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At a sentencing hearing on April 30 for Jesus Mezquia, convicted of raping and killing famed Gits singer Mia Zapata back in 1993, King County Deputy Prosecutor Tim Bradshaw presented an emotionally charged window on Zapata's life. After Zapata's sister and then her bandmate spoke, Bradshaw played a wrenching video of the singer's father and friends laughing and crying about the woman they lost at age 27. "Mia was an exceptional person and the crime was exceptional," Bradshaw concluded. The judge agreed, sentencing Mezquia to over 36 years in prison, 10 years longer than the maximum recommended sentence. AMY JENNIGES

Scab Labor?

Seeking substantial concessions from union workers on health care, local grocery-store chains recently stepped up the pressure on United Food and Commercial Workers members. The union represents more than 15,000 grocery-store employees in the region. QFC, Albertsons, Safeway, and Fred Meyer have prominently placed signs in grocery stores around town seeking replacement workers. A recent bitter grocery strike in Southern California, prompted by a similar push for wage and benefit rollbacks, lasted five months. SANDEEP KAUSHIK

South Lake Union

On Wednesday, April 28, the Seattle Displacement Coalition's John Fox presented city council with a letter backed by 40 pages of documents he obtained under public disclosure laws. Fox says the documents show the city quietly working on a deal to buy or swap land in South Lake Union to build a Seattle City Light substation--part of the city's larger plan to support a biotech hub in the neighborhood--possibly in a partnership that would allow the neighborhood's biggest property owner, Vulcan, to develop on the substation site. The documents also allude to the city negotiating to buy back land it sold to Vulcan in 2001. "We want to get the council involved and shed public light on this," Fox says. Marianne Bichsel, the mayor's spokesperson, says the council is already involved via a South Lake Union oversight committee. Furthermore, she says, "There is nothing happening at this point in terms of land deals." AMY JENNIGES

Dean Down, Kerry Up

The district caucuses of the presidential nomination process went down last Saturday, May 1. Turnout was huge in the 43rd District. At the end of the politicking, Kerry displaced Dean as the 43rd's leader, with Kucinich ticking up to a respectable third. With the nomination decided, the goal of Dean and Kucinich backers is to get delegates to Boston to fight for a more progressive platform. They hope to steer the Democratic Party left, and make the case to Naderites that the Ds aren't hopelessly compromised Bush Lite wimps. NANCY DREW