Podcasts about Grocery Outlet

Carey Jaros joined GOJO in 2014 as a board member, later taking on executive roles as Chief Strategy Officer—where she oversaw Marketing, Product Management, and Innovation—and as Chief Operating Officer, before becoming President and CEO in January 2020.Our conversation today covers Carey's call to lead—shaped by a lifelong passion for solving problems and telling stories—her reflections on leadership and decision-making, GOJO's extraordinary legacy, and its ongoing commitment to innovation. We discuss GOJO's origins, founded by Goldie and Jerry Lippman in 1946 to address the real human problem of safely cleaning workers' hands in Akron's rubber factories. Carey shares how GOJO has evolved from those roots into a global leader in hygiene, skincare, and well-being, driven by an unwavering commitment to safety, efficacy, and sustainability.We also delve into the critical moments Carey faced stepping into her role at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the bold strategic investments GOJO made during this unprecedented time, and how the company balances legacy with innovation. Carey offers insights into the importance of culture, rigorous debate, and continuous learning as cornerstones of her leadership approach.As an operator, investor, and board member, Carey has worked with more than 50 organizations throughout her career. Prior to GOJO, she was President of Walnut Ridge Strategic Management Company and served as a Vice President at Dealer Tire, a large privately held tire distributor based in Cleveland. She spent the first 12 years of her career as a management consultant at Bain & Company.Today, Carey is a Board Director of Grocery Outlet, a publicly traded NASDAQ corporation, and an Advisory Board Member of Aunt Flow, a venture-backed menstrual products startup. She also serves on the Boards of The Cleveland Foundation, University Hospitals, and Laurel School.Carey is a fantastic storyteller, and this conversation is filled with insightful anecdotes and practical wisdom on business and entrepreneurship—so please enjoy!00:00:00 - Reflecting on Career Paths  00:06:51 - Journey to GOJO Industries  00:11:27 - Transitioning to Leadership  00:16:36 - Understanding GOJO's Origins  00:24:48 - Balancing Legacy and Innovation  00:28:27 - Leading Through the Pandemic  00:30:32 - Navigating Unprecedented Challenges  00:32:49 - Strategic Leadership in Crisis  00:35:27 - Investing for the Future  00:37:49 - The Power of Brand Promise  00:40:01 - Defining Success Through Purpose  00:42:55 - Personal Reflections on Success  00:45:15 - The Importance of Health and Wellbeing  00:47:11 - Common Sense in Hygiene Practices  00:49:05 - Legacy and Impact of GOJO  00:51:45 - Community and Identity in Northeast Ohio  00:55:22 - Fostering Productive Debate  00:58:50 - Hidden Gem-----LINKS:https://www.gojo.com/https://www.linkedin.com/in/careyjaros/-----SPONSOR:Roundstone InsuranceRoundstone Insurance is proud to sponsor Lay of The Land. Founder and CEO, Michael Schroeder, has committed full-year support for the podcast, recognizing its alignment with the company's passion for entrepreneurship, innovation, and community leadership.Headquartered in Rocky River, Ohio, Roundstone was founded in 2005 with a vision to deliver better healthcare outcomes at a more affordable cost. To bring that vision to life, the company pioneered the group medical captive model — a self-funded health insurance solution that provides small and mid-sized businesses with greater control and significant savings.Over the past two decades, Roundstone has grown rapidly, creating nearly 200 jobs in Northeast Ohio. The company works closely with employers and benefits advisors to navigate the complexities of commercial health insurance and build custom plans that prioritize employee well-being over shareholder returns. By focusing on aligned incentives and better health outcomes, Roundstone is helping businesses save thousands in Per Employee Per Year healthcare costs.Roundstone Insurance — Built for entrepreneurs. Backed by innovation. Committed to Cleveland.-----Stay up to date by signing up for Lay of The Land's weekly newsletter — sign up here.Past guests include Justin Bibb (Mayor of Cleveland), Pat Conway (Great Lakes Brewing), Steve Potash (OverDrive), Umberto P. Fedeli (The Fedeli Group), Lila Mills (Signal Cleveland), Stewart Kohl (The Riverside Company), Mitch Kroll (Findaway — Acquired by Spotify), and over 200 other Cleveland Entrepreneurs.Connect with Jeffrey Stern on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffreypstern/Follow Lay of The Land on X @podlayofthelandhttps://www.jeffreys.page/

Brandie Miller brings a wealth of food industry experience, blending expertise in startups, retail buying, and e-commerce with a passion for food accessibility. She began her career launching a small ice cream brand, driving it from food service into retail through strategic sales and marketing. She then transitioned to the buying side as a category manager for Grocery Outlet, a 400-store chain, where she championed Natural & Organic (NOSH) products, growing it into the company's largest category. Her efforts contributed to Grocery Outlet's 2019 IPO.Her dedication to making healthy, high-quality food more accessible deepened at Misfits Market, where she served as Senior Director of Grocery. There, she and her team expanded affordable grocery options nationwide, launched an upcycled food initiative, and introduced thousands of new SKUs in just three years—all while scaling operations across four warehouses.Brandie's impact has been widely recognized, earning her industry accolades such as:• Supermarket News' 2016 Disruptor• Progressive Grocer's 2019 Top Women in Grocery – Rising Star• Natural Foods Merchandiser's May/June 2019 Cover Feature• NEXTY Judge at Expo East 2022In 2024, Brandie and Will Miller combined their vastly different experiences to create something completely new—Mochi Love. Driven by a shared passion for innovation, delicious food, and bringing joy to everyday moments, they set out to expand mochi beyond the freezer aisle and introduce it to more categories across grocery stores.Mochi Love is upbeat, delicious, and simply irresistible—a modern take on a time-honored ingredient. Elevate Your Brand is the #1 marketing podcast for entrepreneurs and “wantrepreneurs” looking for insider tips and secrets from the most exciting new and growing brands in Los Angeles and the US at large. Each week, entrepreneurial special guests join Laurel Mintz, founder and CEO of award-winning marketing agency Elevate My Brand, to discuss the marketing failures and successes that have brought their brands to the next level. Learn from real-life experiences and be inspired by leaders in your industry about how smart digital and experiential marketing can elevate your brand.Contact us: https://www.elevatemybrand.com/contact Stay connected & DM us feedback on the podcast:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elevatemybrandla/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/elevatemybrandla/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@elevatemybrand

California Attorney General Rob Bonta offers guidance to schools on dealing with federal immigration officers; PG&E completes the final draft of the surrender application and decommissioning plan for the Potter Valley Project; and the planned construction of a Grocery Outlet in Fort Bragg on the moves forward.

A superior court judge in San Francisco on Monday ruled against the group Fort Bragg Local Business Matters,  upholding the coastal development permit granted by the City of Fort Bragg to Best Development Group to build and operate a Grocery Outlet in the old county social services building on North Harbor Drive and Franklin.The Mendocino Coast Parks and Recreation District has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with the Local Agency Formation Commission to conduct what is known as a municipal service review. City Manager Isaac Whippy said the review has the potential to affect the funding for the CV Starr Community Center.

Andrew and Lindsey kick back with a budget-friendly $3.99 bottle of Pinot Grigio from Grocery Outlet. They can't help but wonder if the “wine guy” really steered Lindsey in the right direction or if it was a total flop. Their conversation flows into the idea of “power doesn't panic,” connecting it to both Survivor and the new film Conclave. Andrew shares his mild irritation with the playlists Spotify keeps pushing on him, while Lindsey excitedly raves about the new podcast Blondies: Out Loud.In the second half of their chat, they dive into some intriguing topics like the drones buzzing around New Jersey, BoxLunch's response to Dominque Brown's tragic passing at their event, and some of Trump's recent cabinet picks.

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Grocery Outlet trudges forward with a new interim president and CEO. Gaubert Oil announces a new partnership with Dickey's Barbecue. And Kum & Go will soon be no more.

Alejandro Alvarez Correa, Chief Marketing Officer for Grocery Outlet, discusses his first year at the company and the unique aspects of their business model. He highlights the importance of independent operators who have the freedom to choose the product selection for their market, resulting in localized merchandise. He also emphasizes the strong relationships with big brands that allow them to offer customized products to customers. Alejandro shares his career journey, from starting in engineering to working in consulting and eventually transitioning to marketing roles at Levi's, Victoria's Secret, and Banana Republic. He also talks about his experiences working internationally and the challenges of leading teams in different languages and cultures. Alejandro Alvarez shares his experiences in marketing and the importance of product quality. He discusses the need for marketers to have a well-thought-out structure and story, as well as a humble and collaborative approach. He also emphasizes the importance of trust and communication in partnerships with agencies and technology providers. Alejandro admires brands that challenge the status quo and cater to specific niches. He credits his personal role models, such as his grandmother and parents, for their inspiration and support. Takeaways Grocery Outlet's success is driven by their unique business model with independent operators who choose the product selection for their market, resulting in localized merchandise. The company has strong relationships with big brands, allowing them to offer customized products to customers. Alejandro Alvarez's career journey includes starting in engineering, working in consulting, and transitioning to marketing roles at Levi's, Victoria's Secret, and Banana Republic. He gained valuable international experience and faced challenges in leading teams in different languages and cultures. Product quality is essential for marketing success. Without a good product, all the marketing efforts will fall flat. A well-thought-out structure and story are crucial in marketing pitches. It's important to have a cohesive narrative that proves hypotheses and provides recommendations. Humility and a collaborative approach are key in partnerships with agencies and technology providers. Arrogance and name-dropping can be off-putting. Small brands that challenge the status quo and cater to specific niches are admirable. They bring unique products and experiences to the market. Personal role models, such as family members, can have a significant impact on one's professional journey. Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Alejandro Alvarez and Grocery Outlet 08:28 The Success of Grocery Outlet's Unique Business Model 13:37 Opportunities for Growth and Additional Capabilities 19:39 Alejandro Alvarez's Career Journey 25:37 From Stickers and Labels to Social Media at Victoria's Secret 27:24 Setting the Tone as a Leader 29:21 Surrounding Yourself with Experts 34:00 Embracing Scary Ideas 36:38 Balancing Creative and Data 38:25 Product is King and Queen 43:06 Key Factors in Partner Selection 48:07 Admiring Brands that Challenge the Status Quo 52:42 Personal Role Models and Mentors

We also ate at Dave's Hot Chicken and watched that new Alien movie

Some of today's top storiesSupervisor Zack Scrivner has resigned from the Kern County Board of Supervisors, effective today, amid allegations of sexual assault.     Since 2011, he has represented the county's 2nd District, which includes eastern and central communities surrounding Tehachapi.     17's Jenny Huh has been following the investigation...    She joins us in studio now with more on the future of Scrivner's seat. the County released a statement late last night saying Board Chair David Couch received a letter of resignation from Scrivner.     Scrivner says he is resigning quote "for significant health and medical reasons."Wasco Mayor Alex Garcia has officially resigned his post, amid allegations swirling around social media. Calls for Garcia to resign came after a video posted by a shadowy group, accused Garcia of attempting to meet an underage boy in Bakersfield.     In the video, Garcia is also slapped by those behind the camera, who appear to have set up a sting operation targeting such questionable behavior.     17 News reached out to Garcia unsuccessfully multiple times for comment, but in a statement on his resignation, Garcia writes in part quote "I want to assure you that the accusations made against me are mischaracterized and inaccurate and certainly do not reflect who I am or what I stand for." Details on how to fill the vacancy will be finalized at Tuesday's City Council meeting. the Borel Fire, which has been terrorizing our mountain communities for more than a week now.    Firefighters reporting the inferno has now burned nearly 60-thousand acres and is 47-percent contained as of news time.{BANNER}    The Sheriff's office now asking evacuees of Havilah to report how many people lived in their homes at the time of the fire and if everyone has been accounted for to the Communications Center at 861-3110. Meantime, some folks are returning to their homes.    Evacuation warnings have been lifted in a few of the zones closest to Lake Isabella.    And a couple of evacuation orders have been downgraded to warnings...meaning those homeowners can return home...but they must be ready to go if another order comes down.    Yesterday evening, the Red Cross closed its evacuation center in Ridgecrest, however the shelter at the Tehachapi Education Center remains open.Countless individuals have reached out looking for ways to help the people who've lost everything in the Borel Fire. So we've teamed up with Kern River Valley Bridge Connection and the Boys and Girls club to collect gift cards for wildfire survivors.     We're looking for gift cards from Vons, Dollar General, Walmart, Grocery Outlet, Taco Bell and other places that these survivors can use in the Lake Isabella area. You can drop of those gift cards and any other monetary donations at our studios on 22nd and L in downtown Bakersfield through Tuesday.     Distribution is Wednesday at the Boys and Girls Club in Lake Isabella.

Mentioned in this episode:SBCC Purchasing - https://www.sbcc.edu/purchasing/Santa Maria Organization of Transportation Helpers (SMOOTH) - https://www.smoothinc.org/about.phpSanta Barbara Brawlin' Betties - https://brawlinbetties.com/KCSB - https://www.kcsb.org/Grocery Outlet - https://www.groceryoutlet.com/Fresh & Easy - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fresh_%26_EasyPierogi - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PierogiSweet vs Savory Grits - https://www.ebony.com/soul-food-grits/Mantu - https://afghancooks.com/mantu-recipe-afghan-dumpling/Pigs in a Blanket - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pigs_in_a_blanketHalupki (Stuffed Cabbage) - https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/220002/halupki-stuffed-cabbage/Warbler Records and Goods - https://www.instagram.com/warblerrecordsandgoods/?hl=enThe Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese - https://www.abrahamverghese.org/the-covenant-of-water/Amazon Kindle - https://www.amazon.com/b/?node=6669702011&tag=googhydr-20&hvadid=453973924243&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=16080618435080489263&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=e&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9031638&hvtargid=kwd-294877324766&ref=pd_sl_6itck04ygw_e&gclid=CjwKCAjwnK60BhA9EiwAmpHZw83sO8SIwm94DqB4is9aoetV2SGubo1kDvgEqh4Q9Ym8jJYmKBPKoxoCdgMQAvD_BwEWhen They Call You a Terrorist by Patrisse Cullors - https://www.patrissecullors.com/booksSURJ - https://surj.org/Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson - https://charmspen.com/black-cake/The Sun Magazine - https://www.thesunmagazine.org/The Big Lebowski - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_LebowskiMargaret Atwood - https://margaretatwood.ca/Heather Cox Richardson - Letters from an American - https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/Libby - https://libbyapp.com/Eastside Library - https://library.santabarbaraca.gov/visit/library-hours-locationsHouse Sorting Quiz - https://www.wizardingworld.com/news/discover-your-hogwarts-house-on-wizarding-worldMarvel's Defenders - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Defenders_(miniseries)Novelas - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TelenovelaResurrection: Ertuğrul - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirili%C5%9F:_Ertu%C4%9FrulThis Poison Heart by Kalynn Bayron - https://www.kalynnbayron.com/this-poison-heartJustina Buller - https://www.sbcc.edu/raices/facultad-de-raices/justina.php

Welcome to Omni Talk's Retail Daily Minute, sponsored by Ownit AI. Ownit AI helps brands and retailers win Google search by answering their shopper's questions online. Learn more at ownit.co.Here are today's top headlines:Shopify's stock experienced a significant downturn following the e-commerce platform's announcement of a weaker revenue outlook for the current quarter. The rise of "Buy Now, Pay Later" (BNPL) platforms like Affirm and Afterpay may present challenges for economists and financial analysts due to the presence of "phantom debt," largely invisible within traditional credit reporting systems. Grocery Outlet reported a 7.4% year-over-year increase in net sales in Q1 2024, with comparable store sales up by 3.9%. However, the discount grocer continues to face challenges stemming from system changes implemented approximately eight months ago, leading to disruptions in operations and finances.Stay informed with Omni Talk's Retail Daily Minute, your source for the latest and most important retail insights. Be careful out there!

