(Photo by Jim Gupta-Carlson)

It’s supposed to make “public transportation fast, easy and seamless” – one fare card, a smart card nicknamed ORCA, that can be used for the ferries, Sound Transit, Metro or several other transit agencies.

But bus drivers predict they’ll cause delays and problems collecting fares.

And maybe even accidents.

The problem, say bus drivers such as Brian Sherlock and Joshua Laff, both leaders with the union that represents the drivers, is that the system is too cumbersome to use.

Take a bus that goes from Aurora Village to downtown, Laff says. The route crosses two zones, and the ride has a higher fare than a single-zone trip. The smart card reader is set to charge riders for a two-zone trip, says Laff, a senior shop steward in Metro’s norh base.

But if riders are taking a short trip, they’re charged for only one zone.

Right now, the system is simple. Passengers taking a short trip pay the smaller fare when they get on,... (more)

Four years after Washington state voters passed a smoking ban, pushing smokers out of restaurants and bars outside, a Seattle City Councilman is considering taking the next step.

Councilman Tom Rasmussen said he’s considering proposing a ban on smoking in Seattle parks.

The measure would likely be controversial. 

“Am I going to have to leave the planet to smoke?” said an alarmed Robert Mott, as he sat on a bench at on Capitol Hill’s Cal Anderson Park on Wednesday, smoking a cigarette.

On Thursday, Rasmussen, who chairs the council’s Parks & Seattle Center committee, began testing the waters, posing a question on his Facebook page , “I chair the Seattle City Council's Parks Committee. Several people have suggested banning smoking in our parks. Do you think this is a good idea or not, or what?”

Rasmussen said in an email to the PostGlobe, “I am considering introducing this to the City Council and I posted the questions on my Face book because I wanted to hear what people have to say.”

“Secondly, the ban... (more)

Unable to imagine a title better suited to current 3D technology than “Alice in Wonderland,” I am happy to report that Tim Burton’s new version of the Lewis Carroll stories fulfills James Cameron’s empty boast of initiating a new era in cinema technology. “Alice in Wonderland” puts “Avatar” back in the dollhouse with the rest of the toy stories and shows the world how live-action and animation can truthfully be blended into a new art form.

One of the biggest problems with 3D cinematography is the tendency for objects, not only  to become smaller as they move away from the camera, but to lose  their dimensional stability.  Most of the current 3D movies choose to ignore this altogether, the result being a nightmare in visual perspective. Burton doesn’t solve the problem, but he adapts it to his subject matter. With altered perspectives being integral to Wonderland, the drastic variability of movable forms just adds to the delight... (more)

Woodland Park Zoo officials called the filing of a complaint with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to try to shut down the zoo's Asian elephant breeding program "yet another attack on Woodland Park Zoo and its excellent elephant program by a fringe group of local activists." 

A statement from zoo spokeswoman Gigi Allianic went on to say the group's "long-term agenda is not only the elimination of elephants in zoos, but of zoos themselves."

The complaint, filed by the Sound Animal Rights Alliance, stems from the death two years ago of the Asian elephant, Hansa.  According to a press release from the group, the complaint includes a declaration from a veterinarian with experience working with elephants that describes the zoo as an “infected environment.”

According to the press release, SARA, a local animal advocacy group, claims that the Zoo violated the AWA by exposing Hansa to the Zoo’s African elephant, Watoto, a known herpes risk factor, thereby causing her death and by continuing to try to breed Hansa’... (more)

By Jason Mercier

Center for Government Reform

The national health care debate is setting up an interesting compare-and-contrast back home concerning the strategies of neighboring congressional Democratic Reps. Adam Smith (Tacoma) and Brian Baird (Vancouver). Smith is making himself available to constituents, whereas Baird is canceling his town hall meetings.

This comes against the backdrop of news wires abuzz with phrases such as “AstroTurf protesters” and “anti-government radicals” at town hall meetings voicing their displeasure over how the health care debate is unfolding in Washington, D.C. It seems that for some in D.C. and the media, only those Americans who don’t have strong opinions and don’t try to organize are worthy of having their voices heard.

