AND THE SITUATION IS:

While the devastating effects of the recession on our state are well known, the fact that women were disproportionately affected was new to me. Women still predominantly work in lesser paid yet invaluable industries, including social work, education, and healthcare, the majority of which are funded heavily by our state government.

The recent $20 billion state budget loss this year caused tremendous cuts in funding for these female dominated industries and consequently forced thousands of women into unemployment. So, women who are already underpaid and have fewer benefits than men are now facing larger expected funding cuts and fewer job prospects. Sucky, huh?

IT GETS WORSE:

As the Bus has previously covered, there has been an ongoing attack on women’s reproductive rights. In the last year 135 abortion restrictions were enacted nationwide.  To top this off, experts are seeing an influx of women who are victims of domestic abuse, which confirms the already well-established correlation between economic stress and violence against women. The lack of state funding eliminates a big chunk of social services, and many of these women have nowhere to turn for help.

IT AIN'T ALL BAD:

There's a lot that's being done to improve the situation. Seattle passed a groundbreaking Paid Sick Leave Policy which will take effect in September! This policy will allow about 150,000 Washington workers, men and women (but women in particular due to the above inequalities), to earn paid sick days on the job and no longer have to choose between getting a paycheck and taking their kids to the emergency room.

And there are ways to limit the cuts to social services and curb female unemployment rates. Increasing the state revenue would be a great first step, and could be achieved by introducing a progressive Income Tax (like Oregon). Paying higher taxes might sting in the short-term, but the benefits of keeping women working and financially independent would be a net gain for our state overall.

My takeaway: GIVE WOMEN WHAT THEY WANT! It can only benefit us as a society as a whole.

Bet he looks amazing in spandex.

Extra points for putting a plug in for a high-earners income tax to fund vital government services.

Kseniya Husak is a recent graduate from the UW holding an eyebrow raising combination of degrees in Philosophy and Accounting. She arrived in the US from Ukraine in 2004. Since her arrival to the cornucopious US of A, she has substantially improved her knowledge of Star Trek and Star Wars and can now successfully hold not-terribly-awkward conversation with most Americans. In her spare time Kseniya enjoys reading about politics, internet stalking various political leaders and informing others (mostly friends, family, and strangers on the bus) about current political developments. Although she’s conducted research on juvenile prostitution and human rights crises on a global scale, she is excited to engage more with local politics. Kseniya’s favorite food is ice cream, and she’s currently actualizing her long time dream of eating copious amounts of said ice cream by working at Molly Moon’s, where you are welcome to holla at her.

VIVA LA CATS AND WASHINGTON BUS!

No, I'm not talking about the Affordable Care Act. I'm talking about the petty and overly litigious suit being brought against Google by Oracle, the owner of Sun Microsystems and proprietor of the Java programming language. Most of the world's phones are built on Java. It's a hugely important language. Ars Technica has great coverage of the ongoing arguments here.

OH, you meant the other kind of Java

The case against Google is that it copied certain elements of Java's API in designing its own Android phone operating system. The API is an enormous collection of built-in functions which any Java program can call at any time. Basically, Oracle claims that certain parts of Android's programming look too much like the inner workings of the Java API.

Google's defense rests on two claims. First, that the API is totally central to Java. Without the functions provided by the API, you could basically add and subtract numbers. I'm not enough of a Java programmer to know if you could print those numbers to a screen, but I think the answer is no. The fact is, Java is designed around its API, the standard library of functions available to any program, and the two really are inextricable.

Who couldn't love this robot?

Google further claims that programming languages cannot be copyrighted. This is perhaps more arguable. But it's certainly in line with their unofficial corporate motto, Don't Be Evil.

To say that programming languages cannot be copyrighted is to say that a method of problem-solving is not intellectual property. To me, that's a pretty cool position. It's also the one that Oracle took when it released Java to the world in the first place, as Google keeps reminding Larry Ellison. Let's work towards a world where we can solve problems together, without worrying about infringing on someone's rights to make money off of the process.

The Bus's own Toby Crittenden was on KUOW this morning talking about gay marriage and the youth vote.  The podcast is available on iTunes or can be streamed right here.

Toby starts up at around the 17 minute mark.

Today Obama came out for Marriage Equality!!!!  The most powerful man in the land just added his voice to the Marriage Equality Movement.

WOOHAH!

Also, thank you Biden, you lovable blabbermouth!

