⢠One sign of Occupy Wall Street's impact? The banner business it's created for local credit unions. Over the last 30 days, Seattle Metropolitan Credit Union says new account applications are up 48 percent and BECU reports new accounts are up 49 percent.
⢠For example, Seattle City Council member Mike O'Brien told protesters last Friday that he's dumping Bank of America. "My intent is to go to BECU," he said.
⢠Prosecutors filed nine felony theft charges on Tuesday against Silas Potter Jr.âa former Seattle Public Schools managerâas well as theft charges against two other individuals, alleging that the trio stole $250,000 from a small-business program run by the district while performing "no work in return," according to King County prosecuting attorney Dan Satterberg.
⢠Occupy Seattle's General Assembly voted by a four-fifths majority to move its nighttime encampment from Westlake Park to the Seattle Central Community College campus beginning October 29. They believe the college will be more hospitable. Unfortunately, college president Dr. Paul Killpatrick doesn't want the occupiers.
⢠Washington State senator Maria Cantwell called forâand then gotâa congressional inquiry last week into what she is calling "a disease emergency" for infectious anemia in some Pacific Northwest salmon. "Infectious salmon anemia could pose a serious threat to Pacific Northwest wild salmon and the thousands of Washington State jobs that rely on them," says Cantwell. (But don't worry, infected salmon is still totally edible. Yum!)
⢠Christian conservatives successfully persuaded a federal court to seal the names of people who signed anti-gay petitions for Referendum 71 in 2009. One problem: Gay-rights activists already obtained copies from Washington's Office of the Secretary of State. KnowThyNeighbor.org director Tom Lang says all the names and addresses will be archived in an online database. "The public will have them in the most easily accessible format possible," he says.
