Podcast appearances and mentions of melissa taylor

I'm joined by education blogger, children's book expert, and former teacher, Melissa Taylor. Melissa is the creator behind Imagination Soup: a blog where parents, grandparents, librarians, and teachers can find great children's books as well as educational learning ideas, resources, and community.   We dive into the world of nonfiction and explore why it's such an essential part of a balanced reading diet for kids. Throughout the episode, Melissa shares practical tips and strategies for incorporating more nonfiction into your child's reading routine. From book talks and read-alouds to hands-on activities and critical thinking exercises, you'll come away with a toolbox full of ideas for making nonfiction fun and accessible for kids of all ages.   Get full show notes, transcript, and more information here: https://planningplaytime.com/96

On November 20th, 1993, the sexually violated and mutilated corpse of a young woman is found on Long Island, New York. The first of over ten bodies found in the coming decades of young, petite, sex workers, whose murders will later be attributed to "The Long Island Serial Killer." But no suspect will be arrested until July of 2023. Why did it take law enforcement three decades to find this guy, how did they find him, and who is he? All this and more on this week's true crime deep dive. Merch and more: www.badmagicproductions.com Timesuck Discord! https://discord.gg/tqzH89vWant to join the Cult of the Curious PrivateFacebook Group? Go directly to Facebook and search for "Cult of the Curious" to locate whatever happens to be our most current page :)For all merch-related questions/problems: store@badmagicproductions.com (copy and paste)Please rate and subscribe on Apple Podcasts and elsewhere and follow the suck on social media!! @timesuckpodcast on IG and http://www.facebook.com/timesuckpodcastWanna become a Space Lizard? Click here: https://www.patreon.com/timesuckpodcast.Sign up through Patreon, and for $5 a month, you get access to the entire Secret Suck catalog (295 episodes) PLUS the entire catalog of Timesuck, AD FREE. You'll also get 20% off of all regular Timesuck merch PLUS access to exclusive Space Lizard merch.

Send us a textShannon and Mary talk with Melissa Taylor from ImaginationSoup.net about the importance of nonfiction texts in a student's reading diet.    They chat about the flexible comprehension strategies students need to organize the information gathered from nonfiction and text features and structures that are specific to nonfiction texts.    Listeners should walk away inspired to put more NF texts in their readers hands.RESOURCES MENTIONED DURING THE EPISODE:Imagination Soup Melissa's Article: Reading Nonfiction Prepares Kids for SuccessComprehension Strategiestypes of NF textsCBS Sunday Morning-Finland schools Media Literacy storyRefutational TextsMelissa on IGMelissa on FBBonus Episodes access through your podcast appBonus episodes access through PatreonFree Rubrics Guide created by usFinding Good Books Guide created by usInformation about our Patreon membershipSupport the showGet Literacy Support through our Patreon

Subscriber-only episodeSend us a textShannon and Mary talk with Melissa Taylor from ImaginationSoup.net about the importance of nonfiction texts in a student's reading diet.    They chat about the flexible comprehension strategies students need to organize the information gathered from nonfiction and text features and structures that are specific to nonfiction texts.    Listeners should walk away inspired to put more NF texts in their readers hands.RESOURCES MENTIONED DURING THE EPISODE:Imagination Soup Melissa's Article: Reading Nonfiction Prepares Kids for SuccessComprehension Strategiestypes of NF textsCBS Sunday Morning-Finland schools Media Literacy storyRefutational TextsMelissa on IGMelissa on FBGet Literacy Support through our Patreon

Send us a textOpen the gates to the golden age of nonfiction literature with Dr. Lisa Hassler and Melissa Taylor, founder of Imagination Soup, as they unravel the often-overlooked power of nonfiction books in education. Did you know that 84% of first graders show a preference for nonfiction, yet these books are not as prevalent as they should be in children's literature? Join us as we discuss the crucial role nonfiction plays in nurturing literacy skills in our information-laden world. Melissa shares her journey from teaching to becoming a curator of children's books, emphasizing the need for incorporating more nonfiction into both classrooms and homes to prepare children for future academic success.Immerse yourself in the diverse world of nonfiction genres—ranging from browsable to narrative styles—and discover how they can enrich children's vocabulary and reading skills. We'll discuss beloved titles like "Honey Bee" by Candace Fleming and explore how visual elements in these books enhance comprehension and visual literacy. Together, we celebrate the joy these books bring, encouraging both children and adults to dive into a world that satisfies curiosity and fosters knowledge-sharing. Plus, learn about the five kinds of nonfiction as we discuss why diversifying children's reading materials is vital for their development.In a practical segment, we delve into strategies for educators and parents to seamlessly incorporate nonfiction into reading and writing education. Discover innovative activities like scavenger hunts for text features, and learn how nonfiction can transform writing instruction through mentor texts and modeling. We also highlight the importance of social reading experiences, such as book clubs and reading challenges, to motivate young readers. Don't miss out on Melissa's curated list of the 100 Best Nonfiction Books for Kids, to kickstart your child's nonfiction adventure! *Support the showPlease subscribe and share this podcast with a friend to spread the good!If you find value to this podcast, consider becoming a supporter with a $3 subscription. Click on the link to join: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2048018/supportTo help this podcast reach others, rate and review on Apple Podcasts! Go to Library, choose The Brighter Side of Education:Research, Innovation and Resources, and scroll down to Reviews. It's just that easy. Thank you!Want to share a story? Email me at lisa@drlisarhassler.com.Visit my website for resources: http://www.drlisarhassler.com The music in this podcast was written and performed by Brandon Picciolini of the Lonesome Family Band. Visit and follow him on Instagram. My publications: America's Embarrassing Reading Crisis: What we learned from COVID, A guide to help educational leaders, teachers, and parents change the game, is available on Amazon, Kindle, and Audible, and iTunes. My Weekly Writing Journal: 15 Weeks of Writing for Primary Grades on Amazon.World of Words: A Middle School Writing Notebook Using...

Do you work with your spouse and are you aligned with your faith and your money? Join me as I interview Pastor Taylor and his incredible wife who co-founded Kingdom Doers. They work together with faith in Christ to keep their balance while helping others achieve their purpose. We talk about faith, business, and money all in 1 powerful episode! Listen in today and you will get a great example of a couple who understands balance as they fulfill their ministry.

In today's episode, host Adina Oberman welcomes Melissa Taylor, founder of Imagination Soup, former teacher, and a passionate advocate for reading among children. Together, they delve into strategies for encouraging young readers, especially those hesitant or reluctant to pick up a book. Their conversation also explores the role of technology in reading, summer reading tips, and how to make reading an enjoyable and integral part of family life.  Episode Highlights:  00:00:09: Adina Oberman introduces the podcast, its alignment with Fami's habits of "Read Together and Learn Together", and her guest Melissa Taylor. Adina's background as a mom, former teacher, and creator of Big Books for Little Hands sets the stage for a rich discussion on children's literature and engaging young readers.  00:01:18: Melissa Taylor shares her journey from a preschool teacher to the founder of Imagination Soup, highlighting her passion for connecting parents, teachers, and children with enriching reading materials. This segment illuminates Melissa's extensive experience and dedication to inspiring a love of reading in children.  00:02:55: The conversation pivots to strategies for encouraging reluctant readers, emphasizing the importance of linking reading material to children's interests, such as sports or other hobbies. Melissa underscores the value of patience, personalization, and persistence in fostering a child's love for reading.  00:03:58: Melissa and Adina discuss the challenge of competing with screens for children's attention and the potential of diverse materials, including magazines and graphic novels, to engage young readers effectively. This part of the episode offers practical advice for expanding beyond traditional books to captivate young audiences.  00:04:45: Tips for maintaining reading momentum during summer are shared, focusing on the significance of choice and ownership in what children read. Melissa suggests approaches like book picnics and pairing books with related activities to make summer reading more appealing.  00:06:21: The conversation underscores the crucial role of setting up children for successful reading experiences through strategies like the five finger test and simplifying the book selection process. Melissa's insights demonstrate how proactive support can enrich children's reading journey.  00:07:14: Melissa and Adina highlight the importance of incorporating reading into daily routines, suggesting innovative approaches such as reading during meals to create dedicated time for books amidst busy schedules.  00:08:04: They explore the potential of nonfiction books to retain interest among children who may not be drawn to traditional narratives. This segment acknowledges the broad spectrum of reading materials that can captivate young minds.  00:10:45: The role of technology in supporting reading is examined, with a focus on eBooks and audiobooks as valuable resources for interactive and engaging reading experiences. Melissa recommends leveraging digital tools to enhance accessibility and engagement in reading.  00:13:18: Adina and Melissa discuss the educational power of audiobooks, highlighting their ability to build vocabulary, comprehension skills, and a love for storytelling through listening.  00:15:09: The significance of perseverance in finding the right reading strategies and materials for each child is emphasized, with Melissa sharing her belief in the value of experimentation and flexibility in cultivating a reader's mindset.  00:17:06: Melissa shares personal anecdotes to illustrate the enduring relevance of picture books and the joy of rediscovering them as children grow. This segment serves as a reminder of the timeless appeal and educational value of picture books in developing literacy.  Show Notes By Barevalue   00:20:46: The episode concludes with Melissa providing her contact information and inviting listeners to explore more resources on Imagination Soup, encouraging continued engagement with reading strategies and support.  Key Takeaways:  - Personal interests play a crucial role in engaging reluctant readers; by tailoring reading material to individual hobbies or preferences, parents and educators can spark a genuine interest in reading.  - Technology, when utilized thoughtfully, can be a powerful tool in promoting reading, offering interactive and immersive experiences that complement traditional reading.  - Consistency and flexibility in reading routines are essential for maintaining engagement, especially during breaks like summer. Incorporating reading into daily activities ensures that children continue to explore and enjoy literature. - Audiobooks offer a unique avenue for developing listening comprehension and storytelling skills, proving to be an effective alternative to traditional reading for many children.  - Perseverance and adaptation are key in fostering a reading habit; what works for one child may not work for another, emphasizing the need for ongoing experimentation and open-mindedness in encouraging reading.  Tweetable Quotes: - "Connecting a child's personal interests to their reading material is the first step towards unlocking a world of literature." - Melissa Taylor  - "Technology and books are not opponents; when used together, they create an enriching reading experience." - Melissa Taylor  - "Never underestimate the power of a book in the hands of a curious child." - Melissa Taylor    Show Notes By Barevalue

Listen as the PPG Advocacy Panel addresses these important questions: What do we mean by violence? Why do some professionals and non-professionals choose violence? Why are empathy, compassion, and rewards a better choice? What can PPG members do to bring about change and to end the violence? Your moderator: PPG Advocacy Task Force Chair Don Hanson Your panelists: Daniel Antolec, Pat Miller, Dayle Pierce, Holden Svirsky, Melissa Taylor, Jennifer Van Valkenburg, Sam Wike

JEMS Editor-in-Chief Dr. Ted Lee speaks with Melissa Taylor, RN, about mental health issues affecting all emergency responders.

Breaking: Possible 5th indictment in Gilgo Beach serial murders. Valerie Mack was last seen by her family in the Spring/Summer of 2000 in the area of Port Republic, New Jersey. She was never listed as a missing person. Her last known address was in the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania area where she had been working as an escort. She used the name "Melissa Taylor." Valerie was a white female with brown hair and hazel eyes, 5 feet tall, weighing ~100 pounds. On November 19, 2000, the body of a woman was discovered by hikers in the Long Island Pine Barrens in Manorville near Halsey Manor Road. The body had been cut into pieces and placed in plastic bags. It was estimated that she had been dead for several weeks before being found. The victim was a white woman, possibly in her 30s, with brown hair. She was referred to as the "Manorville Jane Doe." April 4, 2011, a skull, hands, and right foot were found in a plastic bag along Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach. These remains would be designated as "Jane Doe #6," until being linked by DNA to the Manorville Jane Doe. On May 22, 2020 police in Long Island announced they had identified the "Manorville Jane Doe" and would be releasing her identity. A week later, an update was released; her name was Valerie Mack. (Uncovered)

Opening day of the Little Flower Heritage Days Summerfest finds the show under the big tent with Tom Madonia Jr., Joe Malek and his daughter Addie, assistant principal Melissa Taylor, Tom Titone and Tom McBride.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What an amazing time with Melissa Taylor, Manager of the Center for Innovation at the Fayetteville Public Library in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Melissa shares about her corporate sponsorships with Walmart, JB Hunt and Tyson foods. Chris and Bob learned about all of the offerings in this beautiful facility and how Melissa keeps it all running, how […]

Have you written a book - or thinking about one? Then you really need to put a book marketing plan together (or hire someone!)Melissa Taylor helps market books for authors, and she's sharing what book marketing is, who needs it, and whether or not you should hire someone to help you.Not everyone needs a helping hand. Melissa shares some strategies for doing it on your own... and she's got a free pitching worksheet and example copy on her site. Grab it at MelissaTaylor.net THE INSIDER MEMBERSHIP IS OPEN AGAIN! Learn more here: https://leslipeterson.com/insider2/If you're a professional blogger (or want to be) then check out my FREE Facebook Group where we talk about the business of blogging everyday! https://www.facebook.com/groups/leslipetersonThe quickest way to increase your traffic? Update your content regularly. Get a free blog post update checklist here: https://leslipeterson.com/Need help understanding your blog personas and getting lead magnet ideas? Get my FREE GPT4.0 Lead Magnet Masterkit here: https://leslipeterson.com/===== FOLLOW ME ===== FB: https://www.facebook.com/groups/leslipeterson Podcast: https://podcast.leslipeterson.com/ ** Sometimes I link to additional resources, and they may or may not include affiliate links. I'll never link you to anything I don't use myself!

(PHOTO: Buffalo Bills/Populous)

Do you ever find yourself stuck in the same patterns, especially when you begin to make healthy progress? We do too. Join our podcast host, Kaley Olson, and Proverbs 31 Ministries staff members Melissa Taylor and Kendra LeGrand for an honest conversation about how being stuck can actually be a gift of self-awareness from the Holy Spirit ... We just have to lean in.Related Resources:Join our brand-new Circle 31 Book Club for free today! This is not your average book club. The books we select will challenge you to think, ask hard questions and grow so you can move forward in the areas you feel stuck in. When you sign up, you'll get access to discussion groups led by Proverbs 31 staff, exclusive content from the authors, and so much more! Download our new free resource, "Why Can't I Get Over This? 5 Steps To Get Unstuck in Areas You Can't Seem To Make Progress In."We'd like to thank Compassion International for partnering with us again to make this episode possible. Compassion brings real solutions to the poverty that so many children in today's world are facing … all in Jesus' name and through the generosity of sponsors. Take your next step, and sponsor a child today here!Click here to download a transcript of this episode.Proverbs 31 Ministries is a nonprofit organization, and this podcast is funded thanks to the generous support of our one-time and monthly donors. To learn more about how to partner with us, click here!We want to hear how this podcast has impacted you! Share your story with us here.

In this Booklist episode, Chrissie recommends 8 short middle grade books. Each book clocks in at ~200 pages or less, but appeals to kids ages 8-12.FEATURED BOOKSThe Remarkable Rescue at Milkweed Meadow by Elaine DimopoulosWedgie and Gizmo  by Suzanne SelforsThe Sasquatch Escape by Suzanne SelforsThe Guardian Test by Christina SoontornvatWhatever After, Best Wishes, and Upside Down Magic by Sarah MlynowskiMarina and the Kraken by Lauren MagazinerThe Chaos Monster by Sayantani DasGuptaOnce Upon a Tim by Stuart GibbsPopcorn Bob by Maranke RinckRESOURCES MENTIONED:Publisher's Weekly article by Melissa Taylor: "It's Not Me, It's You: An Argument for Shorter Middle Grade Books"Imagination Soup Blog by Melissa Taylor: "60 Short Middle Grade Books That Kids Will Love"Be sure to subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts. You can follow the show on Instagram @bookdelightpod, follow Chrissie on Instagram @librarychrissie, and subscribe to Chrissie's kidlit newsletter at librarychrissie.substack.com.If you want to support the show, please consider becoming a paid subscriber on Substack. For $7/month, you are helping to pay the costs of the show and receive exclusive content like extra booklists, roundups of kidlit books that have received starred reviews, reviews of books Chrissie did not like, and more.

Toowoomba Chamber presents Toowoomba Decides; in partnership with The Chronicle and 864 Triple M. All council candidates were invited to an interview so the community could get to know them better ahead of a Town Hall Forum at Clifford Park on Thursday March 7th. That is an opportunity for the community to engage directly with the council candidates. In the interest of fairness all council candidates were asked the same questions with 2 minutes to answer each question. Get to know Melissa Taylor.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Did you know that only 15% of medical spas in Michigan currently have Medical Directors?  We're proud to be a part of that minority thanks to Dr. Melissa Taylor, Urban You's Medical Director at all 4 locations. Urban You always prioritizes education for our providers and guests alike.  In this episode, Dr. Taylor and Nicole discuss Michigan's pending LARA laws and how they can affect Med Spas across Michigan, as well as what to look for as a guest on the hunt for a new medical spa to get treated at. Whether you're an Urban You guest, a listener of the podcast, or someone who works in a Med Spa, this episode will give you an inside scoop into the current state of the aesthetics industry. Looking to start your Wellness Journey with Urban You? Download the free UY App to schedule your appointments, access on demand content & exclusive deals, manage your membership plan, shop medical grade skincare, and more!  Prepare for winter by celebrating National Botox Day on November 15th. Visit our Botox Day page to learn how you can get a FREE Botox gift card and be entered for a chance to win $25,000! Stay up to date with the Michigan Med Spa industry, connect with professionals, and make your voice heard by joining MISpa today! Get involved by joining their FREE, virtual “Laser Focused” event on November 15th with Urban You Laser Specialist Dre VanBeek. RSVP HERE. Love the podcast? Rate us 5 stars and give us a review on Apple Podcasts & Spotify. Fill out our ⁠Google Form⁠ to receive a free gift from ⁠Urban You For Me⁠, your one-stop-shop for luxury, medical grade skincare! Plus, use code UYFMSOCIALS5 for $5 off your order! Connect with Nicole Gregory & The Beauty Standard: ⁠Urban You⁠ ⁠Instagram⁠ ⁠LinkedIn⁠ Join MISpa, Michigan's Medical Spa Association: MISPa

In today's episode, you'll hear a devotion written by Melissa Taylor based on Isaiah 53:5, which says, “But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed” (NIV).We hope today's devotion encourages you that no matter what you've been through, you are a child of God, worthy of love. Related Resources: Find support at the National Sexual Assault Hotline website: online.rainn.org. Or call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 800-656-HOPE (800-656-4673) to speak with someone who can help.Check out Wendy Blight's book Hidden Joy in a Dark Corner here!For more from Proverbs 31 Ministries, head to our website at proverbs31.org, where you can subscribe to Encouragement for Today Devotions in written format, delivered to your inbox each weekday.Click here to read the transcript for this episode.We want to hear how this podcast has impacted you! Share your story with us here.

It's the one-year anniversary of Tamara taking over host duties from Rob Hessler! Join her for a replay of the first show - an interview with then-co-host Melissa Taylor of recent SCAD graduate Adonis Deking. This episode originally aired on July 20, 2022.  And stay tuned for our next show, when I'll re-interview Adonis to see where he is in his freelance artist/illustrator career now that it's one year later!  Check out Adonis's work and follow him here: https://www.instagram.com/deking_art/ https://adonisdeking.com/ This episode includes the following, plus much more: What is Adonis's theory of the 3 groups his fellow Animation students can be broken into? What inspired him to pick up brushes and paints instead? What early degrees did Tamara and Melissa get, before pursuing completely different fields? What 1980s method of transportation does Adonis use?

Join Renoites and Reno Little Theater LIVE on July 7 for an exclusive "Seussical: the Musical" post-show event featuring additional performances, interviews and audience Q&A! Visit renoites.com for more information! Reno Little Theater is one of the longest-running community theater companies in the United States, currently in their 88th season! Reno has been focused on growing it's reputation as a city that cares about the arts, and theater is a big part of that identity, including as it intersects with music, design, writing, and much more. On this week's episode of Renoites, host Conor McQuivey is joined by the executive director of Reno Little Theater, Melissa Taylor, to discuss Reno Little Theater's past, present and future as a part of Reno's artistic community. Some of the topics include the importance of live theater in creating a sense of community, the inherent inclusion and belongingness that comes from the craft of acting, education programs for young people to create participation in the arts, the challenges of operating as a nonprofit theater through the covid pandemic, and much more! If you have suggestions for future guests on Renoites, please email us at conor@renoites.com Be sure to follow us on social media and please consider becoming a financial supporter on Patreon! This link has everything you need to know: http://linktr.ee/renoites

In case you missed the first half, listen here for a fun conversation with Melissa Taylor, the somatic practitioner coming to our retreat next month in the south of France! We talk loosely about the idea that we're all our own modality. We discuss the forward thinking approach to healing and growth as more of a state of “attending” to ourselves instead of “fixing.” We delve into the importance of play and fun with respect to healing, and more. After being diagnosed with breast cancer twice, among other life challenges, Melissa set her own path to healing and connecting with her soul and today she helps others do the same. She's participating as an expert facilitator in my programs this year to lead us on a Chakra healing journey, and will also be part of my retreat this summer in the South of France. She is gifted, multitalented, multifaceted, and SO. MUCH. MORE! I hope you love this conversation as much as I did.Are you a life coach who is ready to become Trauma-Informed? Click here to see if Lindsay's Advanced Relationship Trauma Certification for Coaches is a fit for you.Are you needing help healing from Religious Conditioning, or expanding in your Spirituality–safely? Click here. Are you Healing from Betrayal Trauma in your Marriage? Click here.Want to see what other programs she offers? Check out her website here: Website.Find me on Instagram : @lindsaypoelmancoaching---Your host, certified life coach Lindsay Poelman started her journey of intentional healing started when she learned that her husband had been lying to her about pornography use for a greater part of their marriage. After processing and accepting her circumstance more fully, she found coaching—which propelled her into a forward focused state of empowerment. Over the last four years of deep dive/fundamental coaching for women in betrayal (around porn use, spouses coming out around gender identity and sexuality, childhood neglect and abuse, substance abuse, inf...

The thought that you are your own modality is one I picked up from my dear friend, colleague, and soul sister Melissa Taylor. I am thrilled to have her on today's podcast. After being diagnosed with breast cancer twice, among other life challenges, she set her own path to healing and connecting with her soul. She's one of those people I always come back to and cherish our time together. Melissa is an integral piece of the retreat I'm holding in the south of France next month, so I wanted you all to get to know her! Listen to part 1 of our conversation where we talk casually about accessing your spiritual gifts, the importance of nervous system work, and more.Interested in hanging out with us this summer in the South of France? Learn more here. Your mental well-being deserves this. Are you a life coach who is ready to become Trauma-Informed? Click here to see if Lindsay's Advanced Relationship Trauma Certification for Coaches is a fit for you.Are you needing help healing from Religious Conditioning, or expanding in your Spirituality–safely? Click here. Are you Healing from Betrayal Trauma in your Marriage? Click here.Want to see what other programs she offers? Check out her website here: Website.Find me on Instagram : @lindsaypoelmancoaching---Your host, certified life coach Lindsay Poelman started her journey of intentional healing started when she learned that her husband had been lying to her about pornography use for a greater part of their marriage. After processing and accepting her circumstance more fully, she found coaching—which propelled her into a forward focused state of empowerment. Over the last four years of deep dive/fundamental coaching for women in betrayal (around porn use, spouses coming out around gender identity and sexuality, childhood neglect and abuse, substance abuse, inf...

Join PPG Feline Division Chair Laura Cassiday and Melissa Taylor as they chat and chuckle with Hanna Fushihara about nosework for cats! (Yes, you read that right!) Hanna runs Nosework Cats as well as Hot Fuzz Dog Training from her home in New York State. She has been training dogs for more than 10 years and began teaching canine nosework in 2018. She reached the NW3-Elite title level competing with her pit bull, Derek, before he passed away. Hanna started developing her own ideas on how to play nosework with her cats in the spring of 2020 during the start of the pandemic, making adjustments to how she played nosework with dogs so that her cats would find the activity fun, challenging and motivating. She's been adding her imaginative, artful skills and humor to the mix with her online Nosework Cats class to make it unique and her own.  Enjoy listening as Laura, Melissa and Hanna share their expertise in a fun, free-flowing format!

This week, Tabitha is joined by the Behavior and Training Manager at Friends For Life Animal Shelter, Melissa Taylor.  Melissa and I discuss the division between animal care and medical staff often seen in shelters, the importance of volunteers and community, and how our past experiences have helped us grow. She shares her wisdom of how her shelter has built relationships with the community, the benefits of volunteers, volunteer retention, and success stories of volunteer-based programs in her shelter. Melissa Taylor (CBCC-KA, CSB-C) is the Behavior and Training Manager at Friends For Life Animal Shelter, a progressive animal welfare organization in Houston, Texas. At FFL, Melissa heads a comprehensive, animal-centered behavior program which includes in-house animal care, community outreach, and inter-shelter consultation. Melissa has logged more than twenty years in shelter animal behavior, starting with an internship at the ASPCA's Animal Behavior Center in New York City. She developed a lasting love for cooperative care from training livestock and wildlife as the coordinator of the Behavior and Training Department at the Houston SPCA, and applies the same principles to the dogs, cats, exotics, and humans she works with now at Friends For Life.Over the course of her career, Melissa has focused on the development of shelter programs related to animal behavior. She has partnered with other shelters locally and around the world to start behavior volunteer, fearful cat socialization, enrichment, and animal-centered staff training initiatives.Melissa was awarded the 2022 Member of the Year Award by the Association For Professional Dog Trainers due to her work on the APDT Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee examining the experiences of BIPOC members of the professional dog training community. She is passionate about the role that social justice issues play in the advancement of animal welfare.Support Melissa:https://friends4life.org/https://friends4life.org/gethelp/Resources mentioned on the episode:Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life: Life-Changing Tools for Healthy Relationships (Nonviolent Communication Guides) by Marshall B. Rosenberg PhDSupport the show via social media: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TailsFromRVT Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TailsFromAVetTechPodcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tailsfromavettech

The creators of the Circle Round bring their beloved combination of folktales and storytelling activities to book form in the first branded Circle Round book series. Podcast host Rebecca Sheir has uncovered folktales from a broad range of traditions, all exploring timeless values, such as kindness, generosity, acceptance, and more. Specially designed to be read aloud and shared, these stories are accompanied by questions and prompts for conversation, along with creative storytelling activities developed by Melissa Taylor of Imagination Soup.

The creators of the Circle Round bring their beloved combination of folktales and storytelling activities to book form in the first branded Circle Round book series. Podcast host Rebecca Sheir has uncovered folktales from a broad range of traditions, all exploring timeless values, such as kindness, generosity, acceptance, and more. Specially designed to be read aloud and shared, these stories are accompanied by questions and prompts for conversation, along with creative storytelling activities developed by Melissa Taylor of Imagination Soup.

The creators of the Circle Round bring their beloved combination of folktales and storytelling activities to book form in the first branded Circle Round book series. Podcast host Rebecca Sheir has uncovered folktales from a broad range of traditions, all exploring timeless values, such as kindness, generosity, acceptance, and more. Specially designed to be read aloud and shared, these stories are accompanied by questions and prompts for conversation, along with creative storytelling activities developed by Melissa Taylor of Imagination Soup.

Time travel? Check. Tea debates? Check. Henry VIII's codpiece? Well, yes. There's few things more joyous than listening to an independent bookseller hit it off with one of their favorite authors and spend the whole episode laughing. This week, listen in as Melissa Taylor from E. Shaver Booksellers in Georgia talks to author Jodi Taylor about her writing and all things to do with British history, with many funny anecdotes along the way. This is our mid-season hiatus as host Nicole takes a little vacation to celebrate her 30th birthday, but we'll be back in early November. See you then! SHOP E. SHAVER: eshaverbooks.com LISTEN TO GREENLIGHT BOOKSTORE'S PODCAST: greenlightbookstore.com/podcast FULL TRANSCRIPTIONS + SHOW NOTES: misshelved.nebrinkley.com LEARN MORE ABOUT BOOKS: tinyletter.com/misshelved MORE PLACES TO LISTEN: anchor.fm/misshelvedpod Edited by Nicole Brinkley and Rebecca Speasy. Logo by Jean Michel. Music by Mark Shwedow.

How can a conversation at a well give water to eternal life with Jesus? Melissa Taylor talks about the Woman@ the Well found in John 4:4-26, her past childhood sexual abuse, loss, and how a TV program changed her life forever with Jesus. Watch the Video on YouTube; https://youtu.be/b1GcfKB2H30 #faith #anunexpectedencounter #doyouthirstforJesus #melissaTaylor #proverbs31ministries Melissa Taylor is senior director of Online Bible Studies of Proverbs 31 ministries and First 5 To learn more about this ministry, go to HTTPS://thecallwithnancysabato.com --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/nancy-sabato/message

