The Olympian is reporting that Thurston County staff is recommending workforce reductions. Despite these efforts, though, the budget shortfall is still estimated to be at least $1.2 million.

Click here to read the article.

Its especially noteworthy that so much – two-thirds – of the County budget pays for the criminal justice system. As a result, “the budget calls for fewer deputies to respond to and investigate certain crimes, less help at the Permit Assistance Center and more delays in resolving court cases.”

Several building inspectors are to be laid-off, too.

The Olympian has already reported the County may end a drug court program which diverted low-risk, non-violent drug offenders away from the jail system.

It is especially ironic to see how deep some of these cuts will go, after reading (just a few days ago), “The amount that Thurston County must pay three women who won a sex- discrimination lawsuit against the county will total almost $3 million after attorney’s fees are taken into account.”

And, don’t forget, just this last August, when a public record request disclosed that “Thurston County paid almost $1.47 million over four years to process and defend against challenges to the county’s 2004 comprehensive-plan update.” The County largely came out on the losing end of that protracted court battle.

The new County Commissioners will have their work cut out for them. Then again, it might be good that, at some point early this next year, there will be not one – but two – new Commissioners on the Board.

The Thurston County Auditor has posted a list of all votes they register as having been received, as of November 3rd. You can access those lists and use them to prompt others to vote.

Click here to access those lists.

Active Registered Voters: 148,402
Ballots Received as of November 3: 84,149

If you have any time at all, before voting closes at 8 PM on Tuesday, please check for just a couple of names of your friends and relatives in Thurston County.

Contact those whose names are not on these lists. If they have not yet voted, please remind them that no polling places are open; all voting is now done by mail, in Thurston County.

Drop-boxes are available, to receive ballots before 8 PM with no stamp required.

Click here for a list of drop-boxes.

If mailed, ballots must be postmarked on Election Day. Post offices have said they will not be open late, on Election Day.

If necessary, a provisional ballot may be completed at the Auditor’s Office, Thurston County Courthouse, Building 1, 2000 Lakeridge Drive SW. Their phone number is 786-5408.

It’s regrettable the County has decided to close the recycling station at the Island Market, along with four other similar locations, on January 1st. Local neighbors, with the Griffin Neighborhood Association, have worked in the past to ensure this location remains open, clean, and as little a burden to the Island Market as possible.

Long gone is the recycling station that used to occupy the Top Foods parking lot, in West Olympia.

The nearest station, but by no means the easiest to get to, for most of us, will be Summit Lake transfer station, 12133 Summit Lake Drive. And, the Summit Lake transfer station is only open on Sundays.

According to an article in today’s Olympian, “Expansion of curbside recycling programs also makes the free residential recycling centers, which have been around since 1992, a less-vital recycling tool, county solid waste education and outreach specialist Terri Thomas said.”

“It costs the county about $180,000 a year to operate the blue box residential recycling program through a contract with LeMay. The county must reduce its solid waste budget to respond to a slowing economy and reduced solid waste revenue because of increased recycling efforts countywide.”

In addition to the Summit Lake transfer station, free recycling will continue to be available at:

• Thurston County Waste and Recovery Center, 2418 Hogum Bay Road N.E.
• Rochester transfer station, 16500 Sargent Road (Saturdays and Sundays only)
• Rainier transfer station, 13010 Rainier Acres Road S. (Fridays and Saturdays only)

Most residents within the Griffin School District can arrange for curbside pickup of recyclables. While curbside recycling is not free, it is easy, without the need to transport recyclable materials yourself.

Local recycling efforts will face a setback, as a result of this decision, and that’s unfortunate.

What are some of the other alternatives available to local residents? The Olympian runs an ongoing informational series, called “Where Do I Take My. . .” Click here to access the web page for that series.

Several alternatives exist for handling reusable stuff – that is, items that have more life still left in them. There is a local Freecycle group and also OlyReusables. These free groups allow members to post “offers” of usable items, made available for free, which can be claimed by other members of the group. Even more, members may post “Wanted” messages, in the hope that things they want can be given by members who have those things to give. And, the Department of Ecology sponsors a similar site, called “2Good2Toss.com“.

What alternatives to the free recycling centers do you use? Click the “comment” link below, to leave your comments.

The Olympian is reporting today that “The state might seek more than $1.3 million in damages from Taylor Shellfish Co. for geoducks the company raised and harvested on state lands in Totten Inlet the past three years without a lease.”

This is the latest turn of events for an issue that’s been brewing for a good portion of this year. Click here to read an editorial the Olympian ran, back in July, entitled “Fines warranted if shellfish were farmed illegally” and click here for the Olympian news article “Taylor Shellfish speaks out after tidelands survey.”

An interested party is the Coalition to Protect Puget Sound Habitat. A representative of that group has filed a lease application, for the same area in Totten Inlet, to protect habitat from seeding for geoduck.

