There are 12 weeks until Election Day, and 12 issues in our state's gubernatorial race (13 if you count Eastern Washington's concerns). Each week we'll be taking an award-winning look at where the candidates stand. Rossi: His detractors claim that he's a Bush model global warming denier. Well Mr. Rossi, if there's no such thing as climate change, how do you explain the crap weather we've been getting the last few years? He's probably......

In the wake of a brutal tussle between car and bicycle last weekend, it's good that New Belgium Brewing's Tour de Fat, the "traveling celebration of all things bicycle," arrives in town on Saturday, opposite the carbon-spewing, combustion engine worship-fest that is Seafair, what with the supersonic jets and souped-up motorboats. So for those who favor pedal-power over horsepower, you can show up at Gas Works Park at 9 a.m. to register yourself and your......

"Old Wives' Tale" by Seattle Flickr Pool contributor Seattle rainscreen. Stunning. The bountiful ecosystem of the Pacific Northwest is worth between $243 billion and $1.22.1 trillion, economic and environmentalist researchers announced late last night. Phew! Numbers are far easier to work with than poetic sentiments about our "introverted, feral, buddhistically cool" raindrops (Tom Robbins), "unruly mobs of young clouds" and "green stand of mountains" (Ken Kesey), or Chief Sealth's sacred, inter-connected vision of "every......

After a committee vote yesterday, the full City Council is set to decide on Monday if Seattle will adopt a 20-cent fee for plastic bags at grocery, drug, and convenience stores, as well as a ban on polystyrene food and drink containers. If passed, the fee and ban will go into effect on January 1, 2009. Stores that use the plastic foam containers to package meat will have a year to figure out an alternative......

Congratulations are in order today for Patty Murray and Rick Larson, as a federal bill they both sponsored, aiming to declare Wild Sky Wilderness near Seattle a protected area is getting signed by our fearless leader, George W. Bush. So says the Times: The House gave final approval to the bill last month. It designates 167 square miles in the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest north of Sultan, Wash., as federal wilderness, the government's highest level......

Since having been roundly criticized for driving anywhere, anytime, ever, after having questioned the wisdom of destroying so much parking down at Seattle Center, we've been more and more attuned to the environment and trying to figure out how to decrease our "carbon footprint," all the more apropos given that today's Earth Day. But this morning, we received the following email from a friend of Seattlest who works in the environmental policy field: A curious......

It's Earth Day. Down here in the Seattlest news room we thought that, along with giving up meat, disposable coffee cups and plastic bags, we'd offer some unsolicited advice about how you can help the planet the other 364 days of the year, too. But, when a friend who happens to be a real live Seattle native and an inveterate bike commuter approached us with a better idea abut spreading the gospel of bike commuting,......

The good news? Washington State has drastically cut back on its consumption of fuel, returning to consumption rates last seen when LBJ was in the White House. The bad news? The gas we do use costs a hell of a lot, and that's not going to change any time soon. Yesterday, the results of two studies regarding gasoline in Washington were released. Seattle-based think tank Sightline Institute found that the Pacific Northwest is leading......

BEACHES: If you visit the Seattle Aquarium tonight, you can sign up to be a volunteer Beach Naturalist this summer. What is a Beach Naturalist, you ask? You get training, and then spend three or more summer days educating visitors about beach ecology and beach etiquette. Sites include Des Moines, Seahurst Park, Lincoln Park, South Alki Beach, Golden Gardens, Carkeek Park, and Richmond Beach. They prefer if you live near a beach, but they......

FRIDAY MUSIC: Subtle, the genre-blending Bay Area group that plays music described as indie, electronic, experimental rock, and abstract hip-hop, have added a new element to the mix: lasers. Subtle frontman Doseone will attend a laser CD listening party at, naturally, Seattle's Laser Dome; they're hyping their new album ExitingARM. The laser show will also include some of the bands artwork. (Their Seattle live show will be at Nectar Lounge on May 10.) 9:15-10:15......

ENVIRONMENT: Down at the Aquarium, KC Golden, policy director of Climate Solutions, talks with KING 5 meteorologist Jeff Renner about the innovative work the state is doing to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, and the history of the struggle to get global warming on the public's radar, concluding with the obligatory list of "things you can do." There's a reception with light refreshments beforehand. 7-9 p.m. // Seattle Aquarium, 1483 Alaskan Way // Tickets: $20......

The latest session of the state legislature is now in full swing and most people are watching the big-ticket items under discussion. The supplemental budget and what to do with our $1.5 billion surplus are at the top of the list. Also high on the agenda are transportation issues like a new vote on light rail and a toll on 520. But there are always niche issues under consideration. They probably won't get the......

Boom! Governor Gregoire comes right out of the gate at the new legislative session with a new bill laying "the groundwork for concrete limits on greenhouse gas emissions beginning in 2012." And, in just four short (or long, depending on how you look at it) years, the bill "would give the state Department of Ecology the authority to regulate those emissions," reports the P-I. The main thing is that "big polluters" in Washington State would......

Dennis McLerran, head of the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency is "pissed." Governor Schwarzenegger is suing federal regulators. According to more than 500 news articles, The Environmental Protection Agency denied California’s bill to place limitations on vehicle emissions, which would have cut greenhouse-gas emissions by 30 percent in the next 10 years. McLerran claims in a Seattle Times article the EPA’s decision is purely political, not factual. Washington was one of the 18 states that......

