, but they have a limit and they can't donate above that limit. That helps, from the campaign perspective, make sure that people with money can't crowd out everyone else or just dominate the conversation financially within that campaign. I do find it concerning that right now, there's $1.2 million worth of donors that we don't know. If you have pledges that you're not accepting money from these people or who's that? We see in other races - Oh, whoa, this Trump supporter donated or this, on the Republican side, Biden supporter did this. Or you're wondering why they're donating and what promises may have been made. I'm not saying that promises are always made for donations, but usually people donate to who they find themselves aligned. That's a reasonable thing to explore and debate, which is why our law mandates that. I hope that they are disclosed. Even if they find that he shouldn't have transferred the money at all, I do think it is realistic and very doable to disclose them. Disclosure is easy. For them to have been able to transfer the money, they had to get permission from the donor. So they have all of those records - that the transfer couldn't have happened without it. It'll be really interesting to see how this winds up. [00:13:48] Shauna Sowersby: One more thing too that I wanted to add about the whole Ferguson thing is that - for the state's highest attorney's office, him being in that office for so long - he obviously knows these rules. He knows that he should be holding himself to a higher standard. One of the things that concerns me - not just about the PDC and his campaign finance stuff - is that his office was recently fined for withholding hundreds of thousands of documents in a lawsuit against a developmentally disabled woman. Documents that would have helped this woman and her case, but appears that a lot of these documents were intentionally withheld. Not saying that Ferguson himself was responsible for doing these things, but it is his office. The mixture between that and then the recent PDC guidance that - as a candidate for governor, he should really be putting himself in a higher standard. [00:14:44] Crystal Fincher: Like you said, who knows how much he was aware of going in - and most of these donors are probably above board - I would assume most of them are not above the limit. How much money is it, really, from donors who are above the limit here? Practically looking at correcting this issue - say it's even half a million dollars worth, he still has a significant financial lead over other people and it gets this thing that's dogging his campaign. Just disclose the donors - you have the money, just disclose donors. [00:15:15] Shauna Sowersby: You're already in the lead. Hilary Franz said she wanted to make sure that this was a fair transfer and that everybody was going by the same rules. Even with somebody else calling him out for it, still wasn't doing it. [00:15:28] Crystal Fincher: There's a reason why he's the front-runner. There's a lot of things about him that excite people, but I don't think you're ever above having to answer questions. Even if you are the front runner in the race, we all wind up better. And it sets a precedent - people may be comfortable with Ferguson and he may make a wonderful governor, but for successive governors, I don't want a precedent set where they don't have to follow the rules. I want to talk about another lawsuit filed against the Washington State Legislature for withholding public records under "legislative privilege." What's happening this time? [00:16:03] Shauna Sowersby: Nothing new here. I believe it was Friday of last week - me and some other requesters got back a set of documents - this is from a request that was filed, I want to say, in January and closed out in February. We were told that we had all records from every lawmaker that was withholding records under "legislative privilege". Lo and behold, Friday, we get another batch of records that have suddenly been found. The petitioner in this lawsuit, Arthur West, also filed one of the previous lawsuits for "legislative privilege." He believes that in this case, it's called "silent withholding" - it's still part of the same lawsuit that he's filed before, but this is an addendum where he believes they may have intentionally been withholding these final documents - they should have been found, they should have been captured in our request, so it's odd they're showing up now. This is an additional lawsuit into what's already happening - I believe WashCOG, Washington Coalition for Open Government, they also have a lawsuit pending. I don't think it has a hearing date until later in September. So not looking good so far for lawsuits and lawmakers. We'll see how this all turns out. I'm assuming it'll be a slow process, but we're finally getting things kicked off. [00:17:25] Crystal Fincher: I'll be curious to see what comes of it. Also want to talk about a story that came out this week - just a couple of days ago or yesterday, I think - about the amount of federal aid going towards police surveillance. When we say police surveillance, what are they talking about? [00:17:40] Shauna Sowersby: An article from Brandon Block in Crosscut - looks like they are using federal aid money that was supposed to go to other things to basically spy on people. It seems like there's a lot of concerns from groups like the ACLU who say that the surveillance equipment can be used - not just for immigrants and for trying to deport people, but it can also be used for people who are seeking out-of-state abortions coming into Washington. So there's multiple concerns here what the surveillance equipment could be doing. And it looks like a lot of it is - from the article - license plate surveillance and the drones that they were using - makes you wonder why these smaller towns are spending so much money on surveillance equipment. [00:18:29] Crystal Fincher: I don't think people realize that this much money was going to these things. And at a time when lots of people are talking about wanting more police funding, wanting to hire more officers, saying that there's not money to do it - there's so much money being spent and being siphoned from other areas where it seems like it