Winning Women

The Northwest Women's Law Center may have made headlines with its gay marriage suit this week, but they had some quieter news that was equally righteous. The state legislature passed an NWLC-drafted bill (sponsored by Rep. Lynn Kessler, D-Jefferson and Clallam Counties) granting domestic-violence and stalking victims protection from discrimination under Washington's rental housing law. "Now, Washington's women cannot be denied housing simply because they are crime victims," NWLC Executive Director Lisa Stone said. JOSH FEIT


Winning Ticket

Before Ralph Nader's entry into the presidential race last month, polls showed Democrat John Kerry leading President Bush by slight margins. But in an AP poll last week that included Nader, Bush led Kerry 46-45, with Nader drawing 6 percent support. The time has come, in other words, to pick up those Bush/Nader bumper stickers (sponsored by the "Committee to Re-Elect Bush by Voting for Nader"), available at the state Democratic Party headquarters in Pioneer Square. Call 583-0664 to confirm availability. SANDEEP KAUSHIK


Bowl Battle

The Puget Sound Skatepark Association's quest to save the "Ballard Bowl" Skate Park gathered steam last Saturday, March 6, when a fundraiser at the park raised more than $800. The Ballard Chamber of Commerce and Seattle Parks and Recreation want to replace the Ballard Bowl with a grassy public park. The event drew a crowd of around 400, including skaters, Ballard residents, and a surprise supporter: Seattle City Council President Jan Drago. BRIAN WALTON


Backroom Budget

As the mayor and city council touted legislation last week that would shave $9.3 million from the city's 2004 budget, some council members were quietly questioning the closed-door process that led to the budget-balancing proposal.

Former council president Peter Steinbrueck, who was not in the four-person working group that came up with the proposal in private meetings, says the cuts "came together very quickly with very little opportunity to examine the particulars.... I wasn't expecting it to be so sudden and perfunctory." Public comment will be limited to the minutes before the council approves the budget, probably in April.

The cuts, which spared popular items like libraries and school crossing guards, will nonetheless devastate groups like the Tenants Union, which lost its $72,000 in-city funding, nearly 40 percent of its budget. Also slashed were a planned public-safety study of the Seattle Police Department's East Precinct ($400,000); jail costs for pretrial defendants, who will now be housed in Yakima ($730,000); and pro and con statements in voters' guides, which will be cut from 400 to 200 words, saving another $10,000. ERICA C. BARNETT