Read All About It

As we've already pointed out, former Seattle Mayor John F. Dore had no sympathy for scab newspapers. ["History Paper," Stranger news staff, Nov 30, 2000.] During the 1936 Seattle Post-Intelligencer strike, non-wuss Mayor Dore said, "I don't care now whether the P-I ever publishes again.... I'll run them out of town."

Well, city hall 2000 was a different breed. Only two of your nine city council members (Nick Licata and Heidi Wills) bothered to take a stand and cancel their office subscriptions during the strike. (Wills canceled her home subscriptions as well.)

As for Mayor Paul Schell, predictably, he wussed out and kept subscribing to writers like Nicole "Scab" Brodeur. JOSH FEIT


Speaking of Scabs...

The Stranger ends its "Scab Watch" with a tribute to two Seattle Times reporters who apparently couldn't wait a few more days for their fellow union members to approve the paper's final contract offer. David Postman, a reporter in the Times Olympia bureau, went back to work last week. Lynda Mapes, who has covered such social-justice issues as migrant-worker rights, also crossed the picket line.

However, some reporters are just telling Times publisher Frank Blethen to take his newspaper and shove it. According to one guild representative, as many as eight reporters are abandoning Seattle's biggest daily. Among these are Kim Barker, who got a sweet deal at The Chicago Tribune, and Dionne Searcey, who's already hard at work at Newsday in Long Island. PHIL CAMPBELL


Missing Manners

Somebody needs to go to manners school.

Despite inviting the public to attend its January 8 and 9 community meetings, Sound Transit's executive director, Bob White, and the agency's board chairman, Dave Earling, evidently have no use for the public's presence. Just a few days before the much-hyped public input session, White and Earling said they already knew what Sound Transit's board planned to do: The $1.1 BILLION light-rail budgeting gaffe notwithstanding, the board says it's "moving forward" (whether it makes sense or not), and has decided to take a $500 million federal grant for light rail. (Unfortunately, as citizens pointed out at the meetings, taking this money will lock taxpayers into a wildly flawed investment.) Sound Transit also says it will not explore alternatives to light rail.

Offended yet? We suggest you take the advice of King County Council Member Maggi Fimia. She and her group Sane Transit are calling on Sound Transit's board to go back to the voters with an acceptable plan. JOSH FEIT