State extends foster care so youth can pursue higher education

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Articles by RC Staff

Initiative 502

By RC Staff | October 31, 2012

Vote Yes

This measure would license and regulate marijuana production, distribution and possession for persons over 21; remove state-law criminal and civil penalties for activities that it authorizes; tax marijuana sales; and earmark marijuana-related revenues.

Editorial committee members call the passage of this initiative “the first step in reducing the culture of prohibition, which could end the drug war.” Enforcement of laws against marijuana disproportionately criminalizes people of color and the poor, they noted. ...

Referendum 74

By RC Staff | October 31, 2012

Vote Yes

If approved, this measure would allow same-sex couples to marry. Marriage laws would apply without regard to gender.

Members of the committee strongly agreed that the “freedom to marry, freedom to love, is a civil right, a human right.” It is vital, they said, that same-sex couples be able to see their union “officially sanctified in the eyes of the law.”

Back: Initiative 1240 ...

Initiative 1240

By RC Staff | October 31, 2012

Vote No

Initiative Measure No. 1240 would authorize up to 40 publicly funded charter schools that would be open to all students, operated through approved, nonreligious, nonprofit organizations, with government oversight; it would modify certain laws applicable to them as public schools.

The Editorial Committee expressed mixed feelings on this measure. While members agreed with the desire to improve education, especially for communities underserved by public schools, they felt the charter schools initiative was a step in the wrong direction. ...

Initiative 1185

By RC Staff | October 31, 2012

Vote No

This measure would restate existing statutory requirements that legislative actions raising taxes must be approved by two-thirds legislative majorities or receive voter approval and that new or increased fees require majority legislative approval.

Committee members quickly identified 1185 as the work of anti-tax activist Tim Eyman. ...

City Council selects LA monitor to oversee SPD reform

By RC Staff | October 24, 2012

The Seattle City Council has selected Merrick Bobb as the independent monitor to oversee reform at the Seattle Police Department, despite Mayor Mike McGinn’s reservations.

Bobb, head of the Police Assessment Resource Center (PARC) in Los Angeles, served as monitor for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department for the last 16 years. ...

Fallen Leaves

By RC Staff | October 10, 2012

Self-described "retired guy," Doug Hobkirk places Leaves of Remembrance designed by artist Clark Wiegman outside the Real Change building on South Main Street, Oct. 5, 2012. Leaves of Remembrance are leaf-shaped memorials to homeless people who have died in King County. The leaves set in the sidewalk in front of the Real Change office memorialize homeless Real Change vendors, such as T.J. Shorter who died of lung cancer. Leaves were also placed in front of Compass Housing and Downtown Emergency Service Center. ...

Homeless, seniors find good news in proposed city budget

By RC Staff | October 3, 2012

Mayor Mike McGinn released his proposed budget for 2013 and 2014 on Sept. 24. Despite a $32 million shortfall, the mayor’s proposed budget increases funding to the Human Services Department, which oversees city services for homeless and poor families and seniors.

While the overall budget has increased, the funding allocations emphasize the city and the Committee to End Homelessness in King County’s plan to focus on rapid rehousing, which places recently homeless families in transitional housing.

Here’s how it breaks down: ...

Forums to focus on housing and seniors

By RC Staff | September 26, 2012

With the elections coming up, groups have organized forums so that voters can make informed choices when they fill out their ballots.

A legislative candidates’ forum on Washington’s “aging readiness” is being organized by the Seattle Human Services Department and a variety of seniors groups. It will be from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 1 at Mercer Island Community Center, 8236 SE 24th St. There will be time for questions from the audience.

This event is free to the public, but registration is required (agingkingcounty.org/silvertsunami). ...

Judge to LA: Hands off homeless people’s stuff

By RC Staff | September 19, 2012

The possessions of homeless people are protected under the Constitution and cannot be seized and destroyed by the government, according to a new decision by the United States Court of Appeals.

The Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments “protect homeless persons from government seizure and summary destruction of their unabandoned but momentarily unattended personal property,” Judge Kim McLane Wardlaw wrote in a Sept. 5 opinion by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which upholds a court order against the city of Los Angeles. ...