Good morning!Our morning security guard George is the best!3/4 of teenagers surveyed say they would be happier without their phone.Grocery Outlet gift cards!The Brighter Side.We want to know: What is your most frugal habit?California's Great America passes!Napa Valley Wine Train passes!

Today the Grocery Gamblers host the gameshow "Sucker Fish", a rip off of Shark Tank. Gambler host Pete is pitching items he found at the Grocery Outlet and is trying to get investors Brad Walton and media mogul Rupert Murdoch to invest in selling these food items for full price. Let's take a seat at the table...

The Gamblers, along with their friend Brad, dive into some offerings of Plant Based Pork we found at the Grocery Outlet. Can a conglomerate crack the code on Facon? Can Canadians make Southern Ribs? And can a Korean company crack the code on fake pulled pork? Let's have a seat at the table...

We open the show with the Santa Barbara Treble Clef Chorus. They sing "It's Christmas Once Again In Santa Barbara" and "O Holy Night." Find out about upcoming performances at SantaBarbaraTrebleClef.Wordpress.com. Up next it's Tony Arroyo from Los Arroyos Mexican Restaurant & Take Out. We talk about Tamales and Gift Cards. Tony has locations at 14 W. Figueroa in Santa Barbara, 1280 Coast Village Road in Montecito and 5764 Calle Real in Goleta. Details at LosArroyos.Net. Then we welcome Kyanna Isaacson from Jersey Mike's Subs. Jersey Mike's makes the best subs anywhere and you'll find them at 199 S. Turnpike, 163 N. Fairview and 7034 Market Place Drive. Don't forget, Jersey Mike's caters parties too. Go to JerseyMikes.com. Our final guest for this episode is Mike Callagy Jr. from Grocery Outlet Santa Barbara at 2840 De La Vina Street. Did you know that Grocery Outlet also has Christmas Decorations and Clothing? Check out GroceryOutlet.com.

Grocery prices continue to relax. Casey's General Stores had a big quarter. And Grocery Outlet is on the hunt for a new CFO.

Kevin "Cactus Dude" Kreucher is our guest for Episode #109 of Underserved. Kevin is another unique story - going from a client of a treatment center to running its IT operations. Kevin got a tour of MSPs after that and built out his Rolodex steadily to support all facets of IT. Nowadays Kevin considers his phone his greatest tool, being able to tap his network to get any job done. Also covered - exotic succulents, friending every CIO in Orange County on LinkedIn, and a memorable Chick-fil-A drive-through call.   Links: Kevin on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kkreucher/ Northgate Market: https://www.northgatemarket.com/ Grocery Outlet: https://www.groceryoutlet.com/ Crazy4Cactus Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/Crazy4Cactus/

Ahold Delhaize is selling off its FreshDirect grocery delivery company. Wally's is opening another massive travel center. And Grocery Outlet had another big quarter.

We're back for the second instalment of The Green Room, our series where we bring you behind the scenes, and tell you what we're hyperfixated on, curious about, and everything we crave talking about. It's loose, it's fun, and if you listened to Good 4U, well, it's kind of like that. Join Michelle and Katie as they explore the elusive journey from intense fixation to sudden aversion–with well anything from snacks to routines. We share our current obsessions, for Katie, a snack she loved but is not repulsed by. And Michelle's current hyperfixations include everything from washi tape to energy drinks, to mushroom gummies to a classic soap. Come hang out in the 12th House Green Room to hear us gush over everything from Grocery Outlet shopping adventures to the placebo effect. This is a preview to get a sense of the format but tune in to hear the full episode when you join as a 12+ subscriber, where every month you not only get to go behind the scenes but Michelle teaches an exclusive mini course only for subscribers. Key Takeaways: When hyperfixations evolve into repulsion, where something once loved becomes overwhelming. Why our brains love lists. The placebo effect holds real value. Recommendations galore, what we're loving and eager to try and what's haunting our carts.

Bob Barker dies at 99. "Tipflation" is a thing....5-year-old has her birthday party at Grocery Outlet, and with good reason.Do you remember your birthday parties as a kid?

Kids are going back to school next week and we hope you've taken a trip to the store to get everything for their lunches! Or, you've probably stopped in to your favorite grocery store to pickup your dinners for the week, or went in to check out what seasonal fruits and veggies they've got to offer. There are so many options when you are deciding where to purchase your groceries, and we hope that with this week's Episode 40: Meet Your Grocer you are inspired to spend a bit more of your dollars with our two locally owned and operated grocery stores. This week we talk with long time owner of Harvest Fresh Grocery and Deli, Kristin Schofield and new-ish owner to the local Grocery Outlet, Mike McGinty. Both of these business owners have made contributing to the McMinnville community a priority and we are so lucky to have such giving and thoughtful business owners to support. You may not have thought you were interested in this topic, but we be you will finish and think that you can spread your grocery dollars a bit more local. 

