Seattle Times: King County facing hard choices with social-service programs

King County's turn to make tough cuts. They were hoping for the state to pass legislation (see the story here) to help them out. Just how much help would SB6116 had given King County? Go ask Lisa Brown and Frank Chopp.

Have a great day,
Mr Baker
Sent from my iPhone

It's the booze talkin'

My beer cap has more common sense than sometimes even I display.

"Listen
Then
Discuss"

Indeed, my advise to others at this point is not any more complicated than that three word gift from my beer.

I am easily offended

Somebody in the Crosscut comments section of a story Jean Godden had written said I was ignorant and a liar. I thought I should just repost my strange collection of other people's opinions here and then I can just repost a link in different places to save all that typing. Not only am I a liar, but I guess I'm lazy too.
Here:
Yes, I want to bond and build. It employs people now, and builds stuff that hangs around for a long time. but that $15 million a year is the first I have heard that it would cost that, where do you get your numbers from?

I know I'm just making it all up from what others (Nick Licata Chris Van Dyk, Dino Rossi, the Seattle City Council, that devil Mr Ceis) have said.

From SeattlePI
Last updated February 29, 2008 10:01 p.m. PT
A bid to keep NBA team in KeyArena emerges
Investors reportedly led by Griffin would help refurbish venue

City Councilman Nick Licata has supported efforts to limit tax spending on a new arena. If a plan emerges similar to what Licata has heard is in the works, he might be on board.

"I'm giving it serious consideration," Licata said. "I think that the bottom line for me is that it's a fair deal for both the city and the investors. I've never said flatly, 'No public funds.' "

In November 2006, Seattle voters overwhelmingly approved a measure restricting public subsidies for pro sports teams. Initiative 91 prohibits Seattle from contributing city tax dollars unless such investments yield a profit on par with a 30-year U.S. Treasury bond.

The suggested plan could comply with the measure, said Chris Van Dyk, who led the I-91 campaign.

"The key thing is that if it addresses the use of public funds in a positive way and allocates those public funds toward the public places and the public infrastructure," Van Dyk said. "If (new team owners) do that in a genuine and on the table (way, providing) a significant infusion of money, I don't see that I-91 is a problem."
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/353269_sonicstalks01.html

Yes, you caught me, I do not have the numbers right in front of me. I guess I should get the dirty details from NBA advocate Chris Van Dyk, I may have been telling lies just to get the NBA back in Seattle. He's ignorant and filling my head with ignorance just to satisfy his basketball-jones. RATS!

Tell CVD he's a liar, I'll watch, it'll be fun.

How about that $250,000 a year in office space the Sonics were renting, nope, don't miss that.

How much B & O tax does a $400 million dollar company pay? There is another ignorant thing I'm posting, taxes, who needs that.


Oh, here is a known liar, Dino Rossi:
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Rossi says plan for KeyArena is too good to ignore

In addition to the roughly $20 million in sales tax revenue that the state could bring in from the remodel arena itself, the Rossi campaign said, the new facility "could generate $25 million over 10 years through sales and (business) taxes on Sonics-related operations."

State Department of Revenue spokesman Mike Gowrylow said it's difficult to calculate revenue estimates on the operations at KeyArena without more-specific information, but the estimate was within the range of possibilities.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/354680_rossi12.html?source=mypi

Last franchise was here for a little longer than ten years, the state makes out ok, but it is all lies, and I'm ignorant, and just making all this up.

Here are the links to the pitch Tim Ceis gave t the state task force in December on Seattle center and Key Arena, there is all kinds of stuff in there that Ceis made up that I just believed.
Here is the meeting from Dec 1
http://www.leg.wa.gov/joint/committees/lfokc/meetings.htm
and direct links:
heres' 1
http://www.leg.wa.gov/documents/joint/lfokc/2008-12-01SeattleCenter1.pdf

and here is 2
http://www.leg.wa.gov/documents/joint/lfokc/2008-12-01SeattleCenter2.pdf

