The dispute has been tied up for months while the district waited for permits but yesterday, residents near Ingraham received letters from the school district, informing them that the district had pulled its permit applications, and would be moving ahead with the tree removal sometime next week.

"The city is not happy with the school district," says Mayor Nickels' spokesman Alex Fryer."To submit an application and withdraw it…is just not the way anyone should do business. It certainly looks like an act of bad faith."

Fryer says the city plans to "apply some political and moral pressure" on the district and look at whether the city has any legal authority in the matter.

School District spokeswoman Patty Spencer was not available for comment.

Pissed off tree lovers in North Seattle

Thou Doth Protest Too Much: Chinese officials arrest three Americans who planned to wave “Free Tibet” flags at the opening ceremonies, deport uppity foreigners, detain Chinese, close Tiananmen Square.

Cause du Jour: Reporters Without Borders hack airwaves in China to broadcast a 20-minute program in Chinese, English, and French. Meanwhile, thousands protest Chinese policy in major Asian cities, where the governments aren’t quite so repugnant.

Cancer in the Duwamish Valley: State’s Department of Health reports South Seattle residents face increased cancer risk, blame air pollution nearby industry and particularly within 200 yards of highways.

Recession Watch: Fannie Mae reports $2.3 billion loss—three times more than expected—as bellwether of future economic tumult.

Apple Kills App: The “I Am Rich” icon displayed a ruby. That’s it. Eight people paid the Apple Store $1000, until Apple yanked it last night.

Monitoring: Christian Science Monitor creates pseudovoter email accounts around country to track email messaging by presidential campaigns. They find that Obama’s emails are steady nationwide and localize issues, but McCain fails to email voters in some battleground states and messages are more conservative than television ads.

Smearing: Fellow Republican ousts incumbent in Tennessee primary by linking him to “big oil.”

Pakistan: Government officials begin to shuffle positions in response to impending move to impeach President Musharraf. Proceedings could begin by next week unless Musharraf declares state of emergency.

Texas: Thirteen people, all members of the Vietnamese Martyr Catholic Church, die in after bus blows a tire and careens off an overpass; bus found unfit for interstate travel last month.

On the Left, Exhibit A: Prosecutors reassemble a Ford Mustang in King County courtroom to prove how suspect may have committed murder.

Beleaguered Mayor: Detroit’s Kilpatrick will get out of jail for misconduct to face assault charges.

Open the Floodgates: Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates wants to spend $20 billion bulking up Afghanistan’s army.

We’re All Going to Die: European scientists endeavor to build a collider on 17-mile underground track to smash protons together and test the origins of the universe.

Watching the Opening Ceremony: We can't see it on US television until primetime. But you can watch it on the tubes right now.

From the Edmonton Sun:

A fundamentalist church group from the U.S. has announced it plans to picket the funeral of [Greyhound bus victim] Tim McLean Jr. in Winnipeg, declaring, "God is punishing Canada." Led by pastor Fred Phelps, the Westboro Baptist Church from Kansas issued a release saying they would picket McLean's funeral this weekend.

Phelps' daughter, Shirley Phelps-Roper, said about seven church members are expected to come to Winnipeg. "What we're doing is trying to connect dots," Phelps-Roper told Sun Media last night. "We're trying to get you to see that your rebellion against the standards of God, your disobedience to the commandments—your idols, your false gods, your filthy ways have brought wrath upon your head."

And from the CBC:

An animal rights group has posted an ad on its website comparing the recent stabbing and decapitation of a young Winnipeg man to how humans kill animals for food. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals said the advertisement is meant to make people understand how animals suffer when they are killed in slaughterhouses. The group posted the imageless advertisement on its blog site Wednesday.

"PETA's ad…is meant to spur people to think about the terror and pain experienced by animals who are raised and killed for food. The group aims to demonstrate that animals — just like humans — are made of flesh, blood, and bone and deserve protection from needless killing," said a statement on PETA's website.

Gotta love the tragedy vultures (though, it must be said, PETA is 800,000 times less repugnant than anything Phelps.)

Neighbors protested the tree removal plan at several planning meetings this winter and had hoped the city's Department of Planning and Development would refuse the district's permit requests. But today, neighbors received certified letters from Seattle Schools, informing them that the district has rescinded its permit applications. The district now claims it doesn't need permits to remove the trees and plans to send in construction equipment sometime next week.

"They decided they can’t win the process and are cutting the public out of it," says Steve Zemke, who lives two blocks from Ingraham. "They don’t care what the public thinks about this. They’re cutting down a park like area that’s been used by the community for years."

