Norm Rice and John Stanton want to merge Pierce, King, Kitsap and Snohomish county transit agencies with Sound Transit. That’s just what we don’t need, a bigger government structure to manage growth, land use and raise taxes and rates. Some highlights from the Tacoma News Tribune…

The commission has scheduled a public hearing in Tacoma on Tuesday at 5 p.m. at the Port of Tacoma Business Center, 3600 Port of Tacoma Road. A second hearing will be held Nov. 28 in Everett.

…

Find the report at psrtc.wa.gov/.

The commission is scheduled to make a final report to the Legislature and the governor by Jan. 1, in time to be considered during the 2007 legislative session.

The deadline to submit a comment to be included in the official record is Nov. 30. To comment: Call 800-606-9161, e-mail linda.robson@trilogy-partners.net or write to Regional Transportation Commission, PO Box 53010, Bellevue, WA 98015-3010.

From the Tacoma News Tribune comes another article on the WSDOT traffic study report issued earlier this week. This one focuses on the increased number of people in the region and the lack of infrastructure growth:

If you drive a car in the Puget Sound region, you already know the conclusion of a state Department of Transportation report issued this week. Traffic congestion is getting worse on the area’s freeways.

“We’re certainly seeing a trend,” DOT spokesman Lloyd Brown said Friday.

Data collected from car-monitoring sensors embedded in area highways show traffic conditions significantly worsened between 2003 and 2005, according to the department’s annual congestion report.

“On 34 of the 35 commute routes analyzed, travel times increased at peak periods, speeds slowed, peaks lengthened and the reliability of travel times worsened,” the department said in a Wednesday statement announcing the release of the study.

From Orbusmax Blog:

About 10 days ago, I received an interesting e-mail that I saved until after most of the election frenzy had died down and I had some time to do a little investigation of my own and present a fair representation of the facts.

The e-mailer (someone who has credibility with me but who will remain anonymous) alleged that the Dunlap elementary school in Seattle had been and was allowing students to leave classes at 1:30 in the afternoon to participate in a Muslim prayer service, held in a room and supervised by a teacher and/or a school staffer. The e-mailer also alleged that the services were being kept very low-key, and that only the involved parties (participating students and families) and the school administration was aware of what was going on, and that this had been going on since the beginning of the school year. The e-mailer believes there is also a similar situation at Aki Kurose Middle school but provided no details.