Suffice it to say that Sound Transit is the agency that keeps on giving for Shift, given all the waste, fraud, and outright bad decision-making the bureaucrats there have generated (for us to write about) during our entire decade-long existence. The latest drama, from today’s Seattle Times, is unfortunately all-too-typical for the region’s biggest transportation trouble makers – poor planning/funding/execution leads to emergency repairs down the road, or as the Times put it “(O)f all the obstacles Sound Transit could encounter since breaking ground for light rail in 2003, sinking tracks were the furthest from anyone’s mind.”

The sad truth is that the further something was from the mind of a Sound Transit bureaucrat 20 years ago, the more likely it is that your commute – or trip to the ballgame – will be made worse sometime, as it will be for Seattle stadium-goers when the “most severe shutdown comes Saturday and Sunday where the tracks are sinking 3 inches as they cross Royal Brougham Way South, between Stadium and International District/Chinatown Stations.” You can read, at length, how this latest whoopsie will “disrupt service to 80,000 daily travelers” here… Shift, Seattle Times.

A timely reminder from the Seattle Times that maybe we shouldn’t just surrender to the radical environmentalists demanding that we rip out four power-generating (and transportation-providing) dams on the lower Snake River comes today in the form of the surprising story that “as drought settled in over the Pacific Northwest this year, some electric utility managers did something unusual: They looked to California for hydropower.” That’s right, in a state where hydropower provides two-thirds of our energy generation, sometimes the weather dictates we look elsewhere.

It’s precisely this kind of energy uncertainty that should convince anyone who wants their lights to always come on when they flip the switch that tearing down the Snake River dams, as Democrats like Patty Murray and Jay Inslee advocate for, is a terrible idea. You can read more about how sometimes the water doesn’t always flow downstream fast enough here… Seattle Times, Shift.

Democrat politicians sure seem to love getting themselves appointed to new political jobs, both because it generally means higher pay, and it allows liberals to appoint another friend to fill the old job. And because that good fortune happened to Spokane City Council President Breean Beggs, as Shift reported when he landed a Superior Court gig earlier this year, a carousel started turning on the council, with one term-limited member stepping up the president’s role, and now the Spokesman-Review reports that “nine people have submitted applications to fill a seat on the Spokane City Council vacated by Lori Kinnear.”

You can read how the folks seeking a three-month job range from “a former City Council president, leaders of various civic organizations and one candidate for the seat who recently lost the August primary” here… Shift, Spokesman-Review.

The folks over at PubliCola have been monitoring the “work” being produced by Marc Dones, the former head of the King County Regional Homeless Authority, as part of his new contract with the city of Seattle “researching how Medicaid funding might be used to pay for homeless services.” And, as you might expect from previous Shift coverage of Dones’ “work” on behalf of taxpayers, prepare to be underwhelmed.

The “work product” is provided for your review, so you can see the amount of time and expertise which Dones put into this latest public make-work assignment. Then you can decide for yourself whether this “represents 10 hours’ worth of work” for most people you know… PubliCola, Shift.

You may not learn much new from the brief item from KUOW about Acting U.S. Attorney for Western Washington Tessa Gorman, other than she “takes the place of Nick Brown. He stepped down this summer to campaign for state attorney general.” However, she appears to be auditioning for a future elective office with generic liberal talking points like wanting to be “really looking at gun violence in a holistic approach,” so you can start learning more about her here… KUOW.

In a story that could mean big changes – and falling prices – in the Washington State wine industry, NW News Network reported that “Ste. Michelle Wine Estates – has announced to its contracted Washington wine grape growers that it’s not taking nearly half of its contracted fruit this fall.” The impact is staggering this late in the season, as Ste. Michelle accounts for about half of the state’s wine industry. More news will follow as it becomes available, but the basics are here… NW News Network.

Last week’s interview was with Jackson Maynard, Executive Director of the Citizen Action Defense Fund (CADF), a non-profit organization in Washington State that aims to ensure government compliance with the rules and protection of constitutional rights. CADF asked Washington State Auditor Pat McCarthy to investigate financial and administrative issues in the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s juvenile diversion program but received a lackluster response from the Auditor. Maynard discussed his concerns about the program’s problems and other legal actions CADF is taking to hold Governor Jay Inslee and Democrat lawmakers accountable for their extreme policies. Read more on Shift.

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