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No gay rights initiative in Washington?

Some indications that Tim Eyman, Washington's king of the initiative, may be falling short in his effort to put a measure on the ballot to reverse this year's legislative passage of a gay rights bill.

If so, that would be a remarkable failure - up there with the voter rejection of the transportation package initiative last year. But if the numbers released so far are accurate, the proposal seems headed for the reject pile rather than the ballot. A rundown of the stats can be found at the Horse's Ass blog.

Eyman, it should be noted as well, seems more focused on his I-917 measure on the state car tabs rate.

Finkbeiner implications

Qualifies as a political stunner, the announcement Friday by Washington state Senator Bill Finkbeiner that he will not run for re-election this year.

Bill FinkbeinerThe implications are large, but of a piece with developments already underway.

The surprise comes in part from the way Finkbeiner, a Republican who has voted conservative enough to become his party's floor leader, seemed this year to tailor his legislative record to his district, on gay rights and other matters. His district, he seemed to suggest, was moving, was less and less conservative, and he had to respond. Usually you don't do that if you're planning to retire anyway.

Republican Representative Toby Nixon, plans to run for Finkbeiner's seat, and Finkbeiner quickly endorsed him.

But the announcement was treated as a big deal - former state Republican Chair Chris Vance called it "That's terrible, terrible news for the Republicans" - and there's something to that view. You get a hint of it in Finkbeiner's quote: "It's always better to go out at the top of your game, and that's where I am now." (more…)

Of all the crimes

How does something like this happen? Just consider the lead sentence from this Associated Press story: "The administrator of the Oregon Liquor Control Commission resigned Thursday, five days after being arrested and charged with drunken and reckless driving."

Police said that when the administrator, Teresa Kaiser, was stopped at Portland, she showed a blood alcohol level twice the legal limit.

And she not only worked for but headed the state liquor commission?

Someone, somewhere, ought to be doing some hard thinking about this one . . .

The public investment

There's a remarkable subtext to the Thursday decision by Seattle Judge Greg Canova in the case of the warring Seattle dailies: That not only the owners of those newspapers have a legitimate stake in the outcome.

This is not the norm in business litigation, when one business sues another and a court has to decide. The usual theory is that, unless a public (governmental) organization is involved in the case, the matter is fundamentally simply between the two parties. The workings of the court and the documents submitted to it ordinarily are public, but that's mainly because a public entity - the court - is involved as decision-maker. If amazon.com were to sue Microsoft, where would be the public's seat at the table? Probably nowhere.

But would that be right? Millions of people have a major stake in both corporations' activities. Maybe the public, or some version of it, should be at the table too.

Judge Canova might or might not streatch the point that far. But something similar seemed to underlie his decision.

The situation is that Seattle's two daily newspapers, the Times and the Post-Intelligencer, are locked in a joint operating agreement; the owners of the Times want to end the agreement, while the owners of the P-I say that if it is ended, their newspaper might die. The battle, stretching over years already, has been intense. A month ago they announced they had agreed to submit the case to an arbitrator who would make a decision in a year or so, and that they would abide by it. (The proceedings leading up to the decision would be closed, though the decision itself and its rationale would be released.) They asked Canova to put the legal case on ice until the arbitrator acts.

Canova refused. He pointed out that the litigation also had a third party, the Committee for a Two-Newspaper Town (a group of newspaper employees), and that it had an interest in the case too. It too had a right to litigate, he suggested. His reasoning suggested that interests beyond those of the business owners are at stake.

An opinion to review, and consider.

Ongoing Discoveries

Noteworthy followup story in the Seattle Times on intelligent design, and more specifically on Seattle's Discovery Institute, which has been its leading national proponent.

The article's basic point is that the campaign for ID was dealt a serious blow in last year's federal court decision in Dover, Pennsylvania, holding that the teaching was essentially religion, not science - as the Institute has proclaimed.

Most striking quote in the story, from no less than Rush Limbaugh: "The people pushing intelligent design believe in the biblical version of creation. Intelligent design is a way, I think, to sneak it into the curriculum and make it less offensive to the liberals." Which, as he seems to suggest, didn't work.

Regionally, what does that suggest for the Discovery Institute itself? Spokesmen note that the Institute didn't suggest the Dover officials teach intelligent design, only "the controversy" surrounding it - but that seems a thin distinction.

This might suggest the large institute, which has a wide range of research territory far afield from creation, might reorient itself. And yet that might be difficult too. The Times again: "Discovery Institute funders, including the Maclellan Foundation in Chattanooga, Tenn., have open religious agendas. Another donor, the Stewardship Foundation of Tacoma, says it 'provides resources to Christ-centered organizations whose mission is to share their faith in Jesus Christ.' Its founder, the late David Weyerhaeuser, was also interested in science, Meyer said."

Its researchers seem to know what they want to find.

