McClatchy Will Sell. Will Frank Buy?

The McClatchy Co., which inherited a 49.5% share of the Seattle Times Co. when it bought Knight-Ridder, says it's ready to offload the troublesome stake in Frank Blethen's struggling business. So will Blethen step up and buy back his baby, as Brian Miller suggested a few months ago? Can he afford it? Has he successfully talked down the price? Or will Girl About Town step in with her own competing bid and turn it into a Seattle-based Tiger Beat?

Topics: Media

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Want To Eat With McCain? Got $33,100?

When he came in Feb. 2007, Seattle greeted him with open arms.

After a couple of warm and welcoming receptions since he started his run for the White House, McCain is doing some big gun fundraising on today's jaunt to the Pacific Northwest with no plans to set foot in the Obama-fanatic Emerald City. He's hosting a $10,000 photo op for McCainiacs at the Bellevue Hyatt Regency at 5 p.m. Followed by a VIP reception at 5:30 for people who just want to rub elbows with the guy and have $2,300 burning a hole in their pocket. At 6 p.m. cheapskate Republicans can get in a little face time for $1,000 a pop, but then they all have to leave unless they're willing to shill out the $33,100 donation needed to eat dinner with the esteemed Senator from Arizona.

Last week state Democratic Party chair Dwight Pelz sent out an e-mail blast seeking donations to put a plane in the air at the event. They got the money and as the GOP party faithful arrive in Bellevue, a banner saying: "John McCain = 100 More Years in Iraq" should be circling over head.

McCain landed late this morning at Boeing Field, where upset Boeing tanker workers were planning to protest his role in an Air Force refueling tanker deal that skittered out from under the local aircraft manufacturer several years ago , reports the AP.

Following his landing was a trip to North Bend. Friend to the Daily Weekly Don Ward was there and we'll link to his coverage as soon as it's posted. (Update: Ward has posted a preliminary distpatch focused squarely on global warming over at Sound Politics.)

Sadly we won't be bringing you a digital recording of McCain's remarks at the dinner as "our fundraiser events are closed to the press," says his press office. So here instead is our coverage of some of his past appearances: Feb. 2007 and Feb. 2008.

Topics: Campaign 2008

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New Blackwater Ruling

Miller

While the Justice Department continues to review the shooting of an Iraqi bodyguard by former Blackwater security officer Andrew Moonen of Seattle (who "may soon face federal charges"), a federal judge last week ordered the re-opening of a lawsuit against Blackwater brought in part by the Spokane widow of Army Spc. Harley Miller.

Miller was killed in the crash of Blackwater 61 just after Thanksgiving 2004 in Afghanistan. The military contractor's transport plane — piloted by a former Alaska bush pilot and co-piloted by a onetime tanker pilot who fought forest fires in Central Washington — hit a mountainside in the Bamian Valley. Five died on impact but Miller amazingly survived, then died awaiting rescue.

Sarah Miller and the widows of two other military men killed in the crash - including a lieutenant colonel - sued Blackwater for negligence, citing its pilots for "failing to wear available oxygen masks, failing to properly plan and execute the flight, failing to maintain sufficient air speed and altitude above terrain, failing to maintain adequate terrain clearance appropriate for the route of flight, [and] failing to prevent a stall," for starters.

It's something of a landmark case in that Blackwater is relying on the standard defense that as a military contractor it can't be held liable, but a federal judge in Florida has held otherwise. Blackwater appealed last year, staying the case. Last week Judge John Antoon II of U.S. District Court in Orlando filed notice his ruling has been upheld by the Court of Appeals and issued an order to reopen the lawsuit.

There will be more appeals, of course, since at this point delay and cost, rather than litigating the facts, are strategic to Blackwater. According to case files, the corporation's attorneys have already submitted a motion to dismiss, claiming it's not American but Afghanistan law - what there is of it - that applies. Next stop, Kabul?

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Comments of the Week

Here's a look at a couple (unedited) thoughts left on articles over the last week:

I'm (Not) With Busey

"This rag has hit a new low with it's "Seattle is special" routine especially when the only tie is to a celebrity impersonator. You make Seattle a cow town with this sort of pandering."
— Posted by "Janmes Early"

"Many animals engage in deception, or deliberately misleading another, but only humans are wired to deceive both themselves and others. People are so engaged in managing how others perceive them that they are often unable to separate truth from fiction in their own minds. FOOD FOR THOUGHT! Jeff doesn't need to pretend!"
— Posted by "notimportant"

Topics: Comments of the Week

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Long On The Sidelines, Candidate Nominations Are A New Experience For Major Parties

Krist Novoselic at BC-STV conference, 5.10.08. Photo Larry Gordon

Most of Washington State is using a new kind of electoral system this year. The partisan Top-Two makes a party name available to any candidate who wants it. One of the major parties is fighting against this in a way that could reinvigorate democratic participation in our state.

