Boy George was all set to play the Showbox July 20th, until The Man brought the hammer down. The U.S. State Department denied the Culture Club frontman a visa, so now his entire North American summer tour (running from July 11th in Las Vegas to August 23rd in Dallas) may have to be scuttled. The tour isn't officially cancelled just yet, but things aren't looking good. According to Boy George's manager: At the moment, Boy......

Photo by Cynthia ParkSeattlest's cousin is among the 75 people trapped in Diablo, a City-Light owned town in the North Cascades. There's no danger--they are in contact with the outside world and if they need supplies, City Light will helicopter some it. But they'll probably first finish what they've got. My cousin reports via the irrepressible Tubes:It is snowing heavily right now. Three more feet are anticipated over the next 3 days. DOT says the......

The state DOT today said that one of the two choices on the March special "what to do with the viaduct" election isn't safe, effectively rendering the election pointless.Seattle's proposal for a reduced, four-lane Alaskan Way tunnel should be dropped from further consideration, because of "serious operational and safety problems found during our technical review," the State Department of Transportation said in a letter released this morning. Here's the letter [pdf]. The DOT's issue is......

We don't know if you caught this weekend's Seattle Times article on the downfall of an Eastside mortgage company, which suffered a mini-Enron implosion this spring. We note that the local business media never saw it coming, due to the proximity of their lips with the company's ass. To the Puget Sound Business Journal, Merit's founder Scott Greenlaw was "an up-and-coming businessman," the Times points out. In 2004 Washington CEO magazine proclaimed Merit one......

We sent our passport off to Philadelphia last week for routine renewal, then got unexpected assignment to cover a travel symposium in Italy...next week! No chance of getting new passport in time. Called State Department, expecting endless bureaucracy, got helpful advice on first ring. Used automated system to schedule interview right here in Seattle, got appointment within the hour. Impressive staff at Passport Office. At least one federal agency doing things right, makes leaving home......

This is weird. The Washington State Department of Health released the results of a study yesterday that indicates that it's not a good idea to eat too much of certain kinds of salmon from Puget Sound. Chinook are mentioned specifically in the report as being high in PCBs and mercury. Consumers should limit Chinook salmon to one meal per week and resident Chinook (blackmouth) to two meals per month. Consumption advice for flatfish (e.g. English......

Poor Mayor Nickels. The news isn't good for him these days. His plan to replace the crumbling Viaduct with a Big Dig-style tunnel is going the same way as the Seattle Monorail Project he helped kill. The Washington State Department of Transportation released estimates that showed Nickels' $2.8 billion price tag climbing to $4.6 billion. And now, according to articles in The Seattle Times and The Seattle P-I, Nickels is taking the choice out of......

Possibly we first saw this meme in a blog post, but the barely controlled chaos that is our newsreader makes calling it back up not feasible at this time. It caught our eye. Hey, that's smart, we thought, wish we'd thought of it. We're pretty sure the first time we saw someone tie the delays at the Sculputure Park to the striking concrete workers was in a blog post. Ninety percent certain. Then it appeared......

The weeks starts out right when a sucker punch on the field lands Chicagoist in the middle of a Sox/Cubs throwdown and the fists continue to fly in the comments. Despite suburban resident Ms. Pinney's best little try no books will be banned anytime soon and the El is really really gross. Houstonist is there to start compiling the punditry when when the guilty, guilty Enron verdict comes down. This guy seems to be able......

Seattlest James isn't the only one with car trubs this week. Doug McDonald failed his eye exam thrice in a row and the State Department of Transportation says it just can't license drivers who can't see. This is fitting or ironic or hilarious because Doug McDonald is the Washington State Secretary of Transportation. Doug suffers from a diabetic condition that has been degrading his eyesight over the course of the last few years. From the......

Ever since Mayor Greg Nickels sent out a letter back in mid-February about Viaduct replacement financing, everyone who pays attention has been trying to figure out the math. We're all used to spin from City Hall, but there was a huge, crucial problem. In the letter, Nickels claimed that, "Today, with $3.2 billion already committed to the project, we have the resources needed to start building the tunnel." That was an interesting claim, because as......

At 2:30 p.m. today, March 13th, the Seattle City Council is holding a hearing with members of the Washington State Department of Transportation and the Seattle Department of Transportation concerning the controversial Alaskan Way Viaduct program. Grace Crunican and Bob Chandler of SDOT and Ron Paananen of WashDOT are expected to be questioned by council members about funding issues with regard to Team Nickels' increasingly questionable replacement choice for the earthquake damaged waterfront highway. The......

If you are running a bit behind on your Washington State estate tax forms, you'd better start preparing your excuse for the extension you're going to have to file. "My dog ate it," is, of course, the classic, but is unlikely to prove very effective. Seattlest suggests "My computer got a worm" as a good tack to try. You should find some empathy with the bean counters in Olympia with that one. The Washington State......