On this week-in-review, Crystal is joined by Seattle political reporter and editor of PubliCola, Erica Barnett! They discuss the latest in Burien's non-addressing of homelessness, new revenue options presented for Seattle, whether primary results mean Seattle City Council incumbents are doomed or safe, and how candidates who support police alternatives led in primaries. The episode continues with how Mayor Harrell's $27M for drug diversion and treatment adds no new funding, Seattle adding new protections for app-based workers, and signs of a late-summer COVID surge. 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, Erica Barnett, at @ericacbarnett.   Resources “No Solutions for Unsheltered Burien Residents After Another Contentious Council Meeting” by Erica C. Barnett from PubliCola   “Proposals to Close City Deficit Prompt Immediate Backlash from Businesses, Business-Backed Council Members” by Erica C. Barnett from PubliCola   “The Seattle Process Strikes Again” by Hannah Krieg from The Stranger   Final Report of the Revenue Stabilization Workgroup | City of Seattle   “Are Incumbent City Councilmembers Doomed? The Seattle Times Sure Hopes So!” by Erica C. Barnett from PubliCola   “Candidates who support police alternatives lead primaries in Washington cities” by Scott Greenstone from KNKX Public Radio   “Harrell's "$27 Million Drug Diversion and Treatment" Plan Would Allow Prosecutions But Add No New Funding” by Erica C. Barnett from PubliCola   “Seattle City Council adds more protections for app-based workers” by Sarah Grace Taylor from The Seattle Times   “Early signs suggest WA could see a late-summer COVID wave” by Elise Takahama from The Seattle Times   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. Today, we're continuing our Friday week-in-review shows where we review the news of the week with a co-host. Welcome back to the program, friend of the show, today's co-host: Seattle political reporter and Editor of PubliCola, Erica Barnett. [00:01:08] Erica Barnett: It's great to be here. [00:01:09] Crystal Fincher: Great to have you back and certainly a number of things to talk about this week. I think we'll start off talking about the City of Burien and the continuing saga - and kind of city crisis - surrounding their handling of people who have been camping because they are homeless. There was an offer of assistance made from the County, there was some work going on - and this is happening with a fractured Council majority and Council minority, usually voting 4-3 in these things. There was a meeting that happened this week. What happened at that meeting and where do things stand now? [00:01:48] Erica Barnett: At the meeting, there were no decisions made, but there was a long discussion of the timeline of what has happened so far. The City Manager presented his version of events in which the City of Burien is held harmless, did nothing wrong, has tried earnestly to come up with alternatives for these folks - and it is a few dozen people - but has just failed or been thwarted at every turn. Several dozen people have been moved from place to place since they were originally swept from a site outside City Hall and the Burien Library. And now they are living at a couple sites - or until this week, were living at a couple sites - in Burien. A group of people were swept out of a site next to a Grocery Outlet and across the street from a Family Dollar by a private company that has gotten a lot of positive attention from the Council majority, which is run by an individual named Kristine Moreland and offers what their website refers to as sweep services - removing people - and this group claims that they have housed folks. What appears to have happened, and I'll be writing more about this later this week - on Friday, probably as you're listening to this, it might be up - what appears to have happened is that they have been relocated into a hotel for a week or so with no apparent plan to do anything beyond that. As I wrote this week, there's no real solution in sight and the County's money is contingent on them finding a location in the City of Burien or getting another city to agree to take Burien's homeless population on. That money could go away. [00:03:20] Crystal Fincher: It's a shame that the money could go away. Something that struck me as unfortunate this entire time is, as you say, this isn't about thousands upon thousands of people. This is actually a situation where it seems like it's possible - working with partners, working with the resources that the County has provided in terms of cash and tiny homes - potentially house most or all of this population, to work through this. This seems like something that is fixable and achievable, and something that Council could be looked at as an example of how to work through this and manage this issue in your city. It appears that they just continue to run from that and double down on these criminalized solutions that have just moved people from literally one lot to another, sometimes across the street from each other. This is in a pretty small area of the city where these encampments and sweeps have taken place. And so just watching the City continue to not try to solve this problem is exceedingly frustrating. [00:04:24] Erica Barnett: To be fair to the City - I try to be fair always, but to take the City's perspective - I can see an argument that a million dollars is really not enough. You can't house people for a million dollars. You can shelter them temporarily. And that is what the County has proposed. But that is a small caveat to the fact that the City, right now, is showing a lot of mistrust for traditional partners that actually do this work and are telling them there is no housing, that it's incredibly hard to house people, and they have to go through a whole process. And they're showing a lot of mistrust of LEAD and REACH, which have been working down in that area for a long time, and showing a sort of almost naive trust of this new organization that is run by one individual who says that she can solve all of their problems and that it's easy. One thing I didn't mention is they put on the table the idea of contracting with this organization run by Kristine Moreland - it's called The More We Love - it's a private group, it's not a nonprofit. So they're talking about spending money on her group because she has said that it is very easy to house people. [00:05:25] Crystal Fincher: Wow. That would be an interesting use of public funds. [00:05:29] Erica Barnett: There's a lot of questions about whether they can actually do this, like where the funds would come from. If they would take away REACH's money, that's federal money - she would need to have a lot more assurances and perhaps a nonprofit, which as I said she does not appear to have, to do that. They've started going down that road. The mayor proposed last week that they start working on looking into contracting with this group. It is very much on the table and could happen or could start to be discussed seriously within the next couple of weeks. [00:05:58] Crystal Fincher: Very interesting. We will continue to follow this, as we have been doing. I also wanted to talk about significant news this week in the City of Seattle, where a revenue workgroup presented options for potential progressive revenue options in the City of Seattle. What happened with this and what options are on the table? [00:06:18] Erica Barnett: This workgroup has been meeting for a while - it consists of folks with the mayor's office, City Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda is the co-chair, then some business groups, some labor groups - including the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, which had an interesting reaction this week. But the workgroup eventually came up with a set of policy options - they're saying they are not recommendations - and they considered 63, they narrowed it down to 9. And the top three are the ones that the City could move forward with right away. Those are, in order, increasing or changing the JumpStart payroll expense tax and letting those monies flow into the general fund, implementing a City-level capital gains tax - which the City believes it could do without a ballot initiative or permission from the State Legislature. And then a new tax on CEOs that have a very high ratio of pay compared to the average employee in a company - essentially a surcharge on the JumpStart Tax to companies that have extremely well-paid CEOs. I should mention this is all to close a pending revenue gap in 2025 and beyond of hundreds of millions of dollars. They've got to figure out a way to narrow this gap either by cutting spending, by increasing revenues, or most likely some combination of both. [00:07:39] Crystal Fincher: These are certainly interesting options. You noted that these are not recommendations, they're simply presenting options - which makes me wonder about the coalition that was at the table here, the participants in the workgroup, the elephant in the room of sometimes these workgroups are really just attempts to get the business community on board with a tax. It doesn't look like they accomplished that here. What are the dynamics of the groups who were involved in putting these options together? [00:08:10] Erica Barnett: Yesterday, a member of the Seattle Chamber of Commerce sent out a statement saying - Seattle revenues are at an all-time high and spending is unsustainable - repudiating the idea that we need new taxes and suggesting that the real problem is the City Council is just spending frivolously. The report the revenue stabilization task force put out talks about spending and notes that the amount the City has been spending has been going up roughly in line with inflation and labor costs. There's some mandatory COLAs [cost-of-living adjustments] and pay increases that have happened that have been very necessary to keep folks more in line with the private market to actually keep people working for the City, which has faced problems with hiring just like every other workplace. There isn't necessarily a lot of evidence that the City is spending out of control, at least according to this report that the Chamber itself signed off on, but they have indicated that they're gonna come out hard against it - not clear in what way, but they certainly have sued over other taxes, including the JumpStart Tax in the past. More to come, I'm sure, but they have indicated that they are not on board with these options, which would tax businesses essentially and tax some of their members. [00:09:24] Crystal Fincher: As you mentioned, they opposed the JumpStart Tax, they opposed previous taxes. Here, they frequently act as an organized opposition to taxation, particularly taxation that involves the business community. Lots of people talk about Seattle process and how we will workgroup and task force something to death - that certainly is the case. But when a number of candidates run, or when we've heard in press conferences with the mayor and talking about One Seattle - and if we can just get everyone seated around the table and get everyone talking, surely we can hammer out something and agree and be able to move forward in community and coalition and with buy-in. The problem is that other people are too contentious and they wanna do things without the buy-in of everyone, but I will get everyone together and do that. That's certainly not unique to Bruce Harrell - we heard that from Mayor Ed Murray, from Mayor Jenny Durkan, from several City councilmembers - they just needed to get people together. In another one of these workgroups, they did bring everyone to the table and the same disagreements, the same lack of alignment that was evident before this was put together surfaces now. It's time to make a decision for a lot of people. If everyone doesn't agree to do something, then it's on pause, it just doesn't happen. Or is it going to be moving forward with options that may have the support of the general public? Certainly a number of these options poll well and the candidates who have advanced them are winning most of these elections. Are they willing to move without the support of the business community or potentially setting up another showdown with the business community? That's a question that has yet to be answered. [00:11:10] Erica Barnett: I would not dismiss this necessarily as just another example of Seattle process going nowhere. I think the last revenue stabilization task force, of course it was called something else but, came up with the JumpStart Tax, which is a payroll tax on highly-compensated workers at extremely large employers - that has brought in hundreds of millions of dollars a year and really addressed the revenue shortfalls during COVID. I think that business community aside - and Alex Pedersen, City councilmember who is an ally of the business community, sent out a press release poo-pooing the proposals or the policy ideas - this will probably lead to some action by the council. They have to do something. They are facing a really grave situation. There are other task forces that have met and not really done much in similar situations. The council and the City - the mayor and the council have to pass a balanced budget every year. If they've got a $250 million shortfall in a budget, they've got to address that. Looking at and talking to Teresa Mosqueda, the chair of the committee, one of the co-chairs of this task force, and the Chair of the Finance Committee yesterday, they're looking at those first three options very seriously. There's probably a council majority right now to support one of those options. Depending on how fast they move on this, it could be a new council that may be less friendly. We'll see. They have to do something. I don't see cutting that much of the budget as an option. [00:12:28] Crystal Fincher: The Chamber is staking out the position that the only thing that they are willing to discuss - from their perspective right now - is cuts and not focusing on the revenue-generating options, some of which were considered more progressive than others by many people. So what are the next steps here? [00:12:46] Erica Barnett: Council Central Staff is going to do an analysis of these options, probably - again, with the emphasis on those ones that the council can do on its own. Then there will be policy recommendations and legislation, presumably, to pass some version of one or more of these options. There are six other options, some of which would require the Legislature to pass legislation allowing the City to implement some of these taxes - that's a longer-term strategy that the council says it's going to engage in. The short-term perspective is they're going to start working on this stuff. When it comes to the Chamber, they are not all-powerful - their job is generally to oppose taxes on their members. They did that last time - they lost in the court of public opinion, and they also lost in court - now we have the JumpStart payroll tax. I don't know if that experience is going to make them reluctant to challenge an expansion of that tax or any of these other taxes. They have not been successful so far in preventing taxation to close these revenue shortfalls, to pay for housing and homelessness solutions - their opposition just means the business community is against this. It doesn't mean that it's not going to happen. [00:13:53] Crystal Fincher: That's a very good point. Also want to talk about a piece you did in PubliCola this week as a response to some at The Seattle Times suggesting the three incumbents in Seattle City Council races that are running again - each of whom lead their race, two of whom with over 50% of the vote - are somehow not safe. Did that pass the smell test? [00:14:18] Erica Barnett: They presented a theory in this editorial - described as a hopeful theory on their part - that the incumbents are in trouble if they end up with less than 55%. They said that this was just the general consensus of election watchers. I don't know - I'm an election watcher, you're an election watcher - this is not my consensus. And nor, when I look back at the numbers, is it reflected in reality. An incumbent might have a somewhat tough race if they are under 50% of the vote in the primary. There's just so many reasons - among which is, as you said, they're all above 50% now. The primary electorate tends to be more conservative. The incumbents that The Seattle Times wants to defeat are all more progressive than their opponents. The primary election turnout was incredibly low. Some of these folks in the races with lots and lots of candidates where there wasn't an incumbent were winning by a few hundred votes. The Times really is hopeful they will be able to finally rid themselves of candidates, or of City councilmembers like Tammy Morales, who is very much leading her Seattle Times-endorsed opponent, Tanya Woo, Dan Strauss, who's leading Pete Hanning. And Andrew Lewis, who actually is looking the weakest right now - he is under 50%. His opponent, Bob Kettle, is unlikely to get a bunch of business community backing in District 7, which includes downtown. All the incumbents are looking strong right now. [00:15:41] Crystal Fincher: That seems to be the consensus from the election watchers I'm aware of, many of whom are actively involved in several elections. Incumbents just don't lose from this position. We rarely, if ever, see that. It's rare to see, even in open seats, for people to finish over 50% and then not win, which doesn't mean that - barring scandal or something wild happening, there are a lot of unknowns - to suggest that this indicates trouble is really stretching it. We will continue to follow those elections. We just did a Post-Primary recap show, which we will also be releasing on the podcast - you can hear more about our thoughts on those. [00:16:22] Erica Barnett: The one example I was able to find in history where it came close to what The Times was saying was Richard Conlin, who I think ended up under 50% in his primary against Kshama Sawant. And Sawant won by a very narrow margin in her first election. It does not illustrate The Times's point because Sawant is obviously far to the left of Richard Conlin, who was a standard moderate Democrat liberal. They really just don't have any examples to back up these kind of sweeping conclusions that they're making. [00:16:51] Crystal Fincher: They don't. They're having a challenge reconciling the results of the race. They were setting it up, from an editorial perspective, that Seattleites are really unhappy with the council and that unhappiness meant they wanted a change and more moderate candidates, they were unhappy with the direction of the City. I've talked about several times - the City doesn't necessarily have a direction - you have a mayor who is more moderate, you have some councilmembers who are more progressive, others who are more moderate depending on the day of the week. You need to get into an examination of the issues and where Seattle voters generally are on issues is more progressive than what The Times usually articulates. It'll be interesting to see how they evaluate these races and their endorsed candidates and their chances. What do voters really expect to see? What do they not want to see? What do they find unacceptable? Questions that oftentimes are left unexamined by seemingly the parties who could do well to examine them the most. Also want to talk this week about an article that actually talked about candidates who support police alternatives are leading primaries, getting through to the general election. Some of those candidates really want to focus on those alternatives. Many of them want those alternatives in addition to police or to be able to dispatch a more appropriate response - whether it's a behavioral health crisis, someone dealing with substance use disorder, homelessness - dispatching responders who may not be armed police, but who are equipped to handle the problem at hand, which oftentimes even police will tell you they are not the best equipped to handle things that are not of a criminal nature. What did this article find? [00:18:27] Erica Barnett: People are interested in alternatives to police. There has been a lot made of the idea that there is this backlash to "Defund the Police." The City of Seattle did not defund the police. In 2020, there was a real movement for change that organized under that name. They were advocating for funding alternatives and using some of the money that is currently used for armed police officers. When you frame it in a way that does not use those words - "defund the police" - that is what people want. I do not cover cities outside Seattle, which this article focused on, but I think that is definitely what we've seen in Seattle where folks who have said they would ensure that there are 5-minute response times to 911 calls, like Maritza Rivera in District 4, or folks who have run on an expand-the-police platform, like Olga Sagan, who was a primary contender against Andrew Lewis in District 7, and I think ended up with 19% of the vote and is out. Those folks did not fare as well as people who said - I want to fund alternatives and come up with a way to respond to crisis calls, for example, without sending out cops. [00:19:35] Crystal Fincher: Voters do want to be safer and feel safe. They recognize that conversation about public safety and how we keep people safe is a lot bigger than just policing. If you listen to elected officials speak or you listen to campaign rhetoric, you would think it was either we invest in hiring a ton more cops and keep doing that, or we do nothing and lawlessness reigns. No one wants lawlessness to reign. No one is proposing to do nothing. There are alternative solutions, there are other responses, there are cities implementing this. One of the things in this article is that this is not just a Seattle phenomenon. In fact, many other cities - Bellingham, Spokane, Tacoma - other cities around the region who are moving forward with this and who have candidates really wanting to examine how to best keep people safe and prevent crime in addition to responding to it, taking a more comprehensive look at how do we address all of these issues. It's another signal that voters want to hear more comprehensive plans for how people plan to keep the community safe, want to use more tools at folks' disposal. And I hope candidates see that and recognize that and come with some real serious proposals to help their communities become safer. [00:20:54] Erica Barnett: I think too, it speaks to some failures of the media - and we're talking about The Seattle Times - but broadly the debate about policing has been misrepresented as defund the police versus public safety. Everybody wants to feel safe in their communities. And the people who have advocated for reforms and for funding other alternatives are just as interested in public safety and community safety as "Refund the Police" or "Overfund the Police" crowd. They clearly outnumber that crowd. There are a lot of nuances within that first group of folks who want community safety, but would like to see alternatives. It is much larger than just the police can and should do everything alternative. [00:21:37] Crystal Fincher: Absolutely. Also want to talk about something that you covered that we didn't get to last week because of all the election news, but I think is important to talk about since we are trying to deal with issues like drug addiction, substance use disorder - this may fall underneath an alternate response. But the City of Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell announced $27 million for drug diversion and treatment options as a new attempt to implement the drug prosecution legislation that previously failed on the council. What is he actually proposing? [00:22:12] Erica Barnett: The coverage of this was so frustrating to me, including in outlets that I think ordinarily do a very good job of breaking stuff like this down. I did write about the $27 million and I asked - What is this $27 million? - because it's not in the legislation. The Seattle Times said that it was in the legislation - that is not true. The legislation itself essentially just reintroduces the drug criminalization ordinance, which would allow Ann Davison, the City Attorney, to start prosecuting drug users and adds a phrasing that says the police department must adopt a policy in the future that prioritizes diversion when people are arrested for drugs. $27 million was a separate announcement that Harrell made as part of announcing this legislation. And what it is, in fact, is $7 million in underspending, so money that the City failed to spend in previous years, will be put forward to some kind of capital investment. So like a building - unclear what that will be, but it'll have something to do with treatment. So very vague, but $7 million in money that the City has left over. The other $20 million is funding from the two opioid settlements with the companies that the Attorney General of the State of Washington secured earlier this year - that $20 million trickles into the City of Seattle over 18 years. The rate of inflation being what it is - in 2034 or 2035, $1 million is not gonna buy a lot. It doesn't buy a lot now. It's really overstating the case to say that this is $27 million. It's two different kinds of money - one is this tiny trickle of a little bit of money that's gonna come in every year for the next 18 years. [00:23:49] Crystal Fincher: When I first saw that announced, my initial questions were - Where is this money coming from? We saw something similar to this back with the Compassion Seattle Initiative - okay, we tried to advance some legislation, it failed. So let's add some money to it to make it seem compassionate, that nods to the things that actually do have broad public support. It's money that is in other buckets that we're transitioning to this bucket, and it's looking big, but we're gonna be spending it over a long period of time - so it's not really an investment of a rounding error over what we're doing right now. Certainly looking at the scale of the problem - doesn't seem like it has a chance of doing much to meaningfully impact that at all. In fact, it seems like it might be an inefficient way to spend this money. Maybe this would be an area where you could look at what would function more effectively. But it seems like it's acceptable, with policy that we've seen coming out of this mayor's office, to cobble together these kinds of funds and announce it as if it's - Hey, we're making a significant investment here. Look at the details and they're underwhelming. I hope that there is more to the plan than this. [00:25:05] Erica Barnett: I should correct myself on that $7 million - it's actually not probably gonna be spent on new buildings. The mayor spokesman told me that it'll provide capital funding to prepare existing facilities to provide care and treatment services for substance use disorders. Again, very vague - not a lot of money spread over, potentially, a lot of different facilities. And as we discussed, the City has this huge looming revenue shortfall. They don't have a lot of money. They don't have $27 million to put into anything new. And so I think this speaks to the fact that we are actually going to address the problem just of opioid addiction. It is going to cost a lot of money and it would require actual new funding. It's not something that the City is generally responsible for - public health is the responsibility of the County primarily. The City is out here claiming to have the solutions in hand and it's really incumbent on reporters and just on the public to be aware of what this really means, which is not a whole lot. [00:26:03] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, it will be interesting to see how this lands - with the council taking this up, where this is gonna go. I would love to see significant funding put in this and enough where it looks like it could make a difference in the area. We'll see how this shakes out. Also wanna talk about a positive thing - I think to many people, myself included - that happened this week and that is the passage of new protections for app-based workers in the City of Seattle. What did this legislation do? [00:26:32] Erica Barnett: Yeah, the City has been working for months, it feels like years, on legislation to help protect app-based workers - folks like Uber drivers, grocery delivery app workers - from being deactivated in the apps and effectively being unable to earn a living. The workers have argued they are subject to unfair deactivation by companies, retaliatory deactivation, this sort of thing. The legislation would say they have a right to appeal if they are deactivated. It also sets out some guidelines for deactivation. It is a first step toward protecting folks who are working as "gig workers," who have few labor protections. It's not a lot different than being a freelance writer or a contractor, but with low hourly pay and without the protections that you have being an employee of one of these companies. It's a BS job designation, but the gig economy operates on workers who have very few protections, very low pay, and has insisted that their workers are not employees because that would afford them protections that most people with jobs have. City of Seattle is taking steps to try to give them some of those protections, although they're still not employees and still don't have the protections that they deserve as members of the labor force. [00:27:50] Crystal Fincher: An important element here is how these platforms and gig work companies advertise themselves to people who could work on their platforms. They do signal - Hey, this is a way to achieve financial stability. This is almost like building your own business or a new way to have more freedom, yet still be able to pay your bills and live the life that you want. But the way that you could get kicked off of these platforms could be completely arbitrary with no recourse. And as you said, this is really about having a way to appeal these decisions that sometimes are made without the involvement of any person - some algorithm determines that something didn't go well and it could get that wrong. We see plenty of times where automated decisions, whether it's an algorithm or AI, do not make the just decision. And having someone's livelihood that depends on that should come with more protections, more assurances, or at least a consistent process that could be followed. So I am happy to see this pass. This is continuing to grow and a really substantial area of our economy and a lot of our neighbors rely on this kind of income - having that be more predictable and stable with more of a process for people to understand how it works and how they can operate within it is a positive thing. [00:29:11] Erica Barnett: Firing a writer because of negative comments in the comments section of a blog - the customer is not always right - and in a normal job, if you've got a complaint from a customer, you would have the opportunity to state your case to your employer. In this case, as you said, it's determined by algorithms that are not transparent. You really have no recourse. [00:29:29] Crystal Fincher: Legislation was crafted with the input of these app companies too. I think Lisa Herbold was quoted as saying, she made some modifications to make sure - after hearing feedback from these companies - to do all that they could to make sure that they were being explicit about action taken to protect people's safety or those kinds of urgent situations. This is really getting at the element of people being able to understand the rules and the processes they have to adhere to. And finally this week, I wanna talk about a story that maybe a lot of people are seeing anecdotally. We've been seeing news across the country about wastewater detection of COVID increasing. It looks like we are going to see a late-summer COVID wave here in Washington state. What's going on with the 'VID? [00:30:21] Erica Barnett: Yeah, I know tons of people who've gotten COVID recently. It's very alarming. People are slacking off, or have been slacking off for at least a year or so, with COVID thinking that it's over, the pandemic emergency being declared over and people aren't wearing masks. There's obviously a surge. I read a really alarming story about the impacts of long COVID, which we really have yet to reckon with. It was a story about just how much it affects your cardiovascular health and the rate of heart attacks going up in younger people. It's very alarming and it's still a very serious disease - even if you aren't showing symptoms, even if you're showing mild symptoms, it's very scary. I traveled recently and I was guilty of not wearing my mask as much as I probably should have. And I was lucky I didn't get COVID, but it's still coming for all of us. [00:31:09] Crystal Fincher: It is still coming for all of us. I did travel recently, was masked during travel. Doesn't happen to everyone, but a significant percentage of people who have mild initial infection can come with all of these side effects. We just don't know yet. This COVID has not been around long enough to know what the long-term impacts are. My biggest learnings during COVID is how viruses operate overall and how it's not unusual for a wide variety of viruses to be an initial flu-like illness, like how HPV is tied to cervical cancer. I'm certainly not an MD - look this up yourself, follow guidance. It does seem like we should be more cautious about transmitting viruses overall, COVID or not. If wearing a mask can keep me from having that, I think that's a positive thing. We need to continue to focus on responses that make shared spaces safer, looking at ventilation and air filtration and treatment. I hope those conversations are still ongoing in policy circles - certainly they're important. It's unfortunate that we have relaxed masking in places where people don't have a choice to be, like on public transit or in healthcare settings, where they're more likely to see more sick people and the people who are there are more likely to be vulnerable. You can't not go to the doctors when you need help or you're relying on treatment. [00:32:33] Erica Barnett: One reason I am less vulnerable is because I work from home. The City is currently still debating whether to and how much to force people to come back into work at the City of Seattle. Amazon - I saw a story today that they are monitoring people using their badge swipe-ins to police whether people are following their work-from-the-office mandates. There's so many benefits to letting people work from home. I find it very discouraging that part of the debate seems to have been settled in favor of the you-must-work-at-the-office crowd. It is protective to be at home and not be out in crowds of people who may be less cautious and getting you sick. [00:33:11] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, absolutely. I'm definitely a proponent of working from home - I am doing that as we speak - that's a privilege I have that a lot of people don't have. If you do come down with something, you can test for whether it's COVID or anything else. And employers making sure that they are giving their employees leave, which is a big problem, particularly in service industries. And with that, I thank you all for listening to Hacks & Wonks on this Friday, August 11th, 2023. The producer of Hacks & Wonks is Shannon Cheng, who is incredible and amazing and talented. Our insightful cohost today is Seattle political reporter and Editor of PubliCola, Erica Barnett. You can find Erica on Twitter at @ericacbarnett and on PubliCola.com. You can follow Hacks & Wonks on Twitter at @HacksWonks. You can find me on all platforms @finchfrii, that's F-I-N-C-H-F-R-I-I. You can catch Hacks & Wonks on iTunes, Spotify, wherever you get your podcasts - just type "Hacks and Wonks" into the search bar. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to get the full versions of our Friday week-in-review shows and our Tuesday topical interview shows delivered to your podcast feed. If you like us, please leave a review wherever you listen. You can also get a full text 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.

