Danny Westneat | The Seattle Times

In this photo taken Oct. 24, 2019 in Tacoma, Wash. Initiative 976 is shown on a Pierce County general election ballot. The measure, sponsored by anti-tax activist Tim Eyman, will go before voters in the November 2019 election and would lower most taxes paid through annual vehicle tab registration to $30 and largely revoke the authority of state and local governments to add taxes and fees to that amount without voter approval. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren) WATW303 WATW303

November 15, 2019 at 7:00 pm

Was the language voters saw on their ballots for Initiative 976 wrong? Sure seems like it. | Danny Westneat

The ballot title for the car-tab slashing measure made a claim that was either false or misleading. So what happens now?

Andrew Lewis is running for Seattle City Council District 7 in the 2019 election. (Lewis for Seattle)

November 13, 2019 at 6:00 am

‘I am not a socialist’: One candidate’s attempt to make sense of the polarizing Seattle elections | Danny Westneat

The Seattle elections are now being characterized as a victory for socialism against the dark forces of Amazon. Not every candidate being roped into that...

Southbound passengers wait as they look across at a northbound Sound Transit light rail train at an underground station Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2019, in downtown Seattle. State and local governments could end up scrambling to pay for road paving and other transportation projects as a Washington state measure that would cut car tabs to $30 was passing in early returns Tuesday. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson) WAET102 WAET102

November 8, 2019 at 7:00 pm

‘The State of King’: To achieve the mass transit dream, it’s time for King County to go it alone | Danny Westneat

After endless political bickering over mass transit — eight votes on light rail in the past 24 years, including the passing of tax-slashing Initiative 976...

Seattle City Council candidate for District 2, Tammy Morales, pauses while speaking as she celebrates after seeing that she has 56 percentage points as results come in on a big screen in the Royal Room on Rainier Ave S. in Seattle Tuesday evening, November 5, 2019. At left is her husband Harry Teicher and family is standing behind her.

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November 5, 2019 at 10:15 pm

Corporate takeover? Socialist paradise? Seattle voters say ‘nah’ to any big change in direction | Danny Westneat

It was supposed to be a big change election in Seattle. But Tuesday's election results show the voters either didn't want that or couldn't make...

FILE- In this Sept. 13, 2018, file photo Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and CEO, speaks at The Economic Club of Washington’s Milestone Celebration in Washington. Amazon, which has faced political and economic pressure to raise pay for thousands of employees, is boosting its minimum wage for all U.S. workers to $15 per hour starting next month and said it will push for an increase in the federally mandated minimum wage, which now stands at $7.25 per hour. â€œWe listened to our critics, thought hard about what we wanted to do, and decided we want to lead,â€ said Bezos. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen, File)

November 1, 2019 at 7:00 pm

Feeling sorry for Bezos? It could happen if Democrats keep going this tax-crazy. | Danny Westneat

This past week Elizabeth Warren proposed taxing Jeff Bezos to the tune of $7 billion, per year. Ho-hum, Bernie Sanders wants to get him for...

Republican U.S. Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, representing southwest Washington state’s 3rd Congressional District, is shown at a gathering in Vancouver, Wash., Sept, 10, 2018. The congressional race in southwest Washington has drawn national attention in a year Democrats see a chance to take control of the U.S. House. (AP Photo/Don Ryan) WADR502

October 30, 2019 at 6:00 am

The last ledge of the GOP’s crumbling impeachment defense | Danny Westneat

Some of our local Republican members of Congress seem to have trapped themselves with their past comments on impeachment. Will there be any escape?

Seattle City Councilmembers Lorena González (left) and Teresa Mosqueda (second from right), both opposed Councilmember Kshama Sawant in the August primary. But Amazon’s decision to put $1.45 million into this year’s campaigns has brought them together. Here they are shown, along with council candidate Tammy Morales (far right), on Thursday at a protest at the Amazon Spheres.

October 25, 2019 at 7:00 pm

All politics is polarization: How some of her political foes suddenly came to love Kshama Sawant | Danny Westneat

Last summer a fellow council member bashed Kshama Sawant for having a "nonworking relationship" with everybody else at City Hall. But Friday she endorsed Sawant....

People protest against Amazon big money in council races, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2019 in Seattle. 211827

October 23, 2019 at 6:00 am

Backfire? Amazon may have just made this election about itself. | Danny Westneat

The 2019 election was playing out as a referendum on the performance of the Seattle City Council. But after Amazon dropped a record $1.45 million...

Pastor Kelly Dahlman-Oeth, from the Lake Washington United Methodist Church in Kirkland, has welcomed several homeless families, living in their cars, to park in the Church’s parking lot. The Church has hosted homeless car campers for many years. It’s a low-cost, low-impact model for helping the estimated one-third of homeless people who still have a vehicle to sleep in. Contents from his car need to be put on top of the car during the night so a family can sleep inside.

October 18, 2019 at 7:00 pm

Parking spots for the homeless in Seattle, finally. But at a thousand bucks a month? | Danny Westneat

Seattle still can't figure out how to use parking lots at night for those living in their cars -- at least not without breaking the...

Work continues on Boeing 737 airplanes inside the Renton Factory on July 24, 2019.
Boeing says the 737 MAX crisis could temporarily shut down Renton production. Such a drastic step would mean temporary layoffs at the plant, which currently employs more than 10,000 people.

Photographed on July 24, 2019. 210980 210980

October 16, 2019 at 6:00 am

‘Hunter killer assassins’: Why the Boeing saga is the story of our times | Danny Westneat

The company is in trouble because it abandoned caution and long-term thinking for Wall Street's sugar high — and Boeing's not the only one, writes...