• On December 17, Boeing announced that its regular quarterly dividend will increase by roughly 50 percent, even as the profitable company demands its unionized Washington employees give up their pensions in exchange for keeping their jobs—that is, the employees Boeing hasn't already fired. "Congratulations! This is going to be one of the last e-mails that I ever send from my Boeing e-mail account," 26-year-veteran employee Richard Webb wrote to The Stranger on December 13. "While Boeing has been promising (?) that they might keep (some) jobs in Washington if the machinists accept their 'offer,' I'm one of 1,200 people that are being laid off today... And that pension? That's the only thing that will keep me alive for three and a half more years until I can access my 401K account without penalty."
• Unless there's a coup in January, the Seattle City Council has decided who will lead the most powerful committees. Most interesting: Tim Burgess is headed for the council presidency, Mike O'Brien will not be chairing the transportation committee he so desperately wants (he gets the byzantine land-use committee), and Sally "There Are Three Sides to Every Coin" Clark will chair a committee on human services and economic development, where a much-anticipated bill on a $15 minimum wage is likely to land. Newcomer Kshama Sawant, as had been widely rumored, will head up the City Light committee, where she will literally seize the means of production for the power to the people. Confirmation is scheduled for January 6.
• Get busted for smoking pot in public, and you'll soon be subject to a $27 fine, the same fine you'd pay for drinking in public. Council Member Nick Licata's measured legislation on the subject passed on Monday, enshrining a city pot-smoking ticket into law along with a host of cautionary measures—the bill requires SPD to track the demographics of who they issue tickets to, mentions that pot enforcement is still cops' lowest priority, and says offenders should get a first warning instead of a ticket.
• We're also one step closer to a more regulated rideshare market—sorry Lyft, Sidecar, and Uber. The city council's finally gotten around to drafting some legislation. The draft language looks to limit the number of cars in operation for each company (100) and the number of hours per week each car can operate (16), set up some inspection for these cars (though not at the level of taxis or for-hire cars), and force the businesses to pay for annual business licenses (around $50,000), among other regulations. 
