Preliminary negotiations between TriMet and the union that represents its operators, the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 757, mostly went nowhere this weekend after the two sides failed to agree even on some basic "ground rules" meant to guide more substantive talks on issues like health care premiums and pay.

But before talks stopped Saturday after several hours, the two sides did manage to jointly agree on one thing: the list of publications and media outlets who are explicitly allowed to attend the contract talks. (Once, that is, the talks actually begin; that's still unknown.)

Update 3:40 PM: The union this afternoon has replied to TriMet with a letter (pdf) offering potential dates for negotiations to start. (In it, the union asks TriMet not to use email to schedule meetings, because of technical issues with it system. Emails sent to and from TriMet, it's worth noting, also would be public records.)

The list of approved outlets looks much like a list sent out days ago by ATU, with the addition of the overlooked Portland Business Journal, a helpful suggestion from TriMet. Of note, it includes the NW Labor Press—which receives subscription money from ATU, and also from dozens of other local unions, but retains sole control over its editorial content.

But now let's look at whom it doesn't include: members of the public or any of the voracious, vociferous, and occasionally venomous amateur bloggers who make sport (and sometimes break news) out of charting the transit agency's every snort and sniffle. That includes Al Margulies, who runs Rantings of a Former TriMet Bus Driver. And also Lane Jensen, who runs PDX Transit Lane.

That was deliberate, at least on TriMet's part. Its officials have held fast to words like "mainstream" and "unaffiliated" when discussing this issue, and it's clear the bloggers get under their skin with personal comments aimed at its top executives. But the move is also dicey. Margulies is a former employee and union member but has a following—getting a writeup in Willamette Week this year as someone to watch in Portland. His blog was first to post the video of a MAX train hurtling down Interstate 84 with its door open.

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The Mercury first reported in September that bus route changes last year were having an awful—and awfully smelly—effect on air quality in the increasingly thriving Woodlawn business district: Because of a decision to end Line 8 at Woodlawn Park instead of the Jubitz truck stop, buses waiting to go back on the return route were left idling in the area, making noise and spilling exhaust in front of popular new eateries.

TriMet promised some changes when we wrote about it again in November—after the union representing transit operators spoke up alongside neighbors. Their big beef? Drivers, no longer parking at a truck stop, now had nowhere to pee—and the few businesses that agreed to give access to their loos were surprised by how many drivers took them up on the offer.

Finally, this afternoon, after starting in changes earlier this year, spokeswoman Roberta Alstadt sends word that a permanent fix is in place:

Beginning on Sunday, June 1, TriMet buses will no longer be laying over on NE Dekum Street. Line 8 buses had been stopping at NE Dekum/Durham since we made changes to the route back in September 2012.

TriMet has been working with residents, businesses and the Woodlawn Neighborhood Association to lessen the impact of those changes. In March we were able to move the layover location for 60 percent of the buses. The layover for the remaining 40 percent of the buses will move to NE Winchell Street. After the move, NE Dekum Street will continue to have bus service with both Line 8 and 75 but will contain no layover locations.

That's a big change from the kinds of complaints Sarah Mirk was hearing back when this first flared:

"It's quickly turning into a nightmare," says Firehouse owner Matthew Busetto, who met with a TriMet representative on Friday about the neighborhood issues for a meeting that he described as "ridiculous" and completely unhelpful. "We're in the height of our patio seating season and we counted 16 buses rolling by an hour. I feel misled. To lay a pollution and safety issue on us without any notice is terrible."

Fareless Square is still dead. Ticket prices are up. But this is, at least, something.

You know how—even though fare inspectors sometimes show up on trains—actually buying a MAX ticket can sometimes leave you feeling like the punchline of an awful joke? Because it feels like no one else does? And they usually get away with it?

This Oregonian post by Joseph Rose might be of some interest. According to the story, plainclothes cops have already begun lurking on trains in hopes of surprising, and arresting, fare evaders. Their presence is in addition to the inspectors who've already been boarding here and there and conducting fare missions (and spawning widespread alerts on Twitter whenever they do).

During Thursday morning's commute, six officers dressed as every day urban professionals boarded trains through different doors and took their seats.

After several minutes of riding and watching for people causing problems, the officers stood up between stations, showed their badges and told riders to pull out their fares.

In one case, a man darted for the door as soon as the train pulled into the next stop.

"Our guys grabbed him," [Transit Police Commander Mike] Crebs said. "He had a history and an existing exclusion. We arrested him for theft of services and trespassing."

TriMet and the transit cops spent some time studying other cities, according to the story, before going in whole hog here. Expect to see patrols happening more and more.

"We want people to always wonder if there might be a police officer on the train," spokeswoman Roberta Alstadt told the O. "This isn't just about fare evasion. It's about security."

TriMet says it's also considering adding the detail to buses—even though, in my estimation, that may not be worth the trouble. Most bus drivers already act as pretty firm gate-keepers. But I guess beware?

Representative Jules Bailey—a longtime skeptic of the $3.4 billion Columbia River Crossing highway-bridge-and-rail project—joined several other lawmakers earlier this week in reversing their opposition and advancing a $450 million state financing plan to the Oregon Senate and, presumably, governor's desk.

That 45-11 vote enraged and saddened critics of the I-5 project who see the CRC as a financial and environmental boondoggle. And last night, at an Oregon League of Conservation Voters forum where Bailey was building support for a tough-to-pass state carbon tax, a few tried to drive home a point.

Activist Hart Noecker strode up to Bailey during a question-and-answer session and handed him a "Cars Rejuvenating Carbon" award for his "courageously increasing the carbon and car capacity" of the 10- to 12-lane CRC project—a behemoth that raises the serious possibility of making lousy air quality in North Portland even worse.

Bailey didn't seem so pleased... and neither did some of the people at the event, maybe because it was such an awkward moment. Only a couple of people clapped during the prank. And Bailey decided to leave the award behind.

• TWITTER VIA NICHOLAS CALEB

Bailey, for the record, has written a lengthy explanation of his CRC vote. Reached for comment this morning, he defended his record on carbon and climate change and said he would have welcomed a discussion about the vote even after a somewhat amusing political prank (my words) that he described as a "sarcastic grandstanding maneuver."

"They were asked if they'd like to ask a question. They declined. I'm sad they passed up that opportunity," he says.

Bailey also says he stuck around after the event, along with Senator Jackie Dingfelder, who has yet to vote on the highway project.

"Everybody is entitled to their opinion," he says. "I wish they'd have taken the opportunity to talk to me. I was standing near them. They huddled near the bar with their beers... It was a tempest in a teapot. I'm not worried. It was a good event."