KeyArena is about 380,000 sf of enclosed space, a remodel would enclose the exterior beams for restaurants and retail space, enlarging the enclosed space to 720,000 sf (I'm making that up too), and adding a second ramp down to the floor so the big shows can get on and off the floor, and on to the next city, in a more resonable amount of time. tear down and prep for the next event is wasted time and lost revenue, just ask the convention center folks.
For some strange reason I think adding restaurants and retail to the exterior of the KeyArena bowl is a good thing for the Seattle Center site, just my opinion. I also think that having people come to Seattle Center for more events, and having an anchor tenant is a good idea, but that's not my opinion, that's the Seattle City Council crazy talk during Seattle Center subcommittee meeting comments on why a break even proposition with the Seattle Storm was a good thing for Seattle, and Seattle Center. Call Jean a liar about that one, she was there. Or, does this just apply to professional womens basketball?

Parks and Seattle Center Committee January 27, 2009
Link to video: http://www.seattlechannel.org/videos/video.asp?ID=2050902

When I'm not here being called a liar I update a little blog on this particular topic:
http://seattlecenterarenareboot.blogspot.com/

There, that was fun.
What some people might want t know is that when I post someplace it is almost always as "Mr. Baker". It is pretty easy to get Mr. xx as a user name,it is easy to remember too.

SeattleTimes.com: Washington State regulators ask: Can blogging be lobbying?

The questions being asked by nameless, faceless “regulators” is: Is a blog that advocates for something a lobbying effort, should the blogger be treated a lobbyist by the state? I do not think this is too tough to figure out, and let’s not let the fact that I read the “newspaper” story online point a bright light on how this will play out.

I am going insert my opinion throughout the story. My opinion isn’t likely going to be more meaningful to the opinions that readers already have. Our opinions are our own truth, but differences in interpretation in definitions (common understanding of terms) is what the story is really about.

Here is why this matters to me, at the risk of displaying a spongy self-absorbency, I am a Communication Major at the University of Washington, admittedly and old one. I have cobbled together enough credits to coast out the last 10 credits of my degree as electives, planning to graduate in June. The area of concentration in my coursework has been Communication Technology and Society.

The state working toward resolving today’s media problems with new definitions in regulation, when necessary, is a great idea. The application of old media laws to new media are dumb to the situation of the present day. Washington State Public Disclosure Commission is working on this issue and should help clarify the situation.

Here are my opinions inserted throughout this article from the AP, posted at the SeattleTimes.com

Blogger beware? State regulators are wondering whether online political activism amounts to lobbying, which could force Web-based activists to file public reports detailing their finances.

In a collision of 21st century media and 1970s political reforms, the inquiry hints at a showdown over press freedoms for bloggers, whose self-published journals can shift between news reporting, opinion writing, political organizing and campaign fundraising.

State officials are downplaying any possible media rights conflict, pointing out that regulators have already exempted journalistic blogging from previous guidelines for online campaign activity.

What the government hasn't done very well is say who is a "journalist". The assumption is toward protecting traditional (big) media that is trying to transition from pulp to electrons. The Seattle PI has paid journalist/bloggers that enjoy the rights and protections under law any other, they have bucketed their bloggers into three sections: Seattle PI journalist (PI Staff Blogs), then they have their reader blogs (not so protected), then they have their "blogs for the rest of us" (not so protected).

It is extremely unlikely that ANY of those bloggers would be subject to lobbying questions, not because they are absent bias, but because of the newspaper media source enjoys the atmosphere of journalistic blogging because of where they blog.

Sound fair? Sound plausible?

If the state calls me (never happen) and demands that I open my empty wallet to them my options are limited, if demand the same thing of the three buckets of Seattle PI bloggers and without question the Seattle PI would come to the defense of any of them in order to reserve their paid staff and their blogs, a slippery slope.
Nobody knows if their citizen bloggers are getting paid, or are in the industry in some way that they are blogging about.
This is not the point of debate, not exactly, but it should be.

The issue at hand is defining the difference between somebody like me, the guy with a nasty blogging habit that openly advocates for something, and a lobbyist. I state right in my profile to you left who and what I am.
Not a problem for the state, I am not a lobbyist, let's hope.

