Posted Wed, Feb 29, 8:40 a.m.

Does one become a right-wing Christian nut because one has some very unhealthy fixation on other peoples' sex lives? Or does one become a right-wing Christan nut and then become unhealthily fixated on other peoples' sex lives?

Posted Wed, Feb 29, 8:28 a.m.

Too bad. Many moons ago I took a float trip down the Suiattle that staged from that sporting goods store. It was a good place then. The laws regarding wilderness are pretty strightforward, so the prohibition regarding rebuilding the lookout tower is a no-brainer. But nobody in Darrington should be ...

Posted Thu, Jan 26, 8:25 a.m.

I'm not particularly bent out of shape about the ferries' cost. Having them built in Washington has a multiplier effect on the economy here. It is somewhat disquieting about their performance, though the passenger comfort means the Ferry System was listening to the regular riders' input. When all is said ...

Posted Wed, Dec 28, 8:01 a.m.

If I'm not mistaken, Greyhound sold the property it's operating out of now years ago as part of the leveraged buyout, bankruptcy, and consolidation of the non-franchise Trailways operation. Given the current Greyhound location on top of, and in the midst of, some of the most desirable real estate in ...

Posted Fri, Sep 30, 7:46 a.m.

"At least 5 million people had no business trying to purchase a home." This is the essence of the problems of the last decade, and to say it as part of a national dialogue is politically and socially impossible.

Posted Fri, Aug 19, 7:34 a.m.

I don't see how this is news. The very foundation of Mormonism is an explicit rejection of the concept of separation of church and state. That's the whole reason Utah was founded as far as possible from the reach of secular government.

Posted Fri, Aug 12, 11:04 a.m.

No more Hatfields. No more Evans. And the downhill spiral of the country shows the results of that.

Posted Fri, Aug 12, 11:02 a.m.

I'm delighted to see this rather dull and boring subject finally come up. I lived in central Seattle from 1977 until 1994, when I moved to the mysterious Eastside. About the only thing remarkable about "municipal services" in unincorporated King County were, and still are, the roads. For the most ...

Posted Fri, Jul 1, 8:25 a.m.

BRAVO, WA PARKS! You really came through in difficult times. I'm so pleased the uniqueness of the tunnel and the trail was appreciated.

Posted Tue, Jun 21, 8:02 a.m.

The issues surrounding sick leave whether it's minimum wage workers at McDonald's or well-paid, well-benefitted union workers at Boeing are the same: Whenever you get money for not working, no questions asked, workers are always going to push it to the limit, even acting in good faith. The only way ...

Posted Fri, Jun 17, 12:24 p.m.

We pretty well picked the "low hanging fruit" in trying to improve water quality. Most of what we've done so far has been focused on specific points of pollution-cleaning up the obvious drain pipe from this factory or that. Now comes the hard stuff: the "non-point pollution", the water contaminants ...

Posted Mon, Apr 18, 7:37 a.m.

Slaggggg- Goforride: No one is talking about cutting health care for the elderly. Rather, the debate is about what limits should be put on that care? The current path of a no-limits approach to health care for all is simply not sustainable. Would it be OK to put limits on ...

Posted Mon, Apr 18, 7:25 a.m.

People can't be allowed to thumb their noses and the legal system. Sure, some people got themselves into a mess through bad luck, but some got there by systematically playing the system. It's even more unfair for someone to see redress of their uncollectable debt through the courts and have ...

Posted Fri, Apr 15, 8:54 a.m.

BlueLight- The phrase "fiscal insolvency" and the like is bandied about over the likes of Faux News and so forth like a mantra, but it's simply not true. The state cannot become fiscally insolvent. It is required by the constitution to have a balanced budget every biennium and there are ...

Posted Fri, Apr 15, 8:11 a.m.

Something is seriously amiss if redistricting as a result of the 2010 census ends up with a GOP advanatge. The same census shows that Washington is turning younger, browner, and poorer, all things that should work against the supposed suburban migration to the GOP.

Posted Mon, Apr 11, 11:45 a.m.

It's always going to be difficult to run high-speed rail in the US as long as we're still using 19th Century rights-of-way. The tracks go where they could go when things were built in the 1800's. Unless we're willing to have a 1960's-like Interstate highway program for rail, trains are ...

Posted Tue, Apr 5, 9:45 a.m.

To the silly little brats that speak of sick people "taking all they want." It's not about taking what they want. It's about people who are sick getting what they need in a society where an ever fewer have ever more. If you simply don't care about others, that's a ...

Posted Thu, Mar 31, 10:13 a.m.

