Offering asides, recommended links, blogworthy quotations, and more, In Brief is the Northwest Progressive Institute's microblog of world, national, and local politics.
“The French company that says its Houston-area chemical plant is spewing ‘noxious’ smoke — and may explode — successfully pressed federal regulators to delay new regulations designed to improve safety procedures at chemical plants, according to federal records reviewed by International Business Times.”
Launch
Everything that we had hoped wouldn’t happen but was forecasted is happening. We have a catastrophic, life-threatening flood event taking place over southeastern Texas, including
Launch
Shell-and-mortar fireworks are legal in Washington state, but the injuries they cause are more similar to those inflicted by illegal fireworks, the study found. In fact, they were even more damaging than homemade fireworks.
Launch
Check out the map and travel prepared.
Launch
“Privately funded, the ambitious project will heighten the Observation Deck experience with floor-to-ceiling glass on the interior and exterior to further open up the uninhibited 360° views of the Puget Sound area.”
Launch
“To Pacific Northwesterners, the Bonneville Power Administration power grid is like energy itself — quietly taken for granted, humming away in the background … until something goes wrong. A proposal by the Trump administration to sell off BPA’s transmission system should shake the region awake from complacency,” says The Seattle Times.
Launch
Southwestern Oregon’s public services are rotting away or shutting down due to voter unwillingness to pay dues to keep them running. The New York Times looks at the collapse of the commons in an often-ignored area of the Pacific Northwest.
Launch
“Sound Transit’s consultants have invented a flexing track connection, using earthquake science, to safely move future light-rail trains on the I‑90 floating bridge,” reports The Seattle Times’ Mike Lindblom.
Launch
People who walk regularly around Seattle are torn between bafflement and dismay at what they traverse on foot. On any given day, they encounter buckled,
Launch
Patrick McGreevy and Melanie Mason, reporting for The Los Angeles Times: “After a week of fierce debate between opposing interests, the state Legislature on Thursday approved a plan to raise gas taxes and vehicle fees by $5.2 billion a year to pay for the repair of California’s pothole-ridden, decaying system of roads, highways and bridges.”
LaunchWe know how this works from 520, 405 HOT, and lots of other toll projects in other cities. At first people say “I’LL NEVER PAY.”
Launch
What happens when a vital public service is starved of resources? It shuts down. Without enough funding to keep the doors open, authorities in Oregon’s Douglas County are closing its libraries, leaving 8,500 cardholders stranded. “We simply don’t have the money anymore,” Douglas County Commissioner Gary Leif told The Register Guard of Eugene.
Launch
One highlight was riding Amtrak across the border. There’s something about train travel that melts stress away. — Daniel Beekman: A first-timer’s fresh view of
Launch
Addressing King and Snohomish voters, who supported Sound Transit 3, Tacoma News Tribune columnist Matt Driscoll writes on behalf of people in Pierce County to say thanks for “saving our transportation bacon”.
Launch
A strong earthquake has caused serious damage in the central Oklahoma oil town of Cushing, which is home to the United States’ largest commercial oil
Launch
Seattle Subway: “Over a century after the first vote for a fast and reliable train system in the Seattle area, it’s finally our generation’s chance
Launch
“It’s one thing to hear about the crumbling condition of Seaside’s high school, middle school and Gearhart Elementary School. It’s another to take a tour and see them firsthand,” writes The Daily Astorian’s RJ Marx, beginning a report on the appalling, abysmal conditions of the Oregon coastal city’s schools.
Launch
“Federal prosecutors on Monday charged Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County with criminal contempt of court, saying he willfully defied a judge’s orders to stop targeting Latinos — including citizens and legal immigrants — in traffic stops and other law enforcement efforts, behavior the judge said showed a pattern of discriminatory policing,” The New York Times reports.
Launch“Federal prosecutors on Monday charged Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County with criminal contempt of court, saying he willfully defied a judge’s orders to stop targeting Latinos — including citizens and legal immigrants — in traffic stops and other law enforcement efforts, behavior the judge said showed a pattern of discriminatory policing,” The New York Times reports.
Launch
State Representative Joe Fitzgibbon has responded to Reuven Carlyle’s recent guest post for Publicola opposing Sound Transit 3, saying Carlyle outlined a “false choice” in his piece. “This does a disservice both to our region’s residents who have waited 40 years too long for a regional transit system and our state’s public school children, parents, and educators who have waited 40 years too long for full public education funding,” Fitzgibbon argues.
Launch