Archive for February, 2007

Fun with Na in the 40’s.  Remember playing with tiny bits of this stuff in chemistry class?

That would never happen today but would it not have been amazing to witness this?  I wonder if anyone is alive still who was there.

Just a follow up on the Hankins story to note something most everyone who reads my rants might agree with.  It’s about accountability and the media’s role in that accountability.  It has changed in the last two centuries dramatically.  Not to slide heavily into a Net Neutrality argument (and that really isn’t my point), I have to point out something I picked up today from Will Femia’s “Clicked” on MSNBC.  Bear with me on this video because mixed in, as Will notes, is this:

But it makes one argument I hadn’t heard before, responding to a mental retort I was only barely conscious of making.  How could the Internet just go away?  How could something this big and useful and ingrained be taken away by corporations?  They answer by showing how newspapers and radio were once accessible media and were eventually controlled almost exclusively by corporations.

If you are still reading, take a break and watch the video and I will get to my point on the other side…

Interesting?  For most yes.  Especially if you didn’t have a grasp on the issue.  But as Will notes, there is something buried in that video that is somewhat striking.  Accessibility.  You and I, at least until blogs, were only able to project our views with the occasional letter to the editor or, if we were lucky an op-ed piece in our “one directional media”.  And if we had a beef with say… a local legislator, it was difficult to get that past the filter that has become our sources of information.  Blogs are truly a great thing. Yet while I worry that my personal muti-conglomerate-of-one media outlet acts as its own filter, I do have a comment thread that is wide open for readers to use. 

The Mullick story on Shirley Hankins is one of the more complete pieces of investigative journalism I have seen out of the Tri-City Herald in quite some time.  It is a sad piece about a well respected legislator and should leave us all with some sobering questions on accountability.  Will, through the inevitable pressure of bloggers, the traditional media once again break through the self imposed barriers it has created and become the measure of accountability?  Will it become accessible to the pubic?  The former question may answered by Mullick’s reporting and the latter may be answered by the internet itself.

This is not the first time Mullick has broken through this barrier I mention.  He did it when Kevin Young attempted to distort facts in his campaign against Bill Grant in Washington States 16th LD 2006 race.  And in an often lighthearted way he brings daily the goings-on in Olympia including a funny look at the poor, and often really poor attempts at humor from speaker Frank Chopp.  And he did it again in the recent Hankins report.  It is good journalism and worthy of praise.  Not because he was burning somebody down, but because he was reporting a story that may ultimately hold a politician accountable for their actions.  No matter your political persuasion, that should be important.

That might cover my accountability argument, but what about access?  Well, there are avenues there as well.  You can comment the hell out of my threads when I report both on reporting or my own independent pieces and opinions. Or you can also go to the Tri-City Forum, or look for your local papers outlet (caution, can be some muddy waters).  But there is in fact your access to some extent.  While it isn’t whole in the sense of pure citizen journalistic freedom (if you want that, start a blog), it is a step in the right direction.  But in regards to holding public officials accountable, the Tri-City Herald has taken a step forward.  And I think if we had more good investigative journalism, we would have less stories about public officials crossing the line. 

Can we expect more?  I hope so.  In the grand scheme of transperency in government, we need reporting like this to… well… make sure we have less reporting like this.  Odd huh…

… is tonight.

• Every Tuesday, 7:00 pm onward
• O’Callahans - Shilo Inn, 50 Comstock Richland Washington, Richland (map)

[Update: The third in the series is up today along with an important blog post from Mullick on the ethics complaint.  Those of you interested in seeing the ethics complaint expanded should check it out]

It’s the proverbial TV crime scene and the investigators is just about to finish pouring the plaster casts on the tire tracks of the getaway car.  But this time, the investigator is the Tri-City Herald’s Chris Mullick, and the tires are piled high in a recycling yard on the west end of town.  And while I or most anybody around these parts don’t like to see a long and fairly distinguished political career end on such a sour note, Shirley Hankins has been fingered.

Well, it isn’t exactly a felony to try and help your daughter’s business succeed, but when you are using your influence and flexing your political muscle to do so, it does fall into an ethical political dilemma that once mired, there isn’t much getting out. 