was originally intended to go and being spent on this surveillance technology, like drones and automatic license plate readers, going through communities and looking up everyone's license plates everywhere. And usually - one, these are not equitably used, equitably deployed. A lot of times they are deployed much more heavily and ubiquitously in lower income communities and BIPOC communities. Is the community aware of this? Are people aware of this? Like you said, we have other states trying to - actually have criminalized abortion care, gender affirming care. There aren't policies, strong policies with enforcement that really limit how this data can be used, how it can be shared, how it can be spread. This is where we can have bad outcomes where potentially someone from another state, someone with a nefarious purpose can find this information to track people down and inequitably enforce laws that are on our books in communities, causing disproportionate harm. At minimum, this should be something that is very intentionally discussed in these communities. I definitely recommend that people do read this article by Brandon Block - we'll include it in the podcast show notes and on the website. It's really concerning to see so much money diverted for this purpose - was supposed to help people survive the pandemic, help people not get evicted, help cities support small businesses - that this was diverted for this purpose and in a way I don't think was transparent or consistent with what people intended within their communities or even federally. [00:20:25] Shauna Sowersby: Yeah, it seems like people weren't asked about that. I'm sure there was probably no conversation for that, but like you're saying, it could have been diverted for a number of purposes and instead goes to surveillance equipment. [00:20:39] Crystal Fincher: We will see if there's any follow up on that. There was another case this week that was really important and reiterated what other cases have found and that is that no-notice police sweeps that are used in lots of localities, including Seattle, were found to be unconstitutional. What did this ruling hold and what are some of the impacts that it may have? [00:21:01] Shauna Sowersby: In this article from Real Change, it talks about how the court ruled the city's sweep policies are not carefully tailored, in some circumstances, to pursue the city's valid governmental interests and require more disclosure than is reasonably necessary. The rules define obstruction so broadly, the city can invade unhoused people's privacy rights without notice, offers of shelter and preservation. [00:21:27] Crystal Fincher: This is an issue that many cities are dealing with. We've been talking about the unfortunate circumstances in Burien, certainly in Seattle. Every community is really looking at this and facing this. So many of our neighbors are now homeless - and the City of Seattle and Burien have really gone too far. It had been established before that it is illegal for a city to conduct a sweep if there is no offer of shelter provided. Basically, if you have nowhere for someone to go, it is found to be unconstitutional to sweep someone in that instance. There's a reason why the CDC recommends against it, why it is not recommended, especially in extreme weather situations. These are people's whole possessions. Though outwardly sometimes they may not look like much to someone walking by, this is what they have and this is critical - the few things they do have for work, their ID, the few mementos that have meant the absolute most to them that they've been able to keep when they've lost everything else is what they have. Just coming through unannounced - and you leave, you come back, and your stuff is gone. Or you have an hour and the stuff is gone is really destabilizing. We have to do a better job of supporting this. Most people have also seen that when there is nowhere for someone to go, it doesn't do anything to solve the problem. We're really just moving the issue of homelessness around. We're not doing anything to solve it. It's this game of musical chairs and most people are just moving from property to property or place to place within a city most of the time, certainly within the region. So we've got to expand our response. We can't keep doing the same thing over and over again. The biggest problem here is that people don't have housing. If housing is not an element in the solution, it's not a solution. And yes, that is complicated. Yes, it's costly. But it really is not as costly as allowing the situation to continue. I don't think there's anyone left, right, or anywhere who is satisfied with seeing people on the street within encampments, but I think people just don't want to double down on that failure, spend so much money on police resources - all the resources that we're spending in a way that doesn't solve the problem. So the City of Seattle is gonna have to go back to the table and figure out what they're gonna do. Other cities are gonna have to look at this ruling and modify what they're doing, or potentially face the same lawsuit and legislation, and wind up having to do it by force rather than proactively. [00:23:58] Shauna Sowersby: The governor and the legislature - they've been trying to tackle this issue too with the rights-of-way - the whole idea there was that they weren't gonna move people out unless they had some sort of housing situation set up for those folks. So instead of just shuffling them around from one place to another, it's still a small pilot program at this point - and can't do it on a large scale, obviously. I think instead of sweeping folks, this is a better alternative - not the best alternative, for sure - but it's better than shuffling folks around one other part of the city like you were saying. [00:24:33] Crystal Fincher: And this ruling did say that the use was overbroad. There are still circumstances where it is legally permissible to do this if really obstructing a sidewalk. It is constitutional for a sweep to happen. The issue is that they're happening in so many more situations where there's imminent harm or obstruction. The last story I wanted to talk about today was an audit that came out about the City of Seattle, but