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Graphic from Washington State Elections

King County's estimated population is 1.9 million, of which almost 1.1 million are registered voters. Mid-term elections are historically less likely to draw people to the polls, but with all-mail voting, King County doesn't have to draw people anywhere but a mailbox. The result? A new record: 71 percent of King County's voters cast a ballot this year.

That might seem less impressive compared to the 84 percent turnout for the Presidential election in 2008, but it beats 2006's 65 percent, and 2002's 45 percent, handily. The rest of Washington state grumbles about King County "stealing" elections, but the county's impact is thanks to reality's well-known liberal bias: Only 3.6 million of Washington State's 6.6 million residents are registered voters, about 55 percent.

King County, the single most populous county, also has an edge in registered voters, at 58 percent. These marginal differences--in registered voters, in voter turnout--often make the difference. Senator Patty Murray's win this year is a case in point. Statewide, the Murray/Rossi race comes out to roughly 51 to 49 percent, but in King County it's currently breaking 63 to 36 percent, and King Country represents fully one-third of the state's registered voters. (In 2004, King County went for Murray over Nethercutt, 65 to 33 percent.)... (more)

Dear Mr. Rossi:

Dino Rossi, job-hunter

Well, here we are yet again, with you on the losing side of another election. And yet again, you weren't able to muster enough votes outside of King County to overcome the usual overwhelming support for Democrats this county musters. Although you did do two percent better in King County than in 2008, you still couldn't crack the magic 40 percent mark a Republican needs in the county to have a chance at winning.

So, here you are yet again, out of a job. And this time around, you can't go back to real estate. I mean, have you seen the commercial real estate vacancy rate in Seattle? Over 17 percent. You ain't gonna make much money selling or leasing property in this economy. And don't even think about selling residential. You do read Seattle Bubble, right?

And I know you're thinking, Hey, I can latch on as a "political consultant." Let me remind you--you've now lost three times. And even if you want to say hey, I did win in '04, you got your rear spanked in 2008 by Christine Gregoire, a governor so ineffectual she makes Bartleby look like David Allen. I mean, seriously, you came into that election with the momentum and you lost by seven percent? You've done so poorly Alan Keyes could be your campaign manager and you'd do better.

Oh, hey, I can be a lobbyist down in Olympia, you think. And do what exactly? Get some tax breaks for the BIAW when the state budget is about to get another $5-$6 billion blown out of it this next biennium?

Again, you want to win political office, right? And you need to get 40 percent in King County, right? How you going to do that as the land man for the BIAW or the NRA or whatever right-wing lobby firm comes along?

Now, now, put down that Dick's job application. I have a modest proposal for you. I know it sounds crazy, and I know it'll make every Reagan-loving bone in your body ache, but here me out. There is an opening for a well-paying job that I think you'd be perfect for.

President of the University of Washington.... (more)

When the Seahawks acquired Charlie Whitehurst, the very bald Matt Hasselbeck joked that maybe new coach Pete Carroll was trying to send him a message by trading for the hairiest quarterback in the league.

Now that a concussion has knocked Hasselbeck out of Sunday's game, Hawk fans will be seeing Whitehurst's gorgeous locks and beard all afternoon.

Clipboard Jesus' first start will come as a blessed event for a growing number of fans tired of Hasselebeck's aging and continued ineffectiveness. Granted, he plays behind a patched-up offensive line, which because of injuries will be starting a stack of phonebooks at left tackle.

So instead of another Sunday of Hawk fans arguing over how many years Hasselbeck has left, I am calling for everyone to embrace the beard-fearing mantra of the Giants (the recent World Series champions, not Sunday's opponents). Go to this website, follow the directions, and get behind Whitehurst. We will have all next week to scream at each other about who should be starting at Arizona.

Sure, Giants fans drunk on champagne may get upset that we are borrowing their rally cry, but Seahawk fans have been down that road before.

Mayor McGinn didn't get much runway from the Seattle Times.

Ours are the politics of impatience. For Obama, it took less than seven months, amid all that chatter about health-care reform, and many people turned against him. This was not a case of people veering slightly away from his ideas; these were dramatic half-pirouettes. [...] What is it about us that we do not have a year or two to give a new president to make his mark?

It's a good piece but I think it would have been much stronger had Balter used her own tendency to rush to judgment as an object lesson, rather than note with near-Olympian detachment the behavior of others.

