Posts — Page 82

I'm not particularly interested in arguing the legal intricacies of what judicial precedent deems 'income' or not, but from reading a number of posts on here, it seems like a number of individuals seem to have a philosophical objection to any form of state income tax. For a state that seems to like to consider itself 'progressive,' Washington has among the most if not the most regressive tax system of all 50 states. The obscene sales tax and high property taxes (which ultimately lead to increased rents and costs of goods) disproportionately target and affect people in the lower half of the income bracket. If people are really invested in wellbeing of the state and its citizens, doesn't curtailing the sales tax and introducing a highly progressive income tax seem to be at least a marginal improvement over the current system? Not only through the direct effects, but the potential increase in revenue could help shore up and improve a number of necessary services (public transit, road infrastructure, schools) that clearly are underfunded. Maybe my position is too hopeful, but it just seems like this current regressive tax system is both overly punitive on the majority of Washingtonians and is hamstringing a number of projects that could dramatically improve quality of life.

Hey y’all, this is a PSA to anyone who is thinking about getting jewelry at Flawlessly Fused on 1st ave. The owner engages in some pretty egregious business practices and I just wanted to call it out here to a wider audience so that hopefully I can help prevent others from falling prey to their deceptive practices. Initially I started having doubts about this place because the bracelets sold to me as solid gold began tarnishing so I checked out their google reviews. **Many** people have reported that the owner is deceptive about their prices, that they are not listed clearly in the store, and the owner does not disclose the true price until the bracelets are welded to your wrist. The owner also called the cops on three of her customers for pushing back against the price, saying they didn’t agree to the $1700 price tag and asking to have the jewelry removed and pay her for her time. These customers were forced to sign a handwritten contract saying they wouldn’t leave negative reviews which is definitely illegal and you can see the pictures of these contracts in their Google reviews. **edited to add: the owner is very unprofessional in how she responds to negative reviews as well. she either accuses her customers of lying about visiting her business or she responds defensively with multiple paragraphs. it’s crazy work I tried to request an itemized receipt and was also accused of lying about visiting their store, and then I provided a screenshot of the transaction on my bank statement. The owner then told me that the address provided by their merchant on my statement was incorrect, and therefore I was not a client at their store. She backtracked immediately once I asked if she was confirming in writing that it wasn’t her business and therefore I’d dispute the fraudulent transaction. Conveniently, she was then able to track down my receipt but refused to provide me an itemized breakdown because it was keyed as a custom amount and said that based on the price the bracelets were certainly not solid, though she declined to provide me with a breakdown of what the chains actually cost today. All in all, please please avoid this business and save your money! I’m not looking for any resolution by making this post, just trying to be a good citizen and warn my fellow Seattleites not to spend their hard earned money on this scammy business.

Hi all! Wondering if there are any piano teachers from universities or high schools that would be willing to teach my nephew once or twice a week? We live in Skyway (South Seattle) area. Willing to discuss pay and everything if you’re down! He has never played before but wanting to get him started with someone who can travel to our place or has a place near us.

I always see people talking about being a hired friend, a stranger to just watch them from a distance, a silent person to just follow them around— things like that. Is that even a thing anymore? How do I find stuff like that, that is legitimate? I’d be so good at it.

I want to experiment with filming in a empty train interior.

We have a maternal mortality rate of zero. We believe that the combination of our services can eliminate the maternal mortality crisis. We've seen very low prematurity rates and less hypertension. In Washington State, Indigenous maternal mortality rates are more than seven times higher than rates for white mothers. The majority of these cases are preventable through better access to culturally responsive medical care and support services. ~ A 150-mom pilot got maternal mortality to zero at about $45,000 a family. Everyone agrees the crisis is preventable, and this is still being run as a pilot.

These fake cobwebs are an environmental hazard. Please avoid. Thank you!

If you’re taking the 2 Line next weekend: trains will still run from Downtown Redmond to South Bellevue every 10 minutes, but shuttle buses replace trains beyond South Bellevue from Saturday, Oct. 17 through the end of service Sunday, Oct. 18. Wednesday evening: Seattle Now & Then is at the Redmond Library, 6–7:30 p.m. Jean Sherrard and Clay Eals are talking about the old-photo/new-photo history column. Free, and no registration is listed. Saturday for the dog people: Redmond Howl-O-Ween runs noon–4 p.m. at Redmond Town Center. Free pup parade, costume contest, treats, and an after-party. Dogs need to stay leashed. I put together Redmond Beat, a free weekly email with more local things worth knowing. This week’s roundup is here. Anything else coming up that should be on people’s radar?

This hasn't come up in about a year, and City Council had been making rumblings about passing a law to deal with it, so in case anyone was wondering if the megaphone preachers had responded by dialing the volume down - they haven't. The first recording is from the Mariners game on 9/26. (The preacher is a guy who goes by John.) Standing a few feet from him, the decibel readings hovered consistently around 100; moving to the sidewalk on the other side of the street; the readings hovered around 90 but still occasionally crossed 100. The second recording is from the Seahawks game on 10/11. (The preacher speaking goes by Ron.) Walking past him (in the same path as the people going to the game, from the same distance), the readings hovered around 100. At both events, people walking past the preachers often had to plug their ears, or were trying to cover their baby's ears. (The noise measurements in these videos were with an app called "Decibel X", on an iPhone 15, so take that for what it's worth. But the law appears to put the limit at 70 decibels, so it's pretty likely they're going over that!) The loophole they might be exploiting is that Seattle Municipal Code 25.08.410 says "It is unlawful for any person to cause sound... to intrude into the real property of another person whenever such sound exceeds the exterior sound level limits established by this subchapter" and maybe they could argue that doesn't apply to sound waves passing over public property. While I think the city should pass a law to close that loophole, I'd also be against a law that prohibits any "amplified noise" outside events. There have been protests outside events (e.g. when Jordan Peterson came to speak at the Paramount) where protesters wanted to talk to groups of people in line, and up to a certain decibel level, you are allowed to do that. You can hit that decibel level by yelling, or you can hit it by speaking in a normal voice amplified by a megaphone; the latter comes across as less confrontational. And there are marches through the streets all the time that use amplified noise, where the goal is to be heard , but not to hurt people's ears -- however the decibel level at the noise source is comparable to what the preachers are putting out. If a poorly written law simply said "No noise above decibel level XYZ", then the preachers could argue that if it's enforced against them, it would also have to be enforced against street protests too. If the goal is to prevent obnoxiously loud noise and/or hearing damage while respecting people's free speech rights, then I think the law should: apply to noise above a certain decibel level, and should be neutral as to whether it's shouting or speaking-through-megaphone. prohibit inflicting the noise on non-consenting people, but should not apply to someone who participates in (for example) a protest and knowingly chooses to stand/march near the speaker (that's still bad for your hearing, but you're choosing to do that). That means you could bring a rolling PA system on a march, but it would be surrounded by a buffer of enough distance that it couldn't hurt the ears of anyone who wasn't participating in the march. Obviously the homophobic and Islamophobic and everything-phobic stuff that the preachers say is also bad, but under the First Amendment we can't pass a law against that. But a law limiting the noise level would make it easier to ignore.

I tried Starbird this afternoon. I got the chicken tendies and fries. I was pretty impressed for fast food chicken.