Slog News & Arts

Line Out

Music & Nightlife

« Whose Calves Are These? | Stranger News Hour on 710 KIRO »

Saturday, July 28, 2007

The Morning News

posted by on July 28 at 8:08 AM

by Rebecca Tapscott

Mo Money, Mo Problems: Bush administration plans to offer a $20 billion arms deal to Saudi Arabia and it’s neighbors. To allay Israel’s concerns, the U.S. may up Israeli military aid to $30.4 billion in the next decade.

Used and abused: Governor Eliot Spitzer and two senior aides may testify to the Ethics Panel on their alleged misuse of State Police, to gather embarrassing information on the Senate Republican leader, Joseph L. Bruno.

War on Corruption: Congressional Democrats agree on new lobbying policies that increase transparency by identifying lobbyists who give multiple large donations to candidates.

Agriculture cashes in: The house passes a $286 billion, Democratically-backed bill re-enforcing agricultural subsidies. The bill, among other things, supports land preservation, healthy diets for youth, and famine relief abroad.

I wish I could buy me a spaceship: NASA has reportedly ignored warnings of astronauts who were drinking heavily before launching.

Nightlife lives!: Sally Clark’s nightlife legislation develops new enforcement tools for the city, and makes no mention of the new license proposed by Nickels.

One man’s trash: Nickels proposes a 6.2% rate increase on Seattle’s garbage collection for 2008. The money would go to rebuilding the city’s garbage facilities in Wallingford and South Park, estimated to cost $110 million.

Bus stop, bus goes, lane stays, crime grows?: Third Avenue, between Yesler and Stewart, will remain a bus-only corridor during peak hours. Although this should improve traffic flow, critics note the increase in crime and trash.

Blinded by science: Scientists discover a glass sponge reef off the coast of Washington. Until recently, the reefs were thought to have gone extinct 100 million years ago. Scientists agree: they’re really cool.

School land is dirrty: The State Department of Ecology plans to spend $3.5 million to remove soil contaminated with arsenic and lead from local schools.

RSS icon Comments

1

Nice Hollies reference, Rebecca.

Posted by Gabriel | July 28, 2007 8:35 AM
2

The first item is another good example of our brilliant foreign policy vis-a-vis arming everybody on every side of a conflict. The arms manufacturers with exclusive relationships with our government pay for R&D on the new weapons systems (available exclusively to the U.S. military for a limited time!) through sales of the not-so-new weapons systems to other countries, which sales are facilitated by our State Department. That way, not only does the arms industry (the only industry where where U.S. companies still maintain a technological edge) remain the biggest business in the world (more money for Boeing!), but the constant influx of arms into politically unstable corners of the world insures a constant supply of regional conflicts that will one day require U.S. intervention, assuring that those expensive new systems will be put to good use Preserving Democracy. Frightened taxpayers will continue insisting that fifty cents on every dollar of their taxes goes to creating even newer, deadlier systems to keep them safe in this increasingly violent world.

It's the circle of life.

Posted by flamingbanjo | July 28, 2007 11:11 AM
3

@2...wow that is a really interesting point. I'd never thought of it that way. Thanks for laying that out!(not being sarcastic)

Posted by fun shaped | July 28, 2007 1:26 PM
4

Regarding the Times article and 3rd being a designated bus street.

They hardly address that these bus stops have seemed to turn in to homeless camps and open-air drug markets.

"But the bus-only street has brought crime and trash worries to the area, and those problems need correcting, a Downtown Seattle Association spokeswoman said" -------not going in to it any further than that.

I can't explain the correlation / won't even try to be a generalist. But I hate it...I think it is disgusting and pitiful.

In the rare times that I walk 3rd/2nd/1st between Pine and Pike, I can't help but think of the impression the trash (both human and not) makes on tourists and what they think the city overall must be like.

I dunno how much this has to do with buses, but I wish it would change. Anyway.

Posted by fun shaped | July 28, 2007 1:32 PM
5

When the bus tunnel closed new stops were set up along 3rd, most notably at Pike. Previously the stop at Pine seemed to attract the most problems, but with the new stop at Pike, the crap was spread out all the way down the street.

My theory is that the reason dealers and all-around hooligans are attracted to bus stops is because they can hang out there all day and night without attracting undue suspicion. They can just claim that they're waiting for a bus. And it can't be much of a surprise that those guys don't give a fuck about littering.

Posted by keshmeshi | July 29, 2007 9:05 AM
6

The first item is another good example of our national confusion about possessives and contractions. Try again, intern.

Posted by anners | July 30, 2007 9:49 AM

Comments Closed

In order to combat spam, we are no longer accepting comments on this post (or any post more than 14 days old).