****[UPDATE 11/14: The investigation is proceeding – thanks for all your help on this!]****

On the afternoon of the Kavanaugh hearings in late September, my friend Candace said publicly for the first time that state Senator Joe Fain is the man who raped her in a D.C. hotel room in 2007.

The story has been covered by multiple outlets in the last 6 weeks, but until very recently our state’s public officials had remained silent on conducting an investigation of the matter, as Candace has called for and as Fain has said that he supports as well.

Last Thursday, November…

Note that I’m in Seattle, so I can’t vote for Kim Schrier in CD-8, Lisa Brown in CD-5, or Carolyn Long in CD-3, but I encourage you to join me in giving them money instead (click here for Schrier, here for Brown, or here for Long).

However you decide to vote, though, be sure to send in your ballot by Tuesday, November 6th — postage is no longer required, so all you have to do is fill it out and drop it in the mail (be sure it’s postmarked by the 6th, though, otherwise it won’t be counted), or if…

There’s been a meaningful shift in the market in the last few months, and I’ve gotten a lot of questions about what it means both from clients and from friends and acquaintances. Here’s my take.

The Northwest MLS released their stats for August earlier this week, which are the source for this Seattle Times story (I recommend scrolling straight down to the interactive graphic and the charts in the middle of the article, which are the really good stuff).

Basically, the number of listings remained virtually the same from August of 2017 to August of this year, but pending and…

I’ve gotten a lot of questions about my stance on Seattle’s head tax in the last couple of weeks, so if you’re curious, here it is: I fully support it, but I think it should have been $500 per employee per year instead of $275.

In a perfect world we’d have an income tax and a much less regressive tax code than we do in Washington state, but as Tech4Housing member and software developer Rachael Ludwick was quoted as saying in a GeekWire article this week, “I think of the head tax as an imperfect proxy for the income tax…

Regardless of how you choose to vote, please remember to send in your ballot by next Tuesday!

Mayor

There are a lot of great candidates for mayor this year — I think Mike McGinn, Nikkita Oliver, Jessyn Farrell, and Cary Moon all have what it takes to lead our city, and I would be thrilled to see any of them win the general election in November.

Of the four, though, I’m going to be casting my vote for McGinn, for a few reasons:

1. I know he shares my values on the issues that are most important to me: housing affordability…

After a successful test run last week I decided to launch a beta version of my weekly wrap-up digest of national news about Trump. This is the last time that I’ll cross-post it to Medium; in the future it’ll come out solely as an email every Sunday morning (note that I’m planning on taking a two-week hiatus for Christmas and New Year’s and then returning with another full edition on January 8th). If you’d like to sign up to get the email, click here.

News

The FBI, NSA, and CIA all agree that Russia intervened in the election for multiple different…

A weekly summary of Trump Transition news and analysis. I’m beta testing it now for a possible email newsletter launch in early 2017 depending on how much interest there is in it— if you like what you read, please take a moment to give me your feedback through this quick, 3-question survey! And if you live in Seattle, check out my existing weekly email newsletter about Seattle politics, the Civic Minute.

News

• The same day that President Obama ordered an investigation into Russia’s involvement in the November 8th election, The Washington Post and The New York Times both reported that the…

• Make a contribution to an organization on the list of “pro-women, pro-immigrant, pro-earth, anti-bigotry” organizations that Joanna Rothkopf at Jezebel compiled, or one of the local organizations doing important work with immigrants and refugees in Seattle and Washington state that Sydney Brownstone at The Stranger put together.
• Read French artist Marie-Shirine Yener’s web comic about how to help most effectively if you witness someone being intimidated or harassed in public.
• Read this piece on how to be a good ally to the women/people of color/immigrants/LGBTQ folks in your life and in your community.
• Wear a safety pin to show your…