Bring checkbook.

Personally, I could do without the restroom motif on the Prop 8 protest poster. But overall, the poster is pretty good—not great—but good. You can quickly see what the march is about, where it is, and when it is—which is more than we could say for most lefty rally/march posters. Look at some of this cluttered bullshit.

Formal notices won't be going out until Dec. 1, but some employees of the former Washington Mutual banking operations already are being told informally they'll be among those laid off by the bank's new owner, JPMorgan Chase.

Employees in such groups and departments as human resources, legal, risk management, fraud management and compliance have been advised by supervisors that they'll be getting layoff warning notices, and some have even been told not to show up for work between now and Dec. 1.

JPMorgan Chase isn't saying how many have been told informally or how many will be laid off.

Federal regulators took control of Washington Mutual's banking operations Sept. 25 and sold them to JPMorgan Chase the same day. In meetings with employees the following week, JPMorgan Chase officials said WaMu employees will wind up in one of three groups: those to be laid off, those who will stay for an extended transition period and those who will have permanent positions with the new company.

JPMorgan Chase plans to issue 60-day Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act notices Dec. 1, with employees officially losing their jobs at the end of January. They'd also receive severance calculated on length of time with the company.

Washington Mutual had 43,000 employees nationally and 2,200 retail branches. But the brunt of the cuts is expected to fall in Seattle, where many of it administrative, operations and support personnel work in positions that duplicate jobs JPMorgan Chase already has. WaMu's Seattle-area employment was more than 4,300.

Via P.I.

I'm confused about what the hell is going on this Saturday protesting Prop 8.

Are we meeting in Volunteer park? In front of City Hall? Are we meeting at 10:30? Noon? 1:00? Are we marching? If so, where?

There seems to be conflicting and overlapping information, and I can't make heads or tails of it. I want to participate, but at this point I'm about to throw my hands up and forget about it. I can't seem to get onto the website that the organizers put up.

If you can unravel the confusing mess of information regarding this Saturday, I will be forever grateful.

Dear Scott, keep your hands down. Seattle, as part of a national day of action, is planning one big protest of Proposition 8 and the bigoted Utah church behind the measure: Festivities begin in Volunteer Park on Saturday at 10:30 a.m., a rally begins at noon, the march leaves at 1 p.m. and then heads down to Westlake Park for more protesting, rallying and speechifying.

Earlier announcements—it’s true—said folks would meet at city hall on Saturday. Those plans are off. “When it was brought to our attention that multiple events were planned, we decided to join forces and get the largest turnout possible,” says Amy Balliett, who had planned the event.

Check out our pre-coverage of the march, read about how protesting Prop 8 paves the way for marriage equality in Washington, and enjoy the national day-of-action web site's listing for the event in Seattle. See you there.

Kyler Powell, 21, was raised as a non-denominational Christian in Boise, Idaho. But at the age of 16, after his parents divorced, he voluntarily converted to Mormonism and got baptized. “The Mormon Church’s stance on abstinence, dating, and the clothes you wear resonate with my personal morals,” says Powell.

But as a gay man, having lived in Seattle for three years, he’s protesting the actions of his own moral institution. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints led the charge to pass California's Proposition 8, which stripped nearly 20,000 same-sex couples of their marriage recognition last week. “I was kind of outraged with Prop 8, which inspired me to start a protest,” Powell says.

A rally will begin in Volunteer Park at noon on Saturday as part of a national day of action. Dave mentioned it here. (The national protest site, Jointheimpact.com, has been overwhelmed with traffic, Powell says, so another sister web site was launched to handle the overflow.) Marchers in Seattle will leave Volunteer Park at about 1 p.m. and hoof it down to Westlake Park for another rally. Powell is trying to recruit local elected officials, including state Rep. Jamie Pedersen and Congressman Jim McDermott, to speak at the event. (We're told that another event, previously scheduled at city hall, has been combined with this march and rally.)

Mormons turning on the LDS church for supporting Prop 8 isn’t just a local phenomenon. MormonsForMarriage.com makes the case for gays getting married, these Mormons say that Prop 8 is contrary to scripture,” and this high priest risks excommunication for opposing Prop 8.

But the church’s local leadership is in denial about its role in passing the measure—even after yesterday's protest outside a Mormon chapel in the University District.

“The Catholic Church was also involved in it, so I don't know how they can single out the LDS church,” says Thomas Olson, president of the Mormon’s Seattle North Stake.

However, national church leaders sent this memo to members of the church this summer, stating, “We ask that you do all you can to support the proposed constitutional amendment by donating of your means and time to assure that marriage in California is legally defined as being between a man and a woman.” Members of the church contributed an estimated $22 million to the campaign, making up two-thirds of the money for the pro-Prop-8 campaign. Seattle-area donors contributed huge sums.

“I'm not sure what [the protest] accomplishes, based on they are targeting our places of worship based on a vote taken in the State of California,” says Olson. “We certainly don't condone bigotry or targeting gays or lesbians,” he says. “I guess people would say … that we have done that, but that is not out intent.”