Now, if I had handbills with my message and an extensive mailing list, and I was directly compensated to advocate, not a problem, I would be a lobbyist. Now replace handbill with blog, and mailing with emailing, am I still a lobbyist because I am being compensated? Likely, yes. What if I am not compensated at the time? Maybe. What if I write the same stories as "special to the Seattle Times" in the op/ed section of the newspaper? Maybe not.

Nobody is calling newspapers political lobbyist when they endorse candidates for office, even though they have advertisements from political parties, and I have to question if they get more from a given candidate after an endorsement. It is a newspaper so that's ok.

Some media is more special than others because of how the laws and rules are crafted. New rules are being crafted that will define new lines.

SeattleTimes.com
But the blogosphere is taking the notion seriously. One prominent liberal blogger in Seattle is already issuing a dare - if the government wants David Goldstein to file papers as a lobbyist, it will have to take him to court.

Goldstein, publisher of the widely read horsesass.org, wants to know how his political crusades could be subject to financial disclosures while newspaper writers, radio hosts and others in traditional media get a pass.

For most bloggers, Goldstein said, the work "is a hobby, a sideline. And yet they contribute greatly to the public debate and to the new journalism."

This is my hobby, too, I have not been paid a dime to advocate anything.

What about Brian Robinson? Pretty simple, he has a blog, SonicsCentral.com/blog. He also has an advocacy web site www.FixTheCenter.com that clearly says it is an advocacy site.
Not the same site, but he might get second guessed because SonicsCentral is a blog and not printed as a "newspaper". Sound fair? This blog and SonicsCentral are not structually different.

SeattleTimes.com
"When you start talking about regulating Internet activity, you open up a Pandora's Box," he said.

Political money in Washington is regulated by the state Public Disclosure Commission, which compiles reports on candidates' and lobbyists' finances and makes the information available to the public.

The agency was created after voters overwhelmingly approved a ballot measure in 1972. A second measure in 1992 added contribution limits and other reforms, leading to a set of rules that the state calls "one of the most exhaustive disclosure laws in the country."

Under the law, lobbyists must register with the state, and submit regular reports about who pays them, how they spend money, and which issues they're working on.

Groups that don't fit the traditional definition of "lobbyist" also have to file reports, provided they meet certain spending thresholds while leading public campaigns intended to influence public policy.

Earlier this year, the PDC was asked by some lobbyists whether calls to action made over the Internet fell under any lobbying regulations, and the agency began probing the topic.
"One of the issues was the grass roots involvement, in terms of prompting individuals, in a call to action, to contact legislators, to send in letters," said Doug Ellis, the PDC's assistant director.

Business interests asked, "Can we do the same kind of thing? Is it proper? Do we have to report it?" Ellis said.

The question of blogging soon entered the picture. For online political junkies like Goldstein, stirring up the public and urging readers to sound off about public policy is a key part of the mission.

But, as Goldstein pointed out in a recent public meeting on the topic, the same could be said for newspaper editorialists or radio commentators - and they're exempt from reporting their income and spending under an exemption created to protect the media.

"What you're basically saying is, if you want to raise any money at all, now you have to report," Goldstein said. "It's treating us entirely different than other media outlets."

There is the nut to crack.
Nothing is telling a business that they can not have a blog, but asking for money and advocating on that blog may be seen as a lobbying effort, dull as the blog might be. The business community is saying that it isn't part of the lobbying effort if other blogs can raise money for a cause.

What may be the meaningful hair splitting is that I am not asking anybody for money, the horsesass.org is, and so is the SeattleTimes.com, so each can keep doing what they are doing in the public interest.

Having a bias and the desire to communicate news and information for that purpose is not lobbying (Fox News can do it, so can horsesass.org).

Having a business and then advocating for that business is just not the same thing. Wine magazines have advertisements for (you guessed it) wine. Having a wine business and publishing a wine magazine, about your wine, is not news, it is an advertisement. Deliver that publication to state senators to advocate for tax breaks for the wine industry and it is a lobbying effort.
Wine Spectator publishing a story about the industry benefitting from possible tax breaks is NOT lobbying.
Pulp or electrons, the same logic should apply. The question becomes how PDC defines all of this.