For instance, locally, Mayor McGinn was inaugurated on January 4, 2010. Here's Balter on December 30, just before McGinn took office:

McGinn comes in as a thousand question marks. He has sufficient public support to lead in a different direction. His election represents an anti-establishment theme in the city.

Yet aside from bicycles uber alles and more micro-process, I am not certain what his course will be.

McGinn, who was very accessible to the media during the campaign, employed an East German state media approach during the six weeks of transition. No one-on-one interviews unless he really likes you.... (more)

Seattle, WA. November 3, 2010 – Voters in the King County Council District 8 elected former State Senator Joe McDermott to the Council; while at the same time voting to reverse legislation passed by McDermott during his time as a State Senator.

McDermott defeated 15 year front-line King County employee Diana Toledo in the race for King County Council by winning 68% of the vote as opposed to Toledo’s 32%.  But at the same time, voters said NO to Joe’s platform and previous legislation.

1. I-1107 Voters said YES, but McDermott Said NO. (Voters reversed Joe's tax on candy, bottled water, and other foods)
2. I-1053 Voters said YES, but McDermott Said NO. (Voters require the Legislature to have 2/3 majority vote to pass new taxes) 
3. Prop 1 Voters said NO, but McDermott said YES. (Voters stopped a new 2% sales tax)
4. I-1098 Voters said NO, but McDermott said YES. (Voters stopped a state income-tax) 

The results puzzled many in the District 8 community;... (more)

Tim Eyman has had great success with initiatives that claim to make raising taxes "a last resort" for the legislature, starting with I-601, and succeeding most notably with I-960 (aka "The reason we now pay over two times the old fare to take the ferry").

Because the legislature could amend that initiative this year (the Senate has already passed a two-year suspension), Eyman pushed out I-1053, which would "restate existing statutory requirements that legislative actions raising taxes must be approved by two-thirds legislative majorities or receive voter approval." Currently I-1053 is passing with some 65 percent of the vote.

The problem is that I-1053, like I-960 before it, conflicts with the state constitution, which clearly indicates that a simple majority is all that's needed for legislation's passage:

SECTION 22 PASSAGE OF BILLS. No bill shall become a law unless on its final passage the vote be taken by yeas and nays, the names of the members voting for and against the same be entered on the journal of each house, and a majority of the members elected to each house be recorded thereon as voting in its favor.

In the wake of I-960, in 2008, Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown tried to force a decision on the initiative's constitutionality, filing suit and arguing that:... (more)

One of the few knocks against Lorenzo Romar during his wildly successful tenure as head coach of the University of Washington basketball team has been his inability to recruit a dominant big man. There's a reason for that--talented big men are as rare on college campuses as Lawrence Welk records. Even Arizona coach Lute Olson, who took the Wildcats to four Final Fours, had just one in 25 years.

But it looks like Romar scared one up, via Senegal, an Illinois prep school, and the College of Southern Idaho. Meet seven-footer Aziz N'Diaye. You and I will have our first chance to see N'Diaye Saturday afternoon, when the Huskies play Saint Martin's in a exhibition game. From what I've been hearing about him, I can't wait.

Why?

His conditioning: N'Diaye, who, let me repeat, is seven feet tall, ran the mile in 5:21. (Try that pace for even a quarter-mile next time you're on the treadmill.) He finished first of all Husky players in Romar's annual mile run.

His intensity: Abdul Gaddy says of N'Diaye's defense: "He's kind of like a Venoy, but he's a big guy in the middle." Venoy being Venoy Overton, the disruptive defender who led the Huskies in steals last season.

His work ethic: "If we had a workout at 6 in the morning, he'd be there at 5," says N'Diaye's prep school coach. "He knows this is his chance and he's just working his butt off every day."... (more)

"Do you want to go FASTER?" courtesy of our Flickr pool member Great_Beyond

Reprinted with permission from Community Broadband Networks.

If Seattle moves forward on the Community Fiber Network it has been considering, it will be the largest such network in the nation. However, as we recently noted, progress has been slow. Reclaim the Media recently noted progress toward publicly owned fiber in Edmonds and asked why Seattle is stuck in the mud on the issue.

