Podcasts about wa supreme court

WA Supreme Court proposed rule lets judges arbitrarily dismiss charges against criminals. Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch had a bizarre exchange with a Maryland school district lawyer over lewd content in school curriculum. Police are looking for a man that flashed gang signs and shot at a bus in Lynnwood. // LongForm: GUEST: State Senator Phil Fortunato (R-Auburn) wants to stop your tax dollars from being used for sanctuary immigration policies. // Quick Hit: Trump is not happy with Vladimir Putin after Russia’s airstrikes on Kyiv. A Democrat mayor wants to arrest homeless people who refuse housing.  

(The Center Square) – Backers of Initiative 2066, which protects natural gas as an energy choice in Washington state, say they will take their case to the Washington Supreme Court after a judge's ruling last week that I-2066 is unconstitutional. On Friday, King County Superior Court Judge Sandra Widlan ruled the scope of I-2066, approved by voters in November, was too broad and violated the state Constitution's single-subject requirement. Support this podcast: https://secure.anedot.com/franklin-news-foundation/ce052532-b1e4-41c4-945c-d7ce2f52c38a?source_code=xxxxxx Read more: https://www.thecentersquare.com/washington/article_cf9b94e2-c6ff-4219-abde-48b2f32a9aa7.html

The trial of four people accused of murdering 15-year-old Cassius Turvey in Perth has begun in the WA Supreme Court over two years after his death. It’s a case that prompted widespread rallies across the country and broader discussions about the treatment of First Nations children in Australia. In today’s podcast, we explain the context of the trial and what’s happened so far.Hosts: Zara Seidler and Billi FitzSimonsProducer: Orla Maher Want to support The Daily Aus? That's so kind! The best way to do that is to click ‘follow’ on Spotify or Apple and to leave us a five-star review. We would be so grateful. The Daily Aus is a media company focused on delivering accessible and digestible news to young people. We are completely independent. Want more from TDA?Subscribe to The Daily Aus newsletterSubscribe to The Daily Aus’ YouTube Channel Have feedback for us?We’re always looking for new ways to improve what we do. If you’ve got feedback, we’re all ears. Tell us here.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The state supreme court is right now weighing the future of high-capacity gun magazine sales in Washington. Last week, the court heard arguments in Washington v. Gator’s Custom Guns. At issue is whether a 2022 law banning magazines with more than 10 rounds is constitutional. Complicating the matter is a recent U.S. Supreme Court cases that sets out a new originalist rule for restrictions on guns. Guest: Jake Goldstein Street, reporter at the Washington State Standard Relevant Links: Washington State Standard: State and gun shop clash at WA Supreme Court over high-capacity magazine ban Thank you to the supporters of KUOW, you help make this show possible! If you want to help out, go to kuow.org/donate/soundsidenotes Soundside is a production of KUOW in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR Network.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Washington Supreme Court is taking up the high-capacity magazine ban case, sparking debate on gun rights and public safety. Learn more about the pivotal legal arguments and the nationwide implications. Read the full story at https://www.clarkcountytoday.com/news/wa-supreme-court-to-hear-high-capacity-magazine-ban-case-later-this-month on www.ClarkCountyToday.com. #ClarkCounty #WashingtonState #LocalNews #HighCapacityMagazines #GunRights

4pm: BREAKING: Sal Mungia defeats Dave Larson for open WA Supreme Court seat // WSU raises tuition as enrollment declines // FEMA leader faces questions about hurricane relief, denying aid to Trump supporters // Guest - Darleen Christopher - Astrolgist based in Pike Place Market // She “famously” predicted that the Seahawks would win the Super Bowl in 2014 // Pluto in Aquarius … Evidently this means a 20 year golden age of enlightenment and progress // Why rats can teach us a lot about relieving stress

Three of the seats on our state's Supreme Court will be on the ballot next week. Two of them have incumbent justices running unopposed;  the race Washington voters will actually decide is for Washington Supreme Court Position 2. The incumbent, Justice Susan Owens, who turned 75 in August, is aging out of the position because of a rule in the state's constitution.   The position is non-partisan, so you won't see any party labels next to the candidates' names - but don't worry, we're here to help you make that decision without the “D” or “R” shorthand.  Soundside is talking to both candidates vying for the seat this week. Today, we're interviewing Judge Dave Larson. Larson has been a judge for the Federal Way Municipal Court since 2008. Guest: Judge Dave Larson, candidate for Washington Supreme Court Position 2. Thank you to the supporters of KUOW, you help make this show possible! If you want to help out, go to kuow.org/donate/soundsidenotes Soundside is a production of KUOW in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR Network. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Washington voters will decide next week is who will fill the lone open seat on the Washington Supreme Court. Supreme Court Position 2 is an open race - the incumbent, Justice Susan Owens, is retiring at the end of this year due to the state constitution's requirement that all justices retire after the year they turn 75. The position is non-partisan. Soundside is talking to both candidates vying for the seat on the state's highest court. Up first: attorney Sal Mungia. Mungia is a partner at Gordon Thomas Honeywell, a law firm based in Seattle and Tacoma. He has specialized in medical malpractice, serious injury, personal injury and real estate litigation. He has also served as the President of the Washington State Bar Association.  Guest: Sal Mungia, candidate for Washington Supreme Court Position 2. Thank you to the supporters of KUOW, you help make this show possible! If you want to help out, go to kuow.org/donate/soundsidenotes Soundside is a production of KUOW in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR Network. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Meet Washington Supreme Court Justice candidate for position 2, Sal Mungia! SHOW NOTES: https://www.salforjustice.com/

Barristers trade barbs in closing addresses to the Linda Reynolds v Brittany Higgins defamation trial.  Find out more about The Front podcast here. You can read about this story and more on The Australian's website or on The Australian's app. This episode of The Front is presented by Claire Harvey, produced by Kristen Amiet, and edited by Tiffany Dimmack. The multimedia editor is Lia Tsamoglou, and original music is composed by Jasper Leak.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Brittany Higgins won't give evidence in the defamation action brought by her former boss. Could her absence hurt her defence? Find out more about The Front podcast here. You can read about this story and more on The Australian's website or on The Australian's app. This episode of The Front is presented by Claire Harvey, produced by Kristen Amiet and edited by Josh Burton. The multimedia editor is Lia Tsamoglou and original music is composed by Jasper Leak.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Linda Reynolds alleges Brittany Higgins and David Sharaz provided false information to some of the government's most-senior ministers. Find out more about The Front podcast here. You can read about this story and more on The Australian's website or on The Australian's app. This episode of The Front is presented and produced by Kristen Amiet and edited by Jasper Leak. Our regular host is Claire Harvey. The multimedia editor is Lia Tsamoglou and original music is composed by Jasper Leak.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What’s Trending: Seattle Schools are considering new security protocols to improve safety in the wake of recent school shootings. The Washington State Supreme Court is going to decide if the Seattle police officers who attended the January 6th rally can remain anonymous. Airsoft guns are proving to create a new challenge for Washington State police officers due to their almost identical appearance to actual firearms. // LongForm: GUEST:  Lake Stevens Mayor Brett Gailey weighs in on changes Snohomish County mayors are asking for in order to better target dangerous criminals. // The Quick Hit: A new poll shows that voters in swing states trust Trump more than Biden to defend democracy.  

Garfield High School student shot, WA Supreme Court to hear case on gun magazine ban, and two Seattle theaters are merging. It's our daily roundup of top stories from the KUOW newsroom, with host Patricia Murphy. Tell us about your favorite underrated hike in the Puget Sound region! Record a voice memo and email it to seattlenow@kuow.org. Tell us your name, your favorite hike, and why you love it. We may use your comments on a future episode of Seattle Now! We can only make Seattle Now because listeners support us. You have the power! Make the show happen by making a gift to KUOW.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The public could learn within a few months or sooner if the Washington Supreme Court will take up the Gator's Custom Guns case related to the state's ban on the buying or selling of high-capacity magazines. https://tinyurl.com/2tmjdxxd #TheCenterSquareWashington #WashingtonSupremeCourt #GatorsCustomGunsCase #WashingtonStateBan #BuyingOrSelling #HighCapacityMagazines #SilentMajorityFoundation #PeteSerrano #HighCapMagazineBanCase #KelsoGunRetailer #VancouverWa #ClarkCountyWa #ClarkCountyNews #ClarkCountyToday

The owner of the Kelso gun shop behind the legal challenge to the state's ban on ‘high-capacity' magazines says business was brisk for a short time on Monday. https://tinyurl.com/4d8d7yv5 #TheCenterSquareWashington #WashingtonStateSupremeCourt #arguments #magazinecapacitycap #SecondAmendmentFoundation #KelsoGunShop #GatorsCustomGuns #JudgeGaryBashor #WashingtonState #VancouverWa #ClarkCountyWa #ClarkCountyNews #ClarkCountyToday

Lars: WA Supreme Court administrator decided to suspend lower court ruling: https://oregoncatalyst.com/76749-lars-larson-dubious-legal-trick-gun-rights.html OR SOS website keeps crashing: https://oregoncatalyst.com/76742-election-website-crashing.html Are you willing to overlook Trump's states rights abortion opinion if he will preserve your liberty by destroying the deep state? https://thefederalist.com/2024/04/11/on-abortion-donald-trump-goes-the-way-of-stephen-a-douglas/ City of Eugene already talking about how keep funding massively expanded homeless funding and threatening to close libraries. https://www.opb.org/article/2024/04/10/the-city-of-eugene-faces-uncertain-funding-for-homelessness-programs/ Ted Wheeler spent 166k on encrypted messaging: https://www.koin.com/news/portland/mayor-wheelers-use-of-encrypted-imessages-costs-city-166k/ 19 US House R's block FISA renewal by demanding end of secret spying on Americans: https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/04/surprise-house-blocks-bill-renew-fisa-warrantless-spy/ Trump drops Stormy Daniels letter where she said affair never happened: https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/04/president-trump-drops-bombshell-letter-stormy-daniels-i/ Dems think LGBT vote support is key to winning: https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/04/report-biden-harris-think-lgbt-voter-support-is/ Are illegals helping the economy? https://issuesinsights.com/2024/04/11/are-illegal-immigrants-really-keeping-the-u-s-economy-afloat/ Trump winning Blacks, Latinos and young people: https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2024/04/10/nolte-more-and-more-voters-identify-republicans-including-hispanics/  

The Washington State Supreme Court has ruled that the bar exam is no longer a requirement for prospective lawyers. On Friday, The Bar Licensure Task Force explained that the bar is “minimally effective for ensuring competency” and “disproportionally and unnecessarily blocks marginalized groups from becoming practicing attorneys.” According to The Spokesman-Review, after appointing the task force in 2020 to assess “disproportionate impacts on examinees of color and first-generation examinees,” the courts agreed to substitute the exam with “experiential-learning alternatives.” The task force was made up of over 50 groups of representatives and “examined the character and fitness process for lawyer licensure.” Although students have historically interned under another lawyer before becoming attorneys, they still had to pass the bar to get their license to practice. Under the new guidelines, lawyers can forgo the bar, first administered in Delaware in 1783, by participating in a six-month apprenticeship and finishing three courses. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/darien-dunstan3/message

(The Center Square) – Passing the the bar exam will no longer be a requirement for becoming a lawyer in Washington, the state Supreme Court ruled in a pair of orders Friday. Washington becomes only the second state to officially approve alternatives to the bar, following its southern neighbor, Oregon, which is set to make the change in May. The state Supreme Court appointed a Bar Licensure Task Force to study alternative ways to show competency in 2020, after COVID-19-related modifications resulting in many questioning the efficacy of the current exam. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/washington-in-focus/support

The WA Supreme Court has decided a convicted sex offender, one who during one of his multiple arrests, sent explicit images to what he thought was a 14 year old. Turned out to be a cop and he got arrested. The court said he had a rough child hood and deserves another chance. Typical WA, criminals are the victims. Now this one gets to be a lawyer. Other states turned him down but not here. SB6316: New tolls for SR 520. That will last 24 years after completion of the construction work they intend to fund. SB2099: ID or drivers license's for DOC inmates and illegals in DOC custody. Fully paid for by DOC, well with your taxes. SB6069: WA Saves. A State sponsored, mandatory participation retirement savings account - unless you already pay into a retirement account. Any private business with atleast 1 employee must participate. SB1391: Statewide Building Energy Upgrade Program. As long as you are going to or have electrical. Upgrades for natural gas or fossil fuel? Not allowed. Oh and no federal funding for you anymore even though federal funding explicitly allows for that. #leftcoastnews #wanews #washingtonnews #waleg #walegislature #washingtonlegislature #wapolitics #washingtonpolitics #wapoliticians #seattlenews #olympianews #wabills #walaws #wasupremecourt #wabar #walawyers #olympapolitics #tolls #socialism #criminaljustice #greennewdeal --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/behindtheline/support

A Ballotpedia analysis of Washington state Supreme Court candidate campaign finance and court case outcomes between 2013 and 2022 shows that progressive candidates and causes dominate in the Evergreen State. The online political encyclopedia coded large samples of data – both campaign donors and court case parties and amici – according to progressive versus conservative ideological leaning and 28 different sector or policy categories. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/washington-in-focus/support

A Ballotpedia analysis of Washington State Supreme Court candidate campaign finance and court case outcomes between 2013 and 2022 shows that progressive candidates and causes dominate in the Evergreen state. https://tinyurl.com/2s7b7vn6 #TheCenterSquareWashington #WashingtonStateSupremeCourt #BallotpediaAnalysis #Progressives #Conservatives #Donations #Decisions #WashingtonState #OnlinePoliticalEncyclopedia #VancouverWa #ClarkCountyWa #ClarkCountyNews #ClarkCountyToday

A divided Washington State Supreme Court ruled last month that a “three strikes” criminal offender can be imprisoned for life without parole even if one of the qualifying felony offenses was committed as a juvenile. https://tinyurl.com/y4em3dax #TheCenterSquareWashington #WashingtonStateSupremeCourt #CourtRuling #JuvenileStrike #LifeSentence #JusticeSherylGordonMcCloud #LifePrisonTermsWithoutParole #MichaelScottReynoldsJr #QualifyingFelonyOffenses #WashingtonState #ClarkCountyWa #VancouverWa #ClarkCountyNews #ClarkCountyToday

WA Supreme Court rules on school funding, new research on fentanyl smoke on transit, and no vehicles (or bikes) on Bainbridge ferry for a week

The Washington Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the state is not constitutionally obligated to provide monies for capital construction projects to local school districts at the same level as basic education funding. https://tinyurl.com/7hvzaz7x #TheCenterSquare #WashingtonSupremeCourt #WashingtonState #NotConstitutionallyObligated #MoniesForCapitalConstructionProjects #LocalSchoolDistricts #BasicEducationFunding #PublicEducation #ClarkCountyWa #ClarkCountyNews #ClarkCountyToday

What's Trending: Decreasing college enrollment trends have employers concerned, Jen Psaki says Democrats don't support abortion up until birth then reveals they do but says it's nuanced and Sydney Phillips (Deputy Chief Litigator at Freedom Foundation), reacts to the surprising news that the WA Supreme Court sided against unions trying to keep members' info private.Big Local: Camas teachers are going on strike, group of teens caused a lockdown at Southcenter mall and another lawsuit over a popular Tacoma milkshake spot. You Pick: Pilots are accused of hiding major health issues to keep flying.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

6am hour -- House Speaker Kevin McCarthy explains why he's confident in debt ceiling deal that passed the House last night, former Speaker Newt Gingrich has a few things to say about the debt ceiling deal, fired WA Equity Office Director reportedly disparaged Mexicans according to co-worker(s), there's a very weird sports stat of the week about the NBA Finals match-up between Miami and Denver, GUEST: KNWN's Carleen Johnson tells KVI talks about how Remann Hall juvenile criminals in Tacoma managed to live stream a mini-riot on Instagram, KVI's Lars Larson reacts to PDX mayor finally getting serious about pushing back on lenient homeless policy. 7am hour -- what do KVI callers think about debt ceiling deal that passed the US House last night? fire fighters near Pt. Angeles revive a man with Narcan who then runs away and falls down a 70-foot bluff to then be rescued by a USCG helicopter, Amazon employees complain about their return to office requirements in Seattle. 8am hour -- Amazon employee walk-out sounds more and more petulant as the group complains about return to office mandate, disingenuous AP story about left-wing scientists' announcement about earth, Elon Musk explains why progressives/liberals don't like comedy/satire, SNL creater piggybacks on the Elon Musk comments, BREAKING: US Supreme Court reverses a previous ruling by the WA Supreme Court involving a Seattle concrete company that sued the Teamsters union related to a labor strike in 2017 (the Supreme Court ruling was 8-1 in favor of the concrete company), King County just "found" $1 million for homeless in Burien.

On this episode of Legislative Review: A bill responding to the WA Supreme Court's decision in the "Blake" case regarding drug possession laws and treatment. And bills regarding modifications to Washington's Working Families Tax Credit, and eliminating some legal financial obligations, or LFOs.

6am hour -- Kirby Wilbur in for John Carlson today, inflation stories and anecdotes to start the show, SeaTac Airport's new $1 billion terminal will only fit 16 of the 20 planes it was designed to accommodate, the TN House of Reps expulsion controversy latest news, TX court convicts Uber driver who is a former Army sergeant of shooting and killing an armed BLM protester in 2020 in a case that revolved around self-defense. 7am hour-- Kirby Wilbur in for John Carlson -- Democrats in WA Legislature approve a bill to ban semi-automatic rifles like the AR-15, why the gun ban vote won't deliver what Democrats are promising about mass shootings, Wilbur's suggestion on what can reduce mass shootings, Democrats lauding the WA Supreme Court ruling on capital gains income as subject to an excise tax are now irate at TX legal ruling about mifepristone, the first US President to ever be arrested by police (spoiler alert: it's before the advent of the car), the former Union Army soldier who was the DC police officer who made the arrest of the President, how Mark Twain convinced this President to write and sell his memoirs. 8am hour -- GUEST: ShiftWA.org's Randy Pepple, SB 5768 today would legalize (after the fact) Gov. Inslee's purchase of abortion drug mifepristone, HB 1628 would increase the state's real estate excise sales tax double talk about making housing more affordable by making it more expensive, how Gov. Inslee and other WA Democrats have failed to keep promises about mental health treatment in WA, Kirby Wilbur speaks candidly about knowing billionaire Harlan Crow, how the political left is trying to misrepresent Crow and Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas's friendship and relationship.

KVI's John Carlson interviews State Senator, Lynda Wilson (R-Vancouver), with her reaction to the Supreme Court of Washington (SCOW) ruling 7-2 to legalize a capital gains tax on sale of financial assets. Wilson provides a pair of cautionary tales regarding the newly validated capital gains tax. First, she notes that the financial management company Fisher Investments has announced they will move their headquarters from Camas WA to Texas which will allow them to avoid this new tax and allow their clients to keep more of their investments. Also, Wilson reminds us that the Washington Business and Occupation tax (B&O tax) started off as a temporary tax in the 1990s and it has now been expanded and increased to generate more money from Washington businesses.

