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February 11, 2014
In a January 30 report evaluating all 50 states on the sufficiency of their K-12 teaching profession laws, rules and regulations, a national education reform group funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and other ed reform interests gives Wa... Read more
January 29, 2014
Washington state legislators seven years ago set a goal to fund all-day kindergarten in all public schools here by the 2017-18 school year but a new report they commissioned says the practice can't now be called cost-effective because the academic ac... Read more
January 27, 2014
A special state advisory group issued a new report this month to lawmakers and Governor Jay Inslee that there is a viable business case for a road user charge in Washington to replace the failing by-the-gallon state gas tax. Consultants and members o... Read more
January 22, 2014
The minimum cost of complying with a 2013 federal court order to fix by 2030 some 1,019 Washington State Department of Transportation-owned culverts posing barriers to salmon passage will be a whopping $2.4 billion, lawmakers have learned. But "lack ... Read more
January 17, 2014
Several years after the allegations prompted headlines, and more than a year after he settled a related misdemeanor case for official misconduct in King County Superior Court, a former Washington State Trooper who allegedly gamed his state pension pa... Read more
January 15, 2014
Taking a gentle approach to the often-contentious annual legislative battle in Olympia over local government transparency, a broad bi-partisan coalition of 41 State House members have signed on as sponsors of a measure to require all but the smallest... Read more
January 13, 2014
Freight rail can continue to be a carbon-conserving boon to the environment and economy in Washington state versus higher-polluting trucked freight, and will benefit from at least $419 million in publicly-sourced improvements and repairs through 32 c... Read more
December 30, 2013
Washington State Parks have a backlog of deferred maintenance projects valued at $463 million now, up from $373 million in 2001, according to a new report to the legislature from the state parks and recreation commission. Current legislative funding ... Read more
December 23, 2013
Every year Washington's economic data unit takes a good look at where the state ranks nationally on more than 40 key performance measures, and the latest report card came out late last week. It shows that in 2012 Washington had the cheapest business ... Read more
December 11, 2013
A Toll Division Operational Review by the Washington State Department of Transportation released recently raises the idea of a state-regulated but privately funded and managed public utility that in theory could replace WSDOT so road projects can be ... Read more
December 09, 2013
Washington state public transit agencies in 2012 badly lagged the national average in paying their own way for operating costs. Reports from the Washington State Department of Transportation and the National Transit Database show respectively that th... Read more
December 04, 2013
Could much-maligned "gentrification" actually be a rising tide that lifts all boats economically, including in Seattle? A recent report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland suggests so. It says that out of the 55 largest cities in the U.S. in 2... Read more
December 02, 2013
A former custodial supervisor at Highline Community College has agreed to pay an $8,000 fine in a civil settlement with the Washington State Executive Ethics Board for allegations he used public property for his private business and personal use, in ... Read more
November 26, 2013
Concluding a state oversight review that began with an auditor's report last year, the Washington Executive Ethics Board has reached civil settlements with two University of Washington fire alarm control technician supervisors for allegations they sp... Read more
November 17, 2013
For its Environmental Impact Statement on proposed all-lanes electronic tolling of part of I-90, Washington should consider not just a single alternative but a package of them carefully picked from the current menu which includes a regional vehicle m... Read more
November 11, 2013
Visiting Seattle right now are 19 Arab journalists focused on transparency, media and civic life. The U.S. Department of State's International Visitor Leadership Program and the World Affairs Council of Seattle are coordinating. I'm honored to have b... Read more
November 05, 2013
In a new editorial for the journal General Hospital Psychiatry, a University of Washington and Veterans Administration doctor argues the scientific literature shows that prescribing smoked marijuana for chronic pain isn't smart because it can cause a... Read more
November 01, 2013
Improper payments by U.S. government agencies were at least $115 billion in fiscal 2011 and $108 billion in 2012 but billions more may be misspent each year - under the radar of government watchdogs - according to a recent report from the non-partisa... Read more
October 28, 2013
A burst of activity late last week brought from 23 to 28 the number of proposed Washington charter schools for which operators say they intend to seek state approval, but they'll be competing for just eight new openings per year starting this fall. N... Read more
October 25, 2013
A first-time ever comparison of academic achievement between U.S. states and foreign countries - focused on eighth grade math and science mastery - shows Washington's rankings are above average globally and nationally but still have a long way to go.... Read more
October 21, 2013
A 120-bed retirement home and assisted living facility in Seattle's Central District named Cannon House is now dealing with its fifth state enforcement action this year for substandard care of paying residents. Operated since 2009 by the major region... Read more
October 20, 2013
It can be hard to know if you're selecting the right assisted living facility for yourself or an aging relative or friend. A facility's history may include failure to implement prescription drug regimens or individual medical care plans of resident... Read more
October 08, 2013
Port of Seattle Sea-Tac Airport concession operator HMS Host owes the port $635,704 in unpaid fees, interest and a late fee, according to a recently released port internal audit. The problem arose because HMS Host subtenants The Great American Bagel ... Read more
October 07, 2013
The charged public debate over yet another U.S. debt ceiling lift is just the tip of the iceberg. Today's tussles over near-term U.S. borrowing capacity only foreshadow deeper federal fiscal challenges. A recent report from the non-partisan Congressi... Read more
October 02, 2013
There's not yet any evidence the City of Seattle's Family Support Program for at-risk students in Seattle Public Schools is improving academic outcomes, and changes in the program's focus, worker training and performance metrics appear necessary, say... Read more
October 01, 2013
The U.S. government today is shut down due to a Congressional budget impasse on continued funding in the new fiscal year but of 34 very public-facing agencies or programs listed in a special update from USA.gov, 18 are still open, nine more are parti... Read more
September 04, 2013
A new study funded by the National Cancer Institute finds that between the onset of menstruation and first pregnancy the risk of breast cancer for women grows 11 percent for each 10 grams of alcohol consumed per day and 34 percent if average consumpt... Read more
August 29, 2013
A new fraud investigation report from Washington State Auditor Troy Kelley finds that an "electroneurodiagnostic technician" at Harborview Medical Center - which is owned by King County and operated by the University of Washington - between January 2... Read more
August 20, 2013
Total cases filed by prosecutors in Washington state's criminal courts reached a new low in 2012 compared to the 11 years prior, but the rate at which charged individuals released to the community experience "recidivism" - or being criminally charged... Read more
August 15, 2013
In a King County Superior Court plea deal settled August 1 a former Amazon.com software development manager from India named Vishwastam Shukla - who according to his attorney was a rising star at the Seattle company but has lost his job and "most eve... Read more
August 08, 2013
A Seattle man charged in April of 2011 with raping a woman when they were both patients in the mental health unit of St. Francis Hospital in Federal Way was acquitted this August 1 more than two years later by a jury in King County Superior Court. Th... Read more
August 05, 2013
The Washington State Department of Transportation is advertising for a contractor to conduct "statewide toll educational services" focused on the fourth of five Puget Sound highways currently designated for electronic tolling, I-405. The $2.3 million... Read more
July 30, 2013
Fueled by growth in emerging economies led by China and India, global energy usage between 2010 and 2040 will jump 56 percent while carbon dioxide emissions from energy use will rise 46 percent, according to the "reference case" 2013 International En... Read more
July 25, 2013
A Washington state appeals court in a ruling this week affirmed a King County judge's 2011 dismissal of a suit by prominent environmental groups against the Puget Sound Regional Council transportation planning organization asserting it failed under ... Read more
July 22, 2013
A former vehicle parts buyer for the Washington Department of Natural Resources used his position to exchange special favors with suppliers and has agreed to pay a fine to a state oversight board of $7,500 for violating state ethics laws, according t... Read more
July 16, 2013
Because of an April U.S. Supreme Court ruling normally barring consideration of blood alcohol tests done without search warrants, says a King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office official, a 20-year-old Renton woman who ran into a man in a wheelchair... Read more
July 12, 2013
A 55-year-old lawn service owner from Seattle's Wedgwood neighborhood this week in King County Superior Court pled guilty to a felony sex offense and was sentenced to nearly a year in jail. After police noticed his online post in the "Casual Encounte... Read more
July 11, 2013
The King County Solid Waste Division is moving forward with plans to evaluate three potential sites for a new facility to replace the aging Algona Transfer Station. Residents of south King County Thursday night can learn more at a public meeting 7 to... Read more
July 09, 2013
King County could do far better controlling public risk and related liability pay-outs in negligence cases, especially those related to Metro Transit and other transportation functions, according to a recent and wholly overlooked report from the King... Read more
July 03, 2013
In January of this year a month after the murder of 26 students and staff at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut by a disturbed shooter using his mother's weapons, President Obama issued 23 executive actions to address gun violence - includin... Read more
July 02, 2013
In a case propelled by a tip from a Seattle-based FBI special agent, a 20-year-old Federal Way woman named Jacqueline Pamela Oliver was arrested by Kent Police and charged in King County Superior Court with two counts of commercial sexual abuse of a ... Read more
July 01, 2013
A former assistant chef at a popular eatery in Seattle's Greenwood neighborhood who starred earlier this year with her engaging, squabbling Greek family on Chef Gordon Ramsay's Fox Network reality show "Kitchen Nightmares," has been charged with the ... Read more
June 27, 2013
In a draft status update to be presented this morning at its audit committee meeting, the three-county Seattle region transit agency Sound Transit pointedly rejects a score of key ethics reforms recommended for its Citizens Oversight Panel in a brist... Read more
June 25, 2013
A new report from Washington State Auditor Troy Kelley suggests the Seattle Public Schools have left uncollected potentially several million dollars of revenues for facility rentals and related costs in recent years, much of it since last September. ... Read more
June 24, 2013
HIV-infected patients getting primary treatment at University of Washington Harborview Medical Center in Seattle along with counterparts being treated in San Diego and Boston are at significant risk of undermining their care and treatment because of ... Read more
June 20, 2013
In the second quarter of 2013 to date, Pacific Northwest companies mainly in Washington state - and other than Boeing directly - have been awarded contracts by the U.S. Department of Defense worth up to $769.6 million for software management service... Read more
June 18, 2013
Tourism has a more pronounced effect on the world than the average tourist realizes. Whether they travel by air, sea or land, the long-distance tourist needs to appreciate the effects on the broader environment, the climate, and their own region and ... Read more
June 17, 2013
Federal data for 2012 show Washingtonians can feel confident crowing about how cool and moist is their climate, even if some other parts of the country experienced record or very high heat and record or very low rainfall. 2012 temperatures and precip... Read more
June 17, 2013
Voter-approved legalization of marijuana last fall in Washington state via I-502 may well improve regulation, oversight, social justice outcomes and revenue collection around use of the drug, but at the same time will warrant ongoing scrutiny for pot... Read more
June 14, 2013
In an "Early Warning Report" the Office of the Inspector General of the Environmental Protection Agency recommended to the agency it take immediate action on its largest warehouse. Parts of the EPA headquarters storage site had been converted into a ... Read more
June 12, 2013
A new state auditor's fraud investigation report says a former employee of the Valley View Sewer District serving Burien, Seatac and Tukwila actually embezzled more than double what the district, police and prosecutors had thought. But what the new r... Read more
June 10, 2013
The taxpayer-funded regional transit agency serving the three-county Greater Seattle region, Sound Transit, says its looming purchase of nine new cab cars for expanded service on its South Sounder commuter rail line between Seattle and Tacoma-Lakewoo... Read more
June 06, 2013
On wondrous Chuckanut Drive betwixt Bow, Washington and Bellingham on the eastern shores of the Salish Sea lies Larrabee State Park. From the main parking lot, a small underpass conveys pedestrians beneath the train tracks on a short winding path to ... Read more
May 31, 2013
The Washington State Supreme Court in a ruling issued May 30 upheld the right of police under certain conditions to search a vehicle for inventory prior to a tow-away and for resulting evidence to be used in a drug possession prosecution. The case in... Read more
May 28, 2013
In a new report published in the May-June 2013 edition of the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine, University of Washington-Seattle doctor David Evans and several co-authors from Oregon describe how an independent community medical pract... Read more
May 25, 2013
A new study by researchers at Public Health - Seattle and King County, just published in the June online edition of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, finds that King County-mandated menu labeling at major fast food chains may finally be st... Read more
May 22, 2013
Proposed electronic tolling of I-90 just east of Seattle - to fill a $1.4 billion gap in building the western approach of a new bridge on SR 520 - is getting more complicated. There will now be a full Environmental Impact Statement, not just an Envir... Read more
May 20, 2013
Since early March Olad Hussein Kaynan, 24, a Somalian refugee who lived with his family in the North Highline Unincorporated Area of south King County has been in jail in Seattle charged with three counts of child rape in the first degree. His bail i... Read more
May 17, 2013
A fired resource specialist at the King Conservation District in a civil lawsuit filed this week in King County Superior Court is seeking economic and compensatory damages, claiming she was discriminated against in the workplace for being pregnant, a... Read more
May 16, 2013
The rate of firearm-related homicides in the U.S. in 2011 was 3.6 per 100,000 persons, the same as in 2010 and otherwise lower than any year from 1993 forward, according to a new report from the U.S. Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics.... Read more
May 15, 2013
To graduate from a public high school in Washington, students in the classes of 2013 and 2014 must pass the state's High School Proficiency Exam (HSPE) in reading and writing and an End-Of-Course (EOC) test in either algebra or geometry. Starting in ... Read more
May 14, 2013
A new report from the U.S. Department of Energy shows Washington state has continued through 2010 to remain near the top among all 50 states in fueling its economy with minimal consumption of carbon dioxide emissions. According to the report from th... Read more
May 10, 2013
With nine prior convictions from 1986 to 2005 for driving under the influence of alcohol plus felony convictions in Yakima County for two counts of vehicular manslaughter and one for vehicular assault - stemming from a 1991 tragedy when he had a bloo... Read more
May 09, 2013
By rustling up $172 million for a badly needed, contemporary enterprise-wide financial management system Washington state government could reap benefits approaching or perhaps exceeding $228 million in saved effort and improved processes, as awkward ... Read more
May 09, 2013
When Garrett A. Bakken last July was charged with the felony DUI offense of vehicular assault after veering off Lake Washington Boulevard in Renton, Wash. and slamming into a pedestrian on a pathway, the story garnered coverage from local television ... Read more
May 07, 2013
Washington state has one of the lowest rates of out-of-wedlock births in the U.S., according to the Census Bureau. A new report issued in May 2013 says that in the most recent year for which detailed American Community Survey data on the subject are ... Read more
May 03, 2013
A 29-year man from India in the U.S. on a work visa and employed at the time as a San Jose, Calif.-based software development manager for Amazon.com, was arrested April 12 and charged April 19 in King County Superior Court with the felony offense of ... Read more
April 22, 2013
An Orange County, Calif. Oracle software expert who bills himself at his LinkedIn page as current "finance lead consultant at Boeing" has been charged in Washington state with the felony crime of commercial sexual exploitation of a minor after a stin... Read more
April 17, 2013
In separate cases, criminal prosecutors in King County, Washington and Delaware County, Pennsylvania have charged the same 20-year-old Virginia man with felony sex offenses after he used social media to arrange hook-ups allegedly resulting in sex wit... Read more
April 15, 2013
A hip presence on the Seattle restaurant scene has been charged with the Class A felony of Rape of a Child in the Second Degree. According to King County Court documents Matthew Aaron Cannelora, 28, whose most recent address police say is in the 1700... Read more
April 12, 2013
A PhD candidate at the University of Washington's Foster School of Business who also teaches undergraduate business courses at UW Bothell was charged in mid-March with the felony offense of commercial sexual abuse of a minor. The case developed from ... Read more
April 10, 2013
A man with 14 prior criminal convictions pled guilty last month in King County Superior Court to a felony charge that came after he left a potentially lethal pipe bomb outdoors on a late June, 2011 day adjacent to the Renton Library and a popular wal... Read more
April 09, 2013
