Our feature story this week -- "Mad Medicine" -- investigates the hidden costs of privatizing mental health in Pierce County, and describes how one Tacoma family became so frustrated with the system they ultimately sent their schizophrenic daughter to live with family in Iran and receive treatment there.

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Everyone likes getting awards. It's only natural. And with Seattle Weekly taking home a whopping 15 of them this past weekend at the annual Society of Professional Journalists Northwest Excellence in Journalism Contest awards banquet--including six first-place finishes--well, it's made for a pretty celebratory morning around the office.

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Michiel Oakes

Even if he loses his murder-conviction appeal, Michiel Oakes could still end up with a shorter sentence. With a prison release date of 2035 for killing dog trainer Mark Stover, Oakes is hoping for a new trial based on a juror's tweets and other challenges. But if he's turned down, would he seek a shorter term behind bars (he already had a year knocked off his sentence) by trading information on who might have helped him kill the Dog Whisperer?

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Mark Stover

As a member of the jury hearing the 2010 headline-making murder trial of Michiel Oakes - accused of shooting dog-trainer-to-the-stars Mark Stover in a love/hate triangle - teenager Caleb Chase sent out a tweet from his smartphone: "Wow. Sitting in the jury duty room listening to people casually having a conversation about new age rituals and no clue what to say."

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Calling all photo students! Seattle Weekly is recruiting photography students for its Summer 2012 Photo Intern Program.

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Last week Seattle Weekly published an extensive feature story by Pete Kotz about Mitt Romney's time at Bain Capital, debunking the notion that Romney is/was a great business leader. Turns out he's not. And Kotz went on TV recently to talk about it.

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Phan

Having allegedly stole more than a million dollars from the government, ex-city employee Joe Phan is now living as the government's guest. Of course, it's three hots and a cot in King County Jail, current residence of the man accused of the biggest embezzlement in modern Seattle City Hall history. But should he eventually make bail, Phan and his family will live on $1,000 a week the government is allowing them to spend even though some of those assets could be proceeds of Phan's alleged crime.

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His fellow employees had no idea that mild-mannered "nice guy" Joe Phan was a millionaire and - relying merely on a rubber stamp, an ATM machine and a willing bank - was depositing stolen city checks into his personal account at the rate of more than $360,000 annually - equal to about twice the annual salary of his boss, Seattle Public Utilities Director Ray Hoffman.

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Nakashima

It was a murder that threw Tere Ryder for a loop in 1976 and, almost 35 years later, for a couple more. In 2010, she had just moved to Edmonds where the decomposed body of her 15-year-old half sister Allison Nakashima was found dumped in a woodsy area in April, 1976 - a case that Ryder years ago had been told was solved. Then she found out it wasn't, and was.

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Every Fourth of July, several thousand hippies flock to a different National Forest for the annual Rainbow Family Gathering, and every year several hundred are arrested or cited by local and federal authorities for a variety of (mostly) minor infractions. The 2011 Gathering in southwest Washington wasn't much different, save for the mysterious disappearance and death of 54-year-old Marie Hanson.

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