Kristy Lee Cook may be the closest we get to a local hand in the American Idol pot this year. Which basically means Blake Lewis might get to keep his crown. (Did he get a crown for coming in second?) Last night, we tuned into the San Diego auditions show, even though this whole AI audition process gets old after the first night. We did appreciate the guy in Dallas who sang that "We Are......

Presidential primaries in December now a possibility: The Associated Press CONCORD, N.H. — South Carolina Republicans today moved their 2008 presidential primary to Jan. 19, triggering a chain reaction among Iowa, New Hampshire and other early voting states that could push the first balloting into December 2007.......

The presidential election is still over a year and a half away, and we already have our favorite bit of analysis: "People think of [Rudy Giuliani] as a leader and a tough guy, and he has this image as somebody who tamed the city of New York and made the trains run on time, and seeing him dressed up like a girl would run contrary to all of those things," said Neal Thigpen, a political-science......

-Damn you, concrete strikers. Damn you. SAM will announce a new Sculpture Park opening date after the holiday weekend. -We may have little idea when it's coming (~Jan 30th), but we now know how much Vista will cost when it gets here (Windows Vista Home Premium, $239). It's available for preorder on Amazon. -Dan Savage is so confident he'll be arrested tomorrow he's packing an overnight bag. -The Fattest: 1: Mississippi*; 2: Alabama; 3:......

The Sonics lost their first preseason game last night, 82-75 to Nate McMillan's Portland Trail Blazers. McMillan, you will recall, played 12 years for the Sonics and coached the team for 5. But, after his contract expired last season, he made the admirable decision to test new waters as the coach of the notoriously uncoachable Blazers. McMillan's move elevates the Sonics-Blazers rivalry to one of the NBA's most compelling. To draw an analogy for those......