Tag: Land Use

Posted inOur Environment, Policy Topics, Public Planning

Sound Transit Board sends ST3 to ballot; Mass Transit Now campaign launches to pass it

by Andrew Villeneuve

Sound Tran­sit’s eigh­teen mem­ber Board of Direc­tors vot­ed unan­i­mous­ly to adopt the revised draft ST3 (Phase III) plan and refer it to the vot­ers of urban King, Pierce, and Sno­homish coun­ties this after­noon, suc­cess­ful­ly con­clud­ing sev­er­al years of exten­sive plan­ning and pub­lic out­reach. Board Chair Dow Con­stan­tine thanked Sound Tran­sit staff for their hard work […]

Posted inOur Environment, Policy Topics, Public Planning

Revised transportation package clears Washington State Senate on bipartisan vote

by Andrew Villeneuve

Moments ago, the Wash­ing­ton State Sen­ate took yet anoth­er sig­nif­i­cant vote, this time con­cern­ing trans­porta­tion rev­enue. By an over­whelm­ing four-to-one mar­gin, the Sen­ate vot­ed to approve SB 5987, which would raise the gas tax and vehi­cle weight fees to pay for a long list of high­way projects, a short­er list of rail, bike, and pedestrian […]

Posted inBreaking News, Our Environment, Policy Topics

U.S. House passes ill-conceived bill to gut the Antiquities Act, which allows presidents to designate national monuments

by Andrew Villeneuve

Act­ing as if they don’t have any­thing bet­ter to do (and they cer­tain­ly do!) the Repub­li­can “lead­er­ship” in the U.S. House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives today engi­neered a vote on a bill that would gut the Antiq­ui­ties Act, leg­is­la­tion dat­ing back the ear­ly 1900s that allows pres­i­dents to des­ig­nate nation­al mon­u­ments. As Ken Burns and his team […]

Posted inOur Environment, Policy Topics, Public Service

President Obama picks REI CEO Sally Jewell to serve as the next Secretary of the Interior

by Andrew Villeneuve

Great news from our nation’s cap­i­tal this morn­ing: At an event in the White House­’s State Din­ing Room, Pres­i­dent Barack Oba­ma announced that he has cho­sen Wash­ing­ton’s Sal­ly Jew­ell to serve as the Sec­re­tary of the Depart­ment of the Inte­ri­or. Jew­ell, fifty-sev­en, is cur­rent­ly the chief exec­u­tive offi­cer of Recre­ation­al Equip­ment Incor­po­rat­ed, bet­ter known as […]

Posted inOur Environment, Policy Topics

Wolves’ comeback breeds tensions

by Kathleen Reynolds

A con­tro­ver­sial and divi­sive fig­ure is rear­ing its scruffy head in Wash­ing­ton. Absent from our state for at least sev­en­ty years, the wolf is mak­ing a vig­or­ous come­back. And while Native Amer­i­cans hon­or it in sto­ry, ani­mal lovers appre­ci­ate its eco­log­i­cal role (not to men­tion its fam­i­ly loy­al­ty and intel­li­gence), many ranch­ers dis­trust it because […]