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Author Archives: DBP
New Minimum Wage for Seattle: Where’s the Data?
Let me start this post by saying that I have no official opinion on Seattle City Council Member (and self-proclaimed socialist) Kshama Sawant’s proposed $15/hr minimum wage for Seattle workers. Of course, I’d like to have an opinion on it, … Continue reading
Posted in General
Tagged 1%, bruce harrell, jean godden, Kshama Sawant, minimum wage, social justice, ted virdone
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Welcome to Amerigroup . . . Are you crazy?
Dedicated to Scott St. Clair and Dr. Ron Sterling OK . . . so I got signed up with Obamacare on schedule, right? As of now, I haven’t been to see a doctor once, so I haven’t gotten anything good … Continue reading
Posted in Essays
Tagged Amerigroup, Amerigroup Realsolutions, Bureau of Prisons, DSHS, health care, health insurance, IRS, Obamacare
4 Comments
Health Insurance: Why is this so damn hard? (Part 2)
March 6, 2014 Here’s the latest on my Obamacare travail . . . Back Story If you recall, in early February 2014, I received a nasty-gram from the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS). I had just … Continue reading
Posted in General
Tagged Department of Social and Health Services, DSHS, Eileen Cody, HCA, health care, Health Care Authority, Jessie Dean, Obamacare, Susan Todd
2 Comments
Bitcoin is a Scam
February 27, 2014 The Emperor’s New Nuts Recent news stories about the fictional collapse of the fictional bitcoin currency have me wondering who’s the bigger dupe: the trustifarian nerds who buy bitcoins or the journalists who write about them. Take … Continue reading
Rats! ~ How the Health Department threw their work (and your money) down a hole.
The documents below tell the story of how one government agency in Washington State, the Seattle King County Department of Public Health, failed to do its job and serve the public interest. Of course, government failures happen all the time. … Continue reading
Health insurance: Why is this so damn hard?
Don’t answer that. I already know why it’s hard. In a word: Bureaucracy. Mindless, wasteful bureaucracy. See the insurance card below? It’s the third one the government-mandated insurance provider has sent me in the forty days since I signed up … Continue reading
Posted in Essays, General
Tagged bureaucracy, DOH, DSHS, government waste, Obmacare, Welfare
5 Comments
Stupor Bowl
Why do football players make a hundred times more money than Nobel laureates? Why do American high schools students know more about sports teams than they know about the Vietnam War? Look, football is a game. By any measure of … Continue reading
Nickelsville Glassyard Site Clean-up Costs: $37,500 and Counting
Below is an itemized list of the City of Seattle’s estimated clean up costs at Nickelsville Highland Park (aka the “Glassyard Site”). If you recall, Nickelsville was evicted by the Seattle City Council after being on that spot illegally for … Continue reading
Posted in General
2 Comments
ppl (1.23.14)
This lady’s been chillin’ at the intersection of Highland Park Way SW and West Marginal Way SW in Seattle: It’s right where Nickelsville used to be. A world-class destination for panhandlers: Would you like to know what her sign says? –Of … Continue reading
The Schizophrenic Times: SHARE in the News
Three recent articles on SHARE’s Tent City 4 from the Seattle Times: Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2014 ~ Sammamish OKs moratorium on homeless camps This article is supposed to be about the City of Sammamish’s decision to impose a moratorium on tent … Continue reading
Posted in Essays, Politics
Tagged Alexa Vaughn, corporate media, mainstream media, Sammamish, Scott Morrow, seattle times, SHARE, TC4, Tent City 4
1 Comment
Homeless, Inc. ~ Catholic Community Services
This page contains a discussion of a specific low-income housing provider business in Seattle. For the main page and introduction to this topic, see here: Homeless, Inc. Catholic Community Services of Western Washington Total Seattle HSD Budget for 2013: $1,513,453 … Continue reading
Posted in Politics, Profiles
Tagged Catholic Community Services, CCS, executive compensation, homeless, Michael Reichert, non-profits, Scott Morrow, SHARE
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New Feature: Homeless, Inc.
If you’ve been following TBQ, you’ve heard me talking about Homeless, Inc. Homeless, Inc. is the name I have given to Seattle’s mammoth low-income housing industry. It numbers among its members some of the most familiar names in the charity … Continue reading
The Village Quixotic (or: How to avoid headaches by thinking with your tear ducts)
Some astute TBQ readers have been linking me stuff about Olympia’s new Nickelsville knock-off, a joint called “Quixote Village.” Here’s an extract from the 12/31/13 edition of the Olympian newspaper: The residents of Camp Quixote are no longer vagabonds. They … Continue reading
Posted in Essays, General, Politics
Tagged Daily Olympian, editorial bias, fraud, homeless, inc., Jill Severn, media bias, monica spain, Nickelsville, Quixote Village, SHARE
6 Comments
Nickelsville – Skyway Landlord in the News (and not in a good way)
Update: 12/21/13 Go to Update Check out this article from the online version of the Everett Herald: http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20131215/NEWS01/712159841 It discusses two fires that occurred in properties owned by Peter Sikov within a short period of time. Background: If you’ll recall, Peter Sikov … Continue reading
Posted in Essays
Tagged Everett Herald, King County DPER, Nickelsville Skyway, Pete Sikov, Scott Morrow
1 Comment
$64,000 (and counting) To Keep Out Nickelsville Refugees!
