Jim

Here we go. I know the researchers over at WSU working on a 5 yr. study. They have confirmation. Also check out the confirmed sitings in the Selkirks that wander into WA. Sorry - bilitzing at work no time to web search it for you.

Wrong. Recent research using hair snares and DNA analysis has confirmed that the griz is in Washington. Prior to this there has been other indirect evidence including photographs of footprints by ecologists, and a number of credible sitings. The general assumption is that a handful wander in and out from Canada and Idaho. Permanant residents? Who knows.

Bobcat. Not so uncommon. You can't tell the difference between the two on a moving critter, unless one is very experienced (in identifying them I mean).

Hagel, who received two Purple Hearts and other military honors for his service in Vietnam, said Sunday the United States needs to develop a strategy to leave Iraq. He told ABC's "This Week" that "stay the course" is not a policy. "By any standard, when you analyze 21/2 years in Iraq ... we're not winning," he said. Other Republican senators appearing on Sunday news shows advocated remaining in Iraq until the mission set by Bush is completed, but they also noted the public is becoming more and more concerned and needs to be reassured. The Army's top general, Chief of Staff Peter Schoomaker, told The Associated Press on Saturday that his service is planning for the possibility of keeping the current number of soldiers in Iraq -- well over 100,000 -- for four more years as part of preparations for a worst-case scenario. Hagel described the Army contingency plan as "complete folly." "I don't know where he's going to get these troops," the senator said. "There won't be any National Guard left ... no Army Reserve left ... there is no way America is going to have 100,000 troops in Iraq, nor should it, in four years."

The slab from the bottom. 300ft walk up (almost) then climb crack to top.

Sounds very similar. We also started at Ortezi and ended at the Tre Cime. I bypass the via ferrate on the ridge and soloed the slabs to the top - maybe 5.3.

Rifugio Biella on the left and Croda Rossa on the right. Day 6 of the northern Dolomites traverse.

Don't know if you care, but here's the scoop - WSDOT has just begun a Corridor Study of US 2 between Monroe and Skykomish. It's an 18 month process that looks at traffic models, safety issues, constraints, views of the jurisdictions along the way, etc. What is supposed to come out the other side is an implementation plan for projects to "fix" the problems. One of the things likely to pop back up on hte table is the 522 - Monroe - US 2 bypass. Of course alot of this depends on money. WSDOT has $500k for the study and usually doesn't drop that kinda cash unless they're going to move forward. We'll see - and oh yea - than gas tax recall thing could affect it.

Yes, and he doesn't look a day over 5,000. Had some trouble uploading files to the gallery. Will try later.

I recently came back from a month of climbing and hiking in the Dolomites and besides the great landscape, I was struck by the attitude of the Italians, and other Europeans, regarding risk - of any sort. They drove fast but efficiently - you drive slower than 130 km and you move over to the right. On the windey Dolomite roads they pass when they can - no one freaks out. Old and young are in the mountains on narrow and exposed paths - they deal with it without emotional trauma or lawyers. The best was at the airports. They do the security thing without the fan fare. Arriving back in the US you're greeted with monitors playing a tape from DHS and Tom Ridge telling you how they are standing between you and the terrorists. STFU and just do the job already. Maybe it's the news here - child abductions, terror cells in our midst, mother-killers, father-rapers, etc, etc. I found it refreshing when people feel they can go about their lives without much of the paranoia I see here. I got into some interesting conversations with some Italians, Chechs, and Brits regarding collective percieved threats from terrorism, crime, and the mountains. They were aware but not fixated.

