I posted a recent blog about a local candidate of the Green Party who proposed a compost pile of restrictive laws, including making it illegal to drive alone in a car. Here, from the New York Times, is a story from Marburg, Germany, where the Green city council has decided to force builders to install solar panels on every new house, and for owners to install them on old houses that get new heating systems or roof repairs.

In Thursday's paper, the Seattle Times is running its recommendations for the 36th and 46th district state representative positions. The picks are Reuven Carlyle for state representative in the 36th for the seat vacated by retiring Helen Somers and Scott White to replace the departing Rep. Jim McIntire in the 46th.
Read the editorial now online, and leave your comments here.

Some of the most important races on the ballot are the ones that languish near the bottom. Judicial races tend to be lower profile, partly because judicial candidates are limited in making campaign promises. You don't want a judge, who says, Vote for me, I promise to do everything I can to rule against abortion, or property rights or whatever.

Good judges make decisions based on the law. That's not to say, however, there are not significant and important differences between qualifired candidates. There are several ways to get more information about judicial candidates

Associated Press

Opposing attorneys Clarence Darrow, left, and William Jennings Bryan at the Scopes or "monkey" trial in Dayton, Tenn., in 1925.

My Wednesday column came out of a visit to Dayton, Tenn., the town that held the “monkey trial” of 1925, in which science teacher John Scopes was prosecuted for teaching Darwin’s theory of evolution. I had wanted to visit there since seeing Stanley Kramer’s movie “Inherit the Wind” decades ago. I had read that the movie wasn’t historically accurate, but I wanted to see what they would make of it in Dayton.