According to the Daily Weekly, Nickels is "moving forward" with his decision to ban guns on city-owned property despite opposition from citizens and state government leaders alike, and the ban could go into effect as soon as May. As the Weekly's Don Ward points out, the constitutionality of Nickels' ban will almost certainly be tested in court; critics of the mayor's executive order (including Seattlest) are looking to state law regarding legal possession of firearms to soundly trump any city law forbidding someone with a license to carry a gun on city property. We predict (read: profoundly hope) the ban will in fact be found unconstitutional. It would also be nice if all this uproar provokes productive dialogue about how to effectively counter and prevent gun violence in Seattle without blatant disregard for state law. more ›

...do not find prostitutes on Craigslist. If you do, and they end up assaulting you or not going through with the agreed act (and we've told you this too), do not call the Seattle Police Department to report it. The Seattle 911 Blog has yet another example of what should be well known to you by this point, dear readers. An unnamed man found a prostitute on Craigslist; he met her, she upped the price of her services, and then the prostitute assaulted said man after he chased her to an AM/PM. The jilted john called the SPD to report the assault. Of course, when he reported the assault, he had to explain to the officer the events surrounding the assault and...well. As a result, he ended up with not only a case number and a warning from the SPD, but also with his very own Seattlest post. Don't do it, kids. more ›

From across the pond, and courtesy of NME, comes news that Seattle's own Alice in Chains will be recording their first record in 13 years. more ›

With the Ballard Denny's landmark status is-it-or-isn't-it debacle still fresh on our mind, comes the latest chapter in Seattle's ever-exciting "What Constitutes an Historic Landmark?" debate. According to local historian Art Skolnik, the death-trap we formally call the Alaskan Way Viaduct should be declared and preserved as an historic landmark. more ›

Listening to KEXP the past few mornings, we heard an ad for 12th Ave's Trace Lofts that caught our attention, and not in a good way. Apparently, one of the establishments going into the condos' Trace North building is a Mexican restaurant. Named Barrio. Take it away, press release: more ›

Friday's show at Nectar Lounge was a great showcase for both classic and fresh, emerging talents in local hiphop. Alpha P, a gratifyingly professional, unflaggingly high-spirited crew of twelve headlining the show, were working NW underground hiphop in the 90s; the other acts on the bill included Tacoma-based Jay Barz (a raucus party act, himself), pissed-off Neema of Unexpected Arrival, fast-talking Premonition and the bulging vein on his neck, and charismatic story-teller Kublakai--interviewed by Seattlest here. Though the show started late, DJ Hanibal won us over when he played Snoop and Dre's "Nuthin But A G-Thang," which we'd coincidentally just finished reminiscing about with our show-going companion. more ›

This fall we are combining our love of the football and our dream of learning to cook. On Sunday morning, following a trip to a local farmer’s market/major supermarket chain, we will be preparing a meal from the city of the Seahawks opponent. Then at halftime we will throw our badly burned hands in the air and make hot dogs. more ›

(This fall we are combining our love of the football and our dream of learning to cook. On Sunday morning, following a trip to a local farmer’s market/major supermarket chain, we will be preparing a meal from the city of the Seahawks opponent. Then at halftime we will throw our badly burned hands in the air and make hot dogs.) more ›

The South Lake Union Streetcar will begin an eight-week test period soon, according to the Seattle Transit Blog. more ›

Our cooking habits this summer have followed a peculiar pattern. First we go the farmer’s market when ravenous (always a bad idea), then we impulse-buy produce, and finally at home we wonder: what sort of a meal could we possibly fashion out the eclectic collection of ingredients now sprawled out all over our kitchen? more ›

Greg Nickels' son Jacob has been charged with one count of conspiracy and four counts of theft stemming from a multi state casino cheating ring. more ›

Marty, who's journeying through Egypt, Greece, and Rome, found this out the hard way when his wallet was stolen in Athens. He called WaMu to report the loss, close the accounts, and move on -- when he ran into trouble:

Anyway, I then spent the better part of the morning trying to confirm that the cards were indeed closed. No one at Washington Mutual (WaMu) would help me. They kept shuffling me from department to department until I was cut off two different times. It was then that I realized that I was running out of minutes on my cell phone (The only way to recharge the minutes is to have a credit card). I tried making the overseas collect call they suggest, but it did not work on a cell phone, pay phone or even the home phone of a kind Greek family that has befriended us.

