No Excuses
If you’re a longtime local, you may remember the Columbus Day Storm of 1962, otherwise known as “The Big Blow,” or recall what you were doing when that 6.5-magnitude earthquake rocked Puget Sound in 1965.
How about the December 2007 floods?
Fact is you don’t have to be an old-timer to know the kind of emergencies we face around here. If you’ve weathered just one Northwest winter, chances are you’ve experienced a power outage, flooding, or worse. Then there are those personal disasters – like fires and falls – that can happen anytime of the year.
By John Carlson
What is it about sports that makes adults go crazy? More often, it seems, kids – the players – have the right idea of what’s right and wrong.
This may surprise you. King County Metro is buying a fuel that is significantly more expensive than diesel, may be worse for the environment, may increase local food prices, may lead to global hunger and potentially cost King County more as a member of the Chicago Climate Exchange.
That fuel is canola-based biodiesel.
Fathers Day is coming up this week, and so is my dad’s 85th birthday. I sure wish he were going to be here to celebrate both occasions, but he’s been gone for 20 years.
Digging through a bunch of old photos of him the other day, I came across one from Fathers Day 1964. I was startled. It was a photo of our entire family – me, my four brothers and mom dutifully facing the camera, posing the way conventional people do. Except for dad. He is facing backwards. Why was he facing backwards? Simply because it looked funny, I guess. Or maybe he was showing off a new haircut. There was no other reason.
The city of Bellevue re-surfaced my street last week. I didn’t know it needed it.
If the city installs a planting strip or a median, it maintains it. Instead of the project turning into weeds, we instead get flowers and plants that flourish. The end result is city that is awash in green vegetation. I much prefer that (and am willing to pay for it) than being forced to look upon rivers of asphalt and concrete.
The Washington State Republican convention last weekend in Spokane should have been dull and uneventful. All they had to do was approve a slate of national convention delegates to support the obvious nominee, John McCain, vote for a short, concise party platform and leave town.
How hard is it for some people who work in Bellevue to find affordable housing here? Consider these numbers:
It was a drizzly, cold evening May 21 at the James Street Park and Ride lot in Kent.
The election season is approaching and the state’s two major political parties are in a twitter.
The reason? We have a new primary system this year and there’s no longer a guarantee that both a Democrat and a Republican will make it to the November General Election ballot.
Wanna buy a car that’s gentle on the environment? Then don’t buy a new hybrid. Are you buying organic food because it’s good for the environment? If so, you’re making a mistake.
Thousands of mortar boards will be tossed into the air across Washington this June; a time-honored sign that our high school seniors have finally graduated.
editorial
It’s the Memorial Day weekend – and you know what that means.
OK, you decide. Last week President Bush, in a long speech commemorating the 60th anniversary of Israel’s founding, made the following statements to the Israeli Knesset (their equivalent of our Congress).
The countdown has started for hands-free calling here in our state. It can’t come soon enough.
People who live around here pretty much have given up exploring the galaxies with a tiny telescope in the backyard. Clouds and rain doom most efforts.
The Democratic way
It’s expected that transportation will be the biggest local issue in the 2008 elections. Most people aren’t happy. But instead of trying to find scapegoats, let’s review some history to see why we’re paying higher transportation taxes for longer commutes.
