Jets' defensive end Shaun Ellis was fined ten grand for playfully heaving a giant snowball into the Qwest Field stands after Sunday's game (which the recipients, by their reaction, were totally cool with, by the way). Boling and Hughes at the TNT have their say on the matter, thinking that it was a poor reflection on our city. more ›

And in news related to what will fill the iPhones purchased at the U Village Apple Store this week: UW has announced that not only will they not protect students from file-sharing lawsuits, they will hunt them down and club them to death to protect the violated rights-holders. Ok, a shoot-on-sight order isn't in effect yet--for the time being the University of Washington will only serve legal papers to students who use the school's network to download music. more ›

When he named Sam Presti the Sonics' new GM yesterday, owner Clay Bennett also stripped Lenny Wilkens of the title of President and retitled him Vice-Chairman. A source told the Tacoma News Tribune Bennett wanted "to put Lenny out to pasture." Ranching metaphors: just one of the many joys of having your team owned by guys from Oklahoma City.

From Wilkens’ unsavory handling of the announcement of his position of president to his perceived mismanagement of the hiring of a general manager and coach, Bennett was said to be so upset with Wilkens the divide was irreversible. more ›

Gary Washburn Frank Hughes of the Tacoma News Tribune reports that real estate developer David Sabey (at right) has offered to buy the Sonics from an increasingly disillusioned Clay Bennett. more ›

Via True Hoop, the News Tribune's Frank Hughes reports today that the Sonics' organization is "enveloped by a cloud of paranoia, mistrust, distrust and, now, anger." more ›

The Tacoma News Tribune had their big Seattle cruise season preview a few weeks ago: 191 cruise ship calls, 3,000 busloads of passengers from the airport to the cruise terminals, 14,082 cruise industry jobs created in 2005, 1 article we couldn’t get completely through. Harpers index it ain’t. Unless this is it, we’re still waiting for the Seattle dailies to publish their yearly love poems to the cruise industry. more ›

There was just footage all over the TV news of a suspected explosive device at the Steilacoom ferry dock, complete with bomb squad guys dressed in their big pillow suits and Johnny 5 the suspicious package handler, however, Seattlest barely had time to start formulating an Escape From McNeil Island fantasy before the device was discovered to be just some kid's homemade submarine. Cool toy--we wonder how well it worked--but taped up segments of PVC probably aren't something you want to lose track of. more ›

We love Sanjaya. We love Eric Schwarz. And we love YouTube. Happy Friday! more ›

USS Mariner called Mike Hargrove "delusional" today for his advocacy of going north with 22-year-old pitcher Brandon Morrow on the basis of eight innings of spring training relief work. more ›

Not to kick the TAG people in the teeth while they're down, but that's ridiculous. They're talking about needing $100,000 in operating capital to keep the doors open, and foundations have never been crazy about that kind of in extremis giving. (Sometimes individual major donors will pony up via a foundation.) more ›

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

In a hallway, at about 7:30am. Witnesses say they heard three shots. Police caught the suspected shooter two hours later, about a quarter of a mile away. The dead student's name hasn't been released, and it's unclear what the shooter's motive is, or if the shooter is a student there as well. more ›

The trains between Seattle and Tacoma are going to get faster over the next few years, at least in portions of South Tacoma. An improved track in that area has led Amtrak to new top speeds of 79 mph and other plans to ditch the scenic route that hugs the Sound will reduce conflicts with freight. more ›

--A P-I editorial targets what may be the state's last living Republican (via Northwest Progressive Institute) more ›

Don Ruiz of the News Tribune's Washington Huskies Insider alerts us, at the bottom of this informative post about Pac-10 basketball, of a long-overdue rule change in NCAA basketball: more ›

Washington Husky running back Michael Houston is off the team and, presumably, not going to get a pickup from Orange Cab anytime soon after some Saturday night hijinks involving a taxi, a McDonalds, and--it goes without saying--a strip club. more ›