It should not surprise elected officials that when they push controversial policies, there will be some heat back home. Assuming the policy is well thought out and the typical member of Congress understands what he is advocating, he should have no... (more)

One of the effects Richard Donner experimented with in the test photography for 1978’s “Superman: The Movie” was a hologram of Superman flying off the screen and over the heads of the audience. It worked, except for the small detail that the man of steel was reduced to less than a foot in length during said flight. Fortunately, Donner was in the director’s chair, not James Cameron, who would have used the effect to trumpet his achievement as the greatest in film history.

It is thirty-one years later and the world has yet to witness Superman flying off the screen. It has, however, seen The Titanic rise again. Not just once, but many times, although Cameron’s resurrection was arguable the most impressive, at least by his own measure. It has been ten years since he waved his Oscars for that film in the face of the world, and he has now returned with something that, again by his measure, is the greatest thing since creamed corn.

Is “Avatar” the greatest technical... (more)

By Kery Murakami
PostGlobe
Seattle City Councilwoman Jan Drago speaks in bleak terms about how Metro’s coming bus cuts could affect the city. “It’s going to be disastrous,” she said last week.

The cuts, intended to fill a $168 million hole in Metro’s budget over the next two years, will eliminate some bus routes, or at least lead to longer waits for more crowded buses all over King County.
But because of the county’s policies for adding and eliminating bus service, Seattle will be hit harder by the cuts harder than anywhere else in the county.

An analysis prepared by Seattle City Council last week indicated that riders in Seattle, Shoreline and Lake Forest Park would take between 74 percent and 87 percent of the service reductions under three preliminary scenarios created by the county for handling transit cuts.
The numbers are based on very preliminary scenarios Metro is using. And the actual size of the cuts could be reduced significantly. An audit commissioned by the county council... (more)

Pregnant and looking forward to motherhood, Kim Radtke walked the three-mile-long trail around Green Lake twice a week. She swam. She stretched in prenatal yoga class. She munched mostly organic foods – for years. Aware of chemicals in everyday products, she refused such things as ordinary scented lotions and deodorants. Trained as a midwife, she made a career of helping babies get a good start in life and she wanted the same for her unborn son.

    So when Radtke took part in a new study – released today  – that tested levels of chemicals in pregnant women, she was dismayed to learn she rated worst among nine West Coast women tested for a particular class of chemicals: perfluorinated compounds (PFCs**). They’re used to make Teflon pans, clothing, furniture, and food packaging such as pizza boxes and fast-food containers.

   In all, 11 nasty chemicals from everyday products and foods were detected in Radtke’s blood, meaning such substances also... (more)

By Himanee Gupta-Carlson

PostGlobe

Streets are like people. Each street has an identity of its own, and I like getting to know the identity of certain streets on a deep-down personal level. I like watching how streets are traveled, and how streets change on a block-to-block level.

So when my husband Jim suggested that we spend a full 24 hours walking the length of Martin Luther King Jr. Way for the Photographic Center Northwest’s first annual Longshot fund-raiser, I immediately was interested.

We live one block east of MLK, and I use the street often to travel between my home in the Central Area and such south Seattle neighborhoods as Rainier Valley and Columbia City. I also have been watching test trains skim along the soon-to-be activated light rail tracks with interest, and decided that, with the light rail service beginning in less than a month, a 24-hour visit with MLK now would be an opportune time to capture the identity of the street before it undergoes a profound change.

MLK got its current name in... (more)

By Alexander Kelly

COPENHAGEN – Deafening chants rocked the entrance to the conference center where negotiators tried to piece together a global treaty to fight climate change Friday – chants that shed light on the intricate nature of the talks and the difficulty of concluding a deal.

As 130 heads of state took their place at the negotiating table, just hours before the talks were scheduled to come to a close, the cries outside came largely from Ogadenians, people from a southeastern territory in Ethiopia, 3,600 miles from Denmark. They made their way to Copenhagen to tell United Nations leaders not to negotiate a climate deal with an alleged génocidaire.

That would be Meles Zenawi, prime minister of Ethiopia. Months ago, he was appointed as the African Union’s spokesman for the final days of the UN climate talks. Now, as he appears to be willing to accept less than most Africans want from the industrialized North out of a climate finance deal, many – including the Ogadenians... (more)

Many Utz has been living with the knowledge he could be detained at anytime. On Thursday, he'll ask for a pardon that will end the uncertainty (Photograph by Jim Gupta-Carlson)

Update: Many Uch, the Cambodian immigrant facing deportation, is here in Olympia waiting for his hearing before the state Clemency and Pardon board.