The City's "Seattle Jobs Plan" devotes a significant mention of a publicly owned fiber network as a smart investment:

Seattle’s economic prosperity, its ability to deploy effective public safety systems, and its determination to reduce gridlock and greenhouse gases are increasingly dependent on its communication systems. Currently, the communication systems serving Seattle businesses and residents are controlled by a few private companies, using older technology. With a lack of competition, there is little incentive to invest in more innovative technologies.

Although some of Seattle’s larger institutions have migrated to their own fiber networks, these types of networks are unavailable to residents and Seattle’s small businesses. Multiple surveys indicate that 70% of Seattle households want to see more telecommunications competition. A recent study listed global cities with the fastest broadband connections; not a single U.S. city was listed in the top 20. A network of municipal fiber optic cables would instantly put Seattle at the top of the list of U.S. cities capable of supporting next-generation, data-intensive businesses, making it a potential hub for a number of fast-growing industries.

But the network requires a significant amount of planning:... (more)

When 60 Minutes interviewed Ronald Reagan's budget director David Stockman on the necessity of raising taxes, not cutting them, they wanted an example of someone crazy enough to actually propose such a thing. Luckily, Washington State exists, and so does I-1098, the high-earners tax. Tax cuts, in our situation, are bad religion, says Stockman:

Well it's become in a sense an absolute. Something that can't be questioned, something that's gospel, something that's sort of embedded into the catechism and so scratch the average Republican today and he'll say 'Tax cuts, tax cuts, tax cuts.'... (more)

Weyerhauser just reported net earnings of more than $1.1 billion in the third quarter, which works out to $3.50 per share. That's exciting news for shareholders, in that it demonstrates conclusively that Weyerhauser's ongoing conversion to a REIT is a canny move. County and state officials might have a different take; the Wall Street Journal says REIT-sizing "should slash Weyerhaeuser's tax rate to nil as it tries to improve results."

It's the single most profitable thing that Weyerhauser has done over Q3, in that if you exclude the $1 billion booked for tax adjustments, per-share profit falls to $0.25. In terms of actual business, Weyerhauser's Cellulose Fibers division led the way, up $15 million in year-over-year profits, to $181 million total for Q3.

Otherwise wood products sales were affected by the weak housing market, said Dan Fulton, president and chief executive officer, adding: "The housing market also affects our Timberlands business, where we continue to defer harvest due to lower log demand." Weyerhauser warned that fourth quarter operating earnings are expected to be lower than the third, due to soft markets in all areas.

Radar map image courtesy of the National Weather Service

As of Saturday, the UW's Cliff Mass was downgrading the risk of flooding even over the Olympics and North Cascades, because models were showing the rains passing through today, rather than setting up camp and pouring for several days.

That said, today's downpour is already well underway, and Seattle traffic maps are a motley of red and black. UW's Probcast gives us a 15 percent chance of more than an inch of rainfall (maximum 1.4 inches).

The massive low that's delivering this moisture is parked up in the Gulf of Alaska, and generating 30- to 40-foot waves out to sea.

That low is weakening, and tomorrow there's only a ten percent chance of rain. Again, looking out the window, that's a little hard to believe--but science says so. If you haven't voted, you won't be able to blame lousy weather for your lack of civic responsibility.

Above, a reenactment of the deep-bore tunnel political posturing, on the occasion of bids arriving "on budget." (We have two English actors standing in for Mayor McGinn and Governor Gregoire, to class things up a bit. Their lines are a mixture of quotes and paraphrases from news reports.)

Credit card fraud seems to be sweeping Capitol Hill, CHS reports. In other financial news, a Spokane credit union was closed by regulators Friday afternoon; the Puget Sound Business Journal reports "Washington credit unions are increasingly at risk," and that four Washington banks were told to raise capital, as well. I admit, I got snookered by the "Seattle foreclosure epidemic" story; the Seattle Bubble explains all.

TechFlash profiled the online-only No Depression site, on their transition from magazine to community. Over at PubliCola, the news was that Children's Hospital has joined the war on cars by investing $2 million in pedestrian and bicycle improvements, and that the Seattle City Council approved a $20 vehicle-license fee, which they hope will raise almost $7 million. Sightline noted that Northwest suburbs are more diverse than cities.

Neighborhood Headline News:... (more)

It's time once again to amaze you with the ease with which you can read blog posts on the internet. Specifically, our posts. 