Much of the discussion about blogging as lobbying boils down to the evolving distinction of who is and is not a member of the media.

While blogs and other online-only information sources are showing greater influence, traditional outlets - particularly newspapers - are struggling with a deeply wounded business model.

"Our definitions of all of this are changing so dramatically, right in front of our eyes," said Sree Sreenivasan, of Columbia University's journalism school.

Laws have often defined media by describing the form in which the information is delivered - a newspaper, a magazine, or a licensed TV or radio station. But the Internet is eroding those tried-and-true distinctions, making such definitions sound hopelessly outdated.

In this environment, Sreenivasan said, regulators facing a question about who qualifies as media might need to undertake a much more detailed examination of the content being produced.

"It's very hard to put them in a box: 'This is OK, this is not OK,'" Sreenivasan said. "It's a waste of everybody's time. I'd say, what is the work they're doing?"

The PDC's Ellis doesn't expect commissioners to impose financial reporting for bloggers who a perform a journalistic function. Since that type of activity was excluded in campaign finance rules, he said, "I don't see any reason why they would veer from past practice."

Lobbyist Steve Gano, who represents business clients in Olympia, said he's not troubled by activist bloggers who practice a form of journalism. But the increasing presence of Web-based advocacy groups are a different story, he said.

Well, no, before blogs there were pitchforks and torches carried by people advocating something be done by authorities using the communicative means of, and "advertising" by, encouraging more people with pitchforks and torches to march on the town hall.

The pitchfork and torch makers were not soliciting the local farmer to go to the local authorities to advocate for more pitchforks and torches, for the expressed benefit of the pitchfork and torch makers.

If an online group doesn't have to report the type of activities that would otherwise be considered lobbying, Gano asked, why shouldn't lobbyists just close up shop and relaunch their efforts online?

"There's a new business model out there," Gano said. "I can just sit at home, e-mail folks from here, and never have to disclose who my financial backers are."
---
On the Net:

PDC: http://www.pdc.wa.gov

The lobbyist does have a point, but the question is how somebody can tell the difference?
Maybe a simple note on a blog that says, "I just a nut that wants something done about Key Arena (or insert your topic) and I am gonna write about it. If you give me money, that's your problem", or something like that.

If you have a lobbyist pulplication, you engage in those activities without disclosing your motives it is against the current law. Using electrons to do that same thing does not make is fundimentally different.


The story was published here: SeattleTimes.com: Washington State regulators ask: Can blogging be lobbying?
By CURT WOODWARD
Associated Press Writer
Copyright © 2008 The Seattle Times Company

Have a great day,
Mr Baker

Sent from my iPhone

SLAM ONLINE: Nothing But Glove

There is great story about Gary Payton in Slam. He talks about his career a little, and how he views his career and basketball now. Payton mentions how he still bleeds Green and Gold, and supporting Save Our Sonics. He still has business in Seattle, and the GP Foundation.

I went to a GP Foundation/JL Scott charity basketball game at Key Arena on September 9th, 2001, before everything in this world was flipped upside down. They raised $250,000 that night, between the game and auction (I did not go to the auction, I just went to the game).

http://slamonline.com/online/the-magazine/2008/11/nothing-but-glove/
Have a great day,
Mr Baker
Sent from my iPhone

The President Shoots Hoop

The President Shoots Hoop

Why it doesn't matter: what politicians do for sport when they are not working is meaningless, unless they are shooting people face.

Why it does matter: like it or not, Americans take an interest in leaders as a way to see how they are or are not like them, and find an abstract way to understand who the President is as a person.

Here is my impression of what sport the president is identified with,
played it or not.
Greorge W. Bush owned a baseball team.
Bill Clinton chased women.
George Bush sr played college baseball.
Ronald Reagan is identified with football, pretend and otherwise.
Jimmy Carter played baseball/softball at pick nicks.
Gerald Ford played college football.
Richard Nixon had a bowling alley installed in the White House.