U.S. states with the highest skin cancer rates tend to have a high proportion of whites in their population while those with the lowest rates don't. And the top two states for skin cancer, Vermont and Utah, feature especially high concentrations - co... Read more
April 08, 2013
A former Port of Seattle temp named Kelly Wengping Lee hired from the AppleOne firm is charged in King County Superior Court documents with three counts of felony identity theft for allegedly trying to go on an online Nordstrom shopping spree using t... Read more
April 04, 2013
A Port of Seattle driver used his work procurement card to try to withdraw money at the Emerald Queen Casino in Fife, then lied to an internal investigator about it, implicating his wife instead, before coming clean and getting a seven-day suspension... Read more
April 03, 2013
Voters on April 23 will decide whether to increase tax levy support for Valley General Hospital in Monroe and associated clinics in Snohomish County Public Hospital District #1, north and east of Seattle. But the system has not only been underchargin... Read more
April 02, 2013
A recent data brief from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control reports that inpatient hospital death rates are down 20 percent from 2000 to 2010 overall, and down markedly in that time for seven of eight major "first-listed diagnoses" with the notabl... Read more
March 28, 2013
Earlier this month, the U.S. government reported the death rate for Alzheimer's disease rose 39 percent from 2000 to 2010 and that in 2010 Washington had the highest rate among U.S. states. Yet which states had the highest Alzheimer's death rates not... Read more
March 25, 2013
Internal reports obtained by Public Data Ferret through a public records request reveal a Port of Seattle sign painter and Snohomish County resident named David John Swensen resigned from his job after confessing to viewing pornography on workplace c... Read more
March 20, 2013
Under proposed new state regulations all-night vigils by off-campus groups would be allowed outside of Seattle Central Community College, but a no-camping proviso already enacted would stay in place and a series of other guidelines would be enacted a... Read more
March 18, 2013
According to the results of a fraud investigation made public last week by Washington State Auditor Troy Kelley, two attendants at the Harvard Garage of Seattle Central Community College on Capitol Hill misappropriated $15,932 in mid-2011, and anothe... Read more
March 15, 2013
Five years of data from the National Cancer Institute's State Cancer Profiles database show that within Washington state, the overall rate of cancer is highest in western counties and lowest in rural and eastern counties. From 2005 through 2009 it wa... Read more
March 14, 2013
In 2012, pass rates on the eighth-grade state achievement test exceeded the state average of 56.6 in four of nine Thurston County School Districts, and were lower in the other five. The best pass rate on that test among the county's districts was in ... Read more
March 13, 2013
Another few weeks, and another batch of U.S. defense contracts for Washington state companies worth tens of millions of dollars. Under the new contracts, companies in Seattle, Lakewood, Bremerton and Bingen will provide channel dredging, constructi... Read more
March 12, 2013
Recently-updated data from the National Cancer Institute's State Cancer Profiles database show that for incidence of breast cancer in the most recent year for which data are currently available, 2009, Washington ranked highest in the United States wi... Read more
March 11, 2013
Recently updated state data packaged into customizable visualizations through the University of Washington-Bothell's Center For Education Data and Research and its Washington Achievement Data Explorer (WADE) tool show that for third, fourth, fifth,... Read more
March 08, 2013
In 11 of the 18 King County school districts reporting, the percent of eighth-grade students who passed the state math achievement test in 2012 surpassed the state average. But there was a sharp demographic divide in the outcomes. With the exception ... Read more
March 07, 2013
Of 13 Snohomish County school districts reporting results, eighth-graders in eight of them in 2012 lagged the state average in percent who could pass the state achievement test in reading. In math, seven of the 13 districts fell below the state avera... Read more
March 06, 2013
The Bellevue City Council Monday approved a settlement for $750,000 with a pedestrian who two years ago was struck and badly injured by a city vehicle driven by a parks department employee. The victim was Evelyn Rissman of Lynnwood, now 58, a certifi... Read more
March 04, 2013
In a report to be presented tonight to the Lynnwood City Council, the city's director of parks and recreation strongly recommends the city privatize the management its troubled, money-losing golf course. The facility was the subject of a critical sta... Read more
March 03, 2013
By a rate of more than two-to-one, public school districts in Pierce County last year underperformed the statewide average for percentage of eighth-graders who could pass Washington's math achievement test. A majority of districts also lagged the sta... Read more
March 01, 2013
In its year-end 2012 Performance Report, presented Thursday at the monthly Sound Transit board meeting in Seattle, ST's Citizen Oversight Panel took the regional transit agency to task for poor operating cost controls and questionable resource alloca... Read more
February 28, 2013
According to an announcement this week by the U.S. Department of Defense the University of Washington has won a $9.6 million modification to a "cooperative agreement" with a high-tech DoD special projects unit to advance its work on a system to let s... Read more
February 25, 2013
Using the Google Public Data Explorer tool, we run two visualizations from recently-released 2012 data on percent of eighth graders meeting the Washington state achievement test passing standard in math, and reading, at 26 selected urban-region distr... Read more
February 24, 2013
Admitting local state legislators have already warned their colleagues will likely approve electronic tolling on Interstate 90, Mercer Island City officials are still poised Monday night to approve a work plan to battle the move. Council bill 480... Read more
February 22, 2013
On the State Route 520 bridge and the Tacoma Narrows Bridge most drivers who ignore initial tolling fee bills sent through a process using mounted cameras and mailed notices are not moved to compliance after they receive a so-called Notice of Civil P... Read more
February 20, 2013
The former Office Administrator of a sleepy public water district in a Seattle bedroom suburb allegedly embezzled at least $352,641 from taxpayer coffers from mid-2004 to early 2011 through misuse of multiple credit cards, unwarranted reimbursements ... Read more
February 19, 2013
A recently-issued report from Washington State Auditor Troy Kelley says the City of Tumwater is breaking state law by continuing to fund its money-losing golf course with revenues from its utility fund which are paid back so slowly the loans are a "p... Read more
February 18, 2013
A new report to the legislature says Washington state is currently $1.43 billion short of what it would take to complete a crucial six-lane, six-mile partially-tolled extension of State Route 167 from Meridian Avenue in Puyallup across Interstate 5 t... Read more
February 14, 2013
Across Washington, just 64 percent of regional respondents say the condition of their surface transportation system rated a "C" grade or better in 2012, versus 70 percent in 2011, according to key results of a major survey presented this week to the ... Read more
February 12, 2013
For the second time in a row, Washington ranks in the top five among 50 U.S. states in the percent of people aged 12 and older who reported having misused prescription painkillers such as Vicodin, OxyContin, Percocet or codeine in the last year by ta... Read more
February 12, 2013
Some 6,000 years ago in what became Oregon, volcanic Mount Mazama erupted. That carved out Crater Lake, from around where later originated Thomomys mazama, or the Mazama pocket gopher. It thrived in western Oregon, western Washington and northern Ca... Read more
February 07, 2013
The Washington state legislature's "Sunshine Committee" is advocating for House Bill 1299 to open up data on settled medical malpractice claims but public hospitals, doctors and insurers are voicing strong opposition. A preview of the looming battle ... Read more
February 07, 2013
The rate of failure for Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation-insured U.S. banks continued to drop in 2012 from its 2010 peak of 2.09 percent. The failure rate was .71 percent in 2012, down from 1.24 percent in 2011. Bank failures eased sharply in 20... Read more
February 05, 2013
Since it debuted last week, more than 850 Washingtonians have signed up to use a new feature on the state legislature's Web site which allows registered users to comment directly to legislators on a bill's merits from the bill history page rather tha... Read more
February 05, 2013
A woman run over by a bus in West Seattle. A man who had already won a large settlement for police excessive force but whose attorney was denied key records in the process. A woman attacked and injured by a neighbor's two pit bulls, about which she h... Read more
February 01, 2013
Washington could increasingly bear the costs of suing itself, having to pay for suits by state-funded public employees such as county superior court judges aggrieved at budget cuts imposed by county officials who may themselves then turn around and s... Read more
January 31, 2013
The Washington State House Education Committee this week took initial testimony on a bill that would lighten the state academic assessment testing load for students, and ease related high school graduation requirements. Since 2008, to graduate from a... Read more
January 29, 2013
Each weekday about three million Washingtonians travel to work. A detailed performance metrics report presented last week to the Washington State Senate's Transportation Committee finds that nearly three-quarters of those trips are by solo drivers. A... Read more
January 28, 2013
A state tolling advisory panel for the new deep-bored tunnel on State Route 99 in central Seattle is signaling its support for a linked, regional tolling policy affecting all the major highways in Central Puget Sound, partly to neutralize emerging co... Read more
January 25, 2013
Maybe you'd like to be the new media director for Washington's new Governor Jay Inslee. Or his speechwriter, a state tolling auditor, or to serve on the Helitack crew fighting forest fires out of Ellensburg. Riding in whirlybirds rattle you? Maybe yo... Read more
January 22, 2013
In little more than six out of ten instances - or 62 percent of the time - has flu vaccine actually prevented patients from getting the influenza virus, according to early results for this winter reported from sampling in five U.S. regions including ... Read more
January 16, 2013
Trees aren't just a nice-to-have, their widespread removal due to pest infestations can actually be associated with higher rates of mortality, according to a new study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine by Geoffrey Donovan and a... Read more
January 15, 2013
From 1997 through 2011 in Washington, abortions are down and fertility is up. Drawn from state Department of Health data, an interactive visualization below that was prepared for Public Data Ferret by Tableau Software of Seattle reveals that within W... Read more
January 14, 2013
The Building Manager for the Children's Administration of the State of Washington's Department of Social and Health Services will pay a $2,000 fine in an adjudicative settlement obtained today from the state's Executive Ethics Board, for using his wo... Read more
January 13, 2013
In a new report for Washington state lawmakers pressed to meet a state Supreme Court mandate to better fund K-12 public education, the state's own policy analysis unit has found that 10 percent class size reductions provide only a very modest gain in... Read more
January 10, 2013
At a meeting this week of the Seattle City Council's Transportation Committee, Chairman and Council Member Tom Rasmussen said the city will have no "other choice but to go back to the voters again in two years to ask for approval of extending or perh... Read more
January 09, 2013
A fraud investigation report issued yesterday by the Washington State Auditor's Office says that the court clerk for the City of South Bend in Pacific County misappropriated $15,690 in traffic and criminal fines from May, 2008 through May, 2012. She ... Read more
January 08, 2013
Washington ranks near the top, or seventh out of 50 states plus the District of Columbia, in average annual rate of reported forcible rape over the 51 years from 1960 through 2011, according to data extracted from the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting da... Read more
January 07, 2013
The federal government could save more than $23 billion per year and hundreds of billions in the next decade if its Medicare and Medicaid programs and lawmakers acted on ignored audit and efficiency recommendations, some of them now decades old, acco... Read more
January 03, 2013
New federal data tied to one prominent indicator suggests Washington state is far outpacing neighboring states plus California and the United States in firearms purchases from 1999 through 2012. That's the number of background checks submitted from f... Read more
January 02, 2013
The murder rate in Washington state reached a 45-year low of 2.3 per 100,000 population in 2010, and bumped up a scant tenth of a percent in 2011, according to information retrieved from the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Uniform Crime Reporting d... Read more
December 28, 2012
A new car ferry terminal on the State of Washington's busiest vehicle run - from Mukilteo in Snohomish County to Clinton on south Whidbey Island - is currently $38.7 million shy of a needed $140.9 million for construction, according to a new report t... Read more
December 26, 2012
The City of Lynwood has in effect permanently diverted funds from its utility account to prop up its money-losing city golf course, in violation of state law, according to a newly-released accountability audit from the State of Washington. The city s... Read more
December 20, 2012
The Sunlight Foundation reports that the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms is seeking public comment until December 31 on the possibility of loosening regulations stemming from a 1986 federal amendment which restricts the use of armor-pier... Read more
December 19, 2012
Violating the terms of its own contract with the King County Sheriff's Office for security services, the regional transit agency serving King, Snohomish and Pierce counties failed to secure documentation to assure the validity of more than $17 millio... Read more
December 18, 2012
As public concern begins to crest after the latest U.S. mass murders involving high-capacity semi-automatic weapons, pressure is growing on Congress to take more decisive action to help prevent such tragedies in the future. Exactly one month before ... Read more
December 14, 2012
Even in the most pro-union U.S. states, where payment of basic union dues for negotiating work is compulsory for represented members of a collective bargaining unit, the actual percentage of all employees covered under contracts between organized lab... Read more
December 13, 2012
A public hearing will be held Thursday at the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle to seek comment on how best to assess environmental impacts of a proposed freight train route to a terminal at Cherry Point north of Bellingham that would fac... Read more
December 12, 2012
Just this Monday night, the Washington State Department of Transportation's tolling division director Craig Stone briefed the City Council of Bellevue on an environmental assessment and community outreach effort that's to come alive in early 2013, pa... Read more
December 06, 2012
In 2040 almost four-fifths of the energy the United States uses will be from the fossil fuels of oil, coal or natural gas. That's just a bit less than last year but natural gas - seen by some as greener than oil or coal - will play a larger role in ... Read more
December 04, 2012
In a report released today, an advisory committee to Washington state transportation officials pronounced as "feasible" an envisioned and sure to be controversial working concept for charging drivers by the mile, to fund future surface transportation... Read more
December 03, 2012
A survey by the U.S. government on drug use and health shows that from 2008 through 2010, both Oregon and Montana ranked in the top quintile nationally in self-reported underage use of alcohol as a percent of state population age 12 to 20. The Nation... Read more
November 30, 2012
New rankings that the U.S. Department of Education says are for the first time solidly comparable between states, show that in the 2010-2011 school year Washington ranked in the bottom third nationally in its rate of on-time high school graduation, w... Read more
November 28, 2012
The U.S. Marine Corps and Army will be getting up to $32.9 million worth of top-of-the-line powdered eggs through early 2018 under a contract announced this week between the U.S. Defense Logistics Agency and a Lacey, Wash. company named Nutriom. Nati... Read more
November 28, 2012
A letter from the Washington State Auditor's Office, quietly slipped into the meeting agenda documents packet this month of the Seattle Community Colleges Board of Trustees, reveals that a College investigation verified six distinct instances of vani... Read more
November 27, 2012
A special services-based initiative for foster youth in K-12 public schools in Washington that was created by the legislature in 2006 isn't correlated with improved academic outcomes for the thousands of students it has served, according to a new rep... Read more
November 19, 2012
On the one hand, getting the flu is considered fairly mundane, so long as there's no pandemic and nobody dies. On the other hand, this common winter nuisance carries a hefty price tag. The annual bill in the United States for seasonal influenza is es... Read more
November 15, 2012
For the first time since standardized data began to be collected in 1965, young adults - aged 18 to 24 - last year bested all U.S. adults in percent not smoking, according to a new report from the U.S. Centers For Disease Control and historical U.S. ... Read more
November 14, 2012
It's entirely possible the U.S. will just chillax on possible prosecutions for marijuana use allowed in states now to include Washington, where voters last week approved medicinal or recreational adult use of an ounce or less starting in a few weeks,... Read more
November 09, 2012
Does the lobbying organization for Washington's cities want to push against a 2018 deadline to convert municipal vehicles to use alternative fuels? The Association of Washington Cities is pondering that question, and expects to be making a decision i... Read more
November 08, 2012
King County Metro Transit was responsible for 71 percent of third quarter 2012 large negligence claim settlements paid by the county, according to a newly issued report. Metro's share of those payouts is up from 50 percent for the first two quarters ... Read more
November 06, 2012
Among local ballot measures likely to be decided tonight in suburban King County are a major annexation proposal in Renton, funding for new high schools in Federal Way and Auburn, a new fire station for Mercer Island, and a possibly a new form of gov... Read more
November 06, 2012
In a new study published in a medical journal, a University of Washington dermatologist warns tattoo seekers to beware of possible bacterial complications which can result from variances in types of tattoo inks and practices used, and worrisome-looki... Read more
November 04, 2012
