The Municipal League of King County urges the Port of Seattle commission to reduce its $8.1 million increase in the proposed 2009 real estate tax. This translates to a increase on property owners whose values are going up and is unwarranted during the current economic downturn.

How much can go wrong with the nation's economy in the two months before Barack Obama takes the oath of office and replaces George W. Bush as the nation's president? A lot.

Barack Obama's weekly addresses (being carried on YouTube), combined and strengthened by "social networking" through his motivated Internet-linked network, might be the right combination for the times — presidential leadership combined with community organizing, mobilizing us to act on the most pressing 21st-century challenges.

The personnel decisions made by Barack Obama and his transition team have been superb. He's off to a start that nearly justifies the hype.

Despite recent attempts to burnish the image of President George W. Bush, here's the truth: He has overseen a government of legendary intellectual incoherence, where ideology is valued above competence, accountability is valued not at all and one is daily dared to believe the evidence of one's lying eyes.

Given the options for stimulating the present recessionary economy, infrastructure needs should be given top billing. If state and local political leaders can act with dispatch, there are legitimate ways to increase employment using public funds.

Developments at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue last week pointed up the urgency of the nation's health-care problem and the prospects for seeing significant action early in Barack Obama's presidency.

Democrats were right not to expel Lieberman and for a simple reason: Because he says he wants to be among them. No one has to love him. And, as Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh has noted, Democrats can always revoke his chairmanship later if he acts up.