Editor's Take: February 02, 2009
joeszilagyi, flickr
King Co. Exec Heads to HUD; Bad News for ID and BC
Washington’s King County Executive Ron Sims announced yesterday that he has been selected to be second-in-command of the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. The Seattle Times takes a look at the legacy Sims leaves behind. Meanwhile, new economic news in Cascadia shows Idaho is the third hardest-hit state in the country, and BC exits it’s “deficit-free zone.”
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King Co. Exec Heads for HUD, Leaves Legacy of Change
Seattle Times
02/03/2009
When Ron Sims goes to Washington, D.C., he will leave King County a legacy of denser suburbs, more open space, a larger trail network and a technologically advanced sewer system designed to handle continued growth. He also will leave much unfinished business, including a bitter legal fight by rural landowners to overturn Sims' tough new environmental laws and a budget crisis that appears bound to deepen.
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Study: Idaho 3rd-Most Hard-Hit State
Boise Idaho Statesman
02/02/2009
Idaho is the third most economically distressed state in the nation according to a recent report comparing foreclosure rates, unemployment numbers and food stamps participation.
Go to article.
BC to Run Two-Year Deficit
Toronto Globe and Mail
02/02/2009
Premier Gordon Campbell confirmed a major policy reversal today, undoing one of his flagship laws, the 2001 Balanced Budget and Ministerial Accountability Act. BC will not be the "deficit-free zone" that he boldly promised last October even as he acknowledged then that the province's economy was not immune to the global economic meltdown.
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Idaho to Other States: Take My Wolf, Please
Seattle Times
02/03/2009
Moscow Republican Sen. Gary Schroeder, who owns a fur-trading business in northcentral Idaho, introduced a predator giveaway bill in the Senate Resources and Environment Committee on Monday that he says could reduce Idaho's Rocky Mountain gray wolf population to a manageable level by offering them - live - to other states.
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Oregon Couples Say "I Don't" to Domestic Partnerships
Oregonian
02/03/2009
Some 2,600 Oregon same-sex couples -- about one in five -- have registered for domestic partnerships since the civil unions became legal a year ago this week. An analysis by The Oregonian shows that nearly half of the registered couples live in Multnomah County, 70 percent are women and three have gone to court to dissolve their partnerships.
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Eastern Washington Aquifer Continues To Dwindle
Oregon Public Broadcasting
02/02/2009
In Eastern Washington, water is everything. It makes cities, crops and industry grow. But now a new study finds Eastern Washington cities and farmers are running out of water - fast. The report says that large underground aquifers are not being recharged enough to sustain business as usual.
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Montana House Passes Bill to Expand Children's Insurance
Missoulian
02/03/2009
Despite warnings against "socialized medicine," the Montana House Monday endorsed a bill that helps launch the voter-approved expansion of government health coverage for uninsured kids. Last November, Montana voters approved Initiative 155, with 70 percent in favor, to expand the Children's Health Insurance Plan and Medicaid to cover as many as 30,000 uninsured kids in the state. Yet the initiative did not appropriate the money to pay for the expansion, leaving that action to the 2009 Legislature.
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Stimulus Would Help Bonneville Power Bring Wind Power
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
02/03/2009
The economic stimulus bill working its way through Congress includes $3.25 billion in additional borrowing authority for the Bonneville Power Administration, which says it will use the money to expand the Northwest's power grid.
The increased borrowing authority would help the power agency bring wind farms and other alternative energy sources online throughout the Northwest.
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More Families Move in Together During Housing Crisis
USA Today
02/02/2009
The weak economy -- which has brought surging foreclosures, sinking property values, vanishing home equity and mounting job losses -- is playing a major role in family dynamics, pulling relatives under the same roof to pool their resources and aid relatives who've lost their homes.
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Views: I-5 Bridge Analysis Goes in a Circle
Oregonian
02/03/2009
We want this project built, and we want it built in a manner that serves its purpose rather than defeats its purpose.
The way in which these projects have a history of defeating their purpose is when they attract more traffic than expected and create more congestion, rather than solving it. I am well aware the modelers claim that won't happen in this case, but you need to look at the model and the modelers before accepting that assertion.
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