Kevin Wallace has only been a Bellevue councilmember since December, but he already has positioned himself at the center of the light rail debate advocating for the "Vision Line," a downtown route he helped dream up.

Wallace, part of an established Bellevue family and president and chief operating officer of Wallace Properties, says the line that would run parallel to I-405 is the best, most affordable choice for downtown. Sound Transit agreed late last year to study the line.

The Council's downtown light rail recommendation to the Sound Transit board has major implications for the future of transportation in Bellevue, and council members are meeting with the Sound Transit board Thursday for a workshop to discuss the various light rail route options, with the Transit board making the final decision later this year.

I talked with Wallace more about his views on light rail and winning his council seat.

Q: What is your general approach to the downtown light rail route decision and the funding required for a tunnel?

A: In the downtown, it gets back to the balance of interests with budget. We're struggling for the money to continue expanding park system and road system and utilities, things Bellevue raises tax revenue for and should spend money on. Light rail tunnels should be paid for if at all by Sound Transit.

Q: How did you come up with the concept for the Vision Line?

A: The original Vision Line coalition was trying to evaluate of the five options Sound Transit had put on the table [for downtown], which was the best one. What could we do to create an option that both protects the homes businesses and roads and also fits within the Sound Transit budget?

Q: How do you gauge the chances for the route with the Council and Sound Transit board?

A: I'm hopeful we can reach consensus on an alignment, but unified consensus is always difficult to achieve. With the downtown segment, it's going to come down to a choice between whether the tunnel is justified given the cost, or whether it makes more sense to have the station next to the freeway [under the Vision Line proposal] and save hundreds of millions of dollars. Until new information comes out and we've had a chance to discuss it at the Council, and the Transit board and region has chance to absorb information, it's hard to say where things come down.

A King County judge's decision Thursday ordering the Seattle School Board to revisit its choice of math textbooks for high-school students is resonating in Bellevue, where a district-wide math committee is doing work to make the same decision.

Earlier this school year, some Bellevue math teachers piloted two textbook series: Holt Mathematics, often described as a more traditional approach to math, and the Discovering Series of mathematics, described as inquiry-based. Groups of students were taught using lessons from each of the texts, then tested to see what they learned.

The district's math committee will review the results of those tests during a meeting this Thursday. They're still a ways away from deciding which books to order, said district spokeswoman Ann Oxrieder, but she described it as a thorough vetting of the two books and said at this point the judge's ruling about Seattle's choice of books would probably not affect Bellevue's process. The new texts will be purchased for use in the 2010-11 school year.

King County Superior Court Judge Julie A. Spector ruled Thursday that the Seattle district's decision to teach from the Discovering curriculum was "arbitrary and capricious." A group of parents sued Seattle last year, pointing out that a Washington State Board of Education report called the Discovering series "mathematically unsound."

"Everyone was taken by surprise by the ruling," Oxrieder said. The Discovering series is used in the Lake Washington district, and was Issaquah's first choice for textbooks last year. (Issaquah put its decision on which textbook to adopt on hold.)

If you've reviewed either of the textbooks in question, or you're a student who was involved in the pilot, we'd like to hear what you think.

Three members of the Bellevue City Council were all ears Wednesday night when a California rails-and-trails advocacy group told how they mustered voter support for a 70-mile commuter rail line through Marin and Sonoma counties -- complete with a bike trail along the entire route.

Why are rails-with-trails so interesting to Eastsiders? Because the Port of Seattle last year purchased the BNSF Railwayrail corridor, which runs through the Eastside from Renton to Woodinville, and on to the town of Snohomish in Snohomish County.

There's a $50 million chunk of voter-approved money in the Sound Transit budget that could be used in partnership with a private firm to help get a commuter train running on the BNSF corridor.

And there are some aggressive players who want to see a commuter rail line brought to this area, fast.

Last week, the Seattle/King County Coalition on Homelessness released its numbers from the annual One Night Count of homeless not staying in shelters and those numbers included a breakdown for the Eastside.

According to this year's count, which involves hundreds of volunteers who canvassed King County from 2-7 a.m. early Friday, the numbers were down slightly from last year, a dip of about 5 percent with 2,759 homeless counted. The Eastside saw a similar trend, dropping to 141 homeless in this year's count compared to 158 in 2009.

With an estimated 6,000 people sleeping in shelters or transitional housing during the count, organizers estimate the county had nearly 9,000 homeless during the count.