On this Friday show, we present Part 2 of the Hacks & Wonks 2022 Post-Primary Election Recap which was live-streamed on August 9, 2022 with special guests EJ Juárez and Doug Trumm. In Part 2, the panel breaks down primary election results for State Legislature seats in the battleground district of the 47th LD and in Seattle-area Democrat vs Democrat races in the 36th, 37th, and 46th LDs, The historical importance of The Stranger endorsement in the progressive path out of the primary is discussed as well as Doug and EJ's thoughts on other races in the 42nd LD and for Secretary of State. As always, a full text transcript of the show is available below and at officialhacksandwonks.com. You can follow Hacks & Wonks on Twitter at @HacksWonks. Find the host, Crystal Fincher on Twitter at @finchfrii and find today's co-hosts, EJ Juárez at @EliseoJJuarez and Doug Trumm at @dmtrumm. More info is available at officialhacksandwonks.com.   Resources Hacks & Wonks 2022 Primary Election Recap Livestream | August 9th, 2022: https://www.officialhacksandwonks.com/august-2022-postprimary-recap   Transcript [00:00:00] Bryce Cannatelli: Welcome to Hacks & Wonks. I'm Bryce from the Hacks & Wonks production team. 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. You're listening to part 2 of our 2022 Post-Primary Election Recap, with special guests EJ Juárez and Doug Trumm, that we live-streamed on August 9th, 2022. If you missed part 1, you can find it as the previous episode of your podcast feed, or you can find the audio and transcript for the full recap on our website, officialhacksandwonks.com. Thank you for listening! [00:00:59] Crystal Fincher: Another very interesting district is the 47th Legislative District, which is half of Kent, Covington, Maple Valley, parts of Auburn - again, a very purple district - one that sees two open seats - an incumbent remaining in Representative Debra Entenman, but an open Senate seat after Mona Das announced that she was leaving and an open House seat after Pat Sullivan retired. And so we had competitive Democratic and Republican primaries going on here with open seats, just a lot of questions about what is going to happen here in the 47th - very hard to predict. But we saw some really interesting results. Again, this is one of the districts that Republicans said was one of their top targets - definitely in the top two or three targets that they felt were there for pickups and turning these seats that were held by Republican [Democratic] incumbents and two of them now open seats into Republican pickups. And what we saw was in the one seat with Debra Entenman, she finished comfortably with 55% against a Republican candidate, Kyle Lyebyedyev. There was another Republican contesting in the race, but Debra made it through fairly comfortably. We had a Senate race with Satwinder Kaur and Claudia Kauffman as Democrats against Bill Boyce, the Republican. Bill Boyce, who is a City Councilmember in the City of Kent, a Republican, also a Black Republican that's running here is - has 45.58%. And then a very, very, very close race between Claudia Kauffman and Satwinder Kaur. Currently, Claudia Kauffman is leading with 27.23% over Satwinder with 27.02%. This is a race that is under a hundred votes separating the two and it looks like Claudia Kauffman is going to squeeze and squeak through here. This is a really interesting race. And again, you look at the combined percentage of the Democratic vote - they're above, they're like 54% there. That's a great result that we see on the Democratic side, but wow, what a really closely contested race. And then in the other seat, we saw two Democrats - Chris Stearns with 33.4% against Shukri Olow, another Democrat, who is making it through - both Democrats making it through the primary - Shukri with 19.6% against three Republicans. One of - again, a party pick for the Republicans - Carmen Goers raised $200,000 in the primary, spent the bulk of it. She actually finished in last place. This was another Black Republican here with two other Republican white male opponents who finished with 15.1% and 17.4%, respectively, with Ted Cooke and Barry Knowles. Very interesting result. I don't know that many people - I certainly did not call that there was gonna be a Democratic shutout in one of these seats in this purple district, or that the other results looked so strong in favor of the other ones. What do you see when you see this 47th Legislative District race, Doug? [00:04:37] Doug Trumm: Yeah. You can't get any bigger with them not even making it to the primary. So having two Democrats in that Position 2 seat - that is going to be an exciting race, but not for the Republicans. But we'll circle back to that, 'cause I do want to talk about that race more, but I suppose we should talk about the other races more a little bit too. Mona Das retiring - I think that certainly led to some nervousness that we're not gonna have the incumbent advantage and that didn't seem to be an issue with the result. And it does look like it'll be Claudia Kauffman, so again - an established name - but someone I think who seemed to do a good job, so someone I'm actually glad to see coming back. I'm not always thrilled when you get people who keep going back for many decades, but I think that one is an exception. But yeah, and going back to the 30th as well - on the Democratic side, I guess over all those years of not having that many Black - and apologies for my cat making all that noise - not having that many Black candidates, I guess assumption was they would do worse than the white candidates that people were putting forward, or just maybe wasn't even a thought. But it's pretty clear that those Black candidates are doing just as good as any of the white candidates, if not better, because we see these results in the 30th and in the 47th and all across really the metro area where we're seeing voters really resonating with these folks. If anything, it appears to be an asset. And yeah, it just clearly is a district that is slipping away from Republicans and they don't seem to be doing very much to fix that. And as you mentioned, Carmen Goers finishing fifth when she had the support of the party at, I think, all levels. And then additionally, she had The Seattle Times endorsement, which didn't appear to be worth the paper it was written on - which I don't know if that's true of every race, but in the 47th that's a really embarrassing finish for the Seattle Times. And as EJ alluded to - a Viking funeral for $200,000 worth of cash - that's gotta be one of the only times that's happened in Washington history - that a candidate has raised $200,000 in a primary and then finished fifth, at least at the state legislator level. [00:07:14] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, absolutely. What did you see here, EJ? [00:07:19] EJ Juárez: I saw - I think one of the most exciting things for me is that this actually might be the first time where we have two Native people representing the same district in the House in Washington State. And I think that is incredible - the opportunity and the history making moment of those candidates' ascension if they are the victors in November. I really think that is the underreported takeaway of this cycle in that these are two candidates, although one has - both of them are previously elected in other offices - that's a big deal, right? On the other end of that spectrum, it is wildly confusing to me the uneven field game that has occurred in the 47th. We have some candidates who were deeply knocking on doors every weekend, huge volunteer turnout. And then we have some candidates who really focused on media and focused on really traditional electronic - I don't even know if that's the way to put it, "traditional electronic" - they weren't at the doors, they weren't making a ton of phone calls, and they were pretty open about it. So I think there's a lot of questions to be answered in terms of how people got through and the vote share. So when you're looking at Rep Position 2 with Shukri and Chris, Shukri outraised Chris and really produced not very many votes for that. And when you look at the per dollar spend on per vote, it doesn't really - the math doesn't quite work out the way you would expect. Now, a D-on-D race in that is going to be pretty - there will be fireworks, right? Because you have to make up a considerable amount of points and the clock is reset for both of those candidates. So I'm watching them really closely. I'm excited. I think they're both great candidates. I think they're both folks who, as they move towards the general, are going to start to distinguish themselves to voters. I think when you look at that Senate race, I cannot help but think if I was a Republican strategist and fundraiser, I would've wanted to pour a lot more money into that race supporting a Black Republican versus some of the white Republicans, which received much higher proportions of spend from caucus accounts and from PACs associated with Republicans. There's probably some obvious reasons for that on that side that don't need to go too much into depth on, but it is shocking that in a three-way race, the Republican still only musters 45%. [00:10:06] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, I think that's all valid. And I even think - actually in this district in the 47th, it has been an interesting one. This is actually - I live near the border of the 47th - the 47th and the 33rd District border. And in the 47th, actually, we've traditionally seen Black candidates, visibly non-Christian candidates - whether it's someone with a hijab or a turban - underperform compared to spend a number of times here. And so it's interesting to see these results come through. I don't know what role that played on the Republican side also, but that's just another dynamic in this race that has been interesting. I do think that this sets up - just for the candidates that are there, that are gonna be in the general - really interesting matchups and comparisons. And I do think that Democrats - all of the Democrats in these races - do need to be out on the doors, do need to work through the general. Certainly a favorable result in the primary, but another one where they can't rest at all and need to continue to push forward. But one where I think - this was an area where people were wondering - Hey, where's the public safety conversation gonna be? And are Republicans gonna be able to land some hits here and are people hyper-worried about inflation? I think, yet again in this district, I think people saw that the conversation on public safety on the ground is a lot more nuanced than it is in the media - I think is safe to say. So many times we hear the conversation between more cops and "Back the Blue" and - hey, we're - no candidates are actually running on this, FYI - but like "Defund Everything." There's not actually a candidate saying that right now, but the perception is out there - that that has been there. And people aren't there - even people who favor more police, who are not bothered by more police - are saying - but what we really need are behavioral health services, are substance use disorder, addiction treatment services, are housing for people. We have to address these root causes. If there's an issue with someone who is going through a crisis, police just don't have the tools to solve that. I think that's pretty universally acknowledged and not a controversial statement. And when polling goes beyond just some very basic questions and probes into those, we repeatedly see the public saying - yeah, of course we need those things. And so it was very interesting to see some of these attacks - whether it's in the 30th, or throughout the state, in the 47th - on those issues and they just fell flat. And even on the inflation issue, people are worried and people are absolutely squeezed, but looking at - okay, so what are you gonna do about it? And I think Democrats told a better story about - okay, here's the plan. This is what we plan to invest in and this is how we plan to help. I think working people felt that Democrats had a plan that was more tailored to their needs from Democrats. So just an interesting result that we saw there. We will pivot a bit to the Seattle races, which are different than all of these battleground races that we've been talking about. And these are in the City of Seattle - Democrat versus Democrat races. We saw a number of open seat races that have happened here. And so we can start with the 36th District, which had a pretty stark and conclusive result, I think, in the open seat race that was there, where there was a contested primary that had five Democratic candidates there - different shades of there, from more progressive to probably on the most moderate end with Waylan Robert. But we saw Julia Reed, who received The Seattle Times and The Stranger endorsement take 55% of the vote, followed by Jeff Manson who is making it through the primary with 13.5% of the vote. And then followed by Nicole Gomez, Waylon Robert, and Elizabeth Tyler Crone. Looks like that is a race that is Julia's for the taking, I think realistically, just looking there. And certainly benefited from both The Times and The Stranger endorsement. There's another race in the 37th in South Seattle where Chipalo Street got both The Stranger and The Times endorsement, but that was a much closer race where we saw Chipalo with 41% of the vote - 41.53% - and Emijah Smith making it through the primary with 35.37% of the vote - a much closer race. We saw in the 46th Legislative District - Darya Farivar make it through in first place, the progressive candidate in the race - she currently has 31.61% of the vote and Lelach Rave finishing in second, making it through the primary at 28.06% of the vote. And then we saw in the 34th Legislative District, in that open seat there, Emily Alvarado with 54% of the vote to Leah Griffin's 31.2%. I'll kick this off, as we discuss these Seattle races at-large. It's been talked about so many times before - how in Seattle, how consequential the Seattle Times and The Stranger endorsements are. On a previous post-primary recap, Michael Charles put it very succinctly - saying there are two political parties in Seattle - The Seattle Times and The Seattle Stranger. And actually went back and looked at the numbers - and for races in the City of Seattle, for legislative districts in Seattle, for candidates on the ballot, for the past decade - candidates endorsed by The Stranger have made it through to the primary a 100% of the time. It actually seems like, particularly for progressive candidates, the path requires going through The Stranger - requires that endorsement to make it on to the general. How consequential is that, and what do you think we saw overall in general in these races, Doug? [00:16:50] Doug Trumm: Yeah, I think that Stranger endorsement - it's really huge, particularly in a primary in Seattle - I think the 46th is where we really saw the test of that. In Seattle the Urbanist Elections Committee, which I'm a member of, is lucky enough to talk to most of the candidates. And when people skip - usually it's a sign that they're either running in that centrist lane, or they just got the race together so late that they didn't really have time or put it together enough to respond. But we agreed with The Stranger and The Seattle Times with Julia Reed - I think there's a unique case where there's just a candidate that was so - just polished - and any other candidates had some promise, but there just weren't really compelling case to say - but why not, Julia Reed. And I think that's a testament to running a really good race and being a good candidate. And hopefully everyone's right about that, 'cause I don't think you see all three of us agree very often. In the 46th, on the other hand, we did end up endorsing Melissa Taylor and really liked what she brought to the table in housing. But we were also - really thought that Darya Farivar was a fantastic candidate as well. And particularly around the issues of transportation - being Policy Director at Disability Rights Washington, which is a great partner of us and a great leader on all these climate and climate justice issues at the state level and the local level. So we were happy with both candidates and great to see Darya go through and being several points ahead of Lelach where - we didn't get a chance to talk to her. And I think she's more in the Sara Nelson lane of the party who endorsed her, if you will. How that race shakes out will have, I think, pretty big bearing on just what is possible on some issues like housing, where it seems like someone like Rave is staking out a very moderate position there and not really being upfront about - Hey, we need to do something about exclusionary zoning, we need to make our zoning more inclusive and be able to fit more people into parts of the city - where Northeast Seattle is so wealthy, so much opportunity, so many good schools and good parks and everything, and it's a part of the city that's pulled up the drawbridge a little bit. Maybe she will change her tune on that position a little bit, but I think - although Darya didn't talk about housing a lot, she's someone who on the questionnaire was pretty clear - she's on that same page around ending exclusionary zoning and promoting missing middle. It's an issue that we track really closely - polling shows that Washington voters are increasingly focused on that. And I think it's because people are smart and you get that the whole world's experiencing inflation - you can't really blame one party for that. You maybe can blame Putin for that a little bit, but no one can control Putin. But what are you gonna do to help people control their costs? And one - the hugest thing is housing. It's just - it's a massive cost in our region. And if you don't have a solution that both gets at promoting affordable housing through investment and also dealing with our zoning and policies that just make it really restrictive to create more housing, you're not really tackling that problem. And I think for some voters that's really starting to hit home, which could give a candidate like Darya the edge. And I will let EJ break down some of the other races, as I've gone on long enough. But it definitely was a reassuring result in that sense. [00:20:45] EJ Juárez: Yeah, so I - one, I appreciate being on a show with Doug because Doug is so smart about so many things. And as he is talking, I'm writing down things - oh, I need to look into some of that. For me, back to the question around endorsements and the power of The Stranger. I think Michael Charles was absolutely right around the two-party system now. I also feel like it is incredibly disingenuous for anybody who works in politics to be surprised if the candidate who gets The Stranger endorsement gets through. I think it shows a lack of context around just how much that means to people, both as a key part of many people's own political maturity within the city, right? The Stranger serves as this thing that people learn about Seattle from, learn how Seattle operates - and discounting the weight of that endorsement is done at one's own peril. I think how we get, how we've gotten to this place - and many of these endorsements and many of the races bear this out - is that there are a couple of things at play. Media consolidation has removed many of the other endorsing organizations that had typically seen - excuse me, typically been seen as nonpartisan, right? We no longer have The Seattle PI, we no longer have many of the regional or neighborhood papers that were also doing this for many years. The lanes of engagement have also changed for people who are coming into elected office. The salaries that we pay people to do public service no longer match the cost of living in many of our cities. So therefore, you are narrowing the field more and more and more as this goes. I think the two remaining factors that I think of when you think about just the power of these - of The Times and The Stranger's endorsements - are the policy hegemony, right? The lane in which we talk about policies is so locked in and narrow in the full spectrum of possibility. So the process of differentiating - if we're looking at the 36th - 7 candidates, is it 2, 4, or 6 candidates who have minor policy differences and may only sell that difference with enthusiasm or gusto differently, but are 99% aligned - is more and more difficult for voters to actually judge on policy versus performance. And I think that gets to the last piece here of - the opposition that is understood in Seattle politics has become more and more clear around - there is the folks that are trying to do good and the folks that are trying to do bad. And the folks that are trying to do bad - when I started working in politics here, that was - you could name 50 different organizations, 50 different people off the top of your head. And now it feels like every campaign has really locked in on - the bad guys are Amazon, the bad guys are the tech bros, the bad guys are X, Y, and Z, but it's really focused on small pockets of opposition. And for many reasons, some of those groups earn that label - I will say that - but in many ways it limits the amount of discourse that happens. And I'm going on a little bit long, but I think it can't be overstated that many of these factors inform how we got to a place where two newspapers informed so much of our political success in the City. [00:24:25] Crystal Fincher: Yeah - to your point - the reason why Hacks & Wonks exists is because of the frustration with how narrow and shallow some of those conversations can be, with so much consolidation and with the thinning of just the amount of people covering these races, the amount of visibility that races and policy have, the lack of accountability that we see with so many of our leaders - not just federally, but in the City of Seattle - we're still wondering what happened to texts that disappeared at a really pivotal time in the City. So it is challenging to work through that and deal with that. And I just think that this is a time where I hope lots of community organizations lean in and engage and try to connect their own memberships, their own spheres of influence to the process. One thing that I found really exciting about these results that I haven't really seen talked about was - there's a lot of public polling available, but the primary is a spectacular, actual public poll. And when we talk about inclusive zoning and making progress on affordable housing, the vast majority of voters in every single district - from the 46th to the 37th - voted in favor of the candidates who said we're taking on exclusive zoning, we're going to make it more inclusive, we're going to vote for that missing middle housing bill, and that spoke strongly in favor of it. That they voted overwhelmingly for candidates who talked about strengthening the social safety net, who talked about addressing behavioral health services, substance use disorder services, supportive housing and wraparound services - and not just focusing on the - well, we just need to lock people up and do what we've been doing that has landed us here today. They're really talking about addressing a lot of these root causes and taking substantive - not incremental, but pretty dynamic - change in many of these areas. And voters were right there, so I think that that was encouraging to see. And I would just wonder and hope that we're going to see that reflected and responded to throughout the general election. Full disclosure - I worked for Melissa Taylor, I've paid close attention to the 46th and a number of these races - and am excited to see a strong progressive get through in that race - and Darya Farivar, especially with a lot of the work that she's done in disability justice, which is critical. And so it's just gonna be really interesting to see as these general election races go by, and I think the 37th Legislative District looks like a very competitive race that could go either way right now, that it's gonna be really interesting to hear in these opportunities where it's not quite a Democrat versus Republican conversation that does get flattened a lot, but hopefully we can get into some of the meatiness of issues. There's a lot of policy space in the Democratic arena, in the progressive arena to really talk through - what are your plans for fixing the issues that are challenging people? How do you plan to make people's lives easier and simpler and what are you going to stand up for? Where are your red lines? What are you gonna lead on? Are really interesting and exciting things to see, that I see there. So I think that the entire media ecosystem from The Urbanist playing a crucial role, the South Seattle Emerald, Real Change - just a lot of community media. Community organizations have a lot of power just because there just aren't many people covering or talking about this - and this is an opportunity for them to talk about what's important to them, their members, people they serve, their community. And we need it now more than ever - as we finish thinking about these Seattle races and just other races across the state, is there anything that you think is flying under the radar that's notable or things that we haven't discussed tonight that you feel we should be paying attention to? And I will start with Doug. [00:29:05] Doug Trumm: Oh, so many things - I think, just to add another thought about the Seattle races is - again, I think what was another case with Chipalo Street, where we endorsed him as well and I think that's another race where Seattle Times and Stranger - we agreed. And I think that may have partially been just an advantage of him having his game plan set when he announced and it seemed like Emijah Smith was a little bit more still trying to catch up - announcing a little bit later, I think. And we didn't get a chance to talk to her, so that was part of our decision - she didn't return a questionnaire. But he was someone who was really good at talking about housing. So again, I think that fits the theme and Emily Alvarado doing better than Leah Griffin, who we endorsed - but we like both candidates, we were very clear that you have two great options there - again, someone with housing chops was doing a little better. I don't know - I might be stretching this theme a little bit much, but it definitely seems like credibility on that issue is a huge asset. And that should be good news. Unfortunately we're gonna have people like Gerry Pollet getting re-elected, but they might look at this and go - maybe I've been doing this a little bit wrong if I really want to continue getting re-elected. But I guess one race we didn't talk a lot about - but we shouldn't shy away from the bad news, which is the 42nd did not go well for Democrats. You had hope of a Senate pickup there and it's still not completely impossible, but Sharon Shewmake, who is an incumbent House representative, getting 47% in that district - that's not a great result against two Republicans. And one of 'em did have kind of that name ID - Simon Sefzik, or however you say that - so that might have helped him, but does look like he'll be the one through. So she'll continue to face that in the primary. And then we have actually - two of those seats are Democratic held, so the people lower on the ticket did a little bit better. But these could be the two seats we lose, but I do think we make that up maybe in LD10 where Greg Gilday, the Republican incumbent, isn't doing well at all - is down like four points. And also in the 26th, as we've talked about a little bit, with having Adison Richards potentially being a pickup there - it might end up coming out in the wash. But I don't know what's going on in the 42nd - I thought that district was drifting a little bit blue, but - and the redistricting is really odd because it's such a huge district - all the changes happened within the sort of Bellingham scope. And I guess they must have just carved out a little bit of Bellingham that was keeping that district where Shewmake was winning. And it's also - I guess, maybe Shewmake wasn't as strong of a candidate as maybe some of - her seatmate Alicia Rule doing a point and change better. I don't know if that's just the money in that race or what, or if it really should have been flip-flopped who tried to grab that Senate seat, but it might have been for naught if that district is just now a +3 or something Republican - you really have to run a really good race maybe to win that. And with Republicans pouring money in there, it's not as favorable terrain - which kind of brings us back to redistricting - it's a weirdly drawn district and I guess we left it that way, but why? Maybe I'll leave it at that for now and let others jump in. [00:32:44] Crystal Fincher: Go ahead, EJ. [00:32:45] EJ Juárez: I think I'll start with the 42nd. I think this is a district that is an opportunity for Democrats to begin with, right? If it were not for the death of conspiracy theorist, COVID-denying Doug Ericksen, who loved to work for dictators - I think we wouldn't even be in this situation. Any Democrat who is putting up numbers right now - it was an uphill battle - and I think that the points are valid around just how hard that was going to be for just about anybody, given the challenges of where the lines are gonna be and all these things. I think in terms of other stuff that is top of mind for me is the real tragedy of Julie Anderson's run for Secretary of State - incredible underperformance, not even carrying her own county of Pierce County, running as an independent against the incumbent Steve Hobbs - is something that I can't, I keep coming back to where I'm like - all right, that does not make sense in my head yet. Given everybody's enthusiasm of keeping Steve Hobbs as far away as possible from actually legislating - that part does. But the lack of challenge to his ascension into the Secretary of State's office seems a bit odd. It is almost certain that the Democrat will hold that seat for the first time in 60 years, and I think that is something that is to celebrate. I think that is a good thing for Washington, even as oddly as we have arrived at that fact. Some of the other quick things on my list is - as long as you're asking for that grab bag - I'll go back to the complete lack of strategy on the Republican side, in terms of how they are planning on taking and building a majority in this state. Still top of mind for me - it is the bright, shiny object of - are they going to produce a strategy at any point in the next decade? I don't know. And then lastly, where Democrats have made long-term investments, they are starting to yield the results and the rewards of that - whether that's Federal Way, whether that's in the 26th out in Gig Harbor - Democrats are getting those rewards for decisions and investments that they made 8-10 years ago. And the multiple cycle layering of those massive multimillion dollar investments in voter turnout, in improving the data on who lives in those areas, and making the case to those voters is making their job easier. And when you look at places that have not enjoyed that investment that are continually looked at as opportunities and pickups, especially when you're looking at the kind of "demographics as destiny" argument that gets made, we don't see perennial investments in places where there are large populations of color that are ascendant to majorities. We haven't seen the multi-layered approach in Yakima. We haven't seen that multi-layered approach in the Tri-Cities. And frankly, the results show - Democrats are not moving forward in many of those primaries and the lack of investment from the party shows. But where they have done it, it has been an incredible reward for them. [00:36:03] Crystal Fincher: Completely agree. And with that, this recap comes to a close. I want to thank our panelists - EJ Juárez, Doug Trumm - for their insight and making this an engaging and informative event. To those watching online, thanks so much for tuning in and for sending in questions. If you missed any of the discussion tonight, you can catch up on the Hacks & Wonks Facebook page or Twitter, where we're @HacksWonks. Special thanks to essential members of the Hacks & Wonks team and coordinators for this evening, Shannon Cheng and Bryce Cannatelli. If you missed voting in the primary, you still have time to make your voice heard in the general elections coming up on November 8th. If you need to register to vote, update your registration, or find information, you can go to MyVote.wa.gov. And as a reminder, even if you've been previously incarcerated, your right to vote is restored and you can re-register to vote immediately upon your release, even if you are still under community supervision - so that's new this year. You can vote if you are not currently incarcerated - you just need to re-register at MyVote.wa.gov. Be sure to tune into Hacks & Wonks on your favorite podcast app for our midweek interviews and our Friday week in review shows or at officialhacksandwonks.com. I've been your host, Crystal Fincher - see you next time. [00:37:27] Bryce Cannatelli: Thank you for listening to part 2 of our Hacks & Wonks 2022 Post-Primary Election Recap. If you missed part 1, you can find both parts of the livestream in our podcast feed or you can find the video and text transcript for the full recap on our website at officialhacksandwonks.com. Thank you for tuning in - talk to you next time.

On today's Hacks & Wonks week-in-review, Crystal is joined by Associate Editor of The Stranger, Rich Smith. They start this week discussing the heatwave currently affecting western Washington, and how despite the real risks to some of our most vulnerable neighbors, the city moved forward with a sweep of a homeless encampment. Rich points out that there's not actually adequate housing for all of those hurt by the sweep, and discusses how legal action might be the necessary catalyst to get the city to change its behavior when it comes to handling our homelessnes crisis. In specific races, Crystal and Rich discuss the Congressional race in Washington's 8th Congressional District, where three Republicans are vying for the chance to take Kim Schrier's seat. They next follow-up on the horrifying pattern of Black electeds, candidates, and campaign staff being harassed, threatened, and attacked, and the lack of resources and support from the HDCC to protect candidates of color. Next, they look at the 47th legislative district's Senate and House races, both of which have very competitive D-on-D races happening during the primary. Rich explains the Stranger's Editorial Control Board's struggle to pick who to endorse in the 34th's State Rep. position 1 race. Crystal and Rich talk about the disproportionate amount of money going to D-on-D races in districts that are safely Democrat, and what needs to be done to make sure campaign finance needs are less of a barrier for candidates. After that, they go over close-looking races between Democrats and Republicans across the state. Finally, they remind you to VOTE! Ballots are due August 2nd. Make your voice heard!  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, Rich Smith, at @richsssmith.  More info is available at officialhacksandwonks.com.   WA Voting Resources Ballot and replacement ballot information: https://voter.votewa.gov/WhereToVote.aspx    Ballot Box and voting center locations: https://www.sos.wa.gov/elections/research/drop-box-and-voting-center-locations.aspx    If you're an eligible voter with previous felony convictions, you CAN vote as long as you're no longer confined. For more information, see here: https://www.sos.wa.gov/elections/voters/felons-and-voting-rights.aspx    Resources   “Seattle removes homeless encampment in Sodo during heat wave” by Greg Kim from The Seattle Times: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/homeless/seattle-removes-homeless-encampment-in-sodo-during-heat-wave/    “A new push to combat harassment of Black candidates and staff” by Melissa Santos from Axios: https://www.axios.com/local/seattle/2022/07/25/black-candidates-washington-harassment   “Republicans vie for swing-district shot at defeating WA Rep. Kim Schrier” by Jim Brunner from The Seattle Times: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/republicans-vie-for-swing-district-shot-at-defeating-democrat-rep-kim-schrier/   “Northeast Seattle House race features 5 Democratic candidates and big money” by David Gutman from The Seattle Times:  https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/northeast-seattle-house-race-features-5-democratic-candidates-and-big-money/   “Seattle voters have a slew of choices in Legislative races” by Joseph O'Sullivan from Crosscut: https://crosscut.com/politics/2022/07/seattle-voters-have-slew-choices-legislative-races    Transcript [00:00:00] Crystal Fincher: Welcome to Hacks and 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. Full transcripts and resources referenced in the show, as well as our recent forums, are always available at officialhacksandwonks.com and in our episode notes. Today, we're continuing our Friday almost-live shows where we review the news of the week. Welcome back to the program today's co-host: Associate Editor of The Stranger and - never forget - noted poet, Rich Smith. [00:00:55] Rich Smith: Hi. [00:00:55] Crystal Fincher: Hey, so it's been a hot week. We're in the middle of another heat event, climate change is unrelenting, and we're feeling the effects of it. It's been a challenge. [00:01:09] Rich Smith: Yeah, I'm against it. I don't think it should be happening. Seattle really is dying, as is the rest of the globe, is my understanding. [00:01:19] Crystal Fincher: Absolutely. We just saw Europe go through this right before we did. And I'm sure we're all going to be going through it with increasing frequency, which makes one thing that happened this week, just particularly - not just unfortunate, but really infuriating to a lot of people - and plainly harmful. It's that the City of Seattle decided to move forward with sweeps of encampments for the unhoused in the middle of this heat wave. What went on here? [00:01:50] Rich Smith: Yeah, they - Bruce Harrell has made a point to deal with visible homelessness by employing a tactic that has not worked, which is sweeping people around the City, and in the middle of a heat wave, he swept a city, or a spot a little bit south of downtown. I wasn't - I'm not quite sure on the address. I think there was about 30 people there. And first thing in the morning - sun was heating up, these people had to put all their belongings on their back, and move across town, or find a cooling shelter or - in the heat. And it was just cruel and unfortunately, not unusual. And I can't even blog in this heat, let alone move all of my earthly possessions across town, just because somebody doesn't want to see me there. So that's what happened. [00:02:53] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, and it is - a lot of people understand that this really makes no sense to do - it's harmful, it's against public health guidance. We're still in a pandemic - even though people want to be done with it, it's not done with us. We have more challenges in that direction coming our way, which we might touch on a little bit later. But even with this, there were a lot of community members who reached out to the mayor's office when they heard about this and heard that it was upcoming. This is on the heels of last summer - the heat dome event being the most deadly weather event that Washington has ever experienced. We know how lethal extreme heat is. And so for people who don't have any kind of shelter to be put through this at this particular time, and as a lot of activists talked about and actually Councilmember Tammy Morales called out before, since and after - there's not enough shelter space, there's not enough housing space to get all of these people in shelter. To which Bruce Harrell and his administration replied - well, there's space at cooling centers and we can get them vouchers to go there. But those aren't 24/7 - that's a very, very temporary solution. So you know that you're throwing people out, certainly at night, and tomorrow when there's extreme heat again - 90+ degree temperatures - where do they go then? And they have even less to work with in order to do that. It's just - as you said in the very beginning - it's ineffective, this doesn't get people in housing. Some people talk about homelessness being primarily a problem of addiction or of mental health resources - that's not the case for everybody, but the one thing that everyone who is - does not have a home - has in common is not having a home. Housing is the one thing that will, that we can't do without to solve homelessness. We have to start there. And so to act as if this is doing anything different, when over and over again, we see when they sweep a location, the people who were there just move to different locations in the City. We don't get people housed, we're doing nothing but making this problem worse while wasting so much money in the process of doing so. It's just infuriating and I really hope it stops. There's not really a reason to believe so, based on the track record in this area of this administration, but it's wrong and there's really no two ways about that. [00:05:25] Rich Smith: Yeah, and just to hop on that Tammy Morales point and the reporting that The Times did on the ground, there's this - the administration thinks that they're offering everybody shelter, they say that they're offering everybody shelter. And then reporters go there and ask around and people say - nobody offered me anything. A couple people said - I'm gonna take this tent down the road, I'm not gonna get to that shelter. And so I just think that the City needs to start getting sued for this stuff. I just - if a referral system is clearly adequately not functional, and we're not supposed to - under Martin v. Boise - sweep people unless we have adequate shelter to put them in. And if we haven't created a system that gets people into adequate shelter that meets their needs, then how is it legal? is my question. And I don't think that this is gonna stop until there starts to be legal consequences for the City. [00:06:29] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, and like you said, there is precedent - that's a fairly recent decision, that we seem to be acting - in Seattle and in other cities - in direct defiance of, so I hope along with you that it is challenged in court. It's a big problem that continues. We're doing nothing to solve this issue that everyone recognizes is a crisis, and it's time we start doing things that actually work to make the problem better instead of wasting money on things that just perpetuate the issues that we're having. So this week, we're - Friday, July 29th - we are just days before this August 2nd primary on Tuesday, which means if you have your ballots, you better fill them out and get them in. Have any questions - feel free to reach out to us here at officialhacksandwonks.com, us on Twitter. You can go to MyVote.wa.gov if you are having issues with your ballot - I know there're places like Ferndale in the state that're experiencing extreme post office delays and some people still haven't received their ballots up there. But any issues that you're having can probably be addressed by starting out at MyVote.wa.gov, but do not pass up this opportunity to make your voice heard. There is so much at stake. As frustrated as sometimes we can be with how things are happening federally, whether it's the Supreme Court or seeming inaction in Congress - although we may have gotten some encouraging week this past week, encouraging news this past week - it is really important to act locally. Especially with things being in disarray at the federal level, the state and local level is where we protect the rights that we count on. It's where we shape what our communities look like. And the fact that they can look as different as Forks and Sequim and Seattle and Bellevue and all the rest just is a testament to how much power communities have to shape what they look like. So get engaged, be involved and - just starting out, we've seen just a slew of activity. We'll start the conversation around the Congressional districts, the Congressional races. What is happening in the 8th Congressional District where Kim Schrier is the current incumbent? [00:08:46] Rich Smith: This is - yeah - the front of the national red wave in Washington, to the extent that it crashes down here or gets held, it'll be in the 8th, which is east King County District now. It got changed around a little bit with redistricting - picking up some pieces of Snohomish County, but also some rural areas that it didn't have before. And Schrier faces a challenge from three Republicans minimum - there's a bunch of other people who aren't viable, but the major ones are Reagan Dunn, a King County Councilmember who's also a Republican and whose mom represented the district - I think in the 90s and early '00s - so a little bit of a legacy candidate there for Dunn. He has, as a brief aside, been also awarded by me just now the trophy of using his personal or his professional press release apparatus through the County Council in the most abusive way I've ever seen. This man sends out a press release about some kind of Republican red meat he's doing on the council, literally every eight hours, and it has been for the last year. If this is what he thinks doing his job on council means, then he hasn't been doing it since before this year. But anyway, Reagan Dunn is one of them. And Matt Larkin, a failed Attorney General candidate, who's going for the red meat Trump vote more openly than the other two are at least is is also running. He's got a bunch of his own money in - I wanna say north of $500,000, but maybe it's just $300,000. And and then we've got Jesse Jensen who ran last time. He's a veteran and a tech manager and he almost - he lost to Schrier in 2020 by four points. And so the Republicans are bickering amongst themselves with Jensen spending some, or a PAC on behalf of Jensen spending some money bringing up Dunn's - his struggles with alcoholism, and his divorce, and a bunch of drama related to that. And Dunn pushing back against that and calling it cheap blows. And Matt Larkin just trying to pick up any pieces that fall from that spat and capitalize on it. Schrier will, I suspect, will get through and it'll just be - which of these icky guys is gonna challenge her. [00:11:31] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, it's really interesting to see. And the theme of our congressional primaries and many of these races is - yeah, Republicans are fighting amongst each other in some really interesting, sometimes entertaining, but also vicious ways among each other. And so in this race it's been interesting to see, I think particularly just as people who live in King County and who have seen Reagan Dunn operate for a while - for a while he used to kind of court and relish his - the impression of him being a more moderate Republican, or Republican who can be elected in King County and touted that for a while. But now the base is different than it used to be when it comes to Republicans - they are not in the mood for a - someone who's moderate enough to be elected in King County and his votes, his rhetoric, the way he operates has completely reflected that. Including voting against women's reproductive rights, against abortion rights and access - really is, as you just talked about, trying to appeal to the Trump-loving red meat base and prove that he is conservative enough to do that. And just speaking a lot differently than he did before. But I think this is just reflective of - there are no - really, there is no such thing as a Republican moderate. Because everyone who has called themselves a moderate on issues of any kind of importance - at most - is silent. They won't oppose their party on things that they know are blatantly wrong, whether it's the lie of the 2020 election and the conspiracies surrounding that or vaccine issues - all this kind of stuff. Or you've seen them go the direction of Dunn and we recently saw, in a vote against same-sex marriage in Congress with Jaime Herrera Beutler, that they're voting against those things. And it's absolutely in opposition to a majority of Washington residents by every public poll that has been done. And so it's just interesting to see how that dynamic has played out throughout that. Again, it should be Schrier and we'll see who her opponent is gonna be, but that's gonna be a race to continue to pay attention to throughout the general election. So there's - you talk about a lot dealing with the 9th CD - there's a lot of legislative districts in the 9th CD - some of them very big battleground districts. And before we get into talking just a little bit about the legislative candidates, I did want to talk about an issue that The Stranger covered, that Axios covered this past week - and it has been the escalating incidences of harassment and violence against Black candidates, some of which are in the most competitive races in the state that we've been seeing lately. There have been lots of incidences that have been reported on that we know of throughout the state of Black candidates having their signs and property defaced - that's happened to a number of them, having their staffs harassed, followed, threatened from people in the community - and we saw that happen last week, one week before last now. And then that same week a candidate in the 30th Legislative District, which is Federal Way, Algona area, was shot twice with a BB gun. And when you're getting shot by BB gun, you don't actually know necessarily that it's a BB gun - and so you just know that you're getting shot at. Very scary situation and with those, certainly, I know that candidate Pastor Carey Anderson feels like that seems like a down payment on more violence, that seems like a type of harassment and targeting that's like - we are coming after you, we're harassing you. It's just very, very scary. And so throughout this process - and again, we saw these instances in 2020, we're now in 2022 seeing them - these campaigns have had to make considerations adjust their field plans and their canvassing plans in ways that soak up more resources, soak up more money and time, and it's just worrisome to be doing this. And realistically, this has been - continues to be a systemic problem. And so as I shared before, a number of people have - the parties should have an impact in fixing this. And specifically, I don't know if you're - I know you are - but people that are listening - the campaign apparatus when it comes to a state party - there's a state party. They do the Coordinated Campaign, which is the volunteer arm for a lot of the candidates in the state, they do a lot of supportive canvassing, phone calls, especially for - from the top of the ticket in the state on down. So Patty Murray being at the top of the ticket this year to candidates, especially in battleground areas. But the entities that are most responsible for dealing with campaigns are the House Democratic Caucus and the Washington Senate Democratic Caucus - that the House caucus and the Senate caucus are actually very frequently in contact with campaigns. They exist solely to support the political campaigns of their members. And so they provide information, guidance, infrastructure for the most competitive races against the opposing party. They're actively involved in these races and they basically act like co-consultants and adjunct staff for these. So there is a very close relationship and those are the two entities - House caucus for House candidates, Senate caucus for the Senate candidates - who are already doing that work in general. And so it has not escaped a lot of people's notice that this has been, as I was quoted saying, a glaring omission in what they've talked about. And it's not the first time the party has heard about this or confronted it. There have been conversations about this before. They've not resulted in action up until now. And so that article was particularly troubling to me. And this situation is particularly troubling to me because although everybody was asleep before then, we've seen the State Party basically say - yeah, we do have a responsibility to handle this and to try and work on a solution. We've seen the Senate caucus say - yeah, we do and we're working on a solution. And we have not seen that from House caucus leadership. And it was - we don't see this often for anything in any issue, but you had three candidates, two of them members in some of the most competitive races in the state saying - Hey, this happened. April Berg - this happened to me earlier this year and I asked the House caucus for help, I didn't get any - and now we're sitting here asking again and we're waiting. And Jamila Taylor, the head of the Legislative Black Caucus, saying essentially the same thing - we're waiting for help, we're asking, we're waiting. And then Pastor Carey Anderson, candidate in the 30th, saying we asked and we haven't - and these candidates are feeling like they're left alone and being left high and dry. And their campaigns are wondering - is it safe to be out there - and to not even have the caucus back them up like that is really something. And if Black lives do matter in this state, then we gotta do a better job of showing it, starting with these candidates. And this is - attacks on these candidates are really foundational - saying, we don't think you deserve a voice in this society, in our democracy, we're gonna try and intimidate and harass you out of it. And really, no one's really doing that much to stop it, so let's keep going. And not having support going through that is a really challenging thing. Will Casey for The Stranger also did an article on it this week. So I guess as you're looking at it, what does it look like from your vantage point? [00:20:11] Rich Smith: Yeah - well, in their defense the HCCC - or whatever, I don't know what they call it - just found out about structural racism this year, so they're hopping on it. They're also just figuring out racism as well. We might give 'em a chance to catch up. No, I was - the Rep Berg, whose canvasser was one of the people who got yelled at by a white guy who slammed his bike to the ground and did the "get off my lawn" racism up in Mill Creek, I wanna say, I can't remember where it was. But anyway, she and Rep Taylor pointed out that this - if you want to expand the number of people into your party, you want to have a big umbrella, if you want to diversify your party, which has been white for a very long time - then you're gonna want to provide some protection for people. You're gonna at least want to get a phone tree - set up some kind of protocol so that the party knows when this stuff happens and can act accordingly. The fact that we didn't have one means that we didn't prioritize it. And the fact that they didn't prioritize it means that there's not enough people in high places who are thinking about this stuff. And the fact that this has to come from the candidates who are not, who are running to be part of the party, is inexcusable because we've known that this has been happening for a long time. So yeah. It hurts recruitment for that party and it's inexcusable that they haven't done anything - they haven't done anything about it until now. [00:22:05] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, and even then until now - we're waiting, we're waiting. [00:22:09] Rich Smith: Yeah. [00:22:09] Crystal Fincher: We're waiting to see - [00:22:10] Rich Smith: Did the Senate put out some recommendations, but the House hasn't? [00:22:13] Crystal Fincher: Yeah. [00:22:14] Rich Smith: Okay, I see. [00:22:16] Crystal Fincher: And as well as the State Party - they've worked in conjunction. So it'll - we're waiting to see - I hope that we see more action, but it has certainly been disconcerting, worrisome. Frankly, infuriating - [00:22:31] Rich Smith: Pramila's getting yelled at. [00:22:32] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, and beyond yelled at - life threatened by dude outside of her house with a gun - telling her to go back where she came from and threatening to kill her. It's - and we saw an organizer this past week with a continued campaign of harassment from someone who already has a restraining order against them for this. It's just a worrisome time and it's gonna take everybody engaging, especially white people, to get this to stop. Relying on the victims of harassment and the victims of assault and the victims of stalking to be able to engage and solve their whole problem, when a lot of their energy is spent just trying to keep themselves safe, is not realistic and not what we can count on in order for it to change. But also, in other news - so south King County has got a lot of races. There haven't been many that have been covered. The Stranger has covered them and even engaged in a recent endorsement in one of the most competitive legislative districts in the state, which is the 47th Legislative District. And so there is one incumbent in the House seat running - Debra Entenman in that seat. And then there is a competitive Senate race and a competitive House race, both of which have open seats. And interestingly, both are D vs R races, where we're in a pretty competitive D primary, not so competitive R primaries. Well-funded Republican opponents - both of those Republican opponents are also Black, against a number of Black candidates running. So you have Shukri Olow and Chris Stearns running for one seat. You have Satwinder Kaur, who's a Kent City Councilmember currently, running against a former State Senator, Claudia Kaufman, in the other seat - running against another current Kent City Councilmember, Bill Boyce, who's a Republican. And then Carmen Goers for that other seat, who's also a Republican. So how did you - just going through that race - you made endorsements and recommendations. In that, what did you come out with? [00:24:52] Rich Smith: Yeah. In those races - yeah, first of all, the 47th is huge. It's a bellwether district. Everyone's gonna be looking at it and analyzing it on election night to figure out what it means for the general election and whether or not the Democrats are gonna be able to hold their majority in the State House and - or break even in the Senate, with Mullet as the swing - lord help us. But yeah, in the race - starting from the Senate race - that's the one that is Kaur and Kauffman vs probably Boyce - or yeah, Bill Boyce - [00:25:33] Crystal Fincher: Bill Boyce - yeah. [00:25:33] Rich Smith: Kent City Councilman. Yeah, we came down on Kauffman there, mostly because Kaur had lied to us, basically, in the course of the endorsement process. She said that - we asked about whether or not she wanted to put cops in schools and Kent, they recently - Kent School District and City Council approved recently - put cops back in the school so that they could handcuff mostly kids of color when they get out of line, and or when they say they get out of line. [00:26:13] Crystal Fincher: And a long history of that happening in the district. [00:26:15] Rich Smith: Yes, and Kaur's initial response to that was - that wasn't my, our jurisdiction, that was a decision that the school made, the school district made, yada, yada. Kauffman stepped in and said - excuse me, you voted on that. And then we were like, what? And then she's like - yeah, the City Council approved the budget that put the cops back into the schools in Kent and also, you all deliberated about it. There's a meeting - you talked about this. It was not only within your jurisdiction, but you joined a unanimous vote to put cops back in the schools. And then she's like okay - yeah, that happened. I was like - well, why did you say it didn't happen? Or why did you suggest that it was out of your jurisdiction? And so you didn't have anything to say about it? So that kind of - that didn't - that wasn't cool. We didn't like that. And we also didn't like that the vote to put the cops back in schools because, and when we questioned her on that, she said she had mixed feelings about it personally, but she voted for it because this was something the community asked for. But scratch the surface a little bit, and the community also asked for the school not to put the cops back in the schools. And so it was - she was representing people in the community, some people in the community, and dismissing - or not really dismissing - but pretending as if other people in the community didn't exist. She wanted to represent the interest of those people and not those people, so that was - otherwise they were pretty, pretty close on the issues, but her handling of that situation initially and the substance of it, I think, was what pushed us toward Kaur. We recognize that it's a moderate district, or a purple district, in a lot of ways and maybe that comes back to to haunt Kauffman, but Kaufman also just had a really forthright, blunt, straightforward way of talking. She held her ground, said what she said. And we were like - that's, there we go. There was just less triangulation, it felt like, happening. And so those were the things that pushed us there. Olow and Stearns was also really tough for us - because love Stearns' work on Treatment First Washington and his history with - him foregrounding treatment and wanting to get in - we really, would be great to have a champion in there, someone to join Rep Lauren Davis on her crusade to try to squeeze something out of that body to build a treatment infrastructure in the first place and a recovery infrastructure at the state level. I'm sure Stearns would've done that. [00:29:07] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, full disclosure - I was also part of that coalition - appreciate his work on that, definitely believed in that. [00:29:14] Rich Smith: Well, and he had been elected to Auburn City Council. And so he has a constituency he can tap - he's familiar. Olow though - we endorsed her against Upthegrove when she ran for County Council and she aligned with everything that Stearns was saying, or agreed with everything that Stearns was saying, and just has a lot of expertise in youth development and education and that's something where we need as many of those champions in the Legislature as humanly possible. And she had just had a - it looked like at the time when we were making the endorsement - just a better campaign infrastructure and so probably would've done, we thought would've done the best, will do the best against the Republican challenger. [00:30:11] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, really well-funded Republican challenger. Yeah. [00:30:15] Rich Smith: So that's what went into our thinking in those races. [00:30:18] Crystal Fincher: Yeah - no, made sense. Shukri has been doing work for the Best Starts for Kids program, which is very big in the district. Got her doctorate in education after starting out as a girl in public housing in the district. Has just - she really is someone who knows the district really well - grew up there, has certainly given back a lot, and so - know them both, appreciate them both. And just know that in both of those races, it's gonna be really tough for the Democrat vs the Republican. So whichever way that goes through, I hope listeners continue to pay attention and engage in those 'cause it's going to take help from folks who don't live there to make sure that the Democrat does get across the finish line. 'Cause, man - lots of these - Republicans are trying extra hard to put a moderate face on themselves, whether it's the 5th District talking about their bipartisan support and they're moderate and they're socially progressive and fiscally responsible - is how they're trying to present it. Whether it's in Emily Randall's district, or in the 5th district against Lisa Callan in that area. And it's just - we've got a lot at stake on this ballot. And so I really - and it's not inconceivable that Democrats could lose the majority here. With hard work, hopefully not, but it is within the realm of possibility and Republicans are looking to move backwards a lot of policy and are saying some really alarming things on the campaign trail with every - and it's not rhetoric. They're intending to move forward with repealing all of the rights that are in danger at the national level, and really being in alignment with what's happening there. And so things could go the other direction really fast. [00:32:17] Rich Smith: It's scary. It's also - is it within the 9th Congressional District as well? [00:32:21] Crystal Fincher: Yep. I think it's split between the 8th and the 9th, actually. I need to double check that post-redistricting, which is another thing - when you talk about just the 47th district, everything about everything in that race is just nonstandard. We don't know how this district, as this is the first time that we're gonna be voting within these new boundaries - so how it actually performs. You've got an interesting composition of people who - some have been on ballots plenty of times there, some haven't, some have but have been unopposed so people don't really pay attention to it. You've got two Black Republicans who are leading and the standard bearers - they're trying to portray themselves as - one of them, Bill Boyce, sent out this mailer of him and Martin Luther King. And there's nothing Republicans love more than throwing out a Martin Luther King quote that he would've thrown back in their face. But anyway, talking about that - which was, I know a lot of Black people in the Kent community looked, gave a side eye to that one really hard. But it'll be really interesting to see. And then there's a chunk of races in Seattle that are these D vs D races that are not gonna be key to the composition of the caucus and the majority, but that may help define what the agenda is in the Legislature and what's able to pass, especially when we talk about issues like progressive revenue and some very basic things that people are trying to tick off - in the healthcare realm, in the climate action realm, whole transportation package, what that kind of would look like. And so just a variety of races across the City that people will be voting on. Make sure to get that ballot in by Tuesday, either in the drop box or in the mail - you don't have to use a stamp on the envelope. But I guess as you're looking there, I see a lot of people - there's been a lot of coverage of the 46th, which full disclosure - I am working with Melissa Taylor on. In the 36th, a crowded race. There's an open seat in the 34th which hasn't quite gotten as much attention, I don't think, as the other two races. What do you see in that race? [00:34:52] Rich Smith: In the 34th? Great sadness and because it was - they're both really good. If you're - you're talking about the Leah Griffin and the Emily Alvarado - [00:35:03] Crystal Fincher: Yes. [00:35:03] Rich Smith: Yeah - what are you, what am I, how - we were all, we talked about this for 45 minutes, an hour. Okay, so our choices in this are somebody who is - we're in a housing crisis and Emily Alvarado ran Office of Housing, is - clearly knows what she's talking about. That's exactly what she wants to do when she gets to the State Legislature, and exactly how to do it, and exactly the coalition she wants to build - Latina and is - voted for Bernie Sanders - and is also impressive candidate who knows her sh*t. Speaking of, Leah Griffin - tremendous - tremendously overcame personal tragedy and didn't just keep that to herself, but used it in part as a catalyst to make real change to help everybody, contacted everybody in the Legislature and Congress - even Patty Murray - and got some responses and helped push an idea that eventually became legislation that got slipped into the Violence Against Women Act that would increase access to more sexual assault kits. So this is a person who has done tremendous work from her couch in Seattle, as she'll say. And so yeah - the choice there is between somebody who is gonna be a strong - and she's up on the news about criminal justice and is in the intersection there between how do we - what's the best way to get fewer rapes - to stop people from rape. She's a really good person who knows the answer to that question and can push for that kind of change in the 34th. And yeah, the question facing voters is - do you want somebody who's an expert on housing and is gonna do all the right things on housing and lead there and join a housing coalition in the House, which we desperately need. Or do you want somebody who is going to lead on the intersection of criminal justice and protecting survivors in the House, which we also desperately need, which is also - it's an impossible decision. I don't - we came down, the group came down at the end on Emily because of the housing crisis, but that's how I feel about that. We were all - could have gone either way. [00:37:46] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, it is - it's rough. And there's a lot of rough choices actually in Seattle - these are two great candidates. It's been tougher than prior years in some, where there were more clear choices in a lot of them. In City races, there's more differentiation between, at least among all the candidates a lot of times. And there just are some really hard choices and people across the board that - even if they don't make it through, you really, really, really hope that they continue to be involved and they step up to lead in different areas and really consider continuing to seek leadership. Because both people in this race, people in a number of races - there are some really, really exciting people who are running. You can only choose one. And so we'll see what continues to go through. And we can only choose one, we're gonna run a general election - ultimately there will be one who prevails, but yeah, it, this - I could definitely see that being a hard choice. [00:38:54] Rich Smith: If anybody wants to start some GoFundMe to help move some of these candidates around, would love somebody to move up to Shoreline and challenge Salomon, Jesse Salomon, up there - be a Senator. And could - someone could have jumped into the 46th Senate race too - would've been nice. A guy, Matt Gross, did - got a housing focus, that's great. Didn't do it for us even though - just 'cause his ideas were half baked - would've been nice to have a challenge up, a serious challenger to Javier Valdez too. Valdez is a nice guy, but there's a lot of room for improvement up there. Yeah, there was a lot of races where - would've been cool to see stronger challengers, progressive challengers. And then there were a lot of other races, and then the rest of the races were - oh, look, these people are great. Four great people running for one open seat. What are we gonna do here? So yeah, that - it was tough. [00:39:57] Crystal Fincher: Yeah - and with that, obviously, there's a ton of people who live in Seattle. And so there's going to be more people competing for what wind up being fewer positions. And you see a lot more engagement and attention being paid and candidates for those open seats. And it's - we are still contending with the disparity in resources between those in kind of safe D - Democrats are going to be elected in all of these positions. And seeing a stark difference in spending and donations for other races in the state that could go either way. And it's challenging. Again, I generally don't work with candidates. I'm working with one this year and it's a high - there are three of the top fundraisers in the state. I literally think the top three on the Democratic side non-incumbents in that race - there's a lot of money there. There doesn't need to be that much money in there, but given the composition - just like with Congress, right - especially the representatives basically have to spend all of their time fundraising. And while we desperately need more campaign finance reform, it should not take that. And a system that requires that is a broken system and you're making people make a lot of tough choices. The barrier for people being able to get in these races is challenging, 'cause you have to have enough time to devote to the fundraising and to talking to voters and the other stuff. And it's really hard to do without resources. And even if you don't have the most, you still have to have a substantial amount no matter how you look at it. So I do think there is a glaring need for some really foundational statewide campaign finance reform - also at the federal level - but Democracy Vouchers, does it solve every single problem related to everything? No. But I think it does make things more accessible, forces people to talk to more residents to get the - even if it's just in search of vouchers - hey, it's putting you in contact with more people that you have to directly deal with, which I think is always a good thing for candidates. But it's a problem, it's a challenge. And so many resources are dedicated to Seattle in the political sphere when there are so many needs for lesser-known races throughout the state. How do you see that? [00:42:39] Rich Smith: I agree. I don't know if - I don't know about Democracy Vouchers as a solution, but campaign finance reform for statewide races is great. Yeah - Melissa Taylor's raised what - $200,000 or something almost in that race - like the top, some of the top - [00:42:55] Crystal Fincher: Well, and she's the number two - [00:42:56] Rich Smith: She's the number two. [00:42:58] Crystal Fincher: - behind Lelach. And then, Nancy Connolly is also - there's a lot - now, Melissa doesn't accept corporate donations or anything, but still that's a lot of work, it's a lot of time. And not everybody has the ability to do that and that should not be a requirement of running for office. [00:43:23] Rich Smith: No. Yeah, I agree. And yeah, that's - it's as much as Stephanie Gallardo has raised against - for one House seat. Yeah, than for one US House seat, but yeah - it's crazy, it's a huge high barrier to entry, and we should do something to change it. [00:43:43] Crystal Fincher: We should. So I guess if you are - lots of resources, will link all of this in the comments of the show. As we do that - for just races across the state that may not be on people's radar, the Congressional races - is there anything that you would throw out there for people to consider that's not getting much attention right now? [00:44:05] Rich Smith: Yeah. You wanna do something over the weekend? You might try knocking doors for Emily Randall up in Kitsap - in Bremerton, Gig Harbor area - she's facing off against the Legislature's biggest brat, as Will Casey called him in a piece on the 26th Legislative District there. That's another one of those important races - Randall won by 108 votes or something last time she ran. So it's gonna be a close one. It would be great to have a pro-choice Democrat rather than a Trumpian weirdo in the Senate up there. [00:44:37] Crystal Fincher: Super Trumpian - he is one of the most extreme Republicans in the state, currently a House member running for the Senate seat to challenge her. They tried to put what they felt was one of their best, most resourced people on their side against her and she needs everybody's help. That is absolutely a race for people in Seattle to adopt and do something to help emily win. [00:45:03] Rich Smith: Yeah. If you wanna - if you're closer to the South End, you might try going down to the 30th LD - helping out Jamila Taylor with her race, figuring out what to do with, or helping Claire Wilson in her race. She'll - maybe save those for the general 'cause they'll probably get through. There's some sh*t going down in the 30th as well - is that also the one where Chris Vance is taking on Phil Fortunato - [00:45:29] Crystal Fincher: That's the 31st. [00:45:30] Rich Smith: 31st - that's right. That's just outside - [00:45:32] Crystal Fincher: So like Enumclaw, just to the east. Yep. [00:45:35] Rich Smith: Yeah, just outside. Yeah - so that's gonna be funny - I don't know, it'll be interesting. Phil Fortunato is a freak and a climate arsonist and a genuine weirdo. And I don't know if we're placing him with a centrist Republican, I guess, if Chris Vance is - will be much of an improvement, but it will be interesting to see the extent to which Trump base is being activated in these races in Washington, or whether there's some kind of independent, high Republican sh*t movement going on in the suburbs that really wants to moderate the Trumpers. So that'll be one area where I'm looking looking at that and yeah, but those would be two races that I would highly - [00:46:33] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, no, that absolutely makes sense. Thank you so much for your time today. Thank you everyone for listening - this is Friday, July 29th, 2022. Thanks for listening to Hacks & Wonks - the producer is Lisl Stadler and assistant producer is Shannon Cheng with assistance from Bryce Cannatelli. Our wonderful co-host today is the Associate Editor of The Stranger, Rich Smith. You can find Rich on Twitter at @richsssmith. You can find me on Twitter at @finchfrii. Now you can follow Hacks & Wonks on iTunes, Spotify, wherever else you get your podcasts - just type "Hacks and Wonks" into the search bar. Our revamped website has access to all the shows - all of the transcripts to everything is all included, and the forums that we did in the 36th and 37th are also included there. While you're there, if you like - hop on and can leave us a review on something, please do. It helps us out. You can also just get everything and we'll include all the resources and articles we talked about today in the show notes. So thanks for talking with us today. Thanks for tuning in - we'll talk to you next time.

