Issues

It's now been a year since Congress, with a bipartisan display remarkable for this politically dysfunctional era, passed the JOBS Act that was touted as a breakthrough for funding entrepreneurial start-ups and thus eventually creating jobs. Well, the entrepreneurs are still waiting for the rules that would let them proceed to launch businesses by using internet websites to gather small amounts of money from large numbers of people online.

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The Institute for Prostate Cancer Research (IPCR) has been largely unknown in its Seattle-area home despite the fact it’s recognized nationally as being at the leading edge of efforts to solve the mysteries of prostate cancer. But this is the year when a concerted fund-raising initiative may dramatically boost the visibility of the Institute, and thus hopefully attract the private funding to enhance its ability to impact prostate cancer. The 30-scientist collaborative effort by University of Washington Medical Center (UWMC) and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center has made Seattle the nexus for prostate cancer research and care. And it could well be the place where a cure for the disease, if and when that comes about, is discovered.

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There’s a growing conviction among economic-development groups in the Seattle area and Washington State that targeting the financial-services sector could bring dramatic and relatively quick returns for the local and state economy. With the third annual Financial Services Summit taking shape for this summer, California’s finance industry is clearly in the sights of many of those who are leading the charge and touting the fact that Washington State has neither a corporate nor a personal income tax.

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A legislative proposal that is the outgrowth of state and federal agencies targeting what they perceive as a growing abuse by business of misclassifying workers as independent contractors is stirring the concern of businesses who view the bill as an excessive reaction. In fact, one Seattle-area attorney long involved in independent-contractor legal issues, says an attitude “inhospitable to the independent-contractor business model” has become evident at both the state and federal levels.

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The Washington Business Alliance is hopeful it can help Jay Inslee, sworn in this week as Washington’s 22^nd governor, put in place a strategic-planning process for state government similar to what successful businesses employ. Perhaps aiding their cause is that neighboring Oregon is well down the road on that kind of approach to governing. The attentions of a new governor are inevitably sought by an array of pressure groups and for a Democratic governor, those pressure groups are less likely to represent business interests.

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As dramatic changes in the healthcare system unfold, an emerging piece of those changes is the growing role being played by advocates who become in-person navigators of the system for patients and their families. It’s a healthcare innovation that won’t mean the eventual end of one-on-one doctor-patient interactions, but proponents of the advocate role suggest it will lead to far larger percentage of physician visits by a patient and his or her “team.”

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The federal JOBS Act aimed at opening the door for entrepreneurs to reach out to crowds of potential investors on the internet appears, ironically, to be hung up at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on the issue of tighter restrictions on entrepreneurs who seek more sophisticated investors. In fact, angel-investor leaders are concerned that the SEC’s deliberations may produce rules that make it harder for entrepreneurs to raise money from those wealthier individuals, referred to as “accredited” investors.

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Dick Thorsen is dying of Lou Gehrig's Disease and now  wheel-chair bound, though he's still able to drive in his ramp-enabled van. But he's getting increasingly angry at "non-thinking social morons," drivers with no apparent handicaps who hog handicapped-parking spots in downtown Seattle. "A lot of good my handicapped placard does me since nine times out of 10 times, I can't find an unoccupied handicapped-parking spot," says Thorsen. "And when I hang around waiting for someone to leave, I see obviously non-handicapped persons get in their cars and drive away."

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The personal quest for information on how best to deal with cancer inevitably leads to discovery of “the other medicine.” And in reaching out over a period of months for information to help me make the best decision on how to deal with a fortunately slow-growing cancer, I learned that some who practice traditional medicine have only a vague awareness of what’s emerging in that other medicine.

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The nation’s last fully operating news council is engaged in some soul searching about  its future, including whether it has one, at a time when the proliferation of social and other forms of non-traditional media may make some sort of media “watchdog” more important than ever. “We’re in the middle of a process with a core group that I call my ‘strategic transition posse’ to look at our vision, mission and whether we’re sustainable,” says John Hamer, co-founder and executive director of the Washington News Council (WNC), which he helped create in 1998.

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