Washblog

Earlier this week, the Port of Seattle released a comprehensive Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory for SeaTac Airport for 2006.  The report is dated October, 2007.

A press release issued this Monday by Christopher Cain of Port Observer stated that "The report shows that at least 22% of total GHG emissions for all of King County come from a single source, SeaTac airport." On Tuesday, Debi Wagner, a citizen expert on aviation emissions, responded to the release of the inventory with a presentation to the Port Commissioners: The ABC's of Solving Airport Congestion.

Very few airports, nationally, have conducted inventories of greehouse gas emissions for their operations, and the methodologies for quantifying releases from airports are in their infancy. This report makes Seattle a leader in developing and applying these methodologies -- and in establishing a benchmark that can be used for action to reduce emissions. It is an important step. The report also offers comprehensive background on the history and methodologies of the measurement of airport greenhouse emissions in the United States.

Senator Keiser opened yesterday's Health & Long-Term Care committee session with the observation that it was a "big day". This was the start of hearings considering, for the first time in many years, major structural reform of the state's health care system. Four Senate bills were under discussion, representing what I understood as 4 of the 5 major proposals now being considered. My husband and I signed in as supporting the most comprehensive of the four, Senator Keiser's and Kohl-Welles' Washington Health Partnership bill. See below the fold for more information on these five proposals.

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UPCOMING

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1. WA Senate Healthcare Reform Web Dialogue, 1/22 and 1/23: http://www.webdialogue.net/wasen/healthcare. This page links to comprehensive info on health care reform in WA.
2. Annual public meeting, Physicians for a National Health Program, Western WA: Effects of Uninsurance on our Communities (Sunday, February 10, 7pm, Kane Hall, University of Washington, free admission.) PNHP advocates for a single-payer national healthcare system and moving toward a national universal health care coverage with a state-by-state approach.

WA Rep Maralyn Chase,(D) Shoreline, Washington has written a bill to impeach for the Washington State House.

Hearing before the WA State Senate Committee for SJM 8016 is scheduled for tomorrow, Jan. 17th, 3:30 p.m., in Rm. 2, The Cherberg Bldg. on the State Capital Campus, Olympia.

Read more about how you can participate here.

Btw David Postman at Seattle Times has a brief article: Sen. Eric Oemig, D-Kirkland, introduced Senate Joint Memorial 8016 on Jan 14, 2008 (two days ago).

  Oh, and U.S. Rep Robert Wexler(D) FLA, yesterday, as a Member of the Judiciary Committee, is asking to immediately began impeachment hearings - read more here.

The story below the fold is a guest post from Al-Kareem Shadeed, who is serving Life without Parole under Washington's 3-Strikes law for two robberies and an attempted robbery that he committed in his teens and early 20s. Al-Kareem's offenses were serious but they were not, by any stretch of the imagination, "worst of the worst" crimes. They involved no weapons and no injuries. Using his own description of his third Strike, I think I'm safe in characterizing them as attempts to "bully" strangers on the street into giving him money to feed his drug and alcohol addiction. Al-Kareem, as a drug-addicted teen, needed treatment and help that he did not get. Both he and the people he victimized would be better off today if he had received that help. We all would. It is a crime that he is imprisoned for life for these low-level offenses.

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Next Public Hospital District 1 Public Board Meeting: Monday, January 7, 2008

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Approximately half of Washington State's 98 hospitals are within public hospital districts. Most of the rest are run on a not-for-profit basis. This represents a healthcare market that could be quite profitable for private healthcare businesses if it were taken out of the public domain. I believe that our state's public hospital districts are in danger of being opened up to private interests and that an effort to dissolve at least one of these districts, perhaps as a start to dissolving others, is on its way in my district, Public Hospital District 1, the oldest in the state.