really applicable to many cities - saying police could do more without hiring extra cops to address retail theft rings. This is really important - we see stories almost every day on the news about theft. If you're online, you see surveillance photos from stores and theft happening. People are trying to figure out the way to address this, and the biggest problem that seems solvable from a public safety perspective is going after these retail theft rings. But in a way, going after petty theft is not going after retail theft and this audit addressed that. This report basically said targeting organized retail theft is important. And some cities like Auburn have been successful at doing that, but they've succeeded by trying to "cut off the head of the snake" - as they put it - and not going after petty theft. What this study found is that Seattle really likes going after petty theft and calling it going after retail crime. Most of the crimes are theft under $750, they are individuals doing this. They find them participating in task forces, but as for action on the ground - action that they're taking - it doesn't appear that they're doing much to actually go after the heads of these organizations, the organized part of that organized crime. According to the audit - in PubliCola that came out on the 25th - responding to calls from just the top 100 retail locations in the city used almost 19,000 hours of police time, equivalent to nine full-time officers that could be streamlined by using tools like rapid video response instead of deploying officers out all over town. So if they need to interview employees, they can do those interviews by Zoom. They can do those in a more proactive way, in a more efficient way - that saves officers time, that saves employees time, that is really less impactful to both the business and the department. And can also get them that information quicker, so it gives more of a chance to get closer to the people who are in these fencing rings, who are making it profitable for these people to steal. And the audit found that the City does participate in task forces and stuff, but they should also invest in place-based strategies like environmental factors, the actual design, better lighting, activating vacant lots, and other non-law enforcement approaches to make hotspots less appealing places for people to operate illegal street markets. There were 68 strategies proposed last year, but the City's only implemented three. So we have these conversations - they're really visible in Seattle, but they're happening all over the place in cities from Auburn to Kent to others - having these community meetings and saying - Wow, we're really trying to do this. If you look under the hood, you see that they continue to go after petty criminals at the expense of the ability to go after the heads of these organized crime rings and using other tools besides just a cop responding to something to prevent these things from happening. How did you see this? [00:28:00] Shauna Sowersby: Yeah, this is something that could probably not just apply to Seattle, even down here in Olympia, Tacoma. This is a result of the other media outlets making a bigger deal about shoplifting and focusing on that as a narrative - that could be inspiring more resources to be going into those sorts of things, as opposed to - like you were saying - the areas where they really could be focusing on instead. We're just going for the wrong thing. [00:28:35] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, and you raise a good point. If you are seeing this highlighted - and we've seen lots of stories of theft used in a way that's really propaganda, we've seen situations here locally and nationally where the impact of theft has been overstated and the cause is muddied. If people really care about this, they'll take these findings into account and implement them. If all you hear them saying is the same thing over and over again, that seems more like a campaign tactic or like a scare tactic. We have to use all of the tools at our disposal. We have to get more intentional about wisely using the resources that we do. You have people saying the only way that things can be improved is to hire more cops. There's no way to get more cops online without basically a year lead time because they have to be accepted, go to the academy - there's a long lead time before you get them on the street. Wow - how bleak and hopeless is that situation? Seemingly nothing else can be done - after we have already taken so many steps and allocated so much money, extra money - retention bonuses to stay, high salaries, how many officers are clearing money that other people in the community aren't making? And so using that money effectively, finding ways to use the existing assets more efficiently - this is gonna save officers' time. We should see action taken on these. And certainly within SPD, when there are 60-something recommendations and only three have been implemented, we need to keep ticking down that list. I hope we get beyond the talk when there's so much that needs to happen to keep us safe and to hopefully prevent crime instead of just responding to it. There are things identified and hopefully they choose to do them. And with that, we thank you for listening to this Hacks & Wonks on Friday, July 28th, 2023. The producer of Hacks & Wonks is Shannon Cheng. Our insightful cohost today was Washington State government reporter from McClatchy, Shauna Sowersby. You can find Shauna on Twitter @Shauna_Sowersby - Shauna underscore Sowersby. You can - and that's S-H-A-U-N-A. You can follow Hacks & Wonks on Twitter and you can find me on all platforms @finchfrii, that's two I's at the end. You can catch Hacks & Wonks wherever you get your podcasts - just type "Hacks and Wonks" into the search bar. Be sure to subscribe to get the full versions of our Friday week-in-review shows and our Tuesday topical show delivered to your podcast feed. If you like us, please leave a review wherever you listen. You can also get a transcript of this episode and links to the resources referenced in the show at officialhacksandwonks.com and in the episode notes. Thanks for tuning in, vote by August 1st, and we will talk to you next time.

