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Greg Kucera, well-known owner of a blue-chip Pioneer Square art gallery, thinks he's being defamed. In the weeks since the city listened to gallery owners' concerns and moved First Thursday's independent open-air artist's market one block north of its Occidental Mall location--indie artists have started to fight back, targeting establishment owners like Kucera.

"Someone posted some disturbing merchandise on cafepress.com," Kucera reported to city officials in an e-mail on August 14. "T-shirts... emblazoned with the international prohibition sign (think the 'no smoking' logo with the red circle and strike-through) with my name KUCERA in big block letters under it." Gallery owner Bryan Ohno was also satirized, while other shirts made fun of gallery owners in general. No one has stepped forward to take credit for the guerrilla art.

It's not that the artists are mad about getting shifted. Instead, artists got wind of gallery owners' true feelings about the freewheeling market. Through a public disclosure request, artists got copies of e-mails sent between galleries and the city. It's obvious why some of the notes rankled artists: "Our goal is to altogether eliminate this [vending] activity in Pioneer Square," Ohno wrote to the Pioneer Square Community Association before artists were moved, adding, "Giving them the title of "Independent Artists" is too generous a label for the flea market trinkets they are peddling." Other owners like Kucera chimed in, suggesting the artists move to a different neighborhood and have a separate monthly art event, instead of piggybacking on the galleries' established event.

Kucera declined to comment on the fracas. Gallery owners are still meeting with the city to determine what will happen when the independent market's three-month permit for Occidental Park (its new locale) expires after September's First Thursday. AMY JENNIGES

Cell-Phone-Gate

The conspiracy theory from the mayor's office is that Seattle City Council Member Judy Nicastro is on the take from the cell phone industry. (Nicastro has been blocking Nickels' proposal to tighten city guidelines governing cell phone tower placement in single-family neighborhoods.) Nickels' office could be right about Nicastro. In addition to the $250 that Nicastro got from the Cingular Wireless Employee PAC and the $250 she got from Sprint this summer ["Nicastro Strips It Down," Josh Feit, Aug 14], we've identified another $2,000 from wireless industry interests donated to Nicastro in recent months. And there might be a lot more--and we mean a lot more--where that came from. On August 18, Qwest registered a PAC with the city's Ethics & Elections Commission. And while there are no records of donations yet, the new PAC deposited $48,900 into its account on August 14. JOSH FEIT

JOA Showdown

The Hearst Corporation's August 14 announcement that it was formally instituting a search for a buyer for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer has provoked concern--but not panic--in the P-I newsroom. "It's not a surprise," P-I reporter Jane Hadley says. "Most people are not alarmed."

The company continues to express confidence that it will prevail in its September 12 courtroom showdown with the Seattle Times Company over the future of the two papers' joint operating agreement. If Hearst does not win in court, however, the sale effort--not expected to be successful--will likely be a prelude to shuttering the P-I, barring last-minute Justice Department intervention. SANDEEP KAUSHIK