posted by news intern Chris Kissel

Mourning: China dedicates three days, suspends torch relay for earthquake victims.

Taking sides: Hezbollah violence sparks Sunni-Shiite tensions in Lebanon.

Joining sides: Clinton and Obama campaigns prepare to combine forces.

Immigrant haters: At least 5 dead after anti-immigrant sentiment boils over in South Africa.

Immigrant haters, Part 2: 389 undocumented immigrants arrested in Iowa.

Apology: General in Iraq apologizes after U.S. soldier uses Quran for target practice.

No, thanks: UW turns down record number of students.

Ferries: Washington's troubled ferry system still causing problems.

River accidents: One dead, two missing after Saturday boating accidents.

posted by news intern Chris Kissel

New digs: Pentagon plans new prison in Afghanistan.

New rescue efforts: After flood threat, efforts resume in Beichuan, China.

Famine: Global food crisis hits Somalia.

Condemnation: Entire world criticizes Burma for cyclone response.

Hike: Saudi Arabia increases oil production, Bush says it won't fix energy problems.

Acid bath: Chemist gets life in prison for stuffing husband into a vat of acid.

Oh, no: Ted Kennedy's in the hospital.

Bad information: Public never notified of 50,000-gallon toxic waste spill in King County.

New contract: SPD officers are now the highest paid in the state.

Recommendation of the day: Go outside.

In recent weeks, the city has been cracking down on Capitol Hill's nightlife. Club owners and bartenders say they've repeatedly been harassed by Seattle Police, the Fire Marshall's office and other city agencies. Now, Neumos—Capitol Hill's largest live music venue—is catching heat from the city over their crowd capacity.

Neumos' co-owner Steve Severin just sent an email explaining the problem:

Neumos was recently and suddenly informed by the City of Seattle of a new interpretation of the capacity rules for our venue that is leading to some unwieldy restrictions during shows. It is not a change to our overall capacity, rather a limitation on allowing people to move freely throughout the venue, from the showroom floor, to the mezzanine, to Moe Bar, and reduces the number of tickets we can sell. Instead, the City is telling us that patrons have to stay in divided areas.

We have been going through all the proper channels to correct this as quickly as possible and we have been receiving some assistance from certain departments within the city. The Fire department has been flexible and is working with us this weekend to help solve some of these problems connected with the restricted flow to these areas. The earliest we are able to have our initial meeting with the Department of Planning and Development will be May 28th. We have been pleading to get the appointment moved up, but have been unable to get that done. Unfortunately we are being expected to try to change our entire business model over night, without the time to train staff, adjust customers expectations, and re-design our business model.

The building and its occupancy have been interpreted the same way for 15 years.

We hope we can get this sorted out and put behind us so we can continue to do what we are designed to do, which is bring quality music to a thriving music city, in a responsible and professional manner.

Indeed, the city's newly imposed crowd regulations appear to be becoming a frequent problem for Neumos. A sign on the club's front door reads:

Due to an unexpected reinterpretation of the capacity limits at Neumos by the Seattle Fire Department, the audience at tonight's show will have to be separated between the floor and the balcony.

Once the venue is at capacity, patrons will be able to move from space to space on a one-in one-out basis.

Seattle Fire Department Spokeswoman Helen Fitzpatrick says SFD has been working with Neumos, issuing permits allowing them to temporarily expand their newly limited capacity for one or two nights at a time.

The city's Department of Planning and Development—which enforces Fire Marshall violations—was not able to provide information on any occupancy changes for the building and SFD did not return a call for comment this afternoon.

More next week.

The Seattle Police Officers' Guild has approved the city's contract offer. According to the Guild, 90% of officers voted to approve the contract, which will increase officer pay by 25-36%, making Seattle Police the highest paid officers in the state.

posted by news intern Chris Kissel

Last week, I wrote a short piece on SPD's crackdown on porn at gay clubs on Capitol Hill.

It looks like SPD may be at it again, at least according to Seattle Eagle manager Keith Christiansen. Officers O'Neill and Gallagher came into the club on Friday, according to bar staff, and noticed a pornographic video the Eagle was running. Christiansen said the video falls within state liquor board guidelines. It's "cut with bars," he said, and contains no visible nudity.

When two men in the video started kissing, O'Neill "flipped out," Christiansen said. O'Neill pulled bartender Scott Kirby outside the bar, asked for his I.D., and warned him about the "simulated sex acts" in the video. Kirby told O'Neill that the video met liquor board standards; O'Neill, according to Kirby, said, "I am the law," and added that the incident would be in his report (SPD said they hadn't heard anything about the incident and that no report was filed).

