1. One thing you learn in journalism school is to be careful about quoting people’s slangy dialects. It can come across as condescending in the context of a story where the rest of the article is AP formal. It’s the writer’s call, and you want to be accurate about the quote, but be mindful of how it might read.
And so it was earlier this week after PubliCola’s interview with Gov. Chris Gregoire when we asked her about Speaker of the House Rep. Frank Chopp’s (D-43, Seattle) claim that the infamous tunnel cost overruns provision was hers.
We quoted her this way: “Was it my idea? No it wasn’t. Was it my language? No. I didn’t like the language.”
We must admit, we took some journalism-school liberties with that. Here’s what the gov actually said:
“Was it my idea? No it wadn’t. Was it my language. No, it wadn’t. I didn’t like the language.”
2. Speaking of which, PubliCola did a public records request with the governor’s office to see if there where any smoking emails or documents to show that the cost overruns provision and/or language was actually hers. (We’d already done one with Chopp’s office and were told they had nothing relevant to our request.)
Gregoire’s office says they don’t have anything either.
Footnote: The legislature isn’t subject to PDRs. However, state House Democrats spokeswoman Melinda McCrady said she didn’t believe there had been any communications between Gregoire and Chopp on the overruns issue, and the response from Chopp’s office, like the one from Gregoire’s office yesterday, said there were “no records responsive” to our request.
3. U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee (D-WA, 1) spoke at Transportation Choices Coalitions’ packed summer fundraiser yesterday evening in South Lake Union. (TCC, lobbies the city, county, state, and feds for transit and transit dollars.)
“I believe in three things. Transportation Choices Coalition, cold beer, and short speeches,” Inslee joked to the crowd. (It was hot.)
And about to get hotter: “I was extremely disappointed at our senate’s failure to pass an energy bill,” Inslee said, busting on his senate colleagues for failing to make good on the cap and trade bill the House passed—with Inslee’s heavy lift— over a year ago.
This week, Rolling Stone published a must-read article on the Senate (and President Obama’s) failure on the climate bill.
4. Ironic footnote: There weren’t any bike racks outside the TCC fundraiser. The shindig was at a meeting space called 415 Westlake in the newly posh neighborhood along the SLU streetcar line, and people had to store their bikes inside. (TCC should get on that.)
Here, for example, is Seattle City Council Member Mike O’Brien’s bike complete with his “No More Drilling” sign hitched to the back:
5. More details on City Council member Nick Licata’s effort to save an art installation in the Central District that was taken down by the artist after neighbors complained that it included a photo of a notorious neighborhood criminal.
A staffer for Licata says he is trying to find other neighborhoods that might be interested in hosting the show, which requires an empty lot of about 7,500 square feet—including, potentially, the empty lot right across the street from City Hall, site of a stalled office and condo project.
