King County Metro officials have raised bus driver pay dramatically while neglecting some promised service increases. Now, the wages threaten to cut into existing service.
Transit demand should continue to fall through the year, owing to fuel prices and high unemployment. But the demand for new transit taxes, based on last year's rise in usage, will not go away.
When Bob Johnson, wildfire division manager for the Washington Department of Natural Resources, thinks about past fire seasons, he does so with a certain amount of nostalgia.