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Namekian Fusion: This fusion is exclusively for Namek's. First, one Namek places his hand on the other, then ki is concentrated and the fusion begins to take place. The Namek's have the ability to choose which of the two bodies they want to use. The resulting warrior is much stronger than either warrior alone. If by chance the two warriors fusing were once one being and parted for whatever reasons, the Fusion becomes twice as powerful.
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THE sky is falling on King County government. The budget is unsustainable. The task of delivering services grows more challenging by the day.
For the first time since the current county government was created, no incumbent is seeking re-election as executive, creating enormous opportunity for change. Of several quality candidates seeking the job, two stand out ahead of the others, state Rep. Ross Hunter and state Sen. Fred Jarrett. Both are endorsed with equal enthusiasm.
. . .
Jarrett and Hunter are thoughtful and prepared — ready to make difficult changes in areas where the budget is imploding. Vote confidently for Jarrett or Hunter for county executive.
Read the full endorsement here, from: Copyright © 2009 The Seattle Times Company
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Her only major endorsement — from the Alki Foundation — is shared with Nickels. Democratic districts have rejected her as an insider. The Stranger alternative newspaper featured a drawing of Nickels last week, and to capture Drago's likeness, the artist used the same drawing — with a bow in its hair.
Her opponents have seized on it.
"She brings some different dynamics and different elements into the race (in that) she's seen as being another longtime incumbent," said former Sonic James Donaldson, the candidate who in some polls is tied with Drago for third place.
Drago (pronounced DRAH-go) has been elected four times to the City Council, serving 16 years. She has been Nickels' ally on major initiatives. If the two disagreed in public, it was often over who should get credit for a project they worked on together.
Drago said she and the mayor worked together "because it takes a mayor and a council working together to make the big accomplishments on projects."
Read the rest of the story, Seattle Times: Drago tries to distance herself from Nickels
James Donaldson, the former Seattle Sonic, is the only candidate [for Mayor of Seattle] who is against using tax money to refurbish KeyArena to hopefully lure another NBA team to town. Also, Drago was the only candidate to say she was against electing City Council members by district instead of the current system of city-wide elections.
SeattlePI.com Seattle mayoral debate highlights
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If anyone truly believes the future in commercial broadcast radio as more than a niche market has a lifespan of more than a few years, I expect they are 40 years or older, live in an area with poor broadband coverage, or have never heard of this thing called the iPhone. Mobile radio—using devices like the iPhone to listen to Internet radio—is going to kill standard commercial formats. It may also bring new life to non-corporate formats like indie, college, alternative, and public radio broadcasters.
Read the rest of Internet Killed the Radio Star
BY GLENN FLEISHMAN, 07/20/2009, 11:09 AM
ra⋅di⋅o [rey-dee-oh] Show IPA noun, plural -di⋅os, adjective, verb, -di⋅oed, -di⋅o⋅ing.
Use Radio in a Sentence
–noun
1. wireless telegraphy or telephony: speeches broadcast by radio.
2. an apparatus for receiving or transmitting radio broadcasts.
3. a message transmitted by radio.
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The five major candidates for King County executive agree on one thing.
No new taxes.
Not to mitigate looming huge cuts to health and human services, and to public safety, and not for a new arena to lure an NBA team to replace the Seattle Sonics.
The candidates - County Councilman Dow Constantine, state Rep. Ross Hunter, former broadcaster Susan Hutchison, state Sen. Fred Jarrett and County Councilman Larry Phillips - all gathered Thursday in Bellevue for a City Club forum.
Read SeattlePI.com: Exec candidates: No taxes for NBA arena or anything else right here.
March 19, 2009
Constantine promotes jobs, tourism in Olympia
Testified Wednesday to Senate Ways and Means Committee
Metropolitan King County Council Chair Dow Constantine addressed legislators yesterday in Olympia in support of a bill that would allow King County to redirect existing visitor taxes to tourist promotion, arts and heritage centers, and other community development programs.
“Supporting arts, cultural and heritage programs in our communities is extremely important,” said Constantine. “People travel from other states and other countries for the symphony and the opera, for art exhibits and rock & roll shows. Visitors' hotel, restaurant, and retail dollars are critical to our state and local economy.”
Additionally, SB 6116 could fund low-income housing, regional centers and publicly owned stadiums or arenas. The bill would direct revenue currently being used to pay off the bonds for construction of Qwest and Safeco Fields to these new programs once the stadium debts are retired.