With Washington’s partisan Top-Two, all candidates appear on the same primary ballot line and the top two vote getters advance to the general. We’re used to this kind of election with local non-partisan races. What’s different is how candidates identify themselves as partisans. A candidate will state that they prefer a political party: this is only an expression of the candidate and does not imply any real connection to a political association.

The Republicans and Democrats claim they’re harmed under the new system and are acting accordingly. The Republicans have filed an as applied legal challenge to the system: they will need to show real evidence the partisan Top-Two confuses voters over who is the real nominee of a party. Many voters rely on the candidates party affiliation on the ballot to help them choose who to vote for. There could be many candidates claiming the same party preference and this could confuse voters and lead to vote splitting to where the actual party candidate doesn’t make it in the top two.

Supporters of the new partisan Top-Two tout that political parties can still nominate candidates. The Democrats are moving forward with this notion. Democratic Party by-laws say it’s up to Precinct Committee Officers (PCOs) to choose the single candidate who will be the official party standard bearer on the ballot.

Continue reading "Long On The Sidelines, Candidate Nominations Are A New Experience For Major Parties"

Topics: Krist Novoselic: Contention & Conscious

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Times Discovers South Park

I read Ty Beason's weekend story in The Seattle Times' Pacific Northwest magazine with interest. Young creative types are moving south to affordable hoods like South Park? It almost seems like a trend, something familiar, something I've possibly written before?

Yup, one of the subjects photographed (but not quoted) in the Beason piece was also a source of mine for this 2002 story. When I visited, the young creative types were still fixing up their bargain homes. They had dogs. Now as Beason's visiting, they have kids. And thus the story advances from alt-weekly to metro daily. Can Dwell and Sunset magazines be far behind?

Topics: Media and Real Estate

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Afternoon Edition: Fallon, Squid and a Lost bag of Meth

Giant squid now terrorizing B.C. as well!

The great thing about working at Microsoft is that when your conscience finally catches up with you, you can switch to the non-profit sector and still stay in the family.

Is that your bag of Meth behind the slot machine?

Jimmy Fallon is the new Conan O'Brien

Local Groups Mobilizing to Help Chinese Earthquake Victims

Feds Combing Jails for Illegal Immigrants

Topics: Afternoon Edition

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Detained, Then Dead

Mexico-born Jose J. Cervantes-Corona was 42 when he died at the Northwest Detention Center 21 months ago. We never heard about it, but his death at the Tacoma tideflats facility is now suspected of having been preventable.

Cervantes-Corona is named in recently released and published documents showing how many "detainees" have died in U.S. immigration prisons: The New York Times last week reported that 66 names are listed in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) data from 2004 to 2007, while the Washington Post this week reported 83 have died between 2003 and 2008.

Both papers refer to Cervantes-Corona as Jesus, and his death as Nov. 18, 2006, but a Pierce County death index lists him as Jose J. and his death a day later. The Post, in the ongoing series, has not yet explained why his death may have been avoided, but the New York Times/ICE document shows Cervantes-Corona died from coronary artery disease at 42. In addition, the Post has a copy of an Immigration Health Service list showing how much money the government saved by refusing to give potenntial life-threatening treatment for a litany of ailments including chest pain.

Altogether, denying treatment in 329 cases over one year, the government saved $1.3 million. The government's data does not reveal how many of those denials led to deaths. But the Post lists Carvantes-Corona's death as one of 30 thought to have been preventable.

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Deal on Parking Refunds

The check is not yet in the mail, but will be by October for thousands of Seattle drivers wrongly ticketed for overtime parking on legal holidays. Attorneys for a Bellevue woman who won a lawsuit in 2007, today announced the city has agreed to refund from $22 to around $75 to those whose cars were ticketed or impounded.

The city could have to cough up as much as $500,000 by the time refund checks go out at the end of October. According to law firm Bendich Stobaugh & Strong:

The judgment ends a lawsuit filed in 2006 by Bellevue resident Colette Turner, who was ticketed for failing to pay a parking meter on Friday, December 31, 2004. At the time Turner was ticketed, the city’s traffic code specified that parking was free on legal holidays, which were defined to include the day before a Saturday holiday, the day after a Sunday holiday, and the day after Thanksgiving. However, the City issued thousands of parking tickets to people who failed to pay on those days.

Get your money and info here.

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Afternoon Edition: Crazed Hitters and Slutty Mermaids

Lock up your daughters! The original Sbux logo is back.

Clay Bennett can't win for losing.

The problem with Starbucks isn't that it bullied its way to coffee top dog with lattes that appeal to the lowest common denominator, it's the skanky mermaid logo.

And speaking of women that totally freak out religious crazies—what if Hillary started pandering to white trash a year ago?

Why did Boeing lose out on the refueling tanker contract? A 0.11 deficiency in Fleet Effectiveness Value. Obviously.

Talk about a tease: Billboard says Rage Against the Machine and Prince aren’t actually going to play Bumbershoot. Sorry!

Texas may take a page from the NY tax collectors book and go after Amazon.

Richie Sexson: Douchebag. Coming soon to MySpace profiles everywhere.

Topics: Afternoon Edition

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