Sausage Links, 'Pledge Allegiance to the Top-Two Primary' edition

Today is the the "top-two" primary, and everyone expects the polls to be packed. But before casting your ballot, take a moment to remember our failed state primary formats of the past. As the editorial board at The Seattle Times writes: "Pause now for a moment of silence in remembrance of the state's defunct blanket primary, which served Washington's voters well for almost 70 years" — that is, until federal courts declared it was unconstitutional. After the blankie went bye-bye, Washington state tried the "Pick-a-party" primary, but voters didn't feel the vibe. Today, we've been blessed with the oft-litigated, much deliberated top-two primary, a format some people say is doomed to fail. But dammit, we might as well try it out. ...

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A better environment for a UW College of the Environment

Don't make a megalith, advises a prominent expert in forestry. Instead, think of a virtual environment with porous walls and many disciplines. The result could put the University of Washington in the lead for solving the world's environmental problems.

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Sausage Links, cougar-hunting edition

Praise the Lord and release the hounds — because our good state Legislature has enacted a law which makes it legal once again to use dogs to hunt cougars. Now, I didn't even know cougar hunting was legal in Washington — minus Cougars wearing crimson — but apparently, it is. While the bill was actually passed by the Legislature in February, the Department of Fish and Wildlife will hold a public meeting on Friday to discuss whether the pilot program should continue for another three years.

Meanwhile, Micheal Reitz of the Evergreen Freedom Foundation has compiled a list of some other curious laws enacted by the Washington Legislature this year. My personal favorite: Violators may face up to $1,000 or up to a year in jail for selling raw or unprocessed huckleberries without a permit.

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A design-savvy city defined

A report lays out a road map, backed by polling that revealed surprising attitudes of Seattleites and Portlanders about their hometown architecture.

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Teach both sides of the flat Earth!

It's really quite simple: A lot of knowledge is a dangerous thing.

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Harvard finally gets its act together on gender studies

It had offered a mere 76 courses. Now with addition of "Gender and Sexuality in Ancient Greece" and 29 others, the curriculum is at last worthy.

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UW's new College of the Environment could bring in the green

The vision is to make the University of Washington and the region a major player in the post-carbon economy. Big stuff. Whether President Mark Emmert can make it happen is an open question, however.

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A Boeing field trip

I made the decision last month to pull my seven-year-old daughter from school for field trips of our own. For one day every two weeks, for the remainder of the school year, we are exploring the Northwest's offerings, history, and culture.

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One College of the Environment deserves a look back at another

The man who created Huxley College of the Environment at Western Washington University, the nation's first such college, hasn't followed the controversies surrounding a similar college at the University of Washington, but he has some succinct advice: "Devote yourself to the science, the hard data," says C. J. (Jerry) Flora, "and don't get swept up in the fads."

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Shepherding in Bruce Shepard, new Western Washington University prez

With last-minute approval of a faculty-union contract, outgoing president Karen Morse leaves the new guy with a crisis resolved. Shepard, of Wisconsin, takes office in September.

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Is Obama something of a conservative?

Bruce Bartlett, a conservative writer, has a fascinating article in the new New Republic speculating on how many conservatives are defecting to Barack Obama. He finds a fair number of libertarians, such as Andrew Sullivan, in the camp of Obamacons, as well as Republicans who oppose the Iraq War and even a smattering of supply-siders.

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ELF members gained nothing by the UW arson, and so much was lost

A former staff member of the University of Washington's Center for Urban Horticulture wonders why, seven years later, the crime makes no more sense than it did the morning Merrill Hall went up in flames.

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A bold plan to turn UW into a Stanford died a quiet death

State universities have clumsy and stingy masters in state capitols. Is it time for divorce court? Here's the story of how some people advising the University of Washington looked at such a scheme.

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The P-I's D. Parvaz will head to Harvard

Seattle Post-Intelligencer editorialist, pop culture writer, and columnist D. Parvaz has been named a Nieman Fellow and will head off to Harvard University for a year of studying, it was announced Friday, May 16. The Niemans are prestigious fellowships offered by the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard.

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Educated abroad, they are France's new foreign legion

Seattle's French Underground: Today's graduates are more likely to have studied abroad, and they're more open to leaving France for career opportunities — glamorous and humble. Many of them are settling in metro Puget Sound. Part 3

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The Great White hope

It may be the season for finding big white enigmas. In March, scientists spotted a long-rumored white killer whale in Alaska. Closer to home, researchers who have been pawing the sod in search of the Great White earthworm of the Palouse have come up with some surprising new clues about the elusive and possibly endangered creature. Two recent discoveries, one near Moscow, Idaho, and one near Leavenworth, Wash., suggest that the worms are not only out there, they may live farther afield than previously thought.

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Washington's million-dollar university president

As Mark Emmert joins two local corporate boards, boosting his yearly income well into seven figures, it's worth asking if he's really earned it. He's a prominent public face for the institution, but he's no scholar and doesn't actually run the university.

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Evolution of a think tank

A journalist comes of age with Bruce Chapman, watching him launch Seattle's Discovery Institute and the intelligent design movement.

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From butts to beakers: Washington's tobacco settlement money gets to work

When Washington lined up with 45 other states to receive its share of the $206 billion Master Tobacco Settlement Agreement in 1998, it received an extra $500 million. This "tobacco settlement bonus" is now being doled out to a few fortunate scientists in the state.

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Save the nukes!

Abby Martin, the University of Washington graduate student who is trying to save the fascinating old Nuclear Reactor Building (now More Hall Annex) on campus, sends us this photo showing a new addition: a sign announcing the university's intention to demolish the structure. Martin has submitted an application nominating it for a National Historic Register listing. The modern architecture group Docomomo WeWa has added it to their list of endangered historic properties.

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