To stem worsening gridlock, the Puget Sound area needs a single agency with the power to prioritize, plan and finance transportation projects.

That’s the key recommendation of a preliminary report released Wednesday by the Regional Transportation Commission, a group set up by the governor earlier this year. The group plans to issue specific proposals and funding ideas by the end of the year.

The report is significant because it lays out a series of observations — though seemingly obvious — that haven’t been made at a statewide policy level. It’s an effort to break the log jam of the area’s six transportation agencies, which famously bat over priorities and jurisdiction (remember the Seattle monorail versus Sound Transit light rail versus Metro?). It’s worth noting that Vancouver and Portland have regional transportation agencies that already have made substantial progress.

Among the key points from the 171-page report:

— As soon as next year, the legislature should create a regional entity that’s empowered to prioritize, plan and finance regional transportation infrastructure.

— Regional governance should be based on regional goals and objectives and should stitch
together existing agencies rather than create a new layer of bureaucracy.

— The body should have the authority to address the critical needs in planning and finance,
including responsibility for certain elements of growth management and land use.

— A regional governance structure should be able to address all tax and usage based
revenue sources as a part of a systemic financing strategy.

— The region should use dynamic tolling, faring and parking fees in order to shift demand so that transit serves more peak-hour users. Taxes should be used to shift demand, not as the main financing tool.

Brewers of craft beer in Washington hope a new marketing group will help them mimic the success of the state’s wine promoters.

The state-sanctioned commission will represent breweries that produce less than 100,000 barrels annually per location. The first priority is promotion of Washington beer inside the state, where 99 percent of beer consumed reportedly comes from elsewhere.

The commission, approved by the legislature this year, will pay for itself by charging brewers 10 cents per barrel on up to 10,000 barrels per brewer, and will generate revenue from commission-sponsored festivals. Washington has 84 microbreweries, trailing only California and Colorado.

Unemployment rates in Cascadia dropped again in October, a sign of the region’s strong job market.

Washington’s jobless rate dropped to 4.8 percent, sending the average so far this year to 4.9 percent, the lowest since 1999. Oregon’s jobless rate stood at 5.1 percent and Idaho’s stood at 3.2 percent, well below the national rate of 4.4 percent. British Columbia’s rate was 4.6 percent, compared to 6.2 percent nationally.

In the Seattle area, unemployment dropped to 3.9 percent. The lowest rate in Washington was in San Juan County, with 2.9 percent, while the highest was in Columbia and Grays Harbor counties, with 6.4 percent — almost two points less than the month before.

A handful of Cascadia companies are among the top 50 eco-friendly businesses in the U.S., according to Inc. magazine. The subjective list, called the Green 50, is a play on the magazine’s annual ranking of 500 top startups.

A few caught my eye:

Burgerville, a Vancouver, Wash., fast-food chain, shoots for near-sustainability. It buys all its beef from a natural coop, powers its restaurants with wind power and started a program to turn cooking oil into bidiesel.

Ryzex Group of Bellingham recycles bar-code scanners and other electronic equipment. It expects revenue of $75 million this year.

Collins Companies of Portland among the first timber companies to seek certification from the Forest Stewardship Council, an organization that vouches for the long-term viability of forests.

Teragren of Bainbridge Island, Wash., uses sustainably grown bamboo for floors and furniture. Fast-growing bamboo supposedly has less impact that other kinds of wood. The compay is trying to market it for building materials such as trusses that have traditionally belonged to softwood.

Prometheus Energy of Seattle developed a process to capture and purify methane gas, and turn it into liquefied natural gas to power buses. The company taps landfills to power buses in nearby communities.

Cascadia is no stranger to fall rainstorms. But this year’s record-setting onslaught is already causing economic damage across the region — and it’s barely mid-November.

There may have been too much water even for salmon. The floods likely washed fish away from spawning areas, potentially cutting the number of salmon that can be caught in the future.

Despite the intensely local coverage of the storms so far, their impact has been roughly even from southern Oregon to British Columbia. Roads have been washed out, trains halted and ferries cancelled. Farmers face months of costly cleanup from flooding in valleys from the Willamette to the Chilliwack. In Oregon, damage to roads leading to Mt. Hood threatens the tourist industry.

On the flip side, rebuilding should be helped by government disaster aid following declarations of states of emergency in 24 counties in Washington and at least nine more in Oregon. The storms have been dumping heavy snow across the Cascades, which may mean a robust start to ski season — as soon as skiers can get to the mountains.