The most unfortunate victims of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor--which happened 66 years ago today--were surely the 2,333 military personnel who lost their lives. FDR called it, "a date which will live in infamy." Perhaps in 1941, a surprise attack on another country's military was infamous. But considering that in 1986 the U.S. launched a surprise attack on another country's civilians, 12/7 looks a lot less infamous than the direct domestic aftermath, felt especially......

The Stranger has endorsed a No vote on the RTID Proposition 1 (along with the Seattle Times, but thankfully with more logic and, er, research). Their reasoning? "Rather than letting compromised politicians tell us what's possible, the people should tell the leaders what's needed: more light rail without massive roads expansion." So what is the proper course of action for Congress regarding the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, or ENDA, bill? The bill would ban employment discrimination......

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......

Seattlest's favorite crime (just edging Identity Theft) strikes again, this time in one of Seattlest's favorite places. A copper theft at Snoqualmie Pass temporarily disabled highway signs and safety lighting, which had to suck for people navigating the pass in the middle of the night. Don't mistake the fact that copper theft is Seattlest's favorite crime with Seattlest being in favor of the crime. It's bad and dangerous and taxpayers lose. Why is it our......

Seattlest watches as a S.L.U.T. is born and Seattle Flickr users go nuts over a local art installation. A restaurant critic demands a Diner's Bill of Rights over a gnat next to her drink, and, in lieu of a Portlandist, Seattlest debates with itself over the identity of the Northwest's crown jewel. Seattlest also joins the guys from Fantagraphics for an ill-fated gun party in the woods. LAist saw national headlines soar this week with......

With unseasonable weather descending upon much of North America, schools getting ready to reconvene, and sports seasons getting exciting, it's a busy time of year for us here in the Ist-A-Verse. Luckily, even with all the things we have to do, we still managed to get together to let you know what we've all been up to. After cooling down from a hot weekend of many badass Sunset Junction Street Fair photo dispatches, LAist asked......

Holy poop, Barack Obama raised a record $31 million dollars over the last three months. That's what happens when your rival continually justifies her vote for the Iraq War, and chooses a terrible song as her campaign theme, "You, me, and Celine are gonna change this country." Among all of that money was a $100 dollar check from Auburn school teacher Angela Berg, which happened to be the 250,000th donation to Obama's campaign. David Postman......

It's not exactly mind-blowingly awesome legislation, but our lady Maria Cantwell and her pals in the Senate have managed to negotiate a mileage standard for all U.S. cars and SUVs today. Currently, cars have to get at least 27.5 miles per gallon, while SUVs only have to get a measly 22 mpg. That's pretty pathetic from an environmentalist perspective, but it's also irresponsible from a business perspective. After all, just about every other country has......

Syd Abrams spent a quarter century as a lobbyist for the California Wine Institute, monitoring wine-related legislation in 12 western states until he was forced out two years ago, at age 78. All along, he's also been a partner in eastern Washington's pioneering, 800-acre Sagemoor Vineyards, the largest independent grape grower in the state. Looking out for his private interests now, Abrams finds it curious that Washington State's notoriously slack Liquor Board was letting one......

Slate.com put an article up yesterday suggesting GPS monitoring for abusive men who are under a restraining order. The batterer would wear a braclet or similar home arrest-type device and an alert would be sent to the police and/or the victim if he approached a home or office that was off limits to him. The example they use is Rebecca Griego who was killed by her ex Jonathan Rowan recently at the University of Washington's......

Hot issues don't really die, ever, they just retreat underground and cool for a while before popping up in new places. Increased regulation of strip clubs was put down by voters recently by a pretty strong majority, but according to this email we just received the City Council is reintroducing some of the restrictions of the placement of new clubs in the form of a zoning ordinance. Today at 5:30 at City Hall there's a......

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......

Someone wrote in via our tip widget today: What's going on with electric vehicles in WA? I just watched "Who Killed the Electric Car?", about California's journey to almost make the electric car a part of our every-day lives. They go into how recent (as of 2002) technology allows electric cars to easily go freeway speeds and can easily compete with other cars in terms of acceleration. Then I read this. Washington is creating a......

We saw the news articles on the internet sales tax stuff that the Governor signed recently. We also saw a few blurbs about it on the TV news, but we still feel like a caveman when we attempt to wrap our mind around what is actually happening here. From the P-I/AP: OLYMPIA -- Saying it will level the playing field between in-state and out-of-state businesses, Gov. Chris Gregoire signed a measure Thursday that encourages Internet......

You're at an intersection staring down traffic, trying to get someone to stop so you can get across. Suburu Honda, Honda, Suburu, that new Mustang, Prius, then someone with those damn studs on their tires that scrape the asphalt so loudly you can hear the road repair coin getting sucked out of DOT's wallet: Krkrkrkrkrkrkrkrkrkr. Of course this is the guy that stops. Mountain man, down at sea level to pick up a few tanks......

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......