O'Neill returned Saturday and jumped behind the bar in order to speak with Kirby again. The exchange wasn't threatening, Kirby said, but the disruption caused an exodus from the club. "Every time this happens," said Christiansen, "50 people leave right off the bat."

Christiansen says he plans to talk to a lawyer next week before he meets with SPD about his concerns.

...what do you say we invade Burma?

Ah, Texas.

A homeless man who spit in the mouth and eye of a police officer and then taunted him, saying he was H.I.V. positive, was sentenced to 35 years in prison on Wednesday for harassing a public servant with a deadly weapon: his saliva.

Because of the deadly weapon finding, the man, Willie Campbell, 42, of Dallas, will not be eligible for parole until he has served half his sentence.

Does it matter that you can't get HIV from saliva? Apparently not to juries in Texas.

Unfortunately for George W. Bush, the appeasement-rejecting leader in this instance is the King of Saudi Arabia.

With the price of oil hitting record highs, President Bush used a private visit to King Abdullah’s ranch here Friday to make a second attempt to persuade the Saudi government to increase oil production and was rebuffed yet again....

When Mr. Bush was last here in January, a similar request caused him some embarrassment. The president asked the Saudi oil minister to increase production, and his request on that occasion was publicly turned down. He then took up the matter with the king, but the conversation did not get very far.

Up to 80,000: Death toll from China earthquake keeps rising.

Collapsing: Support for Bush's war in Iraq, as Congress refuses (for now) to throw another $163 billion at the effort.

Ain't Summer Yet: Avalanche danger soars in Cascades.

Black Turnout: Could jeopardize long Republican dominance of the South.

Another "honor killing" in Iraq: "My daughter deserved to die for falling in love."

Still Lying: Everything's under control, says Burmese government, refusing aid.

Gettin' Hitched: Ellen Degeneres to marry hottie g.f.

Annoying Framing of a Touching Story: Tutsi woman weaves "peace baskets" alongside Hutu woman whose husband slaughtered her entire family.

Recipe of the Day: Aromatic Braised Chicken with Fried Onions (recipe and photo via Gourmet)

Continue reading "The Morning News" »

The allegedly meddling mom has been indicted. Take it away, Associated Press:

A federal grand jury indicted a Missouri woman Thursday for her alleged role in perpetrating a hoax on the online social network MySpace against a 13-year-old neighbor who committed suicide.

Megan Meier, 13, hanged herself in her bedroom after being targeted in a MySpace hoax. Lori Drew of suburban St. Louis is said to have helped create a false-identity MySpace account to contact Megan Meier, who thought she was chatting with a 16-year-old boy named Josh Evans. Josh didn't exist. Megan hanged herself at home in October 2006 after receiving cruel messages, including one stating the world would be better off without her.

Drew was charged with one count of conspiracy and three counts of accessing protected computers without authorization to get information used to inflict emotional distress on the girl. Drew has denied creating the account or sending messages to Megan.

Remember all the grief San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom got for issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples four years ago? Well...

The long-awaited court opinion, written by Chief Justice Ronald M. George, stemmed from San Francisco's highly publicized same-sex weddings, which in 2004 helped spur a conservative backlash in a presidential election year and a national dialogue over gay rights....

After a month of jubilant same-sex weddings here, the California Supreme Court intervened and ordered the city to stop issuing licenses to gay couples. The court later invalidated the documents and declined to address the constitutionality of a state ban on same-sex marriage until lower courts acted first.

And the court is conservative....

The California Supreme Court has six Republican appointees and one Democrat. Scholars have described the court under the leadership of chief justice George as cautious and moderately conservative.

No, this isn't another depressing "Every Child Deserves..." post. I try to limit those posts to no more than one a week, despite the numerous examples of spectacularly bad opposite-sex parenting that I run across, or alert readers bring to my attention, every damn week. I just wanted to make sure that readers who bitch endlessly about my "Every Child Deserves..." posts catch this quote at the bottom the CNN piece about the decision in California.

Groups saying they were promoting a pro-family agenda had vowed to fight a statewide law allowing same-sex marriage.

"The government should promote and encourage strong families," said Glen Lavy of the Alliance Defense Fund. "The voters realize that defining marriage as one man and one woman is important because the government should not, by design, deny a child both a mother and father."

Gay families can't be strong families—and our children don't deserve the protections of marriage—because every child deserves a mother and a father.

Sigh.

Says Slog tipper Rebecca...

I really can't bear to read the "Every Child Deserves..." items anymore but I think this shows why it's good on you to keep running 'em.

(Originally posted at 10:03 am.)