For those of you interested in reading material which questions the environmental impacts of commercial geoduck harvesting, the Protect Our Shoreline site is a good place to start.

A strange thing happened, the other day. I received two emails strongly opposed to the Bush Administration’s proposed financial bailout. “What’s so strange about that?” you ask? One message came from TrueMajority and the other from RightMarch. Two groups, one on the left and the other on the right, both calling on Congress to reign in the President’s proposal to stabilize economic markets.

TrueMajority writes, “In his last days in office, George Bush is trying to scare Congress into giving away the treasury to Wall Street.” On their web site, TrueMajority continues:

Those are extreme words, but not as extreme as the reality — over the weekend a plan was concocted to give away $1.8 trillion dollars of tax money with NO limits on how it’s spent, and no guarantees we’ll ever see it again. And the Treasury Secretary had the gall to say limiting payouts to executives who created this mess would be a “deal breaker.”

This is a deal which SHOULD be broken. Or at least re-negotiated. Economists have already made clear that this is a bad deal for everyone except the corporations and wealthy investors whose greed created the crisis.

Click here to respond to the TrueMajority post by calling elected representatives.

In their alert, RightMarch wrote, “No Welfare For The Rich; Tell Congress NOT to Bail Out Firms at the Expense of Taxpayers.”

ALERT: If you have friends or family who have never called or written to their elected officials before, you need to forward this message and let them know: now is the time.

The Washington and Wall Street establishments are conspiring to saddle you, your children, and even your great-grandchildren with TRILLIONS of dollars of worthless debt. This is socialism for the rich folks, and we only have DAYS to stop it.

As the New York Times reported this weekend, “The Bush administration on Saturday formally proposed a vast bailout of financial institutions in the United States, requesting unfettered authority for the Treasury Department to buy up to $700 billion in distressed mortgage-related assets from the private firms.”

The proposal was short and simple: it would raise the national debt ceiling to $11.3 trillion. And it would place no restrictions on the administration other than requiring “semiannual reports” to Congress, granting the Treasury secretary unprecedented power to buy and resell mortgage debt.

The Times went on to report, “Congressional leaders are hoping to recess at the end of the week for the fall elections, after approving the bailout.”

AFTER APPROVING THE BAILOUT — in other words, after approving “unprecedented power, “no restrictions on the administration,” and “unfettered authority” to drive the American economy down, take over nearly the entire mortgage industry, and saddle our descendants for decades or even centuries with an even WORSE economic situation.

We only have THIS WEEK to stop this boondoggle that will make every dollar left in your wallet worth less than it’s ever been worth!

Click here to read the RightMarch post.

If that weren’t enough, the folks at WashClean got in the act, too.

It’s not enough that ordinary folk are about to bail out speculators who have made millions in the casino-like atmosphere of Wall Street.

Now Wall Street’s main trade and lobbying group – the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association – is lobbying Congress so that huge fees can be earned for assisting with the bailout! New York Times article.

Money is choking our democracy to death!

WashClean’s post is notable for its link to the 3-page text of the Bush-Paulson proposal.

All I can say is, “Wow.” Two messages, one from either side of the political spectrum, both saying much the same thing.

— MARK MESSINGER

There are three initiatives on the November ballot. One attempts to address traffic congestion, another provides for physician-assisted suicide (or death with dignity), and the third would require certain certification for long-term care workers.

If you’ve not studied one or more of these measures, maybe the material that follows will help get you up-to-speed on these.

INITIATIVE MEASURE NO. 985

Initiative Measure No. 985 concerns transportation.

This measure would open high-occupancy vehicle lanes to all traffic during specified hours, require traffic light synchronization, increase roadside assistance funding, and dedicate certain taxes, fines, tolls and other revenues to traffic-flow purposes.

According to Ballotpedia,

“Many of I-985’s features are based on an October 2007 report by State Auditor Brian Sonntag (D). The provision mandating traffic engineers to synchronize traffic lights at high-traffic intersections would bring the benefits, according to Sonntag’s report, of a reduction in travel time, emissions, and fuel consumption of 10 to 25 percent at very little cost.”

I-985 was filed and funded by Tim Eyman’s “Permanent Offense,” which claims that, without raising taxes, I-985 will:

• Illustrates the public’s support for making reducing traffic congestion a top transportation priority
• Opens up carpool lanes to everyone during non-peak hours
• Requires local governments to synchronize traffic lights on heavily-traveled arterials and streets
• Clears out accidents faster with expanded emergency roadside assistance
• Uses a portion of vehicle sales tax revenue for these policies
• Removes the profit motive for red light cameras
• Replaces the percentage spent from transportation funds on public art to instead go toward reducing congestion
• Institutes critical taxpayer protections on future tolls; and
• Empowers the State Auditor to monitor the implementation of the initiative’s policies to ensure compliance.

Click here for more information in favor of I-985.

The No! on I-985 campaign is a coalition of environmental groups and progressive political organizations, including FUSE Washington, The Transportation Choices Coalition, Futurewise, WashPIRG, Washington Conservation Voters, and Washington Environmental Council.

