Probing I
A BBC radio team, working on a show for the One Planet series, visited Seattle this week to talk to environmental leaders about whether Mayor Greg Nickels's efforts to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, including his call to cities across the country to meet Kyoto emissions goals, are working in his own backyard.
It's not clear yet what their conclusions will be, but the team showed a healthy skepticism for Nickels's claim that Seattle is a nationwide environmental leader. "There seems to be a lot of support for Nickels's Mayors Climate Protection Agreement," says the show's producer, Will Grant. "On the other hand, there are some people who think there's a certain amount of clever bookkeeping going on [in Seattle]."
The program will air in March. ERICA C. BARNETT
Mining
State House Representative Sharon Nelson's fight to halt strip mining on Maury Island got strip-mined itself on Tuesday, February 12, the final day to move bills out of committee during this year's legislative session.
Representative Nelson (D-34, Vashon Island) was sponsoring two bills to thwart mining company Glacier Northwest from expanding its work on Maury Island. One bill died in the House Appropriations Committee on Monday, February 11.
Another made it out of committee on Monday, but the specific language about Glacierâ"Until... the legislature can obtain a better sense of the protections... the Department of Fish and Wildlife may not, within the Maury Island aquatic reserve... approve or renew any approvals... for any commercial, industrial, or barge loading facilities"âgot stripped out. JOSH FEIT
Disciplining
Two Mount Si High School teachers who protested Ken Hutcherson's appearance at a Martin Luther King Jr. assembly last monthâKit McCormick and George Potratzâhave received disciplinary letters from their principal. The teachersâwho have received offers of free legal supportâsay they plan to take action to have the letters removed from their personnel files. JONAH SPANGENTHAL-LEE
Probing II
On Friday, February 8, just before 7:00 a.m., Seattle Police responded to a call about a man taking items out of the front window display of Capitol Hill's Babeland, at East Pike Street and Boylston Avenue.
When police arrived, the suspect was gone, having made off withâaccording to Babeland retail director Jen Mayâ20 glass dildos, which had been neatly arranged in the store's front window. The dildos were valued at over $1,500, and the damage to the window could cost Babeland another $500.
An investigation by The Stranger into a possible dildo black market on eBay and Craigslist yielded no results. NANCY DREW