The fourth disembodied foot I.D. is in, and we still don't have a deranged serial killer on our hands. Evidence is increasing that the 11 feet found in Northwest waters since 2007 aren't at all connected; does this make the case more or less creepy? more ›

A recent poll of Washingtonians is manna from heaven for political junkies, but more like a call to arms for our two gubernatorial candidates. more ›

Soon, SPD officers may not ride horses, because money. The Seattle City Council is even turning down money from the Seattle Police Foundation to preserve the program. But is this maybe for the best? You tell us! more ›

As awesome as being deputy secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development was, Ron Sims says he's needed elsewhere: home. Initially the announcement of the former King County Executive's departure led to some conjecture about the upcoming gubernatorial election, but Sims assured the Seattle Times that it's not in the cards right now -- although he has every intention of helping democratic Washington State US Representative Jay Inslee take office in 2012. What do you think, dear readers? more ›

Seattle is not very diverse. Does this surprise you? Take our very scientific poll. more ›

... The terms are simple, go to the 'site (albeit away from Seattlest) and vote your favorite city to drink a beer in. So far those bike-loving, granola freaks (Portland to the laymen) to the south of us are in second. more ›

It matters a good deal what question the poll asked, of course, but if the Seattlepi.com knows, they ain't tellin'...ah, here we go: "Currently, there is a plan to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct with a tunnel. Do you support? Or oppose? That plan?" more ›

A KING 5/SurveyUSA poll shows Referendum 1, the 20-cent plastic bag tax, being defeated 51 to 42 percent. The tax, approved by the city council last year, was to go into effect on January 1, but now Seattle's voting on it August 18, which is what we always do and why nothing ever gets accomplished. As inconvenient as the tax is, we have to ask: Why the hell don't you just get reusable bags like everyone else? Seriously people, shit shouldn't be this hard. more ›

Anti-tunnel mayoral candidate Mike McGinn, who just picked up endorsements from the 37th District Ds and the Sierra Club (Nickels snagged the Washington Conservation voters' love), claims a new poll shows him winning handily if only everyone in Seattle knew he was against that $4.2-billion boondoggle tunnel. The poll his campaign commissioned shows 64 percent of Seattle voters are against building a tunnel, just like Mike "Tunnel Over My Dead Body" McGinn. The rest live in West Seattle, and just don't realize their transportation needs have already been met. more ›

Seattle, we're a little taken aback. We asked you yesterday whether it was okay for people to surf for porn in the library and, so far, almost 60 percent of said, "Sure." We even gave you a weasel way to pretend it would be too much of a hassle to implement a no-porn policy, but only fifteen percent chose that. The majority of yes-votes have been cast in favor of library porn. And almost none of you are THINKING OF THE CHILDREN! Personally we would not be thrilled to glimpse a little bukkake the next seat over, but fine, have it your way. We are so not going near those terminals without rubber gloves, though. more ›

Our post earlier today about the new, Red-Bullish atmosphere the library is promoting got us thinking about other things that might be classified as "undesirable" in a public space. As we understand it, Seattle Public Library uses no-pr0n filters on kids' area computers, but leaves the adult section...adult. In fact, "All users are asked to respect the privacy of other users and not attempt to censor or comment upon what others are viewing." What do you think? more ›

And if so, win what? Yesterday we got this terse message: "Michael McGinn will be making an announcement tomorrow at Piecora’s Pizza on Capitol Hill. Please join him at 11:30 a.m." Which we are planning to do in case there is free lunch pizza. more ›

So here's your update on yesterday's Seattlest poll, inspired by the NRDC claiming that luxuriously soft toilet paper is "worse than driving a Hummer!" since so much toilet paper comes from virgin forests. We wondered if green Seattle was putting its derriere on the line for the forests and the answer is--not so much! Only 29 percent of you reported using recycled-content toilet paper. And by far the largest contingent, 47 percent, were double-ply softies. We don't judge because we're luxury tp-ers, ourselves--we've always felt like we were balancing it out with the one-ply stuff you get in public bathrooms but perhaps that's just an ad hoc rationalization. Here's a scary photo over at Sightline to show us what our quilted habit costs. more ›

We've just been tipped off by a reader that the NRDC has luxuriously soft toilet paper in its sights. "Worse than driving a Hummer!" they say, claiming that "more than 98% of the toilet roll sold in America comes from virgin forests." They're trying to raise awareness about the environmental cost of this "virgin" toilet paper, especially when it comes in multi-ply packs. 98 percent seems high to us--we're sure Seattle is willing to chap its collective ass a little for the sake of old-growth. But just to be sure, we're polling. Be honest now! more ›

