Morning Fizz: The Obvious Solution
1. More details on KUOW's plans to revamp its midday programming: The NPR affiliate's new noon-to-2-pm show, called "The Record" (not "On the Record"—"The Record") will have not one but two hosts every day, a rolling cast that will include any combo of the two current hosts of morning show "Weekday," Steve Scher and Marcie Sillman, and the host of afternoon show "The Conversation," Ross Reynolds. (Both shows are canceled as of September 3, as is the afternoon show "KUOW Presents.")
It'll be interesting, for KUOW fans anyway, to see how the formerly independent hosts—particularly the laconic Scher and the cerebral Reynolds—work together in the new, and expected faster-paced format.
2. Although poll-watchers were wondering last week whether longtime Bellevue City Council member Don Davidson would pull up in his three-way race for reelection and defeat second-place finisher Vandana Slatter (the largely self-funded Amgen medical liaison raised more money for her primary race, $121,000, than any Bellevue candidate has spent in a local primary, ever), Slatter's lead over Davidson has continued to hold.
Both Slatter and the first-place winner, Bellevue parks board chair Lynne Robinson, are progressive women who support light rail; Davidson, who has served on the council since 1983, is a member of the old-Bellevue guard supported by Republicans and anti-rail developer Kemper Freeman.
As of late yesterday afternoon, Slatter had 26.31 percent of the vote to Davidson's 25.2 percent—a gap of 221 votes. Robinson was far in the lead, ahead of both, with 48.22 percent of the vote.
3. This is pretty cool. Macklemore is on the cover of the latest issue of Rolling Stone .
4. Think Mayor Mike McGinn is the lefty in this year's election?
Not according to Socialist Alternative City Council candidate Kashama Sawant. In a press release she put out this morning supporting today's Seattle teachers' union rally (the union doesn't like the district's latest offer in contract negotiations), Sawant declared:
It is outrageous that the School District would propose increasing class sizes when teachers are clearly overworked and overcrowded classes have proven to inhibit student learning. The obvious solution is to tax millionaires and corporations to fund education—which is wildly popular. But don't expect the corporate-funded Democrats—Mayor McGinn or the City Council —to come to your rescue.
