No one is looking for love. Everyone wants political validation. Who needs love, affection, and empathy when shared umbrage, common political enemies, and reciprocal moral smugness are now the foundation of a lasting relationship?

A wait-your-turn mentality has infected Washington's ruling Democratic Party in the quest for higher office.

Biologists have barely begun to assess the damage from last week's fire, but the toll will eventually be measured in biological terms –- just another step backward in our collective effort to preserve the Puget Sound ecosystem.

Expect flak. When traffic engineers briefed local officials and taxpayers on the idea last year, drivers howled.  “Stupid idea,” wrote one local critic. “I’ve yet to hear one person who thinks it’s a good idea.” 

First, let’s clear up a couple of common misconceptions. Anyone can buy property in Italy; one does not need to be a citizen or even a legal resident. However, without a specific visa, one is limited to staying a maximum of 90 days in a 180 period.

The obvious conclusion is that if Republicans take control of either chamber in Congress in 2022, they will not try to do what’s best for American citizens. They will do what Trump tells them, probably starting with trying to undo everything Biden has done during his first two years.

Schofield did painstaking work in reconstructing the internal dynamics of the Council’s approach to the hastily developed contract, born in the immediate aftermath of the killing of George Floyd and the ensuing protests.

The democracy-voucher program, combined with other changes in the city’s campaign finance laws, have essentially moved a big chunk of the political spending in municipal elections onto the taxpayers’ dime. Meanwhile, the vouchers themselves are a kind of pseudo-money that has no other value to the holder. Persuading people to part with them is apparently much easier than asking for real cash. Such a change was bound to have some unintended consequences.

James Stevens scanned the natural wonders of the Pacific Northwest and saw every dramatic contour against the sky through the eyes of a mythical giant lumberman named Paul Bunyan.  

Those who challenge the entrenched power of this "insurgent status quo" badly lack exciting issues, other than nostalgic evocations of Sepia Seattle. In short, the primary is far from predictive of the November battles.

Does anyone dare predict that a sensible progressive center may be taking hold here?  It sure has in New York City and Cleveland.

At the top of the marquee, in the mayor’s race, same as it ever was.

I call. And get a recorded message that the “call center” is currently closed. Would I like to complete my request by text? No, but okay. The bot comes on and asks for my first name. I comply. Now it needs my last name so it can verify my account. Grrr. Okay.

Freshwater access has been an issue for as long as humans have been living on the island. Guemes lacks lakes and year-round streams. It depends on groundwater stored in two natural aquifers, accessed by wells, for fresh water. 

Today’s parents, thinking that the name Astrid contributes a half-step rise in social statue, fail to realize that their peers from similar families, schools, and social backgrounds also think the name Astrid connotes eminence. Quickly Astrid will forfeit its cachet.

Regardless of where you come down on the free-speech rights of giant corporations, here’s why you should care about this: Taking a million dollars of political money out of a campaign is going to help somebody. The interesting questions are who, and why.

"When AC became available, it was concentrated in large commercial spaces where you had to spend money to stay cool. Consequently, movie theaters or shopping malls received air conditioning, while there were far fewer public spaces providing shelter from the heat. Libraries are the major exception to this."

Historian Samuel Eliot Morison rhapsodized: “Astoria might well be called the Plymouth Rock of the West -- for the opening up of the Oregon country is a close parallel, almost a reproduction of the process by which the Thirteen Colonies were founded by England.”   

Facebook and Google chose to withdraw from the market and instituted self-imposed political ad bans in Washington. Those bans have effectively shut out campaigns from advertising on the platforms and led to widespread confusion a bout the law. And the fact that the companies allow some campaigns to still advertise presents its own challenges to a transparent and level playing field.

Realtors are aggressive about promoting their own members who aspire to political office, under the argument that Realtors will back Realtor-friendly policies. That’s typically where you see the eye-popping contribution numbers from the national group.

From one who has been there -- I can report that, if Kristof does choose to run for Oregon's governor, the journalist will face multiple hurdles.

Regulations may have come from a good place, but the result is to make building affordable housing or increasing density or accomplishing needed infrastructure projects all but impossible to pull off.

Abortion rights would appear secure on the West Coast and in East Coast and New England states.  The situation in the South and Midwest is far different.

The electorate does have vital reasons to tune in, despite a dismal campaign.  The election in the Emerald City has unfolded along familiar lines.

French president Emmanuel Macron’s edict spurred 160,000 protesters to take to the streets accusing him of dictatorial tactics. It also drove nearly 4 million others to book vaccinations.

How much longer will the party of Roosevelt, Kennedy and Obama, be forced to tip-toe around a man whose loyalties are not at all aligned with President Biden or members of the Democratic caucus?

Michael Wolff: “The nature of the Trump chaos is that, beyond its immediate desires and pronouncements, there was no ability – or structure, or chain of command, or procedures or expertise, or actual person to call – to make anything happen.”

A columnist has only one boss, his editor, who can also stand between him and angry detractors. A governor—even a candidate for governor—is naked against the scorn. Even veterans of other offices are often surprised by how incredibly personal being a governor can be, and how lonely. 

Lorena Gonzalez, the current city council president, has passed her first two key political tests -- keeping labor united behind her so that Jessyn Farrell has not been able to peel off that support; and holding the ethnic coalition on her side, lest Colleen Echohawk carve it away.

Over those years, the genial, soft-spoken Michigan professor and researcher has spent two months each summer living in a rustic, three-room cabin on the island, observing the mating rituals, nesting, egg-laying, and the hatching and fledging of the glaucous winged gulls that breed there by the thousands.