On this midweek show, Crystal chats with Melissa Taylor about her campaign for State Representative in the 46th Legislative District - why she decided to run, the importance of stepping up in bleak moments such as now, and her thoughts on addressing issues such as housing affordability and zoning, climate change, public safety, and Washington's upside-down tax system. The two also converse about Melissa's extensive experience door-knocking both in her district and across the state, how having conversations with people with different viewpoints helps her develop better policy, the role of fundraising in politics, and what it's like to run in a race with five community-centered Democratic women. As always, a full text transcript of the show is available below and at officialhacksandwonks.com. Find the host, Crystal, on Twitter at @finchfrii and find Melissa at @MelissaWPTaylor.   Resources Campaign Website - Melissa Taylor: https://www.electmelissataylor.com/   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. Full transcripts and resources referenced in the show are always available at officialhacksandwonks.com and in our episode notes. Today, I am so happy to have this guest on our show, who is a long-time friend of mine and a current client of mine, actually - the candidate I'm working with - after I keep telling everyone that I'm getting out of working with candidates and politics. Every time I think I get out, you just reel me back in - it is Melissa Taylor. Thank you so much for joining us today. [00:01:05] Melissa Taylor: Well, thank you, Crystal. And thank you for letting me reel you back in one more time - I mean, we think. [00:01:12] Crystal Fincher: Well, yes - I've talked about it before on the show - not an easy thing to do, but as we all know, there is some ridiculous stuff going on, some scary and terrifying stuff going on - and political will is lacking with a lot of people, the understanding of the urgency of this situation is lacking. And so when I have the opportunity to work with someone, to observe someone over years actually walk the talk in ways that I rarely see - that's what gets me back in and that's why we're friends. But I guess I will just start off by helping other people get to know you a little bit better and just - what made you wanna run? [00:02:11] Melissa Taylor: Yeah - you summed it up really well, just there - it's the urgency of this moment. I have been doing this work on the outside for a really long time, and I am done watching as the problems we face get bigger than the solutions that people are bringing to the table. Every day I'm talking to folks at the doors who are struggling to get by in Seattle and it's not okay. They deserve better, we all deserve better - and I am ready to bring my political will, my experience, my relationships, and my commitment to this community to Olympia to fight for the solutions that fully meet the moment that we're in. [00:02:55] Crystal Fincher: Well, we're in - this moment that we're in - sometimes we record, oftentimes we record, a few weeks, couple few weeks ahead. But as we're talking, we recently got the decision that overturned Roe vs Wade, we got a decision that further just rolled back voting rights and just re-instituted really ridiculous gerrymandering - harmful, blatant gerrymandering. And we're watching our rights fall like dominoes from a Supreme Court that is eager to tear them down and more are coming - we're expecting a decision that kneecaps the EPA and others - and just such frustration that it's hard to see, at the federal level, our leaders not look like they're doing everything in their power to fight this. And understanding that the consequences that these things are going to have are real - and they're really scary for a lot of people - and we know that they're going to result in harm and death. If you're having an ectopic pregnancy, which can't be salvaged, that cannot become a viable pregnancy - the only thing it can do is endanger the life of the mother. And being forced to carry that, being forced to deal with the trauma every day, just not being able to make a decision about our health and our bodies as women, as men get to, right? It's just - it is harmful. And so, I hear frustration. I feel frustrated that more people aren't doing more. As you see these situations unfold before us and you hear frustration at the doors, what do you tell people when they're just like, look - I am sick of politicians, I am sick of watching people stand by while we're watching all of these things be deconstructed and burned down basically. What do you say? [00:05:18] Melissa Taylor: Yeah - me too, right? Me too. And - we can't give up hope. The answer can't be that there's nothing to be done. And there have been really bleak moments in history - one of the things that always keeps me going is knowing that the fight for women's rights - the women who started that fight didn't live to see it end, and the women who finished it weren't born when it started. We are standing on the shoulders of so many people who lived through so much more than what we are living through. This is terrible and we shouldn't have to live through it, and also we can persevere, we will get past this - and it requires us all chipping in and doing the piece that we can do. So for me, the piece that I can do right now is I can take all of the knowledge and experience and relationships that I've built, and I can go to Olympia and bring political will to this moment to say - No, absolutely not. At least here in this state, we can draw lines. We can say - No, we will not tolerate this. No, we're not going backwards. And in fact, this is how we're gonna move forwards. 'Cause it's not even enough - it's not like things were awesome before all of this started happening. We needed to be moving forward before. So it's no going backwards, but also - we have so many big issues ahead of us, whether it is housing or climate change. I've been working on tax reform in this state for almost a decade. So many big issues - still have to fix in this state to allow us to move forward - that we have to absolutely draw the line in the sand and say - not only are we not going backwards, but we're gonna paint a vision of what it can look like, and we're gonna show the rest of the country what it can look like when you do things right. When you take care of people, when you invest in people and you invest in communities, you take care of your environment - that everybody gets better together. That is what we can do in our state, and that's why I am so excited to be running. [00:07:35] Crystal Fincher: Well, I'm also excited for you to be running - that is a good thing. One other question you were talking about there - and just in this moment, but I think a lot of people are feeling - we're seeing a lot of conversations just looking at, Hey, what can we do? And the answer from some people is - All right, well you'd better just vote in November. Go vote. Vote blue. Is voting enough? [00:08:01] Melissa Taylor: No, it's never been enough. We have to vote - so I was on the board of the League of Women Voters for four years, I believe deeply in voting and empowering every single voter in every way we can to exercise that constitutional duty and right. And, it's not enough - democracy demands more from us all the time and especially right now. And so for me, that journey really looked like advocacy and then supporting people who are running for office - there are a lot of ways to pick up the piece of work that calls to you. But I really would encourage everyone to pick up the piece of work that calls to you. But most importantly, I would strongly encourage the people who hold the most power in our society right now to pick up the piece of work that belongs to them and do the work that needs doing in our country. The Senate, the House, the President have work that they can and should be doing to make people's lives better today. [00:09:07] Crystal Fincher: And amen to that. And I feel that deeply. So there's a lot of work that needs to be done. For you - obviously I know this, I'm asking for the listeners - what do you wanna do? What can you get done and how are you going to do it? [00:09:26] Melissa Taylor: I am really excited to work towards housing everyone - making sure that everyone has a place to live and that it is affordable and not crushing people's souls. Because what I am hearing on the doors is that rents that go up $200, $600, double - are crushing people's souls. They're making it so that they are scrambling to pay other bills, scrambling to pay for healthcare, to pay for car repairs that get them to work. We are breaking people and that's not healthy for a society. We are hollowing out our city. I'm hearing from nurses, teachers, firefighters - people I'm pretty sure we want in Seattle - that they can't afford to live here anymore. And that's not okay. And then I also mentioned climate change - there's no way to fix the number of vehicle miles being driven unless we let people live near where they work. And so to me, all these issues are also really tied together. And so my big thing going to Olympia is - we're missing 300,000 units of housing right now. We're projected to need 600,000 over the coming decades. Where is the plan that gets us there? And how quickly can we create the 300,000 we're missing right now? So really rolling up our sleeves, pulling out all the policy tools to keep people in housing if they're in it and to get people into housing if they don't have it. And just get that whole big problem on the table and then start breaking it into pieces and figuring out how we get every single person in Washington State stably housed. [00:11:05] Crystal Fincher: It's an urgent need - certainly we talk about that a lot on the program. I know you have an event coming up with Representative Jessica Bateman to talk about this soon and others, but what are some of those policy issues on the table? You say house everyone - does that mean some of the stuff that we hear from some of our local politicians - sweeps and maybe shelter, they've been offered services. Is it even possible to solve, is the visible part of homelessness the problem? What is actually the problem, and what are some of the tools that you plan to work on right away to solve them? [00:11:46] Melissa Taylor: I like to break things into pieces - big problems are easier to solve if you break it into pieces. So one of the pieces is - our lowest income folks are probably never gonna be served by the private market. We are just watching a private market gone wild. And so making sure that we have sufficient housing, that everybody can afford housing at 30% or less of their income - and especially at the lower ends of income, it probably needs to be less than that - and that it is in every neighborhood where we need people working. And so that really means investing. I love the social housing initiative that Seattle hopefully will have on the ballot and we have our Housing Trust Fund. So it means putting more money into that Housing Trust Fund. I'm also really excited by a model I saw in Singapore that could be funded through our bonding capacity, and building mixed income that then pays back the bond. So I think there are a number of various tools we have to make sure that there's housing available for all of our lowest income folks. Then the folks in the middle who are feeling so squeezed right now - we need fundamentally just more housing supply and more affordable housing supply. And that's why I was so excited about Representative Bateman's middle housing bill, because I saw so much opportunity there to unlock the potential of every neighborhood to help us solve these problems. To let homeowners who want to split their house so they can afford to stay in the community where they built their life - let them split their house and create more affordable housing for their neighbors. It just - it makes so much sense to me. I'm obviously disappointed and also perplexed how we don't see the opportunity to house people as one of our number one things we should be doing. [00:13:43] Crystal Fincher: Lots of people are hoping it's the number one thing that gets done. Lot of people are counting on it being something that gets done. But it's really obvious to you - as we know very well, there are other people in your district, who are elected, who it is not obvious to. So part of that is single-family zoning - should we be upzoning single-family zoned areas? [00:14:09] Melissa Taylor: Yeah, it really - so much is in how you frame things, but single-family zoning is exclusionary. It says that a homeowner does not have the right to split their house, even if that's the only way they can afford to stay in the community where they built their lives - and that's not okay. So yes, we should end single-family zoning and give people the option to split their housing. The thing is - I go to so many neighborhoods right now throughout this district and there are multi-family units that unless you have a list in front of you, like I do, you wouldn't know that there were 2, 3, 4 units there. And so I hear people tell me - oh, I don't want a big, an ugly condo that's eight stories tall going in next to me. I'm like - I hear that, I don't want one of those either. And that's not the only - there are other ways to solve that problem. And also, I don't want a big McMansion, ugly McMansion, going in next to me. The number of people living in the building doesn't impact whether or not it's ugly. So let's make sure that we're talking about the right things. And also just having priorities. My parents - and my childhood home is really close to the Roosevelt Light Rail - and so they were actually told that their house might need to be part of a development. And is it sad when I think about my childhood home having to be part of a development? A little bit. Is it exciting when I think about who could be housed, including my parents who probably are gonna need housing that doesn't have stairs - also exciting. And so I think part of it is understanding all of the balances, but also embracing it and understand that there's also opportunity there for us to reimagine what our communities look like and how we're connected to each other. [00:16:09] Crystal Fincher: Absolutely. And you talked about early on in there how so much is connected and how the way we design our communities, the way we move forward in addressing greenhouse gas emissions and climate change are involved in that. What do we need to be doing to be meeting our climate change goals? What are the biggest steps that we need to take? [00:16:36] Melissa Taylor: I mentioned the light rail stations. We are fortunate here in the 46th to have just gotten three new light rail stations with a fourth coming. One of the things that I think about is transit-oriented development around those light rail stations, because what we're building there - we're going to be living with for the next 50, 75, possibly even a hundred years. And so again, as I go back to what is the plan to make sure that everybody here has housing, part of that has to be that housing is sufficient for the next 50, 75, a hundred years. And I think that right now - if we look at it honestly, it's not. The other thing is I talk to a lot of people who would love to use light rail, and there's not a great way for them to get to light rail. So I'm excited about some of the investments that were made with Move Ahead Washington in terms of more infrastructure of various types that help us get around without cars. And there's just - there's a lot more of that that we have to invest in if we're gonna make it possible for people to move around without cars. [00:17:40] Crystal Fincher: One thing that makes it harder to invest in people moving around without cars is continuing to invest in not just the maintenance and upkeep of roads and highways, which is necessary - but the expansion of them. Should we be expanding highways? [00:17:58] Melissa Taylor: We should not be expanding highways. The thing that we've seen - and I'm a big data nerd, which, you know, but your listeners are about to learn - [00:18:08] Crystal Fincher: This is an understatement. [00:18:11] Melissa Taylor: -is if you look at the data, we put in highways to try and address traffic problems and highways don't help traffic problems, they actually create traffic problems. We're seeing a movement across the country for people to remove highways. And so for me, I look at it and I say - what are the problems we're trying to solve? We are trying to solve traffic, we're trying to solve moving people, we're trying to solve climate change, and what are the tools we have to get there? And reinvesting money that could have gone to highway expansion into other infrastructure projects that help people move around without increasing traffic and without increasing vehicle emissions - seems like it would be the natural direction we would be going. [00:19:01] Crystal Fincher: Does it? Unfortunately, not everyone has gotten that memo. So how do we get there? How do we begin to do that? If a transportation package comes in front of you, that has highway expansion in there - are you voting for it? [00:19:21] Melissa Taylor: I am not voting for highway expansion. If there are communities that come to us, and they've fully involved the entire community impacted by the highway, and that community comes and says - we have to have additional highway miles, then we need to talk about where we're gonna take highway miles out. But in general, I am very skeptical that we need any new highway miles anywhere in our state. [00:19:47] Crystal Fincher: So you're running this campaign for State Legislature - this is not a situation where you're a mayor, you're the governor, you're an executive and you can make the decisions - and should be accountable for those decisions you do or don't make locally - we have problems doing that. But in this legislative body, you've gotta get your colleagues to move along with you, you've gotta get a group of people to make this decision. And one of the frustrating things that we're dealing with federally right now is that some of the people who are supposed to be in the group that's in control of the Democrats are not all cooperating together and nothing is happening. In this situation in our legislature, where we do continue to have packages that expand highways, where we do continue to fail to move forward in ways that seem obvious - how do we make that progress when there are people who aren't there yet? How do you move your colleagues? How do we solve that problem? [00:20:54] Melissa Taylor: Yeah, I think - different for different colleagues. One of the things that I am really excited about, generally speaking, is I will have talked to more everyday people at their doors than many of my colleagues have done in years. And so I am bringing the voices of people who may never have sent a letter to Olympia, who may never have made a phone call. But they care about what's happening in their community. It's just, they're living their lives. And so I get to take all of those voices to Olympia to say - actually, the silent majority is ready for ending single-family zoning, the silent majority wants us to fix climate change, the silent majority is terrified about the future we're leaving for our children. And if you'd like to go knock doors in your district, I would love to come with you - show me that your constituents feel any differently than my constituents. Because I actually don't think that across the entire state - and I've knocked doors across the entire state - I don't think we're as far apart as people wanna think that we are. [00:21:59] Crystal Fincher: And so - this is so interesting, and this is one of the unique things about knowing you, having insight into your campaign that other people might not - it is one, you are out knocking on doors with voters literally every day for hours, rain or shine. And so you have had thousands and thousands of conversations with people who do not testify or get engaged. Some of 'em don't even vote all the time, right? But they're feeling the impacts of all of these around them. And when you knock on that door and you first start that conversation, it's not like you're welcomed with open arms all the time. You are often greeted with skepticism and - Hey, you're bringing those liberal ideas over here and you're walking past the NRA sign, you're walking past all of that, and they're almost there to challenge you up front. Yet, you're able to stay consistent with your values, you're able to do that and have conversations - I'm thinking of a few conversations that you've had on the doors. But I guess one of the things that I think is missing sometimes in politics is, and that strengthens you, is that you do talk to so many voters and you do have the chance to have conversations with people who start off disagreeing with you, who start off and who don't always end up completely agreeing with you and saying - ah, you totally have my vote. But who you're able to have conversations with and who you're able to move closer. What is your approach to that - in your conversations with real people and not insider-y insiders? When you walk up to a door and the NRA sticker is there, the door is opened, and it's just - Hey, I'm sick of all this and I'm sick of you. What is your approach and how do you have those conversations in ways that sometimes people don't know how to have, or aren't successful in having? [00:24:18] Melissa Taylor: A lot of it - this sounds so simple, but a lot of it is listening and asking questions and being curious and be able to stay curious - to say - hey, what brought you to this point? What happened that made you feel this way? And then to help connect them and say - hey, I'm your neighbor over there - I live in this community too, I'm being impacted by some of these same things. It's really terrible to have things stolen, it is really terrible to be afraid to go out. I don't think we should live that way either. And so finding those moments of - getting to somebody to tell you their story and finding the areas of common ground, and then exploring the areas of differences and saying - I came to this conclusion because I went and did research, I've talked to people, and what my research tells me, what the data tells me is that if we do this, this, and this - that's most likely to impact these things that we are both saying that we're concerned about. And I pretty often can get people nodding their head. For instance, domestic violence. One of the things I talk about is when do we want somebody with a badge and a gun? It's when it's going to make the situation better. With domestic violence, it doesn't make the situation better. And if we want to end violence, if we wanna end especially domestic violence, we really need to be studying the models of what interrupts that cycle of violence, what actually empowers the people in that family to heal their family, to heal the issues - to figure out how to move forward either as a family or separately, right? Not every family's going to stay together, although for most kids it's better if the family can solve those issues and stay together. But it's one of those things where we really need to be thinking about what actually works, what will actually solve the problems that are facing us. And if we look at that data, and I talk to people about the solutions about where they've worked - go back to the homelessness. Occasionally people will talk about whether or not Housing First works. And I love bringing out this new example we have from Houston, right? Where we've got 25,000 people who are housed. If Houston, Texas can house 25,000 people successfully using Housing First, I feel like Seattle should be trying this. [00:26:53] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, and obviously - anyone slightly familiar with this program and knows that I absolutely believe we should be trying this - we should be trying a lot of different approaches, a lot of things that we're doing are not working. And you were just talking about interrupting cycles of violence - when do we want someone with a badge? Public safety is a huge concern for a variety of reasons - and different reasons for different people - but this public conversation we're having - hey, do you back the blue or do you want to defund? Do you want this, do you want that? And when you look at polling - when you look at stuff there - there is no one saying what we're doing right now is working. And really it's about - there's a lot of fear, there's a lot of being scared - but it's a tough conversation to have because it gets - we've got the police guild saying their stuff, you've got other people saying theirs. So you've got the news covering, some of the TV evening news covering things very sensationally. And so as we do have crime increasing, as we do have scary things happening on the street and in our schools, and gun violence escalating - and this past weekend in Tacoma, the amount of shootings is - this is alarming. There is justification for being scared. So with that fear out there and hearing just these scary, wild things with people being victimized and hurt - what do we do? How do we address this? People are scared - and should we be doubling down on the kinds of things that we're doing, or what do you talk to people about? What do you tell them when they're like - dude, I'm scared. I don't want my kid walking around alone outside. I just saw something really weird happen at the store. People are different these days out there. What do you say? [00:29:07] Melissa Taylor: My heart is breaking with each one of these stories. One of the doors I knocked yesterday, actually, talked about a shooting that happened a block away. And that is terrifying. And then we have these shootings across the country, we have these shootings in our neighborhoods - not to mention break-ins - it is so unsettling and so disturbing to feel like you can't be safe in your home, you can't be safe on streets, on the way to work. And I actually - I haven't talked about this much, starting to talk about it a bit more - I actually am the victim of a violent crime. I was stabbed during a mugging and it is horrible, it's not just that it hurts - it's that it impacts you for years. So there's medical issues, there's financial issues, there's mental health issues - and what I want more than anything else is for that never to happen to me or to anybody else again. And the thing that I think we are missing so often in our discussions about public safety is this concept of prevention, right? So often we're talking about what happens after a person gets stabbed, instead of talking about how do we keep people from being stabbed in the first place. And what I want is for nobody being victimized by a violent crime, or even property crime. I don't want people wondering whether or not they're going to be able to get to work in the morning because they lost their catalytic converter. That is terrible. And the thing again - data nerd - so I've spent a lot of time looking at the data of what really makes a community safe, about what really will stop crimes from happening, what will interrupt the cycle of violence. And we're not doing those things. We might do them in fits and starts, but we aren't fully funding the things that would prevent crimes. We know that we need more mental health treatment, we know we need more behavioral health treatment, we know that we have too much poverty in our state. And addressing those things is actually what most people in Seattle will tell you are the things they want their taxpayer dollars to go to because they know, like survivors of violent crime know, that those are the things that are going to create real long-term sustainable safety for all of us. And so for me - one, I wanna widen the lens of what does it take to make us safe. And then two, make sure that we are funding the things that work, the things that are deeply proven - to make sure that what happened to me doesn't happen to other people. [00:32:07] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, we've had conversations about this, about a number of things - and it is a perspective that's not being talked about. Safety is so much more than policing. And we see examples of that in so many ways and so many places. We understand, we make projections for prisons based on how people are doing early in life in elementary school and making projections on that. We know the kinds of things that put someone on a path to thriving, or to falling through the cracks. And we know when we make investments that it's helpful - we know early childhood education, we know addressing poverty - we know those things, and they're happening elsewhere. We see this happening elsewhere. And for some reason, I feel like maybe people just don't believe it's possible to get a better result. But my goodness, when you see it working elsewhere and the only difference is just policy, it does make you wanna just fight for it here. So as we move forward and we're looking at more public safety solutions, we're looking at different ones, obviously a lot of people are always talking about - okay, well, where's the money coming from to invest in these things, where do we get the revenue to address some of these very systemic problems? We do address inequality and poverty and meeting people's basic needs - where do we get this? [00:33:52] Melissa Taylor: Yeah, we fix our tax system. When we started out, I've mentioned that I've spent the better part of a decade working to fix our tax system. We have one of the most upside-down tax systems in the entire country. And what that means is that the folks at the very top of the income scale are paying a tiny percentage of their income relative to the folks at the very bottom. So it's almost 20% that folks in our lowest income brackets are paying in state and local taxes. And that creates a real burden. I was talking earlier about how rent hikes make it hard to afford healthcare and bills and transportation. State and local taxes make it hard to afford those things too. And so when I think about it, I'm excited about the capital gains tax and really hopeful that it is sustained. I am excited about the wealth tax that Representative Noel Frame brought forward. I am excited also about the reforms to the inheritance tax. And then the other thing that I am really excited about is accountability for tax exemptions. So looking at the tax exemptions that we've carved out of our tax base over the decades and saying - are they still serving us? Are we still getting what we originally intended? What were we intending? Are we getting it? And is it worth the trade-off for not funding housing, not funding education, not funding climate resilience. We are spending money on tax exemptions and we deserve to know what we're getting for it. We have more tax exemptions than any state other than New York, which has a far larger economy. We give away more in revenue through tax exemptions than we bring in. So really looking at those and creating accountability around them to say - is that where our money should best go? [00:35:46] Crystal Fincher: We absolutely need to do better and to fix our tax system - it does unlock so much more that we have. There's inequality all over the place. And this is probably a weird thing to talk about and we have not talked about this conversation - I would have it, but it is real - we try to talk about real things on this show. Especially just as a consultant and having to confront it - I don't know if you know what I'm about to bring up. But so we're in this situation. Obviously I am a political consultant - this is how I make my living. But man, politics should be more accessible to a lot more people. Running for office should be more accessible to a lot more people. You shouldn't have to be independently wealthy - and you are not independently wealthy - but a lot of people are. Or it's just really tough and you have to have flexibility and grace from your job to be able to do that, you have to have adequate childcare, you have to have all of that - it's really tough. And it's also really tough to have to raise a lot of money, or to have that demand on you. And so this is a really interesting situation and usually I try to avoid working in Seattle - as we talked about earlier on, I try to avoid candidate campaigns on the candidate side a lot - but this race that you're in in the 46th, there are actually some cool people in this race. Sometimes you have a number of cool people in the race - there are a number of cool people in this race. There are also a number of great fundraisers in this race. You are a great fundraiser and you're actually leading the pack fundraising, you're actually leading the state fundraising - which is really cool. And also I know how hard you work for that and how much time you put into it, 'cause you are not accepting PAC donations or anything like that. So these are people and your average gift is not that big. And so it's taken a lot. There are others in this race who are fundraising juggernauts and also raising a lot, but this is also a City of Seattle Democrat versus Democrat race. And there are other races across the state that are Democrat versus Republican, there are conversations about - hey, we may, it's not a given that these seats are gonna win. There are a number of battleground districts that could be tossups and that we don't know how they're gonna wind up - that are also hurting for money over there. And so how do you think about that process - that you're in a situation where you're trying to run this race and to win this race and to do what it takes. But also you want good government, you want good democracy, you want things to be accessible to a lot of people. How do you reconcile that? [00:39:11] Melissa Taylor: Yeah, I think there's really two pieces to that. One is what should we do about money and politics? And two is what should we do about the kind of money that's in this race, and what does that mean for me as a candidate and how do I think about where my responsibility is in that? On the side of money and politics, I love how much Democracy Vouchers have opened up the possibilities for candidates from various backgrounds in Seattle. And so I would love to see, and I get people asking me at the doors - Hey, can I give you Democracy Vouchers? I was like I wish you could, because then instead of spending hours every day on the phone calling donors and asking them for money, I could be out knocking more doors every day, knowing that Democracy Vouchers might come with those conversations as well. So I think that's something that we can and should continue to work on in our state - to make this system and these roles more accessible to more people. I also think we need to look at making the State Legislature full-time because it is not reasonable or practical for many people to take two or three months off of a year to be a state legislator - most jobs don't support that. Then on the other side, looking at this particular race and how much money has been raised in it, part of the reason that I've been able to raise the money I have is because I've been raising money for other candidates and other causes for years. So you and I know from our work together on Persist PAC, I raised hundreds of thousands of dollars that went towards other candidates in some of those swing districts - some of whom won and some of who didn't. So for me, I think about one, what have I done historically that helps balance what I'm doing right now. And I also think about what is my opportunity to do that in the future. I do think that Seattle Democrats have an obligation to our political system to help raise money and fund races in places that are not as resource rich. And some Seattle Democrats do that, and some don't. So being committed to being that person going forward, so having paid off some of that debt - you look backwards and then looking forward to paying it forward - is part of how I think about what that looks like to do the right thing. So similarly to having raised money across the state, I've knocked doors across the state. I have knocked doors in very, very red areas and talked to people across the entire political spectrum, because I think that is so important to making our democracy work. And it's important to me to understand the perspectives of everybody, so that - I think we make better policy that way. [00:42:11] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, we do. And one of the things I appreciate about you and that I - we've talked about on the show, I talk about it with other candidates is, I think we just had a conversation about it really with Mike McGinn - understanding how to listen, almost how to pressure test your policy but know where you stand, know where your principles are. And starting from a place where - you naturally start there - hey, you have had your windows broken, that really sucks. As have I - neither of us want that to happen. We know that's not acceptable, we know it needs to stop. And then going into - okay, so breaking it down. It's not that one person just doesn't care that windows get broken or anything. Most people are on the same page that that's an undesirable thing. Then wild stuff and rhetoric happens and people don't talk to each other and people end up with wild ideas about stuff but having those conversations is helpful and it helps build a trust with a candidate - a voter, knowing that you heard them, knowing that you're carrying their story is a really helpful and powerful thing. And the amount of people who I've run into - for you and for other candidates - you know what, okay, so I don't agree with her on every single issue, but she listened and she did her homework. And so at least I know that it's not someone going buck wild and who's not tethered to reality. I can at least see that there's a process there, and there's a thoughtfulness, and there's a caring, and there is a weighing of cost and benefit - and almost everything comes with some kind of cost - and who is better to bear that and we stand firm on that decision. I think that's really helpful and I think that's really instructive, and I hope other candidates just across the state - I know a number of them do take advantage of the opportunity to talk to voters, to talk to people at their doors, to talk to people who don't vote and to understand why they aren't voting - and the answer almost never is because they're lazy and they just don't care. And just to understand how people are actually living 'cause a lot of us just - I know a lot of people who are very online, I'm certainly a very online person - talk to a lot of people online, but then it's just like okay, so do you know your neighbor? Have you talked to your neighbor, have you talked to a person down the street and those connections, those real-life connections? And talking to people who may be coming from a different place than you are does not have to change where you are, but it can inform what path you need to take to achieve what you're set on achieving. So I guess through this experience and this is your first time running, this is an open seat, there are other candidates in here - so this is something interesting, actually - we haven't talked much about this either. Man, you're in a race with four other people. I know you told me the other day you had a good conversation, good time with another candidate in this race. How do you view this thing? 'Cause sometimes one of the reasons I dislike, generally, working in some of these Seattle races is that - yes, it's an open seat, all these Dems are running - if you're involved in politics, you're going to know several of them, you're going to have people on different teams. And sometimes it gets really contentious and sometimes people who agree on a ton of things - and we're not disagreeing about who shouldn't enjoy full rights or people's humanity and stuff, but different ways to get to the same place, right? And you have these opponents in the race, but they're also people. And then you're in some places and you're talking policy and you're listening to each other. And then sometimes you're like - oh, that actually sounds really good. What is that experience like and yeah, what is that like? [00:47:17] Melissa Taylor: I have to tell you - as I thought about running for office, I never anticipated being in a race with five Democratic women who have been working in their community for years. I feel really fortunate to live in a district that has great candidates and great options for voters. When we talk about why people vote or don't vote, not having great choices can impact that. And so, I've spent so many years recruiting and training women to run for office that I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that my success has - not necessarily exactly in this race - but I've ended up in a place with five women running, which I really think is good for democracy. And these are my potential constituents or my potential future State Rep, right? So I also - this is a long game for me. I've been doing this for many years, regardless of the outcome. I'm going to be doing this for many years and relationships matter, how you treat people matters. And so for me, I am always interested in learning. I learn sometimes from people who may be trying to teach me something, and sometimes from people who are just trying to get their way. But I got some advice coming into this that somebody who ran previously ended up being really good friends with other people running, and I can imagine that. I am excited to get to know the other folks running, probably not 'til after we're done running, but appreciated - I got a ride home from an interview from one of the other candidates and I think that's the kind of race I want to run, that's the kind of political system I want to build. So we've been talking about how people get really sick of politics. I think more people want to see politics where one candidate gives another one a ride home because it's the nice thing to do. [00:49:18] Crystal Fincher: And I think sometimes people might be surprised - I think that happens more than people think sometimes. Certainly as we talk about, especially, most of our conversations are on these nationally defined two sides to an issue, very black and white binary conversations, that it's just - well, your opponent did this or that and we can't agree and I automatically need to dislike you because you're on a different team. And I think it's 'cause I'm - I was about to say, I think it's 'cause I'm old, I am old, I've been doing this for a while, have been around for a while - but one of the first races I managed had a group of candidates that actually got along. And I think it was instructive that we can talk about policy, we can have some differences, we can do this - but we're trying, we're moving in the right direction, and that doesn't automatically make us into - caveat this - this is not a situation where we're talking about someone's humanity or rights that they get to have. We're gonna have a problem in that situation, but - Hey, I'm concerned about gentrification, I'm concerned about what I'm seeing in my community - I'm seeing that we can talk about that. We can talk about that, we want to get to a place where housing is more affordable, we want to get to a place where more people are able to stay in their neighborhoods and have their kids live near them and do that. And I think it happens more often than people think - I hope it does. I think those relationships are healthy and that those are allies and people who are doing their homework, who can be part of building the future we want to have. And I guess we've been talking for a while - we should probably wrap this up a little bit and we've got stuff to meet about later - different stuff. But as we're here and you think about building the future. What does that look like for you? What does that mean to you? [00:51:55] Melissa Taylor: Yeah, when I think about building the future, I first and foremost think about my kiddo, which I think is a pretty typical reaction from parents. And I look at my kid and all the hopes and dreams that I have, as well as all of the hopes and dreams that she has. And. How do we make those come true? And how do we make those available to every kid - starting with the kids who are struggling the most. And so for me, that vision is that we eliminate poverty, we house everyone, we make sure that when people get hurt they get the help they need to get better. So they don't hurt other people because we know that those cycles - that's where they start. And they frequently start in early childhood. And we make sure that we really are investing in people and a fair and equitable society, which means that we just don't leave people behind. We make sure that everybody gets a fair chance to build a future where they can thrive. And I don't think it's that hard. I think we can look around the country and around the world for places that have done better jobs at solving these problems. It's not like the solutions aren't out there. It's that we need to go put the data together, put the policy together, build the coalition behind it, and pass it. [00:53:20] Crystal Fincher: And you don't know Melissa, maybe, like I do, but if there's one thing Melissa's gonna do, it's build a coalition and then get after it. You are one of the - someone mentioned the other day, you didn't volunteer someone, you voluntold someone - that was the most appropriate Melissa-ism - like to man, you're such an effective team builder, recruiter - you understand coalitions and just focusing people toward a goal. You roped me into a PCO recruitment project among other things. And here I am working on this campaign. You're very talented at this. But I appreciate that you really care about this. And that you really work for this and you have worked for this. And just for people to have the opportunity that they all deserve and not one that's based on their zip code, or not one that's based on their ethnicity or immigration status or whatever, that there's no reason - it doesn't hurt us for other people to have opportunity. And - [00:54:34] Melissa Taylor: I would say, in fact, it helps us, right? It helps us. [00:54:37] Crystal Fincher: It does. [00:54:39] Melissa Taylor: It is good business. It is good society to have people thriving. [00:54:44] Crystal Fincher: I'm there. We could, we have talked for a long time, we could talk for a long time, we will be talking for a long time in the future, but as for this podcast episode, I think we'll call it here. I appreciate the time that you've taken to help people get to know you better. If people wanna learn more about your campaign, where can they go? [00:55:06] Melissa Taylor: Electmelissataylor.com [00:55:08] Crystal Fincher: That works - and they can see you out on the doors every day in the 46th legislative district. Thank you so much for being you, for being willing to step up and run, and we will talk to you all next time. [00:55:23] Melissa Taylor: Thanks, Crystal. [00:55:24] Crystal Fincher: I thank you all for listening to Hacks & Wonks on KVRU 105.7 FM. The producer of Hacks & Wonks is Lisl Stadler with assistance from Shannon Cheng. You can find me on Twitter @finchfrii, spelled F-I-N-C-H-F-R-I-I. Now you can follow Hacks & Wonks on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever else you get your podcasts - just type "Hacks and Wonks" into the search bar. Be sure to subscribe to get our Friday almost-live shows and our midweek show delivered to your podcast feed. If you like us, leave a review wherever you listen to Hacks & Wonks. You can also get a full transcript of this episode and links to the resources referenced in the show at officialhacksandwonks.com and in the episode notes. Thanks for tuning in - we'll talk to you next time.