Where: Dolomites, northern Italy When: July 3-30, Seattle to Amsterdam to Venice, then up to Arraba via the trusty Fiat Punto. The first day was wet, which allowed for jet lag naps and time to pick up via feratte gear and scope out the week’s plan. The first several days’ weather was unsettled so the pattern would be get up early and get on a climb or via ferrate then hustle over to the nearest hut for lunch, and then hike down, sometimes in the drizzle and fog. Odd thing the huts. Excellent food and drink and it just cracked me up to get into the pattern of having cappuccino and strudel or some polenta and grappa after completing a route! Got some early climbs in at Cinque Torre, (wild formations) and ticked of some great VF routes, which is a whole weird thing by itself. Some of the VF routes go around or through old fort remnants way the heck up on peaks – amazing! Got up a few with close to 2,000 elevation gain on a variety of rock, cable, and stemples. Saw folks of all ages, from 6 to 70 on these routes, but saw no Americans, other than two, during the first 3 wks of the trip. Very strong German/Austrian influence in this part of Italy and skills in German would have done better than Italian. Similar with the food such as wurst, polenta, goulash, strudel, etc. All of course was great. In the second week I got on an 11 pitch climb at Falzarego Pass. Which was the longest route we got on. I found the Dolomite in this area a bit tricky to protect, but very solid, so you had to run it out a bit sometimes. I think the route was 6a or so, felt like 5.8+ to me at the two overhanging cruxes. Topping out on this we had to take the Austrian Troop Path down the peak. This is a remnant from WWI when the Austrians and Italians were jockeying for position on and through the peak via tunnels and ramps. Steep paths, great exposure, and one suspension bridge crossing – all of which I can’t imagine ever existing in the US without attracting a flock of lawyers. During this week we used Corvara and Cannazai as bases. In our third week we returned the car to Venice airport and got back to the mountains via train and bus to the town of Ortiesi. From here we did 7 days of hiking that ended at the Tre Cime area. This was great, with a hut to stay at each evening (made reservations earlier in the trip) and with stops at Malgas (herders’ huts) for fresh milk and strudel. We had perfect weather for the entire walk, which had a couple of days with 3,000 ft gains. Bagged a couple of scramble peaks along the way and discovered Prunia – which became my after dinner liquor of choice. Also found some great bouldering and we were lucky enough to see a herd of 30 chamois cruising over a summit. We opted for a week of southern Italian culture and had four days in Florence and three in Venice before heading home. Ate, visited museums and many churches, drank great wine, and took in the scenery. Gear: Harness Helmet Shoes Small rack

Certainly the Israeli right-wing is blame for this mess. The government, including Sharon (with US money) encouraged settlers to enter the West Bank and Gaza. The problem with the vision of Greater Israel is that not enough Jews believed in it to move there. They over-reached. And without the numbers it was a major sociological and monetary cost to defend. The big question is what happens in the West Bank in the future. Hamas should just STFU and help build up the Gaza Community. I hate the stone throwers on both sides that apparently want nothing but anarchy out of the process.

The Republican pork barrel By Jeff Jacoby, Globe Columnist | August 4, 2005 AT $286.4 BILLION, the highway bill just passed by Congress is the most expensive public works legislation in US history. In addition to funding the interstate highway system and other federal transportation programs, it sets a new record for pork-barrel spending, earmarking $24 billion for a staggering 6,376 pet projects, spread among virtually every congressional district in the land. The enormous bill -- 1,752 pages long -- wasn't made public until just before it was brought to a vote, and so, as The New York Times noted, ''it is safe to bet that none of the lawmakers, not even the main authors, had read the entire package." Article Tools Printer friendly E-mail to a friend Op-ed RSS feed Available RSS feeds Most e-mailed Reprints/permissions More: Globe Editorials / Op-Ed | Globe front page | Boston.com That didn't stop them from voting for it. It passed 412 to 8 in the House, 91 to 4 in the Senate. Huge as the bill was, it wasn't quite huge enough for Representative Don Young of Alaska, chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. ''It's not as big as what he'd like," a committee spokesman said, ''but is still a very good bill and will play a major role in addressing transportation and highway needs." One wonders what more Young could have wanted. The bill funnels upward of $941 million to 119 earmarked projects in Alaska, including $223 million for a mile-long bridge linking an island with 50 residents to the town of Ketchikan on the mainland. Another $231 million is earmarked for a new bridge in Anchorage, to be named -- this is specified in the legislation -- Don Young's Way. There is $3 million for a film ''about infrastructure that demonstrates advancements in Alaska, the last frontier." The bill even doffs its cap to Young's wife, Lu: The House formally called it ''The Transportation Equity Act -- a Legacy for Users," or TEA-LU. Christmas didn't come early just for Alaska. Meander through the bill's endless line items and you find a remarkable variety of ''highway" projects, many of which have nothing to do with highways: Horse riding facilities in Virginia ($600,000). A snowmobile trail in Vermont ($5.9 million). Parking for New York's Harlem Hospital ($8 million). A bicycle and pedestrian trail in Tennessee ($532,000). A daycare center and park-and-ride facility in Illinois ($1.25 million). Dust control mitigation for rural Arkansas ($3 million). The National Packard Museum in Ohio ($2.75 million). A historical trolley project in Washington ($200,000). And on and on and on. If Carl Sandburg had lived to see this massive avalanche of bacon greasing its way down Capitol Hill, he would have named Congress, not Chicago, the hog butcher for the world. Or perhaps he would simply have seconded P.J. O'Rourke's timeless observation in ''Parliament of Whores": ''Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys." Arizona Senator John McCain, who voted no, called the bill a ''monstrosity" and wondered whether it will ever be possible to restore fiscal sanity to Congress. If ''the combination of war, record deficits, and the largest public debt in the country's history" can't break lawmakers' addiction to spending, he asked, what can? ''It would seem that this Congress can weather any storm thrown at it, as long as we have our pork life-saver to cling to." McCain is a Republican, and it might surprise younger readers to learn that spending discipline was once a basic Republican principle. Hard to believe in this era of bloated Republican budgets and the biggest-spending presidential administration in 40 years -- but true. Once upon a time Republicans actually described themselves with pride as fiscal conservatives. That was one of the reasons they opposed the promiscuous use of pork-barrel earmarks, which are typically used to bypass legislative standards, reward political favorites, and assert political control over state and local affairs. For example, Ronald Reagan vetoed the 1987 highway bill because it included 121 earmarks and was $10 billion over the line he had drawn in the sand. ''I haven't seen this much lard since I handed out blue ribbons at the Iowa State Fair," he said. President Bush is a great admirer of Reagan's record in foreign affairs. Too bad he shows so little interest in following the Gipper's fiscal lead as well. When Bush ran for president in 2000, he described his Democratic opponent, Vice President Al Gore, as a reckless high-roller who would unbalance the budget. ''If the vice president gets elected," Bush said, ''the era of big government being over is over." Five years later, what is over is the GOP reputation for fiscal sobriety. Republicans today are simply the other big-government party -- just as capable of squandering public funds, and just as eager to fill barrels with pork, as their fellow-spendthrifts across the aisle.

