Posted Tue, Mar 27, 12:28 p.m.

I very much appreciate the sentiment that what we're doing at InvestigateWest is an extension of the spirit of the Seattle P-I. But it should not go unsaid that the journalists who remain at pi.com also are nobly laboring to do the same. They come up with solid original reporting ...

Posted Wed, Feb 1, 7:05 p.m.

Tom P -- I've definitely heard about this problem from developers, where the permitting authority won't *allow* LID, although I'm a little surprised to hear they would encounter this in Seattle, which, after all, holds itself out as on the cutting edge of this stuff. Would you mind emailing me ...

Posted Wed, Feb 1, 10:10 a.m.

Doug MacDonald makes some excellent points, as usual. First let's stipulate, though, that the sentence quoted in the comment is factual. It is not rhetoric; these things are factually provable. From there, I would be the last to suggest that the Puget Sound Partnership or anyone else has done the ...

Posted Mon, Jan 23, 8:03 p.m.

Debbalee: We definitely recognize that painkillers are necessary and desireable under many circumstances. Something is wrong with the system when someone like you with legitimate needs cannot get the relief she needs, but others are given way too many drugs -- leading to incredibly high overdose rates. More people are ...

Posted Fri, Dec 16, 5:29 p.m.

Good discussion here, folks. Pika, you are correct that the bad-air days are mostly when we have inversions, although the Tacoma readings are significantly higher than most places around here. And we've also heard from folks who are susceptible to wood smoke, like Steve E., who have chronic problems throughout ...

Posted Fri, Dec 16, 12:09 p.m.

Good catch, BlueLight. We've fixed the headline to say wood smoke is "a" leading cause. Here's the deal Year-round, cars and trucks are the leading cause of air pollution. In the winter in many towns and even some cities, such as Tacoma, wood smoke represents the largest source of particulate ...

Posted Thu, Nov 10, 11:05 a.m.

Kieth -- You asked a very good question about what proportion of pollution comes from St. Gobain (and industry generally) compared to other sources. Industrial sources have been controlled *much* better than other sources, especially traffic-related air pollution (particularly diesel exhaust) and the burning of wood to heat homes. And ...

Posted Fri, Aug 12, 4:10 p.m.

Thanks for this thoughtful and nuanced look at what's happened to the state budget over the decades. It's vaulable insight. I hadn't realized how bad things were around here in 1970, but now that you mention it that was about the time we had the "last one leaving Seattle please ...

Posted Wed, Feb 10, 4:33 p.m.

SRKW stands for Southern Resident Killer Whales, i.e., the orcas that frequent Puget Sound and the San Juan Islands.