On this Hacks & Wonks week-in-review, political consultant and host Crystal Fincher is joined by Guy Oron, Staff Reporter for Real Change! They start with a discussion of Friday's Washington Supreme Court ruling that the capital gains tax is constitutional and what that means for the state's residents. Then they discuss a tragic eviction in Seattle and a court ruling that landlords can ask about criminal records.  They chat about Howard Schultz stepping down early as the CEO of Starbucks, workers protesting before their annual shareholder meeting, and some shareholders' and white collar workers' desire for Starbucks to improve their behavior and relations with unionizing workers. They follow with the Seattle Chamber of Commerce's desire to gut JumpStart tax funds for downtown, despite the popularity of the tax and need for continued investment in other neighborhoods and small businesses.  They close with a discussion of where the Sound Transit CID station debate stands, as well as talk about the significance of Pierce County passing a local tax to fund housing services. 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, Guy Oron at @GuyOron.   Guy Oron Guy Oron is the Staff Reporter for Real Change, covering local news, labor, policing, the environment, criminal legal issues and politics. His writing has been featured in a number of publications including the South Seattle Emerald, The Nation and The Stranger. Raised in Seattle, Guy brings a community and student organizer perspective to their journalism, highlighting stories of equity and justice.   Resources Dahlia Bazzaz and What's Happening in Washington Education from Hacks & Wonks   WA Supreme Court upholds capital gains tax by David Gutman and Claire Withycombe from The Seattle Times    Seattle landlords can ask about criminal records, court rules by Heidi Groover from The Seattle Times   Councilmember Invites Landlord Who's Suing City to Lead “Housing Provider” Panel from PubliCola   Seattle DSA Statement on the Death of Eucy Following the Attempt to Evict Her by King County Deputies | Seattle DSA   Will City Hall give downtown Seattle a tax break? by John O'Brien and Dyer Oxley from KUOW    Howard Schultz Will Step Down From Starbucks to Spend Less Time Getting Owned by Union Organizers by Tori Otten from The New Republic   Starbucks workers protest before annual shareholder meeting from The Associated Press   Starbucks shareholders to vote on proposals for labor probe, succession planning by Amelia Lucas from CNBC   Comptroller Lander and Coalition of Investors File Shareholder Proposal at Starbucks on the Rights of Workers to Organize | NYC Comptroller   Placement of future CID light rail station sparks heated debate, strains relations by Guy Oron from Real Change    What We Know About Sound Transit's Alternatives to a Chinatown Station by Doug Trumm and Stephen Fesler from The Urbanist   Sound Transit is Not Ready for Its Big Chinatown Station Decision from The Urbanist Editorial Board       Light Rail Board Members Seek Middle Ground as Plan to Skip Chinatown, Midtown Stations Moves Forward by Erica Barnett from PubliCola   From the Other Side of I-5: Little Saigon Weighs In On Sound Transit's Light Rail Expansion In the CID by Friends of Little Sài Gòn for PubliCola   Preserve Chinatown or Fuck Over Transit Riders Forever? by Hannah Krieg from The Stranger   Pierce County just passed a new tax and funded a homeless village. That's a big deal by Matt Driscoll from The News Tribune   Pierce County Council votes on sales tax to address housing crisis. Here's the decision by Becca Most from The News Tribune   Transcript [00:00:00] Crystal Fincher: Welcome to Hacks & Wonks. I'm Crystal Fincher, and I'm a political consultant and your host. On this show, we talk with policy wonks and political hacks to gather insight into local politics and policy in Washington state through the lens of those doing the work with behind-the-scenes perspectives on what's happening, why it's happening, and what you can do about it. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to get the full versions of our Friday almost-live shows and our midweek show delivered to your podcast feed. If you like us, the most helpful thing you can do is leave a review wherever you listen to Hacks & Wonks. Full transcripts and resources referenced in the show are always available at officialhacksandwonks.com and in our episode notes. If you missed our Tuesday midweek show, Seattle Times reporter Dahlia Bazzaz returned with a rundown of education issues across Washington state, including why budgets are a mess, how the Washington State Legislature is and isn't addressing it, the Wahkiakum Schools lawsuit addressing capital construction costs, and shifts in enrollment patterns in Washington schools. 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: Staff Reporter for Real Change covering local news, labor, policing, the environment, criminal legal issues and politics, Guy Oron. Hey! [00:01:30] Guy Oron: Hi, thank you - I'm so glad to be here. [00:01:32] Crystal Fincher: I'm so excited to have you here - have been appreciating your coverage of all of those issues for a while now, so excited to be able to talk about the news this week. And we just got a big piece of breaking news this morning - finding out that the capital gains tax has been found, by our Washington State Supreme Court, to be constitutional. What did they say? [00:01:59] Guy Oron: Yeah, the Washington Supreme Court ruled that the capital gains tax is not a property tax and that it is legal, which is a huge win for the Washington Democrats and the governor, who signed the bill into law in 2021. [00:02:15] Crystal Fincher: Yes, absolutely. There was question about - okay, we have - our State Constitution prevents an income tax from being enacted, any graduated income tax is not considered constitutional at this time. This didn't address that issue - basically it accepted that the capital gains tax is an excise tax, so the Court didn't visit, revisit all the rulings that classify income as property and that being a way to clear the way for a graduated income tax. We will address that a different day at some point, I'm sure, but for now, the capital gains tax is found to be constitutional. And this is really big for a lot of funding going for schools, for daycare, for a lot of family support. And this is a tax that is going to only impact - what is it - the top 0.2% of Washingtonians, I think that was, while easing some of the burden or allowing people who are lower income, middle income to really get more bang for their buck in the types of services that are going to be provided here. [00:03:24] Guy Oron: Yeah, it's really a game changer because the state has operated for so many years on this austerity mindset where they have to decide between schools and other public services. And so this will give some breathing room for families, the vast majority of families in the state. [00:03:44] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, absolutely. So looking forward to see this implementation continue - yeah, and so with only two-tenths of 1% of Washington taxpayers seeing enough profits on capital gains to pay this tax - which is a 7% tax on stock sales, extraordinary profits exceeding $250,000 annually - exempting real estate, retirement accounts like IRAs, family-owned small businesses and farms, among other things. It is just something that lots of people have been waiting to find out if this is going to go through, and that will enable about $500 million extra a year to be raised, just from this tax on two-tenths of a percent of Washington state residents. Also this week, we got news that a landlord court case - another one decided - that it is not legal for the legislation that Seattle passed - to try and help ease people back into the community, help people with access to housing who have been convicted or previously incarcerated - preventing landlords from being able to ask on an application if someone has been convicted of a crime before. That was ruled unconstitutional - landlords can do that, continue to do that. How do you think this is going to play out? [00:05:10] Guy Oron: Yeah, I was very surprised by the Ninth Circuit's reasoning - because on the one hand, they acknowledged the importance of remedying discrimination against people who have been incarcerated. But on the other hand, they ruled that it was too broad - banning landlords from finding out someone's criminal history. And so it does seem like there's still room for the City to challenge the ruling and try to still mitigate that, but it is a blow for renters and people who are fighting against the criminal legal system and trying to get folks reintegrated into society after experiencing the harms of mass incarceration. [00:05:54] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, absolutely. And that's so major, because so many people have had some kind of conviction or even just an arrest. Yes, especially with so many people who have convictions - because we have been in this era of mass incarceration, a significant percentage of our community has been arrested, has been convicted of some crime at some point in time. And we talk about the housing crisis, homelessness crisis - people not being able to afford homes - but also being able to qualify for an apartment, to be able to rent a place is challenging. And if we're serious about wanting to create a safer community, wanting to create a community where more people can have their needs met, where fewer people are victimized or harmed - certainly helping to make sure that people have access to housing is one of the most basic and fundamental things we can do. So there still - once again, is a significant percentage of people in Seattle, but obviously most other cities have not passed this legislation - and so lots of people across the state still facing challenges being able to access housing overall. So we'll see what the response to this is, but definitely a challenge. Also in the news this week is a really unfortunate - really, really tragic - story this week of a really fatal eviction where a young woman ended up taking her own life, where a deputy was shot, and just a tragedy that unfolded because of an eviction - an attempt to serve an eviction notice and forcefully evict this - which really seemed to throw this person into crisis. And the community overall has really largely reacted to this and I've actually been, through this tragedy, heartened to see the reporting from a variety of news outlets really talking about the root causes of this issue - in failing to take action to keep people in their homes, to prevent eviction - resulted in so many people getting harmed, and so many people being less safe, so many people being scarred after this, and a life being lost. How do you see this? [00:08:24] Guy Oron: Yeah, it's just such a tragic incident. I know Eucy was a member of the Seattle DSA community and of mutual aid and other community organizations in Seattle and so I just - my heart goes out to her and everyone who was touched by her presence in the community. I think this case really is the tip of the iceberg, and really shows the structural violence of evictions and our current housing crisis. And so many people have - it's so violent that people have to move every six months, every year or two, every time they get a rent increase. And you just think about children and having to switch schools every year. You have to think about the mental health impacts and stress that it takes to not only find a deposit and pay all the short-term rental fees on top of rent, but also just how difficult it is to exist in society when rents are so high. And so this case really shows how difficult and how much violence our current housing system inflicts on people. [00:09:42] Crystal Fincher: Absolutely, and we can do better. We have to do better, we need to do better. And that's the thing that gets me with so much of this. Some of the discourse I see or talk - What are you talking about? Why are you even, basically, caring about the humanity of this person? A law enforcement officer was shot, and we should note that we do not know by whom at this point in time. We do know that Eucy died by suicide. And just a really unfortunate situation. And if we get away from blame, if we get away from this kind of toxic discourse that talks about - if people deserve help, deserve a second chance, deserve grace, deserve housing, deserve basic needs met - when we don't focus on that and we allow things to get this far down the road, it is very expensive. As a community - beyond the life lost - this is destabilizing for a ton of people. This has endangered law enforcement lives - this is not good for them either - this is putting them in danger and in harm's way. It's hard to see who wins. Certainly a landlord now has a clear house, but at what cost? The cost is so high, it doesn't have to be that high. We can do better than this. And I think this underscores the real toll that is taken - we hear statistics a lot of times - and the eviction moratorium saved this many people from being evicted. But when you look at the cost of one person, the impact of one person - it really underscores how urgent it is to act to keep people in their homes, to get their basic needs met, and to find a different way that takes into consideration the health and safety of the community in a much better way than we do now. Also this week, we learned that the Chamber is interested in looting the JumpStart Tax and lowering the B&O Tax in an attempt to jumpstart and revitalize downtown. What's your take on this? [00:11:57] Guy Oron: I think it is very much out of step with much of the community right now that are suffering. We know that during the COVID-19 pandemic, small businesses, workers, even people who work in white collar jobs - right now with all the layoffs going on - are suffering. For example, with the interest rates, it's really hitting - we've seen with SVB's bank shutting down, it's really hitting the tech sector hard. And so most of the economy and most people are suffering. The one group that hasn't been suffering very much are people who own land, and property, and businesses. And to see the Chamber of Commerce, which represents organizations like Starbucks, like Amazon - all these companies which have reported record earnings in the last year - all of them now targeting this small tax, which is a couple million dollars for some of these businesses. In total, I think less than $300 million a year is raised through the JumpStart Tax, if I'm not mistaken. And so it seems like they're trying to take advantage of the economic downturn to redistribute more wealth from workers to the rich. And I think for folks who want to advocate for the whole community and not just a small segment, they should really be skeptical of the claims the Chamber's making. [00:13:24] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, this is part of the ongoing conversation of revitalizing the downtown core. Lots of concern is being heard from people who want to "get back to normal" - whatever that is - from pre-pandemic times, where people were going into the office five days a week. Because of the way that our downtown, many downtowns are designed - people commute in to the downtown core and they commute out of the downtown core. And so much of the businesses, services, structure of downtown, economic structure of downtown is based on just that - servicing commuters, so restaurants and services. But really it's a different downtown after 6-7 PM with so many people clearing out. Through the pandemic, certainly people reduced going to the office. Now patterns have changed where we're seeing less than half, about half of what pre-pandemic foot traffic from people who work downtown was - which is impacting many businesses, which is concerning a lot of people. I think the question really is - should we keep chasing the structure and economy of yesterday that just doesn't look like it is relevant or valid moving forward into the future? If we want to consider downtown just for commuters and focus on the revitalization efforts, return-to-work efforts, and everything going there - we miss the opportunity to make a downtown for today and tomorrow. To make a downtown that's a cultural destination, that's a community destination, and not just a business and commuting destination. I put that just there - businesses are absolutely vital - we need jobs, we need people hiring and thriving, and we certainly need a healthy economy. But again, at what cost? The reason why we have the JumpStart Tax is because most people recognize that businesses, especially the larger businesses, were not paying what most people considered to be their fair share. And this imposes a fee on every employee making over $150,000 for businesses of a certain size. So really it's about mitigating the impacts that their employees have, that their business has instead of solely reaping the benefits of all of the resources - human and otherwise, that this community provides - that they are able to use to drive up the record profits that you referenced. So it's a really interesting conversation. And the other interesting dimension is - certainly, downtown is an important, vital neighborhood. So are lots of other Seattle neighborhoods. And we're now in a situation - once again, in a situation where downtown is really asking for resources from other neighborhoods. And are other neighborhoods are gonna settle for that? Are residents of other areas gonna say - We have to address housing in our neighborhood. We have to address crime in our neighborhood. We need to make our streets safer, healthier. There's so much on the docket to do. Do we need to be taking money out and deprioritizing our needs to move more money over, redirect money to downtown and those purposes - which goes against the JumpStart Tax, which is very popular with Seattle residents and really bailed the City out of a really harmful budget shortfall. So it's gonna be interesting to see how this shapes up - seems like every election is, at the end of the day for the Seattle Chamber and many large corporations, a referendum on taxes for them and an attempt to reduce taxation for them. So we'll see how this all unfolds, but certainly interesting to follow. And once again, we're seeing what's behind a lot of the rhetoric and candidates that we're hearing from out there - and really another bullseye on the JumpStart Tax. In related big corporate news, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz is stepping down. What did we hear with this news? [00:17:49] Guy Oron: Yeah, it was a bit of a surprise just because he was slated to step down at the start of April, and he ended up stepping down two weeks early. This comes as he's been engulfed in a lot of controversy over retaliation against union organizers. At the same time, Starbucks has been making record profits alongside other corporations. And this kind of motivated the union to hold a big rally on Wednesday, and there were hundreds of union members and supporters who showed up in SoDo. At the same time, over a hundred stores across the country went on strike as well. And I think this is a turning point. I think we might see some change. It also happened, this also happened at the same time as a shareholder meeting, where there were multiple resolutions sponsored by different shareholders who are concerned about the impact that union busting might have on the reputation of the company. And so it'll be interesting to see if the pressure from workers from the bottom and pressure from some stakeholders and shareholders will together combine to make some change. And maybe we'll see a shift from Starbucks corporate to be a little more amenable to the union. [00:19:16] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, it's gonna be interesting. Like you said, they have their annual shareholders meeting. Starbucks is important - it's a big corporation - but it's a big corporation that seems as dedicated as any corporation to union busting in every single way that they possibly can. Howard Schultz was certainly the union buster-in-chief and union busted in ways that were not just distasteful and unethical, but also illegal. The National Labor Relations Board found many instances of illegal union busting activity. And so they seem to be on the tip of the spear of being willing to do whatever they feel it takes to battle unions, whether it's shutting down stores and trying to do the redirection by blaming crime - but the stores that they're shutting down seem to just predominantly be stores that are attempting to unionize, or just don't fit within their profit plans. But also just the amount of hostility towards workers - firing people who are organizing, wielding benefits as a weapon - there was coverage before of potentially even using gender affirming care, women's reproductive care as a wedge issue in attempts to unionize. It is just really unfortunate. And so there were some votes on whether to reassess their labor stance in the shareholder meeting. I don't know how much is gonna come from that - those are certainly non-binding. There is some shareholder sentiment to, at least in terms of rhetoric and outward appearance - from at least a marketing perspective - to not be so hostile to workers, as more and more people across the country definitely understand the plight that their workers are going through more than the plight of the CEO and the highly-paid executives fighting against people just being able to afford the basic necessities of life. So we'll see how Starbucks' new CEO, how their shareholders try and push the corporation - but they've got a long way to go. And certainly even if they were to change some rhetoric, lots of people would need to see changes in behavior - immediate good-faith negotiation with many stores that have opted to unionize that now need to negotiate their contracts and seeing them. But it seems also - as we talked about, I think last week or week before - white collar workers in Starbucks headquarters have also voiced concerns and are calling on Starbucks to do better for their workers. So we'll see how this continues to unfold, and how the new CEO stakes their claim and what path they set. Other really big news this week, in the Puget Sound area, is the Sound Transit CID conversation - CID station conversation about where to site stations and spines for the upcoming lines planned for Sound Transit. What is being talked about and what is this about? [00:22:41] Guy Oron: Yeah, this has been a huge issue across Seattle, the Seattle area, for the past couple of weeks. Sound Transit in 2016 passed a ballot measure called ST3, which authorized funding for a new line that would service both Ballard and West Seattle. And now is the process where the agency needs to find locations for a second tunnel and where those stations are gonna be located at. And so over the past couple of years, the Chinatown International District community has really pushed back against some of these plans. Initially the agency really disregarded completely the community perspective and just started drawing on a map. And they drew proposals for Fifth Avenue, which is right next to Uwajimaya and the gate kind of near Chinatown, and that really angered community. And after basically unanimous pushback, they shelved that proposal. And so now they have one proposal for a Fourth Avenue shallower, which would build a station in between Union and King Street Station. And more recently, a couple of months ago, local leaders - Constantine, Dow Constantine and Bruce Harrell - came up with a second proposal to put two stations right outside of the neighborhood, one in Pioneer Square and the other one kind of in the north end of SoDo. And so this proposal was seen as more a way to mitigate some of the direct impacts of construction on the neighborhood, but it's also caused a lot of controversy because it would make transferring from some lines more difficult. Someone who's coming from Ballard and wants to go take the Amtrak, for example - with the north-south proposal, they would have to get off in Pioneer Square and wait another 10 minutes. And similarly, someone coming from the south end, from Rainier Valley, they would also have to either - to get to the Amtrak, they might have to walk another 5-10 minutes. And certain areas of the CID will be farther than with the Fourth Avenue proposal. And so there's a lot of trade-offs in terms of prioritizing transit accessibility, especially if we think about the climate impacts of mitigating car use. And so those are some of the concerns that transit advocates have brought up. And also, some of the progressive organizations in the CID have really pointed to some of the issues with Fourth Avenue, including potentially 9+ years of construction closing down Fourth Avenue and where will all those cars that kind of use it as a mini-highway - where will they go? And they're very concerned that a lot of them will cut through the neighborhood and increase smog and congestion, and make it harder for people who are actually going to the CID to go there and really make the neighborhood much less livable. And so some of these concerns are really important to consider, especially given the history of the City screwing over the neighborhood time and time again - whether it's building I-5 through the neighborhood, the King Dome, and other kind of mega-construction projects that have really devastated communities there. [00:26:11] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, Sound Transit tunnel, deep-bore tunnel - several projects have caused a lot of harm and strain to the CID. And I think what a lot of people are saying, 'cause some people are just - Construction is construction. Everybody deals with it. You gotta, it's gonna inconvenience some people. But the issue is - man, the CID seems to be expected to absorb the inconvenience much more frequently, similarly to the way we see disinvestment in South Seattle. Some areas of the City - which have predominantly BIPOC, predominantly low income, much higher percentage of disabled residents who are there - and experiencing the harm from these impacts from construction. And they're saying - We're tired of being the people who have to absorb the brunt and the majority of the impact, or we're always on the chopping block when it comes to what we need. And over and over again, we see it happen where we're experiencing challenges that other areas of the City are not expected to deal with to the same degree. And they're sick of it, frankly. And a lot of people are saying - Okay, is there a path forward where we can mitigate some of these impacts while still looking at and studying these other stations? So there was a meeting yesterday where they agreed to move forward on what you were talking about - studying, building out these new options and what the impacts and the ramifications and the actual projected cost is. How do you see the conversation about mitigating the impacts of this station happening? What kinds of things are they talking about? [00:28:03] Guy Oron: Yeah, a big thing is transit, the traffic congestion, and how you would mitigate traffic congestion into the neighborhood, regardless of which proposal Sound Transit takes up. And I think that is something where the agency will have to be a little more robust than just promise. They will have to compensate the neighborhood in various ways, as well as also compensating the First Hill neighborhood, of course - because that neighborhood hasn't really been serviced by either of the proposals, especially areas like Harborview. I think the agency should look into maybe funding more frequent bus service to that neighborhood as well. Another issue is, of course, equitable transit-oriented development. And I think the agency has an opportunity to use some of its eminent domain powers to maybe help construct more affordable housing - because that's a huge concern that wherever you build a new light rail station, developers will buy up the land - and then the prices will go up - and build market-rate apartments and price out a lot of the existing residents. So those are some of the concerns that Sound Transit and local leaders will have to look to address. [00:29:19] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, absolutely. I guess I gave my two cents before - which isn't really two cents - on the planned station alignments. I do think the community most impacted, most at risk for displacement and harm should be centered in this conversation. There certainly are people on all sides. There's a broad, diverse array of opinions, but we should hear all of those opinions from that community. We're hearing varied concerns from the community. I think my reflection is based on seeing a lot of people discussing this, a lot of people who are not from the community or tied to the community. And looking at transfer times, which is important - rider experience is absolutely important - but as they do that, to continue to focus and highlight and uplift and listen to the concerns of the residents there. So often when we're in these battles - in a lot of people's minds, it's just refute the argument, get them to vote, and move forward. Downplay the argument - No, that's ridiculous. We should move forward with that. That's a bad idea. And what we're hearing from the community is regardless of which option there is, no matter what option we choose, there are challenges that need to be addressed meaningfully. And I would say to those activists - no matter what option you're supporting - mitigation for the CID, mitigation for First Hill needs to be a part of that. And in so many of these proposals, when we wind up in this situation right here - where community is voicing concerns and people outside of the community are making decisions - so often there's rhetoric - We hear you, we'll totally take care of you. But the things they're asking for are not written into legislation. They're just winks and nods and promises and - Don't worry, we'll take care of it. And then when it's time to take care of it - invariably for a variety of reasons - it doesn't get taken care of, the ball gets dropped, promises get broken, things that they were told were possible are no longer possible. And they end up even more jaded than when they began because they voiced their concerns, they were told that they were heard, they were assured that they would be taken care of, and then they were left out to dry. And so I hope advocates for this really focus on listening to the community, amplifying their concerns, and bringing those concerns to electeds and demanding that mitigations be codified as strictly as everything else. And to not just rely on promises and hopes, and we should be able to do that, and if we get funding. If we are concerned about equity in moving forward, then we need to make sure that we're all moving forward together - and that means standing up for voices that are traditionally talked over, minimalized, overlooked, and making sure that they are actually taken care of. Not saying that everyone's gonna walk away from this happy at the end of the day, but we can ensure that fewer people walk away from this harmed at the end of the day. I think that's everybody's responsibility, and they should really reflect on if they are doing that, they should reflect on if they are talking over people, they should reflect on how to amplify voices, and move forward with that in mind. [00:32:48] Guy Oron: And something I really wish was that this conversation didn't get so polarized, and that communities would listen to each other a little more - be more cognizant of the privilege they are coming into these conversations with. And really direct their fire not at each other, but upwards towards the agencies, towards politicians. There's no shortage of places that Sound Transit needs to be held accountable for, and I think it is unfortunate to see some of that energy be directed between different progressive people who want to do right by their communities. And so I would encourage, like you said, hopefully more cognizant, thoughtful advocacy in the future. [00:33:27] Crystal Fincher: Absolutely. The last thing we'll cover today is Pierce County passing a local tax to fund housing services. What will this do? The final thing we'll talk about today is the Pierce County Council passing a local tax - one-tenth of 1% sales tax increase - to fund affordable housing, as well as approving a pair of ordinances that set the stage for construction of a micro-housing village for people experiencing chronic homelessness, which is a big deal. It's really a big deal because, as I look at this - and I'm old, so I remember things from a long time ago, a lot of people may not - but this Pierce County Council, Pierce County being purple, the Pierce County Council being split - and being able to pass a tax with a majority is something that would not have happened 10, 15, 20 years ago. This is a council that had a strong Republican majority, and the recently retired Derek Young stepped down - he was term limited out actually from the Pierce County Council - was part of really starting to turn the Pierce County Council and Pierce County policy from red to purple and even blue in many circumstances. This passed with a veto-proof majority. A number of people that Derek Young helped to recruit were there, so now that he is no longer on the council, this is the last piece of legislation passed with him as a prime sponsor. It started while he was still on there, and it is continuing now. But I do think this is a testament to how important local organizing is, how important it is for our elected leaders to continue to build leaders in their community, to help give people opportunities for leadership, and to help shepherd people into positions that can make an impact like this in the community. This is not the first action that Pierce County has taken to address major structural issues - certainly within public health and public health centers, housing, the environment - many different issues that they have taken action on. And now with housing, seemingly still being ahead of our State Legislature and several other cities here. But I just think it is something that will absolutely do good and that is possible, was made possible by some real serious continued organizing and investment and leadership from people and leaders within that community. So excited to see that, excited to see another major city in the state take a significant step to try and address this housing affordability and homelessness crisis that we have, with significant investments and delivering on what voters basically have given people a mandate to do. Voters are expecting action to address this housing affordability crisis and homelessness crisis. And can talk about minor changes in policies and this and that, but until we actually make solid investments, have dedicated revenue streams to fund continual improvements, we're not gonna make the progress that we need to. And so kudos to the council Democrats on the Pierce County Council for passing this, despite some opposition from Republicans there - but definitely delivering for what the voters have asked for in Pierce County. [00:37:00] Guy Oron: Yeah, this new tax really shows that leaders across the state are starting to take this - the housing and homelessness issue - seriously, and really understand how dire the situation is. So it's great to see other counties, like Pierce County, start to take action and so I commend them. [00:37:20] Crystal Fincher: Absolutely, and with that, we thank you for listening to Hacks & Wonks on today, Friday, March 24th, 2023. I can't believe it's so late in March, but I can believe my brackets are on fire - okay, I just had to throw that in. It's March Madness, my brackets are amazing at the moment - we'll see if that still holds by next week. But thank you for listening. This show is produced by Shannon Cheng. Our insightful co-host today is Staff Reporter for Real Change covering local news, labor, policing, the environment, criminal legal issues and politics, Guy Oron. You can find Guy on Twitter @GuyOron, G-U-Y-O-R-O-N. You can follow Hacks & Wonks on Twitter @HacksWonks. You can find me on Twitter @finchfrii, it's two I's at the end. You can catch Hacks & Wonks wherever you get your podcasts - just type "Hacks and Wonks" into the search bar. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to get the full versions of our Friday almost-live shows and our midweek show delivered to your podcast feed. And if you like us, leave a review wherever you listen. You can also get a full transcript of this episode and links to the resources referenced in the show at officialhacksandwonks.com and in the episode notes. Thanks for tuning in - talk to you next time.