No! on I-985 writes that Initiative 985 would make traffic worse by:

• Opening Puget Sound’s high occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes to all motorists during rush hour, which will bring buses and vanpools to a standstill, paralyzing our transit system and putting more cars back on the highways,
• Stealing over half a billion dollars away from our state’s treasury throughout the next five years and using it to build wider, noisier highways at the expense of schools, healthcare, and law enforcement,
• Prohibiting the stolen money from being spent on public safety, bicycle paths, light rail, heavy rail, buses, park and rides, or even ferries!

Initiative 985 does not invest in alternative transportation options, benefit rural Washington, encourage the development of livable, walkable communities, or help cut down on bumper to bumper traffic. Instead, it assaults our quality of life with a thoughtless and disastrous “more lanes good!” approach.

A page naming organizations which have endorsed “No on I-985” appears at http://www.no985.org/about/

Click here for more information against I-985.

INITIATIVE MEASURE NO. 1000

Initiative Measure No. 1000 concerns allowing certain terminally il1 competent adults to obtain lethal prescriptions.

This measure would permit terminally ill, competent. adult Washington residents, who are medically predicted to have six months or less to live, to request and self-administer lethal medication prescribed by a physician.

Supporters of the measure refer to it as the Death with Dignity initiative, while its opponents refer to it as the Assisted Suicide initiative.

Click here for the Ballotpedia page, which is a good place to start your studying of this initiative.

According to Yes! on I-1000:

“A YES vote for I-1000 allows mentally competent, terminally ill adults with six months or less to live to receive – under strict safeguards – a prescription for life-ending medication. This choice belongs exclusively to the terminally ill individual. Government, politicians, religious groups and others should not dictate these personal decisions.”

The measure includes these safeguards:

1. The patient must be at least 18 years old
2. The patient must be a resident of the state of Washington
3. The patient must be terminally ill – not disabled, but diagnosed as terminally ill
4. The terminally ill patient must have 6 months or less to live, as verified by two physicians
5. Three requests for Death with Dignity must be made (two verbal and one written)
6. Two physicians must verify the mental competence of the terminally ill patient
7. The request must be made voluntarily, without coercion, as verified by two physicians
8. The terminally ill patient must be informed of all other options, including palliative care, pain management and hospice care
9. There is a 15 day waiting period between the first oral request and the written request
10. There is a 48 hour waiting period between the written request and the writing of the prescription
11. The terminally ill patient’s written request must be independently witnessed, by two people, at least one of whom is not related to the patient or employed by the health care facility
12. The terminally ill patient is encouraged to discuss their decision with family (not required because of confidentiality laws)
13. Only the terminally ill patient may self-administer the medication
14. The patient may change their mind at any time

Click here for endorsements for I-1000.

The Coalition Against Assisted Suicide counters:

“But an actual reading of the initiative text shows no real safeguards to protect the vulnerable. Instead, Initiative 1000 pressures those without adequate insurance or financial means to think that they have no choice other than assisted suicide. It provides an incentive for health plans to cut costs by encouraging assisted suicide. And it places many Washingtonians at risk.

Patients currently have end-of-life choices, including durable power of attorney and living wills, among others. Patients at the end of life deserve personal care and real compassion. Not assisted suicide.”

Endorsements against I-1000 are at http://www.noassistedsuicide.com/supporters.html

INITIATIVE MEASURE NO. 1029

Initiative Measure No. 1029 concerns long-term care services for the elderly and persons with disabilities.

This measure would require long-term care workers to be certified as home care aides based on an examination, with exceptions; increase training and criminal background check requirements; and establish disciplinary standards and procedures.

Ballotpedia notes this measure is sponsored by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) 775.

The web site Yes on I-1029 compares training standards, in Washington State, for a hairdresser, a dog masseuse, and a home care worker:

“The majority of home and community based long-term care workers – who provide life-sustaining care for our State’s vulnerable seniors and persons with disabilities – are required to have 34 hours of training and no certification. Compare these low training standards with Washington State’s standards for hairdressers, manicurists and dog masseurs – 1,000, 500 and 300 hours of training and certification respectively.”

Click here for a list of those who have endorsed I-1029.

The initiative is opposed by The Community Care Coalition of Washington.

“We oppose the initiative because it hurts families. There is already a shortage of caregivers. Initiative 1029 will eliminate entry-level jobs and make it harder for those looking to care for the elderly or disabled to enter the field. The initiative is wasteful. It spends millions in taxpayer money without any accountability or improvement in the quality of care. The Governor’s task force that examined these issues could find no evidence that an arbitrary, 75-hour training requirement would improve care.”

The Coalition has posted a thorough description of the reasons they oppose this initiative at http://communitycarecoalitionwa.org/factsheet.htm

Where do you stand on these initiatives? What resources did you use, to come to your decision? Click the “Comments” link below!