⢠Occupy Seattle protesters invaded an empty, privately owned building at 10th Avenue and East Union Street on December 1. "Lights were strung, bands and DJs played a free concert," states their press release. Meanwhile, the Seattle police blotter notes that when police arrived, protesters "barricaded the door from the inside" and retreated to the roof where they "began spitting on [officers]." Sixteen people were arrested and booked into King County Jail on criminal trespass charges.
⢠Earlier that day, Seattle City Council member Sally Clark cast the lone vote against a measure to ban cookies, soda, chocolate, and candy in vending machines in city-owned buildings. "Options and choices are what I'm looking for," Clark told a decidedly anti-Snickers city council.
⢠After Mayor Mike McGinn "lit" the holiday tree at Westlake Plaza on November 25, his office received heated requests for a city menorah-lighting ceremony and "equal time" for Hanukkah. The city's response? "We have a City Hall menorah but Hanukkah hasn't started yet," says a source, adding that it would be incredibly offensive to start lighting menorah, candles all willy-nilly.
⢠Seattle's top four charity canvassing firms have signed a citywide code of conduct pledging to stop aggressively begging pedestrians to save the children/whales/indigenous flautists. Canvassers are now prohibited from stopping traffic, walking backward, or even advancing "toward a pedestrian... more than one step."
⢠A four-year deal between Boeing and the Machinists' Union last week will deliver a $5,000 signing bonus to each of the 28,000 workers, totaling a $140 million injection into Seattle's holiday economy.
⢠Occupy Seattle blogger Ian Awesome says he's seen the elusive medical records that prove fellow occupier Jennifer Fox suffered a miscarriage after being pepper-sprayed and kicked in the stomach by Seattle police on November 15. "The paperwork she showed me was not a complete medical record," cautions Awesome on his blog. "It was a discharge summary, and it confirmed two facts to me: that she was seen at Harborview after November 15 and that she has indeed suffered what is called a retained miscarriage, meaning that the fetus has yet to be dispelled."
⢠In a notable about-face, a coalition of large grocery store chainsâincluding Safeway and QFCâhas formally endorsed the Seattle City Council's drive to ban plastic shopping bags and charge a 5-cent fee for paper bags (big grocers like the idea this time around because it lets them pocket the fee). Meanwhile, a December 5 public hearing on the ban was "packed," according to Jody Kennedy of the Surfrider Foundation, one of the groups pushing for the ban. Supporters plan to show up in force (again) for a December 13 meeting of the council's Public Utilities and Neighborhoods Committee (2 p.m. in the City Council chambers) and a vote could come as soon as December 19.