The Seattle metro region is a hotspot for suicide attempts, according to a newly released federal report drawn from data in the National Survey on Drug Use and Health. The report, titled "Suicidal Thoughts and Behavior in 33 Metropolitan Statistical ... Read more
November 04, 2012
The longtime Executive Director of a state-funded non-profit emergency medical services and trauma care council in Western Washington over six years bilked the agency out of almost $400,000 by writing herself extra paychecks, plus "operations and pla... Read more
November 01, 2012
Federal data on alcohol and drug abuse admissions to Washington state-regulated treatment facilities in 2011 show that the prototypical patient is a male either 12 to 17 tears old or 21 to 30 years old, and has been abusing alcohol and marijuana. In ... Read more
October 30, 2012
Overall 2011 juvenile arrest rates in Washington state were highest in rural counties while the state's most populous and urbanized county, King, was among those with the lowest rates. The data come from the Washington Association of Sheriffs and... Read more
October 29, 2012
Irrigation in agriculture packs a big economic punch. Although the almost 57 million acres of irrigated farmlands in the U.S. represent just 7.5 percent of all crop- and pasturelands in the nation, that good wet earth nonetheless accounts for a full ... Read more
October 29, 2012
The Washington State Employment Security Department provides an online map of unemployment rates by county that's updated monthly. September unemployment in Washington was highest in Lewis, Grays Harbor and Ferry Counties and lowest in Douglas, Whitm... Read more
October 28, 2012
Data visualizations derived from the World Bank's World Development Indicators show that while North America far outpaces other major global regions in vehicles per 1,000 people, that gap compared to the developing world is declining. And perhaps mor... Read more
October 26, 2012
A new performance audit by the State of Washington says the Citizen Oversight Panel of the three-county Seattle region agency Sound Transit suffers from poor ethics, a poor understanding of its mission, and could be also considerably more transparent... Read more
October 25, 2012
Camouflage uniforms that according to U.S. Army soldiers, "provided ineffective concealment in the Afghan environment" may point to the need for an Army-wide revamp of camo cover suited to different environments. And it could carry a price tag of as ... Read more
October 24, 2012
The Port of Seattle has decided it will revisit a 12-year-old legal setback that sharply limited its powers to micromanage the labor relations of its concessionaires. The Port approved at its October 23 business meeting a motion authorizing outside l... Read more
October 24, 2012
The Washington State Commission on Judicial Conduct provides an easy-to-use online database of disciplinary cases involving judges behaving - or alleged to have been behaving - badly. You can slice and dice by geography, type of discipline administer... Read more
October 23, 2012
The Seattle Channel's "City Inside Out" takes a look at Initiative 502 in an informative TV magazine segment below. If approved by voters, the initiative would legalize possession in Washington state of an ounce or less of marijuana for medicinal or ... Read more
October 22, 2012
Scattered across the State of Washington are dozens of target practice ranges for owners of rifles, pistols and archery bows, and more than a few involve cooperative arrangements between local governments and non-profit shooting clubs. One these is t... Read more
October 21, 2012
One more decision facing Washington voters as they mull their mail-in ballots and state Voters' Guides at their kitchen counters and dining tables in the days prior to the Nov. 6 Election Day deadline, is whether to tighten the state's borrowing lim... Read more
October 19, 2012
At Google Public Data Explorer, the World Bank recently posted this revealing visualization showing how lower fertility rates correlate with longer life expectancies for females and males. The results are given for major nations and are also colored-... Read more
October 18, 2012
For a month starting today the public will be able to comment to the Washington Department of Ecology on the plan so far, including interim clean-up actions, to ease the toxic legacy of a plywood mill that operated on the city waterfront in Port Ange... Read more
October 17, 2012
In its McCleary ruling last January, the Washington Supreme Court said the state has failed to meet its constitutional responsibility "to make ample provision for the education of all children." As a result, by 2018, state K-12 spending could grow by... Read more
October 16, 2012
Seattle hip-hoppers Blue Scholars are rapping the praises of their regional transit agency in a new music video for Sound Transit. Here's one-half of the Scholars, MC Geologic, bustin' some verse on the South Sounder commuter train from Tacoma to... Read more
October 15, 2012
State audits have critiqued the Puget Sound Partnership for lax management, and a federal watchdog group tied it to alleged ethical missteps by a powerful Washington Congressman. But in a newly-released bi-annual "State of the Sound" assessment, the ... Read more
October 15, 2012
A bill has stalled in Congress that would open up Eastern Washington's Rattlesnake Ridge to the public. The 3,600-foot-high ridge is the dominating feature of the Hanford nuclear reservation and the Tri-Cities area. The ridge marks Hanford's southwes... Read more
October 13, 2012
The Yakima City Council has unanimously approved a resolution opening the door to competitive bidding between in-house departments and outside contractors. The resolution OK'd October 2 says that because the city, state and national economies "are ex... Read more
October 12, 2012
Earlier this week we used Google Public Data Explorer to craft a data visualization of debt as a proportion of Gross Domestic Product for 16 nations, over a multi-year period. It was from a dataset in the International Monetary Fund's October 2012 Wo... Read more
October 12, 2012
Washington State's non-profit public affairs TV channel TVW this week aired a segment on the continuing push by the state board of education against Native American school mascots. The board at its September 25th meeting in Walla Walla passed a resol... Read more
October 11, 2012
Commuter volume through August of this year on the buses and trains of Seattle's regional transit agency Sound Transit was 18.5 million, up 11.7 percent compared to the same time last year. Regional express buses have carried a majority of Sound Tran... Read more
October 10, 2012
From the International Monetary Fund's October 2012 World Economic Outlook database comes this data visualization we easily built at the Google Public Data Explorer site, depicting the gross debt of selected nations as a percentage of their gross dom... Read more
October 09, 2012
Seattle and San Francisco attorneys for the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission have filed suit against the Everett-based egg producer and processor National Food Corporation, alleging that for almost seven years a manager of one of the comp... Read more
October 09, 2012
Perhaps the most unique of the City of Seattle's parks is The Kubota Garden. From the page for The Kubota Garden at the City of Seattle Parks and Recreation Department's web site: "Hidden in South Seattle, Kubota Garden is a stunning 20 acre landscap... Read more
October 08, 2012
The Seattle Channel recently posted online an edition of its City Inside/Out public affairs show which delved into the debate over whether or not Washington State should have charter schools. On the ballot for the November 6 election, Initiative 1240... Read more
October 08, 2012
Earlier this year, a U.S. report accented major problems with quality of health care at VA hospitals in Puget Sound. Now, a more recent probe has found significant shortcomings at the major facility serving Spokane area military veterans. Primary car... Read more
October 05, 2012
Almost one in four federal and state dollars spent on Working Connections program child care subsidies in Washington state during Fiscal Year 2011 were overpayments, according to a new report from the office of Washington State Auditor Brian Sonntag.... Read more
October 04, 2012
It's been a good week for FLIR Systems Inc. of Wilsonville, Oregon, just 18 miles south of Portland off Interstate 5. The thermal imaging technology manufacturer booked $33 million in sales to U.S. defense agencies in just seven business days. FLIR w... Read more
October 03, 2012
A U.S. Census spreadsheet reveals that for 2011, Washington was tied with California and Nebraska for second lowest housing gross vacancy rate among U.S. states, at 10.1 percent. Only Iowa ranked lower, at 9.8 percent. The national average was 14.2 p... Read more
October 03, 2012
If you've been glad to give your muddy, happily exhausted canine a good sudsy hosing at Wash Spot Express in King County's Marymoor Park in Redmond after a romp in the "Doggy Disneyland" off-leash area there, you'll be pleased to learn the company an... Read more
October 02, 2012
Washington companies other than Boeing in the last week won four more contracts from the U.S. military, together worth $45.3 million. The work is for pipeline dredging, building renovation, barge moorage construction, and water and wastewater system ... Read more
October 01, 2012
Caitlan T. Grassi, a former caseworker at a halfway house for federal felons in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood, pled guilty in U.S. District Court in Seattle Friday on a felony charge of concealing someone from arrest, and a drug-related misdeme... Read more
October 01, 2012
Recently at Public Data Ferret we reported on a number of digital initiatives to enhance the student experience at the University of Washington. Today we came across a newly-posted video by UW on some of those apps. It gives quick profiles of too... Read more
September 30, 2012
Following several months of investigation, the Puyallup City Council Tuesday night is poised to give approval to an ordinance that electronic dog leashes and collars don't meet its code requirements to keep dogs under control in public. A city staff ... Read more
September 27, 2012
In a report aired publicly today at the board meeting of the Seattle region's three-county regional transit agency Sound Transit, its Citizen Oversight Panel said at half of original projected passenger levels, North Sounder commuter rail service run... Read more
September 27, 2012
Information and library science experts from the University of Washington feature in a new video segment for UWTV's UW/360 magazine show. It's about their work helping the San Francisco Zen Center archive 50 years worth of historical materials. UW As... Read more
September 26, 2012
Assistant civil engineering professor Cynthia Chen of the University of Washington and Sammamish City Council member Don Gerend are among 20 experts serving on a new state committee charged with overseeing a preliminary feasibility assessment of a r... Read more
September 25, 2012
A Seattle City Council committee Wednesday will hold a public hearing and then likely approve for a full council vote soon afterward a resolution to take over the floundering Seattle Indian Services Commission. A city public development authority for... Read more
September 25, 2012
Many Puget Sound and Western Washington local governments are appealing the state permits requiring them to upgrade how they deal with storm water pollution. At least 12 cities, King County, Pierce County, Snohomish County, Clark County and Cowlitz C... Read more
September 24, 2012
Lummi Island is the northeastern-most of the San Juan islands in Washington State, and is reached via a small car ferry operated by Whatcom County. It's a lovely, quiet place and public lands to visit include numerous shorelines and beaches plus seve... Read more
September 23, 2012
Around Washington state this fall city councils, regional associations of cities and regional transportation planning boards are trying to find common ground on what sort of transportation revenue measures to push in the Winter 2013 session of the st... Read more
September 22, 2012
U.S. national security and military cost-efficiency will increasingly depend on automated weapons and automated information gathering systems on land, air and sea, but as procurement and deployment grow, coordinating and improving that effort will be... Read more
September 21, 2012
Yes, of course the Washington State Department of Ecology is on Flickr and yes, they've got exactly the pix you know you want to see: marine debris of the first order. It ain't pretty. Following are a few highlights from the album. Perhaps we could a... Read more
September 20, 2012
In an order made public today by the Washington State Department of Health, a former registered nurse named Konstantin V. Kurkov who worked in the emergency room of St. Francis Hospital in Federal Way has agreed to permanently surrender his license, ... Read more
September 20, 2012
Washington residents who'd like to drive a motorcycle have to pass a riding skills test to get the added "endorsement" on their driver's license. The state Department of Licensing guide to the process says you can do it in one step at an approved mot... Read more
September 20, 2012
The Washington State Horse Racing Commission will take a more direct role in regulating potential conflicts of interest for its employees working in the off-season for the horse racing industry they help regulate - at the Emerald Downs track in Aubur... Read more
September 19, 2012
A proposed City of Seattle bill being championed by Councilmember Bruce Harrell would restrict the right of Seattle employers to factor in to their hiring decisions a job applicant's past arrests, convictions or pending criminal criminal charges. Un... Read more
September 19, 2012
Washington State is blessed with a wide range of public lands upon which to hike and a lot of them seem to reside within the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest. Only 45 minutes east of Seattle off Interstate 90 at Exit 47 is the signed route to t... Read more
September 18, 2012
In a civil case settlement agreement approved last Friday, the Washington Executive Ethics Board fined a former manager for the state Office of Minority and Women's Business Enterprises named Jean Wheat $2,500 for ethics missteps. OMWBE helps busines... Read more
September 18, 2012
Getting permits and licenses from Washington's government is nowhere as simple as it could be, according to a recent Washington State performance audit. A longtime state government goal has been to allow people and businesses who must comply with reg... Read more
September 18, 2012
From the Washington State Department of Transportation via Flickr comes this arresting image. Here's WSDOT's caption: "Workers stand in the shadow of what will become the world’s largest-diameter tunnel boring machine. Currently being assembl... Read more
September 18, 2012
The Congressional Research Service reports that the reformulated Chrysler Corporation cannot be required to pay the last $1.3 billion of $10.9 billion in loans received from the United States government's Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) starting... Read more
September 17, 2012
A former U.S. Marshall and Clallam County Sheriff who was forced to resign as head of Washington Criminal Justice Training Commission has agreed to pay a $12,500 penalty in a civil case brought against him by the Washington State Executive Ethics Boa... Read more
September 14, 2012
Sixth-graders in the Highline School District in southwest King County fully closed the reading proficiency test score gap last year, catching up with the statewide performance average after years of lagging behind, according to the 2012 State Test R... Read more
September 13, 2012
The Seattle-based Region 10 office of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has reached a proposed consent agreement and final order with California-based Paramount Petroleum Corporation including a $95,606 civil penalty for what the agency asser... Read more
September 12, 2012
If Washington Governor Chris Gregoire and the state's Congressional delegation have anything to say about it, planned cutbacks in U.S. defense facilities and spending won't get in the way of an expanded U.S. military role for the Evergreen State and ... Read more
September 12, 2012
The University of Washington is moving ahead with an ambitious campus technology initiative that aims to transform learning. Key components include electronic textbooks allowing collaborative exchanges among students, a cloud-based cache of teacher l... Read more
September 11, 2012
The Sunnyside school district in Yakima County was wrongly paid $213,110 because it misreported the number of students in a home-based computer learning program, a recent state audit said. The Washington State Auditor's Office reported that the d... Read more
September 10, 2012
Conservation biologists at the University of Washington in Seattle report that dogs trained to sniff out small pellets of dried fecal matter from the threatened species the northern spotted owl can play an important role in ongoing efforts to gauge i... Read more
September 07, 2012
Washington state is batting almost 1,000 in due diligence checks of Medicaid applicants for financial eligibility, but needs to run checks on their vehicle ownership to ensure it is properly weeding out those whose net assets are too high to qualify ... Read more
September 06, 2012
The Washington State Auditor's Office concluded that potentially tens of thousands of dollar in public money went to an emergency services official under suspicious circumstances from 2002 to 2010, according to a fraud investigation report released T... Read more
September 04, 2012
The director of the Monroe, Wash. School District's high school-level alternative education program called Leaders In Learning, who was earning $109,260 in total salary and benefits, was forced to resign because he used his school computer to view se... Read more
September 04, 2012
Below: the Washington state winners and champions in public meeting transparency online. They not only put meeting agendas online; they use software platforms which put into those online agendas, individual links to individual business items. This is... Read more
September 04, 2012
Open meetings laws and public records laws are a bulwark of our democracy, to be widely promoted and firmly upheld. Yet the bar is rising still higher for government transparency as many elected bodies go beyond mere compliance with these legal requi... Read more
August 30, 2012
A $100,000 fine of Fry's Electronics last month by a federal court judge in Seattle for procedural misconduct in a harassment and retaliation case at its Renton store, was just the first shoe dropping. Today, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Com... Read more
August 29, 2012
Court verdicts or settlements of $100,000 or more in government negligence claims against King County from January 2010 through June 2012 have totaled $37.3 million and 40 percent of that has resulted from actions by transit employees at King County ... Read more
August 28, 2012
A recently released report and infographic from the U.S. Congressional Budget Office warn that Congress should stick to its guns and execute the intent of the federal deficit reduction laws it has passed in recent years, or risk putting the nation on... Read more
August 27, 2012
Washington State Parks ranked sixth out of 50 systems for combined day and overnight visitors, according to the 2012 Annual Information Exchange report prepared for the National Association of State Parks Directors (NASPD) by researchers at North Car... Read more
August 24, 2012
Annual rates of reported crime in Seattle have continued a steady and overall, sharp decline from 1985 through 2011, paralleling a trend seen in all other King County cities and nationwide, according to local police department data provided to Washin... Read more
