Category: National Defense

Posted inBreaking News, National Defense, Policy Topics, Public Planning

Wildfire roundup for September 5th, 2017: Washington, Oregon, and Idaho are burning

by Andrew Villeneuve

For months, author­i­ties across the Pacif­ic North­west have been warn­ing that our region was fac­ing an extreme wild­fire risk this sum­mer that would only be exac­er­bat­ed by a lack of pre­cip­i­ta­tion. As we approach the autum­nal equinox, those fears have come to pass, with a series of dev­as­tat­ing fires burn­ing up and down the Cascade […]

Posted inNational Defense, Policy Topics, Public Planning

Hurricane Harvey’s impact worsens as rainfall continues to deluge greater Houston

by Andrew Villeneuve

Last week, as read­ers know, Hur­ri­cane Har­vey roared ashore in Texas, mak­ing its first land­fall at Rock­port around 03:00 UTC. It is the first hur­ri­cane to make land­fall in the south­ern Unit­ed States in twelve years, end­ing a record stretch that began fol­low­ing the dev­as­ta­tion caused by Hur­ri­canes Kat­ri­na and Wilma in 2005. Since then, Harvey […]

Posted inNational Defense, Policy Topics, World Commmunity

Mitch “Filibuster” McConnell furious after Senate Democrats thwart vote on Iran

by Andrew Villeneuve

The shoe is on the oth­er foot now, and it hurts: Repub­li­can efforts to stop the nuclear deal with Iran end­ed in fail­ure Thurs­day, thwart­ed by unflinch­ing Demo­c­ra­t­ic sup­port for Pres­i­dent Oba­ma’s land­mark accord and famil­iar GOP infight­ing. With no clear strat­e­gy remain­ing to pre­vent the inter­na­tion­al­ly backed deal, Repub­li­can lead­ers in Con­gress were left […]

Posted inNational Defense, Policy Topics, World Commmunity

Horrible tragedy unfolding in Nepal following massive quake; thousands dead and injured

by Andrew Villeneuve

Last night, as most of the Pacif­ic time­zone was head­ed to bed or snooz­ing away fol­low­ing the end of anoth­er work­week, a mas­sive earth­quake struck Nepal, includ­ing the cap­i­tal of Kath­man­du. Ini­tial­ly report­ed as a mag­ni­tude 7.5 trem­blor by the U.S. Geo­log­i­cal Sur­vey, it was lat­er revised to 7.8. The quake stuck at a depth […]

Posted inNational Defense, Policy Topics, World Commmunity

Canadian authorities lock down the heart of Ottawa after shootings on Parliament Hill

by Andrew Villeneuve

Author­i­ties in Cana­da have locked down Par­lia­ment Hill, the heart of the coun­try’s nation­al cap­i­tal, Ottawa, after a yet-to-be-pub­­licly-iden­ti­­fied assailant fatal­ly shot a sol­dier guard­ing Canada’s War Memo­r­i­al, then entered Cen­tre Block and began fir­ing at peo­ple there before being killed by secu­ri­ty. Fit­ting­ly, the man who took the gun­man down was said to be […]

Posted inNational Defense, Policy Topics, Public Planning

President Obama signs emergency declaration for Washington State to help mudslide victims

by Andrew Villeneuve

Good news. This just in from the White House: Today, the Pres­i­dent declared an emer­gency in the State of Wash­ing­ton and ordered fed­er­al aid to sup­ple­ment state and local response efforts due to the emer­gency con­di­tions result­ing from flood­ing and mud­slides begin­ning on March 22, 2014, and con­tin­u­ing. The Pres­i­den­t’s action autho­rizes the Depart­ment of Homeland […]

Posted inEconomic Security, National Defense, Policy Topics

United States needs and deserves a budget that puts people — and the planet — first

by Gael Tarleton

Con­gress votes and the deal’s done. What does it mean? Wash­ing­ton’s senior U.S. Sen­a­tor Pat­ty Mur­ray and her nego­ti­at­ing part­ner Con­gress­man Paul Ryan have avert­ed yet anoth­er bud­get cri­sis head­ing into the 2014 bud­get nego­ti­a­tions. The Sen­ate still has to vote, but the House has, by a sur­pris­ing­ly large mar­gin, gone ahead and signed off on […]

Posted inNational Defense, Policy Topics, Public Planning

Theft of Victoria Clipper IV demonstrates the need for stronger port security

by Andrew Villeneuve

Ear­ly yes­ter­day morn­ing, the newest high speed cata­ma­ran in the Clip­per Nav­i­ga­tion fleet, the Vic­to­ria Clip­per IV, was stolen from its berth at Seat­tle’s Pier 69 by a reg­is­tered sex offend­er who lat­er told police he was try­ing to use the ves­sel to get to West Seat­tle. (Why he did­n’t just walk or take the […]