Northwest net neutrality

Imagine a few years hence an Internet that looks a whole lot like cable TV. That your main local provider - who has gotten from federal law the muscle to shove aside the little guys - is able to limit your choices in where you can go on the web, blocking sites at will (including those it simply doesn't like, or that conflicts with corporate imperatives), or charges web providers fees (which it can set at will) for access . . . or maybe for access at anything other than verrry slow speed. Imagine an Internet no longer wide open, "net neutral," the way we've come to know it.

Sound improbable? That's exactly what the "Communications Opportunity, Promotion and Enhancement Act of 2006" (opportunity, promotion and enhancement of the telcos, that is - not for the rest of us) would do. A description (accurate in our opinion, of the measure's end goals) from the anti-COPE group Save the Internet:

The nation's largest telephone and cable companies — including AT&T, Verizon, Comcast and Time Warner — want to be Internet gatekeepers, deciding which Web sites go fast or slow and which won't load at all.

They want to tax content providers to guarantee speedy delivery of their data. They want to discriminate in favor of their own search engines, Internet phone services, and streaming video — while slowing down or blocking their competitors.

These companies have a new vision for the Internet. Instead of an even playing field, they want to reserve express lanes for their own content and services — or those from big corporations that can afford the steep tolls — and leave the rest of us on a winding dirt road.

This site is about the Northwest, and our point here is to note that three Northwest House members who voted Wednesday on COPE in the House Energy & Commerce Committee, which passed it 34-22 to the House floor: Jay Inslee of Washington, Greg Walden of Oregon and C.L. "Butch" Otter of Idaho. Two of them have some explaining to do. (more…)

Overreach

Probably no decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in recent years has energized people across so wide a spectrum as its decision in Kelo v. City of New London (No. 04-108), holding that local governments could condemn property solely for the purpose of upgrading its economic value. Most Americans have understood that property can be condemned (provided fair payment is given) for an important public purpose. Last year's Kelo decision put property ownership at the mercy of private developers as well. In sum, this time, everyone's property is at imminent risk. (Our view is that this was one of the worst Supreme Court decisions in recent years.)

Around the country and in congress, lawmakers have been at work to keep local governments which haven't been doing this sort of thing (in a number of areas it's been common practice for some time) from starting. The Idaho Legislature was not inactive in this area: Eminent domain was a big topic of discussion last session. Lawmakers produced and passed, without a single dissenting vote, House Bill 555, which blocked Idaho local governments from doing much of what the Supreme Court had suggested they otherwise could. It set out, effectively, "to provide limitations on eminent domain for private parties, urban renewal or economic development purposes."

That seems not to have stopped, however, the backers of the Private Property Rights Protection Initiative, which is still (the days grow short: People now are being paid to circulate the petitions) gathering petition signatures to stave off the effects of the Supreme Court decision. Which would seem to have been effectively staved off already by the legislature. Or is that it's real intent? (more…)

The big stink?

Nope, somehow we just didn't think there'd be any press releases on the Hanford site about this one. And there aren't.

But the story in the Tri-City Herald is clear enough.

In the middle of the last century, Hanford was conducting an array of tests not only on generating nuclear power but also on the effects of radiation. Apparently, a lot of those tests were conducted on animals. The animals, which eventually did not survive, were buried out in the plains near the Hanford site. The radiation was low-level (mostly at least, one assumes), but now they're going to have to be dug up and re-buried in more secure surroundings.

How many animals is unclear. But the amount of waste (which includes a considerable amount of dirt) is estimated at 35,000 pounds. The project appears to be getting the nickname, "the Big Stink."

The metaphor in all this presumably needs no elaboration.

Gov/GOP again: Shaking out?

Does anyone have the Big Mo in the Oregon Republican governor's race? Doesn't feel like it . . . Though if anyone should, Ron Saxton should be the guy. He's been watching persistent stories about how Jason Atkinson hasn't been gaining big-time traction and almost no endorsements from major entities, and about a string of financial problems, including persistent debt and fast and odd financial shifts, surfacing in the Oregonian (on clockwork, as noted here and elsewhere a few weeks ago). And yet.

The well-connected Republican I Am Coyote (a strong Atkinson backer, it should be noted) at the NW Republican blog, is adamant that Saxton is stalling. Key rationale:

1) Saxton is not releasing any poll numbers. Well except for the all important Dorchester straw poll and the Portland Business Journal online poll. If a candidate has a poll that says they are winning, they release it.

2) Saxton is calling in the chits with The Oregonian. It has been a full on assault on Kevin Mannix by the "O." With two "hard" news stories, an editorial against Mannix, a nauseating endorsement and TWO hits by Uncle Dave [Reichert, conservative editorial page columnist]? If you have ever wanted to see what political mouth to mouth resuscitation looks like, well, this is it.

3) The Grand Ronde Tribe is beginning to act hysterical in their support. Hysterical in that you can almost hear them yelling "DON'T YOU PEOPLE KNOW THAT WE REALLY REALLY MEAN IT?! Really."

The conclusion is not that Saxton necessarily is losing, just that the primary is undecided as yet. Watch the Monday night debate, and you get that sense: A feeling that this race is very much yet to be won or lost.