COAL TRANSPORT The summary on the Seattle Times piece says “A push for more Montana coal exports to Asia and a pushback over fears about global warming may turn into the region’s biggest environmental battle in years.” That’s becoming pretty credible. It has all the elements right up front: Dirty polluting, exposure over a large geographic area including major population centers, global warming concerns, job and economic concerns, major corporate backing – all the pieces are there. This is a good, strong overview.

A GOV CANDIDATE With the presumption that Oregon Democratic Governor John Kitzhaber will be seeking re-election next year, and the high improbability of serious primary opposition, the question has been floating in the air for a while: Who’s his Republican opponent? Well, one has surfaced: Jon Justesen, a rancher from small Sherman County whose political experience consists of losing a county commission race there. He’s first in, but don’t expect he’ll be the last: He’s pro-choice and pro-immigrant and pro-sales tax. This may be an indicator, though, of how difficult Republicans will find corralling a truly credible challenger.

THE PLEDGE A solution in search of a problem? A bill now headed to the Oregon House floor would require that every classroom has to conduct a pledge of allegiance – though, per court decisions, students cannot be required to participate – and every one would have to maintain an American flag to salute. What exactly is the problem this is intended to counter?

WALDEN’S KERFLUFFLE Oregon Representative Greg Walden is in the U.S. House leadership and is even in charge of the caucus’ campaign committee, which might suggest he’s all but immune to intra-party conflict. But not so. A remark critical of cuts to Social Security increases, included in President Obama’s proposed budget, drew a sharp rebuke from House Speaker John Boehner and earned Walden a target on his back for the Club for Growth, which indicates it is encouraging a primary challenge for him. As with the Club’s targeting of similarly centrally-positioned Mike Simpson in Idaho, this seems like folly, though in-party battles often do have consequences one way or another.

THE ANTI-LEVY Revealing piece in the Vancouver Columbian about the source of a campaign against the Battle Ground school district’s regular levy: A retired Spokane tire dealer, with a couple of other residents of the city on the far side of the state. What he positions as a crippling tax increase is actually just a replacement for an already-existing levy, to be imposed at a lower rate than the old one. So many ballot issue campaigns degenerate to this.

ZERO TV Not a totally local story, but this comment in the Seattle Times website was irresistible: “If cable companies would let us pick the few channels we DO want to have, instead of making us pay for loads of toilet bowl filler that we don’t want, they’d have more subscribers.” The article, originally in the Los Angeles Times, is about corporate concerns over the growing number of people cutting cable TV, and even broadcast, and using online steaming and other Internet sources for their viewing entertainment. (We do, almost entirely, in our household.)

POT IMPAIRMENT A possibly significant decision out of the Idaho Court of Appeals on a case involving a man who had consumed marijuana – at some point fairly recently – and was arrested on DUI, charged with under the influence of pot. His erratic driving doesn’t seem to be at issue, but the cause of it was: He said that he has paranoid schizophrenia and bipolar disorder (sounds like a great guy to get out on the road in the first place), and there was no evidence he had ingested the pot recently, as in the last day or two. The pot-longevity question may be of some significance in places like Washington state, which are in the process of reviewing a number of laws in that area.

VANCOUVER DEVELOPMENT This was in the Briefing last week but certainly merits another highlight: What might be the single most transformative building project now up in the Northwest. It is a waterfront building effort in Vancouver on the shore of the Columbia River, where old mill property once was. A region once cut off from downtown by road and rail ways, it’s now poised to become a major adjunct to downtown, and maybe over time even the center of it. A very big deal, highlighted on the front page of the Oregonian today.

PERS STAREDOWN The Oregonian describes it as “the staredown phase” at the Oregon Legislature, on the subject of PERS changes. So it seems to be, with opposing sides seemingly dug in and holding cards. The House Democrats (led, apparently rather tightly, by Speaker Tina Kotek) have dug in a small-bore set of changes to the state employee retirement system package, which is one of the most generous in the country and is digging deep into budget capabilities for everything else. House Republicans, in the minority and preferring larger-bore changes (scalebacks in payout), have no way to block that, but they do have enough votes to block prospective tax increases that would be needed if PERS changes are kept on the small side. Governor John Kitzhaber, pre-session, proposed a way (a middle path) to straddle those sides. Could it come down to whether he is able to negotiate compromise? Something like that has happened before in the last couple of sessions; this could be the iron test.

