Sinking

Residents in Haller Lake, Interbay, and Highland Park could be getting some new neighbors. The city has released a list of four potential sites for a new city jail, which must be built near a major arterial but outside residential areas. Of the four sites, Haller Lake seems an especially likely candidate. The Seattle Police Department's North Precinct building has been sinking into the ground over the last few years, and it's possible the city could move the North Precinct to the new jail site.

The city will decide on a site and begin designing the jail sometime in 2009. JONAH SPANGENTHAL-LEE

Jumping

Tim Eyman, who recently mortgaged his house to pay for his latest ballot measure, has been barraging supporters with e-mails begging for donations. "I'm jumping off a big cliff—please help catch me," Eyman wrote. He's seeking donations of $290,000—a total that would bring his campaign war chest to more than $600,000.

Why does Eyman need so much money, anyway? Because under Washington State's hopelessly flawed initiative process, the only way to get an initiative on the ballot statewide is to hire a firm to gather signatures for you. Those signatures don't come cheap—in recent initiative drives, they've cost as much as a dollar apiece.

Eyman's initiative, known as I-985, would open up all carpool lanes to all drivers during "off-peak" hours and on weekends. Given that many roads in the Puget Sound region are now experiencing congestion all day long, Eyman's proposal would effectively render HOV lanes useless, making traffic congestion worse for everyone. ERICA C. BARNETT

Drinking

The owners of Culinary Communion, a cooking school on Beacon Hill, think they've found a way around the recent Washington State Liquor Control Board crackdown on serving wine during classes ["Put Down the Wineglass," Bethany Jean Clement, April 17]. According to an e-mail from Culinary Communion, the school can serve its chardonnay at "private classes" that aren't listed on the regular Culinary Communion schedule by obtaining a banquet permit. And because the porch for Culinary Communion is also the porch for the owners' apartment, the owners figure it isn't technically part of Culinary Communion. "So, two plus two equals friends having wine on the patio this summer, and since you're all our friends, that works out, doesn't it?"

Not so fast, says the liquor board. Although drinking wine on the veranda may be legal, a banquet permit would only apply if Culinary Communion charged nothing for classes. Once you charge a fee, says Karen McCall, licensing director for the liquor board, "you're doing it as a business, not as an individual."

However, Culinary Communion could soon be legit; they're applying for a beer/wine specialty-shop liquor license, as well as "making changes which will allow us to be fully licensed as a regular restaurant," the e-mail says. BETHANY JEAN CLEMENT