Crosscut

A year of growing up and getting serious

Letter from the Publisher

Posted Mon, Nov 17, 1:16 p.m.

Crosscut is exploring a shift to a nonprofit model. Here's why.

The funny thing about Seattle ...

Posted Sat, Aug 23, 4 a.m.

By Steve Clifford

Our humor writer shares the top ten jokes he's collected in a not very funny city.

The campaign for Sound Transit will be 'going Facebook'

Posted Mon, Aug 11, 10 a.m.

By Clark Fredricksen

Big and corporate didn't do it for last year's roads and transit measure, so the hurry-up, cash-starved campaign for Sound Transit 2 will be Internet-based and volunteer-driven.

The McCain-Clifford ticket

Posted Sun, Jun 15, 2 p.m.

By Steve Clifford

No question that Sen. John McCain needs a humorist on his ticket, but some details remain to be worked out before I accept.

2007 in review: Crosscut's most clicked-on stories

Posted Mon, Dec 31, 5 a.m.

Transportation, impact studies, Big Brother, newspaper technology, and the essence of modern Seattle: Who knew this stuff would be interesting and popular?

A Crosscut update, as we launch The Crosscut Blog

Posted Mon, Oct 29, midnight

Crosscut adds an associate publisher, more writers and new partners, and dives into the blogosphere. Here's our month seven progress report, along with some ways you can help us improve and get into the act yourself.

The bad and the ugly of Northwest newspaper Web sites

Posted Thu, Sep 13, midnight

We're asking for your input with a Crosscut reader survey, so we thought we'd offer some advice ourselves – to the regional papers we're reading online.

Crosscut readers: Tell us what you think

Posted Mon, Sep 10, midnight

We've been on the Web for five months now, and we'd like your feedback. Please take our online survey.

Crosscut version 1.1

Posted Wed, Jul 25, 10 p.m.

We've made improvements to help you browse and find things more easily.

A special Crosscut admission of error and expression of humility

Posted Sun, May 6, 3 p.m.

Remember that news report we ran about the guerilla-art installation at the Sculpture Park? No? Good. Never mind.

Seven days: week in review

Posted Fri, Apr 20, 2 p.m.

Highlights from Crosscut's Front Burner for the week ending April 20, 2007.

Seven days: week in review

Posted Fri, Apr 13, 4 p.m.

Highlights from Crosscut's Front Burner for the week ending April 13, 2007.

Letter from the editor

Posted Thu, Apr 5, midnight

An update and an invitation for more feedback about Crosscut.

An introduction to Crosscut.com

Posted Sun, Apr 1, 10 a.m.

This new online venture seeks to reinvigorate local journalism in the Pacific Northwest. Here's how it came about and what we hope to accomplish.

Chronicling the Times and P-I as they fight to the death

Posted Sun, Apr 1, midnight

It's pretty awkward for Seattle's dailies to write about themselves, but there are plenty of conflicts of interest to go around. We've got a few ourselves.

Other media

Crosscut poised to shift to nonprofit model The Seattle Times looks at the story and examines the idea.

SEATTLE TIMES

City websites start to make their mark around the country This story profiles a plucky band of journalist-watchdogs in San Diego, whose site resembles Crosscut.com

NEW YORK TIMES

Classical music: frozen in its format A short history of how classical music concerts went from pretty raucous to way too reverential. Alex Ross writes: "this clockwork routine–reassuringly dependable or drearily predictable, depending on whom you ask–is of recent origin, and before 1900 concerts assumed a quite different form."

NEW YORKER

Another Alaska legislator is indicted in a corruption scandal The indictment of Alaska state Sen. John Cowdery for bribery is the latest in a string of blockbuster corruption scandals arising from dealings with oil pipeline company Veco. Two former Alaska legislators are currently serving prison time, while a third is currently awaiting trial.

ANCHORAGE DAILY NEWS

Irwin's installation 'Nine Spaces, Nine Trees' is better at UW, but still lacking Says reviewer Gary Faigin: "If there's an overriding weakness to the piece, it comes from the fact that it was conceived for one site, and installed in another. I'm not convinced that the fence idea was a particularly successful response to the original surroundings of Nine Spaces, and I'm even less convinced that it makes a lot of sense on a leafy college campus, where it loses any resonance with its environment that it might have once had."