amazing! either a) your ego is so large you won't ever realize you have been exposed as a fraud, or b) you actually don't care because most folks won't bother sorting through the pile of dudu you have laid upon us since the beginning of this thread. Your increasing spitefulness makes me believes in option b. so, to summarize, it appears you went to the BLS site, picked some numbers (in some ways you refuse to divulge), concocted some bogus comparison between this and the previous recession, presented your "analysis" as if it was BLS sanctionned, refused to admit your little exercise was "validated" in your living room, and to top it all you had the gall to dismiss the CBPP report as unsubstantiated? did i get this right? please feel free to offer any bit that might clarify the sequence of events ... Ouch, Ouch!!! Point, set, match to JB on this one.

That's the truth - but they used to pick up they're share - no more. And someone else said that - I actually never trust you.

It would be interesting to see these three items charted over the last 50 years: Corporate profits, average hourly wage, and percentage of total US taxes paid by corporations vs individuals. From the information I've read it would be easy to guess the trends.

Dripping with sarcasm but no useful information and a metaphorical model with no connection to the discussion. Excellent. By your logic we should all be happy when all companies are run like Walmart. Low wages, no health care, but decent profits. This is the pervailing job growth under the Bushies (though it goes back further - they've just perfected it.)

This appears to be the general rule these days rather than the exception. High profits are put into salaries and stock options for very few at the top and to keep shareholders satisfied rather than sharing profits with the workers through higher salaries. Look at Costco as an exception: they pay a decent wage and health care benefits and are lambasted by Wall Street analysts as being too generous. It's a company that appears to care about their employees and shares the profits. Very rare these days. Profits going up, average wages continuing to go down. Nothing encouraging about that.

Are you serious? Consumer spending is the only thing currently proping up our economy. Our government debt is pretty astounding right now, household saving is down to 0% for the second month. It would be hard to say that the fundamentals are anything other than troubling.

In that case I'm surprised you didn't include that the sun still rises each morning! Great, all is not dismal, just the vast majority. Now there's a rallying cry! And "..keep on the sunny side, always on the sunnyside, keep on the sunnyside of life..

As usual PP your point is not clear and you fail to respond the either jb's information or the question I posed. Here's a hint - Try posting a narrative of your point, clearly written, and then post a link to bolster your opinion. This is much more effective than posting random links to rightwing blogs or apparantly unconnected BLS tables. Cheers.

I thought the groups I've seen downtown were acting reasonably - but I came across a group that blocked one lane on the Aurora Avenue bridge at rush hour. That didn't seem too smart, or safe, and definetly made more enemies than advocates out of the car commuters.

The last link you posted has no relevant date related to current statistics - it's just an explanation on a theory of business cycles. JBs linked article covers data through 2004. Things have substantially improved since then?

Noticed these on my bike route in my first ride after an extended trip: http://www.ghostcycle.org/