ā¢ Crowd-estimating experts laughed at initial reports that 700,000 to a million fans crowded Seattle streets for the Seahawks' Super Bowl victory parade. "When I read those kinds of numbers, I kinda giggle," National Park Service crowd-counter Butch Street told the Seattle Times. Street estimates the crowd at 450,000, while Steve Doig, a journalism professor who covers the subject of crowd estimation, says it was more like 250,000.
ā¢ Freshman city council member Kshama Sawant got a couple of gruff reprimands from Council President Tim Burgess for going on too long at Monday's council briefing. He first cut short a discussion of controversial taxi and ride-share legislation to save it for the relevant committee, cutting off Sawant when she tried to bring it up again. He then cut her off a second time as she hit the seven-minute mark of a fairly freewheeling overview of the issues she's trackingā"the Koch brothers," "the super-wealthy," "mass movements," etc. Interrupting her mid-sentence, Burgess directed her to take up the issue of wage theft with the relevant committee chair, then when she tried to go on, told her curtly: "No, we're done with your section now. I'm sorry," and called on the next member. Burn!
ā¢ The University of Washington's law school has dropped, for now, a controversial plan to have students work under King County prosecutors in what's called a prosecution clinic. Students objected that the program would contribute to, rather than help fix, a criminal justice system that disproportionately criminalizes people of color and is plagued by disparities in resources between prosecutors and defenders. After a demonstration outside a faculty meeting last week, the school backed away from holding a vote to approve the program. "Is the clinic dead? Hopefully," says third-year law student Stephen Coger.
ā¢ Spotted on Capitol Hill lately: Stickers and posters reading "Hey Mars Hill Church: Suck my big fat gay cock! And keep your misogynistic homophobic patriarchal bullshit out of my neighborhood! You have been warned. And oh yeah, Hail Satan!" 