Barack Obama plays basketball on the day of election for good luck and to relax.

Sport, in some tiny way, becomes part of our national cultural identity.

Note to Seattle: We now hoop.

Have a great day,
Mr Baker
Sent from my iPhone

On The Media: Transcript of "The Calculated Risk of Blogging" (October 3, 2008)

Why I am paranoid when depending on the compitence of others: The
Calculated Risk of Blogging.

BOB GARFIELD: Last week, the blog search engine Technorati released its annual State of the Blogosphere. The conclusion? The state of the blogosphere is strong. In fact, almost half of the 133 million blogs that have been created since 2002 were created in the past year and a half.

But something else was created in direct proportion — potential liability for libel, copyright infringement, defamation or invasion of privacy. The Media Bloggers Association tracks the rising number of lawsuits against bloggers, and MBA founder Robert Cox says that even frivolous litigation costs money to defend, and legitimate claims have no limit.

The mere threat of a lawsuit, he says, is sometimes enough to scare writers out of the blogosphere altogether.
. . .
BOB GARFIELD: All right, one last thing, Bob. There’s a legal principle known as deep pockets. Lawsuits tend to get filed in direct [LAUGHS] relationship to defendant’s ability to pay an eventual judgment.

By insuring bloggers, aren't you deepening their pockets and actually creating a market for litigation that didn't hitherto exist?

ROBERT COX: Bloggers do have assets already. They have future income streams, they have homes, they have cars. And if they lose a judgment and they don't pay the sheriff will be knocking at their door and it won't matter whether they have insurance or not.
http://www.onthemedia.org/transcripts/2008/10/03/06

I spend more time than I should explicitly covering my journalistic ass in the few places I blog outside of here, not because of what I might write. Word to the wise, CYA.

Have a great day,
Mr Baker

Sent from my iPhone

In "Other News"

OT (off topic)...
Today U.S News & World Report has reported a major discovery: The
Obesity Gene Linked is to Colon Cancer and Other News.
The big question is: what "Other News" is the Obesity Gene linked to?

Hey, maybe the other news is the Seattle 2009-2010 Proposed City Budget process has started.

Mayor Greg Nickels has added to the CIP (Cap Improvement) in his proposed budget a line item in the CULTURE AND RECREATION section, sub-section Seattle Center in the Narrative on page #2 "In addition, funding is added in 2009 and 2010 for general building improvements at KeyArena."

Seattle Center Project Detail
PDF page 9 of 26 (181 of the budget) has the following item: KeyArena Improvements & Repairs

This ongoing project provides for major maintenance and improvements to KeyArena. Improvements may include, but
are not limited to, lighting upgrades, replacement of the basketball floor and other event components, creation of special
seating sections and partial house configurations to increase revenue, technology upgrades, and funding of concept plans
for future facility upgrades. These improvements both maintain basic building operations and facility integrity and
enhance KeyArena’s position in the highly competitive sports and entertainment marketplace.

As always "*This detail is for information only. Funds are appropriated in the budget at the Budget Control Level. Amounts in thousands of dollars."

As noted on the Seattle City Council web page, public comment is encouraged.

The Seattle Times - Guest Guesser

Off Topic: Going into week three of the Seattle Times' football game picking contest, Guest Guesser, I am ranked at 138th of 3838 contestants. I really am guessing. I have not watched an entire football game in more than a year. I watch a few minutes here, and there, when I channel surf past local teams only. The percentages of other guessers selections are on the web page. The group, if large enough, and diverse enough, usually comes up with the best answer. At the very least, that is where the majority of selections are. The only "upset" I have actually picked is NE beating the J-E-T-S Jets last week, 24 to 17 (actual score was 19 - 10, I think).

Let's see how this plays out in real life the first Tuesday in November. My guess there will be as well informed as Akron v. Ball State last week; I do not have a clue, but I will pick one, because that is how the game is played.

http://seattletimes.upickem.net/upickem/registration/login.asp?contestid=2686

Have a great day,
Mr Baker

Sent from my iPhone