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What happens if health measure 101 fails in Oregon?
Voters in Oregon have until January 23 to return their ballots on Measure 101, which would tax hospitals and insurers to fund the state’s Medicaid program, which provides health insurance to 350,000 people. OPB looks at what might happen if the measure fails, and whether the legislature has the votes to pass a different funding package in the current session.
Racial equity in Seattle schools is getting worse
A detailed report in the Seattle Times confirms that despite efforts by Seattle public schools, the achievement gap between students of color and their white peers is growing. A Stanford study found black students tested at increasingly lower levels than white students, and Seattle has one of the highest disparity rates of any U.S. city. Reporter Neal Morton spoke with KNKX about the issue. At the South Seattle Emerald, Hayden Bass and Vivian van Gelder argue that white parents need to make real sacrifices to address the gap, including banning the practice of PTA funding of additional teacher salaries.
Six environmental issues facing the WA state legislature
Now that Democrats control the Washington state legislature, there’s a flood of environmental legislation on the table, and Crosscut (and Investigate West) run down the major bills, including a carbon tax, shoreline protection, oil spill prevention, and emissions standards for trucks serving the Port of Seattle.
Moving beyond Indigenous stereotypes
Media images of Native American and First Nation people have been plagued by stereotype from the earliest days, but things are slowly changing, say BC writers John M.H. Kelly and Miranda J. Brady, authors of a new book We Interrupt This Program. In an interview with the Tyee, the authors point to work by Indigenous journalists and artists such as A Tribe Called Red and Jackson 2bears.
Is Portland still Portlandia?
CBS’s 60 Minutes goes to Portland to find out if the city that the show Portlandia made famous still exists. Yes, they’re still painfully polite and have weird shops where you can buy hundreds of kind of salt. But rising housing costs make it no longer a cheap refuge, and it’s a place where tension between right-wing extremists and antifa supporters is on the rise.
Poetry by Rae Armantrout
Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Rae Armantrout was one of the innovators in the Language poetry movement in the 1960s, and now has taken up residence in Seattle. You can read two recent poems online at The American Journal of Poetry:
“Where the wires cross —
insights. I want more.”
A few years ago the New Yorker published a good survey of Armantrout’s style and career.
That’s all for today from the Great NorthWet! ?️ –Andrew Engelson
Photo credit: CDSA preschool in Seattle Public Schools courtesy of Seattle City Council