Environmental news from member organization, Sightline Institute

Through I-1098, 197 out of 200 Washington taxpayers will see their taxes go down, while just 3 will pay the initiative's new income tax on the wealthy. And our state will gain $1.6 billion for education and health care.

The city of Seattle has narrowed its search for designers of the central waterfront to four teams - each interesting in distinctive ways. The Olympic Sculpture Park has given us hope that, in the right hands, the entire waterfront could be not just pleasant but immensely enchanting.

Like your Seattle skyline free of corporate logos? That could change with a city proposal to allow big companies to put their names at the top of downtown skyscrapers.

This month the Oregon Zoo announced a $5,000 grant to go towards raising spotted frogs. The unlikely grant recipient - the Washington State Department of Corrections, where prisoners have been able to raise larger, healthier frogs than the Woodland Park Zoo, the Oregon Zoo, or any other institution that's tried.

As kids head back to school over the next couple of weeks, some of them will have to fork over more lunch money. The lunch lady may ask hungry teenagers in Puget Sound for an extra quarter or two, which more adequately reflects the true costs of producing the meals.

What happens if measures to repeal Washington sales taxes on candy, soda, beer and bottled water and another that would use the bottled water tax to finance bonds to weatherize public schools both pass? A state spokesman says the repeal would take precedent over the bond-funding bottled water tax, leaving the school energy efficiency bonds without a funding source.

Will downtown Bremerton - which has been promoted for years as "rising" or about to turn a corner - ever live up to the hype?

Say you live in an apartment, your neighbor is a smoker and the secondhand smoke bothers you. You take the issue to the building manager but there's not much that can be done about it. A Tacoma group wants to change that by amending a Washington state law.

Using plastic shopping bags could join indoor smoking and behind-the-wheel texting as the latest discouraged activity in California if lawmakers succeed in passing the country's first statewide ban on disposable bags.

The state agency in charge of leading the clean-up of Puget Sound has come up with a set of what it calls "dashboard indicators" to measure progress toward that goal. Some are science measures, such as marine water quality and the abundance of salmon and orca whales.

Scientists suspect that the forests with the biggest trees store the most carbon, and the Northwest forests are probably among the largest carbon sinks in the world. However, younger trees also absorb more carbon as they grow rapidly.

Gates Foundation officials are the first to agree that affordable housing is crucial to the success of Puget Sound area counties' plans, but say building it is ultimately the responsibility of the government.

A number of Northwest organizations and government agencies put "saving salmon" at the top of their list of priorities. But it's not a job any of them have the money to pull off alone. Now some of those agencies and non-profits are collaborating and pooling their resources on a new scale.

Parents with children are the fastest-growing yet least-visible segment of Washington's homeless population, far more likely to be doubled up in the homes of friends or living in their cars than to be at a busy intersection asking for help.

Some time this year up to 20 marine mammals will make their debut in Puget Sound, patrolling the waters of Hood Canal, on the lookout for agents of al-Qaida or any other enemy who might try infiltrating the Trident Submarine Base at Bangor.

Best known for its retail store, the nonprofit RE Store in Seattle also runs a salvage service. The salvage crew obtains much of the retail store's stock from remodels and tear-downs, harvesting stuff that would otherwise end up as garbage.

People often say they need a car because of family obligations–dropping their kids off around town, going out to dinner, running errands. But Seattle is home to more than a few parents who buck the trend and use bicycles to get around.

There's a strong case to be made that we should pay for parking in Seattle -- and pay more than we're paying now, despite what the Seattle Times says.

Schools open around western Washington over the next two weeks. Parents will find major changes at some that were given failing grades by the US government. Districts from Longview to Marysville are under the gun to improve their lowest performing schools.

Work is nearly complete to help identify the type and amount of radioactive and hazardous materials at the 618-10 Burial Ground, one of the most hazardous sites on the Hanford nuclear reservation.