In researching an article I wrote in October, Challengers offer improved oversight, I don't know how I missed at least two major articles (1, 2) in the Seattle Times documenting that Anthony Hemstad, one of the people running for the board of PHD 1, had for over a year been engaged in an effort to reduce the size of the district in order to serve the interests of his city. One of the people mentioned along with Hemstad in these articles was activist Chris Clifford, who was quoted in a June, 2006 Seattle Times article (2) as advocating that the district be 'killed' like a dinosaur. Senator Pam Roach, also quoted in these articles, questioned the need for public health districts in urban areas and stated an intention to sponsor legislation to make it easier to reduce the size of the districts. She did so last session, with SB 5818. There is a companion bill in the House, cosponsored by my Democratic Representative, Pat Sullivan, among others.

I see no Seattle Times or PI articles run during Hemstad's campaign that connected all these dots, although after the election reporter Karen Johnson did run this article: Need for hospital district questioned. Today, two Seattle Times articles report critically on actions of the outgoing board without mentioning the possible conflict of interest of the new commissioner: Valley Medical Center's ethics policy could limit criticism, and Valley Board Catches Bad Code.

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North of the Hot Zone (northofthehotzone.com)

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Washington State Geothermal Brownbag & Blog: That's the subject line of the email that just came through from Lawrence Molloy, raising hopes, of course, for a picnic at an Icelandic-like hotspot. But the lunch will be at the offices of the NW Energy Coalition on First Avenue in Seattle.

Molloy tells us in a Seattle Times editorial today that Washington is on the edge of a geothermal hot zone and that "the underground windmills are waiting".

Readers may remember Lawrence Molloy as a Port of Seattle Commissioner who served from 2001 to 2005. See the press release, announcing the lunch and the new blog, North of the Hot Zone, below.

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Resolution: Reforming Washington's 3-Strikes Law: In in Word format, in PDF format
This sample resolution can be adapted to your preference for introduction at the 2/9/08 precinct caucuses -- or at any other organizational venue for resolutions.

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This story is meant as a one-stop-shop with all the info needed for introducing resolutions at Washington's upcoming presidential caucuses. The sample resolution offered here is a call to reform Washington's 3-Strikes law, which imposes sentences of life imprisonment for repeat offenders committing low-violence crimes involving no injuries, no weapons, and small amounts of money. Washington's Sentencing Guidelines Commission has recommended removing these crimes from the list of offenses that trigger life imprisonment, but efforts to do this in the legislature have been stymied for years. The reform will happen when key legislators get enough emails and calls from constituents. The caucus resolution process can help that happen.

Links to the 3-Strikes and other sample resolutions appear below the fold.

JOIN: 3-Strikes Rapid Response

From: Joseph Scott Wharton, doing a 3rd strike sentence of 145 years, Life Without Parole. This will make me 190 years old when I'll leave such a Domain as this & Countless tax dollars that could turn to millions, depending on my aging health status, and it's just a matter of the state warehousing bodies for the kickbacks of the correctional industry's long awaited goal of a Correctional Empire built off of the pitfalls of addicts, alcoholics, gamblers, etc.

And yet nobody's taking notice unless it's affecting your own personal life or someone close to you or a friend.

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Editor's Note: Mr. Wharton is serving a life sentence under Washington's 3-Strikes law for three unarmed robberies in the second degree. Robbery 2s have been described by Washington's Sentencing Guidelines Commission as posing "little risk of physical injury" and the commission recommended in its 2001 annual Sentencing Reform Act Review that Robbery 2 and some forms of Assault 2 be removed from the list of 3-Strikes offenses. Year after year, bills to bring our state into compliance fail. Join the Justice Works! JOIN: 3-Strikes Rapid Response to help this reform happen in 2009.

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[Update 3/16/08. Editor's intro corrected for accuracy. SGC did not recommend removing Assault 2, but examining whether all forms should remain on the 3-Strikes list.]

JOIN: 3-Strikes Rapid Response

Stevan Dozier, serving Life Without Possibility of Parole under Washington's 3-Strikes law for three unarmed robberies in the second degree committed over a decade ago, has sent a statement for publication on Washblog. It appears below the fold.

