Like more taxes? Get on board, it's only $18 billion

Call it striking while the iron is cold.

Sound Transit's board has voted — unanimously — to place an $18 billion rail-bus measure before voters in November.

The $18 billion would come from an additional half-percent tacked on to the already insanely high local sales tax — amid an economic slump when most voters can least afford it.

The board's cutting-edge logic: Record-high gas prices will spur people to vote yes on higher prices for just about everything else.

We're all for mass transit, but must wonder: Who's advising this group on public mood and issues of right-time, right-place? Howard Schultz and Wally Walker?

Other sneaking suspicions:

Perhaps They Should Bottle It: A team of economists has placed an estimated economic value on Puget Sound: As much as $62 billion a year. Perfect. Let's lease everything south of Mukilteo to pulp mill polluters and use the cash to build a rail line to Lynnwood.

Speaking Of Saltwater: Fishing from your window, a popular activity at the Edgewater Hotel that was temporarily put on hold after a nasty sewage pipe leak, is now back on. The brown trout bag limit is two.

Error 404 Notice: In a move that's all the buzz in the software industry, Microsoft has split one of its main units into two separate groups: The File Not Found Division and the Blue Screen of Death Squad.

The Week's News Quiz: Identify the sort-of-famous local person who uttered the following words last week: "I built my entire life around a façade. I'm very embarrassed and I'm ashamed."

A) New York Yankees MVP Richie Sexson.

B) Mayor Greg Nickels, D-Tote.

C) Former Sen. Slippery Slade Gorton.

D) Busted "Spam King" Robert Soloway.

E) The Mariner Moose.

Cleared For More Short Shifts: An MRI scan of overpaid, underperforming Mariners pitcher Erik Bedard's shoulder revealed that he is basically just a weenie.

Those Tall Red Ones With The Tassel, We Mean: An investigative committee's report has uncovered questionable financial dealings by members of some U.S. Shriners clubs. Amazingly, the report had nothing bad to say about the hats.

The Week's News Answer: "D," the Spam King, who also was ordered to forfeit spam software revenues, leaving him millions in the hole. Fortunately, he recently stumbled upon a rich guy in Nigeria willing to give him his entire fortune in exchange for a few personal details.

Dummies Need Not Apply: NASA has used human cadavers to test how its new space capsule will affect humans when it parachutes back to earth. An unfair labor-practice complaint is pending from cast members of the upcoming film "Jackass 4."

He Never Got Decent Tips, Either: Did you see the way our government lawyers are kicking butt and taking names in the trial of Osama bin Laden's former driver? Next up: the Bush administration puts a final exclamation point on its "war on terror" by nailing Ayman al-Zawahiri's former Pilates instructor.

Crosswalk Crossfire: Syndicated hack and angry, bitter, thoroughly unpleasant TV commentator Robert Novak was cited $50 by Washington, D.C., police after he hit a pedestrian while driving his black 2004 Corvette convertible — and then reportedly attempted to just drive away. It's pretty unsettling. Not the accident — just the image of Novak driving a black Corvette convertible.

And Finally: A Texas grand jury has indicted polygamous sect leader and "prophet" Warren Jeffs on charges of sexual assault of a child. Which got us to wondering: Why is it that every time a cult leader opens a direct communication channel to God, the first thing God instructs him to do is terrorize his young female subjects?

A section and Thursday's Northwest Weekend section. Email: rjudd@seattletimes.com