Last Friday morning, December 9, King County Executive Ron Sims walked out on the Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle's fundraiser breakfast. What spoiled the County Exec's morning meal? One of the morning's other guests: Conservative blogger Stefan Sharkansky. Sims, who was a guest speaker that morning, learned after taking his seat on the dias that Sharkansky was getting an award for being a volunteer tutor in the Urban League's after-school program.
Sims says he's "offended" that the League—a longtime civil rights group—would honor Sharkansky. On his blog, Sharkansky has repeatedly compared Sims to African dictator Robert Mugabe, a comparison Sims believes is "rooted in racism." Sharkansky says he finds the accuasation "hurtful" and the comparison "wasn't intended to be racist." "I make over-the-top comparisons about politicians all the time," he says, pointing out that during Gregoire's segregated sorority flap, he compared her to infamous segregationist Orville Faubus, former governor of Arkansas.
When Sims saw Sharkansky's name on the program, he told the emcee, Seattle Times writer Lynne Varner, "I'm outta here." Urban League director James Kelly quickly came over to talk to Sims, whereupon Sims told Kelly he "took deep offense." Sims promptly left. Sims's seat up on the dias remained empty during the awards ceremony. JOSH FEIT
Those who placed an order on Amazon.com shortly before the Thanksgiving holiday received an unexpected windfall: a double shipment—at no extra charge.
Early Christmas cheer? Nah, just a computer glitch. "We have notified customers," says spokeswoman Patty Smith. "We've sent them return labels and we're giving them gift certificates for their inconvenience."
Of course, most customers would hardly call receiving free stuff an "inconvenience." (It was reportedly an "inconvenience" for Amazon, though, in the millions of dollars.) Smith does claim that "over half" of these lucky shoppers have in fact returned the merchandise. Yes, apparently Christmas does bring out the good in people.
And perhaps the guilt. Amazon—issuing letters that appealed to shoppers' sense of shame—asked customers who had made relatively small purchases to get in the holiday spirit. "We would suggest that the customer make a donation [of the extra item's value] to a charity in their community," Smith says. THOMAS FRANCIS
Last month, the Seattle P-I and the Seattle Times reported on the Audit Bureau of Circulation's latest round of scary numbers: Seattle P-I circulation down 9.1 percent, and the Seattle Times circulation down 6.7 percent.
But the news is actually worse than that. There's a piece of data that both papers ignored, which makes their circulation slides even more alarming—especially for the P-I. Not only did circulation drop 9.1 percent at the P-I, but a controversial category known as "other paid" increased a whopping 21.1 percent.
"Other paid" is essentially bulk discount subscriptions to people like educators and retailers and employees. Since newspapers factor "other paid" subscriptions into overall circulation numbers, spiking the "other paid" numbers can hide declining regular-rate subscriptions. Case in point: If you strip out "other paid" from the P-I's circulation numbers, it goes from the dismal 9.1 percent drop to a nearly 11 percent drop. For the Seattle Times, stripping out the "other paid" puts their drop at 8.2 percent. JOSH FEIT
2006 is approaching fast, and U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell is getting prepared. She's reportedly already hired a campaign manager to beat back the challenge from her likely opponent, former Safeco CEO Mike McGavick. Clearly Cantwell is focused, but evidently she's got a blind spot when it comes to local talent. Despite the deep pool of scrappy local Democratic campaign mavens, Cantwell tapped a senior Kerry campaign vet out of D.C. named Matt Butler. NANCY DREW
Expanding its campaign against cheap booze, the Seattle City Council on Monday approved broadening the city's "alcohol impact area" from Pioneer Square to other neighborhoods. If approved by the state Liquor Control Board next year, the expanded area will cover six square miles of the city, including Capitol Hill and the Central District, prohibiting the sale of specific cheap, high-alcohol drinks favored by chronic public inebriates in its borders.
City Council Member Peter Steinbrueck, who said the council had failed to meet its previous commitment to increase services for chronic public inebriates, tried unsuccessfully to convince the council to sunset the AIA after three years; ultimately, however, only Richard McIver voted against the measure, noting that restricting alcohol sales in central Seattle "does not solve the issue but, rather, moves it to other already fragile communities, such as the Rainier Valley." ERICA C. BARNETT
Though they rarely disagree on policy, Greenwood Community Council president Michael McGinn and executive committee member Kate Martin somehow manage to be bitter enemies.
On Tuesday, Martin authored a few of what she admitted were "blazing e-mails" over McGinn's cancellation of the December community council meeting and other scheduling issues. Martin admits that her problem with McGinn's management style puts her in the minority, but she says it's misleading because, "Everybody who is frustrated with him just stopped coming. It's ironic because he tells me I should stop coming to the meetings because I alienate people." THOMAS FRANCIS
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