Episode 25: An Investigative Journalist's Insight Into the COVID-19 Fraud Strike Force A journalist and a white-collar criminal defense attorney walk onto a podcast... Though it sounds like the start of a joke, this paired perspective shines new light on the federal government's ongoing enforcement actions related to COVID stimulus aid fraud. Investigative reporter Brandon Block, who recently wrote an article for Crosscut on this topic, joins podcast host Matt Adams to discuss the investigations of a strike force operating out of a Seattle-area U.S. Attorney's Office. Their thought-provoking discussion explores regional and national enforcement trends as they speculate on the future of this priority area of aggressive government enforcement activity.

If you were around in the eighties clubbing it in places like Ibiza you will know my guest in this episode; Brandon Block, years of partying led to Brandon's another door moment, we talk about that journey and the moment something went “Clunk” inside Brandon's head and he knew it was time for a new chapter. If you want to be part of Brandon's retreat in Ibiza in October and find out more about “Happy Days” click here: https://brandonblock.com If you love this episode why not follow and review on Apple or Spotify or wherever you get your Podcasts. Ring the Spotify bell to get new episodes first. Are you looking for speakers with a fresh voice for your next workshop or conference? Check out https://recommended.anotherdoor.co.uk

Mick is joined by legendary club DJ Brandon Block on episode 291 of Mental Health Monday. Brandon shares his story of addiction, and how he used SMART recovery to find the tools to move on with his life in a safe way. Brandon struggled with cocaine use, alongside anxiety and imposter syndrome at the height of his fame. Combined with Hepatitis C and Tuberculosis, he lost half a lung and doctors gave him two weeks to live unless he changed his lifestyle. Three decades on, he's fronting up the www.uniteforrecovery.org.uk round-the-world challenge to tackle the stigma around addiction. Sign up and pledge your support on their website. Follow Brandon on Twitter. Follow host Mick Coyle on Twitter, Instagram and join the Mental Health Monday Facebook Group Photo credit © Alamy

