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Tacoma police lieutenant Alan Roberts is suing for $500,000 claiming he was harassed by two superiors. The story ran in the Tacoma News Tribune and was the source of stories in several other area papers and media outlets.

There weren’t a lot of details given in the news story and there was nothing to indicate the motive for the alleged harassment. Off the top of my head I’m going to guess it wasn’t race or sexual orientation because both the lawyers and the media would have focused on that little tidbit.

Cronyism and favoritism seem to have always been a big problem for TPD. David Brame seemed to have landed his position as police chief because of his association with the (previous) city manager. I’m sorry to have to put it this way but that’s how Tacoma city government has run for as long as anyone seems to be able to remember.
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It turns out that in addition to the now public disagreements between state Senate Republicans, they’re also having trouble raising money and finding candidates for the this year’s election. Big surprise there.

I guess it confirms what Sen. Roach said about Sen. Hewitt’s leadership.

Roach, always outspoken, is calling Republican leadership a disaster. She says they have no new people donating money and Hewitt has done a horrible job recruiting candidates.

So if you’re keeping score, that’s Roach 2, Hewitt 0. It makes the timing of the reprimand against Roach look a little suspect.

I’m starting to think that it might actually be Roach who’s telling the truth and the leadership team is looking for something to cover their behinds.

I wasn’t able to be at the protests in Lakewood, just outside Tacoma, today. I’m sure pictures will be showing up over the next few days so I’ll post links to them as I find them.

Local nightly news coverage is beginning. The Fox channel (Seattle) focused on the ‘unfairness’ of police enforcement. One protester said that the police faced the anti-war protesters instead of the support the troops crowd. The on-scene reporter did say that the police responded to that by pointing out that they had more trouble getting the anti-war protesters to follow their instructions.
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There’s an ongoing feud between state senator Pam Roach and the WSRP leadership. I don’t know the senator and I don’t have the inside information on this issue, but I don’t trust the GOP leadership in this state.

Here’s what I don’t get. If Sen. Roach did something wrong, why is it the GOP reprimanding her, not the senate or the ethics committee. They said it was official conduct not a personal issue, but they won’t say what it is.
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I have some complaints about the way the Republican Party is run in Washington state. I think there is a climate of failure and fatalism that has squelched all attempts to revive the party at all levels.

There are a number of things, in my opinion, that need to change before the party will see successes in this state and be able to advance a more conservative agenda. Foremost among them is grassroots activism in the party.

Based on the February caucuses that seems to have begun. Crosscut.com has more.

In disaster are sown the seeds of re-birth and renewal, and the 2006 election was a disaster for Republicans. . .

The cause was three-fold: an unpopular president and war; an incorrect perception that all Republicans are like disgraced Ohio Rep.BobNey, who resigned after being implicated in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal; and profligate spending by GOP Senate and House members. Faced with a choice between wasteful Democrats and Republicans who spent like wasteful Democrats, voters opted for the real deal and elected wasteful Democrats.

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I understand that signs of abuse can easily be missed, especially if no one is looking for them.

However, CPS caseworkers don’t show up at someone’s house without a reason. They show up because children may be in danger.

If the child killed by his mother last week was in danger (as indicated by the presence of a CPS caseworker) then why were two injuries to a child’s face overlooked?
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Brace yourself, I’m about to oppose a tax cut. It’s a targeted tax cut that I think targets the wrong recipients. Don’t get me wrong, I want Russell to stay in Tacoma. I just don’t want to spend too much money to keep them here.

If you’ve been paying attention to the news the state legislature passed a bill to give a sales tax break to building projects of a large enough size for businesses with enough ‘qualified’ employees built in ‘empowerment zones’. As usual the bill is worded in such a way that it leaves out the name of the intended recipient (Russell Investment Group) and instead makes it sound very general, which is a load of garbage.

This really amounts to the State jumping in and helping the failed ‘urban renewal’ that politicians, bureaucrats and good old boys have been pushing for decades. They spent a bunch of money to keep Russell here in the 90’s and they’re doing it again now. Their hope is that Russell will attract other financial industry companies to the Tacoma area.
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Our world really is turning upside down. In the Everett (WA) Herald yesterday was this piece, “Totem Middle School students protest lax rules“. Yep, it’s just what it sounds like. The subtitle:

Totem Middle Schoolers call discipline weak, unfair About 200 students walked out of classes on Wednesday, saying they often feel unsafe and want harsher penalties for drugs and fighting.

To me, this screams “wake-up call”, but apparently there aren’t too many people who hear it.
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Gregoire contributes lottery proceeds to ‘Save the Russell’ fund

Pardon my cynicism, but it’s an election year.

Don’t get me wrong, I really want Russell to stay in Tacoma provided it’s good for them and good for us. They’ll take care of themselves. We, on the other hand, have to watch what’s going on so that we don’t get sold down the river by a bunch of bureaucrats and politicians.

If we have to sweeten the deal to keep them here then we should, as long as it’s still to our benefit to have them here when the cost of keeping them here is factored in. I’ll be really ticked off if we spend millions to keep them here then all we hear about from then on is how much benefit they give the city annually. I want to know that the cost of keeping them here is weighed against the financial benefit we get from their presence in downtown Tacoma.
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It’s socialized medicine at it worst. Introduced by Senators Karen Keiser and Jeanne Kohl-Welles, it will cost taxpayers $145 Billion over the first 10 years.

And the sick part? In all of their ‘findings’, which are the reason they give for introducing this legislation, they never once mentioned trial lawyers or litigation as a contributing factor to health care costs.

Whatever the government touches will decay. If you want to know about governments history with health care just look at the VA Hospital system. If you can’t find enough information on that, I can pass along a few stories from my mom, who worked in one for about 20 years. It’s interesting to note that even veterans who work for the VA hospital system generally won’t go there for health care (anecdotal). If these senators are really concerned about health care costs, maybe tort reform is the place to start.