Thieves Steal Four Miles Of Copper Wire From Seattle Light Rail Line

I've posted stories here before about copper thefts, but this one really takes the cake. Here is the Seattle PI.com with the details:

Thieves stole 70,000 pounds of copper cable from Sound Transit's Link light rail line between Tukwila and Sea-Tac Airport, the agency reported Friday.

Thieves ripped the wire from inside an elevated guideway that supports the tracks, probably over the last several months. From end-to-end, about four miles of cable was stolen, Sound Transit spokesman Bruce Gray said.

"This isn't something that would have been done overnight," Gray said. "Whoever did this knew what they were going after and had some sophisticated knowledge of how to get in."

The wire runs along the guideway's hollow interior to protect it from low-level electrical current that strays from the rails, and directs it to the ground. The current would otherwise corrode the structure's rebar over time, Gray said.

Grounding for the train's power line is run separately. At no time was train service affected or the public in danger, Gray said.

Maintenance workers discovered the missing wire Thursday during track inspections. One worker noticed something out of place and went for a closer look.

While workers walk the tracks twice a week for inspection, the guideway's interior is inspected only once a year, Gray said. Thieves took advantage of that.

"There could be trains running overhead and track walkers out on top and they would never know someone was inside," Gray said.

The stolen wire probably was cut into segments of two or three feet in length, he said.

Make no mistake about it, this is the type of crime that happens to a society undergoing collapse. Whatever else you might say about whomever committed this crime, they are nothing if not industrious. It took a lot of hard work to pull this off. People clever enough and hardworking enough to get away with such a scheme wouldn't be risking going to prison like this if there was a more gainful way for them to make a living.


Bonus: "The sound of a train not running has been keeping me awake"

Almost 200 Are Laid Off At The Hanford Vitrification Plant (Washington State)

Federal budget cuts were responsible for this mass layoff story. Here is The Bellingham Herald with the details:

Almost 200 construction workers have been laid off recently at the Hanford vitrification plant.

That brings the number of construction workers laid off to about 550 in the past five months.

While there has been some hiring of nonconstruction workers, including engineers and nuclear safety workers, the total employment on the project is now at about 2,725 workers.

That's down from about 3,000 in late January and a typical range of earlier of 3,200 to 3,400 workers, including construction and nonmanual workers.

The most recent round of layoffs was conducted with notices sent at the end of the last work week to 198 construction workers in a variety of crafts. They mostly are related to the Pretreatment and High Level Waste facilities.

"The craft work force is being aligned with current (vit plant) project priorities and resulting work plans," Bechtel National said in a statement.

The Department of Energy has instructed Bechtel National to propose a new baseline, or cost and schedule plan for the plant, based on priorities that start with meeting commitments to the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board to verify technical issues are resolved.

Next would be completing sections of the plant that will not process high-level radioactive waste. That includes the Low Level Waste Facility, the Analytical Laboratory and a group of about 20 support buildings. Construction on those three projects ranges from 63 percent to 78 percent complete.

The remaining resources would be focused first on the High Level Waste Facility and then on the Pretreatment Facility. At the High Level Waste Facility, engineering and construction should be completed as money allows.

At the Pretreatment Facility, Bechtel's instructions include completing engineering and work to reduce risks and technical issues, but construction is not mentioned.

Construction on those two buildings is about 40 percent complete.

In February the Obama administration proposed to Congress that the vit plant receive $690 million in fiscal 2013, down from $740 million this year. DOE plans had called for spending $970 million on the plant in fiscal 2013.

And so it goes.

Sterling Savings Bank (Washington State) Lays Off 160 Employees

Back during the height of financial crash, I used to host a regular Friday afternoon/evening thread on the old Life After the Oil Crash forum called Bank EATED Fridays in which I and other readers would place friendly bets on how many financial institutions the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation was going to shut down and take over heading into that weekend. The closings always happened on Friday nights to minimize publicity and thus the resulting harm to public confidence in the banking system, and there were almost always multiple closings every week.

I stopped hosting that regular discussion after LATOC went off the air, mostly because the games being played in the financial system were having the intended side effect of slowing the number of bank failures. If I was still playing that game, however, I think I'd be placing a bet on seeing the Sterling Savings Bank on the FDIC's EATED list in the near future. Here is NWCN.com with the details:

Sterling Savings Bank laid off scores of employees around the Northwest this week.
The Spokane-based bank gave pink slips to 160 employees. Bank leaders said that is six percent of their workforce.

