Oregon’s vote for big new taxes to aid the homeless ups the urgency in Seattle | Danny Westneat
In the face of economic carnage from the pandemic, it was thought that voters might be skittish about going big. But the Portland area just...
Columnist
Danny Westneat
Danny Westneat takes an opinionated look at the Puget Sound region's news, people and politics.
No, we’re not all in this together — look at what’s happening with coronavirus in Yakima | Danny Westneat
The pandemic is not dishing out its damage equally. Consider rich King County, where many workers plan to stay home long after the virus ebbs,...
Gestapo state? The real story of the ‘tyrannical’ stay-at-home order is that enforcement has been almost nonexistent | Danny Westneat
A Port of Seattle police officer went viral -- and made a lot of money -- with a video decrying outrageous enforcement of stay-at-home orders....
Real Change ceases printing as street newspapers face existential crisis | Danny Westneat
The currency of street newspapers is face-to-face, personal interaction, as a way to employ the homeless but also to bring them out of isolation. The...
At a Republican candidate forum for Washington governor, the coronavirus barely exists | Danny Westneat
In the middle of a pandemic, the subject of the public's health never came up during a 90-minute GOP candidates for governor forum. It's like...
‘As sick as you can get:’ How a Seattle man, hospitalized for 2 months, beat the coronavirus and lived to tell about it | Danny Westneat WATCH
Seattle's Michael Flor, one of the earliest coronavirus patients, was at one point considered so far gone his family bid him their final goodbyes. Yet...
A ‘feminine’ crisis? Something unique about the coronavirus may be widening the political gender gap | Danny Westneat
Research shows women respond to pandemics much differently than men. Some recent polling suggests this may be widening the gender gap in politics, to the...
It's starting to feel like Republicans want to have a ‘chickenpox party’ for the whole state | Danny Westneat
Our feel-good story here of how everybody came together, Democrats and Republicans, to let scientists take the lead in fighting the coronavirus is now starting...
The real problem with the manufactured coronavirus liberty protests | Danny Westneat
Recent protests against stay-at-home orders are political theater and a distraction from the real problem facing us — which is that government is failing to...
‘A’s for all’ is the most Seattle thing ever — and cover for the school district’s own poor marks | Danny Westneat
The Seattle School District has decided to give all A's to high-schoolers who do a modicum of work during the pandemic shutdown. But the happy...