Morning Fizz
Weinergate
[pullquote]Weiner has issued a statement that his account was hacked and Cordova has issued a statement also blaming hackers and lamenting her supposed status as the "femme fatale of Weinergate."[/pullquote]
1. Tomorrow afternoon at 2:00, the city council is expected to approve an official challenge by the city to Initiative 101, the anti-tunnel initiative. Some at City Hall were speculating last week about whether the vote will be unanimous or 8-1, with tunnel opponent Mike O'Brien voting against the challenge. (Unlike Seattle Citizens Against the Tunnel's Referendum 1, the initiative simply says the state can't build a tunnel on city right-of-way). Turns out the vote will be unanimous, but not thanks to O'Brien---he'll be out of town, his staff says, and won't be part of the vote.
2. The state has been noticeably silent on the question of whether it will appeal a county judge's ruling in the tunnel referendum lawsuit. (Two weeks ago, Judge Laura Gene Middaugh ruled that a portion of legislation adopting three agreements between the city and state on the deep-bore tunnel can go on the August ballot; that portion deals with the council's process for moving forward with the tunnel.) Fizz hears that's because the state doesn't plan to appeal, and will allow the measure to go on the ballot in August.
3. Update: Elizabeth Campbell addresses the standing issue in the comments. Both SCAT and Protect Seattle Now, she says, received official standing in both the referendum and initiative lawsuits; Campbell herself has standing only in the initiative lawsuit. We have an email out to Campbell seeking further clarification.
Speaking of the two tunnel lawsuits, Elizabeth Campbell, head of Seattle Citizens Against the Tunnel, apparently tried to get official standing in the referendum lawsuit in addition to her own group's separate suit over the initiative. The idea isn't as wacky as it sounds: SCAT officially joined forces with Protect Seattle Now in March. Despite the merger, Campbell's standing in the referendum lawsuit was denied---no huge disappointment, Fizz imagines, to referendum backers, who share little political common ground with Campbell, a staunch supporter of the rebuild option.
4. A Seattle woman who goes to college in Bellingham, Gennetta Cordova, 21, is at the center of a salacious story involving U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY). Cordova received a pic that appeared to come from Rep. Weiner's Twitter account showing a man in his briefs with an erection. Weiner has issued a statement that his account was hacked and Cordova has issued a statement also blaming hackers and lamenting her supposed status as the "femme fatale of Weinergate."
5. Local political operative Viet Shelton—a former aide to ex-mayor Greg Nickels who went on to work for Gov. Chris Gregoire and then for the high earners' income tax campaign, is now taking a brief leave from his gig as a pro-transit organizer for Transportation Choices Coalition, to head for Wisconsin to join former Washington State Democratic Party spokesman Kelly Steele in the recall effort against the crew of Republican state senators who pushed Gov. Scott Walker's anti-union legislation.
1. Tomorrow afternoon at 2:00, the city council is expected to approve an official challenge by the city to Initiative 101, the anti-tunnel initiative. Some at City Hall were speculating last week about whether the vote will be unanimous or 8-1, with tunnel opponent Mike O'Brien voting against the challenge. (Unlike Seattle Citizens Against the Tunnel's Referendum 1, the initiative simply says the state can't build a tunnel on city right-of-way). Turns out the vote will be unanimous, but not thanks to O'Brien---he'll be out of town, his staff says, and won't be part of the vote.
2. The state has been noticeably silent on the question of whether it will appeal a county judge's ruling in the tunnel referendum lawsuit. (Two weeks ago, Judge Laura Gene Middaugh ruled that a portion of legislation adopting three agreements between the city and state on the deep-bore tunnel can go on the August ballot; that portion deals with the council's process for moving forward with the tunnel.) Fizz hears that's because the state doesn't plan to appeal, and will allow the measure to go on the ballot in August.
3. Update: Elizabeth Campbell addresses the standing issue in the comments. Both SCAT and Protect Seattle Now, she says, received official standing in both the referendum and initiative lawsuits; Campbell herself has standing only in the initiative lawsuit. We have an email out to Campbell seeking further clarification.
Speaking of the two tunnel lawsuits, Elizabeth Campbell, head of Seattle Citizens Against the Tunnel, apparently tried to get official standing in the referendum lawsuit in addition to her own group's separate suit over the initiative. The idea isn't as wacky as it sounds: SCAT officially joined forces with Protect Seattle Now in March. Despite the merger, Campbell's standing in the referendum lawsuit was denied---no huge disappointment, Fizz imagines, to referendum backers, who share little political common ground with Campbell, a staunch supporter of the rebuild option.
4. A Seattle woman who goes to college in Bellingham, Gennetta Cordova, 21, is at the center of a salacious story involving U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY). Cordova received a pic that appeared to come from Rep. Weiner's Twitter account showing a man in his briefs with an erection. Weiner has issued a statement that his account was hacked and Cordova has issued a statement also blaming hackers and lamenting her supposed status as the "femme fatale of Weinergate."
5. Local political operative Viet Shelton—a former aide to ex-mayor Greg Nickels who went on to work for Gov. Chris Gregoire and then for the high earners' income tax campaign, is now taking a brief leave from his gig as a pro-transit organizer for Transportation Choices Coalition, to head for Wisconsin to join former Washington State Democratic Party spokesman Kelly Steele in the recall effort against the crew of Republican state senators who pushed Gov. Scott Walker's anti-union legislation.