SCHOOL BUDGET PATH Last week’s Senate floor rejection of the Idaho public schools budget seemed enough like a narrow turf fight over relatively minor issues, among people who ordinarily are not locked in battle with each other, than it didn’t (and doesn’t) seem like a long-term dealbreaker. So it seems: The Idaho Ed News site reports “Sen. Dean Cameron said a series of meeting between lawmakers late Monday went well enough that he sees “a path forward” to solving the Legislature’s school budget dilemma and adjourning as early as Thursday.”

DYSFUNCTION JUNCTION The Idaho Legislature has its problems, and many public school advocates would be quick to list them, certainly in terms of this session. But note too a recently-posted piece by Senator Steven Thayn, R-Emmett: “I believe the 2013 legislative session has been a dysfunctional session as far as education issues are concerned. There is a lack of common direction, agreed upon goals, or methods needed to accomplish these undefined goals. The legislature is drowning in information without direction.

“This confusion has lead to conflicting policies. The Legislature is restoring some of the cuts to teacher salaries while at the same time making it easier for the school districts to reduce teacher salaries. Also, there is a desire to give parents choice in education but opposition to funding charter schools. This confusion is to be expected with the defeat of the propositions in November. What should be the direction of education reform? Many, especially the Idaho Education Association (teachers union), assert that anything the voters rejected in November should not be addressed this session. “The voters have spoken” is the refrain. I, personally, do not know exactly what the voters really meant except for one thing — the voters did not like the process. The voters felt like the Governor, Superintendent of Public Instruction, and the Legislature simply imposed a plan on the teachers without the teachers input. They want the stakeholders to work together.”

Suspicion here is that they wanted more than that. But useful thought processes begin with an acknowledgement that one doesn’t have all the answers, something Thayne certainly is doing here.

BOEING JOBS It’s not just how many jobs; it’s also what kind of jobs, and how much they pay. That may give some outsized significance to the report out today about the prospect that Boeing may moved hundreds of white collar jobs from the Puget Sound area south to California. In the Seattle Times: “The company’s blue-collar workforce last week learned Boeing would shrink the ranks of machinists by more than 2,000 this year, including about 800 layoffs. Boeing’s white-collar workforce in the region will also lose some jobs — though the process will be more piecemeal.”

IDAHO MEDICAID You might think that the idea of sending tax money to the federal government only to deliberately get less of it back might be a winning arguing point … even in Idaho. A Medicaid committee set up by Governor C.L. “Butch” Otter, no fan of the feds, says as much, that such “leaves Idaho citizens in the frustrating dilemma of Idaho federal tax dollars supporting expansion in other states, while our taxpayers reap none of the benefits. We urge serious consideration of the negative consequences of delaying expansion.” As matters stand, though, legislative leaders seem poised to block even consideration of the idea this year.

BUDGET INTERACTIVE Should’ve been the state, specifically the legislature, doing this. But there’s nothing wrong with the effort by the Seattle Times: An interactive that allows people to make their own choices about what the state budget should look like. Budget choices are priority choices, after all. The Times introduces its interactive this way: “State lawmakers have a big problem: The next two-year state budget faces a shortfall of up to $1.3 billion. And on top of that, the state Supreme Court has said Washington isn’t meeting its obligation to fully fund basic education. Meeting that mandate could cost an additional $500 million to $1.7 billion over the next two years, depending on whom you ask. Here’s your chance to decide how you would balance the state budget and increase education funding at the same time.” But did they have to call it a budget “game”?

AUTO-REGISTRATION Oregon Secretary of State Kate Brown is proposing to make Oregon the second most open state in the country as regards voting. (First: North Dakota, which requires no voter registration at all.) Brown’s proposal would still require it, but automatically register everyone within certain categories; obtaining a drivers license probably would be the big one. It’s unclear how many more people actually would cast ballots under this approach; but then, since Oregon’s approach to ballots is to mail them out, it might in fact increase turnout a bit. The parties seem to be looking at this cautiously but not with pre-emptive disdain. The debate may be interesting; this will be fun to watch.