Studies show the strong relationship between tourism, arts and the economy. One study indicates travel and tourism is the third leading retail sector in the country, creating more than 8 million jobs. Visitors to historic sites and cultural attractions stay longer and spend more money than passive tourists.
“People are hurting, and King County and the state face continuing budget shortfalls, so now is the time to invest in programs that preserve jobs, generate revenue and support economic development,” added Constantine.
SB 6116 is sponsored by Senator Ed Murray (D-43) and Senator Jeanne Kohl-Welles (D-36).
Link to: Constantine promotes jobs, tourism in Olympia
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Mike Baker
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why doesn't Hunter, who's already earned a reputation as that rare politician who gets shit done, simply wait to try and pick off Congressman Dave Reichert in 2010, a scenario the state Dems would cream their pants over? Fact is, his county exec campaign may be a well-masked attempt to lay the groundwork for just such a run.
Mike Seely posted his story right here.
Donaldson Rips Nickels Over Handling of Police, Roads, Fire Stations, City Light, Labor...In Other Words, Just About Everything
By Mike Seely in Campaign 2009, City of Seattle, Civics 101, Politics
Gargantuan mayoral candidate James Donaldson delivered a speech to the King County Labor Council's Endorsement Committee today, in which he backed Mayor Nickels down in the post and threw a bunch of elbows, the sharpest of which can be reviewed after the jump/below.
Read the rest of the story, "Donaldson Rips Nickels", here.
To this end our schedule at The Times is packed with endorsement interviews this month. We will be vetting races from the Eastside to Seattle that involve more than two candidates, triggering a primary vote. In most cases, the editorial board will pick two candidates to suggest for the general election [pro quo?]. The advancing candidates will likely be asked to come in for another endorsement meeting in the fall.
Technology makes it possible to give voters more insight into the endorsement process. Seattletimes.com will webcast our endorsement meetings for King County executive on July 15 and Seattle mayor on July 21.
Look for our endorsements the last week of this month and the first week of August. The endorsements will begin running about a week before the mail ballots go out and for nearly a week after voters receive them. This ensures voters have our suggestions before and while they sit down at the kitchen table to vote. We will also do a recap of our suggestions closer to Aug. 18.
We are not going it alone for this primary. The editorial page has partnered with CityClub to put on debates for the two highest profile races. The county executive debate will be July 16 at the Meydenbauer Center in Bellevue. The following week, on July 23, we will be at it again with the Seattle mayoral debate at CityClub's home in Rainier Square.
Ryan Blethen
Times editorial page Editor
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Commentary: How I tried to save the city and became Mr. Mean
By seattlepostglobe
PostGlobe
By Ben Schroeter
After the substantial media coverage of my recently filed SEPA lawsuit against the city of Seattle and One Reel, my persona has almost overnight morphed from neighborhood activist to “Mr. Mean” and my name has surfaced on blogs and comments in the local online media sources as the evil malignant tumorlike, sue-happy, tree-hugging environmental idiot du jour .
Thanks, folks … I must be doing something right.
This event has been going on for years Ben why are you complaining now?
Why did you file this lawsuit right before the event?
Do you hate fireworks?
Why are you so anti-American?
The answer is quite simple. After years of study on toxics and pesticides I’ve learned that these chemicals are much more dangerous than most of us can imagine and our mistaken idea that our government will protect us is exactly that: a mistaken idea.
Just because the City allows 50,000 people into Gas Works Park doesn’t mean it is safe…does it? I mean…they wouldn’t do it if we could be harmed right? What evidence can they provide that documents the safety in Gas Works Park ? Well…uh…I did years of research looking for it and I did not find it anywhere in their records.
What I did find is that large corporate users are given preferential treatment in park rentals and manage to have fees and rules waived so as to help them stage their events. If your kid’s soccer team seeks to get a permit to hold a party at Gas Works Park , they will be required to keep all tents, staging off the turf and driving on the grass is strictly forbidden so as to protect the grass and dirt “cap” that separates us from the toxic chemicals below. But for the 4th of July those rules are dismissed. Why? Is it somehow safer to drive on the grass on the 4 th of July?