It doesn't hurt to do a little "outreach", but it's the fundamental responsibility of citizens and Green Card holders to be aware of what's going on with their government.

Posted Thu, Mar 31, 10:09 a.m.

There couldn't be a better illustration of why Washington's entire 19th Century tax structure needs to be changed. Too bad the voters didn't see that last November. We started with a property tax which was,in its day, a tax on wealth. The agricultural and timber interests essentially paid for schools. ...

Posted Wed, Feb 9, 10:15 a.m.

Good article. It's a sad subject because just when we should be drawing closer to Canada, and even more so Washington to BC, in the face of rapid globalization, the border issue hits us in the face. The truth of the matter is that we should have been taking care ...

Posted Tue, Feb 1, 11:55 a.m.

How about dissolving the counties that generate more complaints about King County than they do in taxes?

Posted Mon, Jan 31, 8:07 a.m.

Wilbur is offering sname oil to the Washington GOP by saying since the nation as a whole voted in more Republicans, that this state didn't shows a failure of leadership here. The reason Washington State stayed Democratic is because we are increasingly not like the rest of the country. We ...

Posted Fri, Jan 21, 7:52 a.m.

Perhaps they could save some dough in Whatcom County by having the prosecutors represent the indigent defendants in criminal court as well.

Posted Thu, Dec 9, 11:27 a.m.

If Seattle were to become its own county, there would be no need to duplicate most services. There's no reason the "Seattle County" sheriffs couldn't do the required things like run a jail and provide security for the courts, as well as provide typical police services. The King County Sheriff's ...

Posted Thu, Dec 9, 11:11 a.m.

Goforride says: I think we should work for independence for Eastern Washington. I'm tired of my taxes going across the mountains to subsidize the ungrateful SOB's. I agree, but I think we should work for independence for Seattle, by shrinking King County to the Seattle city limits. Let the Cascade ...

Posted Thu, Dec 9, 9:25 a.m.

Two obvious problems here: The creation of Cedar County was simply an effort to skirt the county's growth plan. Shopping centers where horse pastures now exist. That would have collapsed because so many environmental regulations are now state or federally required, had the lines been drawn as they were proposed, ...

Posted Thu, Dec 2, 8:54 a.m.

One even needs to ask this question? With divorce and illegitimacy being reduced to "personal decisions", unassailable in the public domain, it's pretty hard to see the need why marriage should be considered any more "special".

Posted Thu, Dec 2, 8:25 a.m.

It would be one thing if the "Dream Act" allowed someone a "pathway to citizenship" if the cutoff age were before one started 1st grade. A pre-schooler shouldn't suffer because of the sins of usually young, probably desperate parents (or "parent"). Coming here at that age, a child will be ...

Posted Thu, Dec 2, 8 a.m.

I never have understood why the local spending decisions of 1,000's of municipalities should be subsidized by the taxpaters of the United States.

Posted Wed, Nov 17, 8:34 a.m.

"Tunnel? Might as well build a fourth stadium if we have that kind of money to squander. All we need is a functional viaduct. Anything beyond that is extravagant. — drizz" Yeah, but as one can see from our stadiums, "functional" is a highly subjective concept.

Posted Wed, Nov 17, 8:32 a.m.

Would someone please refresh my memory. Didn't the governor throw the towel in with disgust and agree to give Seattle the moon and ther stars in the form a a deep-bore tunnel, the kind of proget for which cost overruns are the most likely? (You don't know what's down there ...

Posted Wed, Nov 17, 8:16 a.m.

It speaks loudly of the sad times in which we live that Olbermann is slammed for displaying a hint of journalistic bias, while MSNBC goes through the ruse that "otherwise" he and Walter Cronchite would be "like this" when it came to journalistic integrity. It's also a bona fide tragedy ...

Posted Wed, Oct 27, 8:39 a.m.

Would someone please explain to me why the right gets all excited about homosexuality, but not about cotton/polyester blends. It seems the latter is just as much of an abomination before God and is just as clearly prohibted a few pages away.

Posted Wed, Oct 27, 8:33 a.m.

The article looks at just part of the "route adjustment" issue. While it may be true that cuts on the Eastside were made to routes that are less used than those in Seattle that were, keep in mind that there's also the issue of supplying and/or cutting the busses themselves, ...

Posted Wed, Oct 27, 8:26 a.m.

The timing and the details of the whole ferry district and related foot ferry issues is messy, to say the least. But it's absolutely essential not to put the issue in terms of a 1, 2, or even 5-year budget frame. Establishing alternatives to more cars in Puget Sound is ...