Uch, a South Seattle resident, became a symbol in the debate over deportations when his story of living in limbo was featured in a PBS documentary, Sentenced Home.

Uch was initially detained "indefinitely" after finishing a 40-month sentence for robbery when he was 18 because U.S. immigration policy calls for immigrants to be deported for committing felonies. However, Cambodia had no treaty with the U.S. to take deportees.

Upon his release after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling, he has become a prominent communty activist in Seattle. But after Cambodia agreed to take deportees, he has been facing the prospect of being deported at any time. He is seeking a pardon.

About 30 of his friends and supporters...(more)

Almost three months ago, we set out to try to fill in some of the gaps in journalism in town when our old paper, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, laid off virtually the entire staff and ceased print publication.

Thanks to everyone who’s donated, we’ve been able to keep going. And we should be able to keep going for at least three more weeks.But until we receive grants, our work is entirely dependent on your help. And really that was the idea. You were never asked if you wanted the P-I to close, any more than were the people in Denver when the Rocky Mountain News shut down or the people in communities around the nation watching their newspapers shrink – and with it, the coverage of the important issues in their communities.  

So we’re asking you if you want us to keep doing the work we’ve been doing.If so, please consider continuing to donate. Nearly all of our contributions have been one-time donations. Please think about giving again, or better yet, selecting the option... (more)

After refusing to divulge his stance, Rep. Dave Reichert, R-Wash., voted for the  American Clean Energy and Security Act as it passed the U.S. House of Representatives.

The act, a cap-and-trade program, is aimed at reducing greenhouse emissions. Here are some of the highlights, including the requirement that by 2020, all electric utilities would be required to produce up to 15 percent of their power using renewable sources.

Granted, not everyone likes the bill – even some environmentalist groups are split.

Reichert's was a closely-watched vote given he's portrayed himself as a proponent of battling climate change. However, some have said he has a soft commitment to environmental issues and voting for the bill meant breaking from his party.

And indeed it passed 219-212. Reichert was one of eight Republicans who broke party lines to support the bill.

However, Kirkdorffer, who has been tracking Reichert's voting record, and Nielsen,, noted that Reichert voted against three procedural... (more)

From Larry Johnson's blog: Looking for Trouble.

About the author:

Natalia M. Wobst, a June 2010 graduate of the Russian, Eastern European, and Central Asian Studies Program at the University of Washington, spent two months last summer in the city of Osh in southern Kyrgyzstan, which was at the heart of the recent unrest. Here Natalia was enrolled in the American Councils’ Eurasian Regional Language Program, lived within an Uzbek host family, received intensive Uzbek language instruction and conducted research for her Master's Thesis - “Local Impact on Secondary Educational Reform in Post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan.”

According to an AP report of June 17th, 2010, deadly riots led by ethnic Kyrgyz mobs from June 10th - 14th in southern Kyrgyzstan caused hundreds of thousands of native Uzbeks to flee their homes.  As many as 100,000 (mostly women, children, and elderly people) escaped the country and set up makeshift camps across the border in Uzbekistan, while 300,000 people were and are... (more)

Larry Johnson is the former foreign editor of the Seattle P-I. His blog is at www.larryjohnsononline.com.

It’s good to know that world leaders are on top of any effort by Iran to build nuclear weapons. President Barack Obama and the leaders of France and Britain said on Friday that Iran needs to make full disclosure about its nuclear program and allow international inspectors inside a previously undisclosed site.

The leaders threatened new sanctions against Iran if it fails to comply.

All good, I suppose. We definitely need fewer nuclear arms in the world, not more. (The current roster of nuclear-armed nations, including the U.S., France and Britain, would do the world an enormous service by beginning to dismantle their stockpile.) And Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has not endeared himself to the world community over the years. That unpopularity combined with Iran’s violent response to the disputed presidential vote makes him and his country an easy target. Maybe too easy.

