We think this counts as "writing on both sides of your brain." Starting tonight and running through June 1 at CHAC is one of the more unusual solo performer shows we've heard of: former Washington State Insurance Commissioner Deborah Senn (a theater major, natch) has written a play about her experience wallowing in the mud of the election politics. Granted, the wallowing was not her idea--the mud was pumped in from out of state--but you......

Last week we mentioned that Seattle's WaMu was accused of colluding in a appraisal-inflation scheme. Today, Bloomberg reports that the fall-out has fallen: "Washington Mutual fell $4.04, or 17 percent, to $20.19 at 1:15 p.m. in composite trading on the New York Stock Exchange, the biggest decline since the stock market crashed on Oct. 19, 1987." As a result, significant bets are being made:The risk of Washington Mutual defaulting on its debt soared to the......

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo claims a subsidiary of First American Corp., eAppraiseIT, has been generating inflated appraisals for First American and Seattle mortgage-lender WAMU. This would represent collusion and would be what's technically known as "illegal." Unfortunately for everyone involved who wanted to keep their job, Cuomo has emails that say things like: eAppraiseIT's president told First American: "We view this as a violation of the OCC, OTS, FDIC and USPAP influencing regulation."And:......

There are a lot of things we can see being seized at the border between Canada and the United States: handguns with the serial number filed off, bricks of heroin, briefcases with the radioactivity sign on the side. Hard drives we'd expect to make it through, but unfortunately we'd be wrong. The guy bringing the masters of the songs Chris Walla recorded in Vancouver back down to Seattle had the drive containing them yanked by......

You may not agree with his conservative politics, but if you like the Mariners, you owe an elaborate tip of the cap to ex-U.S. Senator Slade Gorton. Gorton, who was state Attorney General from 1969-1981, then a two-term U.S. Senator, and served on the 9/11 Commission, is almost solely responsible for the Mariners being here, and now he's agreed to help the city keep the Sonics. "We're lawyering up," deputy mayor Tim Ceis told the......

The headline: "White House E-Mail Inquiry Will Widen." The story: how the Bush administration has quite possibly made a major infraction, broken big giant rules, or in the P-I's words, "committed 'extensive' [legal] violations." Remember that whole Alberto Gonzalez thing? Where it was speculated that the Attorney General deliberately fired a bevy of federal attorneys for political reasons, to appease a certain political agenda? There was a moment during all that hoo-ah when someone mentioned......

Kyle Sampson, the top aide to Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez, has resigned, as it becomes more and more clear that US attorneys who were fired in December, including Seattle-based John McKay, were fired for political reasons. On his blog, the Seattle Times' David Postman eviscerates Gonzalez' explanation of the firings. Gonzalez himself canceled travel plans and testified to Congress today, admitting that "mistakes were made." Now, Democrats want Gonzalez to resign, and we can't help......

Flickr photo by Tifotter Have you seen the story about the guerilla marketing campaign gone bad? Seems like Boston practically shut down the entire city over some small magnetic signs that were part of a promotion for the T.V. show Aqua Teen Hunger Force on Cartoon Network. Now we're not calling anybody "dumb" per se; but "sophisticated electronic device consistant with an Improvised Explosive Device"? Give us a fucking break. The thing looked like......

-Starbucks just put the hammer down on the Hard Drive Music Players that supply the music you hear in their cafes. They are no longer barista serviceable, let's say. -How badly would I-933 suck? Let local bloggers count the ways. -They're educators, man. You can't expect the Seattle public school district to complete a complicated transaction with real estate developers and not get screwed. -People still hitch rides on freight trains. We did not......

As fall settles in and another calendar page gets turned, thoughts turn from bbq's and vacations to holidays and the realization that '06 is coming to an end. With all that going on, with change in the air, we wonder what is it that made that makes the -ists ponder? Phillyist is concerned that the war on Trans fats could affect it's beloved cheese steak sandwiches, something for which we should all be concerned.......

This has been a rough week for your -ist pals, though you wouldn't know it from the great posts all over the network. Plagued with server problems, our tech team (led by the great Neil Epstein) toiled around the clock to solve the glitches as they arose. Seriously, we've said, typed, and thought the phrase "server problems" more in the past week than we have for the last 35 years combined. Why not say......

Payola: In the music industry, the illegal practice of record companies paying money for the broadcast of records on music radio is called payola, if the song is presented as being part of the normal day's broadcast. Rumors of payola in the radio industry have been brewing for a while and have gotten more attention since NY's Attorney General began an investigation of the recording industry. Finally today the New York state Attorney General......

King County Prosecutor Norm Maleng may be many things: tall, white, bespectacled, and a tiger in the sack but he isn't a fool. He knows when something is amiss, and amiss he feels something is. Back in October county Republicans cried to everyone who would listen that there were Democratic voters registered to cast ballots in areas they did not live. Through the magic of post office boxes, businesses, and box cars local hippies could......

Apparently (and we wait for your shock and, perhaps even awe), music labels pay record stations to play their songs. We now pause for you to catch your breath and let your tears dry. This week, Sony BMG (after being pressured by our favorite Attorney General Eliot Spitzer) paid 10 million dollars to settle allegations that it paid to have their releases played. Granted, this story happened on Monday, but one of our favorite music......

Now that Independence Day weekend has come and gone, Seattlest has gotten all that nasty "freedom" and "liberty" and "love for one's country" out of our system---so it's back to cynicism as usual. With that in mind, it's the perfect time to hit up Elliott Bay Book Company for the reading/signing tonight by politically-minded cartoonist Ward Sutton. Ward lived in Seattle from '91 to '95, when he illustrated posters for local bands (of the grunge......

Don’t you hate it when you lose your keys and waste an entire morning looking for them, only to find 93 uncounted ballots instead? Well, that’s the feeling down at King County Elections as ballots continue to show up in the darndest places. The revelation of these found ballots has King County Elections Director Dean Logan under fire. Republican Council Members Reagan Dunn and Steve Hammond both sent him letters asking for his resignation.......