Will Rossi Make Sonics a Campaign Issue?

Posted yesterday at 2:36 pm by Mike Seely

You bet your ass he will, reports Don Ward over at Sound Politics. A key excerpt: "Gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi watched the aftermath of the lawsuit like many other Sonics fans with a sense of foreboding. His reaction to the settlement announcement was clear. He pins responsibility for the team's expected departure on his opponent in the governor's mansion, Christine Gregoire. To Rossi, the lack of action in Olympia is a microcosm of what he sees is wrong with the state. He said if the governor has '18 different positions' on the Viaduct he wasn't really surprised that she lacked the initiative to save a 41-year old Seattle institution. 'If she wants to be governor, she has to lead every once and awhile. You have to buck up and make a decision. If it's the right thing to do she needed to do it.'"

At the heart of the Rossi's complaint is the $150 million gift by Steve Ballmer to help renovate Key Arena. Nickels had pledged the City would kick in $75 million in matching funds to help renovate the government-owned and operated facility. All that was left was for the State to come up with a funding mechanism to cover the other $75 million. The politically expedient thing would have been to pass the ball back to the King County Council to allow the county to vote whether or not to extend rental car and restaurant taxes. 'We had people who were willing to pay for this in a way that has never been offered for any sporting team before,' Rossi explained. 'All they needed to do in Olympia was allow King County to vote for an extension.'"

Topics: Campaign 2008

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Afternoon Edition: The Musical!

Posted yesterday at 1:23 pm by Mark Fefer

T-Birds, Thunder, Twisters: Oklahoma already picking its new NBA nickname.

What Sonics fans are telling OKC's fans, and vice-versa.

Who needs basketball? Once the fastest high-school miler in the state, Christopher Lukezic tries to make the Olympic squad in the 1,500 meters, starting tonight.

All-Williams women's final at Wimbledon generates new interest in an otherwise forgotten sport.

M’soft figures out a way to make Zune even more ridiculous.

A break from fundraising will give Darcy Burner time to heal. Pony up now!

Humble Texas A&M fruit researcher finds new way to get media attention all night long.

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Speaking of Inmates and Public Records

Posted yesterday at 10:10 am by Laura Onstot

Even if Allan Parmelee is allowed to keep filing records requests to his hearts content with every governmental agency in the state, the Supreme Court says he has no right to actually receive those records. (Background on Parmelee's case is here.)

In a 5 - 4 ruling today, the state high court decided that the Olympic Corrections Center was within its rights to deny inmate Michael Livingston access to records in the personnel file of a corrections officer. The DOC filled the request and sent it over to the jail. But Livingston was handed a note saying the jail did not allow inmates access to personal records of the staff working with them so the file would have to be sent to someone else of his choosing on the outside.

Livingston took the case to court with the backing of the American Civil Liberties Union and the Washington Coalition for Open Government. But in the majority opinion, Justice Barbara Madsen argues:

The public records act requires the department to release its records to the public. However, whether the Department must allow them inside a correctional facility is a distinct issue, subject to different statutory obligations.

Justice James Johnson wrote the dissenting opinion saying that simply producing a DOC record and mailing it to a DOC facility then withholding it from the requester does not actually make a record available as required by law. He writes:

But the law requires agencies to make records available, and I cannot agree that an agency makes a record available by mailing the record to itself and then withholding the record from the person who requested it.

So what does all this mean for Parmelee? In Madsen's majority opinion she does allude to the issue of who is entitled to request public records, writing:

It is well settled that a reviewing court interprets the disclosure provisions of the public records act liberally and the exemptions from disclosure narrowly. In general, an agency must disclose a public record unless a statutory exemption applies.

Nowhere in the Revised Code of Washington does it say inmates cannot have access to public records, so from that line of thinking, Parmelee is still within his rights to keep filing requests. But even if the Appellate Court currently considering that question sides with him, the Supreme Court ruling means the DOC could just send the records he seeks to jail staff with no obligation to actually let him see them.

