The Washington Department of Ecology announced that despite six years of a “green Governor” to improve our environment, Washington state has seen an INCREASE in greenhouse gas emissions. Andrew Wineke of the DOE blamed this on the economy.  Wineke went on to state, “We are making progress. We just need to turn that corner,” Since the good economy is to blame, we can only surmise that “the corner” that needs to be turned is a recession for their policies to have an impact. (KING 5)

The Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce announced their endorsements for Seattle City Council in this year’s election. Seven of Seattle’s nine council seats are up for election in 2019.  In only three of the seven seats are the incumbents running for re-election, (Lisa Herbold from West Seattle, Kshama Sawant from Central Seattle, and Debra Juerez from North Seattle).  The Seattle Chamber only endorsed Juerez for re-election and are supporting challengers in the other races. (Seattle Times)

Eric Johnson of KOMO News aired a report from Los Angeles that poses a strong warning regarding the spread of diseases due to how west coast cities are handling the homeless crises.  The report quotes Dr. Drew Pinsky saying, “We have not seen conditions for humans like this since Medieval times. Period. And that’s a fact.”  As they state in the story, “Filth is everywhere in Skid Row. Garbage piles up…discarded fruit, human feces, bags of who-knows-what, broken chairs, rotting clothes. And where these is filth there are rats. Los Angeles has been overthrown by an army of rats, millions strong. And where there are rats, there is disease.” (KOMO 4)

Many Seattle political leaders are talking about turning golf courses into housing yet doing so could be illegal.  In 1997 Initiative 42 was passed which forbids turning Seattle park lands into anything besides parks.  It is too soon to tell if the City Council that pushed through an unconstitutional income tax will be dissuaded by laws that clearly state that their actions are illegal. (Seattle Times)

Of the 543 “small” airports in North America, Pasco’s Tri-Cities Airport currently ranks eighth busiest according to the Official Aviation Guide. Last year over 700,000 passengers traveled through the airport and in the first four months of 2019 they have seen a 15% increase in boardings over the same period in 2018.  The increase is due to a growth in the region’s population. (Tri-City Herald)

A video that showed a man body-slamming a guard into the library floor after a scuffle between the two has taken center stage in the race for Spokane mayor. The 90 second viral video has focused the debate about safety in the downtown core of the city.  Mayoral candidates have since debated whether more police security is needed in the downtown area and what are the best ways to handle the growing open use of drugs in the neighborhood. (Spokesman-Review)

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