Archive for Washington
Recent Stories for Washington
Lakewood minicasino ban appears headed to ballot
Category: Gaming · State: Washington · Source: Tacoma News-Tribune
The group trying to rid Lakewood of minicasinos appears to have collected enough signatures to put its initiative on the ballot. City voters would make the final decision as part of the busy general election in November. City Manager Andrew Neiditz told the Lakewood City Council Monday night that he spoke with Pierce County Auditor Pat McCarthy’s office earlier in the day. The county said that after an initial count of all signatures gathered in the city’s first-ever citizen initiative campaign, 3,904 are valid. The Save Lakewood group needs at least 3,707 valid signatures to force city leaders to ban minicasinos or put it to a public vote. The county will check all 6,138 signatures again for their validity, but the Auditor’s Office doesn’t expect the number that are valid to go down, Neiditz said.
Assisted Suicide Initiative on November Ballot
Category: Right-To-Die · State: Washington · Source: KIMA-TV Yakima
Oregonians legalized assisted suicide a decade ago. Now, Washington may be the second state in the country to allow terminal patients to expedite their death. "I suppose if they made you a zombie, that they could take away all your humanity in order to relieve you of pain, put you in a coma practically," said Ginger Vetrano, who gathered signatures around the Tri-Cities to put the initiative on the ballot. Initiative 1000, better known as "Death With Dignity," boils down to a sick person's right to choose when he or she wants to die. It would allow doctors to prescribe a lethal prescription to patients with six months or less to live. "It's something I would want for myself and my mother and anybody else I loved," said Vetrano. If it passed, two doctors would have to independently verify that the patient is mentally competent to make the decision, and that no one has coerced him or her to choose to die early. Vetrano says it's a question of choice. "I think we're all autonomous people," she said. "I wouldn't want to make the decision for you, and I hope you wouldn't want to make the decision for me."
Right-to-Die Initiative Making Its Way to State Ballot
Category: Right-To-Die · State: Washington · Source: Wenatchee World
Washington voters will find themselves at the center of a national right-to-die debate this year if Initiative 1000, modeled on Oregon's Death With Dignity law, makes it onto the November ballot. The campaign turned in nearly 320,000 signatures July 2, far more than the 225,000 valid signatures it needs to qualify. Already, out-of-state money is pouring into the campaign to pass the measure, including $315,000 so far from the Death With Dignity National Center, a Portland-based group that seeks to see the Oregon law replicated in other states. So far, the campaign has raised $1,124,000.
I-1029 Opponents to Sue Over Petition Snafu
Category: Unions · State: Washington · Source: Tri City Herald
Opponents of the Service Employees International Union’s long-term care initiative plan to file a lawsuit to keep the measure off the ballot. That’s according to a story by The Olympian’s Brad Shannon, which you can find here. Backers for the measure, which would boost training and set certification standards for long-term care workers, turned in signatures for the initiative to the people on petitions designed for initiatives to the Legislature.
Port Commissioner's Lawyer Argues Details of Recall Petition
Category: Recall · State: Washington · Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Port of Seattle Commissioner Pat Davis' defense against a recall petition in front of the state Supreme Court may hinge on a technicality. K&L Gates partner Suzanne Thomas told the court that Davis' signature on an Oct. 10, 2006, memo to former port Chief Executive Mic Dinsmore, extending his salary for up to one year after he retired, "was not based on a gift of funds but rather a transition process to keep Dinsmore in office until a successor was found." Justice James Johnson asked Thomas the question that recall petitioner Chris Clifford -- a teacher from Renton with a strong streak of open-government activism -- has been waiting to test for more than a year. "Isn't the jury the public, so don't you make that argument to the voters, not the court?" Johnson asked.
Monthly Archives for Washington
- August 2008 (2)
- July 2008 (3)
- June 2008 (2)
- April 2008 (1)
- December 2007 (1)
- November 2007 (19)
- October 2007 (4)