Not that kind of pew. It's a Pew Charitable Trusts report on how major cities are handling deficits, and Seattle, we think it's fair to say, is full of fiscal win: our one-year deficit of $44 million is just 5 percent of our general fund. For context, L.A. and Chicago stand at 12 and 13 percent, respectively. For even more context, we're tied with Baltimore, so don't get cocky. "Proposed service cuts are mostly targeting libraries, recreation facilities and aspects of trash collection." It probably makes budgetary sense, but it's really unfortunate, symbolically, that we're cutting library hours and increasing the size of our police force. more ›

Just two hours after we got back from a day-trip to Bremerton and its beautiful waterfront, we got an email announcing that Bremerton's Westsound Bank was defunct. The Washington Department of Financial Institutions (DFI) took possession, "citing severe asset problems, significant losses and inadequate capital," brought in the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), and the FDIC sold Westsound to Kitsap Bank of Port Orchard. more ›

The Dow Jones dropped 7.7 percent today, to 8,149, after a gradual run-up last week. Local heroes Microsoft and Boeing dropped to $18.61 (-1.61 percent) and $39.88 (-2.75 percent) respectively. We're officially in a recession--surprise! it's been a year already!--and are turning to survivalists for advice: "All true survivalists like yard sales." more ›

Business Week scores yesterday's WaMu shareholders meeting, "activists three, bank zero." The Seattle Times settles for "contentious," while the P-I has this leading question for CEO Kerry Killinger from Lee Lannoye, a shareholder and former WaMu executive vice president: "You have destroyed the company--why are you not being held accountable?" MSN Money captures the executive team in action at Benaroya Hall like so:

"I just want people to calm down and have a little faith," said CEO Kerry Killinger at the company's annual shareholder meeting late Tuesday. "We will get through this."

You can spot people working in the investment sector more easily these days because of that tell-tale bulge from their adult diaper. more ›

Amazon released an eBook reader today, it's three years in the making. They call it Kindle. Here's a big 'ol Newsweek piece about it. more ›

Click-YAY! Click-YAY! Click-YAY! more ›

Last week was a bad one for pioneers and philosophers of our favorite beverages. On Thursday, beer (and liquor) guru Michael Jackson passed away at 65. A day earlier, Alfred Peet, founder of Peet’s Coffee, died in his Ashland, Oregon home. He was 87. more ›

SELL!

Before we get to today's boat, there's a half-assed explanation of the Empress of the North's Alaskan accident online as of yesterday--apparently they were making a turn and hit a rock... Well, cruise passengers should certainly slumber easily in their berths now that that whole thing has been exposed. There's also (another?) entirely fictitious accounting of the accident at The Spoof. more ›

The financing bill that would pay for a new Sonics arena in Renton will be changing a bit in hopes that House Speaker Frank Chopp will actually read the thing. more ›

If you want to repair the aging 520 bridge, you'll have to pay tolls. We knew that. But State Treasurer Michael Murphy says you'll need tolls both on I-90 and 520 to pay for the project--and he won't issue bonds needed to finance construction without them:

"I will not authorize the debt to be issued for a project that can't pay for itself," Murphy said. "In order for the thing to work, both bridges -- period -- need to be tolled, not parts of bridges, not certain lanes." more ›

Ding dong NASCAR's dead. The ISC came a'knocking with promises of garbage bags full of tourist's cash if only the state legislators would agree to a tax-payer-funded track on the Peninsula. It seemed like kind of a longshot from the beginning, and NASCAR's local guys failed spectacularly at judging the state of things in the Puget Sound region. "Hey, guys, they just voted down a tax-funded basketball venue and it looks like they're gathering in front of Key Arena right now with torches and pitchforks. Get Petty over here today!" Yeah, Richard Petty came and instead of having politicians falling over themselves to kiss his belt buckle they insulted him and NASCAR fans in general and sent him on his way. We're kind of neutral on the prospect of a NASCAR track in the region. We'd go, sure. But tax-payer funded? C'mon. more ›

WOMEN & MONEY: Personal finance expert and author, Suze Orman talks about the complicated and dysfunctional relationship that women have with money in her book, Women & Money: Owning the Power to Control Your Destiny. more ›

--Northwest stocks weren't immune from yesterday's stock downturn. The market is up so far, though. more ›

Because our last car threw itself a Viking funeral while we were driving it, we're clearing some space on our new dashboard for St. Barbara. "O Beautiful Maiden once imprisoned in a high tower, protect us from the fire that rages in our engine." more ›

--Got some loonies lying around? They may be spying on you. more ›

There's a national transportation bigwig in Seattle today pledging flood relief and the like. Transportation secretary Mary Peters is a Bush appointee, though, so if the rebuilding of NOLA is any indication Rainier will probably erupt before the flood-damaged areas around it are repaired. more ›

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-Some people loved the new Pride for what it was and some people loved it for what it wasn't. And some people weren't that impressed. more ›

You know those radio ads? The ones with the excruciatingly earnest song: more ›

A couple of national heavies just blew through town to promote either side of our coming senate race and the most interesting things to come out of both visits was the dissent. Maria Cantwell got called out for the Iraq war votes that she's sticking to while she was sharing the stage with Barak Obama. John McCain's finest Seattle moment happened on the radio after his McGavick event. A caller asked about the shady background of a recently hired McCain senior aide to which McCain had no response. Rather, his response was that the guy in question worked for Bush in 2004. Oh yeah, that's clear evidence of a sterling character around Seattle. more ›

As reported on the slog earlier, eclectic zine/book/underground comix shop Confounded Books will be closing forever Saturday April 29th, with shared retail-mate Wall of Sound expanding to take up the soon to be vacated space. In its seven year history, Confounded has changed ownership once and moved twice, from Fremont, to Belltown and then finally to Capitol Hill. Seattlest's sense of the store's history was foggy enough to merit contacting Confounded owner and operator Brad Beshaw for some help with the chronology. more ›

This post may have nothing to do with Gasworks or the Friends of Gasworks Park. But you'll have to read it to find out. Diabolical! more ›

Maybe the Sonics' problem this season has been the lack of a good lobbyist presence in the middle. more ›

Bombs Away: We've always been pretty impressed with the huge starling clouds that appear from time to time downtown, but apparently they piss some people off. Haters. more ›

While anyone working under the title "former police chief" could reasonably be expected to endorce throwing the book at drug users, actual former Seattle chief of police Norm Stamper wrote a book entitled, "Breaking Rank: A Top Cop’s Exposé of the Dark Side of American Policing." more ›

Seattlest remains pretty much out of the loop when it comes to the snowboarding due to the fact that we havent even seen any snow since February... of 2004!... so we were a little surprised to read the following rant from friend and former Lib-Tech employee "S!R ONE" reacting to the recent news stories about the departure of the snowboard-related program activities manufacturing concern (insipid "humor" links provided by Seattlest): more ›

Paul Allen is a billionaire, so it's probably okay if some things don't always quite succeed. The Experience Music Project may be one of those failures. more ›