Take a deep breath. Okay, let it out. Now keep working that general sequence and you should be fine. Now, to read The SunBreak most conveniently, you have these options:

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Typhoon Chaba on Oct. 29 at 02:10 UTC (Photo: NASA Goddard MODIS Rapid Response Team)

Keeping life on the West coast interesting, Typhoon Chaba will be dressing up as a midlatitude cyclone for Halloween and will then "amplify into an extraordinarily deep low pressure center," says the UW's Cliff Mass. The result, for our purposes, is that we're going for a ride on the pineapple express. Says Mass:

I am sure the National Weather Service will be putting out some statements on potential flooding of rivers coming off the Olympics and N. Cascades. At this point it does not look like a situation that would produce urban flooding over the Puget Sound population areas.

We'll better know in a day or two how much rain Seattle will get, so keep an eye on UW's Probcast. And while you're doing that, it's a good time to announce that you can pick up your storm-drain "Fall Clean" supplies for free at Seattle Public Untility's warehouse (3633 East Marginal Way South) this Saturday, October 30, 9 a.m. to noon. That includes such goodies as: rakes, bags, gloves, shovels, brooms, and dustpans!

Seattle’s King Street Station restoration is one of 54 projects getting federal funding as part of a $2.4 billion push for high speed rail. U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced the allocations yesterday, with King Street Station pulling in almost $18.3 million, a decision met with instantaneous, rapturous praise from every politician in earshot.

"In a tough economic environment, this grant allows us to continue critical King Street Station work and also add needed local jobs," said Mayor Mike McGinn. "It underscores the station’s importance to northwest rail passengers and its significant place in Seattle’s history. My thanks to Congressman Jim McDermott and Senator Patty Murray for helping secure these vital funds."

The City Council's Richard Conlin also chimed in: "Seattle is honored to have King Street Station selected as one of the four Washington projects awarded this funding.  This grant will allow the Seattle Department of Transportation to continue retrofitting work at the King Street Station to restore the building to its original dignity, adding security features and ease-of-use enhancements."... (more)

Mindy Jones is a Seattleite living in Paris for two years with her husband and two kids. Her daily life does not include romantic walks along the Seine, champagne picnics on the Pont des Arts, or five-star gourmet dinners. For a realistic take on life in a fantasy place, visit her blog, An American Mom in Paris.

France is mad as hell and blah blah blah something about not putting up with this crap anymore. The country known for its strike culture is knocking itself out with daily manifestations and ongoing disruptions in metro/bus/plane/boat/hot-air-balloon/bobsled service. Walking service will be reduced next; two out of three people will have to slither around on their bellies.

The main issue sparking the unrest is the upping of the retirement age from 60 to 62. It's pissed off a whole bunch of people (who may or may not understand math) and they are expressing their discontent by refusing to do many things. There are gas shortages because no one's working the refineries and rumored food shortages in the near future.

Just work your extra two years, dammit, French people. I need my corn flakes.

Strikes are a regular part of life here and we've gotten used to disrupted transportation service and canceled school days. Last year, however, going on strike surfaced in the most unlikely of places.

We'd been in Paris about six months when we went to our son's end-of-year preschool play. For the record, watching three-year-olds mill around onstage is as awkwardly entertaining here as it is anywhere. The confused wandering, the blank stares, the teachers whispering loudly and gesturing madly from the wings--the cluelessness of the three-year old is the same despite all our cultural differences.

The theme of the show was "The Sea." Our son was dressed as a windmill and helped demonstrate why the ocean is salty. I think it was something about a magic, salty windmill. Those precocious kids were speaking French so the subtleties, or even the generalities, of the tale were lost on me.... (more)

Governor Gregoire

The similarities between the states and the banks are extreme to the extent that states have been spending dramatically and are leveraged dramatically. Municipal debt has doubled since 2000, spending has grown way faster than revenues.

Whitney said what reminded her most strongly of the banks' situation was the absence of "reliable data on state spending and debt."

Governor Gregoire chose to play off the phrasing, saying that, "We're in crisis mode. We the states are not in pre-crisis at all." That's no doubt true, but it evades Whitney's point that state spending and debt now represent a separate economic danger from the banks' credit meltdown, and that transparency is hard to come by. In fairness, Washington's credit rating is quite good, but with the caveats that a) if credit ratings were infallible, we wouldn't be in the crisis we're in, and b) things can change very quickly.

