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You may have seen last week some good news from the Centers for Disease Control: for the first time since 1965, homicide fell off the list of the top 15 causes of death in the US. In fact, as I read the latest numbers from the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports, the homicide death rate for the first half of 2011 may have fallen to its lowest level since 1958! Booyah!...

Just to be clear: it’s way too early to be sure how the new SR-520 tolls will affect Seattle traffic over the long haul. Still, as an I-5 commuter, I’ve found the effects of tolling both dramatic and fascinating. Take a look at the map, comparing yesterday morning’s rush-hour with the traffic from 4 weeks ago.

Via Sightline pal Joe Cortright, a graphic depiction of what happens when you toll a formerly free stretch of highway:  the congestion migrates to a nearby, untolled route. For those not familiar with Seattle traffic, SR-520 is the northern Lake Washington crossing on the map above. The bridge has been the bane of commuters for quite some time: state traffic figures suggest that it’s been full during rush hour for over...

Six months ago, we launched the Making Sustainability Legal project arguing that, although the Northwest could benefit from a top-to-bottom remodel of its public-policy house, deep political divides and starvation budgets make big reforms unlikely soon. In the meantime, maybe we can clean out the fridge? Making Sustainability Legal is about pulling moldy regulations out of the back of our law books and composting them. Dozens of regulations, whatever virtue...

Editor’s Note: On Tuesday, peer-to-peer carsharing pioneer Getaround announced a $1.7 million Federal Highway Administration grant that’ll bring the service to Portland. This guest post is by Michael Andersen of Portland Afoot, a 10-minute newsmagazine and wiki about low-car life in PDX. Michael adapted this piece from the magazine’s October cover story. When it comes to Portland next month, peer-to-peer carsharing will be ready to slice and dice car ownership...

If you have commuting costs for parking, transit, or biking, you could be eligible for a federal tax subsidy. The IRS allows companies or employees to contribute up to $230 per commuter for monthly parking or transit commuting costs, a benefit that some 3 million people nationwide take advantage of. For the last two years, the pre-tax limits have been the same for parking and transit. But it wasn’t always...

Clark: Now this is a true catastrophe: a craft brewer is worried that climate change is making beer more expensive! Gahh! Valuable tips for the holidays:  4 ways to hack your brain to avoid impulse purchases! Physicists with lasers and very big brains are trying to figure out if reality is actually just a hologram.  “More specifically, they are trying to either prove or disprove the somewhat mind-bending notion that the third dimension doesn’t...

Today I reported a story on some of the worst bad actors for air pollution in the Northwest. Interestingly, the facility with the most fines for air pollution violations in recent years wound up being a Seattle glass bottle maker that just a year ago was touting its eco bona fides. The folks at Verallia, which is owned by Paris-based Saint-Gobain, boasted about making $20 million in improvements to modernize...

To make a house environmentally sound, one needs to go green inside and out. Failing to do so is like buying your shade-grown beans and happy-cow latte in a styrofoam cup, or filling your organic hemp grocery bag with hot dogs and Cheetos. So Kevin Ward and David Hymel have teamed up to provide Western Washington homeowners with the complete eco package. “My picture of ecotopia is basically a holistic...

There’s been a fair bit of ink spilled lately about whether the new and proposed vehicle license fees in Seattle and King County are regressive or progressive. In fact, even local advocates for low income people disagree. John Fox says they’re bad, but Tim Harris says they’re good. What’s the right answer? It depends what you mean. But with new census data out, I’ve got an excuse to make some charts....