On today's week-in-review, Crystal is joined by Executive Director of The Urbanist, Doug Trumm. They start by looking at research that shows Seattle is continuing to grow faster than the suburbs around it. Next, they discuss the future of a Tukwila ballot initiative to raise the city's minimum wage. In policing news, Crystal and Doug examine the troubling future of funding for non-police public safety and crime prevention programs in Seattle, and how despite the documented success of those programs, the city seems to dismiss their impact. After that, Doug explains what the city's Comprehensive Plan is, covers why it's important, and breaks down the various proposals for the plan. Finally, they end the show discussing the State Rep. Position 1 race in Seattle's 46th LD and how it reflects current debates we're having across the state.  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, Doug Trumm, at @dmtrumm. More info is available at officialhacksandwonks.com.   Resources “Outpacing Suburbs, Seattle Grows 20,100 in One Year in Latest Population Estimate” by Doug Trumm from The Urbanist: https://www.theurbanist.org/2022/06/30/outpacing-suburbs-seattle-grows-20100-in-one-year/  “Initiative for higher minimum wage in Tukwila qualifies for November ballot” by Daniel Beekman from The Seattle Times: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/initiative-for-higher-minimum-wage-in-tukwila-qualifies-for-november-ballot/    Raise the Wage Tukwila: ​​https://www.raisethewagetukwila.org/   “Seattle Might Soon Defund a Promising Police Alternative” by Will Casey from The Stranger: https://www.thestranger.com/news/2022/06/23/75477450/seattle-might-soon-defund-a-promising-police-alternative    “When Will Seattle Get Police Alternatives?” by Will Casey from The Stranger: https://www.thestranger.com/news/2022/06/28/75720496/when-will-seattle-get-police-alternatives   “Seattle Reveals Rezoning Concepts and Invites Scoping Comments for Big 2024 Update” by Doug Trumm from The Urbanist: https://www.theurbanist.org/2022/06/23/seattle-reveals-rezoning-concepts-and-invites-scoping-comments-for-big-2024-update/    “Far-Right Freaks Could Force Washington to Act Fast to Protect Abortion” by Will Casey from The Stranger: https://www.thestranger.com/news/2022/06/30/75818300/far-right-freaks-could-force-washington-to-act-fast-to-protect-abortion    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 our 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. Full transcripts and resources referenced on the show are always available at officialhacksandwonks.com and in our episode notes. Today, we're continuing our Friday almost-live shows where we review the news of the week with a cohost. Welcome back to the program today's co-host, Executive Director of The Urbanist, Doug Trumm. [00:00:49] Doug Trumm: Hi Crystal. Thanks for having me - I'm really excited - there's so much happening right now to talk about. [00:00:53] Crystal Fincher: I know - we've got a full slate of things to talk about. Starting from the top is news that you covered in The Urbanist this week - in that Seattle's growing a lot faster than its suburbs once again. What's going on here? [00:01:10] Doug Trumm: Yeah, the Office of Financial Management at the State released their April estimates and Seattle was up a little over 20,000 residents, which was by far and away the biggest gain across the state. All of King County was up about 30,000. So Seattle is again back to taking the lion's share of the county's growth and was also growing faster than Pierce and Snohomish County, so it just dispels that notion that Seattle is in decline, or is dying, or that the suburbs are certainly the place to be. [00:01:47] Crystal Fincher: That's always so interesting - we've talked about that narrative a lot on this program and candidates who've run talking about "Seattle is Dying" - that whole thing - have never caught on. They've usually topped out at about 15% of the vote in Seattle elections, but there's been a lot of effort put into that narrative and one of the things about a narrative - if someone can walk outside and see that that's not the case, it doesn't quite gain the traction that people would hope. So people in Seattle basically have mocked that the entire time. However, that narrative has caught hold in the suburbs for people who actually don't live in Seattle, visit Seattle, know many people in Seattle - they just take that on faith - it's what they see, have seen on TV, or have heard people mention, or as they're browsing Facebook with all the other stuff on there. They see that and - oh, it's a chaos city, it's burning to the ground, my goodness. And couldn't be further from the truth. Obviously people there keep saying that, and the numbers of people attracted to the City continue to steadily grow. It's just one of those really interesting things where there is a very intentional political narrative that's laughable inside the City, but because it's just been so pervasive and the people have been persistent talking about it, it takes hold outside of it. [00:03:21] Doug Trumm: Yeah, and sometimes the narrative can be destiny, but that doesn't seem to be the case here, where you'd think this produced narrative of Seattle just being chaotic would eventually lead to people moving to the suburbs. But that's not in the numbers - Bellevue posted like 1,300 population gain compared to Seattle's 20,000. And there are a couple standouts, like Shoreline and Redmond are growing at a relatively fast rate, but most of the suburbs are just growing very slowly. So all this talk of people wanting to ride out the pandemic out in bucolic setting or in a suburb is maybe starting to reverse, and I think some of the numbers obviously is also reflecting the fact that students are back on campus. So places like Bellingham saw a big jump as well. [00:04:11] Crystal Fincher: Also another - exciting news this week - the initiative for a higher minimum wage in Tukwila, Raise the Wage Tukwila, qualified for the November ballot. This is really exciting. Have you been following this? [00:04:25] Doug Trumm: Yeah, this has been really cool - Southcenter being in Tukwila - that's a lot of jobs, it's huge job center for south King County - and they qualified with a really healthy cushion. So it looks pretty certain that that's going on the ballot and, I think, in our state, once something like that is on the ballot, usually it passes. So hopeful sign, hopefully good - will be a solid raise for workers if it passes and with the mall being the driving employment center in the area, there are a lot low-wage workers. [00:05:01] Crystal Fincher: Lot of retail, lots of service - yeah, definitely a lot of lower wage workers. And one of the issues there is surrounding cities have raised their wage - starting with SeaTac, which was the first in the country to go for a $15 minimum wage. And other surrounding cities have also raised the minimum wage. And one of the biggest, as you talk about, job centers in that entire area has been left behind. So even though Tukwila has to adhere to the state's minimum wage, which is currently $14.49/hour, they're comparing with minimum wage at $17.54/hour in SeaTac, Seattle is $17.27/hour for most workers. So just the geography is the differentiation here, and especially with the higher percentage of those low-wage workers, this is really meaningful. These initiatives have won, but they've won with a lot of work in the campaign and door-knocking and calls with neighbors. So this is one where it's absolutely winnable, but it's gonna take people getting involved, volunteering - this has largely been a volunteer effort - the Transit Riders Union has been a big part of this and in conjunction with people, business owners, community leaders from within Tukwila. So very exciting, but definitely a point to get engaged in this issue - if this is something that's interesting to you, we are linking the information in our episode notes. This was also covered this week by Daniel Beekman in The Times - just always exciting to see a community-led effort successfully gather enough signatures to get on the ballot. So very, very good - congratulations for the qualification and looking forward to seeing how that initiative proceeds throughout this campaign. [00:07:02] Doug Trumm: Yeah, great work to Transit Riders Union - I'm a member over there, but the leadership team there is just really great - Katie Wilson and all the organizers over there. [00:07:10] Crystal Fincher: Really, really great. In less great news, I would say, Will Casey from The Stranger, who's been writing some great articles for The Stranger, wrote this week that Seattle might - the defund and movement in Seattle is going along just fine, except it's not the one that everybody keeps trying to complain about. It looks like the City might actually be defunding a really promising alternative response to armed police. What's the deal here? [00:07:43] Doug Trumm: Yeah, this one's a head scratcher to me - just having tried to cover police as well for the past few years - whenever you're talking about police alternatives, everyone brings up JustCARE - it's almost like a rule. So you would think with everyone name-dropping JustCARE, that they would be ready to fund JustCARE. But it doesn't really seem like that's necessarily the case. And then, the successful program that JustCARE has helped stand up - that offers a police alternative so that when some of these motels and hotels that have been converted to serve homeless folks if there's an incident - canceling this program would just force more calls to the police, more emergency room visits, more things that are really expensive. If we're looking at brass tacks to the City - so if you do a broader accounting, and a lot of folks who do this kind of work say, you really should be looking holistically at this - you're gonna save this $10 million maybe initially, but you're going to end up paying for it through other ways. So it just seems like someone's - we just have to figure out a way to keep these police alternatives going because $10 million for this program could really go a long way - and the budget is very large for the City and Seattle Police Department's spending far more than that. So if we're serious about funding public safety, I think this is one place to really invest. [00:09:12] Crystal Fincher: Completely agree. And if we're serious about public safety, we start by acknowledging that public safety is bigger than policing. With - crime has increased - there are things that are happening in our community that are scary, that are worrisome - the rates of gun violence. Just the things that we're hearing about gun violence, assault and there are some crazy things going on. And if we are actually serious about solving that problem and reducing crime, we can't just focus on the responses after crimes have been committed, the response after people have been victimized. The most powerful way to keep people safe is to keep them from being victimized in the first place - certainly I've talked about this before, we've talked about - lots of people have talked about this before. And we talk about alternatives to policing or really just - hey, we're working on preventing problems and victimization and intervening in things before it gets to the point where it's hurting anyone else. So JustCARE and a local public safety firm called We Deliver Care has been protecting outreach workers who serve people experiencing homelessness - so as they're doing outreach, they're also involved in that. They've been providing de-escalation services for people in crisis, and they've been doing it without the involvement of a uniformed cop. And this is what so many people are talking about - hey, police don't have the tools to, and were never intended to be people who respond to someone in crisis - mental health crisis - and are actually able to do something about that crisis and get that person into a situation where they need help. JustCARE and We Deliver Care are doing that. And we had a conversation with Senior Deputy Mayor Monisha Harrell on this program where they talked about - hey, we're doing a review and analysis of our partner organizations who are doing alternative responses. And we just wanna make sure that they're effective, we wanna make sure that we're getting the results of the money that we're investing. I did make the comment that - I would love to use that kind of analysis across the board, including with the police department and all of our public safety stuff. But the University of Washington actually conducted a study of JustCARE that included findings about the work that We Deliver Care does - their analysis showed a 39% reduction in 911 calls in the neighborhoods where they operate, a 12% reduction in 911 calls from the hotels where the programs provide shelter. The police department would be celebrating and calling a press conference, I'm sure Mayor Harrell would be celebrating and praising these numbers. So one, this is absolutely a success. If there was a small pilot program - that where they are operating, they're getting these kinds of concerns - a nearly 40% reduction in 911 calls where they are, meaningful reductions in crime and people being victimized and people being worried and anxious and concerned, and unsafe being able to handle crisis situations. This is what we need. This is keeping people safe. We have data showing this is keeping people safe, and this is gonna wind up on the chopping block, while we're increasing funding in other areas that certainly are not getting these kinds of results. It's just, it's really confusing. And it just seems if you're making this move, are you actually serious about keeping people safe, or are you invested in a particular method of, or a strategy - that maybe there's investment or a payoff in continuing that strategy, but it's not anything related to actual public safety. Just really confusing. [00:13:14] Doug Trumm: Yeah, and are we only going to put our data on public safety through the prism of SPD? Because it doesn't seem like they're really, truly open to looking at these alternatives. [00:13:26] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, I know they're talking about establishing a Department of Public Safety - certainly did seem like some of the defunding effort of these community prevention and intervention programs may - that funding may disappear in order to stand up this Department of Public Safety. But whether internally or externally, it seems like the point is - do what it takes to keep people safe, do what it takes to make people safer, do what it takes to reduce the calls we - they keep talking about cops are overloaded and not able to respond to 911 calls - well, what would a 40% reduction in them do? This is what this program is accomplishing - seems like that might right-size things according to their calculations and help balance things, so maybe they could stop ignoring sexual assaults and actually start investigating them again. Just it is - this seems to fly in the face of everything that the public is demanding, everything that they say that they are standing for, and it's just not coming. How do you stop a program that's getting those kinds of results, and then move the money to somewhere that is not? Either we care about keeping people safe or we don't. People are scared and anxious and they want solutions - hiring more police officers is not even something that will - those police officers won't land on the ground until later this year, or next year - that's not a plan for keeping people safe today, and people are demanding a plan to make their streets safer right now. I just don't understand what they're doing. [00:15:02] Doug Trumm: Yeah, and one thing I'll say really quickly is - as a policy nerd, one really cool thing about the program design is the fact that We Deliver Care is hiring largely from folks who are formerly incarcerated or formerly homeless - you're creating a virtuous cycle there where people get meaningful and gainful employment and it interrupts that cycle of poverty. So it just seems like a really, just a really solid program that we shouldn't be pulling the plug on so abruptly. [00:15:30] Crystal Fincher: That's a really good point - and really those are subject matter experts. Few people are better poised to be able to understand, connect with, and really help - with appropriate and meaningful help, and not something that people who've never been in that situation feel is best for that community or that group of people - but people who have been through it, who understand a lot of the challenges and ways that other folks don't. And so they can be more effective a lot of times in identifying and connecting people to help. I hope we see an increase and a further investment in that program and not a decreased one. And if you feel the same, it would certainly be very, very good to talk to your City Council people and to let, most of all, Mayor Harrell and his office know that we want to be investing in things that work and not defunding them. Also this week, scoping for the Comp Plan update is underway - you've been covering this in The Urbanist - what's going on? [00:16:38] Doug Trumm: Oh, so much - a lot of different advocates and organizations are really spinning their wheels right now trying to get geared up for this, because it's a month long - currently announced as a month-long - scoping period to determine what are the options, what's on the menu for our big Comprehensive Plan update in 2024, which is - [00:17:02] Crystal Fincher: I'm gonna jump in and pause right here, just to ask you - a lot of people are not familiar with - okay, Comprehensive Plan? What's its purpose? Why does comprehensive planning happen and what does it accomplish? [00:17:14] Doug Trumm: Yeah, the Comprehensive Plan - it's both kind of opaque and esoteric, but also it's sort of like the Super Bowl of planning. And you certainly can do things between the major Comp Plan updates, but this is when the big zoning changes, the big land use changes, and also the big changes in the related plans - like the Transportation plans and even Parks plans, everything - they try to line everything and get everything, hopefully in harmony, more or less. And there's a lot of debate about - that's really the case - but this happens. Now with the recent reform at the state level, every 10 years - you have to do a major update to your Comp Plan. And every 5 years, there's a minor update. Now if you really get a fire under someone, you can do major zoning changes in between them - and sometimes it's like a station area plan - if you're getting a new bus rapid transit or a new light rail station. So you can do stuff in between, but it's rare and you have to have the staff time to dedicate to it. So really there's a lot of pressure on this 2024 Comp Plan update to be ambitious, to really try to do as much as we can because worst case scenario, we're not gonna get another opportunity to do something really big until the next major update, which is a full decade later. And this has really gotten the attention of climate advocates, which we would include us at The Urbanist as those, that - okay, well, the IPCC, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is saying, okay, we need to do a lot of concerted climate action now because if you don't do anything by 2030, our options just get considerably less. If we're not lowering emissions immediately, our pathways just get worse and worse. So land use is the forgotten aspect of climate change for many policy makers, 'cause it's a hard thing to deal with, but it really is crucial to actually decarbonizing our economy and our society. So not to put a ton of pressure on this, but it is a huge moment and a good chance to do climate action through land use, and also through - to connect the Transportation Plan. [00:19:42] Crystal Fincher: So as they're talking about this plan, they're looking at some different - conceptual alternatives. They've laid out some - and some look more promising than others - what's on the lineup? [00:19:55] Doug Trumm: So, there's five alternatives currently. And one of them by default is no change alternative - they use as a baseline. So that's Alternative 1. Then there's also an alternative, that is called the focus alternative. I think that's alternative to - apologies if I get this order a little bit off - and the focus alternative uses the concept of urban nodes, so it's sort of like urban villages, but they'd be adding these nodes in between urban villages and other business districts, or existing grandfathered-in areas of multi-family and some commercial. And they'd be adding these sort of urban village-esque aspects - and urban village is just the City's term of art for - it's an urban neighborhood, but because it's Seattle, we have to throw in village to make it feel a little neighborhoody and quaint. But it's basically continued the urban village idea and then, I guess, the implication then is we wouldn't be doing a lot outside of those nodes. So it'd sort of be a truce on single-family zoning outside of those. [00:21:03] Crystal Fincher: So basically any growth will be happening in these concentrated areas, any absorption of density, increase of density is limited to these new nodes. But most areas outside of that are still going to be high-cost detached homes. [00:21:20] Doug Trumm: Exactly, and I think you would basically be going along roughly the same in the existing urban villages, potentially with some expansions, which would be nice in some areas where some of the urban villages are very skinny and gerrymandered. And then there's Alternative 3, which is sort of the opposite approach - which is taking these Neighborhood Residentials, which the city's calling single-family zones now - it's taking these Neighborhood Residential zones and it's adding some missing middle types. And so far the types that OPCD, the Office of Planning and Community Development - it's the City agency tasked with this plan - so far, the types that they're listing are triplexes and fourplexes and that type of - it's on the low end. And so one thing advocates can do, who are looking for more than that - in the State bill, they contemplate sixplexes - is asking for sixplexes, maybe rowhouses, stack flats - more of those denser but still missing middle types that fit it very well into single-family neighborhoods or Neighborhood Residential, if you will. And so that's Alternative 3 - it's looking primarily outside of the urban villages, not necessarily only focus - it would be broad sections of single-family zoning, or you could just redefine single-family zoning to be that fourplex or sixplex zoning, or something like that. Because this is a scoping phase, none of that's really decided - it's just setting the menu, like how much would OPCD actually study - because what they actually put into the draft is what we then can actually order. You can't order something that hasn't had some of that underlying work, like the environmental impact analysis, because then you get sued and you'll lose. And you will get sued probably anyways. But we can move on to Alternative 4 now, which is called - I think a corridor approach, or transit corridors, I forget their shorthand name - but it would do more just along transit corridors and they didn't exactly say how wide of a band. So that would be one thing to give feedback on is - if we were to only focus on transit corridors and there's some arguments against that, which we could get into later, but that would be where you focus zoning change. Are we going a quarter mile from the stops, are we going a half mile, are we going only less than that? And if you're going only in a very narrow band, that's when those criticisms really creep in - because many of our transit quarters in this City are along busy, polluted, congested arterials, where you're not really gonna want your kid to be playing outside, you're not really gonna necessarily be breathing that air if you face out into that street. So, I think one concept that advocates are really bringing into this study is we need to be putting housing where people wanna live and it can't only be in the space leftover that single-family homeowners don't want. It also has to be places that are livable. [00:24:49] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, it has to be everywhere - otherwise we're just redlining by another name, really. It's really interesting - and this is, this is wonky, totally wonky - but as a former planning commissioner myself, it really is the skeleton of a community. This is the thing that the determines the composition of how the community can grow, can evolve, can look, who's going to be there, who's not going to be there, who we're gonna include, how we can be responsive and resilient against climate change. It's - everything about how a city develops is really dictated by this footprint that's established that says - this is what is allowed here, this is what can go here, this is what we wanna encourage in these areas and what we don't, this is what is included and straight up outlawed. This is how we're going to enable this community to become walkable - that this can build that 15-minute city where everything is within walking distance - everyone's basic needs. So this is basically determining what Seattle's gonna look like in - 20 years from now - is based on the decisions that we make today. And if you think about what Seattle - I'm old, so I remember what Seattle was like 20 years ago - maybe people listening here may have moved here, maybe a lot younger, but it looks a lot different now than it did 20 years ago. And the planning process is what basically started the ball rolling on all of this. So if we think about the conversations that we're having today and what we're looking at in the City right now and saying - this is what we like and this is what we don't like, and this is what we wanna see, or don't see - then engage in this process because this is what will determine Seattle in 2042, and the Seattle that our kids and grandkids live in, or not able to live in - the decisions now determine that. [00:27:06] Doug Trumm: And it has a big impact on affordability and what housing options and prices are out there. And we did save the best of the bunch proposed so far for last - the concept, Alternative 5 is the combined approach. So basically it sounds like you would stack those three approaches, just described, on top of each other - which makes sense, because like you said, some of these Neighborhood Residential zones - they're attractive places to live, but good luck if you don't have a million dollars sitting around. So it would add more housing options there, which helps folks age in place, while also still doing that stuff around the nodes and around the transit corridors - to focus even more potentially multi-family development or just more options in those areas where they're well served by services and transit. So, of the ones proposed, 5 looks promising, it looks like it would be a huge upgrade. And there's also some talk of there being an Alternative 6 that advocates are - do we need an alternative that sort of even goes beyond the concepts proposed so far? And I haven't seen exactly what Alternative 6 would be, but obviously if it's something even better, then that's definitely something worthy of discussion. [00:28:28] Crystal Fincher: Well, we will keep an eye on that - certainly we hope you will keep an eye on that and engage, and at least conceptually make your voice known that - I think my perspective, a lot of people's perspective is - yeah, we don't want to constrain where people have the choice to live. People should be able to live in desirable, healthy, attractive, enticing neighborhoods. And we shouldn't reserve that for the most wealthy residents who can buy into them - those should be accessible to all of us. Another thing this week, I guess leading into that, it is lots of conversations about the City we wanna see - as we were just talking about - and a race in Seattle for the Legislature that really is talking a lot about the kind of Seattle we wanna see. And that's the one between Gerry Pollet and Hadeel Jeanne in the 46th legislative district. What have you seen in this race? [00:29:29] Doug Trumm: Yeah, this has been a really interesting race - so far this year, there haven't - well, and the deadlines passed, so we see what the field is - there haven't been a lot of progressive challenges of incumbents, like we saw two years ago with a lot of incumbents having to defend the record, which is I think a healthy thing for democracy rather than people just going unopposed for decades at a time. But the exception to this is this Gerry Pollet race where he's been there a good amount of time - he's also has a very important chair, which he's Chair of the House Government Committee - Local Government Committee - which is where many of these zoning bills have to go through. And he disputes this sometimes, but I think the record speaks for itself - we just haven't been able to get a zoning bill through his committee and he always has massive changes to bills, it seems like - rewriting bills like he did to Jessica Bateman's bill which was the big missing middle reform that we've covered in previous shows, I'm sure, and on The Urbanist. That was going to have that fourplex zoning, potentially sixplex zoning in an earlier draft, before - relatedly - Gerry Pollet voted to amend that. So in other words, he's been an obstacle to that kind of reform. And he represents, now, North Seattle - he used to have Lake Forest Park and kinda more in farther north. But now it's just North Seattle and Northeast Seattle. And I think he's a bit outta step with his district because these are places where people are really concerned about housing affordability, where the idea of a fourplex isn't that scary necessarily - and it's something that he hasn't furthered in his time as a legislator. So he's getting a challenge from someone who's specifically saying - this is a reason why I'm running. We got a chance to interview Hadeel and she's clearly passionate about this issue, she clearly knows a lot about this issue, she's clearly approaching this race from a - much more of a sense of urgency around both climate and housing affordability, and not just doing the things the way we've always done 'em. The Urbanist's Election Committee is still yet to vote and issue its endorsements, but I would say that it's looking promising for Hadeel and that's just a testament to someone having the bravery and the gumption to run against a long-time incumbent with sort of this institutional backing. [00:32:12] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, it really is gonna be interesting to continue to follow these races. I am working in a 46th legislative district race with Melissa Taylor - that's the only candidate race I'm working on, but that does make it really interesting to watch what's happening in these other seats in Seattle and beyond. And housing affordability, which this conversation is directly tied to, is a huge concern in the district. The stories that I hear from the doors from Melissa, who's out there every day, are harrowing. So many people are struggling in so many different ways - even people who - you drive down to see - North Seattle street, right? You see the homes now - the average home price, it's pretty high in Seattle - and people may look comfortable from the outside, but a lot of them are struggling. A lot of people have had to bring in roommates and extra people to live in their homes. Some of them can't fit any more people in and are at the point where if rent goes any higher, if mortgages go any higher, if costs go any higher, they're not going to be able to stay in their home and stay in Seattle. There's so many people dealing with this - even in single-family neighborhoods - where they're saying something has got to give, we're being squeezed to the point where we have nothing left to give - and it's really displacing people from neighborhoods. This is a conversation about who do we want to be able to live in neighborhoods - do we want these neighborhoods to be exclusive places where no one ever is able to move in again, unless you are effectively making half a million dollars a year or more? Or places where young families starting out, people graduating from college, the kids of the people in these homes - are they going to be able to move into this neighborhood and build the kind of life that other people have seen, or not? So it's just really interesting to see the different levels of urgency, as you just talked about, 'cause some people are - we're at this point with a number of things - you talked about with climate, the IPCC report saying - look, we get this right and we start making meaningful, tangible progress by 2030, or we're in for a world of pain and consequences. And we get this housing thing right, and this comprehensive planning process right now, or we're in for a Seattle that just does not reflect anything that we've seen before and that's really a playground for the rich, a very exclusive place. The only accessible places are ones that come with harm attached - with pollution and a lot of the consequences of poorly managed growth. And it's just - this is a time where the urgency is now - we need people to act and not continue to kick the can down the road. [00:35:15] Doug Trumm: Yeah, exactly. And it really speaks to - there's so many legislators who are homeowners and who - many of them are wealthy, and there are not many tenants. And Hadeel would be someone who's bringing a younger tenant perspective to the Legislature at a time when it's really needed. And you would think that legislators who have had that luck - to have bought into the housing market, now have a home that's worth over a million dollars, like Representative Pollet - you would think they would have some sort of empathy or sympathy for folks who are not buying in at the opportune time, who are buying in when the prices of admission is a million dollars. You'd think that they would policy make to try to correct that problem, but it doesn't appear there's that sense of duty or urgency there. [00:36:10] Crystal Fincher: Yeah - different experiences, different things - and when you look at polling, it's really interesting. And one of the things a lot of people have talked about - yeah, young people are feeling different, and younger people are - they have different voting patterns. But "young" is doing really heavy lifting in that sentence because when you look, the dividing line is 45 or 50 years old. This is not young as in college. This is young as in not senior. Everybody is being squeezed and that line keeps on moving up and up and up, which is why we are seeing different people being elected, different challengers gaining strength and momentum, different kinds of policies that weren't in mainstream conversation even five years ago now moving with urgency. 'Cause when you talk about just the community under 50 - that's parents, that's grandparents, that's a whole big swath of people who are feeling this pain and who understand that we can't continue the way we're going, that we're going to have to substantially change something if we want these results that we're seeing to change. Another thing I wanted to talk about this week was another article from Will Casey. And it was about - hey, given these continuing Supreme Court decisions - first and foremost, the Dobbs decision overturning the right to abortion from Roe vs Wade - hey, is anyone gonna call for a special session in Washington to address this? What's in this article? [00:38:02] Doug Trumm: Yeah, that - Will Casey made a really good point there. We've had special sessions for a lot less. The most recent example is, that comes to mind, is the 2013 special session to make a special tax break for Boeing - that was hoping to keep, entice them to keep their jobs in Washington State. And they ended up still moving their corporate campus to Chicago and they've moved also some of their production to the South and other locations in the country. So, we did it for that. But we're not doing it for fundamental rights that speak to the - both the physical and economic security of our population and people who really are scared right now because the Supreme Court really upended what we thought was sort of settled. And obviously we saw this coming for many years, and even if Democratic establishment sort of buried their head in the sand about this. But yeah, it seems like we could call a special session about this. There's a ton of Supreme Court mischief right now of overturning precedents and there are laws that we could pass to lessen the risk there. And really just - it's also important to remind people that maybe if not the federal level of government, but the state and local levels of government can still work how they should. It's a lot harder without the federal government, but I think at a certain point, you also just have to restore faith in our system. [00:39:43] Crystal Fincher: That's such a great point and it's absolutely true. Lots of people are, myself included, frustrated by federal government, which is why I have a podcast talking about state and local government 'cause I do think we need to talk about that more and so much is possible, still, at these levels. But it's such a challenge when talking about this - so there is - Democratic leadership is all saying that we do need to pass legislation. And they're saying we need to carefully craft this legislation, we're working on it, we'll have it ready for when the January session starts. The risk to that is we have an election before the January session and people are working hard, but it's possible that Democrats lose seats this Legislative Session - to the point where it's possible to lose a chamber in our State Legislature. There are many competitive races here in our state in battleground districts, so it is not a given that we walk into 2023 with the same composition in our Legislature that - and given the current composition, they should be able to pass legislation that does codify abortion protections. I should note we should absolutely be going beyond that because we know that they're going to be attacking contraception, marriage equality, basic privacy rights - we know that's on deck, so we shouldn't wait for that either and that should be ready. But it's possible that we lose the seats necessary to pass this before that time. Hopefully that doesn't happen, but there's a chance of it. And the one thing that we should never do with basic human rights is leave them up to chance. As you said, we called a special session for Boeing. We've called special sessions for transportation packages. We can do that with such basic, fundamental, necessary protections for Roe - protections for abortion access and the others, as we should say. I will tell you - so what is not talked about upfront - the problem is when you call a special session, it basically forces people to stop campaigning. We cannot campaign while a session, or fundraise, while a session is happening. So leading up to a session, during the session - you basically have to suspend campaigning activity, you have to suspend fundraising - which unfortunately is a necessary part of winning campaigns in our existing political system - would love to change that, but that's part of the existing system. And so, I'm sure there's calculations going - my goodness, we've got these more competitive races than we've seen in quite some time. We do have - we're fighting to defend seats on the Democratic and progressive side, with vigorous challenges by Republicans in several of them. The last thing that people wanna do is to take some time off the campaign trail to do this. We can do it in January. And my response to that would be - one, it's the right thing to do and you don't leave rights up to chance. So one - morally, ethically, logically, it's the right thing to do. We can do it now, you do it now. You might not be able to do it later, so you do it now. On top of that, there's an opportunity to, as you said, show the State that one, government can work as it's intended. The majority of people in this state, as we've covered in polling and talked about over and over again - want, believe in, are passionate about these protections. You have the opportunity to have all eyes on you as you take action and deliver the protections that people in this state are currently protesting in the streets for. You have the opportunity to have a ton of earned media show that you're responding to the needs of the state. And only one party is willing to do that - you have the media shining a light on who truly is pro-woman, pro-family - pro-life in terms of being able to live, have opportunity, have rights and not be subjugated or treated like a second-class citizen. That's the opportunity ahead of us. And then you can roll after talking about - yeah, we just did take extra steps and take the action necessary to make sure you are protected. You can run on that. People will see that, people believe in that, they're asking for that. This is a humongous opportunity for the Democratic party to demonstrate, in the most clear and present way, that they are serving and protecting the interests of the residents in the state right now. So I think there's absolutely a case for doing it - I understand that it's not the best thing, but I truly believe that if they were to do that - coming off the other end, they would have a lot of thankful, happy people who are ready to roll in to 2022, to continue to defend the threats that are being brought about by this extremist, far-right Supreme Court, the extremist Republican Party that's looking to gain seats in our federal legislature. The pressing need to defend against Republicans is not going away, so let's not leave any rights at risk and let's put ourselves in the best position to be able to continue defending and then moving forward to pass policies that we know people in the state want. [00:45:24] Doug Trumm: Yeah, I couldn't agree with you more. And it goes to that fundamental critique of our politics, especially as the Democratic establishment party politics, where - issue polling, you can't be scared of your own shadow. You have to design the situation that you want to see, both as a policymaker and as a campaigner. If they're looking at polling and saying - oh no, maybe this won't be that popular in this swing seat or something like that. At a certain point, I think you have to just - A) take a moral stand, like you were saying. But also, have a little faith that people can change their mind, that you can campaign on something and change people's minds, that maybe this poll isn't really reflecting what would be salient in a race or that we'll see - oh, the Democrats took concerted action and that will have, and passed something and did something brave - that might have a bigger impact than whatever they fear for blowback by not apparently calling this sooner and just go charging ahead with this. Because I think people really need a shot in the arm - just this, I think people are a little dejected right now, and they have a right to be, because we've seen this organized, concerted campaign from conservatives for decades to take over the court system and undo all this legislative work. And in the meantime, we didn't even codify it at the federal level. And now we have a chance to codify at the state level - and eventually, you have to treat this like it truly is - which is an all problem, and conservatives are coming for many of these basic rights. And they're coming for the climate, as we saw with the recent decision announced, I think yesterday, with the Clean Power law. This Supreme Court is on the march, it's corrupt, it has no regard for precedent and they make up their own. And if we're not all hands on deck right now, when are we going to be? [00:47:39] Crystal Fincher: Absolutely - that's a question a number of people are asking. This is not a drill, we are here and it's time to act. We have to, we may not get this chance to act later on in the future, so now is the time. With that, thank you for listening to Hacks & Wonks this Friday, July 1st, 2022. The producer of Hacks & Wonks is Lisl Stadler with assistant producer Shannon Cheng, with assistance from Bryce Cannatelli. And our wonderful co-host today was Executive Director of The Urbanist, Doug Trumm. You can find Doug on Twitter @dmtrumm, that's two M's at the end. You can find me on Twitter @finchfrii. Now you can follow Hacks & Wonks on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever else you get your podcasts - just type "Hacks and Wonks" into the search bar. Be sure to subscribe to get our Friday almost-live shows and our midweek show delivered to your podcast feed. If you like us, leave us a review wherever you listen to Hacks & Wonks. You can also get a full transcript of this episode and links to the resources referenced in the show at officialhacksandwonks.com and in the episode notes. Thanks for tuning in - we'll talk to you soon.