ARTDISH

Blog posts

Join Crosscut on election night at Town Hall

Posted Mon, Nov 3, 10:44 a.m. 2008

by David Brewster

Here's a chance to tell some Crosscut political writers what they did wrong (or maybe even right).

A new engine for Crosscut

Posted Sat, Oct 11, 12:18 p.m. 2008

by Chuck Taylor

As of today, we're running on new technology. Please let us know of any problems.

Sausage Links, HOV lane endorsement edition

Posted Mon, Oct 6, 1 p.m. 2008

The Seattle Times is recommending voters reject Initiative 985, the Tim Eyman-sponsored measure that would create a statewide "traffic congestion relief" fund, eliminate localized revenues for devices such as red-light cameras, and open HOV lanes during non-peak hours. The paper's editorial board writes, "I-985 is a poorly-packaged jumble of different agendas that will – please, listen carefully – worsen traffic in certain areas. It makes no sense to design a functioning, complicated traffic system by initiative." ...

Sausage Links, weak sister edition

Posted Thu, Sep 25, 1:58 p.m. 2008

Is the Gregoire candidacy growing weak? Not surprisingly, that's what local conservative pundit Eric Earling thinks. But you know things aren't going well for the Democratic governor when someone at the Stranger says Gregoire is running a "lackluster, defensive campaign." ...

Sausage Links, abandon ship edition

Posted Tue, Sep 23, 1:54 p.m. 2008

Liberal bloggers gotta love this. Some of the elite conservative pundits are growing skeptical about the McCain campaign's performance in the past weeks. Others are jumping ship altogether. The latest to leave the GOP stable is Washington Post columnist George Will, who says the Republican presidential candidate "is behaving like a flustered rookie playing in a league too high." Last week, the editorial board at the traditionally conservative The Wall Street Journal wrote that "McCain has made it clear this week he doesn't understand what's happening on Wall Street any better than Barack Obama does," adding that the Arizona senator was acting "un-presidential."

Sausage Links, election anxiety edition

Posted Fri, Sep 12, 1:10 p.m. 2008

Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi has been hammering Democratic Gov. Chris Gregoire in his advertisements for raising "the gas tax." But as Seattle Post-Intelligencer columnist Joel Connelly points out today, "Rossi would take a chunk of the gas tax increase to pay for his $15 billion 'Pave, baby, Pave!' roads expansion plan ... complete with its specter of an eight-lane Evergreen Point Bridge." Said another way: Rossi is against the increased gas tax — unless he's elected and able to use the extra cash for his transportation proposal.

Sausage Links, Caddyshack edition

Posted Wed, Sep 10, 1:16 p.m. 2008

The Oregonian reports that a popular driving range in Oregon is asking golfers to cast their "swing votes" by aiming practice shots at 8-feet-tall metal likenesses of John McCain and Barack Obama. While no one is exactly sure whether people are trying to hit candidates they support or oppose, so far, McCain is in the lead. ...

Sausage Links, it's time to be partisan edition

Posted Mon, Sep 8, 12:29 p.m. 2008

There's an interesting guest column in today's edition of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. It's written by Gov. Chris Gregoire's driver during the Democratic National Convention, a Colorado State Trooper and lifelong Republican, who says Gregoire may be "a strong advocate for her party, but she is not a 'partisan' in the way the term has recently become defined." Naturally, some Gregoire supporters see the story as a good example of the governor as an appealing post-partisan politician. But not everyone thinks non-partisanship is a good thing – for Washington state politics, that is. Liberal blogger David Goldstein at Horse's Ass sees it a little differently, saying Gregoire actually needs to be more partisan if she wants to get things done in Olympia. ...

If you can read this, congratulations

Posted Fri, Sep 5, 3:56 p.m. 2008

by Chuck Taylor

You've no doubt noticed our site has been sluggish or even inaccessible the past few days. It's because we posted a wildly popular article by a woman in Alaska about Gov. Sarah Palin's days as mayor of Wasilla. Her essay, which originally was an e-mail to friends, has been quoted widely on the Web, but Crosscut was one of the few sites to post it in its entirety. Click, click, click.

Sausage Links, Postman stops ringing edition

Posted Fri, Sep 5, 1 p.m. 2008