State cuts to environment programs 'heartbreaking'

Sunday, January 2, 2011
Last updated 9:03 p.m. PT

The bad economy can be hard on the environment as well as people.

Earlier this month state lawmakers, faced with declining revenue from taxes and fees, reduced the state Department of Ecology's budget by $5.8 million. They'd already reduced cut $38.9 million from the agency's budget earlier this year and in 2009, as the effects of the Great Recession set in. Next year, even more could be taken out as Gov. Chris Gregoire is proposing more trims.

Environmentalists say the cuts are "heartbreaking" and will make it difficult to clean up waterways and other areas, but others say the cuts are necessary in a time when education and health care funding is also being slashed.

New reality

"As the (income) dollars shrink, what we can provide shrinks," said Erik Fairchild, the agency's budget policy manager. "It's less public health protection, less environmental protection, less field presence, less technical assistance (and) reduced loans and grants" for projects such as sewage treatment plants.

Ecology department operating budgets were on the rise before the economic crisis hit in late 2008, increasing from $402 million for the 2005-07 budget period to $457 million for 2007-09 and $440 million in the current budget.

For the 2011-13 budget cycle Gregoire is proposing a $446.7-million operating budget. But the separate two-year capital budget, which includes money for wastewater treatment, water supply work, flood control, environmental cleanup and other programs, would drop from the current $534 million to $473 million under her proposal.

The agency's staff grew to more than 1,600 fulltime employees in 2009 but was trimmed to the equivalent of 1,529 full-timers during the current two-year budget period.

In the past two years the agency has continued collecting money from a hazardous-substance tax on petroleum fuel, which is based on per-barrel oil prices as well as sales. But the sales and business-and-occupations taxes that support 20 percent of the agency's budget have dropped during the bad economy, bringing reductions in some programs or reallocations.

As sales and business tax collections dropped, programs to treat and purify water, control storm water runoff and prevent other kinds of pollution are now being paid for with money shifted away from programs to clean up toxic chemical contamination.

In the past year the legislature has moved more than $224 million in cleanup, water project, waste-reduction and flood-control assistance money from Ecology's budget to other programs, also to offset the reduced sales and business-tax collections.

To the conservative Evergreen Freedom Foundation, a frequent critic of state government, the financial cutbacks at Ecology are to be expected in an economic downturn.

"Welcome to the club," said foundation spokesman Scott St. Clair. "We think the state has more than enough money to do what it needs to do. The question is how does it prioritize and decide what's most important to do?"

The prioritizing has begun already, though some worry about the effects. Ecology officials, for example, say the cuts have meant they don't have staff to check on large oil-spill recovery drills any more so "we have to take industry's word for it" that they're prepared to handle big spills, said Curt Hart, agency communications manager for the spill program. Some oil-spill containment equipment stationed here was temporarily moved to the Gulf of Mexico to help clean up the BP oil spill this year.

In other examples, the agency has fewer water quality inspectors and fewer staffers that can add new water-pollution control requirements, meaning that some contaminants can still get into the water even after they're banned.

Ecology will hire fewer youths this summer to pick up roadside litter, and the cutbacks are also delaying the writing of new permits. Staff reductions mean the agency still hasn't cleared the long-standing backlog of applications for new water sources.

To save costs the agency has begun to out-source some of the work it historically did. Developers needing water rights can, at greatly higher cost, directly hire pre-approved private consultants to complete some of the work on their applications, instead of waiting for state staffers to do it. The agency also may begin allowing cities to have new water-management techniques checked by private contractors before the state approves them, saving the wait for state reviews.

"There's a little more tendency in that direction (to outsourcing), I would say," said Ken Slattery, the agency's water-resources program manager.

But environmental groups worry about the implications of leaner state budgets and plan to continue pitching new strategies to keep state environmental programs going.

Kerry McHugh, spokeswoman for the Environmental Priorities Coalition that includes two dozen environmental groups, called the cuts "heartbreaking" and said "tens of millions of pounds of toxic chemicals are flowing into our waterways?each year. We don't have the resources to currently tackle this problem, and further cuts mean that we will (be) in an even worse position."

To help shore up state programs, she said coalition groups will continue pressing for legislation to impose fees on industries "that profit from using our natural resources," as well as a bill to require oil companies to help pay part of the cost of cleaning up toxic chemicals.

Given the state budget bind, "we need to think outside the box," McHugh said.

Kathleen Ridihalgh of the Sierra Club predicted that environmentalists will make another effort that could raise some money: eliminating a $5-million tax exemption granted to the operators of a coal mine near Centralia to keep the mine open and preserve several hundred jobs there.