TELEVISION STANDARDS You do know how much impact state memorials – which are basically letters sent by a state legislature to someone else – have when they get to Washington? (The phrase “toilet paper” comes to mind.) So now the Idaho House is on record (57-13) calling on the Federal Communications Commission to more rigorously support “standards of decency” on broadcast television. Never mind that that amounts to a steadily shrinking portion of the viewing environment, an island amid the unregulated. HJM 2 may be the least efficacious piece of legislation we’ve seen in the Northwest this season.

GENETIC FOODS BILL It’ll be a little hard, in the end, to stop a bill that proposes to inform consumers about the food they eat. That’s the core of the bill to require notification about food products that have been genetically altered, and it may turn into a big issue at the Oregon Legislature – which might become the first in the nation to require such labeling. There is the point that genetic-based modifications in foods go back thousands of years; but the new laboratory-based modifications are (most people probably understand) a new kind of creature. The political fault lines, if they develop, could be fascinating.

PERSONAL PROPERTY TAX How many ways can you slice a tax proposal? Quite a few, as the increasingly complex debate over the Idaho personal property tax shows. The center of gravity seems to be toward a partial shift, cutting the tax on low-end items (which would eliminated a lot of paper work), but the battle rages.

PRIVATE SCHOOL CREDITS The Idaho House Revenue and Taxation Committee has voted (12-4) to extend tax credits to scholarship funds specifically aimed at private schools. From a news report: “Coeur d’Alene Republican Sen. Bob Nonini said this could actually save Idaho money, because reducing public-school enrollment would also cut Idaho’s per-student funding obligation.” This seems legally problematic, however – it has the look of back-door funding for private schools – and it effectively removes funds from public schools to be funneled to private.

INSURANCE FRAUD Oregon legislators are looking seriously at Senate Bill 686 which is aimed at allowing the state (and, depending on final versions, maybe others) to sue insurance companies for fraud – such as when they convey the impression something is covered, and then decline to pay. From a statement by sponsor Senator Chip Shields: “Too many businesses, medical providers, and consumers tell me that their insurance company is driving them to bankruptcy. If your insurance company blatantly won’t pay the reimbursement that their big premiums or contracts are supposed to cover, it’s wrong. It’s time the Legislature protects small businesses and consumers by removing the insurance exemption.” This would set up in law the concept of insurance fraud running in a different direction than the one we’re most accustomed to (and comfortable for insurers).

TOW TRUCKS Ah, the free market: Your car is towed, and to collect it and get it released, you have to pay – what? Absent rules to the contrary, you pay whatever the truckers demand. Portland has had lots of headlines over this; some of the more recent in the Puget Sound charged with an $800 tab and then, Seattle Times columnist Danny Westneat notes, “came horror stories of even gougier bills, as high as $1,400. City officials and state lawmakers vowed to cap towing rates, which in Wild West fashion could be jacked as high as the tow truckers desired.” There’s a reform bill in the legislature this session, but consider that “reform” in quotes: This is a bill the tow truckers love, because it sets state rates that are nearly as bad as the horror stories, much higher than most of the state now experiences, and four to five times higher than in places like New York. Westneat: “Well played, tow truckers. Well played.”

TEACHER CONTRACTS The Idaho Legislature seems about to cast aside the message on public school policy sent by the voters in November. A bill has cleared the House Education Committee (which seems like schools mostly in the private, home or charter forms) that would reinstate the killed-off policy allowing school boards to cut off teacher negotiations if they haven’t completed by June 10, and then impose their own terms. That gives the boards an absolute hammer, of course, since all they have to do to get whatever they want, is to run out the clock. Expect the bill to pass the House; the larger test may come in the Senate.

WYDEN’S REVOLT There is something sort of bipartisan going on, you suppose, when Oregon Democratic Senator Ron Wyden lend support to a filibuster – the actual vocal kind – by Kentucky Republican Rand Paul. Both of them wanted to draw attention to Obama administration policy on drones and other military activities, policy for which has been kept quite secret. Bright light can be a useful lock pick, however.