Viva La Cola!

Founded in January 2009, PubliCola is a blog about Seattle written by journalists who are dedicated to non-partisan, original daily reporting that prioritizes a balanced approach to news. Started by longtime local editor and award-winning reporter Josh Feit, PubliCola is the first online-only news site in state history to get media credentials to cover the state capitol.

PubliCola was off and running. In June 2009, PubliCola hired another award-winning journalist, super-sourced Seattle city hall reporter Erica C. Barnett.

People were afraid that blogging would change journalism. Instead, we believe journalism can change blogging. Twenty-first century journalism may look and feel different, and yes Erica isn't afraid to get cranky, but we're committed to making sure online news still delivers independent, reliable, even-keeled coverage. And most of all, we're committed to making sure the coverage sparks honest civic debate.

Bringing you cola for the people, PubliCola is named after Publius Valerius PubliCola, the alias for the authors of the Federalist Papers—the original bloggers.

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The first online-only news site in state history to get media credentials to cover the state capitol and Seattle city hall, PubliCola has been called a “must-read” by the Seattle Post Intelligencer and a hot “New Media Mover and Shaker” by Seattle Magazine—which also cited our own Erica C. Barnett as the city's No. 1 news nerd.

PubliColaTV: The Stimulus Package

News   February 14, 2009 at 11:00 am Chris Kissel

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dybRrFDrUV0[/youtube]

Yesterday, Congress passed a final, $787 billion version of the national economic stimulus bill. All of Washington State’s Democratic representatives in Congress voted for the bill; our three Republican representatives in the House voted against it.

Washington State legislators now estimate that the state will be getting about $812 million from the State stabilization fund, most of it going toward education initiatives. Additionally, $500 million in Federal funding will go toward transportation initiatives, with $180 million toward expanded transit projects. We’ll also $2 billion for Hanford clean up thanks to Sen. Murray, and we’ll see $2.06 billion for the state in additional Medicaid funding, a provision Sens. Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray both pushed for throughout the stimulus debate.


  • RonK, Seattle

    Here’s a related update on a matter Publicola assessed earlier as “Rep. Brian Baird’s, D-WA, 3, got some momentum on his sales tax deduction bill. Rep. Jim McDermott, D-WA, 7? Not so much on his unemployment insurance bill”.

    Of course McD had this one wired from the get-go.

  • RonK, Seattle

    Here’s a related update on a matter Publicola assessed earlier as “Rep. Brian Baird’s, D-WA, 3, got some momentum on his sales tax deduction bill. Rep. Jim McDermott, D-WA, 7? Not so much on his unemployment insurance bill”.

    Of course McD had this one wired from the get-go.