Robbery 2s are sometimes referred to as shoplifts gone bad. They have been characterized by Washington's Sentencing Guidelines Commission as posing "little risk of physical injury". The Sentencing Guidelines Commission (SGC), the state agency charged with evaluating sentencing policies and recommending modifications to the Governor and Legislature, recommended in its 2001 annual Sentencing Reform Act Review that Robbery 2 be removed from the list of 3-Strikes offenses and that the legislature examine the appropriateness of the inclusion of Assault 2, as some forms of the crime are "probably not commensurate" with 3-Strike status. Washington State Senator Kline has introduced legislation each year since then to respond to this recommendation. As these bills fail and the years go by, additional people are sentenced to life imprisonment for crimes that involve no injuries, no weapons, and small amounts of money -- or no money at all. Attempted Robbery 2 and Assault 2 also trigger life sentences.

In a 2006 Real Change interview, Locked up for Life, Stevan Dozier told Silja J.A. Talvi: "During my darkest days, I find comfort in knowing that some people do care enough to fight to correct an overreaching law." He asks that readers call and e-mail state Senators and Representatives, including members of the applicable committees: (I believe the Senate Judiciary Committee, and the House Public Safety committees.) Please read on for Stevan's words as well as information on current legislation and existing law on proportionality (sentences that fit the crime).

PRECINCT CAUCUSES: February 9, 1PM, many neighborhood locations. Democratic Caucus Locator (requires precinct) County Elections offices (to identify your precinct). PRIMARY: February 19 WA Secretary of State Primary Info WA Secretary of State Online Voter Registration WHO CAN PARTICIPATE? The primary and caucuses are for the voting public, not just party activists. Everyone who is registered to vote and who declares as a Democrat or Republican can vote.

As a Precinct Committee Officer I've been getting questions about Washington's presidential primary and caucuses: are we having both this year?  Where and when are they?  Is it worth participating?

The way we do the primaries and caucuses has been changing in recent years.  The process also differs by political party.  And the recent contentious public debate on related partisan issues has caused more confusion. It's complex enough that, even though I took part in the 2004 presidential caucuses and am helping to help organize local caucuses this year, I've had to do a bit of work to feel confident that I'm answering people's questions without misinforming them.  I'm guessing others are on a quest similar to mine -- judging from how many people are Googling into previous Washblog stories on the issue.

Every year, John Roberts, a pioneer in the science of exposure analysis and advocate for children's safety from avoidable toxic exposures in indoor environments, sends a Christmas letter to friends and relatives that calls for action to protect children. As he has in his previous Christmas letters, John tells us that economic and political barriers block us from applying simple measures that would prevent serious harm to large numbers of children and considerably lower society's health care costs. This year, John focuses on explaining how reducing special interest money in political campaigns can help us to overcome these barriers.

Last week, a Seattle Times article by Sandi Doughton, Very few children here tested for lead poisoning, reported that Washington state is violating federal law by failing to comply with a mandate to test low-income children for lead exposure. Doughton's article did an excellent job at connecting recent reports of toxic levels of lead in children's toys with the seldom-reported fact that many children in Washington are exposed to small amounts of lead from multiple household sources. These exposures are harmful, avoidable, and costly. This is precisely the point that John Roberts has been devoting the last 20 years to bringing into public awareness: children are being damaged by avoidable exposures -- to a wide range of toxics. John Roberts is one of the co-authors, along with Steve Gilbert, the toxicologist quoted in the Seattle Times article, of a piece in the January 2008 Seattle Voter. This article, "Protecting Our Children by Monitoring and Preventing Lead Exposure", calls for complying with this federal mandate to test Washington's low-income children for lead exposure, and for lowering the lead blood level that triggers action to reduce exposures. (1) The Seattle Voter story is an informational piece for League members and represents the opinion of the authors rather than any official position of the League.

