Danny Westneat

1 week ago | seattletimes.com | Danny Westneat

Can I interest you in some pristine acreage up in the Cascades, adjacent to the famed Pacific Crest hiking trail? How about some alpine lake frontage on the north side of Mount Pilchuck east of Marysville? Or consider staking your claim on some lots up above the legendary Queets River valley, out on the westernmost edge of the wild Olympics. It’s unspoiled — for now.

1 week ago | seattletimes.com | Danny Westneat

The immigration arrests this past week in Spokane, in retrospect, seem almost perfectly designed to provoke backlash. The young migrants who got detained came into the country legally and had filed all the proper paperwork for asylum. So they weren’t skirting the law. They weren’t living in the shadows, either. They had work permits and jobs at Walmart. One also has a judge-appointed legal guardian — who happens to be past president of the Spokane City Council.

2 weeks ago | seattletimes.com | Danny Westneat

Few government programs have proved as popular, especially in the face of intense and conspiracy-laden criticism, as voting by mail. Despite years of President Donald Trump attacking mail-in balloting as some kind of a scam, it polls extremely well — with approval by more than 70% of Washington voters. When Oregon lawmakers heard a bill a few months ago to repeal that state’s vote-by-mail system, so many citizens wrote in defense of it the Legislature’s website crashed.

3 weeks ago | seattletimes.com | Danny Westneat

One handy rule of Seattle politics over the past decade has been: Never underestimate Kshama Sawant. No single figure did more to tilt Seattle policy and politics, to the left, than she did. Often derided, the socialist nevertheless prevailed in four hotly contested municipal elections. But now that she’s back and trying to leap onto the national stage by running for Congress, I’m going to break the rule and underestimate her. It’s not because she has changed or has any less of a potent following.

3 weeks ago | seattletimes.com | Danny Westneat

Elon Musk is packing up his chain saw and logging off from government work. The stories about this have a wistful note — about how the tech titan tried valiantly to wrestle a recalcitrant government into efficiency. Only to be foiled by a bureaucratic octopus. “I thought there were problems, but it sure is an uphill battle trying to improve things in D.C., to say the least,” Musk said on his way out the door. Puh-lease. Just remember the Lutherans.