The mine eventually closed but the exemption is still on the books, Ridihalgh said. One bill to eliminate it passed the Senate but did not get approved in the House, she said.

"The long-term costs of these (budget) cuts are going to effect our health, our fishable and swimmable rivers and lakes, and they're going to end up costing more in the long run," Ridihalgh said.

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Effort to save artwork from iconic children's bookstore

Last updated January 2, 2011 9:11 p.m. PT

P-I File

Children's book author Paula Yoo signs her name on a wall next to other authors in the event room of All For Kids Books in Seattle in this May 2008 file photo.

You might say the writing was on the wall at All For Kids Books and Music, a store near University Village in Seattle that once served as a magnet for children's book authors.

For decades, authors and illustrators would stop by the shop while on tour in the city. They'd read stories, sign books and talk with fans. And before leaving, they'd take a pen and write a message on one of the bookstore's walls.

When All for Kids closed in 2008, there were thousands of inscriptions and illustrations on the walls of the reading room. Characters peered out from underneath bits of insight, inside jokes and words of thanks for store owner Chauni Haslet.

One, signed in an unintelligible scrawl, said: "Fly forever, All For Kids."

All For Kids, however, didn't fly forever.

Walls remained the same

After the shop closed in 2008, a victim to Internet sales trends and other industry woes, the space behind University Village turned into a kid-friendly cafe.

The walls weren't repainted; the cafe's owners felt the space worked for their business. But now, a jujitsu studio is moving into that part of the complex, and building-owner Joe Brotherton is at a loss for what to do with the famous walls.

That's why, in a storefront just down the sidewalk from what was once the entrance to the bookstore, Brotherton has stacked dozens of jagged pieces of drywall. Each one contains a collection of signatures, pictures or inscriptions -- the final vestiges of the store that delighted children for decades.

A blurb from author Robie Harris left in 1996: "The bird says, 'Seattle is so lucky to have All For Kids.' The bee says 'Hey, I'm All for Kids!' Robie says, 'So great to be here.Thank you.'"

Another, this time with a sense of humor, reads: "Fall or skid -- All For Kids!"

"They may end up on eBay, but I don't really want to do that," Brotherton said.

In the former All For Kids space last week, a crew was putting the final touches on new walls. Earlier in December, they were carefully cutting out reminders of Seattle's literary history, trying to preserve as many inscriptions as possible.

The job took three days, compared to the four hours it would have usually taken to demolish the walls. Brotherton estimates his crew managed to salvage about 85 percent of the authors' words.

"I put my guys on it with the instructions, 'Don't do it fast,'" he said. "This isn't demolition work. This is preservation work."

Brotherton, also an instructor at the University of Washington's law school, said he's still looking for a good home for he wall fragments. He owns the Doe Bay resort on Orcas Island, and thinks he might be able to find a place for them there.

Already, he's had one inquiry about whether he'll sell the pieces, but Brotherton said he wants to make sure to place them somewhere they'll be appreciated.

"It's a pretty cool history," he said. "It turned out to be quite a big job."

The store's closure in 2008 prompted similar questions: What would become of the collection that adorned the shop's walls? At the time, some patrons suggested mounting a campaign to save the walls, and owner Haslet said anyone who wanted the walls was welcome to them.

Haslet couldn't be reached for comment last week, and Brotherton said she moved out of state.

She told the Seattle P-I in 2008 that she was retiring for personal reasons. Despite the boom of Internet book sales, she felt the store was still viable.

Still, independent bookstores have faced a perfect storm of competitors in the last few decades, from national chains like Barnes and Noble to Internet powerhouses like Amazon.com.

"It's still a crummy business on a good day, and it's a really crummy business with the Internet," Brotherton said.

Change is constant -- that much is clear at the building at 2900 N.E. Blakeley Street. But some things haven't changed that much.

Outside the All For Kids space late last week, a young face was pressed to the window: A boy, about three or four years old, watched as crews installed new walls.

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The Lesson To Players From The Bret Favre Scandal

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Bret Favre will likely still be a Hall of Fame quarterback for his exploits on the field. But in future football seasons, he may be remembered more as a verb than a noun for his off-field electronic exploits. Sooner or later a player will tweet, “OMG, I’m getting Favred”! That would be the player who receives a fine for an attempted stonewalling of an NFL investigation. In Favre’s case, he was fined $50,000 for failing to cooperate with the investigation of his alleged text to a former model now sideline reporter with explicit language and photos that included parts of his anatomy (also called his “below-the belt” photos). The NFL did not release the precise details of his failure, so we are left to wonder exactly how he failed to cooperate. On some matters at least, Commissioner Roger Goodell said Favre “was not candid in several respects during the investigation resulting in a longer review and additional negative public attention for Favre, Sterger [the reporter] and the NFL.”

