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The case for more rail transit
Last stand for the Alaskan Way Viaduct
Little boxes, crammed together
At the top floors, the high and mighty are in denial
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The case for more rail transit
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Sound Transit showdown
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Last stand for the Alaskan Way Viaduct
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At the top floors, the high and mighty are in denial
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Little boxes, crammed together
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Our cultural amnesia
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More fun than Deliverance!
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Campaign strategy session
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Crosscut most recent
Sausage Links, pot, farms, and medicine edition
Count on the alt-weeklies to provide blow-by-blow coverage of the recent medical marijuana bust illegal search and seizure. Dominic Holden at The Stranger has the story about the incident — along with copies of the police report and the arresting officer's search warrant. According to the reports, Seattle Police officers tore down a wall while searching for an illegal pot-growing operation that didn't exist, while seizing bags of marijuana and medical records. The folks at Seattlest would like to remind the SPD that medical marijuana has been legal in Washington for nearly 10 years. ...
Sausage Links, fancy-pants luncheon edition
The Queen of fist-bumps, New Yorker cover girl Michelle Obama, is in Seattle today to headline a fundraiser for Gov. Chris Gregoire. The event is expected to bring in $400,000 for Gregoire's re-election campaign. Seattle Times chief political reporter David Postman will have live coverage of the event as it develops, while Eli Sanders at the Stranger already has pictures from the WaMu Theater. ...
Sausage Links, cougar-hunting edition
Praise the Lord and release the hounds — because our good state Legislature has enacted a law which makes it legal once again to use dogs to hunt cougars. Now, I didn't even know cougar hunting was legal in Washington — minus Cougars wearing crimson — but apparently, it is. While the bill was actually passed by the Legislature in February, the Department of Fish and Wildlife will hold a public meeting on Friday to discuss whether the pilot program should continue for another three years.
Meanwhile, Micheal Reitz of the Evergreen Freedom Foundation has compiled a list of some other curious laws enacted by the Washington Legislature this year. My personal favorite: Violators may face up to $1,000 or up to a year in jail for selling raw or unprocessed huckleberries without a permit.
Sausage Links, sex, satire, and rock 'n' roll edition
At Horse's Ass, David Goldstein has a lengthy investigative story detailing a case of sexual harassment at the state Department of Natural Resources (DNR). According to a 62-page document obtained from public records, a young woman who worked at the DNR quit her job after being harassed by 68-year-old Commissioner of Public Lands Doug Sutherland. The story goes on to say:
Sausage Links, tree-cutting edition
Timber! The Seattle Times has a series of special reports about the lack of oversight in the logging industry and the cost to state taxpayers. According to the report, no one checked when Weyerhaeuser started clear-cutting unstable slopes, some of which eventually slid and cost millions of dollars to clean up. Naturally, David Goldstein at Horse's Ass blames Republican-led deregulation. ...Sausage Links, gas cards for bad guys edition
Alright everybody. Let's head to Tacoma. If we hurry, we can help Tacoma-Pierce County Crime Stoppers catch sexual predators, gangsters, domestic violence abusers, and violent criminals. Why? Because they're giving away $250 gas cards and up to $1,000 in exchange for information that would lead to arrests. Here's the list of criminals. Start hunting. After all, what better incentive is there to dodge outrageous gas prices than to catch perverts? Don't answer that.
Sausage Links, blame-game edition
David Goldstein at Horse's Ass says everyone has missed the boat about the latest mess surrounding the "top-two" primary. The Seattle Times blamed the parties. The parties blamed the state. Others blamed the lawyers. Goldstein, however, says the person to blame for what could be the "most monumental legal fuck up in state history — one which puts the legitimacy of our entire 2008 election in jeopardy" — is state Attorney General Rob McKenna.
Sausage Links, mayor-about-town edition
Oh, Greg. You are trying to break our hearts! Just when we vilify you for airballing the Sonics all the way to OKC for a cool $45 million — you show you're a real Mayor-about-town houses and plastic bag taxes.
For better or worse, everybody's talking about Mayor Nickels' proposals today. Erica C. Barnett at The Stranger says she spotted a "Plastic Monster" at last night's public-comment meeting about the proposed plastic bag tax, while Seattle Times columnist Danny Westneat warns if we don't choose paper the plastic bag police will get us. Meanwhile, the folks at Sound Politics rail against Nickels for the new town house plan, which they argue will regulate affordable housing "out of existence." ...