I have tried to bring these deficiencies, errors and dangers to the media eye for a long time now but the media is looking for sensationalism and none of them took interest until I filed this thing right before the 4th . If there is one thing I did learn in my 10 years of college, it is how to create a news event that media will bite on.
And so after years of asking the city of Seattle to follow the law; after years of looking at public documents; after having to (successfully) sue the city (under the Public Records Act) to give me the documents I requested, I finally filed this suit in a manner that will allow people to actually hear and consider the issues raised.
How patriotic is that to question our government on the 4th of July? At least Stephen Colbert understood my point (see http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/232487/june-30-2009/4th-of-july-under-attack).
Read the rest of his story at Seattle PostGlobe
The beginning of the end of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
(Interview from, June 1st, 2009)
Art Thiel grew up in Tacoma, went to college at Pacific Lutheran University. He has been at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer for 29 years, starting in 1980. At the Seattle PI he has been a sports columnist since 1987.
In 2003, he wrote Out of Left Field, a book on the Seattle Mariners. His latest book, The Great Book of Seattle Sports Lists, with co-authors Steve Rudman and Mike Gastineau is available in bookstores now. He also provides commentary weekly on KPLU-FM 88.5 every Friday.Also, every Friday at 3 p.m he is with Kevin Calabro on ESPN 710 AM.
Through nearly three decades of the newspaper’s operation Art has been there for the announcement of the end, the actual end of print, and the new beginning as an online news organization, SeattlePI.com.
After 146 years of operation On January 9th, 2009, the Seattle PI newspaper announced that barring a sale within 60 days the newspaper would either be web-only or cease operating. Two days later his article One paper can't contain all our voices, views was published.
Mike Baker: I would like to go back to January and work my way to, even, today.
Art Thiel: Ok.
Mike: On January 9th.
Art: Black friday.
Mike: Right, they announced the end of the end. two days later you wrote your first article about a one newspaper town, or, a zero newspaper town. so, what was the immediate change, the announcement was that they were going to stop printing or they are going to be an online publication. How did that go through this office?
Art: Just as a brief background, there were any number of pundits and civic leaders that had predicted the demise of the PI. Well, we had survived many of these alleged threats. People said this was only going to work five years because of the history of joint agencies (1983 Seattle Times and Seattle PI Joint Operating agreement).
Then there was the recession of 1990-91, we were going to be domed then.
Then the Times muscled its way into the morning market, with the PI’s reluctant agreement in 1999. People said, well, the PI’s dead then.
Then, of course, there was the strike, the PI’s dead then (7 week strike ending 1/3/2001). And, the times used the strike as an excuse to begin inducing losses in the Joint Operating Agreement. Hearst (PI’s publisher) knew that and sued to stop them in 2003. Four years later Hearst won a $24 million-dollar, well they did not win a judgement, they accepted a settlement from Frank Blethen (Seattle Times publisher), who paid Hearst to settle this dispute. Clearly he was deliberately trying to sabotage our production in order to make the PI go away.
So, the PI finally felt confident. We were at least on equal footing with the Times, and the further undermining of the agency had ceased.
Well, September of ‘08 comes the market crash. All sorts f things that had been threatening all newspapers, and these two here, came to a head, and started circling the drain. Somewhere along the way, as hindsight revealed, Heart decided to pull the plug here.
To get to January 9th, I had a tip, but I was unable to confirm it, but most of us were shocked that the advantage gained by the settlement in April of ‘08 meant nothing. And that we were, in fact, going to be the second major newspaper in the county this year to go down. Rocky Mountain News, actually, Rocky Mountain News hadn’t announced it was going down, but they crashed in the 60-day window we had before the online effort took hold.
Mike: They shut all the way down.
Art: Ya’, and there was no remaining online product.
So, there was all the emotions that you associate with a plant shutdown. I mean, there was anger, dismay, disappointment, bitterness, and all the Kübler-Ross stages of grief. We all went through that in varying degrees, and complicating the feeling was that none of us knew if we were to be among the anointed twenty that would survive. And, would we want to if offered? Because we didn’t know what they were offering, and we didn’t know what Hearst wanted the online edition to look like.
Mike: All kinds of risks. At that point, even today you could argue, that there isn’t a great model for an online edition.
Art: Right, this is pioneering, no one has done what we are doing.
Mike: Exactly, and so, I know that in Minneapolis, I think they had a weekly that went online.
