Stories

If you were watching the news today you got to see a Master Class in “How to instantly change a powerful person’s mind.” United States Senator Jeff Flake walked out of a hearing today as a solid ‘Yes’ vote on the nomination of Judge Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, got into an elevator and was

I admit it. I wasn’t paying much attention during the whole 3rd Runway battle. The Des Moines Marina was my home base for sailing adventures up and down the Sound, but during the infrequent times I was on land, the thing I noticed most were all the gravel trucks slowing traffic on 509. Of course,

I’ve eavesdropped on quite a number of Sustained Airport Master Plan EIS scoping comments and I’m struck by how high-minded most of them are. They cover the big-ticket items of noise, pollution, schools, property values, crime, etc. But I want to remind you that you can (and should) also comment on the smaller annoyances that

OK, so we had our Open Houses, kids. So what’s the next crisis to react to? Sorry to sound snarky. I do believe all these current issues matter. And I applaud everyone in the community and government who are reacting to them. Well done. Really. (At some point I have to develop the nerve to

If you live in the 34th District, I urge you to contact both Joe Nguyen and Shannon Braddock and share your knowledge and your concerns about the airport. It is a sad fact that most of our state politicians know very little about the problems that beset residents of our region and could care even

So the past couple of days I’ve been ‘slumming’–attending the Des Moines ‘Ad Hoc’ Aviation Committee meeting and then a Burien City Council Meeting on Monday. And then the last StART meeting on Tuesday. I’ve made no secret of my disdain for these groups but that has little to do with the people who are,

A pet peeve of mine. This is something I often see when protesters get in front of some politician for one of these three minute Public Comments. The person comes in with a seriously researched argument. They’re really making a great point. And then they reach the end and their big finish is: “And in

There has been all sorts of talk about the failure of this law suit to demand a higher minimum legroom standard from the FAA on commercial passenger flights. But it was doomed to fail with an agency like the FAA. And why it failed is important to understand if we are to improve the situation

For the past six months there have been a ton of stories in all the big papers and magazines as well as NPR and PBS about Mongolia–Ulan Bator to be precise. Depending on who you ask, the capital of Mongolia is now the most polluted big city in the world. And why that matters to