Sound Transit and the Bellevue City Council will get together next week to try to come up with some answers on the alignment of light rail through downtown Bellevue. The joint meeting Feb. 11 is tentatively scheduled for Meydenbauer Center in downtown Bellevue at 1 p.m. 1:30 p.m. (Update: It will be open to the public, but no public testimony will be taken, since it is only a workshop. However, the Sound Transit board could take action during the meeting.)

The main issue on the agenda is light rail's route through downtown Bellevue. But Sound Transit staffers also will give the board a thumbnail analysis of issues they'll have to keep in mind if they give the go-ahead to study a new rail alignment through the middle of Mercer Slough.

A week ago, the Bellevue City Council asked the agency to study the "B7 modified" route, as it's called -- a route that tracks north to the South Bellevue Park and Ride lot, then jogs east and crosses Mercer Slough.

Environmentalists and land-use experts questioned whether such a route could win key environmental permits. We also heard from some readers who pointed us to Section 4(f) of the National Transportation Act of 1966, which protects parklands, wetlands and historic structures.

Yes, Section 4(f) is something that Sound Transit will have to consider before it puts any effort into studying the route, said Bruce Gray, spokesman for Sound Transit.

KING-TV PHOTO

Brittainy Labberton

Brittainy and Samuel Labberton, who are accused of failing to feed their newborn daughter, resulting in the girl being hospitalized for being severely underweight, pleaded not guilty Monday morning to charges of criminal mistreatment.

Brittainy Labberton, 21, was depressed, suicidal and homicidal after delivering her second child, a 5-pound, 4-ounce daughter, on Aug. 19, 2008, and failed to adequately feed her, according to the criminal charges. As a result, the baby gained only about a pound in her first two months.

Labberton told Bellevue police the child threw up constantly and was "fussy." In October 2008, the Labbertons' baby was hospitalized because of her low weight and later placed into foster care after a doctor's referral. Between October and December that year, the baby went from 7 pounds to about 13 pounds, 7 ounces while in foster care, according to charging documents.

In December 2008, Brittainy Labberton told a worker with the state Child Protective Services (CPS) that her child looked fine when she was living with her but was now fat, charging documents allege. Labberton complained that she didn't want her children to be fat.

"I was so concerned she was gaining the weight so fast. I didn't care that she was gaining the weight," Brittainy told KING-TV last week. "That is fine. But too fast, it scared the crap out of me."

The Labbertons declined to talk to the media during their arraignment Monday morning. Brittainy covered her face in a hooded sweatshirt while Samuel, 24, tried to avoid being caught on camera. The couple were forbidden from having unsupervised visits with their youngest daughter, who is now 17 months old, and their 2-year-old daughter.

A month after city-run traffic cameras started catching red-light runners at two intersections in Bellevue, but only issued warnings, drivers who blow through red lights starting Wednesday will get a $124 ticket in the mail.

The red-light cameras have been up and running on 148th Avenue Northeast, tracking north- and south-bound traffic at the Bel-Red Road intersection and southbound only at Main Street.

Cameras record pictures of cars with drivers who enter the intersection after the light has turned red, and tickets are mailed to the owner of the car. The cameras have been in place for almost a month and more than 1,000 warnings have been sent out, the city said.

American Traffic Solutions administers the program for Bellevue. Bellevue police officers review and confirm each violation before citations are mailed, the city said.

Drivers who receive a citation can log on to www.ViolationInfo.com to see the violation and get more information.

Red-light cameras have been controversial, and Bellevue is among the cities statewide that are being sued in a lawsuit that argues cities are making millions more on red-light traffic citations than state law allows.

Bellevue also has speed enforcement cameras in two Bellevue school zones.

A celebration of peace will begin in Seattle Saturday, Jan. 30, with a speech by a nephew of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., and end with a candlelight vigil at Bellevue's Gandhi sculpture in the evening.

Isaac Newton Farris Jr., a nephew of King and president of The King Center in Atlanta, will give the keynote speech at the Museum of History & Industry, 2700 24th Ave. E. in Seattle. The event begins at 1 p.m., and is free.

The event will conclude with a peace vigil at the Mahatma Gandhi memorial statue at Bellevue Regional Library, 1111 110th Ave. N.E. in Bellevue, from 5 to 7 p.m.

The event is sponsored by the Federation of Indian American Associations of Washington, which hopes to make the candlelight vigil an annual event.