In this episode, Dan is talking to Brandon Block. Brandon is an internationally renowned DJ who strives to help people struggling with alcohol and drug addiction after going through rehab many years ago. Dan and Brandon talk about the extent of his addiction, sharing crazy stories and tips on how to stay on the path to recovery. KEY TAKEAWAYS  Brandon talks about his book “The Life and Lines of Brandon Block” where he discusses his history with drug use and his dramatic recovery. There is an innate human urge to help and give back. Everyone is connected and we all work best when supporting each other. Brandon once got so high on Cocaine that he jumped off a Ferry into dirty, radiated water in Hong Kong, which resulting in him having part of his lung removed. He also tells the story of how he stormed on stage at the Brit awards and got in trouble! We live in a world that promotes anxiety and keeps us on edge. This is why it is really important to stay in the present. Practice meditation to release anxiety and get clarity! Burnout occurs when you are overstimulated and you become braindead. Brandon talks about his experience with Burnout and how he overcame it. The media sometimes forced Brandon into taking Cocaine for the cameras, it became necessary for him to be able to “perform”. BEST MOMENTS  “All music was about love, we championed club music from all around the world” “The crazy days were CRAZY, nothing could happen apart from partying” “I was existing on Cocaine, that was my life” “Anxiety is our inbuilt fight or flight reaction”   VALUABLE RESOURCES https://www.cocaineanonymous.org.uk   ABOUT THE GUEST Brandon's incredible career started in 1985 at his local boozer in Harrow, before the emergence of Acid House in the late 80s brought numerous gigs at super clubs including Ministry of Sound, Turnmills and Miss Moneypenny's and several appearances on BBC Radio 1's Essential Mix. Brandon cemented his superstar DJ status alongside Alex P on the legendary terrace at Space, Ibiza in the 90s. Brandon's website - https://brandonblock.com The Life and Lines of Brandon Block (Book) - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Life-Lines-Brandon-Block-2017_1/dp/0992939747   ABOUT THE HOST Daniel O'Reilly Daniel O'Reilly is one of the UK's Largest Influencers, a comedian, actor, musician, viral video star and social influencer. With a portfolio of businesses Daniel enjoys a busy lifestyle mixed with business and pleasure. Daniel is a father to two beautiful girls and enjoys spending quality time with them and his wife Shelley. With 2022 being a busy year, Daniel sold out his O2 stand-up show, released his British movie 'The Last Heist'  and is currently preparing for the upcoming release of his other film 'Miss The Kiss'. Daniel is a creative through and through, with a passion to strive in everything he does. Daniel is looking forward to the release of his podcast 'Menace 2 Sobriety' in 2023, his long-term position on GB News, Headliners, and the growing slate of films in the works with his production company, HYPRR.    PODCAST DESCRIPTION Daniel O'Reilly's newest venture sees the creation of his Menace 2 Sobriety podcast, a series of relaxed and open conversations with different guests and varied experiences.  After recently being diagnosed with severe ADHD and beginning his sobriety again, Daniel also set up a page on Facebook and Instagram called 'Men And Their Emotions' (M.A.T.E) an accessible, open and supportive group for MEN to post their feelings, thoughts and current life issues. Upon seeing the responses from men around the world to some of the posts on the group he was blown away and continues to be touched by the kindness and support offered by strangers. This all led to Daniel wanting to start up his own podcast and invite guests to join him in opening up about past experiences and talk about all things mental health, family & sobriety.  The podcast will see Daniel and his interesting guests' sharing their personal stories and learning experiences that they hope will help other people; whether it encourages one person to ask for help, talk to family about their struggles with getting sober/clean, or realise that they aren't alone. The Menace 2 Sobriety podcast has been created by Daniel to help people fight their own gremlins.Sobriety Podcast #wedorecover # recoveroutloud #addicitonrecovery #addiction #recoverytok #sobriety #sober #sobertiktok #sobertok #soberlife #sobercurious #soberliving: https://www.instagram.com/dappersinstagram/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Crosscut investigative reporter Brandon Block joins Soundside to talk about the difficulties in getting broadband internet access out to rural parts of Washington state.

