1. KIRO TV news expresses admiration and surprise that bus riders who were on the Route 27 Metro bus on which bus driver Deloy Dupuis was shot on Monday continued to ride the same bus, and get off at the same stop, just days later.

The breathless headline: "Witnesses to bus shooting return to same bus stop, won't let it alter lives."

To state what is apparently not the obvious: What else were commuters supposed to do—hire a limo to take them to work?

2. Speaking of credulous TV reporting: KOMO News reports that Lynnwood residents are upset that light rail might go "through a neighborhood"—Lynnwood's 52nd St. corridor—and displace up to 77 homes, including a large condo building.

It always astonishes me when people think light rail, which serves people, shouldn't go where the people are.

Those objecting to both potential routes up 52nd St. prefer an out-of-the-way option along I-5—a route Seattle Transit Blog calls "unacceptable" because it would force riders to walk a longer distance, along the freeway.

It always astonishes me when people think light rail, which serves people, shouldn't go where the people are.

3. Believe it or not, most new developments in Washington state ban residents from drying their clothes on a clothesline—requiring, instead, that they use energy-draining, expensive dryers even in the heat of summer. (The logic, such as it is, is that hanging clothes are unsightly and that people may be offended if they see underwear.)

The Seattle Times has a charming piece about people who are trying to defy that dictate, including a 74-year-old North Bend resident who tells the Times, "If you don't like my underwear, don't look in my yard."

Amen, sister.

4. The Seattle Times reports that the public authority that owns the PacMed building—the iconic Art Deco building on the top of Beacon Hill—has made a tentative deal to lease 13 stories to the state Department of Commerce, which would sublease up to six floors to Seattle Central Community College for its health-training programs.

The lease has been far from assured, because the state was reluctant to agree to millions of dollars in renovations that SCCC said it needed to occupy the space.

Another option for the mostly-vacant building, private housing, became an issue in the mayor's race, with former candidate Peter Steinbrueck expressing disappointment that the building, which has a long history as a home for publicly funded facilities like PacMed, might be turned over to private hands. 

5. The Columbian reports that U.S. Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) has expressed support for a compromise to replace the I-5 bridge between Vancouver, WA and Portland, after Washington state legislators failed to pass a transportation package that would have funded Washington's $450 million share of the project. (Oregon and the feds had signed off, but the Republican-dominated senate Majority Coalition Caucus opposed the project because it included light rail.)

The new proposal would rebuild I-5 interchanges on the Oregon side of the bridge and would still include light rail on both sides; the only major difference is that any freeway improvements on the Washington side would have to wait for Washington to come up with funding.