On Sunday, September 28, staff at Georgetown's About the Music nightclub shut down an all-ages Battle of the Bands competition, refusing to pay out the $500 prize to the winning band. Management cited rowdy and destructive behavior on the part of the approximately 150 attendees. "We told them five or six times over the mic to respect the place," says the club's assistant manager, who identifies himself as "O." He cited thrown chairs and bottles, and graffiti on the bathroom windows, in justifying the shutdown. "It just got out of control," he contends.

The club's decision not to pay out $500 in promised prize money led to angry exchanges with performers that ended only when police arrived to clear the venue.

Angry patrons say the club refused to pay out the prize money even though all the bands had finished playing. The bands had also sold tickets for the event themselves, and had offered to clean up any mess. "You can't hold a contest and cancel it at the very end," said attendee Nicole Stotts. "They scammed us." SANDEEP KAUSHIK

Tax and Spend Part 1

The Seattle Monorail Project may be in a deep financial hole, but that hasn't stopped the cash-strapped agency from hiring a high-powered D.C. law firm--at a cost of around $60,000 a year--to help it secure federal funding for a second monorail line. Lobbying disclosure forms filed with the U.S. Senate indicate the firm, Preston Gates Ellis & Rouvelas Meeds, is being paid to "obtain [federal] authorization for [a] potential second monorail line"--a job SMP spokesperson Paul Bergman says constitutes "legislative monitoring," not active lobbying. Closer to home, SMP salary records indicate that the agency is paying two employees a total of $200,000 annually to work on second-line monorail planning, part of $6 million for second-line planning included in the 2002 monorail plan. ERICA C. BARNETT

Tax and Spend Part 2

The Seattle Times may be headed for a fourth consecutive year of losses, but that hasn't kept the Seattle Times Company from dishing out the dough to lobby legislators and regulators in Washington, D.C. The company spent $60,000 this year pressing the flesh inside the Beltway, according to U.S. Senate lobbying reports. What are the Seattle daily's urgent business concerns? Repealing the estate tax and fighting the relaxation of media ownership rules. Not coincidentally, those issues are twin obsessions of Frank Blethen, the Times' publisher, whose family owns a controlling stake in the company. SANDEEP KAUSHIK