Sausage Links, top-two headache edition
David Postman had a busy morning. First, The Seattle Times chief political writer reported the proper way to describe the death with dignity "assisted suicide" initiative. Then he dropped a political firebomb, reporting the state's political parties haven't yet given up trying to ax the "top-two" primary, with both Republicans and Democrats claiming the entire '08 election won't count. I thought that headache was over. Turns out it's just getting started. ...
Sausage Links, "freedom to get drunk and blow stuff up" edition
Chris Mulick at the Tri-City Herald has today's top story, reporting this morning that Tim Eyman's Initiative 985 and the Service Employees International Union-backed Initiative 1029 would — if passed by voters in November — increase the state's budget deficit by an estimated $300 million.
Sausage Links, hammer-time edition
Tri-City Herald reporter Chris Mulick digs deep into Washington state's bungled attempt to land a $2 billion uranium enrichment plant, along with its 400 high-paying jobs. According to Mulick, Gov. Chris Gregoire chose not to pursue bidding for the plant, deciding instead to play it cool politically. As a result, Idaho got the plant. Washington lost the money. And Dino Rossi just got more ammo for his campaign. Still, Gregoire's got a sizable lead in the polls, at the moment. ...
Sausage Links, gun-ban edition
It's too soon to tell if gun enthusiasts will henceforth consider June 26 "Possess a Pistol Day," but here's the immediate reactions to the Supreme Court ruling rejecting the D.C. gun ban, from both sides of the aisle: Goldstein, Earling, Obama, McCain. ...
Sausage Links, media-bashing edition
Lefty blogger David Goldstein at Horse's Ass has been battering the local media lately. Yesterday, he unleashed on Seattle Post-Intelligencer reporter Chris McGann for his coverage of Gov. Chris Gregoire's now infamous state gambling compact. Today he asks Crosscut's Ted Van Dyk to apologize to Gregoire for his own coverage of Casino-gate. ...
If this man gathers 1,500 signatures and $5 from each of those folks, he can have another $192,500 to bankroll his campaign for mayor.
In Portland, the public is asked to bail out a hotel
That sound you heard early this morning was thousands of mouthfuls of coffee being blown out Portlanders' noses as they got to the story in the Oregonian headlined, "Hotel above Macy's overshoots its budget." And that projectile coffee didn't happen because the readers were laughing, trust me.
This one is called the South Waterfront, rising along the west side of the Willamette River. It's got Portland's famous blend of good design, convenient transit, green buildings, and youthful demographics. But how well can this admired formula work with prices getting way up there?
Katrina and lessons learned
What can Portland teach New Orleans? And what might the Big Easy pass on to the Rose City? According to a guest article in the Oregonian, plenty.
Chris Beck, a former Realtor and Oregon state representative, now a post-Katrina urban-rebuilding consultant, has spent much of the past year in New Orleans as the rebuilding process inches ahead. It’s not surprising that Portland’s strengths — healthy development, involved citizenry — would be traits Beck would like to see exported to New Orleans.
Jack McClellan has been convicted of no crime, but he's become a pariah and an outcast, unwelcome in the Northwest. He loves to blog about his fantasies of little girls, but in reality he is molesting all of us.
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My day with the ranchers
An overview of statewide races in Washington
Crapping on Seattle
School integration, after the Seattle decision
Editorial cartoonists join the endangered list at newspapers
David Horsey replies with McCain cartoon spoofing New Yorker cover
Jerry Springer's sea of troubles
New name for the Sonics: Oklahoma City Thunder, says a TV station
A long-odds referendum could reverse the city's settlement with the Sonics
Jim Moore: Maybe it's time to trade Ichiro
A federal judge reinstates protection for Rocky Mountain wolves
The endangered wolverine needs help
Judge orders gray wolves put back on endangered list
Sausage Links, pot, farms, and medicine edition
Count on the alt-weeklies to provide blow-by-blow coverage of the recent medical marijuana bust illegal search and seizure. Dominic Holden at The Stranger has the story about the incident — along with copies of the police report and the arresting officer's search warrant. According to the reports, Seattle Police officers tore down a wall while searching for an illegal pot-growing operation that didn't exist, while seizing bags of marijuana and medical records. The folks at Seattlest would like to remind the SPD that medical marijuana has been legal in Washington for nearly 10 years. ...
The black critic who dares to dis hiphop
A new cure for affordable housing: small cottages
Tillamook Rock Lighthouse
Baker Dam
With the Olympics just 18 months away, congestion at the U.S.-Canadian border raises concern
King County pulls a pesticide guide to food from the Web
Tomatoes get the green light from the FDA, but hot peppers are still suspect
Bremerton's historic Sinclair Building will be torn down this week
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