1. "Ninety percent pig, 10 percent lipstick": That's how the Everett Herald characterizes Tim Eyman's latest initiative, I-517, which would give signature gatherers more time to collect signatures and make it harder for business owners and government entities to eject harassing signature gatherers from their property. 

Under the initiative, signature gatherers are legally protected on public-traffic walkways even if it's someone's private property," the Herald notes. "The language reads, 'Including those in front of the entrances and exits of any store," your property or no.'" The upshot: If I-517 passes, signature gatherers will have inordinate new rights to effectively squat on private property, and to harrass individual customers, whether the private property owners want them there or not. 

2. The Tacoma News Tribune today joins the crowd of editorial boards backing state Sen. Nathan Schlicher, the incumbent Democrat appointed to replace former Sen. Derek Kilmer (D-26) when Kilmer was appointed to the U.S. House last year. 

In their editorial, the News Tribune says Schlicher. a physician, has "a rare command of health care policy: and calls him "more likely than" his opponent, Republican state Rep. Jan Angel (D-26), to secure state funding to complete SR 167 between Puyallup and the Port of Tacoma.  

3. As part of its ongoing series about the impact coal trains will have on traffic in Western Washington, Sightline reports that the proposed trains that would ferry coal and oil from the Midwest to China would result in daily street closure times between Longview and Centralia of between 58 minutes and two hours and ten minutes. 

Sightline has a specific, city-by-city breakdown of the impact the new coal and oil trains would have on individual communities along the route. 

4. At CityTank, Dan Bertolet argues that, as in San Francisco, the reason housing isn't affordable in Seattle is because we don't have enough supply.

Suggesting that Seattle's housing is expensive precisely because we impose excessive regulations on new housing (instead of making it affordable to build), Bertolet writes, "when it comes to the inevitable objections from those who oppose change, increasing supply should be given all the weight and priority of a vital social justice strategy, because that’s exactly what it is."

5. NPR reports on Starbucks' latest foray into the overpriced drink market: This time, they're selling "super-premium" juice with "incredible nutrition" for as much as $6.99 a bottle. The juices, which are pricier than similar products like Naked Juice and Odwalla, are supposedly healthier because they're "cold-processed," meaning that they aren't heat pasteurized.

However, as NPR reports, "by consuming just the juice of a fruit or vegetable, you lose some of the dietary fiber that fills you up and slows down digestion. Some nutritionists have also argued that since we absorb liquids faster than solid food, juice causes a more dramatic spike in insulin levels than does eating whole fruits.