While Zemke and his neighbors are fuming over the district's tactics, Seattle School District Spokesman David Tucker says the district provided adequate public process and are moving forward with the tree removal for the safety of students. "There’s been a public process all along." he says. "We looked at all the best possible designs for the school. This design is the most academically and environmentally sound." Tucker says the district will plant three trees for every one removed, which could add nearly 200 more trees to the school's campus.

It's unclear whether the district can move forward with the tree removal without city approval—DPD's spokesman was not available for comment—but Tucker says the district needs to move forward now so the process can be finished before the beginning of the school year. "The ideal for us it to have the trees removed when there aren’t students on campus and to avoid using heavy machinery during the wet weather," Tucker says. "We’re doing this because we want to make sure we do this in the safest fashion possible."

Zemke and his neighbors are now scrambling to find a way to halt the impending tree removal, and are planning to protest at Ingraham next week. Zemke also says neighbors will fight any future plans for construction at the school.

[Current State School Superintendent Terry] Bergeson has consistently defended the WASL as a high-stakes requirement for graduation. We decided it would be funny to present Bergeson and her challengers with a few sample questions from the WASL and she bombed the test. Bergeson only answered two out of the three questions we put to her and both her answers were wrong.

It's totally true. Here's the evidence:

As you already know, the SECB endorsed Bergeson's opponent Randy Dorn. Mostly because Mr. Dorn's tidy handwriting does not indicate a predilection for the taste of human flesh.

The three sample questions—from grades 3, 7 and 10—are from the Port Angeles School District's website.

Answers after the break.

The Great Firewall: China Internet police scan online activity; Olympics reporters bemoan hamstrung Web access.

Impeachment: Pakistan's ruling parties want to impeach Musharraf for unpopular economic policies and refusing to step down despite sketchy election, require two-thirds majority.

Bad Grades: Audit finds Seattle Public Schools' program for students learning English is one of the worst in the country.

Bar Tab: Sims suggests that King County cities each build their own jails.

Belltown Crash: Collision of pedicab, scooter and van leaves one dead and five injured.

Crazy Junta: Mauritania's new government promises free elections, but also fires teargas at citizens holding signs.

500: Afghanistan death toll hits milestone.

Maverick Moment of the Week: Obama picks up the maverick message in ads and speeches.

Screwy: Malaysia charges opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim with sodomy as he runs for parliament. He faces 20 years in prison.

The Surge at Home: Jobless rates hit a six-year high.

"Dressed for Dinner": Festival in Peru involves dressing up Guinea Pigs and then, well...

The Audacity of Hope: Delusional Hillary backers plan to march through Denver during the Democratic national Convention to demand her delegates are counted and win the nomination!

Olympic kick-off week: Nadia Comaneci's perfect 10s in 1976.

The news from Barbara Wagner's doctor was bad, but the rejection letter from her insurance company was crushing.

The 64-year-old Oregon woman, whose lung cancer had been in remission, learned the disease had returned and would likely kill her. Her last hope was a $4,000-a-month drug that her doctor prescribed for her, but the insurance company refused to pay.

What the Oregon Health Plan did agree to cover, however, were drugs for a physician-assisted death. Those drugs would cost about $50.

"It was horrible," Wagner told ABCNews.com. "I got a letter in the mail that basically said if you want to take the pills, we will help you get that from the doctor and we will stand there and watch you die. But we won't give you the medication to live."

Greyhound has scrapped an ad campaign that extolled the relaxing upside of bus travel after one of its passengers was accused of beheading and cannibalizing another traveler.

The ad's tag line was "There's a reason you've never heard of 'bus rage.'"

Greyhound spokeswoman Abby Wambaugh said Wednesday a billboard and some tunnel posters near a bus terminal in Toronto are still up and would be removed later in the day.

You know... I never thought I'd ever feel sorry for Greyhound. I used to ride the bus back and forth to college, from Chicago to Urbana, Illinois. It was back when people were allowed to smoke. On the freakin' bus—but, you know, only in the last ten or so rows, so it's not like the whole bus filled with smoke or anything. I used to think smoking on the bus—particularly in the winter in the midwest, when the windows were all shut tight—was the worst possible thing one bus passenger could do to another.

Mauritania: Army officers stage coup after four military officials were fired. Junta blacks out state media, deploys military through capital, detains president and PM.

Vice Chimes: Obama to appear with Evan Bayh, current senator and former two-term governor of Indiana, stirring widespread speculation about Bayh as VP pick.

Driven to It: Former driver for Bin Laden convicted of war crimes in closed military court, faces life term.

Get Well, Councilmember: McIver in intensive care unit after suffering post-operation complications from colon surgery.

Electric Slide: Kentucky governor approves three- and four-wheeled electric cars on some roads.

Get a Room: McCain campaign loves Paris Hilton's energy plan.

