To everyone who reads The Politics Blog (clearly more than I thought considering the adds on Facebook and Twitter), I hope you enjoy your Independence Day weekend.
We’ve got a long weekend here at the newsroom, so I won’t be around Friday.
Remember to play it safe with your fireworks and your parties (I’m looking at you, AFY).
See you Monday.
BELLINGHAM — Local organizers of the TEA Party are inviting the public to the follow-up event to a large April 15 protest that police officials estimated to have between 1,500 to 2,000 participants.
The second event takes place from noon to 2 p.m. Saturday, July 4, at the intersection of Meridian Street and Bellis Fair Parkway. This time, a large banner with the U.S. Constitution will be there for people to sign, said organizer Lynn Carpenter.
For more information, call Carpenter at 734-8138 or e-mail timlynncarpenter@comcast.net. Visit the organization’s blog, right here.
It was a hopeful letter sent to a president who campaigned on that very feeling.
Now, that one letter from staff at the Ferndale Boys & Girls Club might bring President Obama to the town for a ceremony at the soon-to-be new facility.
In January, Christine Destry, the Boys & Girls Clubs of Whatcom County director of Organizational Advancement, decided to let the president know about the fire that ripped through the former club on New Year’s Day 2007 and how federal stimulus money was helping build a new place to serve the more than 1,400 kids who hang out there. Why not invite the president to a ceremony to acknowledge the success story, Destry said.
On Tuesday, June 30, the White House called, and said they were considering coming in spring 2010. There are, of course, no guarantees to getting Obama here.
Anti-tax activist Tim Eyman has apparently turned in enough signatures to put another initiative on the ballot aimed at limiting growth in government spending.
His latest effort, Initiative 1033, would limit revenue increases for state, city and county governments to the rate of inflation plus population growth. Taxpayers would get any money above that amount, in the form of lower property taxes.
Read the full blog post, including how many signatures the group turned in, at The Seattle Times, right here.
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Aside from the abundant amount of “Barnstorming for Port Reforum” forums that Port of Bellingham Commission candidates Ham Hayes and Doug Karlberg have set up, other organizations and neighborhoods are finally starting to announce their own forums this primary season.
Here’s the info I have so far (and I’ve woven in the rest of the “Barnstorming” forums into this list, too, so you get the full picture):
Tuesday, July 7: “Barnstorming” forum. 7 p.m. at the Sudden Valley Adult Center.
Wednesday, July 8: “Barnstorming” forum. 7 p.m. at the Cedar Grove Park Community Center, 4915 Samish Way. Bellingham City Council Ward 6 candidates also invited.
Friday, July 17: League of Women Voters of Bellingahm/Whatcom County forum. 7 p.m. in Bellingham City Council chambers in City Hall, 210 Lottie St. Seating is limit so come early. Candidates for Port County Council and Bellingham City Council will be featured. The forum will be broadcast live on BTV10 (Comcast channel 10).
Monday, July 20: Coalition of Southside Neighborhoods (includes Edgemoor, Fairhaven, Happy Valley, South and South Hill) forum. From 7 to 9 p.m., at Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church, 1720 Harris Ave., in Bellingham. Candidates at this forum will include those for Port Commission District 1, Whatcom County Council At-Large and Bellingham City Council Ward 6.
Tuesday, July 21: “Barnstorming” forum. 7 p.m. at the South Bellingham Bellingham Co-Housing Commons, 2614 Donovan Ave. Parking limited, please park on south side of Donovan, carpooling suggested. Bellingham City Council Ward 6 candidates also invited.
Wednesday, July 22:The Bill Mize Forum at the Rome Grange, 2821 Mount Baker Hwy. Begins at 7 p.m. Generally broadcast on KGMI 790AM.
For months now people have been asking me if I Twitter. I’ve heard it from government agencies at the state and local level, elected officials, activists, Average Joes, friends and family.
For as long as Twitter has been around, I’ve fought it. 140 characters of blah seemed, well, BLAH.
