Layoffs at WaMu
The crashing subprime lending market has caused “credit
dislocation” according to a Washington Mutual statement
accompanying its news about human dislocation: The Seattle-based
Fortune 500 banking company plans to lay off 3,150 employees. Nearly
400 of those employees are in Seattle. NANCY DREW
Parking at the
Seattle Times
Parking spots for Seattle Times reporters are
going up from $50 a month to $62.50 starting next year. That’s a 25
percent increase.
For Seattle Times reporters the increase is annoying. What’s
more annoying? The fact that publisher Frank Blethen’s brand-new,
four-door 2008 Porsche Cayenne Turbo AWD has started
showing up in said parking lot. Price: $93,700. NANCY
DREW
Diversity (or Not) at the Supreme Court
In appointing Debra Stephens to the Washington State Supreme
Court last week, Governor Christine Gregoire hyped the fact that
Stephens is from Eastern Washington. “Stephens is the first woman who
was raised and practiced law in Eastern Washington to be appointed to
the supreme court,” Gregoire’s statement read. “It is very important
that the court have the diversity of viewpoint that a justice from
Eastern Washington brings to the bench.”
Stephens, 42, and seen as a moderate, will be the first
justice from east of the
Cascades since Spokane’s Justice Richard
Guy left the bench in 2000.
Stephens, who will replace retiring justice Bobbe Bridge next month,
has been a Court of Appeals judge in Spokane for
only eight
months—before that, the 1993
Gonzaga Law School graduate was
in
private practice.
More experienced judges, like King County Superior Court Judge Mary
Yu—who has been on the bench since 2000—had been seen as
frontrunners
for the job.
Gay leaders sent letters supporting Yu (Yu is a lesbian) at
the last minute when it appeared, accurately, that her candidacy was on
the rocks. NANCY DREW
Development and
Disagreement at
City
Council
Last week, city council member Richard McIver proposed an amendment
to the city’s growth plan that would halt commercial development at
South Dearborn Street and Rainier Avenue South. To neighbors’ chagrin,
McIver’s proposal was nixed. The massive Dearborn Street
Project—comprising big-box stores and low-income
housing—has been heavily protested by neighborhood and
business groups, and McIver says he wants to preserve the land for
industrial jobs .
The Dearborn project would rebuild the rundown Goodwill, but
neighbors have voiced concern about traffic and low-wage jobs. JONAH
SPANGENTHAL-LEE
