Media
Local lefty Horsesass.org blogger David Goldstein has joined the Huffington Post (www.huffingtonpost.com), the Web site du jour of our nation’s current political discontent. Goldstein plays down the achievement, saying he is one of “700 bloggers” who write for the site, including Hollywood glitterati like Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Harry Shearer, and Ellen DeGeneres. But it is a fairly significant step in Goldstein’s journey to become a professional propagandist. He models himself on KOMO-AM (1000) talk-show host, initiative sponsor, and former Republican gubernatorial candidate John Carlson. “We need a liberal John Carlson—not just partisan but a partisan activist,” says Goldstein. He secured the Huffington Post gig by schmoozing with one of the site’s financial backers, New York corporate whiz and political candidate Dal Lamagna, who in turn introduced him to Colin Sterling, an associate editor at Huffington Post. When Seattle Weekly reached Sterling in New York, he at first couldn’t recall Goldstein. No matter, Goldstein has a national Web outlet now and hopes KIRO-AM (710) here will give him an audition for their 9 p.m.–1 a.m. slot. GEORGE HOWLAND JR.
Sports
There’s an unspoken rule in Chicago: If you have Cubs tickets, you’re excused from work for the afternoon, no questions asked. This is significant because all but a handful of home Cubs games are played during daylight hours, the Cubs usually suck, and the Cubs typically sell out or come very close to selling out. Conversely, Seattle has long been something of a fair-weather town. For the past couple seasons, the Mariners, a team that once struggled to draw 10,000 people to the Kingdome, seemed to buck this trend—attracting robust crowds to see an awful on-field product. But no more. The challenge now is not obtaining tickets to M’s games, it’s giving them away. The afternoon of May 10 was sunny and 65, but dogged attempts to give away three center field bleacher seats proved futile. They ended up in the hands of grateful tenants of the Salvation Army‘s William Booth Center, a transitional housing complex for homeless men in the International District. MIKE SEELY
State Supreme Court
Your tax dollars at work: A state Supreme Court justice, admonished by the state Commission on Judicial Conduct for chatting with state prisoners at a state prison, appeals the punishment to his own state Supreme Court—requiring the appointment of interim state justices to hear the case. Meanwhile, the state justice sues the state attorney general for not releasing state documents. And it’s all because, says Justice Richard Sanders, he was “set up” by Attorney General Rob McKenna and former AG and now Gov. Christine Gregoire. Sanders, according to recent filings in his Thurston County lawsuit against McKenna et al., has now received the documents he sought. McKenna said the delay was merely procedural and, parsing madly, claimed there was confusion over records “produced” and records “disclosed.” But Sanders’ crusade continues. He wants McKenna—keeper of the state’s Open Records Act—found in violation of said act and punished by fines of up to $100 a day since July 2004, plus attorney fees. What’s that, $1 million maybe? That would be your price of admission to this spectacle, state taxpayer. RICK ANDERSON