Posted Wed, Oct 6, 9:32 a.m.

I'd be delighted to support a moderate centrist, one that I could trust to stay that way once s/he got into office; one that I could continue to trust, even if I disagreed with a specific issue. But never in a million years would I do so under the current ...

Posted Wed, Oct 6, 9:18 a.m.

I suppose that, as usual, there's more to the story than is shown here. While the COLA's may only equal 90% of the CPI, I suspect that total compensation for Metro drivers has been more generous, when fringe benefits, especially health care costs are taken into account. Does anyone have ...

Posted Thu, Sep 16, 7:49 a.m.

What a shame when Americans aren't willing to die for the freedom they enjoy.

Posted Mon, Sep 13, 8:36 a.m.

I don't suppose the unions took a cost-of-living cut when the CPI dropped in 2008-2009.

Posted Fri, Sep 10, 8:05 a.m.

To say that "it's not an anti-incumbent tide, it's an anti-Democratic tide because the GOP seats are not threatened" completely ignores the fact the the handful of surviving GOP Congressmen in Washington State are from such safe GOP districts that Jesus couldn't get elected in them if He ran as ...

Posted Tue, Sep 7, 7:50 a.m.

Does anyone know why Amtrak is reluctant to do short stops like Auburn or Steilacoom? Anybody know how much time it adds by the time slowing down and getting back up to speed is figured in? The Longacres stop, with all the easy and accessable parking, is the greatest thing ...

Posted Wed, Jun 30, 11:43 a.m.

"The deserts of Eastern Washington"?? What deserts would those be? — debbalee" You've got to get out more, debbalee. Ever been to Hanford?

Posted Wed, Jun 30, 11:42 a.m.

It's sad, but true that the Booth Gardner days are unknown to most people, as well as the one time we had a GOP governor in the early '80's whose solution to the dip in revenue brought about by the recession at that time was to put the sales tax ...

Posted Mon, Jun 28, 8:19 a.m.

Good heavens! I can't think of many government decisions more politicized. It seems like a pretty straight forward analysis of real estate prices and operating costs as to where to put the NOAA ships in question. As much as I hate to use this phraselology, it looks like a call ...

Posted Tue, May 18, 10:04 a.m.

arthurking- Yes, I agree with you that there is a fine distinction here and indeed a point to be made regarding federalism, but Mr. McKenna has never presented himself as one who sweats those details. Though if one wants to keep the razor-sharp pencil to the paper, the health care ...

Posted Tue, May 18, 8:39 a.m.

I don't see the issue here. The (county) government forces me to pay Waste Management to provide garbage pick-up even if I don't want it, and it does so in the name of the greater good (so I don't have garbage lying around which will eventually negatively affect my neighbors. ...

Posted Tue, Mar 2, 8:48 a.m.

If I were Kevin Wallace, I'd be ashamed to show my face after offering his "proposal" for light rail. Then again, "shame" is something impossible for a real estate developer to muster. Calling this the "Vision Plan" is like calling that frozen hunk of lava "Greenland." What this plan is, ...

Posted Mon, Oct 26, 6:27 p.m.

Rightly or wrong, I think the gist of Washington's law is that the cop isn't supposed to take into consideration what the victim says. He is only supposed to consider the objective facts available to him. "Drunken couple with man on top of woman on highway." I'm tempted to say ...

Posted Mon, Oct 12, 9:48 a.m.

As usual, the more distant an anonymous writer is from having to actually deal with a problem on a daily, real-world basis, the more absolutely sure he/she is in his/her conviction that he/she is absolutely right and the person who actually has to make decisions and implement them is morally ...

Posted Thu, Sep 17, 10:54 a.m.

Let's not do too much Monday-morning-quarterbacking here. Think how ill-served the city would have been had the various interests NOT done anything at the time they crossed the decision threshold. "Irresponsible" and "short-sighted" don't begin to describe the situation had the various governments and investors sat on their hands because ...

Posted Wed, Sep 2, 9:44 a.m.

Jabailo- You hit the nail on the head about Seattle being money intensive, but I don't think infrastructure can be too tightly back to be efficient. "Efficient" being the key word. I suspect you mean given how complex Seattle is, any infrastructure repair on improvmement is darned expensive because everything ...

Posted Wed, Sep 2, 9:25 a.m.

Not to nit-pick, but I think the question should be "Adventure or child NEGLECT." "Abuse" seems a stonger and currently more politically loaded word than "neglect" and implies an action, rather than a lack of action on the part of the parent. Sort of a "sin of omission" rather than ...