Our collective loss: The passing last month of Kwame Ture, aka Stokely Carmichael. He continued to work for the visions he believed in, long after the pioneering days of SNCC and long after the cameras and trendy white liberals left his side. He'll be missed.--Geov Parrish

Wanna go walk the picket line? Well, there's an imminent strike at Civic Light Opera, where the professional small arts nonprofit clique that runs CLO suddenly becomes very non-professional when it comes to paying union wages. Thus far they've refused even to recognize the Musicians' union, let alone bargain in good faith. Strike deadline is Dec. 4. (See the Activist Calendar). One great thing about the protests the Musician's union throws: the music is always great. The irony here is that the Dec. 4 deadline is the opening of CLO's new production, Rags, the story of the difficulties of union organizing at the turn of the century. The 20th, not the 21st.-- G.P.

Or, there's Kaiser aluminum. Workers in Tacoma and Spokane (among other places) have been striking the MAXXAM-owned, hydro-electric sucking industrial giant for several weeks now, with nary a local media whimper. Their picket could always use help: take I-5 to the Fife exit, head west and follow the powerlines to the smokestack. --G.P.

The King County Council approved a new budget last week. Among other things it included a big boost in spending for "criminal justice" stuff--mostly to pay for a 13 percent increase in jail costs related to new "tough on crime" laws that throw everybody and their grandmothers in jail. Also, the county is just beginning to pay off its enormous debt on the new regional justice center in Kent. The real trick for the council and County Executive Ron Simms was how to raise funds for the extra expenditures without violating voter-approved Referendum 47, which limits property tax increases to the inflation rate. Of course, they gave up and raised property taxes 4.5%, which is about four times the inflation rate. And this was a compromise; Simms had wanted to raise property taxes by 5.8%. Instead, the council approved increases in user fees for swimming pools, ball fields, picnic areas, adoption services, and development and construction permits. But the most controversial and least publicized hike in "user fees" is an increase in the amount you'd pay if you are arrested, have no money for a lawyer, and need a public defender. Formerly you could pay a nominal $5; now, you'll have to pay $25. No word yet on whether the county will change the title of this service from "public defender" to "pay-up or plead guilty."--M.T.

Last week we ran an article about global warming. The last thing we expected was to have some of the facts in that article confirmed by an employee of the World Bank. Last Wednesday Ismail Serageldin, a World Bank agricultural expert, released a report that says a lack of clean water will pose the greatest threat to food production and human health in the next 25 years. Already 80% of the world's fresh water resources are being used for agriculture, and the demand is increasing because most new agricultural land requires intensive irrigation. In addition, many developing countries have seen their agricultural land shift from growing a variety of native food crops for their domestic population to growing only one or two water-hungry crops to bring in export earnings to pay the interest on their national debts. In the Middle East, Africa, and semiarid regions of Asia, ground water tables are rapidly falling. So greenhouse gases are only one source of the problem; single-crop ("mono-culture") agriculture and the Third World's debt crisis is another part of the climate change problem.--M.T.

"The Asian economic crisis is causing some of the developing world's biggest arms buyers to delay or cancel hefty weapons purchases crucial to U.S. defense contractors. That will hurt the bottom lines of companies including Lockheed Martin, Raytheon Systems and Boeing, which in recent years have come to depend on foreign sales of their highest-priced products. Among the popular weapons systems affected are Lockheed's F-16 fighter, Raytheon's Patriot missile, and Boeing's AWACS early-warning plane."

"Among the popular weapons systems affected"? What is this, Jonathan Swift or something? If only. It's from a Washington Post article that landed on the front page of the Seattle Times Friday. Here's more: "Wherever in the world deadly weapons are sought, customers increasingly prefer U.S.-made products." Not only is there no hint of awareness of the irony of placing on the front page such an article worded as a whimisical story-about-shopping, on "The Busiest Shopping Day Of The Year," to be detected anywhere; but also no acknowledgement whatever that the "products" being discussed are implements of, um, "mass destruction." Swift and Orwell would've been jealous.

And it's yet more proof, as if we needed any, that not only is Capitalism completely amoral, but that the "self-regulating" market is a crock. Whether it's a soft drink using a sweetener made with scab labor, e-coli filled beef, or high-tech weapons systems, the only information we "need" to know about a "product" is its price. Ohbytheway, the 14th paragraph informs us that, "Earlier this year, Thailand canceled a $400 million purchase of eight F/A-18s made by Boeing because of its financial woes and the U.S. government decided to let the country off the hook for paying for the planes, which were sold under a government-to-government program. The Pentagon plans to give the planes to the Marine Corps, which means they will be paid for by U.S. taxpayers." Yet another triumph of the "free" market: any time "supply and demand" doesn't work, just coerce the taxpayers to keep big business afloat. If you want to read the entire article, it's at: http://www.seattletimes.com/news/nation-world/html98/arms_112798.html -- Eddie Tews

More trouble for Boeing: it's been six months since the big roll out of its new, 100-seat 717 jet...but nobody's bought a single one. In June, when it was first launched, CEO Phil Condit said he wasn't worried about a lack of orders for the 717, and that the next six months would be a key time for gaining customers. Since then, Boeing has put a lot of energy into courting International Lease Finance Corp. to buy the 717; however, two weeks ago Airbus Industries announced that ILFC would buy 30 of Airbus' A318s instead (the A318 is the model Airbus is marketing to compete with the 717). But here's the real kicker: the A318 is still just in the design stage; the first A318 won't even be built until at least 2002. Airbus says it won't start production of the plane until it has more orders for it. Condit, are you listening?--M.T.

When even good news has a nasty undertone... The good news comes from Georgia, where last week that state's Supreme Court overturned the state's infamous sodomy law. Georgia, like 17 other states, prohibits oral sex. The intent of such laws is generally to prohibit same-gender sex, though in Georgia and some other states the law makes no such specifications. In June 1986, Bowers v. Hardwick, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Georgia law in a ruling pivotal in giving momentum to homophobic political forces across the country.

So what's not to like? Well, turns out the specific case Georgia's high court overturned involved a man's incest with his 17-year-old niece. So let's check the message here. Gay sex: still bad. Incest: protected by the law. Hmm.-- G.P.

On November 24,1998 the East Timor Action Network received disturbing reports of the deaths of at least 50 East Timorese in the Alas region of East Timor. The killings were committed during an ongoing Indonesian military operation. Many East Timorese civilians from the area have been arrested and many others are missing--some believed disappeared by the military, others fleeing further violence. An immediate independent investigation of this brutal incident is vital to ensure the safety of survivors in the region. Also long-overdue is a permanent international presence in East Timor--to prevent further human rights abuses and to monitor the genuine withdrawal of Indonesian troops--prior to a U.N.-supervised referendum on self-determination. December 7 is the 23rd anniversary of the Indonesian invasion. ETAN is urging folks to call or fax your Representative, Senators and the U.S. State Department to strongly urge their support for an immediate international investigation into the massacre and the safety of those arrested and disappeared. Congressional Switchboard: 202-224-3121--Jeff Gustafson