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The National Weather Service has issued a high wind warning for the north and central Washington coast through Wednesday night. Be prepared for sustained winds of 25 to 40 mph with gusts of up to 60 mph. High winds can knock down trees and power lines.

King County is in good shape and getting better.

That’s the message from County Executive Dow Constantine during his “State of the County” speech Monday. Speaking from the Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent, Constantine touted progress in taming the county’s budget problems and making county government more efficient. 

Making headlines around the Northwest this morning:

• Lakewood Explosion Investigated
• Seattle Superintendent's Future on the Line
• Will EADS Challenge Boeing's Tanker Win?
   

What Caused Lakewood Blast?

A series of explosions at a Pierce Transit center on South Tacoma Way yesterday afternoon is being investigated this morning. Compressed natural gas at fueling pumps ignited somehow, and it spread to storage units on site.  No one was injured.

We've been asking you today, "Where were you ten years ago when the Nisqually Quake hit the Puget Sound region?" 

The 6.8 shake damaged thousands of structures, notably the unreinforced masonry buildings in the historic downtown areas of Olympia and Seattle. 

Clearly the memories of jangled nerves and scary moments remain strong.

On KPLU's Facebook page, we've had good response to our question:

Many are sharing vivid recollections, like Coleen:

The popular anti-poverty scheme of providing small loans and other financial services to poor people, generally known as microfinance, is in crisis.

“In one sense, you could say it’s a coming of age,” says Alex Counts, CEO at the Grameen Foundation, a leading non-profit microfinance organization with offices in Seattle and Washington D.C.. “Controversy often comes along with growing in size and impact.”

You could also say microfinance is actually suffering from several different crises: An external appearance of a crisis based on a damaged public image; a related, but slightly different, internal “identity crisis” and, at least according to one leading observer, a cash crisis in reverse — too much money.

Here are five reasons for the crisis:

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Making headlines around the Northwest this morning:

• Tenth Anniversary of Nisqually Quake
• Viaduct Issue Before Seattle City Council Today
• Weekend Tacoma Train Derailment Cleared

Nisqually Quake Memories Still Fresh

But what lessons did we learn from the Feb. 28, 2001 quake that jangled our collective nerves? KPLU's Liam Moriarty gives an overview, including the breadth of upgrades to emergency systems, bridges and buildings. 

Following the quake, the number of seismic monitoring sites have tripled around the Sound, according to John Dodge of The Olympian, meant to help us prepare for the type of quakes that could cause devastation:

Vandals have damaged the Jane Clark Park sports field in Tacoma. Officials won't know exactly how bad the damage is until they can test the irrigation and drainage systems in the spring. It appears a 4x4 vehicle left deep ruts running from one end of the field to the other.

The park had recently been upgraded as part of the 2005 Park Improvement bond measure. Joy riders also ripped up half a dozen other Tacoma parks this week.