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Million-dollar mayor’s race: Spending reaches benchmark Tuesday, expected to grow

With ballots delivered to Spokane voters and two weeks until Election Day, spending on the mayoral race between Ben Stuckart and Nadine Woodward breached the $1 million mark after an independent conservative political group spent $50,000 on ads attacking Stuckart.

The increase in outside dollars being spent in Spokane and elsewhere is a consequence of the landmark 2010 Supreme Court decision, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which said the First Amendment prohibited limits on independent expenditures by corporations, labor unions and other groups.

Travis Ridout.
Ridout

“The Supreme Court, in the last decade, has really made it easier for money to get into the system,” said Travis Ridout, a political science professor at Washington State University who studies campaign financing. “And we’re not just seeing more spending at the federal level, but at the state and local level.”

Federal elections tend to draw more dollars, making one person or group’s spending less influential, said Ridout. Local elections, however, are much easier to influence with a much smaller outlay of money. Beyond that, he said, local elections draw large sums when they’re competitive, like the race between Stuckart and Woodward, and if they’re “the training ground for future congressional races.”

Ridout warned against drawing conclusions from what the spending earns a contributor.

“Maybe it buys you better access. It doesn’t necessarily,” he said. “Maybe a politician is more likely to listen to you, or trust you. … On the other hand, it’s not the beneficiaries of social services who are spending the money. Not everyone gets an equal voice in the process.”

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The Spokesman-Review

Expert: Vaping bans will escalate health crisis, not fix it

In early October, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee announced his intent to ban all flavored vaping products statewide. And while even more stringent vaping bans have picked up steam across the U.S., one expert claims that full-on prohibition could actually do more harm than good.

Susan Collins.
Collins

“The problem with bans and prohibitions in this country’s history is that it’s such an absolute rule that there are then unregulatable products,” said Susan Collins, psychology professor at Washington State University and co-director of a medical research center at the University of Washington.

While not speaking on behalf of either university, she underscored the importance of thinking twice about a ban on vaping products, in the wake of a rash of illnesses.

“We need to take a step back and in a calm, collected, methodical way, parse through the science, and understand what is involved in vaping behavior, and what parts of it can be made more safe,” she said.

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My Northwest
Seattle Times

“We Want Democracy to Be Restored”: Protesters in Chile Decry Inequality Amid Military Crackdown

In Chile, as many as eight people have died in widespread civil unrest that’s brought Santiago to a standstill and sparked a violent police and military crackdown across the country. The protests in Chile began in response to a subway fare hike two weeks ago and have grown into a mass uprising against rising inequality, high cost of living and privatization. Conservative billionaire President Sebastián Piñera canceled the fee increase on Saturday, but protests are continuing, with a national strike called for today.

President Piñera declared a state of emergency in Santiago and five other cities over the weekend, imposing a curfew and sending the military into the streets in response to civil unrest for the first time since dictator Augusto Pinochet’s nearly 20-year regime.

Andra Chastain.
Chastain

Andra Chastain, assistant professor of history at WSU: “I first want to say that this is nothing new. Transit fare increases have sparked major social protests in Santiago and throughout Latin America for over a century. And up until the dictatorship in 1973, social protest and political opposition and opposition to fare increases were a major reason why fares were held relatively low for many decades. There were uprisings in 1949, in 1957 in Santiago…. I also want to say that in 2007 there was a major overhaul of the transportation system that integrated the buses with the Metro, known as Transantiago, which also sparked major protests. So, this is nothing new. I think that social protest actually is a legitimate way to force the government into changing its policies.

“I also want to say that the Metro has — it began in the late ’60s — and it has represented the Chilean state for a very long time, and it has represented both the left and the right. So, under the socialist revolution of Salvador Allende, Allende supported the Metro. But after he was overthrown, the dictatorship of Pinochet kind of seized on the Metro as a shining example of what could happen under an authoritarian government. And since the return to democracy, both governments on the right and the left have held up the Metro as kind of an example of what they like to call the “Chilean miracle,” showing Chile to the outside world as this developed and democratic and exemplary model.”

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Democracy Now

Longtime FAMU professor inducted into Florida Civil Rights Hall of Fame

A longtime Florida A&M professor will be inducted into Florida Civil Rights Hall of Fame on Thursday night.

Charles Ullman Smith, sociologist, civil rights leader, and second African American to earn a PhD at WSU.
Smith

Dr. Charles Ullman Smith was a a civil rights leader and a long-time faculty member at FAMU.

In 1948, Smith completed his Ph.D. in sociology at Washington State University where he was the second African American to earn a Ph.D. at the University.

After graduation, Dr. Smith served as chair of the Department of Sociology and dean of graduate studies at FAMU.

He was active in the civil rights movement including the Tallahassee Bus Boycott of 1956 and the lunch counter sit-ins of 1960.

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WTXL

Ring Doorbell Cameras Help Fight Crime, Raise Other Issues

Nationally, doorbell cameras’ effectiveness in deterring crime is not yet apparent. Additionally, there have been several ethical dilemmas raised by minority groups and police watchdogs as the cameras become more popular.

Clayton Mosher.
Mosher

Clayton Mosher, a professor of sociology at Washington State University Vancouver who focuses on criminology, said a key issue surrounding the devices is the involvement of big corporations such as Amazon in marketing them. The companies may be using “questionable ‘research’ to overstate their effectiveness and increase their profits,” he said.

“It is possible that the installation of doorbell cameras [or related technologies] may have a short-term impact on burglaries, but there are also displacement issues. People will still commit burglaries, and perhaps just go to different areas,” Mosher said.

Technology is ahead of the government’s attempts to regulate it, Mosher said. He is also concerned, he said, about who will have access to data from doorbell cameras and whether it will be linked to other data, especially law enforcement data, potentially violating people’s rights.

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Government Technology