King County Superior Court's Judge Palmer Robinson sentenced James A. Williams to a 35-year sentence for the slaying of 31-year-old Shannon Harps on Capitol Hill, on New Year's Eve 2007. "Williams pleaded guilty to first-degree murder last week rather than proceed to trial and, conceivably, mount an insanity defense," reports the P-I, which earlier took an in-depth look at how a known paranoid schizophrenic with a long history of violence and assault was walking around Capitol Hill. In 2006, the cost of prison incarceration in Washington was $26,736. At 35 years, that's $935,760. Mental health care in Washington was cut nine percent in the proposed 2009-11 budget. more ›

Turns out that the annual year-end party Kenmore fifth-grade teacher Nick Calcagni throws for parents and students is less an excuse to socialize with the school community and more an opportunity to videotape them while they pee.

Carlo "Nick" Calcagni, 47, of Woodinville ... is accused of secretly videotaping an 11-year-old girl, teenagers and women between June 15, 2005, and March 3, 2006. more ›

-Yesterday Seattle police announced the creation of a panel to look into the motivations of Seattle mass-murderer Kyle Huff. more ›

We walked down to Occidental Square for our Monday lunch field trip and unfortnunately didn't see much. Supposedly the cutting has begun in Pioneer Square and trees are being felled, but the area lacked any chainsaw buzz or shouted "tim-berrrrrrr"s around noon. We didn't stick around to gawk, though, so maybe they were between trees. A nice little pile of fresh firewood was sitting around. more ›

How dissappointing. Chris Cornell of Soundgarden is from Seattle. His ex-wife Susan Silver is, we believe, from Seattle as well. We thought she lived here and owned some cafes or restaurants or something (heads Atmosphere Artist Management). Who knows where Mr. Audioslave lives. Anyway, you'd think the least he could do for the city would be to sue his ex in a Seattle court. He isn't, though. He's suing her in an LA court. more ›

Judge John Bridges of Chelan County Superior Court just finished reading his ruling on last year's governor's election. He ruled against the Republicans, saying that for him to overturn the election based on proportional analysis, without proof of fraud, would be "the ultimate act of judicial activism." more ›

A court decision related to the identity of the Governor of the state of Washington came out today in favor of the Republicans who are, as you read this, celebrating step 2,871 in a 10,000 step process. The ruling will allow Republicans to show statistical evidence of illegally cast ballots and their affects on the election in November. more ›

The three men charged with assaulting Micah Painter have been found guilty of a hate crime after a King County Superior Court trial. Vadim Samusenko could serve around 30 months in jail for two counts of second degree assault. David Kravchenko and Yevgeniy Savchak will serve somewhat less as accomplices. The curious defence of the three seemed to center on the "he was asking for it" stratagem, which was all the more questionable considering the attack took place outside of the Timberline on Pride weekend. Apparently the attackers passed on several thousand others who were similarly asking for it until they could find one alone. more ›