But lately, the Twitter pressure has gotten even more. As has the Facebook pressure. People want to know what I’m up to and what I’m covering.
I’ve always done my best to be as transparent as I can, whether that be in my news coverage or even my personal life. You’ve been made aware of my wife, Kathryn, and various interests I have, including martial arts and weight lifting.
So today, I finally caved and decided to create a Twitter account that is public. I’ve also opened up my Facebook page up, for the most part, to anyone and everyone. I already had quite a few locals and state people on Facebook, but what they could see on my page was quite limited. Now it’s mostly open, including my bio information, which includes “teetotalling” and “assuaging the demands of pirates with the fiery sword of a ninja overlord through the face” in my Activities section. You’re welcome for that information.
If you’d also like to add me to Facebook, please do at http://www.facebook.com/samwtaylor. You can find me at Twitter at http://twitter.com/samwtaylor. Both sites, through Ping.fm, will update at the same time. Eventually, all of the blog posts here will also directly be sent to both sites, too, so no matter where you are … I’ll be there.
*UPDATE* - It’s past 10 p.m. and I’ve already gotten more Facebook requests than I have gotten questions for primary election candidates! You people are addicts. Well, so am I. They call it a laptop for a reason, and if I’m not in the gym or at martial arts classes I’m sitting on my couch with the laptop multitasking (for instance, I’m currently blogging and watching Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan. Don’t judge me!).
I’m very pleased so many of you are interested in Facebook and Twitter. This little experiment is clearly worth it. Some people are advocating I create a separate Facebook fan page from my personal page. For now, I’m more than happy to let you all in on what I do. I don’t really share opinions. The one time I did was when I nearly smashed into a group full of bikers on the road who I almost killed (and I was rather unpleased about nearly killing people). It’s hard to be objective when you almost kill other humans, but I trust you believe that I’m fair and accurate in the work I do despite running over a Huffy or two.
Growth and Transportation reporter has an interesting piece up over at Traffic Talk discussing how Western Washington University officials are treating the public (via the media) on the negotiations with Whatcom Transportation Authority on the student universal bus pass up there.
Says Jared:
When it comes to media coverage, Western Washington University officials are pretty darn sensitive.
I just got a bunch of records back from a public disclosure request and, in them, WWU officials criticize and appear to make fun of a report by student newspaper The Western Front and express anger over material I published.
You can check out the entire thing, including some pretty interesting quotes from WWU officials, right here.
In this year’s election cycle, and particularly in the primaries, it seems evident to those watching that perhaps the most crucial and interesting races to watch are those for the Port of Bellingham Commission.
With the city of Bellingham and Port continuing toward a myriad of goals on the redevelopment of the city’s waterfront, perhaps nothing has gotten more chatter about who the three officials at the port are who are making the decisions.
So it comes with a bit of surprise that, in a year where these races are perhaps the most important to the future direction the waterfront project takes, three candidates out of six have decided that they’ll take in, and spend, less than $5,000.
District 1 candidate Ham Hayes and District 2 candidates Doug Karlberg and Commissioner Doug Smith all marked on their state Public Disclosure Commission C-1 reports that they’d take advantage of mini-reporting. All candidates have until Tuesday, July 7, to change their minds if they wish, but based on conversations I’ve had with all three it doesn’t appear so.
Numerous questions come to mind when I see that they intend to not spend so much in popular races. The first, and most obvious, is why, and each candidate had a completely different reason for choosing that route.
Over at Port of Bellingham candidate Ham Hayes’s candidate blog, he discusses the Port’s role in economic development:
I would expect the Port of Bellingham to be tracking economic trends and doing strategic planning to fulfill its responsibility to the citizens of Whatcom County. I would expect the Port to have a comprehensive plan for economic development as mandated by state law. You won’t find such a comprehensive plan.Hayes
Read more about the candidate’s concerns and what he wants to do about it, over here.
