| Rep. Flannigan broke law over Prometa, panel says |
DAVID WICKERT; david.wickert@thenewstribune.com
|
| The Washington Public Disclosure Commission ruled Wednesday that state Rep.
Dennis Flannigan violated state campaign finance laws by failing to properly
disclose stock he owned in three companies. Commission Chairman Bill Brumsickle
fined Flannigan $250 for the violation. But Brumsickle suspended $150 of the
fine with the stipulation that Flannigan have no further violations through
2010. The Tacoma Democrat acknowledged his error in a brief enforcement hearing
Wednesday afternoon. |
| Published: Mar 27, 2008 01:00 AM |
| Section:Government / Politics |
|
| Legislative tally: 60 days, 335 bills |
JOSEPH TURNER AND NIKI SULLIVAN; joe.turner@thenewstribune.com niki.sullivan@thenewstribune.com
|
| CORRECTION: This story has been modified to correct the summary of House Bill
2712. The bill does not allow local governments to apply for civil injunctions
to curtail gang activities, as was previously reported. The Senate stripped
that provision from the final version of the bill before the Legislature sent
it to the governor. The Legislature passed 335 bills during the 60-day session
that ended Thursday. Gov. Chris Gregoire has until April 5 to sign, veto or
partially veto the bills. She already has signed several, including laws to
expand rights of domestic partners, to deal with climate change and to give a
tax break to Russell Investments if the company builds its new headquarters in
downtown Tacoma or another of the state’s community empowerment zones. |
| Published: Mar 16, 2008 01:00 AM |
| Section:Government / Politics |
|
| Washington Legislature gets state budgets done, gavel waiting |
JOSEPH TURNER; joe.turner@thenewstribune.com
|
| The Washington Legislature is expected to approve revised state budgets today
that give extra pay to teachers, keep kindergarten on track to open all day at
more schools, and sock away nearly $836 million to deal with an expected
downturn in the economy. Then, all 147 lawmakers will adjourn for the year and
go home. House and Senate budget-writers on Wednesday unveiled changes they
made to the two-year operating and capital budgets for the biennium that ends
in mid-2009. They increased overall spending by about $306 million. The total
state budget, including transportation, is about $65 billion. |
| Published: Mar 13, 2008 01:00 AM |
| Section:Government / Politics |
|
| Pierce County Council tightens ethics policy |
IAN DEMSKY; ian.demsky@thenewstribune.com
|
| The Pierce County Council unanimously approved a sweeping ethics reform
package Tuesday that regulates lobbyists and limits gifts to county officials.
The ordinance, which goes into effect June 1, was a compromise between two
competing versions that differed on the type of gifts that could be accepted
and penalties for violating lobbyist registration and reporting requirements.
“This is a great day for Pierce County,” said Councilman Calvin Goings, a
Puyallup Democrat who had favored stricter rules. |
| Published: Mar 05, 2008 01:00 AM |
| Section:Government / Politics |
|
| Prometa trials are dead: Let’s do the science |
THE NEWS TRIBUNE
|
| Public funding for the Prometa trials in Pierce County was probably doomed
last fall when The News Tribune reported serious doubts about the experimental
addiction treatment. There were questions about its effectiveness. And more
disturbing questions about commercial entanglements between the tax-financed
trials and the company that licenses the treatment. Since then, budget
appropriations for Prometa – which the Pierce County Alliance has been
administering to cocaine and meth addicts – have fallen like dominoes. First,
the Pierce County Council cut off its funding for the program. Now budget
writers in Olympia have eliminated $500,000 in state money that had been
earmarked for the trials. |
| Published: Feb 28, 2008 01:00 AM |
| Section:Opinion |
|
| State legislators set rival priorities in budget versions |
JOSEPH TURNER; joe.turner@thenewstribune.com
|
| State Senate Democrats won’t give teachers an extra 1 percent pay raise this
year, won’t spend state sales tax on huge highway projects and won’t cut
back a program to bring all-day kindergarten to more public schools in
Washington. Those are the messages senators sent Tuesday when they introduced
their version of a revised two-year budget. The Senate budget is exactly the
opposite on all three points of the 2007-09 state operating budget put forth
last week by House Democrats. The Senate budget again illustrates that members
of the same political party don’t always share the same spending priorities.
