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. From the PI: According to the new plan, no state sales tax would be used to finance the new arena. Currently, King County keeps part of the state sales tax to help pay for pro baseball and football stadiums. The revision means the Sonics are......

One of the great things about the Viaduct is that it reminds us of a Hot Wheels track. Which gives us an idea. Since we're having a rebuild forced on us anyway, why not make it a value-add? If legislators who don't actually live in Kitsap County want to put a NASCAR track over there, how hard would it be to talk them into relocating it to Seattle's waterfront? The legislation would not require......

Recently Governor Gregoire's been taking a lot of heat for her ambivalent handling of the Viaduct sitchyation we got here. Today, the Seattle Times rides to her rescue. The blame-reallocating story by David Postman and Andrew Garber begins: Gov. Christine Gregoire got so frustrated trying to broker a compromise between Mayor Greg Nickels and House Speaker Frank Chopp on the Alaskan Way Viaduct that she turned to a Republican wise man for advice. "She......

Mayor Nickels sent a letter to Olympia asking if state officials would endorse a $220 million expansion of Key Arena to appease the Sonics/Storm ownership. The letter was treated the same way Jannine Koewler reacted to our note asking her to prom in the twelfth grade--with scorn and rejection. Is this any way to treat a man who was photographed by Vanity Fair? The mayor was looking for "full support" from the governor and Democratic......