Gonzaga rallies back against UCLA to advance to the Elite 8. Miami's Cavinder twins are stars in the Women's NCAA basketball tournament and cashing in. Man found living in Mill Creek resident's attic. Everett man stabbed child at Dollar Tree in Mill Creek. // WA Supreme Court upholds capital gains tax. A checking of the texting. // British regulator softens stance on Microsoft-Activision deal. Tik Tok's CEO was excoriated in a House hearing, yesterday.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Washington Supreme Court has ruled in a 7-2 decision to uphold the state's new capital gain tax.

On this midweek show, Seattle Times reporter Dahlia Bazzaz returns with a run-down of education issues across Washington state. Dahlia and Crystal review the Legislature's considerations of special education funding, restraint and isolation in Washington schools, and free school lunch provision. They then cover the lawsuit brought by the Wahkiakum School District against the state, arguing that capital construction costs shouldn't be entirely borne by local taxpayers through school bonds. Finally, Dahlia and Crystal discuss the shift in enrollment patterns whereby students of color are now the majority in Washington public schools, the rise of direct student advocacy with lawmakers, and a call to action to get involved and educated about school boards and school district budgets. As always, a full text transcript of the show is available below and at officialhacksandwonks.com. Follow us on Twitter at @HacksWonks. Find the host, Crystal Fincher, on Twitter at @finchfrii and find our guest Dahlia Bazzaz at @dahliabazzaz.   Resources “Special education spending, oversight top priorities for WA lawmakers” by Dahlia Bazzaz and Jeanie Lindsay from The Seattle Times   “WA schools still restrain, isolate students often despite state laws, report says” by Lulu Ramadan and Claire Withycombe from The Seattle Times   “Restraint and isolation in Washington schools: What these practices are, how they are being used and what needs to change” | ACLU of Washington   “The next McCleary? Tiny district with decaying school buildings sues WA state” by Dahlia Bazzaz from The Seattle Times   “No clear answers as WA Supreme Court hears case on school construction” by Dahlia Bazzaz from The Seattle Times   “WA legislators scrap plan for free school lunch for all students” by David Gutman from The Seattle Times    “Students of color are now the majority in WA public schools” by Dahlia Bazzaz from The Seattle Times   “WA kids deserve 45 minutes of recess time, new bill proposes” by Dahlia Bazzaz from The Seattle Times    “After fatal shooting in school, Seattle searches for answers to gun violence” by Dahlia Bazzaz & Jeanie Lindsay from The Seattle Times   “In Session: Drug possession bill passes, students make opinions clear on multiple bills” by Drew Mikkelsen from King 5 News   Transcript [00:00:00] Crystal Fincher: Welcome to Hacks & Wonks. I'm Crystal Fincher, and I'm a political consultant and your host. On this show, we talk with policy wonks and political hacks to gather insight into local politics and policy in Washington State through the lens of those doing the work with behind-the-scenes perspectives on what's happening, why it's happening, and what you can do about it. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to get the full versions of our Friday almost-live shows and our midweek show delivered to your podcast feed. If you like us, the most helpful thing you can do is leave a review wherever you listen to Hacks & Wonks. Full transcripts and resources referenced in the show are always available at officialhacksandwonks.com and in our episode notes. Today, I am thrilled to be welcoming back to the show: Seattle Times education reporter, Dahlia Bazzaz. Welcome. [00:01:02] Dahlia Bazzaz: Thanks for having me again. [00:01:04] Crystal Fincher: Excited to have you back. We talk about education basically weekly on the show. There are so many things happening in the realm of education - in our schools, with our kids and students. It's so impactful in so many ways. Right now, we're in the middle of a legislative session where they're taking up a lot of issues that will be impacting education. And I thought we would start off by talking about what is currently in play, what is happening legislatively when it comes to education in our schools. So what is top of your mind with what the Legislature is working on? [00:01:43] Dahlia Bazzaz: Yeah, I think to set a little bit of context - this was one of the first sessions post-school closure and we didn't have any sort of form of remote schooling happen this year. So we're coming out of a lot of federal money that was offered to schools - a historic amount of federal money - as well as a lot of enrollment challenges affecting school districts and their budgets. So we came into the session hearing - lots of school districts facing financial challenges, and there's also been some topics that have crept up that have been on legislators' minds since before the pandemic. The most recent session before the pandemic started in 2019, the Legislature really took up special education and that was a huge topic. And it appears that has resurfaced again because that's been probably the biggest thing that's come up in terms of education legislation. One thing to note here is that this particular focus on special education is mostly related to funding. And one of the things that lawmakers are working through - today was the cutoff for bills to make it out of the house of origin, so out of the House or the Senate. And some of the bills that have survived include one bill in the House and one bill in the Senate that seek to address the same problem, which is that the state funding that goes to school districts to support disabled students is capped at a certain enrollment rate. So if you have more than 13.5% of your students receiving special education services, the state will not fund beyond that in its formula. You can seek to apply for a set of funds called safety net funding, but that's an additional barrier and paperwork, and it's basically an as-needed type of pot of funds. So the bill in the House proposes gradually decreasing that funding cap until 2027, when it's eventually removed. And it also proposes increasing the - what they call a multiplier - it's basically a per student rate. So for every student, let's say if you have - for every general education student, the state will give you $2,000. If you have a disabled student, they might give you an extra $900 on top of that. So this bill would also seek to increase that multiplier. It's not the exact amount, but let's say like instead of $2,900, they're giving you $3,500 per student receiving special ed. [00:04:23] Crystal Fincher: This is really an important thing because we already have districts who are above and beyond that cap right now. We're hearing from teachers across the state that more students are in need of more services. Certainly it takes more resources, it costs more money to educate students who have disabilities. And it's a responsibility of the state. It's a responsibility of each of these school districts to do so - we've had so many school districts talk about, They just don't have enough money to do it. They don't have enough educators, para-educators to do this. So does this look - it's continuing to move on - does it look like this is going to meaningfully help a lot of these districts who are in this situation right now? [00:05:09] Dahlia Bazzaz: Districts do, by and large, support this legislation. I think - I've watched enough legislative sessions to know that when things come down to the final budget writing, that what makes it in can be very different from what was going through the different chambers. So as it is, I think I've heard most people who are really in the education world support getting rid of that cap completely. There have been other proposals, including the one from the Senate, that just propose increasing that cap to 15% instead of 13.5%. So it does seek to put a lot of additional funds - we're looking at for the House bill, about $410 million over the next four years. The Senate bill would add about $771 million extra dollars over the next four years. So it's a significant amount of money, but time will tell about what actually makes it in in terms of concrete policy and funding changes. [00:06:09] Crystal Fincher: Got it. What else is being looked at? [00:06:11] Dahlia Bazzaz: So within special education and things that are affecting disabled students, there's also a bill out that would ban isolation and isolation rooms for students. It's a pretty big problem across the state. It was documented in a recent Seattle Times investigation as well. Essentially, this bill would seek to ban isolation rooms, which is a space that educators or school staff would put a student with a behavioral problem. It has a lock in which the student cannot unlock themselves, so basically it's just locking a student in a room. There are really not many provisions about what these isolation rooms look like, and a lot of research has shown that it's very harmful for students and kids and it can actually worsen behavior and worsen school avoidance. So this legislation would seek to ban these isolation rooms by 2025. It also would prohibit mechanical and chemical forms of restraint, so think of things like different medications used to sedate students or things like handcuffs that are used outside of a criminal justice type of environment - so these are all sort of ways to regulate the response to students with any behavioral problems at school. [00:07:32] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, absolutely. This is really important. I actually - just yesterday, I believe it was Kendrick Washington from the ACLU, who I know is involved with advocating for that bill actually posted a picture on social media about some of these isolation rooms. And it looks like a prison inside of the school. And this flies in the face of evidence about what actually does work to improve behavior and integration within schools. These types of tactics are used disproportionately against BIPOC students. It just - this doesn't seem appropriate for school settings at all, and for kids at all. This is not productive discipline, it's not effective. And so I really hope this is something that does make it through. [00:08:23] Dahlia Bazzaz: Yeah, and I'm remembering a case out of Spokane - I believe a few news outlets covered it in Spokane - where a student who is nonverbal was locked in a room that didn't have any sort of padding or whatsoever. And the student ended up hitting herself against a few walls and really injuring herself to the point of needing medical care and attention. So it's a pretty huge issue and it can cause physical harm to students. [00:08:47] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, absolutely. So we'll be keeping our eye on that one. Is there anything else that you've been tracking in the Legislature? [00:08:54] Dahlia Bazzaz: One other big issue is capital construction costs, which is something that I think we don't talk about enough within the K-12 sphere. But right now, the State Supreme Court is hearing a case that could be the next McCleary, except on the school construction side. So McCleary was the big school funding case that changed the way that teacher salaries and all these operational parts of a school are funded - really increased how much the state was spending versus how much local taxes we're collecting from voters. And so this case came up because a tiny school district in southwest Washington called the Wahkiakum School District sued the state. It hasn't been able to pass a bond in 22 years. And when you are a district that cannot pass a bond in Washington state, you don't have a ton of options to get funding for school construction. You can't apply for the biggest state program that offers assistance, which is called the SCAP [School Construction Assistance Program] program. This program only allows you to apply for funding if you pass a bond. So you're locked out of a lot of options. And so the same attorney that won the McCleary case for the plaintiffs has taken on this case for Wahkiakum, and they're coming at it from the same angle, which is that the State Constitution says that it is the state's paramount duty to amply fund education. And they are arguing that school construction that is essential to the safety of students is - falls under that umbrella term. So there are a couple of bills floating out there that try to address this problem. One of them is from State Representative Joel McEntire, who is an alumnus of Wahkiakum, I should say. And it is very specifically tailored to these very small school districts that struggle to raise money through bonds. It would provide about half of the construction costs for school districts that are 1,000 students or fewer. As of right now - 1:25PM - it has not passed out of its chamber of origin. But i have seen things come up in the budget out of the dead before in the final weeks of the session, so can't say for sure whether or not that's going to come through. There's also some proposals to redirect revenue from timber harvests over to school districts - also not sure where that's going to end up. But I think a fair amount of legislators see this issue as a problem - they think the state should provide more funding for school construction. But there are many who also believe that local taxpayers should be fronting most of that cost. And they don't really agree with a model like school operations where you would get, let's say, a certain amount of funds per student for school construction every year. So that's been a big topic. The hearing for that case, the first and only, is going to be next week on Tuesday. And I have a story publishing about the Wahkiakum School District this weekend, and it just takes a look at their school facilities. I went down there. The buildings are in some dire need of some improvements. The floors of the high school are lined with asbestos that are sealed in by a layer of wax. Their fire alarm system is from the 1960s and if it's activated, you have to use a leather welding glove to disable it - it gets really hot. There are lots of broken sinks in their science classrooms - they can't do experiments inside, they have to go outside, sometimes sitting in the rain to do any sort of chemistry labs. And yeah, they haven't been able to pass a bond in 22 years. So as you can imagine, there's a lot of outstanding maintenance and leaky ceilings and just crumbling infrastructure around the buildings. So look for that story coming up this weekend. [00:12:43] Crystal Fincher: Absolutely. And we record before people hear this aired, so they may not hear this for a couple of weeks - but we are recording this at the moment on March 8th. So by the time people hear this, we'll be well past this - we'll know what definitely made it out of the chambers of origin. And we will absolutely share the upcoming article that you have in our resources in the show notes so people can have all of that context. And this is such an interesting conversation. The McCleary decision was such a big decision - messy process throughout that decision in even getting the Legislature to comply with that decision after it was made - was just its whole dramatic tooth pulling endeavor. But this is really a necessary continued part of this conversation. So many school districts across the state are reliant upon bond and levy revenue - they're reliant upon local voters opting in to fund these things throughout the district. And there was just a Marysville school levy election last month that if they wouldn't have passed that, they would have had to take immediate major steps to cut to fit within their limited budget. And so if it truly is the paramount duty of our state to fund education - whether it's special education, whether it's school funding in these capital costs - it really seems like there's a long way that we still have to go. And regardless of how this court case turns out, it seems like there is a responsibility for the Legislature to reckon with and fund this in a better and more sustainable way. [00:14:29] Dahlia Bazzaz: Yeah, that's certainly what Wahkiakum would like to see. And there have been other proposals to - let's adjust the bond approval rates - right now it's 60% with a certain percentage of voter outcome. And for Wahkiakum, the last bond they attempted - they only got 30% approval. So it's very challenging even without making those really substantive adjustments to the law. And there's also the issue of how much the districts can tax - when you have a really small school district and you have a really poor property valuation, you're not going to raise as much money as districts that are really well-to-do. So it would take - you would tax at a way higher rate to make a third of what Mercer Island or Bellevue would make if you were Wahkiakum. So it's also another sort of issue that lawmakers, Supreme Court justices will have to contend with. [00:15:21] Crystal Fincher: Absolutely. And we have to ask ourselves - what are we setting ourselves up for and what kinds of patterns are we allowing this to fall into? If people coming from districts that already don't have the financial resources that others do, then aren't able to fund new building construction costs and are not able to provide a quality education or even a quality environment for people to learn in. If they aren't able to pass levies that provide some of what lots of people would consider to be educational basics and necessities - providing things like nurses and libraries and things like that, that we expect to be part of a traditional school experience. If we are setting ourselves up to make sure that people in lower income districts just cannot enjoy, just cannot have these types of things - seems like we're just further setting in stone cycles of poverty, because we're not enabling people from these areas to have a good education - who are more reliant on that education for mobility socially, economically, and otherwise. So I hope that this gets the attention that it deserves. [00:16:34] Dahlia Bazzaz: I hope so too. [00:16:35] Crystal Fincher: Is there anything else in the legislature that we should be looking at? [00:16:38] Dahlia Bazzaz: Just a couple of other things. There's a school lunch bill that would essentially extend, in a modified way, extend a Biden administration policy that expired last school year - which would offer free school lunch to all students. This state substitution would lower the threshold for when schools are required to offer free lunch to all students, regardless of income eligibility. So currently it's at about 40% or more students that would get, if they qualify, for free and reduced lunch at the elementary school level, then the entire school has to provide it for all students. And this would bump it down to 30% qualifying. So it would help a lot of schools that kind of straddle that 30-40% line, but it's not free lunch for everybody. And there's also a different graduation pathway option being proposed. So basically a different way for students to graduate high school. [00:17:37] Crystal Fincher: Well, yeah. And certainly if you follow me online, if you have listened to prior conversations - the bill, the original bill that would have just provided free school lunch to all students in Washington, sponsored by Senator T'wina Nobles, was something that I was very excited about, that lots of people were very excited about. To me, it seems - hey, if we're mandating kids be in this space, we can provide meals. Especially with what we learned throughout the pandemic in providing this additional school meals, with the addition of SNAP funds - that actually also just expired - we made such improvements, such dramatic improvements in childhood poverty reduction and in hunger reduction. And these are such basic things. If we cannot feed our kids, if we cannot keep our kids from being hungry, what are we even doing - just as a society - is basically where I'm at. And so especially the SNAP benefit boost ending and people essentially receiving a $95/month cut after we've seen so much food inflation in the first place. We know this cut is going to be made by making choices between food, medication, and rent, and clothes. And they're going to be more kids who are hungry - who just may not have as much food as they had before to eat. And we know that that impacts students' ability to learn. I can't sit through a meeting and pay attention well if I'm sitting there hungry and then I get hangry. And to think of kids going through this in school, it just seems like we can do better. But we have a number of people who said - Hey, there just isn't the money in the budget to do that. So as I said in other settings, I will say again - if that is the case, if that is the truth, then I sincerely hope that we see these legislators who said that we couldn't afford it fighting for the revenue to be able to afford that as soon as possible. Because it just doesn't seem like we're doing our job as a society if we're enabling kids to go hungry when we have the option to do better. [00:19:45] Dahlia Bazzaz: Yeah, I'm just sitting here and thinking about those first few months of school closures when school districts just turned into these food banks - and they were passing out food to anyone who came by - didn't have to be a student in a lot of these places. I remember talking to a lot of school districts in central Washington and South King County, and I was there when they were distributing a lot of food and goodies. And it was just a line constantly from 8AM to 5PM, so it's crazy to see the difference between now and then, and the transformation of what schools are doing. [00:20:22] Crystal Fincher: Absolutely. So we've talked about what's happening within the Legislature, but what else is happening, or what else is making news in the state of education here in Washington? [00:20:34] Dahlia Bazzaz: A little bit at the top, but there's the enrollment patterns that emerged after the pandemic. Some of it is undefined, but we've lost a lot of students in Washington state - we've lost more than other states have on average. And a lot of districts are feeling the crunch because, of course, funds are tied to that student enrollment. And there is a bit of hand-wringing going on right now among school districts about school closures, about possible layoffs - Seattle Schools has warned about that. There could be school closures happening around the Seattle area and other parts of Washington state. And so I think that state officials, state education officials have been pushing for funding to help cushion that blow. And a lot of this is related to the pandemic federal aid running out, or the deadline coming out. They still have a couple of years to spend all those funds, but a lot of districts invested that money in salaries, and short-term positions, and then to fill budget gaps. So this is the result of all of that pandemic-era spending, and also a realization that students need more resources for mental health and counseling and social services. And so there's been a lot of addition of staff to school districts even as enrollment has been declining. And so this is kind of a crunch point right now for school districts. I wrote recently about a landmark that we just hit - we hit it last year technically, but it's also on the books this year - but students of color are now the majority in Washington state. And this is not unique across the country - we're actually a little bit behind the rest of the nation when it comes to this, but officially now make up the majority of the state. And it's been interesting digging into the enrollment patterns within those changes because not all student groups that are nonwhite have increased. In fact, we've seen some decrease over the years. And so I wrote a story about that recently as well. And it's been interesting seeing how districts are adapting to that new reality. [00:22:35] Crystal Fincher: And did I see that Black students were one of the groups that were decreasing? [00:22:39] Dahlia Bazzaz: Yes, Black students and Native students are among those that have decreased - and white students. [00:22:44] Crystal Fincher: Gotcha. Another issue that is important - just in terms of childhood development - is how much unstructured play time kids have and that's something that I think you wrote about, too. And paying close attention to the Legislature - this is the time of year that just hurts my feelings the most, because even the good things - they just get hacked to pieces and - [00:23:06] Dahlia Bazzaz: I know. [00:23:07] Crystal Fincher: - that hurts my feelings. And so I try to just not pay attention to - I'm not working on any legislation at the moment. So it's just like - I just want to not look, just let me know what survives and what doesn't, and I'll try and - So we've also seen a lot of advocacy directly from students talking about what they need, whether it is mental health, special education services, or even feeling safe on campus and what they need to do that. What have you seen from students and heard directly from them about what they say they need? [00:23:40] Dahlia Bazzaz: A lot of students have taken their advocacy directly to the state and to lawmakers. They recognize that violence on school campuses is a direct consequence of whatever laws there are in the state around who can own a weapon. And I think a lot of students are cognizant that the violence that happens on school campuses is just a microcosm of what happens outside of school campuses. So mostly they have been advocating for gun control law changes. They've also been advocating - as they have been for several years and for many different reasons - more mental health counseling, more social and emotional support and help, violence, de-escalation education in their classes. So a few different things. And even going back to 2018, 2017, we had those March for our. Lives movements that brought a lot of Seattle area students out - walking out of their schools and classes. So it's been something they've been thinking about a lot, and especially in light of the recent fatal shooting at Ingraham High School. [00:24:42] Crystal Fincher: Absolutely. Now you have a perspective that is unique in the state - as someone who's covered education for a while thoroughly, who has seen things with her own eyes in a variety of different environments and circumstances, districts across the state - for people who really care about public education and who want to improve conditions but don't quite know where to start or what types of things would make the biggest difference, what would you say to someone who says, I want to help, but I'm not sure how. What would make the biggest difference? [00:25:18] Dahlia Bazzaz: Pay attention to your school board meetings. I think every year there's a city council election, there's a school board election. And when I see the turnout differences in Seattle - and in any other city, honestly - when I see the turnout differences between a city council race or a mayor race and then the school board elections, it always makes my heart fall a little bit because these folks are in charge of a lot of money and a lot of decisions that affect students. And there just isn't the same type of advocacy and accountability for these bodies. And journalists do the best they can, but there are 300 school districts in the state and not that many news organizations covering all of them. I know reporters that double up and they cover like 20 different school districts out in central Washington. There's no way you can watchdog all of those school districts at the level that is required to really catch everything. So I would say - get really involved in the school board politics, show up to meetings, testify to school board members - they have a lot more power than you think they do. And it is a, I think, a largely ignored body of policymakers as well, because they don't get paid very much - I think the law caps it at $4,000 in compensation. And people have been trying to change that because it can be an equity issue where only people that can sustain themselves and don't have to work a full-time job can take those positions. Do have the rare school board member that is a teacher at the same time, or can make the time or set it aside for school board activities. But it is - it is a full-time job for many people. And so I would say make sure to vote in those elections - I know that a lot of the time people ask for solutions and we just shout "Vote" at them, and it can be an incomplete answer. But I think in these cases, it's especially important to vote - because they can be separated by just like 20, 30, 40 votes - your vote really does matter in those elections. And just read through all of the documents that they're working through. They're required to record those meetings in minutes, so definitely pay attention to what is happening on the policy level. And if you can get a school board member to partner with you, they can introduce different policies and pass them at the school board level. I think more people are becoming cognizant of that - unfortunately, because of how much chaos has erupted in school board meetings over the past several years. But it's important that even outside of these huge controversies with masking, with CRT, that we're paying attention even when it's not dominating the headlines. [00:27:58] Crystal Fincher: Absolutely. I think that is such wise advice, and I just second everything that you said. Especially because hardly anyone engages with school board races, school board meetings - so few people vote in those elections, are aware of who the candidates even are or what they stand for, that it really - because they can operate under the radar and without notice. People may be shocked to see the egregious things that are happening in school districts that they think are fine and safe and "normal" - and to see, whether it's conversations about book bans, about allowing all members of our community, including people in the LGBTQ community, all different cultures, ethnicities - it is just so important to engage in these races. And I have personally seen some shocking and alarming things happen at school board candidate forums and school board meetings. And I tell you, it just takes - three people showing up to a school board meeting can completely change the trajectory of things. It can make them reverse votes. I've been involved in movements to do that successfully, and it just doesn't take much. It just takes paying attention and engaging and getting involved. So whatever your local school district is, I think you are absolutely right in encouraging people to stay engaged, pay attention, make sure to vote in those elections. But also stay engaged throughout the rest of the year to make sure that you see what's going on - to make sure if some elements are trying to come in and usurp power or take over the district, that there are people who see that and who organize against it. Because right now a lot of it's flying under the radar and people may not notice until it's too late. [00:29:50] Dahlia Bazzaz: Absolutely. And I would also add to that - trying to gain a knowledge of how school districts budget and just the essentials of education finance, because - and I hear this a lot and I love this phrase, but - a budget is a moral document. And if you want to know where a school district puts its values, then you just have to look at what they're spending, and where they're spending it, and on which students they're spending it on. So if you show up for those days where they're going through the budget, going through their fiscal strategy - all those things can really pay off and give you a better understanding. Don't just show up for the policy days, show up for when they're actually putting the money behind those policies. [00:30:33] Crystal Fincher: Absolutely. Thank you so much for taking this time again with us today to help educate us on what is happening in education across Washington state. Thank you so much, Dahlia. [00:30:44] Dahlia Bazzaz: Thank you for having me, Crystal - it's fun. [00:30:46] Crystal Fincher: Thank you for listening to Hacks & Wonks, which is co-produced by Shannon Cheng and Bryce Cannatelli. You can follow Hacks & Wonks on Twitter @HacksWonks. You can catch Hacks & Wonks on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts - just type "Hacks and Wonks" into the search bar. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to get the full versions of our Friday almost-live shows and our midweek show delivered to your podcast feed. If you like us, leave a review wherever you listen. You can also get a full transcript of this episode and links to the resources referenced in the show at officialhacksandwonks.com and in the episode notes. Thanks for tuning in - talk to you next time.