Topics: Civics 101

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Seattle Loses Team, Adds Residents

Posted July 2 at 5:49 pm by Damon Agnos

Barring a courtroom miracle from Howard Schultz, the city lost its NBA team today. But the numbers released by the Office of Financial Management show that the city continues to add residents. According to the OFM's April 1st estimates (released today), Seattle grew by 6,600 people, bringing its total to 592,800. King County added roughly 23,000 residents, for a total to 1,884,200. More numbers here.

Topics: City of Seattle

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You Think the Ferry Schedule's Bad? Try the T.P.

Posted July 2 at 5:06 pm by Chris Kornelis

The bathrooms aboard our ferries are not pleasant places. They're dirty. You have to dry your hands with one of those dank, cloth towels. And, worst of all, the toilet paper leaves you with regrets for days. This is the kind of detail occasional riders overlook. But, for regular riders, and members of what WSF-boss David Moseley has referred to as “ferry-dependent communities,” it's a pain in the ass. The kind of thing you'd change if you had to use it.

But Mr. Moseley is not a member of one of said communities. A resident of Pioneer Square, Moseley told me, “I see the ferries a lot,” but he doesn't leave Mariners games in the top of the Seventh, he doesn't miss late-night happy hours, or the end of plays so he can catch the 10:30 p.m. ferry home rather than the 12:50 a.m.

With that in mind, I wasn't completely shocked that Moseley opened Monday's WSF workshop by telling riders that, despite community pleas, the 10:30 boat would not be pushed back any later. His reason: There are regular riders on the 10:30 boat who need to get to the graveyard shift at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Bremerton's largest employer.

The surprise came after the workshop, when Moseley, gracious enough to risk missing the 9 p.m. sailing home (11:40 p.m. was his next option) explained to me that the commuters who rely on the 10:30 sailing to PSNS number somewhere in the 30-40 range. So, WSF is willing to cut off a huge segment of nightlife to thousands of customers to accommodate a few dozen riders? No. There's another reason. WSF doesn't want to change the schedule, either. “Scheduling is a complicated factor,” Moseley said. “You impact one, you impact another. You start moving pieces around, you start dealing with unintended consequences.”

Continue reading "You Think the Ferry Schedule's Bad? Try the T.P."

Topics: Transportation

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From Colacurcio to Al-Ogaidi

Posted July 2 at 3:31 pm by Nina Shapiro

Gil Levy

What’s a strip club attorney doing representing an Iraqi suing over his alleged torture? That’s a question that arises from the federal suit filed this week by Sa’adoon Ali Hameed Al-Ogaidi, an Iraqi shopkeeper who claims he was tortured at Abu Gharib by several contractors for the U.S. military, including a Renton man named Daniel Johnson. In the documents filed in the U.S. Courthouse in Seattle, Gilbert H. Levy is listed as Al-Ogaidi’s attorney. Levy is best known as the legal voice of the Colacurcio clan, which own several strip clubs in the area including Rick’s in Seattle, and which were the target of federal raids last month.

“I don’t just represent Rick’s,” Levy says, reached by phone from his downtown office. “I have a general criminal practice.” He says he represented a defendant in the Hells Angels racketeering case last year, and is currently handling a death penalty case in Anchorage. In the Iraqi case, Levy says he knew somebody who knew somebody who knew Susan Burke, the Philadelphia attorney who is the lead attorney on the case. So Burke anointed him the local “paper shuffler,” in Levy’s words. He says he does not expect to do substantive work on the case. Nonetheless, you have to wonder what his Iraqi client would make of his other affiliations.

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Afternoon Edition: Crosstown Traffic, Like Manic Depression, is a Frustrating Mess

Posted July 2 at 1:23 pm by Mike Seely

There's a fucking seven-mile long backup near the WS Bridge right now. Get used to it, fellow Westsiders.

KUOW asks: “Does Seattle need more trolleys?” Absolutely—anything to give us an excuse to keep coming up with obscene acronyms.

No seriously, I have a PhD from Harvard. Spokane diploma mill ringleader gets three years for helping liars everywhere pad their resumes.

If you want to bitch about the bus, now’s your chance!

Originally code-named “Albany,” now called Equipt, this exciting new software package allows you to rent Microsoft Office for one year, for the low, low price of $69.99.