Gregoire noted that Washington has trade to rely on; unusually, we don't have a trade deficit with China. And state economists see mainly good news in that relationship for the future. Yet the state has to figure out how to avoid a $3 billion deficit over the next two years, and cuts have approached the bone. CNBC says:

In August, Gregoire announced plans for four- to- seven percent budget cuts across the board, as well as a phase-in of $51 million in cuts to state welfare aid. The cuts will disqualify nearly 2,500 families from child-care subsidies in October, and an additional 5,500 families from cash welfare benefits in February.... (more)

Ever thought yourself really good at something, and then, all of a sudden, get put in a group of people far more talented than you? Jarring, isn't it? For me it happened in high school calculus. I'd always been the person people called for help about math, and cheated off of on test day. But in calculus, suddenly I was the one needing help. Bradley Nelson, you have my eternal thanks.

Antoine Hosley

University of Washington freshman Antoine Hosley is going through that right now. A star basketball player in high school, he's a "walk-on" with the Huskies (meaning that he's not on scholarship). He talked about how that feels in very honest and thoughtful way for someone his age with the Seattle Times' Percy Allen. Here's Hosley:

I'm just not used to this. A walk-on guy, he has to earn his keep. He doesn't necessarily have the respect of the other players, the scholarship players. So it is humbling. I was thinking about that a lot today actually. And I've always been one of the star players on my team every since I was young so it is humbling, but it makes me want to work even harder to get just to get back to what has been normal for me from what I've experienced in basketball...

I feel like I have to prove myself everyday.... So say if I messed up, it was like okay, he has the ability, he just messed up. I feel like everyday I'm earning the respect of these cats and trying to get to the point to where I can make a mistake.... So I just got to keep working.... (more)

Our pet & wildlife and real estate correspondent, Lyle George, provides this picture he snapped while heading to Gary Fukushima's show at Tula's in Belltown last night. The SunBreak has a long history of Seattle rat coverage, but this is the first time I've seen a solution that literally takes a bite out of the rat population downtown. Rats of 2nd and Bell--you're on notice.

UPDATE: A helpful commenter gives you...the rest of the story. "The dog's name is Ozzie and rat hunting is his favorite hobby. He is a Dachshund, not a beagle, and he is 11 years old. He can be seen most days around Belltown. His owner has plenty of other pictures of him catching rats (some bigger than that one) and then there’s the two Seattle officers that provided the spotlights one night so that the crowd of people that gathered to see Ozzie with one of his prizes could take pictures. He had on his cowboy hat that night."

Between 1920 and 1960, Seattle grew from a backwater lumber town to a major center of manufacturing, retail, and commerce. The numbers tell the tale. In 1920, the population of Seattle was 315,000. By 1960, the city was 557,000 strong.

The rapid population rise was no doubt fueled by the rise of the aerospace industry leading up to and through World War II. But it was also fueled by a growing national awareness that the Pacific Northwest was a beautiful place to live with abundant water and wonderful access to nature, and was a nice base of jobs with growth potential.

It’s hard to imagine what living in Seattle was like in those critical four decades. There was no freeway, for one thing, but also no Seattle Center or Space Needle or professional sports stadiums. The tallest building in the city during those years was the Smith Tower. 

It’s hard to get a feeling of the physical appearance of the city at that time by looking downtown; the landscape has simply changed too much. And historic photos don’t give you a sense of how people lived.

A great way to get insight into the life and times of the average Seattleite during those years, and to get a nice view of how the city expanded at the same time, is to take a tour of residential architecture.

The SunBreak Historical Architecture Team has plotted out a three street tour of three distinct mid-century neighborhoods in North Seattle.... (more)

You may have missed it, but last night was the first of NBA season. And though Seattle doesn't have a team, the 206 was represented. Three Seattle high-school grads--of the 12 on NBA rosters--showed their stuff on opening night.

Nate Robinson (Rainier Beach, Boston Celtics) played just 10 minutes in the Celtics' win over the Threet, but he did have a suh-weet play where he pumped-faked a three, drove left around his defender to the baseline, elevated, switched hands in mid-air, twisted, and scooped a shot behind his head off the glass and in. Nate Robinson is an absolute marvel.

Brandon Roy (Garfield, Portland Trail Blazers) led the Blazers with 24 points in their win over Phoenix. The Suns didn't ever find a player who could guard Roy, who made Josh Childress look especially silly. Roy's layup with 5:05 left began a 16-1 Blazers' run to close the game. The Blazers have gotten younger and faster with the additions of guards Wes Matthews and Armon Johnson. Look out.