Seattlest finds the fact that a team of rowers from the Northwest have almost completed a trans-Atlantic crossing very cool, despite a couple of things, but first, it's cool. It seems like a truly difficult endeavor and the bigness of the Atlantic (big waves, big distance, big cold, etc) and the smallness of a rowable boat are somehow attractive to us. It does smell a little like rich guys ballooning around the world in search of faux adventure at any price, but the guys aren't rich and they had to raise a lot of money to get their boat from the Sound to the East Coast. And the lack of technology is also double-sided: It's cool, yeah, that the strength of their biceps is propelling them across such a large body of water, but at the same time...it's a pretty large artificial handicap. We have engines now, or, if that's too high tech for you, sails. You can't get much more basic then rowing unless you want to Thor Heyerdahl it and depend only on buoyancy and the currents. more ›

The almost universal reaction to Howard Schultz's pathetic attempt to spin his sale of the Sonics as the best step for keeping the team in Seattle has been this: how stupid do you think we are? more ›

-We're like totally changing our oceans with all this carbon dioxide, man. more ›

-Let's not have a repeat of last year's fiasco. Make sure to read this guide to photographing fireworks. more ›

No, we haven't said much about Seahawks minicamp. We forgot about Seahawks minicamp, frankly. But nothing could be more important to the handful of guys trying to stick as a sixth wide reciever, a fifth running back, or a fourth QB. One of these is Skyler Fulton, an Olympia product who starred in NFL Europe this year, and is trying to fight through a shoulder injury to stick with the Hawks this year. more ›

It looks like supporters of a NASCAR track in Kitsap County made some progress this week after selling state Reps Adam Smith and Norm Dicks on the whole thing. This News Tribune article makes it seem like those two are chugging the Kool Aid: more ›

Sometimes history provides the right man for the times. more ›

-Is there a haze to the air today? A certain weight suspended in the atmosphere? Have you noticed anyone discreetly masking a shotgun blast to the face? Is it... sniff sniff... Cheney! more ›

Knight Ridder, minority owner of the Seattle Times, got picked up by an outfit called McClatchy Co. this week which is unfortunate because McClatchy, while having a generally good reputation as far as journalism goes, also owns the Tacoma News Tribune and the Times and the News Tribune compete for readers who happen to live somewhere between the two cities. We realize that you may be comatose after reading that last sentence, if in fact you haven't moved on to reading something else by now. We can probably say anything right here and no one would be conscious enough to register what their eyes are telling them. Seattlest is wearing news print thong underwear and high heels as we write this and we're about to apply a second coat of gloss to our lips. Additionally, we have a thing for independent reporters. Not a sexual thing, despite the thong, but a thing. more ›

If you're pissed off to the point of printing tee shirts over the deforestation of Pioneer Square yesterday you should fasten your restraints before you read this News Tribune article about logging along the west edge of Mt. Rainier National Park. Hancock Forest Management (ah, the names) is set to harvest 85 acres of second-growth wood around the Mowich River. more ›

Yesterday's paper had a mention of Seattlest's favorite boat (see the dramatization to the right from Seattlest's early months in 2005). At least it was our favorite boat before we had to give it up to Tacomaist. The Kalakala made the paper yesterday after its owner sent some email to a number of preservation groups in Seattle outlining his plan to get the ferry back to Seattle within three years. His target slip? Coleman Dock. Aim high, Steve Rodrigues. The back-to-Seattle plan seems to indicate that all is not smooth sailing down south despite his application to Tacoma’s Landmarks Preservation Commission. more ›

While exiled on the East Coast, we relied on the Internet for Mariner coverage. And we learned something surprising. The local paper that covers the Seattle Mariners best is the Tacoma News Tribune. more ›

What can you say about the Seahawks yesterday? They dominated the Panthers on offense and defense. They held Steve Smith to 33 yards receiving and a disputed return touchdown. They didn't turn the ball over and they took the ball four times. All in all, their 34-14 win was the best performance by a local team in a big game since, well, since the Huskies' 34-14 win over Michigan in the 1992 Rose Bowl. 34-14 is now our favorite football score. more ›

There's something about a good marina fire that gets Seattlest's attention like few massive insurance calamities can. This morning we were awakened by our crack team of Down South correspondants with the news that Harborview Marina in Gig Harbor was being consumed by fire. more ›