Archive for Washington
Recent Stories for Washington
Washington Supremes Put Error-Filled Initiative Back On Ballot
Category: Corruption · State: Washington · Source: Blockbuster Democracy
An initiative to boost training for long-term health care workers has been put back on the ballot by the Washington State Supreme Court. The initiative is sponsored by the nation's largest union, the Service Employees International Union, as part of a strategy of organizing such health care aides. The idea is that by requiring training and imposing other regulation of such aides, the union can leverage government influence to convince such aides to join the union.
Eyman wins court battle with county over ballot issue
Category: Initiative and Referendum · State: Washington · Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Fresh from a court victory Thursday, initiatives guru Tim Eyman predicted defeat in November for a ballot proposal he opposes that would make it harder to amend the King County charter by initiative. "They just put a stake in the heart of this thing," Eyman said. "There's no way the voters will vote for this now." The measure -- itself a charter amendment -- would double the number of signatures that initiative backers need to collect to bring proposed charter amendments before voters for ratification, raising the total from a number equal to 10 percent of the votes cast in the previous election for county executive to 20 percent. But the ballot wording chosen by county officials to describe the measure didn't say the requirement would be increased: It would have simply asked voters if they wanted to adopt a new amendment procedure with a 20 percent signature threshold.
Lakewood minicasino ban appears headed to ballot
Category: Gaming · State: Washington · Source: Tacoma News-Tribune
The group trying to rid Lakewood of minicasinos appears to have collected enough signatures to put its initiative on the ballot. City voters would make the final decision as part of the busy general election in November. City Manager Andrew Neiditz told the Lakewood City Council Monday night that he spoke with Pierce County Auditor Pat McCarthy’s office earlier in the day. The county said that after an initial count of all signatures gathered in the city’s first-ever citizen initiative campaign, 3,904 are valid. The Save Lakewood group needs at least 3,707 valid signatures to force city leaders to ban minicasinos or put it to a public vote. The county will check all 6,138 signatures again for their validity, but the Auditor’s Office doesn’t expect the number that are valid to go down, Neiditz said.
Assisted Suicide Initiative on November Ballot
Category: Right-To-Die · State: Washington · Source: KIMA-TV Yakima
Oregonians legalized assisted suicide a decade ago. Now, Washington may be the second state in the country to allow terminal patients to expedite their death. "I suppose if they made you a zombie, that they could take away all your humanity in order to relieve you of pain, put you in a coma practically," said Ginger Vetrano, who gathered signatures around the Tri-Cities to put the initiative on the ballot. Initiative 1000, better known as "Death With Dignity," boils down to a sick person's right to choose when he or she wants to die. It would allow doctors to prescribe a lethal prescription to patients with six months or less to live. "It's something I would want for myself and my mother and anybody else I loved," said Vetrano. If it passed, two doctors would have to independently verify that the patient is mentally competent to make the decision, and that no one has coerced him or her to choose to die early. Vetrano says it's a question of choice. "I think we're all autonomous people," she said. "I wouldn't want to make the decision for you, and I hope you wouldn't want to make the decision for me."
Right-to-Die Initiative Making Its Way to State Ballot
Category: Right-To-Die · State: Washington · Source: Wenatchee World
Washington voters will find themselves at the center of a national right-to-die debate this year if Initiative 1000, modeled on Oregon's Death With Dignity law, makes it onto the November ballot. The campaign turned in nearly 320,000 signatures July 2, far more than the 225,000 valid signatures it needs to qualify. Already, out-of-state money is pouring into the campaign to pass the measure, including $315,000 so far from the Death With Dignity National Center, a Portland-based group that seeks to see the Oregon law replicated in other states. So far, the campaign has raised $1,124,000.
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