This week Kate talks to DJ Barroness and co-founder of The House of Happiness, Emma Barron.  Emma has been DJing for roughly 4 years now. She is also a TV producer for C4. Emma always had a major interest in music and was a drummer in various bands, grew up on the clubbing scene in Manchester in the 90's and then London. She also spent many summers in Ibiza - so both old school house and Balearic sounds have influenced her music style today.     After getting sober in 2017 Emma decided that she wanted to follow her  passion so bought some decks, booked a DJ course at Hub16 in Dalston to hone her skills and then got involved in some sober DJ events. She has  played gigs at various venues including House of Barnabus, Fugitive Bar Bethnal Green and more recently Ministry of Sound Members bar. One of her first gigs was doing warm up for Brandon Block on a boat party. She shares the joy and connection of learning to party sober and finder her way back to her first love of music.  London's House of Happiness first event is just a few weeks away on  Saturday 8th September 12 noon - 5pm.  Grab a cuppa and let's chat. Love Kate x  DEETS

In this fast paced, fascinating interview, celebrity DJ Brandon Block speaks on where his music journey began, his near death experience with drugs and his amazing work with charities on mental health and homelessness.  With a 25-year-career that has spanned the highest highs and the lowest lows, Brandon Block was the undisputed king of the acid house generation. Brandon was known as the joker in the pack, the Ibiza ‘nutter' and party animal who single-handedly created the ‘Caner Of The Year' category. In 1996, his party lifestyle took its toll and given just weeks to live, he entered a detox facility. Since then, he hasn't looked back. He's presented for MTV, Channel 4 and Kiss 100, produced, continued to DJ, and appeared on numerous TV shows such as Celebrity Big Brother and Come Dine With Me.  From 2010 until 2015, he has worked with Blenheim the London drug and alcohol treatment service as a project worker. He now works as a Stress Management and Goal Mapping Coach with various agencies and services to improve peoples lives and raise awareness around mental health issues. Brandon is also an Ambassador for A Slice of Happiness Homeless Charity in Watford doing outreach and delivering a mental health well-being courses.  Which moment from Brandon's career stands out to you? ABOUT THE HOST: Jane Bayler is a serial entrepreneur, investor, speaker, event host and business scale up expert. She had a 20 year history in global media and advertising, before becoming a serial entrepreneur herself, with multiple businesses in real estate, marketing and education. Having grown and sold a £6M brand identity business to US communications group Interpublic, today she is most passionate about and committed to serving other entrepreneurs – helping them grow their businesses and achieve their best lives.  Enquire about working 1:1 with Jane, book a call here: https://bit.ly/2Z07DML Join Jane's free Masterclass to discover her Triple C HyperGrowth system - to scale up your business and attract your ideal clients, here: https://idealclientsuccess.com/masterclass

Zes'presso is a midweek slice of inspiration from the best Zestology guests. These mini-episodes feature some of my favourite interviewees. I'll be back with the regular Zestology on Monday.

The line trade can be an adventure. Just ask Brandon Block, journeyman lineman for Source Power Services, who has traveled the country for line work. For example, he spent a week in Yellowstone National Park as a lineman, and he is now working on the central coast of California inspecting power lines. As the son of a master plumber and electrician, Block always wanted to work outside and with his hands. He has enjoyed his career and the camaraderie of the line trade, and he can't imagine doing anything else for a living.

The line trade can be an adventure. Just ask Brandon Block, journeyman lineman for Source Power Services, who has traveled the country for line work. For example, he spent a week in Yellowstone National Park as a lineman, and he is now working on the central coast of California inspecting power lines. As the son of a master plumber and electrician, Block always wanted to work outside and with his hands. He has enjoyed his career and the camaraderie of the line trade, and he can't imagine doing anything else for a living.

