Seattle Hempfest today sued both the City of Seattle and the Seattle Art Museum because the city's parks department is about four months late in issuing a permit for the annual pro-pot event, and the museum's new sculpture garden adjacent to Myrtle Edwards Park is the problem. Slated for Aug. 19-20 at the park, the event regularly attracts 150,000 people each year—everything from soccer moms with strollers to hippies doing their drum-circle thing.

I have also heard that, amid the dozens of musical acts and speakers, two or three people might smoke marijuana in the park, as well. And that's something Seattle police and the city have been super cooperative with over the event's 15-year history.

So what's the problem? Construction for the new Olympic Sculpture Park, scheduled to open in October, has made access to the park's south entrance very tight. Hempfest officials, SAM, and the city have been trying to develop a plan so the fest organnizers can get trucks and thousands of attendees into the park.

More >>

Just got a postcard from CityClub. There will be a debate of candidates for the Supreme Court of Washington on Tuesday, Aug. 15, at high noon at the Crowne Plaza, 1113 Sixth Ave. Essex Porter of KIRO-TV (7) will moderate. Here's the lineup:

• Justice Susan Owens vs. state Sen. Stephen Johnson
• Chief Justice Gerry Alexander vs. John Groen

Oops! As you know, the field has exploded in the past week, since this event was first planned. Owens now has three additional challengers—Michael Johnson, Richard Smith, and Norman Ericson—and there's a third contested race, between Justice Tom Chambers and former King County Superior Court Judge Jeanette Burrage.

So CityClub will add this gang to the debate, right? Well, no. Says Michele Radosevich, who helped organize the debate:"Our purpose is to provide meaningful information to voters as much as possible, and meaningful information means information about the people who have a likelihood of winning."

More >>

Among the reporters crowded into a Friday night press conference at SPD's West Precinct—there to hear the mayor and police chief discuss the shootings earlier at the Jewish Federation Center—was a guy who asked the mayor what his name was. "Greg, is it?" inquired the reporter, standing next to me as I also waited to ask the departing Greg Nickels a question.

The reporter didn't venture to ask Chief Gil Kerlikowske to spell his name, I noticed. But he did ask the chief for his business card. Where was this guy from, I wondered, the Nome Nugget? Say what, The New York Times?

A harried William "Bill" Yardley, the Times' new Seattle correspondent, apologized sincerely to the mayor and chief for not knowing names. But as he explained, "it's my first day in town." The extraordinary hate-crime shooting, his first Seattle story, was co-bylined with Jodi Rudoren and played inside by the Times but was referenced on Page 1. It was the region's 7th stunning murder in just over two weeks. Welcome to the Emerald City, Bill.

... Political Editor George Howland Jr. will discuss news and politics on "Weekday" with Steve Scher this morning at 10 a.m. on KUOW-FM (94.9). ...

... Where does mental illness end and hate begin? The poor parents of enigmatic and not-surprisingly bipolar Naveed Haq, the Muslim-raised Tri-Citian who shot six women at the Jewish Federation downtown on Friday, killing one, released a statement yesterday: "We could not have imagined for a moment that our son would do this senseless act. This is utterly contrary to our beliefs and Islamic values," said Mian and Nahida Haq. The younger Haq was baptized a Christian last December, reports the P-I. Just as quickly, he stopped showing up at church. The Tri-City Herald reports that Caleb Hales, the Mormon neighbor of Haq's parents in Pasco, chatted with Haq a week ago when Haq was helping his parents in the garden.

Haq discussed at length his feelings that the Jewish community monopolized the media and economic system. They were statements deprived of anger, made in a matter-of-fact tone, like a discussion over coffee. Hales found the comments curious.

"It seemed like he was relating everything to the economy," Hales said. "He was talking about how Jewish people in this country—from an economic standpoint—they have a lot of investments."

Hales said Haq also expressed interest in the Mormon faith and asked Hales questions about his religion.

Here's the P-I's catch-up obit for the woman killed, Pamela Waechter (pictured). She was "Super Jew." The Anti-Defamation of League of Seattle is working to make synagogues and other facilities safer, but not with visible guards. The shooting has made activism awkward for Seattleites who decry Israel's policies in regular protests. ...