The 90,000-square-foot seminary building at St. Edwards State Park is "one of Washington's unique treasures." But it hasn't been kept up since the 80s, and it's falling apart. Luckily, reports the P-I: McMenamins, a Portland-based chain of hotels, restaurants and brew pubs, submitted a 2005 letter of intent to lease the seminary building and turn it into a hotel with a restaurant and a conference center. Brian McMenamin, co-owner of the company that made the......

Whoa, whoa, whoa there, Spencer Kim. We just caught up with Salon's reaction to James Kim's father's finger point-a-thon in the Washington Post. James Kim is, of course, the San Francisco technology journalist who died in the mountains of Oregon after getting stranded there with his family, and Spencer Kim's article blames the credit card and cell phone companies who put a lot of red tape in front of the transaction and call records of......

Speak now before McCain's new bill makes us turn comments off forever. – Commercial websites and personal blogs “would be required to report illegal images or videos posted by their users or pay fines of up to $300,000.” – Internet service providers (ISPs) are already required to issue such reports, but under McCain’s legislation, bloggers with comment sections may face “even stiffer penalties” than ISPs. — Social networking sites will be forced to take......

Celebrity Cruises is getting hit with a $100,000 fine for dumping graywater into the Sound. Maybe $100,000 sounds kind of steep for flushing some shower and sink water into the Sound? It happened ten times in nine days. Whoops. The hundred grand is out of the goodness of Celebrity's hearts, though, since there is no legislation that prevents cruise ships from dumping sewage into our water. What we have in the state of Washington is......

We swooned and applauded along with the crowd during Barack Obama's half-hour speech last night. Even though we couldn't name one piece of legislation he has proposed or any of his accomplishments, it really didn't matter. After six years of listening to a who's who of lackluster politicians, it was refreshing to hear one that inspires. The message he delivers is not a new one; health care should be affordable for all, America shouldn't bully......

We sat down to write something about congress's attack on internet gambling and the parallels to Washington state's recent anti-online poker legislation, but a few quick Google searches that started out as "research" morphed into an hour of Texas Hold 'Em. An hour, it turns out, is exactly as long as it takes a complete idiot to lose $1000 of play money at a poker table. Congress's bill doesn't explicitly prohibit online gambling like our......

The recent law that makes internet gambling a Class C Felony in the state of Washington in fact isn't a recent law, the P-I tells us today. Any form of gambling must meet specific state approval under a 1973 law that didn't foresee the advent of Internet poker. "Internet gambling has always been illegal," explained Susan Arland, spokeswoman for the Washington Gambling Commission. "All gambling is illegal unless authorized. (The new law) updates the old......

As both the Seattle Times and P-I are reporting the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's latest national ad campaign in support of Republican lawmakers has had to be tweaked a tiny bit. The P-I's coverage strikes us as more genuinely perturbed at the gross incompetence (or political "knavery" as they put it) involved: This time, the chamber aired a TV commercial suggesting that freshman Rep. Dave Reichert, R-Wash., voted for an expansion of the Medicare......

All this time we thought that Tim Eyman was just a greedy ego driven douche bag. Well, we are still right, but it also looks like he is a huge nerd. Eyman called a press conference in Olympia to show and turn in the signatures he gathered for two of his initiatives-- one that would repeal the civil rights legislation passed by the state legislature last winter and one concerning his obsession over 30 dollar......

A new biodiesel refinery in Western Washington was announced Tuesday that would dwarf the 5 million gallons a year that local guys Seattle Biodiesel (actually it's the same guys: Imperium Renewables) can currently come up with. Supposedly the new Gray's Harbor plant will be able to produce 100 million gallons of biodiesel fuel a year which there may actually be a market for due to The Energy Freedom legislation passed in the state earlier this......

You can don your black sweater and black jeans and join the march today, or you can get your ass out of downtown early. We suggest you do one of those, though. People are supposed to congregate at Judkins Park at 4:30pm and we've marked out the route from there out above. Over on Jackson, up on 4th, over on Pike or Union and down on 2nd to the Federal Building. Elsewhere in the......

-A guy in Tacoma tried to step in on a fight between his mom and step-dad and was shot. Accidentally. In the head. He died 40 minutes later. -Frankie's Sports Bar & Grill in Olympia has been fighting the good fight against the smoking ban, but lost a court battle today and will finally comply with the legislation. -The voting is open for the state's new quarter design. Like good King County Democrats we......

Ed Murray, the state representative you hate if you love firing your gay employees for getting stuck in traffic, is running for State Senate. He will take on incumbent Pat Thibaudeau this September in Seattle's 43rd District. Is this decision a good idea for Murray and the state's progressive cause? Dan Savage at the Stranger says Yay. George Howland at the Weekly says Nay. Murray has represented the 43rd since 1995, and after pushing for......

The P-I shows what a sensible newspaper operation can do in the wake of a tragedy today by publishing a number of pieces that don't directly admonish the Seattle Times (because fancy dailys don't play like that), but could be seen as a reaction to yesterday's idiocy in the Times. One is headlined "No rave crackdown coming," and contains passages like the following: "Some tragedies defy any sort of rational response in terms of regulation......