And after that self serving intro, big kudos to the Herald and (especially) Chris Mullick for the first two (one and two links) of a three part series on this story.  And it started with a rather bold and unfamiliar lede like this…

Longtime Richland state Rep. Shirley Hankins has repeatedly used the power of her office in the past five years to muscle state and local officials into directing business to her two daughters’ struggling tire baling company.  

And the story adds meat to its bones with this…

Her overtures have been heavy-handed enough that agency Director Jay Manning [ed. Wa. Dept. of Ecology], in a December letter to her “implied that she is pursuing tire interests on behalf of her kid’s recycling business,” according to an e-mail he later sent fellow staffers.

Hankins has been even more direct at home. She’s told city regulators the company’s licensing hurdles would be overturned by legislation in Olympia, and she has told volunteer members of two Richland advisory boards that she could secure grant funding for the city if they used tire bales in their projects.

Pretty hard hitting report.  The last in the series should be in tomorrow’s Herald and the story has prompted at least one Eastern Washington political blog to call for her resignation. 

I spoke to Shirley on the phone last week.  And while I was less than confrontive with her I did hint that I had heard of an investigation on her in Olympia over this issue, to which she flatly denied, and was yet in fact already underway. 

A Herald investigation shows the Republican lawmaker’s efforts to promote Northwest Tire Recycling have ranged from carefully indirect to downright blunt, and the tactics raise questions about abuse of power.

Through a spokesman, Hankins said she won’t discuss the issues until a complaint against her filed with the Legislative Ethics Board is resolved. But in interviews in late January, she denied she’s ever used her office to promote the daughters’ business — statements her spokesman said she stands by.

According to the report, Hankins was aggressive in pursuing the interests of NW Tire to the extent of being belligerent. In Mullicks second installment, it becomes even more clear that Hankins was approaching other state officials aggressively to push contracts to her families business.

On May 12, 2005, a fire broke out in a tire pile at Junior’s Trucking in the south King County town of Skyway. The next afternoon, Hankins’ son-in-law, Jim Penor, in a note sent from his city e-mail address at the Richland municipal landfill he manages, offered Northwest Tire Recycling’s services to Cullen Stephenson of the Department of Ecology.

“I’m not sure if this cleanup is going to be under your Division or not but would like the chance to be involved,” Penor wrote. “We could mobilize our equipment within a short time, also with my knowledge of remediation of a hazardous site of this nature, I feel I could be very helpful.”

Stephenson, who manages the agency’s solid waste program, did not respond to the e-mail. But he did pass the offer along even though a competing company already had contracted with King County for the work.

Six days after the fire, Hankins wrote a letter to Stephenson expressing her dismay, sending a copy to the governor’s office.

“The department was offered assistance of cleanup. Your office and the Director’s office have not responded as of yesterday, May 17th. I would like to know why,” Hankins wrote. “I’m not sure why I’ve spent the last three-and-a-half years on a tire bill that gives your department authority to help solve this state’s problems, and that would give your department your only legal and permitted company and the only woman-owned recycling company in this state. Frankly, I’m a little tired of this.

“I do believe the next communication will be to the Attorney General’s office to ask to what extent state departments are responsible for enforcing the laws we pass. I want an answer today,” she added.

The report is extensive but the whole story is quite telling.  And it appears that Hankins efforts paid off in some extent to a contract for NW Tire to clean up a large tire dump in Goldendale Washington.  All the while not operating with a business license. This spawned my previous post on the earlier report regarding Richland Mayor Rob Welch.  It is pretty clear to me after my conversation with Shirley that the exchanges between her and the city regarding the business license were not good.  Let’s just say she has no love for Hizzoner. 

“You got one (muffled explative that I didn’t quite catch) running that city.”

It is starting to become clear why she feels that way, and becoming quite obvious that the dealings with the City of Richland are a small subset of the overall problem.  Money and business problems with NW Tire and the overall politics to resurrect that business have led Hankins to a place she never should have been.

Hankins has been even more direct at home. She’s told city regulators the company’s licensing hurdles would be overturned by legislation in Olympia, and she has told volunteer members of two Richland advisory boards that she could secure grant funding for the city if they used tire bales in their projects.