From the AP:

The California Supreme Court has overturned a ban on gay marriage, paving the way for California to become the second state where gay and lesbian residents can marry.

The San Francisco Chronicle says the courts ruling goes into effect in 30 days—and could be undone by voters in six months.

Gays and lesbians have a constitutional right to marry in California, the state Supreme Court said today in a historic ruling that could be repudiated by the voters in November.

In a 4-3 decision, the justices said the state's ban on same-sex marriage violates the "fundamental constitutional right to form a family relationship." The ruling is likely to flood county courthouses with applications from couples newly eligible to marry when the decision takes effect in 30 days.

And here's California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-Hollywood) on the ruling:

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger released the following statement today regarding the state Supreme Court’s ruling on same-sex marriage:

“I respect the Court’s decision and as Governor, I will uphold its ruling. Also, as I have said in the past, I will not support an amendment to the constitution that would overturn this state Supreme Court ruling.”

The full text of the decision is here—ad it's 172 pages long. I sent a note to a friend asking if it meant gay marriage is legal now, right away, or if the court ordered the legislature to act, etc. And he replied, "Still reading, poodle." Me too. But here are some quick hits from the decision:

First, this will piss off the Hutchersons of the world: right out of the gate—in the first few pages—the CA supremes compare same-sex marriage to interracial marriage...

Although, as an historical matter, civil marriage and the rights associated with it traditionally have been afforded only to opposite-sex couples, this court’s landmark decision 60 years ago in Perez v. Sharp (1948) 32 Cal.2d 7114—which found that California’s statutory provisions prohibiting interracial marriages were inconsistent with the fundamental constitutional right to marry, notwithstanding the circumstance that statutory prohibitions on interracial marriage had existed since the founding of the state—makes clear that history alone is not invariably an appropriate guide for determining the meaning and scope of this fundamental constitutional guarantee. The decision in Perez, although rendered by a deeply divided court, is a judicial opinion whose legitimacy and constitutional soundness are by now universally recognized.

More...

….we conclude that, under this state’s Constitution, the constitutionally based right to marry properly must be understood to encompass the core set of basic substantive legal rights and attributes traditionally associated with marriage that are so integral to an individual’s liberty and personal autonomy that they may not be eliminated or abrogated by the Legislature or by the electorate through the statutory initiative process. These core substantive rights include, most fundamentally, the opportunity of an individual to establish—with the person with whom the individual has chosen to share his or her life—an officially recognized and protected family….

Furthermore, in contrast to earlier times, our state now recognizes that an individual’s capacity to establish a loving and long-term committed relationship with another person and responsibly to care for and raise children does not depend upon the individual’s sexual orientation, and, more generally, that an individual’s sexual orientation—like a person’s race or gender—does not constitute a legitimate basis upon which to deny or withhold legal rights....

Accordingly, in light of the conclusions we reach concerning the constitutional questions brought to us for resolution, we determine that the language of section 300 limiting the designation of marriage to a union "between a man and a woman" is unconstitutional and must be stricken from the statute, and that the remaining statutory language must be understood as making the designation of marriage available both to opposite-sex and same-sex couples....

I also love this, which comes near the end of the decision....

Extending access to the designation of marriage to same-sex couples will not deprive any opposite-sex couple or their children of any of the rights and benefits conferred by the marriage statutes, but simply will make the benefit of the marriage designation available to same-sex couples and their children. As Chief Judge Kaye of the New York Court of Appeals succinctly observed... “There are enough marriage licenses to go around for everyone.”

Further, permitting same-sex couples access to the designation of marriage will not alter the substantive nature of the legal institution of marriage; same-sex couples who choose to enter into the relationship with that designation will be subject to the same duties and obligations to each other, to their children, and to third parties that the law currently imposes upon opposite-sex couples who marry. Finally, affording same-sex couples the opportunity to obtain the designation of marriage will not impinge upon the religious freedom of any religious organization, official, or any other person; no religion will be required to change its religious policies or practices with regard to same-sex couples, and no religious officiant will be required to solemnize a marriage in contravention of his or her religious beliefs.

The court neglects to mention, however, the freedom of religious organizations and officiants that do with to solemnize same-sex marriages.

Jumping back a bit, the CA supremes dispense with the argument that domestic partnership or civil unions—marriage by some other name—is or should be good enough. If the state wants to deny the term marriage to gay couples, the court states, then the state has to deny it to all couples.

[The Attorney General] reasons that so long as the state affords a couple all of the constitutionally protected substantive incidents of marriage, the state does not violate the couple’s constitutional right to marry simply by assigning their official relationship a name other than marriage....