Olympia correspondent Jeanie Lindsay reports on the oral arguments the justices heard in a lawsuit claiming the state is failing to uphold the constitution.

KUOW's Amy Radil reports.

Over the past five years, the Washington Supreme Court has issued a series of rulings aimed at combating a fraught problem within the legal system — implicit racial bias. The court has relied on a new legal test: whether an “objective observer” could see racial bias as a factor in who gets to serve on juries, who gets convicted — and who wins in court.

5pm - Dave Boze: As capital gains tax goes to WA Supreme Court, a push to ‘microtarget' justices // Kia, Hyundai face City of Seattle lawsuit over rise in car thefts // LETTERSSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this Hacks & Wonks Week in Review, political consultant and show host Crystal Fincher is joined by fellow political consultant and urban farmer, Heather Weiner, for an enthusiastic conversation looking ahead to the 2023 Washington state legislative session, reviewing key announcements from a party leader and a city councilmember who aren't running again, and discussing what makes for effective political mail.  Crystal and Heather start the show looking at what's coming in the 2023 state legislative session. They highlight housing, drug possession laws, childcare, and education as key areas that our representatives will be working on in Olympia, and point out the mandate voters gave our leaders by electing for fighting for progressive reforms last November.  This week, state Democratic Party Chair Tina Podlodowski announced she will not be running for state chair again. Crystal and Heather review Podlodowski's accomplishments as chair and compare her tenure to other state parties like New York. In more local news, Seattle City Councilmember Alex Pedersen announced he will also not be running for re-election this year, meaning that now three city council seats will not have an incumbent in their race.  After a brief discussion about Seattle's I-135 Social Housing initiative, which will be decided on a February 14th ballot, Crystal and Heather have an in-depth conversation about what makes for effective political mail. It's an informative discussion from two highly-accomplished experts in the field that you won't want to miss!  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 Heather Weiner at @hlweiner.   Heather Weiner Heather Weiner (she/her) is a political consultant with 30 years of experience on labor, environmental, LGBTQ, racial justice, and reproductive rights issues. She focuses on ballot initiatives, independent expenditures, legislative, union organizing and contract campaigns. She's a recovering lawyer.   Resources   Hacks & Wonks twitter - 2022 Stats    “Inslee Rolls Out ‘Substantial and Audacious' Housing Agenda in Budget Proposal” by Ryan Packer from The Urbanist   “Voters sent clear message to WA leaders for 2023 Legislative session” by Andy Billig from The Seattle Times   “In 2023, WA lawmakers will decide the legal future of drug possession” by Joseph O'Sullivan from Crosscut    “Missing Middle Housing Reform Returns for 2023 Legislative Session” by Doug Trumm, Stephen Fesler, & Natalie Bicknell Argerious from The Urbanist   “What WA voters want to see from the 2023 legislative session” by Joseph O'Sullivan from Crosscut   “WA Democratic Party Chair Tina Podlodowski stepping down” by Jim Brunner from The Seattle Times   “Alex Pedersen Not Seeking Second Term on Seattle Council” by Doug Trumm from The Urbanist   “WA Supreme Court clears way for state to collect capital-gains tax” by Claire Withycombe from The Seattle Times   House Our Neighbors website - I-135 Overview and Text   “Catch Up on Seattle's Social Housing Ballot Measure at Our January Meetup with Tiffani McCoy” by Doug Trumm from The Urbanist   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. If you missed our Tuesday midweek show, we had an enlightening discussion with Senator Manka Dhingra, Chair of the Senate Law & Justice Committee in our State Legislature and our State Senate, where we talked about the tough issues of her committee, the tough issues her committee will take on this legislative session. Find it in the resources below or on our website, officialhacksandwonks.com. Full transcripts and resources referenced in the show are always available on our website and in 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 back to the program, friend of the show and today's co-host: political consultant and urban farmer, Heather Weiner. [00:01:15] Heather Weiner: Good morning, afternoon, whatever day it is for your listeners - time of day - Crystal Fincher. [00:01:20] Crystal Fincher: Hey, hey, hey. [00:01:22] Heather Weiner: So happy to be invited back. I really thought for a moment there that I had just completely bungled it and would never be invited back. So can't tell you how excited I am to be here in 2023. [00:01:34] Crystal Fincher: Now hush about you bungling stuff. You remain one of the most admired and in-demand political consultants - and wonderful mentors and friends to so many of us. [00:01:49] Heather Weiner: Oh, I love this part of every podcast, whether it's this one or anybody else's, where people just give each other big air kisses. So big air kiss to you, Crystal Fincher. [00:01:58] Crystal Fincher: Big air kiss to you. I love it, and I love that - yeah, we get to talk to great, awesome, incredible dynamic people and learn from your wisdom. And just get a chance to say Hi, because we get so busy sometimes that it becomes hard. So I - we're listening to each other's voices. But while we record, I can see your face - this gives me an excuse to see your face. [00:02:27] Heather Weiner: Well, good morning. Listen, I am so excited about today's conversation because - as you know - it is not quite Christmas Eve for all of us hacks and wonks. But it's pretty exciting - I would say maybe more like right before 4th of July - because the fireworks are going to start exploding on Monday when leg session comes in - in Olympia - and we're already seeing pre-filed bills, people are already starting to stake out their positions. [00:02:53] Crystal Fincher: They are. [00:02:54] Heather Weiner: Yeah, it's going to be very interesting - with the Democrats coming in just fired up to get some stuff done. [00:03:01] Crystal Fincher: Love it. Legislative Session Eve basically. Before we even get to that, I did just want to take a moment. We, the team here - Bryce Cannatelli, Shannon Cheng, and I - looked back at our 2022. And usually we don't do this publicly, but we thought - we actually did a lot of work this past year and we just did a little 2022 In Review. We actually did 97 total episodes in 2022, which is a lot - 71 total guests, 25 interviews with elected officials, 4 candidate forums. We did a lot of work, a lot of shows. And the podcast overall - I was just saying yesterday - it, for being just this completely niche, really wonky local government politics and policy podcast, which - I was like, Okay, maybe seven people will listen to when we started out, but I just think it's really important to talk about these issues. It's become bigger than I ever thought it would. And I just really appreciate all of the listeners and people who engage. We are really passionate about just engaging in our community, including our local government. This is how we shape who we are and tomorrow - I've said before - getting involved in local government is organizing. [00:04:33] Heather Weiner: And it's, and it's fun. [00:04:35] Crystal Fincher: It really is. And you can make a difference, you can change things - you have so much impact locally. And so I hope, as we talk about this, people see that and feel that - and get activated and involved. But anyway, just wanted to take a moment to say thank you to everyone. We do this podcast in the middle of all of the rest of our work - this is a side project and not what we do actually full-time - we're political consultants. And squeezing this in between everything is a lot of work - it takes a lot of time - but we feel it's important, and we enjoy it, and we enjoy interacting and speaking with all of you. So thank you once again. And on to a legislative preview. What can we look forward to this legislative session, Heather? [00:05:33] Heather Weiner: First, let's just say that the Democrats are coming in and saying that they are being given a mandate by the voters. I don't know if you read Andy Billig's op-ed in The Seattle Times where he laid out, Hey, we won big this year and we have a mandate to address racial equity, to address homelessness, housing, tax fairness, the environment - and we're ready to do it. To which Danny Westneat, ever playing the devil's advocate and a grumpy old man like Walter Matthau, suddenly wants to say - No, you didn't really get a mandate. You just lucked out because of Dobbs and Roe V. Wade. I think Danny is reading the room wrong. I think Andy Billig totally has it. The voters want more progressive policies, they want to see Washington become a better state to live in, and they want the super rich to pay for it. And I'm very excited to see what this legislative session comes up with. Top of the agenda, of course, is from Governor Inslee's budget, which he announced right at the end of the month in December - where he dropped a bombshell saying he wants to run a statewide referendum that raises money for housing. And I think that's an amazing, fantastic idea - and we're hearing a lot of support from Republicans actually - even Braun is out there talking about middle-income housing, which is fantastic. We need to make sure that we don't lose sight of what the real - the other big crisis that is in front of us every day, which is the lack of low-income housing. I'm really hoping that the Legislature is going to take that by the horns and run it through this year. What else are you seeing, Crystal? [00:07:19] Crystal Fincher: I am definitely seeing that. I think, in housing, it is really interesting to see the increase in momentum, support - even just from last legislative session - for taking action on middle housing, or the ability to build in more places to increase the housing supply in the longterm. Also remains to be seen if there is enough momentum to, as you just mentioned, address lower-income folks and their ability to afford housing, keeping people in their homes, renter protections, those types of things. We will see how that lands in this Legislature. I think - seeing momentum on some public health issues - they're going to have to address the Blake fix, or the legislation that was brought about from the Blake decision from our State Supreme Court addressing personal possession of drugs and substances. And in addressing that, they're going to be forced to take that on this session. And we actually had a great conversation with Senator Manka Dhingra in our midweek episode about that. I think one thing that people are wondering about is just in the issue of education - we saw so many strikes by public educators really standing up for their kids and especially bringing attention to how short-staffed and underfunded our special education system and resources are - [00:08:56] Heather Weiner: And childcare. [00:08:57] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, absolutely. And although there was some improvement made on that in the short term - really what was made plain - is that there needs to be some statewide fixes. We have to more fundamentally address education. And I don't know if that's going to be addressed this session, but I think that's another area where voters spoke loudly and clearly - from people who were really articulating the importance of that as candidates and also that we just saw in the support of teachers. It's always interesting when those strikes happen and people are trying to figure out - okay, is there going to be pushback against the strikes? Is there going to be support? And in district after district - doesn't, didn't matter whether it was in a metropolitan area, suburban, rural - those teachers had the support of the families and the parents in their district and a recognition that we have to do better. So I do hope that we see action taken on that. And I think they can expect to face questions if that doesn't look like that happens. [00:10:05] Heather Weiner: So let me pivot on that one and say - earlier this year, we heard from a lot of school districts that said they might have to do more levies in order to fund their needs - whether that's basic construction, repairing these aging schools, funding special ed programs, funding general programs. And what happens is when they pass a levy, that's through a property tax and that property tax means that the lowest income people are the ones who end up paying the greatest percentage of that. So I am very excited to see in the Governor's budget that he is already taking into account the capital gains tax, which is going to the Washington Supreme Court for a hearing on the 26th of this month. He's already assumed that will be upheld as constitutional and has incorporated that money into education, particularly preschool help for low-income families and expanding childcare opportunities for all families. I'm very happy to see that - I think that's pretty exciting. But did you read this Elway poll that Crosscut did? Yeah - talking, asking voters what their highest priority issues were. I thought that was also super interesting because I find the Elway polls skew pretty conservative - and sometimes they're worded a little conservative for me, sometimes I don't really buy them - but I actually got polled on this, so I was very excited to see where I was. And more than a majority of the voters do support the Governor's proposal - raise a $4 million bond for homelessness and housing. They support more funding for education. They want the Democrats to move forward on these progressive policies. I think the Republicans are going to be smart this year. I don't think they're going to pick fights on the dumb issues for them - I don't think they're going to pick fights on choice, I don't think they're going to pick fights on LGBTQ issues. I think they're going to pick a fight on taxes and I think they're going to pick a fight on decriminalization. I think that's where they think they can start to wedge people and start to pull some of the moderate conservative Democrats with them. What do you think? [00:12:10] Crystal Fincher: You know, that's such an interesting issue. Speaking of public polling, every time this is polled - and it has been several times - the public is ahead of where our legislature is and the public is clear about - on issues of legalization, that they want a public health approach. We can look around and see that the War on Drugs has failed, right? We've been trying this for 40, 50 years and has not worked, even though that it's taken a ton of resources. And so they do want a different approach and to stop doing the things that haven't worked. And so it's really interesting because the public is there. And when it's put in front of the public, they vote in that direction. But some of our legislators are behind where the public is, and we hear concerns from them that frankly we don't see. Even in King County, when vote after vote, we see people and candidates who have articulated a more evidence-based approach to these things - that takes into account where criminalization is counterproductive, and doesn't make people safer, and doesn't get us closer to where we need to be as a society. [00:13:30] Heather Weiner: And is a waste of taxpayer dollars, honestly, right - incarceration. [00:13:34] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, it is really inefficient and expensive. And so that's going to be interesting - to see if people follow where evidence is and it's very clear, or if they don't - I don't know where the Legislature is going to land on that. [00:13:49] Heather Weiner: I feel like it has less to do with facts and it has more to do - I know this is going to shock you and all of your listeners - that politics and policy may not have anything to do with facts, and may have more to do with personal experience. And I think there are many legislators and many of us who have people in our lives who we love and care about who struggle with substance use disorder. And I think that those stories of people who we love and care about because - who are struggling with substance use disorder and face incarceration if they ask for help and so they refuse, they cannot ask for help because they are afraid of incarceration. I think that if some of those stories can come out, that if legislators have courage to share their personal stories with permission of the people involved, of course, I think that will be almost as persuasive - if not more persuasive - than the facts. Because it is the dehumanization of people who suffer from substance use disorder, which is a public health issue - it is a mental and public health issue - that people who suffer from that are demonized and dehumanized. And while we continue to allow that to happen, I don't think we're going to get very far. So let's use those personal stories. Let's have the courage to come out with our own personal stories about substance use disorder - for me, it's a lot of red wine - to get people to talk about it and take away the stigma and get some solutions on the table. [00:15:15] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, absolutely. So it's going to be interesting to see. There certainly will be a lot that unfolds during the session and we will continue to pay attention to what happens, but certainly it's going to be, it's going to be an interesting session and I think beyond everything, you're absolutely right. There is a mandate to act and people are expecting action. Another piece of big news this week - seeing a series of big news where people announcing that they are not running for the seats that they hold. And I guess starting off is one that's not technically a public official, but is very visible in politics and policy in Washington - Tina Podlodowski, the State Chair of the Washington State Democrats, announced that she is stepping down from her position. What did you think about this? [00:16:07] Heather Weiner: Well, first - I am a big fan of Tina Podlodowski's. I think she has done an absolutely amazing job as Chair. She's raised more money. She has focused on Field instead of a lot of internal stuff. I think she's revolutionized, not revolutionized, but certainly taken the State Dems into a much better direction. And even just from going from caucus to primary system - all of it, I think, has been better for the State Dems in general. So I'm a big fan of Tina's. I think we need to remember what the State Chair does. So whoever is in that position is the face and voice for the State Party. They get to be the bad guy in a lot of ways. They get to be the attack dog, and that's the role that they have to play and sometimes it makes them unpopular. I think that they need to raise a lot of funds. They need to make a lot of friends and be close to the establishment - raising that money - while at the same time answering to the grassroots and more radical elements of the party who actually show up, knock doors, and do the hard work. It's a difficult position and I think whoever runs for it, and we'll know on January 28th who wins that position, has got to be prepared for walking that tightrope for the State Dems. I've seen that Shasti Conrad has already announced that she's running and has lined up a very impressive list of endorsers. So I know we both are Shasti fans and as the current Chair of the King County Democrats - or previous Chair of the King County Democrats - I think she's well positioned to take that role on. What do you think? [00:17:55] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, completely agree with you. And just - on Tina - that is a position that is really hard to get kudos for when you're doing things right. You're always making someone unhappy if you're doing things right. But what a contrast between the successes that we've had and built on in Washington state and the mess that we see in a state like New York. [00:18:18] Heather Weiner: Oh, right. [00:18:21] Crystal Fincher: That state party has just managed to really mess things up so severely that the entire country is paying for them - potentially just the composition of the House and the majority - looks like New York is responsible for messing that up. And just the calamity that is George Santos who - is that even his real name? Who has lied about everything under the sun? [00:18:53] Heather Weiner: Look - Tina is regarded by many of the state chairs around the country as one of the best in the country, because of what she's done with the State Party here. And I do want to say there's been a lot of criticism of her. I also am a woman who sometimes says things that piss people off. But I will say that, Look, if her name was Tim Podlodowski, she may have gotten a little bit less of the criticism for being the badass that she has been. Now, the next person who comes in is probably going to want to heal some of the intraparty wounds and build some bridges back. And I think that person has to be prepared to do some of that. But again, the State Party is often an unrecognized powerhouse behind many campaigns, Congressional campaigns, our recent campaign with Senator Murray. And the people who do that really hard work behind the scenes do deserve to be recognized - shout out to all of the State Dem staffers. [00:19:55] Crystal Fincher: Absolutely. We also saw news of Alex Pedersen on the Seattle City Council announcing that he will not be running again. [00:20:04] Heather Weiner: Number three - we have three open seats in Seattle. [00:20:08] Crystal Fincher: So what is this landscape? What does this mean for the City of Seattle? [00:20:13] Heather Weiner: First, let me just say - to everybody who's been asking, I am not working on any candidate campaigns in Seattle because - [00:20:18] Crystal Fincher: Ditto. [00:20:19] Heather Weiner: I can't do it anymore. It's just too emotional. It just wrecks me too much emotionally. It's just not good for my mental health, and my wife will kill me if I work on another candidate campaign in Seattle. So this is super interesting because I think that Bruce Harrell is actually still pretty popular in the City. I think that he - if nothing changes wildly between now and August, I think that his anointed candidates will definitely come through primaries, if not win. So I think whoever's running right now has to be ready to not attack Harrell and to be in a position to talk about how they're going to improve