On this Hacks & Wonks week-in-review, Crystal is joined by former Seattle mayor and current Executive Director of America Walks, Mike McGinn. The show starts with a plug for the Institute for a Democratic Future (IDF) graduation party in Seattle this Saturday, 6/18, to celebrate its Class of 2022 completing a program focused on recruiting, training, and promoting the next generation of Democratic civic leaders, and extends an invite to others interested in the program Crystal credits with starting her political career. On the topic of civic leadership, Mike and Crystal note that primary ballots are a month out from arriving in mailboxes and discuss what they each look for in a candidate: where they lie on the urban vs suburban spectrum, whether they hedge or make strong statements on policy, how they demonstrate living the values they espouse, what kind of campaign they run, and a demonstration of being strong in tough scenarios before they are elected. The two then wrap up with a look at the opportunity voters have on the November ballot to make changes to future elections with Seattle set to vote on approval voting and King County Council moving a ballot measure on even-year elections forward. 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, Mike McGinn, at @mayormcginn. More info is available at officialhacksandwonks.com.   Resources Institute for a Democratic Future: ​​https://democraticfuture.org/   IDF Class of 2022 Graduation Party: https://www.facebook.com/events/677339030035686   RSVP for IDF Class of 2022 Graduation Party: https://secure.anedot.com/idf/graduation   “What's The Difference Between Candidates in the 36th Legislative District?” by Hannah Krieg from The Stranger: https://www.thestranger.com/news/2022/06/17/75176294/whats-the-difference-between-candidates-in-the-36th-legislative-district   “Voters Could Change How And When We Vote This November” by Hannah Krieg from The Stranger: https://www.thestranger.com/news/2022/06/15/75135178/voters-could-change-how-and-when-we-vote-this-november   “Election Nerds Feud Over Whether or Not Approval Voting Violates Voting Rights” by Hannah Krieg from The Stranger: https://www.thestranger.com/slog/2022/03/01/67571578/election-nerds-feud-over-whether-or-not-approval-voting-violates-voting-rights   @GirmayZahilay - Twitter thread on even year vs odd year elections: https://twitter.com/GirmayZahilay/status/1537124459080929280   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. Full transcripts and resources referenced in the show are always available at officialhacksandwonks.com and in our episode notes. Today, we are continuing our Friday almost-live shows where we review the news of the week with a cohost. Welcome back to the program: friend of the show, super popular cohost, activist, community leader, former mayor of Seattle and Executive Director of America Walks, Mike McGinn. [00:00:57] Mike McGinn: Glad to be here - again - thank you. [00:01:00] Crystal Fincher: Glad you are here - always a fun time when you are here. So I wanted to start off just by mentioning - we've talked about the Institute for a Democratic Future before, which is pretty much responsible for my political career and the careers of so many people in politics and policy in Washington State and DC. This year's class is actually graduating tomorrow - super proud of all of them. That is actually a public event that people can attend - tickets are on sale and you can attend, so if you're free Saturday, June 18th, in the evening - check out the Institute for a Democratic Future website for tickets - democraticfuture.org. We'll also put a link in the show notes and it'll be available on the website - or just hit me up on Twitter, whatever - would love to see you there, meet some of you. I'll be there. Look forward to that and seeing this current class graduate and a great opportunity just to learn more about the program - see if you might be interested in doing it. Also, ballots arrive in a month for the primary election. Things are coming in quick, time evaporates really quickly. And so lots of people are trying to figure out who's who, what's differentiating the candidates. The Stranger had an article come out this morning talking about - what's the difference between candidates in the 36th? So starting off, Mike, as you evaluate - how do you evaluate how candidates are different, how are you going to be making the decision about how to vote and who to support? How do you go through it? How do you recommend voters go through it? [00:02:48] Mike McGinn: Yeah, now this is such a great question in Seattle elections, right? Because one of the real, and we could carry on about this at length, one of the things about Seattle is - Seattle is, by comparison to national politics, a very progressive place. You find that 90+ percent voted for Biden in this city - I think was the number, if you go back. So it's pretty clear - some people will try to make it "what flavor of progressive are you," but everybody's gonna work to sound like they're progressive. And occasionally we'll see - for some reason, we seem to get this more from the Seattle Times and the more right side of the spectrum - "but they're all really the same, aren't they?" And I'll warn you about something - that that's not always the case, or they try to claim it - that well, one side is more ideological and the other side is more pragmatic or reasonable - something like that. But there is, in fact, a dividing line in Seattle politics that I'd ask people to consider and maybe about where they fit on that dividing line. So nationally, the ends of the spectrum are urban versus rural. In a city like Seattle, I'd suggest to you that it's urban versus suburban and the attitudes that accompany those. Now, of course, Seattle has areas that are suburban in nature - single-family homes on nice, quiet, tree-lined streets and a fair number of the voters come from those precincts. But they have indeed chosen to live in a city, so they're not - there are progressive sensibilities there. And urban is a catchall that could cover a lot of things. But let me see if I can dig into this just a little bit. Housing and zoning - a suburban approach would be single-family houses are great, an urban approach would be we should have lots of different kinds of housing. Policing - a suburban approach might be how do we keep bad people out of the neighborhood and how do we patrol the neighborhood to prevent folks from getting here. And a more urban approach might be - well, bad things are gonna happen. How do we make sure that the police can work effectively with the community and treat 'em fairly? So you see an urban versus suburban divide there. Homelessness - suburban mentality is can we give them a bus ticket to the city - this is an overstatement. An urban mentality is - well, we're gonna have homeless people, what are we gonna do? So I think on every issue that we look at - where do they fit on that spectrum is a way to look at it. And candidates - we already saw it in that article you showed about the 36th - what would you do about single-family zoning - a couple of whom were hedging, were hesitant. Bruce Harrell, as mayor, when he ran was hesitant - I'm not sure, we shouldn't just rezone the whole City. And then when you look at where they get the votes from, they tend to get the votes from the folks who are more resistant to building more housing and more different types of housing in the exclusive or exclusionary neighborhoods of Seattle. So that would be the first thing I'd look at in candidates - is where do they fit on that divide, and how to ask some hard questions to get at it. Like really pin 'em down - 'cause everybody's for more housing, everybody's for affordable housing - but would you upzone single-family neighborhoods is a hard question. You could ask 'em about what laws they might change in the State Legislature to make it easier to hold police accountable - see where they fall on that. There's a whole bunch of different places you can go to try to pin 'em down on something. So that's my first cut. I have a second cut on that, but Nicole - not Nicole - Crystal! I know you have answers to that one. [00:06:50] Crystal Fincher: That's so funny - you called me Nicole. My name is Nicole, but yes - [00:06:56] Mike McGinn: Is it really? [00:06:58] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, my family's called me Nicole my entire life - that's my middle name. So yes, lots of people call me Nicole. I don't know if you heard someone call me that, but anyway - [00:07:05] Mike McGinn: No, I think it's just that Nicole - it's been on my brain from prior discussions. [00:07:10] Crystal Fincher: Anyway, I think that's good - certainly, housing affordability, the approach to getting people housed - basically, whether you're looking to take a housing first approach and house people primarily. Or if people think the problem is visible homelessness - always a red flag to me when I hear people characterize the problem as visible homelessness - the visible is not the problem, the homelessness is the problem. And a lot of times the characterization of visible homelessness positions people who witness homelessness, or have to see it, as the victims - are somehow harmed - when clearly the harm is absolutely being done mainly to the person who doesn't have a house and who is out there in the elements with no shelter, much more likely to be a victim of crime than most other people in the community. And so that's always something to me. And are we okay with sweeping, even if we don't have shelter available. Or is it - hey, we need to find places for people to stay, we need to create places for people to stay. Are we satisfied with shelter, congregate shelter, which we now have so much data showing that it's really counterproductive in some situations - absolutely as emergency shelter, and some situations better than being on the street and some situations it's actually not. So are we providing people with rooms with a bathroom, a door that locks - somewhere where people can stabilize. Just especially in these Seattle elections - where they are D versus D races - we can have a lot richer conversations. And frankly, be pickier about who we decide to support. This is not a situation where the choice is between a Democrat and a Republican who is denying the 2020 election, who doesn't prioritize democracy and one person, one vote, who wants to end abortion protections, and all of that - where it's almost a - it's a harm reduction approach at minimum to vote for a Democrat, but the consequence is horrible. So you stop quibbling on issues and policy and we're talking really broad strokes. That's not the case in Seattle. You can make a choice for a progressive person or someone who is aligned with you on policy. There isn't something as - well, we don't know if we can elect a progressive in Seattle. We absolutely can. People can make that choice. And so one, drilling down further to see - are people hedging? Are they willing to answer strongly? Are people trying to not take a position? Are they saying - this is where I am, and trying to make the case for bringing other people along with them. I think that's a big thing. Another thing I would say is - working in politics for a while - campaigns are actually horrible job interviews for governing. The skills and the stuff that you use on a campaign - lots of them do not translate to governing, and it's just so interesting that we go about things like this. There's a saying that - Hey, we have the worst system except for all the other ones. Who knows, but I do think that there - one thing that I've seen that has been a consistent transfer is, what are the decisions that people make in their campaigns? How are they choosing - they may not have been in a situation where they were in control of a budget before. They may not have been in a situation where they were making hiring decisions and staffing decisions. Well, now that they are - what are they doing? Are they making decisions in alignment with their values and how they're talking? Are they working with people who are aligned with them, or who are aligned with folks who are doing things very different than what they say they anticipate doing? How are they living their values in this situation, in a campaign, where they are the ones making the calls and making the decisions? How are they using their resources? Just things like that are - you can see how someone is processing information. You can see - hey, you talk about workers - are you paying your campaign staff? Everyone has volunteers, but your campaign manager, other people involved - do you have a diverse staff? Lots of people have pictures with lots of diverse people in them. Who are the people that they're paying. It is a question - [00:12:17] Mike McGinn: That's such a great observation. Everybody's got the right pictures. [00:12:21] Crystal Fincher: Yeah. How are they investing their resources? And that, to me, consistently translates into the decisions that they make when they're elected and how they choose to allocate resources. And so look at their campaigns, see what they're doing, what kinds of decisions they're making, who they're hiring. I think who you hire, a lot of times, speaks a lot more than who you work for. Lots of times people are trying to pay their bills, all that kind of stuff. So - hey, I work for - people, I certainly have lots of issues with Amazon, but am I gonna take issue with someone who works for Amazon? Absolutely not. It's hard to pay bills, it's hard to find a job that - so do that, but once you're doing the hiring, that's a different story. Who are you choosing? How are you going about that? How are you living your values? What have you done that gets away from the rhetoric and more to - are you walking your talk? That is how I look to candidates and campaigns and decisions. I'm looking - this is me, obviously - I'm looking at PDC expense reports to see who they're working with, to see how they're being a steward of the resources in their control. So that would be my recommendation - look and see how they're living the values that they say they're living. That's a good indication of what they're gonna do when they're elected. [00:13:56] Mike McGinn: Those are all great points. So let me see, I'll come around for my second cut and I'll hit some of the ones you hit too. How they run their campaign - are they - is it a top-down campaign which is money and some consultants, or are they really showing the ability to engage and draw volunteers? 'Cause that gives you a sense of how they will operate in office - who's part of their coalition. That's - I think the next one is endorsements matter and they don't matter. I wouldn't - a lot of the endorsing organizations may be trying to figure out who's gonna win as well as their values. But if you look at their money and everybody's gonna have some - everyone's gonna have a mix of checks, but where's the weight of the money coming from? 'Cause the reality is most people, once elected, are gonna serve the base that got them elected. So where's the political base as can be told from looking at all of the data around endorsements and dollars and then again, how they're running the campaign. So does it appear to be a campaign that's built upon a broad coalition of community members volunteering, or is it being financed by certain industries or sectors of the economy? That'll tell you who they'll speak to. So that's worth looking at. Your comments reminded me of two other things. One question I asked, and this is now coming from a Sierra Club background and we interviewed people for endorsements. And again, everybody came in, everybody knew what the right answer was for Seattle politics, and people would hedge a little bit - but this is expanding on one of the things Crystal said. And by the way, your LinkedIn is Crystal Nicole Fincher, so I - [00:15:51] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, I usually put all three names. [00:15:53] Mike McGinn: Nicole is there in a lot of places, so maybe that was there, maybe it was there in my head somewhere. The question is - I would ask - tell me about a time you did something for the environment. Not what's your position on clean air, or what's your position on walking and biking - but tell me about a time you took action because you cared about the environment. And some people have great answers and some people have no answers - and if the answer is, well, I recycle regularly - well, so that's Seattle, right? But if your answer was - oh, I took a summer to volunteer at an animal rescue center or something - okay, this person in their heart really feels something about the world around them. And you could ask that in any number of contexts - tell me a time when you acted on this impulse. The other question I love to ask people and - 'cause people still come to me and ask me for endorsements - and I say, tell me about a time you did something in your life or career that was hard and maybe even unpopular - the time that you had to have some guts and courage. And the reason is 'cause if you don't show guts or courage before you take office, you are not gonna show it once you take office. [00:17:13] Crystal Fincher: That is the truth. [00:17:15] Mike McGinn: This is - yeah, because the dynamic, once you're in office, is really pushing you to not take chances, to go with the flow, to not stand out too much - it's the safer place to be. And those forces only get harder and harder, which is why you end up with elected officials who just - you feel like after a few terms, they don't really seem to be doing anything anymore because it's been taken out - [00:17:43] Crystal Fincher: Ground out of them? [00:17:44] Mike McGinn: Ground out of them, man - it's like a tea bag that's been dipped into the hot water too many times - there's just not much flavor left after they're in for a long time. So that's my thing - tell me about a time you did something hard, unpopular, tough, but you did it anyway. And why you did it 'cause you do want somebody who's gonna be willing to step up on a hard issue and take a chance. My 2 cents - when we're looking at the challenges we face, incremental changes to the status quo in the face of all the challenges we face - you'd like to see people step up and do something hard and take a risk politically for the right thing. And that's what I'd like to see in a candidate too. [00:18:27] Crystal Fincher: That's so good. That's absolutely true. I definitely tell candidates and have conversations with lots of people. To your point, it gets harder after you get elected. There's pressure on candidates sometimes to - well, don't offend these people, you might lose this, don't say this, don't say that don't. And the mindset is almost - well, if I just get elected - I just need to get elected and then I can really do the thing I really wanna do. It does not work like that - it gets harder - the stakes are higher, actually. And so you have to be willing to stand by what you believe before you're elected. If, when it comes down to a negotiation and you're going back and forth on - and we're talking about legislative races - with your colleagues on - well, we can keep this in, I'll agree to keep this in if you take that out. What are the things that aren't going to be compromised on, what are the things that you know you can count on them to say I'm a No vote without this. And that's a big deal. The other thing that I think is really useful and that candidates have to do - they have to be out talking to voters. They have to be out in the community. They have to be knocking on doors. They have to be talking to regular people who are not hacks and wonks, who are not insidery insiders - who are saying this is what I'm dealing with, what are you gonna do about it? And who - you have to talk to them about - I hear you, this is what I think will help - go back and forth, get their feedback on it. Most candidates who are talking to voters regularly - you can tell. And to me, that's the difference between someone who is coming from a philosophical or purely ideological point of view, they may be very online - but you have to engage with your constituents, you have to hear tough feedback, you have to talk to people who are going through rough moments, and you have to see what you can do to help, and explain to them and bring them along with you. You have to actually build a coalition to govern. You have to bring people along to your side. If you want to change policy, you're going to have to change people's minds. And if you don't have practice doing that, if that's not a habit of yours, then it's not gonna happen after you get elected. The pressures to do that lessen after you get elected - schedules get busier. You have to prioritize engaging with people in your district from all different backgrounds, all different walks of life, viewpoints. And if you aren't comfortable with that, if you haven't done that in all of those situations - it does not serve you well as a candidate or as someone who's elected. [00:21:33] Mike McGinn: It's super hard as a candidate too, 'cause candidates - new candidates, in particular, and I'll toss myself - I was pretty engaged in civic affairs before I ran for mayor, but there were still big chunks of issue areas that I was not terribly sophisticated in my thinking on. And so I may have been better than your average new candidate in some areas, but compared to somebody who'd been in office - and so this is one of the traits you see of someone who's been in office for a while - they've got their talking points on every issue, they know where the safe space is on each one. So there's this learning process that occurs when you're running as well. And going back to your point about talking to people, you're not gonna learn if you're not talking to people. So I do like to see that too. It's funny - we're talking about somebody who can hold their principles, but you also want somebody who can be educated by the people they speak to and begin to understand the complexities of the issues. But also understand what really matters to people, and your point is really a strong one. And then be able to say, 'cause if you're running, you're saying you're the best person for the job. If you don't think you're the best person for the job, you shouldn't be in the race. Well, if you think you're the best person for the job, you're gonna have to start challenging yourself to answer the questions in a way that demonstrates that you're capable of making some forward progress on that issue. And I hold new candidates, at the beginning of that race, to a pretty low bar - because they're learning and you're allowed to say - well, I'm learning more about the - I don't recommend any candidates say that in any endorsing interview or to anybody - when you run, you're supposed to have all the answers. It's terrible. And then when you're elected, you're supposed to listen to everybody 'cause you shouldn't have all the answers. So that's another dynamic of running and winning. But when you're running, it is okay to keep learning and I see candidates learn and progress. So that's the other thing I look for in a candidate - just is, are they - what their ability to take up issues, identify, and attach a philosophy to it, and actually start making real recommendations, as opposed to simply talking points. And by talking points, I mean - one of the things to look for is - when you're talking to a candidate, are they just giving you value statements? "Affordable housing is really important. We need to care for every person in our community that's homeless." That's a value statement and it's good - I'm glad to hear people's values - but somebody can say, "We need to fight crime and we need to hold the police accountable." Okay, what's your plan? What's your plan to hold police accountable? How far would you be willing to go, or how far is too far for you as a candidate, and what do you think should be done differently to fight crime? What would you support? So, in a way it's the actual taking a position on an issue. And I also get super suspicious of candidates who don't take a position - who wanna, and I recommend this to candidates too - the way I phrase it now is, if you win votes, sometimes you have to lose votes. If somebody is afraid of losing a vote in the way they talk to you - it's in a way - it's a little bit taking the voter for granted if you're just trying to tell everybody what they want to hear and never take a hard position. Voters can - and I experienced this as a candidate and as a mayor - people will sometimes, people can disagree with you on things and still vote for you. If they like what you say on other issues, or if they like your approach, or if they just think you're coming from the right place, they're gonna work hard to get the right answer even if they don't like your answer then. So don't get hung up on - take a position, particularly on the things that really matter to the voters, so that you can give them some direction. There is a candidate - this is the thing, though - there is a candidate that can get through without taking positions. And this is why I think voters should be suspicious of those candidates. Those candidates can get through without taking a position, 'cause often they're the anointed candidate in the race. Races tend to end up with only one anointed candidate - that's why they're anointed - sometimes you see multiple people fighting for it. And the anointed candidate is the candidate who's wrapping up all the endorsements from the political insiders and the interest groups and the campaign funders. And with those dollars, and then usually with the support of the Seattle Times - in those races, everybody will say what a wonderful person this candidate is. And they will reflect on that person's personal characteristics. And their goal, their way of getting through the campaign is to present themselves to the world as - well, I'm clearly the best person for the job, look at my resume and my wonderful personality. And they don't wanna take a position, 'cause they're gonna count on that to get 'em over the top. The problem with that candidate is they are so beholden to the interests that helped elect them, that they'll never take a hard stance. Now, if you're not the anointed - a lot of candidates make the mistake, then, of trying to be the anointed candidate - getting all the endorsements and not taking a position, 'cause they look at that candidate and they go - so many of those candidates succeed, that's my path too. But there can only be one of them in a race. So what I'd be looking for in a race is who's somebody who's running on something. This is my personal experience, this is my lived experience, these are the things I've thrown myself into, this is the thing I wanna change in the world. Let me tell you how I'm gonna change it. And then evaluate - are they working on the right thing? Does their plan have a good likelihood of success? And that person at least will be willing to take some risks on change. If you want the status quo, elect the anointed candidate. If you think there are problems and unique change, look for the candidate who's willing to take some risks and potentially lose some votes, but hopefully they're gonna win votes because - hopefully the City believes that there are problems that need to be solved and we should elect problem solvers and not defenders of the status quo. [00:27:58] Crystal Fincher: I completely agree. Take a stance. You have to know where people stand - your point about value statements, it's so interesting being in a lot of situations where I'm watching how people and audiences react to things or - hey, this person said "Housing is a human right." I believe housing is a human right. Okay, done. And it's like okay, but have they explained how they're going to house people, what they're willing to do and what they're willing to not do, what their priority is, what they will prioritize funding? What are the details of that? What will you actually do? And there also is sometimes a plague of people, a type of candidate, whose priority is to get elected and who doesn't necessarily understand the type of office that they're running for. 'Cause running - what you can do as a legislator is very different than what you can do as a King County Councilmember or Port Commissioner, it's different than a city councilmember or a mayor - those are all very different things, very different jurisdictions. Your levers of power, your tools of change are very different. So do you understand the jurisdiction that you're running for? Or are you running for Legislature, like you're a mayor or a city councilmember? Those are very different things. And even the conversation on public safety is very different - and what they can do and how they can engage with that - or homelessness is different based on what you're running for - what you can actually do and what you can't do is different based on the jurisdiction. Has someone even engaged with that yet? Or are they just - this is me, I've always wanted to be elected, this open seat popped up, and so I'm running for it. This is not a commentary on anyone who's running right now. That was an example - I'm not referencing anyone specific, but that is a thing that I see often, that I see every cycle. And it's just - this person wants to be elected, they don't actually wanna make change. [00:30:08] Mike McGinn: So the - yeah, this is - you're reminding me of one of my other favorite sayings - is the candidate - do they wanna be somebody or they wanna do something? And it's a little unfair, 'cause nobody's a 100% one or the other. Like I definitely thought - I was running to do stuff, but it is fun to have people call you mayor, so I'm not immune to that. And I even think the people who I look at and go - oh, they just wanna be somebody, they've just been positioning themselves for the last 15 years to get an elected office, and spent so much time positioning that they haven't actually gotten anything done - they still have a beating heart and there's still things they wanna do. I think it's a mix of both, but where on that spectrum are they - of wanna be somebody or want to do something. And one of the best ways you can tell if they're people who want to do something is the questions we asked earlier - have they made, have they taken hard choices and taken some hits as a result of it? Have they thrown themselves into a cause to try to make change, even if there was no personal gain attached to it or status attached to it. And those can help answer that question of whether they want to do something or just be somebody. [00:31:22] Crystal Fincher: Makes sense. Well, this - a lot of times Fridays are Weeks In Review, but we have a unique opportunity here, when we're speaking with Mike McGinn, who has so much experience in activism, as an executive of one of the largest cities in the country. And so I do think this is a helpful conversation, as we're going to begin to hear a lot more from candidates - as candidates are gonna be communicating with voters, and your mailbox is about to fill up, and they're gonna be commercials and videos that you see - all that. But looking beyond that, this is always such an interesting conversation. As a political consultant, I'm involved in doing all of that - to be clear - but if you actually do care about this stuff, you actually want it to be with good people. I'm extremely picky about who I work with for that reason, this cycle I'm working with one person - working for other causes and in support of things, but when it comes to working with a candidate, I want a candidate that I know is in it to create change, has a history of walking their talk, is doing those things. And so - I'm working with Melissa Taylor in the 46th legislative district - there are lots of great candidates everywhere. I also still volunteer for candidates, because it's important who we elect to do that. And it is heartening - I see so many leaders who pass progressive policy, which is a distinction from people who just label themselves as progressive. That's more of a verb - it should be a verb - but it actually matters who we elect and we do have the opportunity in Seattle to not settle because we're scared of how horrific the opponent can be. We have better choices, so let's not settle for the status quo in so many situations - let's move forward, but do it in a way that just applies a little bit more discernment. And I appreciate having this conversation with you, 'cause I think it's really hard for people to figure out how to make this decision. [00:33:41] Mike McGinn: This will be the final point on this that I'll make, which is - I worked on endorsements within the Sierra Club for 10 years or so, I'm asked for my personal endorsement, I've run for office, gone through everyone else's endorsement processes multiple times. But let me just say - in doing endorsements for the Sierra Club, we got tricked more than once. It's hard. Somebody came in, they said all the right things, they seem to be the right person - but then, and it's really hard in this progressive versus progressive space, and then they get into office and you discover that they're not really with you. And it happens. And so, if you're trying to figure it out, and you find it hard, and you make a mistake, you're not - I can assure you - you're not alone here on this. So we're just trying to give you the best tools we can give you to make what can often be a very hard choice. [00:34:38] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, it is - I get it - it's actually a big reason why I do this show - to try and - I've seen people in the candidate stage, I've seen 'em in policy, I've seen the intentions of policy and things that seem good and things that I thought were good. And then seeing, time after time, it go through the legislative process and how it ends up. Or, hey, this type of person or this type of profile does well in an election, and this is how it usually turns out when they govern. And you just start to see the patterns. I think it's hard, if you aren't watching this all the time, to pick up on those patterns. And I think that is helpful in trying to determine who actually does - who actually can make change. And a lot of things go into that - having the right principles, but also understanding how to work productively with your colleagues - balancing that line between yeah, absolutely standing by your principles and listening - and that helping to develop your policy. And testing what you're saying - yeah, this is what I believe - and if you encounter something that challenges that, you have to contend with that, you can't just ignore it - does that mean that your policy needs some tweaking or something - all those things. I just hope to contribute to that conversation, to contribute to help people figure out - what's happening, why it's happening, and what they can do about it - who they can vote for to do something about it. But I really appreciate having this conversation. I'm fine with this being this conversation instead of a Week In Review, because hopefully - and there's just tons of news and sometimes - [00:36:30] Mike McGinn: Well, we gotta bunch of races coming up. Speaking of races, we have different voting methods coming up about or under debate right now. One of the things we've seen is that approval voting will be on the ballot this November. And we also see an effort in King County to move King County elections from odd years to even years, which are big, significant changes. [00:37:01] Crystal Fincher: Big significant changes - we've talked about even year elections, just the difference - King County Councilmember Girmay Zahilay tweeted actually this week - just a chart of voter turnout and it just looks - it's high, low, high, low, high, low, high, low - such a stark difference. And it's just even year, odd year, even year, odd year - 53%, 36%, 83%, 54%, 65%, 47%, 84%, 50% - that's the difference between even years and odd year elections. 2021 turnout was 44%, 2020 was 87%. And you're like - okay, well that was a presidential year, maybe that was the reason why it was different. 2019 was 49% - still less than half. 2018 - 76% - every single year - 2017 was 43%, 2016 - 82%. You're, in some years, almost doubling the amount of people who participate in that. To make an argument that we're okay with the amount of people being half that participate in our elections just does not make sense. And in this situation, I think we need to do all we can to help make sure everyone can vote. Speaking as someone who works in politics, you certainly see this yourself. It is tough, especially with how much local media has disappeared, how comparatively thin the resources are stretched now than they were 20 years ago - to just let people know that they're - forget a general election in an odd year - a primary election, it's rough and you basically have to pay to communicate with people and let them know. That's part of what drives up the cost of elections. There is almost no way for you to reach a large chunk of the voters without paying to send the mail, paying to target communication at them - that's the only way to let them know you exist. If you are someone who's a non-incumbent or challenging someone, your biggest opponent isn't your opponent, actually. It's just being known, period. So moving these to even years will just do a lot more and hopefully reduce the amount that needs to be spent on elections 'cause they are too expensive. The race I'm working in has - there's a ton of money in this race, which - okay, this is what it takes to win this race, unfortunately now - congressionally. We need to change the system to get some of the money out of it. And it's a tough go, especially for someone who's standing by their principles, not accepting corporate donations - it's rough to be able to try and afford and do those things. And we need to make it easier for people to get engaged without having to pay so much money to make that happen. [00:40:12] Mike McGinn: Well, if you believe in voter turnout - if you believe democracy is better when more people vote, then conversation should be over for you. But it turns out that there are some people who would prefer that fewer people vote. And so, it was not unanimous on the King County Council. And it goes back to that comment I was making earlier 'cause what we know is - when voter turnout is higher, you tend to have greater, more diverse representation in the voting pool. Similarly, you tend to have more people of lower incomes in the voting pool in high turnout years. More renters, more apartment dwellers, so it's more representative of the population as a whole in high turnout years. And low turnout years are less representative of the population as a whole. It tends to skew older, whiter - which then means also more single-family home ownership. We were talking earlier about the suburban or urban approach to city issues. Well, that's the - this is a difference between a more urban voting bloc, or one that trends towards the more suburban sensibilities about how cities should work. And, it's funny - I've used this line before - we talk about urbanists, but trust me, there are suburbanists in the City of Seattle that run for office and win. And that's challenging when you're trying to make sure you have enough housing for everybody, or that you want progressive policies towards - more progressive policies towards policing and the like. So, there are people who will argue - well, this enables more focus on the races and people can make more informed decisions, but it's a smaller pool of people. So they're really arguing for a smaller, less representative pool of people. And if you wanna put this in a national frame - the people arguing for odd year elections, because it does allow for a greater focus - it has the same effect as people who think the electoral college is good because it gives rural voters more say - without them - it's false to say that the electoral college is meant to protect small states and rural voters. Well, the electoral college has the effect of giving voters from smaller states an undue influence in the course of the country, right? The majority of the country believes certain things and that's not reflected in what the majority of the US Senate is, or what a majority of the electoral vote would count. Same thing happens in local elections held in odd years. The people who participate in the elections and the people who get elected don't actually represent the sentiment of the City as a whole, or the county district that they're running in. So moving to even year elections is just the right thing to do if you believe in democracy. And try to come up with a system to reduce turnout or to favor one population or over another - well, that's pretty anti-democratic, so honestly hope no one would speak up for it, but watch what would happen. I'll make you a bet that if Seattle had the opportunity to do it, state law would have to change. You'd see a whole lot of interests arise to argue that it's wrong, because they're used to helping shape and influence and anoint candidates - we talked about this earlier - their ability to anoint the candidate and push 'em through would be lost in a year in which there was bigger turnout than when holding these in low turnout elections. [00:43:46] Crystal Fincher: I agree with that. And especially with the momentum that ranked choice voting, which is not on our ballot in King County, at least this year, but there's a lot of support and momentum for here and across the state. It looks like they've actually seen this coming, that they've seen the momentum behind even year elections, ranked choice voting and have launched a preemptive strike in the form of this approval voting initiative, which will land on ballots in the City of Seattle in November. Now Hannah Krieg wrote a story about this and ran into a signature gatherer who told her - hey, ranked choice voting and approval voting are the same thing. That's not true, they're very different. And there's a reason why some of the folks who are supporting the main organization who's supporting this look like it would - this approval voting seems to have appeared out of nowhere. It's not - hey, this is my first choice, second choice, third choice. So that if your first choice doesn't make it, at least you can get your second choice in. And that makes a lot more sense in crowded primaries. This is - just vote for everyone who you like, just vote for everybody - which, in a situation where money counts, pretty much guarantees that the most well-funded candidates will make it through. And I think people have seen a gathering threat, especially in districted elections, and saying - okay, well, hey, the recall against Sawant didn't work, we're seeing these progressives being elected in all these different areas, let's make sure they get through. I am extremely suspicious of approval voting, especially with some of the misrepresentations that some of the signature gatherers have been making. It just strikes me as a preemptive strike against some of these other measures that do seem to be, that do seem like they'll have the result of increasing the amount of people who are engaged in voting these elections. [00:46:03] Mike McGinn: Well, I may have a slightly different view on this than you. I think that there are people who are totally into what's the best election system, 'cause I've gone down that rabbit hole and people have really strong views about that. I have to say, I think that approval voting has some positives to it, and which are - first of all, I know how I'm going to vote - if I have a clear winner, I'm gonna vote for the person I really like. You only have to vote for one person in approval voting, but boy, I've had races where I would've gladly voted for two or three people and said they're okay, just to show my support for 'em. Particularly they - 'cause here's what we know in Seattle - here's the counterargument for it. And by the way, I like ranked choice voting more than approval voting, but ranked choice voting has to be approved by the State, and it's probably gonna take a few years before we get there in Seattle - and we can always go there. But right now in Seattle, we tend to end up almost exclusively with candidates that are either endorsed by the Seattle Times or The Stranger. So I kinda like the ability of approval voting to get somebody, to give somebody else the possibility to get through. And I can think of races where I would've voted for more than one person in the race, rather than have to pick The Stranger or Seattle - and by the way, I almost, I pick The Stranger - cards on the table - between The Stranger and Seattle Times, I pick The Stranger. But I looked at these other candidates and said - boy, I'd really love one of them to get through, but they just don't really stand a chance. And I think approval voting would lead to The Stranger having to identify more than one candidate. They don't have to - they could, like me, identify one candidate they approve, but they might also be able to identify two or three that they approve. And I think that might yield better outcomes in terms of the candidates we get. [00:48:03] Crystal Fincher: It's an interesting argument. One thing - does approval voting, approval voting, does ranked choice voting need to be approved by the State? I don't think it needs to be approved by the State, does it? There are initiatives on the ballot for ranked choice voting in Clark County and maybe one other county right now. [00:48:24] Mike McGinn: I think counties are different. I think counties are different than cities in what people can do. I think that there's a - and same thing is true of the district election, excuse me, not district elections, odd year versus even year elections. Right now, the voting system for cities - there's a state statute that says what system you must follow, and when you must vote. And I think counties have greater flexibility, for whatever reason, under state law. So you need a law to give cities the authority to choose ranked choice voting and/or move into even years. And there have been efforts to do both in the legislature, both of which I support. [00:49:10] Crystal Fincher: So I just texted someone for clarification, really - the answer given to me via text, we can obviously clarify this at a further time - speaking from a county point of view, for non-charter counties, they can implement it. As you just said, for charter counties need - should be able to implement county-level, or charter counties should be able to implement it. Non-charter counties can't. Cities - question marks. You probably you're - yeah, I guess I didn't realize that. You probably dealt with this. [00:49:48] Mike McGinn: I'm pretty sure of this because I've worked on promoting the state legislation that would give authority for this. [00:49:54] Crystal Fincher: So how can we get approval voting? [00:49:58] Mike McGinn: Approval voting - just it, that one, I guess, just works differently. It's a good question, but I think it just works differently in the top-two primary system. I don't have legal analysis for you, but I'm sure if somebody did the legal analysis and concluded that it fit under the statutory system in a way that ranked choice voting did not. Yeah. [00:50:20] Crystal Fincher: Well, very interesting. I'm always learning here, I'm learning every week. [00:50:26] Mike McGinn: Oh, I was all ready to collect signatures for moving Seattle elections to even years until I discovered the State prohibition. So Mia Gregerson has legislation in the State Legislature. I actually think that a lot of the organizing that was done around odd year, even year elections has helped influence the County. In fact, when I met with Girmay, when he was running for office, I now recall this - I told Girmay - hey, by the way, win or lose, I hope you could support an effort to move elections to even years. We'll see if Girmay remembers the conversation the same way - that was at The Station up on Beacon Hill, at The Station coffee house. And he said, absolutely, I'd be all in for that. So Girmay, thank you for being - not just saying it, but doing it. So really cool - really cool to see the leadership he's showing on the King County Council. [00:51:25] Crystal Fincher: I would - back to our prior conversation - I would put Girmay in the category of doers. He wants to do something, is not primarily motivated by being someone. So, I appreciate this conversation. Always an interesting conversation with you, former Mayor Mike McGinn, now Executive Director of America Walks - you talked about your Sierra Club days, your City days, just all of it. And just talking about growing over time - look, I'm one of the people who you have convinced on some policies - back when - when you were "Mayor McSchwinn" - [00:52:08] Mike McGinn: Oh my goodness. And I never even owned a Schwinn - why would they say that? Yeah. [00:52:16] Crystal Fincher: Oh my gosh. Yeah, I have certainly learned a lot, continue to learn a lot - but, and it's one of those hallmarks of someone who is willing to engage in conversations. We've had conversations about policy - I'm like, red, and you're like, blue - and it's well, you know what? [00:52:35] Mike McGinn: Well, you've changed my mind, Crystal - [00:52:37] Crystal Fincher: He's making sense. [00:52:37] Mike McGinn: You changed my mind on things too, for what it's worth. You've absolutely changed my mind. [00:52:42] Crystal Fincher: Well, I appreciate it. I appreciate all of you for listening to Hacks & Wonks on this Friday, June 17th, a month out from when we get our ballots and can start voting in this primary election. The producer of Hacks & Wonks is Lisl Stadler, assistant producer is Shannon Cheng - Dr. Shannon Cheng is a United States orienteering champion - once again, we've talked about this a little bit before - she is just dominating in every where and every way, and is just extremely amazing and incredible. With assistance from Bryce Cannatelli - also, Bryce is just so great. Bryce is a newer addition to our team here and just oozes competence and is a delight. The Hacks & Wonks team is absolutely a team, I just wanna reinforce that again - you hear my voice most of the time with a guest, but this does not happen without these other people. It would be impossible to get one show a week done, let alone two - the amount of editing, preparation, just everything from soup to nuts - I am eternally grateful to Lisl, Shannon, and Bryce. You can find Mike McGinn on Twitter @mayormcginn, you can find me on Twitter @finchfrii, and now you can follow Hacks & Wonks wherever - wherever podcasts are, Hacks & Wonks is. Be sure to subscribe to get the full versions of our Friday almost-live show and our midweek show delivered to your podcast feed. You can also get a full transcript of this episode and links to the resources referenced in the show at officialhacksandwonks.com and in the podcast episode notes. Thanks for tuning in - talk to you next time.