We need not decide in this case whether the name “marriage” is invariably a core element of the state constitutional right to marry so that the state would violate a couple’s constitutional right even if—perhaps in order to emphasize and clarify that this civil institution is distinct from the religious institution of
marriage—the state were to assign a name other than marriage as the official
designation of the formal family relationship for all couples. Under the current statutes, the state has not revised the name of the official family relationship for all couples, but rather has drawn a distinction between the name for the official family relationship of opposite-sex couples (marriage) and that for same-sex couples (domestic partnership).

One of the core elements of the right to establish an officially recognized family that is embodied in the California constitutional right to marry is a couple’s right to have their family relationship accorded dignity and respect equal to that accorded other officially recognized families, and assigning a different designation for the family relationship of same-sex couples while reserving the historic designation of “marriage” exclusively for opposite-sex couples poses at least a serious risk of denying the family relationship of same-sex couples such equal dignity and respect.

Says Andrew Sullivan:

[The] court just ruled for it—sixty years after California's court was the first to strike down miscegenation bans. The most populous state now joins much of the rest of the Western world in bringing gay couples into the civic and human family as equals. More soon on the decision itself. One key fact: the ruling takes effect in 30 days—which means thousands of couples will be able to marry long before any initiative attempts to reverse it. So the initiative question becomes: do you want to divorce thousands of already-married couples? Or do you want to keep things as they now are? That's a big advantage for the pro-equality forces.

Way to Build a Bridge: Obama calls reporter "Sweetie."

Foie Freed: Chicago overturns ban on foie gras.

Deadly: Suicide bomber kills 22 west of Baghdad.

Worse and Worse: Burma deaths could top 127,000.

Protected: Polar bears listed under Endangered Species Act.

Swarming: Ants invade Houston area, shorting electronics and messing up computers.

Soaring: Food prices rise even as inflation starts to ease.

Can You Blame Them?: High food prices prompt new wave of anti-US sentiment in Fallujah.

Nothing's Shocking: Some US detainees may have been sedated with dangerous drugs during detention.

God and Country: Obama seeks to woo white, working-class voters.

Payback: Curious George publisher threatens lawsuit over racist T-shirt.

Recipe of the Day: Alton Brown's Fajitas (recipe and photo via Serious Eats)

Continue reading "The Morning News" »

The Taliban bans TV in a province near Kabul.

First there was this story in the NYT this morning...

He was a carefree Italian with a recent law degree from a Roman university. She was “a totally Virginia girl,” as she puts it, raised across the road from George Washington’s home. Their romance, sparked by a 2006 meeting in a supermarket in Rome, soon brought the Italian, Domenico Salerno, on frequent visits to Alexandria, Va., where he was welcomed like a favorite son by the parents and neighbors of his girlfriend, Caitlin Cooper.

But on April 29, when Mr. Salerno, 35, presented his passport at Washington Dulles International Airport, a Customs and Border Protection agent refused to let him into the United States. And after hours of questioning, agents would not let him travel back to Rome, either; over his protests in fractured English, he said, they insisted that he had expressed a fear of returning to Italy and had asked for asylum.

Ms. Cooper, 23, who had promised to show her boyfriend another side of her country on this visit—meaning Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon—eventually learned that he had been sent in shackles to a rural Virginia jail. And there he remained for more than 10 days, locked up without charges or legal recourse while Ms. Cooper, her parents and their well-connected neighbors tried everything to get him out.

And now there's this in the Washington Post...

Some Detainees Are Drugged For Deportation

The U.S. government has injected hundreds of foreigners it has deported with dangerous psychotropic drugs against their will to keep them sedated during the trip back to their home country, according to medical records, internal documents and interviews with people who have been drugged....

Such episodes are among more than 250 cases The Washington Post has identified in which the government has, without medical reason, given drugs meant to treat serious psychiatric disorders to people it has shipped out of the United States since 2003—the year the Bush administration handed the job of deportation to the Department of Homeland Security's new Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, known as ICE.

Involuntary chemical restraint of detainees, unless there is a medical justification, is a violation of some international human rights codes. The practice is banned by several countries where, confidential documents make clear, U.S. escorts have been unable to inject deportees with extra doses of drugs during layovers en route to faraway places.

Mr. Cooper's girlfriend—who is now living in Rome—was quoted by the NYT as saying, "Who on earth would ever seek asylum from Italy?” Dunno. But if a Democrat doesn't get elected president in the fall, and if that Democrat doesn't start undoing the damage done to this country by the GOP, I'm going to go somewhere and claim asylum from the US.

A popular restaurant has agreed to pay $35,000 to settle a lawsuit with a lesbian who said a bouncer chased her out of the women's bathroom and forced her to leave because she looked masculine....