On other matters, Favre may have just said “no comment” or words to that effect.? Perhaps Favre labored under the thought that he was protected by the Fifth Amendment, that saying nothing to avoid incriminating himself has no adverse consequence. A little knowledge is dangerous. The Fifth is designed to protect against criminal prosecution which is not the case here.

Favre may or may not have sent the salacious text. But we know he signed an agreement with an NFL franchise that subjected itself, and obligated its players to abide by certain areas of discretion reserved for the Commissioner of the NFL. The interesting question is how far and wide is that discretion. There is no well-established precedent for Favre’s noncooperation fine. But on player discipline issues on and off the field, the Commissioner has yet to face a serious challenge to his very wide authority. As long as the Commissioner has unfettered discretion, he doesn’t need precedent. We may gain a little more clarity from the upcoming collective bargaining negotiations but I doubt it. And I seriously doubt a pending antitrust case will affect it either on player conduct issues.

So for the foreseeable future, to be “Favred” is to fail to learn a series of new rules: (1) You can’t refuse to talk to the NFL investigators, or (2) if you do talk, you can’t lie or get in the way of the truth, but (3) if you lie or obstruct the investigation through evasion or otherwise, you can be fined, and (4) if you are otherwise an icon, you can expect a relatively minor fine (a $50,000 fine for Favre is a fraction of his $11.6 million annual base salary). Last and most important is a clear underlying issue: Just how much disrepute or embarrassment did you cause the NFL? Here, there is a trifecta of causes for leniency: (1) the allegations were from two years ago, regarding (2) a team the player will never again play for, and (3) a player who apparently has but one game remaining in his career.? The combination minimizes the potential for recurring bad acts. If facts and circumstances were worse for the reputation of the NFL, I suspect the fine would be worse on the offender.

Obviously this decision was not made in a court of law. The Commissioner is for practical purposes the judge and jury. He did not find a violation of the workplace rules designed to ensure all employees have an environment free from any form of harassment or discrimination. That ruling was presumably because the forensic analysis failed to establish that Favre sent the photos in question. I suspect that is in large part because the editor in chief of the website the exposed the photo (Deadspin) admitted that it paid for the photos from a third party. ?It is quite possible that the third party could have doctored a photo. I represented a famous entertainer who had nude photos of others placed with her face. So I would not be quick to condemn the Commissioner’s findings. The investigation commenced in late October. With such a high profile athlete I am inclined to believe the investigation was thorough and did not languish over the months. Not that a court could not come to a different conclusion, and I would think the reporter is considering becoming a plaintiff.? In any event, players should be mindful of the unwritten rules that come with the Commissioner’s discretion. Be not only a good player but a good citizen, or literally pay the consequences.

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Tressel’s Treaty: Noble Or Naive?

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The big news out of college football Thursday was the pledge that Jim Tressel apparently made five of his Ohio State players take.

Was this the noble act of a mindful coach, or was this public relations grandstanding at its finest?

The players involved?of course are the 5 players that recently were penalized by the NCAA for receiving extra benefits, and the reason why this matter has exploded is largely due to the timing of when the penalties are to take effect.

Recall that the penalty was to suspend these players for the first?5 games for the 2011 season, but not the upcoming Sugar Bowl showdown versus Arkansas on January 4th.

Those that cried foul argued that if these?underclassmen perform in the bowl game and then leave early to enter the NFL draft, then ultimately they would?face little penalty at all (aside from repaying the monies they received from selling their memorabilia which reportedly was between $1000 and $2500 per student).

Supposedly in recognition of this possibility,?Coach Tressel apparently approached the offending student-athletes with the proposition that?if they chose to play in the upcoming Sugar Bowl they would HAVE to return to Columbus for their senior seasons in 2011.

Are these nobel actions and gestures?by players and coaches alike?? Is Coach Tressel being?naive in placing trust in his players’?? Or is the public naive for not seeing through the?public relations play at hand?

Honestly, I don’t know what to believe.? Let me note ahead of time that I’m not a Buckeye hater.? I respect their success and by all accounts their leadership (AD Gene Smith, Coach Tressel) are quality people.

I do know that it’s a?shame that Coach Tressel and these student-athletes are even forced into this position because the initial NCAA ruling should have negated these kids from competing in this particular bowl game.? Financial and peer pressures from the Sugar Bowl and possibly even CBS undoubtedly played?a role?here.

