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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.

National Bike Summit Wants Your Phone Time

That Washington   March 11, 2010 at 12:34 pm Josh Cohen

Oregon Rep. Earl Blumenauer

The 10th annual National Bike Summit has been in full swing in Washington D.C.  all week. Local, state, and national bike advocacy organizations, transit groups, bike industry folks, and concerned cyclists have converged on the Capitol for three days of speakers, workshops, and lobbying.

Today, the final day of the summit, is dedicated to lobbying for Oregon Rep. Earl Blumenaur’s Active Community Transportation Act, HR 4722. The bill would fund a grant program that would allow communities to compete for federal funding to improve biking and walking routes. That sort of competitive funding is currently available for transit and road infrastructure, but not for bikers and walkers.

The Bike Summit has put out the call for cyclists nationwide to contact their representatives in support of Rep. Blumenaur’s bill. If that sounds like something you can get behind, the League of American Bicyclists has a web page set up to help you get in touch with your congresspeople.

Also worth noting from the Summit: Washington Sen. Patty Murray received an award this morning from the League of American Bicyclists for her work on behalf of cyclists and transit in our state.

I’ll have a more comprehensive post in the next few days on the Bike Summit’s accomplishments, but if you want to keep up to date with it in the meantime, BikePortland.org’s Jonathan Maus is there and has been posting regular updates.