Morning Fizz
"When They Come to Pick You Off in the Future."
1. File this under not surprising: Mayor Mike McGinn
is doing fundraising phone calls for the new referendum to repeal the city's tunnel agreements with the state—which the council recently affirmed by overriding his veto.
2. Here's a potential assignment for the Seattle Police Department: According to several media reports, law enforcement in Nashville, Denver , and Baltimore have all made human trafficking busts by going after sex ads on backpage.com.
Backpage.com is the online advertising service for Village Voice Media, which owns 14 alternative weeklies, including Seattle Weekly, which uses the service.
The stings uncovered teenage prostitution.
3. "I have a warning for the business community," state Sen. Val Stevens (R-39, Arlington), said on the floor of the senate on Saturday, "if they succeed here, this will be the playbook for when they come to pick you off in the future ."
Was Stevens sounding the alarm about one of this year's bills to take away services from or brand undocumented workers? Was she speaking out against the attorney general's bill to allow law enforcement to get special injunctions against people with no prior criminal record? No.
Stevens was speaking against state Sen. Phil Rockefeller's (D-23, Bainbridge Island) bill to sign off on an agreement between Gov. Chris Gregoire , environmentalists, and TransAlta—the company that runs Centralia's coal-fired electricity plant (the number one polluter in the state)—to phase out coal by 2025.
Stevens began her speech with the famous quote about how "they first came for the communists, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist..." (and apparently oblivious to the irony of a Republican saying it in 2011, she continued with the next line about "how they came for the trade unionists." She wrapped up the famous aphorism about "coming for the Jews" and no one spoke out—and "then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me."
So, comparing the governor to Hitler and Centralia to the Warsaw Ghetto, I guess, Stevens went on: "I will not sanction this agreement by voting for this bill, I don't want to participate in the destruction of another community. I watched, and I saw what happened to my communities when they shut down the timber industry. What industry will be next, will it be the paper mills, will it be the cement industry glass, gypsum, or lime? Oil refineries? I don't believe that just shutting down coal is going to be the end of the story."
Stevens was one of 13 senators to vote against the bill, which passed 36-13.
4. On the house side, environmentalists were the ones feeling persecuted this weekend. On Friday night, the house passed three bills that environmentalists have been lobbying against all session: a bill to let cities and counties delay the Growth Management Act; a bill to let some counties opt out the Growth Management Act altogether; and a bill to let developers put off paying impact fees.
Stalwart Seattle environmentalist Rep. Joe Fitzgibbon (D-34, Burien, W. Seattle) was one of only four reps to vote against all three bills, joining just 10 others in the 86-11 vote against the GMA delay.
Another green, Rep. Marko Liias (D-21, Edmonds), who joined the 'Nay' contingents on the anti-GMA bills, sponsored the bill to give developers a break.
5. Fizz has heard about a potential compromise in the standoff between city hall and the UW over Seattle's commercial parking tax (UW wants an exemption): Drop the tax and go with a citywide parking stall fee on property owners and developers.
The UW reportedly doesn't like the idea (Fizz imagines the U Village doesn't approve), but we hear the Associated Students of the University of Washing (ASUW) may split with the UW in support.
6. In cas you missed it on Friday afternoon: We had some more news on the Urban League's WSDOT contract: WSDOT tells PubliCola it's not a sure thing the money will keep flowing to the League.
2. Here's a potential assignment for the Seattle Police Department: According to several media reports, law enforcement in Nashville, Denver , and Baltimore have all made human trafficking busts by going after sex ads on backpage.com.
Backpage.com is the online advertising service for Village Voice Media, which owns 14 alternative weeklies, including Seattle Weekly, which uses the service.
The stings uncovered teenage prostitution.
3. "I have a warning for the business community," state Sen. Val Stevens (R-39, Arlington), said on the floor of the senate on Saturday, "if they succeed here, this will be the playbook for when they come to pick you off in the future ."
Was Stevens sounding the alarm about one of this year's bills to take away services from or brand undocumented workers? Was she speaking out against the attorney general's bill to allow law enforcement to get special injunctions against people with no prior criminal record? No.
Stevens was speaking against state Sen. Phil Rockefeller's (D-23, Bainbridge Island) bill to sign off on an agreement between Gov. Chris Gregoire , environmentalists, and TransAlta—the company that runs Centralia's coal-fired electricity plant (the number one polluter in the state)—to phase out coal by 2025.
Stevens began her speech with the famous quote about how "they first came for the communists, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist..." (and apparently oblivious to the irony of a Republican saying it in 2011, she continued with the next line about "how they came for the trade unionists." She wrapped up the famous aphorism about "coming for the Jews" and no one spoke out—and "then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me."
So, comparing the governor to Hitler and Centralia to the Warsaw Ghetto, I guess, Stevens went on: "I will not sanction this agreement by voting for this bill, I don't want to participate in the destruction of another community. I watched, and I saw what happened to my communities when they shut down the timber industry. What industry will be next, will it be the paper mills, will it be the cement industry glass, gypsum, or lime? Oil refineries? I don't believe that just shutting down coal is going to be the end of the story."
Stevens was one of 13 senators to vote against the bill, which passed 36-13.
4. On the house side, environmentalists were the ones feeling persecuted this weekend. On Friday night, the house passed three bills that environmentalists have been lobbying against all session: a bill to let cities and counties delay the Growth Management Act; a bill to let some counties opt out the Growth Management Act altogether; and a bill to let developers put off paying impact fees.
Stalwart Seattle environmentalist Rep. Joe Fitzgibbon (D-34, Burien, W. Seattle) was one of only four reps to vote against all three bills, joining just 10 others in the 86-11 vote against the GMA delay.
Another green, Rep. Marko Liias (D-21, Edmonds), who joined the 'Nay' contingents on the anti-GMA bills, sponsored the bill to give developers a break.
5. Fizz has heard about a potential compromise in the standoff between city hall and the UW over Seattle's commercial parking tax (UW wants an exemption): Drop the tax and go with a citywide parking stall fee on property owners and developers.
The UW reportedly doesn't like the idea (Fizz imagines the U Village doesn't approve), but we hear the Associated Students of the University of Washing (ASUW) may split with the UW in support.
6. In cas you missed it on Friday afternoon: We had some more news on the Urban League's WSDOT contract: WSDOT tells PubliCola it's not a sure thing the money will keep flowing to the League.
