A couple of items get a little bit closer to reaching a ballot in 2012 -- but one's a lot further along. Meanwhile, Occupy Bellingham is evicted, business owners prepare for the minimum wage increase and an arrest in the Christmas Eve murder of a Woodinville teacher. more ›

We're taking a brief break from monitoring the ever-changing status of Occupy Seattle to fill you in on what was going on while you were protesting: more ›

Police: they can Tweet! And they're actually kind of good at it. more ›

Canines, criminals and cold, wet Seattle weather is making the news on this slow, lazy, hungover day. Read these clips, then go home and hide for the rest of the night. more ›

In today's ridiculously long morning headlines: the Space Needle pride flag, the City Council race, Gregoire signing a lot of things, how screwed we are in an earthquake (still), officer-involved shootings, and more. Plus, an adorable video of a lioness failing to eat an adorable human baby. more ›

The corpse flower, Weiner, the Viaduct, a whole lot of state departments shutting down, an injured baby duck and all the McKenna that's fit to print. more ›

Expect to see more officers on foot this summer--yesterday, the Mayor rolled out a low-cost way to make your drunk self feel better while you're roaming the streets. more ›

Diaz's report says crime is down. Which is great, except that crime might actually be up. more ›

Stay up to date on yesterday's officer-involved shooting. more ›

In August of 2008, way before the recent attention to the unfortunate collection of violent incidents by the Seattle Police Department, King County Deputy Don Griffee picked up Johnny R. Bradford, who later was determined to be falsely accused. Bradford later left the patrol car with a bloody lip, saying that Griffee had punched him. The deputy was acquitted, barely, two years ago, but subsequently lost his job for excessive force and criminal conduct -- an example of King County Sheriff's Sue Rahr's then-recent no tolerance policy with use excessive force. But the decision to fire him has been reversed by an arbitrator, awarding him with 19 months of back wages. He was making $34.91 an hour at the time he was fired. more ›

"Out of the bars and into the streets, police brutality must be beat!" more ›

• Seattle Hempfest organizers are suing the city over its refusal to grant permits to hold the event at its usual site, Myrtle Edward Park. [KING]
• Nokia reached a ginormous deal with Microsoft to run the 'Soft's operating system on its phones. [NYT]
• The police probe into an off-duty officer who kicked a man's head may hurt the case against the three men who were attacking the officer in the first place. [Seattle Times]

Or so says the PI.: more ›

A few hotheads (and fists) connected over yesterday's accident in Ballard, involving a car hitting a pedestrian crossing the street at 8th Avenue NW and NW 49th Street. MyBallard has a few eyewitness reports saying the scuffle happened when the driver's keys were snatched as he tried to flee before the police showed. Another said it was a brawl between the victim and the driver. So far we know the police have detained the driver (and his innocent dog), but once the SPD gets around to updating their fancy new toy blotter, we can hopefully get a play-by-play of who exactly was throwing the punches. more ›

Cops and prosecutors believe they have enough dirt on more than a dozen Central Area drug dealers to send them to jail. But they're not going to prosecute--not yet--under a new community policing tactic that offers drug dealers amnesty for their crimes if they enter job training programs. more ›

• The bus tunnel shut down at 7:10 a.m. this morning for about 20 minutes, thanks to an automated (and false) alarm--for the third time in six months. Funnily enough, we think every time has been during morning rush hour, too.
• Publicola's newest addition, Erica Barnett, broke the news to Seattle taxpayers that we've paid over $43,000 since 2006 to send the City Council's Jan Drago to China, India, Iceland, the United Arab Emirates, and Finland.

When police arrived, they found a chaotic scene of more than 100 people on the dock, many of them shouting and arguing. Officers then learned that some passengers were still physically fighting aboard the ship. Officers moved to the dock to begin clearing the ship, where they found a small group of people blocking the gangway and preventing passengers from leaving the vessel. more ›

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 ›

We don’t usually read Danny Westneat’s column, but Wednesday’s piece about another Belltown beatdown and the generally deteriorating state of Seattle’s low-crime image is increasingly common. more ›