At least one of her long time supporters has told me that they are taking the “innocent until proven guilty” approach to the investigation.  And while I appreciate that sentiment and generally agree, the whole thing is pretty damning, and in all likelyhood could have more far reaching consequences than just Hankins.

Stay tuned…

Caren Bohan [Reuters] reports today…

In a speech delivered aboard the USS Kitty Hawk aircraft carrier at Yokosuka Navy Base near Tokyo, Cheney said: “We know that terrorist attacks are not caused by the use of strength, they are invited by the perception of weakness.”

“We know that if we leave Iraq before the mission is completed, the enemy is going to come after us. And I want you to know that the American people will not support a policy of retreat,” he added.

“We want to complete the mission, we want to get it done right, and we want to return with honour,” said Cheney, who heads on Thursday for Australia to meet Prime Minister John Howard, another staunch supporter of Bush’s Iraq policy.

With that line of thinking flying less than 30% of the time in his own country, it looks like Cheney thinks it will fly better in Japan. 

Cheney’s visit to Tokyo comes just weeks after Japan’s defence minister said starting the Iraq war was a mistake and its foreign minister called the U.S. occupation strategy “immature”.

The remarks forced Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, whom Cheney meets later in Wednesday, to scurry to reassure Washington that Tokyo’s backing for U.S. policy in Iraq was unchanged.

But a survey released on Tuesday showed most Japanese voters agreed with Defence Minister Fumio Kyuma when he said U.S. President George W. Bush was wrong to start the war.

As much as the Japan seems to soak in western culture, it looks like the parrot is squawking in the wrong port.  Honor (yea, we spell it different than those Brit’s) isn’t something the Bush/Cheney administration is going to be remembered for in Iraq.  Reckless will be the operative word.  The Iraq invasion infuriates me so that I can barely write about it.  The arrogance that the VP can peddle the worn out rhetoric and pretend to speak abroad for the majority of Americans will not only ensure they will be remembered as reckless, but as fools.

There is no honorable way out of Iraq for America buried in the Bush Administration plans.  There is only the delicate balance of providing a semblance of security, safety, and not loosing too many dedicated soldiers as we back away as humble as possible without leaving the region sacked by the very forces we pretended to show up to fight.  My hope is mixed with sadness, and like every American we can only hope the best for our troops and the people in Iraq.  And that somehow, someway, at least the American people did what it could do at the polls to lessen the impact that seems so inevitable to so many of us.  But this isn’t really about politics.  It is about people.

About people…

On March 4th I’ll be riding along with the Patriot Guard to a memorial for Marine Corps Sgt. Travis Pfister of Richland, who was killed in Iraq a couple weeks ago.  Although he attended the same school as I did at one time I don’t know him.  It doesn’t matter.  He was probably a great kid.  Probably my neighbor.  I probably sat in the checkout line at the local grocery store with his mother.  Might have said “hello”… who knows.  

According to the Tri-City Herald, turns out that Westboro Baptist Church of Kansas was planning on protesting the event, and upon learning that the Patriot Guard was organizing a ride, I was in. The Patriot Guard interested me due to the mission statement of the organization.

The Patriot Guard Riders is a diverse amalgamation of riders from across the nation. We have one thing in common besides motorcycles. We have an unwavering respect for those who risk their very lives for America’s freedom and security. If you share this respect, please join us. We don’t care what you ride, what your political views are, or whether you’re a “hawk” or a “dove”. It is not a requirement that you be a veteran. It doesn’t matter where you’re from or what your income is.  You don’t even have to ride. The only prerequisite is Respect.

Our main mission is to attend the funeral services of fallen American heroes as invited guests of the family. Each mission we undertake has two basic objectives.

1. Show our sincere respect for our fallen heroes, their families, and their communities.

2. Shield the mourning family and friends from interruptions created by any protester or group of protesters.

We accomplish the latter through strictly legal and non-violent means.

It’s nice to know that no matter who you are or what you believe, some people can come together for a common good.  That’s something the riders I know can all agree on.