things or work with the current mayor. The current mayor is not - I do not get the sense that people are ready to hold this current mayor accountable for anything. They still like what he's doing. They think he's a nice guy. There's not been a major snowstorm or police shooting. So as far as the general public is concerned, Harrell's all right. And I think Inslee is actually giving Harrell and a lot of other city leaders a great out by running - going back to this bond initiative - by running this massive bond initiative referendum to fund housing and homelessness, because that is the major issue in major cities around the state. And in this way, the city leaders will be able to point to that, talk about how that's going to be the solution, and are able to walk away from it. [00:21:41] Crystal Fincher: I don't know that I necessarily agree with that. [00:21:43] Heather Weiner: Please - I love it when you disagree. [00:21:45] Crystal Fincher: I think that it's up in the air - and this is so interesting because this is like the conversations that we have amongst ourselves elsewhere - so I think the City is in a very interesting place. I think the City is progressive and frustrated at not feeling like issues are getting better, and not seeing issues get better that have been talked about as the most important issues - the crises that we're facing, yet still not seeing substantive or tangible improvement. And I think also - just looking at these last November elections - we see, especially in areas like North Seattle that have been traditionally thought of as more moderate - definitely look like they're different, like they're significantly more progressive than they were. And it makes sense when you think about the increase in renters, that the pressures on people of even generous incomes being able to afford the increasing and astronomical rent, just being able to enter the housing market in Seattle close to services and the City or being displaced further out from that. And so I think that you see the foundation of a more progressive shift, which we have seen a trend towards more progressive policy over the past several years overall. Now, this is an odd year. We're not going to see the same level of turnout, which is why we talk about even- versus odd-year elections this year - and that is a headwind. So it's going to be really interesting to see. And I actually think the individual candidates are going to make a difference. How can they articulate a vision of what they can get done positively that's not based on - to your point actually - what they dislike or grievances that they have, and more of a vision for what they can accomplish. How can they work together with people to do that? But I do think that people are more on guard than they used to be for - I'm the adult in the room, and I'm the conciliator and the person who can bring everyone together to find a place where everyone agrees and we can move forward, because - [00:24:07] Heather Weiner: I'd vote for you. I vote for you - that is the speech. You're probably right. And let's remember that in this year, the seats that will be open or up for re-election are going to be the district seats. So in this case, people who are currently going to stay in - like Tammy Morales, Dan, or Kshama - are going to have to show what they have done for the district. And people who are running for those open seats are going to have to be super hyper local focused on their district. What are they going to do for West Seattle? What are they going to do for North Seattle? And talk about that rather than the City around - and I think it's going to be a lot of geographic discussions, a lot of very specific - here's what we're doing for this park, here's what we're doing for this intersection - neighborhood community talk rather than the citywide referendum. [00:24:57] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, yeah, I completely agree with that. [00:25:01] Heather Weiner: Yay, you agree! I was really looking forward to a smackdown though. One day, Crystal will just - it won't just be this chorus, and one day we'll have a fight about something and it will be really, really cool. I'll find something we disagree on - it's gonna be like mayonnaise versus mustard or something. [00:25:18] Crystal Fincher: Oh my goodness, there will be something someday. [00:25:22] Heather Weiner: So I just want to point out one more time for your listeners that there's two really big things happening the week of January 24th. One is this Washington Supreme Court hearing on the capital gains tax, which has enormous implications - not just for $500 million of funding a year for childcare and education that comes from the super super super rich, but also for our tax structure overall in the state. And the second is - much more micro - is the election of the new Washington State Party Chair two days later. So that's going to be a really interesting week. I can't wait to see who you have on that week to discuss what's happening there. [00:26:04] Crystal Fincher: It'll be interesting to see. We also have a couple of things. We have a special election coming up in many jurisdictions in the state, including the City of Vancouver, Washington. But particularly in the City of Seattle - on February 14th, there will be a special election. If you know me, you know that I am not a fan of these February, April special election dates just because they are notoriously low turnout, but there is going to be a vote on social housing. Speaking of the motivation to address homelessness and housing affordability in this crisis, this is going to be on the ballot. We actually have a show coming up about this topic, but this will give Seattle the opportunity to establish a public developer - that establish publicly-owned, permanently affordable, cross-class communities with resident leadership - and basically establishing a type of social housing where it takes away the privatization, capitalist profit motive basically, of housing that we've seen where people are looking to create increased profits and income from raising rents. And really take away the ability to raise it and use resident funds to fund just the maintenance and upkeep without the pressure in - that happens in conjunction with the private sector - to continue to raise rents and hopefully create more sustainable, affordable, publicly-owned social housing that can start to address this housing affordability crisis and put in place a new and different model that isn't as reliant on federal funding, on federal income guidelines - and just give the City more flexibility to address its own issues. So this is going to be a really interesting thing that we have coming up. Ballots will be mailed on January 27, so that's coming sooner than we think. How do you see this playing out? [00:28:20] Heather Weiner: Who is going to come out and oppose this? That's really what I want to know. I haven't heard that much from opposition right now, and I think it's really just going to be about how it's framed for the voters. I'm thinking a lot about ranked choice voting and how that kind of was the sneaker issue that came in. And at the last moment, they sent out really good mail - shout out to Moxie Media for some really good mail on that campaign - and won, not by a landslide - but won on a confusing campaign. So I wonder if this is maybe the sneaker issue also - that there isn't really a well organized opposition and it gets through. [00:29:00] Crystal Fincher: Yeah. And I think how this is explained to the masses is going to be the thing. I actually completely agree - [00:29:08] Heather Weiner: Again! [00:29:09] Crystal Fincher: - just in the shout out with - on an issue that on its face is confusing to explain to voters - in what we just saw with ranked choice voting beating out approval voting. I think that was a great example of looking at - just when you have to communicate this simply to the masses - man, the ranked choice voting mail was excellent. The way that was communicated to all of the people - there are the people who pay attention, which is not a big percentage of people. We're abnormal. If you're listening to this show, you are abnormal. [00:29:41] Heather Weiner: You're just now noticing that we're abnormal. You want to know how abnormal I am? Every piece of political mail that comes into our household - my wife knows to set aside for me because I keep it in a folder. I just keep all of the mail. I hoard it because I love to go back through it later and see what people did, what they didn't do. Look at you - you do the same thing - you have - Oh my gosh, you have Teresa Mosqueda - look at you with all that mail. [00:30:08] Crystal Fincher: That is me pulling up my - [00:30:10] Heather Weiner: That is sexy. That is - I'm coming over for a date. I'm gonna bring a bottle of wine, some candles, and we're going to go through your mail, your political mail - [00:30:18] Crystal Fincher: We're going to go through mail. [00:30:19] Heather Weiner: I always vote late, just so I can get the mail and I can see how people are doing it. And I like to play the guessing game of which firm did this mail - because there are certain firms that shall go unnamed that just do the same boilerplate, same design over and over and over again - and I can spot them a mile away. And then there's some people who just look like they did it with a Word doc and just threw it together - maybe on purpose, maybe not. And then there's sometimes just really highly polished, really engaging, creative stuff. So I love to hoard the mail. I've got a whole box over here, Crystal - come over, honey, put on something comfy, and we'll go sit on the couch and go through it together. [00:30:59] Crystal Fincher: Oh, we're going to do that. I will bring my accordion file full of stuff. [00:31:07] Heather Weiner: I'm not going to cheat on you - not cheating on you, honey. I also want to say a shout - a big warning to some folks out there who have sent out recent mail - it's called householding. When you do not send five pieces of mail to the same household - it's annoying to the household and it looks like a waste of money. It looks like your consultant's not doing a good job, so - to certain people who have sent out mail recently and not householded, you need to have a conversation with your people. That is a waste of postage. It's a waste of - it's a waste of postage when it really comes down to it. [00:31:41] Crystal Fincher: It's a waste of postage, it's a waste of - yeah, it's a waste. [00:31:45] Heather Weiner: It's called householding. [00:31:46] Crystal Fincher: It is. And every year someone wins the - I-spelled-our-candidate's-name-wrong-on-the-mail lottery. [00:31:53] Heather Weiner: Can we do an episode where all we do is just go through and make fun of ourselves and other people who make huge mistakes on mail - including me, by the way. I mean, that word "public" - it's often, loses the L. [00:32:05] Crystal Fincher: Oh my goodness. Oh my goodness. Yeah, there are, there are a lot - yeah, you would be, you would be surprised. [00:32:14] Heather Weiner: Also, I recently saw a piece of mail where "county" lost the O. [00:32:19] Crystal Fincher: Oh no. [00:32:23] Heather Weiner: Yeah. [00:32:25] Crystal Fincher: There are all sorts of things that go wrong with mail and it still has - mail still has some utility. Obviously - [00:32:37] Heather Weiner: Oh - mail still has some utility? I think mail has increased in utility over - since COVID. Tell me, tell me why you think it still has utility and then I'll give you the counterpoint. [00:32:46] Crystal Fincher: It absolutely still has utility - one, especially during COVID when Field was impacted - that's a challenge. But it's so hard. Basically I think that you have to do everything, that you have to try and get to people in every way - I have to show you the commercials that we did. [00:33:05] Heather Weiner: Oh, I'd like to see them. Oh, I've seen a couple. I've seen a couple. They were really good. [00:33:09] Crystal Fincher: Thank you. But it's just hard, and I think lots of people who don't do this don't realize how hard it is just to get people's attention. The hardest thing to do - for a candidate or an issue - is not necessarily to beat your opponent. It's just to let people know that you exist. It's to break through all of the noise - because people are sick and tired of political stuff anyway. And there's so much happening, especially like last year when we had competitive Congressional races in many districts and legislative races, and there are so many political messages flying, there are five different mailers landing in mailboxes every day. Everything is a commercial in the middle of everything and just everything is that - it's hard to break through. And so really trying to stand out and in ways that are - that get you in front of the eyeballs of people - even if it's just the few seconds between when they pick up their mail and walk to the recycle bin, or they're half paying attention to a commercial. Hopefully people are making it to the doors also, but that's hard to do in a citywide election, in a City of Seattle. And maybe you can get to 50,000 people, but what are you going to do for the other 150,000-200,000? [00:34:31] Heather Weiner: Look, mail is not - if you're down by 10 points, mail is not going to win, is not going to win it for you. But if you're down by 1 or you need to - you are tied - mail can definitely make the difference. And let me tell you why. Let me tell you why, Crystal. Number one, it gets - you definitely are getting into the household, right? It's not like digital, it's not like TV - you know that that voter - it's getting into that voter's household. Number two, you can micro-target the messaging to that household, unlike other ways. You can do that with digital somewhat - but really with mail, you can do an excellent job. And the third is voters want to make the right decision. They want information and to have that written information in front of them - that's comprehensive, that's just not a pretty picture and a whole bunch of endorsement logos, but actually has some - what am I saying? - some crunchy information in it. Voters want that and will keep it. And particularly people say, Oh, younger voters, they don't check their mail. Younger voters find mail to be - I don't know - quaint and interesting, and like to get letters and like to get things that are personally addressed to them because it makes them feel like - 'cause they're real people. So I am - I actually think mail is more effective and more important than ever right now. And I am not solely - I will do mail for campaigns, but I am not pitching my firm as a mail campaign. I'm just saying in general, do not discount it. And do not get yourself all, get your panties all in a twist about TV and cable and everything all the time - broadcast TV, God forbid - spend that money on getting to the people who vote. [00:36:05] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, I think so. And also, especially in a vote-by-mail state - we're a 100% vote-by-mail state - mail is in the same medium as the ballot and the information that they're getting. Mail absolutely matters and it is one of - still - the most efficient methods to get to people that you can't talk to personally. [00:36:27] Heather Weiner: Well, I just would like to invite you to come over one night and take a look at my mail. [00:36:31] Crystal Fincher: Mail - it's a very vulnerable thing. It's a very sensitive thing. People are very sensitive about their mail. There is actually a reason why we have not done a mail breakdown on-air because people are very sensitive. [00:36:46] Heather Weiner: There are people who will never come on your show about their mail [00:36:49] Crystal Fincher: About their mail - and all of us are - it's not like every piece of mail I do is excellent, or dynamic, or on purpose. [00:36:56] Heather Weiner: We could do noteworthy mail - how about that? I would love to do one - it'd be hard to do on a podcast 'cause people can't see it, but I would love to do - it's like one of those cooking shows where you can't taste what the people are talking about - but I would love to do one going through, like over the years, some really noteworthy mail. And I've got a couple that are just - there's one, there was a piece where it had a black hole cut out in it, and it was talking about how something was a waste of money and it was a black hole - that was by a consultant from the East Coast. There's another consultant who did a piece of mail - attack mail in a leg race that was real - oh no, it was in a city council race - that was horrible and awful, and I think won that election for that candidate. So I would love to go through that sometime - that'd be really fun. And also it would be really interesting to a niche audience of approximately 12 people, Crystal, so maybe not. [00:37:51] Crystal Fincher: Oh, I mean - we would have 32 people who were riveted in that conversation. I don't want to rip people live on-air. [00:38:04] Heather Weiner: Let's just only talk about noteworthy things. [00:38:06] Crystal Fincher: Yes. And my biggest note - usually my biggest thing - is just trying to overcommunicate on mail. There - you can, if you try and say too much, you actually end up saying nothing. 'Cause people do need to be able to get what your - pick up what you're putting down at a glance. And then give them some hooks for a little bit more stuff. But you make that hard to do when you bury stuff in text. But anyway, we can talk about mail forever. But we will wrap up today's show. And thank you for listening to Hacks & Wonks on this Friday, January 6th, 2023. [00:38:45] Heather Weiner: Oh my goodness. [00:38:46] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, it's January 6th - a happy Insurrection Anniversary and Speaker Groundhog Day on the federal level. Hacks & Wonks is co-produced by Shannon Cheng and Bryce Cannatelli. Our insightful co-host today is political consultant and urban farmer, Heather Weiner. [00:39:03] Heather Weiner: Thanks for having me. [00:39:04] Crystal Fincher: You can find Heather on Twitter @hlweiner and that's H-L-W-E-I-N-E-R. You can find Hacks & Wonks on Twitter @HacksWonks and you can find me on Twitter @finchfrii, that's two I's at the end. You can catch 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 the full versions of our Friday almost-live shows and our midweek show delivered to your podcast feed. Please leave us a review if you like us. 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 - we'll talk to you next time.

Ari Hoffman in for John Carlson: the sickening and unprovoked attacked of a 3-year-old child shoved off a Portland light rail platform and on to the tracks--thankfully no train was arriving at the platform, the unprovoked attack suspect is a female with a history of violence/mental instability and homelessness, the Portland attack on the 3yr old underscores wider failures of 'diversion' programs for assault defendants who have become repeat offenders, why does politics seem to attract so many casual liars??, Ari's prediction about the lower Spokane Street Bridge came true less than 24 hours after he made it, a Tacoma man working for Zulilly is now charged with a crime that mirrors the plot of the cult fav movie "Office Space", the details of the case and the suspect's arrest are patently hilarious because of the movie plot similarities, a Seattle man is arrested for leaving an un-detonated pipe bomb in a Sodo neighborhood parking garage. Pres. Biden ready to crack down on Southwestern Airlines for cancellations enjoys Air Force One flight to Caribbean vacation, CNN points out the current housing recession as high interest rates hinder home sales WA State Supreme Court ruling says any appeal based on claim of racial bias in initial trial should constitute a retrial, the WA Supreme Court ruling (based on a civil--not a criminal--case) is confounding legal experts--one legal expert says the ruling is "Bats#!$ crazy", Portland OR firefighters say they can't keep up with service calls amid crush of 911 calls and lack of staffing, a convoluted rental assistance story is coming to light in Oregon and why landlords would likely never agree to the program, WA woman killed by "aggressive shark" off island of Maui in Hawaii

6am hour -- Ari Hoffman in for John Carlson: the sickening and unprovoked attacked of a 3-year-old child shoved off a Portland light rail platform and on to the tracks--thankfully no train was arriving at the platform, the unprovoked attack suspect is a female with a history of violence/mental instability and homelessness, the Portland attack on the 3yr old underscores wider failures of 'diversion' programs for assault defendants who have become repeat offenders, why does politics seem to attract so many casual liars??, Ari's prediction about the lower Spokane Street Bridge came true less than 24 hours after he made it, a Tacoma man working for Zulilly is now charged with a crime that mirrors the plot of the cult fav movie "Office Space", the details of the case and the suspect's arrest are patently hilarious because of the movie plot similarities, a Seattle man is arrested for leaving an un-detonated pipe bomb in a Sodo neighborhood parking garage. 7am hour -- Ari Hoffman in for John Carlson: Pres. Biden ready to crack down on Southwestern Airlines for cancellations enjoys Air Force One flight to Caribbean vacation, CNN points out the current housing recession as high interest rates hinder home sales, the Dow Jones (and likely your retirement 401k) are down about 10% for the year 2022, tomorrow marks the 50th year of the tragic death of MLB legend Roberto Clemente, be warned (again): starting Sunday you can expect WA gas prices to start going up steeply, The Atlantic's COVID amnesty proposal and continuing crime problems are some of the most tone-deaf stories of 2022. 8am hour -- Ari Hoffman in for John Carlson: WA State Supreme Court ruling says any appeal based on claim of racial bias in initial trial should constitute a retrial, the WA Supreme Court ruling (based on a civil--not a criminal--case) is confounding legal experts--one legal expert says the ruling is "Bats#!$ crazy", BREAKING NEWS: arrest finally made in murder of 4 U of I students in Moscow ID, the suspect is arrested near Scranton PA; Portland OR firefighters say they can't keep up with service calls amid crush of 911 calls and lack of staffing, a convoluted rental assistance story is coming to light in Oregon and why landlords would likely never agree to the program, WA woman killed by "aggressive shark" off island of Maui in Hawaii, UPDATED COVERAGE of Moscow ID quadruple murder suspect is a 28-yr-old grad student at nearby WSU.