August 21, 2012
Recently, we published an original data visualization showing the overall crime rate per capita for each King County city, from 1985 through 2011. Below we zero in on crime rate data for King County cities during the years 2007- 2011, broken down and... Read more
August 20, 2012
The iconic Seattle non-profit SouthEast Effective Development (SEED), which has increasingly moved into government-funded affordable housing, is reportedly investigating its finances while its high-profile Executive Director Earl Richardson is on pai... Read more
August 16, 2012
The highest per capita crime rates among King County cities in 2011 were in Tukwila, SeaTac, Seattle, Auburn, Burien, Federal Way, and Kent. The lowest were in Duvall, Sammamish, Yarrow Point, Clyde Hill, Medina, Snoqualmie, and Black Diamond. That a... Read more
August 15, 2012
Woodinville's City Council gave preliminary approval Tuesday to revamping its traffic impact fees - opting for a system that would charge developers of newly-built homes a one-time per house fee more than double the current level but still in the mid... Read more
August 14, 2012
A series of workplace deaths and accidents has prompted Washington's Department of Labor and Industries to issue worker safety warnings about hazards to several segments of the state's industrial economy. In the past three months, the state has issue... Read more
August 12, 2012
Headquartered at Fishermen's Terminal in Interbay at the eastern edge of Seattle's Magnolia neighborhood, across from historic Ballard, Icicle Seafoods is a King Salmon in the U.S. seafood industry. Icicle harvests and processes several species of fi... Read more
August 09, 2012
A data profile currently feaured on the web site of the Puget Sound Regional Council shows that on weekday work commute trips in King, Snohomish, Pierce and Kitsap Counties and on a percentage basis, there's been only very scant progress from 2000 to... Read more
August 08, 2012
Twenty-eight sex offenders fell between the cracks of state background checks on child care homes between 2002 and 2012, said a state performance audit released last week. "We found that even with required criminal background checks, monitoring and/o... Read more
August 07, 2012
At a study session prior to last night's Bellevue City Council council meeting, Visit Bellevue Washington presented findings detailing that 1,253,000 overnight and day-trip visitors brought more than $484 million in spending to the growing Eastside c... Read more
August 05, 2012
Under an ordinance set for approval Monday August 6, the Seattle City Council would authorize the spending of $967,617 in 2008 city parks levy funds to expand the tiny pocket park called Christie Park in the University District. Once the city complet... Read more
August 03, 2012
A proposed 2011-2012 labor pact for 750 workers in the King County Department of Public Health and the Department of Community and Human Services that entered the county council's legislative pipeline this week would initiate a projected four-year Co... Read more
August 02, 2012
More than four out of every five dollars owed to King County for violations of animal control regulations in the first six months of this year have yet to be collected, according to a violations summary report from the county's animal control divisio... Read more
August 01, 2012
A state audit said Yakima County's East Valley school district improperly collected $66,717 in state money for an Alternative Learning Experience (ALE) program serving home-based students via computers, by failing to exercise required oversight ensur... Read more
July 31, 2012
A teacher at Kamiakin High School in the Kennewick, Wash. school district is finally getting a penalty from the state for using his school email account to receive, view and forward pictures of nude and partially nude women; and for using it to recei... Read more
July 30, 2012
The Asian wood pellet market is growing, and the the United States and Canada are poised to be a prime source for it, according to a second-quarter 2012 report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Pacific Northwest Research Station. "The West C... Read more
July 26, 2012
The City of Sunnyside in Yakima County improperly juggled its internal funds in the past two years, so its general fund landed in the red just five months into 2012, according to a state audit report released this week. That red ink in the general fu... Read more
July 24, 2012
A ruling from a Washington State appeals court Monday upheld the conviction of a Seattle man for other charges related to an anti-gay hate crime for which he was also convicted, near a Capitol Hill LGBT nightclub. Muhamet M. Sumaj was convicted in 20... Read more
July 24, 2012
Washington State University's Vancouver, Wash. campus is seeking requests for proposals from marketing firms to help the school boost its overall campus population an ambitious seven to nine percent yearly through a direct campaign targeting prospect... Read more
July 23, 2012
The headline-grabbing outbreak of whooping cough, or Pertussis, in Washington state this year affected Hispanics at a rate more than twice that of non-Hispanics, according to a new report from the Washington State Department of Health and U.S. resear... Read more
July 20, 2012
A major SeaTac Airport concessionaire owes the Port of Seattle $256,269 because of confusion on how to report revenues, according to a June port audit. The concessionaire's umbrella company, American Management Services, agreed with the audit results... Read more
July 18, 2012
The passage of a new two-year $100 billion-plus federal transportation funding bill by Congress June 29 is expected to bring roughly $652 million to Washington state in 2013 and $657 million in 2014, compared to roughly $652 million for 2012, accordi... Read more
July 17, 2012
The Port of Seattle Board of Commissioners last week approved by unanimous vote a $475,000 settlement its attorneys recommended with the widow of a union electrician who worked for a construction firm at the Port's SeaTac Airport in the early 1970s a... Read more
July 16, 2012
It's a Pacific Northwest ritual endured by visitors, newcomers and even old-timers who should know better. Book a trip to one of the idyllic San Juan Islands served by the Washington State Ferries' stolid vehicle-bearing vessels. Then wait for hours ... Read more
July 12, 2012
Obesity remains a significant health problem. But the next classification down, being overweight, is no worse for older adults than being of average weight, based on more than a dozen indicators. That's the conclusion of a study that was recently pub... Read more
July 12, 2012
The Washington State Department of Revenue has released an iPhone app, soon to appear for Andriod as well, that lets businesses doing transactions in different areas look up the local sales and use tax rates, which vary according to city and county. ... Read more
July 10, 2012
A shortage of prisoners and a decline in paid services provided to them will blow a hole of at least $10 million this year in the budgeted revenue projections of the King County Department of Adult and Juvenile Detention. Revenues collected by the de... Read more
July 09, 2012
There are more than 3,000 licensed taxi drivers driving 592 licensed taxicabs in Seattle and King County, but officials certainly aren't passing out the required credentials like candy. Nearly two-thirds of all applicants to become taxi drivers who t... Read more
July 06, 2012
Population data for Washington cities and counties from 2010 to April 1, 2012 released in late June by the state's Office of Financial Management is now available as a series of interactive datasets at Washington State's official open data site, data... Read more
July 05, 2012
More than 1,000 school-owned "assets" - primarily computers, laptops, maintenance equipment, and classroom items - have been reported missing from Seattle schools since January 2009, said a Washington State Auditor's Office report released this week.... Read more
July 03, 2012
It was just weeks after Washington State enacted a landmark Medicaid anti-fraud measure, and only weeks before a U.S. Supreme Court ruling cleared the way for a sweeping federal health care bill that, as the Seattle Times reported, will boost Medicai... Read more
July 02, 2012
For many community college students in Washington state, getting a two-year associate degree might be a ticket into the workplace. But more so than ever, advancing to a higher rank and responsibilities requires more education. So rather than merely s... Read more
July 01, 2012
Data from the Washington State Department of Transportation show that over the past decade there's been a significant downwards trend in The Evergreen State's total vehicle collisions and fatalities, even with an uptick in vehicle miles travelled. Ad... Read more
June 30, 2012
Earlier this month in Cuba, peaceful political dissident Jorge Luis Garcia Perez, or "Antunez," was jailed, beaten and pepper sprayed. This took place just three days after he testified to a U.S. Senate subcommittee about the Cuban government's repre... Read more
June 29, 2012
The next tweak in fixing Seattle Gas Works Park's contamination problem will likely occur next fall when a half-acre tarp will be buried in the site's northeast corner. This will be the latest measure to ensure more pollution, in this case toxic an... Read more
June 28, 2012
Last year, Washington state and a Dutch corporation signed a contract to take care of leaking underground gasoline storage tanks at 40 former and current gas stations in King, Snohomish, Skagit and Whatcom counties. The work is tentatively expected t... Read more
June 27, 2012
Despite strong community opposition tied to related downstream flooding risks, Puget Sound Energy is now even more firmly in the clear to further widen the Snoqualmie River, lower a dam and keep operating its Snoqualmie Falls hydro-electric power pl... Read more
June 26, 2012
Russia is no walk in the park, according to the recently released survey of global human rights conditions in 2011 by the U.S. Department of State. The report's Russia section details problematic prison conditions, police corruption, the lack of safe... Read more
June 26, 2012
Washington state isn't currently included in the areas predicted to be at greatest risk for wildfires this summer, according to The National Wildland Significant Fire Potential Outlook for July through September that is updated monthly online by the ... Read more
June 24, 2012
A Washington state elementary school teacher in the Colville district with 26 years of experience resigned her job as disciplinary actions unfolded following charges she provided "unauthorized assistance" to students in her fifth-grade classroom for ... Read more
June 21, 2012
Washington has had three recessions since 1990, but the current recession's recovery has been glacially slow compared to the last two. Roughly 150,000 jobs slower, based on each economic recovery after 50 months. The slight recession in 1990 ended af... Read more
June 19, 2012
If traffic congestion on Washington's interstate and state highways were to grow by a far-from-impossible 20 percent, 56 percent of freight-dependent businesses would pass the added costs on to consumers, more than a third would reroute or eat the co... Read more
June 16, 2012
A new report issued by Washington State University's Murrow College of Communication calls for creation and training of citizen blogger networks across the state, allied with daily newspapers and funded by foundations - in an effort to transform Wash... Read more
June 14, 2012
A Seattle-based company that markets popular brands of snowshoes, kayaks, tents and other outdoor gear used widely by Northwest outdoorsmen and women continues to enhance its revenues with sales to support the programs of the U.S. military, as well. ... Read more
June 13, 2012
The Great Recession hasn't been kind to state parks systems. They're unavoidably even farther up the line for state budget cuts than education and social services - which have also taken big hits. As the Los Angeles Times reports today, state parks s... Read more
June 10, 2012
A U.S. Senate's Armed Services Committee report sharply critiques Boeing Company for failing to notify the U.S Navy for 17 months after it issued its own internal "suspect discrepancy report" that a key component in an ice detection system to be used... Read more
June 07, 2012
A public document recently posted online by the Washington State Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction reveals that a high-profile Bainbridge Island public school teacher quietly resigned at the start of the current school year after the... Read more
June 06, 2012
Building on an experiment with drivers on Puget Sound roads plus a 2010 legislative study and a task force report issued in January 2012 by Governor Chris Gregoire, the State of Washington is now seeking bidders for a feasibility study on something t... Read more
June 05, 2012
This data visualization shows the location and site information for each of the 316 art installations sponsored by the City of Seattle as of June 2012. Blue circles indicate the geographic location of each project. Hovering your cursor over a circle ... Read more
June 05, 2012
Next fall Community Colleges of Spokane (CCS) hopes to begin trial phases of a new honors program at its schools. CCS has published a request for proposals (RFP) from consulting firms to help create an honors program that will increase enrollment and... Read more
June 04, 2012
On the rural coast of Washington in Pacific County, a small but vital critical-care, taxpayer-funded hospital has new interim leadership trying to dig its way out of financial problems that threaten its survival, including a four-fold increase in ope... Read more
June 01, 2012
A high-level state college administrator in Tacoma who also teaches a course on "the ways in which colonialism and neocolonialism have created unequal distributions of power, wealth and access to resources," will pay a $2,500 state ethics penalty for... Read more
May 31, 2012
Last winter in the wake of contentious anti-corporate protests led on its Capitol Hill central campus by Occupy Seattle, Seattle Community College District officials were beginning to grapple with proposed legislation from its teachers union that was... Read more
May 29, 2012
Seattle-based Troy Company, Inc. has won a contract worth up to $30 million to supply various types of fuel to the U.S. Army, Navy and Air Force. The announcement came late last week for the bulk distributor of petroleum products. The award ceiling i... Read more
May 25, 2012
The State of Washington's Department of Natural Resources is seeking bidders for drilling exploratory geothermal boreholes in Skamania and Klickitat counties at up to five of six targeted sites that have passed environmental muster: Swift Creek, Nort... Read more
May 23, 2012
A program aimed at improving watersheds and water quality in Haiti and funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development hasn't made inroads against major environmental risks and could be facing potentially expensive setbacks, according to an a... Read more
May 21, 2012
It's the size of the jackpot and economic factors that really influence the volume of Washington Lottery ticket sales, not the $12 million per year the lottery spends on advertising, according to a newly-released report from Washington State's Joint ... Read more
May 17, 2012
A series of data visualizations accompanying the recent "Energy Security in the United States" report by the Congressional Budget Office shows the lion's share of energy used in the United States still comes from fossil fuel sources such as oil, coal... Read more
May 15, 2012
The media’s portrayal this past March of the long-used lean finely textured beef (LFTB) ground beef additive as suspect “pink slime” has had far-reaching effects, according to a recent report on the controversy issued by the Congressional Resea... Read more
May 14, 2012
A Gold Bar, Wash. man named Michael Robert Downer is now serving a 45-day jail term for felony first degree theft after without authorization he spent at least $13,735 on himself from a larger nest egg account that he jointly administered with and fo... Read more
May 10, 2012
Behold the versatile egg. How much better, some say, to harvest eggs from your own backyard than in polystyrene or cardboard packages from the grocery store. As interest grows in urban agriculture and locally-sourced foods, it's not only in overtly g... Read more
May 09, 2012
The University of Washington is planning to contract with a smartphone applications developer who will build an app for iPhone and Android to promote events, information resources, testing and research to help gay men avoid or manage the HIV virus an... Read more
May 06, 2012
A newly-released focus report on U.S. households by the Census Bureau reveals Washington State is in the top fifth nationally in mixed-race households. Which ever way you slice it. Of Washington husband-wife households counted in the 2010 Census, 10.... Read more
May 04, 2012
King County ranks in the top two percent nationally for male and female life expectancy, according to a nationwide survey of all 3,147 U.S. counties or county equivalents, by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washin... Read more
May 02, 2012
Under a law approved by voters in 2008, 80 different doctors wrote prescriptions for 103 lethal doses of medication in Washington in 2011 and 94 of the patients are known to have died, according to the state's third annual Death With Dignity Act repo... Read more
April 30, 2012
A Washington state appeals court ruling today re-opens a medical negligence lawsuit against Valley Medical Center in Renton and a doctor who worked there, by the Tukwila, Wash. parents of a prematurely born infant known as Baby Diego. They claim the ... Read more
April 29, 2012
An audit report from the U.S. Treasury Department's Inspector General For Tax Administration says the Internal Revenue Service has overpaid U.S. taxpayers between $99 billion and $119 billion in earned income tax credit (EITC) payments, or allowances... Read more
April 27, 2012
Adding to a continuing series of revelations on ethical and fiscal misconduct at the University of Washington in Seattle, the university's Office of Internal Audit has in response to a Washington State Public Records Act request by Public Data Ferret... Read more
April 26, 2012
An audit by the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) of the federal government's USAID agency says that what turned into a seven-year, $102 million contractor-driven effort to bring fair and open elections to Iraq has failed to become sustainable by... Read more
April 23, 2012
A study released by the Congressional Research Service on U.S. energy pipeline management and security says that despite potential vulnerability to accidental malfunction or purposeful sabotage, the risk of a terrorist threat is low, but safety overs... Read more
April 20, 2012
A short ferry ride but galaxies removed from the commotion of Seattle, the unincorporated King County community of Vashon Island is sylvan, artsy, and laid back. The size of Manhattan, it is home to 10,624. Organic farmers, dreadlocked 30-somethings... Read more
April 18, 2012
Nine years of Washington figures released recently in the Office of Financial Management's wide-ranging state Data Book show that with the exception of murder and assault, the odds are long here that criminals will even be arrested, much less convict... Read more
April 17, 2012
A new report from the Washington legislature's non-partisan policy analysis unit, the Washington State Institute For Public Policy, finds that of 98 programs recently reviewed for what researchers liken to an investment advisor's "buy-sell" list, 79 ... Read more
April 13, 2012
A new oversight report from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Office of the Inspector General (OIG) identifies problems with sedation safety, colorectal cancer screening, sanitation, medication management, coordination of care, quality assuranc... Read more