More >>

Stefan Sharsnarky over at the unconditionally conservative and righteous Sound Politics blog is reporting that state Supreme Court candidate Michael Johnson, a lawyer who filed last week in the same race as state Sen. Stephen Johnson, R-Kent, was busted last fall for theft that apparently involved a drunken cab ride. The Snark posted these Seattle Municipal Court documents. The documents show that Michael Johnson agreed to pre-trial diversion that included alcohol counseling, community service, and restitution, and the theft charge was then dismissed.

The two Johnsons are challenging Justice Susan Owens (pictured), who was on the losing side of the 5-4 ruling last week that affirmed the Defense of Marriage Act, aka the gay-marriage ban. Michael Johnson has said he doesn't plan to raise money or seek endorsements, which of course infuriates conservatives who say he's simply trying to confuse and split Johnson voters to save Owens. They happen to be right. But if Michael Johnson doesn't survive the September primary, it could end up being Stephen Johnson vs. Owens in the general election anyway.

More >>

Marriage Equality Now has organized what it is calling a community gathering, today at 2 p.m. at Cal Anderson Park on Capitol Hill. "This will be an opportunity to hear from LGBT organizations and elected officials (including State Rep and Senate candidate Ed Murray), and also to let your voice be heard if you have any questions or feelings about the Supreme Court decision," the group says on its Web site. Event poster here (195 KB PDF).

The man who killed one woman and wounded five others in a burst of gunfire at the Jewish Federation Center in downtown Seattle Friday, July 28, was clearly on a mission to kills Jews, based on evidence and witnesses statements. "This is a crime of hate," a shaken Mayor Greg Nickels said after the suspect peacefully gave himself up to a police SWAT unit around 4:15 p.m. outside the center on Third Avenue.

UPDATE: The Seattle Times identified the gunman as Naveed Afzal Haq, 30, (pictured) recently of Everett but raised in Richland. A law enforcement source told the paper that the suspect has a history of mental problems. The King County Jail register confirms that Naveed Haq was booked without bail into the downtown Seattle jail around 10:38 Friday night. Haq also is listed as a 1994 graduate of Richland High School.

After the shooting, "He walked out and left his gun inside," said Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske at a Friday night press conference. He called the weapon a large-caliber semi-automatic handgun and said police had no warning of the attack. Police, however, had been on a general alert for violence against Jewish and Muslim institutions here because of the fractious war on the Israel-Lebanon border, said SPD Assistant Chief Nick Metz. Police would not identify the suspect, other than to say he was a U.S. citizen, not from Seattle, who was being cooperative. He could face the death penalty, police and FBI officials indicated, agreeing it was a hate crime.

More >>

Terry Coe, who left Seattle Weekly recently after four years as publisher here, has landed at Tiger Oak Publishing, whose best-known title is Seattle. Terry will be associate publisher in charge of Seattle Business Monthly and Northwest Meetings & Events, the company said in a news release.

Jim Brunner does an adroit job in today's Times of zeroing in on the contentious tone of last night's Liquor Control Board hearing on the city's proposed Alcohol Impact Area (AIA) expansion. In short, a procession of foreign-born convenience store owners offered testimony that consistently painted the proposed cheap beer ban as, intentionally or otherwise, racist and classist. They're hard-working immigrants who are making an honest go of it, and cheap beer is all their similarly hard-working customers can afford. I also owe Brunner a forty of Olde English for not reporting that I walked face first into an automated glass door, proving once again that closing down the Rickshaw on a Wednesday night leaves one less than razor sharp the day after.

What Brunner didn't elaborate on is that the jury of three LCB members actually fired something other than softballs at city staffers Jordan Royer and Scott Minnix. Board member Roger Hoen wondered why the city would establish boundaries in Wallingford that exempted stores selling high-octane brew right across the street (equal protection, anyone?), to which Royer replied that the city worked to identify boundaries in concert with neighborhood captains.

And upon hearing once again that the city's AIAs have failed to date, LCB member Vera Ing remarked: "It seems to me that when you have voluntary compliance, there would be a slight decrease instead of an increase in problems." To which Minnix replied: "Compliance was so small that it didn't make a difference." Compliance (i.e., store owners who agreed to not sell the city's list of 34 cheap brands of beer), per the city, stands at 30 percent. As to whether or not that's a statistically insignificant participation rate, I guess it's all in the eye of the beholder.