The delay will remain in effect while the Attorney General's Office appeals a lower court ruling.

The state's attorney general says the company led customers to think they were supporting a charity.

3pm - WA Supreme Court expands protections against racism in civil cases // Steve Migs agrees to the Donkey Race rematch (under several conditions) // John is suspicious Jacob isn't taking the Donkey Race seriously See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

THE THESIS: The events The Party wants us to see in politics are theater--”nothing is real”--what is really happening is not at the political level, it's at the spiritual level and it is frightfully real. THE SCRIPTURE & SCRIPTURAL RESOURCES: I am stunned at how this short slice of the Bible applies to so much, and how following its advice would end all of this madnessProverbs 3:77 Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and shun evil.Matthew 18:21-2221 Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?”22 Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.Ephesians 6:1212 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.THE NEWS & COMMENT:In relatively small ways we see the lies of The Party. When Jerry Nadler wags his mouth about white privilege and how white people need to recognize that “privilege” he's acting. When a black reporter wants to speak with him, Jerry Nalder rudely dismisses him, that's the reality. [AUDIO] - Democrat Jerry Nadler repeatedly refused questions about rising crime: “I'm in a rush.”The entire Party is 100% onboard with spending your money on defending the sovereignty of Ukraine. When the Chinese Communist Party sets up police stations in America, only a few politicians care enough to politely ask questions. The CCP, of course, is not only violent, murderous and tyrannical, they are Chinese-supremcists of the actual sort. GOP Lawmakers Question Blinken, Garland Over CCP Police Station in New YorkRapists rejoice! The “War on Women” never mattered to them, nor does the sanctity of a woman's body in matters sexual. There are no charges of racism in the actions of the jury, or the cops or the prosecutors, there are no questions about the guilt of the rapist. Still, the brutally corrupt Star Chamber laughably called the Washington State Supreme Court unanimously overturned the conviction of a rapist because, and I quote, “objective observer could view race or ethnicity as a factor [in denying a person a seat on the jury.”]. WA Supreme Court overturns Black man's rape conviction over bias in jury selection . . . By the way, rapes are at record levels in Western portion of the separate Country of WashingtonNo one in politics has any business pretending to be shocked the members of a group that constantly employs racial scapegoating are also racists. ‘Little Monkey': Los Angeles City Council Members Under Fire Over Leaked Racist Remarks City council president on Koreans: “I was like, I don't know where these people are from, I don't know what village they came [from], how they got here.” She then described them as “ugly.”And, no one should be surprised that a young woman raised under the constant efforts to divide based upon the concept of race thinks this is how to behave: [AUDIO] - A young woman tells people how to test for racism and sexism What is the “ism”, here? Favoritism, of course. There is no possible way to defend SWAT team tactics used to arrest pro-life protesters, let alone protesters who harmed no one and were willing to voluntarily walk into police stations for arrest. [AUDIO] - One of the pro-life leaders targeted by Biden's DOJ sent me footage of the early morning FBI raid on his family home. Paul Vaughn was placed in handcuffs by armed FBI agents in front of his children just before school drop-off. Watch as his wife pleads for answers mid-arrest:No one believes we don't know when pregnancy begins. Stacey Abrahams is acting. [AUDIO] - "Were you to become governor, where would you draw the line? 15 weeks? Viability? 36 weeks? What's the limit?" STACEY ABRAMS: "The arbitrary standards of timelines ignore the medical reality that it is a fallacy we know exactly when a pregnancy starts."

As KUOW's Amy Radil reports, the court threw out a lower court verdict

Feliks Banel, All Over the Map -- Market House Corned Beef // Margaret Brennan on missing Secret Service texts/ the president's Mideast trip // Hanna Scott on the implementation and future of the 988 system // Dose of Kindness -- helping Highland Park survivors cope // Gee Scott on the red hot Mariners // Hanna Scott on WA Supreme Court recommendations for criminal justice reform // Feliks Banel, All Over the Map -- Market House Corned Beef See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The court will review a decision by a lower court that overturned the new capital gains tax on high-profit stocks, bonds, and other assets.

Feliks Banel on the 125th anniversary of the gold rush coming to Seattle // Mike Salk on the LIV golf league // Hanna Scott on the WA Supreme Court's criminal justice reform recommendations // Dose of Kindness -- an inspirational baseball player // Gee Scott on the Webb telescope images // Rachel Belle on the popularity of non-alcoholic cocktails See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Washington students will get mental health days next year. State to pay Seattle light rail attacker $250 a day. Bitcoin miners in WA see 29% rate hike just for them. WA and OR gas prices soaring. WA Supreme Court rules race a factor in police stops. OR School Resource Officer Conference cancels David Clarke. CA rent is costing people almost half their wages. CA bans water pumping for some Northern communities. CA rules bees are fish to put them on endangered species list. #pnw #pnwnews #pacificnorthwest #washingtonnews #oregonnews #californianews #idahonews #headlines #headlinenews #trendingnews #behindtheline #newspodcast #conservativenews #nnn #netnewsnetwork #bitcoin #seattlenews #gasprices #watershortage #drought #rentprices --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/behindtheline/support

What's Trending: New WA Supreme Court rule endangers our lives in the name of equity, Issaquah SD must decide what to cut after losing thousands of students. City attorney and KC prosecuting office vow to actually punish repeat offenders. Trevor Noah has a good performance at the White House Correspondent's dinner.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Shari Elicker is in to talk with Jack about how Psychedelics could be ‘mental health fix we've been looking for,' says WA state lawmaker. // Dr. William Zinnanti MD Ph.D. is in to discus the Reasons why Jacks toenails have fungus — and What to Do About It. // Is fare enforcement unconstitutional? WA Supreme Court case could have sweeping effects. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On today's week-in-review, Crystal is joined by a new co-host, political consultant and founding partner at Upper Left Strategies, Seferiana Day. They discuss Corrections Officers and Public Defenders joining forces to demand a reduction in the county jail population to help address their COVID crisis, a new federal redistricting lawsuit alleging the new maps violate the Voting Rights Act, a new survey revealing 78% of Kroger (Fred Meyer & QFC in WA) workers struggle to afford food and shelter, and advice to people considering running for office in 2022.  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, Seferiana Day, at @seferiana. More info is available at officialhacksandwonks.com.   Resources “Public Defenders Union Joins Jail Guards' Call to Address COVID Crisis” by Paul Kiefer from PubliCola https://publicola.com/2022/01/17/public-defenders-union-joins-jail-guards-call-to-address-covid-crisis/    “Seattle Police Chief: No more stops for 'low-risk' traffic violations like expired tabs, biking without a helmet” from Capitol Hill Seattle: https://www.capitolhillseattle.com/2022/01/seattle-police-chief-no-more-stops-for-low-risk-traffic-violations-like-expired-tabs-biking-without-a-helmet/    “New legislative maps illegally dilute Latino votes in Central Washington, lawsuit says” by Jim Brunner from The Seattle Times: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/new-legislative-maps-illegally-dilute-latino-votes-in-central-washington-lawsuit-says/    “Fred Meyer, QFC workers struggle in Washington to make ends meet, new report shows” by David Gutman from The Seattle Times: https://www.seattletimes.com/business/retail/fred-meyer-qfc-workers-struggle-in-washington-to-make-ends-meet-new-report-shows/    “WA Supreme Court upholds $18M campaign finance fine against grocery industry group” by Jim Brunner from The Seattle Times: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/washington-supreme-court-upholds-18m-campaign-finance-fine-against-grocery-industry-group/    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 perspective 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 with a co-host. Welcome to the program for the first time today: our co-host, political consultant and founding partner at Upper Left Strategies, Seferiana Day. Welcome. [00:00:52] Seferiana Day: Hello, thanks for having me. [00:00:54] Crystal Fincher: Hello, hello - excited to have you on the program - a very talented political consultant and highly sought after political consultant. Excited to dive into some of the news of the week. And I guess just starting out, I wanted to talk about news that came out early in the week about the public defenders union joining jail guards to call to address the COVID crisis in the jails in Seattle and Kent that are under county control. Here, there's a huge surge of COVID-19 infections among staff and inmates at the King County jails that actually created this unusual alliance of corrections officers and public defenders, which should tell you how bad the problem is that they're coming together. They sent a joint letter to elected officials in Seattle and King County asking them to immediately intervene to reduce the jail's population and to stem the spread of the virus. One of the quotes from the letter is, "COVID -19 should not be a death sentence for anyone held in jail or anyone working in a jail," the unions wrote. "The stark reality is that if no changes are made, people will continue to get sick and continue to suffer." Paul Kiefer from PubliCola did a great article on this, and just a problem that we've seen before - where people in jail for misdemeanors, petty thefts, pretrial where they have not been convicted of anything, or just waiting to be charged with some simple misdemeanors, and they're basically saying, "If this is not a serious charge, please let them out." What do you see when you look at this? [00:02:44] Seferiana Day: Wow. Well, I'm just shocked, but also not surprised that this is happening in our system. I think it just really points to the fact that this is what's not seen by the general public - who knows what's going on inside the walls of the jail for this to come out. And for this alliance to form just shows the drastic nature of the problem and the fact that we're letting people really just kind of slip into jail. We don't understand what happens behind the door, behind the jail walls, and we almost have this hidden class of people, of citizens, of residents - and it's baffling to me, honestly. [00:03:36] Crystal Fincher: Yeah. I mean our current system - if someone is convicted of something, they're sentenced to a term, but that does not mean that they should be treated inhumanely or left to suffer and die. That's unconstitutional. That is not supposed to happen. And right now you have corrections officers there themselves saying that you're jeopardizing everyone's safety, and asking for four real specific items. In their joint letter, they ask for - one, imposing immediate booking restrictions so that violent offenses are the only ones booked into county jail facilities. Two, stop issuing warrants for misdemeanor and nonviolent offenses. Three, immediately take all necessary steps to improve staffing and workplace safety in the jail. And four, make plans for the immediate release of all misdemeanor and nonviolent offenders. They're being very clear about this and saying that their safety, inmate safety, is at risk - that they cannot continue as they currently are, and enduring these staffing problems that they've been enduring, and just watching needless suffering. Now, this is also happening while Seattle City Attorney Ann Davison has really expressed her intentions to move in literally the exact opposite direction - to more aggressively pursue misdemeanor prosecutions. There was a story by one of the court watch organizations - with great Twitter accounts, by the way, and court watching is very important - but asking for someone who was unhoused, and one of the conditions was that they have home monitoring for two months. But an unhoused person doesn't have a house to do home monitoring in. So because they didn't have a house, they then asked for jail, which is just criminalizing poverty and homelessness once again. And that's exactly the thing that corrections officers are saying that is unsustainable and that doesn't make any sense. And also this week we saw SPD say that they're reconsidering and have moved some new items to the lowest enforcement priority section, so things like low-risk traffic violations for expired tags or biking without a helmet, which David Kroman had done a lot of reporting on at Crosscut - at how that disproportionately impacted unhoused people, that those things, according to the SPD Chief Diaz, quote, "These violations do not have a direct connection to the safety of other individuals on the roads, paths, or sidewalks. We know there are also reasons for concern that these violations may disproportionately fall on those who are unable to meet the financial requirements set forth by law." So, I mean, when you have the SPD chief saying, "Hey, this is basically criminalizing poverty, has nothing to do with public safety. Putting these people in jail doesn't make us any safer - let's actually use our resources on things that do," seems to make a lot of sense, but looks like a lot of tension between the Seattle City Attorney's office, and what SPD just said, and what corrections officers and public defenders are asking for. [00:07:05] Seferiana Day: Yeah. I think it really speaks to just the unprecedented nature of the COVID crisis, that it's almost - I mean, we are two years in, and what is it going to take for us to change our systems? We're seeing them kind of fall apart in front of us, right? And so in prior years, when we've talked about reforms to incarceration or alternatives to incarceration, but it's taking a public health crisis for us to see that we don't need to be convicting these low-level crimes because it really is criminalizing poverty and putting people into jail to basically get COVID and die if they don't have the proper care that they need. [00:07:48] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, no, absolutely. And to your point, this pandemic has really made plain and made worse so many preexisting conditions in society, and just our approach towards punishment and jailing people without connecting that to, "Hey, is this actually making the community safer? Is this helping these people to address the root causes of the problem so that this isn't a revolving door situation and you're setting them up for future problems, like the inability to get a job or the inability to gain housing?" So it really is a challenge. And, again, with our Trump-Republican Seattle City Attorney, with the charge-them-all, jail-them-all attitude, it just seems to fly in the face of what every other entity - law enforcement, those involved in the criminal legal system are saying and what the data shows. So just a mess that I hope is resolved, and we'll certainly be looking to Executive Dow Constantine, the King County Council, Mayor Harrell, and the Seattle City Council to hopefully take meaningful action or do what they can to influence that. Another thing I wanted to touch on were - this week, we saw another lawsuit pop up - don't know how this one is going to end up, but certainly an issue that has been on a lot of people's radar - with the redistricting maps. There is a new lawsuit alleging that the legislative maps illegally dilute Latino votes in Central Washington. There's an article in The Times by Jim Brunner, another one in Crosscut detailing this - we'll put those in the episode notes - but a new lawsuit basically saying that, "Hey, this violates the Federal Voting Rights Act. And they have purposely split and diluted the Latino vote to dilute their power." It's a tactic that we've seen in several areas around the country to gerrymander and to disenfranchise non-white male landowners from voting. And so the lawsuit was filed on behalf of eight Latino and Latina residents of Yakima and Franklin Counties by attorneys with voting rights advocacy groups, including UCLA Voting Rights Project, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, and the Campaign Legal Center, as well as Kennewick attorney Edwardo Morfin. So we will see how this lawsuit turns out. If you're asking me my opinion, I think it has merit. This has been talked about for the entire process through redistricting - that the maps that were proposed - most of them did not look like they adhered to the Voting Rights Act, particularly in Central Washington. What do you think about this? [00:11:12] Seferiana Day: I mean, I think Central Washington, and Yakima in particular, for almost a decade has been kind of the center of a conversation around the Latino vote. And I believe in 2014 when they decided that - also because of a ruling - that they needed to redistrict the City Council races so that it would actually be representative because it's a predominantly Latino city and it was very, very segregated. And I believe a majority of the councilmembers there were white and they were from certain parts of the city. And so, just for a decade, it's been a hot topic of conversation - like who is actually representing this community that is largely Latino. [00:12:04] Crystal Fincher: Yeah. And I mean, it really is a move to create a permanent underclass. I mean, so many Latinos are working on farms there owned by white people who wanted to maintain power. And so they're bringing people there to work for them and to create a profit for them, but not wanting to share any power in how their communities are operated, and in fact operating with hostility towards people who they're bringing in to help them, and not recognizing their full humanity and only viewing them as instruments of profit and really subjugation - to work for them and do nothing else and to eliminate modes of mobility and representation to fight against unfair working conditions. We just saw a summer where farm workers died because they lacked adequate protections from the heat - during record heat. And I look at things like that and look at how so many areas in our system are stacked against them. And this is certainly a foundational one. And so 2004 - Yakima County had to enter into a consent decree with the Justice Department because they would not provide Spanish language voting materials - again, to a population that they court and need in their community. And like you said, in 2014, they were ordered to change their council districts because of that. I mean, just a long history of problems - don't know if this is going to affect timelines or alter the current boundaries. Or even if found successful - is it just going to alter the boundaries in those particular areas while all the other ones stay the same? A lot of unknowns - we'll see how this unfolds. I'm not aware of an anticipated timeline that this may roll out in, so we'll just keep our eyes peeled on what happens here. Another element that we saw this week were Fred Meyer and QFC workers struggling to make ends meet - after a new report - following a survey of grocery workers. What did you see here? [00:14:30] Seferiana Day: Well, I just see the - I guess my biggest question around this is who decides when the pandemic is over? We're seeing kind of a piecemeal approach over the past two years of the pandemic - of hazard pay. In Seattle, we have hazard pay because the City has continued to keep it. But as this article states, Federal Way - that hazard pay lasted three months. And you've got workers across the state who have to go to work to feed their families, and they're being paid minimum wage. And it's just - it's a classic story, really - of corporations doing all they can to pay their workers as little as possible. And these are unionized workers, which to me is surprising, and makes me wonder what can unions do? What can even the public be doing to support these folks who are on the frontlines every day and have been there for the last two years, while many of us are in our homes? I'm working from home often, and these grocery workers are out there on the frontlines. [00:15:47] Crystal Fincher: Yeah. Out there on the frontlines dealing with - I mean, we see the stories everywhere. We see people acting ridiculous, locally and nationally, and that really falling on the back of service workers, grocery workers, people on the frontlines to not only manage their own jobs, but manage people acting ridiculously in their store, and needing to - better de-escalation techniques than police officers is what's being asked of them right now. And it really is a challenge. And specifically, it was a survey of more than 10,000 unionized Kroger workers in the Western US, and 78% are struggling to afford basic necessities like food and shelter. One third of those respondents were from Washington where Kroger owns Fred Meyer and QFC stores. One of the issues is that a lot of them are only working part-time, so minimum wage doesn't cut it, and full-time barely. I mean, it's ticking up, but it certainly is far behind inflation and what the cost of living has been. And so to then be working 18 or 20 hours a week and to not know what that schedule is going to be - a city like Seattle has some scheduling regulations, but other cities do not. So someone who came in getting more hours and that can just be cut back and cut down - there's a lot of financial insecurity and everything that results from that. And so this is just kind of a glimpse into - even in a unionized workplace, there are still things that need to be improved. And one of the things that we see, and a worker says in here, is, "Hey, our union did negotiate benefits and some of them start at a certain amount of hours per week, but they keep scheduling us below that amount of hours, so they don't have to pay more and so we don't make enough money." That's a challenge. And I know in that article, it also said that a new contract is going to be negotiated in May - I think it was local UFCW Chapter 21, I think it was, and that they're going to be looking for significant improvements. And I don't know the details, but certainly before the pandemic, I recall a lot of grocery stores talking about how hard times were, how challenging things were. And so in those negotiated contracts, it probably reflected that. Pandemic happened and things got much more dangerous for workers, but wow, the profits skyrocketed in grocery stores and that has not been shared with the workforce. And so just hearing about how just swimming in cash Kroger has been, how incredibly profitable they have been, and the kinds of bonuses that their executives are getting - and then hearing that a majority, a vast majority of their workforce is food-insecure, shelter-insecure, some are actually on public assistance, which basically means that the public is subsidizing the exploitative work practices of this employer. If they're not paying enough, they're just saying, "We expect taxpayers to pick up the bill and to subsidize our profit." It's not like they don't have the money. They're just keeping the money for themselves and expecting us to backfill it. And it just doesn't seem to make much sense. [00:19:30] Seferiana Day: Right. And this article talks about how the CEO himself brought in $22 million in 2020 - which is double the five years before, 909x more than the median employee at Kroger, that brought in $24,000. And that is the same for every corporation in America - that is the situation that we're seeing. And that is the inequality that's just being perpetuated by the pandemic - those that have to go to work every day and work for minimum wage at risk, risking their health. While you have "professional" workers able to work from home, able to keep their jobs, work in the comfort of their home and not be at risk, and continue making more money. And there's just a growing inequality there. [00:20:33] Crystal Fincher: Yeah. Growing inequality, growing resentment, growing intolerance of it, because it really just seems like a callous, cold-hearted exploitation. And to a point you made earlier, trying to pretend the pandemic is over. And the pandemic keeps saying, "Pretend all you want. You're going to have to contend with me," as everyone at schools and businesses and looking at products that are having a hard time shipping because the supply chain problem is not this abstract thing. It's people are not there in the places to get goods from one place to another. It's people who are missing there - people who are sick, people who are taking care of family members, people who can't afford to stay at a job, can't afford childcare. These are people missing in this supply chain problem. So it is really offensive to think about everything we're trying to address in society and the revenue that we need, and so much of it is going to directly and indirectly subsidize these corporations who are not struggling. They're more profitable than they've ever been before, and it just seems absolutely backwards. And this comes in a week where the Supreme Court upheld a judgment against the grocery industry, because while they were fighting it - they fought against hero pay while they're bringing in these record profits, and they fought against a food labeling initiative years ago and sought to cover up who was actually funding it. And just had a record fine of $18 million upheld by the Washington State Supreme Court because they spent more than $11 million and tried to hide that it was coming from Coca-Cola, and General Mills, Nestle - a big coordinated campaign that they tried to make it seem like it was Ma and Pa, locally-owned grocers. And they seem to have deep, unending pockets when it comes to fighting anything that would give their workers a couple more bucks and allow them to reliably feed and house themselves. And will spend tens of millions of dollars of doing that, raking in tens of millions of dollars in profit, and just doesn't make any sense. It would be cheaper to just pay them. But for some reason, that seems like a big problem. Anyhoo, we will move on from that, but we will also continue to keep an eye on what's happening there. And also hope that those UFCW 21 negotiations in May are very fruitful. So I want to talk a little bit now just about where we find ourselves in this election cycle. You're a political consultant, as am I - lots of candidates are considering running for office. Every legislative district has elections this year. People are electing all of their representatives, some of their senators - all of their senators. And we'll see some open seats - as we've seen, there will be some challenges to incumbents, I assume, as we see every year. So in this time when people are considering running, what is the advice that you give to potential candidates as they're considering whether to actually go ahead and run? [00:24:23] Seferiana Day: Yeah, I would say we work with a lot of first-time candidates. We work with a lot of candidates of color. We work with a lot of candidates who are more on the progressive, maybe a little more radical, spectrum or end of the spectrum. And I would say that one of the first things that I tell candidates that I work with who maybe haven't run before is that - even if you've been an advocate, you're about to enter electoral politics, which is a different beast. It's really about - I think there can be a tension between telling your story and being authentic to who you are and what your values and vision are, and kind of marrying that with the electoral process - which because the topics we talked about earlier around voter suppression, the lack of representation on a really systemic level - we're really trying to cater our message to people who vote, people who have access to voting. Which can sometimes go against kind of what you really - what you really dream of is that you're going to be able to turn out the youth vote, people of color to vote - and I think in reality, we're often trying to give that message to moderates, depending on the seat. And I think this year we're looking at a prosecutor's race, which is countywide. We're looking at these legislative races where it's going to be a very important year. I think I'm nervous - seeing how we can maintain our majorities. And so it's really important that we're sending that message out to all voters. And I tell my candidates to really be ready to be authentic with themselves, but also to have conversations with folks that they may not agree with, and that it's important to talk to everyone, it's important to get your message out there. [00:26:27] Crystal Fincher: Yeah. I think that's right on. And for me, I think - I certainly tell people, "Hey, this is going to be different than something that you've done before." I really try and help people understand where they are and what they believe. And it's okay not to have all of the answers today, but kind of have a framework that you process information and policy through, or your own ideology. But really, elections are not about the candidate, they're about the voters and potential voters - people in the community. And your job is to connect with them and to communicate with them in the way that they receive information, which may be different than how they're used to delivering it. And also voting is not a - as much as we like to think that it is, it is not a logical decision. It's an emotional decision, and people need to feel some kind of connection with you that you understand where they're coming from. And even if they don't agree with you completely - if they feel that you care about making their lives better, they'll hear you out, and they'll give you a fair shot most of the time. But getting your message to them is a challenge and oftentimes an expensive one. And doing the work to get those resources in to effectively communicate with people, enough people to win, is work. And so to be prepared for the work of campaigning, which may even - to your point, like someone who's been organizing for a long time, or an advocate for a long time, who has been around politics but hasn't run themselves, may have expectations of like, "Oh, I've done this before." And it isn't the same. Some of it is different. And so it's just important to know that. And elections are weird and strange also. And so having people who have been through it to help you along - having a solid consultant is just really useful because there are a lot of weird things. There are a lot of things that are gate-kept. You look at our national election system - you look at what it takes to get on ballots, and it is not easy. There are tons of rules and regulations with campaign finance rules and everything with our PDC here, the SEEC in Seattle - you need people in your corner to keep you from falling into just weird little traps that would trap someone if you don't have someone actively saying, "Watch out for this." So it's just a serious time commitment. It's not always fun. It's a lot of sitting on the phone. It's a lot of knocking on doors. And a lot of monotony to be prepared for it, but you then get to represent people. And that's when the real work starts. As hard as a campaign can be, actually being accountable for making those decisions is in many ways harder than the campaigning. So it's an interesting and challenging thing. You have successfully guided a lot of candidates through that process, particularly when it comes to, I guess, a couple of things. I mean, so both sitting here as consultants, as non-white consultants, and how, I guess, in terms of working with candidates of color and with white candidates - do people approach you differently with both of those? [00:30:29] Seferiana Day: You mean do candidates approach me differently? [00:30:32] Crystal Fincher: Mm-hmm [affirmative]. [00:30:33] Seferiana Day: Oh, yes. I would say, and there are times when I'm shocked because sometimes white candidates will rush over to us and want to work with us. And candidates of color are sometimes doubtful, to be perfectly honest. And I think that's hard. I think it can be really hard to know that we still after - this is our fifth year, we're entering into our fifth year - that we still have to prove ourselves, especially among candidates of color who expect a white consultant to kind of know what to do and they trust them. And I'm not saying that's every candidate of color. Obviously, we work with many, but I've encountered that as a woman consultant of color - that there's often doubt. And it goes unsaid - you kind of feel it. You're like, "Oh. They doubt the expertise. They doubt the experience and the perspective." And so you're always kind of trying to make up for that doubt that exists because I'm young and I'm Brown, and so yeah, I think that you do get approached differently. And I think as consultants of color, it's often assumed that we're the social media consultant or we're the [crosstalk] experts. And we have to remind people that we're general consultants - we do it all. And yeah, and it's kind of a constant, I would say, dialogue with folks just to remind them, like, "We know what we're doing." [00:32:13] Crystal Fincher: Yeah. I mean, yes, that is definitely a thing. And I mean, we've talked about this a little bit before just in general conversation, but yeah, it's a weird thing. And I've experienced this off and on for the past 10 years where, yeah, sometimes candidates of color will be like, "Well, I think it's safer for me to go with a white consultant," and man, that's a loaded word - safer - and really the advice to candidates a lot of the time that I give, that I stand by, is, "Look to consultants who win races like the one you're looking to go into." That should be your primary lens and consideration. Can they win competitive races? Or is it a lot of incumbents? Are they working with candidates of color? Are they having races where they're looking like things are ahead and the polling looked good at one time, and then things just continued to decline? What is the track record of the consultant that you're looking at? And one of the good things about Black consultants, consultants of color in Washington, is the track records often speak for themselves, but it is a weird dynamic - that feeling like, "Well..." I think some of it is, "People might not give me a fair shake as a Black candidate with a Black consultant. So if I have a white consultant, they can do the work of talking to the community or something." It's a weird thing. [00:33:50] Seferiana Day: [crosstalk] [00:33:51] Crystal Fincher: Yeah. And again, not with all candidates, but it has been a thing that has certainly happened, and it is a strange dynamic. And then sometimes I will get, I've actually gotten a ton, where white candidates will assume that I only work with candidates of color. And I don't do many candidate races anymore, but when I was, it would just be like, "Well, you work in urban areas," or, "You work with urban candidates or just candidates of color or something." It's like, okay, most of the work and candidates I did were in suburban and rural areas and really winning races in the places where, frankly, a lot of white consultants didn't want to work or feel like it was profitable to work. And so it's just like, well, I'm kind of a suburban and rural person more than I am the super inside the city, in terms of winning elections. But it's just this weird thing, the assumption that people have. And certainly like you said, "Well, we want another general consultant, but you can do social media. Well, you do." It's just like, "What would make you think that I would just want to... No, that's not what... Unless you're going to pay me something that you're not going to be happy paying someone doing just social media, I don't know what that's going to accomplish," but it's an interesting thing. I think generally at this point, candidates are just well-served by making sure their teams represent their community and all that that is, and that you have visibility into as many areas in your community - as many communities, organizations, interests - have a connection and visibility to those, have a broad cabinet. If everyone is saying the same thing, that's a red flag. If everyone is talking in the exact same way, that's a red flag, right? You need to make sure that you're able to hear, see, listen to everyone in your community, because solving for all of those problems only will give them confidence in you as a candidate. If you don't even see them, if you can't have a conversation in a way that they could hear, those are votes that you're not getting and that may hinder you from running. But we'll see, it's not an easy process. It can be rewarding if this is what you really want. Have this be what you really want, have this be an office that you really want to seek. Offices are different. Some people love legislative positions, and that's really where they can excel and make a big difference, others more on the municipal level or on a county level, but be intentional about what you choose, if you're considering it. And man, go to trainings. Please get trained. Please get some real information from people who've been there and done that. And it utilizes a number of elements in organizing and certainly governing. Good governing includes good organizing, but the nuts and bolts of campaigns are not identical to that of kind of organizing to help educate a community or shift opinion over a long term, which is valid and necessary. Campaigns are just a little different. And so you just have to be prepared for that. [00:37:39] Seferiana Day: I agree. And I think one last note that I have is just around authenticity and that that's - if someone's considering running - thinking about who can I work with, what team can I build around me that's going to let me be authentic to who I am so I don't lose myself in the campaign? Because when people are voting - yes, campaigns are - it's different than being in office, but when people vote for you, they're going to want to know that you're going to be the same person elected that you were on the campaign trail. And so having a team around you that will let you speak to your values and vision is really important. [00:38:17] Crystal Fincher: Really important. And I'm glad you said that, and it is a red flag if someone is telling you, "Oh, just say this." That will never work. You have to believe what you are saying. If you don't, it's going to show, you're going to have a hard time being consistent with it. You're going to have to get used to talking to people and being able to disagree with them - it sounds so cliché - disagree with them without being disagreeable, have a conversation. I mean, I guess there are some times where it's fine to be disagreeable when you disagree with someone. But if we're not debating someone's personal identity or dignity, and it's details in a proposal or something, you can disagree, it's fine. And have those conversations. But you have to know where you stand and you have to be consistent with that. And if someone is telling you that you don't have to be, that's a red flag. So just as people are considering - please do consider - we need more people running for office who represent more of the community. But just please make an educated, informed decision. Get a good consultant - Seferiana and Upper Left are good consultants, there are a number of good consultants out there, but definitely get one. Do some campaign trainings, really understand what you're getting into so you can adequately prepare for it. Those who come in prepared just have such an advantage when it comes to winning. There's so much that you have to do in a campaign and figuring out campaigning during a campaign - you just can't afford to do it. It just takes up too much time and resources. So thank you so much for joining us today and for sharing your wisdom. Thank you for listening to Hacks & Wonks on KVRU 105.7 FM this Friday, January 21st, 2022. The producer of Hacks & Wonks is Lisl Stadler and assistant producer is Shannon Cheng. And our wonderful co-host today was political consultant and founding partner at Upper Left Strategies, Seferiana Day. You can find her on Twitter @seferiana, that's S-E-F-E-R-I-A-N-A. 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 & 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 podcast episode notes. Thanks for tuning in. Talk to you next time.  