All public policy should be based on Will & Grace.

On Monday, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan followed suit and came out in favor of Gay Marriage.  That makes him the second powerful Secretary to publicly endorse Marriage Equality; Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan stated his support in November.

Which puts Obama's stance on Marriage Equality squarely in the spotlight, exactly where he doesn't want it during an election year.

Obama's Communications Director David Axelrod was quick to tweet out a statement in an attempt to walk back Biden's comments.

Obama has now placed himself in the incredibly oxymoronic position of being Against the Defense of Marriage Amendment, but not supporting Marriage Equality. Obama came out against California's Proposition 8 (albeit quietly) back in 2008, and and has spoken against North Carolina's Prop 1, both of which define marriage as between a man and a woman.

It's incredibly hard to see Obama, a Harvard-trained lawyer who grew up during the civil rights movement, really believing that gays and lesbians don't deserve equal rights federally.

In fact, back in 1996 Obama told the Windy City Times that he fully supported gay marriage.

It wasn't until Obama started eying the Oval Office that he changed his stance to supporting civil unions.  And now Obama says he's "evolving" on the issue, but is unwilling to make a full return to his 1996 stance.

Washingtonian's may remember similar hedging by Governor Gregoire, who recently became a champion for Marriage Equality. Up until this year, Gregoire sat on the fence and publicly said she was "not ready to support" Marriage Equality or that churches should "make the call". Then, when the bill was finally cued up for a vote, she put her weight behind the issue.

The real question is, should Obama actually support marriage equality as he's claimed previously - and with approximately half the nation in support of marriage equality - when will it be politically convenient or effective for Obama to do the same?

The United States Postal Service is dead broke.  The business that employes 554,000 employees who drive to your door and personally hand-deliver paper for 45 cents a piece is predicted to run a $14 billion deficit by the end of this year.

On April 24th the United States Senate passed a bipartisan bill intended to aid the financially troubled Postal Service.  The bill would maintain Saturday delivery for two years, and make it harder to close down rural post offices during that time. It also would allow USPS to take back $11 billion in over-payments in order to offer incentives for postal workers to retire early.  But the bill fails to address the actual problem plaguing the Postal Service.

The Root Of The Problem:

Most of the reporting on the Postal Service's money problems so far has been attributed to the decrease in first class mail.  According to USPS's data, mail volume has dropped consistently over the last 10 years.  In 2002, the Postal Service handled approximately 203 billion letters.  In 2011, that figure was 168 billion.

But blaming e-mail for the Postal Service's financial troubles is missing the real story. Even as mail volume decreased, the Postal Service was still making a profit up until 2006, when George Bush signed the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act into law.

The 2006 law required the Postal Service to pre-fund 100% of their worker retirement expenses for the next 75 years. No private company or other branch of the federal government does this.

"Most people don't understand the funding problem," reported Garrett Scott, a member of the 79th Branch of the National Association of Letter Carriers.  Branch 79 is the union for all Letter Carriers throughout the Greater Seattle Area, including Auburn, Bothell, Redmond, and the surrounding cities.  The union is opposed to the bill passed by the Senate, as well as a competing bill Darrell Issa (R-CA) is pushing in the House.

Neither bill addresses the pre-funding requirement at the root of USPS's financial troubles.

"The retirement accounts we're paying into: not only are they for employees we haven't hired yet.  They are for future employees who aren't even born yet," said Scott in a phone interview.

An Issue of Fairness:

Postal officials have indicated they will start making cuts by May 15th if congress doesn't act.  First up on the chopping block: 3,700 under-utilized post offices in rural and poor areas of the country, Saturday delivery, and the 120,000-220,000 middle-class union jobs that would go with them.

"People in large cities may not see a huge difference," explained Scott.  "But people living in rural areas need the Postal Service to communicate, to run their businesses, to deliver their medicine."

The Postal Clause of the United States Constitution guarantees access to everyone.  USPS even delivers mail (and lots of groceries) by mule to people living in the Grand Canyon.

On the other hand, FedEx and UPS currently don't deliver to unprofitable areas.  The two private carriers partner with USPS to deliver to areas outside of their service area.  Lacking a local post office, people in rural areas would find themselves without service or paying exorbitant costs for postage.

And states like Washington and Oregon currently conduct all elections by mail.  If rural voters lose access to the postal service, they also lose the ability to participate in our democracy.