Melissa Taylor is a Reiki Master, yoga instructor, and 2-time survivor of breast cancer. She excels at helping others find natural solutions for their health issues. Melissa brings awareness and balance within each individual to a higher level as she offers priceless tools for self healing the mind, body, and spirit. Working with ordinary people of all ages and walks of life, her client list also includes professional musicians, and professional athletes who have sought her expertise to help them bring balance and healing in their careers and personal lives. She believes the impossible is possible! In today's episode, Melissa and I discuss the relationship between Soul Weather Astrology and our health. Created by Syl Carson, Melissa teaches what Soul Weather Astrology is, how it relates to energy, and what it has to do with our health. Instagram: @healwithmelissa Website: https://www.healwithmelissa.com/ For 10% off at Mett Naturals, use code JUSTINGREDIENTS at https://mettnaturals.com/?rfsn=5856305.db00a8&utm_source=refersion&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_campaign=5856305.db00a8

Musicians often view the public relations side of the industry with a degree of suspicion. Sometimes outright hostility. This is occasionally the result of misinformation, or perhaps just a poor level of understanding of what can be a crucial cog in the wheel of an artist's career. But like most things in music there can be a slightly unsavoury side to the construction of narrative and crafting of messages of the sort that PRs get up to which justifies a certain level of cynicism. Melissa Taylor, we can rest assured, is not one of the bad ones. The owner of https://tailored-communication.com/ (Tailored Communication), her day job as a PR guru(!) also involves management, and music consultancy. She was formerly press officer at https://www.fabriclondon.com/ (Fabric) in London, and is a current board member of the streaming co-operative Resonate. She is also an engaging and witty conversationalist, and someone who is unafraid to be disagreed with - which is fortunate as we did have some points of departure in the course of this episode. But that's what a free exchange of ideas is all about, right? And in woefully short supply in the music conversation generally. We cover topics including the problems of the streaming model, the role of co-operatives in a potential improvement, what it was like promoting a record in the early 2000s, the inability of the industry to deal with diversity issues, the Berlin club scene, the death of music reviews, and much else besides. A great episode, you'll love it. On Hotflush-affiliated labels this week we welcome Jayson Wynters to Rhythm Nation, and check https://yaeltrip.bandcamp.com (Etapp Kyle's remix of Glaskin's Slim Line monster). Some links from Melissa: https://resonate.is/pricing/ (https://resonate.is/pricing/) https://pioneerworks.org/broadcast/library-music-liz-pelly (https://pioneerworks.org/broadcast/library-music-liz-pelly) Join us in the https://discord.com/invite/98423K8gap (Hotflush Discord Server) Listen to all the music discussed on the show via the https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6gs2nOUls8kP3UmMVPWhL3?si=00ba0908e4c14c4f (Not A Diving Podcast Spotify playlist) For more links and other info visit https://scubaofficial.io (the official Scuba website) Follow Scuba: https://twitter.com/scubaofficial (twitter) https://instagram.com/scubaofficial (instagram) http://scubaofficial.bandcamp.com/ (bandcamp) http://spoti.fi/scuba (spotify) https://music.apple.com/us/artist/scuba/220276686 (apple music) https://www.beatport.com/artist/scuba/1550 (beatport)

Book expert Melissa Taylor believes in reading –– for adults and children. Melissa is a writer, former teacher and literacy trainer, and she's the creator of the award-winning blog, Imagination Soup. Listen in as Melissa tells Julie about her review process, her favorite genres, and how she reads (and keeps track of) hundreds of books per month. Melissa also shares a favorite mentor text for budding young writers, and the importance of helping them specifically name what's working in their writing. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this Hacks & Wonks week-in-review, Crystal's co-host is criminal defense attorney, abolitionist and activist Nicole Thomas-Kennedy. They discuss how a powerful lobbying group used a focus on local control to sink statewide housing reform, and how to overcome that in the next session, a rundown of candidates running for open seats, the disconnect of prioritizing the wants of downtown stakeholders over real solutions to homelessness, the Seattle City Attorney's repackaging of a failed initiative, and mixed results on the plan for some concrete workers to return to work while concrete companies continue to drag their feet on negotiating a fair contract. 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, Nicole Thomas-Kennedy, at @NTKallday. More info is available at officialhacksandwonks.com.   Resources “Here's What Happened in Olympia” by Rich Smith from The Stranger: https://www.thestranger.com/slog/2022/03/15/68343035/the-strangers-rundown-of-2022s-huge-confused-legislative-session    “What Will It Take to Get Statewide Housing Reform?” by Matt Baume from The Stranger: https://www.thestranger.com/slog/2022/03/16/68207458/what-will-it-take-to-get-statewide-housing-reform    “Surprise Sweep Displaces Fourth Avenue Encampment, Scattering Unsheltered People” by Erica C. Barnett from PubliCola: https://publicola.com/2022/03/09/surprise-sweep-displaces-fourth-avenue-encampment-scattering-unsheltered-people-throughout-downtown/    “Downtown Sweep Highlights Urgency of Resolving Seattle's Other “Top-Priority Encampment,” Woodland Park” by Erica C. Barnett from PubliCola: https://publicola.com/2022/03/16/downtown-sweep-highlights-urgency-of-resolving-seattles-other-top-priority-encampment-woodland-park/    “City Attorney's Office Introduces Latest Initiative to Target “High Utilizers” of the Criminal Justice System” by Paul Kiefer from PubliCola: https://publicola.com/2022/03/15/city-attorneys-office-introduces-latest-initiative-to-target-so-called-high-utilizers-of-the-criminal-justice-system/    “Harrell postpones Seattle police plan to crack down on ‘disorderly conduct' at Third Avenue bus stops” by David Kroman from The Seattle Times: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/transportation/harrell-postpones-seattle-police-plan-to-crack-down-on-disorderly-conduct-at-third-avenue-bus-stops/    “Cigarettes and Fentanyl: All Aboard” by Nathan Vass from NathanVass.com: http://www.nathanvass.com/blog/cigarettes-and-fentanyl-all-aboard    “Some Seattle-area concrete drivers return to work, others await go-ahead from employer” by Nick Bowman from MyNorthwest: https://mynorthwest.com/3398180/seattle-concrete-drivers-return-others-await-employer/    “Concrete strike continues in King County as union workers who offered to return didn't show” by KING 5 Staff & Adel Toay from KING 5: https://www.king5.com/article/news/local/concrete-strike-king-county-union-workers-no-show/281-f14d167c-c88c-44db-91c8-591171124209    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. For transcripts and resources referenced in this show, you can visit officialhacksandwonks.com and reference our episode notes. Today we're continuing our Friday almost-live shows where we review the news of the week with a co-host. Welcome to the program for the first time, today's co-host: criminal defense attorney, abolitionist, and activist Nicole Thomas-Kennedy. Hey. [00:00:55] Nicole Thomas-Kennedy: Hello. Thanks for having me - and this is the second time I've been on - must have been so memorable that first time. [00:01:01] Crystal Fincher: No, this is your first time as a co-host on the Week In Review. Yes, we did an interview last time, which was very good and incredible. And a number of people were like, well, we see who you want to win. And it's just like, look, if she happens to be making great and salient points, it's not my fault. But yes, just really, really excited to have you here on the Week In Review. [00:01:28] Nicole Thomas-Kennedy: I'm excited to be here. Thank you. [00:01:30] Crystal Fincher: Well, and so the first thing that we have coming out of the gate was one thing I wanted to talk about - coming out of the end of the legislative session - we talked last week and broke down a number of bills. The Stranger this week had a great article that we'll put in our episode notes that also further broke down what was great about the legislative session, what was disappointing, and how we can move forward. And then Matt Baume also had another article talking about the failure of bills that would have mandated more density, specifically near transit, that would've helped address the affordability crisis that we have here in the state. And I thought it was very good - it was focused on, hey, what needs to happen moving forward to actually succeed in passing bills that require more density statewide? In that, he talked about the AWC, Association of Washington Cities, being a vocal opponent. They are a powerful lobby in the State of Washington. Their purpose, they say, is to represent the over 200 cities in the state. And their position largely was - it's really important to have local control in these and the one-size-fits-all solution that would come from the state just may not be right for our communities, so therefore we need to do nothing. The challenge in that is that most cities have not moved forward on doing anything. As you look at this issue, Nicole, what do you see as being the barriers and, I guess, the opportunities for moving forward successfully? [00:03:16] Nicole Thomas-Kennedy: I think that when I look at this, first I think it's funny that there is a coalition of all these cities that are all saying the same thing - we want local control - that seems to be the only thing that they agree on. But I think that on a state level, there needs to be a floor created for affordable housing and density, and that's really all we were talking about for the most part with these bills. It wasn't any incredibly specific directions that each city has to take on a certain timeline on a certain budget - anything like that. It was about just creating a floor of affordable, dense housing that is needed in pretty much every community. And I think that what I heard a lot in the last year was that - the reverse of there needs to be local control - which was now we have municipalities competing against each other for who can do the least. Seattle is - Sara Nelson and other people are calling out other cities for not doing their part and spending their money on addressing the crisis. And it seems to be like a race to the bottom in terms of who can spend the least. And because the idea, I think, is that if you build services, if you build affordable housing, people will move into them. And why do that when you can concentrate a lot of the unsheltered population in one place that provides the minimum to keep people alive? And that's what I see going on. [00:04:59] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, and definitely a resistance to people who are defined as others and outsiders from even being able to buy into communities. It was really interesting in this article - there were representatives from cities across the state, from Port Orchard to Tacoma to University Place, and a number of them were leaders within AWC and talked about - we need local control, we are all very different. But one very consistent thread in these is that the median home price in most of these areas has doubled. This housing crisis is not just a crisis in major municipalities. It is a crisis across the board in areas that were affordable - that people used to consider being affordable and that people could buy into and still work in a major area where jobs are concentrated. And still live, even with a commute unfortunately - that it was possible to buy a home there with a median income. It is no longer the case in many of these places. And sometimes, like one of these examples in Port Orchard, they touted - well, we built new homes. Well, yeah, those are half million dollar plus homes adjacent to a golf course. If we're concentrating on making sure cities are accessible to people across the board and that you don't have to be rich and that we aren't displacing people outside of cities and just gentrifying them, then we have to have a solution across the board. Also, interestingly, the National League of Cities, which the Association of Washington Cities is a member of, had a 2019 report that said, "While local control is often at the heart of policies that accelerate progress, there are examples, particularly in the affordable housing policy arena in which state policy is needed." To your point, there has to be a floor. We have to establish a minimum boundary. Cities can determine the right way that they're all going to get there, but what we can't do - what is not sustainable, we're already paying the price for - is continued inaction while just spouting excuses like, well, it's not local control, therefore it's nothing. I would love to see leaders within the legislature say, "Well, you say you want local control? This wasn't successful this session. You now have this coming year to address this within your own cities. If you do, we can find a way to create legislation that respects what you've done." And more than likely if you're taking meaningful action, the floor is going to be below where you set it. But it's not going to be an option to continue to not take action next session and further on in the future. I would love to hear that from legislative leadership and leaders across the state - it just should not be an option. We have to make cities and housing affordable and accessible for people to live in, or else we're going to make our homelessness problem worse, we're going to make our displacement problem worse, we're not going to have people available to fill jobs that are necessary within cities. This is a critical economic development issue just in addition to a housing and social issue. So I hope we address that. Go ahead. [00:08:31] Nicole Thomas-Kennedy: Oh, I was just going to say too that I really like how you talked about these are communities that used to be affordable. When we talk about Port Orchard - my in-laws live in Port Orchard, and so when they bought their home, it was very affordable and the amount of money it appreciated to was pretty astronomical. And so when we're resisting building affordable housing - and affordable really is - we're talking about homes that are less than half a million dollars, which is just a wild concept that that's where we are with the average home prices in an area. It wasn't always like that. So the idea that these - the people that are already there should be able to stay with this huge, expensive appreciation that they have in their home value, but then not let anybody else in that is going to be coming in at the same level that they came in at. And unfortunately they're not going to be able to afford - they're going to have to have less in terms of space and in terms of all of those things. And so it's interesting to me to want to keep out the same people that are essentially already there, I guess. [00:09:52] Crystal Fincher: Yeah. Yeah, I mean, it absolutely is that issue. And then as I look at this, it's like the people who are in housing whose housing has appreciated and who are resistant to any kind of acceptance of other people in their communities - we're talking about their kids, we're talking about their employees, we're talking about their students. And again, people talk about, well, I can't find anyone to fill this position in my company. We can't find people. No one wants to work. But is it that no one wants to work? Or is it that you're now forcing people who can't live and work in the same community, and maybe the compensation doesn't work for someone who has to commute 45 minutes each way and drop off their kids beforehand and pick them up after? It just isn't tenable for so many reasons. I feel like we leave housing and affordability out of economic discussions and it's just so critical and a big part of those two. So I hope that we see significant action, and that candidates are talking about this on the campaign trail, and our leadership is making it clear in both the House and the Senate - that this is something that needs to be acted on and will be acted on next session, and that cities are on notice that they need to move in the right direction. [00:11:19] Nicole Thomas-Kennedy: Yes, I agree. Yes. That needs to happen. And I think there needs to be some - maybe more clear calling out of what is actually happening. If municipalities are saying, oh, we want to sit down, we want to sit down, we want to talk, we want to talk - but then they're not asking for any more talks and they're not proposing anything of their own. I think it's maybe time to call a spade a spade and say, are you really interested in solving this problem, or are you really just kicking the can down the road? [00:11:47] Crystal Fincher: Exactly. Well, the legislative session did recently conclude, and that means that now we have a number of legislators who are kicking off their re-election campaigns and starting in earnest. One thing I don't know if everyone who listens is aware of is that - while our legislators are in office, they can't actually raise money, so they can't do a major element of campaigning. There is a prohibition against doing that, also for certain employees of the state. So once session concludes, they're all trying to catch up to people who have already been running and doing that. And so a lot of them are - people are receiving a lot more emails from their representatives and appeals for donations - that's happening now. And I just wanted to do a quick little rundown of where there are open seats. There are a number of representatives who are retiring or moving onto different positions, some in the House are running for Senate seats - but that is leaving some positions open that are now contested by several different people. The 22nd Legislative District in Thurston County - having Beth Doglio and Laurie Dolan who are Democrats, and Loretta Byrnes running for those - that's Position 1 there. 30th Legislative District in Federal Way, where Jesse Johnson has decided not to run for re-election - we have Kristine Reeves, who's filed to run, Leandra Craft, Lynn French, Ryan Odell and Ashli Raye Tagoai, I think it is, and Janis Clark. And then in the 36 District in Seattle, where Reuven Carlyle decided not to run and then Noel Frame decided to run for Reuven Carlyle Senate seat, leaving that House seat vacant - there's Julia Reed, Jeffrey Manson, Elizabeth Tyler Crone, Nicole Gomez, and Waylon Robert. And in the 46th District - and just a reminder, I am working with Melissa Taylor - there is Melissa Taylor, Lelach Rave, Nancy Connolly, Darya Farivar, and Nina Martinez who have filed for that seat. That's in north Seattle, northeast Seattle. 47th Legislative District, which is eastern Kent, Covington, Maple Valley area, where Pat Sullivan is no longer running, he's not going to be running for re-election - there's Carmen Goers, Kyle Lyebyedyev, Jessie Ramsey, and Satwinder Kaur, who is a Kent City Councilmember. And then King County Prosecuting Attorney is an open seat because Dan Satterberg is not running for re-election - and so there's Stephan Thomas, Leesa Manion, and Jim Ferrell who are running for that seat. So there is a lot to come - we're certainly going to be having conversations with several of these candidates, but running these campaigns are getting off in earnest now - and you'll be hearing lots and seeing lots, and the end of the legislative session is a big turning point in campaign season with another big milestone coming up. There are lots of people who can file to run and you can start your campaign committee in May - in mid-May is where people officially declare that they're running for a specific seat - and that will determine who actually appears on your ballot. And so that'll be the final say on who is running for what, so people in the interim can potentially switch positions they're running for, choose not to run - lots of choices and paths that this can go down. As you're looking at this crew, does anything just come to mind for you? Or you've run a campaign - a big campaign citywide before - what do see just ahead for these candidates and for voters who are evaluating them? [00:15:59] Nicole Thomas-Kennedy: I mean, I see some candidates that I think are exciting - I also love Melissa Taylor. I used to work on the other side of Leandra Craft - I think she's smart and knows what's going on. So I think I'm seeing some good candidates. Campaigning at that level is different because there just has to be so much fundraising done, whereas in the City, we're so lucky that we don't have to spend all of our time doing that. I just - I wish everyone the best because - oh yeah, oh, Nicole Gomez too. There's some people to be really excited about, I think, and so that's great. I just wish everyone the best. I hope everyone's taking good care of themselves - that's what I think when I see this list. [00:16:45] Crystal Fincher: Running for office is a very, very tough thing. It's not fun - you're putting yourself out there to be scrutinized - people do not always consider the human when they are communicating with or about candidates. And they are humans - even when we disagree with them, they're humans. I do think, as candidates are kicking off their campaigns, certainly fundraising is a big deal in the City of Seattle - with City races, there are Democracy Vouchers where every resident gets money from the City that they can donate to the candidate of their choice. That is not the case in these campaigns this year - they have to raise all the money they need. And campaigns do take money because unfortunately there is not broad media coverage, and getting your message out to most voters requires communicating directly with them. And so whether it's knocking on their door, giving them a call - which still takes resources - and usually also involves communicating with them via mail or online or on TV - just a lot of different mediums there. And then people are also focusing on endorsements - especially early on, people are trying to figure out - what do these candidates stand for, what have they been involved with, and how have they worked before in the past, what is their history? And sometimes endorsements can be revealing and highlight what that candidate prioritizes, who is in their corner, what kind of issues they'll be strong on and a leading a advocate for - not simply a vote. So lots of that happening right now, and certainly just hope for the best and hope they are successful in getting their messages out. It is an interesting time and campaigns are kicking off once again. I did want to pivot to a number of news items in the City of Seattle surrounding public safety - first being the issue of sweeps of a number of encampments. And so we had a 4th Avenue encampment sweep, which scattered a bunch of unsheltered folks. There's probably other sweeps to come soon, and the issue of another encampment that has been viewed as a top priority at Woodland Park. As you look at what's going on with these sweeps, what do you see as far as what's happening? [00:19:33] Nicole Thomas-Kennedy: What I see is the huge amount of disconnect between what the public thinks is happening and what is actually happening - and that's just such a huge disservice to everyone. I know that there's a narrative out there that people are refusing services and they're refusing shelter. And I guess the idea is that some people are camping out in the cold and rain, because that's preferable somehow to be sheltered. And that's not what the case is - we don't have enough places for people to live that they can afford to live in. We don't have the services that are needed to stop this from continuing to happen. Also, the thing is - it really just moves the problem around. There's nothing really - it will clear one area of sidewalk for a certain period of time, but all it does is move things around. And the more people are destabilized, who are already barely, are clinging to stability and security in the most tenuous way possible - are then pushed around and have all the belongings they need to survive thrown away - because that's what we saw in the downtown sweep is - it was different than some of the other sweeps in that they didn't really offer services, they didn't offer anything. There's different timelines that they went by because they called the tents downtown an obstruction, a sidewalk obstruction, which means that they're - all of the things that they're supposed to do during the sweep, they didn't have to do any of that. And they didn't. And so we just see people's belongings being thrown away, tents thrown away. And I think what's also missing from the narrative around these sweeps is just how much stress that puts on service providers. I talk to a lot of people and they say, well, the Navigation Center is just up the street and I'm like, how much do you think that they can handle? Because as a public defender, something that I saw often was people being displaced by going to jail. That means when they get out, they have to get a new ID, a new EBT card, they have to go to DESC and see if they can get a tent and a sleeping bag - because there's things that people need in order to survive. And people don't just evaporate after a sweep, they are still existing. And also my partner has an office in Pioneer Square and he watched the 4th Avenue sweep, and he's seen a lot of sweeps around . That area. And he says, it's just really hard to watch people who are barely hanging on become so dysregulated by the horror of what is actually happening to them. And he said he would see people huddled together in alleyways trying to get away from the police - it's just a really horrifying scene that doesn't - it really truly does not solve any problem other than that one piece of sidewalk for a little bit of time. And so we're spending millions and millions of dollars to essentially make this problem worse. We move it around and make it worse. And so, I get that people don't want to see this anymore, but if that's what they want, then we're going to have to take some steps towards solutions and sweeps just aren't it at all. [00:23:04] Crystal Fincher: Yeah. You raised so many good points - it's absolutely correct. The bottom line is the actions that we're taking are not moving people into shelter and permanent housing. It is not an ideal solution to have people on sidewalks and have people living on streets. But when people don't have a home to go to and they don't have anywhere else to go, that is the option. That is the option. Unless we just expect people to die, we can't jail our way out of the problem. There certainly is a contingent of people who are just like, well, they shouldn't be on the sidewalk and that should be illegal and that's an obstruction and it's bad, and they should be arrested and they're probably criminals anyway and they're causing problems and creating crime. When the reality is people who are unsheltered are actually many times more likely to be victims of crime. They're a very vulnerable population and that's all just factless propaganda that we're hearing otherwise. But our services are not set up to meet the needs that actually exist, and time after time - when we listen and we hear things like they were offered shelter and they refused, we really do have to dig a little bit deeper and think about what were they offered? So many times what they were offered does not actually accommodate the needs that they have - if they have a partner, if they have a dog - those people that they have relied on that again, because they're in such a vulnerable position and because they are so exposed to the likelihood of having crime committed against them, having people that they can count on who help to look out for you, that help to protect your belongings - is essential to survival. And a lot of times we're asking them to give that up for a night in a shelter, for a week in a shelter. It's not even like they have the opportunity to transition in a permanent way and okay, maybe it's going to be okay. That stay in the shelter could be absolutely destabilizing for them and could tear apart the only thing that is keeping them safe and warm and alive. And so we just have to get really serious about this. I think Marc Dones has talked a lot about this issue and that we have to get real about - when we see such high "refusal rates", which can just be a service didn't fit. And when we see high rates of people being referred to services and then not showing up or following through, there's a reason for that. And if we want to get to the root cause of this issue and if we want to get people off of our sidewalks, which I think everybody wants, then we have to actually address the issues there and meet the needs that exist, not the ones that - they have to be solutions that meet the needs that they're identifying that they have, not what we think they should have, not what we think they deserve, not what we think is right or good or moral or all of that stuff. If we aren't addressing the things that they say will, hey, yes, that is something that I could do to move forward to get off the streets, then we're just moving people around to different areas. And again, a sweep is just moving people off of a block - the City and the County will acknowledge, have acknowledged - that no, it's not solving the issue of homelessness, it's moving them off of a block. I think another missing part of this conversation is that we seem to be prioritizing the needs and wants of downtown moneyed interests and not those of the rest of the community. We're perfectly fine spending tons of money - allocating tons of time and officer resources, City resources - to clear a block here and there at the behest of the Downtown Seattle Association, or the Chamber, or a business owner who's been loud and vocal, but we're actually not doing the same thing in other neighborhoods where just regular people are living. In fact, we're displacing the problems that existed in the downtown area to other communities - freely admitting it and saying, hey, we just spent the money that we could have spent to house people - which is the biggest problem of homelessness is people lacking houses - and we're treating this like a criminal solution and basically putting the problem into your lap now. And doing a victory lap because this one block downtown is clear for now. It just does not make much sense to me. And I just feel like so many people are just like, well, you don't care and you want all the sidewalks to be like this. No, no one does. We just want to actually not keep kicking the can down the road and waste the money that we could be using to actually solve this problem. [00:28:33] Nicole Thomas-Kennedy: Absolutely - and I also think that there's - I don't really understand why there is so much comfort in subsidizing downtown businesses using all the resources there to make sure that they can have what they want, but everybody else has to deal with the fallout and they just have to take it on. But like downtown - their sidewalks, everything - the City as a whole pays to subsidize clearing those blocks for them and for their businesses. And I don't understand why anyone is okay with that idea, especially because yes, we're not talking about solutions. And I think that if you're not talking about getting people housed, then you are just talking about moving the problem around. And there's a lot of reasons why - you were talking about people might refuse services, but there's also - and they're very real. Like you said, there's a community aspect that is the only thing that's keeping a lot of people truly alive, truly safe, truly alive - the modicum of safety and life that they have. And that's not considered. And I think that it's a very convenient - to say, well, they refused services - but it's just like, well, did you give them a three-night hotel voucher where they can't take any of their belongings? And so therefore they know if I do this, then I'm going to be out again in three days and I'm not going to have any of the things that I need to survive. There's a lot more that goes into decisions about what services to accept and not, rather than just personal preference. And I think that's how it gets sold - is like, oh, well, you maybe don't like this, but that's what there is. And it's just - first of all, I think people should have choices. But second, we're talking about the difference between life and death. And so the idea that, and this is what I would see in court all the time too, especially around issues like addiction or not having shelter is - well, if we just punish you harder, then you won't be like this anymore. I'm - this person lives under a bridge and is fighting for their life. I don't know how much lower we can take this - there's no point in making people who are suffering suffer more. I think there's this idea that they'll just suffer more and then they'll just stop - suffer more and then they'll magically have money to move into an apartment that costs twice as much as it did five years ago? That's this weird, magical thinking that is really, I guess, hypnotic on some level, but it's really pervasive. And we can see that it hasn't worked, so I don't really understand clinging to those notions. But yeah, that's where we are. And it's incredibly - I saw a picture the other day of some bike officers at a sweep and there was 12 of them just in the picture - and if you think about median income for a sworn police officer for SPD, I think it's $163,000. So even just looking - if we just rounded to $150k - 12 officers at $150k in this picture - that's almost $2,000 an hour. And I'm sure that was only a small number of the officers that were there. So in addition to parks, in addition to all of the other services that may or may not be provided - we're spending gigantic amounts of money to make the problem worse. And that just doesn't make any sense. If you want people off the sidewalk - I do too, this is horrible. Yeah, and I think there is this idea that if you say you don't like sweeps, then you must love people living in the street. And I think it's the complete opposite - you can be in favor of the sweeps, but you are not in favor of getting people off the street. You are in favor of getting people off your street temporarily. So it really - but I think it's really hard for people when the narrative is, oh, they're refusing services - as if people are being offered an apartment and they're saying, you know what - I really like it outside in the cold and rain. Yeah, it's hard, it's hard, there's - the media around this issue is really hard, making it really difficult for a lot of people. [00:33:30] Crystal Fincher: I agree with that. Another thing that we saw this week was the City Attorney Office pivoting back to a strategy - another strategy that we've seen unveiled many times before - an initiative to target "high utilizers" of the criminal justice system. And so Ann Davison has identified - I think it was 118 individuals who they say are responsible, 118 "high utilizers" who "create a disproportionate impact on public safety in Seattle." And so there have been similar initiatives launched in 2012 and 2019. And you may have heard other terms like high-impact offenders, prolific offenders - but this is the same strategy that they're using there. These clearly were not successful programs in the past, but we are returning to them. And certainly this is something that has been championed by more conservative folks, by the "law and order crowd". And we have varying opinions with this - there's a PubliCola article that goes over this - but King County Department of Public Defense Director, Anita Khandelwal, views the initiative as just repetition of a failed strategy, saying, "Over the last decade, the city has repeatedly announced similarly named initiatives that would focus more law enforcement resources on those already most policed as a strategy for addressing public safety. This is a tired strategy of arresting, prosecuting and jailing. It's expensive and clearly ineffective." Lisa Daugaard, the co-executive director of the Public Defender Association and co-founder of the LEAD diversion program, who we've talked about before - most recently supportive of the failed Compassion Seattle initiative - sees potential for success, saying the initiative is built on a solid foundation - addressing the needs of "high utilizers" on a case-by-case basis. She believes Davison could avoid the errors of past crackdowns by pushing her counterparts in city and county governments to expand programs like LEAD to accommodate a new surge in clients. Also, Lisa admits that if LEAD took on all 118 of those people's clients, they would not have any more capacity for additional clients in the future. And again, it's important to note that it does not appear that Ann Davison has expressed at all that she has any interest in diverting these programs to LEAD, or any other diversion program that is focused on treating more root causes to prevent this recidivism and reoffense that has been a hallmark of just arresting and jailing people. We have to do different things in order to get a different result. What do you think about this? [00:36:47] Nicole Thomas-Kennedy: I think it's funny - the repackaging every year - Ann really sold herself as this - someone so opposite of what Pete Holmes did, but now she's - this is the same exact thing. And it really is just window dressing in my opinion. And the idea that we can spend more on law enforcement and it's going to help is so ridiculous. The one thing that the 118 people that were identified have in common is none of them have shelter. [00:37:28] Crystal Fincher: Literally none? [00:37:30] Nicole Thomas-Kennedy: Right. Yeah. No, none of them do. They're all unsheltered. And so instead of spending this astronomical amount of money on more law enforcement, why don't we put money into housing? Because also when you look at the breakdown of the repeat crimes, it's usually low-level shoplifts and trespassing, which is just sleeping under an awning. And so how much of that could we just remove by getting people sheltered? And that seems to be the last solution. It's just - try everything else, except for providing shelter and services to people, which are so - it's so much less expensive to house someone and give them wraparound services - wraparound services like onsite case management, medication management, things like that - is so much less expensive than putting them in jail. And it's stable, right? Because no matter how much you hate that someone sleeps under an awning or steals a sandwich, no matter how much you dislike that, the criminal justice system will always fail to provide a solution because it's a temporary thing. The maximum sentence on almost every misdemeanor is - well, the maximum sentence is either 90 days or 364 days. And with the way jail time works, everyone's going to be back out on the street in 9 months - that's the max. We cannot just think of jail as this permanent housing solution and permanent incapacitation solution for low-level misdemeanors that could be so - I don't want to say easily, because it's not easy - it's not getting people into affordable housing, we don't have any first of all. And it's not an easy solution, but it's the only one that actually makes any sense. And I think that when we talk about LEAD or any of these other things, we're just putting more money where it doesn't belong. I don't think lawyers and cops should not be dealing with these situations. That's not where the money should go. The money should go to service providers, to housing, to professionals that deal with addiction or mental health issues - that's where the money needs to go and those are prioritized the least, and it's all about arrests and incarceration. And again, it's just like the sweeps - you're kicking the can - there's nothing about that that's going to solve the problem. And so no matter how many times someone gets arrested for these things, they're going to get out of jail. If it doesn't escalate into a felony and we're talking about the people that are these "high utilizers", or a couple years ago repeat offenders or prolific offenders, we're talking about a lot of misdemeanors. We're not talking about people with a bunch of murders or something like that. [00:40:24] Crystal Fincher: Committing violent crime, assaults - that type of thing. [00:40:27] Nicole Thomas-Kennedy: Yeah, so if we're talking about this low-level stuff, there's - it's a completely inadequate response that sucks up all of the resources needed to actually combat the problem. [00:40:39] Crystal Fincher: It does, and it is a real challenge. We have done this before, it has not worked. We keep spending resources on what has been proven to not work, while simultaneously demanding data that proves that doing anything else will completely solve this issue, and create a nirvana and just be the end-all and be-all, when that is actually not the standard that we're applying with our humongous expenditure of resources. And just another reminder that jail is really expensive. It costs a whole lot of money. The criminal, just our entire criminal legal system is a really, really costly system. So we do have a lot of resources available - we continue to make choices to spend them on lawyers, on jailing people, on all of the people and buildings and apparatus to support that. And when we actually have tons of data that that does not fix this problem - in fact, it is likely to make it worse. And so if we are focused on data-driven approaches, that is what is clearly being indicated - what we have a long track record locally that we can draw on that proves that, but certainly also looking nationally - so much data to back that up. We will have to see. The last thing I wanted to talk about was a story that came out this week - David Kroman wrote about it in the Times - with Harrell postponing Seattle Police Department's plan to crack down on disorderly conduct at Third Avenue bus stops. The police department was looking at using the City's criminal code regulating disorderly conduct on buses - things like smoking, playing loud music, littering, drinking alcohol, "loud raucous and harassing behavior" and other conduct that is inconsistent with the intended use and purpose of the transit facility, transit station or transit vehicle. These have often not been cited. We will put it in the episode notes - there's actually an article I need to track down by a bus driver that I thought was really thoughtful. And it does seem like it is a fact that there is more disruptive activity happening on buses than there was before. This bus driver was thoughtful and like, yeah, this is happening - and also there are lots of reasons why it's happening, and there are lots of reasons why taking a criminalizing approach may not be helpful, why taking a different kind of the law and order thing or just kicking people off buses may not be helpful. It's a complicated thing to solve. We do need to acknowledge that driver safety is important, that rider safety is important, but also have the lens that if we want to address this problem - again, like the conversation we just had - simply arresting and jailing someone actually doesn't fix and solve the problem. A lot of times this is a result and a symptom of failures in so many other places of people not having access to mental health treatment that they need, of substance use disorder treatment that they need, public health problems that we actually don't have those facilities for. What is your view on this, and on Mayor Harrell's decision to actually step in and postpone it? [00:44:34] Nicole Thomas-Kennedy: I think it's interesting because again, like as we already talked about, it's not a solution. There's lots of reasons for why these things are happening and it's not because there's lax enforcement. First of all, there is enforcement on buses - I've had many bus cases myself and there is some degree of enforcement. Is that something that's going to - or has that been working? Is it going to continue to work? Is the scope of the problem in a lack of enforcement? And it doesn't really seem to be. Like you said, there's lots of reasons that these things are happening. And when we're talking about mental health, addiction, housing - all of these things - addressing these things are going to help with those issues, but that's not what we put money towards. We just keep throwing it at this system that is not working. It's interesting to me that it was walked back - they're putting that on pause. And I wonder is that because they realize - oh, that's actually not going to make that much of a difference - but there's also the fact that buses and bus shelters are not under the City's jurisdiction. Those are county issues, so maybe that was not known - I don't know - beforehand. But when the City talks about cracking down on things going on on the buses, they don't have the jurisdiction to do that. So that could be one reason why it got walked back as well. [00:46:10] Crystal Fincher: Yeah. That's really interesting because - very clearly talking about enforcing things on buses - which yes, there is a jurisdiction issue there - but it also looks like they were planning to take action within 25 feet of transit stops. Is that defined as - technically the stop facility - or is there, I guess that's a really technical and wonky question, but I could totally imagine, to your point, that there are jurisdictional questions. [00:46:49] Nicole Thomas-Kennedy: Yeah, I don't know what that - I have not looked that up. No, I think that's under City jurisdiction - that would be under City jurisdiction. Yeah. Just not anything on a bus - I don't think would be. But yeah, I would have to look that up, but I do think that would be the City still. It just depends - there's different parts of the City, like when - I won't go into jurisdictional issues, because no one wants to talk about those things for long periods of time - but they don't have as much control. Let me just say - they don't have as much control over things going on on a bus as they think they do. If someone's committing a felony on the bus, then SPD could potentially get involved, but it's still - it's going to be prosecuted by the county. And if it's misdemeanors, the misdemeanors on a bus are also going to be prosecuted by the county, because of county - see, I could go on, it could be a really long time. [00:47:47] Crystal Fincher: Well, I just learned something because I did not know that misdemeanors committed on a bus would be prosecuted by the county and not city. Very interesting - these discussions are very interesting. But I think overall we'll just keep our eyes peeled on it and continue to update on it. Just another quick update in terms of the concrete workers strike - there was talk this week about some of them potentially returning to some job sites as a show of good faith and an attempt to lessen the impact on the greater community. That seems to have had mixed results and a mixed outcome where some talked about returning, others didn't. One particular company looked like workers were willing to return and the company was unwilling to let them work again. But again, we've seen city and county leaders say that they want a quick resolution and that this is impacting various projects around the county, but also workers need fair conditions. And the workers are saying, hey, they're asking us - when you consider inflation - to take a hit to our salary, to healthcare benefits, and to our pension - it's across the board. And companies saying, but we're technically offering more money than we did before and so it should all be good. And still not doing much to come to the table and participating in this activity - hoping that public pressure just forces the workers back and they can just ride out the storm and do nothing, and hope that public pressure does some negotiating on their behalf. So we will continue to follow it - the county, we had talked about before, had tried to issue an RFP to other companies to try and work around this and have greater protections for unionization and worker conditions. And that - no one responded to that RFP actually, so we seem to just be in this position - and unless there is some specific call or pressure, it seems like - on the companies to negotiate in better faith and to move closer to the workers, it looks like we're going to be stuck in this position for quite some time. So we will continue to see how that unfolds. And again, I thank you for listening to Hacks & Wonks on today, Friday, March 18th, 2022. The producer of Hacks & Wonks is Lisl Stadler, assistant producer Shannon Cheng, with assistance from Emma Mudd. And our wonderful co-host today is criminal defense attorney, abolitionist and activist, Nicole Thomas-Kennedy. You can find Nicole on Twitter @ntkallday, and you should be following Nicole. You can find me on Twitter @finchfrii. Now you can follow Hacks & Wonks on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever else you get your podcast - just type "Hacks and Wonks" into the search bar. Be sure to subscribe to get our Friday almost-live shows and our midweek show delivered to your podcast feed. If you like us, leave us a review wherever you listen to Hacks & Wonks. You can also get a full transcript of this episode and links to the resources referenced on the show at officialhacksandwonks.com and in the episode notes. Thanks for tuning in. Talk to you next time.