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Photo: John Roberts holds the first college textbook in the field of exposure analysis, CRC Press 2007 Exposure Analysis, in which he has a chapter on house dust. This new science measures toxics as they enter bodies, rather than at the point of environmental release. Click on photo for larger size.

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Children the blue earth over pay the price for global trade practices that prioritize short-term profit over the health of people, environment, and communities.  An exquisitely ironic example of the theft of childhood for the enrichment of the venal, cowardly, and morally sleepy: our babies no longer get the good toys made here in the US by domestically-owned manufacturers who have some stake in their health.  Children be damned.  Even the most expensive toys like Thomas the Tank Engine are cheapo now, and our children are chewing on stuff that lowers IQ and increases aggressiveness (lead), and causes reproductive abnormalities and allergies (phthalates). I can just imagine some poor little ones in China making those toys.  And let's not even get into the subject of the economic impact on our children of all those jobs sent overseas...  What's that saying from the Bible?  Better to tie a stone around your neck and jump into the sea than to harm a child?

Darcy Burner, candidate for US Congress in the 8th Congressional District, is offering free testing for children's toys this weekend. See below the fold for info on the 6 locations.

JOIN: 3-Strikes Rapid Response

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Many thanks to Justice Works! for advisement and other significant help on this story. Notes and a printable copy of this story with all comments can be found here

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The courtroom benches in Judge Spector's King County Superior Court were filled with supporters and observers for Vance Bartley's re-sentencing hearing on the morning of November 15.  Bartley had been serving life without possibility of parole under Washington's Persistent Offenders Accountability Act, or "Three Strikes" law since August 22, 1997.  There had been little hope that he'd ever leave prison.  In the words of Judge Spector, the system had 'thrown him away'.

In his 11 years in prison, Mr. Bartley had lived infraction-free within that system, pursuing his own education and helping others with GED tutoring and legal research.  He had also continued to research legal issues related to his own case and had, against all expectations, identified a way to correct an error in one of his convictions that his attorneys had missed. As a result, that conviction no longer counted as strike offense and Bartley would soon be released.  This hearing was held to determine whether he would be free within a few weeks or would wait as long as another 42 months. As I sat with Court Watch volunteers from JusticeWorks!, a grassroots criminal justice reform organization, I felt privileged to witness an occasion which marked not only Bartley's personal transformation but also, in a sense, the hopes and striving of the larger community for transformation within Washington's criminal justice system.

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Above: Some of the supporters and observers for Vance Bartley's re-sentencing hearing gather after its conclusion. The group includes Jeff Ellis, Bartley's attorney; King County Councilmember Larry Gossett; JusticeWorks! founder Lea Zengage; Carol Estes, from Yes! Magazine who testified at the hearing; and volunteers and employees with community organizations.  Click on photo for a larger version and more information.

This Saturday, 11-10-07, I attended a Team Hillary training. It was a very positive experience and a little less than half of the attendees had never been to a caucus or volunteered for a campaign before. Personally, I haven’t been to a caucus for 15 years. We are energetic individuals and consistent voters whose enthusiasm for Hillary Clinton is taking us to the next level.

Wouldn't it be grand to see someone who believes in climate change (and our need to act on it), ethical behavior in government, fair trade, and a balanced budget ... representing the 4th Congressional District in Eastern Washington? Attorney George Fearing is offering voters that opportunity.  Lynn Allen at Evergreen Politics interviews him in that way she has of bringing out the essential information.  Below is a snippet from George Fearing - The Other Democratic Challenger:

Q: Given that Doc Hastings is not much of an asset to the folks of central Washington and is sometimes absolutely an embarrassment, why do they continue to vote for him?  And what makes you think they'll vote for you?

GF:  The Democrats who've run against Hastings haven't gotten into the race early enough or run hard enough.  They haven't clarified just how bad Hastings is.  I will.  (snip...)  In addition, Hastings has not stood for the interests of the people of the 4th CD and they are starting to notice.

Q: How so?

Read the rest here.   This is good stuff.