When repeatedly pressed for an example of the harm that same-sex marriages would cause Mormons, Olson couldn’t name one. Instead, he cited the church’s own morality. “It gets back to this basic view about God's intent for his children,” he says. “I don't know I can give you any more clarity without sitting down and talking to you about this.” (I declined)

Powell’s commitment to the LDS, meanwhile, is waning. “After putting in so much time and effort [to the church], it is hard to accept them because they are saying that—for what I have been born with—they would excommunicate me, ” He says the church doesn’t know he’s gay (well, they might know now), so he hasn’t been excommunicated.

“I honestly am ready to write my resignation letter to the church,” Powell says.

I am writing today to alert you of a protest taking place at 8:00 am this Sunday, November 9, in front of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints at 5701 8th Ave NE, Seattle, WA 98105.

The protest will be in response to the church's involvement in Proposition 8 passing in CA. We are demanding marriage equality, respect, and an investigation into the Church's tax-exempt status.

Stupid Mormons and their early church. See you there.

The good news: If you live or work in Roosevelt, Green Lake, near Providence Hospital, or on 12th Avenue, your parking rates are going down--to a new, low rate of $1.00 an hour! Don't you feel lucky?

The other good news, if you are parking downtown: A proposed new Center City Parking Program would give drivers directions to available parking downtown. It won't be any cheaper, but at least you won't waste as much gas circling around! This assumes, of course, that the program doesn't get cut due to the economic crisis; according to a recent budget forecast by city budget director Dwight Dively, the city is facing an $18.2 million budget gap between 2009 and 2010.

*Want to find out what the city means by all these arbitrary-sounding neighborhood designations? Check out the Seattle DOT's parking web site for borders.

According the suit filed in King County Superior Court on November 6th, the man walked to the northeast side of the bridge around midnight on August 22nd and used an emergency phones to call a suicide-prevention hotline. The man told the operator he "just wanted to talk about some personal problems."

The suit says twenty minutes later, SPD and Seattle Fire showed up and, man claims officers "illegally ordered [him] to get into [an] ambulance" and was taken to the UW Medical Center against his will.

The man does not have health insurance and says the city's policy has left him with an $883 medical bill, "even though [he] did not need service at the time."

"If somebody is exhibiting signs of suicidal tendencies or is depressed, our policy is typically to send them to the hospital for a mental evaluation," says SPD spokesman Mark Jamieson.

In his suit, the man claims he "was totally able-bodied and the only problem I had was a debt of about $4,980 [in student loans]. The Seattle Police Department should have transported me or called a taxicab to transport me to the hospital."

The man, who appears to be representing himself, is asking for a jury trial and wants the city to pay $500,000 for his medical bills and to "financially support [him] for life." He is also asking the city to install 12 foot high iron bars along the bridge walkway to prevent future suicide attempts.

The CPC has provided free after school programs, support groups, language classes to immigrant families and services for the homeless in South Lake Union for the last ten years, but will close on December 31st unless the center can secure $75,000 in funding.

CPC almost shut down last year, but the city council gave CPC $100,000 to stay open and develop a financial plan.

CPC Program Director Myla Becker says the center's been working to raise money but has asked the city council to fund them for an additional year. "Basically we heard, ‘we like what you’re doing,'" Becker says, "but nobody was willing to write a [budget request] for the funding."

Becker says CPC had planned to hold an auction and fund raising dinner in the next few months, but now it's unlikely the events will happen if the center isn't able to come up with additional money by the end of the year.

"The struggle is that ultimately we need two years of [funding] so that we can build the funding capacity for the next two years," Becker says.

Becker says the center raised almost $60,000 from foundation grants, individual contributors and last year's auction, which raised about $40,000. The year before, it only brought in $6,000. "The capacity [for fundraising] is there," Becker says. "We really just need the time."

An October 28th DSHS report accuses Faerland Terrace—located on Minor and Pike—staff of improperly handling residents suffering dementia. According to the report, staff apparently pinned the arms of a combative resident in order to get them dressed, and failed to brush another resident's teeth for over a year.

The report says a staff member also struck a resident in the back of the head, and the facility apparently has had problems with some residents urinating and forcing tongue kisses on other residents. There also appear to have been problems with residents assaulting, chasing, biting and tripping each other.

Faerland, which has about 100 residents, is appealing DSHS' "stop placement" order, and the facility's executive director, Tommy Tomlinson, says she's filed a complaint with the state, claiming her staff was harassed by a DSHS inspector.

"I’ve already asked the inspector not to step into the building again," Tomlinson says. "The state inspector came in and intimidated and harassed my staff...pushing them, asking them the same question four or five times [and] upsetting the residents."
DSHS was unavailable for comment on Tomlinson's claims of harassment.

Tomlinson downplays the incidents listed in the report, insisting that DSHS' accusations are "erroneous and false." But, she says, "We’re guilty until we prove otherwise. All of our patients are happy as can be."