The Caliente Cab Company, while denying the allegations, also agreed to add gender identity to its nondiscrimination policy, amend its employee handbook with a section on customer restroom use.

The Claliente Cab Company is in NYC's Greenwich Village, which has been welcoming masculine women for, oh, more than a century now. Greenwich Village ain't what it used to be, but still: if boyish/mannish dykes can't use the toilets in freakin' Greenwich Village without being harassed and discriminated against, what hope is there for boyish/mannish dykes in other, less enlightened parts of the country?

Slowing: Washington State economy, if recent job losses are any indication.

Unity: Both Democratic Presidential candidates return to Congress to vote for stopping deliveries to the strategic oil reserve.

Not enough: Clinton's 2-1 margin of victory in West Virginia.

In China: Death toll tops 12,000, with 18,000 believed buried in one city alone.

Maybe Now It'll Be Taken Seriously: HPV puts men at risk of certain oral cancers.

Supporting the Troops: President Bush gives up golf in solidarity with soldiers in Iraq.

Recipe of the Day: Butter-Braised Asparagus and Oyster Mushrooms with Peas and Tarragon (recipe and photo via the New York Times)

Continue reading "The Morning News" »

Or is likely to implode, I should say, in light of this news:

The head of a Seattle non-profit devoted to helping women has been accused of helping herself with the group's donated money. Verbena Health filed a report of embezzlement with Seattle Police claiming its executive director "has been misusing company accounts."

Among the alleged misdeeds, two members on the non-profit's board showed police bank printouts that detail purchases from Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.

...

According to the police report, board members say they had just learned of the alleged embezzlement over the weekend. They told police they were planning on firing the executive director and going to her West Seattle home to take back her work laptop.

Verbena is located on Pike St., and it shares offices and, naturally, a coffee shop with Gay City.

UPDATE: Verbena has imploded—for the time being, at least. Verbena's board of directors just sent out a press release. Here's the relevant bit:

It is with great sadness that the Board of Directors of Verbena Health, a health care service provider for lesbian, bisexual and transgender women, is announcing that it is immediately halting all services. This action is being taken to safeguard the integrity and future of the health care programs offered by Verbena until a thorough investigation of the allegations of financial mismanagement is completed.

Full text of the press release after the jump.

Continue reading "Another Gay Community Group Implodes" »

First Rocky Bernard gets arrested for domestic violence, and now there's this:

Seahawks linebacker Lofa Tatupu was arrested Saturday for investigation of driving while intoxicated.

Tatupu was arrested in Kirkland at about 2:30 Saturday morning after an officer observed his car driving at what the officer estimated was in excess of 50 mph in a 35-mph zone.

Tatupu submitted to field-sobriety tests, but declined to take a portable Breathalyzer. He was arrested, handcuffed without incident and taken to the police station. His blood-alcohol concentration (BAC) was measured at 0.155 and 0.158 when it was measured after 4, nearly double the legal limit of 0.08.

Maybe we don't need Chris Henry after all.

The headline is bad enough:

Bush warns of Iraq disaster

But then there's this:

For the first time, Bush revealed a personal way in which he has tried to acknowledge the sacrifice of soldiers and their families: He has given up golf.

“I don't want some mom whose son may have recently died to see the commander in chief playing golf,” he said. “I feel I owe it to the families to be in solidarity as best as I can with them. And I think playing golf during a war just sends the wrong signal.”

From the AP:

Vatican: It's OK to believe in aliens

But what we really need to know, of course, is what the Vatican usually concerns itself with: Is it okay to sleep with aliens?

McCain Climate Policy: "Conservatives like John McCain... are the main reason McCain has to go to a Danish wind turbine manufacturer to give a climate speech."

The Good News: Thanks to gas prices, driving is down, transit ridership is up--even in L.A.

Feel Safer Yet?: Wiretapping has increased while prosecutions for terrorism have declined.

Meanwhile, in Burma: Still refusing US aid after cyclone kills 100,000.

And in China: Earthquake toll continues to grow.

Right On: Advocates work for laws guaranteeing more restroom stalls for women.

Speaking of Restrooms: Idaho state House candidates wants separate bathrooms for the straights and the gays.

Ball and Chain: Bush drags down McCain's chances.

Jokes About Murdering Hillary: Apparently, still hilarious!

Quitter: Obama ends his war on patriotism, wears flag pin to WV rally.

OJ Confessed?: So says a new tell-all book.

Recipe(s) of the Day: Chile Con Queso (with real cheese!) and Bloody Mary Salsa (Recipes via Homesick Texan and Not Eating Out in New York, respectively; photo via Homesick Texan.)