Brandon Block is a legendary DJ, responsible for irreverent performances with Alex P at Space in Ibiza. He's also faced the worst of drug addiction and recovered admirably.Finding his start in a local pub in Harrow, his journey's filled with extraordinary highlights, controversy, and the kind of personal reformation we can all learn from.Brandon joins me to go Off Script on his superstar DJ career, how he overcame addiction with just 2 weeks to live, and the daily obsessions we should all avoid to live a healthier, more fulfilling life.This episode coversBrandon's huge influence on the Ibiza sceneBeing given 2 weeks to live, and overcoming addictionOur own small scale battles with obsession over materialismOutrageous stories from Brandon's DJ-ing careerBrandon Block:https://brandonblock.com/https://www.instagram.com/brandonblock/https://twitter.com/brandonblockTy Temel Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/ty_temelLinks and references: https://www.tytemel.com/podcast

The boys are joined by Swansea's jet setting DJ Ed Kurno and talk about him being Yellow Cabs number 73, fighting on a longboat in Thailand, headlong a New Year Eve gig in Johannesburg and how he got his start in DJ'ing. Ed talks about DJ battles in Ibiza, producing records in Norway, starting up his own business Yo-Cart, being mates with Brandon Block and his now famous appearance on Come Dine with Me plus much much more….

We talk about his golden years in Ibiza, Celebrity Big Brother, drug addiction, being given weeks to live, and of course, his infamous stage invasion at the BRIT Awards, when he got C-bombed by Rock & Roll royalty.Caught up with Blocko who was a big name DJ in the Ibiza and London club scene, and a renowned party animalWebsite: DodgeWoodall.comInstagram: @Dodge.WoodallLinkedIn: Dodge Woodall See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Dancemasters' very own James Blond is in the mix with legendary DJ, Brandon Block. Enjoying the podcast? Catch the full show on Union JACK Dance every Friday from 7pm! This podcast is produced by Union JACK Radio - playing the Best of British! Fiddle your knob and find Union JACK Radio, Union JACK Rock and Union JACK Dance on national DAB digital radio, online, on the app, or on that nice Alexa. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

TRUE HOUSE STORIES W/ BRANDON BLOCK & ALEX P # 039 - PART 1 True House Stories with Lenny Fontana and the super fun duo Brandon Block and Alex P is an absolute must see. Check out this show to hear all of the crazy stories these world renowned DJ pair were involved in during their years of DJing and partying in clubs around the world. Hear all about the mayhem they created during their time playing in Ibiza and why Brandon had to return to the UK. Learn how the party life affected Brandon health wise. Expect to be thoroughly entertained during this show. So many funny moments with Brandon Block and Alex P.

TRUE HOUSE STORIES W/ BRANDON BLOCK & ALEX P # 039 - PART 2 Alex and Brandon talk about their famous Kiss Fm London show. The guys explain how they first met each other and how they became one of the greatest DJ teams from the beginning of house music in Ibiza. They share how it all began at Space and all the escapades that followed. The most important part for this team was that they wanted to bring something to Ibiza and not just take it away. Come and listen to the fellas spill the beans.

Over the course of this series we explore many different facets of recovery as Fat Tony is am joined by some very special guests. On the 4th episode of season two, we're joined by legendary DJ Brandon Block.Proudly supported by INNERJIinnerjidrink.comFollow me onInstagram: http://bit.ly/3aRZPj1Facebook: http://bit.ly/38NdyGzTwitter: http://bit.ly/3aVPtPpYoutube: http://bit.ly/2w3Eapq

DJ Special tonight with the music legends Norman Jay, Brandon Block and Richard Searling look back at the defeat at Sheffield, the victory v Everton and look forward to the Woolwich at the weekend. The exclusive Spurs Show face masks now available to buy at shop.spursshow.net Come and join us at our #SpursShowLIVE events for just £10 a month! Grab your season ticket now from season.spursshow.net For more exclusive daily Spurs Show podcasts check out Patreon.com/spursshow  spursshow.net  @spursshow  Support us at season.spursshow.net  Produced by Paul Myers and Mike Leigh  Engineered by Leon Gorman  A Playback Media Production  playbackmedia.co.uk  Copyright 2020 Playback Media Ltd - playbackmedia.co.uk/copyright  Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode James and Claire speak to the legend that is Brandon Block. Brandon, now a mid-lifer, was one of the top House music DJs of the 90s and early 2000s. Since then he's transformed his life and helps others overcome trauma and addiction to become happier versions of themselves. He runs the Happy Days project, which focuses on bringing people together in a safe and supportive environment.