Melissa currently works as a teacher in a dual language, fairly affluent school district in Washington and has been an advocate for diversity and equity surrounding marginalized communities within her school district. Today we're talking about the model-minority myth, cultural differences in education, the importance of recognizing cultural differences while in the classroom, and, later, we touch on how our own self awareness contributes to the way we parent our children. For more resources regarding what we've mentioned, head over to Patreon.com/simplyashes and join the conversation! --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

The pandemic forced all of us to adapt to a work environment that we never imagined—working remotely. How do leaders effectively adapt to such a change and still manage a high-performing team? Today, we will be turning over the mic to one of our panelists Char Miller to speak with some of her team members at Rocky Mountain Health Advocates. Joining her are Director Susan Venters and Executive Assistant Melissa Taylor. They discuss what strategies and tools, such as the TMA method, allowed them to manage and develop their current employees and expand their team while adapting to remote work. Listen in for great advice on how leaders should think when it comes to their organization.Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share!

Today on the show, fellow political consultant Heather Weiner joins Crystal to preview the players in the upcoming state legislative session - who's stepping down, who's getting appointed, who's moving up in leadership positions - as well as a peek at next year's elections with announcements that several incumbents are resigning (and one who changed their mind). They discuss Inslee's supplemental budget announcement, an opportunity to address our upside-down tax system with a Wealth tax, and the need to fix the now-delayed WA Cares long-term care benefit system. Plus a reminder to get your booster! As always, a full text transcript of the show is available below and at officialhacksandwonks.com. Find the host, Crystal on Twitter at @finchfrii, and find Heather at @hlweiner.   Resources “Historic vote: County Council appoints Lovick and Donaghy to state legislature” by Mario Lotmore from Lynnwood Times: https://lynnwoodtimes.com/2021/12/16/44th-legislative-district-211216/   “Yasmin Trudeau appointed to represent 27th LD in Senate” by Aaron Kunkler from Washington State Wire: https://washingtonstatewire.com/yasmin-trudeau-appointed-represent-27th-ld-in-senate/   “State Rep. Vicki Kraft announces run for 3rd Congressional District” by Lauren Ellenbecker from The Columbian: https://www.columbian.com/news/2021/dec/01/state-rep-vicki-kraft-announces-run-for-3rd-congressional-district/   “Washington state Sen. Ann Rivers changes course, plans to continue in politics” by Troy Brynelson from Oregon Public Broadcasting: https://www.opb.org/article/2021/12/14/washington-state-sen-ann-rivers-changes-course-plans-to-continue-in-politics/   “Marko Liias chosen to chair the Washington State Senate's Transportation Committee” by Andrew Villeneuve from The Cascadia Advocate: https://www.nwprogressive.org/weblog/2021/12/marko-liias-chosen-to-chair-the-washington-state-senates-transportation-committee.html   “Inslee's 2022 budget highlights poverty, climate, salmon recovery and transportation investments” from the Governor's Office: https://www.governor.wa.gov/news-media/inslee%E2%80%99s-2022-budget-highlights-poverty-climate-salmon-recovery-and-transportation   “Q&A: Rep. Noel Frame on her Washington State Wealth Tax” by Michael Goldberg from Washington State Wire: https://washingtonstatewire.com/qa-rep-noel-frame-on-a-wealth-tax-for-washington-state/   DuckTales theme song: https://youtu.be/p1I2HqXIMRo   WA Cares Fund: https://wacaresfund.wa.gov/   “I didn't think I would ever need WA Cares: I was wrong” by Dani Rice in The Spokesman Review: https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2021/dec/14/i-didnt-think-i-would-ever-need-wa-cares-i-was-wro/   “Inslee, Washington state Democrats discuss delaying WA Cares long-term care payroll tax” by Joseph O'Sullivan from The Seattle Times: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/inslee-washington-state-democrats-discuss-delaying-wa-cares-long-term-care-payroll-tax/   “As scientists race to gauge omicron threat, here's what's known and what isn't” by Emily Anthes from The New York Times: https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/as-scientists-race-to-gauge-omicron-threat-heres-whats-known-and-what-isnt/   Seattle & King County Public Health - COVID-19 Vaccine - Getting vaccinated in King County: https://kingcounty.gov/depts/health/covid-19/vaccine/distribution.aspx   Washington State's Vaccine Locator: https://vaccinelocator.doh.wa.gov/   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. 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 almost-live shows where we review the news of the week. Welcome back to the program friend of the show and today's co-host, political consultant and urban farmer, Heather Weiner. [00:00:51] Heather Weiner: Crystal Fincher, I'm so glad to see you! Good morning and so happy to be here, or afternoon depending... [00:00:57] Crystal Fincher: So happy. Yeah, I mean, people hear this in the afternoon. It's early in the morning - it's quite early in the morning. I'm always fighting morning voice on these things, but I'm delighted to see you and have you back on the program. Welcome, welcome. [00:01:10] Heather Weiner: I'm so glad to be here, and what a year it's been, and what a year it's going to be. I'm really excited about what we're going to talk about today. About Leg Session - what's happening next, who's retiring, who's getting moved up. We've got a lot of great things to talk about today. [00:01:24] Crystal Fincher: We do have a lot of great things to talk about, so let's dive in. I mean, to your point, there's a lot of turnover. We have folks who were just appointed. We have Senator John Lovick in the 44th. We have new Representative Brandy Donaghy in the 44th. We also have Senator Yasmin Trudeau in the 27th. A number of appointments - I think people would generally be surprised about how frequently we actually do appoint legislators, who then go on to run for - to retain their seat after that. [00:02:00] Heather Weiner: This is why people - this is the only real benefit of being a PCO within the Democrat - I mean, not real benefit, there's lots of benefits to being a PCO. But one of the great benefits of being a PCO is being able to appoint someone to fill an open seat. And that's what they did in LD44 - is they appointed John Lovick from Representative to Senator to fill Steve Hobbs' position. And then they nominated someone to fill his position. And the Snohomish County Council actually went against what the PCOs recommended and appointed Brandy Donaghy - who by the way is fantastic - she's a US Navy vet, she's a woman of color, she's amazing. But I've only seen this happen a couple of times where County Council will go against the recommendations of the PCOs and the legislative district. I think the last time I saw this happen was down in SeaTac when Mia Gregerson was appointed over the recommendations of the LD - and she's been great by the way. [00:03:11] Crystal Fincher: She has been great and - [00:03:13] Heather Weiner: Super interesting. [00:03:13] Crystal Fincher: - that was in my legislative district, the 33rd. I remember - [00:03:17] Heather Weiner: Oh, so you remember that? [00:03:17] Crystal Fincher: Very well, yes, and was happy to support Mia in that meeting - and certainly was a contentious time in the 33rd legislative district. But PCOs, or Precinct Committee Officers - to your point - that is one of the most consequential and impactful duties that they have. In Seattle LDs, you frequently have 100+ active PCOs. In a number of the suburbs, you're talking about 30 people who are getting together to decide, just by a majority vote, who is going to be the next legislator when there is a vacancy. That's a very important role to play. I've been involved in efforts to recruit and increase the number of PCOs, and how representative those PCOs are of their communities - and this is one of the biggest benefits that I consistently talk about is - Hey, you actually get to choose. We talk about all these elections and how important it is, but wow, sometimes you are one of 35 people who gets to choose who your next Representative or Senator is going to be, and there are plenty of close votes in those situations. PCOs pick three people to send to the County Council, and the County Council gets to pick one of those three. And to your point - usually, they pick the number one choice, but they don't have to and sometimes they don't. [00:04:45] Heather Weiner: They don't have to. Sometimes they don't. [00:04:47] Crystal Fincher: And now the 44th has a legislative delegation that is 100% Black. [00:04:52] Heather Weiner: Which is fantastic. And we have a new person of color in our mostly white State Senate, which is also fantastic. [00:05:02] Crystal Fincher: Mm-hmm [affirmative]. [00:05:03] Heather Weiner: I mean, all of it is great. But it's very interesting to watch - again, I have not seen this happen very often. And I think it's a great - I don't know, it's a lot of internal politics going on - but again to your point, 90% of this is showing up, so if you're a PCO and you happen to show up for that meeting, you're one of 30 votes that is setting somebody into a seat that they may hold for decades. [00:05:29] Crystal Fincher: Yeah. That they may hold for decades. And these days, I mean, we're talking about the turnover of one to two Senators. A vote composition change of one to two within the Democratic delegation makes the difference between progressive revenue or not - or that can impact policy just by switching one, two votes, one, two changes - particularly in the Senate. These are very, very consequential - and certainly we'll be talking about these new appointments, these new legislators - as we head further into the session - [00:06:07] Heather Weiner: Well, welcome. [00:06:07] Crystal Fincher: - which starts on January 10th. [00:06:09] Heather Weiner: Yeah, welcome. [00:06:09] Crystal Fincher: So yeah - I'm excited. [00:06:10] Heather Weiner: Welcome Senator Trudeau, welcome Senator Lovick, welcome Representative Donaghy - you'll be hearing from us. And then - [00:06:16] Crystal Fincher: Yes, absolutely. [00:06:17] Heather Weiner: And then there's a bunch of people who are also retiring from the Senate. I mean, from the Legislature, right? Kirby just announced yesterday that he's not running. [00:06:27] Crystal Fincher: Mm-hmm [affirmative], and that's in the 27th legislative district. [00:06:29] Heather Weiner: Also in the 27th, which is - [00:06:31] Crystal Fincher: South Tacoma, Lakewood, Spanaway. Certainly a big opportunity for people to run there - I know a lot of people were looking at Sharlett [Mena], who ran last time, be going "Hey! Are you still interested?" [00:06:45] Heather Weiner: mm-hmm [ [00:06:45] Crystal Fincher: affirmative]. So that'll be interesting to follow and see who is interested in running for that open seat. Certainly David Frockt has announced that he's not running for re-election. Representative Javier Valdez has announced his intention to run for that seat, so he's running there leaving his seat open. And so Melissa Taylor is running for his seat, and she's got $50,000 in the bank and a number of endorsements. I'm working with her, full disclosure - but very excited about that race. And she is an absolute force to be reckoned with and has done so much work in the community that - I'm excited. We also have Vicki Kraft down in the 17th legislative district, down in southwestern Washington who - that has been a purple district, with her winning by one to two percentage points in her last few races. She has announced that she's running for Congress against Jaime Herrera Beutler, leaving that seat open. [00:07:52] Heather Weiner: So she basically - she is primarying - [00:07:54] Crystal Fincher: mm-hmm [affirmative]. [00:07:56] Heather Weiner: A Republican. [00:07:57] Crystal Fincher: Mm-hmm [affirmative]. [00:07:57] Heather Weiner: She's a very conservative Republican, who is primarying a conservative Republican, in my view. I think that's really interesting - it could actually end up flipping the seat, because if Kraft wins that primary, it really opens it up for a more moderate Democrat to take the seat. Because Kraft is much more aligned with the Trump right-wing of the Republican party. [00:08:19] Crystal Fincher: I mean, she is - the disgraced former Representative Matt Shea, literally an extremist - Vicki Kraft introduced legislation to jail women and their doctors for having abortions or providing abortion services, denied coronavirus was a thing, denied climate change was a thing - really, really troubling - just the most extreme that there is. And so that's going to be really interesting - both to see how that Congressional race plays out, because there were a few challengers to Jaime Herrera Beutler from her right. And to see what opportunities that leaves for Democrats in that legislative district. [00:09:10] Heather Weiner: Super interesting. [00:09:11] Crystal Fincher: And I think it might get a little bit more slightly - we'll have to see what the district looks like post-redistricting, and get beyond these challenges to the redistricting maps that currently exist - but it's going to be real interesting to see how that shapes up. Lots of change, lots of turnover, lots of opportunity. [00:09:35] Heather Weiner: But Crystal, what do you think it means that Ann Rivers just took back her resignation? So here's what she says - she said she was stepping down because she had a new job and that was going to take up most of her time in Longview. Now, all of a sudden she takes back - she goes "Oh, actually, I think I'll have enough time." What? Don't you think, I mean, let me just go ahead and project on here - did they take a look at the poll and realize that that seat would flip if it was open? And that as someone who's held the seat since 2010, as an incumbent, she's going to keep it? What happened? What really happened there? I don't think her job description changed. [00:10:12] Crystal Fincher: Her job description definitely didn't change. I don't know what the polling shows in that district. I mean, certainly in many areas across the state things have become less beneficial for Republicans, but I also think that also given some - I mean, Republicans can't be feeling great within the state - nationally is a different story. But within the state, they aren't feeling that great - and so, some certainly are going to be departing. I'm wondering if she saw opportunities for increased power just within her caucus. [00:10:50] Heather Weiner: Yeah, maybe somebody traded something to her. [00:10:52] Crystal Fincher: Yeah. [00:10:52] Heather Weiner: Well, she has three more years, right? She doesn't have to run. [00:10:55] Crystal Fincher: Mm-hmm [affirmative]. [00:10:55] Heather Weiner: She has three more years there, which also helps save the state Republican caucus quite a bit of money. I think - super interesting - I didn't know you could take back your resignation. It's not like you're breaking up with somebody and then say "Oh, I had a good sleep and I changed my mind." [00:11:12] Crystal Fincher: Well, if you remember Pat Sullivan in the 47th legislative district - did that last - [00:11:16] Heather Weiner: Well, that's true. [00:11:18] Crystal Fincher: - cycle. [00:11:18] Heather Weiner: But he stepped down because he was tired, and then I think he just realized he wasn't really that tired and came back. But here, her excuse was my job is going to take up too much time and then suddenly it's not taking up a lot of time. I don't know. [00:11:31] Crystal Fincher: Suddenly it's not. Yeah, I - [00:11:33] Heather Weiner: Seems fishy. [00:11:34] Crystal Fincher: It is fishy, and also - wow, there are so many people who could take over. Certainly on the Democratic side we have plenty of conversations about - Hey, there should be space for new leaders within the party. Although, on the Republican side, this is a really interesting conversation, especially from folks coming from a left perspective, because a new Republican is probably one who is more extreme than the one who currently exists. [00:12:06] Heather Weiner: Exactly, which is another reason why they didn't want Ann Rivers to - [00:12:09] Crystal Fincher: Right. [00:12:09] Heather Weiner: - right - step down? I mean, she represent - the 10th is a - right? That's where she's from? The 10th is a tough place for Republicans and it's another purple district. Huh, all right. Well, let's talk about - there's so many things - it's a short session and they're going to try to put a whole bunch of things in there. Leadership has been changing also, as we're talking about elections. What's happening with the Democratic leadership? [00:12:33] Crystal Fincher: Well, probably the headline leadership change is with the Chair of the Transportation Committee. Steve Hobbs, who had been the Chair and had been certainly a moderate, some would even say conservative Democratic member of the caucus, was appointed to be Secretary of State - which created an opening for, not just for someone taking his seat and Senator Lovick filling that role, but also a new Chair of the Senate Democratic Transportation Committee, which is a very consequential and very powerful position to be holding in the Legislature. Especially at this time, where there are a lot of resource coming in federally - probably the time where they're dealing with some of the biggest budget opportunities that are going to be coming their way, that have come their way - and as we talk about the vision for what our transportation focus should be looking forward. Are we going to focus on expanding highways and doing things that have a track record of not just increasing traffic, but also making our climate crisis worse? Or are we going to focus on really giving people choices about how they're able to navigate through our communities? Whether it's commuting to work, whether it's having an option to bike, whether it's having sidewalks in their neighborhoods so that they and their families can travel safely. [00:14:06] Heather Weiner: Mm-hmm [affirmative]. [00:14:07] Crystal Fincher: Right now there really is a crisis because there's a lack of choice in how people can get around. We default to making it very comfortable for folks and cars, which is going to continue to be necessary and I don't know that anyone is saying that it's not necessary, but up to a quarter of the people in this state rely, in some degree, on a non-car mode of transportation. Some don't have any choice on their ability to drive, be it because of disability or lack of mobility or just how their community is situated, and so what kinds of investments are we putting in that, what kinds of investments are we making in reducing the impacts of greenhouse gas emissions? These are all at stake, and so the new head of the Transportation Committee, Marko Liias, is now holding that seat. That was an appointment that was announced at the State Legislature. [00:15:06] Heather Weiner: It's great news. That's great news - I mean, Marko is younger. [00:15:13] Crystal Fincher: Mm-hmm [affirmative]. [00:15:15] Heather Weiner: Definitely more urban focused, and also definitely more transportation and future transit focused, so I think it's great news. And I think that transportation advocates are probably breathing a sigh of relief - and happy - [00:15:32] Crystal Fincher: Yeah. [00:15:32] Heather Weiner: - to move forward. Because I mean, bless Steve Hobbs, he's got a lot of great things about him, but one thing was that he was definitely a roadblock to some of the more progressive things that the transit advocates wanted. [00:15:44] Crystal Fincher: Yes. A roadblock and a road lover. [laughter] A road lover and expanding that - yeah. [00:15:50] Heather Weiner: All right, there's your quote for Twitter. Well, I'm very excited about that and I'm really excited about what Inslee came out with in his supplemental budget announcement yesterday. [00:16:01] Crystal Fincher: What did he come out with? [00:16:02] Heather Weiner: He said, Look, the state is not out of the Covid crisis yet and we need to put more money back into the economy, and we also need to make sure that we are proposing significant funding to address poverty that - which means the child tax credit. [00:16:21] Crystal Fincher: Mm-hmm [affirmative]. [00:16:21] Heather Weiner: Which means, as you said, investing well over $160 million into more housing and resources, expanding K-12 learning, investing in the green economy - which means more jobs, but also helping to combat climate change, and of course his favorite, which is protecting salmon habitat. He even went out and had a press conference a couple days ago - out by a salmon stream. That - he also is talking about rebuilding the rainy day fund, and of course what's happening is the conservatives are wanting to use an anti-tax message to both attack the governor and to also shore up some of their swing folks in the next coming election. We're going to see a lot of fighting over - do we have the money to do all of these things? Why don't we cut taxes for people instead? Why are we raising taxes? It's going to be a really interesting discussion for the budget geeks out there over the next couple of days. [00:17:30] Crystal Fincher: And I mean, next couple of days, weeks, months? [00:17:35] Heather Weiner: Through April. [00:17:35] Crystal Fincher: Yes, there's going to be a lot to continually talk about. One question I had, looking at a number of these proposals, are two issues in particular - the Wealth Tax, and might be most appropriate to say wealth taxes, and there're some different configurations of those. And then the longterm care payroll tax. [00:18:00] Heather Weiner: Mm-hmm [affirmative]. [00:18:01] Crystal Fincher: And that looking at a potential delay. What is happening with those? [00:18:05] Heather Weiner: Well, first on the Wealth Tax, last year, or this year, the Legislature passed a modest tax on extraordinary profits that people, extraordinarily wealthy people, make when they sell their stocks and bonds on the stock market. They passed a small tax on that. That was the first step in fixing our upside down regressive tax system, and also raising half a billion dollars a year for childcare, early learning, and other things that we need to invest in - in education - but that's just the first step. Our tax code is so regressive, and before we can start cutting sales taxes, cutting property taxes, providing more tax credits to people who are in the lower incomes - we have to make sure that we first know where that money's going to be coming from. And Noel Frame has been pushing for a Wealth Tax, which is on billionaires - people who have so much wealth that they're sitting on - that's sitting in bank accounts, it's sitting in third houses, it's sitting in off-shore accounts. People who are just hoarding this amount of money - it's not circulating through the economy - she is proposing to do a tax on that wealth. It's not an income tax, it's not a sales tax, it's a tax on the wealth that you're just sitting on - and to get it back into the economy, get it back into jobs, invest it back into businesses. Very excited about that - we know that Senator Warren, Senator Sanders have all been pushing on a Wealth Tax in Congress. I think we need to take the bull by the horns and do one here. [00:19:48] Crystal Fincher: Absolutely, and wow, the public support behind this has just been skyrocketing - north of 60%. [00:19:53] Heather Weiner: Yes, and it is bipartisan. Yeah, it is a bipartisan support. Everybody agrees that the super wealthy need to be paying what they owe in taxes, that we need to stop them from dodging their responsibilities, and get more money into the hands of working people - so that we can pay our bills. [00:20:14] Crystal Fincher: So we can pay our bills, and I think a lot of it has been - we used to hear a lot of rhetoric of, Well, we can't tax job creators. And then there was the recognition that wow, this money that's being hoarded isn't being used to create jobs. It isn't being used to do anything. These billionaires have so much money that they cannot spend this money. It is literally just sitting there collecting interest in amounts that are more than any of us are seeing in a lifetime. [00:20:46] Heather Weiner: In a lifetime! In a lifetime! They're collecting more interest in a minute than any of us will be seeing in a lifetime. And what are they wasting it on? They're wasting it on frivolous rocket trips into - 30 second trips into space. I mean, they're not putting it back into the economy. And of course they do - people point to when Bezos, or Gates particularly, fund couple hundred million dollars in philanthropy projects - but those are one offs, and they're things that they control. They control the outcomes of that. The public doesn't control the outcomes of that. They get to choose where the money goes to and who the money goes to. Often that's inequitable, and often it doesn't actually work. And what we need is the public to be controlling that money and deciding where it goes. We are still a democracy, last I checked. [00:21:36] Crystal Fincher: Particularly because the infrastructure that is funded by the public is what is enabling their wealth. It is not like they had nothing to do with it, but certainly it is not like they had everything to do with it. And that public investments, that subsidies - have not played a great role in their ability to grow and continue to profit in the amounts that they have been, while also creating challenges in communities. Seattle is a perfect example of the impact of massive growth and scale - from primarily Amazon, and that radically shifting the whole composition of our housing market, that completely directly impacting the homelessness and affordability problems that we're seeing. And then to not play a role, and to not pay their fair share in mitigating these issues, has been repeatedly found to be unacceptable. [00:22:38] Heather Weiner: It's like a cartoon. It's like a cartoon that we used to watch as kids, where there's this greedy duck sitting on top of a huge pile of money and jewels, and just laughing but not being able to do anything with it, right? And pointing at everybody else while they're just working in the mine. I mean, I just made up that cartoon - I don't know if it actually exists - but that's the image that I have in my mind. [00:22:58] Crystal Fincher: I mean, and now I'm picturing Scrooge McDuck, but - [00:23:01] Heather Weiner: It's probably Scrooge McDuck - that's probably where I got that image from. [00:23:04] Crystal Fincher: And also now I have the DuckTales theme song in my head, which - [00:23:07] Heather Weiner: Well, how's it go? [00:23:08] Crystal Fincher: It's one of the best theme songs ever created. Look, we do not need me singing - [00:23:13] Heather Weiner: No, please, will you just sing it for one second? [00:23:19] Crystal Fincher: Life is like a hurricane - what am I even doing? Okay, anyway - [00:23:25] Heather Weiner: Use that mic for good, Crystal. [00:23:27] Crystal Fincher: And it is not me singing, let's - let's put a period on that right now. [00:23:32] Heather Weiner: All right, we have a couple more minutes, but let's talk about this really controversial, but really important, Long-term care - Washington Cares - that this tax. So Inslee is expected to announce today, along with the House and Senate leadership, that they're going to delay implementation of the payroll tax for a year while they figure out how to make some improvements to it. For people who are listening - you're shaking your head, Crystal, I'm not really sure why - are you still, you still got the Duck... [00:24:04] Crystal Fincher: I'm just thinking about how the hell did I end up attempting to sing on my podcast. Anyway, go ahead, sorry. But yes, it's a very important issue. [00:24:18] Heather Weiner: Yeah, so let's remind people what Long-term care is. Long-term care - I'll give you a story - Dani, actual real woman, she's actually now Ms. Wheelchair USA of 2020 - 30 years old, has a son, goes in for a routine medical appointment, medical procedure - comes out paralyzed. Not expecting, of course, nobody expects to be paralyzed, but comes out paralyzed. She's going to be in a wheelchair for the rest of her life. Health insurance does not cover Long-term care, which is help around the house - so that she can pick up things, move, clean. Health insurance doesn't cover it. And Medicare, if she somehow was older, does not cover help around the house - or if you're elderly, if you're seriously injured, if you have long-term Covid - who's going to help make your meals? Who's going to help you get to appointments? Who is going to help you get dressed, go to the bathroom? Medicare and health insurance do not pay for that, so who does pay for it? Well, Medicaid does help with that in-home care, but in order to qualify for Medicaid, you have to sell everything - you have to have no assets. [00:25:37] Crystal Fincher: Yes. [00:25:37] Heather Weiner: Zero. You have to spend down. [00:25:38] Crystal Fincher: You have to live in poverty. Yes. [00:25:39] Heather Weiner: And at the age of 30, she and her husband don't have any - they're just starting to build a life, so she does not have access to this. WA Cares, the Long-term care payroll tax, would fund help for people like Dani, or people like - people's grandparents, me in 20 years - who need help around the house so that we don't have to go to a nursing home or rehab facility. Everybody pays into it, just like they do for Medicare, just like you do for Social Security - everybody pays a small amount from your paycheck. It goes into this fund, and then it's there when you need it. And 70% of us are going to need some kind of Long-term care at some point in our lives. 70% of us. Controversy is - number one, somebody added, I'm not going to name names - somebody added an opt-out provision to it last year or the year before. That then, the Long-term care insurance industry then swooped into Washington state and told everybody that they didn't want to pay a payroll tax, a small payroll tax, that ends when you retire. Instead they want to pay thousands a year into a Long-term care insurance, which is often a scam, and that they have to continue paying and cannot miss one payment for the rest of their lives. So Long-term care insurance companies are in there now - and people got really upset because number one, now they know that they're being taxed. And number two, they can't buy Long-term care insurance because a lot of people have pre-existing conditions and so now they're not being able to buy it. People are upset, there's a lot of confusion - the Democrats and the Republicans are upset about this. So now they're going to delay it and see if they can make some fixes to it, and then restart it in a year - is my understanding. Now, what do you have to say, Crystal? I know, you're not very happy with this program. [00:27:33] Crystal Fincher: I mean, I'm not very happy with how it ended up. I mean, it is absolutely a fact that we have a problem that has to be addressed. That the longer we do not address it, the more people are going to be needlessly suffering many of the same types of issues that we've been facing with healthcare. The private market has become predatory and is not serving peoples needs - it's not primarily concerned with taking care of people. It is primarily concerned with profit. And we have put safeguards in place for people during retirement - care in our state. We certainly have more healthcare choices, but we still don't have many options for people who find themselves unable to work because of a disability - who are in need of Long-term care, or who are not able to live independently for a variety of reasons. And especially, we're still in the middle of a pandemic - we have a lot of people suffering with long Covid. Disability is a fact of life for an increasing percentage of our population and we have to contend with that, but we make it - we basically tie disability to poverty. To your point - to be covered, someone has to basically have no assets and no income, and as soon as they do they stop qualifying for assistance. [00:29:04] Heather Weiner: Yup. [00:29:05] Crystal Fincher: And so what do we do? Are we allowing people to fall back into poverty? As we know and as we - [00:29:11] Heather Weiner: Forcing them. Forcing them into poverty. [00:29:14] Crystal Fincher: Yes, forcing them into poverty - and as we've seen, that hurts everyone. That doesn't just hurt the people who are directly involved - that weakens our communities, that affects our economy. [00:29:24] Heather Weiner: And it actually affects the tax payers, because the tax payers - we as tax payers are responsible through Medicaid. We pay Apple Health, DSHS - we pay for this support. Either we pay for it for others, or we pay for it for ourselves - and that is what we're trying to do - is to shift that from being a Medicaid burden where people have to go into poverty, to where people have access to this. [00:29:48] Crystal Fincher: Yes. [00:29:49] Heather Weiner: Now - [00:29:49] Crystal Fincher: So the need to fix it is there? [00:29:51] Heather Weiner: Yes. [00:29:51] Crystal Fincher: The challenge is as soon as they made this an opt-out situation. [00:29:55] Heather Weiner: Yeah. [00:29:56] Crystal Fincher: Insurance works because everyone pays in and then it takes care of the people who need it, but it takes everyone paying in in the first place. Otherwise it is untenable for a variety of situations. We went through this whole discussion with Obamacare - we understand how this works, we understand the necessity of it - and there are also a billion court challenges against it that were unsuccessful because this is how this works in society and it is beneficial for us all. [00:30:28] Heather Weiner: Right. You are 100% right. Everybody has to pay into it or else it doesn't work. [00:30:33] Crystal Fincher: Yes. And one, the policy choice to make it optional was a poor one, and really set this program up to fail - and all of the messaging against it that is disingenuous. And somehow as if it doesn't matter - and this messaging against it is, to be clear, funded by very conservative forces - big corporate forces who just want to maintain their ability to extract profits from people in healthcare crises. And in its current constitution, it's unworkable. It is a problem. [00:31:16] Heather Weiner: Yeah. [00:31:17] Crystal Fincher: And everyone has acknowledged that. There's a bipartisan acknowledgement that there is a problem. But I hope we also understand that there is an urgency to actually fix this problem and not just to sit there, as we heard so many people attempt to do in the healthcare conversations overall. Hey, everyone loves their insurance - when in fact no one loves dealing with insurance, right? And trying to paint the status quo as somehow okay, and that's why it's okay not to make any changes - when the status quo isn't working for anyone. We're having this conversation because the status quo is so incredibly broken. [00:31:54] Heather Weiner: And there's so many people who are going to be - we're going to see a 40% increase in 2025, 2026 - in our Medicaid rolls if we do not deal with this, because so many boomers are becoming older and are going to need help. And so that means they're going to be filing for Medicaid for Long-term care, and who's going to be paying for that? We the tax payers are, so this needs to be fixed quickly and not delayed too long, because those people are going to need help. [00:32:26] Crystal Fincher: Yeah. It has to be fixed. I just hope people see through all of the messaging of - everybody who is against everything just tries to call something a tax when - yes, we collectively pay for things that benefit us all, and it is much more expensive to not handle this in a way that reliably provides Long-term care for those who need it, and to try and place the burden on the individual. We've seen how poorly that has turned out with our healthcare system, we see how poorly it's turning out with the current way we handle Long-term care - and it's just unsustainable. That's the bottom line - what we're doing now is unsustainable. [00:33:07] Heather Weiner: Yeah. [00:33:07] Crystal Fincher: So I'm looking forward to a bipartisan fix to provide people with reliable, affordable Long-term care. [00:33:17] Heather Weiner: Me too. I am too, and I just think about this woman, Dani, who went in for routine surgery and came out paralyzed - and she and her husband have been financially really struggling to figure out how to get her some help. [00:33:30] Crystal Fincher: Yeah. Absolutely. [00:33:30] Heather Weiner: And it could happen to you. It could happen to me. [00:33:31] Crystal Fincher: It can happen. It can and will happen to many, if not most of us, so we better prepare for it. It's coming and we better make it possible for people to prepare for it, and not have it so expensive that it's inaccessible to people, and then we force people into poverty to access any kind of care. [00:33:55] Heather Weiner: Mm-hmm [affirmative]. [00:33:56] Crystal Fincher: It's bad. We've seen how bad that is in so many different scenarios. Let's not continue to go down this bad path. On a different subject, I just want to encourage everyone to get boosted, number one. But I also feel like we need to continue to have this conversation about the need for Paid Time Off for employees - especially wage based employees, service employees - to have time to deal with the side effects that are part of vaccinations. This is what happens. [00:34:28] Heather Weiner: Mm-hmm [affirmative]. [00:34:30] Crystal Fincher: And as we see that we are so reliant on community vaccination and people getting this - that we have to understand that this - people are going to need a day or two to deal with their flu-like symptoms that result from the flu shot, from the Coronavirus booster, from all of these. And that people, when they're forced to make a choice between being able to come in for a shift and pay their rent, and somehow maybe fit in something that's going to make them sick, they're going to say look, my rent is coming whether or not I get boosted. I have to earn this money to pay my rent, to pay my bills. And we need to make sure that there is a way for them to continue to pay their bills and be healthy. And so that there is a responsibility that we all have to not just get boosted ourselves, but also to hold companies in our community responsible and accountable for allowing their employees to have time off to get this and to deal with this. I am saying this because I personally know a number of people, there have been a number of stories about people who really are looking at the choice between being able to work and earn money versus fitting in a booster shot. And we need to make this not a hard decision for someone. People shouldn't have to chose between their bills or their health. [00:36:04] Heather Weiner: Mm-hmm [affirmative]. [00:36:07] Crystal Fincher: Yeah. It is a challenge. [00:36:12] Heather Weiner: Agreed. I'm looking at the time, my love. [00:36:14] Crystal Fincher: Yup, and we are there. I appreciate everyone listening today to Hacks & Wonks on this Friday, December 17th. The producer of Hacks & Wonks is Lisl Stadler with assistance from Shannon Cheng. And our wonderful co-host today is Seattle political consultant extraordinaire, Heather Weiner. You can find Heather on Twitter @hlweiner. That's H-L-W-E-I-N-E-R. You can find me on Twitter @finchfrii, spelled F-I-N-C-H-F-R-I-I. And now you can follow Hacks & Wonks on iTunes, Spotify, wherever else you get your podcasts - just type "Hacks & Wonks" into the search bar. Be sure to subscribe to get our Friday almost-live shows and our midweek show delivered to your podcast feed. While you're there leave a review, it really helps us out. You can also get a full transcript of this episode and links to the resources referenced to the show at officialhacksandwonks.com and in the podcast episode notes. Thanks for tuning in. We'll talk to you next time.

