If popularity among co-workers is a legitimate way to assess people, then King County Council Member and mayoral candidate Greg Nickels rates pretty well. Nickels has raised at least 20 percent more in contributions from his colleagues at the county than incumbent Mayor Paul Schell has raised from his co-workers at the city. More foreboding for Schell, Nickels has raised $1,480 from city workers while Schell hasn't raised anything from King County employees. JOSH FEIT

Landlord's Burden

City Attorney Mark Sidran, Seattle's

supposed law expert, is getting schooled by a bar failure. Smart City Council Member and renters' liberation commando Judy Nicastro (she failed the bar in 1997) is trying to help the city attorney beat bad landlords in court. And boy could he use the help. Sidran's office prosecuted less than a fifth of the landlord retaliation cases filed from 1995 to 2000, and lost more than half of them. ["Sidran's Sorry-Ass Track Record," Allie Holly-Gottlieb, March 2, 2000.]

Nicastro's proposed ordinance, which she unveiled at a public hearing on January 17, would lower the burden of proof in cases when tenants sue their landlords for retaliation. ALLIE HOLLY-GOTTLIEB

Camp Out

Last week, in an unprecedented change of heart, city officials flipped their position on homeless camping. Only one week after Seattle denied Tent City permission to stay at Beacon Hill Latino center El Centro de la Raza, representatives of the mayor's office told the homeless campers not to leave yet.

Why did city officials change their tune? To prevent the encampment's January 15 move to public park space.

The city's plea to extend Tent City's El Centro stay was surprising, given that it came after months of complaints from the mayor's office that tents are an unacceptable way to house homeless people. ALLIE HOLLY-GOTTLIEB

Best Friends

Thanks to School Board Member Barbara Schaad-Lamphere and City Council Member Peter Steinbrueck, the board and the council are on speaking terms again. Their relationship began spiraling in 1999 during a standoff over whether or not to bend city zoning laws to permit new school district headquarters in the industrial Duwamish corridor. So, on January 9, council and board members packed the library in West Seattle's Concord Elementary School for two hours to kiss and make up. ALLIE HOLLY-GOTTLIEB