"You can't create a two class America.  That's not what the founding father's intended," said Scott.  "But that's what we are talking about."

Saving The Mail:

As a member of the e-everything, paperless iGeneration, I assumed the Postal Service was an antiquated relic going the same way as books, newspapers, and magazines.  But looking into the issue further, it's hard to see this as anything other than one more example of conservative legislators targeting a large and powerful union.

"People need to understand the real reason why the Postal Service is having these problems.  The Postal Service receives no tax dollars. But if the price of gas goes up, we spend millions more a day delivering the mail and can't raise the price of a stamp without Congress's approval."

"Even with all that, we were staying above water before we were forced to pre-fund all retirement benefits."

Asked for suggestions on getting involved, Scott was clear: "Tell your legislators about how important the postal service is to you. This is a bi-partisan issue. A lot of the post offices that would close are in rural areas represented by Republican legislators."

Jim McDermott speaking at a Postal Service Rally on April 12th.

"You pay for your phone, you pay for your Internet.  You don't pay for your mail.  It just gets delivered to you regardless."

The National Association of Letter Carriers is now working to pass a bill through the House that rolls back the pre-funding requirements and preserves Saturday deliver and rural offices.  For more information, check out http://www.nalc.org/.

And write your mother.  She worries.

But looking beyond the broken windows and boarded up downtown shopping areas, the day was a lot of fun.

I'll see you later.

People of all ages were dancing in the streets. Children were being pushed in strollers, grandmothers marched in solidarity with "Don't pepper spray me, I'm a Nana" signs attached to their chests.  And the majority of people at the marches signed off on graffiti that looked more like this:

Wash Me.

My day kicked off with a bike rally through Seattle Central Community College.  The Occupiers were trying to encourage students to walk out and join them; it didn't appear any did.  Protesters carried their bikes through the building, up to the third floor, and then reassembled outside and headed downtown.  Everything was peaceful and happy and blissfully mic-check free.

Occupy Cross Fit

People came together yesterday to speak out on issues they agreed upon.  Immigration reform.  Student Loan Debt.  Holding Banks Accountable.

I'll admit to feeling scared when the rocks started being lobbed at the Bank of America building.  One nearly hit me and I was splattered with paint from one of the improvised paint bombs.  Children were crying.  But the vandalism was such a small part of the day's events, put forth by such a small portion of the attendees.

Masked Men.

And everyone there thought they were doing the right thing.  The vandals thought they were sending a message, Phoenix Jones felt it was righteous to pepper spray anarchists in defense of the court building, and the police actively remained non-violent in the confrontations I witnessed.

I don't personally condone vandalism.  (I'm also not a huge fan of repetitive chants.)  But the majority of yesterday's actions accomplished what they set out to do: bring the Occupy Movement back.

11:45am: With a group of Seattle Central students marching down Denny in the sunshine.

11:51am: Spoke with two self described anarchist volunteer medics. They're prediction: there won't be any violence, but "maybe a broken window or two."

11:52am: A sky blue new Volkswagen bug convertible just got in the first traffic stand off with a cyclist. Nearly ran over an occupier on a bike to get around him. The occupier responded by asking who the non-violent ones were supposed to be.

12:08pm: Arrived at Westlake! Members of the "clown army" all around. Lots of people have orangey-red noses. Allegedly there's a clown running around painting people's noses. I have yet to see this clown, but his handiwork is everywhere.

12:12pm: Found him! He exists!!

12:25pm: Anti-capitalism march under way. Dance music!

12:45pm: Things changing rapidly, quick fire updates

- Bank of America and Wells Fargo windows smashed in.

- Some are instigating action, others are trying to steer protestors away from the courthouse.

- Too late, broken glass and paint on the front doors.

- Pepper spray flavor in the air. Glad I removed my contact lens!

- Phoenix Jones and two other costumed heroes have arrived, with pepper spray in hand!

- Cops just arrived with tear gas grenade launchers. Small segments of the rally engaged in the paint/hammer/rock throwing. Many, many others continuing to march peacefully.

12:54pm: Just returned to Westlake. The park is covered in a cloud of smoke.

-Lots of police and people in the street, tough to tell what's happening.

- This is not as advertised.

- Niketown windows smashed.

