Results tagged “2009”

The Times' Nicole Brodeur addresses the latest round of food-related conspiracy theories in her column today, with quotes from PCC's director of public affairs Trudy Bialic to help debunk the rumor that a current bill moving through Congress would somehow ban organic foods and decimate farmers' markets as we know them in one giant win for Monsanto. Some of our acquaintances went so far as to claim to us that HR 875 would outlaw nutrients. (What?) There is a Food Safety Modernization bill, HR 875, but it's not at all what the crazies are claiming. Thanks for doing our research for us on this one, Brodeur--we'll point people towards your article.

They're pretty cute. Our favorite--and the commercial currently leading the poll on the Mariners' website--is "Sorry," which involves Felix Hernandez being a sweetheart. The Ichiro one struck us as kind of dumb, but don't take our word for it: watch them all here and let us know what you think.

Hopefully, in 2009, we're all wieners! Drop your winning photos into the Seattlest Flickr Pool.

It was freezing rain at about 5:30 p.m. on Sunday night. We walked home from the grocery store fairly pleased at having dodged a snowy bullet. But by 7 p.m. there were two inches on the ground and more on the way. So we laced up the snow boots and headed out for a look around Capitol Hill. Our major takeaway is that snow remains slippery stuff. Seattle DOT had 16 snow plows out by about 9 p.m., with a total of 24 expected to hit the streets tonight. We're still expecting rising temperatures and rain overnight, so at the very least it should be a wet Monday morning.

Commenter Simonian brings up an excellent point: who, exactly, is this Greg Smith who may or may not be running for mayor against Greg Nickels? Here's what we dug up:

The rumor weed is running rampant across the lawn of Seattle's local politics regarding a possible Greg Smith run for Mayor next year. It looks like he might even have a fighting chance, though the well-funded Nickels is certain to run for a third term. There are other names persistently sprouting up here and there as possible opponents: former and current City Councilmen Peter Steinbrueck and Nick Licata (respectively), and--hell, why not consider familiar Nickels foe Mark Sidran again? What do you think? Which of these men should be our next Mayor? Our poll will close tomorrow at noon, and opinions are welcome in the comments.

The Seattle Times reports that a whopping 400 county government jobs will be cut in King County Executive Ron Sims' 2009 budget. The cuts are part of Sim's plan to reduce county expenditures by $93 million for the next year, a significant belt-tightening. Sims did say that he's trying to delay budget cuts in health and human services, but still....400 jobs gone translates to a lot of men and women who will be looking for work soon. Anyone hiring?

First, hitting coach Jeff Pentland was fired, then General Manager Bill Bavasi was shown the door, and yesterday it was John McLaren's turn to up the state's unemployment rate.

The Seattle Repertory Theatre has just announced its artistic director, David Esb...Esbjornson has decided not to renew his contract. When it expires on June 30, 2009, so will he. Esbjornson joined Seattle Rep in 2005, and we still have trouble with his name.

"Though we are genuinely disappointed with David's decision, we understand that a complex series of factors informed his thinking." said Marty Taucher, President of the Board of Trustees. "David is well into developing the 2008-2009 season and will continue working through to its successful completion.

We are disappointed, too. Why are artistic directors fleeing Seattle like they know when the next big quake is going to hit? We refer, of course, to Bart Sher's recent decision to extend his Intiman contract by one whole year, to 2009. (In fairness, Sher is said to be "open" to another contract extension.)