Another c-store retailer is experimenting with an all-digital store. Big-box retailers may be through the worst of an inflation-fueled dip. And one discount grocer is seeing record interest from prospective operators.

In today's episode, Shelley and Phil take a little breather from having a guest and taste through four wines from Grocery Outlet to find out if the the quality to price ratio on these wines are worth the trip. Shelley is tasting these blind but you don't have to! Grab one or all of them (for under 30 bucks!) and see what YOU think! #HappyFriday! #ItsWineTime! #Cheersing #ItsTraditionNow Wines featured this episode:2021 La Playa Dry Rosé ($5 at Grocery Outlet) 

Rhythm & News Podcast interview with Bridgette Hempstead, founder of the Cierra Sisters, about their organization's upcoming Wellness Festival on Saturday, July 22nd at Skyway's Grocery Outlet. Interview by Chris B. Bennett.

Grocery Outlet: Independence from Hunger Meet Dean and Sara Biggs, owners and operators of two local Grocery Outlets. Grocery Outlet's core mission is, “Touching lives for the better.” You will hear about how the Biggs participate in this mission, meeting needs in our local community through initiatives like Independence from Hunger during July - and throughout the whole year through school partnerships and other community involvement. They have adopted a “Just ask us” mentality when it comes to resourcing our community and meeting needs. Email the Biggs at spanishsprings@groceryoutlet.com  Follow their locations on Facebook at: Lemmon Valley - https://www.facebook.com/LemmonValleyGroceryOutlet/ Spanish Springs - https://www.facebook.com/GroceryOutletSpanishSprings/ Additional links from the episode: Project 150's episode of Hope, NV: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/hopenv/episodes/Project150-Reno-with-Liz-McFarland-e1omme5/a-a8kedv7 RAVE's episode of Hope, NV: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5rDUqx9ibbblgUA3br2qGV?si=932f65ff9d4a4fcb

What a great conversation with Daniel Bell of Grocery Outlet, a very cool cat, and a unique retailer. Todd enjoyed chatting with Daniel at the FPFC Expo and for the Todd-versations broadcast. They talked about everything from food insecurity to how to handle the latest legislation in the state of California. You don't have to agree with what was said. Listen and decide on your own. Todd won't tell you what to think. Todd would rather put you in a position to think about such important topics.Peek into the future. Get Todd-versations on your favorite platform at https://linktr.ee/toddversations Who is Shift? They are a crazy talented, award-winning, design and marketing agency. As you will learn through the month, they have a strong history in the food, agriculture, service, and tech industries. When it's time for a change, choose Shift. Learn more at https://startshifting.com#organic #agriculture #conversationsforchange #positivecostoffood #organicisnotenough #toddversations #foodsecurity #agtechnology #freshproduce #foodwaste #watersupply #traceability #sustainability #farmers #consumption #cheaphasahiddencost #foodismedicine #shiftcreative #startshifting #climatesmart #regenerative #grocery #coolcat

Did you know that the family dining establishment Hooters produced and bottled their own bottles of liquor? We didn't, until it all ended up at the Grocery Outlet! Today the Gamblers are joined by returning guest, and Pete's dad, Big Pete, to get down in the dirt with these products to see if they're any good. At least they're all in glass bottles???? Let's have a seat at the table....

The Gamblers head back to the Grocery Outlet to try some fizzies drinks with some seriously floral properties. From California, to Quebec, to South Africa, we go worldwide today with 3 drinks, including some with a fast approaching expiration date. How else can you find out about "VANILLE"? Let's take a seat at the table...

Pete tried to use Instacart at his local Grocery Outlet and it did not go as intended.

Albertsons is getting an expedited review of its planned $4 billion special dividend payout. Grocery Outlet and Wawa are among retailers to watch in 2023, according to new research. And Pops Mart Fuels has acquired six c-stores.

In todays episode, Shelley and Phil walk and talk through some strategies of buying wine in discount stores like Grocery Outlet while they taste through three of those wines. Having tasted some pretty high end wine on our podcast recently, it's time to see if some lower cost wines will make the grade. #HappyFriday! #ItsWineTime! #Cheersing2020 Accomplice Rosé ($4.99 at Grocery Outlet)  

Happy Holidays from The Modern Moron recorded this day, the 25th of November, 2022.  It's Black Friday and there's no place I would rather NOT be than a mall, A Walmart, a Best Buy or an Amazon.  Also, I literally got back from the grocery  store and I thought I was going to have to take out a Home Equity Loan.  I just paid over $5 for a dozen eggs.  What the ever-loving- @##$%?  At what point is it going to  be …. That'll b e a dollar…. Another dollar…. Okay, two for one.  Thanks Grandpa Joe… for all the inflation.  It's your fault.  Your fault there's global inflation.  Whatever country your in, it's that political leader's fault that there is global inflation.  If you live in Canada, Thanks Trudeau.  If you live in China, thanks JinPing.  Great Britain's revolving door… thanks Sunak.  Or can we still blame Boris Johnson?  Thanks Bo-jo.  Or let's lay that on Liz Truss!  She was only there 50 days, it's all her fault.  Thanks Liz.   But let's stay in Great Britain, because… My guest is the Senator's daughter who has been on this show multiple times, this time from Edinburgh, Scotland!  She is attending the University of Edinburgh getting her Master's degree in Art History.  We talk about:  How wonderful and nice the people of Scotland are, dispelling the U.S. notion that everyone there is groundskeeper Willie from the Simpsons.   The Art History Masters degree she is achieving specifically is in accessibility, and as I said in the previous episode, we're not talking ramps and wider doorways, but accessibility in a broader sense.  Is it accessible to all social classes, ethnicities and cultures and are they all represented in art museums?  We talk about those little plaques next to the artwork that I almost never read.  Are they accessible to all?  I bring up something used in internet web content design and development called the Hemingway app.  Hemingway's style of writing, as  you may already know, is very concise and direct.  There's not a lot of flowery language in it which allowed him to get to the point more quickly.  It's very efficient.  And now… there's an app for that.  And it's called hemingwayapp.com .  It's free.  You go there, paste in your composition, or write in the page and the app will analyze your writing as you go.  It will highlight areas where your sentences and paragraphs can be made more simple. We talk about her roommates in her flat… there's 5 of em!  She brings up the term “Cultural Capitol” which is a theory created by this french guy Pierre Bordieu who was a French sociologist and public intellectual.  Seriously?  There's an occupation called Public Intellectual?  What's the annual salary of a Public Intellectual.  I'm a private intellectual.  I'm the most intellectual person in my bathroom at any given time. Back to Cultural Capital.  I'm going to read you a few sentences about Cultural capital and the sentences are a little too complex to be comprehended by some individuals, which lowers their Cultural capital and creates further inaccessibility.  Inaccessibility to knowledge.  Confused?  Me too. Cultural capital is defined as the social assets of a person that can be used to increase one's chances of success in life. These assets can be either tangible, such as clothes or educational certificates, or intangible, such as knowledge or life experiences. While everyone has some form of cultural capital, those from higher social classes tend to have more of it. This is because they have greater access to resources that can help them develop their skills and talents. Additionally, they are more likely to inherit cultural capital from their families. Cultural capital is not a static concept; it can change over time as people gain or lose access to resources. For example, someone from a lower social class who manages to get a college degree has increased their cultural capital. Similarly, someone from a higher social class who drops out of school may have lost some of their cultural capital. And, the meaning of cultural capital is not necessarily static. The social assets that society values can shift over time. There are three types or “states” of Cultural Capital: 1) There is the “Embodied” state which is the capital you have from your life experiences, learning your A,B,C's and being read to all the way through education and socialization.  2) the second state is called the “Objectified” state, more commonly known about twenty years or so ago as “bling”, “cheddar”, “lit”, “Gucci”, etc. And it's not just slang as we see it everywhere.  I drive a Ford Pickup and you drive a Mercedes or a Lexus or a Tesla, you've got more “Objectitfied” cultural capital than me.  Your grocery bags say Whole Foods, my grocery bags say Grocery Outlet.  You get it.   3) Finally, there is “Institutionalized” Cultural Capital which is the way society measures social capital.  The classic example of this is formal academic degrees; a masters degree carries more capital than a bachelors degree, a PhD even more and so on.  And let's not forget the degrees on the opposite end of academia, that being degrees from the School of Hard Knocks.  Depending on the culture, there may not be much perceived value on a degree from that institution or street smarts, but if  you do have it, you can still  gain your objectified capital (cha-ching). She uses the expression or notion that museums and the historically European art contained within is “The purveyor of absolute fact”.  And as part of the study of Art, she challenges that notion.  I hope I'm getting this right, otherwise she could sue me for defamation! The point, as I understand or misunderstand it is when she says there should be multiple entry points that visitors to a museum can access the art.  Something for everyone.  I liken it to the ski trails at a ski resort.  There's the green circle or the bunny  hills.  If you know a little more about art you can tackle the blue trails; I think it's a blue square?  Then if you're really down with the art, you can tackle the black diamond explanation of the painting or whatever the hell you're looking at.   Okay, enough babbling out of me, it's time to learn about Art Accessibility, Scotland style.  Grab yourself an Irn-Bru, unless it's time for a wee bit o' whiskey.  As the lassie and me have a little Blether.  Keeut Tine-g .. to TMM.  Thanks for listening.   CLOSE - The Modern Moron equates Cultural Capital to Willie Wonka and The Chocolate Factory.  You know, as far as great speeches from a movie go, I will put Gene Wilder's rant up against the best of them.  Gordon Geko and his “Greed is Good” speech or even Gary Cooper in his “Luckiest Man on The Face of the Earth” speech… a lot of the best speeches are from sports movies.  Especially if you're a misogynist moron like me.  I think we should do an episode on the best speeches from great movies.  What do you think?  Maybe some of them would apply to today as much as when we saw them on the big screen?   But that is for another day.  Thank you to my guest and best wishes on her upcoming Masters degree.  Thank you for listening and we'll see  you next time on TMM. Cultural Capital Theory & Examples | What is Cultural Capital? - Video & Lesson Transcript | Study.com  Understanding Ernest Hemingway's Incredible Writing Style - bookanalysis.com   https://hemingwayapp.com/   

Tamara was in the Grocery Outlet parking lot asking for bus fare

Rising food prices led to a huge quarter for discounter Grocery Outlet. California voters upheld a flavored tobacco ban. And c-store packaged beverage sales are strong.