Today on the show, Seattle Times politics and communities reporter, Daniel Beekman joins Crystal to talk through the Sawant recall election results, the importance and success of listening and ongoing engagement between election cycles in SeaTac, a bevy of State Legislature candidates including Melissa Taylor in the 46th Legislative District, and an update on what's not happening in the saga of Jenny Durkan's missing texts as she prepares to leave office. 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, Daniel Beekman, at @DBeekman. More info is available at officialhacksandwonks.com.   Resources “She's Winning: Sawant Surpasses the Recall Effort by 232 Votes” by Hannah Krieg from The Stranger: https://www.thestranger.com/slog/2021/12/09/63491197/shes-winning-sawant-surpasses-the-recall-effort-by-232-votes   “3 progressive candidates just changed politics in SeaTac — here's how” by Daniel Beekman from The Seattle Times: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/3-progressive-candidates-just-changed-politics-in-seatac-heres-how/   “Washington state Sen. David Frockt to step down at the end of his term in 2022; 2 other senators plan to leave office” by Joseph O. Sullivan from The Seattle Times: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/washington-state-sen-david-frockt-to-step-down-at-the-end-of-his-term-in-2022-two-other-senators-plan-to-leave-office/   Elect Melissa Taylor: http://www.electmelissataylor.com/   “Health Care Advocate Bevin McLeod Runs for Open State Senate Seat in Northeast Seattle” by Rich Smith from The Stranger: https://www.thestranger.com/slog/2021/12/07/63431657/health-care-advocate-bevin-mcleod-runs-for-open-state-senate-seat-in-northeast-seattle   “Report on Seattle mayor's missing texts still hasn't shown up as she prepares to exit City Hall” by Daniel Beekman and Lewis Kamb from The Seattle Times: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/report-on-seattle-mayors-missing-texts-still-hasnt-shown-up-as-she-prepares-to-exit-city-hall/   Transcript:  Transcript will be uploaded as soon as possible.

Join Niki Tudge and Denise O'Moore as they Chat and Chuckle with Louise Stapleton-Frappell, Dr. Lisa Radosta, Melissa Taylor, and Alexandra Santos about their planned sessions for Geek Week 2021. Find out more about the presenters in our Geek Week 2021 Presenters Guide and explore the sessions discussed in this BARKS Podcast in our Geek Week 2021 Session Descriptions Guide. Geek Week 2021 Features: More than 90 events with live Q&A sessions; Educational content streaming 24 hours a day over 5 days; Academic, Behavior and Consulting tracks; 70+ top notch, internationally renowned speakers - 28 academics, 29 behavior experts and 13 consulting specialists; Special rates for Animal Shelters and Rescues; Exhibitor sessions – Meet live and face-to-face; Meet the authors – Get the details on what's between the covers; Payment plans – Pay over 4 months; CEUs; and a Virtual “Geeked-Up” Cocktail Party – Get fancy, network, and win prizes! Register for Geek Week 2021!

Australian PGA Professional Melissa Taylor joins host Brent Davis for this episode. The discussion covered topics such as her experience as a junior golfer, giving up golf and coming back, women golf coaching and how she has set up a great community, her experience in the Australian PGA Trainee Program, as well as much more. Find Melissa at the links below. Instagram Facebook Eastwood Golf Club LinkedIn

Worried about traffic? It's no secret that transportation is one of the most pressing issues in Chattanooga. I sat down with Melissa Taylor and Caroline Daigle, representatives of the Chattanooga-Hamilton County/North Georgia Transportation Planning Organization to find out more about their work on the 2050 Regional Transportation Plan. View the RTP website here View the RTP Story Maps here Find more civic resources at ChattanoogaCivics.com Music credits: Loopster by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4991-loopster License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Funk Game Loop by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3787-funk-game-loop License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

On our premier, Melissa introduces us to the “Neighborhoods” of The Preston of the Park Cities with top tier amenities and more importantly, the thoughtfulness and precision care the residents receive.

 Mothers day - Melissa Taylor & Elizabeth Galbraith 9 may 2021

Tune in (03/08/21) to The Doctor Whisperer Show, at 5:30 pm EST, to welcome Melissa Taylor! Our topic of discussion for this episode will be Overall health & wellness w/ Melissa Taylor. “My husband Roy and I owned one of the first personal training studios in Tampa since 1986. We helped thousands of people get healthy over the years. He passed away last year of cancer after 21 years of marriage and gifted me our 3 teenagers. I'm now on a mission to continue his legacy by sharing what I've found as a REAL solution to the yo-yo madness of losing 10-100 pounds year after year. Many people feel their sanity, health, and overall well being slipping away. With a physician based plan I'm NOW able to confidently lead my clients down a path to permanent weight control, optimal health, and well-being. I help guide clients to predictable transformation through a system that is fail proof if you are willing to gradually adjust your habits and mindset along the way. If you have a desire for change in your physical and/or mental health please accept my personal invite for a complimentary consult. Let's TOGETHER create your new health story. What do you have to lose? All training is by phone/ covid friendly No gym memberships/workouts required” To learn more visit: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1113922426 Thank you to our incredible sponsor TieTechnology for sponsoring the show! --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/thedoctorwhisperer/message

As an entrepreneur, how do you turn networking contacts into potential referral sources to grow your business? ⁣ Melissa Taylor of Network Build Grow joins Attorney Jeneva Vazquez on

Cordell & Cordell Executive/Managing Partner, CEO Scott Trout and Minnesota attorney Melissa Taylor discuss what you need to know about child custody evaluations. Mr. Trout and Ms. Taylor describe the ins and outs of the process, including how guardians ad litem factor into the process, why showing that you are child-focused is essential in a custody evaluation, and […] The post What to Know About Child Custody Evaluations – Men’s Divorce Podcast appeared first on Cordell & Cordell.

Cordell & Cordell Executive/Managing Partner, CEO Scott Trout and Minnesota attorney Melissa Taylor discuss what you need to know about child custody evaluations. Mr. Trout and Ms. Taylor describe the ins and outs of the process, including how guardians ad litem factor into the process, why showing that you are child-focused is essential in a custody evaluation, and […] The post What to Know About Child Custody Evaluations – Men's Divorce Podcast appeared first on Cordell & Cordell.

The music industry is dominated by neoliberal structures; large corporations hold the monopoly. How can the gatekeepers’ power be redistributed? Is it possible to collectivize mainstream digital platforms? And what role do class, privilege and representation play? The third episode of the Politics of the Dance Floor podcast explores the economic aspects of club culture. The producer, performer and astrophysicist houaïda speaks with the founder of an independent communications agency Melissa Taylor, the label manager Nicky Böhm and the DJ and musicologist He Zhao about social change and the responsibility of the dance community. Tracks: Caspa: Rubber Chicken Umm Kulthum: Al Atlal Exercise One vs Mathew Jonson: Lost Forever in a Happy Crowd - Exone Ayinla Omowura & his Apala Group + J Kenzo feat. DJ Zhao: Fuji Dub Contact Transmission: www.transmissionnet.org transmission.platform@gmail.com www.instagram.com/transmission_net/ Image: Opashona Gosh: I Never Dream, 2019

Guest Brad Parks, Dartmouth '96, figured out in high school that he loved the world of sports journalism and honed his craft in college by founding The Sports Weekly. After graduation, he was on the road—literally—to a career in sportwriting, covering just about every Tiger Woods match in the golfer’s heyday and a host of other top sporting contests.Eventually stories featuring high-paid athletes became harder to write when he was seeing so many other lives worth highlighting—like those in post 9/11 New York, or Katrina-ravaged New Orleans, or everyday inner Trenton. But when he saw the impacts the internet was having on print journalism, he started thinking about plan B.In this episode, find out from Brad how reading the writing the wall and writing what you know can be the best advice when your world is in flux…on ROADS TAKEN...with Leslie Jennings Rowley About This Episode's GuestBrad Parks is the acclaimed thriller author of the award winning Faces of the Gone, Say Nothing, and the new Interference. He lives in Virginia with his wife, Melissa Taylor ’96, and their two children. Find him at BradParksBooks.com

Hey Family, Me and two of my really good sister friends got together back in the early days of the pandemic to talk about our sisterhood. We are in no way experts but we wanted to give you a glimpse into our decade long friendship and a few tips that helped us stay tight along the way. So grab your friends and let's chat. If you enjoyed today's episode make sure to leave a review and share. Let's grow this family. Also, if you want to ask a question or just tell me I'm wrong feel free to email me at tirlquestions@tiffanyneecole.com As mentioned in the episode Melissa is currently holding a fundraiser if you are in the Miami area I ask that you come out to our Battle of the Chefs Fundraising event. You can find more details here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/battle-of-the-chefs-free-event-tickets-114425136664 If you're not in the Miami area and would like to help please donate to $clutchcouture1 anything helps. Link with our special guests: Kia's ig: @eyekia2.0 Melissa's Business Igs: @_theclutchbar_ & @_clutchcouture_ Let's be friends IG: @thisisreallifepod @tiffanyneecole --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Saw a bloke called Dale Smith ride a few Brisbane winners over the last month and was curious about his background. It was obvious he’d had plenty of experience so I tracked him down for a podcast.    Dale and his partner Melissa Taylor made a snap decision to move to Queensland a couple of years ago. He talks about the reason for such an important move after two decades in Victoria.   He acknowledges the trainers who immediately offered him support once he started riding work at Eagle Farm.   Dale talks of a recent relocation to the Sunny Coast where he’s riding work  for several trainers and Melissa has procured stables for her ten horse team.   The jockey takes us back to childhood days in the Kimberleys and his late father’s  successful riding career. He reflects on his dad’s battle with cancer.    Dale recalls his schooling in Perth and an apprenticeship to a leading trainer. He’s very honest about an attitude problem he suffered as a teenager.   He looks back on a move to Victoria orchestrated by a family friend who was actually his Godfather.   Dale reminisces about a new boss in Melbourne and the important early winners to get him on his way as a jockey. He remembers his transfer to Leon McDonald’s Flemington stables. He pays a special tribute to trainer Mick Price who gave him many opportunities over a long period of years. He makes special mention of a few favourite horses from the era.   Dale looks back on the young lady who was riding trackwork for Mick Price who happened to catch his eye. Melissa Taylor is now his partner and mother of his young daughter Aleera.

The recent experiences have without a doubt been traumatic for the Black community.  On today's episode, we are diving deeper into the conversation on trauma. This week we look at the impact of trauma on Black women specifically, but not just as a result of race based stress but also just navigating life as Black women. To help us better understand trauma and its impact on our day to day lives, joining the conversation this week is Melissa Taylor, Social Worker and Psychotherapist! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/point-black/message

Three weeks ago, hair salons and barbershops opened for the first time since mid-March. Some salons are experiencing long lines and hours-long waits. Others are having a hard time luring back their customers. Were you someone who made an appointment as soon as restrictions lifted? Or are you still maintaining your hair at home? Guests: Chris Farrell is MPR News senior economics contributor. Melissa Taylor is the owner of The Beauty Lounge Minneapolis. Bilal Saleem, also known as Mr. B, is the owner of B’s Barbershop in the St. Paul skyway. Use the audio player above to listen to the program. Subscribe to the MPR News with Angela Davis podcast on: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or RSS.

This week we had a chat with bookseller Melissa Taylor from E. Shaver Bookseller, located in Savannah, Georgia. We talked about the bookstore, what you can expect when visiting, how Melissa got involved in bookselling and so much more.  We also had a chat with author Alex George about his latest novel The Paris Hours, and Brady Hammes about his debut The Resolutions. We also shared some new releases that will be available in bookstores during the week of Monday, May 4th.***BiblioLifestyle newsletter subscribers are the first to know all the podcast happenings, get free goodies in the mail and they can enter for the chance to win free books. Every Friday you’ll get a special treat in your inbox filled with inspirational content, book recommendations, self-care tips, original interviews and things we think you’ll enjoy. The best part? You will only receive ONE email per week and it will be an amazing 5-minute read or less! Get our free weekly delivery - bibliolifestyle.com. A list of all the books mentioned in the show can be found at bibliohappyhour.com . To find an independent bookstore near you or when you're traveling, visit bibliofinder.com. For as little as $1/month you can tune in to the rest of our "meet the bookseller" conversation, listen to our “off the cuff” discussions with authors we've had on the show,  get our tailored “top shelf” book recommendations, behind the scenes content, perks and more when you become a supporter on Patreon. Join us at patreon.com/bibliofinder. 

In this episode we introduce you to our new medical director, Dr. Melissa Taylor. She and Urban You CEO, Nicole Gregory, talk about a totally NEW approach to consultations and what’s to come in 2020 at Urban You. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

This week I'm joined by Melissa Taylor, Global L&D leader at Porter Novelli. In this episode, we hear how Melissa’s vast experience in behavior change communications plays out in her L&D role. We explore: why supporting conversations at scale matters, how Melissa created space for learning in the business, a live example of how you can motivate someone to want to learn, and how they manage to support a global audience without an LMS. Enjoy! (EP17)  

Melissa Taylor is a Reiki Master, yoga and meditation instructor, and intuitive healer. She has worked with professional musicians, athletes, and celebrities, teaching them tools to help them bring balance and healing in their careers and personal life. Learning through her own personal healing experience and extensive study and training, she offers priceless value and light. She is passionate about working with those in any walk of life and at any age who are seeking hope in their healing journey.

At four in the morning, I awoke writhing in pain. It was a hunger like nothing I’d felt up to that point. Like a force of nature. A vacuum needing to be filled. I tried in vain to sleep, to turn my thoughts away from eating and onto anything else, the blue rose, my future plans, my investment portfolio, literally anything. But it was no use. Performed by Melissa Taylor. The Wrong Station contains explicit content and mature themes. Discretion is advised. Episode-specific warnings can be found at www.wrongstation.com

Worship Speaker: Freddy MuganzaWorship Leader: Tara KlassenSong Leaders: Katie Schroeder, Melissa Taylor, Gary Bergman, Scott JodoinAccompanist: Karen Toews

Walter is joined in studio by Pastor Nathan Roberts and owner of Minneapolis salon, The Beauty Lounge, Melissa Taylor. A little light impeachment talk with Nathan, but then straight away into a conversation about the importance of diversity and representation in communities. Also, the value of respect and the dangers of coded language.

Walter is joined in studio by Pastor Nathan Roberts and owner of Minneapolis salon, The Beauty Lounge, Melissa Taylor. A little light impeachment talk with Nathan, but then straight away into a conversation about the importance of diversity and representation in communities. Also, the value of respect and the dangers of coded language.

Episode 68 - We're talking with Melissa Goldberg-Taylor of Small Fish Big Fish Swim School in West Palm Beach Florida. She shares her story and passion for teaching swimming, building relationships with families and teaching them water safety skill also educating them on the importance of being water-smart and to respect the water starting with new parents and babies as young as 2 months old. Listen to this episode as she explains her programs and benefits. How she got started as a competitive swimmer growing up in New Jersey and finding her way to Flordia to end up living her dream and passion that she grew up with. She is truly an inspiration with her programs and the service not only to her community but to all of Flordia and to the country as a Board Member of the United States Swim School Association Below is a little background on Melissa but make sure to listen to her full story just click the link and play this episode. Melissa Goldberg-Taylor After a successful professional career in luxury automobile sales, Melissa Goldberg-Taylor decided to leave her job to pursue her dream of opening a swim school. In less than 4 years she was able to transition her backyard and community swim school into a promising year-round indoor facility that services the Palm Beach community. Throughout many years of swim instructing, Melissa has taken many professional courses and accreditations to supplement her training.  She has been certified as a lifeguard, water safety instructor, professional CPR, First Aid, and AED administrator, and has even taken numerous courses in adaptive aquatics as well as infant and toddler swimming. In 2011, she became a professional accredited pool operator by the National Swimming School Foundation.  She is also a current member of the National Drowning Prevention Alliance and the United States Swim School Association and regularly travels around the country to meet with other aquatics professionals in order to stay abreast of new trends within the industry. Her favorite "small fish" and current enrollees in the Small Fish Big Fish Swim School include her own two children. You can reach Melissa through the website at Smallfishbigfish.com or email her at melissa@smallfishbigfish.com and her phone at the school (561) 818-7946. Connect with Melissa on their Facebook page Make sure you subscribe to our podcast Follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram Leave a comment below or feel free to record a short 90-second question or comment and let us know how we're doing

No one seems to appreciate the seriousness of Ulcerative Colitis until you are in the thick of the affliction. And while the condition can become deadly serious for many sufferers, it’s possible that no person has had it quite as bad as one of our two guests on the show. This week Dr. Jack and Mary interview Dr. Chris and Melissa Taylor about Melissa’s unbelievable story of chronic, lifetime ulcerative colitis. She covers how deadly the disease can be, how many brushes with death they experienced, and finally the incredible healing power of whole food supplements, which are a necessity when you cannot digest food normally. Tune in to learn about the horrors of western medicine when treating ulcerative colitis, and what you’ll need to know to self-support your body through real nutrition.

From the gut-busting pen of Eli Pasic and the producing/acting talents of Isaiah Kolundzic, comes this fast-paced, knockabout, zany comedic bauble!False Claims traces the despicable schemes of Dennis—a devious, layabout nephew who poses as his late aunt’s husband in order to collect her life insurance money!DATES: Limited run of only 9 performances. Friday August 2nd, 8pm - Opening Night! Saturday August 3rd, 8pm Sunday August 4th, 2pm Tuesday August 6th, 8pm - PWYC Charity Fundraiser Wednesday August 7th, 8pm Thursday August 8th, 8pm Friday August 9th, 8pm Saturday August 10th, 8pm Sunday August 11th, 2pm - ClosingTICKETS:https://falseclaims.simpletix.com/CAST & CREW: WRITTEN BY Eli Pasic DIRECTED BY Blair Haynes FEATURING Isaiah Thomas Kolundzic, Kevin Forster, Heather Dick, Kevin Hare, Melissa Taylor, Zachary Groombridge, Kathleen Welch and Judith Fiore DESIGNED BY Emily Dix PRODUCED BY Isaiah Thomas Kolundzic, Emily Dix ASSOCIATE PRODUCERS Blythe Haynes, Eli Pasic STAGE MANAGED BY Jeremy PearsonInstagram: FalseClaimsTO Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/falseclaimsfarce/

Melissa Taylor is a Reiki Master, yoga instructor, and 2-time survivor of breast cancer. She excels at helping others find natural solutions for their health issues. Melissa brings awareness and balance within each individual to a higher level as she... The post Melissa Taylor Ep. 319 The Cultural Hall appeared first on The Cultural Hall Podcast.

Melissa Taylor resumed her position as Seneca County Director of Emergency Management in November after the Seneca County Board of Supervisors voted 13-0 to honor her request to withdraw her resignation letter from early in the year. On Monday, she is in-studio with Harold “Web Dog” Weber as a guest on Weber This Week.

Melissa Taylor resumed her position as Seneca County Director of Emergency Management in November after the Seneca County Board of Supervisors voted 13-0 to honor her request to withdraw her resignation letter from early in the year. On Monday, she is in-studio with Harold “Web Dog” Weber as a guest on Weber This Week. .

“The recruitment of talent is more competitive than ever. Employer branding and being able to understand and connect with prospective employees requires a marketing and communications mindset as well as all of the knowledge and expertise that the talent and development side of the house brings.”  This is among the perspectives shared by Melissa Taylor, Global Learning and Development Director for the public relations firm Porter Novelli, on episode 10 of the Learning and Development Stories Podcast.

Melissa is the head of global learning and development at Porter Noville. A certified professional coach, she also has two decades of experience in facilitation, training, positioning, and message and team development under her belt.

Melissa is the head of global learning and development at Porter Noville. A certified professional coach, she also has two decades of experience in facilitation, training, positioning, and message and team development under her belt.

Melissa is the head of global learning and development at Porter Noville. A certified professional coach, she also has two decades of experience in facilitation, training, positioning, and message and team development under her belt.

In Philippians 4:6, Paul writes, “Do not be anxious about anything…” But in today's world, it's hard to hold true to that promise in God's Word. We see violence, sickness, betrayal and evil in the world ... every day, multiple times a day. So how can we “not be anxious about anything”?In this episode of the Proverbs 31 Ministries Podcast we'll give you the answer: stay C.A.L.M.This week's guest is Melissa Taylor, Director of Online Bible Studies at Proverbs 31 Ministries. She led a group of over 51,000 people through Max Lucado's book Anxious for Nothing, and it's one of our largest online Bible studies to date!Since then, Melissa has encountered her own battles and has continued to put the C.A.L.M. acronym, based on Philippians 4:4-8, to use in her everyday life. In today's teaching you'll discover... How to easily memorize the C.A.L.M. acronym and put it to use the next time anxiety starts to creep in. The presence of anxiety is unavoidable, but the prison of anxiety is optional. You might not be able to control your circumstances, but you can control your thoughts. To download the transcript for this episode, click here.Related Resources: Anxious for Nothing by Max Lucado Need prayer? Visit the Proverbs 31 Ministries prayer wall! Sign up for the next Online Bible Study!

This author opens up about the sweet sentiment behind 'A Runtamuffin Tale'. She also shares a few words of wisdom for anyone looking to write their first book. Website: https://runtavision.com About the show: ► Visit http://www.pinnertest.com and use Promo Code: ashsaidit ►Website: http://www.ashsaidit.com ►SUBSCRIBE HERE: http://www.youtube.com/c/AshSaidItSuwanee ►Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/1loveash ►Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ashsaidit ►Twitter: https://twitter.com/1loveAsh ►Google Plus: https://plus.google.com/u/0/+AshSaidItMedia ►Blog: http://www.ashsaidit.com/blog ►Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/1LoveAsh/ ►Daily Podcast: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/ash-said-it/id1144197789 ►Newsletter: http://ashsaidit.us11.list-manage1.com/subscribe?u=2a2ca3b799467f125b53863c8&id=a6f43cd472 ►Pinnertest Commercial Music Courtesy of http://www.BenSound.com #ashsaidit #ashsaidthat #ashblogsit #ashsaidit®

This author opens up about the sweet sentiment behind 'A Runtamuffin Tale'. She also shares a few words of wisdom for anyone looking to write their first book. Website: https://runtavision.com About the show: ► Visit http://www.pinnertest.com and use Promo Code: ashsaidit ►Website: http://www.ashsaidit.com ►SUBSCRIBE HERE: http://www.youtube.com/c/AshSaidItSuwanee ►Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/1loveash ►Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ashsaidit ►Twitter: https://twitter.com/1loveAsh ►Google Plus: https://plus.google.com/u/0/+AshSaidItMedia ►Blog: http://www.ashsaidit.com/blog ►Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/1LoveAsh/ ►Daily Podcast: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/ash-said-it/id1144197789 ►Newsletter: http://ashsaidit.us11.list-manage1.com/subscribe?u=2a2ca3b799467f125b53863c8&id=a6f43cd472 ►Pinnertest Commercial Music Courtesy of http://www.BenSound.com #ashsaidit #ashsaidthat #ashblogsit #ashsaidit®

This week, we talk with Melissa Taylor, about how important it is to find your why in order to bring your best self to your business every day.

On today's show we talk to Melissa Taylor dressage rider and trainer and author of Runtamuffin Tale, the breed of the show is the Buff Orpington chicken, Hedwig weighs in on the concept of sharing, in critter nutrition we focus on bone remodeling in horses and in coffee klatch we share what kind of boyfriend or girlfriend our horses would be.Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/user?u=87421)

Are your ready to get intentional about your marriage? In case you missed it! This episode introduces you to how The Husband Project became Proverbs 31 Ministries latest Online Bible Study. We are so excited to team up with Proverbs 31 Ministries as they feature our very own The Husband Project for their Online Bible Study June 20-July 22. In this episode I introduce you to Melissa Taylor, Director of Online Bible Studies at Proverbs 31 Ministries. We discuss the upcoming study and the God story that led P31 to Kathi. See how God surprises us with how his plans come together. By being faithful even in times of heartache and closing doors, God has used Melissa to impact the lives of thousands. Hear her story and get ready for The Husband Project Online Bible Study with P31 OBS.  Be Sure to sign up for the Online Bible Study HERE!  

The parkrun adventurers celebrate our 21st episode with all things half marathon. We run long talking longest runs and catch up with Robbo to hear about his not-so-naked half. Parramatta parkrun Event Director Mel Alderton pops by for a visit, and we hear from roving adventurers Melissa Taylor and Zara Curtis, reporting in from the Warwick Pentathrun and Portland parkrun's launch.

Are your ready to get intentional about your marriage? We are so excited to team up with Proverbs 31 Ministries as they feature our very own The Husband Project for their Online Bible Study June 20-July 22 In this episode I introduce you to Melissa Taylor, Director of Online Bible Studies at Proverbs 31 Ministries. See how God surprises us with how his plans come together.   http://go.proverbs31.org/the-husband-project/

A juxtaposing of cultures. As we stumble fearlessly right into Book 9 of The Brothers Karamazov, the tiny-appendaged Melissa Taylor joins our always-tweeting host Phil Malcom during this riveting and rather violent reading. Among the many completely accurate and fascinating topics they explore are patricide; the nobility of a not-as-noble-as-we-might-assume character; semiautomatic handguns; and the similarities and differences between cabbage pies (“a bad surprise”) and Runza sandwiches from Nebraska. Listeners will also be delighted to meet two more special friends this episode who sit silently in wonder of this audio book: Rachel Swartz, who would definitely drink a Margarona if she were Mitya, and Jackson the dog, who is a dog. It's totally still The Brothers Karamazov and Friends, in which the commentary almost always falls beneath your already low expectations.

On this week’s show, I talk with literacy expert, educator, and mom Melissa Taylor about her new book for parents called Book Love: Help Your Child Grow from Reluctant to Enthusiastic Reader. Melissa explains the four main reasons why your child might not be the reader you wish she were, and how you can help her become a lifelong … Read more about this episode...