Regardless of how one feels about the rules that were broken, the rules were broken.? And it sets a bad precedent to allow the offending student-athletes to compete in the biggest game of their season yet defer punishment to the following season where half of the missed games will be against far inferior?non-conference schools.

Was this a public relations ploy?? Requesting his?players to make this pledge?makes?Coach Tressel?and the school look?responsible by showing that they at least?recognize the potential for these students to get off relatively unpunished should they bolt the university after the bowl game.? It gives the appearance that the Buckeyes are? willing to fall on their own sword by showing a readiness to restrict?these players from the game had they chosen not to take this pigskin blood oath.

I don’t know Coach Tressel.? I met him briefly along with a crowd of others?in April 2010 during a tour of?Buckeye football stadium?while attending a?sports conference in?Columbus.? He was gregarious and pleasant with the group.? And his public demeanor and persona otherwise exudes a squeaky clean aura.

But unfortunately in this day and age in college athletics, no one gets a free pass from cynicism because the culture of college athletics creates such cynics…especially for schools near the top of the?money tree like Ohio State.

If Ohio State wanted to ensure that these players pay a steep price for what they did, Coach Tressel has the juice to sit them down for the Sugar Bowl.? But the NCAA isn’t making him do it, and there is too much financial and peer?pressure from?Sugar Bowl and CBS administrators as well as?Buckeye alum to allow that to happen.

Part of me wants to say that Coach Tressel’s handling of the situation is noble because of his awareness and recognition of the situation, and his ability to put the onus of responsibility and culpability on the student-athletes.? If they play this game and then break their word and head to the pros, it looks bad on the players.

Even if Coach Tressel is acting with the best intentions, however, isn’t it naive to think these players will honor their word after they couldn’t honor the NCAA’s rules and regulations?

Is it even appropriate for Coach Tressel to force these players to make this pledge?? Could this be seen as excessive abuse of managerial oversight?? Couldn’t coaches with star underclassmen?start holding them to blood oaths to return for their senior seasons or else be denied the right to participate in bowl games?

And though this seemingly is untrue of Coach Tressel, it is certainly not uncommon for coaches to make promises and pledges to players only to break those words when greener pastures and contracts present themselves.? In that regard, doesn’t it seem odd that a coach?asks his players to make a pledge in a world where coaches often break their?pledges to recruits and current players?

Are we the general public being naive here?? Could Ohio State, cashing in on Coach Tressel’s character and believability, be making a grand public relations play?

By making these athletes make this pledge alledgedly, it shows (a) that Ohio State was prepared to sit these players out of the Sugar Bowl had they stated that they planned on bolting for the pros before their senior season, and (b) shifts the onus of the blame onto the players should they bolt for the pros.? “We were prepared to punish them, they gave us their word, and they broke their word”, we could hypothetically imagine athletic director Gene Smith saying should that scenario come to pass.

“Culpability transference” is the key to winning the public relations game, and this pledge makes the student-athletes look like the bad guys if they bolt for the pros before the 2011 regular season commences.

And how noble a gesture is it on behalf of these 5 Ohio State student-athletes to make this pledge to their mentor and coach?

If they make this pledge and commitment to stay in school with the knowledge that they leave millions and millions of dollars on the table, then the pledge carries much more gravity.

But when you consider that it is almost a foregone conclusion that the NFL will have a rookie salary scale when the new collective bargaining agreement?is constructed and ratified in the spring or summer of 2011,?then the guaranteed millions in signing bonus money?won’t be there for any of these players.

Additionally,?none of these 5 offending Ohio State players are?projected to go among the top 20 draft picks in 2011.??If these projections are accurate, it’s safe to say that each of these players?would?benefit greatly from playing one last season of preparatory college ball.

I like Coach Tressel and respect the success of the Buckeye program and the relative cleanliness with which he runs the program.

Part of me wants to commend him for making his players take some accountability, and part of me wants to commend the players for their willingness to make this pledge to their coach.

But the cynic in me wouldn’t be surprised to learn that this is all one big public relations play.

One thing we shouldn’t be naive about…big-time collegiate athletics is about money first and nobility second.

********************************************************************************************************************************************

You can follow?Patrick on Twitter, or follow?his academic, sports consulting, or music endeavors here.

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Amanda Knox: My celebrity status is 'ridiculous'

Sunday, January 2, 2011
Last updated 1:54 p.m. PT

PERUGIA, Italy -- Former Seattle university student Amanda Knox thinks it is "ridiculous" that she has gained celebrity status since being jailed for the murder of British student Meredith Kercher, according to press reports.