Ballmer pays $100 million for search company Powerset—and he immediately gets to fire his acquisition’s founder, just because he can.

Carolina's Outer Banks are pretty rad.

Topics: Afternoon Edition

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1st Ave. Streetcar: Curl's Revenge?

Posted July 2 at 12:51 pm by Damon Agnos

At 4:00 PM today at City Hall, the city will hold the first of four public meetings on the City Council's proposed streetcar expansions. The line being discussed today would run along 1st Ave. from Seattle Center to the King Street Station. But as commenter Matt the Engineer at the Seattle Transit Blog points out, unless the streetcar gets its own right of way, it'll basically be parked during rush hour. That would mean bad news for commuters, but perhaps good news for SW's Aimee Curl and her John Henry-esque quest to beat the machine. She came up short in her battle with the vaunted S.L.U.T., but even with 1st Ave.'s crowded sidewalks, I think she'd have a decent chance of beating a 1st. Ave. rush hour streetcar, particularly if headed downhill on the night of an M's game.

Topics: Transportation

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Starbucks' Lesson for Wall Street

Posted July 2 at 10:30 am by Nina Shapiro

Starbucks' CEO Howard Schultz

Starbucks plan to close 600 stores across the county come as a sobering shock to anyone who has watched its exponential growth over the years. But there’s something gratifying about it too. It’s not that I view Starbucks as the evil empire; I’ve never bought into the vilification of a company that in many ways has striven to treat workers and farmers right. What I applaud is the antidote to Wall Street’s longtime obsession with growth. Especially evident during the tech bubble, it has been standard operating procedure for the suits in New York to demand that companies show ever more profitability — no matter how much money they are already making. This has had a devastating effect on some industries — the newspaper business among them — where healthy profit margins are viewed as inadequate and papers are forced to slash costs. In other industries, companies expand beyond their means to show a plan for growth. One can only hope that Starbucks’ contraction offers a lesson in the foolishness of growth for the sake of growth alone.

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Afternoon Edition: Wax On, Top Off

Posted July 1 at 3:26 pm by Chris Kornelis

— Surprisingly, putting up a Craig's List ad asking for someone to give you a ride to your wax appointment doesn't yield the most productive responses.

— You block may lose a Starbucks or two.

— Financial district filled with bullets in afternoon shootout.

— Remember to hang up when you drive today! Unless you don't want to

— Not to make light of a tragic accidental death or anything, but this is why your teachers tell you not to climb fences.

— Startup acquisition news: M’soft manages to buy at least a few of the PhDs not already purchased by Google. Physicists all sold out? Linguists are now on sale!

— Bill Gates rules out bid as McCain's Veep.

Topics: Afternoon Edition

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Drink, Slip, Sue, Repeat

Posted July 1 at 1:48 pm by Nick Feldman

A University of Washington grad who fell from a fourth-floor window at the Delta Upsilon fraternity house in 2005 filed a lawsuit against the fraternity earlier this month, according to a Seattle P-I report. The suit claims the fall stemmed from a culture that promotes alcohol consumption and a dangerous sleeping environment.

Erik Anderson, then a freshman pledge, slipped from a window and fell about 45 feet to a parking lot. He has since undergone massive physical therapy, and has had to give up plans of becoming a dentist because of wrist damage. No amount has been reported, but court documents state that Anderson's medical expenses have totaled more than $279,000 so far, and that his parents have suffered about $20,000 in damages related to his injuries.

Continue reading "Drink, Slip, Sue, Repeat"

Topics: News and Schools

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Other People's Money: State Audit Edition

Posted July 1 at 12:45 pm by Aimee Curl

The state auditor's office recently released its annual list of who's who in waste and negligence. Called the statewide accountability report, it catalogs all of the audits during the previous fiscal year (which ended June 30, 2007). Eleven agencies and schools where named compared with 15 in fiscal 2006. Offenders include: the Department of Fish and Wildlife, University of Washington, Washington State Lottery Commission, Department of Services for the Blind and the Department of Early Learning.

