Archives for: "June 2014"

if voting could make a difference

June 13th, 2014
The Chicago Tribune alerts me to news in Illinois to improve the situation surrounding a topic I alluded to a few months ago - gerrymandering. Gerrymandering allows back room political deals to control political borders that protect special interests and their politician tools. The Tribune's John Chase writes: "Advocates trying to change the way Illinois political maps are drawn began the arduous process today of trying to prove they have enough signatures to get a constitutional amendment placed on the ballot this November." ---- Evidently there is some controversy regarding how much time has been allowed for the initiative sponsor to correct what the elections committee has provisionally declared to be invalid signatures. Maybe not surprising that agents of the state would try to roadblock the reform of one of the tools politicos use to remain in power, so I became interested in the organization sponsoring the amendment - "Yes! for independent Maps." more »

legally challenging

June 7th, 2014
I-1358 would revert the local initiatives to the prior condition of State control of minimum wage. The expectation is that since such a high minimum wage as passed the Seattle City Council has not become state legislation, the new $15 mandate would essentially by voided here. [However], Imagine the far greater damage to people's lives if a $15/hour limit kept unemployed hundreds of thousands of people across all of Washington, rather than the fewer people affected by more concentrated damage done to workers in the I-5 corridor around Seattle and Sea-Tac. So while I am on record in opposition to increasing the minimum wage, I have reservations about supporting Initiative 1358. more »