Turns out this previously undisclosed... (more)

Doll Caldwell, left, and Debra York work in the kitchen at Mary's Place, an emergency day shelter for women and children in Seattle. (Photo: Eric Ruthford)

By Eric Ruthford

PostGlobe

Linda Swanigan comes to Mary's Place because it's difficult for her to find a place to live. "I get a lot of runaround on housing. Some places have a two-month wait, others a three-month wait." she said. "I've been homeless for a year in October, since I lost my Section 8 housing." She lives in her car, and she comes to Mary's Place for housing referrals and to use the showers and washing machines. She's been unable to work because of an injury, but she hopes to get new training from the Washington state Division of Vocational Rehabilitation, and a job.

The 56-year-old woman wears a clean white shirt and dark brown pants. Mary's Place is her starting point for going on interviews for housing – after getting cleaned up here, she says, she doesn't "look homeless."

J-Lee Craven, 6, displays a doll at Mary's Place, an emergency day...(more)

Stuart Thayer in Paris in 1984 (Courtesy of Boyka Thayer)

By Philip Dawdy

PostGlobe

Stuart Thayer loved walking and, in the end, it’s what undid him. He had lived in Seattle for 25 years and had become a fixture in the 15th Avenue East part of Capitol Hill. Thayer was a close friend of August Wilson, the legendary playwright who lived in the area before dying of cancer in 2005, and the two could be seen most mornings sitting in front of Caffe Ladro chatting with a few other men and laughing their butts off. Thayer was a writer himself, a well-regarded historian of the early American circus, and the two had stories.

I used to see Thayer strolling around the neighborhood – he lived on 17th Avenue East in a townhouse with a wife named Boyka and two black cats – and I’d say “Hello” and he would nod his head. Thayer, who turned 83 this year,  was usually smoking a cigarette. He wore a brown beret. Until last year, he used a cane. Then, he switched... (more)

UPDATE 10:05:

Greta Berlin, of the Free Gaza movement, says the MV Rachel Corrie is being tailed by the Israeli navy, according to reports. But, at this point, no one has tried to come on board.

Berlin says the ship is now about 25 miles from Gaza's shores.

"There were two warships in the back of them ... and a smaller boat was approaching," Berlin told the Belfast Telegraph from the movement's headquarters in Cyprus, citing a passenger on board.

There are 20 people on board the Rachel Corrie, including five Irish nationals, six Malaysians and nine crew members.

Update 9:25: p.m. Friday:

The Free Gaza Movement, one of the organizations behind the flotilla of ships that has been trying to take aid to Gaza, just reported that the MV Rachel Corrie is being boarded by Israelis.

According to one of the passengers on the ship, Jenny Graham, Israeli ships had been...(more)

The $40,000 bonus City Light Superintendent Jorge Carrasco received from Seattle was several times larger than others he’d received in previous years and hit the maximum called for in his contract, even as the utility faces financial problems, Mayor Greg Nickels’ spokesman said.

Carrasco’s contract, signed when he took the post in 2004, calls for him to receive up to an 8 percent performance bonus each year, and a 10 percent retention bonus if he stayed at City Light for four years, said Nickels spokesman Alex Fryer.

Carrasco received about a 2.2 percent increase in 2005 and 2006, which came to a total of about $10,000 in bonuses, Fryer said.

He received no bonus in 2007.

But as the PostGlobe first reported on Tuesday, Carrasco received a $40,000 bonus about a month ago. That was made up of the 10 percent retention bonus plus the full 8 percent performance bonus he could receive, the highest he's received while in office.

“This is no time to be awarding bonuses to city employees who are already highly paid.... (more)

From Larry Johnson's blog: Looking for Trouble.

Thanks to ROFTO Radio – Palestine, I recently received a letter from the parents of Rachel Corrie, describing the lawsuit scheduled to begin on Wednesday in Haifa District Court in Israel. Rofto.net describes itself as a “Palestinian guy-owned independent network that promotes constructive dialogue and understanding within the Middle East and All the world.”

Here’s the letter:

Friends,

As many of you know, a civil lawsuit in the case of our daughter Rachel Corrie is scheduled for trial in the Haifa District Court beginning March 10, 2010. A human rights observer and activist,Rachel, 23, tried nonviolently to offer protection for a Palestinian family whose home was threatened with demolition by the Israeli military. On March 16, 2003, she was crushed to death by an Israel Defense Force (IDF) Caterpillar D9R bulldozer in Rafah, Gaza.