This is the month of May, summer is hinting at its arrival and something to accompany this most lovely time of year is a very sun kissed and blissful mix from the legend that is Tom Costelloe.... A local hero to Devon hailing from London originally Tom has had his fair share of DJ globe trotting adventures and residencies. So honoured to have one of my DJ heros from over the years to feature in this guest mix. :) Bio..... With a true passion for music alongside a well-developed taste in all genres, an energising stage presence and the ability to read perfectly his audience, its common knowledge that TOM COSTELLOE has got the art of DJ'ing to a standard that's hard to beat... He started DJ'ing in 1987, playing out at local pubs and clubs, and doing Weddings, Birthdays ETC. His natural talent was soon spotted and in 1991 he was offered a weekly residency at FUTURES a House club in Deptford (London). Futures soon outgrew its venue and Tom linked up with Bernie Sinclair & Sean McClusky of LOVE RANCH who began the now infamous CLUB UK and Tom became resident of these events from 1992... In the Summer of 1995 Tom was asked to become resident for LOVE RANCH at SPACE (Ibiza) on Thursday Mornings. Tom impressed several promoters on the island and was approached to play the legendary SPACE on Sunday mornings supporting the likes of Brandon Block and Alex P, and proved his versatility with set's both inside and on the terrace. Whilst in Ibiza Tom Also played for SIGN OF THE TIMES, at many of the SUNRISE parties and at CAFÉ MAMBO and was also headlining at many of the smaller San Antonio clubs. Back in the UK Tom Continued to Play for SIGN OF THE TIMES as the main resident, this time based in London at THE ROCKET. And 1998 saw further visits to Ibiza where Tom played for SUNNY SIDE UP at ES PARIDIS, CLOCKWORK ORANGE, and the now infamous GODSKITCHEN at AMNESIA where he made 6 appearances as a resident which continued the following year. In 2000 Tom relocated to Devon as resident and promoter of EYECON at the DANCE ACADEMY, PLYMOUTH - playing alongside some of the world's most talented and most wanted DJ'S, booking the artist's for this event and putting his unique slant on the line up's - you could never say it was all about one style, more like a mish mash of several! And that's the way TOM liked it! This popular Saturday night event boasted a weekly attendance of 1200+ and an ever-growing group of dedicated followers that crammed the cavernous club almost full to capacity every week, all waiting for the time when TOM hit the decks with his weekly assault of upfront and classic tunes – basically YOU knew when TOM COSTELLOE was on!!! EYECON @ the Dance Academy was voted club of the year (regional) in MIXMAG in 2004 and received several similar accolades in music publications such as DJ mag, Muzik and Ministry Magazines. Tom, accompanied by MANOCH BAHMANZADEH (owner) both turned the DANCE ACADEMY in Plymouth into one of the most respected and much loved events in the UK, and it's sad loss still continues to this day... Tracklisting.... 1) Chris Malinchak - So Good To Me (Original Mix) 2) Sia - Breathe (Arty Bootleg) 3) Gabriel & Dresden Feat. Molly - Let Go (Blake Jarrell Remix) 4) Cazzette - Weapon (Vicetone Remix) 5) Sander Van Doorn & Mark Knight Vs Underworld - Ten 6) First State Feat. Sarah Howells - Seeing Stars (Original Mix) 7) Norin Rad - Aldo (Original Mix) 8) Arty feat. Chris James - Together We Are (Audien Remix) 9) Doctor P feat. Eva Simons - Bulletproof (Vicetone Remix) 10) Zedd Feat. Foxes - Clarity (Ftampa Remix) 11) Kyau & Albert Vs Daft Punk - Be there 4 U One More Time (Above & Beyond Bootleg) 12) Paul Oakenfold - Southern Sun (Paul Thomas Remix) Enjoy xXx