Obama narrowly leads McCain in general election matchup, Clinton and McCain even in AP poll
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON (AP) – Democrat Barack Obama would narrowly defeat Republican John McCain if they were matched today in the presidential election, while McCain and Hillary Rodham Clinton are running about even, according to new general-election sentiment since the Super Tuesday contests.
Read the article here
Highlands Task Force Asks For Community Input
WHAT:
Residents, businesses, and community groups are invited to attend a public input meeting on neighborhood revitalization in the Renton Highlands. This is an opportunity for you to express your thoughts about the Highlands community and share your ideas on what would make the Highlands a great place for residents and businesses. The Highlands Phase II Task Force wants to hear from you. Topics discussed at this meeting will be reviewed by the Task Force and included in their recommendation to the Renton City Council before the end of the year.
WHEN & WHERE: Thursday, February 28, 6-8 p.m.
Highlands Elementary School Cafeteria
2720 NE 7th Street, Renton
CONTACT:
Erika Conkling, Senior Planner 425-430-6578 or econkling@ci.renton.wa.us
Kris Sorensen, Planning Intern 425-430-6593 or ksorensen@ci.renton.wa.us
I guess this settles it… Seattle has some of the most photogenic (or at least pi-rat-ish looking) pirates.
According to King 5, Seattle’s legendary Seafair pirates (a Renton River Days mainstay) are featured in this year’s SI swimsuit issue. Aparently, they were at a convention on Cayman Islands (I guess bands of pirates have conventions) when they were asked to participate in a photo shoot with model Melissa Haro.
Here’s a photo from the King 5 website.
Our Planning/ Building/Public Works Director gave us an update on NE 95th Street near Duvall Ave. Anyone interested in the so-far-under-repaired trench in the road may be interested. Continue reading
Obama Wins 3 Primaries for Delegate Lead
By DAVID ESPO
AP Special Correspondent
Barack Obama powered past Hillary Rodham Clinton in the race for Democratic convention delegates Tuesday on a night of triumph sweetened with outsized primary victories in Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia.
“Tonight we’re on our way,” Obama told cheering supporters in Madison, Wis. “But we know how much further we have to go,” he added, celebrating eight straight victories over Clinton, the former first lady now struggling in a race she once commanded.
The Associated Press count of delegates showed Obama with 1,210. Clinton had 1,188, falling behind for the first time since the campaign began. Neither was close to the 2,025 needed to win the nomination.
His victories were by large margins _ he was gaining about 75 percent of the vote in the nation’s capital and nearly two-thirds in Virginia. In Maryland, he was winning close to 60 percent.
By contrast, Clinton was attempting to retool her campaign in the midst of a losing streak. Her deputy campaign manager resigned, the second high-level departure in as many days.
Read the whole story, in the Seattle Times, by clicking here
We’re been working on a settlement for this dispute. Yakima has made many improvements, such that we have enough confidence to return our inmates without fear for their health and safety.
I applaud the work of our police department in bringing the safety of these inmates to our attention, and following the issue through to a successful conclusion. In so doing, they have helped protect the safety of all of the inmates in theYakima County Jail.
I’m grateful to Mayor Law, and our City attorney’s office for setting the stage for successful resolution of this case.
And I also thank the officials in Yakima, who took Renton’s concerns seriously, and worked to aggresssively make changes. They showed strong willingness to maintain a partnership with us.
As a footnote, our city is working with several other South King County cities to site and build a joint-city misdemeanant jail facitility (to house misdemeaner offenders….average sentance of 14 days). This will probably be built in 2011, and will eliminate any need for Yakima space after that time.
Here is the story:
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Renton Inmates to be Returned to Yakima
Posted: Feb 12, 2008 01:51 PM PST
YAKIMA, Wash. — Inmates from the City of Renton will soon be returned to the Yakima County Jail, but an agreement between the two sides is still on hold.
in 2006, Renton decided to stop housing inmates at the Yakima County Jail, citing safety concerns. Yakima County officials argued that Renton did not have just cause to make this decision and filed a lawsuit.
A trial was set for May 12th, but that has been postponed because both sides have reached a conditional agreement.
About 30 inmates from Renton will be returned on April 1st. The county stands to make $1.7 million from now until 2010 by housing the inmates.
If the conditional agreement is not finalized, a new trial date will be set for mid-2009.
Renton’s safety concerns were alleviated after they hired private consultants to inpect the Yakima County Jail on two seperate occasions. Officials from Renton have arranged for a third inspection later this year.
I know you may be getting tired of council/mayor photos, but the group keeps changing. This one includes Rich Zwicker, second from left, and our Legislative Aid Julia Medzegian. Julia has put in a dozen years with us, trying to keep us all working together as smoothly as possible. Council feels she is so much like part of the council team, that we wanted to include her in our photo.
From left to right: Terri Briere, Rich Zwicker, Greg Taylor, Randy Corman, Denis Law, Marcie Palmer, Don Persson, King Parker, Julia Medzegian
Dear Rentonites:
As a reminder, we are having four new trestles built, and Houser Way reworked, before Burlington Northern eliminates the eastside rail line. This is because this is our final opportunity to route Boeing fuselage deliveries off of the track through Renton…starting in one month, all future Boeing deliveries will have to be through town (and the eastside line will be removed up near Bellevue). Work on the rail line will be more difficult after that, so we are getting everything done now.
The longer, higher trestles over Rainier and Hardie Avenues will allow us to get more lanes of automobile traffic under both of these trestles, ultimately reducing congestion on the Rainier corridor…yay!