Today's front page [pdf] is an attempt to spread the word that bringing your generator or BBQ inside is a bad idea. We would've put "don't bring your generator or your BBQ inside" in red, but hopefully this does the trick. more ›

Last night as the wind blew us home we came across a radio ad for Shane Co. that has us very concerned for Tom Shane's mental state. more ›

Unlike Seattlest Dan we haven't gotten our hands on one yet, but like many we are fascinated by the brown color choice for the new Zune players. The rich chocolate brown/bright green color combination is one we find personally very pleasing, in fact it turns up in our house. But we share some of the skepticism about whether it will work on a consumer product--it could work, but it is risky. Anil Dash over at Six Apart is pretty damn sure it is a bad idea to call the actual product color "Brown" and he put a nice little commercial together (replete with a now infamous midterm election picture) to help the Zune marketing people sell it for Christmas. Enjoy! more ›

We called Elliot Bay Books last week in advance of John Hodgman's reading, and asked whether they thought it would be crowded. Should we show up early, now that he's all famous and whatnot? Not a bad idea, they said, maybe 7pm. The reading was to start at 7:30. We strolled into EBB as the clock struck 7, and our heart sank into our feet as we spied the line at the bottom of the spiral staircase, making its own spiral all the way through the cafe next to the reading room in the basement. Luckily, Seattlest Jack and Audrey were wiser than we are, and had arrived even earlier, securing our seats three rows back, just left of center. more ›

The Seattle Times reports that Governor Gregoire doesn't want to increase the gas tax to pay for whatever replaces the Viaduct. Instead, she says, "it's really about those who use it pay." Sounds like she's chanelling President Bush. But the Times says she's talking about tolls. more ›

Any day now Seattle will catch a break. I mean we are owed one. more ›

Here's the set-up: Alan Durning of the Sightline Institute, the Real Change Bus Chick, and the Petersons over on the Eastside have riled up the Seattle Weekly's Knute Berger. According to Berger (and if you're used to any semblance of logical consistency, grab a handrail and hold on), the problem with not having a car, or using one less, is that you become a moocher. more ›

We have said it before, if you know of a child, or plan on having one, don't make the mistakes we made. Keep sports out of their life. Others who suffered with us following Friday's hearbreaking Husky loss included the raccoon we drunkenly chased down the alley behind our house, and the washing machine that probably wishes it were farther from the TV. more ›

Romeo and Juliet is one of those tales everybody knows, whether or not they've read it, seen it performed live, or watched one of the many film adaptations. So Seattlest kinda knew what to expect when we descended deep into the bowels of Center House for the play's opening night performance by the Seattle Shakespeare Company. We got the standard star-crossed lovers stuff, but director John Langs included a few modern updates, some of which we liked, and some...not so much. more ›

This month's Seattle Weblogger Meetup will be at Ralph's Grocery and Deli at 2035 4th Avenue. Festivities start at 7pm and generally run until 9-10pm or so, so feel free to wander in whenever you can. Seattlest will be there right at the start, of course! more ›

Seattlest has praised the Seattle Weekly's features section in this space in the past. They had a good string going! Seattlest was in Portland a few weeks ago, though, and being the alt-weekly whores that we are we picked up a copy of the rag down there, Willamette Week. Not a bad paper. The cover story of the issue that was out when we were there was "Good Cop, Bad Cop" about a Portland cop who had a great record despite being somewhat of a hothead and beating the crap out of a few perps (pff, so what). more ›