Well, I don’t know if not having a certification will make an animal masseuse less expensive but it might…

The certification of animal massage practitioners is in the interest of the public health, safety, and welfare. While veterinarians and certain massage practitioners may perform animal massage techniques, the legislature finds that meeting all of the requirements of those professions can be unnecessarily cumbersome for those individuals who would like to limit their practice only to animal massage.

While I don’t think Rep. Sullivan (D-21) is intentionally trying to benefit Tim, and do think this piece of legislation (however quirky) has some merit, I am quite certain a veterinarian’s office is the only place Eyman might receive a massage.

Please, no jokes about “happy endings”…

[photo from: Seattle PI]

Nothing.  It’s a good idea to have a simple majority approve school levy’s, and the issue has been bandied about in the legislature over the last decades but has never found a footing.  Perhaps it is the worry of voters that it would make it too easy to raise taxes (which in reality is already limited), or the political worry that those increases would endanger representation in Olympia (R or D) via a percieved backlash.  But the reality is, the super-majority in Washington State for school levies is an out of date law from a time when property ownership was significantly more narrow that it is now.  But then again, so is the simple majority in my view.  Especially if we can vote for gazzillion dollar sports stadiums on a simple majority. To me, I would like any self imposed tax increase crossing my ballot to have a little capital.  That being where more than just a 50% of citizens agree to tax themselves.  Which is why I tend to think a 55% super majority would be a good comproise for school levies.  But they don’t have to stop there.  They could overhaul the whole system just to make it fair and require any voter approved levy or initiative be approved by the same percentage (yeah, I know… apples and oranges). That would certainly level the “playing field” so-to-speak.  [Oh, and remember how it pissed you off when Bush, losing the popular vote, declared he had political capital to spend?  I think you get the point.]

Recently, Representative Shirley Hankins (R-8th) proposed the 55% option.  It isn’t necessarily a new idea, but it does offer a compromise, if the simple majority fails, and at least something could be forwarded to the voters in November.  But after speaking with Shirley today, it doesn’t seem like the option is going to get any legs.  Nothing quoteworthy here… it simply doesn’t have the support.

So would 55% across the board, on all voter approved levies or projects work?  I dunno. But leveling the field for tax increases, and giving the outcome political clout might be part of the answer.  When school districts, city governments or even large sports organizations get voted down it would at the very least force them to come up with a better plan to convince voters to check that “yes” box.  And when they win there wouldn’t be any question that it was the will of the people.

Aside from this being the worst piece of promo I have ever seen, or perhaps even the predictable Brady Bunch laugh track with a script that couldn’t even the 70’s rival ”Laugh In”.  it is also the most breathtakingly moronic effort at comedy I have ever seen!  Can I say anything good about this?  Nope.  I mean how could they:

1. Make funny that our national reputation get worse?
2. Believe that VP Ann Coulter wouldn’t REALLY want to “invade your countries, kill your leaders and convert you to Christianity?”
3. Ignore the irony of “…the best days are still ahead of us.”

I guess it is hard to make fun of yourself when you are so frequently being made fun of by the much more qualified.

Waiting patiently for Comedy Central’s response…

This is cool…

SW Washington Congressman Brian Baird invites you to come skiing with him on Sunday, February 18th at White Pass. Ski from 9 am until Noon. Meet with Brian from Noon - 1 in the Talus Room for lunch, then hit the slopes in the afternoon from 1 - 3.

Brian takes time each year take a few runs with us (be prepared… he’s an excellent skier)! Brian would enjoy meeting you either on the hill or in the Talus Room and we look forward to hosting our Congressman Sunday at White Pass!

Um… he may not be my Congressman (I’m in the 4th CD), but I am going to try and make this one.  Besides, my districts congressman is a bit athletically (and politically) challenged so I doubt I will ever get to enjoy mountain sports with Doc. 

I’ll let you know if he can keep up. 

Short notice but hey, did you remember? 

Drinking Liberally in the Tri-Cities meets tonight and every Tuesday night! 

O’Callahans-Shilo Inn

50 Comstock Rd. 

7pm till?

