Three of the eight elements are now in public consciousness – our task is to nurture a public conversation about all eight – together – and now, in 2015.
The largest dam-removal project in history reached completion last fall, when excavators dredged the final tons of pulverized concrete from the Elwha River channel in Western Washington. Native fish, banished for 100 years from their historic spawning habitat, already were rediscovering the Elwha's newly accessible upper stretches. Within weeks of the final explosion in August, threatened bull trout and chinook salmon were spotted migrating beyond the rubble.
“He is my idol, and not a day passes without my saying it,” Mr. Thirupathi said. “Security, law and order, truth, honesty — all of this requires vision and boils down to leadership.”
A group of political elders, concerned that the American public is losing faith in the presidential election system, is pushing for changes to general-election debate rules to make it easier for independent candidates to gain traction.
The group, called Change the Rule, recently wrote a letter to the Commission on Presidential Debates, the nonpartisan organization that runs general-election debates, urging it to eliminate the rule requiring non-major-party candidates to average at least 15 percent in public polling to participate.
SEATTLE — Kshama Sawant, the socialist on the City Council, is up for re-election this year. Since joining the council in January of 2014 she has helped push through a gradual raising of the minimum wage to $15 an hour in Seattle. She has expanded funding for social services and blocked, along with housing advocates, an attempt by the Seattle Housing Authority to allow a rent increase of up to 400 percent. She has successfully lobbied for city money to support tent encampments and is fighting for an excise tax on millionaires. And for this she has become the bete noire of the Establishment, especially the Democratic Party.