Today is Wednesday, October 19 and we're looking at Aldi vs. Grocery Outlet.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Today's episode is a recording of a live debate between 37th LD Representative Position 2 candidates, Emijah Smith and Chipalo Street. The debate was hosted by the South Seattle Emerald on October 4, 2022 at the Rainier Arts Center. Hacks & Wonks' very own Crystal Fincher moderated the debate. Resources For links to the YouTube video, summary of lightning round answers and more, visit the debate's page on our website.   Campaign Website - Emijah Smith   Campaign Website - Chipalo Street   Register to vote, update your registration, see what's on your ballot and more - click here.   Past felony conviction? Information on re-registering to vote - Washington Voting Rights Restoration Coalition.     Transcript [00:00:00] Bryce Cannatelli: Hi everyone – this is Bryce Cannatelli from the Hacks & Wonks team. Today's episode of the show is a recording of a live debate between 37th LD State Representative candidates Emijah Smith and Chipalo Street. The debate was held on October 4, 2022 and was hosted by the South Seattle Emerald and was moderated by Hacks & Wonks' very own Crystal Fincher. We hope you find it informative and thank you for listening. [00:00:41] Crystal Fincher: Welcome! Welcome everyone to the South Seattle Emerald's 2022 General Election Candidate Debate. My name is Crystal Fincher. I'm a political consultant and the host of the Hacks & Wonks radio show and podcast, and I'm honored to welcome you all to tonight's debate. I'm also excited to hear from our guests running for State Representative Position 2 in the 37th Legislative District. Before we begin tonight, I'd like to do a Land Acknowledgement. I would like to acknowledge that we are on the traditional land of the first people of Seattle, the Coast-Salish Peoples, specifically the Duwamish peoples, past and present. I would like to honor with gratitude the land itself and the Duwamish tribe. We'd like to thank all of our partners here this evening, including the League of Women Voters of Seattle & King County for their support as well. Tonight's in-person show is following numerous COVID precautions. All in-person audience members, volunteers, staff, and candidates have either provided proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test upon entry, and all audience members in attendance are wearing masks. We're excited to be able to live stream this event on Facebook and YouTube. The debate also features questions from our audience members and voters like you. If you're watching the livestream online, you can submit audience questions by going to seattleemerald.com/debate. If you're in-person, you can write audience questions down on the note cards that have been handed out to you - or will soon be handed out to you - that will be picked up partway through the show. Volunteers will collect written questions at 8:00pm, right after the lightning round, and again at 8:30pm. Please keep questions to one question per card. A few reminders before we jump into the debate: I want to remind you all to vote. Ballots will be mailed to your mailbox starting Wednesday, October 19th, and you can vote anytime until election day on Tuesday, November 8th. You can register to vote, update your registration, and see what will be on your ballot at VoteWA.gov - that's VoteWA.gov. I also want to remind you that if you've had a previous felony conviction, your right to vote is now automatically restored after you serve your prison term, even while on community supervision. You do have to re-register to vote, but your right to vote exists. Go to freethevotewa.org for more details, and help spread the word. The candidates running for the 37th Legislative District State Representative Position 2 with us tonight are Emijah Smith and Chipalo Street - and we'll welcome them up to the stage right now as I explain the rules. So tonight's debate will begin with candidate introductions. Each candidate will have one minute to tell us about themselves. After introductions, we will enter a lightning round of yes/no questions, which candidates will answer silently by using paddles that indicate their answer. Just double-checking that you both have your paddles. Excellent, it's going to be a robust lightning round. Following the lightning round - at the end of the lightning round, each candidate will be allowed 90 seconds to explain anything you want to about what your answers were. Following the lightning round, we'll enter into the open answer portion of the debate. Each candidate will have 90 seconds to answer each question. Candidates may be engaged with rebuttal or follow up questions and will have 30 seconds to respond. Times will be indicated by a volunteer holding a sign in the front of the stage - right here. When a candidate has 30 seconds remaining, you will see the yellow "30-second" sign - right there. When a candidate has 10 seconds remaining, you'll see the orange "10-second" sign. And when time is up, the volunteer will hold up the red "STOP" sign, and I will silence the candidate. So now, we'll turn to the candidates who will each have one minute to introduce themselves, starting with Emijah Smith and then Chipalo Street. Emijah? [00:04:51] Emijah Smith: Welcome everyone. Thank you for being here. Thank you to all who are watching through the YouTube streaming. My name is Emijah Smith, please call me 'Mijah. I am raised and rooted in the 37th. I am a mother, I'm a grandmother, and a daughter of this district. Ever since I was a teen, I've been doing advocacy and community organizing - really seeing firsthand in real time that failed War on Drugs that is still continuing now, really seeing the devastation in my community. It was at that time that I said I want to bring healing, restoration, and resources back to the community. So my vision is healthy families and healthy communities, and in doing so, we have to look at multiple issues - prioritizing housing, fully funding education, pre-K, health equity, and really centering racial justice. I just want to highlight very briefly some sole endorsers within the 37th - Senator Saldaña, Girmay Zahilay - our King County Councilmember, Tammy Morales, Andrew Lewis, Kim-Khánh - thank you so much. [00:05:58] Crystal Fincher: Thank you so much. Chipalo Street. [00:06:01] Chipalo Street: Good evening. I'm an innovative problem solver, and I've been giving back to the South Seattle community for 15 years. We have some really pressing issues facing us, and we need to send a proven leader to Olympia to solve them. Housing prices are out of control, and it's displacing generational families and making renters pay more of their paycheck to skyrocketing rents. People are struggling to make ends meet, and the pandemic has only made this worse. The recovery, or so-called recovery from the pandemic, hasn't been felt evenly by all of us, and we need to protect working people so that we all come out of the pandemic better than we went into it. The pandemic's also made our schools worse and exacerbated existing issues. Just recently, Black and Brown kids tested three and a half levels behind their counterparts, and I want to make sure that all kids have a great public education system like the one that I went through. So I'm glad to be here tonight, and I'm honored to discuss how we move this district forward. [00:07:01] Crystal Fincher: Thank you so much. Also, it's a useful reminder that while you do have 90 seconds to answer, you aren't obligated to always take 90 seconds. Feel free to take it if you want to, but you will not be penalized for finishing early if you desire. So now, we will move on to the lightning round - making sure you both have your paddles in hand and ready. All right, we've got a number of questions to go through. So we will start talking about homelessness and housing. First question, are there any instances where you would support sweeps of homeless encampments? Yes or No? Looks like Emijah is waffling there, or landed on No. And we have Chipalo with No. Next question, will you vote to end single-family zoning to address housing affordability? Chipalo says Yes. Emijah says No. Would you vote to end the statewide ban on rent control and let localities decide whether they want to implement it? Emijah says Yes, as does Chipalo. Will you vote in favor of Seattle's social housing initiative, I-135? Both Emijah and Chipalo say Yes. Do you favor putting 400 additional units of housing and services for the unhoused in the CID? We've got a waffle with Emijah and a No with Chipalo. Do you rent your residence? [00:08:52] Chipalo Street: Sorry - as in, do I - am I a renter? [00:08:55] Crystal Fincher: Yes, are you renters? Both say No. Do you own your residence? Mortgage or outright. Chipalo and Emijah both say Yes. Are you a landlord? Emijah says No. Chipalo says Yes. In public safety, would you vote for a law ending long-term solitary confinement? Both say Yes. Would you vote for a law prohibiting traffic stops by armed law enforcement officers for low-level non-moving violations such as vehicle registrations and equipment failure? Both say Yes. Do you support establishing an independent prosecutor for cases of criminal conduct arising from police-involved deaths? Both say Yes. Do you support investments in the ShotSpotter police surveillance tool? Yep, it is in Mayor Harrell's budget that he just announced - so both say Yes. Do you think police should be in schools? Both say No. Would you vote to provide universal health care to every Washington resident? Both say Yes. The Legislature just passed a law that will cap insulin costs at $35 per month. Would you vote to expand price caps to other commonly used drugs? Both say Yes. Will you vote to ensure that trans and non-binary students are allowed to play on the sports teams that fit with their gender identities? Emijah waffled and Chipalo says Yes. [00:10:58] Emijah Smith: I waffle but I say Yes. [00:10:59] Crystal Fincher: Emijah waffles but she says Yes. For people wishing to change their name to match their gender, do you support removing the cost and need to see a judge for legal processing, name changes, and gender marker changes? Both say Yes. Will you vote in favor of an anti-extradition law that protects queer people, including children and their families, who flee to Washington from states where their gender-affirming care is punishable by law? Both candidates say Yes. Will you vote to increase funding for charter schools? Both Emijah and Chipalo say No. Will you vote for continued investments in anti-racism training for staff and students in Washington schools? Both candidates say Yes. Washington is facing a school staffing crisis and a funding crisis, especially with special education. Will you vote to increase funding in both of these areas? Both say Yes. Will you vote to enact a universal basic income in Washington? Both candidates say Yes. Our state has one of the most regressive tax codes in the country, meaning lower-income people pay a higher percentage of their income in taxes than the ultra-wealthy. In addition to the capital gains tax, will you vote for a wealth tax? Both candidates say Yes. Will you vote for any bill that increases highway expansion? Chipalo says Yes and Emijah is waffling. Would you vote to allocate state dollars to help accelerate the delivery of Sound Transit and other regional rail projects? Would you vote to allocate state dollars to help accelerate the delivery of Sound Transit and other regional rail projects? Both candidates say Yes. Will you vote to enact state investments and updating homes with more environmentally friendly utilities? Both say Yes. Have you taken transit in the past week? Chipalo says Yes. Emijah says no. Have you taken transit in the past month? Chipalo says Yes. Emijah says her family has, but not her personally, so that's a No. Elections. Potential changes in the way people vote for elections in the City of Seattle will be on the November ballot. Will you vote in favor of changing the system in Seattle elections? Both candidates say Yes. Will you vote in favor of ranked choice voting for Seattle elections? Both candidates say Yes. Will you vote in favor of approval voting for Seattle elections? You can only vote for one. So both candidates say No. Will you vote to move local elections from odd years to even years to significantly increase voter turnout? Chipalo and Emijah say Yes. In 2021, did you vote for Bruce Harrell? Emijah says Yes. Chipalo says No. In 2021, did you vote for Lorena González? Emijah says No. Chipalo says Yes. Did you vote in the general election in 2021? Emijah says Yes. Chipalo says Yes. In 2021, did you vote for Nicole Thomas-Kennedy for Seattle City Attorney? Emijah and Chipalo say Yes. Will you be voting for Julie Anderson for Secretary of State? Correct - she's running against Steve Hobbs. That is correct. Both candidates say No. Will you be voting for Steve Hobbs for Secretary of State? Both candidates say Yes. Will you be voting for Leesa Manion for King County Prosecutor? Both candidates say Yes. And that means that you will be voting No - you will not be voting Yes for Jim Ferrell. Correct - both candidates will not be voting for Jim Ferrell. Have you ever been a member of a union? Both candidates say Yes. Will you vote to increase funding and staffing for investigations into labor violations like wage theft and illegal union busting? Chipalo and Emijah both say Yes. Have you ever walked on a picket line? Both say Yes. Have you ever crossed a picket line? Both candidates say No. Is your campaign unionized? Both candidates say No. If your campaign staff wants to unionize, will you voluntarily recognize their effort? Both candidates say Yes. That concludes our lightning round. Thank you very much for that - helps to level set for the open-ended questions, but before we get to those, each candidate will have 90 seconds to explain anything you want about any of your answers. We will start with Chipalo. [00:16:40] Chipalo Street: Sure. I think the only one that I would like to explain is expansion of highways. The reason I answered Yes to that is the qualifier of is there any reason that I would do that. In general, no, I do not support the expansion of highways. However, if it is to help freight mobility that helps our unions, then that would be something that I would consider. If it comes back to our economy and helping union jobs, then we should definitely consider that. But in general, no, I would not vote to expand highways. [00:17:10] Crystal Fincher: And Emijah? [00:17:11] Emijah Smith: So I think there was a couple of questions there that I waffled on. And for me, when it comes - because I center racial justice - I'm an anti-racist organizer, I have to always look at what are the unintentional consequences of any decisions that's made. So there's this yes or no - we have to bring context into the conversation. So if it unintentionally or intentionally causes more inequities and more harm to people of color and those marginalized, I have to look more deeply into that before I could just say a quick, simple yes or no. So I just want to share why there might have been a waffle there. And also, if I don't fully understand something and I need to learn a little bit more and lean into community organizations and lean into the community - we talked about the ID - that's a very diverse community, they're not a monolith. So if there's an issue that's happening in the ID, I need to lean and learn from that community before I just make a decision as a legislator to do so. So I definitely - my style, my servant leadership is definitely to listen from community, learn from community, and be accountable to community. So I don't just do yes or no. Thank you. [00:18:13] Crystal Fincher: Thank you. So now we'll start the open answers portion. Our candidates will get 90 seconds to answer each question and they may be engaged with rebuttal or follow up questions and will have 30 seconds to respond. So starting out - in the Dobbs decision that obliterated the right to abortion - in Justice Thomas's concurring opinion, he identified decisions he felt should be re-evaluated after their ruling in Dobbs, cases that established our right to same-sex marriage, rights to contraception, and rights to sexual privacy. What can our State Legislature do to proactively protect these rights? Emijah? [00:18:55] Emijah Smith: Thank you for the question. And I definitely do not agree with the decision that was made. I think as state legislators and state leaders that we have to go directly and correct our Constitution to prevent these type of things from happening. Washington does a lot of talk. I think that our community, particularly in the 37th, is really intentional about our racial equity and about equity overall and fairness and all the great words. But we have to be actionable about that. And so putting something in the written language in our Constitution, we have to move in that direction. And I believe that our legislature for this 2023 session will be centering and very active around the Roe v. Wade and the Dobbs decision. [00:19:36] Crystal Fincher: Thank you. Chipalo? [00:19:38] Chipalo Street: Yeah, what I found interesting about Justice Thomas's dissent or concurrence was that he did not also include same or biracial marriage into his writing, even though that is based on the same logic of the other cases. Ironically, he is in a multiracial marriage. So the hypocrisy there, I don't think is lost on anyone. And I'm a product of a multiracial marriage - and so making sure that these rights are protected is deeply important to me. In terms of gay marriage, I am glad that we have a strong legislature and that passed marriage equality. In terms of Roe, I think we should fund clinics to take care of the increased traffic that we'll see in our state from the states that have - around us - that have banned abortion. I have background in technology. I would love to make sure that our data isn't used to go after people searching abortions or providing abortions. There's plenty of providers who provide telehealth. And if they are consulting with someone across state lines into a state that has banned abortion, I would be super scared about whether I could be sued, whether my data could be subpoenaed, if I could lose my license. And so making sure that we protect our data and protect our providers, I think, is paramount. Also making sure that we have security around our clinics - just as we'll have more traffic from people looking for abortions, we'll have more traffic from people protesting abortions. So those are some of the things that I would do to protect gay rights and the women's reproductive rights. [00:21:12] Crystal Fincher: And I just want to circle back to one thing for both of you in a 30-second rebuttal. Specifically when it comes to contraception, is there anything that strikes either of you - we'll start with Emijah - that you think the Legislature could do to help ensure and guarantee access and availability? [00:21:31] Emijah Smith: Well, definitely education. I definitely think that we need to ensure and continue to make sure that we're educating our youth in schools and making - contraception needs to be available. It needs to be available to all birthing parents, but we also need to make sure that we are including and not fighting to have education for our youth to understand sex education. And so that's been a big deal before the Roe V Wade issue had came up, so I'm a supporter of making sure our families are talking to each other, because this is a family issue. It's not just a woman's issue. It's not just anyone's issue. It's an issue about our bodies and our rights of what we want to do. [00:22:06] Crystal Fincher: Thank you. Thank you very much. And Chipalo? [00:22:08] Chipalo Street: Yeah, I agree. Education is a big part of this. Funding is also another part. Making sure that contraception is available to anyone who wants it. Making sure that preventative medications like PrEP is available to anyone who wants it as well - that goes a little bit past reproductive rights and into sexual rights for our folks, but making sure that it's just available to everyone, I think, is very important. [00:22:31] Crystal Fincher: Thank you very much. Next question. What will you do when you're - [00:22:35] Emijah Smith: We need some call and response in here - this is, you know - [00:22:40] Crystal Fincher: What'd you say? [00:22:40] Emijah Smith: I need some call and response. We in the 37th, we are very diverse - this is how we move, so I'm just - go ahead, sorry. [00:22:48] Crystal Fincher: What will you do in your capacity as a state legislator to help small local businesses? Chipalo? [00:22:55] Chipalo Street: So, I'm a small business owner myself and I understand the problems of balancing books, the stress that the pandemic has put on different small business owners. And so - number one, making sure that when we look around at other types of businesses - like we have incubators for tech businesses, we have incubators in high-tech businesses. Why don't we have incubators for smaller businesses, for communities of color? Access to capital is one of the issues that holds businesses back - where I think we saw in the video - the guy who founded WeWork completely did a scam and then got another $350 million to go start Lord knows what. So making sure that we have access to capital in community is really important. Working with organizations like Tabor 100, who provide incubation-type services is really important. And then working to make sure that our communities foster businesses - so for example, businesses that