Fish and Wildlife, which paid more than $24 million to vendors through contracts in 2007, got busted for buying $12,121 worth of antibiotics and fencing for Chinook salmon under an emergency provision, thus bypassing the proper financial controls. The department also broke state law by entering into contracts for gravel, a generator and a boat motor without competitively bidding for the goods.

Of the $1 billion the UW receives annually in cash, about $500 million is collected at locations off the main campus such as the Medical Center and University Press. State auditors found that UW may have a cash handling policy, but employees don't know about it. And money has likely been wasted because accounts aren't monitored, checks aren't deposited in a timely manner, and multiple cashiers work out of the same drawers.

Both the departments of early learning and services for the blind got called out for failing to do adequate background checks on personnel. The Department of Early Learning licenses child care providers, of which there are about 9,000 in Washington, paid approximately $256 million by the state each year. They're all required by law to have a criminal background check. A random sampling found at least 10 who had not. Similarly, auditors found seven out of 19 employees and contractors for the Department of Services for the Blind had not had their criminal records checked.

There were some repeat offenders like the Washington State Historical Society, which runs the State Capitol Museum in Olympia. They got a slap on the wrist, again, for failing to abide by basic accounting practices like keeping track of how much it collected in admission fees. The museum brought in close to $300,000 last year.

Of course, there are a number of agencies and higher learning institutions that are clean, 58 to be exact, including big departments like Agriculture and Transportation— which was tagged in 2006 for, among other things, not ensuring gas purchased was used for department use. And the state doesn't audit every agency every year.

Not to worry, though. It's just a few bad apples, promises State Auditor Brian Sonntag in his preface to the report: "The vast majority of state agencies are doing a good job of safeguarding public resources."

Topics: State of Washington

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Shooting on Spring - Report From the Sidewalk

Posted July 1 at 11:27 am by Emma Breysse

Shots were fired in the vicinity of Spring and Second during the high-speed of pursuit of what Seattle Police are saying was the aftermath of a bank robbery.

Tom (not a fan of having his full name in the news) who works at a Post Alley restaurant lives in Capitol Hill, and he said the pursuit was in full swing when he left his house for work this morning and followed his route to work. Police said the bank in question was in West Seattle.

"You knew it was bad because they were driving risky," Tom said of the 15-22 cars he saw racing after a Jeep SUV. "I definitely heard shots, maybe as many as ten."

This is confirmed by the sight of that very SUV stopped in the middle of the intersection of Spring and Second with its windows blown out by gunfire, and by the presence of an ambulance and medical personnel on the scene.

Police called to the scene were in many cases just as confused as the crowds of onlookers pressing against the caution tape that blocked them from an area at least one block out from the Jeep in every direction.

One officer blocking cars from driving up Spring said he had just arrived and knew only that there had been a chase.

"I was called to the scene and so I came," he said. "I think it's a bank robbery."

The officer went on to say that his presence was the result of a mass radio call for all available officers in the vicinity, then herded civilians in the street (including a certain Seattle Weekly reporter) onto the sidewalk.

Helicopters are still buzzing over the scene and the area is still taped off. Nothing is known about the condition of the man Seattle Police pulled from the SUV.

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Darcy Burner's Fire

Posted July 1 at 11:27 am by Rick Anderson

Ames Lake home/KOMO

Raw video from KIRO on the candidate's home burning this morning.

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Lives of the Not-So-Rich but Still Famous

Posted July 1 at 11:19 am by Laura Onstot

Robert Jamieson has a touching look at the community-wide effort to save jazz vocalist Ernestine Anderson's house, on the brink of foreclosure after she ended up with one of the subprime loans that have wreaked havoc on the lives of people who were given mortgages way out of their price range in the housing boom.

I don't want to see Anderson in foreclosure either, but as Jamieson mentions, she already has one home, and the one she was about to lose was a six-bedroom domicile. When it comes to people whose lives are on the verge of being devastated to the tune of no assets, trashed credit, and loss of a place to lay their head it seems that there are other people more desperately in need of a $50,000 shot in the arm. But they didn't win a Grammy so no collection is being taken up for them.

I'm glad we could come together to help out a Seattle icon, but it would be nice to see this largesse include not only the note-worthy, but the family down the street hanging on by a thread.

Topics: Real Estate

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