Last night there were tons of Ron Paul's people outside the Showbox Sodo. Before, during, and after Barack Obama's fundraising event/rally, the Paul supporters waved their signs and interacted with anyone who would give them the time of day. Too bad they couldn't afford tickets to the event due to the current tax structure--if only someone would abolish the IRS and the Federal Reserve.... Meanwhile, inside the venue was a crowd of teens, twenty-somethings,......

While out and about the other day, we ran across these items. Now, seeing shoes hanging from wires is nothing new, of course. Like you, gentle reader, we've been seeing them everywhere ever since we can remember. What is new, though, for us is seeing a pair of boots up there. We're kinda surprised we haven't seen this much sooner. Also, we are thankful that the utility crews hadn't gotten around to taking them......

Behind our couch lives what we refer to as our "third cat." Much more well-behaved and definitely lower-maintenance, petting-wise, than the two actual cats from whence it came, but more or less inert unless there's a breeze. When we sweep behind the couch every three or four years we generally don't carry the third cat down to the Sound and chuck him in, but that's what storm runoff is doing right now to a lot......

A few weeks ago, singer/raconteur Jenny Owen Youngs was in town, playing at the High Dive the same time as the Fremont Bridge was being closed evenings, which led to our arriving mid-set in a state of high dudgeon. We decided to skip a half-assed review, and afterwards fired off some impertinent questions via email. We just heard back, and as you'll see, Jenny schools us a bit. Now we adore her even more. If......

This is the end, the end of free movies, care of Scion. Single tear. Via their Route film series, the youth-oriented car company has already tackled the true-to-life topics of blood diamonds in hip hop and nightclubbing in the late '80s NYC queer community. Now for something completely different: Daft Punk's Electroma is an odyssey of two robots who journey across a mythic American landscape of haunting, surreal beauty on a quest to become......

If you were here right now, you'd see us looking around suspiciously like we don't quite trust we're awake because we just read Knute Berger's latest deep thought over at Crosscut and we...agree with him.While promoting green consumption might be politically more palatable than getting people to change their habits and expectations, promoting consumption still offers an answer that doesn't solve the bigger problem. Global warming's hawks have to be honest with us: Fighting the......

Seattlest loves the planet with a lusty and soulful passion. Just wanted to say that up front. But the Green stuff is getting to be too much. Maybe we should say "greenwashing" as, of course, we have no problem with actual, beneficial efforts to protect the Earth. You want to read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, compost in your kitchen and load your groceries into your little burlap sack, fine. It's gonna take you a hell of......

... in a couple of years, anyway. "After two years, it's definitely moving," writes invaluable neighborhood blogger Captain Columbia City. He talked to the market's coordinator, Karen, on Wednesday, the last day the Columbia City Farmers Market will be open this year. Of course, Columbia City Plaza was sold to a development firm on the east coast recently, and so when the Plaza owners lease expires early next year, they'll sign a new one......

According to his blog, NYTimes Op-Ed columnist and Princeton economics professor Paul Krugman is "sick as a dog" today, right before his visit to Town Hall tomorrow night. Krugman, like Bill Greider at Rolling Stone in the Reagan years, has taken up columnistic arms against the flow of disinformation from the White House. Who will tell the people? Krugman, that's who. (Actually Greider will too.) Sick or not, Krugman will be at Town Hall to......

So we all know the world is going to hell in a hand basket, right? The climate's changing, San Diego is burning to the ground and we're at war because the president lied to Congress. Things are bad. But every once in awhile you come across someone who is doing the right thing because it's the right thing to do. Dan Freeman is one of those guys. He runs Dr. Dan's Alternative Fuelwerks and sells......

CHS had the news last night, and then Metblogs posted before us, too, so to make up for our tardiness, we visited the Office Nomads site, chatted with cofounder Jacob, and took pictures. They just signed a 3-year lease the beginning of this month, and are in full prep-mode before their opening on November 1. (Open House 6pm-9pm.) The new Office Nomads offices are located in the old Heath Printers building on Boylston, the block......

It's an art. Not as rehearsed or precise as a 5-man funky white band fronted by two energetic, percussive rappers, but not without technique lest you look a fool. No better environment than a feel-good southern-flavored party with room to move: a collage of hippies, frat boys, glittery waifs in floor-length skirts, and a whole lotta saxophone. No more respectable way to transition from dance floor to back-of-the-room bar than: the pass-through. It starts with......

Peter Steinbrueck, a soon-to-be--former City Council member, announced legislation today that would require all city departments that review the environmental impacts of projects to take greenhouse gas emissions into account. Besides the fact that it's kind of crazy that they don't already do that, we think this is a great idea. It's great because it's an attempt to take into account and limit all of those emissions that are usually ignored as too hard to......

The first thing to know about Devra Davis is that she's not speaking from the sidelines: she's director of the Center for Environmental Oncology at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, is an environmental health expert, professor of epidemiology at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health and visiting professor at Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz School of Public Policy and Management. So when she said that the war on cancer has been almost......

Remember SimCity? Seattlest had some incredible towns built in that game, with commercial and residential districts packed full of shiny, tall towers and trains and street traffic all flowing as effortlessly as rivers. Scroll way over to the left to the edge of the city grid; now that is a healthy industrial district, perfectly bisected by a pollution-eating green belt. The landmarks sprouted everywhere and the money and accolades poured in. Of course, it took......

This Sunday evening, the Seattle Phonographers Union will be holding a sonic performance at Magnuson Park. Phonographers?!? The hell you say? Rest, assured; we misspeelled neither photographers nor pornographers --although, for the record, we support many of those engaged these activities. We like the term phonography, first, because it sounds nicely antiquated and, given that we are currently embroiled in The Digital Future, somewhat analog what with its allusion to the phonograph. Now we're......