Art: They are the remaining staff, the laid-off staffs of both Minneapolis and St. Paul papers created MinnPost (MinnPost.com). There is an equivalent in San Diego, called Voice of San Diego (VoiceofSanDiego.org). I think the St. Louis journalists got together and did a similar thing, that name escapes me (St. Louis Beacon, stlbeacon.org), but, there have been nascent efforts to create online newspapering in metro areas.
Mike: one of the different things here is that the owner-publisher is going that direction, where if you go back, McClatchy was selling-off. There was a lot of selling-off, there wasn’t somebody investing, and saying, we’re going to try this.
Art: Right.
Mike: So, this is an unusual, a big unknown for everyone here.
Art: It is, exactly
Mike: I remember, I saw online a panel discussion, I think it was late February, at downtown Seattle.
Art: Oh, the No News is Bad News? I was there (www.nonewsisbadnews.org/event1.html).
Mike: Right, as the lone print journalist on the panel.
Art: (laughs) That’s right.
Mike: As I was watching that, you had mentioned where the news comes from (a newsroom), and, it still comes from there. It isn’t necessarily delivered all the time in a print format, but that business cycle of printing it and getting paid has dissipated up to this point.
So, I’m wondering, some six weeks, or so, had passed since the announcement and this panel. So, when you’re in a room full of people all asking the question, What happens now, even the people that were supposed to be doing what was supposed to be happening now, like the West Seattle Blog (westseattleblog.com), they all seem to be trying to figure it out.
Was it far enough along here that it became clear that they were not going to be able to sell, and that they were likely going to go online?
Art: Well, at that point the sale period had expired as of January 9th, so that’s when they felt they could say this. but, what wasn’t known then was anything about Hearst’s agenda for the online operation. So, at that point, nobody knows. No one knew who would be retained, how many would be retained, and what the look of, and the ambition of the online website would be. And so, we were still in the Nether World of not knowing, and of not being sure wether, they hadn’t even set salaries. So, we all assumed it was going to be less money. But, Hearst was also competing against itself because, for people like me, who had been here a long time, I’ve been here 29 years, we had a big severance package. And so, it seemed, pretty unlikely that for anybody with, probably, 15 years of time that the Hearst offer of employment here would match that one big chunk of severance.
So, a lot of people, they said, I can’t imagine Hearst offering me anything I want, and so they were playing out the string for the 60 days. The issue, of course, for many people is healthcare coverage, ‘cause the one advantage that this newsroom now is that Hearst has continued healthcare, whereas, those of us that accepted the severance got 90 days of COBRA which will expire July 1st. And so, we are going to be out on private pay healthcare which is obviously quite expensive.
So, all that was going through people’s day-to-day existences, and there was something of a moving target as to when the last print product would be. A lot of people were reading tea leaves in the Hearst’s motives and say, oh they’re going to pull the plug now, and right about that time the Rocky Mountain News went down in February. So, well Hearst could do that in a day.
Well, they actually wound up being 66 days, or whatever it was. And so, in February when that online meeting people were just beginning to explore, well, what else is there? What can I do as an individual, what can we do collectively? That’s when the Seattle Post-Globe people (seattlepostglobe.org) started having their meetings, and discussions. Can we put an online product out that’s somewhat similar to MinnPost, or Voice of San Diego, meetings took place to try to create that. And there were, also, people splintering off in to do their own things, other people leaving the business, other people retiring, vacationing, whatever.
So, there was no particular cohesion, everyone had a certain place in their lives, ya’ know, if you got two kids in college you’ve got to come up with something. If you’re near retirement, you’re a different story, or if you’re a single person, all kinds of things, everybody had kind of a different agenda. So, there was no really cohesive element. Then, and now, no single angel investor has emerged to be the life force like it was in Minnesota to sustain an operation until it could get, probably, to be break even.
Mike: At the same time, if you step away from here, and create your own, you are then competing with the PI or Hearst as an online entity, if you go that direction. So, people choosing to go that direction, it seems to me, that they, were, were people breaking into specialty subjects, or how did that come about?
Art: There was nothing that organized. It was just everybody who just thought that they had a talent or a skill who wanted to try to pursue it, who were looking at options. But, I mean, there’s maybe a collection of 15 to 20 people contributing to Seattle Post-Globe, which is the biggest group. But there is another group just started, just today, called investigate west (www.invw.org launches July 8th), which is lead by assistant metro editor Rita Hibbard and has several people who made their living investigative reporting, are together, for a website, that they hope will be sponsored. And, I think they had affiliation with University of Washington grant money that will help sustain them for a while. That’s another experiment. I’m working on a website with my colleague Steve Rudman that will off sports commentary, per haps, on a subscription basis (www.nwsportspress.com).
