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Why should you vote “NO” on supermajority requirements?
“The history of every political establishment in which this principle has prevailed is a history of impotence, perplexity and disorder.”“All provisions which require more than a majority of any body to its resolutions have a direct tendency to embarrass the operations of the government and an indirect one to subject the sense of the majority…
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Proposed Edmonds 2026-27 Budget Released
I attended Edmonds Mayor Mike Rosen’s budget presentation earlier this week. It’s hard to present a 250-page document with multiple fund sources and many different threads in an hour. I thought he did a credible job. I have many, many questions. Some will be answered by reading the 250 pages. MyEdmondsNews.com covered it here. In…
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Edmonds Fiscal Sustainability Task Force
I’m pleased to be selected to be one of 15 members on the new Fiscal Sustainability Task Force for the city of Edmonds. My Edmonds News wrote about the task force several times recently: Council Sept. 8 set to approve fiscal sustainability task force members; hold public hearing on tree code – My Edmonds News…
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Book Review – Wards of the State
Claudia Rowe’s new book Wards of the State is a powerful look at the child welfare system across the country with a focus on Washington State. Her main argument is that the system creates “the foster care to prison pipeline”. She’s not wrong. Her basic premise is that foster care is bad for kids due…
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Discussion with Author David Ambroz
I’m sitting down with author and former foster child David Ambroz to discuss his memoir A Place Called Home. Thursday December 1st 7-8 PM at Elliot Bay Books on Capitol Hill in Seattle. 1521 10th Ave. He describes homelessness, foster care, and the struggles his mom goes through. The two of us will talk a…
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Eliminate Nasty Gas-Powered Leaf Blowers in Kirkland!
Gas powered leaf blowers are a plague. Their two-stroke engines produce more climate changing gases than a fleet of cars and their noise is damaging to the ears of both residents and the people that operate them. For the best-selling commercial leaf blower, one hour of operation emits smog-forming pollution comparable to driving a 2017…
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Black History Month
February is Black History Month. As a late-stage boomer, I got almost none of this history in school, despite growing up in a majority Black city (Philadelphia) and a big academic focus on American History in my youth. I’ve tried to make up for this appalling lack of knowledge in the past few years by…