The U.K. Press Association reported Knox's reaction Sunday to the virtually nonstop international attention she has received since the November 2007 killing, and especially after her December 2009 conviction.

Prosecutors claim that Knox, 23, and her ex-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, murdered Kercher by slitting her throat during a drug-fueled sex game. Knox was sentenced to 26 years in prison, and Sollecito got a 25-year term.

But an appeals court recently ordered an independent review of DNA evidence used in the trial. The defense claims Knox is innocent and that the evidence was inconclusive and possibly contaminated.

Meanwhile, as the lengthy judicial process continues to play out in the Italian university city of Perugia, Knox has become the subject of numerous books and films.

Her face has been splashed across the pages of newspapers, magazines and websites around the world, and the British press has dubbed her "Foxy Knoxy." The public's fascination with the case apparently stems from the contrast between her wholesome good looks and the gruesome details of the murder.

But her stepfather, Chris Mellas, said: "She thinks it's ridiculous. There are nine books (about her), with another four or five that I'm aware of in the works; two movies in the works right now; seven or eight documentaries that I'm aware of."

One of those two movies will star actress Hayden Panettiere as Knox. Lifetime has greenlighted the project, tentatively titled "The Amanda Knox Story," from reality producer Craig Piligian. It will air later this year.

But Mellas called all the attention "absolutely bizarre."

"We have no interest," he said. "The whole celebrity thing is just ridiculous."

He spoke out as Knox spent her fourth Christmas behind bars for a crime she maintains she had no involvement in.

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The Aspirational Bowl

The Chick-Fil-A Bowl: it’s the bowl all other bowl games should aspire to be.? Not only is it a success in terms of ticket sales and local economic impact, but it also ranks first amongst bowls in charitable giving each and every year.

The Chick-Fil-A Bowl consistently makes charitable donations totaling around $1.2 million.? While other bowls may?include complimentary tickets in their donation calculation, the Chick-Fil-A Bowl does not.? That money is spent giving back to SEC and ACC schools, supporting Winshape Homes (a Chick-Fil-A charity) and funding the Play It Smart program in Atlanta Public Schools, amongst other things.

The Chick-Fil-A Bowl Challenge is an annual golf tournament that had an overall charitable impact of $571,000 this year.? Of that, $415,000?represented the scholarship purse to the twelve participating SEC and ACC schools, with the rest going to charities unrelated to the universities, namely Chick-Fil-A’s Winshape Homes.? The Chick-Fil-A Bowl’s VP of Communications, Matt Garvey, tells me the coaches that play in this tournament take it very seriously.? They recruit their partner, who is a celebrity alumnus of the university.? If that partner doesn’t measure up, they have no qualms in finding a new one for the next year.?

Another way the Chick-Fil-A Bowl supports the colleges in the SEC and ACC is by providing endowed scholarships to the participating schools each year.? For each appearance a school makes in the bowl game, a $100,000 scholarship is endowed at the school, which is perpetual in duration.*

Perhaps the biggest impact made by the Chick-Fil-A Bowl, however, is its involvement in the Play It Smart program.? Run by the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame, Inc., Play It Smart’s mission is to “”to promote the power of amateur football in developing the qualities of leadership, sportsmanship, competitive zeal and the drive for academic excellence in America’s young people.”? The program accomplishes this by giving program participants an “academic coach.”? More than a tutor, this person goes through training to be a mentor, advocate and counselor to the student.? They help the student set goals, prepare for SATs and ACTs, apply for colleges and much more.

Since 2007, the Chick-Fil-A Bowl has spent $200,000 a year to ensure that the Play It Smart program is in each of the high schools in the Atlanta Public Schools system.? And now they’ve found a way to link this program to the colleges that participate in their bowl.? Any student who completes the Play It Smart program in Atlanta Public Schools and then chooses a school that has received an endowed scholarship as a result of participation in the bowl is now guaranteed to be a recipient of the scholarship when they attend that school.? What an amazing way to give back to the community and involve the schools that participate in the bowl!

*If you’re looking at the Chick-Fil-A Bowl’s tax returns, you’ll only see half of that amount. Mr. Garvey tells me that Chick-Fil-A provides the other half of each scholarship because of its strong desire to be part of giving back to the schools.

Follow Kristi on Twitter @SportsBizMiss and visit her website at www.kristidosh.com.

This article offers the personal observations of Kristi Dosh, and does not represent the views of her law firm or its clients.? Any information contained herein does not constitute legal advice. Consult your own attorney for legal advice on these matters.

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