News & Stories

Via the Seattle Coalition for a Healthy Workforce: This is it – now is your chance to urge the Seattle City Council to support healthy, responsible prevention by passing a paid sick days ordinance! What: Public hearing on proposed paid sick days ordinance When: TOMORROW! Wednesday, July 6th, 5:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. Where: Seattle […]

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Via the Seattle Coalition for a Healthy Workforce: Thanks to months of collaboration between local businesses and community organizations, and thousands of emails, postcards and phone calls from paid sick days supporters, the Seattle City Council will officially consider a paid sick days ordinance this summer! This is a major step forward – we now […]

Over the past several weeks, EOI – as a member of the Seattle Coalition for a Healthy Workforce – has worked closely with a number of Seattle’s small business leaders toward the shared goal of creating a healthier Seattle through paid sick days. The result is a new “common ground” proposal that will ensure all […]

From the Everett Herald: Two weeks ago, Gov. Chris Gregoire convened a press conference with corporate leaders from Microsoft and Boeing. They were celebrating a breakthrough in higher education. It was a breakthrough, all right — like 60,000 high school graduates walking out onto thin ice and breaking through. The troika offered a life ring […]

This Thursday, June 23rd, the Economic Opportunity Institute is joining the Seattle Foundation’s GiveBIG campaign to be part of the biggest day of giving in King County history. But we need your help in this one-day only event. Donate to EOI through the Seattle Foundation website anytime between 7 a.m. and midnight on June 23rd, […]

As the saying goes, “education pays.” But with another round of tuition increases at Washington’s public universities this fall, the rising cost of college – and how to pay for it – is becoming a significant barrier to potential students. This coming academic year, double-digit percentage increases in tuition are planned at the University of […]

From Mother Jones: A team of researchers has reported in Science on a long-term study of intensive preschool intervention in Chicago, and the results are pretty impressive. The study group is a cohort of mostly African-American children born in 1979-80, and the followup study was done when they were 28 years old. Here’s the headline […]

From the Everett Herald: My son Owen and I just drove across half the country. He has a summer job in St. Paul, Minn., and we are giving him our 10-year-old car. Hence, a road trip! Driving along I-90 and I-94 for 1,800 miles gives you time to reflect on our nation’s transportation system. Did […]

In a recent post on the Seattle PI blog, reporter and blogger Chris Grygiel comments on the “chutzpah” of Boeing and Microsoft for celebrating the “transformation” of higher education in Washington state. What’s he talking about? Grygiel explains several bills passed by the Washington legislature have exacerbated years of severe cuts to Washington’s higher education system, […]

Via Seattle Coalition for a Healthy Workforce: Following a 3 a.m. vote in the early hours of Saturday morning, state legislators in Connecticut approved the first statewide paid sick days legislation in the United States. The bill, which now awaits approval by Governor Daniel Malloy, will ensure hundreds of thousands of service workers in Connecticut […]

Via Seattle Coalition for a Healthy Workforce: On the Seattle Channel’s City Inside Out, host C.R. Douglas profiles the paid sick days proposal in Seattle. He begins with a look at business, including Molly Moon’s Homemade Ice Cream – which provides paid sick days to their employees. Nick Licata, Seattle City Councilmember in support of […]

From Legal Voice: The current debate over whether or not workers should have a minimum standard of paid sick days is not a new one. A national bill, The Healthy Families Act, was proposed in 2009 and a handful of cities and states have followed suit with similar proposals. What baffles me in the current […]

Via the Seattle Coalition for a Healthy Workforce: In March 2011, the Seattle Times reported that an outbreak of norovirus closed the Seattle Yacht Club for nearly a week. The outbreak, which sickened at least 150 people, was determined to be norovirus by the Seattle-King County Health Department. From the Seattle Times: [Club commodore Kim] […]

Guest post by Brendan Williams, former Washington state representative from the 22nd legislative district. As a legislator I came to realize no principle on Earth could withstand the arbitrary pressure to adjourn on time – if such potential existed but for principle/s. The same was true toward the end of this year’s special session. Thus, […]

The Northwest Carbon Pricing Conference, held May 21, 2011, convened a diverse group of concerned citizens, business and labor leaders, elected officials, students, and scholars to discuss carbon pricing as a strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and drive clean energy development. One of the speakers at the conference, EOI Executive Director John Burbank, spoke […]