Ninth Time’s a Charm: A man was found dead yesterday morning at a South Lake Union construction site on the 1000 block of Valley St. It is Seattle’s ninth homicide this year and the second in August.

Predictable: The Iowa companies that have had to recall seventy bajillion eggs over the past few weeks are apparently all tied to the DeCoster family, whose record is brimming, BP-style, with past infractions ranging from animal cruelty to creating a “sexually hostile work environment.”

Dumb: A Spokane party where a 14-year-old girl was stabbed and raped was fueled by vodka supplied by the 15-year-old suspect’s mother. The woman says she thought it would be safer to provide them alcohol in her home than to have them get it elsewhere.

Just Do Exactly What We Say: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Mideast peace will be “difficult but possible.” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has scheduled new a peace talks summit to begin next Friday.

Not Suspicious At All: Eight of the nine members of the Vashon-Maury Island Community Council resigned last week, following a King County prosecutor’s office decision that the council must obey the county’s public records act. The council members, who are volunteers, said they felt the burden of complying was excessive.

What Privacy? The ACLU has questioned new airport security “enhanced patdowns” the TSA is trying out in Boston and Las Vegas. The ACLU has called them part of a “seemingly constant erosion of privacy.”

Danger Zone: A woman was attacked Friday night in The Jungle, a homeless encampment near the I-5 and I-90 interchange. She was taken to Harborview and is expected to recover. There were two homicides in or near The Jungle last year.

Anything You Can Do: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad unveiled the first Iran-built unmanned bomber plane, naming it the “ambassador of death.” Meanwhile, the nation’s first nuclear reactor is up and running.

No You Do Not: Rod Blagojevich compares self to Winston Churchill, believes he has a political future.

Pop a Squat: One Kirkland McMansion squatter may have been arrested, but there’s another one who is at it again.

Good News: Republican Party is broke as November looms, down to $5 million cash on hand.

18 replies on “The Morning News”

  1. For all the machinations over Obama’s policies the dude can still raise money – and that – not governing – is what it is all about.

  3. Describing the likely dissolution of Vashon’s voluntary community council as a snarky “not at all suspicious” shows either that you didn’t read the story or you’re callously indifferent to the risks volunteers take in helping their communities.

  5. Lucky to be stabbed and raped.

    LD50 for ethanol is 0.40 BAC. Without the police intervention, she could well have woke up dead in the morning.

  6. @2: So long as fundraising and contributions — as well as lobbying — are directly ascribed to and protected by the First Amendment’s guarantee on freedom of expression, don’t expect that to change.

    Sometimes I sarcastically wonder what it might be like if both the First and Second Amendments were simultaneously repealed. Virtually everyone would be pissed off, and no one would have rallying around heavily ancillary causes to support their right to amendments that are no longer there. Lobbyists to machine gun collectors would all be up shit creek.

    At least there’d still be that most American of Amendments: the Fifth.

  7. The P-I page about the Vashon council’s troubles had a link to a story about the Port Townsend-Coupeville (Keystone) run and the new ferries under construction to serve Whidbey, which sent me off on a delightful ramble through all kinds of links related to ferries (which I’ve loved since my very first ride).

    I was fascinated to discover that the Staten Island Ferry main Web page prominently features a long list of collisions, death, and disaster (under the heading “A Few Ferry Facts”), culminating in these two paragraphs:

    • October 15, 2003 at about 15:30 the ferry boat Andrew J. Barberi slammed into a maintenance pier at the Staten Island Maintenance Facility on Staten Island. The impact of the crash snapped the pilings at the seaward corner of the pier like toothpicks. After ripping apart the pilings the concrete slab of the pier tore through the main deck Staten Island end Jersey side of the ferry. As the concrete slab raced down the boat it wiped out everything that was in its path. Seats were ripped up and pushed to the back of the boat. The aluminum superstructure was ripped open like a tin can. All that could be done was to run and hope you could be quicker than the concrete slab. 10 people died that day and an 11th person died two months later from injuries from the accident. One lucky passenger jumped out the window of the ferry as the concrete slab headed towards him into the water and was rescued by maintenance personnel at the ferry.

    • On October 13, 2005, the American Bureau of Shipping presented the Department of Transportation with a “Voluntary Document of Compliance Certificate” for the DOT Staten Island Ferry Division and “Voluntary Safety Management Certificates” for all operational ferryboats. The presentation of these certificates culminates a year-long effort to develop and implement a safety management system and clearly demonstrates the commitment of the City of New York to this effort. The New York City Department of Transportation is now the first ferry operator in the United States to voluntarily comply with this internationally accepted safety regime.

    I’m guessing “voluntary compliance” also means “voluntary enforcement.”

  10. From the Seattle Times: “Police were called to the apartment on Aug. 21 to investigate intoxicated teenagers and girl bleeding.”

    What is “girl bleeding”?

  12. Winston Churchill served for more than a decade, his Wilderness Years, out of Cabinet and out of power because of policy differences with the majority party in Britain’s House of Commons, not because he committed a Felony.

    Mr. Blagojevich’s comparing himself to this Great Man is an offense to history.

  13. if “enhanced patdown” means “palms-forward, slide-down search procedure” as quoted in that article, i got an enhanced patdown at SFO in january 2010. if TSA claims they’re trying it out, TSA is full of it.

  17. Privacy?

    You’re Americans.

    You have no privacy.

    Now show your papers and stand in line in front of the uniformed security police.

    (suckers)

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