“Given the challenging interest rate environment and the uncertain economic outlook, Sterling must position itself for continued success, including lowering its operating expenses,” CEO of Sterling Financial Corporation Greg Seibly said. “Sterling has fewer assets today than it did just a few years ago and, although this has been a difficult decision, the bank needs to appropriately reflect that reality.”

The layoffs started on Wednesday and spanned across five states.

Managers cut positions at all levels to lower operating costs.

"The bank needs to appropriately reflect...reality." Hmmm...maybe someone should tell that to Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citigroup and all of the other "Too Big To Fail" parasites.


Bonus: When people can't earn interest on their money, they have no incentive to save it for later

Heinz Closing Kent (Washington) Food Processing Plant in March

Here's yet another brief plant closing and layoff story from the Seattle Times that tells the real truth about the current economic conditions:

Food-products company H.J. Heinz said Friday it will close its factory in Kent March 30.

The plant, which makes frozen soups for restaurant operators, employs about 100, Heinz said. In a statement, the Pittsburgh-based company attributed the closure to "the difficult conditions in which the company is operating," and said it was part of a plan, announced in November, to shut down three factories.

Heinz did not elaborate. But the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported in November that the company's Foodservice division, which includes the Kent plant, has suffered from commodity price increases and lackluster dining-out trends.

There really isn't much I can add to that.


Bonus: Thanks to that damn ketchup commercial, I can't think about Heinz without this song popping into my head

Washington State Laying Off Nearly Half of its Park Rangers

If you are an outdoorsy-type who enjoys visiting parks, I've got some bad news for you. In what will no doubt soon become a national trend, the state of Washington is drastically cutting back on park rangers and other park employees as it struggles to balance its budget. Here is the Olympian with the details:

Pink slips are expected to roll out between Christmas and New Year’s at state parks, where 83 of the state’s 189 full-time rangers stand to lose their current jobs.

To stay on, most would have to take a major pay cut and work as little as five months of the year in one of 63 new seasonal jobs being created. During the cold months, the state’s 116 parks will likely outnumber the rangers who help keep them running.

The scaled-back, seasonal approach is prompted by slow sales of the parking pass for state lands and was signaled by layoff notices earlier this month. The downsizing is proceeding despite a plea from a dozen lawmakers to hold off.

“I appreciate them saying ‘Hey, wait,’ but to me I think it would be irresponsible to wait and spend more money,” said State Parks and Recreation Commission Chairman Joe Taller of Olympia, a former legislator and state budget director. He said each month of delay costs $750,000.

Of course, the next step after de-staffing the parks is selling the land altogether to raise revenue. There, I just gave you tomorrow's headline today. You're welcome.

State Budget Cuts Cause Layoffs at Washington State University

One of the more laughable notions coming out of the mouths of conservatives these days is that cutting government spending doesn't cost people their jobs. It's almost as ludicrous as the idea that tax cuts don't cause budget deficits. Don't get me wrong. Unlike many liberals and progressives, I realize that government spending is unsustainable and that tax increases even on just the wealthy who can afford to pay them would do no more than delay the ultimate day of reckoning for government finances.

No, the reason I focus on the layoff effects of government funding cutbacks is to highlight yet another area where good paying jobs are being destroyed, never to return as the economy continues its peak oil-induced downward grind. The latest story highlighting this phenomenon concerns the effect of cuts in state funding going to Washington State University:

...the fact that the state has cut a whopping 60 percent of its support for WSU in the past four years, prompting more than 500 layoffs at the university - about 12 percent of its workforce - is a big deal. Many fear that even bigger cuts are coming.

Real estate sales and construction in Pullman are down, while unemployment is up. That's unusual for a local economy that historically has been immune to big swings.

Whitman County for years enjoyed the lowest unemployment rate in the state, in part because half the jobs are government jobs. Unemployment stood at 4 percent as late as 2008, before starting a steady upward march. The rate reached 7.5 percent in July, still lower than the state average of 9 percent.

Of course, the budget cuts have had another, more perverse effect:

So far, retail trade seems to be holding up, in part because the number of students continues to rise despite huge tuition increases. Tuition has approximately doubled in the past five years, to more than $10,000 per year.

Right here, you can see what I have been saying about college tuitions and student loans being in a bubble that is about to burst in a very big way. Tuition has DOUBLED in just the past five years and yet they are STILL laying people off? Obviously, that rate of increase will not be sustainable for very long. One can only imagine what's going to happen when these students finally wake up and realize that the $10,000+ per year they are paying for tuition is a ticket not to a middle class lifestyle the were "promised," but instead to a lifetime of debt slavery.