The roaring you hear from those dressed in green and gold comes from previously downtrodden Sonics fans, who, along with the rest of us, officially learned this morning during a press conference including Mayor Mike McGinn, King County Exec Dow Constantine and hedge-fund manager Chris Hansen that the City of Seattle, King County and the Hansen-led ArenaCo have reached agreement on a Memorandum of Understanding - which will now be sent to the Seattle City Council and King County Council for approval.

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Peter Keller

It's been almost two weeks since SWAT team members with the King County Sheriff's Department discovered heavily suspected-killer Peter Keller's body in a survivalist bunker he'd carved into the Cascade Mountains. It's been over two weeks since the bodies of Keller's wife and daughter were found barricaded by mounted furniture inside the family's burning North Bend home.

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As we mentioned earlier this week, the United States Supreme Court ruled by a 5-4 vote Monday that law enforcement officials are within their rights to strip search people arrested for any offense - even the small ones - before admitting them to jail. The statement holds true even if officials have no reason to suspect the presence of contraband.

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Constantine

Federal inspectors have departed King County Jail after two years of monitoring its safety and civil rights procedures, prompting Claudia Balducci, director of the Department of Adult and Juvenile Detention to proclaim the old lock-up finally "balances the safety of our citizens with the rights of inmates." It's an encouraging moment for a jail where too many died unnecessarily in recent years. But inspectors left with a word of caution: inmates are still dying at 5th and James.

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A decade ago, thanks to a class action lawsuit, Microsoft learned the hard way that it could not treat "independent contractors" exactly like employees for all purposes but salaries and benefits. In recent years, a public defender has been trying to teach that same lesson to King County, alarming state legislators and leading to a much-debated bill that passed the House last week.

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This week's feature story, "Meet Mr. Buzzard," focuses on one man's remarkable efforts to prevent young Latinos from joining street gangs and convince active members to cut ties with their crew. Of course, there is also a much larger anti-gang initiative underway across King County. As mentioned in our story, after a high-profile shootout this summer in Kent between rival Latino gangs, King County executive Dow Constantine promised $1.4 million to combat the growing gang crisis, devoting additional resources for local law enforcement and for a variety of prevention and outreach initiatives specifically geared toward Latinos. Here's how that money is being spent.

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King County's argument for pulling anti-Israeli bus ads was apparently a slam dunk in the eyes of a federal judge. On Friday, U.S. District Court Judge Richard Jones rejected calls for oral argument by both the county and the group suing it, saying the evidence was clear without further discussion. The ads presented a real threat to public safety and bus service, Jones ruled. Given the facts laid out in the case, he's right.

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There are few cops in the state of Washington I'd rather talk to than Sgt. John Urquhart. The 23-year veteran King County Sheriff's Deputy and spokesman tells like it is when you ask him and tells it on time when you need him to.

Fortunately for him and unfortunately for anyone who'll ever have to call the sheriff's office for some info or a comment, he's trading badges and guns for hammocks and mai tais, packing up, taking his wife, and heading to Hawaii.

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Yesterday, King County Executive Dow Constantine held a press conference and announced his plan to draw $1.4 million from an emergency law-enforcement fund to combat a "Latino gang war" that he and other local authorities claim is raging throughout King County. Constantine cited some scary statistics during the proceedings, noting that there are more than 140 street gangs with more than 10,000 members in the County, and that there have been 29 gang-related homicides and 200 gang-related shootings in the past three years. That sounds terrifying, and the situation on the streets has undoubtedly grown worse in recent years, but the figures are also a bit misleading. Here's why.

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Kevin Dolan.

What do you call someone who decides how much to pay you, has the final say on where you physically work from, and decides whether you can pick up extra work on the side? Washington state's Supreme Court, in a 5-4 ruling Friday, found that the proper term for such a person, or entity, is "employer." In a sign they got it right, the sage dispensers of opinion of The Seattle Times editorial board are whining about it, and in a highly disingenuous manner at that.

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