1. Late yesterday, the West Seattle Junction Association announced that NARAL is now allowed to participate in this weekend’s annual West Seattle gala, Summerfest. All hail ECB.
On Tuesday Erica broke the news that the West Seattle Junction Association had decided to ban NARAL Pro-Choice Washington and Planned Parenthood from participating in West Seattle Summerfest because, the WSJA said, the pro-choice groups stirred up too much controversy for a family atmosphere.
Yesterday, in a follow-up story, Erica busted WSJA spokeswoman Susan Melrose, for making contradictory statements about the decision.
Meanwhile, in response to Erica’s story, pressure was building on the WSJA to allow NARAL to participate.
Late in the day, Melrose sent an email to Erica (and to the West Seattle Blog, where a discussion about ECB’s story was tearing up the comments threads) saying NARAL (or Planned Parenthood), along with one pro-life group, would be allowed to participate. Here’s Melrose’s email:
After the 2009 West Seattle Summer Fest, the West Seattle Junction Association (WSJA) decided to not accept organizations into the event to discuss the issue of abortion. In past years, WSJA received strong negative feedback from the public against how the issue of abortion was being presented though we had asked these organizations to be contentious. Many families wrote, called and emailed that the graphic displays still offered by certain groups were not appropriate for their children. Summer Fest is a family and community oriented event, therefore WSJA listened to community input and chose not to accept anyorganizations to debate abortion. This seemed like a fair way to address the issue since not all applicants are accepted into the festival due to limited space. The first responsibility of the WSJA is to our community and we were responding to community feedback.
Now the West Seattle community has spoken out again. After it was publicized that pro-choice and pro-life organizations would not be registered with Summer Fest, we received calls and emails that many do want this issue to be presented at the event. Our organization has no position on this issue and our decision to not accept organizations from either side of this debate was based solely on the feedback of the community who we tried to accommodate.
Based on recent community input, WSJA has made the decision to allow one booth for each side of the issue into this year’s festival. In our effort to be neutral, we created a far greater stir than expected. We hope to respond to and remedy the initial complaints by having vendors sign a statement that all displays and handouts are subject to approval by WSJA.
Great reporting Erica. And way to live up to this whole thing.
2. Speaking of NARAL, Josh filed a 900 word story last night about the state’s decision—which has flabbergasted women’s rights groups—to back away from its legal case defending current State Board of Pharmacy standards that mandate full access to emergency contraception. It’s a must read.
3. As BikeNerd Josh Cohen has reported, Cascade Bicycle Club and other environmentalists are suing the Puget Sound Regional Council, charging that the PRSC’s Transportation 2040 plan doesn’t go far enough to meet state-mandated greenhouse gas emission standards. The trial is scheduled to start January 31, 2011.
One potential wrinkle: If the trial ends up delaying any pending roads projects, pro-roads legislators in Olympia could rewrite the greenhouse gas legislation—which currently requires a reduction of emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, a 25 percent reduction of 1990 levels by 2035, and a 50 percent reduction of 1990 levels by 2050—which could bring the PSRC in compliance.
The emission goals were merely “aspirational” anyway, according to Eastside state Rep. Deb Eddy (D-48).
4. President Obama’s Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, whose name is synonymous with education reform—is coming to Washington state on Friday. He’ll be at Aviation High School in Des Moines, a math and science specialty public high school, with U.S. Sen. Patty Murray.
Given that Aviation H.S. is a public alternative school that Gov. Gregoire, who’s applying for Duncan money, has boasted about in lieu of charter schools—Duncan loves charters, but Washington state does not—and given that Sen. Murray is a master at getting federal dollars to come our way, does Duncan’s visit mean Washington state made the first cut in his Race to the Top education grant program (worth $250 million)?
Perhaps. However, given that Gregoire won’t be there (she’s out of town that day), the Fizz doesn’t expect any surprise announcements on Friday. The RTTT semifinalists will be announced on July 26.
5. We weren’t able to make last night’s Seattle Center forum on what to do with the Fun Forest space. The PI (which summed up the evening as “hipsters against oldsters”) and the Seattle Times both have reports.
We were, however, at a raucous Sound Transit hearing in Bellevue. We’ll report on that later today.