It’s Finally Happening: Airlines planning to install Internet on planes. "If they charge for it, they are going to make millions and millions of dollars."

Apple Sauce: Jobs concedes launch of troubled MobileMe Internet service was poorly timed, hands over project to another executive.

Red Alert: Freddie Mac posts quarterly loss of $821 million on housing and credit markets—far worse than expected.

Green Light: Port and city strike deal to connect I-90 to waterfront.

Golden Opportunity: China denies entry to former Olympic medalist for views on Darfur.

Under Pressure: “Sen. Obama … said that we ought to all inflate our tires, and I don’t disagree with that,” says McCain.

Under Processed: Sims wants to spend $84 million to update county’s computer systems.

Under Staffed: Waiting time in emergency rooms now averages an hour (while vogue and money for docs is now in cosmetic surgery and dermatology).

Maverick Ad of the Day: Obama campaign borrows page from the Eli Sanders handbook.

At about 10:30 p.m., Seattle police received a call about a shooting on Rainier Ave S and S Graham Street. When officers arrived, they found a 15-year-old boy lying on the sidewalk, with a gunshot wound to the stomach.

The boy was transported to Harborview, where he died sometime later.

According to SPD Spokeswoman Renee Witt, the victim was walking south on Rainier with several friends when they heard a gunshot.

The boy's friends told police they don't know where the shot came from and police say they have no suspects.

SPD's gang unit is investigating.

'Bus beheader' had mouth, nose and ear in pocket

Actually, we do know how much money she spent: $50,000 for a litter of five, or $10,000 per dog. I have nothing to say about this obscenity save this: When Booger's clones turn on their new owner and go for her throat... well, it looks like they won't have to go one at a time.

And remember, kids: Your dead pet might have been nice, but his clone will be evil incarnate.

As we've reported on Slog, hate crimes appear to be on the rise in Seattle, but according to the Auditor's report, the city's doing a fair job of handling the unfortunately growing caseload.

From 2006 to 2007, hate crimes in Seattle nearly doubled, jumping from 27 reported cases in '06 to 52 cases in '07. The majority of Seattle's hate crimes occurred in Downtown Seattle and Capitol Hill, although there were also a number of incidents in the Ballard area. Only the Magnolia and Haller Lake neghborhoods had no reported incidents.

While the city hasn't yet found an effective way to prevent incidents from occurring, the report does commend Seattle and Washington State for having some of the most comprehensive hate crime laws in the nation. However, not every hate crime case is making it to court.

According to the Auditor's report, the city needs to better track data on hate crimes. For instance, several cases weren't referred to prosecutors because they'd been misfiled at a police precinct and were not forwarded on to the department's bias crimes liason. The Auditor's report also cites SPD's new computerized report system as a problematic, complicating factor in tracking cases and recommends officers receive additional training so they can more readily recognize bias crimes.

City council members will be meeting with police department officials in the next few weeks to discuss the report.

Power Struggle: Obama and McCain spar over energy policies.

Guns Don’t Kill People: Guns fired by teenagers aiming at hikers mistaken for bears kill people.

Oregon Coast: Private plane crashes into vacation house on first day of two-week family reunion, killing three children inside, passenger and pilot.

Not Out of the Woods Yet: Weyerhaeuser posts third consecutive loss.

It's Their Party: They can cry if they want to.

Well before Senators Barack Obama and John McCain rose to the top of their parties, a partisan shift was under way at the local and state level. For more than three years starting in 2005, there has been a reduction in the number of voters who register with the Republican Party and a rise among voters who affiliate with Democrats and, almost as often, with no party at all.

G n’ R: Gregiore and Rossi agree to four gubernatorial debates.

Guns and Roses: Tumultuous young love ends in Issaquah stabbing death.

Life and Death: Despite hopes that Mars could support life, soil tests reveal inhospitable toxin.

Standard and Poor: McCain campaign pushes comedy to break through Olympics, distributes Obama’s energy plan to reporters: tire-pressure gauges.

Machetes and Explosives: Chinese police shut off Internet in Kashgar after being attacked, 16 dead.

Bullets and Ballots: Bracing for Democratic convention, police “expressed concern about low-level chatter on Web sites frequented by white separatists who spew hate about Mr. Obama’s race and what they perceive as his liberal agenda.”

Barrel Chest: Crude oil prices drop after tropical storm bypasses offshore oil sites.

Willful Negligence: Freddie Mac chief executive ignored report in 2004 that “Lending crisis determined to attack inside the U.S.”

Graphic Example: Intel endeavors to produce chip that advances graphics.

Inside Report: Robert Novak is retiring to focus on his state-secret-leaking, vehicular-assaulting brain tumor.

Olympic kick-off week: Watercube!