Are you shopping for the discerning free-speech oppressor this holiday season? If so, then the Defense Technology 56895 MK-9 Stream pepper-spray canister, available on Amazon.com, is the perfect stocking stuffer. 
Write Comment
Email to Friend
Even under the pressure of a federal investigation into potential civil rights violations and use of excessive force, the Seattle Police Department has played with truthiness. Besides wrongly withholding crucial e-mails and videos from the public, the SPD has now racked up at least $220,000 in fines and fees the last 15 months for failing to disclose public records. It acts like a department with something to hide.
KOMO-TV Turner Helton
The African e-mail-scammer industry is not without innovation. 
Patti Kreiger
Take this latest e-mail pitch developed out of the fraud thinktanks of Ghana.
More >>
There's a perfectly good reason why you're seeing firefighters, cops, and teachers speaking out on TV in favor of the initiative to hand over the state's liquor sales to private industry: I-1183 would most likely fail if its ads portrayed the real-life overlords of the campaign.
By having contributed a record $22.7 million to sell (buy?) the initiative--turning a democratic process into a capitalist plot--the corporate white collars at Costco Wholesale are able to dictate I-1183's strategy. As a result, the campaign's consulting firms came up with less-than-realistic blue-collar ads, currently fouling the air like locusts.
More >>
It's a lawsuit waiting to happen.
The back of the Four Seasons.
A pipe jutting out of the back of the downtown Four Seasons is dumping scalding water onto passersby below. Sometimes it comes in drips, other times in a small stream. When the water hits the pavement, steam rises.
When the state Supreme Court decided two weeks ago that police internal-investigation reports should be publicly disclosed even when accusations against officers are not upheld, the justices based their ruling on a healthy sunshine element of document releases: The public had a "legitimate interest" and would be better off knowing how the investigations were done, even if the cops' names weren't revealed. 
Stephen Hayne
The underlying suspicion was that a police department wasn't as concerned about protecting a wrongly accused officer from exposure as much as it was worried about keeping the details of the probe and the department's internal actions under wraps. Now, thanks to some digging by The Seattle Times and documents provided by a helpful attorney, we have a good example of the legitimately interesting details the Seattle Police Department, for one, had kept hidden by invoking the non-disclosure claim.
More >>
We're generally fans of public arts funding here at Seattle Weekly. Really we are. But there are times when we understand why the Dori Monsons of the world get their boxers in a bunch over taxpayer money going to such a subjective discipline, and this weekend's publicly funded Long Walk, effectively a $20,000 nature walk for a few dozen urbanites (including Publicola journalist Erica Barnett) on the taxpayer's dole, is one such time.
In August, you will be asked to vote on this:
The City Council is authorized to decide whether to issue the notice referenced in Section 2.3 of each Agreement. That decision shall be made at an open public meeting held after issuance of the Final Environmental Impact Statement.
Approve or reject?
If approve, what are you approving? If reject, what are you rejecting?
The council's authority? Its authority to decide? Your authority to decide the council's authority to decide? Is Jean Godden a babe?
More >>
The tiger-blooded warlock hasn't been on much of a winning streak lately, but hey, if you want to fork over $575 you can meet the man, get an autographed photo, and hear him ramble about his divorce tonight at the Comcast Arena in Everett.
There's no more hilarious way to surprise a friend than to sneak up on him and give him a Taze! If you happen to be a sworn police officer and the Tazer is your city-issued perp-shocker, however, you may want to make sure no tattletale, brown-nosing other officers are around to see it.
