Morning Fizz
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Caffeinated news & gossip. Your daily Morning Fizz.
1. The New York Times ran an editorial yesterday about Republican efforts to stop young people from voting. (The idea, apparently, is to diminish Obama turnout.)
But legislators in Washington State are pushing things in the opposite direction. A batch of Seattle Democrats in the state House—including Reps. Zack Hudgins (D-11), Joe Fitzgibbon (D-34), Reuven Carlyle (D-36), and Jamie Pedersen (D-43)—have signed on to a bill that would turn drivers' license applications into de facto voter registration forms unless people opt out.
2. The redistricting commission meets this morning at 10:30. You can watch it live on TVW.
The commission has until January 1 to agree on maps expanding Washington State's US congressional districts from 9 to 10. The AP had a wrapup of where things stood when last week's meeting was canceled after the commission—made up of two Democrats and two Republicans–failed to reach a compromise.
And our own Jolt handed out some winners and losers earlier in the month after the commission divvied up Western Washington's state legislative districts.[pullquote]Digital copies of the books are free and available in multiple formats—for the web, your Kindle and your iPad. Don’t have a computer? No problem. Hard copy prints cost $4.25 per book.[/pullquote]
And 10:30 update: They're meeting again tomorrow at 11 when they're scheduled to unveil the congressional maps.
3. Back in October, state Rep. Carlyle was talking up a bill he was going to introduce to save money in K-12 schools. The big idea? Bypassing the commercial textbook industry and using digital textbooks.
On his blog yesterday, Carlyle unveiled the bills, explaining that he wants to
1. The New York Times ran an editorial yesterday about Republican efforts to stop young people from voting. (The idea, apparently, is to diminish Obama turnout.)
But legislators in Washington State are pushing things in the opposite direction. A batch of Seattle Democrats in the state House—including Reps. Zack Hudgins (D-11), Joe Fitzgibbon (D-34), Reuven Carlyle (D-36), and Jamie Pedersen (D-43)—have signed on to a bill that would turn drivers' license applications into de facto voter registration forms unless people opt out.
The legislature recognizes that voter participation is the foundation of our democracy. The legislature also recognizes that young people register to vote at much lower rates than any other age group. Therefore, the legislature intends to enhance voter participation by simplifying motor voter registration.
Applications for a driver's license and a state identicard shall also serve as an application for voter registration purposes. An applicant for a driver's license or a state identicard may decline in writing to be registered to vote.
2. The redistricting commission meets this morning at 10:30. You can watch it live on TVW.
The commission has until January 1 to agree on maps expanding Washington State's US congressional districts from 9 to 10. The AP had a wrapup of where things stood when last week's meeting was canceled after the commission—made up of two Democrats and two Republicans–failed to reach a compromise.
Early proposals from the redistricting commission three months ago showed a variety of ideas on where to place the new 10th District, with Republican commissioner Slade Gorton placing it in the northwest corner of the state and Ceis placing it around Olympia. They were also exploring the possibility of creating a majority-minority congressional district based in south King County.
And our own Jolt handed out some winners and losers earlier in the month after the commission divvied up Western Washington's state legislative districts.[pullquote]Digital copies of the books are free and available in multiple formats—for the web, your Kindle and your iPad. Don’t have a computer? No problem. Hard copy prints cost $4.25 per book.[/pullquote]
And 10:30 update: They're meeting again tomorrow at 11 when they're scheduled to unveil the congressional maps.
3. Back in October, state Rep. Carlyle was talking up a bill he was going to introduce to save money in K-12 schools. The big idea? Bypassing the commercial textbook industry and using digital textbooks.
On his blog yesterday, Carlyle unveiled the bills, explaining that he wants to
bring free, high quality open textbooks and open course material to our state’s 295 school districts serving one million+ students in our K-12 system. Since Washington has embraced common core standards along with 43 other states, sharing materials makes even more sense. 44 states now share common K-12 curricular standards in math and language arts. 44 states will need new textbooks and new curriculum. Does it make sense to work together to build new and adopt existing open textbooks and open courses that align with those common core standards? I think it does. The amazing aspect of the project is that we do not need to fund the creation of new K-12 textbooks. It’s already being done here and shared under a Creative Commons license. Digital copies of the books are, of course, free and are available in multiple formats – for the web, your Kindle and your iPad. Don’t have a computer or tablet? No problem. Hard copy prints cost a mere $4.25 per book.
