Stories for Nov. 2, 2007

Change the climate on Saturday

By Daniel Jack Chasan

Preaching to the choir may be better than not preaching at all -- and it's a start. On Saturday, the National Day of Climate Action as Step It Up 2 calls it, rallies will let people in Seattle, Portland, and elsewhere across the country urge their federal representatives to do something serious about global climate change. It's a new-media-savvy, grass-roots project strongly endorsed, naturally, by Al Gore. It promotes rallies and other small events to which people are inviting their own senators and representatives, plus all the Presidential candidates. (Representative Jay Inslee, King County Executive Ron Sims, and Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels were featured speakers at Seattle's first Step It Up rally on April 14.) Step It Up was the inspiration of writer Bill McKibben.) You can get specifics at their website

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Michael Bloomberg, Mr. Big Business, calls for a carbon tax

By C.R. Douglas

It's hard to upstage Bill Clinton and Al Gore when it comes to the topic of climate change. But Michael Bloomberg did just that this afternoon in Seattle. The U.S. Conference of Mayors, which has been meeting here for the past two days, heard from both the former president and the former vice president yesterday. But the real news came today when the New York mayor took to the podium.

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Paul Krugman, champion of the Old Deal

By David Brewster

Paul Krugman, rock-em sock-em liberal columnist for The New York Times, was at Town Hall last night, peddling his new book and taking on three dragons. One was a bad head cold. The other was all the talk about climate change emanating from Mayor Nickels' celebrity confab on that topic (Krugman is tone-deaf to this issue). The third dragon was the drift of modern history. Krugman is a wonderful columnist, a first-rate purveyor of economic facts and analysis. He's got an acid sense of humor, as when he described the 2004 George Bush campaign as one where Bush ran against "gay married terrorists." But he is also firmly anchored in the New Deal, wishing for the return of FDR and one last big federal entitlement program, health insurance for all.

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Full text: Statement on moving the Sonics

By Chuck Taylor

In a stunning turn of events, the Oklahoma ownership of the Seattle SuperSonics announced today that it intends to move the NBA team to – Oklahoma City. Notably, it sounds as if the WNBA Seattle Storm could remain here. Here's the entire statement issued by lead owner Clay Bennett:

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How to put Dino Rossi's newfound populism to the test

By Knute Berger

Seattle Times political blogger Dave Postman wrote about hints that Republican Dino Rossi might try a more populist tack in his 2008 campaign for governor. Postman cited Rossi's campaign announcement indicating that "big business" was part of the "crowd that has controlled state government for a generation does not intend to give up power without a fight." That crowd also includes Gov. Christine Gregoire, who, he implies, is in the Big Boys' pocket.

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Godzilla meets the Arboretum

By David Brewster

Allied Arts threw one of its highly enjoyable Beer and Culture events last week, and the topic was what to do about the expanded 520 bridge as it comes crashing through the Arboretum. There's a design challenge for you. The event, for which I was panel moderator, revealed some interesting developments in this ongoing saga. First, I got the distinct sense that the current leading idea, the Pacific Interchange, has been quietly taken out behind a wall and shot. If so, we are back to square one on this bedeviled project.

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