Continue reading "The Morning News" »

Bill O'Reilly's vintage fit has been remixed for your dancing pleasure. It's brilliant—and so is Barbra's STFU.

Via Americablog.

Pennsylvania:

Ex-youth pastor pleads guilty in sexual assault of teen boy

A 40-year-old former youth minister plead guilty yesterday to charges of deviate sexual intercourse and corrupting the morals of a 15-year-old boy. James Wilkerson, who also uses the name James Haynes, was then sentenced as a result of a negotiated plea to a mandatory minimum of five to 10 years in state prison, followed by three years of probation.

Wilkerson was a youth minister at the Summerfield-Siloam United Methodist Church in Kensington when he improperly touched the boy from November 2006 to May 2007.... The teen knew Wilkerson from attending his prayer services and karate classes at the church.

James Wilkerson made his first appearance in Youth Pastor Watch back in October of 2007. A story then included this quote from Wilkerson's victim:

“He told me that now I was a part of his family and that now all of his secrets would become mine,” the teen testified. “He told me that in order to become a great martial artist, I would have to do things that normal people wouldn’t necessarily do. He said I had to become a bisexual."

Looks like the great experiment in for-profit theater might be moving—perhaps against its will.

People have been trading all kinds of rumors about Capitol Hill Arts Center: that they're moving (or being kicked) out, that they're trying to buy their lovely brick building on 12th, that building owner Elizabeth Linke (who also owns the building that houses Northwest Film Forum) has been dissatisfied with CHAC's slow slide from arts center to nightclub, etc.

Matthew Kwatinetz, CHAC's founder and executive director, wrote in an email last Thursday: "The lease options are ours (meaning that the owner can't decide not to renew our lease, that is our option, not hers), and yes we are definitely trying to purchase the building, as we have been for several years. Much of this buzz could be from all the advocacy work that I have been doing in the last several months trying to get the 'crisis' in real estate out there."

But I just got off the phone with Elizabeth Linke (a politic and articulate lady from Ireland, now living in Ballard): "Matthew did not exercise his option to renew in January—as far as I know, he'll be moving out June 30." As for selling the building to Kwatinetz, "he proposed buying it, but that's not up for discussion—I'm not interested in selling, period."

So: CHAC is out, according to the building owner, but not CHAC itself. (It'll be interesting to see how that plays out...)

Crave will stay and, according to owner and chef Robin Leventhal, maybe even expand.

Linke prefers to rent to arts organizations—she's been "very satisfied" with the Film Forum as a tenant, but tactfully declined to comment on her satisfaction level with CHAC. "I have no axe to grind with Matthew," she said. "He'll be gone soon, to go do whatever it is he wants to do."

Linke is having early-stage discussions with Velocity Dance Center about the possibility of renting to them. Velocity has to move out of its home in the Oddfellows Hall, whose new owner Ted Schroth has tripled their rent.

Velocity (which won the first Stranger Genius Award for organization five years ago) would be a perfect fit for the Building Formerly Known As CHAC.

Its main room is a brick cavern, not unlike Velocity's current home, with high ceilings and wood floors—but, sadly, no friezes of yawning lions on the walls.

You can't have everything.

(Unless, of course, somebody at Velocity wants to "accidentally" leave the doors open and some extraction tools lying around sometime... )

A friend forwarded me an email he received from his parents. "As you know," writes this local actor, "my parents work at an international school in Myanmar, and they are staying there despite the devastation of the cyclone to help rebuild their school." My friend asked me to post part of his mother's email to Slog, a story that illustrates how badly used the the Burmese people are by their rulers. He also asked that I not share his mother's name or any identifying information out of fear of retaliation.

[A co-worker] decided to go check on the family of a close family friend in one of the villages seriously hit by the cyclone. His own supplies were limited, but he wanted to take things to share with the victims of the storm. He gathered together some bottled water, a bag of rice and an old quilt that his family was no longer using.

When he reached his destination he started looking for his friend. He came upon an old woman shivering. He reached the quilt and offered it to her. She shook her head and said, "No, thank you."

Quite perplexed the man pushed the quilt toward her and said, "Auntie (a local term of endearment), you are shivering. You need this blanket more than I do, please take it." Again, the old woman shook her head refusing his offer.

Totally confused the man asked her why. She said, "Two days after the storm the men in uniforms came to our village with blankets, food and water. We accepted their gifts and posed for their cameras. When they were done taking pictures they took back the food, the water, and the blankets and drove away. I do not think that I can face such disappointment again."