April 11, 2012
The City of Seattle continued today to advance toward implementing a rental housing licensing and inspection program that officials say would be aimed at especially at chronically negligent landlords and tenants who may well be afraid to use the city... Read more
April 09, 2012
An agreed order recently posted online by the Washington state Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction discloses that the Northshore School District - which operates 33 schools primarily in Kenmore, Bothell and Woodinville - successfully s... Read more
April 08, 2012
According to a recent announcement from the U.S. Department of Defense, two Washington employers can expect a total of up to $44 million more in military contract revenues in coming months. First, the Tacoma division of the French-born international ... Read more
April 04, 2012
A previously undisclosed University of Washington internal audit dated April 2011 and records of a related UW Police investigation, both recently obtained by Public Data Ferret using the Washington state Public Records Act, detail the theft of almost... Read more
April 03, 2012
According to a recent report from the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, Washington is ranked twenty-fourth among U.S. states in the number of inmates it executed during the years 1930-2010, at 52. However, very few prisoners have received the death... Read more
April 02, 2012
Come this summer in Woodinville, it won't just be wineries such as Chateau St. Michele reaping the fiscal harvest of concert crowds drawn by the unbeatable combination of smooth Syrah and samba, or Cabernet and cool jazz. The Woodinville City Council... Read more
March 30, 2012
Washington state has gotten a good bang for its buck on tobacco-prevention spending, at a rate of more than five dollars in benefits for every dollar spent, according to a recent analysis published in the American Journal of Public Health by a team i... Read more
March 28, 2012
A fraud report just issued by the Washington State Auditor's office says the former financial operations manager of the Washington Association of County Officials (WACO) embezzled more than $73,000 from the group by writing checks to herself and doct... Read more
March 28, 2012
A supervisor at the Washington state Department of Social and Health Services has agreed to pay a civil penalty of $1,500 for using state time and equipment for his own interests, in apparent violation of the state's Ethics in Public Service Act, acc... Read more
March 26, 2012
Another case of employee ethical misconduct at King County's Harborview Medical Center - operated by the University of Washington's UW Medicine unit - has come to light, and is expected to be highlighted in an upcoming Washington state auditor's offi... Read more
March 22, 2012
In a ruling published this week the Washington State Court of Appeals reversed a "summary judgement" signed by King County Superior Court Judge Douglass A. North that a yard foreman working in Dutch Harbor, Alaska for a Kirkland, Wash.-based marine ... Read more
March 21, 2012
In a recent testimony before the U.S. Senate Judiciary committee, a retired Marine and a national proponent of government transparency with long and deep ties to Seattle, ratcheted up concerns about a recent military attempt to censor from the publi... Read more
March 20, 2012
A then-resident of Seattle's Wallingford neighborhood who had deep ties to Seattle Pacific University during his tenure as a science teacher in the Bellevue school district, this month had his state teaching license permanently revoked following a gu... Read more
March 19, 2012
With a planned discussion of a recent citizen survey and a presentation of what could be the final draft of a new ordinance, the Shoreline City Council March 19 is poised to move one step closer to a scheduled vote March 26 to ban all tobacco use in ... Read more
March 13, 2012
In 1972 Washington state voters were concerned about government accountability and ethics for a wide variety of reasons, some emanating from within the state and some from without. As a result they approved Initiative 276, creating an initial version... Read more
March 12, 2012
After she claimed she was forced to donate volunteer labor to a women's sports officials association founded by her boss in King County government, a web designer in the Accountable Business Transformation unit of the county's Department of Executive... Read more
March 07, 2012
In a ruling issued this week a state appeals court upheld the convictions for first-degree perjury, and gross misdemeanor counts of stalking and cyberstalking by a then-City of Seattle Parks and Recreation Department employee named Andre L. (Luis) Fr... Read more
March 05, 2012
Delving into a hot-button topic about which they state all the science is distinctly not settled, a female-led team of researchers and doctors from the University of Washington in Seattle and the Seattle-based Group Health Cooperative HMO - in prelim... Read more
March 01, 2012
According to a University of Washington internal audit report obtained by Public Data Ferret through the Washington Public Records Act, King County's Harborview Medical Center - which is managed by the UW Medicine unit - last June 30 fired a recreati... Read more
February 28, 2012
Kenneth Wayne Sandholm, 55, of Maple Valley is scheduled to be sentenced this coming Friday by King County Superior Court Judge Michael Heavey for up to five years in prison on a felony conviction earlier this month for Driving Under the Influence. S... Read more
February 24, 2012
An ethically dicey work-around to help University of Washington School of Social Work master's degree students maintain eligibility for financial aid and tuition waivers led to the forced resignation of an assistant dean named William G. "Gary" Olso... Read more
February 21, 2012
A "show your work" bill which earlier this month cleared the Washington State House of Representatives by a 97-0 vote and is now under consideration in the Senate's Government Operations Committee would require Washington's departments of ecology, an... Read more
February 17, 2012
Yesterday as the first stage of its $995 million purchase by Tokyo-based Fujifilm was successfully completed, Sonosite, Inc. of Bothell, Wash. was awarded a third-year contract extension worth up to $46,303,658 to supply the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Forc... Read more
February 15, 2012
A new study from University of Washington and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center experts in Seattle finds that the overall costs of detecting and treating lung cancer among heavy smokers through a potentially promising process involving screening... Read more
February 13, 2012
Imagine if instead of emailing or calling your U.S. Congressman or Senator with concerns about pending legislation, you could re-draft a portion of the bill text online, or endorse the revisions of another reader, knowing you'd be heard by decision-m... Read more
February 10, 2012
Without a major shift in government policy such as extension of expiring renewable energy subsidies, or a carbon tax, coal will continue to be the predominant source for generating electricity used in the United States in 2035. This is according to t... Read more
February 09, 2012
The meeting this afternoon of the Seattle Community College District Board of Trustees will be preceded by a study session in which officials will begin to publicly mull a request from the teachers union to adopt a socially-responsible purchasing pol... Read more
February 09, 2012
A former employee of the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services who worked as a nursing aide in a Shoreline, Wash. DSHS-staffed home for developmentally delayed adults and who admitted in a detailed confession to committing repeat... Read more
February 06, 2012
Fueled by a parade of proponents who testified at a public hearing in Olympia Friday, legislation is beginning to work its way toward a possible vote on the floor of the Washington State Senate that urges President Barack Obama and the Congress to g... Read more
February 02, 2012
Sponsored by a bipartisan group of lawmakers from Federal Way, Mercer Island, Lynnwood, Spokane and Wenatchee, a bill heard in the Washington House Transportation Committee Wednesday Feb. 1 if passed into law could help revolutionize transportation f... Read more
February 01, 2012
As Washington state lawmakers grapple with either raising taxes or trimming $1.5 billion from the 2011-13 state budget because revenue projections have failed to keep pace with planned spending increases, a new report issued Jan. 31 by the state depa... Read more
January 30, 2012
A series of construction and expansion projects continue to unfold in the new year in the King County (Wash.) Library System, following voter approval in 2004 of a $172 million bond issue. Courtesy of the library system's staff we are happy to presen... Read more
January 27, 2012
A recently released report from a special task force convened by Washington Governor Chris Gregoire says Washington state should settle for no less than $21 billion of a needed $50 billion in surface transportation spending over the next decade to pr... Read more
January 25, 2012
According to a new federally-funded study by University of Washington researchers, cautionary guidelines developed by Washington state agencies on physician-prescribed painkilling opiates for patients suffering from chronic pain preliminarily appear ... Read more
January 24, 2012
Shoreline plans to roll out an online survey of residents in the first quarter of 2012 to help officials decide if it should join a growing group of Washington jurisdictions which ban use of tobacco products in their parks and sometimes other outdoor... Read more
January 22, 2012
The chairman of the City of Auburn's Municipal Services Committee, Bill Peloza, says he'll be asking some questions about the future of the town's traffic safety automated camera enforcement program called PhotoSafe when the panel meets Monday night.... Read more
January 20, 2012
Campus police at the University of Washington in Seattle say they are investigating "as a hate crime" the drawing of a swastika and the word "Jew" on the the door of a Jewish student who lives in the residential facility Haggett Hall. In a written re... Read more
January 18, 2012
As its share of ballots cast by mail has steadily increased, Washington state in 2010 reached a new high in national ranking of "voting-eligible population" voter turnout, a more precise measure of civic engagement than the traditional turnout report... Read more
January 16, 2012
A recently published federally-funded research study tracking more than 30,000 ex-prison inmates released in Washington state shows that among the cohort of 1.5 percent or 443 that died within an almost two-year medical surveillance period, one-sixth... Read more
January 13, 2012
Following at least five other documented cases of ethical or major administrative missteps in the last 10 months and two more being investigated, the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services is in the spotlight again, for possible em... Read more
January 11, 2012
Since a Washington State Supreme Court ruling in 2008, King County Jail authorities have been able to continue legally recording phone calls made by detainees. County prosecutors say calls by those charged with domestic violence especially can yield ... Read more
January 11, 2012
Washington state ranks second among 50 states behind only Vermont in the low-carbon intensity of its energy supply, according to a report issued Monday by a branch of the U.S. Department of Energy. Washington is also just outside the lowest tenth of ... Read more
January 10, 2012
Twenty percent of students enrolled in transitional bilingual education programs in Washington state K-12 public schools in 2010-2011 who took a key English language proficiency test passed it. Four-fifths didn't. Those who passed were then able to t... Read more
January 06, 2012
Because trees help absorb greenhouse gases, forest preservation plays an important role in controlling climate change. When forests are destroyed or degraded that harms our ability to control climate change. The problem is primarily concentrated in t... Read more
January 05, 2012
A study summary presented yesterday to the Washington State Legislature's Joint Transportation Committee says money from profit-motivated private companies could be a way to deliver better value to taxpayers on construction and management of some tol... Read more
January 04, 2012
Close to six of ten graduates of public high schools in Washington state who go on to community and technical colleges here have to take remedial, non-credit courses to be ready for their new college coursework, according to a report from the Washing... Read more
January 03, 2012
The Mercer Island High School marching band delivered a high-energy performance at the 123rd annual Rose Parade 952 miles from home Monday in Pasadena, capping a highly anticipated five-day trip of music and sightseeing. Several band members share th... Read more
December 30, 2011
The city of Auburn, Wash. sits 28 miles south of Seattle astride major highways, riven with burger joints, casinos, and the exhaust fumes of sixteen-wheel rigs. Yet here too in the long shadow of Tahoma are rushing rivers, broad pastures of livestock... Read more
December 28, 2011
For the second time since November, the MS Ryndam luxury cruise ship operated out of Tampa by Seattle-based Holland America Line has suffered an outbreak of gastrointestinal illness marked by vomiting and diarrhea, according to a report published by ... Read more
December 27, 2011
A final report published this month by a team of 17 Seattle, King County and U.S. government researchers in an open-access peer-reviewed science journal adds to evidence that metal filings from brake pads mixed into storm water run-off, and hydrocarb... Read more
December 20, 2011
You can easily compare state achievement test score results between school districts and between schools within a district, using the University of Washington-Bothell's Washington Achievement Data Explorer (WADE) tool online. It was developed and is ... Read more
December 19, 2011
A state appeals court last week threw out the conviction of Akbar Mhea in Seattle Municipal Court and King County Superior Court for stalking 87-year-old Vera Galbreath of Seattle on an Aurora Avenue bus late at night and after both debarked at 80th ... Read more
December 16, 2011
A $50 million Foreign Military Sales contract announced this week by the U.S. Department of Defense will bring to at least $277,292,000 the maximum value of U.S. government spending with the Seattle-based defense unit of Boeing Co. and subcontractor... Read more
December 16, 2011
For more than two years year after he began repeatedly sexually abusing a developmentally disabled woman he cared for as a nursing aide in a state-run assisted living facility in Shoreline - and for three months after public release of a Washington S... Read more
December 14, 2011
Seven percent of U.S. households were victimized by identity theft in 2010 at a cost of $13.2 billion, according to a recent report from the Bureau of Justice Statistics. The percentage is a slight drop from 7.3 percent in 2009 but still considerably... Read more
December 13, 2011
Instead of just providing opaque aggregated data as at present, the U.S. Department of Agriculture should closely consider beefed-up public disclosure which names names and provides facility-specific outcomes of food safety inspections, sampling, tes... Read more
December 12, 2011
Starting this coming weekend of December 17 and 18 and through January 29, visitors can again witness one of the largest wintering populations of bald eagles in the lower 48 states descending upon the Skagit River’s supply of salmon. Providing assi... Read more
December 08, 2011
Physio-Control of Redmond, Wash. this week won an one-year extension worth roughly $10 million of a contract with the Philadelphia-based U.S. Defense Logistics Agency. It could extend another four years at a total value of up to $49 million. For at l... Read more
December 07, 2011
Attention, contractors with "messaging" skills: King County is seeking requests for qualifications from communications consultants to bid for up to and possibly more than $5.5 million per year in work. Duties include developing strategy, writing, edi... Read more
December 06, 2011
Despite a Washington state ban and tough federal enforcement against energy drinks containing alcohol, alcohol-free energy drinks with up to five times the caffeine blast of a cup of coffee pose growing public health concerns. According to a new stud... Read more
December 05, 2011
The Internal Revenue Service announced today that 2,087 Washington state taxpayers are due a total of $2.2 million in refunds for their 2010 federal taxes, which could not be delivered because of wrong mailing addresses. If you think you may be in th... Read more
December 05, 2011
It now appears that the state of Washington's struggle to narrow a $2 billion gap between planned expenditures and revenues in the 2011-13 budget could affect the timing of a major annexation vote in Renton. The Renton City Council is expected to dec... Read more
December 01, 2011
The U.S. Department of Defense has announced that Longview, Wash.-based Mallory Co. was awarded by the Troop Support division of the Defense Logistics Agency in Philadelphia a third year option on a contract to provide "tailored logistics support...f... Read more
November 30, 2011
Government agencies continue to voluntarily disclose online substantial portions of their work, including disciplinary and regulatory proceedings, as well as accountability and performance measures. But often the key links to those Web pages are scat... Read more
November 29, 2011
House Bill 2127 is the focus of the Washington State Legislature's special session which began Monday amidst noisy protests and the urgent strains of Barry McGuire's 1965 anti-war anthem, "Eve of Destruction" blaring loudly from a big tent on the Cap... Read more
November 27, 2011
Front and center in the Washington state legislature's special session starting Mon. Nov. 28 is revising the state budget to close a $2 billion gap between planned spending and anticipated revenue, perhaps setting the stage for a statewide voter refe... Read more
November 25, 2011
The Kojo Nnamdi Show on WAMU-FM at American University in Washington, D.C. recently featured an hour-long podcast about how governments are using emerging technology to engage stakeholders. Joining the host were: Bryan Sivak, Chief Innovation Officer... Read more
November 22, 2011
One hundred and forty-eight passengers and eleven crew members took ill with with vomiting or diarrhea, or infectious gastroenteritis, on a two-week voyage from Barcelona which ended November 20 in Tampa, on the ms Ryndam, a cruise ship of Seattle-ba... Read more
November 22, 2011
The Washington State Executive Ethics Board has finalized disciplinary sanctions in four cases involving employees of the state's Department of Health and Social Services who broke state law by conducting private business at work, or in one case, by ... Read more
November 16, 2011
The Seattle area is tied for first among 21 major U.S. metro regions in casual and unprotected anal intercourse between men who have sex with men, or MSM, and that is "the sexual behavior that carries the highest risk" among this group for HIV - the ... Read more
November 15, 2011
Washington state is outranked only by New Hampshire and Utah in percentage of households that are connected to the Internet, according to a new report from the U.S. Commerce Department titled, "Exploring The Digital Nation: Computer and Internet Use ... Read more
November 14, 2011