are in walkable and bikeable areas get more traffic. Not only will that increase business to those businesses, it will also get us towards a greener climate future if we have an environment and community that encourages us to get out of single-occupancy vehicles. [00:24:11] Crystal Fincher: Thank you. Emijah? [00:24:11] Emijah Smith: Thank you. I am a member of Tabor 100. And one thing I've learned - I've been a member for a number of years - is oftentimes the resources only go to a couple of places, right? So a lot of our small businesses are pop-ups. So a lot of, even through COVID, the money that's coming from the federal government or from our local government agencies are not making it to the small businesses. Similar to what Chipalo was saying, you need capital to even get a loan, but also the money that was coming to support the businesses, it wasn't reaching those businesses. It seems like the same million dollar companies, people who always were getting the money kept getting the money. And also, when I think about the displacement that's happening in our community, I would like to see some restrictions or some policy that is not targeting our small businesses in neighborhoods or communities that have been historically gentrified and displaced. Similarly like the Central District, but all throughout the 37th - all the constant building could be harming - it has harmed our communities, most marginalized, but it also, in some ways, makes it harder for them to start up and rebuild. So there's education and awareness. Sometimes small businesses do not find out about the funding until it's too late. And so I'm hearing from business owners all the time about they're seeing, they feel like it's a scam. They feel like even though they've had some opportunity to try to start something up in cOVID, that it's gonna go away. It's gonna be the same old, same old people getting it all the time, the same status quo. So we gotta figure something out. We have some small business owners here in the neighborhood. Even in my campaign, I learned, the small businesses cannot unionize because it costs so much money. We should be figuring out a way to make sure our small businesses can get themselves the access in the door. [00:25:49] Crystal Fincher: And that is time. [00:25:50] Emijah Smith: You said we can keep going. It wasn't a penalty, correct? [00:25:53] Crystal Fincher: No, the red is stop. [00:25:55] Emijah Smith: Okay. [00:25:56] Crystal Fincher: You get a 10-second sign. That 10-second sign is like, okay, we gotta wrap up. [00:26:00] Emijah Smith: Well, thank you very much. That's call and response. I just want to say that I definitely value our small businesses. I stay aware and I try to stay connected as much as possible. And I would do any and everything I could in my role as a legislator to make sure that those investments are being made in our small business community, particularly the 37th and people of color. Thank you. [00:26:18] Crystal Fincher: Okay. Chipalo. [00:26:21] Chipalo Street: Oh, sorry. Do we - I think we took a fair amount of time. [00:26:24] Crystal Fincher: Oh, yeah, we just did. Sorry. [00:26:25] Chipalo Street: I didn't necessarily have a rebuttal there. [00:26:26] Crystal Fincher: Okay. Next question. Washington State has seen an explosion of traffic violence in the last two years with an extraordinarily disparate impact on those who live in our districts - the 37th district. For example, there are major Sound Transit investments coming online in the district at Judkins Park that are surrounded by unsafe freeway entrances on Rainier Avenue. It's not if, but when that folks in the 37th will be injured or killed by cars at that station entrance. And I should clarify, this is an audience question submitted before. What will you do as a member of the legislature to ensure that our streets are safe for pedestrians and cyclists? Emijah? [00:27:07] Emijah Smith: I appreciate that question. Living here in the 37th, living here near MLK where the light rail has been placed on top, when the community organized to have that light rail put underground. And the community won that fight, but with promises of housing and business investments and all the things that did not happen from Sound Transit, we have it on top. And so there's been - I see, oftentimes, those accidents. I see those fatalities. My heart goes out to the family of the mother who was killed at the Mount Baker station. I knew her before she was a mother. So these things are near and dear to my heart. When I think about traffic safety, I think that we have the data - Sound Transit does. They have the data that we should be - as things are being built and created, they should be co-designed with community, and then we should be making decisions while we're implementing these light rail stations, these new highways, whatever, it's not a highway, but these new ramps. All that should be taken into consideration in the beginning because the lives that are being lost mainly are BIPOC lives, Black and Indigenous people. And so our lives are being sacrificed for something that we never even asked for here in South Seattle. But I also want to think about traffic safety. I think about when our young Black men, who are the most targeted to even get on Sound Transit, being harassed because they're looking for ID or for payment - that to me is a safety issue. That's why oftentimes you may see me driving or driving my children somewhere because it's a safety issue because they may be harassed by the police, as well as those who tend to cycle. [00:28:41] Crystal Fincher: That is time. [00:28:42] Emijah Smith: Thank you. [00:28:43] Crystal Fincher: I just want to double check just to be clear. So we got that yellow 30-second sign, the orange one - okay. [00:28:50] Emijah Smith: Thank you. [00:28:51] Crystal Fincher: Cool. Chipalo. [00:28:53] Chipalo Street: So bike and pedestrian safety is something that I lived on a daily basis. Before the pandemic, I tried to bike to work from the CD all the way to Microsoft two times a week. And that exposed me to some very nice bike trails, but also some very dangerous streets. And so if I'm elected into the legislature, I would want to make sure that we have a comprehensive network of connectivity. So regardless of what type of transportation network it is, it needs to be connected. We built a monorail from downtown to the stadium - like Climate Pledge - that doesn't do much. For a long time, our two streetcar networks weren't interconnected, which means people didn't want to use it. So we need to make sure that all of our infrastructure is connected. We need to invest in bike transit and infrastructure. And this is particularly important to the 37th, because we have two of the most dangerous streets in Rainier Ave and MLK Way, 40% of the injuries there are pedestrian. And I think this is a place where we can, I mentioned before, find a win-win with business, because businesses that are in bikeable and pedestrian-friendly areas get more business. So I believe this is a way that we can build a coalition around fixing the problem of safe streets in the 37th. And it's also an issue for our kids, because we have 10 or 11 schools that are on both of those two most dangerous streets. So we can make sure that our kids are safer today as well. [00:30:22] Crystal Fincher: Thank you very much. Next question. One of the biggest things we can do publicly to fight the spread of all airborne illnesses, including COVID and the cold and flu, as well as protect against poor air quality days because of wildfires - which we've seen over the past few weeks - is to improve ventilation and filtration in public buildings. What will you do to ensure that public buildings, including schools in the 37th district, meet recommended air circulation and filtration standards for good health? Chipalo? [00:30:57] Chipalo Street: To me, that sounds like a question - if I could be appointed to the Capital Budget, where we have the power to change our physical infrastructure. I would love to set aside money for that. When I look at committee assignments, we can start all the great programs that we want, but if we don't fund them correctly, they will not have the desired outcome. So making sure that whoever comes from this district gets put on Appropriations or gets put on Capital Budget is really important so that we can bring the money back to the district to make sure that it is used in community to make us better. [00:31:30] Crystal Fincher: Thank you. Emijah? [00:31:32] Emijah Smith: Thank you. In my experience being in Olympia, we can make the decision. So Senator Saldaña, of course, is leading the HEAL Act - that's an environmental justice issue, but it's about implementation. So it's easy - it's one thing to put in a law, then you do have to fund the law, but you also have to implement it. So when it comes down to the other municipalities locally, sometimes they're stuck. So we have to make sure we're following the legislation all the way down to the community or to the district that you want and make sure that it's being implemented in a way, in a timely fashion as well - not three years, four years, five years down the line, but immediately. That should be part of the planning. So of course we have to fund it, but if we're not able to implement it, it's just words. So I would like, in my leadership role, is to make sure that there's language in the bill that makes it more accessible to our municipalities so that they can actually do something about it. If you put in the bill and it can't be ambiguous, it needs to be really focused and maybe restricted funding to air quality in the schools, rather than just saying, Here's some money to your school for air quality. Because they'll use that money any way that they choose to use it if the legislature does not direct them with restricted funding. So I would target it. Thank you. [00:32:48] Chipalo Street: Can I provide an example of how we would do that? [00:32:51] Crystal Fincher: I will give you both 30 seconds to rebut. Go ahead, Chipalo. [00:32:53] Chipalo Street: So a good example of how we can do that and how that has been built into some of the laws that have been passed is - recently, we passed the cap and trade bill. And one of the things I liked about that bill is that it built equity into it, so 30% of the funds that are created from the cap and trade go back to investment in BIPOC communities and an additional 10% go into investment in our Native nations. So that is a source of revenue that we could use to improve air quality in our schools and I think aligns to the point of that funding. [00:33:26] Crystal Fincher: Thank you. Emijah? [00:33:28] Emijah Smith: Yeah, my follow-up with that would be - I just want to also say I'm solely endorsed by the Washington Conservation Voters. So they're looking at this issue across - and so I would definitely, again, lean into the organizations and to the leaders to help direct being a servant leader into doing this work. But nevertheless, what I have found in my experience - when there's a law passed - it takes the community to still apply the pressure on the entities and organizations to make something happen. So I have that experience, that organizing experience, and building those partnerships on the ground level to make sure it's being implemented. Because once they move it from the state, the state lets their hands go. So they need more guidance and direction, and that direction needs to come from community. Thank you. [00:34:09] Crystal Fincher: Thank you very much. Next question. How will people tangibly feel your impact as their legislator? What is one concrete thing that people will be able to see is different by the end of your term should you be elected? Emijah? [00:34:28] Emijah Smith: So are you asking what has been done already or what you plan to do going forward? [00:34:31] Crystal Fincher: No - if you are elected, what will people see is different by the end of your term than it is right now? [00:34:38] Emijah Smith: I think people will continue to see - at least for me - they'll see a continuation of the work. It's not something I'll start to do, it's something I will continue to do. So first and foremost, I think, doing racially justice-centered justice reform work - and that's all interconnected. So when I think about our healthcare and the doulas, the doulas have been seen as a medical profession led by Kirsten Harris-Talley, but we need to put money in the budget to make sure that they're being reimbursed for their services. I think in these two years - that you will see that that definitely happens. My granddaughter was born during COVID. My daughter almost lost her life during that birth. It is a well-known fact that Black women are three times as likely to lose their life during childbirth. So having a doula, having somebody there with culturally relevant care will make sure that the lives are not being lost. In addition to that, I am a board member of the Tubman Health Center - this is another place - making sure that we have capital investments to make sure that we create a clinic that is going to center Black and Indigenous community and bring culturally relevant care, and that will also serve our LGBTQ community. That's something that you will see, I believe, and I strongly believe within the next two years as a representative, if I am honored to earn your vote. Thank you. [00:36:00] Crystal Fincher: Thank you. Chipalo? [00:36:03] Chipalo Street: So technology has been changing our lives from the way we communicate, to the way we move about the city, to how we get health care, or even go about banking. And I'm excited to bring my expertise in the tech industry to make sure that technology opens doors for all of us, but also prevent technology from rolling back the rights that we have. So I mentioned earlier that one of the first things I would do is work to make sure that our data is protected so that it can't be used to go for people looking for abortions or providing abortions - that is something I would start with. And then continue to do the work that I have done in the tech space. When I got out to Seattle, I volunteer taught computer science at a school in South Seattle. We started with a Intro to Computer Science program and then over six years built it up to an Advanced Placement program. So I would make sure that we distribute the wealth of tech to make sure that everyone in this community can take part in the industry that's been changing our region. The 37th has also been a strong supporter of kinship care, and so I would build on the work that Eric Pettigrew has done to make sure that kinship care and kinship providers are funded at the same rate as a foster care parent. [00:37:12] Emijah Smith: May I follow up? [00:37:13] Crystal Fincher: You may. I'll give you both 30 seconds to follow up. [00:37:16] Emijah Smith: Thank you. I, first and foremost, want to say that I would love to learn the school that you served, 'cause I think that's a wonderful thing that you've done. But just being a resident in the 37th and living in South Seattle for a number of years, it's important for me to know what school you're mentioning. Also with regard to kinship care, I've held relationships throughout the years with our grandmothers for taking care of their kids every single day. And so there has been a gap of care and service for our kinship care program once Representative, our former representative, Eric Pettigrew had stepped back. [00:37:50] Crystal Fincher: And that is time. [00:37:50] Emijah Smith: So I've been in relationship with the community and I am definitely going to continue to serve that community. Thank you. [00:37:56] Crystal Fincher: Chipalo? [00:37:57] Chipalo Street: So the school is Technology Access Foundation - it was started by Trish. When I was working there, it started on Rainier Ave - right on Rainier and Genesee - and now they have bought a building down a little farther south in South Seattle. So it is a very well-known technology - [00:38:14] Emijah Smith: It's not a school. [00:38:14] Chipalo Street: Excuse me? [00:38:15] Emijah Smith: It's not a school. [00:38:16] Chipalo Street: Technology Access Foundation is a school. Technology Access Academy is the school. [00:38:21] Emijah Smith: Yeah, it's not in South Seattle. And actually they started right up here. [00:38:24] Chipalo Street: It started on Rainier Ave. [00:38:26] Emijah Smith: But - [00:38:26] Crystal Fincher: Let's allow Chipalo to complete his answer. [00:38:28] Emijah Smith: Okay. [00:38:29] Chipalo Street: So, okay - [00:38:29] Emijah Smith: I just wanted - [00:38:29] Chipalo Street: Technology Access Foundation is the foundation that started Technology Access foundation Academy, which is a school that started on Rainier Ave - which is in the 37th - and then was moved down farther south, which is still South Seattle, and serves people who have been displaced in the 37th. So it is still serving our community. I served there for six years, which is a long time, to go from a start of an Intro to Computer Science to an Advanced Placement Computer Science program. [00:38:58] Emijah Smith: I just want to - [00:38:58] Crystal Fincher: And we'll call that at time, and that is the rebuttal time that is there - [00:39:00] Emijah Smith: Okay, but they're not a school though and my daughter went to TAF Academy -. [00:39:03] Crystal Fincher: Emijah, please respect the time limits. [00:39:06] Emijah Smith: We're going to center time, or we're going to center the issues that are really in the 37th. I live in the 37th. I raised my daughter here next door. [00:39:13] Crystal Fincher: I have a question from a resident in the 37th that I'm going to ask. [00:39:16] Emijah Smith: Okay, I'll be respectful, but I also want us to bring - let's bring the real issues forward. [00:39:21] Crystal Fincher: So how would you help address the affordable housing crisis? Starting with Chipalo. [00:39:27] Chipalo Street: So when I think about housing, I think about three buckets of issues. This is something that we hear at every door when we go out and canvass. We were just talking to an elderly gentleman who is part of - he was a state employee, and so he has one of the oldest pensions, but we have not funded that pension so that he cannot keep up with the rising housing prices. So when I think of housing, I think of how do we stop harm, how do we get more units on the market, and how do we tide ourselves to the way there. So stopping harm looks like anti-displacement measures, so making sure that seniors can afford the rising taxes, making sure that - right now what we have is we allow seniors to defer taxes, but once they die, then they have to pay all of those back taxes, which essentially forces a family to sell the house, unless you have $10,000, $15,000, $20,000 lying around. We also need to increase renter protections - landlords can do some crazy things. Even though I'm a landlord myself, I live that business through progressive values, so we can't allow felons to be disqualified from having housing. I have a tenant who's a felon, he's one of my best tenants. We should lift the ban on rental control, we should - rent control statewide. We should limit the types of fees that a landlord can charge their tenants. In terms of long-term measures, we need to invest in low-income housing through the Housing Trust Fund. We need to figure out something about workforce housing because even two teachers who are underpaid already - if they're living together, they can't afford housing in the district - and we need to invest in mass transit to increase density around it to get us towards a greener climate future and have more houses. [00:41:04] Crystal Fincher: Thank you. Emijah? [00:41:05] Emijah Smith: Thank you. So what I've been doing and currently been doing is really - with community members, locked arms, going to Olympia, going to our state-level Washington Housing and Finance Commission - and demanding that they release the funds in our community. So what I have done with community, because it's a team effort, is to release the funds to make sure Africatown Plaza has been funded. Community development for us by us - the Elizabeth Thomas Homes of Rainier Beach, the Ethiopian Village here in South Seattle - these are all housing developments - low-income, stable housing opportunities in the 37th. That's one thing. The second thing is - I agree - lift the ban on rent control on the state level. Number two is definitely providing increasing - no, lowering the income level for seniors to qualify for these tax deferments. I've talked to multiple seniors who are living on Social Security and who cannot qualify for King County's tax exemptions or deferments, and so that's a hardship on our seniors. In addition to that, I do agree with middle housing, but what I want to see is that we're not continuing to displace community as we're bringing more density in. We need to be more equitable and look at the houses in the communities on the north side of the Montlake Bridge - let them carry some of the weight of some of the housing developments, because what we don't want to do is continue to keep displacing folks. But I've been doing the real work - I sit on coalitions that are looking to remove the barriers for felons or any person who's just trying to rent. But rent should not be our goal - home ownership is the goal in order to create generational wealth. Thank you. [00:42:41] Crystal Fincher: Thank you very much. Next question - from the audience. What is the State Legislature's role and responsibility on digital equity and addressing the digital divide? Emijah? [00:42:54] Emijah Smith: This is a multi-pronged question