1. King County Superior Court judge Jim Rogers will rule this afternoon on a lawsuit by Ballard industrial businesses challenging the city's right to complete the "missing link" of the Burke-Gilman bike and pedestrian trail.

The lawsuit claims that filling in the trail between 11th Avenue Northwest and the Ballard Locks would destroy businesses like Salmon Bay Sand and Gravel because cyclists would likely be hit by trucks and injured or killed—a somewhat ironic claim, given that the missing link currently forces cyclists to traverse multiple dangerous railroad tracks and poorly paved streets. The suit also claims that the city was wrong in ruling that the trail would have no adverse impact on the environment. Rogers is expected to rule today at 3:00.



Photo via MyBallard.

2. Former Microsoft manager Jeff Reifman frequently inundates PubliCola's inboxes with emails about MS's various tax dodges (the software behemoth avoids a lot of taxes by running its sales through an office in Reno, and the state's latest budget would reduce its taxable revenue, saving the company potentially $100 million a year).

Today, Reifman takes on Microsoft's announcement that it would donate $125,000 to save the fireworks over Lake Union on July 4, which were canceled when producer OneReel couldn't find a corporate sponsor. "We would have thought that saving Seattle's fireworks show as the rest of the state's infrastructure crumbles was a PR tactic beneath even Microsoft," Reifman writes. And it gets even harsher from there.



3. Earlier in the session, we reported on a bill the ACLU didn't like that would  create a data base tracking sales of ephedrine, pseudoephedrine, and other “methamphetamine precursors.”

The bill passed with big margins in the House and Senate and was signed by the governor last week.

Apparently civil liberties concerns aren't the only knock against the bill. Also last week: Newsweek magazine filed a report on how Olympia's approach—along with nine other state legislatures this year—is a swing and a miss and a cave to big Pharma.

At least 10 meth-afflicted states are sticking to a less effective eradication program: a database that lets pharmacists track pseudoephedrine purchases. It's a popular fix for lawmakers, since drug companies—protective of their $500 million cold-and-allergy-care business—set up the systems for free, and runny-nosed voters can't complain. But it's popular with dealers, too, who can dupe the system with an army of small-batch buyers.

Newsweek cites a more effective legislative approach taken by Oregon.

In Oregon, however, the once booming industry has nearly disappeared. Between 2005 and 2009 the number of lab seizures—the best indicator of production—dropped an astounding 96 percent, from 192 to 10, according to a recent report by the Oregon Narcotics Enforcement Association. Even more astounding: to get these results the state simply restricted cold and allergy medicines with pseudoephedrine, making this key meth ingredient unavailable without a prescription.

4. The New York Times covered Mayor Mike McGinn's Youth and Families Initiative today, in a story about Seattle's efforts to accommodate a growing number of children. The initiative is aimed at eliminating racial and income disparities in education, violence, and children's health.