Wow, Ken. You are all heart. Of stone.

And Tony Blair can choke on a bag of salted dicks.

Lets see, no charter schools even open yet in WA and already getting more - could WA be getting the Gulen run charters? They're currently under investigation by the FBI and had 19 schools raided.
http://politics.suntimes.com/article/chi…

Or maybe it's the BASIS charter schools, run by a crooked former U of A professor and his wife who send money - and work - back to the Czech Republic. http://cloakinginequity.com/2013/04/19/w…

Or maybe its the White Hat charter schools out of Ohio, who routinely get in trouble for financial misdeeds and failing schools, but who play the system and reopen under another name, get more money... http://cashinginonkids.com/corporate-pro…

And then there's Charter Schools USA, where the CEO owns a yacht called "Fishin 4 Schools" and has figured out a way to sell bonds on his "non-profit" charter management corp so he can "proft" http://bobsidlethoughtsandmusings.wordpr…

Or perhaps WA will be really lucky to get one of Eva Moskowitz' Success Academy schools, where they "co-locate" into existing school buildings and slowly take over and push out the existing public school https://www.commondreams.org/headline/20…
AND have charter school "executives" making way more than existing public school superintendents who often oversee at least triple the number of schools
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/educ…

Yay for charter schools in WA - profiteering, privatization, and pilfering is on its way!

RE: bell hooks text message.

The message is somewhat ironic, given the way in which it is most likely to be seen.

If the woman really wants to keep her agency, shouldn't she simply tell the guy she's not going to give him her number instead of giving him a fake one that tells him the woman doesn't need anything external to validate her existence (like, say, a text message)?

Unless this whole thing is satire and I'm just missing it?

In other news, Casey Kasem has died.

It's confirmed.

Watching the World Cup in Spanish is 100% more fun.

I think I (mostly) agree with Ken on this. Casual heroin users aren't the ones ODing out there. These are hard-core junkies, and will probably die with a needle in their arm regardless of what society does for them. It's pretty hard to be sympathetic.

@1: Saving lives from OD'ing is a good thing. It's not a political thing. Imagine if we had these folks still around.

Ken is trolling, @10 is just a horrible person.

And in a bizarre turn of events, I completely agree with @9 and @11.

Spokane Pride Parade

The 23rd annual Pride Parade took over the streets of downtown Spokane on Saturday, with thousands of people showing support for the LGBTQA community. Banners, cars, demonstrators, floats and people filled the streets with color and excitement.

http://www.inlander.com/Bloglander/archi…

"I'm a Slog junkie." My self-introduction at a 12 step group therapy session last night.

At least Casey Kasem can rest in peace now. Hopefully we won't have to watch his widow throw raw meat at people on the local news anymore.

@6,

Obviously you've never been targeted by someone who won't take "no" for an answer. Speaking as someone who has never given a fake number because I'm too stubborn and too much of an angry bitch to capitulate like that, it can be extremely unpleasant to have a scumbag following you down the street, demanding that you acquiesce to his demands. If this fake phone number helps other women in that situation, then good for whoever set it up.

StuckInUtah is killin it.

RE: Jorge Carrasco's salary.

A petition to deny him a salary that is competitive in the region is stupid. Be careful what you ask for because if you don't pay the industry standard, you won't get a qualified person. And if you don't get a qualified person, then the reliability of your electric system becomes questionable. And, there is nothing more critical to the region's economy, health and safety than reliable electricity. And believe me, working for the City and its process is no piece of cake - probably deserving of hazard pay.

And don't think the salary issue isn't serious; A few years ago, Chuck Clarke told the council he wanted a bigger salary more in keeping with his level of responsibility for running one of the biggest businesses in the City - Seattle Public Utilities. The Council said no and he walked. And the City is left with a mediocre - at best - director. (Where the personnel hemorrhaging continues.)

Why do people think it's OK to pay the public sector substantially below the market rate? I don't get it. More than the CEO's of Amazon, Costco, Whole Foods, REI, etc, our daily lives and our economy rely on the people who work for the City and county doing their jobs well. They are responsible for streets, public health, electricity, sewer, building code safety, drinking water, etc, etc. Believe me, you need well qualified people in those jobs more than you need highly qualified people at Starbucks.

That said, I don't know that the retroactive salary pay raise for Carrasco makes sense . . .

How much heroin is Afghanistan now producing, post-US invasion and occupation: "a 36% increase since 2012."

"Opium production in Afghanistan has been on the rise since U.S. occupation started in 2001. "

"Beyond Afghanistan’s borders, about three-quarters of the world’s illicit opium products originates from the country, which sees its poppy cultivation concentrated almost entirely in the country’s southern and western provinces. Those areas – particularly Helmand and Kandahar provinces – were where the bulk of US and UK forces were deployed during the 2010-12 troop surge."

"In 2007, 92% of the non-pharmaceutical-grade opiates on the world market originated in Afghanistan.[2] "

So basically, all US heroin addicts are shooting, smoking or snorting heroin derived directly from the US occupation of Afghanistan.

