Disappearing Act
On January 1, the Department of Youth Services officially closed. DYS' workload -- probation and detention -- will be picked up respectively by King County Superior Court judges and the Department of Adult Detention ["A Juvenile Decision," November 25, 1999].
However, according to Orla Poole, a union shop steward who represents former DYS employees, one aspect of the former agency still needs to be handled: about 100 outstanding grievances against former Youth Services management. Simply making the place disappear doesn't simultaneously zap the complaints, she says. PHIL CAMPBELL
Stranger Personals
Shredding Disputes
The Seattle Police Department recently admitted they were violating their contract with the Seattle Police Officers Guild ["Annual Shredding," January 6]. The contract stipulated that the department had to destroy 1996 internal affairs documents at the end of 1999. Under pressure from internal affairs reformists, the department held off on the shredding.
Fred Treadwell, the city attorney responsible for negotiating with the guild, says the issue hadn't come up in talks.
The union disagrees. J. D. Miller, vice president of the guild, was surprised to hear a city official dismiss real disputes. The document-shredding issue, he says, is "one of many in the great contest [with the department]." PHIL CAMPBELL
Weekly Sale
Last week, the Stern Publishing Group sold its chain of seven weekly newspapers, including the Seattle Weekly, to the San Francisco-based investment firm Weiss, Peck & Greer. ["Seattle Weekly up for Sale," September 30, 1999.] The chain, which also includes The Village Voice, will be headed up by Stern Publishing's current president (and Voice publisher), David Schneiderman. Given that the new company will be run by a Stern insider, the sale -- estimated at $150 million -- isn't likely to cause a shake-up at Seattle Weekly. JOSH FEIT
License to Kill
Senator Ken Jacobsen wants you to kill a coyote. The northeast Seattle Democrat's Senate Bill 6185 would make "unclassified animals," such as opossums and the aforementioned coyotes, free game for card-carrying large animal hunters in Washington state. This would save each of the estimated 200,000 licensed deer and elk hunters at least $16 for the cost of a second license. While Jacobsen likes to look at nature, not kill it, he says the population of "nuisance" animals must be controlled, or "the balance of nature gets out of whack." ALEXANDRA HOLLY-GOTTLIEB
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