A community-driven and grant-funded effort to preserve a forest for recreation, conservation and environmental learning in the heart of suburban Puget Sound has received a big boost with the City of Bothell okaying a purchase from the Boy Scouts of A... Read more
November 11, 2011
Frustrated by years of continuing vandalism in the parks and natural areas it operates, King County has quietly announced it is seeking bids for surveillance cameras to watch over some of those facilities. Next Thursday November 17 is the revised dea... Read more
November 09, 2011
The troubled Seattle Indian Services Commission, already in the process of being stripped of ownership of its adjoining properties on 12th Ave. S. by the city in King County Superior Court, is now under fire in a newly-released state audit because fo... Read more
November 08, 2011
Sysco Seattle, Inc. of Kent, Wash. yesterday was awarded two contracts totaling up to $64.6 million from the Philadelphia-based U.S. Defense Logistics Agency to provide food service for U.S. military troops at an assortment of facilities in Washingto... Read more
November 07, 2011
According to a new U.S government report released in October, the "greening" of the nation's transportation sector has a long way to go. Total passenger miles traveled on public transit are about one-eightieth those traveled in private vehicles. Solo... Read more
November 03, 2011
In the four most recent years for which public data is available from the State of Washington, the state has paid $21,661,799.44 in costs related to car and light truck crashes involving state workers. That total includes: $7,537,186.85 in worker'... Read more
November 02, 2011
A performance audit released Tuesday says four large State of Washington agencies that were examined spent almost $10 million dollars last year for un-required bulk mailings. The report from Washington State Auditor Brian Sonntag's office stops short... Read more
November 01, 2011
From our special report for the Open Knowledge Foundation of Cambridge, U.K.: "....the big questions that need to guide any open government visioning at national scale...fell into two broad areas. 1) Political culture. Are political corruption and cr... Read more
October 31, 2011
A gun ban approved by Seattle for city parks and other city recreation facilities has been rejected again in court, this time by a three-judge state appeals court panel. The court was hearing an appeal of a earlier decision, reported by The Seattle T... Read more
October 28, 2011
Dental schools including that of the University of Washington should seriously consider banning free drug and product samples due to ethical, medical, consumer and educational considerations, says UW Professor of Dentistry Philippe Hujoel after compl... Read more
October 27, 2011
After a planned "pay as you drive" (PAYD) auto insurance pilot program using on-board devices to track mileage and facilitate rate discounts was announced with fanfare by King County in 2007, it quietly fizzled by mid-2011, as a related contract with... Read more
October 26, 2011
A prominent public employee labor union filed a request Monday with the State of Washington's Public Employment Relations Commision (PERC) to establish itself as the collective bargaining agent for 15 non-supervisory and non-clerical workers of the ... Read more
October 25, 2011
A financial audit on the city of Port Townsend released Monday by the office of Washington State Auditor Brian Sonntag warns elected officials and city staff that the municipality's finances are badly eroding. The city of 8,925 is a distinctive an... Read more
October 24, 2011
Almost 70 digital stories on healthy diet, obesity prevention and smoking prevention from Seattle and King County residents are mapped online at a new web site called Mapping Our Voices For Equality (MOVE). Featured are digital personal narratives on... Read more
October 21, 2011
Six-year graduation rates for freshman entering the University of Washington at the main campus in Seattle had been rising for the classes of 2000 through 2003 but slowed last year as the rate for the class of 2004 dropped slightly. Overall, UW is so... Read more
October 20, 2011
Five separate whistleblower investigation reports issued this week by Washington State Auditor Brian Sonntag find that employees at state agencies misused their workplace computers for personal purposes. According to the reports, they used their stat... Read more
October 19, 2011
The downtown Seattle marine engineering firm Guido Perla and Associates and Markey Machinery in Seattle's Georgetown neighborhood will share in a $74 million contract awarded last week by the U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command to Dakota Creek Industries ... Read more
October 12, 2011
Just published in the October issue of Social Science and Medicine, a new study of communities in Senegal and Gambia over three years led by University of Washington anthropologist Bettina Shell-Duncan finds that the controversial practice of female ... Read more
October 11, 2011
Chelan County Deputy Prosecutor Doug Shae said today a pre-trial settlement involving full restitution is likely in the case of a Douglas County Public Utility District employee whoaccording to a fraud investigation report released last week by the W... Read more
October 10, 2011
Puyallup Tribe police officers acted properly and under the protection of tribal sovereign immunity when in May, 2007 they subdued with a stun gun an erratically-behaving intruder named Jeffry Young at a tribal drug treatment center who then in their... Read more
October 07, 2011
A new study by researchers from Public Health Seattle and King County, the University of Washington and Seattle Children's Research Institute, just published in the October issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, finds that mandatory la... Read more
October 06, 2011
Four U.S. military contracts with companies based in Washington state have been announced so far this week by the Department of Defense. Three of the firms are in Central Puget Sound, in Bellevue, Issaquah and Bothell, and another is in Richland. The... Read more
September 29, 2011
Only last month, after 12 years and a $3 million public-private fundraising effort, the George Corkery Family Boating Center re-opened at the City of Seattle's Mount Baker Rowing and Sailing Center at Stan Sayres Memorial Park along Lake Washington B... Read more
September 27, 2011
After holding a public hearing on the controversial topic of regional tolling, The City of Renton last night approved a resolution opposing Initiative 1125, which would restrict highway tolling. Washington voters will decide it in November. Renton, a... Read more
September 27, 2011
On the heels of a mid-July state report that a University of Washington professor took a contract fee from a state agency for work he never delivered, and following another 2011 case which sparked a criminal prosecution against an alleged embezzler i... Read more
September 26, 2011
SUMMARY: A public development authority formed by the City of Seattle in 1972 called the Seattle Indian Services Commission, which has been the subject of several critical city and state audits in recent years, now appears unable to continue to servi... Read more
September 22, 2011
When Tommy Lamoth lost her job in 2009, she didn't envision a job hunt that would include eight months of collecting unemployment benefits, ping-ponging between temp jobs across Seattle, and still being unable to find work in her field after a ye... Read more
September 21, 2011
SUMMARY: Working with U.S. and African colleagues, researchers from the University of Washington's Institute For Health Metrics and Evaluation, in Seattle, integrated data from several dozen qualifiying health surveys in malaria-prone Sub-Saharan Afr... Read more
September 19, 2011
The Mercer Island City Council Monday night will consider whether to approve the drafting of an ordinance that could levy civil fines on adults responsible for premises where underage alcohol consumption has occurred, even if the drinking occurred wi... Read more
September 16, 2011
With his signature on a state health department disciplinary document, a former nursing assistant at a group home operated in Shoreline by the Washington Department of Social and Health Services admitted he sexually abused a developmentally-delayed 5... Read more
September 13, 2011
SUMMARY: U.S. adults made only slight progress quitting smoking between 2005 and 2010, and are not on track to meet the nation's formal 2020 goal of only 12 percent of adults smoking, according to a new report released by the U.S. Centers For Disease... Read more
September 12, 2011
SUMMARY: According to a report by the U.S. Department of the Interior's Inspector General, a voluntary climate change initiative of the U.S. National Park Service called Climate Friendly Parks is mainly window dressing because it has no consistent ac... Read more
September 08, 2011
SUMMARY: Attorneys for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed a legal complaint today in U.S. District Court in Seattle against Richard A. Finger, 32, of Bellevue, Wash. for defrauding investors in the Kirkland, Wash. securities trading fi... Read more
September 07, 2011
SUMMARY: In a report to be presented Sept. 8 to a Seattle City Council committee, Seattle Police say they haven't begun to test four body-mounted cameras on police officers as directed but that the SPD training unit has done preliminary testing of on... Read more
August 31, 2011
SUMMARY: Collisions between vehicles and animals exact a large toll in injury and property damage every year in the U.S. and also have a significant impact in Washington state. A new study led by the director of a transportation research laboratory a... Read more
August 29, 2011
SUMMARY: Echoing criminal charges already filed in King County Superior Court, a fraud investigation report issued today by the office of Washington State Auditor Brian Sontag and addressed to new UW President Michael Young says a former manager at t... Read more
August 25, 2011
OVERVIEW: Last year the Puget Sound Regional Council issued a landmark report titled Transportation 2040 which found that baseline surface transportation needs in the four counties in and around Seattle would require $64 billion more in toll, tax and... Read more
August 24, 2011
SUMMARY: Doctors are seeing a growing percentage of elderly hospitalized patients, who often have special and potentially costly needs. The risks to elderly patients from hospitalization and related procedures are significant: surgical complications,... Read more
August 22, 2011
SUMMARY: China’s rising inflation and labor costs will have little effect in increasing American prices because, despite perceptions to the contrary, China has a small share of the U.S. consumer market, according to a recently-released economic rep... Read more
August 19, 2011
According to information obtained by Public Data Ferret from the Seattle Police Department's Office of Professional Accountability, OPA in 2010 completed 77 investigations into use of force complaints against SPD personnel, including 120 related alle... Read more
August 17, 2011
Only 20 percent of Washington state Class of 2011 graduating high school seniors took the ACT test of college and career readiness, less than half the suggested threshold of 40 percent for state-by-state comparison purposes. Nonetheless, the results ... Read more
August 16, 2011
According to a new study from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences polluted air from diesel and gasoline combustion and paved road dust increases the likelihood of low birth weight among infants by as much as five percent for ever... Read more
August 15, 2011
SUMMARY: With plans unfolding for electronic tolling of highways in the Seattle region, the state of Washington commissioned a study of whether it is fair to low-income households. The report by a professor at the University of Washington's Evans Sch... Read more
August 09, 2011
A woman named Dana Blyzes who state officials say resided in Bothell and was employed as a counselor at Sunrise Community Mental Health in Everett has surrendered her license as a registered "agency affiliated counselor" for at least three years aft... Read more
August 05, 2011
The “Donut Hole” is up for sale. And if King County sells it, the City of Maple Valley could become 156.5 acres larger by the end of the year and gain housing and jobs. It is a somewhat tricky proposition, though. If King County can succe... Read more
August 04, 2011
SUMMARY: Incorporating high-performing charter schools in public school districts can help overcome the achievement gap between minority and white students, according to a paper released by the University of Washington's Center On Reinventing Publi... Read more
August 03, 2011
SUMMARY: Mukilteo-based high-grade flashlight maker NexTorch and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission today announced the recall of about 16,000 Chinese-made NexTorch NT123A lithium batteries for flashlights, which can rupture and catch fire, ... Read more
August 03, 2011
SUMMARY: In recent testimony to a U.S. House subcommittee, officials of the Government Accountability Office reported that improper payments in 2010 for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Medicare program totaled at least $48 billion, ... Read more
August 02, 2011
SUMMARY: The Washington Supreme Court late last week confirmed a man convicted of stalking in Bothell will get a new trial because he didn't get a fair hearing of his peers. The justices ruled that under the state constitution, the city court erred... Read more
July 26, 2011
SUMMARY: According to a recent report prepared for the United States Environmental Protection Agency under the supervision of the Institutes of Medicine of the National Academies, the use of new, energy-efficient building materials or construction me... Read more
July 25, 2011
The U.S. Department of Defense announced recently that Puyallup, Wash. company Absher Construction has won a $35,275,888 contract from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Honolulu, to build an enlisted personnel housing facility at the U.S. Army's Scho... Read more
July 22, 2011
SUMMARY: The head of the U.S. Government Accountability Office's division of Natural Resources and Environment, David Trimble recently testified to a senate committee that the Environmental Protection Agency continues to fail scientifically and proce... Read more
July 22, 2011
SUMMARY: Cascade Natural Gas Corp. has agreed to pay a $425,000 fine for breaking a number of state and federal gas safety laws and under the proposed settlement announced last week with the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission, is subj... Read more
July 21, 2011
SUMMARY: A new study by University of Washington researchers of students at UW and the University of Wisconsin finds that Internet addiction among college students may be as common as asthma among children. The study found that 4 in every 100 college... Read more
July 20, 2011
SUMMARY: According to a recent Centers for Disease Control (CDC) report, the cholera outbreak in Haiti in October 2010 was caused by contaminated river water downstream from a United Nations military camp for Nepalese soldiers. The study was conducte... Read more
July 19, 2011
SUMMARY: A whistleblower report investigation by the Washington State Auditor's Office found that the State Department of Social and Health Services paid the University of Washington more than $24,000 for contracted work never performed, to develop r... Read more
July 18, 2011
SUMMARY: A Public Data Ferret interactive mapped data project below shows the full country-by-country assessments in the U.S. Department of State's recently-released 2011 Trafficking in Persons Report. Of 184 counties evaluated in the report, the Sta... Read more
July 18, 2011
SUMMARY: The city of Enumclaw passed an ordinance last week to accept a $300,000 state grant that completes a public-private funding package for a $900,000 project at the Enumclaw Expo Center complex, where a poorly-draining and deteriorated natural ... Read more
July 14, 2011
SUMMARY: The United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's Seattle Field Office has charged Fred Meyer Stores, Inc., with failing to address blatant sexual harassment of female employees by a customer at one of its stores in a Portland subu... Read more
July 13, 2011
SUMMARY: The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has found a Kent School District teacher to be not responsible for one developmentally disabled student’s sexual misconduct during the school day. Madhuri Patel, the mother of a developmentally disa... Read more
July 13, 2011
SUMMARY: Yakima-based practitioner Gary Martinkus was found by the Washington State Department of Health's Board of Optometry to be unfit to practice and to be posing a risk to patients after he involved them and office staff in buying money orders o... Read more
July 12, 2011
SUMMARY: In a ruling last week involving license revocation of a former Burien, Wash. in-home childcare provider whose son and management were thought to pose a risk to children, the Washington Supreme Court found that the burden of proof is lower th... Read more
July 11, 2011
SUMMARY: The downtown Seattle firm Makers Architecture and Urban Design has won a $15 million contract from the San Diego-based Naval Facilities Engineering Command Southwest to provide "project planning documents, plans, studies, geo-spatial informa... Read more
July 10, 2011
SUMMARY: The U.S. State Department's report last week on global human trafficking includes portraits of "special cases" Cote d’Ivoire, Haiti, and Somalia - impoverished nations on the verge of lawlessness, without government infrastructure to effe... Read more
July 07, 2011
SUMMARY: The benefits of Washington state's push for environmentally friendlier public buildings remain unclear, according to a legislative report. The Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee's High Performance Public Buildings report reveale... Read more
July 06, 2011
SUMMARY: According to a recent Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee preliminary report, the State of Washington spent $399 million in so-called tort claim payouts related to alleged governmental negligence between 2004 and 2010. Three state a... Read more
July 01, 2011
The Culver City-based apparel firm Topson Downs and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission have announced a recall of about 2,100 "Mint Chili Combo" dresses sold at the Impulse Department of Macy's department stores nationwide and on macys.com d... Read more
July 01, 2011
SUMMARY: A recent City of Seattle Auditor’s report found that over a four-year period, from 2007 to 2010, the City of Seattle spent nearly $30 million to settle lawsuits filed against it. This accounts for 39 percent of the total $74,767,406 spent ... Read more
June 29, 2011
SUMMARY: The Shoreline, Wash. City Council this week approved a mini-grant of $3,942 to the Richmond Highlands Neighborhood Association for a community art project and public event at Sunset School Park. The school has been closed since 2007 and has ... Read more
June 28, 2011
SUMMARY:The Washington State Court of Appeals yesterday rescinded an April 2010 King County Superior Court ruling that dismissed a gay discrimination case against the University of Washington and a former supervisor. Debra Loeffelholz alleges UW an... Read more
June 27, 2011
SUMMARY: According to a June 2011 United States Government Accountability Office report, nearly 75 percent of all U.S. government aid contracts to non-U.S. organizations in Afghanistan were not evaluated to determine possible criminal affiliations pr... Read more
June 22, 2011
The U.S. Department of Defense announced this week that the Eagan, Minn. unit of defense contractor Lockheed Martin has won a contract worth up to $758 million to retrofit Navy submarines with new combat and sonar components. According to the DoD ann... Read more
June 22, 2011