Recent trend that we're not fond of: Nearby restaurants calling the cops on Skillet, the silver-clad rolling kitchen that serves the food of the gods. First 13 Coins forced them to move their Wednesday South Lake Union spot. More recently, managers at the Elliott West Cafe uprooted them from their Friday Elliott Ave location. (That latter one especially hurts, as they used to be a 20-foot walk for us.) Legalities, schmegalities: It's totally bogus to involve the SPD in petty business disputes. 13 Coins and Elliott West? No more of our lunch money for you. Even if you start serving poutine. UPDATE: Now we've heard that it was the building management that called about Skillet (and the hapless hot dog cart that was there for a couple of Wednesdays). Regardless, the Elliott West Cafe staff are all very nice and are not the ones to blame. Unsurprisingly, however, some manager in this chain is being annoying and petty. more ›

Federal Way police chief Brian Wilson (second most generic white guy name ever) received a verbal reprimand from the city manager for hitting another car while checking his Blackberry. And he wasn’t even drunk. He didn’t reek of weed, didn’t have prescription painkillers strewn across his dashboard, nor did any Rainier cans fall from his car at the scene. So, as is the custom for Federal Way po-po for their first crash, he just got a stern talking-to. more ›

The horrifying security video footage--of a fifteen-year-old girl beaten, while in custody, by King County Sheriff Deputy Paul Schene--that was released on Friday, thank god, has raised more than just local hackles: Schene is now under a civil rights federal investigation for his unbelievably irresponsible actions in that holding cell. Aside from the ongoing internal Sheriff's Office investigative findings and whatever disciplinary action will (we hope) weigh heavily on Schene's head as a consequence, the man now faces a $250,000 fine and a possible five years in prison if he's found guilty on this federal civil rights charge. more ›

Yesterday we reported that a woman's body was found at Golden Gardens. Today the coroner's office has details on a 35-year-old woman who died yesterday from a stab wound and drowning. The police haven't made an official announcement, but the coroner's office is saying their case was suicide. We're guessing this is the same woman found at Golden Gardens. By the way, if you ever want to bring yourself back down to earth, emphatically, just give the coroner's office a call. After listening to three or four cases on their voicemail, we nearly threw the phone across the room. more ›

Man, this CHS post is the most thrilling thing we've read in ages--police have nabbed the BB gun sniper at Boylston and Howell. We just reported on a tipster yesterday saying the guy was shooting at pedestrians as well as windows. Listen to this: Update: Officer advises that "rounds are being fired." "Get inside! We've got a man with a gun on the third floor." How long before the movie comes out? more ›

End US Support for Israel’s War on the PalestiniansIf you've got a mind to add anything to the list, we bet you can. Get down to Westlake Plaza for the "City-Wide Inauguration Day Celebration and Rally" that's supposed to last until 4 p.m. more ›

From the Rainier Valley Post: "In less than a week, 75 people have donated more than $3,500 to the children of Rainier Valley neighbor Noemi Lopez, who was stabbed to death by her ex-husband and high-school sweetheart exactly one week ago today." more ›

She's said all along she wasn't drunk that night she was pulled over, but now the court has officially decided to back her up on that claim: Venus Velasquez, former City Council candidate, was declared not guilty of charges of drunken driving today by a local jury. It's too late to do any good in her campaign against Bruce Harrell, but at least she won't be tortured further with a public record smear on her good name. more ›

Thirty-seven Washington State troopers on motorcycles will be scrutinizing the behavior of drivers on I-5 today and tomorrow in what the P-I reports is a two-day push against dangerous freeway speed and aggression. That means if you're on I-5 in the next couple of days, 84% of the state's motorcycle troopers will be dedicating their full resources towards disciplining bad behavior on the road. It's all too easy to cruise way over 60mph during non-peak traffic hours, so be careful out there or you might find yourself with a ticket. (Put down those cell phones, too....) more ›

The Seattle Police Department gave residents of Nickelsville a 20-minute warning at 12:15 p.m. to vacate their encampment or face arrest. As of 12:35 p.m., the homeless residents of Nickelsville were officially considered criminal trespassers and subject to arrest. According to reports, some campers have chosen to follow orders while others have decided to stay and face charges. Sadly, at least those who stay at Nickelsville against orders are more likely to have a roof over their head tonight in jail than those who chose to comply.
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• The Belltowner is the bearer of wonderful and awful news. The very, very good? H&M opens in downtown Seattle on Thursday...as in tomorrow! The not at all good news? A policeman on bike was attacked with a surgical instrument in Belltown this Saturday.
• A West Seattle "Thriller" dance team is practicing to participate in a dance-off to beat the world "Thriller" record.
• Blogging Georgetown wonders if there's a real estate glut in the neighborhood.