In a press conference Thursday morning, Seattle City Council members Mike O’Brien and Kirsten Harris-Talley announced the core of a new proposed budget for the city: making the top 10% grossing businesses pay a tax of less than five cents per hour per full-time employee. The H.O.M.E.S. proposal — Housing, Outreach and Mass-Entry Shelter — would…
via O’Brien and Harris-Talley: Tax Seattle businesses for homelessness — CHS Capitol Hill Seattle
Seattle City Council member Kshama Sawant faces a defamation lawsuit from the Seattle Police Department officers who shot Che Taylor last year. Sawant filed for a motion to dismiss last week. The officers, Scott Miller and Michael Spaulding, claim she used the fatal shooting while naming the officers to further her own administrative agenda and political…
Kirsten Harris-Talley emerged victorious from 16 applicants vying to occupy Seattle City Council’s vacant Position 8, left open after Tim Burgess accepted the position of interim Mayor of Seattle until Nov. 28. Harris-Talley who was appointed on Friday afternoon will hold her council position for 51 days.
It’s official, the city of Seattle has their new 55th mayor for 71 days. Councilmember Tim Burgess was nominated by the Seattle City Council this afternoon in a 5-1 vote.
via Seattle’s New Interim Mayor: Tim Burgess — South Seattle Emerald
Nearly four months after sexual abuse allegations first emerged against Seattle Mayor Ed Murray, the one-term mayor has decided to resign after his cousin recently claimed Murray abused him as a child.
via Seattle Mayor Resigns After Fifth Child Sexual Abuse Allegation — South Seattle Emerald
Nikkita Oliver (Photo by Alex Garland)
After a months-long mayoral primary campaign where 21 candidates vied to replace the outgoing Ed Murray, Seattleites received a clearer picture of the two candidates competing in November’s general election. With 184,928 ballots counted, former U.S. Attorney Jenny Durkan, widely seen as […]
Sen. Pramilla Jayapal answers audience questions about moving forward. (Photo by Kelsey Hamlin)
Town Hall Seattle filled with mostly seniors July 6, gathered together for Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal (D–Wash) as she talked about politicians’ strategies and proposals for America’s new healthcare.
The Republican base vowed to rail against the Affordable Care Act (ACA) before its implementation, quickly renaming it Obamacare in 2010. After that negative political nickname trickled down throughout America, now-President Donald Trump promised to repeal the ACA as soon as he got elected office. Now, seven months into his term, Republicans are still trying to replace it. […]
On July 27, the Senate cast their votes for the last standing Trumpcare bill. Hoards of protestors stood outside of the Washington D.C. Capitol shouting, “don’t kill us, kill the bill!” Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) voted against repealing Obamacare and against their own party’s wishes. People watching nationwide were nervous because McCain, recently diagnosed with cancer, was speaking out in support of the bill the entire week prior and even after his diagnosis. Without having obtained three more people against the bill on top of many democrats already against it, the legislation would have past. Still, many speculate it is not yet over.
[…]
a woman with gold-rimmed glasses stepped on stage. Her name: Leigh Pate. She’s a cancer survivor who finished another round of chemotherapy three weeks prior, due to fallopian tube cancer. Her bills, Pate explained, are already upward $300,000.
Before the ACA, Pate struggled to pay for her necessary medical interventions. She recalled that the ACA “was a tremendous burden lifted.” But that burden wasn’t lifted for too long.
“Two weeks ago, I got a love letter from my insurance company,” Pate said. The paper alerted her to no longer having coverage. She held up the paper.
“I spent the rainy morning at my kitchen table—still sick from having chemo three days before—researching which insurance company might offer me an individual policy.”
She knew losing her insurance meant never getting coverage because of her pre-existing condition: Cancer. Missing a payment meant getting dropped.
“There are people sitting around kitchen tables all around this country who got the same letter as I did,” Pate said. “They’re using their precious energy worrying about their health finances.”
