3/12 Coal dust, Duwamish cleanup, seafood tracking, legislation as bad joke

The first round of late winter flooding could start Tuesday. Warm, heavy rain is predicted in the region for the next few days, according to the National Weather Service in Seattle.  The Cascade Range could get up to four inches of rain by Thursday morning, the Weather Service said. Rikki King reports. Heavy rain, mild flooding expected this week

With five coal export terminals under consideration in Washington and Oregon, Northwest residents are grappling for the first time with issues that are old hat in coal states like West Virginia and Kentucky. One of those issues: coal dust. How much of it will escape along the journey from mines in Wyoming and Montana to proposed export terminals on the West Coast? And what might that dust mean for public health? Ashley Ahearn reports from Tsawwassen. What Coal-Train Dust Means For Human Health  

Seattle’s Duwamish River was once a meandering estuary in the heart of the city. A century ago, it was transformed into an industrial waterway and used as a dumping ground for decades. Now it’s a Superfund site – and the Environmental Protection Agency has released a plan to clean it up. The EPA spent more than a decade studying the five-mile stretch of the Duwamish that runs through Southpark and Georgetown into Elliot Bay. They found sediment contaminated with toxins such as PCBs and Dioxins. Bellamy Pailthorp reports. Lower Duwamish Waterway plan open for public comment  

It was not a good Monday for Oscar the Dungeness crab. Despite acting as a prop for Agriculture Minister Norm Letnick, as he announced a financial boost to a program that helps diners and shoppers trace the origin of fish, there was no ministerial pardon for Oscar. Oscar, the Victoria poster-crab for Ecotrust Canada’s ThisFish program, will end up in the tank at Thrifty Foods, where the crab fisherman has a contract, said Chelsey Ellis, Ecotrust fisheries program Pacific co-ordinator. Judith Lavoie reports. System helps consumers to track origin of seafood they're eating

Call this one “How a Bill Becomes a Joke.” It’s similar to those high school civics presentations with the little cartoon bill, you know the one that celebrates the democratic process. Similar, except this version kind of does the opposite. It begins when legislators in Olympia have spent too much time together. Like-minded ones start talking – maybe over adult beverages – about the news of the day. Someone makes a cynical joke. It’s funny enough and everyone in the circle gets a laugh. Then someone decides to turn it into a bill. The sponsors of Senate Bill 5867 kept a straight face when they swore they were completely serious about the plan to reduce the size of the Washington State Supreme Court from nine justices to five. Budget cutting, they said. Republican sponsors are Michael Baumgartner of Spokane, Doug Ericksen of Ferndale and Janea Holmquist Newbry of Moses Lake. Peter Callaghan reports. Bored/peeved lawmakers use bills to score rhetorical points

Now, your tug weather--
WEST ENTRANCE U.S. WATERS STRAIT OF JUAN DE FUCA- 900 PM PDT MON MAR 11 2013
SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY IN EFFECT THROUGH LATE TUESDAY NIGHT
TUE
SW WIND 20 TO 30 KT...BECOMING S 15 TO 25 KT IN THE AFTERNOON. WIND WAVES 3 TO 5 FT. W SWELL 4 FT AT 11 SECONDS...
 BUILDING TO 7 FT AT 9 SECONDS IN THE AFTERNOON. RAIN.
TUE NIGHT
SE WIND 15 TO 25 KT...BECOMING SW AFTER MIDNIGHT. WIND WAVES 2 TO 4 FT. W SWELL 6 FT AT 9 SECONDS. RAIN.

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