Today on the show, the oft quoted Doug Trumm, Executive Director of The Urbanist, joins Crystal to discuss the widespread popular support for pedestrian only streets and protected bike lanes and bus lanes in Seattle, the precinct-level turnout results from the 2021 election, whether Bellevue will actually be ready for the business boom that it has long courted, the Washington State Supreme Court's decision to make no decision on redistricting, and the Kshama Sawant recall election (ballots are due Tuesday, December 7th).    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 “Pedestrian Streets, Protected Bike Lanes, and Bus Lanes are Popular, NPI Poll Shows” by Natalie Bicknell Argerious from The Urbanist: https://www.theurbanist.org/2021/11/18/pedestrian-streets-protected-bike-lanes-and-bus-lanes-are-popular-npi-poll-shows/#comment-28490    “Despite Its Bluster, Bellevue Is Ill-Prepared for Amazon Boom” by Doug Trumm from The Urbanist: https://www.theurbanist.org/2021/01/15/despite-its-bluster-bellevue-is-ill-prepared-for-amazon-boom/    “WA Supreme Court decides not to get involved in redistricting” by Melissa Santos from Crosscut: https://crosscut.com/politics/2021/12/wa-supreme-court-decides-not-get-involved-redistricting    “Critics call for reform of WA redistricting process after commission failure” by Melissa Santos from Crosscut: https://crosscut.com/politics/2021/11/critics-call-reform-wa-redistricting-process-after-commission-failure    “Strong early turnout in Sawant recall with one week of voting to go” from the Capitol Hill Seattle Blog: https://www.capitolhillseattle.com/2021/11/strong-early-turnout-in-sawant-recall-with-one-week-of-voting-to-go/    "Everything You Need to Know About the Sawant Recall" by Hannah Krieg from The Stranger: https://www.thestranger.com/slog/2021/11/09/62713074/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-sawant-recall   “The Recall Sawant debate” from the Capitol Hill Seattle Blog: https://www.capitolhillseattle.com/2021/11/the-recall-sawant-debate/    “Nearly $1M pours in from each side in Seattle Councilmember Sawant's recall” by Sarah Grace Taylor from The Seattle Times: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/nearly-1m-pours-in-from-each-side-in-seattle-councilmember-sawants-recall/      Transcript:    Transcript will be uploaded as soon as possible.

In a surprise order Friday morning, the Washington Supreme Court declined to take on the job of drafting new congressional and legislative maps. Instead, the court declared that the state's Redistricting Commission had finished its work on time last month.

The WA Redistricting Commission agreed on new state legislative and congressional district boundaries -- but a day after the statutory deadline. Now the redistricting plan is in the hands of the WA Supreme Court. What happened, and what's next? We sit down with Sarah Augustine, non-voting chair of the State Redistricting Commission. Plus, what grade do state lawmakers of both parties give policing legislation approved by the 2021 Legislature? And what's potentially on tap for 2022? We discuss policing policy with Reps. Roger Goodman and Gina Mosbrucker.