or answer and solution, because it's around making sure that our kids' education is fully funded. Because in order to close the digital divide, which I have done and supported as a co-convener of the Black Community Impact Alliance. We have just recently did our open house in the William Grose Center - that is a hub to make sure that we have a think tank and provide opportunities for our youth for the tech world. But that took community building, going to the City's office to get the land transferred - that took organizing. It also means you have to make sure that our children are prepared for kindergarten and making sure their reading and their math is on par at third grade. Making sure our freshmen are finishing their freshman year. So really being an advocate in Seattle Public Schools, making sure the strategic plan and the resources are going to those furthest from educational justice. That's what I do in real time. But the William Grose Center is what the community locked arms and myself as a leadership on co-convening the Black Community Impact Alliance - that's what we've done for the digital divide. And my children have benefited from the opportunities from coding, from change makers, from all the different things that our public schools do not offer. And our school system needs to be fully funded, particularly making sure those who are receiving special education services get a real opportunity - because you can't close the divide if you're dropping out of school or they're sending our kids to prison. You can't get the opportunity if you're not graduating. So that's my goal - is to make sure that we're fully funding our education and utilizing our education system and doing community building at the same time to make sure we're closing this. Thank you. [00:44:32] Crystal Fincher: Thank you very much. Chipalo? [00:44:35] Chipalo Street: Yeah, I agree. There's a ton that we can do for education. I'll speak specifically about what we can do to close the digital divide. It's crazy to think that more than 50% of our students aren't competent in math and sciences - that is just plain scary. And we have to change that. And that's in high school. And so we have to make sure that we improve our STEM education. We have to make sure that we do public-private partnerships to bring tech education into our junior highs and high schools. It's an embarrassment that we have so many resources here in this area, but yet our tech education lags behind many other places in the country and the world. When we also look at STEM and tech, we can't only afford to have people getting a good job out of tech. We need multiple ways for people to get good jobs. So to me, that looks like creating pipelines to the trades. For too long, we've sort of said, Oh, you went into the trades because you can't hack college. No, you went into the trades maybe because you like to work with your hands, or you want a job that can't get offshored, or you want dependable hours - two of my best friends went through four-year college, got jobs, hated them, came back, became journeymen electricians, get paid more than those jobs that they had going to college. One's about to start a business. And so making sure that the trades are a respected option for our kids is important, just like it should be an option to go into technology. And then we should also fund free two-year college. Free four-year college is great - we should definitely get there. However, we need to start with free two-year college, just like the Seattle Promise, because 50% of Seattle graduating seniors applied for that, and 1,000 took part in it. [00:46:09] Crystal Fincher: Thank you very much. [00:46:10] Emijah Smith: Can I follow-up? [00:46:11] Crystal Fincher: I'll give you 30 seconds each for a rebuttal - go ahead. [00:46:13] Emijah Smith: Thank you. I just wanted to also add - on the state level - that determines the college-bound scholarship money, right? And right now, it's saying you need to have at least a 2.7 GPA - it keeps going up every year. But also is saying that a young person cannot have a felony on their record. And so I really, truly want to get that removed, because how are we going to expect our youth to graduate and get to these opportunities, but we're already setting them back because they made a mistake? And we understand the brain science and the development there is that their brains are not fully matured. So we're kind of setting them up for failure, so that's another place I would like to work on. [00:46:49] Crystal Fincher: Thank you - Chipalo? [00:46:50] Chipalo Street: She's right. And it shouldn't only be our youth, it should be our brothers and sisters getting out of jail. We should not be limiting the professional licenses that people getting out of jail can attain. And then we should also make sure that University of Washington is funded with the Allen School. We have great resources there - or teachers and staff - but we don't have the resources to scale it out the way we would like to. [00:47:13] Crystal Fincher: Thank you. Another audience question. Crime has been increasing across the state, and people are concerned about their safety and whether the right things are being done to address current levels of property and violent crime. Given that the Legislature has already voted to increase public safety funding, largely devoted to policing and prisons, do you feel that we need to invest more in that area, or would you also take a different approach? And we are starting with Chipalo. [00:47:45] Chipalo Street: So I think we need to think about public safety comprehensively as more than just police. This is something that is near and dear to my heart. When I was at Brown, we had an open campus - me and my best friend were walking around campus onto a public street and Brown police came and asked me and my friend for our IDs. I didn't do anything wrong, so I continued to walk. My friend stopped, told him who I was, showed him his ID, but that didn't stop Brown police from calling out for backup. Providence police got that call, caught up with me and beat me so badly that they had to take me to the hospital before they took me to jail. Despite that experience, I still think police are part of public safety, but we have to be able to hold the police force accountable, or we're not going to have trust with the police force. I want to work with them to make sure that we set them up for success, so that we are sending a mental health counselor out to mental health crises - because they are trained to deal with these situations - and the person receiving a service will get a better service than sending three or four cops. We don't need cops in schools, we need counselors in schools. And so I think if we think more comprehensively about public safety, then we'll get better outcomes for the community and a better relationship with the police force. We should also fund like violence preventer programs. We should get guns off the streets - one of the sad things about gun violence prevention is that there are very, very common sense gun laws that 60, 70, 80 percent of people agree on. However, federal legislators can't get their act together, so we need to make sure that those laws pass here in our state. [00:49:14] Crystal Fincher: Thank you. Emijah? [00:49:16] Emijah Smith: Thank you. When I think about public safety, I think about community safety - it's not just a conversation just about what the police are doing in community. It's also about how does the community feel safe - with the police. So there has to be an accountability conversation. So on the King County Community Safety Violence Prevention Task Force that I've served on, really it came down - of all their research and all their conversations and co-design - it really came down to families needing their basic needs met. Housing, education, food security, the basic needs - they believe that that's what it's gonna take to really bring prevention. So our state has already been working at some things with regard to guns and taking, looking at how many bullets, a clip - I don't know, got so many words coming - reducing how many bullets that you can have. I think that we need to make sure that every person who gets a gun needs to have a class - similar, if you want to get your driver's license, you need to learn how to drive - we need to learn how to use a firearm. You also need to make sure that it is locked up. Again, I am solely endorsed by the Alliance for Gun Responsibility. So community safety, also - we need to look at the funding that's coming from the State Department - so there's federal money that was brought down to the state, they've started a new division. We need to work with that division to make sure that it's meaningful in the 37th, because the 37th has different issues. We're not looking at machine guns and going into the schools in that way. What we're looking at is handguns that we gotta get removed and get them off the street. Thank you. [00:50:53] Crystal Fincher: Thank you very much. Next question - from the audience. Washington State funds only about half of what Seattle Public Schools spends on special education and only about one-third of what Seattle Public Schools spends on multilingual education. What is your commitment to fully fund public schools, particularly special education and multilingual education, and how would you get that done? Starting with Emijah. [00:51:20] Emijah Smith: We gotta get out, we gotta go on the state level, we have to be loud and proud, and we have to make sure that the funding is fully funded. Of course, special education is not being resourced. Our special education students tend to be the main students that are getting pushed into the prison pipeline. So I am definitely gonna be loud and proud up there to make sure that that occurs, because we can't waver there. But Seattle Public Schools is also advocating to our state legislators right now, because the issue is that there was a tweak in the formula - that Seattle Public Schools is not getting as much money that it needs, but we also want to make sure our teachers are getting livable wages. And so it's coming to a point that if something's not addressed and more funding doesn't come into the education system, then maybe the public education here at Seattle Public Schools may falter. They're not sure what to do, teachers may go onto a strike. So we will have to figure it out, and we're gonna have to figure it out without taking away our children's basic needs - we should not be taking healthcare out of our schools, we should not be taking our social workers and mental health counselors away from our students. We have to do all the things, and we just have to figure it out and get creative. There are some great leaders there around education, but I'm a fierce advocate as well, and I don't think we should leave any student behind, especially those who are receiving special education services. Thank you. [00:52:34] Crystal Fincher: Thank you. Chipalo? [00:52:35] Chipalo Street: So currently there's a funding cap on how much Seattle Public Schools gets reimbursed for special education funding, and if we were to remove that, Seattle Public Schools would get another $100 million that it would be able to put towards that. That is just a start. We - McCleary got us closer to funding education, but we do not fully fund it, and this becomes a revenue issue. Washington State has the most regressive tax code in the whole country, despite how progressive and liberal that we claim we are. We need to make sure that every corporation and person pays their fair share - so that looks like closing corporate tax loopholes, making sure that we keep our capital gains tax, which is - the revenue from that is used to fund early education, which is a necessary part of the education system - and then also implementing a wealth tax. Personally, I would prefer an income tax because an income tax is - you can withhold that. It's been tried before, we know how to implement that - however, there are constitutional issues with that. So in lieu of an income tax, we should be able to try a billionaire tax. And the thing that gives me hope is while things get stymied on the federal level, we've seen localities and states try out new things, and so maybe this is something that we can pilot here in the state, and at the end of the day, a billionaire tax and an income tax aren't mutually exclusive. We can still work towards an income tax, even if we have a billionaire tax. [00:53:58] Emijah Smith: May I follow-up? [00:53:59] Crystal Fincher: Yep. You each can have 30 seconds. [00:54:02] Emijah Smith: Thank you. What I want to share is that our community - I agree - Washington has the worst tax setup and structure. And we have been, in Washington State, been trying to bring forth initiatives multiple times to the state to address this issue so that we can make our wealth more equitable. And our community members and residents and citizens have been voting it down. So I'm thinking with this inflation, with the impact of COVID - but now it could be a really great time that more of our citizens and our residents will see that this is really necessary and will vote in their best interest instead of voting it away. Thank you. As well as our legislators making a move in our best interest. [00:54:43] Crystal Fincher: Chipalo? [00:54:45] Chipalo Street: I'm good. [00:54:46] Crystal Fincher: Thank you very much. Next question. What is your connection to unincorporated Skyway? If elected, how will you support the development and investment in this neighborhood? Starting with Chipalo. [00:55:00] Chipalo Street: So if I was to be elected for this State Rep position, I would basically be one of three elected representatives for Skyway. So Skyway is unincorporated - that means it does not have a city council person to whom they can go for local issues. That basically means that myself, Representative Santos, Senator Saldaña and Councilman Zahilay would be the elected representatives for that area. So I would love to work with them in partnership to understand what development needs they would like to see. It was great to see that we went through a community budgeting process where folks were able to actually vote on how money was spent. And so supporting community involvement in how money is spent, making sure that we can advocate to get money set aside for Skyway because we know that it is not going to come through the City of Seattle, it's not going to come through the City of Renton. Those would be the ways that I would partner with the community to make sure that we develop it in a way that the community members see fit. [00:56:00] Crystal Fincher: Thank you. [00:56:01] Emijah Smith: Thank you. I love that question - yeah. So I'm connected with Skyway for the simple fact that I shop at Grocery Outlet, I get my taxes done over there, I patron the restaurants over there. My mom has recently moved, but had lived there for about 15 years - family's there, people use the post office there, banking there, utilizing the library there - Skyway is my community. And so that's my relationship. Second part to that question is - again, part of being Chief of Staff with King County Equity Now and just having relationships in that community - making sure that we got money from the state level to support Petah Village - early learning development, and also just the new outside - door - preschool, right? There's leadership there, there's expertise there, there's churches there, there's a nail shop - there's all the things that are near and dear to my heart, to be honest. That community is mine - not mine, but it's shared. I was on the Community Investment Budget Committee for King County's participatory budgeting to make sure that money was stored in a way that was definitely led by community members and getting the input from community members to see how they want to move that and looking to make sure that King County does it again in the future. So that was $10 million. We had a celebration about a few weeks ago, naming the projects that were funded. So yeah, this is near and dear to my heart - has been neglected, Skyway has been ignored. I'm thankful to King County Councilmember Girmay Zahilay, another sole endorser, for the leadership that he's had there, as well as Senator Saldaña, KHT - Kirsten Harris - I gotta stop, but all the legislators who have been pouring into that district. And let me shout out to Cynthia Green Home there - Center. [00:57:45] Crystal Fincher: Thank you very much. Another audience question. Will you use your position at elected office to uplift more progressive voices in the office? And that question goes to Emijah. [00:58:01] Emijah Smith: Will you repeat that please? [00:58:03] Crystal Fincher: Will you use your position in elected office to uplift more voices into office, and how will you do that? [00:58:09] Emijah Smith: Yes, most definitely. I see this opportunity as being a bridge builder, right? If I'm in Olympia, you'll have a space in Olympia. The work that I've done over the years has definitely been providing workshops, not only in my professional capacity but in my personal capacity, to make sure that our everyday people understand how a bill becomes a law, right? Also the nuances - how to effectively communicate with your legislators - how do I go into those spaces and really center racial justice, knowing that I am a descendant of stolen ones in this country? I can't go into those spaces and just talk A, B. I have to go in there and really give them the nuances, the impact of what it means to be a Black mother in this community and navigating these systems. So I share that expertise and I share that knowledge with others, as well as being a pTSA president - always constantly talking to families about how they can strengthen their partnerships with their teachers, strengthen their partnerships with their principals. That's just the natural work that I do. So in order to be successful in this role, I need the community to come along with me. I need y'all to be the wind behind my back and be in locked arms. That space is our space. That's my plan - if I'm there, they comin'. [00:59:18] Crystal Fincher: Thank you very much. [00:59:19] Emijah Smith: Thank you. [00:59:19] Crystal Fincher: Chipalo? [00:59:21] Chipalo Street: For sure. Building a pipeline of people to come after is something that I've always done in everything that I've done. So for example, when I got to Brown, I noticed that the pre-med students had a great support group to help other students of color get through pre-med, but we did not have that in the engineering. So I restarted our chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers so that we had a community to not only get us through, but also pull in the next class of freshmen and sophomores to get them through. I've continued to do that in Seattle. I serve on the board of a program called Institute for a Democratic Future where the goal is to increase the Democratic Party across the state. I loved that program when I went through it, but one of the reasons I joined the board was to make sure that we had more equity in the fellows and the board members. And in my six years, we have dramatically changed what the class makeup looks like, both racially but also geographically, so that we have a stronger Democratic Party across the state so that we can win in every district. And then on the board itself, we have drastically increased the number of people of color and women of color on the board. And we actually now have our first woman of color who is the Board Chair. So this is something that I've been doing in all aspects of my life - even at Microsoft, equity was a huge thing for me. I required that we interview a person of color or underrepresented minority for every opening on the team that I led, and we ended with a team of 40% people of color or underrepresented minorities. So yes, I would continue to do that in Olympia. [01:00:55] Crystal Fincher: Thank you. [01:00:55] Emijah Smith: Follow up, please. [01:00:57] Crystal Fincher: You can have 30 seconds - yes. [01:00:58] Emijah Smith: Yes - I also wanted to just include that - in my organizing and advocacy work, it's definitely bringing the youth along. My children have been in Olympia with me since they were in preschool - up there advocating for better school lunches - really understanding that process and understanding that they too, at one point, will be there in a leadership role. So I wanted to also include - it's not just - families include the children and includes the elders in that space. Thank you. [01:01:25] Crystal Fincher: Thank you. Next question. What is the most important climate legislation that should be passed by Washington in the legislature? And what climate organizations will you partner with to make that happen? Starting with Chipalo. [01:01:43] Chipalo Street: So I am glad that we have passed cap and trade. I think the next hurdle there is to implement cap and trade, especially the equity measures around the money that is brought in through the tax on carbon. So making sure that we implement that holistically - and groups that I'd work with are folks like Washington Conservation Voters, Sierra Club, the Environmental Climate Caucus - those are all groups that understand what's going on and can provide guidance and have been working to move this legislation through Olympia for multiple years. I'm also glad to see that the HEAL Act passed - and one of the things I loved about the HEAL Act is that it specifically called out that we need to gather data. As a scientist, I have a background in using data to address problems and for too long we've just sort of waved o

