There are five weeks until Election Day, and five issues in our state's gubernatorial race (six if you count Eastern Washington's concerns). Each week we'll be taking an award-winning look at where the candidates stand. We are a week behind, so it’s time for a double-shot-rock-block-Friday. Transportation Gregoire: I’ll get to it, geez, what’s the rush? Rossi: I’m gonna build roads, roads, nothing but roads. Healthcare: Gregoire: Rossi wants each patient to choose between a......

Breaking news! Mayor Nickels has changed his mind about noisy nightlife. Now, he loves it and wants to not only nurture but encourage it. HA-HA! We are not holding our breath. But the Mayor has announced a gathering at Neumos tomorrow at the ungodly hour of 10 a.m. to discuss his "new steps to grow Seattle's live music scene," which sounds--if not hopeful--at least potentially of interest to those who really do care about live......

There are 10 weeks until Election Day, and 10 issues in our state's gubernatorial race (11 if you count Eastern Washington's concerns). Each week we'll be taking an award-winning look at where the candidates stand. We are about to take off on vacation, and, well, we wanna get out of here. So this is going to happen lightning-round style. Abortion: Rossi: Anti. Gregoire: Pro. Taxes: Gregoire: For the rich only. Rossi: None at all, ever.......

There are 11 weeks until Election Day, and 11 issues in our state's gubernatorial race (12 if you count Eastern Washington's concerns). Each week we'll be taking an award-winning look at where the candidates stand. Washington residents pay the highest gas tax in all the land. Wait, what?!?! We demand to know who is at fault for this! Rossi: She is, because she signed the 2005 bill that increased the gas tax 9.5 cents for......

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......

There are 13 weeks until Election Day, and 13 issues in our state's gubernatorial race (14 if you count Eastern Washington's concerns). Each week we'll be taking an award-winning look at where the candidates stand. This Week: Small Business. Gregoire: She will continue to help business owners. Gregoire Website: “[Washington is the] Fourth best state for starting a business.” Rossi: He will do more to help small businesses owners. Rossi Website: “Washington has one of......

The Supreme Court ruled today that we get to keep our top-two primary system, which will take effect in the August state primary. Remember, we all voted on that system and then it got thrown out? Well, as it turns out, we get to keep it. According to the Seattle Times: Writing for the 7-2 majority, Justice Clarence Thomas said that overturning Washington's plan would have been an "extraordinary and precipitous nullification of the will......

Dino Rossi is savvy enough to know the state’s inability to broker a Key Arena remodel is the type of far-fetched, wedge issue just ripe for exploiting come November’s election. Considering the hotly contested runoff between him and Governor Gregoire several years ago, the Sonics impending departure is the perfect issue to highlight as an example of weak-kneed Democrats not taking care of business on Gregoire’s watch. Of course, there is the fact Key......

The second-longest serving member of the Washington House of Representatives, Helen Sommers, is retiring at the end of the current session, according to Crosscut. The second-longest-serving member of the Washington Legislature has confirmed she will not run for re-election. “This is my last session. I’m not going to run again.” Asked why, she laughed and said: “Because I’m 75 years old and I’ll be 76 in a couple weeks. That’s why.” She's been in the......

Two things struck us as we were sitting in the Council chambers: One, everyone who got there early, without exception, sat at the aisle-ends of the rows, so everyone else had to squeeze past them to sit down. It's really tempting to use this pinheadedness as an analogy for the narrow-minded public interests that show up at council meetings, so we will. Two, our city council is old -- like, they were excited about seeing......

Originally ran on January 3, 2007, and updated for January 2008. Since 2002 Seattleites have spent the first week of January asking themselves if this is the year a decision will finally be made on the Viaduct. When the governor announced last in March of 2006 that she would be making a decision by December, it looked like 2006 might finally be the year. Well, it took ten months for her to announce that we......

We really don't feel it's the day after an election until we overhear people talking about how they forgot to vote, didn't know there was an election, and how they'll definitely vote next time. If they had been paying attention from August through this morning, they would have learned that Seattle voters will not let you drive 50mph down Market Street after a few drinks, but they will let you work for an anti-gay organization,......

When we sat down to do our endorsements we reached a disturbing conclusion. We cannot, in good conscience, vote for anyone. Position 1 Jean Godden: Wrote for the Seattle Times when it endorsed Bush in 2000. Joe Szwaja: Involved in a 1990 domestic dispute in which his then-girlfriend threw a bottle at him and he threw a plate at her. Position 3 Bruce Harrell: Doesn't spend enough time with his 15-year-old son from a previous......

Those who attended the Issaquah Village Theater’s matinee of The King and I today may have come away a little disappointed. Dino Rossi used the stage to announce his candidacy for governor. After his Eastside announcement, Rossi raced the telegraph wires to Spokane and made his announcement again this afternoon. The man who got his asshole handed to him three years ago by current governor Christine Gregoire, has been the Republicans' guy since he decided......