Walking down Broadway, we smiled at the thought of these boots as evidence of some Raptured soul, but then wondered if, really, a pair of boots here and there is all we might see anyway. Odds seem pretty good. more ›

Seattlest is not sure what to do with this P-I story about a poll on kids' perception of violence. The gist of the article is that according to Junior Achievement's survey, a startling percentage of kids in the U.S. don't seem to feel like violence in their communities is all that noteworthy--and that data resonates profoundly with the experience of many in South and Southeast Seatte. Presumably, the poll was faulty in some way, phrased poorly or not asking the right questions, because there's not a non-sociopathic kid in the world who isn't concerned when their friend gets shot at the mall. (Even as a young kid, we could recognize that "when is it okay to hit somebody?" was a dirty trick question.) It is conceivable, however, that street violence feels so entrenched in some Seattle neighborhoods that a kid could take the attitude that change isn't possible. more ›

Plow vs. wait it out. more ›

The Seattle Times Blethens have endorsed Dino Rossi (R) for Washington State Governor, saying "he can best be trusted to erase the state's huge projected deficit without raising taxes." The Seattle P-I endorses Christine Gregoire (D), pointing out, "Especially for uncertain times, she's a much more proven leader than her Republican rival, former state Sen. Dino Rossi." The Seattle Times, under Blethen leadership, has laid off about 20 percent of its staff this year, so we're a little dubious about their powers of prognostication when it comes to dealing with huge projected deficits. more ›

Initiative I-1000 is the Death With Dignity Initiative that would allow end-stage, terminally ill patients to have access to prescribed life-ending medication. The Times elegantly argues, "On the grounds of compassion for the suffering, and recognition of the individual as a moral agent, death with dignity is a right that should be allowed." Attorney Margaret Dore objects to I-1000's exact phrasing because it "would put vulnerable persons at risk of abuse (and worse) at the hands of others." And finally, local doctors are ambivalent. more ›

In a SurveyUSA poll conducted for KING-TV, 49 percent of likely voters in the Sound Transit district say they are voting yes on Proposition 1--and if the undecideds are asked to decide, the number voting for Prop. 1 grows to a landslide-y 65 percent. People really want those extra 100,000 express bus hours, the expansion of Sounder Commuter Rail, and 36 miles of new light rail. more ›

According to a King5-commissioned poll, Barack Obama's lead in Washington is diminishing. Obama's lead has dropped from double digits in June to only four percentage points in the most recent poll. If the election was held today, 49% of Washingtonians would vote for Barack Obama and 45% would cast their vote for John McCain. more ›

Seattle's known as one of the least-churched cities in the U.S. But consider this recent report from the Barna Group, which found that three out of every four American adults interpret literally the Bible story in which Jesus rises from the dead after being crucified and buried. The numbers are taken from a thousand-person telephone survey. There's some interesting poll information there, and some even more interesting commentary from the Barna Group ("Your partner for information, strategy, execution and transformation!" says their website):

A minority of the people who believe these stories to be true consistently apply the principles embedded in these stories within their own lives. It seems that millions of Americans believe the Bible content is true, but are not willing to translate those stories into action. Sadly, for many people, the Bible has become a respected but impersonal religious history lesson that stays removed from their life.

more ›

Eaten: An onion burger and brick of fries. more ›

The Pac-10 media pre-season football poll is out--saw it first on the Husky football wonderland that is Bob Condotta's blog--and the Huskies are ninth. USC is a unanimous pick for first. Only Stanford will suck worse than the Huskies, according to the fourth estate. more ›

KOMO4 weather has a poll going about Seattleites' "preferred summer temperature." more ›

Here's a good one for the automobile haters: The completely impartial and fair people at Pemco Insurance have done a poll on speeders that attempts to get to the bottom of who these people speeding all over the place are; what they aspire to, what makes them bolt upright in the middle of the night, how much money they make, where they're going in such a damn hurry... more ›

Last year, we had the joy of walking around town before the precarious date of 6/6/06 and seeing images of nuclear holocaust strung across every light poll in town (meaning on Capitol Hill). This year, we get the pleasure of anticipating our big 3-0 on a far more auspicious date: 7/7/07. more ›

Ahhh…wine vs. beer. A debate some of us have had quite a few times. more ›

Since we liked Part I, we've locked like a laser onto Part II of Beethoven & Friends. This time it's personal. more ›