Democrats have a 32-17 majority in the Senate and outnumber Republicans 63-35
in the House, so their respective budgets reflect the priorities of Democrats
in each chamber. |
| Published: Feb 27, 2008 01:00 AM |
| Section:Government / Politics |
|
| Teachers might get pay boost under proposed legislative budget |
JOSEPH TURNER JOSEPH TURNER; joe.turner@thenewstribune.com joe.turner@thenewstribune.com
|
| Democrats in the state House want to cut funding for all-day kindergarten at
struggling public schools so they can give teachers and other school workers a
bigger pay raise next year. The budget proposal released by House Democratic
leaders Wednesday in Olympia would give all public school and some community
college employees an extra 1 percent pay raise in the 2008-09 school year.
That’s in addition to the 3.9 percent raise that school employees are
supposed to get because of a voter-approved measure guaranteeing automatic
raises for school workers based on the rate of inflation. That extra 1 percent
would cost state taxpayers $35.6 million. |
| Published: Feb 21, 2008 01:00 AM |
| Section:Government / Politics |
|
| Flannigan could be sanctioned |
DAVID WICKERT; david.wickert@thenewstribune.com
|
| The state Public Disclosure Commission is considering whether to sanction
state Rep. Dennis Flannigan for failing to report stock he owned in three
companies. The Tacoma Democrat failed to disclose that he owned 4,000 shares of
stock in Hythiam Inc., the company that licenses the Prometa drug treatment
program. Flannigan helped secure state funding for Prometa last year. According
to a commission complaint filed Dec. 20, Flannigan also failed to disclose that
he owned stock in Yahoo and Disney. |
| Published: Jan 06, 2008 01:00 AM |
| Section:Government / Politics |
|
| Thanks guys, I’ll think of you whenever I use it |
PETER CALLAGHAN; THE NEWS TRIBUNE
|
| O ne of the advantages of being a newspaper columnist is all the swag that
comes with the job. Not just the voice mail and e-mail from faithful readers
questioning my parentage and doubting my humanity. I mean the three G’s –
gratuities, gifts and graft – especially at Christmas when the UPS driver has
to put me on speed dial. But they all require thank you notes, so I’ve been
keeping a list of the stuff: |
| Published: Dec 25, 2007 01:00 AM |
| Section:Peter Callaghan |
|
| Prometa makes the big time – Bunney doesn’t |
THE NEWS TRIBUNE
|
| The back and forth over Pierce County wonder drug treatment Prometa won’t go
away. It made two national TV appearances this week. First, Sunday’s “60
Minutes” episode spent 13 of those minutes unraveling the debate over the
experimental drug treatment. Then on Tuesday, Kimber and Matt of the
cable-telly plastic-surgeon drama “Nip/Tuck” said Prometa helped them kick
their meth habit. |
| Published: Dec 14, 2007 12:00 AM |
| Section:The Nose |
|
| Don’t let county ethics code die by nitpicking |
THE NEWS TRIBUNE
|
| This time, the devil was the details. The Pierce County Council postponed an
overhaul of the county’s ethics code this week, citing a need to clarify its
provisions. Or, should we say, further clarify. The proposal already has gone
through several revisions. On Tuesday, the council made a few more by requiring
court administrators and county council staff to disclose their finances,
boosting funding for the county Ethics Commission and eliminating an exemption
for lobbying the county executive and staff at certain times. |
| Published: Dec 13, 2007 12:00 AM |
| Section:Opinion |
|
| Council to vote on ethics rules |
DAVID WICKERT; The News Tribune
|
| The Pierce County Council today will take up an amended ethics measure that
would regulate lobbyists and require county department heads and others to
disclose personal finances. The council’s Rules Committee approved the
ordinance on a 2-1 vote despite calls to postpone it because of questions about
such details as who would and who wouldn’t be required to disclose their
personal finances. Councilmen Shawn Bunney, R-Lake Tapps, and Calvin Goings,
D-Puyallup, voted for the ordinance. They said it can be revised in the future
if needed. |
| Published: Dec 11, 2007 12:00 AM |
| Section:Government / Politics |
|
| At root of squabble is lack of common understanding |
CARL A. ANDERSON; Tacoma
|
| The News Tribune attempts to explain the Prometa controversy between County
Executive John Ladenburg and the county’s performance auditors in an
adversarial context (12-1). Instead, we should look at the root cause to
prevent future problems. There wasn’t a common frame of reference. Prometa
wasn’t approved by recognized authorities like Food and Drug Administration
or the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Prometa depended on testimonials that
weren’t acceptable to all parties. Prometa lacked specific criteria for
evaluation. The result was public disagreement on definitions including
“drug-free.” |
| Published: Dec 10, 2007 12:00 AM |
| Section:Letters |
|
| Pierce County ethics code might get an overhaul |
DAVID WICKERT; The News Tribune
|
| The Pierce County Council this week will consider a sweeping ethics reform