$20 Million: Clinton campaign in serious debt.

Nanny State?: City tries to help taxpayers "go green."

Legal: Out-of-state same-sex marriages in New York.

"Dykes, Whores, or Bitches": One in three military women experiences sexual abuse.

Sprawl: The real threat to Puget Sound.

Leading: Clinton, in Kentucky and West Virginia.

In China: Thousands dead in major earthquake.

In Burma: Death toll from cyclone raised to nearly 32,000.

Grim: Hundreds evacuated as fires plague Florida.

Grimmer: Fire experts predict a bad year for blazes.

Pandering: McCain to present climate proposal
in Portland.

$3.80: The average price of gas in Washington State, according to AAA.

Eek: Renault plans to market world's cheapest car—in India.

Eek, Part II: Car sales in China up nearly 18 percent.

Excessively confused: Drivers confounded by HOT lanes on 167.

Recipe of the Day: Italian-Style Pork Shoulder with Salsa Verde (Recipe and photo via We Are Never Full)

Continue reading "The Morning News" »

Playboy Magazine, according to this morning's NYT, isn't raking in the dough like it used to.

Last week, Playboy Enterprises reported that it had lost money in the first quarter of 2008, making it another casualty of the economic downturn and the squeeze between old media and new media. The company had a profit in the corresponding period last year.

Playboy said its weak spot was the domestic media division, which publishes the company’s flagship magazine. The division got a scissors kick from the difficult advertising climate and from the easy availability of bare flesh on the Internet.

Even if the Internet didn't exist—even if extremely hot people all over the world weren't volunteering to show all on sites like Xtube—Playboy would be in trouble. I mean, is there a straight guy out there that can look at a Playboy and get an erection after seeing a single episode of The Girls Next Door? But not to worry, says Playboy to its shareholders, the company has plans to diversify its products:

Playboy, she said, has deals to open casinos and introduce a men’s perfume, as well as plans to upgrade its online operation and improve its content.

A men's cologne from Playboy—for all those straight guys out there who've outgrown Axe Body Spray.

Maybe someone out there thought to ask the President or First Lady this question. Maybe a brave member of the White House press corps broached the subject at that press conference where the first lady took questions about the tragedy in Burma and her daughter's upcoming wedding, and there's a transcript out there somewhere and I can't find it. But if there is, if someone did ask this question, I can't find the story. So I'll ask here:

Was Jenna Bush a virgin on her wedding night?

Was the mucous membrane that partially covered Jenna Bush's external vaginal opening intact on Saturday night? Was her daddy seen nailing a bloody sheet to a fence post at the entrance to his ranch in Crawford, Texas, on Sunday morning? Anybody? A Google search of "Jenna Bush" and "virgin" turns up just 10 articles, most dating from before her wedding, and none are about this Bush twin's virginity. (One is about Bob Schieffer giving a speech in Texas—WTF?)

Now whether a penis had ever, prior to Saturday night, been introduced into Jenna Bush's vaginal canal, rending her maidenhead and ending her virginity, may sound like a private matter—something that's between Jenna Bush and her new husband and her daddy's laundress—but so might your daughter's virginity. Or your son's. But the federal government, under the leadership of Jenna Bush's father, has made it quite clear that the virginity of young Americans isn't a private matter. The federal government, under the leadership of Jenna's daddy, has pumped more than a billion dollars worth of public's money into abstinence education programs. And when he was governor of Texas Bush invested the hard-earned money of that state's taxpayers in abstinence education programs. For more than a decade now teenagers and young adults—including, presumably/particularly, the Bush twins—have been instructed to abstain from sexual activity until marriage.

So this is a reasonable question, a prudent one, a fair one, one that the GAO might want to look into: Was Jenna Bush a virgin on her wedding night?

And if she wasn't, here's the obvious followup: Why wasn't she? If Jenna Bush wasn't a virgin on her wedding night—Jenna Bush, the daughter of George W. Bush, who sat down to dinner every night with the world's biggest backer of abstinence education programs, silver ring things, father-daughter purity balls, hymens-bursting-on-wedding-nights, etc.—hasn't abstinence education been a huge waste of public money?

These would be the same Iraqi police that we've spent hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars training, right?

For Abdel-Qader Ali there is only one regret: that he did not kill his daughter at birth. 'If I had realised then what she would become, I would have killed her the instant her mother delivered her,' he said with no trace of remorse.

Two weeks after The Observer revealed the shocking story of Rand Abdel-Qader, 17, murdered because of her infatuation with a British solider in Basra, southern Iraq, her father is defiant. Sitting in the front garden of his well-kept home in the city's Al-Fursi district, he remains a free man, despite having stamped on, suffocated and then stabbed his student daughter to death.

