From now until I forget to do it, I'm going to highlight my favorite Seattle Tweeter. Think of it like #FollowFriday, but less about getting followers for myself, and more about exposing Twitter accounts that are notable, humorous or informative--and always under 140 characters. more ›

GET NOISY: Noise for the Needy 2011, a raucous, rockin', Real Change-supporting musical extravaganza, begins tonight. With shows all over the city from now until Sunday, NFTN is a not-to-be-missed opportunity for slacktivists like you to have fun, drink and support a damn good cause. Kick off the killer weekend with tonight's show at Neumos, featuring Detroit Cobras, Girl in a Coma, and the Fucking Eagles. more ›

Real Change is setting up camp at City Hall, to protest the city's handling of homelessness and new policies regarding homeless encampments. The planned protest is scheduled for March 13th, with Real Change encouraging supporters to "bring a tent and a friend" down to City Hall. more ›

Around the Seattlest newsroom, this contributor's distrust of : more ›

The way Seattlest's routine works out we're afforded precious little time down in Tacoma, so we're particularly unqualified to speak to the panhandling scene there as opposed to here. Maybe someone more familiar with the City of Destiny can explain the need for the panhandling ban there, though? We do spend a significant amount of time downtown Seattle, and there are panhandlers around, but they tend to either be so consistently present as to become familiar (hey "smile" guy) or passive almost to a fault. Or both. Still, hardly ban-worthy. Seattlest does have a slightly different experience whenever we happen to be downtown on a weekend. Around Westlake--particularly now, holiday shoppers--the crush of people makes it hard to identify panhandlers that aren't ringing a bell and standing next to a cauldron of some kind. In Pioneer Square when there aren't many people around, you can get approached somewhat aggressively by people asking for money. more ›

The story so far: Two years ago, amid trumpets and fanfare, the City of Seattle sold the 15-story Alaska Building to developer Kent Angier, to be used for "affordable workforce housing." The selling price was $8.5 million dollars -- $500,000 to $1 million less than offers from developers interested in turning it into office space. The City says it had an unwritten understanding with Angier that the building would be used for housing. Recently, Angier announced plans to build instead a non-union Marriott hotel. more ›

SHERMAN FREAKING ALEXIE: The best-selling author returns with his first novel in ten years. Flight tells the story of an orphaned Indian boy who travels back and forth through time in a violent search for his true identity. Real Change-published poets (that would actually include Alexie, too) read as part of the program. more ›

--Local author John Moe discovers that lying to your child=entertaining blog post. more ›

One of the weirder blog posts about the Seattle Weekly "expose" of Real Change is over at Crosscut, courtesy of ex-Weeklyite Chuck Taylor. (We'd point you to the Metblogs recap but it's fatally flawed, in that it's missing one of the seminal posts on the subject, namely ours. So no can do. But here's Real Change's take on the kerfluffle-thus-far.) more ›

--Are we dense yet? The Sightline Institute's Eric de Place has realized that more than half of the people that live in Seattle don't live in traditional house-and-yard setups. more ›

The Seattle Weekly was criticized on various blogs last week for their story on the inner-workings of Seattle's homeless newspaper Real Change. Today on their blog they've started running letters that they received in response to that story. more ›

Real Change executive director Tim Harris says on his blog that the Seattle Weekly wants to exposé his street newspaper back to the Gutenberg age. more ›

Here's the set-up: Alan Durning of the Sightline Institute, the Real Change Bus Chick, and the Petersons over on the Eastside have riled up the Seattle Weekly's Knute Berger. According to Berger (and if you're used to any semblance of logical consistency, grab a handrail and hold on), the problem with not having a car, or using one less, is that you become a moocher. more ›

It's common knowledge that every seemingly-local media organization actually belongs to a vast network of similar outlets in other geographic areas. It's for suppressing stories, congratulating each other on liberal bias and conspiring against politicians and celebrities and other things along those lines. For example, every once in a while Seattlest will say, "Hey, SFist, way to stick it to the religious right last week. Let's not report on that story casting gay marriage in a poor light. Pass it on to Gothamist." And they'll reply, "Good call and great job inventing global warming." It's all very fraternal and it's the way media works. more ›

For the second straight year, the Washington State Senate failed to vote on a billl that would require the phasing out of PBDEs. (We've written previously about PBDEs, which are accumulating steadily in breast milk, and are implicated in the impairment of childhood development. They're also reaching alarming levels in wildlife.) more ›

Recently, West Seattle mom (Volvo driver, PCC shopper) Karina Aldredge learned that there is strong scientific evidence that "levels of PBDEs are rising rapidly in the environment and in human bodies, particularly in North America where the use of PBDEs is the highest": more ›

Seattlest tends to buy Real Change a lot more frequently than Seattlest reads Real Change, and soon we'll have twice as many opportunities to buy it. Real Change is moving from its bi-weekly publishing schedule to weekly, halving the effectiveness of the "I already have this issue" defense and instantly becoming the third-best-written weekly of the city (with a bullet - Look out Stranger and Weekly). more ›