SUMMARY: A June 15 U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) report found that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has no clearly defined goals for implementing its proposed Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen). NextGen relies la... Read more
June 20, 2011
SUMMARY: Newly revised findings from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) suggest that two new substances, formaldehyde and a botanical known as aristolochic acid, are cancer-causing human carcinogens. The findings, released in the ... Read more
June 16, 2011
SUMMARY: The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Inspector General recently released a report revealing that some senior patients in nursing homes are being overmedicated with atypical, or tranquilizing, antipsychotic drugs administered outs... Read more
June 14, 2011
SUMMARY: In testimony yesterday to a U.S. House subcommittee, the Government Accountability Office said the Department of Energy is sitting on assets currently worth $4.2 billion in the form of depleted uranium "tails" that could be sold to nuclear p... Read more
June 10, 2011
SUMMARY: The Nursing Care Quality Assurance Commission of the Washington state Department of Health has charged registered nurse Deborah M. Asrari with unprofessional conduct for allegedly appropriating the prescription opiate hydomorphone for her un... Read more
June 09, 2011
SUMMARY: A new report from the Federal Communications Commission warns of an overall national deficit in professional local news reporting focused on government accountability. In response, the report recommends a number of strategies. These include ... Read more
June 06, 2011
SUMMARY: The U.S. Department of Defense has announced a $375 million contract with a Russian state export firm to purchase 21 new Russian-made Mi-17 military transport helicopters for the Afghan air force, plus spare parts and engineering services. A... Read more
June 01, 2011
SUMMARY: A recently released U.S. government assessment found that as in the last federal review, dated 2003, Washington state is still failing to meet baseline standards in seven of seven key outcome areas for its child and family services - centere... Read more
May 27, 2011
SUMMARY: Insitu, Inc. of Bingen, Wash. yesterday won an $83.7 million contract to provide operations and maintenance support for the U.S. military's ScanEagle unmanned aerial surveillance systems used by the Navy and Marines to support troops in Ira... Read more
May 26, 2011
SUMMARY: Seven years after the problem was highlighted in a government report, a 2011 follow-up investigation reveals that despite a nearly 50 percent increase in funding, understaffing remains a problem at detention facilities in Indian Country beca... Read more
May 25, 2011
SUMMARY: A U.S. government agency yesterday issued a warning to purchasers of about 22,000 Chinese-made Dram On Me brand drop-side and portable drop-side cribs sold nationwide at major U.S. retailers and online. Consumers should stop using the produc... Read more
May 24, 2011
SUMMARY: The Gig Harbor City Council last night approved an ordinance making it a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $1,000 and up to 90 days in jail for panhandlers to solicit drivers on public roadways. City officials believe there's a safet... Read more
May 23, 2011
SUMMARY: Numerous Washington state companies other than Boeing continue to win sizable U.S. defense contracts, which can be tracked through a Department of Defense Web page which is updated Monday through Friday, and a related database of announcemen... Read more
May 17, 2011
SUMMARY: A Seattle woman and her fiance last week pled guilty to federal charges in a scheme involving theft of Medicare client information from a Seattle eye clinic where she worked as a billing technician, and to the forging and submitting of fraud... Read more
May 16, 2011
SUMMARY: After selling or otherwise disposing of 159 excess properties for $159 million between 1998 and August 2008, the City of Seattle has sold none since then although it has some 212 "property management areas" declared as excess and worth rough... Read more
May 12, 2011
SUMMARY: According to a recently-issued recall notice from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, any purchasers of one of an estimated 300 hand-knit, hooded wool sweaters with drawstrings made in Ecuador and sold at the El Gringo Imports stall... Read more
May 11, 2011
SUMMARY: A Washington state appeals court in Tacoma today overturned the five-year license suspension meted out in 2009 by a state oversight board to professional engineer Dennis E. Ritter, the former Public Works Director of Lacey, Wash., who was co... Read more
May 10, 2011
SUMMARY: According to a performance audit released last week, Washington state's Department of Labor and Industries through 2010 paid an overly generous reimbursement rate to pharmacists for prescriptions of generic drugs to injured workers covered u... Read more
May 03, 2011
SUMMARY: A new annual report shows the City of Seattle owns 212 excess properties or groups of properties with a combined assessed value of $80.9 million. Officials stress that appraisals would be needed to better calculate market values. Twenty-two ... Read more
April 29, 2011
SUMMARY: The Washington state Office of the Insurance Commissioner has published an online consumer guide to appealing denied health insurance claims. It includes sections on how to correctly launch your appeal, traits of successful and unsuccessful ... Read more
April 28, 2011
SUMMARY: Sound Transit has agreed to a pay a $15,000 civil penalty - with half the amount conditionally suspended - for violating state law requiring timely filing of lobbying expenses. The penalty stems from 21 quarterly reports from Sound Transit t... Read more
April 27, 2011
SUMMARY: The Washington state Department of Health last week announced it had filed charges of unprofessional conduct against registered nursing assistant Janice. N. Lorenzana, who allegedly abandoned an elderly patient for whom she was supposed to b... Read more
April 26, 2011
SUMMARY: A registered nurse working in the emergency department at St. Francis Hospital in Federal Way, Wash. has had his license suspended and has been charged in King County Superior Court with second-degree rape of a patient seeking treatment for ... Read more
April 25, 2011
SUMMARY: According to a newly-released state performance audit, Washington could save between $5 million and $13.6 million per year by eliminating duplication in printing operations, controlling costs of printing equipment and supplies, using electro... Read more
April 25, 2011
SUMMARY: The Mercer Island City Council tonight will consider a proposal to change the name of the city's Community Center at Mercer View to the Mercer Island Community and Event Center. A consultant hired by the city recommends the change, to make m... Read more
April 21, 2011
SUMMARY: The Community Services Department of Renton has recommended the City Council approve nearly $50,000 in matching neighborhood grants for six projects sponsored by homeowners associations. The projects would make home addresses more visible to... Read more
April 19, 2011
SUMMARY: A U.S. appeals court has ruled against a Washington state inmate who alleged his right to religious freedom was violated when a Jewish religious services contractor for the State of Washington denied his request for a Torah, Jewish calendar ... Read more
April 15, 2011
SUMMARY: State documents released today show that a merchant in the Pierce County, Washington city of Lakewood admitted to cheating the state out of at least $92,543 in sales taxes at his cigarettes and beer store. Seeking leniency after being caught... Read more
April 15, 2011
SUMMARY: A recently released report by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Wash. posits that Seattle and Western Washington partners in the battle against human trafficking would be well-suited to demonstrate new methods of informa... Read more
April 12, 2011
SUMMARY: Assuming that new technical and business strategies can be successfully adopted to accelerate transition to electric and hybrid electric vehicles, the potential long-term savings to consumers could be substantial. The National Renewable Ene... Read more
April 11, 2011
SUMMARY: The City Council of Sammamish April 12 will consider a proposed resolution to write off $113,309.55 in bad debts from approximately 30 developers who prior to 2010 didn't pay service fees owed to the city. For these accounts, reminder letter... Read more
April 06, 2011
SUMMARY: A new report by a prominent U.S. military medical official, published in an Air Force policy journal, faults the Department of Defense for failing to sufficiently protect the health of U.S. military forces with vaccines for common naturally ... Read more
April 04, 2011
SUMMARY: The state department of health released case information last week on Joseph B. Barsana, who worked as a registered nursing assistant/medication technician at a West Seattle assisted living facility, and has failed to contest a citation of u... Read more
April 01, 2011
SUMMARY: Washington State Attorney General Rob McKenna today filed suit against a Seattle man and two companies he owns on Mercer Island and in Bellevue, charging that they violated the state's Consumer Protection Act by marketing stethoscopes and ot... Read more
March 31, 2011
SUMMARY: In response to a recently issued federal audit, Washington state's Department of Social and Health Services will pay Medicaid back $8.4 million for improper reimbursement it claimed and received for family planning services and products. The... Read more
March 30, 2011
SUMMARY: Washington state legislation providing annual bonuses for each K-12 public school teacher that becomes nationally board certified, plus another annual bonus for each year they teach in "challenging" schools is increasing the number of those ... Read more
March 29, 2011
SUMMARY: Contrary to mandates and guidelines meant to ensure competition in government construction contracting, the U.S. General Services Administration set aside the lead contractor's proposed guaranteed maximum price of $59.9 million for construct... Read more
March 25, 2011
SUMMARY: Writing for a publication of the U.S. Justice Department, the Chief of Police of Lincoln, Neb. warns that modern mapping and data analysis techniques which let police pinpoint likely crime hot spots and perpetrators should not be used as a p... Read more
March 23, 2011
SUMMARY: The White Horse Bar and Grill in Tukwila, Wash. is facing possible suspension or revocation of its two state gambling licenses. The state charges that the establishment has failed to pay more than $200,000 to the City of Tukwila in local gam... Read more
March 22, 2011
SUMMARY: Puyallup's city-run library has suffered deep cuts and can't keep up with customer service demands so the city is being urged by local library officials to examine contracting with or annexing to the larger, regional Pierce County Library Sy... Read more
March 17, 2011
SUMMARY: A state appeals court this week rejected an attempt by the City of Auburn to reverse a King County Superior Court ruling which threw out convictions in Auburn Municipal Court against Dustin B. Gauntt, a driver stopped and cited by local poli... Read more
March 16, 2011
SUMMARY: Washington's Office of the Insurance Commissioner has fined a Philadelphia insurance company $50,000 for enacting unauthorized annual rate hikes of up to 12 percent in student accident and sickness plans and failing to include policy numbers... Read more
March 15, 2011
SUMMARY: Early detection of the HIV-1 virus in infants in Africa is a pressing global health concern but current testing tools are too expensive. A team of researchers from the University of Washington and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Se... Read more
March 14, 2011
SUMMARY: In a public presentation and official blog post last week, U.S. Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas W. Elmendorf warned of rising U.S. public debt. It hit $9 trillion or 62 percent of Gross Domestic Product at year-end 2010, and is ... Read more
March 10, 2011
SUMMARY: The Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission has posted a draft advisory opinion that if ultimately adopted in its current form would encourage City elected officials to continue using blogs, Facebook, Twitter and other social media without w... Read more
March 08, 2011
SUMMARY: The state of Washington last week announced it has indefinitely suspended the license of a registered nursing assistant working in the emergency department of Evergreen Hospital in Kirkland after he was reported for apparent intoxication and... Read more
March 07, 2011
SUMMARY: According to a report recently published in a journal of the U.S. Centers For Disease Control, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders in King County, Wash. have significantly higher rates of maternal obesity, smoking during pregnancy, adolesc... Read more
March 04, 2011
SUMMARY: Due to a combination of frequent turnover in the position of city clerk, and the introduction of new billing software which decreased city oversight of utility account classification changes and resulting billing rates, the City of Soap Lake... Read more
March 03, 2011
SUMMARY: In testimony to a U.S. House subcommittee yesterday, U.S. Government Accountability Office Director of Health Care Kathleen King said the Medicare program is at risk of failure because of waste, mismanagement, and increased demand for servic... Read more
March 01, 2011
SUMMARY: A Seattle City Council staff report ups the ante on the low-end estimates in a January, 2011 analysis from the administration of Mayor Mike McGinn on the annual and one-time net costs to the city of annexing the 3.55 square mile North Highli... Read more
February 28, 2011
SUMMARY: A recently-issued audit by the Inspector General's office of the United States Postal Service finds that in the Seattle District, covering Washington and Idaho, mail volume has dropped 22 percent in the last five years and more than 800,000 ... Read more
February 25, 2011
SUMMARY: The Washington State Supreme Court has reversed a state appeals court which last year threw out a conviction against Arthur C. Russell, convicted in trial court in August, 2008 for first degree rape of a child, a stepdaughter, when the famil... Read more
February 24, 2011
SUMMARY: Dangerous chemicals are being or could be released from Boeing's Renton Plant into the soil and groundwater, potentially affecting water quality in Lake Washington and the Cedar River and posing "ä threat and/or potential threat to human he... Read more
February 24, 2011
WHO, WHAT, WHY: The Washington Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council was created by the legislature in 1970 to consolidate state agency reviews of proposals for new or expanded energy facilities, needed for deciding whether or not they will get of... Read more
February 23, 2011
SUMMARY: The final report was recently issued in a four-year study by University of Washington education scholars on charter schools in the U.S. It finds charters typically provide a strong emphasis on college preparation and high academic expectatio... Read more
February 22, 2011
SUMMARY: King County, Wash. provides an online jobs data bank and an online job application tool for its open positions. At this writing, the county is accepting applications for 41 different jobs, ranging in pay from $18.37 to $23.28 per hour for an... Read more
February 17, 2011
SUMMARY: A consultant team's study for the City of Woodinville reports that the cost of redeveloping the city's Old Woodinville Schoolhouse property, which dates to 1909 and served as city hall from 1993 to 2001, would range from $4 million to $5.5 m... Read more
February 15, 2011
SUMMARY: The first annual report on the City of Seattle's nuisance property ordinance and its enforcement program will be presented by the police and law departments to a city council committee tomorrow. Although a formal nuisance declaration can com... Read more
February 14, 2011
SUMMARY: Under a proposed Consent Agreement and Final Order, the City of Toppenish, Wash. would pay the U.S. Treasury $134,500 to settle civil penalties for allegations by the U.S. Environment Protection Agency that outflows of ammonia, copper and zi... Read more
February 14, 2011
SUMMARY: Forty-nine million U.S. residents live in federally-designated dental Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSAs), typically rural or low-income areas where care is often provided through public health insurance programs such as Medicaid. One... Read more
February 10, 2011
SUMMARY: A state performance audit found Washington could save up to $180 million for every two-year budget cycle - enough to pay for 1,000 more teachers and their benefits - if the state implements major organizational reforms in K-12 public school ... Read more
February 09, 2011
SUMMARY: In a newly-issued report the Office Of The Washington State Auditor Brian Sonntag has cited the French Slough Flood Control District In Snohomish County for violating state conflict-of-interest law and state law requiring competitive bidding... Read more
February 08, 2011
SUMMARY: The cost to the City of Kenmore, Wash. of contracting with the King County Sheriff's Office for police services has risen 28.2 percent from $2.28 million in 2006 to $2.9 million in 2010. The Sheriff's Kenmore precinct is being closed in a co... Read more
February 07, 2011
SUMMARY: Inspectors for the combined public health department serving King County and Seattle regularly conduct on-site assessments of food service establishments and their compliance with necessary food safety procedures. Results are online and sear... Read more
February 04, 2011
SUMMARY: Under a consent decree finalized this week in the U.S. District Court of Western Washington, U.S. Oil will pay a $230,000 fine split between the United States government and the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency, in response to a complaint allegi... Read more
February 03, 2011
SUMMARY: Under a proposed settlement agreement issued today, Avista Utilities would pay the state a penalty of $200,000 for rules violations in connection with a December, 2008 natural gas pipeline explosion and fire in Odessa, Wash. The proposed set... Read more
February 03, 2011
SUMMARY: The U.S. crude birth rate - live births per 1,000 women aged 15-44 - reached an historic low of 13.5 in 2009. The birth rate for all age groups decreased in 2009 except for women aged 40-44 years. The birth rate for U.S. teenagers fell to hi... Read more
February 01, 2011
SUMMARY: A recently-published study by Seattle-based public health researchers of Seattle gay men who use meth and engage in high-risk sex found that compared to traditional intervention approaches such as referral to community resource providers, gi... Read more
January 31, 2011
SUMMARY: A then-staff physician specializing in obstetrics and gynecology at St. Joseph Medical Center in Bellingham, Wash. was herself a patient there in January, 2007 and suffered permanent neurological damage resulting from an intravenous infusion... Read more
January 28, 2011
SUMMARY: A U.S. government online compendium provides convenient access on a state-by-state basis to official Web pages of national wildlife refuges. The Web guide to these facilities may be used for day-trip and vacation planning, as background info... Read more
January 26, 2011
SUMMARY: The Washington Supreme Court has ruled that the State of Washington may not escape liability for a negligence claim stemming from injuries caused to a spouse riding as an unauthorized passenger, when a state vehicle driven on state business ... Read more
January 25, 2011
SUMMARY: Public health concerns about obesity have prompted requirements by some governments that restaurants, especially fast food chains, disclose calorie and other nutritional information at the point of purchase, to help compel healthier consumer... Read more
January 24, 2011