The Friends of the Seattle Public Library are trying to get people to write to members of the City Council in support of funding collections before the council meets to discuss the budget Tuesday, October, 30. Seriously, a $2.5 million shortfall this year, and a shortfall every year since 2000 when Libraries For All funded a bunch of building upgrades (including the Central Library)? That's really lame, particularly here where we get all proud......

City Council candidate Venus Velazquez was charged with a DUI the other night, which is odd because Bruce Harell was the athlete [slide-whistle], and with that we start our Seattlest General Election Civic Election Coverage 2007. We’ve been ignoring the city council races over here, mainly because they’re really f-ing dull. We understand why there aren’t better candidates out there, spending eight months begging for money and pandering to NIMBYs look like terrible way to......

City Council candidate Venus Velázquez was arrested for a DUI last night which can't be good for her campaign for Peter Steinbrueck's seat. Apparently, she had "two drinks with her meal" and then hung around for a while to ensure she wasn't impaired. If that's what really happened, bummer. It sounds like she made a better effort than the guys we see "sobering up" at the end of the night by switching to light beer......

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......

It’s been hard for us to admit this, greenie that we are, but a vote for Prop. 1 is in order, at least from this Seattlest's perspective. This has been hard because we're as environmentally friendly as they come. We ride our bike; compost; and we reduce, we reuse and leave the recycling as only as the last step of a long process. So the news we saw when we opened our e-mail this morning,......

Along with the million other words being written on this topic, we at Seattlest thought it was a good time to share some of our thinking on the Roads and Transit bill we're going to have the chance to vote on this November. The crux is this: Voters in the greater Puget Sound region are being asked to approve almost $11 billion for a 50-mile expansion of light rail and $7 billion on highways around......

That headline was designed to hector Seattle because we know how awful it is for this part of the world to be compared to New York City. But showing Seattle how New York does something better seems to produce results (the M's notwithstanding). This time they're creating truly bike-friendly streets. It's always been unbelievable to us how Seattle presents itself as an uber-environmentally friendly city, while drivers clog the freeways in Hummers, voters kill the......

The Republicans, learning from the mistakes of the Democrats in King County's Sixth, may decide to run a candidate against Governor Gregoire next fall. The PI reports, in big letters above the fold, that Dino Rossi (the guy who may already be our governor) will probably run for governor. Well, no shit. He's been holding un-official rallies, giving speeches, and raising money (WIIINNNK) for a few months now. Also, everyone in the state's GOP expects......

Admittedly, Seattlest is a bit late on this one, but hey, we gotta pay the bills too so please, forgive us for being a couple of days behind the news cycle on the Flexcar story. To us, the state's decision to force Flexcar users to pay a car-rental tax stinks from here to Olympia. First and foremost, the whole point of Flexcar is to make it easier for a household like ours - stuck......

If you could afford it, would you wait for these guys to make things better? Microsoft can afford it.......

The 8th congressional district lost five-term Congresswoman Jennifer Dunn and candidate Rodney Tom in the last twenty-four hours. Dunn, who served from 1993-2005, died of a pulmonary embolism last night. She was 66. We'll always remember how every two years the Democrats would find some young Microsoft millionaire to run against her, claiming that the district's new tech money was shifting the votes their way. They were wrong. Her 2004 announcement that she wasn't running......

We'd be there, but the man's keepin us down. Damn him. The man, that is. Damn the man. From Upcoming: Meet at the Bradford center to coordinate protest actions at the Downtown Bellevue Hyatt. Corner of NE 8th and Bellevue Way. George Bush will be in town as the main attraction for Doublespead-Dave Riechert's fundraiser. The intersection of NE 8th and Bellevue Way is likely to be blocked. We can line the streets all along......

Join the dozens who have already voted in this year's primary and have your voice politely nodded at. Besides port, city, and county races there are two park levies. We like parks, we like giving money to parks, so we're voting yes. Find your polling place here, if you have an absentee ballot put it in the mail by the end of the day, and if you're a King County Elections employee then please focus.......

Position 3 is the most anticipated city council race. It's an open seat, and that seems to be the only way to get new blood on the council. Bruce Harrell and Venus Velazquez will end up in the general, with Tuesday's primary serving as a chance trim the fat (Al Runte, Scott Feldman, John Manning) and give both sides a platform to claim victory. Before we make our November decision, we'll be voting for Scott......

Jean Godden used to write a column where she would point out humorous license plates, as well as the little things that make living in Seattle the silliest. Now she is on the city council and running for re-election. Her main opponent is weightlifting coach Joe Szwaja, who spent some time on the Madison City Council. According to those in the know, "a [Madison] commuter light rail system has been proposed…but has remained on paper......

The great thing about Switzerland -- we'll tie Seattle in shortly, hang on -- is that there's no convenience too small for the Swiss to consider. Everywhere you go, some Swiss person has already been there and added a neat little touch. Not that we don't show that consideration here in Seattle -- last night at the Hopvine we noticed they have little coat hooks just beneath the bar so you don't have to throw......