So, everybody’s got a different agenda, and a different timeline. And, obviously, it varies with urgency, a lot of people with younger kids are saying I’ll take any job I can get; PR, or construction.
Mike: But that’s not your position, that’s not where you’re at?
Art: Right, I want to continue in journalism, and I want to continue with this website. And the PI, also, Hearst did not fully commit to the electronic version until early in March. So, we didn’t know if they were going to pull this trigger, and they finally did. And they belatedly, at the end of that period, said ok, “you, you, you, and you”, and these steps [gestures] go up to the second floor where they were meeting everyone and making their proposals. And so, it was a very strange period there in mid-March where the phone would ring, and somebody would say, “come up stairs to the meeting room”. So, you’d watch who would go up the stairs to see who got the job, or, they came back down and said “no”, ‘cause some people did turn it down.
. . .
This is the end part 1 of the conversation.
I had a chat with Art Thiel at Seattle Post-Intelligencer offices on June 1st, 2009, as part of a classroom assignment I was taking at the University of Washington (COM495 with my host, Steve Scher).
I wanted to know how technology has had an impact on society, in this case, the internet and the newspaper.
As it turned out, I only needed to submit the audio recording for the classroom assignment. Unfortunately, for the past couple weeks my mind kept returning to the interview. To be fair to Art Thiel, and his generosity with his time, I will publish the transcription of the interview here, lightly edited (to remove my rambling).
This is part 1, the beginning of the end. The middle of the end will arrive in about a week, and the end of the end a week after. The next two parts are much shorter (I promise).
Happy Independence Day, Art!
Mike Baker
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Strains in the green-growth coalition
The battle for candidate endorsements reveals some ideological divides between local environmentalists, developers, and independent thinkers who wonder if all urban growth is good.
By Knute Berger
People in Seattle are green green green. We're a leader on Kyoto, we hate plastic bottles and shopping bags, and our politicians often jockey over who is more green than the other. Candidates for office vie for key endorsements from groups like the Cascade Bicycle Club, Washington Conservation Voters, and the Sierra Club.
Erica Barnett writing at Publicola offers an interesting window into how the green-growth coalition is finessed. She writes about how city council candidate Jessie Israel managed to get endorsements from both pro-density Washington Conservation Voters and the pro-growth Seattle/King County chapter of the Washington Realtors Association. One group hates sprawl, the other thrives on growth, including sprawl.
She's not the first Seattle candidate to get the endorsements of both, but it's interesting to see at whose expense the endorsements were made. Both groups found Israel more to their liking than her opponent, incumbent City Councilmember Nick Licata, one of Seattle's most progressive politicians. Barnett wanted to know why Israel over Licata? There were several reasons:
Asked why the Realtors supported Israel, association public-affairs director David Crowell pointed to two issues, both of which would appear to conflict with her environmental-community support. First, Crowell said, Israel told the group she would not let tree protections stand in the way of development within growth management boundaries (i.e., in cities). "She remarked that trees are very important, but if it's a question between trees and density...in urban areas...density would trump trees," Crowell said.
Israel also apparently opposes home sellers having to conduct mandatory energy audits to let buyers know just what they're getting. As to why the WCV made its choice, Barnett reports:
Sudha Nandagopal...says the group decided to endorse Israel because she "really showed that she'll be an environmental champion" on the council, by supporting "walkable, transit-oriented communities — things that are also very important for tree canopy protection."
As for why WCV didn’t endorse Licata, as they have in the past, Nandagopal said, "Nick has been a strong opponent of Sound Transit for many years, and he's not really on same page with us on density issues. When it comes down to it, Nick Licata is not running with the environment as a priority."
Pretty amazing that Licata is now considered some kind of green apostate, despite his backing of numerous green efforts, including the Green Line monorail project which was the very definition of "transit-oriented" and the darling of the pro-density crowd. It's also interesting that one group sees Israel as willing to sacrifice urban trees while another believes her overall policies will protect urban trees.
crosscut.com Strains in the green-growth coalition
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Mike Baker
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