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Attorney: Funding question is up to the court State lawmakers believe they have fully complied with the McCleary mandate, but the opposition says it’s too soon to tell if that’s true.
EVERETT, WASHINGTON
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One will run 37 miles and have 11 stations, with service expected to begin in 2024. The second will have 9 stations. By Lizz Giordano Herald Staff
EVERETT — Sound Transit and the state Department of Transportation kicked off planning for two new bus rapid transit lines last week. One will run 37 miles along
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I-405 from Lynnwood to Burien and have 11 stations. Three stations will include additional parking and a new transit center will be built in south Renton. Service is expected to start in 2024 and Sound Transit estimates it will take riders 45 minutes to travel from Lynnwood to Bellevue
and 48 minutes between Bellevue and Burien. The second line, with a total of nine stations, will run along Highway 522 from Bothell to the future light rail station in Shoreline. Parking will be added in Lake Forest Park, Kenmore and Bothell, and the transit center at UW Bothell will be expanded. When service begins in 2024, the same year the Shoreline Light Rail station is scheduled to open,
Sound Transit estimates the ride between Lake Forest Park to downtown Seattle via the bus rapid transit line and light rail will take 38 minutes. Described by the agency as “like rail on rubber tires,” bus rapid transit systems are designed for improved capacity and reliability compared to other bus systems. See BUS, Page A2
Canine couture
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Planning starts on bus lines
By Jerry Cornfield OLYMPIA — State lawmakers think they’ve complied with school funding mandates in the McCleary case but the attorney for the families that sued told the Supreme Court on Monday it is too soon to reach that conclusion. While legislators have steered billions of additional dollars into basic education, the 2018 school year will be the first chance for the court to assess if the amount is “constitutionally adequate,” attorney Thomas Ahearne contends in a brief filed Monday. Though plaintiffs do not think the state finished the job, Ahearne said the court should allow the state to proceed “with school district experience being the judge of whether the state’s new funding levels prove adequate.” But he urged the court to reject the state’s request to be found in compliance because it could impede the ability to litigate on the adequacy of funding in the future. “The state’s demand for a preemptive factual finding of full constitutional compliance…asks the judicial branch to close the courthouse door, turn off the lights, and go to sleep,” he wrote. The question of whether the state’s new funding levels do in fact comply with the Constitution is “a question to be resolved another day in another case — not a question to be gagged and buried here with a speculative factual finding of compliance today.” Nonetheless what Ahearne filed Monday could be one of the final legal briefs in an 11-year odyssey. Lawyers for the state have until May 10 to file a response. The court could then have a hearing or issue a ruling. A lawsuit filed in 2007 by the McCleary and the Venema families led to the 2012 ruling by the Supreme Court that state funding for education is not adequate, equitable or ample. Justices also found the school funding system unconstitutional because it caused school districts to use local property taxes to cover the gap in state funding for basic education. The court set a Sept. 1, 2018, deadline for the state to fix the problems. In 2014, the court held the state in contempt for failing to submit a plan laying out the steps to be taken to assure compliance by the deadline. In August 2015, with no plan submitted, the court added a $100,000-a-day sanction. Since the ruling, the level of state funding for elementary and secondary education has risen from $13.4 billion in the 201113 biennium to $22.8 billion in the current two-year budget. It is projected to be $26.7 billion in the next budget.
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Business makes clothes, bling and more for dogs and other creatures
ANDY BRONSON / THE HERALD
Dianna Melton, founder of DoggieBlingNThings, holds her pooch, Lacey, who models dog sunglasses and clothes she makes to sell online and at festivals and events.
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See FUNDED, Page A2
YNNWOOD — Just when you think you’ve seen it all … there’s a sassy Chihuahua in a hot pink tutu with matching sunglasses staring at you. What’s up with that? It’s like the 1960s children’s classic “Go, Dog. Go!” comes to real life. Big dogs. Little Dogs. Dressed and goggled like they’re going to a dog party. “The poofier the skirt, the happier they are,” said Dianna Melton, 50, a former mortgage industry worker and founder of DoggieBlingNThings. She and her mom, Linda Ottaway, 72, make dog clothes and accessories. Ruffled dresses are $30. Hoodies go for $20. A blingy necklace is $10. Visers are $6. DoggieBlingNThings started after demands from people admiring clothes the women made for their dogs. They have seven Chihuahaus in all.
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ANDREA BROWN WHAT’S UP WITH THAT? What began with a few dresses at church bazaars is now a year-round circuit at festivals, home shows and pet events, including Shoptopia on Sunday at the Lynnwood Convention Center. Just look for the crowd of people gathered around dolledup little dogs acting like beauty pageant princesses. Melton’s 5-pound Chihuahua, Lacey, and her mom’s petite pooch, Sofie, are the models. Garments in Seahawk and
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Mariner prints are popular, with bling to match. Some people argue that putting clothes on dogs is unnecessary and excessive at best, cruel at worst. “I thought that, too,” said Ottaway, a retired seamstress of human clothes. “I said, ‘We don’t want to dress dogs.’ ” Her daughter persuaded her otherwise and to get back behind a sewing machine. “You put a dress on that little dog and it boosts their selfesteem,” Melton said. “The dogs think, ‘I am so pretty.’ ” She says she can tell by their body language: head held high, spring in step. “She thinks she’s a prissy girl, so she’s got to wear jewelry,” Melton said of Lacey. Again. Melton just knows. The dog uses her nose to choose her outfit for day play. And, yes, she wears jammies at night.
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Melton debunks that dogs only see black and white. “Lacey loves the color pink. She picks pink almost every time.” She said Lacey, a 6-year-old rescue, spent her early years locked in a garage. “She was kicked, choked, starved and thrown outside in the winter with no blanket or food.” Now she has a dresser full of clothes. Dogs have been wearing sweaters for decades as well as donning costumes for parades and Halloween. But dressing up for everyday drudgery? Pet people don’t seem to mind splurging. According to American Pet Products Association, $15 billion was spent on items such as beds, collars, toys, clothing, food, over-the-counter medications and other accessories in 2017. See WHAT’S, Page A2
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