The City now mandates that employers give their workers paid sick leave! Most seem pretty excited, but a few are still skeptical. Is mandatory sick leave a boon for Seattle's workforce and necessary to our public health, or another burden on business owners already strained by a damaged economy? more ›

Mike McGinn and Richard Conlin make like Batman and Robin to save Seattle from the economic doldrums. Will it work? Here's hoping. more ›

In the wake of a failed attempt to block a tunnel referendum on the city's August ballot, the Seattle City Council voted yesterday to retroactively approve a lawsuit filed against a similar measure. Meanwhile, Elizabeth Campbell of Seattle Citizens Against the Tunnel, the group behind the initiative, filed a recall petition in an attempt to oust City Council President Richard Conlin, citing a breach of authority. more ›

An exciting phone call from Richard Conlin leads to an actual statement regarding today's Special Meeting that Wasn't. more ›

Citing privacy and space concerns, not being able to carry forth their mission and an extreme dislike of Seattle City Councilmember Richard Conlin as motivators (read all their reasons on their website), Nickelsville moved from Old Firehouse #39 in Lake City to its original location at 7116 W Marginal Way just out of West Seattle on Friday, two days before their announced move date. They'd been invited by the City to stay at the location for a couple of extra months, but the space just isn't what they're looking for. more ›

In a press conference earlier today, Governor Christine Gregoire stood with City Council President Richard Conlin, King County Executive Dow Constantine and others to back their view that the tunnel referendum is non-referrable -- i.e., not subject to a public vote. Nearly 29,000 signatures were turned in on Tuesday that would put the SR-99 deep-bore tunnel on the August primary ballot. more ›

Low -- very, very low -- levels of radiation found in milk in Spokane [NWCN] more ›

This morning, almost 29,000 signatures supporting a referendum putting the proposed deep-bore tunnel to a public vote were turned in, well over the 16,500 required. The King County Elections office will verify the signatures and have the results in a couple of weeks, but in the meanwhile, tunnel supporters and city officials are thinking of alternate ways to block the referendum. We're on the edge of our seats. more ›

A group called Let's Move Forward has registered with the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission, and Publicola has confirmed that they are a pro-tunnel group. This adds another key player to the heated SR-99 replacement debate, with anti-tunnel referendum group Protect Seattle Now in full-swing. more ›

Yesterday, the Seattle City Council voted to cooperate with the Washington State Department of Transportation on three agreements concerning the tunnel to replace the Highway 99 Viaduct, keeping the ball rolling on the controversial project. This vote is one of two approval votes; this one during the design phase, with one more before groundbreaking. Mike O'Brien was the sole dissenter. Another dissenter, one not on the city council, is Mayor Mike McGinn. more ›

Just got the email in which sitting City Council President Richard Conlin leaves his hat in the city council ring and avoids that whole mayoralty thing. "I pledge to work hard to bring Seattle back to economic health, put people first, support local business and our regional economy, and protect Seattle's environment over the next four years," says Conlin, who's been on the council doing stuff since 1997. The council appoints its presidents for two-year terms. We have a soft spot for Conlin since we often see him at arts events around town and because he bears an uncanny resemblance to the Weekly's Uptight Seattleite. So we feel represented. more ›

In one of those mysterious black-is-white, up-is-down occurrences, Mayor Greg Nickels and the City Council's Richard Conlin have in unison agreed to push for a $0.20 per paper-or-plastic bag fee at grocery and convenience stores and drugstores. While we're still trying to figure out what the vision is, we're aware that paying for bags bugs the hell out of a lot of people. 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 ›

Saturday we ran into Philip Dawdy sitting in front of Liberty. We were all blah blah affordable housing, blah blah CHHIP, but Dawdy was unimpressed. "What is that, 40 units?" he asked. "Why aren't you talking about what's happening with the Alaska Building?" more ›

Now that a firm date has been set to decide the future of the Viaduct (the Legislature will take up the issue next January) we can all turn our eyes across the city to 520. more ›

>>>UW iSchool at Kane Hall, 7:00-9:00pm. "Voices in an Empty Room: Five Apologies for the Narrative": Children's author Richard Peck discusses his writing and teaching careers, and his experiences with the kids today. He'll read from On The Wings Of Heroes, his new novel about a World War II childhood. Free with RSVP. Kane Hall, Rm. 220. more ›

more ›

Went to this NetGreen thing today at Bergen Park in Ballard. Took the bus, even. Dozen or so "electeds" on hand (city, county, federal) with their attendant staffers. Lots of bikes. An electric Xebra Zapcar. Lots of self-congratulatory speeches. more ›

Get yourself out of the office for a while tomorrow. With a quarter of the cube dwellers home sick and another half dozen in the midst of some mid-winter Whistler trip (that you really should have freed up the funds for, we're sure you realize) no one's going to miss you if you dissappear for a long lunch this week. more ›

Lost in the excitement over the Seattle City Council's big week was the Seahawks first trip to the Super Bowl. However, it's not like you can blame Seattleites for ignoring this triumph of footballity, not only have the candidates for Jim Compton's vacated seat been whittled down from twelve to six, but the race for council president took a surprising turn yesterday when Richard Conlin withdrew his name and Nick Licata was declared the winner. more ›

The man who brought the Space Needle to Seattle is resigning his position as City Councilman. Jim Compton, who was elected to the City Council in 1999 because he used to be on the TV, is stepping down to teach in Egypt and Romania. Or maybe after a heartwarming montage, it will be his students who teach him---how to love again. more ›

Didn't we just do a stadium post yesterday? That one was to complain about a potential NASCAR track in the area. We approached it from the public monies angle, but, as a commentor pointed out, traffic is also a concern. Today there are some rumblings in regards to a potential Key Arena replacement. Tomorrow, who knows. Maybe we'll be posting on the new 40,000 seat Ultimate Frisbee stadium in Shoreline. more ›

Richard Conlin: The incumbent is a “reasoned, independent voice of dissent” and “consistent and thorough supporter of neighborhoods.” But his “patient examination of issues” is “sometimes frustrating.” more ›

The theme of Port commissioner Paige Miller's campaign to defeat incumbent city councilman Richard Conlin has been this: when it comes to transportation, Conlin flip-flops, he dillies, he dallies, he waffles, he wavers, he can't make up his mind. In other words, he's your average Seattleite (have you been at a four-way stop lately?) more ›

There's approximately 550,000 people in Seattle, and about 45,000 of them voted yesterday. What did this select few decide? more ›

Seattlest has no time. No time to contemplate our future. No time to mindlessly surf the internet. No time to pick blackberries, baby our sunburn, tune up our bike, while away the hours, smell the roses, make another pot of coffee, stop for a 12-pack on the way home, be annoyed by the Blue Angels or write this post. We certainly have no time to attend the Take Back Your Time North American Conference in Seattle today through Sunday. more ›

The Seattle Monorail, which has already endured more obloquy than Lindsay Lohan's dietician, is in trouble again. more ›

In contrast to local temperatures, here's three things that are heating up: the hype surrounding Spanish tennis sensation Rafael Nadal, the fire under Mariner GM Bill Bavasi's ass, and the race between presumed City Council election rivals Dwight Pelz and Richard McIver. more ›

Downsized King County Councilman Dwight Pelz, who originally planned to run for Richard Conlin's Seattle City Council seat, flip-flopped last week, and will instead run against Richard McIver. more ›