I need to add that Burlington Northern and our Renton Transportation Staff are doing an excellent job completing all this work in a short period of time, and they are working very well together.
Here is an update we received from our transportation staff today:
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The “double stacking” of railroad ties is a temporary staging of the
track work. They assembler the ties and rails on top of the existing
rails and stretch, and then drag the whole assembly over and place it in
the right location. That will be the last segment, crossing Burnett
toward the depot.
The the remaining concrete panels are placed — all
this we are told by end of day Tuesday. I still think there might be a
little work left for Wed. But all the work that counts and creates
disruption will be done on time, we are told.
Peter
Peter Hahn
Deputy Administrator
Planning, Building, Public Works
City of Renton
Houser Update:
Williams will remain closed tonight. Renton street crews will place
concrete and asphalt in the gaps remaining between the new concrete
track panels and existing street on Tuesday, Feb 12, 2008.
Burnett will be closed Tuesday, Feb 12, 2008. BNSF crews plan to remove
the existing track, place the new track panel (already assembled) and
the new concrete panels tomorrow. Renton street crews may place concrete
and asphalt tomorrow. However, it is more likely to occur on Wednesday,
Feb 13, 2008 for Burnett. This way our crews stay out of BNSF’s way.
BNSF track crews plan on being complete tomorrow, Tuesday, Feb 12,
2008. They will then move on to installing track starting west of Hardie
Ave.
Rainier, Hardie, Shattuck Update:
Hardie was open today. The tarp is removed. Partial closures may be
required at a later date (half day max) to complete some work underneath
the bridge (install one diaphragm and paint the associated bolts). The
focus now is on Rainier.
Rainier. Work did not occur on Friday or Saturday night. Scarsella has
requested closures be extended until Feb 20, 2008. The construction
manager for BNSF believes the work can be completed by Feb 16, 2008. So
he suggested a wait and see approach. By Wednesday of this week, he will
have a better feel for how things are going. Basically, it is painting
to be done. Painting will occur on top of the bridge first, then
underneath. Once painting is completed on top, iron workers will place
the steel walkway panels, while painting occurs underneath.
Shattuck. Currently tented for water proofing. Should be done water
proofing this week.
Thanks,
Derek
WEEK 4 REPORT ON THE 2008 SESSION OF THE LEGISLATURE
FOR MAYOR, COUNCIL, DEPARTMENT HEADS, SENIOR STAFF
Doug Levy – 2/10/08
The budget cloud hanging over Olympia: There will be more than rain clouds hovering over Olympia this week. On Thursday, the Governor’s Office of Financial Management (OFM) will forward an updated revenue forecast for the state that is expected to be very gloomy.
Kari Kopnick shares her afternoon at the District 47 Democrat Caucus:
Oh man what a fantastic day! It was a good day to be a Washingtonian. It was a good day to be a Citizen. It was a good day to be here in these United States where we have so many ideals and so far to go to meet them.
I went to my neighborhood caucus Saturday afternoon. I had to park way across a busy street in a grocery store parking lot and trek over to the school where my neighbors were packed tight into a school gym.
Crammed in the stuffy little gym were old people, young people and middle aged people, people of lots of ethnic and racial groups and people of different physical abilities. From the looks of the cars in the parking lot there were even probably richer and less rich folks. It was very cool. We were all there doing the whole little “d” democracy thing.
And everyone was so respectful. People were streaming in the doors at least until 1:30, and since my precinct was located by the entrance, I got to see neighbors help their neighbors find the right precinct, navigate wheelchairs and walkers thru the crowd and keep the room not too hot and not too cold; all with kindness and respect.
I think every time an older person came in a chair was immediately offered to them.
And when it came time to divide up for our respective candidates, everyone was very careful to walk that line of respect for each other’s choice.
Is this what politics are always like?
OK, stop laughing.
At least for one day the politics were clean and high minded. It was a good day to be a Benson Hill neighbor.
…you have to have cool manhole covers!…
Here are the ones we’ll be using on new projects in Renton.
I shot this picture a couple hours ago, while taking some friends to the Space Needle. The lights were just turning on.
Bloggers are starting to assess that Barack Obama is the big winner in today’s democratic caucuses. Official results won’t be in for a while, but post caucus polling says it’s Obama.
And the Clinton campaign has issued a Statement to lower expectations… a little like conceding defeat in our state already.
With three candidates in town, and a virtual dead-heat on the democrat campaign trail, this will likely be our state’s biggest day of caucuses ever. Most of the state’s convention delegates are being assigned from these caucuses, so be sure you attend your caucus if you wish to be fully counted. Your primary vote will also help assign some of the delegates, but not the majority of them. (Democrats will assign about 80% of their delegates from the caucus, and Republicans will assign about half of theirs from the caucus; the remainder will come from the primary)
My friend Rebecca posted this, when she made the realization that 6 weeks of cabin fever (from all the cold and rain) has lead to people being short with one another in her online communities.
It’s so funny, you have to watch the video. While the muppets are complaining about cabin fever from being aboard ship for 6 weeks (five day without a breeze), and our problem is we have been stuck indoors too much, the outcome seems the same… here is Rebecca’s commentary, and the video. It’s cute:
Rebecca’s comment: “This is mostly aimed towards the LJ community I’m in, which has suffered from inappropriate snarky comments and entirely unnecessary snarky reply-posts lately. I think it’s because it’s February and we’re all suffering from cabin fever, which is demonstrated artfully by the Muppets in the following video.”
