On Friday, March 29, down in Olympia, Governor Gary Locke signed Senate Bill 6464 into law, giving Seattle voters the state's permission to tax themselves and build the monorail. Locke also vetoed two problematic sections of the monorail bill, Sections 7 and 18, which tied the monorail's fate too closely to the Seattle City Council and voters in other counties. Scoring the vetoes and the monorail tax law was a coup for the Elevated Transportation Company (ETC), the group set up by Seattle voters last year to come up with the monorail plan. "This is huge!" said ETC Executive Director Harold Robertson.

Pro-road legislators, like Senator Dan McDonald (R), had only signed off on the monorail bill on the condition that it was attached to the bigger statewide transportation package. ETC lobbyists contended that if voters struck down the entire statewide bill, the Seattle monorail would die. Locke apparently agreed. Full steam ahead! PAT KEARNEY

Pageler Amendment

In other monorail news, Seattle City Council Member Margaret Pageler delayed a "right of way" bill that gives city permission for the monorail to operate on public streets, displacing utility lines. Pageler introduced a last-minute amendment to force the monorail agency to pick up all utility relocation costs, so the full cost of the monorail would be explicit. "[Monorail] taxes should cover all monorail costs. Haven't we learned from Sound Transit that subsidizing is unfair?" said Pageler. Council Member Nick Licata, who sponsored the original "right of way" bill, agreed to hold a vote until further discussion. PAT KEARNEY

Cops Write for Indymedia

Seattle police officers, under pseudonyms like "Brother in Blue," are posting their thoughts about the recent overwhelming vote of no-confidence in Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske on Seattle's Indymedia website--a forum that is traditionally less than cop- friendly (it was born out of the WTO debacle, recounting the police actions on protesters).

What began as an essay deriding a Seattle Times editorial criticizing the union vote has turned into an all-out debate--some entries criticize the police guild and call officers "assholes" and "pigs," while one cop stood up for the guild.

"I may be an asshole, but I'm a union asshole. If ANY other union shop had a vote where 88 percent of the respondents said they were dissatisfied with working conditions, there would be a strike," the officer wrote. AMY JENNIGES