Abdel-Qader, 46, a government employee, was initially arrested but released after two hours. Astonishingly, he said, police congratulated him on what he had done. 'They are men and know what honour is,' he said.

posted by news intern Chris Kissel

Fresh start: Obama and McCain prepare for the general election.

Bad weather: Tornadoes leave 22 dead in Oklahoma, Missouri and Georgia.

Weekend demonstrations: 560 Tibetan women arrested in Nepal.

Aftermath: Bodies pile up in Burma. Boat bringing Red Cross aid sinks.

Wedding: Jenna Bush gets married in Crawford.

Divorce: Sudan cuts ties with Chad on suspicion that it helped Darfur rebels.

Puget unsound: Economic growth causes environmental nightmare in the region.

Choosing sides: Evangelicals voice support for Democrats.

Relatedly: Seattle's young white evangelicals also might be making the switch.

Kids, mom lived with 90-year-old's corpse for weeks in Wis.

Two children and their mother lived for about two months with the decaying body of a 90-year-old woman on the toilet of their home's only bathroom, on the advice of a religious "superior" who claimed the corpse would come back to life, authorities said Friday.

The children—a 15-year-old girl and a 12-year-old boy—cried hysterically Wednesday after a deputy who came to their Necedah home looking for Magdeline Alvina Middlesworth ordered them out because of the stench from her body....

When Deputy Leigh Neville-Neil arrived at the house, she encountered Lewis, also known as Sister Mary Bernadett, the complaint said. Lewis, 35, initially refused to allow the deputy to check on Middlesworth, telling her that Middlesworth was on vacation and saying she had to check with her "superior" first.

But she eventually let the deputy in. The house smelled of incense and burned wood, and had religious materials everywhere and hymns playing on the stereo, according to the complaint. When the deputy opened the last closed door, she smelled "decaying matter" and noticed something piled on what appeared to be a toilet. Lewis told her it was Middlesworth's body, the complaint said.

Lewis told the deputy that Middlesworth had died about two months earlier, but that God told her Middlesworth would come to life if she prayed hard enough. She said she couldn't say anything more until she spoke with her "superior"—Bushey, 57, also known as Bishop John Peter Bushey.

Posted by news intern Chris Kissel

Ride on: Commuters across the country flock to mass transit due to rising gas prices.

Vote on: Zimbabwe gets ready for second round of presidential elections.

Vote off: Oregon may be the Clinton campaign's final resting place.

Vote for: Obama kicks off serious voter registration drive.

Vote later: Burma insists on referendum vote despite widespread devastation.

Back in business: Controversial Blackwater back in Iraq.

Highway wars: Anti-immigration group really wants to adopt a stretch of highway near Border Patrol checkpoint.

Refund party: Motorists ticketed on holidays for parking without paying will get their money back.

Long sentence: 19-year-old will serve life in prison for murdering taxi driver.

Short sentence: Executive shot bison.

Ladies and gentleman, the Uno.

The electric Uno is the brainchild of 18-year-old Canadian Ben Gulak who spent several years developing the bike, which is controlled entirely by body movements.

The machine actually has two wheels, side-by-side, and uses gyroscopic technology to stay upright. It moves in the direction the rider leans - and the more you lean, the faster you go. Ben claims that the bike could help beat pollution and he was inspired to design it after visiting China and seeing all the smog there.

He says: "The bike is fairly easy to ride, but takes a bit of getting used to because you have to learn to trust it."

Via Towleroad.

The AP:

Omaha man says this was his second self-tracheotomy

This just in...

A powerful federal arts commission is urging that the sculpture of Martin Luther King Jr. proposed for a memorial on the Tidal Basin be reworked because it is too "confrontational"...

BBC:

Great tits cope well with warming

posted by news intern Chris Kissel

Aid seizure: UN stops aid to Burma after supplies seized by government.

Neighborhood seizure: Shiite militias occupy west Beirut.

Nomination seizure: Obama assumes nominee role; Clinton campaign chairman says the race will be over soon.

Gas up: Oil hits $126 a barrel in expectation of a conflict with Venezuela.

Cancelled appointment: U.S. pulls former commanding general of Guantanamo Bay from Islamabad amid Pakistani concerns.

Something weird is going on in Japan: Marine acquitted of rape is last in a long line of suspected rapists.

The SPS shuffle: Controversial Office of Equity and Race Relations dismantled.

Shut down: Judge Pechman denies another Sonics motion, this time to expose sealed documents.

Bad dreams: Buyers will wait two more years than they expected for new Dreamliners.