Cascadia today: Feds shut down + OR passes transpo budget + saving tufted puffins

Feds shut down, ICE keeps doing fascism

The US Congress failed to come to an agreement over renewing Obamacare subsidies and so shut down the federal government at midnight last night. KUOW has more on what might be affected locally, including some 30,000 federal workers in Oregon. ICE kidnapping of immigrants, deemed "essential," will continue. National parks will be partially open. Flights, at least initially, shouldn't be affected and the mail will continue to be delivered.

The shutdown centers on the debate over extending subsidies for those who purchase Obamacare – in Washington and Oregon, premiums are expected to rise by an average of 75% and many residents are expected to drop their coverage – driving up rates further if the GOP fails to renew subsidies. Rural Cascadia is going to be hit especially hard: recent GOP cuts to Medicaid threaten rural clinics like one in eastern Oregon.

It's time for Cascadia to leave behind all this nonsense and go its own way, and guarantee health care coverage for its residents, as most wealthy nations do.

Oregon passes $4.3 billion transportation bill

Oregon Capital Chronicle reports that the Oregon Senate, in a special session, finally passed a $4.3 billion transportation package, which raises the gas tax, vehicle registration fees, a portion of the payroll tax, and imposes a road use fee on electric vehicles to boost spending on road and bridge repair. Governor Tina Kotek is expected to sign the bill, which critics says doesn't focus enough on road safety or transit. In other transportation news, the city of Seattle is eliminating a bus lane in the Capitol Hill neighborhood after "property owners" complained about it. Turns out Seattle mayor listens: Bruce Harrell has benefited from more than $1 million in PAC money from wealthy folks in his re-election bid.

2,500 new Vancouver condos unsold

Developers know how to help keep down housing costs – except when they don't. CBC reports that the greater Vancouver area currently has a glut of 2,500 new condos that have not sold. But wait, you ask – why haven't they lowered prices? Because developers overspent on their construction and aren't willing to lose money and drop the $800,000 average asking price. That's why measure like Seattle's social housing program – passed in 2023 and just getting ramped up to build apartments for people earning below 120 percent of the median income level – are essential.

Saving puffins

KUOW reports on efforts to save Cascadia's cutest shore bird, the tufted puffin. They're endangered in Washington state, and wildlife biologists are studying how to assist their recovery, especially on Smith Island, a remote island in the east end of the the Straight of Juan de Fuca, where a colony of puffins live and where there's also the largest bull kelp colony in the state.

--Andrew Engelson