The lawsuit is one piece of our family’s seven-year effort to pursue justice for... (more)

Mayor-elect Mike McGinn's "open-source" transition encourages the public to tell him their top ideas for Seattle, and so far two ideas have shot to the top, garnering the most votes on his web site: "Expand as much light rail and subway as possible" stands far and above at No. 1. Lagging  behind at No. 2, "legalize marijuana and tax it."

  McGinn is in favor of both. Speaking on the public radio station KUOW today, he said that within two years, his administration will put together a proposal for expanding light rail to present to voters. And he said he supports a state bill to legalize pot for people over age 21. House bill 2401 was pre-filed last week by six House Democrats: Mary Lou Dickerson and Scott White of Seattle, Roger Goodman of Kirkland, David Upthegrove of Des Moines, Mary Helen Roberts of Lynnwood, and Sherry Appleton of Poulsbo.

 "I think the public sees that it’s just not a sensible set of laws," McGinn said of current pot laws. Marijuana should be "regulated," not... (more)

Here’s how the powerful, pro-Israel lobby AIPAC describes itself:

“For more than half a century, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee has worked to help make Israel more secure by ensuring that American support remains strong.  From a small pro-Israel public affairs boutique in the 1950s, AIPAC has grown into a 100,000-member national grassroots movement described by The New York Times as ‘the most important organization affecting America's relationship with Israel.’”

Here’s how STOP AIPAC , a group formed by peace and justice activists in the San Francisco Bay Area, describes the lobby:

“AIPAC had played a key role in fomenting support for the U.S. invasion of Iraq.  It is playing an even greater role in supporting a future military strike against the people of Iran…  Only rarely is a critical word uttered among politicians regarding AIPAC and its associates that support unjust and aggressive and disastrous  U.S. policies toward the peoples of the Middle East…  For too long,... (more)

John Hickey was the Mariners beat reporter for the Seattle P-I:    

At one level, the Mariners found an unexpected $15.8 million in their pockets when catcher Kenji Johjima opted to head back home to Japan, turning his back on the final two years of his contract – $7.7 million next season and $8.1 million in 2011.

    At another level, however, Johjima has put the Mariners in a real hole. Seattle general manager Jack Zduriencik already was facing tough decisions at first base, third base, shortstop, left field and in both the rotation and the bullpen.

    Zduriencik didn’t really need one more hole to fill looking toward putting together the Mariner team that will meet in February in Peoria, Ariz., for spring training. His manager, Don Wakamatsu, says the job ahead may be every bit as difficult as the one Zduriencik faced last fall when he took over a team coming off a dismal 101-loss season.

     “It’s like now the work starts all over again,” Wakamatsu... (more)

Protesters lay down bedding near Mayor Greg Nickels' home Monday night. (Photo: Elliot Stoller)

Update: The homeless protesters who slept in front on Mayor Greg Nickels house Monday night say they'll move on to City Councilman Tim Burgess' Queen Anne home Tuesday night.

The group is protesting the city's denial of funding for bus vouchers the homeless say they need to get from shelters and tent cities to downtown services. The group has vowed to protest in front of the homes of all council members except Nick Licata, who pushed for $50,000 to fund the vouchers.

Burgess may be a particular target. He is working on anti-panhandling legislation.

Burgess said in an email that he knows of the protest Tuesday night. He said he'll be home and will have "a nice chat" with the protesters.

Monday night:

About 40 protesters appeared to have bedded down for the night on the quiet West Seattle street where Mayor Greg Nickels lives.

Earlier in the evening, at about 8:30 p.m, the homeless men and women -- protesting the city'... (more)

Mount Vernon Mayor Bud Norris has every right to give Glenn Beck a key to the city on Saturday.

     And protesters have every right to question Norris’ sanity in honoring a TV/radio entertainer whose shtick-in-trade is spreading fear and fomenting hatred.

     The larger story being missed here is the mayor’s decision to honor someone from Mount Vernon simply for being famous. (Norris has said emphatically his decision has nothing to do with Beck’s conservative extremism, though I’m not sure I buy that.)

     If indeed the mayor wants to honor Beck because a lot of people now know Beck’s name and recognize his face, it’s evident that Norris has been sucked into the same celebrity-worship vortex now controlling most of the mainstream media. One would expect a little more sagacity from an elected official, but maybe he’s been blinded by his own celebrity.

     My guess is there are plenty... (more)