Commentary: King County Metro wants more taxes to maintain existing bus service. What it really needs is better management and more oversight. By John Carlson                  At the same time that King County Metro demands a huge tax increase to simply maintain existing bus service, Snohomish and Pierce counties are actually adding bus service without raising transportation taxes. read full...

Commentary: The public isn’t excited about his opponent. But McGinn has a bigger problem than Ed Murray.   By John Carlson October 22, 2013. Here is something you don’t often see in American politics. An incumbent politician with views largely matching his constituents is seeking re-election. Unemployment is low — in fact it’s two points lower than the state average, and two-and-a-half points below the national rate. The city’s fiscal condition is stronger than the day he took office, and his administration has been free of any substantial scandal. On paper he should be cruising to re-election. Instead, Mike McGinn will be lucky to reach 40 percent of the vote. Last month, Survey USA released a poll showing state Sen. Ed Murray leading Mayor Mike McGinn by more than 20 points, 52-to-30. After a month of furious, energetic campaigning by McGinn, topped by two impressive debate performances, another poll last week showed nearly identical results: 52-to-32 percent. With Election Day about two weeks out, less than a third of the electorate is committed to the mayor’s re-election. A smaller sample by KIRO-TV in early October showed McGinn closer to Murray but with only 29 percent of the electorate committed to him. The Strategies 360 PR firm independently conducted a similar poll in mid-October showing McGinn with 34 percent support. Politicians with re-elect numbers this low are usually under federal indictment. Someone find a bugle and start playing “Taps.” It’s not like opponent Ed Murray is lighting the world on fire. “Murray-mania” is not sweeping the city. Why would it? The state senator’s views are only marginally different than McGinn’s. He’s not flashy, never has been. TV is not his friend. He is articulate but not eloquent. He is a solid but plodding legislator — a classic workhorse rather than a showhorse, who deserves a place in state history for guiding into passage not one but three landmark civil rights laws expanding liberty for gay citizens. But much of Murray’s appeal seems to come from not being Mike McGinn. And you can’t fault McGinn’s campaign team. They are doing the best they can with what they’ve got. So, if it ain’t the economy, if the city isn’t cratering fiscally or drowning in scandal, what is it? McGinn’s supporters blame “smears” from jealous, nettled, city council members or business groups. But even if it were true, why are the smears sticking? After all, the mayor has both a clear record to run on and the bully pulpit of his office to generate media coverage and rally supporters. He’s plenty capable of defending himself, with a competent campaign team and some influential backers. So why is he losing so badly? Because...

A summer adventure for the ages:  Climbing the tallest – and most elusive – mountain in the Olympic range, Mt. Olympus.   25 miles of backpacking and climbing, to help a good cause:  The Climb to Fight Breast Cancer. Mt. Olympus sits in the middle of Olympic National Park, which differs from all other national parks  in Big Ways.  Yellowstone, Yosemite, Glacier, Mt. Rainier, etc. all have roads running through them.  The one million acre Olympic NP does not, so you can’t climb Olympus until you first hike from the Hoh River trailhead near the Visitors Center about 19 miles to the Blue Glacier, the first three quarters of it wearing a 50 pound backpack.  Second, Olympic NP contains the only rainforests in the continental United States, so the aesthetic experience of hiking and backpacking is completely original.   The park is majestic, stately, old and green, with huge fir and cedar trees draped with long, thick, shawls of moss.  Nothing like it anywhere else I’ve been.  It’s as if nature went through an ancient steroid era where everything was supersized.   So dense is the forest in some places, it’s dark in the middle of the afternoon, as if a light switch was flipped off, darkening the outside world.  You’ve heard of the Forest Primeval?  Our team of nine climbers and three superb guides from Alpine Ascents hiked through one. The first day we walked on mostly level ground along the Hoh River for 9.3 miles.  Day two had us encounter the only rain of the trip, which is incredibly lucky, considering the place gets about four times more rain than Seattle.   After mile 10 the elevation builds.  The trailhead back at the parking lot is about 550 feet above sea level, but it rises and rises to just under 8,000 feet at the mountain’s summit.   Day three, summit day, started early, at 1 AM.  We turned on our headlamps at 2 AM and began hiking from Elk Lake toward the Blue Glacier, a massive, icy foothill fronting the snowdome ahead of us.  Once you reach Blue Glacier you pull out the crampons (strap-on claws for the bottom of your boots), rope up, pull your ice axes, and proceed slowly, in four person rope teams, upwards.  After hours of trekking up snow and ice, you’re surprised to see that the actual summit of Olympus is free of both,  a reddish-brown rock spire jutting into the air.  Off come the crampons, the rope is untethered, the ice axe holstered, and you start rock climbing.   The view from the top, with Canada to the west, Seattle to the east, the San Juans to the north and Oregon to the south, is astonishing, but ironically, other peaks block city views of Seattle, as the earth’s curvature has Olympus snugly hidden behind Mt. Anderson and other mountains.    After signing the book at the top, and posing for a few pics, we climbed down to the snow, put our mountaineering gear back on, and slowly walked back down, the snow and ice crunching under our boots down.  Crevices...

Every once in a while there comes an issue that clearly defines the differences between the two major parties.  One of them is what to do about Detroit, the largest American city to officially declare Bankruptcy.  A Quinnipiac University poll shows a clear majority of 57% opposing a bailout, while just 33% support it.  But look at the breakout by party:  Only 35% of Democrats oppose a bailout, while a majority, 51%, support the idea.  Republicans?  73% reject the idea of a bailout, while only 18% favor it. So what about Independent voters?  They lean with the conservatives, with 65% opposing any bailout while just 28% supporting one.   There is a long list of cities and counties that would quickly que up for a federal life raft if a precedent is set by providing one for a city that ignored warning after warning about reckless spending, outlandish catering to govt. unions and stubbornly stood by policies that grew the crime rate and city income tax rate while shrinking the population of wealthy and middle class residents of all races. Why underwrite this mismanagement with public...