In earlier posts, I told you how the City of Seattle has had to shell out for a series of post-Nickelsville clean-up operations at Myers Way South, a mile up the road from where the original Nickelsville camp was, before … Continue reading
Posted in Essays, Photos (Stuff)
Tagged All-City Fence, Nickelsville, Nickelsville clean-up, Scott Morrow
2 Comments
The Ghettoization of the Soul
Here’s another Nickelsville hype piece from our friends at Real Change News. The story is designed to make you believe that Nickelsville is the last place of refuge for families with children: Nickelsville Elementary
Posted in Essays, General
Tagged kids at Nickelsville, Nickelsville, Real Change News, Scott Morrow
2 Comments
ppl (12.18.13)
ppl is an ongoing series of posts about the post-Nickelsville clean-up. Nickelsville is an illegal squatters camp –now three separate camps – that was evicted from the Highland Park neighborhood of West Seattle in early September, 2013. See the previous entry … Continue reading
Posted in General, Photos (People), Photos (Stuff)
Tagged Highland Park Washington, Myers Way South, Nickelsville, Scott Morrow
1 Comment
White Center: More bars in more places
See this place? Papa’s. Papa’s was raided by the Feds for weapons narcotics and shut down over two years ago. But Google doesn’t update its “street view” photos very often, so Papa’s is still there on the street view map, … Continue reading
The Friends of Mike McGinn
Dedicated to . . . The WA State Public Disclosure Commission N.C. & N.H., for their devotion to public service J.R., for her amazing secretarial skills Scott St. Clair, for his inspiration The people of the Great State of Washington, for … Continue reading
Posted in Essays, General
5 Comments
Nickelsville: Finding a solution
I offer this recent guest editorial from the Seattle Times for your edification. The author, one Derek Low, is a student* in the MSW (Master of Social Work) and MPH (Master of Public Health) programs at the University of Washington: … Continue reading
Posted in Essays, General
Tagged Nickelsville, Peggy Hotes, pimps of poverty, Scott Morrow, SHARE
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ppl (12.3.13)
(“ppl” is an ongoing series of posts about the post-Nickelsville clean-up. Nickelsville is an illegal squatters camp –now three separate camps – that was evicted from the Highland Park neighborhood of West Seattle in early September, 2013. See previous entries … Continue reading
Posted in General
Tagged All-City Fence, corruption, Mike McGinn, Nickelsville, Scott Morrow
2 Comments
What puffery is this? (Parts 1 & 2)
Part 1 Go to Part 2 Here’s a cleverly disguised puff-piece from a recent copy of Seattle Times. You can file this one under “Corporate Media Bias”: Football team owner funds research into brain injuries
Posted in General
Tagged brain injury, corporate media, media bias, NFL, paul allen, seahawks, seattle times, vulcan
1 Comment
My Little Socialist: Kshama Sawant
Seattle Councilmember-elect Kshama Sawant is all over the Interblogz these days, and not just for being a nerdy young Woman of Color who beat out a stodgy Old White Man. That would have been news enough, but on top of … Continue reading
Posted in General, Politics, Profiles
Tagged economics, Kshama Sawant, sawant, Seattle City Council, socialism
1 Comment
Monica Spain Is Missing!!
Update: 11/26/13 [Go to update.] Who’s Monica Spain? you ask.
Posted in General
5 Comments
Independent Media: Why it matters.
In a recent issue of the New York Times, I saw no fewer than three stories that illustrate problems with corporate media. And when I say corporate media, I mean any media source that depends on: Ad revenue Stockholder/owner approval … Continue reading
Posted in General, Media, Politics
Tagged boeing, corporate media, journalism, media merger, ny times
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KPLU: Time to start paying your interns
Update! Retraction! (sort of) 11/12/14: Thanks in part to you, my diligent readers, Ms. Erin Hennessey, News Director at KPLU, got back to me on KPLU’s Skyway Nickelsville piece (see below). She also had a couple of clarifications for me: … Continue reading
Nickelsville ~ End of an Illusion
Yo! This be the latest entry in an ongoing Web journal about a squatters camp in Seattle, Washington. For the complete journal, see the “Nickelsville” item in the menu above. Previous Entry: October 30 ~ How I know there’s no investigation into SHARE … Continue reading
So why did McGinn lose, really?
Simple: The guy had bad karma. And how did he get bad karma? By being a fool in a past life, maybe. Or, more likely, being a fool in this one. As most of my readers will already know, by … Continue reading
Posted in General
8 Comments
