This editorial will appear in Thursday's print edition.

Lawmakers should fix Initiative 937 – but do so in a way that doesn’t discriminate against the customers of large public utilities.

Initiative 937 has needed legislative fixing since the day it hit the books.

The measure, which mandates additional utility purchases of green power, has good intentions but some maddening flaws – among them an absurdly narrow definition of renewable energy and a rigidity that forces utilities to buy power they don’t need.

Reform appeared to be in the offing earlier this month. A bill giving utilities more flexibility in meeting I-937’s renewable energy targets passed the Senate with the backing of Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane.

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In this provocative Chicago Tribune piece, a Chicago area doctor wonders if actor Natasha Richardson might have survived her bunny-slope head injury if she'd been in the United States.

WAS CANADA'S HEALTH CARE THE PROBLEM?
By Cory Franklin

Could actress Natasha Richardson's tragic death have been prevented if her skiing accident had occurred in America rather than Canada?

This is a legitimate question because of how Canadian and American medical care differ. Canadian health care de-emphasizes widespread dissemination of technology like CT scanners and quick access to specialists like neurosurgeons. While all the facts of Richardson's medical care haven't been released, enough is known to pose questions with profound implications for both countries.

Richardson died of an epidural hematoma, a bleeding artery between the skull and brain that compresses and ultimately causes fatal brain damage via pressure buildup. With prompt diagnosis by CT scan, and surgery to drain the blood, most patients survive. Could Richardson have received this care? Where it happened in Canada, no. In many American resorts, yes.

Between noon and 1 p.m., Richardson sustained what appeared to be a trivial head injury after falling while skiing without a helmet at Mt. Tremblant in Quebec. Within minutes she was offered medical assistance but declined to be seen by paramedics. Some have attributed the reason her case was untreatable to this delay, common in the early stages of epidural hematoma when patients have few symptoms. It's not unusual to face this type of delay and there is reason to believe her case wasn't beyond hope at that point.

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Toll both the Highway 520 and Interstate 90 bridges over Lake Washington, and toll them early. Without tolls, the 520 replacement project will swallow hundreds of millions that would otherwise be spent on urgent transportation projects elsewhere in the state.

Lawmakers shouldn't treat Initiative 937 as sacrosanct. The 2006 measure that mandates utility investments in green power has needed fixing since it was approved by voters – and that view comes from an editorial board that endorsed the initiative.

If you have comments or questions about these topics, please email them to patrick.ocallahan@thenewstribune.com. Editorials represent the consensus view of The News Tribune's editorial board.

Want to sit in on a daily ed board meeting? Email cheryl.tucker@thenewstribune.com to make an appointment.

God bless my mom. She’s spunky.

But Mom is also an anti-smoking fanatic, and I do mean a fanatic. Over the past 50 years I have seen her, in several different indoor and outdoor venues, call out smokers, lecture them on their sins, disparage them, and threaten consequences if they don’t cease.

For two decades, guests entering our family home were greeted with a 10x15-inch metal sign on the door that said: "Don’t Even THINK About Smoking In Here." Nowadays, for old time’s sake, that same sign hangs on her retirement home apartment wall.

The past two decades have obviously been a dream come true for Mom, especially here in groovy Washington state. Smokers have been pushed to the literal fringes of our society, hunkering over their smokes within tiny painted perimeters, standing in street gutters or in tar-papered annexes astride bars and restaurants. Smokers have been utterly cowed and humiliated. Mom is openly gleeful about their shunning and disgrace.

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I talked with local builder Rick Brunaugh Tuesday for background on today's editorial about two recent fires in high-density developments.

Naturally the conversation turned to the local housing market and the construction business. He called the effect of the recession on businesses like his "catastrophic."

He estimates that only about 10 percent of construction businesses will survive. And what will determine who makes it? His answer surprised me.

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