Cascade High grad’s a pro, just not a Mariner
Carefully considered: Photo will stay in MPHS yearbook
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SATURDAY, 06.06.2015
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EVERETT, WASHINGTON
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New social media policy
Lawmakers collect $180K
The Monroe City Council passes guidelines outlining suggested online behavior for elected officials’ personal and professional accounts.
Kids get their day in court
Herald Writer
MONROE — The mayor and City Council members are now “strongly discouraged” from friending each other or liking the posts of fellow politicians on Facebook. That’s part of a new social media policy for elected officials that was approved this week by the Monroe City Council. The policy includes enforceable guidance for elected officials’ use of city social media sites and official accounts. It also makes suggestions about behavior when using personal accounts. Because officials have a constitutional right to free speech, the city cannot actually enforce rules regarding personal accounts, City Administrator Gene Brazel said. In part, the guidelines are about transparency. The state Public Records Act requires government agencies across Washington to preserve records and make most of them available to people. Those records could include digital ones created through social media, such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, and the underlying data. But few public agencies have policies in place to retain such records. The state in 2010 issued suggested guidelines to help public agencies with social media issues. Monroe joins a handful of cities that have implemented policies to help ensure compliance with laws aimed at government transparency. “We’re trying to keep up with technology,” Mayor Geoffrey Thomas said. Monroe’s policy establishes a way for elected officials to use social media to communicate with constituents using official accounts and to ensure the information is saved in compliance with state public records laws. The policy also aims to keep elected officials from violating rules about open public meetings and those related to using a public office to aid in a political campaign.
the buzz
See SOCIAL, back page, this section
By Jerry Cornfield Herald Writer
OLYMPIA — The price of state lawmakers’ failure to reach a budget deal has eclipsed $180,000 and is still climbing. That’s what’s been paid to
lawmakers in $120-a-day per diem payments and mileage reimbursements for the special session that ended last month. But the 147 citizen legislators aren’t finished. Friday marked the eighth day of a second extra session, so the final total for
those expenses could double before lawmakers pass a twoyear spending plan and adjourn for the year. Legislators earn $42,106 a year and are entitled to receive up to $120 more for each day in a regular or special legislative session to cover expenses such as food and lodging in Olympia. A lawmaker putting in for $120 for each of the regular session’s
collected, and how >> Who much they got, A2 103 days, for example, was reimbursed $12,360. Under state law, per diem can be claimed for days during which lawmakers are “engaged in legislative business,” which can be interpreted widely to See $180K, Page A2
Edmonds School District fifth-graders take part in annual Law Day
PHOTOS BY KEVIN CLARK / THE HERALD
Daniel Noah, from Cedar Valley Community School, attempts a sobriety test wearing DUI goggles with the help of Mountlake Terrace detective Heidi Froisland on Friday during Lynnwood’s Law Day. Nearly 850 students from the Edmonds School District attended and participated in the Lynnwood South District Court’s Law Day.
By Rikki King Herald Writer
Jazmin Hernandez, from Cedar Valley Community School, is shocked upon hearing the possible sentence for shoplifting.
Killer whale fail Free Willy and let him have a shot: A 32-foot fiberglass replica of a killer whale, brought in from Bellingham to scare away hundreds of sea lions that are lounging on the docks of Astoria, Oregon, capsized shortly after it was launched (Page A9). Two things you’ve probably never seen before: a
sea lion laughing so hard that salmon comes out of its nose and real orca whales picketing because their jobs have been outsourced. Water, water nowhere: California Gov. Jerry Brown, whose state is in the midst of an extreme drought that grips 70 percent of the state, is urging his fellow Californians to limit their use of water by cutting back on
drinking water and skipping showers. Brown, during a meeting with mayors in San Jose, said he didn’t shower that morning (Page A7). Brown, D-Ripe, also has ordered lawmakers in the California Assembly to model themselves after the 17th century court of France’s King Louis XIV, stop bathing all together, dose themselves in cologne and wear powdered wigs.
LYNNWOOD — Fifth-graders don’t ask the easiest questions. On Friday, given an audience with troopers, sheriff ’s deputies and city police officers, they lobbed inquiries about standyour-ground laws, racial tensions, gun rights and penalties for kidnapping. Each question got an honest — albeit family-friendly — answer. Nearly 840 fifth-graders from the Edmonds School District participated Friday in the annual Law Day field trip to Snohomish
Don’t know much about history: On this day in 1844, the Young Men’s Christian Association was founded in London (Today in History, Page C8). It’s not widely known, but the founding members included a cowboy, an Indian, a motorcycle cop, a construction worker, a soldier and a guy with muttonchops in a leather jacket and chaps.
—Jon Bauer, Herald staff
County south district court in Lynnwood. Law Day, a tradition for nearly three decades, promotes conversations between young people, police, attorneys and court staff, Judge Jeffrey Goodwin said. Fifth grade is a great age, and everyone “absolutely has a blast,” the judge said. The activities are designed to spark an interest in criminal justice. On Friday, four sessions focused on a scripted mock trial, a “Jeopardy!”-style game, safety in the car and police dogs. See LAW DAY, back page, this section
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By Amy Nile
That’s the cost so far, anyway, as they claim $120 daily payments for work done during sessions to settle the budget.
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