Seattle

Topless In Seattle

We'll be back on out regular posting scheduling tomorrow. In the meantime, Dominic Moreo sends the following from Seattle—

Topless in Seattle won on election day, Mayor Greg Nickels lost as the ballot measure to establish four feet between dancers and patrons lost by two to one. Nickels lost on another ballot measure to assist the local basketball team with subsidies toward a new arena. However, he won on a 20-year so-called transportation levy of which a third would fill pot holes and repave streets. Since the 1960s, Seattle, like many cities, neglected basic services including streets, and structures in favor of social programs. For politicians, maintenance of infrastructure had no sex appeal.

Meanwhile the local school district, a separate entity, continues its downward spiral. So much so that the Seattle Times, on Sunday called for the resignation of the school board. Since the 1960s, enrollment has plunged, mismanagement and budget deficits have been endemic, turnover of superintendents a ritual dance, failure to close schools with dispatch, and headline grabbing items of lead in the school drinking fountains and more. Despite these woes, last week, a few school board members called for the termination of school bus transportation outsourcing in favor of an in-house operations thereby adding $60 to $70 million to the budget deficit.

Through all this travail, the astute Mayor Nickels announced his preferred solution to the school debacle in the wake of the resignation of the current school superintendent Raj Manhas, and the recent withdrawal of funding by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. His solution? The appointment of former mayor, Norm Rice, as the new superintendent.

Quick Hits-Election Day Arrives

We'll begin sifting through the electoral ashes tomorrow. In the meantime, a handful of quick hits—