- Arrests happening:

1:13pm: The demonstration at Westlake still looks serene. Music playing, people still holding signs and talking about immigration reform and income inequality, student loan forgiveness. Whatever violence happened a few blocks away seems like it barely registered.

Save of course for the drastic increase in noise from helicopters and sirens.

I'm headed down to go witness the action and will post pics as I get them.  But by all means, check out their extensive line up after the jump.

9:00 – 10:45: Breakfast, Meet & Greet, Set-up
10:45 – 11:00: Opening Remarks
11:00 - 12:00: Performance Block – Primary DJ: Sean Malik
11:00 – 11:05: Speakers – Maru Villalpando (2.5m) & Aaron Dixon (2.5m)
11:05 – 11:25: Black Magic Noize (20m)
11:25 – 11:30: Prince Capone (5m)
11:30 – 11:35: Jamil Suleman (5m)
11:35 – 11:45: Ms. Kash (10m)
11:45 – 12:00: DJ Sean Malik Spins/ B-Boys
12:00 - 12:55: Performance Block – Primary DJ: Cues
12:00 – 12:05: Speakers –Occupy Chaplains (2.5m) & Duff B/Red Spark (2.5m)
12:05 – 12:10: Zulu Kids (5m)
12:10 – 12:15: Beloved (5m)
12:15 – 12:20: Tre’Shawn (5m)
12:20 – 12:30: Youth Speaking Truth (10m)
12:30 – 12:40: Kama of Kalamashaka (10m)
12:40 – 12:55: DJ Cues Spins/B-Boys
12:55 - 2:05: Performance Block – Primary DJ: Seabefore
12:55 – 1:00: Speakers – Jace Ecaj (2.5m) & Gregory Lewis (2.5m)
1:00 – 1:30: Wapifasa Block w/ Notorious Potential, Too Chill, Massiah & Mic Flont (30m)
1:30 – 1:50: Maria Guillen, Stephany Koch Hazelrigg & Members of Sea Fandango Community (20m)
1:50 – 2:05: DJs Seabefore Spins/B-Boys
2:05 - 2:55: Performance Block – Primary DJ: Too Quick
2:05 – 2:10: Jadis Sue Floe (5m)
2:10 – 2:15: Dan Manno (5m)
2:15 – 2:25: Dee.Ale (10min)
2:25 – 2:35: Spyc-E (10m)
2:35 – 2:40: Speakers – Black Orchid Collective (2.5m) & Didi (2.5m)
2:40 – 2:55: DJ Too Quick Spins/B-Boys
2:55 - 4:00: Performance Block – Primary DJ: Seabefore
2:55 – 3:00: J.Infinite (5m)
3:00 – 3:05: Ethos (5m)
3:10 – 3:25: Sista Hailstorm (15m)
3:25 – 3:30: Speakers – Chris Rodriguez (2.5m) & Tabitha Milan (2.5m)
3:30 – 3:45: Suntonio Bandanaz (15m)
3:45 – 4:00: Walidah (15m)
4:00 – 4:15: Closing Remarks/ Opening Up Cypher Spaces (DJs Breakdown now, band sets up)
4:15 – 6:00: Baron DeKalb holds down Cypher Space, hosted by J Revels
6:00 – 7:00: Break Down & Clean Up

One of the federal rights currently being denied by DOMA is the right to immigrate via marriage.

On April 24th, Phillipa Knudson-Judd was deported from the United States. She was forced to leave behind her legal wife (married in Iowa) and young daughter and return to England.  Phillipa would have been granted citizenship if she was in a heterosexual relationship.

Approving Referendum 74 will be just the first step.  DOMA needs to be repealed and we need to work on comprehensive immigration reform.

The jokes were a highlight reel of inside-the-beltway humor (Etch-a-Sketch, dog-eating, the Republican primary), but ideally anyone following Hella Bus religiously (all of you) will get a kick out of it.

"Jimmy got his start years ago on The Man Show.

In Washington, that’s what we call a congressional hearing on contraception."

The White House Correspondents Dinner was started in 1920 to recognize the value of a free press.  It's traditional to invite a comedian to roast the President and both political parties.  Kimmel's awesome speech after the break.

”The president wanted to move it to the Kennedy Center, and the Republicans wanted to keep it at the Hilton. So, they compromised and here we are at the Hilton.”

Both roasts were awesome.  Although Kimmel's performance is tame in comparison to Stephen Colbert's speech in front of George W Bush back in 2006.