1. While our own Erica C. Barnett, as well as David Goldstein (over at HA Seattle), have both written editorials protesting the TSA's new heavy-petting-patdown policy, a local woman who describes herself as a "pornographer, sex worker, and sex blogger," took her protest directly to the Sea-Tac security line this holiday season.

"Hello, security!" she smiles as she explains that she "wants to be transparent for the TSA."



All we'll say is that a freaked out TSA agent urgently asks her, "Do you have a jacket, ma'am? Could you put your jacket on please?" to which she says, "I thought we weren't supposed to wear jackets."

Her  explanation (picture here not safe for work)  and video (which you also shouldn't watch at work) are here .  You can also watch it at a safer site, The New York Times Lede blog, which picked up her stunt along with a batch of other funny Thanksgiving holiday TSA patdown videos (which are PG) here.

2. The State Department of Ecology says the site on Airport Way South that Mayor Mike McGinn chose this month to house a permanent homeless encampment (a former peanut butter factory) is contaminated property.

Seattle City Council Member Tom Rasmussen had raised environmental concerns about the site when McGinn first proposed it in mid-November.

3. D.C. StreetsBlog reports that the incoming GOP chair of the U.S. House Transportation Committee, U.S. Rep. John Mica (R-FLA),  plans to address declining gas tax revenues by cutting transit funding.

It’s not sustainable to continue spending more than the fund brings in from gas tax revenues.  ... the trust fund currently spends roughly $50 billion a year, while taking in revenues of just $35 billion.

But if the option of raising taxes is off the table ... the only solution is to cut spending – and that’s just what Mica and his Republican colleagues seem poised to do, to the tune of $7 billion to $8 billion per year. Tymon called it “cutting the fat.”

Apparently, for Republicans, the big target for cuts appears to be transit spending. Tymon suggested to the Road Gang that the current $8 billion allocated for transit annually could shrink to $5 billion.

The Road Gang was, apparently, relieved to see that transit would bear the brunt of the burden of spending cuts.

The ironic approach of cutting transit funding when people are spending less on driving (because cars are too expensive) and using transit more, isn't just a Republican idea. Democratic state Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen (D-10, Camano, La Conner), the senate transportation committee chair in Olympia, operates the same way :

Here’s the deafening irony from today’s press conference: Sen. Haugen repeatedly reminded reporters that the slashed transportation budget—a $514 million shortfall in this biennium—was unavoidable because transportation projects rely on the gas tax, and, given that  there’s a recession on and gas prices are so high—people are driving less; i.e., they’re using public transit. So, there’s less gas tax revenue.

Her transportation committee’s response: Cut transit funding.

4. The big news this weekend came out of Portland, Oregon where the FBI arrested Mohamed Osman Mohamud, a 19-year-old college student, who planned to detonate a car bomb at a downtown Christmas tree lighting ceremony on Friday night that had drawn thousands of people.

The full, rivetting story—was it entrapment?—is here in the FBI's affidavit, filed on November 26.