Offering asides, recommended links, blogworthy quotations, and more, In Brief is the Northwest Progressive Institute's microblog of world, national, and local politics.
Watch Kim Schrier’s April 11th press conference in Issaquah celebrating the appropriation of funds for the Sammamish Plateau Water District, which plans to upgrade its water treatment facilities to protect Washingtonians in its jurisdiction from toxic PFAS chemicals.
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“That’s why they freaked out over Democrats linking two separate infrastructure bills,” David Dayen writes. “But to succeed, the left must also erase privatization from the agenda.”
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The regime of Donald Trump may be enthusiastic about privatizing the Bonneville Power Administration, but Republicans in the Pacific Northwest are not.
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“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.
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“Just a few days before the SR 99 tunneling machine started tunneling under the Alaskan Way Viaduct, the Washington State Department of Transportation flew a video-equipped drone through the SR 99 tunnel to show Seattle Tunnel Partners’ construction progress. On an average day, the tunnel is bustling with construction. To avoid disrupting crews, this video was recorded in between regular work shifts.”
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The New York Times reports on the progress of efforts to recall Republican Governor Rick Snyder of Michigan, led by the Reverend David Alexander Bullock. It was actions taken by Snyder and his cronies that led to the poisoning of Flint’s water supply.
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The Detroit Free Press reports: “The FBI is now investigating the contamination of Flint’s drinking water, a man-made public health catastrophe, which has left an unknown number of Flint children and other residents poisoned by lead and resulted in state and federal emergency declarations.”
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“According to newly released emails concerns over the water were dismissed by officials who blamed mayor for exploiting public panic,” The Guardian reports.
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Engineer in Philadelphia train crash has long advocated for rail safety Thirty-two year old Brandon Bostian, the engineer behind the controls of Amtrak’s wrecked Regional
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The big deal is we have a federal government that can’t, for political reasons, invest in public transportation. It’s infuriating. — Commuter Andrea Lynch, decrying
LaunchIt has been twenty-one years since federal regulators identified problems with the [safety-plagued DOT-111] cars. How many deaths will it take before they genuinely regulate?
LaunchAs many of our readers may be aware, several months ago, the government of Detroit (which is under an emergency management regime) unconscionably decided to
LaunchYour shutoff program has created a lot of anger in the city and a lot of hardship and bad publicity the city does not need.
LaunchShoddy construction on already-built portion could doom the rest of Keystone XL Businessweek reports that shoddy construction could doom the unbuilt portion of the Keystone
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