SUMMARY: The U.S. federal government's database of vehicle safety recalls shows that manufacturer reports to date in January, 2011 of needed recalls have included up to 4,400 Saab 9-3s made in the second half of 2010; up to 25,751 2011 GM light truck... Read more
January 19, 2011
SUMMARY: According to a new report from Washington state's Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI), the number of students enrolled in the Transitional Bilingual Instructional Program (TBIP) in grades K-12 in Washington public schoo... Read more
January 18, 2011
SUMMARY: The cities of Kirkland and Bellevue have approved an agreement outlining principles to guide the development of the South Kirkland Park and Ride into a regional transit, commercial and housing hub intended to boost transit usage and model th... Read more
January 17, 2011
SUMMARY: The 40-mile-plus Interstate 405/State Route 167 is already badly congested and will get worse as population grows over the next 20 years unless a planned $1.95 billion tolling and demand management mega-project is funded and completed. Even ... Read more
January 14, 2011
SUMMARY: A State of Washington performance audit found the Port of Seattle: failed to sufficiently report to the state, as required by law, 41 instances of pilferage valued at $107,000; failed to monitor actual usage of its cargo cranes and related l... Read more
January 11, 2011
SUMMARY: Ballistic testing by oversight personnel of the U.S. Army's Interceptor Body Armor vest components for five of six contracts, and quality surveillance procedures on four of the contracts, were not performed properly, according to an audit by... Read more
January 10, 2011
SUMMARY: In the nearly 70 years since it opened, management of potential environmental risks at and from the Ephrata landfill in Central Washington state has gradually improved. In recent years, public health authorities have been addressing the afte... Read more
January 06, 2011
SUMMARY: According to a report from the office of Washington State Auditor Brian Sonntag, The City of Ocean Shores has been engaging in poor financial practices, including over-budget spending in its general fund, spending down city cash reserves, de... Read more
January 04, 2011
SUMMARY: The Black Diamond City Council is poised to approve an agenda bill Jan. 6 granting final authorization to the mayor to sign a comprehensive school mitigation agreement between the city, the Enumclaw School District, and the developer of two ... Read more
December 15, 2010
SUMMARY: Under an ordinance just approved by the King County Council, King County Executive Dow Constantine will by May, 2011 prepare for council review and approval a plan identifying his proposed top five proposed new county government services to ... Read more
December 12, 2010
SUMMARY: An outside evaluation required by the state legislature finds that a merger between the Washington state Board of Accountancy and the state Department of Licensing would yield no appreciable savings and would likely increase the time require... Read more
December 11, 2010
SUMMARY: In its 2009 annul report, the U.S. Mint included a chart showing the costs from 2007 through 2009 of manufacturing and initial distribution of its different coin denominations. It costs more than half-again as much to make and produce a penn... Read more
December 06, 2010
SUMMARY: Through Dec. 3, 2010 the Washington State Board of Accountancy has issued 13 suspensions or temporary "stays" of licenses or professional certificates for accountants or CPAs this year, for reasons including criminal convictions, failure to ... Read more
December 04, 2010
SUMMARY: U.S. Department of Justice "offender reentry" grant programs meant to help released prisoners reintegrate with society and avoid future criminal convictions were not properly designed and implemented because they don't include any substantiv... Read more
November 30, 2010
SUMMARY: Following city council approval last night of an authorization request, the Lynnwood parks and recreation department will be interviewing candidates in December and January for a wide range of positions to be filled at its newly renovated an... Read more
November 27, 2010
SUMMARY: The Edmonds City Council at its Nov. 1 meeting approved an ordinance establishing a permitting process and health, sanitation, zoning and legal requirements for temporary homeless encampments within the city. The ordinance states that a hear... Read more
November 24, 2010
SUMMARY: City staff is recommending Lakewood dispense $394,330 in hotel lodging tax grants to 13 recipients. The largest would be the annual $101,850 grant (to be given for 20 years) for construction of the Sharon McGavick Student/Conference Center a... Read more
November 22, 2010
SUMMARY: Inspectors for the combined public health department serving King County and Seattle regularly conduct on-site assessments of food service establishments and their compliance with necessary food safety procedures. Results are online and sear... Read more
November 16, 2010
SUMMARY: An indoor arena in Wenatchee, Wash. owned by an intergovernmental agency is unable to generate sufficient revenues to cover its combined operating expenses and debt service obligations, and the agency needs to devise a new plan to make the f... Read more
November 16, 2010
SUMMARY: The Redmond, Wash. City Council on Nov. 16, 2010 was scheduled to vote on adoption of its 2011 state legislative agenda. The agenda emphasizes funding for transportation and other infrastructure projects, and continued efforts to manage regi... Read more
November 15, 2010
SUMMARY: In a July, 2010 report the U.S. Department of Energy's Idaho National Laboratory advanced a five point strategy for the country to meet ambitious greenhouse gas reduction goals in a way that best serves U.S. economic and security objectives.... Read more
November 01, 2010
SUMMARY: An annual report issued in October by the U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) identifies serious shortcomings in observance of human rights and the rule of law in China in 2010. The U.S. monitors conditions there in accor... Read more
October 25, 2010
SUMMARY: The continuing proliferation of electronic communications is having an effect on volume of traditional mail delivered by the U.S. Postal Service. A new report prepared for the Postal Service's Inspector General's Office by researchers at the... Read more
October 19, 2010
SUMMARY: A proposed east-west spur commuter rail line in Southeast King County - connecting with the main north-south commuter rail line operated by Sound Transit, and with Amtrak Cascades service - would run every 33 minutes, and carry 1,140 daily p... Read more
October 07, 2010
OVERVIEW: Paid public parking is a scarce commodity and as a result, parking time limits and other parking regulations are usually strictly enforced by cities. On June 15th of this year the city council of Kent, Washington increased the penalty asses... Read more
October 03, 2010
BACKGROUND: The Washington State Commission On Judicial Conduct investigates allegations of impropriety by judges in local, county and state court systems. It issues disciplinary rulings in each case, ranging from dismissal to "admonishment" or "repr... Read more
September 14, 2010
BACKGROUND: In 1972, Washington state voters approved Initiative 276 which established the Public Records Act, landmark open government legislation. The reforms included mechanisms for citizens to request and receive public records from all branches ... Read more
September 07, 2010
OVERVIEW: The Office of the Washington State Insurance Commissioner provides an online database for consumers to check on disciplinary and administrative actions taken against insurance providers. The commissioner's office also provides another datab... Read more
August 31, 2010
Public Data Ferret White Paper #1. Links to footnoted sources are at bottom. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Nuclear power will remain an important source of electricity in the U.S. More than 100 reactors are operating in U.S. now, and applications are pending... Read more
August 27, 2010
OVERVIEW: Washington State University sociology professor Eugene A. Rosa is known for his scholarship on issues surrounding public acceptance, or the lack thereof, of nuclear energy facilities and related waste disposal sites. With 15 other experts,... Read more
August 23, 2010
OVERVIEW: With spending continuing to far outpace income, U.S. government debt owed to the public - as a proportion of total domestic economic output (Gross Domestic Product or GDP) - is now higher than ever except for in the years following World Wa... Read more
August 17, 2010
OVERVIEW: Winlock is a city of 1,340 in Lewis County, Washington. It provides a full range of municipal services including police, street maintenance and construction, water, wastewater and sewer systems. Winlock's 2009 operating budget was $2.4 mill... Read more
August 16, 2010
OVERVIEW: In November 2005, Washington State voters approved Initiative 901, to ban smoking in all public locations and places of employment. In the lead-up to the vote on the ballot measure, one argument advanced by opponents was that if approved, t... Read more
August 09, 2010
OVERVIEW: Enrollment in U.S. for-profit colleges has grown to 1.8 million students, five times the total in recent years. More than three-quarters attend institutions run by publicly-traded corporations such as Apollo Corp. (University of Phoenix), E... Read more
August 03, 2010
SUMMARY: King County government handles criminal justice, law enforcement, public health, social services, elections, property assessment and tax collection, wastewater treatment, transit, environmental protection, land use regulation and much more. ... Read more
July 29, 2010
BACKGROUND, AND KEY LINK: Hoping to make crime information more accessible and timely, the Seattle Police Department (SPD) began publishing police reports for robberies, burglaries, aggravated assaults and homicides online here earlier in 2010. In Ju... Read more
July 27, 2010
BACKGROUND: The Gulf oil spill has refocused attention on the role of the U.S. Department of the Interior's oversight of activity by companies which lease federally-regulated properties to drill for oil off-shore, or for oil or natural gas onshore. I... Read more
July 18, 2010
SUMMARY: According to a report released this month, the Seattle City Employees Retirement System (SCERS) pension plan has $1 billion more in actuarial liabilities than current market value. The plan is only 62 percent funded, as of January 1, 2010. ... Read more
July 12, 2010
SUMMARY: The Seattle City Council begins consideration this week of a bill requiring written consent from the deceased or his or her legal representative for use of human remains in educational or commercial exhibits. The proposed legislation is dire... Read more
July 07, 2010
BACKGROUND: KDNA-FM is a radio station based in Granger, Washington licensed by the Northwest Communities' Education Center (NCEC). NCEC is a non-profit community organization serving the Latino/Chicano/Hispanic populace of the region. NCEC uses KDNA... Read more
July 05, 2010
SUMMARY: Barring a game-changing breakthrough in policy or technology, global carbon dioxide emissions will grow by 50 percent between 2005 and 2035, thanks in large part to steadily increasing use of coal for energy in developing nations, particular... Read more
June 28, 2010
BACKGROUND: The King County Water and Land Resources Division monitors levels of fecal coliform bacteria in the water, plus algal toxins and water temperatures at a total of 28 swimming beaches or creeks in King County - including several in Seattle ... Read more
June 21, 2010
BACKGROUND: "Central line" tubing, ventilators and surgery all provide an opportunity for hospital patients to become infected. The Washington State Department of Health tracks annual infection rates at hospitals in the first two categories and publi... Read more
June 15, 2010
SUMMARY: On May 17, the Metropolitan King County Council passed Ordinance 16838, establishing the county will create an unrestricted public website providing access to high value data sets. BACKGROUND: The ordinance comes at a time where munici... Read more
June 14, 2010
BACKGROUND: Ten years ago the United Nations negotiated international standards to help identify and combat trafficking in persons. This term applies to practices such as forced labor, bonded labor and forced prostitution. At the time, the United Sta... Read more
June 08, 2010
BACKGROUND: The current adult entertainment ordinance in place in the City of Renton is over 25 years old and has not been updated. The ordinance allows adult entertainment venues in the "Valley" area of the city. With more adult entertainment venues... Read more
June 07, 2010
The state of Washington licenses many professions. The Department of Licensing's online information services for consumers and businesses include a regularly updated compendium of disciplinary actions against business licensees in specialty professio... Read more
May 31, 2010
The Washington Horse Racing Commission reported in April 2010 that the state's racing fatality rate per 1,000 starts reached its highest level yet in 2009, of 2.64, since the commission began compiling data on annual racehorse fatalities in Washingto... Read more
May 26, 2010
After a vote on May 13, 2010, the City of Lake Forest Park adopted Resolution 1209: "Appointing committees to prepare written arguments advocating approval and rejection of proposed levy lid lift ballot measure." The aim of ballot measure Proposition... Read more
May 23, 2010
Last Friday May 21, Bobby Wayne Wells, 35, of Burien was reminded - conclusively - that it does not pay to ingest a pint of bourbon, then enter a pet store, stuff a squawking cockatiel down your pants in full view of an employee, deny said action whe... Read more
May 17, 2010
SUMMARY: Seattle police had 450,355 contacts with the public in 2009, including 22,983 arrests, plus dispatch calls, traffic stops and on-view citizen contacts. (Source: SPD). SPD's Office of Professional Accountability was formed in 1999 by the City... Read more
May 11, 2010
Aligned with policy recommendations in an April 20, 2010 memo from Redmond Mayor John Marchione, the Redmond, Wash. City Council voted 6-0 on that date to authorize the city negotiating a contract to install red light cameras at three intersections a... Read more
May 10, 2010
According to the final draft of the "Transportation 2040" plan for the four counties of Central Puget Sound, in the next 30 years we'll need to raise $64 billion more than we've currently got coming - in order to maintain, operate and improve our sur... Read more
May 03, 2010
If you follow the news at all, it's likely you've heard of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, and product recalls they've enforced - maybe a toy that poses a choking hazard because of small parts that can easily get loose, or blinds with fa... Read more
April 26, 2010
BACKGROUND: Since the 1995 bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City perpetrated by Timothy McVeigh, killing 168 people and injuring 500, there has been increased emphasis on security procedures at high-traffic, high-risk federal facilit... Read more
April 20, 2010
BACKGROUND: "The Committee on the Fiscal Future of the United States was established under the auspices of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Public Administration, supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundat... Read more
April 15, 2010
At any one time in Seattle there are many requests pending with the City's Department of Planning and Development (DPD) by property owners for permits to do things such as build a second home in their back yard, expand existing homes with possible im... Read more
April 12, 2010
BACKGROUND. The community of Shoreline, Wash. developed throughout the 1900s and voted to incorporate in 1995. It has 50,000 residents and is the 15th most populous city in Washington state. The Shoreline City Council at a March 5 and 6, 2010 retreat... Read more
April 09, 2010
"The 2009 legislature directed the Joint Transportation Committee (JTC) to conduct a comprehensive analysis of mid-term and long-term transportation funding mechanisms and methods. The study analyzes the feasibility and practicality of implementing f... Read more
April 07, 2010
BACKGROUND: This overview from Public Health Seattle King County (PHSKC) reports there are an estimated 76 million people per year in the U.S. who suffer from food-borne illnesses, and 5,000 who die annually in the U.S. from these ailments, which inc... Read more
April 07, 2010
BACKGROUND: The City Of Seattle provides an index page with links to current labor agreements with 24 different collective bargaining units. In early 2009, the city signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the International Brotherhood Of Elec... Read more
April 05, 2010
OVERVIEW: Highly-developed suburban and city locales can pose daunting challenges for those who wish to travel on bicycle or foot because of potential conflicts with vehicular traffic and lack of marked safe corridors, particularly on extended trips.... Read more
April 05, 2010
Effective March 30, 2010, Washington State Engrossed Senate Substitute Bill (ESSB) 6381 finalizes spending plans in the 2009-2011 budget period for $341.4 million in federal stimulus money for state transportation work. The funds are to help accelera... Read more
March 31, 2010
On March 15, 2010, Washington Governor Christine Gregoire signed into law SSB 6367, encouraging online responses to public information requests of state government. The text of the bill states that if commonly requested records were made available on... Read more
March 29, 2010
The Washington State Department of Public Health makes available a summary of pregnancy, birth and abortion totals and rates. The most recent data are given for each year from 1984 through 2008. The key findings are that from 1984 through 2008, the r... Read more
March 28, 2010
PUBLIC HEARING SCHEDULED FOR APRIL 22. At its March 25, 2010 meeting, the city council of Lake Forest Park, Wash. heard the first reading of Resolution 1202 to seek voter approval on August 17, 2010 of Proposition 1 to hike the general property ta... Read more
March 27, 2010
The U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in the 1990s initiated a program called "Energy Star" in which that label was allowed to be applied to consumer electronic devices and home construction and other products if ... Read more
March 25, 2010
On March 16, 2010 the Federal Communications Commission released its National Broadband Plan, detailing strategies for making high-speed Internet service more widely available in the United States and more effective in meeting the varied information ... Read more
March 24, 2010
Highline Public School District serves more than 17,000 K-12 students in racially- and economically-diverse communities south of southwest Seattle, including White Center, Burien and Des Moines, and the smaller, more upper-income community of Norman... Read more
March 21, 2010
At its 9:30 a.m. Tuesday March 23, 2010 meeting in the council chambers at Seattle City Hall, 600 4th Ave., the Seattle City Council's Transportation Committee will vote on whether to confirm Mayor Mike McGinn's new nominee as Director of the Seattle... Read more
March 21, 2010
One of the major policy analysis arms of the U.S. Congress is The Congressional Research Service. This January 19, 2010 report from CRS examines major fiscal sustainability challenges facing the United States Postal Service (USPS). The report is ... Read more
March 18, 2010
BACKGROUND: King County is the largest population county in Washington State, containing 39 cities including Seattle, and unincorporated areas. Among the many services King County provides is public transit. The King County Auditor's Office undertook... Read more
March 17, 2010
Washington State Auditor Brian Sonntag on March 16, 2010 published a performance audit of Seattle City Light. The nation's 9th largest electric utility serves residential, commercial and industrial customerss in the City of Seattle and other jurisdic... Read more