The Gamblers shoot the shit and discuss the number of items seen recently at the Grocery Outlet that have been featured on the show.

We're alive, but BARELY. The Charcuterie Boys had a helluva two weeks. The wedding heard round the world + their annual charity golf tournament. Grocery Outlet is opening a new location in Long Beach. Mystery gift cards to the first 100 customers in the store. The Aquarium of Long Beach releases endangered frogs into the wild. Which LBSUD school is your least favorite? 908 UPDATE: LBCC teacher who allegedly pushed a student is FIRED. 908 Athlete of the Week: Evan Engram of the Jacksonville Jaguars. Patreon.com/908SYS https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7Wtmmq3s8YhK3vjDkvVSWQ

Grocery Outlet (GO) stock price hit a 52-week high on August 8th. Grocery Outlet (GO) operates a network of independently operated stores in the United States and has 425 stores in 8 states. How does GO compare to KR, SFM, and WMT? George Tsilis weighs in on Grocery Outlet (GO) catering to the discount and closeout food products.

Our interview guest is Steven Wagner, Chief Commercial Officer with Smarte Carte. He discusses various solutions designed to keep customers in shopping centers longer—from strollers to mobility solutions—and the process behind keeping them clean and functional. In news, Grocery Outlet reveals strong Q2 earnings but also gives a peek inside building their management pipeline to support future expansion plans, and retailers face a loss of baskets via theft, potentially resulting from plastic bag restrictions.

You breweries gotta list your hazzies, yo, or we are going to get burned thinking we ordered a clear. Got it? Cool. Here are some other things we talked about this week: The CO2 problem is real and stuff. Can we make it in our garage like beer? Discord is Untappd for record and tape nerds. Every beer style needs to have an IPA. A report from a place with Treehouse beer. Tony Bagz love continues. Grocery Outlet is a low-key place to find Craft Beer. All that and more!! DOWNLOADABLE: perfectpour471.mp3 (Episode definitely has cussing) Subscribe to the show in Apple Podcast. Subscribe with Google Play. You can also find us on Spotify and Stitcher. Perfect Pour's YouTube Channel. HOSTED BY: Nick & Mikey. MUSIC BY: Sunburns and Paul From Fairfax. Drop Us A Line: Email Perfect Pour. Mikey would REALLY love it if you subscribe to his newsletter: Drinking & Thinking Also, Check out Mikey's Beer Geek blog. Our send “STUFF” to us address: The Perfect Pour – co Mike Seay 2037 W. Bullard Ave #153 Fresno, CA 93711

Inflation has driven prices skyward for all kinds of goods from gas to home goods. Even grocery store staples like cereal, milk and eggs have seen price hikes. While big chain brands might be able to weather these increases better, independent retailers are feeling these costs much more sharply. We'll talk to local grocers from around the Bay Area to hear how they are dealing with the impact of inflation on their businesses and communities. Guests: Chi Dixon, marketing and communications manager, Berkeley Bowl Eric Liittschwager, independent operator of the Grocery Outlet in the Mission in San Francisco

Today — A 5,000-foot-long water line is being ordered to ensure its debut next year as part of upgrades to the Malaga Water District. Later — Wenatchee Grocery Outlet's new owners are planning a major reset of the store to highlight the change in management.Support the show: https://www.wenatcheeworld.com/site/forms/subscription_services/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

CONNECT WITH ERIN LEWISFollow Erin Lewis on LinkedIn here.MODERN LEADERSHIPSign up for Modern Leadership here.CONNECT WITH DAVID SKIDMORE Ask questions: hello@leadergrowth.us Instagram: @imdavidskidmore LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/imdavidskidmore/ More About David: www.davidskidmore.com ABOUT ERIN LEWISErin is a people-watcher. Airports, malls, the DMV, the middle seat incoach - she sees them all as laboratories, places to observe behaviorand tease out human truths.Erin's natural curiosity about others' motivations made her a natural forbrand planning and strategy, a calling she took up at The RichardsGroup, a Dallas-based advertising agency, after graduating from theUniversity of Oklahoma. Her major in advertising and minor in sociologygave the Sooner a deep appreciation for the humor and irony of movingcloser to the Texas Longhorns. While at The Richards Group, Erinworked on brands including The Home Depot, Chick-fil-A, MD AndersonCancer Center, Ram Trucks, Grocery Outlet, CAN Capital and with TheRichards Group's design affiliate, RBMM.After a nearly decade-long career in the Lone Star State, Erin venturedback north to her home state of Oklahoma, where she currently leadsbrand strategy for the NBA team the Oklahoma City Thunder - a uniqueopportunity to combine her love for sports and her home state with herlove for building strong brands.At the Thunder, Erin is responsible for the development, oversightand implementation of brand strategy and planning, as well as generalmarketing executions. She's the gatekeeper and the protector, thedisruptor and the problem solver, the point guard and the coach - eachday driving more intentionality and purpose; challenging the norm;pushing forward the culture, thinking, and ideology; and uncoveringnew and relevant ways to connect this already beloved brand to peoplein even deeper and more meaningful ways.When not at work, Erin loves to travel, practice yoga, ski, and get lostin a good book (especially when a beach is involved). She also lovesto explore and discover unique shops and restaurants in OKC'smicro-communities. To shop and eat, sure. But mostly to watch.HONORS AND INVOLVEMENT2019 40 Under 40, Oklahoma Magazine2019 CAA World Congress of Sports Eventellect Young Executives ProgramS.A.L.L.T. (Salt and Light Leadership Training). Class 17American Marketing Association (OKC), member and committee volunteerAmerican Advertising Federation/OKC Ad Club, memberUniversitv of Oklahoma JAYMAC Alumni Association, memberRegional Food Bank of Oklahoma Community Engagement Committee, memberFounding and Sitting Member of OKC Thunder Diversity & Inclusion CouncilCo-Chair of OKC Thunder Native American Advisory Group

Our interview guest is Edward Coury, managing director at RCS. He discusses the various dynamics behind lease negotiations in the current climate, including considerations for insurance and maintenance payment, demands for percentage rent, and the process behind a retailer moving into or out of a market. In news, Kroger's comp sales increase as a result of a boost in fresh and private label product sales, and Grocery Outlet moves into their eighth state as a result of eastern expansion. Our podcast is presented by BAMS. Visit bams.com/paywell for a limited time and get a $50 Visa gift card after completing your rate analysis to see how much you can save in your payment processing.

Join us for a live recording and beer tasting event at Port Orchard Grocery Outlet where we discuss spooky retail hauntings! Tune in to hear about Pike Place Market ghosts, a 1700s NYC ghost who loves Scandinavian fashion (but hates wells), and some spooky happenings at other grocery stores. BONUS: Port Orchard Grocery Outlet owner, Greg, comes on to discuss some sus hotdogs and a loaf of bread that just can't seem to stay put...  Here's what we're drinking:https://store.belchingbeaver.com/products/me-so-honey-blonde-6-packhttp://www.wetcoastbrewing.com/on-taphttps://eaglebrewery.co.uk/beers/banana-bread/https://fortgeorgebrewery.com/beer/fields-of-green/

Throwback episode! The boys are hurting a little bit after a long weekend. On the show today: The Chosen One visits our guy Eric Valenzuela at Blair Field for the Long Beach State Dirtbags game. We fix cheerleading and college basketball. Cheerleaders should shoot free throws. We talk about becoming tour guides in the City of Long Beach. Air, Land, and Sea. John puts away All You Can Eat sushi and we explain how raw fish is digested. Grocery Outlet has a 50% off wine sale. TCO pulls trigger on a $90 bottle of wine. John Grossi will be the next great wine taster. Is IHOP dead??? What are the Red Woods? Paper pricing is through the roof. What kind of sketchy operation is Big Tree running? We breakdown the dip on Carson and Woodruff. Grind My Gears: Are duffy boats overdone? 908 Athlete of the Week: JP Crawford gets the SYS bump with the Seattle Mariners.