Considering these alleged abuses are exactly what supporters of I-1029—which would double the training requirements for caretakers to about 70 hours—have been crowing about, I asked Faerland what she thought of the initiative.

"1029 will be onerous for everyone in long term care. There’s no way the state’s going to be able to oversee this," she says.

DSHS has given Faerland until November 17th to retrain its staff.

Workers just cleared that very, very clogged drain at Pike and Broadway. Now you don't have to jump over a small lake to cross the street or get to the QFC. Oh happy day.

"Why are you takin' a picture of that," one of the men asked me, as he reached for a handful of the sludge he just pulled from the backed-up drain.

"I'm excited the drain is clear! I'm going to put it on the internet! People will be stoked!"

"Hahaha... whatever."

Oh and the anti-Prop. 1 post? Ms Barnett of the Stranger in her usual form. Not much analysis there other than assuming it will fail without much evidence, and calling anyone who endorses Prop. 1 a “defeatist”. Nice. I wonder which of the three here actually thought this issue through more seriously?

And this:

Josh Feit of The Stranger has a very kooky argument against the RTID. ... We can’t sit and wait for the perfect proposal that pleases everyone, we have to accept what will make the best compromise and move forward from there.

And this:

Erica C Barnett at the Stranger wrote a piece lauding the Sierra Club for fighting against Prop. 1, and then turning around to lobby Sound Transit into put “station access funds” in place of park-and-rides for suburban stations. Station access funds could be spent on anything, including parking, but the use is decided by the local government and not prescribed by Sound Transit.

Nice idea, but I find this piece extremely self-congratulatory and completely off-mark, Erica wrote the piece as if Sound Transit 2 had passed already ...This could end up a complete waste of time, since it’s looking ever less certain we’ll get a ballot measure this year. In fact, I think the odds are slipping past even as I write this, if they haven’t already. I’ll congratulate the Sierra Club when they actually endorse a plan that passes.

While I'm glad fellow transit proponents are acknowledging, belatedly, that we were right (Goldy wrote a sweet mea culpa a few months ago, so I'm only picking on the Transit Bloggers here), it shouldn't come as a huge surprise that in a high-turnout, heavily Democratic election, voters in the Puget Sound region--which is about to get light rail next year from Seattle to the airport--would support expanding transit now. The economy may be bad, but people are optimistic; and optimistic people are capable of seeing beyond the next year or two (and beyond their narrow interests.) The era of big road-building projects is over. The voters know that, and they want alternatives. They got them Tuesday night.

Or, as Sierra Club chairman Mike O'Brien put it,

Last year, a $5 million campaign in good economic times to pass Roads and Transit failed. This year, a $750,000 campaign in bad economic times to finance more transit passed. The difference -- no climate-changing roads. When the voters defeated Roads and Transit last year, they weren't just saying bring back light rail, they were also saying bring us realistic transportation solutions that help solve global warming.

In a letter to the editor on Tuesday--which I didn't see until today--Carr chastises the PI for reconsidering how we spend our criminal justice funds. An editorial on Monday had calmly suggested that we “rethink the enforcement of drug laws” to handle a huge city and county revenue shortfall. We wrote about the impacts on drug cases at the county here. The PI asked, “What if resources could be shifted from the prosecution of low-level drug crimes into recovery programs?” That strategy, of course, has been proven to save money and be more effective. But Carr shot off this testy missive:

Decriminalization, a word that you do not use in your Monday editorial, but which you seem to be advocating, has not worked anywhere that it has been tried. European countries that have gone down this road are reconsidering their policies because of an increase in both drug addiction and drug-related crime. A balanced approach of prevention, enforcement and treatment is the answer. This is the approach that we take and it has worked well. Discarding a working model for an unproven one because of budget concerns would be the worst kind of foolishness. …

Decriminalization is the functional equivalent of giving up. We have proven answers to the drug problem that we employ. It is disappointing the P-I failed to recognize these efforts.

Is Carr seriously saying we shouldn’t provide more treatment? That our drug policy, as it stands, is working? Really? And Carr is just wrong when he says decriminalization can’t be part of a functional drug policy. In September, the Beckley Foundation in the UK released a report (.pdf) on cannabis policies that concludes, “Measures to reduce penalties or to decriminalize possession and use have been adopted in numerous jurisdictions without an upsurge in use.” A ton of studies show decriminalization works. And in the Netherlands, where they focus on treatment and avoid incarceration for drug possession, use of drugs is far below the US.

Meanwhile in King County, law enforcement agencies reported 1,650 arrests for misdemeanor marijuana possession last year. Carr would rather we lock up those people—and spend time whining about it--even though the city just sent a press release titled “Mayor Working to Identify Additional Reductions to Balance Budget.”

Hey, Greg Nickels, here's a way to balance your budget: Slash Tom Carr’s funds for low-level drug offenders (such as paraphernalia and pot), put more money into drug treatment, and use the net saving for other city programs. And hey, everyone else, let's recruit a new candidate for city attorney who doesn’t waste his time writing backward letters to the editor.