This election, citizens in Washington will consider Referendum 52, a $500 million bond measure to fund energy retrofits on public buildings. Voters should consider several key questions as they cast their ballots:
● Will the measure create or kill jobs?
● Will savings be greater than costs?
● Will we improve the learning environment of our schools?
● Should we ignore other education needs to fund this project?
R-52’s sponsors promise the measure will create new jobs and improve the health of schools by providing grants aimed at reducing energy costs. A closer review, however, shows R-52 is unlikely to live up to these promises, and will cost taxpayers a total of $937 million over the life of the bonds.
It’s the little things at first.
A put down.
A shove.
A household implement broken in anger.
But those things start to escalate, until a word becomes a tirade, a shove becomes a beating and the broken things have become bones.
Domestic violence is what happens when the love and the loyalty of a relationship get subverted into something pathologically wrong.
It can happen to anyone – even the people who are trained to deal with domestic abuse.
My friend, whom I will call Kim for the sake of a name in this column, is the survivor of domestic violence. She endured the verbal and physical abuse for nearly eight years, before she managed to break the cycle and walk away. She left with healed-over fractured ribs and a restraining order taken out on her partner, but at least she was able to walk away.
Do you remember this song?
“Can you tell me how to get, how to get to Sesame Street?”
Of course you do. Unless you have been living under a rock, sharing space with Mel Gibson, this was one of the shows of my generation and generations before and after. Now I’m afraid that after 41 years of educating youth, the head cheeses over at Sesame Street corporate have turned soft. They recently pulled a Katy Perry song for being inappropriate.
The Kent Chamber of Commerce (Kent Chamber) represents 440 businesses with over 24,000 employees. The Kent Chamber of Commerce urges you to Vote YES on Initiative 1082.
I spent part of an afternoon this week having lunch with State Sen. Margarita Prentice.
We hadn’t planned to have lunch - but by happy circumstance we found ourselves seated next to each other at a welcoming party in Kent for the new Consulate General for Mexico, Alejandro Garcia Moreno.
It was my first time meeting Prentice, who has been a state legislator for 22 years now. And while our paths seem vastly different - she was raised in a Hispanic household in California, I was raised an Irish kid in New York - there are some definite similarities.
I am a pet owner, and at times it’s a dubious honor.
I have a dog that is not unlike Tigger. She doesn’t walk – she more or less bounces everywhere. “Everywhere” includes the bed, the car, or on top of me if I’m languishing on the couch.
She’s eaten several of my shoes.
She habitually sticks her tongue in my ear and up my nose – God forbid if I open my mouth when she’s in range.
In recent weeks, some of President Obama's strongest supporters have expressed frustration with his HIV/AIDS policies. Unless the United States switches course and dramatically increases its funding for the global fight against AIDS, we could lose millions of lives and a generation of progress.
To Bill Gates @Microsoft
Dear Billy: I am writing you this letter on behalf of the thousands of Seattle Supersonics fans everywhere. We are still sick over the way that Clay Bennett rode into town, money whipped Howard Shultz, wrote another $45 million check to get out of the rest of his lease, and left town with our only franchise to ever win a world championship. I’m surprised we didn’t let him take the Space Needle too.
I realize in this era of recession it’s not always possible to fully staff a front counter.
I also realize fewer employees mean more work for those folks doing counter duty.
But when does being overworked cross the line with being helpful?
This was a question I asked myself last weekend, standing in line to return a box of cable-TV supplies to my service provider in Auburn.
As the school year begins, and the 2010/2011 budget was adopted by the Kent School Board, it is important, again, to consider Kent School District priorities.
Have we learned anything from British Petroleum’s debacle in the Gulf?
Frankly, I think we’ve learned just how much we don’t know.
And because of that, we should cease drilling in U.S. waters until there’s better science to be had.
Soon I will be taking part in another rite of passage. In less than a month, my daughter will be turning 21. I will be taking up a complaint against the Big Skipper on this one, however. Just yesterday it seems she was wondering what shoes go with grape Kool-Aid stains. Just yesterday she was fighting with me about cleaning her ears in the tub. Now she is fighting me on a new place for an earring.
Faced with yawning budget deficits, state legislators are looking for new revenue sources. Many think hiking cigarette excise taxes is the pain-free answer, but they're wrong.
I hope I’m not the only one who’s beside themselves with joy over the latest Kent City Council decision.
At long last, the ShoWare Center will have a video marquee sign. Finally we’re going to know, as we are driving down the street, what is going on in Kent’s biggest sports and entertainment venue.
Recently I took the family to the Willamette Valley part of Oregon for a family reunion. Normally family reunions give me a case of the heebee jeebees. I have never liked them up front; it always takes me at least two beers to loosen up and start talking.
A day doesn’t pass when I don’t get a political e-mail. Actually, I have to admit that some of them are incredibly clever and quite elaborate in their attempts to make me laugh, but at the same time encourage me to hate. However, this clever banter is not just creating an ever-widening rift between the left and the right; it’s creating a chasm between Americans.
I spent the last two weeks moving into a new home, and I can honestly say my arms are about 6 inches longer.
I’m covered in bruises, and the thought of scrubbing out a grimy fridge sets my teeth on edge.
This happens to me every time I have the chance to pick up and live somewhere else.
Valerie Bertinelli recently graced the cover of AARP magazine. This fact alone has made me finally realize something that I hate talking or writing about. The fact that I am (gasp) getting old. Valerie Bertinelli is turning 50, and I can’t get my head around that.
With Mick Kelly’s, a new Irish restaurant and pub coming to Kent’s Riverbend Golf Complex in coming weeks, I’ve been excited on several fronts.
There’s always the food – you can’t beat Irish fish and chips or corned beef and cabbage. And there’s Guinness ale, which may be an acquired taste for some.
But the other big one is sports – Irish sports, to be exact.
According to Mick Purdy, who co-owns the biz with cousin Adrian Kelly, you’ll be able to watch the Setanta Sports network at their new Kent eatery.
You have probably heard the phrase “integrity is doing the right thing, even when no one is watching.” In the same way, doing the right thing, or the wrong thing, when everyone is watching also speaks to integrity, ego, and the nature of celebrity. Two recent events illustrate this phenomenon.
Colton Harris-Moore was finally arrested in the Bahamas after a multi-state crime spree that started in the Camano Island area. After walking out of a juvenile-detention facility, the teenager committed burglaries and thefts for months, evaded law enforcement and became a cult figure, attracting intense media attention and thousands of Facebook fans. Some people have attributed a sort of romanticism to him, and rooted for him to continue his seemingly harmless and interesting exploits. It was like the movie “Catch Me If You Can,” with a nice-looking, local kid.
