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.

Re: Greg Nickels’ New Beard & Special Sessions

Politics, This Washington   March 8, 2010 at 2:38 pm Josh Feit

Greg Nickels isn’t the only politician sporting a beard these days. State Sen. Ed Murray has a new look this session too…

… Or an old look.

Says Murray: “I just grew mine back. I can show you pictures of me in my 20s with my red beard.”

Onto more significant matters. Murray—one of the Senate Democratic leaders who’s pushing the “millionaires’ tax” (a plan to ask voters to approve a 4.5 percent income tax on high-income earners)—says this year’s legislative session in Olympia, slated to end this Thursday, will have to go into special session for the plan (also being pushed by Senate Majority Leader Sen. Lisa Brown) to go forward.

The idea is to give voters a choice—go with the 0.3 percent sales tax that the Senate is also pushing (hmmm) or reject that (even lower it from it’s current rate) and go with a tax on rich people instead.


  • pl

    The beard is back!!

    My bf has a beard, and I'm not a facial hair type of gal, but I love it! Clooney-esque!

  • feed up with government

    Gee — why can't we just vote up and down on each one of the state's programs and each tax element of state revenue? We can just take the politicians out of the picture since they seem useless anyway.

  • http://twitter.com/inflatemouse Carlos del Rio

    My beard is so big it has its own congressional representative