I spoke on KEXP's Mind Over Matters about Microsoft's Nevada Tax Dodge in April. Here are the links we shared with listeners: Video and Audio from KEXP's Mind Over Matters Apr 2013 Seattle Times Realizes Microsoft's Running the Legislature (Slog) (on Slashdot) Third Anniversary of Washington State's Big Tax Gift to Microsoft Dummies Guide to Microsoft's Tax Dodge WA grants MSFT $1.5B tax amnesty, resorts to taxing dance-clubs to make up shortfall (BoingBoing) Microsoft wins its $100M tax-break and amnesty from broke-*** Washington State (BoingBoing) Impacts on Washington State Education / Education Statistics Three Ways of Understanding the Scope of... Continue reading

I recommend reading Why We Can't Depend On Activists To Create Change by Jonathan Mathew Smucker: The very concept of a group of activists is an example of this trend of self-segregation. It is as if activism has morphed into a specific identity that centers on a hobby—like being a... Continue reading

UPDATE: The Court of Appeals has agreed to hear the stay. Hearing date tba. Bellingham's Proposition 2 (No Coal!) has requested an emergency stay and discretionary review from the Washington State Court of Appeals citing imminent harm if the initiative is barred from the November ballot (a decision on the... Continue reading

Last week, The Stranger called us “oblivious” and said i103 “mocks a serious problem in our country … and the serious discussion surrounding it—while wasting the time and enthusiasm of activists.” Should the paper, highly active on gay rights, really be so dismissive of the work of other activists? Continue reading

On July 28th, the newly formed Washington Community Rights Network released The Spokane Declaration, which calls for communities to: Build a statewide coalition to change the State Constitution to recognize our right to local self-government eliminating these legal doctrines at the State level, to protect the local laws adopted within our municipalities; Continue reading

Judge Charles Snyder On Friday, August 3rd, Whatcom County Superior Court Judge Charles Snyder blocked Bellingham's Proposition 2 (No Coal! ordinance) from appearing on the city's November ballot. The Bellingham Herald reports that the Judge "...said the initiative, with its coal transport ban and Community Bill of Rights, exceeded the... Continue reading

What keeps the Internet open is Net Neutrality — the longstanding principle that preserves our right to communicate freely online. This is the definition of a free and open Internet. Net Neutrality means that Internet service providers may not discriminate between different kinds of online content and apps. It guarantees a level playing field for all websites and Internet technologies. Increasingly, equal, unobstructed access to the Internet is a critical component in our local democracy. This is why, Initiative 103 provides a right to network neutrality. Continue reading

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. plans to announce a 52,000 square foot store in Seattle's Green Lake neighborhood. "We finally found 20 acres the city council would let us build on," said an unnamed Wal-Mart official. This is the third store planned for the broader metro area; a 74,000 square foot Factoria location and 64,000 square foot Kelsey Creek location are on the Eastside. The city has also agreed to include $3 million in taxpayer subsidies and sales tax rebates to encourage development, density and jobs near the coming Roosevelt light rail station. Said Wal-Mart, "We just asked for what the Sonics got!" Continue reading

The phrase "The City of Seattle will request" appears five times in its brief resolution stating its "opposition" to coal exports. The fact is that there is no law on the books that allows the city to restrict heightened coal exports. If you haven't heard yet, Peabody Energy plans to dramatically scale up coal exports to Asia by rail from Montana through Seattle up to Bellingham. Print and sign i103 right now to stop the coal train from coming through Seattle. Continue reading

On Tuesday, July 17th, Corporate Person and Ms. Angela Vogel married at Westlake Park to highlight the ridiculousness and insidious harms of "Corporate Personhood". If you'd like to get involved in ending Corporate Personhood, please check out the I103 website, print and sign the petition and consider volunteering or making... Continue reading

The following is a statement by the organizers of Initiative 103 on today's Supreme Court reversal of the Montana State Supreme Court's ruling on American Tradition Partnership v. Bullock, No. 11-1179: Today's Supreme Court ruling allows nearly unlimited, unregulated spending by wealthy individuals and corporations in our elections to continue... Continue reading

Information is still coming in from tonight's Student Debt Noise Brigade march on Capitol Hill last night - so it's too early to draw any clear conclusions. However, it does appear that last week the SPD allowed marchers to proceed peacefully down the center of Broadway with bike escorts. Then, tonight, police cars moved in and attempted to arrest one person starting a melee. Continue reading

Thud... Thud... Thud! That's the sound of phonebooks you opted out from landing on your porch in the near future if Seattle loses a lawsuit brought by phonebook publishers. The case is a perfect example of big business using "corporate personhood" to waste taxpayer money and intimidate the city council... Continue reading

Ballard Loves Coal! Who's keeping Ballard residents in the dark about the approaching coal train and why can't they take a joke? One of the things we've learned working on Initiative 103 is that Seattleites are turned off by negativity ... so, we set up two opposing coal train web... Continue reading

We've got a new t-shirt design. Rights Are For People on the front, Corporations Aren't People on the back. You can order them directly through Zazzle.com. Continue reading

Here are the remarks presented by Initiative 103 co-organizer, Jeff Reifman, at the Seattle City Council hearing on the coal train. See also Seattle City Council passes resolution opposing transportation of coal through Seattle. We were asked at the last minute to limit comments to one minute each - grey... Continue reading

Issue after issue in Seattle pits corporate power and influence peddling against residents and our environment. Initiative 103's Community Bill of Rights provides the tools residents need to protect and manage what happens in our city. Take a quick look at some of the issues emerging in Seattle to see... Continue reading

As I mentioned here earlier, The Seattle Times has yet to mention anything about yesterday's unanimous city council resolution regarding corporate free speech and Citizens United. I've searched and searched and can't find anything. This seems to break practice at the paper which previously reported on meaningful city council resolutions:... Continue reading

The Seattle City Council unanimously passed a resolution yesterday calling on Congress to amend the Constitution to repeal the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision. Story in the PI here and post by Councilman Harrell (photos here & here). There seems to be no mention of this in The Seattle Times,... Continue reading

On Monday, the Seattle City Council will vote on a non-binding advisory resolution to call on the Washington State Legislature and Congress to make law which would supersede the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision. Essentially, the resolution says that corporations are not people, do not have constitutional rights and thus... Continue reading

While I was gathering signatures for I103 outside Bluebird at 74th & Greenwood, there was a pretty major police chase. I saw a small white car fleeing northbound and then a SPD car backing up Northbound at about 40 mph with sirens blaring ... at the point the SPD car... Continue reading

Update: Thanks BoingBoing for linking in! Inspired by Waxy's approach to audio transcription, I began experimenting with Amazon's Mechanical Turk to digitize and validate handwritten petition forms from Initiative 103's signature gathering efforts. By the time we've gathered enough voter signatures to qualify I103 for Seattle's November ballot, we expect... Continue reading

Join us Wednesday night May 16th at Richard Hugo House on Capitol Hill for the book launch of Beautiful Trouble, A Toolbox for the Revolution! Beautiful Trouble is a book and web toolbox that puts the accumulated wisdom of decades of creative protest into the hands of the next generation... Continue reading

"Only 52 percent of the American public has a favorable opinion of the court, down from 64 percent three years ago and a high of 80 percent favorability in 1994, Pew reported on Tuesday, " according to CSM. Gallup reports an even lower 46 percent approval. Among Americans who've heard... Continue reading

Update: None of my calls from Q13 Fox have been returned. Coincidentally, I've since learned that its last news director resigned over failing to turn over video of police brutality. This may be an indication of the prevailing corporate culture over at Fox. My six hours of signature gathering at... Continue reading