Ousted NAACP Leader Won't Step Down
The local NAACP chapter is having trouble handing the presidential reins to Carl Mack. The former president, Oscar Eason, is challenging the November 25 election results--reportedly a landslide victory for Mack--and the national NAACP is investigating. NANCY DREW
Light Rail Reality Check
Sound Transit's citizen oversight panel (remember them?) recently requested a meeting with former Sound Transit dissident board member Rob McKenna. At the January 15 meeting, McKenna--a math whiz and Republican King County Council member--dropped a bomb heretofore off the public's radar screen. The federal money that Sound Transit's counting on is slated to come from a fund known as TEA-21 (Transportation Enhancement Act for the 21st Century). Well, thanks to Sound Transit's inability to get its grant agreement signed for the last three years running, the TEA-21 dough is all appropriated and gone. Congress won't authorize the new pot--TEA 3--for at least another year, even though Sound Transit is supposed to start laying track now. JOSH FEIT
Who Do You Trust?
Preston Gates & Ellis is the Seattle law firm that represents monopolists like Microsoft. They also apparently represent the Seattle Weekly's parent company, Village Voice Media, which has antitrust problems of its own. The Justice Department is investigating VVM's market-splitting deal with rival weekly chain New Times. Last October, the VVM chain and the NT chain agreed to shutter competing papers in Cleveland and Los Angeles, respectively ["Trust Matters," Sandeep Kaushik, Nov 28, 2002].
According to the Los Angeles Times, a Preston Gates & Ellis attorney recently met with VVM staffers in Los Angeles and "tried to reassure employees that the potential for prosecution or substantial fines was low." Meanwhile, federal prosecutors continued taking depositions in Los Angeles through last weekend. SANDEEP KAUSHIK
Blow Your Enemy
Here's why I can't stand Seattle.
Monorail leader Joel Horn and his wife, Susan McGrath, recently kicked in $800 for Seattle City Council Member Margaret Pageler's 2003 reelection bid. What's next--a contribution to anti-monorail leader Ron Sims?
Horn just spent two years battling for the monorail, a project that Pageler opposed every step of the way. Embarrassing! JOSH FEIT
Misspelling of the Week
"Council President Steinbrook"
--Taken from an overly involved 11-page e-mail sent to the city council from Judy Nicastro's boyfriend, Stephen Spoonamore.