This week in photos

Ross' bald spot addresses the Refugee Women's Association on the Capitol steps
Ross’ bald spot addresses the Refugee Women’s Association on the Capitol steps
Ross discusses issues for the refugee community with a woman originally from Sierra Leone
Ross discusses issues for the refugee community with a woman originally from Sierra Leone
Ross discusses refugee issues with a young woman who moved here from Minnesota
Ross discusses refugee issues with a young woman who moved here from Minnesota
Constituents who have jobs through our supported employment program
Constituents who have jobs through our supported employment program
Ross addresses AARP meeting at the Capitol
Ross addresses AARP meeting at the Capitol
Governor Inslee issued a proclamation about supported employment
Governor Inslee issued a proclamation about supported employment

Crosscut Event with Ross

CROSSCUT IN OLYMPIA

Whet your whistle at the first member event in the capital

 Please join us for a glass of wine and conversation. Meet Rep. Ross Hunter, Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, along with Crosscut’s team of editors and Olympia correspondents, and other state leaders.

 Crosscut is following this year’s legislative session closely and the positive response to increased coverage has been amazing. Let’s talk about what you’d like to see reported and analyzed, and what should and shouldn’t get more attention.

 Tuesday, February 26, 2013

5:30 – 7:00PM

Swing Café & Wine Bar
825 Columbia St. SW, Olympia 98501

http://www.swingwinebar.com/directions.html

Save your spot today! Email rsvp@crosscut.com by Tuesday, February 19, and include the number in your party. Space is limited and on a first come, first serve basis; members receive priority.

Not a Crosscut member yet?  That’s ok, sign up at the door or click here to become a member now. 

                    Check out our new Olympia page for daily updates.

Improving Gun Safety in Washington State

Photo from Seattle Times of Pro-Gun Rally in Olympia
Photo from Seattle Times of Pro-Gun Rally in Olympia

I’ve held off commenting on gun safety because I wanted to think about it for a while after the Sandy Hook incident. Writing new policy in knee-jerk response to a single incident typically is a bad idea. However, there have been enough incidents that I think we need to respond and create a safer place to live.

I have already received a lot of email on this issue and I try to address most of the issues that have come up. You may have to scroll to the bottom to get to yours – there have been a LOT of issues raised.

Some people think about this issue from a “rights” perspective – “I have a constitutional right to own whatever kind of firearm I want” and some from a public health perspective – “it turns out to be a bad idea to let people with unresolved mental health problems or domestic violence issues, felons, and children own dangerous weapons.” We can balance these two perspectives in reasonable ways.

Continue reading “Improving Gun Safety in Washington State”

Black helicopters, other fascinating emails

One of the great joys of being an elected official is the unsolicited email you get from people. The Internet (thank you Al Gore) gives everyone a platform to say whatever they want and broadcast it the world over, for free. My favorite from the last few years was one that was seriously worried about black UN helicopters coming over the border from Canada. Fortunately I didn’t have to answer it – he wasn’t in my district.

Today all legislators and a host of media outlets got a message that looked official enough to fool the Seattle Times into briefly publishing it on their website – that the Ellensburg Rodeo had been cancelled due to the Taylor Bridge fire. (It has not.) I might have believed it if I had not gotten a similar email every year from (presumably) the same guy for much of the last decade. For some reason he doesn’t like the rodeo, which I hear is great fun.

Here’s the text of the message. It is NOT TRUE, but it IS funny. The guy puts a lot of work into it, including setting up a spoof website with nice pictures of flames and the same message.

Continue reading “Black helicopters, other fascinating emails”

48th Legislative District Town Hall Meeting set for Jan. 4

Sen. Rodney Tom will join Rep. Ross Hunter and Rep. Deb Eddy in a town hall meeting Wednesday, Jan. 4, to discuss the 2012 legislative session.

The 48th District lawmakers will solicit constituents’ concerns and priorities and answer questions from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. in the council chamber room of Bellevue City Hall at 450 110th Ave. NW, Bellevue, WA 98009.

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For more information, Michael Althauser, 360-786-7326

Planet Money podcast – I hope it isn’t prescient

NPR’s “Planet Money” show is interesting enough that I listened to it while exercising at the gym today. This may say more about me than about the show, but I find it fascinating. It’s hard to make this stuff interesting and they do a great job.

This week they talk about Japan’s “lost decade” of the 90s, and the economic policies that brought them back from the brink. There are eerie parallels between their situation and ours, but I’ll let you listen and decide what you think on your own.

http://www.npr.org/templates/archives/archive.php?thingId=127413729

 

 

Amazing Foster Kids

The Mockingbird Society LogoThis morning I attended the Foster Youth and Alumni Leadership Summit put on by The Mockingbird Society. This was one of the most amazing presentations I’ve ever attended. Groups of foster youth from each of the regions spend the conference organizing presentations on how to improve the foster care experience.

The presentations were powerful, as you might expect, because they are coming from inside the system. The big ideas we heard were:

  1. Improve the response time it takes for a social worker to get back to youth.
  2. Safe housing, particularly for alumni. At age 18 they often no longer have state support and wind up homeless.
  3. Improving sibling connects, with some real-life examples of how to do it.
  4. Provide adequate recognition and diagnosis of mental abuse of foster youth.
  5. Provide a sense of normalcy for teenagers in the system by allowing them to stay the night at a friend’s house while the background check is being completed.
  6. Pregnant and parenting youth in care do not feel they are given adequate information or support before, during, and after birth.

Hearing this stuff is difficult, because you want these youth to have the same kinds of experiences your own kids get. Hearing that they often don’t get a phone call returned from a social worker for a month means that they can’t go on field trips, or stay over at a friend’s house, or other things you and I take for granted our kids can do, because we can make decisions on the spot.

This group has a good track record of advocacy – the youth lobby for their proposals to improve the system and we’ve put a number into place. It’s always more complex than you want it to be, but that’s the nature of a system that supports thousands of young people.

The Mockingbird Society does good work.