The City of Seattle is beginning to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for changes it might propose to the city’s Comprehensive Plan in 2024. It has published an EIS Scoping Fact Sheet to explain the options it will be considering. The fact sheet lays out five alternatives: “No Action”: …
Continue readingMonth: June 2022
Report on White House mismanagement of coronavirus pandemic
Lost in last week’s January 6th hearings and the Supreme Court overturning Roe vs. Wade was a report published by the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic that details the role of Dr. Scott Atlas in rewriting the federal government’s coronavirus strategy — arguably spreading the virus more broadly …
Continue readingU.S. Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe vs. Wade
This morning the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a ruling finding that there is no constitutionally-protected right to an abortion, overturning the fifty-year-old Roe vs. Wade and thirty-year-old Planned Parenthood vs. Casey decisions that had established that right. The majority opinion follows closely the leaked Alito draft, but this final …
Continue readingElephant Car Wash landmark nomination
The old neon Elephant Car Wash sign has been proposed for landmark status. Amazon came into possession of it when it bought the land underneath it in 2020. The sign, which was first installed at the property in 1956, has been removed from the site and is undergoing restoration. Amazon, …
Continue readingState appeals court whittles down COVID-era eviction bans
This morning a state Court of Appeals panel updated an earlier ruling; it largely affirmed a lower court ruling that upheld the City of Seattle’s eviction moratorium and required payment plans but found that the city’s ban on landlords collecting interest on unpaid rent was pre-empted by state law. The …
Continue readingState appeals court affirms Seattle payroll tax
As expected, this morning a state Court of Appeals panel handed down a ruling affirming the legality of the City of Seattle’s payroll tax. The Seattle Chamber of Commerce had sued to block it, arguing that it was an illegal tax on the right of employees to work, as prohibited …
Continue readingSDOT Update on Vision Zero
Tomorrow (Tuesday), the City Council will hear an update from SDOT on the city’s Vision Zero initiative to reduce traffic fatalities and serious injuries to zero by 2030. Below are the slides, including new figures on fatalities and injuries to-date in 2022. One glaring omission: there is no mention of …
Continue readingAppeals court ruling on Highway 99 tunnel liability
Last week a state appeals court handed down a ruling in its review of a jury verdict that sided with the Washington State Department of Transportation in a dispute related to the breakdown of the tunnel boring machine that was digging the Highway 99 tunnel under Seattle. WSDOT had claimed …
Continue readingKing County Auditor review of Sheriff’s Office racial disparities
This week the King County Auditor released a report detailing its analysis of racial disparities within the practices and operations within the King county Sheriff’s Office. The top-level finding of the study is that the King County Sheriff’s Office does not collect and retain the kind of data that would …
Continue readingSPD officers’ and Seattle’s request to block video livestream at Charleena Lyles inquest
As reported by Axios Seattle this morning, the two police officers involved in the shooting of Charleena Lyles in her apartment have requested that the Administrator of the inquest prohibit live-streaming video of the inquest as well as the media taking an publishing photographs of their faces during the inquest …
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