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It's not over until Hillary Clinton's cash runs out
Psst! Wanna see the Viaduct disappear?
Washington's million-dollar university president
The city's own series of tubes
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A city of scolds
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Greg Nickels' rebel yell
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As long as we're beating up on the mayor today ...
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Washington's million-dollar university president
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Mods versus snobs
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Psst! Wanna see the Viaduct disappear?
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It's not over until Hillary Clinton's cash runs out
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The city's own series of tubes
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Seattle is a ghost town for ghost bikes?
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Parlez-vous a software language?
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Chuck Taylor
Recent Stories
As long as we're beating up on the mayor today ...
Seattle Mayor for Life Greg Nickels is issuing press releases fast and furiously. There are, after all, only 546 days until the election — the 2009 election. And although he has no real opponent as yet, His Excellency has only $129,639.98 in the bank for the 2009 campaign and only took in $29,430.90 in March — and hired fundraiser Colby Underwood got $3,500 of that.
So it's no wonder Nickels' staff is cranking out press releases that attach his name to everything that happens in this town.
It doesn't look like WaMu Field is terribly likely, so ...
Some great alternative names for Safeco Field are turning up in the comments on Mike Henderson's recent blog post about the implications of the Seattle-based insurance company being swallowed by Liberty Mutual. Among the suggestions: Costco Park, Taxpayer Park, Starbucks Grounds, and a no-brainer: Boeing Field.
These not-so-little piggies went to the Market
Where they were catching rays of the springtime sun on the roof.
Another mayoral spokesperson departs for the same nonprofit
Martin McOmber, senior communications and policy advisor for Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels, will leave city employment on Wednesday, April 30, to join Casey Family Programs as communications director. McOmber will feel right at home at Casey, because the managing director of communications there, Marianne Bichsel, was herself spokesperson for the mayor before joining the foundation in Seattle last fall.
Alex Fryer, communications advisor at the Office of Sustainability and Environment, will fill in until the mayor names a new comm director — though the official City Hall announcement today sure makes it sound like the job is Fryer's to lose.
The high legal cost of practicing journalism
The demise of newspapers is a very bad thing, and anyone who thinks the Internet will quickly step up to fill the void is delusional. It's hard, for example, to envision even an influential national blog mustering the resources to uncover what The New York Times reports today about retired generals who serve as expert commentators on TV:
Hidden behind that appearance of objectivity, though, is a Pentagon information apparatus that has used those analysts in a campaign to generate favorable news coverage of the administration's wartime performance, an examination by The New York Times has found.
Big performance today at Benaroya Hall
No, wait, I was looking at the wrong day on the calendar. Let's see — oh, today is the annual shareholders meeting for Washington Mutual. And at $10 per share, everyone can afford to attend!
If you can't be there in person to weigh in, you can listen in at 1 p.m. Or express yourself in this poll. The question is: Which company is worse: Washington Mutual or US Airways?
How to turn around The Seattle Times
Fifth of a series: Alumni of the newspaper offer their thoughts on what could be done to ensure survival of an important civic institution. Updated 2008-04-11 at 09:06
Seattle Times Co. at a glance
Newspapers and Web sites in the northern corners of the U.S.
The Seattle Times Co. will cut about 200 jobs
Washington's biggest newspaper will reduce payroll through severance and attrition and cut $15 million from the operating budget this year. About two-thirds of the job cuts would come through actual layoffs.
Mayor to 'Downtown Freddie' Brown: Your arena proposal is DOA
It's April Fool's Day, and still someone announces an apparently earnest plan [234K PDF] to find financing and a location for a $1 billion basketball and hockey arena, perhaps in SoDo on Pier 46. At least, it appears former Sonic "Downtown Freddie" Brown and his partners are earnest, because Mayor Greg Nickels simultaneously issued a statement that, between the lines, characterizes the concept of Emerald City Center, which would sport a retractable shell of a roof, as half baked and dead at conception:
Is there a problem, officer?
Yeah there's a problem. It seems you were about to drive your shiny, black Volvo wagon into the Seattle bus tunnel under downtown.
