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Seattle’s tax system most regressive in WA state
The Seattle Times reports on how “progressive”-minded Seattle actually has the most regressive system of taxation in Washington state (which with a lack of income tax is one of the worst in North America). According to data guy Gene Balk, a Seattle household making $200,000 a year pays only 4 percent of its income in taxes. Meanwhile, the Vancouver Observer wonders if BC should implement a basic income.
Kinder Morgan is playing Canada on Trans Mountain Pipeline
Ethan Cox, writing for Ricochet, examines the recent announcement that Kinder Morgan is backing off from plans to build the Trans Mountain pipeline across British Columbia and finds that their strategy amounts to a shakedown of Canada’s federal government. Andrew Nikiforuk at The Tyee backs this up, contending that the announcement is an attempt to blackmail the federal government into providing permit guarantees and funding for the $7.4 billion project that would increase tanker traffic in the Salish Sea seven times over.
Seattle mayor Jenny Durkan’s tepid support for transit
Writing for the Stranger, architect David Cole pulls apart Seattle mayor Jenny Durkan’s recent announcement that she’s halting an expansion of the city’s street car system because of cost overruns. “…it’s never about the money. Funny how projects like the SR-99 tunnel and the new international facility at Sea-Tac Airport are never held to the same level of scrutiny as public transit projects.”
Workers hope to safely deal with radioactive sludge at Hanford
OPB reports on a new, completely disturbing clean-up project at Washington’s Hanford nuclear site known as the “K-Basin” which contains highly radioactive sludge in tanks that were designed for only 20 years and are just 400 yards from the Columbia River.
Oregon-born children’s author Beverly Cleary turns 102
Beloved children’s author Beverly Cleary, who’s best known for the Ramona books about a scrappy, rebellious girl, has a ton of connections to Cascadia. She was from Yamhill, Oregon, served as a librarian in Yakima, and attended the University of Washington. Today she turned 102, and in honor of her birthday, CBC posted 100 nifty facts about the author.
“First Confession,” a poem by Jeanine Walker
At the Seattle Review of Books, you can read the poem “First Confession” by Seattle poet Jeanine Walker, a reflection of growing up Catholic:
“We both wore white, he in his vestments,
me in my dress, all decked out
with the things I knew I must have done wrong.”
Read the entire poem here.
That’s all the news and arts for today from Cascadia. Happy Friday the Thirteenth!! –Andrew Engelson