The Monologue: Confusion over new police reform law continues amid calls for special session by lawmakers. The Interview: Mike Solan (SPOG President) reacts to WA Supreme Court taking on case on whether or not to unmask the identities of officers who were investigated for attending the Jan 6 rally (and the two who were found to have been near the riot). The Monologue: Canada Olympian Penny Oleksiak sends message to 'WOAT' high school teacher. The Interview: Senior C.W. (Student Protection Coalition at Whitworth University) is pushing back against mandating vaccines on campus LongForm: Bellevue Interim Police Chief Wendell Shirley on his plans for the department, whether he wants the job, concerns with police accountability laws and how he'll tackle the homelessness issue now that they can't use force unless there's probable cause for arrest The Quick Hit: NFL is back - and will play the Black National Anthem before games. The Last Rantz: Hey local reporters: stop stealing my work without attribution because soon you'll get called out by name. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week Crystal and Marcus Harrison Green, publisher of the South Seattle Emerald and columnist with The Seattle Times, go over the Kshama Sawant recall petition being allowed to move forward by the WA Supreme Court, a pro-encampment sweep Seattle charter amendment coated in flowery language about compassion, and Marcus' recent column in The Seattle Times that asks: “Why does society shrug when Black men are killed in Seattle's South End?” 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 Marcus Harrison Green at @mhgreen3000. More info is available at officialhacksandwonks.com.   Resources Read Marcus' column here: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/when-black-men-are-killed-in-seattles-south-end-why-does-society-shrug/?utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=owned_echobox_tw_m&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1617295546  Learn more about the pro-sweep proposed charter amendment here: https://publicola.com/2021/04/02/16919/  Find out more about the Kshama Sawant recall petition here: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/recall-effort-against-seattle-city-councilmember-kshama-sawant-can-move-forward-washington-supreme-court-rules/    Transcript Lisl Stadler: [00:00:00] This is Lisl, producer of Hacks and Wonks. We wanted to let you know that in this episode, around the 24:30 mark, there is some slightly distorted audio. Remote recording during the pandemic is vulnerable to people's fluctuating internet speeds, but we thought it was important enough information to include. If you're having trouble understanding what is said, you can refer to the full transcript included in the episode notes and available at officialhacksandwonks.com. Crystal Fincher: [00:00:50] Welcome to Hacks and Wonks. I'm your host, Crystal Fincher. On this show, we talk with political hacks and policy wonks to gather insight into state and local politics and policy through the lens of those doing the work and provide behind-the-scenes perspectives on politics in our state. 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 with a guest cohost.  Welcome to the program today's co-host, publisher of the South Seattle Emerald and columnist with the Seattle Times - had an excellent piece in the Times this past week - Marcus Harrison Green. Marcus Harrison Green: [00:01:28] Crystal, it is so great to join you as always. I got to have you as my hype person 'cause you just put a flavor in there, you just drop it, you know? So thank you so much.  Crystal Fincher: [00:01:37] Well, I mean, you deserve it! You deserve it - you are, you know - South Seattle Emerald is killing it in all categories and it's just fantastic and wonderful. And as if that wasn't enough, you're just like dropping columns in the Seattle Times that have the entire city talking. So I'm excited to have you here.  Marcus Harrison Green: [00:01:56] Excited to be here. I don't get a lot of sleep, as you know, so I'm highly caffeinated today just for you.  Crystal Fincher: [00:02:02] I am joining you with the highly caffeinated crew. It is absolutely crucial at this point in time - coming up near the end of session, campaigns kicking off, and everyone just doing the most. And so I guess we will start off talking about one piece of news that we got this week out of the Supreme Court. And that was a ruling that the recall effort against Seattle City Council member, Kshama Sawant, is allowed to move forward. And there certainly was a lot of reaction to that. Do you want to recap what happened there?  Marcus Harrison Green: [00:02:40] Yeah. So it looks like this recall effort has been essentially really going on since she was declared the victor in the last election cycle here for D3, which is a majority of Capitol Hill and then a sliver of the CID district as well. It's, you know, I got to say, this is one of those things where it seems like there - as we know, Councilmember Sawant can be very polarizing in this City. And she elicits a very strong reaction from people who are - who love her, and people who do not. And so, it wasn't actually surprising that, at least for me, certainly wasn't surprising that this recall effort has continued on and it honestly wasn't surprising that it was ruled that it could move forward. Now we will see whether or not - one of the rulings, I believe one of the rulings was that it could not actually appear on the primary, which will be happening in August, but it looks like it's - if they can collect enough signatures and I think they needed to collect 33,000, that it can appear on the ballot for the general election in November, which is expected to have high turnout. You'll obviously have the mayoral race on that ballot, along with the at-large City positions, which there are two of them, of course. And so it's - if you were either, you know, a person who was anti the recall or pro the recall, you have the largest sample size and largest voting block, or at least you can anticipate that, in November.  So it should be pretty interesting, I'll say. It does look like some financial backers for the pro recall folks - it looks like there's a member of the Nordstrom family, as well as the political consultants, I should say, Sound Strategies. So it's -  Crystal Fincher: [00:04:50] They're funding the recall effort against Sawant. Marcus Harrison Green: [00:04:54] Yes. The recall effort against Sawant - they are financial backers of it, or have contributed to it, I should say. So it's no surprise there - if you know some of the politics involved. I mean, people will certainly, I think, categorize themselves as a progressive and liberal, who were sort of, I don't know, just anti-Sawant. But that being said, who knows, right? Who knows who people actually are or what their motivations actually are. So.  Crystal Fincher: [00:05:26] Well it'll be interesting and Soundview Strategies has certainly been instrumental in electing and advising Jenny Durkan. So given her rhetoric that many people viewed to be inflammatory against Sawant and other more progressive councilmembers, last election cycle in the City of Seattle, not surprising that they are pushing hard to get Sawant out. But it's also like, what do they think they would get in her place? Like the district is voting her in, so that is clearly what they want. They are - it's no surprise. They know exactly what they're getting - they reelected her. So, if they think that all of a sudden they would get this corporatist candidate, I don't know how they think - even if they got Sawant out that fundamentally many things would change because the district has made its preference clear multiple times now - it wasn't a fluke.  Marcus Harrison Green: [00:06:30] Yes. I mean, I think, you know, I guess it should be noted, right? That it was a fairly close race between her - Sawant and Egan Orion, this last go around, right? I mean, I think the initial count, at least the first day count, I should say, had Egan Orion in the lead. As more and more ballots were counted, obviously, by that Friday, I want to say that it was pretty clear that Sawant was going to win. And so I think, you know, this recall effort for Sawant is by people who just never wanted her there in the first place. And they're essentially trying to exhaust every single possibility they can to get her out.  Here's the thing, I mean that - what, that was less than a year ago at this point, where that election took place and there's already a recall effort. I mean - look, whether you like Councilmember Sawant or you don't, what has been the offense that she's supposedly done that it warrants a recall -  Crystal Fincher: [00:07:32] She's a socialist and that should scare you! - is, I think, where people land on that one. And I think you hit the nail on the head. These are people who didn't want her there in the first place. They're viewing this as a remedy for accomplishing something that the election couldn't or wouldn't, and is something that they're looking at there.  So, you know, just reading the details here, it looks like petitioners now have 180 days to collect 10,000 signatures from residents of District 3, Sawant's district. And if they do, the recall election, which would not be competitive - just an up or down vote on Sawant - would be held with the general election in November or early next year. I'm sure, for many reasons, including just economically and giving more of the City of voice, the preference would be for it to be on the general election ballot in November. But we will see what happens and we'll see how that unfolds  It, you know, there are a lot of people who just get really mad at the mention of Councilmember Sawant. I remember there was an interview I did at a TV station, that I will not name, shortly after that primary. After the primary in the last cycle where Kshama did not finish in first place - it was a crowded primary. And the newsperson kept asking me like, Okay, well, you know, Kshama has no chance. right? And I'm like, Well, actually, if you look at it - she has a really good chance. I would rather be her than her opponent at this time. Because if you look at the composition of candidates that were in that crowded primary, they actually shared her positions. And the opposition was, you know, if you're looking at the Amazon-funded - they didn't want the head tax. Well, the candidates that got the majority of the votes across the board favored the head tax. They favored positions that Kshama did. So just looking at where the voters were, it looked like Kshama certainly wasn't doomed. And as I said, I'd rather be her if I'm picking - I think she's in the strongest position. They just looked at me like I had three heads and like, Okay, she must just be this radical, you know, maybe she's a secret socialist. This is a mistake asking her about this race.  Marcus Harrison Green: [00:10:02] Well Crystal, you are not a secret socialist. I think you're pretty open about your socialism, so I don't, I don't know why there's -  Crystal Fincher: [00:10:07] Oh my gosh - Marcus Harrison Green: [00:10:08] No,I'll definitely correct myself then - yeah, it was 10,000 signatures. I think I was thinking of the initiative that we'll be talking about. The citywide initiative, potentially city wide initiative, that we'll be talking about soon. But, all that being said - yeah, I got to completely agree with you in terms of that last primary too. I think it was - my read on that whole thing was it seems that the sort of big business class and the Amazons of the world got a little too greedy with trying to go after Sawant, if you will. In the sense of they wanted an all or nothing type thing. And it was if they, I think as you said, if you looked at that primary in terms of policy-wise, I mean, people in that district - they were majority largely - they were all about the head tax. They were all about very progressive policies, right?  Now, the people who maybe voted against Sawant in that primary, maybe they didn't necessarily like her tone or tactics, per se, but I think they're in agreement with her policies largely. And I thought, honestly, that if Amazon truly had wanted to get Sawant out of that position, they would have tried to play the long game of like, Okay. Let's try to get somebody like, I want to say, I think Zachary DeWolf, the current school board director, was running in that race and pretty much had all of the same politics more or less than Sawant, except he came across as - it's more of his tone was more measured, you might say, right? It's somebody who would "reach across the aisle." I think if they had - if Amazon had truly wanted to get Sawant out, they would have tried to either just stay out of that race or try to, you know, more or less back somebody like DeWolf who could - whose tone people might've liked a little bit better. But instead, and then, you know, this election cycle, they get a DeWolf. The next election cycle, then maybe they go for somebody who was more to their liking or what have you. But instead I think they tried to go for that all or nothing approach and it ended up being nothing. And shame on, you know, and they had egg on their face somewhat.  Crystal Fincher: [00:12:21] Yeah, well, I mean, I think that the tone of the political conversation in Seattle over the past 15 years has shifted to the left. No question. You even look at the Council that we had 10 years ago versus the Council that we have now. And, you know, on the Seattle spectrum, which is not a Republican leading to Democratic spectrum. But on the Democratic spectrum, it shifted from one end to the other. And I think that it's hard for a lot of people to contextualize that. And they're still back 10 years ago and thinking that policy and rhetoric from 10 years ago is going to fly today. And it doesn't, it sounds farcical, really.  Marcus Harrison Green: [00:13:10] I wholeheartedly agree with you.   Crystal Fincher: [00:13:12] That was the little sub-comment... I have some comments in mind! Marcus Harrison Green: [00:13:13] Some things we were talking about prior to the recording - yes!  Crystal Fincher: [00:13:20] Um, but you know, this is probably a good transition to talking about what you just mentioned, which is the new initiative, a charter amendment change, that will be put on the ballot for City of Seattle. That is being messaged as - a way to compassionately provide services for homeless people, and to make sure they have resources, and we're funding housing, and we're funding services. And also saying that they're going to get more aggressive with sweeps. And basically saying that they can keep sidewalks clear, they can clear public areas. Certainly, for all of the - we've talked a lot about the dog whistles and the coded language that go into cleaning up Seattle streets and keeping our city clean and, and - which are all ways to say, We don't want a visible reminder of people who're unhoused. We don't want to see or deal with it, and do whatever you can do to just get it out of my world and my reality. Which is really manifested through these sweeps that we've been talking a lot about recently. So I guess what's your take on this legislation? Marcus Harrison Green: [00:14:50] Yeah. I mean, you know, I know this isn't a perfect parallel, certainly, but certainly I think that at least when it comes to local politics, it's a decent approximation. When I was reading through this, I was thinking a lot about some of the stuff that's going on in Georgia now with sort of these voter suppression laws and the - it's sort of a logical explanation, or I'll say illogical, but there are these "sound logical arguments" that people were making for some of these appeals. And it's kind of like, well, look - if there was technically like, the onus is on you, right, as the person making this - trying to implement these laws. And are trying to get these laws passed, I should say. If the onus is on you to prove that there's something wrong, right? I mean, is there something wrong with how people vote now, or whatever, that needs to be fixed?  In this case, right, is there something wrong, right now, with how these sweeps and so forth are being implemented? That they're, I mean, are they not aggressive enough for you? Like what is, you know, what - I just don't understand the need for this right now. Other than, as you were saying, people essentially just don't want to see any type of blight on their fair city or what have you. And are trying to essentially make it more and more of a hardship on people who are unhoused to be in areas that are "public spaces" or public amenities. And so for me, I mean, this just seems like an extremely - just extremely callous potential initiative that is couched in this language of compassion and love. And we're all in this together, but we all are not, quite frankly.  Crystal Fincher: [00:16:48] Yeah, and you nailed it right there. It is cloaked in the language of compassion. And you can't get any more forward than the coalition calling itself Compassionate Seattle, who filed this petition to amend the charter amendment. And Erica Barnett and PubliCola have been following this issue for quite some time. I know Erica basically called this development and this happening. And as we look at this, there's certainly - you know, I think everyone can agree. And I see Lisa Daugaard in here, who's Director of the Public Defender Association. And she says, Hey, this is about creating alternatives to living outdoors and really saying that, Hey, we have to do the work to keep people from living in public. People shouldn't be living in public. And on that, I think there's broad agreement. People should not be forced to live in public. There should be effective and compassionate and respectful shelter alternatives and paths to stable, permanent housing. I think the question is - the mandate in here to ensure that parks and public spaces are open and clear of encampments, is a clear direction and clear indication to return to aggressive sweeps. And to return to just default, I see someone in public - call the police, get them out. And afraid - go ahead.  Marcus Harrison Green: [00:18:27] Oh, I'm sorry. Uh, no, I was just gonna say that it's - yeah, I mean it's, as you said, I mean, it's very Orwellian language with which they're using to again, try to promote what is a very callous and cruel practice, right? I mean,it's one thing if you do have shelter space that is open and available and accessible to folks. And as you said, there's nobody, I don't think, anybody across the board who doesn't think or doesn't know, I should say at this point, that we need to aggressively build more shelter space and more housing for folks. And I think - what the last, I believe in the PubliCola story that ran on this, it was something like $400 million a year or something is needed county-wide, I want to say, for additional housing for our unhoused population. So, I mean,it isn't as if we just have this shelter space, our leader can snap our fingers and it automatically materializes. And that we have this abundance of that, which will allow people to go into more stable housing if this initiative was to pass. So I, again, it's just a very callous and cruel way to try to implement this. And I hope that folks can see through this and, just as a correction earlier, this is the one that would need 33,000 signatures.  Crystal Fincher: [00:20:04] Yeah. And just kind of a recap of what this does, you're absolutely right - need 30,000 valid signatures from Seattle voters. It'll create 2,000 new units of emergency or permanent housing. Two very different things. Very, very broad category that includes everything from 24-7 shelters, congregate shelters. It says that those 2,000 have to be created within one year and mandate that a minimum of 12% of the city's general fund goes to a new fund inside the Human Services Department. And while that's wonderful to message, the City already spends 11% in this category right now, so lots of people are going, Okay, but what's the difference. And then you're saying 2,000 new units of any kind of housing. How does that address the much larger number of unhoused people who are on the streets right now in Seattle?  Marcus Harrison Green: [00:21:07] Well, and where's that housing going to be placed? Is there going to be wraparound services tied to it? Right, I mean, there's just so many questions that they obviously haven't answered, or bothered to answer, quite frankly, with this. And that betrays the fact that I don't think they really care. I think they care more about just getting folks out of parks and these public spaces and out of their sight. Crystal Fincher: [00:21:33] Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, even just - it can allocate funding and money, but one point that Erica Barnett has made is that - look at how long it has taken, even with money earmarked and, Hey, it's funded - to just build housing. It has been a longterm, lengthy, delayed thing, especially when the mayor and Council do not agree. We've been trying to get a few thousand units of housing built for Durkan's entire term. She made big promises coming in on what she was going to do and has basically crept along and hasn't come close to what she had intended. So, yeah. It's great and wonderful and everything to allocate resources, but is that going to change the entire dynamic of politics in Seattle to make these housing units appear? And among the 2,000, how many of them are going to be units that people who are unhoused can immediately occupy, with the services to help move them to more permanent housing. That looks like it is coming nowhere close to addressing the issue, and really like it was just thrown in the initiative to say, Hey, but look, we're doing something, we're actually helping, in order to sneak in the provision of - Hey, we can keep all public places and spaces clear, regardless of whether there is actually a place and services for people to land, if you do say you can't be in this space. So, and again, when you look at the people who are funding it and the rhetoric that they've used leading up to now, certainly it does not necessarily give you confidence that they are looking at this through, despite their name, a compassionate view of people who are dealing with homelessness on the streets and helping them to get out of that situation. Seems like it's more targeted to preventing people from having to look at people who are unhoused.  Marcus Harrison Green: [00:23:39] No, I agree, and as a mentor of mine used to say about initiatives and public policy efforts, always look at the company somebody keeps. That's usually a good indicator of what they actually think. Not what they say. So, there you go.  Crystal Fincher: [00:23:55] Absolutely. But especially in Seattle where people have gotten real savvy when it comes to wrapping issues and all of the progressive and compassionate words and everyone says the right things. But if you look at their behavior, and if you look at where they're at on policy before, those tell very different stories. And my goodness, there sure is a bright history of people's big funders being a very good predictor of where they're going to land on issues despite rhetoric that they have given before the election. So I hope Seattle voters take that into account.  So I want to pivot and talk about an article that you wrote, a column that you had in the Times this week, which was just so exactly on the nose. And I just want to let you really talk about and explain the issue overall.  Marcus Harrison Green: [00:24:59] Yeah. Thank you so much for providing space and time for that, Crystal. Yeah. So the - wrote an article that appeared in Thursday's Seattle Times. It'll be in the South Seattle Emerald on Sunday, for those who can't get past the paywall for the Times. But, essentially, it was calling out the facts. That when we have deaths in South Seattle, and they've, honestly, largely been Black males who have been the victims of gun violence. In that area, we kind of shrug our shoulders and, you know, I'm a lifelong South Seattleite and it hasn't changed in the 30 some odd years that I've lived here. It seems like in this area of town, right, there's always a level of detachment and disconnection with the wider, larger city.  And, I remember there were times and bringing an example forward of my friend, Latrel Williams, who I actually talked to his mother for this - kind of opened the article with her. And he's a man that I knew from high school as a friend, who died four years ago. Some people believe that it was a - that he just happened to be in the wrong place, wrong time. And when he died, he left a son, left a mother, left various friends around. And I just remember the reality over how most media covered the story - it was just another statistic. It's just another guy who got one brief sentence in a story that fits the overall narrative that this area is so much more dangerous. And it's ultimately because of the pathology of, you know, Black folks that we're just, you know, I guess in red or inherently more violent than other people. And, quite frankly, I just got tired of that narrative. Tired. We all have been tired of that for quite some time. And I wanted to make sure that people knew that our lives, as cliche as it's become now, but it stays true. That our lives matter. Our lives matter. And I'm just so tired of this sort of asymmetrical compassion shown to people. If it happens in other areas of the City, it's a tragedy. When it happens here, it's a statistic. And there's just too often that we've - that people give lip service and virtue signaling to the fact that Black lives matter, yada yada yada. Well, okay then can you show me that you can do it right? Can you show me more than just rhetoric on Twitter? Can you show me more than just rhetoric on - at a speech? Can you show me when you actually invest in our communities?  We've known - social science has shown, for the longest dang time, that the reason that gun violence is concentrated in the areas is because they have systemically been divested in. We know that, and we know that those areas that have been - that systemically, faced systemic disinvestment have been areas that were subject to redlining, subject to housing discrimination, subject to inferior educational resources than other places. And those places usually match with communities of color, where communities of color live, and specifically with the Black community. And so, if we know that it's because of a lack of investment that these things continue to happen, you would think then the solution would be to actually invest in these communities. And yet, that continues to not be the case. And so I just wanted to finally just call that out in this -again, the City that is supposedly the flagship for all that is woke and is all this progressive, supposedly in our country and yet, right, we can - we've had five homicides so far this year, at least as we have up to the broadcast date of this podcast. Four of them have taken place in South Seattle. And yet, I mean, who - where is our mayor? Where's the City Council in saying, Yeah, this is just as much of a crisis as anything else, and we are going to address this by providing some level of, I shouldn't even say some level, but we are - a maximal level, right, of investment into this area and into this community that we have neglected for so, so long. And, as of now, I haven't heard any of them say anything. And so, as I said at the end of my article, as we - as people continue to deliberate and twiddle their thumbs, there are going to be more people who die. And ultimately that is a choice. That's a choice that we are making. Um, and it's, it's sad. It's very sad.  Crystal Fincher: [00:29:45] It is absolutely sad and a conversation that we have been having in community for so long. And  even - you hit on the head again - the disinvestment in communities. This isn't something that just organically came to be, this is the result of an abandonment by the City, by the public, and then a subsequent almost well, literally blaming the community for its own problem and expecting - with fewer, with lower investments, fewer resources, just, you know, Hey, fix it yourself. And I know it kills me every time I see. And as a Black mother of a Black son, just - when there is a shooting in the South End, there is this dismissiveness and, you know, Well, what did they do to deserve it? It was probably a gang thing or a drug thing, and somehow they deserved it. And just seeing the reflex. And it is so sad that it is now a reflex that grieving parents now have - to show that their child's life had value and was worthy of being valued and celebrated and is actually a loss. Like to have to feel like you have to justify to the broader public that the loss of your child actually is a loss to the community in a way that is assumed to be the case in other areas and in other communities. It's just such a cruel, cruel thing for someone to have to endure on top of the loss of their child and gets me every single time.  Marcus Harrison Green: [00:31:35] Yeah. And it's almost as if every - we're required to all be Emmett Till when we lose a family, Emmett Till's mother when we lose a family member. And, you know, for those who don't know, I'm sure listeners of your show do, but, when - Emmett Till was a young Black man who was, you know, beaten beyond recognition and lynched because he had supposedly whistled at a white woman going down the street. And so his mother decided to have an open casket at his funeral so people could see exactly - so the country at the time could see exactly what racism had done to so many people. So, was doing, I should say, how it was terrorizing Black people. And it seems like we haven't changed much to be quite frank with you since that time, in the sense that we continue to have to almost, you know, showcase, and showcase our pain, and showcase our struggle, and showcase our heartache, just to make people give a damn about us as individuals, us as a community, us as Black people. And, um, yeah, I don't, I don't know what else to say, to be honest with you. Crystal Fincher: [00:32:47] Yeah, no, I mean, but you certainly said what needed to be said in your column and I just deeply and sincerely thank you for writing it. And for continuing to be a voice of strength and clarity and that's just so necessary in our community. And not just the Black community, but overall. And you are a gem in Seattle and I just appreciate you. Marcus Harrison Green: [00:33:15] Well, it takes one to know one, Crystal. It takes one to know one.  Crystal Fincher: [00:33:20] With that - that is our time. I want to thank everyone for listening to Hacks and Wonks on KVRU 105.7 FM, this Friday, April 2nd, 2021. Our chief audio engineer at KVRU is Maurice Jones Jr. The producer  of Hacks and Wonks is Lisl Stadler. And our wonderful co-host today was South Seattle Emerald publisher and Seattle Times columnist, Marcus Harrison Green. You can find Marcus on Twitter @mhgreen3000. You can find me on Twitter @finchfrii, spelled F I N C H F R I I. And now you can find Hock - you can find Hacks and Wonks on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever else you get your podcasts and just type "Hacks and Wonks" into the search bar. Be sure to subscribe, to get our Friday almost live show and our mid-week show sent directly to your podcast stream.  Thanks for tuning in and we'll talk to you next time.

The WA Supreme Court has legalized felony drug possession comparing it to curfew violations. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/behindtheline/support

https://youtu.be/J1oiE3IRN6o Proclaim Liberty Throughout All the Land 1. Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses in First AmendmentCongress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. 2. Samuel Adams, The Rights of Colonists as Christians, 1772[Our rights] may be best understood by reading and carefully studying the institutes of the great Law-giver and head of the Christian Church, which are to be found clearly written and promulgated in the New Testament…there shall be liberty of conscience allowed in the worship of God to all Christians.  3. James Madison, Delivery to House of Representatives in 1789 and First Inaugural Address in 1809I will state my reasons why I think it proper to propose amendments…the civil rights of none shall be abridged on account of religious belief or worship, nor shall any national religion be established, nor shall the full and equal rights of conscience be in any manner, or on any pretext, infringed.    In these my confidence will under every difficulty be placed…in the guidance of that Almighty Being whose power regulates the destiny of nations…and to whom we are bound to address our devout gratitude for the past, as well as our fervent supplications and   best hopes for the future.  4.  Courts have ruled that in public school, the Christians' free speech and free exercise of religion infringes upon Establishment Clause and the students' right to undue religious influence. - teacher silently reading Bible in classroom prohibited - voluntary prayer in school prohibited- student writing paper about Jesus' life prohibited 5. Rulings with regard to other government employees - Knight v. Connecticut Dept. of Public Health, 2nd Circuit (2001) At a minimum, the Establishment Clause prohibits government from appearing to take a position on questions of religious belief. Thus, the interest of the State in avoiding an Establishment Clause violation may be a compelling one justifying an abridgment of free speech/free exercise otherwise protected by First Amendment.  6.  Constitution Annotated The Free Exercise clause's purpose is to secure religious liberty in the individual by prohibiting any invasions there by civil authority…But when it comes to protecting conduct…it has long been held that the Free Exercise Clause does not necessarily prevent the government from requiring or forbidding an act.  7.  Smoking peyote and animal sacrifice cases  The test is whether the restriction of conduct is “neutral and generally applicable” and the “time, place, and manner restriction is reasonable”  8. Youngstown v. Sawyer, U.S. Supreme Court (1952) “Steel Seizure Case” The example of such unlimited power that must have most impressed the forefathers was the prerogative exercised by George III, and the description of its evils in the Declaration of Independence leads me to doubt that they were creating the new Executive in his image.  9. Young v. State, WA Supreme Court (1985) Governor lacks inherent power except as delegated by the Constitution or statute. 10. Washington Governor derives power from statute - RCW 43.06.220 (1) The governor after proclaiming a state of emergency and prior to terminating such, may, in the area described by the proclamation, issue an order prohibiting: (b) Any number of persons, as designated by the governor, from assembling or gathering on the public streets, parks, or other open areas of this state, either public or private. (h) Such other activities as he or she reasonably believes be prohibited to help preserve and maintain life, health, property, or the public peace. (5) Any person willfully violating any provision of an order issued by the governor under this section is guilty of a gross misdemeanor.  11. COVID Mandates Are Unconstitutional  - No longer an emergency- RCW unconstitutional because no checks and balance or time limit- Restricti...

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Our liberal WA Supreme Court has ruled today that the voter approved $30 car tabs intiative was unconstitutional. Hear why now! --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/behindtheline/support

We speak to Justice Smith of the WA Supreme Court. Spoiler: we're a bit overawed at sitting down with an honest-to-God judge.

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It's the second largest defamation damages payout in Australia. Why did the WA Supreme Court award Lloyd Rayney $2.6 million? Also, 'open disclosure', an alternative to costly and stressful medical malpractice lawsuits.