March Madness: A rational view
Me, I don't really get March Madness. I mean, I get it as a journalist and armchair shrink, but I don't get it. But I'm happy to feed your madness. Here's a quick guide to Northwest teams and coverage.
Editor's note: We've improved our daily e-mail
Friends of Crosscut: Starting this morning, we've redesigned our daily e-mailed listing of Crosscut articles and regional headlines to be easier to read, and we've added a text-only e-mail option for those of you who are reading us on mobile devices. And! We've added a weather forecast to the e-mail, with links to the National Weather Service. Let us know what you think.
If you don't get our newsletter, you can preview the full HTML version here and the text-only version here. You can subscribe by filling out a form here. Of course, we won't use you e-mail for anything else.
Updated: The mayor will unveil a KeyArena plan and basketball ownership group
The Seattle mayor's office has scheduled a 3:30 p.m. news conference. Says the press release: "Mayor Greg Nickels will hold a press conference this afternoon to discuss a new proposal to improve KeyArena and Seattle Center. The mayor will be joined by a representative of a new, local professional basketball ownership group." Earlier coverage has Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Western Wireless founder John Stanton involved. Crosscut's David Brewster speculates about a KeyArena remake in an earlier blog post. Update, 2008-03-06, 13:13: State House Speaker Frank Chopp says any notion of legislative action on a KeyArena renovation proposal is DOA in Olympia this year.
Department of Journalistically Redundant News Department
I'm usually thankful we have two daily newspapers here in Seattle, but every so often I wonder why we do. Such was the case when I checked the two home pages last night, Feb. 20, after the lunar eclipse — finding the accompanying nearly-identical photographs. Maybe it really is time to junk the Newspaper Preservation Act of 1970.
Report from a crowded KeyArena
KeyArena is full and people are being turned away for today's speech by Barack Obama. The capacity is 17,000. They're seating VIPs and media on the arena floor.
Fair weather on the ferry
The view approaching downtown Seattle from a Washington state ferry on Puget Sound.
Send us your campaign-related photos
We've just launched a gallery of reader and staff pictures, with one image always featured on the Crosscut home page. And as fate would have it, there's big news breaking today, tomorrow, and Saturday, what with Barack, Michelle, Hillary, Janet, and who knows who else visiting the state, plus hundreds of thousands attending caucuses.
So send us your best shots from those events or other election-related scenes you encounter.
I can has hamburger, please, or at least of photo of one
A reminder that Crosscut will soon launch a photo gallery, and we're soliciting your pictures at the Crosscut Flickr group. We've already had some swell submissions, including this photo of a juicy Daly's hamburger, taken by Peter Howard, who reminds us that the legendary Eastlake fast-food joint will be closing soon.
The merger of the century
Random notes and links on the Microsoft bid for Yahoo ...
... As the day unfolds, Phase 2 of coverage will kick in for tomorrow morning's news cycle, and the focus will be on how this deal would actually work. Wait. It's already begun. Writes a BusinessWeek blogger:
But what a messy combination this will be, for months and even years to come. Maybe Yahoo is just too compelling a property for Microsoft, perennially struggling to stem the Google tide, to pass up. Clearly, Yahoo hasn’t managed to get its act together fast enough. But neither has Microsoft — even less so vs. Google than Yahoo.
Announcement: the Crosscut photo gallery
Next week, Crosscut will launch a photo gallery and feature an image from that gallery on the home page every day. We hope you'll contribute. We know you have a number of other news outlets with which to share photography, but we can give you something they can't — front-page play along with the day's other top news.
White highways
Here in Seattle, the ground is merely wet after overnight snow was predicted, but elsewhere the Northwest snow is falling on top of earlier snow, schools are closed, and residents are bracing for more.
As of this writing, there is a heavy snow warning and an avalanche warning for the Cascades and Olympics in Washington and the Cascades in Oregon; a heavy-snow warning for the Columbia River Gorge and higher elevations in northeast Washington; a snow advisory for metro Portland and for Whatcom County, Wash., by the Canadian border; a gale warning for the Pacific Ocean and the Strait of Juan de Fuca; and a small-craft advisory for inland waters, including Puget Sound.