plan that would regulate lobbyists and require some public and private
officials to disclose personal financial information. The ordinance, which is
scheduled to be considered Monday by a council committee, would require
lobbyists to register and disclose their expenses for lobbying county
officials. It also would prohibit county officials from accepting travel, meals
and most other gifts of value. And it would require county department heads and
the executives of some county-affiliated agencies to disclose their personal
finances, as elected officials already do. All seven County Council members are
sponsoring the measure. But some say it lacks important details such as who is
a lobbyist and who must disclose financial information in the name of the
public’s right to know. |
| Published: Dec 09, 2007 12:00 AM |
| Section:Government / Politics |
|
| Ladenburg wrong, right on accusations |
DAVID WICKERT; The News Tribune
|
| When the Pierce County Council suspended funding for Prometa – a drug
treatment for addicts – County Executive John Ladenburg accused some on the
council of playing politics. The council suspended the funding Oct. 23 after a
performance auditor’s report found little evidence the treatment was
effective. Ladenburg, who supported the program, accused the council in news
reports of secretly orchestrating a negative performance report and of failing
to give public notice of its decision to suspend Prometa funding, among other
things. |
| Published: Dec 01, 2007 12:00 AM |
| Section:Government / Politics |
|
| Controlled studies remove bias from the equation |
CRAIG JOHNSON; Edgewood
|
| As a health care professional experienced in analyzing various drug therapies,
I take exception with those who claim the Prometa program works without citing
any supporting studies which utilize the scientific method. Such a study would
involve many patients, be placebo-controlled (actual drugs compared with sugar
pills), double-blind (neither patient nor researcher knows who receives the
drug), randomized (sugar pills or drug receipt assigned by chance) and
statistically scrutinized (mathematically analyzed to rule out that results
occurred by chance). This is the foundation of evidence-based medicine and
contrary to your Viewpoint columnist (11-20), does not include “firsthand
clinical experience,” which is better described as anecdotal testimony, and
“expert opinions,” which may merely be subjective judgments. |
| Published: Nov 29, 2007 12:00 AM |
| Section:Letters |
|
| Pierce County’s program has transformed lives |
A. ROSEMARY CRAWFORD, M.D.; Tacoma
|
| Since publication of the Pierce County Alliance pilot program results with the
Prometa protocol, Dr. Harold C. Urschel III (in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings)
has described a significant decrease in methamphetamine use and a 65 percent
reduction in cravings in patients treated and followed for 12 weeks in the
Prometa program. Urschel is publishing more findings on reduction of drug use
and improvement in cognitive functions in his subjects. But statistics alone do
not tell the stories of lives transformed. I was privileged to work in the
Prometa program over the summer and into fall. It has been a joy to watch the
majority of our drug-dependent patients change before our eyes from people
living tormented lives into people with hope and aspirations. |
| Published: Nov 24, 2007 12:00 AM |
| Section:Letters |
|
| Perhaps, one day, this game will be meaningful again |
THE NEWS TRIBUNE
|
| Hard to believe it’s been 100 years since the inaugural Cup of Apples. This
season alone felt like about 130. But in honor of the historic anniversary of
the cross-state grudge match, here are some predictions for the next century:
• One of the teams cracks the national top 10. |
| Published: Nov 23, 2007 12:00 AM |
| Section:The Nose |
|
| Drug project funds killed |
DAVID WICKERT; The News Tribune
|
| Pierce County Executive John Ladenburg’s last-ditch effort to save funding
for the Prometa drug treatment program did not sway the County Council. Instead
of setting aside $400,000 for Prometa in the 2008 budget, the council
designated the money for “decreasing the Pierce County jail population or
evidence-based programs that are directed towards breaking the cycle of drug
addiction.” The council also set aside the $175,000 in unspent 2007 Prometa
funding for the same purpose, bringing the total to $575,000. |
| Published: Nov 22, 2007 12:00 AM |
| Section:Government / Politics |
|
| In Federal Way, Prometa gets council support |
STEVE MAYNARD; The News Tribune
|
| The Federal Way City Council has approved spending $20,000 for a trial of the
controversial Prometa drug treatment program, for which neighboring Pierce
County recently cut funding. City Council member Jack Dovey suggested the pilot
program after a former employee, David Smart, told Dovey three months ago that
he’d stopped using methamphetamine after being treated with Prometa. “I was
addicted to meth for 22 years,” Smart told the council Tuesday night. “I
lived and breathed meth. That’s all I knew.” |
| Published: Nov 22, 2007 12:00 AM |
| Section:Government / Politics |
|