"While U.S. and allied efforts to combat the drug trade have been stepped up, the effort is hampered by the fact that many suspected drug traffickers are now top officials in the Karzai government.[20]"

--

I'm a "supply side" economist, like Reagan, so I'd like to see the 'supply' be better controlled and limited, in order to protect our citizens.

What's happening?

@17,
That's cool, but the message itself is still ironic.

The mom hugging her daughters killer is touching considering how irrationally vengeful our society can be. What I'd like to know is what happened to the real culprit in this case: the parent who FAILED to properly lock up their gun.

This will sound mild next to @24, who is nevertheless 100% correct.

There is a whole industry around ratcheting up executive-level salaries, based on information propagated nation-wide at an ever-faster rate. It's like jacking up a building off its foundations to add a story or move it elsewhere—all four corners need to go up at the same rate or the desired result is not achieved (cracks occur, whole house tumbles into a pile of rubble). "Executive search firms" (headhunters), business social networking, "brand management," even government statistics collection—they all play a part.

Contrast that with the messy and confrontational business of trying to raise the minimum wage above the level where it has stagnated far too long, even though there is abundant data that it needs to go up.

Oh, and Jorge Carrasco has jack-shit to do with "the reliability of your electric system."

@3, that is a GREAT compilation. Thank you!

rob! Dear, I disagree about the role of a CEO - or at least the City Light CEO.

CIty Light has had some terrible Superintendents (the old title) through the years. Basically, from the mid 70's until the late 90's they were all incompetent. Because of that, the reliability of the system did suffer -and the legacy of that ineptitude lingers today.

Gary Zarker was a good man and good Superintendent, but he got caught up in the aftermath of Enron, which saddled the utility with debt, and was subsequently forced out. Jorge Carrasco came in, and while he hasn't been perfect, he has helped to improve the performance of the utility. Under his leadership, CL has made smart investments in both infrastructure and technology.

While I certainly don't think a CEO is worth what the PSE CEO makes, ($750k base, a few million in bonuses) I do think the current salary doesn't attract qualified candidates. It's fun to be folksy, but it's also important to have a grounding in reality.

The word "folksy" in the last sentence of @26 can be replaced with "liberal" or "democrat" and the meaning remains the same.

Oh Raindrip, conservatives aren't immune from folksy. Indeed, being folksy is second only to being a victim and blaming others for your personal failings in the conservative mindset.

@28

You do realize that "being a victim and blaming others for your personal failures" is the cornerstone of modern liberalism right?

I'm a bit alarmed by the story about the mother hugging the (accidental) killer of her daughter. Since when it is part of our legal system that people who aren't the jury or the judge "agreeing" to a particular sentence? They can state their opinion in court, but they really don't have legal standing. This isn't 2,000 BCE.

Troll dear, we've been down your odd little road before. You have a very simple-minded idea of what utilities do, and what it takes to generate and distribute power. It's almost childlike, and I for one find it charming.

If you want to be all huffy about this, that is your choice. I'm certainly not going to defend this reputation advisor nonsense. But you would be much more convincing in your outrage if you understood that it's the ratepayers, not the taxpayers, who are footing the bill. City Light is not subsidized. In fact, it is required to break even. And it pays property taxes and utility taxes and everything "normal" companies do.

Oh @29, it's 2014 and those qualities are solely the con's domain today.

@34, I'm the socialist end of liberal and I saved money during my 45 years of fairly low-paid work. That and Social Security are what I'm living on. I don't want or need your money, thanks.

Giving out a fake number doesn't really work in the modern world where everyone has their phone in hand and can dial the number you just gave them and see yours not ring.

Catalina @26, I should say that my comment @25 was meant rather more narrowly, that Mr. Carrasco (as a municipal-finance and water-utilities guy coming in, and NOT an engineer) was primarily dependent on SCL staff engineers, department heads, and consultants for addressing aging infrastructure during his tenure thus far.

As CEO he's certainly ultimately responsible for the success or failure of those efforts. And since he's been in place for what, 10 years now?—he's obviously learned a few things from whatever missteps he made in prior executive positions.

https://www.ase.org/biography/jorge-carr…

http://www.seattleweekly.com/2008-02-13/…

Brand-dot-com hasn't managed to erase the latter story yet. If they do, I have a copy :)

You are correct, Rob!, that Carrasco is dependent upon staff. But before he arrived, the staff wasn't particularly motivated. Equipment regularly ran to failure, service connections took forever, and the overwhelming majority of business processes were manual, based on the principle of "we've always done it this way". Innovation was not encouraged, and status quo was the order of the day.

Like I said, he's not perfect, but at least there's been some positive changes - mostly in the form of retirements and investments in infrastructure and technology.

The article you cite from The Weekly is not a bad assessment (even if it quotes odious homophobe Phil Irvin - one of those much needed and long overdue retirements I mentioned above) but the truth is that it was an organization that needed to change.

There's still along way to go, but I can honestly say that City Light has gotten much better than it was when I started.