Aaron Brooks (Franklin, Houston Rockets) had an 18-point first-half from his starting point guard spot, but it's the shot he didn't make in the second-half that's haunting him this morning. Rockets down two, Brooks drove baseline and got to the basket, but Lamar Odom blocked his last-second shot. Rockets lost.

So what's up with the nine other Seattle-area guys? Here's a quick rundown.... (more)

Amazon has reported net sales were up 39 percent in the third quarter of 2010, and that Kindle sales were.... Well, there are no numbers attached, but the general impression is that they're selling Kindles at a fine rate, and proud we are of all of them. Interestingly, while media sales were up 14 percent, sales of electronics and other merchandise grew 68 percent.

Amazon may be the leader in online retail, but Forbes wonders how good the investment angle is, given Amazon's legendarily razor-thin margins. One impact on those margins, as TechFlash reports, is that Amazon has increased its employee headcount by 44 percent from last year. (An earlier story noted that "Fulfillment costs in Q3 were up nearly 46 percent from the year-ago quarter, to $680 million.")

Amazon moved into its South Lake Union offices earlier this year, and now the area is full of hustle and bustle--forget a quick bite to eat at Blue Moon Burgers if it's anywhere around noon. Back on Beacon Hill, the ex-Amazon Tower is forlornly waiting for its lease to expire next May; in three years, nobody the size of Amazon has come knocking to rent the 16 floors.

Delta has essentially told Boeing "No thanks," when it comes to the 787 Dreamliner. The airline has pushed its 787 order back a dozen years, at which time it could convert the order to other planes, as needed. The first thing that springs to mind is that Boeing really needs to double down if they're going to ship the 787 in just twelve years.

The Seattle Times also reports that Boeing is thinking about moving the tail construction of the second 787 model back in-house, the work of the Italian mechanics of Alenia not measuring up. Previously wing stress near the fuselage (wings by Mitsubishi, fuselage by Fuji) created delays, and Boeing management, perhaps smarting at not having a union to blame their failures on, seems to have taken the lesson on outsourcing.

That said, there's much more to Boeing than long-delayed commercial aircraft; the company is proudly displaying photos of its first production unmanned rotorcraft, the "Hummingbird," and the Army is going Apache III.  Meanwhile Boeing reported profits of $837 million in the third quarter of 2010, and is issuing a dividend of $0.42 per share.

Half Moon Bay getting hammered, as of this afternoon, courtesy of WestportCam

Thanks to 30-foot swells, the AP reports, "the Coast Guard has closed the Columbia River bar and most other entrances to coastal ports in Washington and Oregon." Cliff Mass notes that ocean buoys give readings of waves 40- to 45-feet in height. Says Mass, in a post titled, "Giant Waves":

This is really turning into an extraordinary event. I can't remember over many years seeing this situation...a very deep system, slowly dying, that is sitting right off our coast for days.

Let's go take a look! First up is Ocean Shores:

Then we swing by La Push:... (more)

Flamingo chick at Woodland Park Zoo (Photo: Dennis Dow)

Via the Seattle Bubble (of course), let's point you to the Puget Sound Business Journal story on class action status granted to the Washington Mutual suit. While you're at the PSBJ, read this article on the double-dip in Seattle housing, and remember to buy your friends in the real estate business a drink. The Stroupe Condo Blog covers the last days of the McGuire Apartments.

In other news, State Supreme Court justices Richard Sanders and James Johnson made the Seattle Times for suggesting that while minorities end up in jail disproportionately (as part of the population), they do so under their own steam. Sanders helpfully clarified that certain minorities are "disproportionally represented in prison because they have a crime problem." (Also, things burn because they contain a "fire-like element.") Minority News has another angle.

Medical Teams International emailed us to say that a medical team of eight nurses from Washington state, assembled by North Shore Baptist Church in Bothell, has left to help with the cholera outbreak in Haiti. You sort of wish the epidemic hadn't been foreseen many months ago. In contrast, one of our big concerns is whether light rail is running on time.

RIP, flamingo chicks, we hardly new ye: "The two Chilean flamingo chicks that hatched this month at Woodland Park Zoo have passed away. The older of the chicks was found dead this morning in the exhibit, and the younger of the chicks was discovered missing Sunday night." And now...

Neighborhood Headline News... (more)