Ya do!  Well, while the counselors at Camp Wellstone may not be teaching you how to swim in a lake, they will teach you a little about progressive activism and how to swim in the crazy world of running for elected office. Have you ever thought about taking your activism to the next level, but not sure about how to take the next step? Or if you have you ever considered becoming a candidate for public office, but don’t understand what is needed to run an effective campaign… From Progressive Majority comes a special training opportunity just for you!

Running and Winning in Eastern and Central Washington

Join our expert trainers as we explore how to run for legislative, county, or local office and discuss the basic fundamentals of being a candidate:

• Making the decision to run for elected office
• Raising money for campaigns
• Contacting voters Developing your message
• Organizing grassroots and field campaignsSign Up Today!

When:Saturday, February 24th
10am-4pm (lunch and snacks will be provided)
Toad Hall (a.k.a. the Hamilton Studio)
1427 W. Dean Avenue
Spokane , WA 99201
This event is Free. However seating is limited to 50 people.

Register Here

Update: Well, I spoke too soon.  While this even is going to happen, it is not a “Wellstone” sponsored event.  The event is sponsored by Progressive Majority and is a one day training session.  Regardless, this should be a fun and informative session.  So if you are interested, I highly recommend you attend. 

All I can say is… darn, no sneaking into the girls cabin for a little “truth or dare”… hey, remember that one time at band camp?

Round these parts things can get pretty dull with our relatively sleepy politics and public figures.  Once in a blue moon the 24hr news cycle spins through and about as fast as it was here it is gone again.  But when the local paper reports on a local Mayor getting “strong armed” by local politicians it raises some eyebrows.  Especially mine and on a variety of levels.

[Richland Mayor] Welch claimed Hankins and Haler had tried to get the city to “look the other way” on code violations by Northwest Tire Recycling, a business run by Hankins’ children and son-in-law Jim Penor, who also is the solid waste disposal supervisor at the city landfill.

At issue is the company Northwest Tire Recycling, managed by Hankins children and son-in-law, Jim Penor, and the city’s reluctance to issue a business license because of fire and health code violations.  But apparently, it’s also because they aren’t doing a whole lot of recycling. 

Councilman John Fox said he doesn’t see evidence the business is doing what it’s intended to do — recycling tires.

“In my dictionary, recycling means to reprocess back and put into a form for the same purpose or some different purpose that is usable, and it’s not evident to me that this is … that the recycle loop is being completed here,” he said. “There is an accumulation of tires. It looks more like a tire storage facility to me.”  

And in the event that Northwest Tire Recycling operations fold, the City of Richland could be left holding the bag. 

Tire recycling isn’t necessarily a new business.  But most who get into the business aren’t actually doing the recycling or reprocessing into other useful materials and are generally just the regional storage and movers of the product.  A good business model could make the operation a success.  But a bad one could turn the operation into a tire landfill, or fire hazard, when the business fails to turn its product and runs out of cash or goes belly up.  Concern on the part of the City of Richland is warranted.

To me, it is obvious why the city is concerned.  But in reading the Herald article one must wonder why Representative Hankins attended meetings between the city and NW Tire.  In the world of politics today, that would be considered a conflict of interest given that Hankins was clearly trying to influence the outcome with her presence.  Hankins responds…

“I don’t understand what we’ve done to make him make those statements,” Hankins said Wednesday. “I would assume there would have been a better way to have this conversation with the mayor instead of the way he’s doing it. It doesn’t make anybody happy and it makes me wonder about our maturity in government. I really don’t know this man. I’m just sorry he chose to say the things he did.”

We could speculate about Mayor Welch’s motive or argue about the maturity of government, but the one thing Hankins didn’t do was explain why she was there - defending a business run by her children, and her son-in-law - in the first place. 

And it doesn’t stop there.  Herald Reporters Michelle Dupler and Chris Mullick also report that Rep. Larry Haler (R-8th) (and former Richland City Council member himself) was also accused by Mayor Welch of tactics to intimidate him.  Welch claims Haler was behind a personal investigation of him after Welch reportedly told Haler not to bypass himself or City Manager John Darrington in giving directions to city employee’s.  Haler denies being a part of any such investigations (So far, I haven’t gotten any specifics on any personal investigation).