Here are the National Weather Service pages: Seattle and Western Washington, metro Portland, Spokane, Pendleton. A more complete list of weather and travel links can be found on Crosscut's Newsstand page.
The Clicker Top 10: Sex sells
At the end of 2007, I wrote about the most-clicked articles on Crosscut during our first nine months of existence. A job applicant recently asked which Clicker stories were most popular. Had to do some research. Here's what the Crosscut Mother Database tells us are the most popular stories from other media that we've posted. Yes, sex and scandal, preferably both together, do seem to sell:
Land of the Giants spatulas invade South Lake Union
I don't get out much. Recently I walked the length of the Seattle Streetcar line, from the Cheesecake Factory all the way to Hooters, through South Lake Union, a neighborhood where I worked for 16 years but in which today I could get lost and almost did. I tell you, it's scary what they're building down there. Remember Land of the Giants? Get a load of this picture, taken at the intersection of Terry Avenue North and East Thomas Street. It's a giant spatula.
Chuck Taylor is editor of Crosscut.
57 states — and the Soviet of Washington?
Sen. Barack Obama must be drinking some of the same Seattle water as secessionist Mayor Greg Nickels. In Beaverton, Ore., he told the crowd that he'd visited "57 states" with "one left to go." He goes on to say that the only states he hasn't been to during his presidential bid are Alaska and Hawaii, which means Obama thinks the U.S. has 58 states, though by his own count there should be 59.
A Seattle software exec makes sure that the buffalo don't roam
The Northwest's real fairy tales
An Eastside community where craftsmanship defines the homes
Melinda Bargreen: Goodbye to the Seattle Times music critic post
Columbus Symphony, deadlocked with musicians, shuts down
A Seattle software exec makes sure that the buffalo don't roam
In the 19th century, tourists used to slaughter bison herds from passing trains, blasting the big beasts into near extinction just for fun. That ugly tradition is echoed in the recent massacre of buffalo in Colorado, which has also touched off a classic confrontation over rights between two ranchers. The Northwest connection: The Seattle Post-Intelligencer's John Cook points out that the man behind the recent massacre is the chairman and CEO of one of Seattle's top software companies, Jeff Hawn of Attachmate. A warrant has been issued for his arrest.
Life after Yahoo: Microsoft moves on — to Asia
Steve Ballmer's about-face explained
Race is not the real issue for Obama's candidacy
57 states — and the Soviet of Washington?
A former Alaska legislator is sentenced to prison in a bribery case
An alternative reality show
John Moe: Sorry, Seattle, I'm moving away
Which presidential candidate has a recipe for disaster?
Northwest Airlines plans to compete on the Seattle-to-Beijing route
The 787 program is 15 months behind, but some deliveries could be 30 months late
The revenge of the resource economy in the Mountain West
A Seattle software exec makes sure that the buffalo don't roam
In the 19th century, tourists used to slaughter bison herds from passing trains, blasting the big beasts into near extinction just for fun. That ugly tradition is echoed in the recent massacre of buffalo in Colorado, which has also touched off a classic confrontation over rights between two ranchers. The Northwest connection: The Seattle Post-Intelligencer's John Cook points out that the man behind the recent massacre is the chairman and CEO of one of Seattle's top software companies, Jeff Hawn of Attachmate. A warrant has been issued for his arrest.
Another Teton Dam
Fast times and loads of fun, despite expensive gas
In the International District, an interesting approach to restaurant reviewing
Yours for free: a guidebook to farm-fresh food
A city of scolds
Fast times and loads of fun, despite expensive gas
A survey showed there was little voter support for Ballmer's KeyArena plan
Dave Boling on 30,000 empty seats: Sure, bring Junior back — as well as Edgar and Jay
An Eastside community where craftsmanship defines the homes
Priced out, but still somehow living in Seattle
Founder of Mother's Day grew to hate what happened to her idea
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