Daily Score Blog

Note: This is part of a series.

When lawyers read Initiative 933’s definition of “property,” they tend to fall out of their chairs in astonishment. That's because, according to its own definition, I-933 will apply to "all real and personal property protected by the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution or Article I, Section 16 of the Washington Constitution owned by a non-governmental entity..."

The lay person may read: "blah, blah, blah." But lawyers read: "sheer pandemonium."

If you don't specialize in reading legal-ese, the upshot of I-933's definition is that the initiative applies not only to real estate or land use, but to nearly all forms of property. Its reach encompasses stocks, bonds, minteral rights, water rights, cars, trucks, boats, factory equipment, livestock, intellectual property, software, music recordings, contracts, promissory notes, household appliances, your cat and dog, the novel you’re working on, and even the kitchen sink. No joke.

Under I-933's definition of property, almost every last item of personal property will be subject to "pay or waive." If a regulation diminishes the economic potential of your property--whether it's your city lot, your parakeet, your Camaro, or your mutual funds--you’re entitled to full taxpayer compensation for the "lost" revenue. Either that or you get a free pass from the law.

The consequences of I-933's drastic overreach are so stunning that it's practically absurd. In fact, some of the top legal minds in Washington are agape. One prominent attorney has written a memo that, in the restrained style of legal analysis, says, "The reach of I-933 into state regulations affecting the use of value of private property which is not real property is a highly unique and unpredictable feature of this initiative."

You can say that again.

Fascinating report on diminishing social ties in the US. Americans now report having only 2 close friends, on average, and 1 in 4 say they have no one to discuss important matters with.

[The study] found that men and women of every race, age and education level reported fewer intimate friends than the same survey turned up in 1985. Their remaining confidants were more likely to be members of their nuclear family than in 1985, according to the study, but intimacy within families was down, too.

Undoubtedly, the reasons behind the decline in social relations are multiform, but there's an often overlooked one that I think is worth pointing out: suburban sprawl.

In the course of researching Sightline's new book on the relationship between health and sprawl, I dove into the scientific literature on social capital, mental health, physical health, and sprawl. In my judgment, the body of evidence is not conclusive, but it is growing more robust all the time. There is increasing reason to think that low density sprawl is correlated with (and probably causes) a significant degree of social isolation and fragmentation. And that loneliness has measurable impacts not only on mental health, but on physical health too.

If you're looking for a place to start digging in to the connections between sprawl and loneliness, I suggest this book (chapter 9), this shorter article (pdf; scroll down), or this even shorter primer with citations that I wrote (pdf).

Editor's note: Jen Lamson and Kristin Hyde of Good Food Strategies contribute an occasional food-related column to the Daily Score.

Northwesterners think we already know everything about salmon. We were the first to jump on the yumminess of Copper River salmon. Efforts to save endangered runs of the iconic Northwest salmon are becoming part of our everyday life and business. So why do we know so little about a local, sustainably troll-caught wild salmon from the waters off Washington's Neah Bay?

That's about to change. Wild Washington marbled king salmon--as noted in a Seattle Weekly column last week--is beginning to make a splash around the region. This fish is blessed with high good fat content, high omega-3 levels and a genetically distinct blend of both red and white flesh.
Because the marbled flesh looks different than the traditional red filets of fresh wild salmon, some retailers have been nervous about putting it in their case. But chefs at some restaurants--including Seattle's Lark, which featured marbled king in a recent tasting--are beginning to tout its unique value and local pedigree.

“There are two key ways to reduce abortion—by making it less necessary or by making it less available,” as Jessica Arons and Shira Saperstein write for the Center for American Progress.

The former means preventing unwanted pregnancies, by reducing sexual abuse, domestic violence and rape; by enabling couples to make better choices through, for example, comprehensive sexuality education in schools (and, above all, better educational and economic opportunities in general); and by improving access to contraception.

The latter means restricting or banning abortion. In pluralistic industrial societies such as the United States and Canada, the former is a more effective strategy for lowering abortion rates. In fact, arguably the most effective anti-abortion organizations in North America—defined as the organizations that have most reduced the abortion rate—are the US and Canadian federations of Planned Parenthood. (The lowest abortion rates in the industrial world are in countries such as the Netherlands where the procedure is free, legal, and unstigmatized; sex between loving adults is considered normal and healthy; and public policies and social norms both strongly reinforce safe sex practices.)

Prevention also ought to be the main ground for cooperation among pro-choice and pro-life movements. It ought to be, but it isn’t.

The reason, as argued recently in the New York Times Magazine (and on this blog some months ago), is that the “pro-life” movement is actually held together not by opposition to abortion but by opposition to sex.