With ethical lines being blurred daily in politics, I would hope Hankins and Haler wouldn’t sully their generally solid reputations.  Hankins, one of the few Eastern Washington Republican supporters of the legislature approved gas tax, and vocal opponent of the subsequent ballot initiative to repeal the tax would be wise exercise caution and at the very least, explain her presence at the meetings.  Haler, who’s comments inspired me in the aftermath of the Rep. Richard Debolt and the Republican backed organization, Speakers Round Table, mailings of fake sex offender notifications, would be wise as well to fess up if he has any part in personal investigations of Mayor Welch.  As much as I like a good story, I like our relatively sleepy politics just as well. 

Update:  I did speak to Shirley today and her response to being at the meeting was she was there as “a parent”.  That is reasonable to me in one sense and not reasonable in another. In the grand scheme of ethical politics even the appearance of unethical behavior has a damaging effect.  But I guess in the context of not being there myself, or knowing the chain of events that led to hizzoners accusations I would say there is more to the story.  Much of which will play itself out in the coming weeks.  With that said, I think much of the speculation is being fuled by the Mayor himself.  Mayor Welch was much less forthcoming and that leaves me with yet another question… You planning on running Rob?  

Imagine you are looking at a 6000 foot tall Donkey living in Central Washington peering over the Cascade Curtain.  Well… I imagine that every day.  But now a new blog called ”The Other Side” joins me as the more left leaning progressive online presence grows for us here on the proverbial ”other side”.  And they get press too!  The Yakima Herald’s Leah Beth Ward took notice.

A donkey peers east across the Cascades on the blog’s home page, an apparent reference to what Democrats hope will be a rising tide of activism on this side of the mountains. It’s no secret that while Democrats may have ruled in these parts back in the days of FDR, Republicans now have a pretty solid grip on the electorate.

But donkeys never say die.

“Deflate the talk radio wind bags. Denounce the war. Zing the right wing spin. Ask politically incorrect questions,” proclaims a news release announcing the blog from Paul George, longtime activist and chairman of the Yakima County Democratic Central Committee.

This is good news for what has been an up and down ride for blogs on the east side of the Cascades.  We have had some promising starts and some disappointing finishes for blogs in these parts but this one looks like it has some steam behind it.  And getting press this early in the game doesn’t hurt and another sign that progressive politics, with the deep roots it has east of the Cascades, will again take hold.  And their most recent post shows they aren’t about to pull any punches.

Rep. Mary Skinner (R-Yakima) passed a bill (HB 1279) out of the House this week that would require the state to pay a poet $30,000 each year.

Could you imagine if the Democrats did that? We will remember this bill when the GOP gets angry about all the “frivolous spending” by the Democrats on things like making sure kids have health care or improving our public schools….

You see, the progressive left is not just for the so called latte sipping urbanite neighbors to the west, and who are so frequently villainized by east side republicans.  This was made clear when the underfunded, no-name candidate in Washington’s 4th CD, Richard Wright, put up better numbers than a much better funded candidate in 04.  There is a change taking place and in some strange sense, bloggers east of the cascade range may very well be the catalyst. 

I sometimes wonder if a revengeful congress is a good thing.  Being that I enjoy it when the parties enjoy bipartisanship, I have little sympathy for Doc Hastings. 

Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., took to the House floor to complain.

“I have to ask when, when will this House have the opportunity to debate and consider the bills?” he said. “When will the minority be permitted to truly participate in this process?”

But Slaughter, chairwoman of the all-important Rules Committee, which structures how bills come to the House floor, was hearing none of it.

“Just a month ago, the minority was the majority,” she replied. “If he thinks the things he points out today were serious problems, he should have fixed them then.”

My district officially has no voice in congress.

Is tonight!  Here are the details…

Drinking Liberally in the Tri-Cities

O’Callahans - Shilo Inn

50 Comstock Rd.  Richland

Tuesday, 7:00 PM - Till?

Want to find out more about Drinking Liberally? Then check out Drinkingliberally.org.

And if you want to join the Tri-Cities Chapter of Drinking Liberally e-mail list? It is as simple as just clicking here.