I-1033 is a ballot initiative expected to qualify for the November 2009 ballot. Our analysis finds that it would:
* Constrict the ability of state, county, and city governments to make essential public investments.
* Exacerbate the effects of economic and fiscal downturns.
* Increase the current deficit by half a billion dollars.
Read the post over at the Washington Budget & Policy Center’s blog, Schmudget, which includes a slideshow on their analysis, right here.
The Bellingham Housing Authority had a myriad of accounting issues regarding federal grant funding it received, according to the state’s accountability watchdog.
State Auditor’s Office officials say in a June 29 report that they found more than 40 accounting errors because the authority didn’t do an adequate review of financial statements by an outside property management company it contracted with.
Click right here to see the city’s larger version of the photo.
From Janice Keller at the City of Bellingham:
Local photographer Sandi Heinrich shook the Mayor’s hand Monday night and received her certificate for winning this year’s Essence of Bellingham photo competition. But she’s still not quite satisfied; she wants to know who the baby is.
Heinrich’s Best of Show photo features a rapt audience watching President Barack Obama’s Inaugural Day Speech shown on the big screen in the Mount Baker Theatre. In the photograph, an audience member holds a baby. It was one of several shots Heinrich snapped of Inaugural events that day, but it is the cute baby who helped her win the competition. And she wants to know who the baby is.
“I’m really hoping someone who knows the baby in my picture might see it so I can share a print of it with his parents,” Heinrich wrote to City staff. “Can you help?”
Know who the baby is? E-mail me at sam.taylor@bellinghamherald.com or call 715-2263.
A panel of New York National Guard officers has recommended that an Iraq war veteran who acknowledged his homosexuality must leave the service, his supporters said Tuesday.
First Lt. Dan Choi disclosed in March that he is gay, challenging the 1994 “don’t ask, don’t tell” law that requires the military to discharge troops who disclose their sexual orientation. Tuesday’s ruling, made after a daylong hearing, is a step toward stripping Choi of his officer’s commission and ending his career.
Full story, right here.
Q: What are your thoughts on this? Should Choi be booted from the military after two years in Iraq because he’s gay?
Candidates in Blaine, Ferndale and Lynden all appear to be failing to follow state law when it comes to elections.
Most of the candidates for City Council races in those cities have failed to file their C-1 paperwork, which signals the beginning of their candidacy and forms their campaign committee. The races I’m highlighting the most are those that are primary races in August, though no candidate in Everson, Nooksack or Sumas (no primaries in those races this year) has filed paperwork, either.
State law requires that a candidate file such paperwork within two weeks of becoming a candidate (whether that’s through media publicity, telling lots of people at various events, or simply filing your candidate paperwork during filing week).
The candidates in those small cities who have failed to file and those who have filed breaks down like this:
Blaine:
None of the three candidates, John George, Charlie Hawkins or David Gallion have filed their C-1. (In fact, not a single candidate in Blaine for any race at all has filed paperwork, not just those with a primary).
Ferndale:
City Councilman Ken Downey, Jeff Stover, David Lee Wilson have not filed. Jon Mutchler is the only candidate for this race for Position 5 that has filed the proper paperwork.
Lynden:
Bob Johnson and Greg Penner have not filed their C-1 paperwork for this open seat being vacated by Councilman Doug Adelstein. Candidates Brent Lenssen and Rodney VanderWerff have followed the rules and filed.
State Public Disclosure Commission spokeswoman Lori Anderson says that letters were sent out to day for all candidates who have not filed telling them they must.
“Enforcement hearings will likely be scheduled for candidates who do not file by July 17,” she added.
*UPDATE* - Here’s an Excel spreadsheet Anderson just e-mailed me per my request that shows every single candidate that owes the PDC paperwork throughout the state. It’s sorted by jurisdiction. The spreadsheet notes candidates that need to file either a candidate registration, personal financial affairs statement, or both. A blank field under the C1 Postmark or F1 Postmark means that the person owes the PDC that report.
