Hats off to the longshoremen who refused to unload the Department of Defense's ship full of toxic waste. The PCBs came from Japan via Canada, where the government, under pressure fron the longshoremen's union, turned the ship away. The ship's owner then decided to "temporarily" store the waste here, until the solidarity actions put a stop to that nonsense. The hot rumor of the day is that the ship's bosses tried, illegally, to get a relief crew to unload the unmarked waste, without any of the necessary safety precautions; and that Port Commissioner Jack Block was one of the individuals urging such illegal actions. Block is the token "union" representative on the five-person Port Commission, but he's been in office 25 years and has been asolid corporate apologist the whole time. Now we know what he's like on the job, too. --Geov Parrish

On April 3 Governor Gary Locke signed a bill that allows British Nuclear Fuels Ltd. (BNFL) to not pay property taxes on a glassification plant it's scheduled to build at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation. This amounts to about one billion dollars that won't be flowing through Washington State coffers, all from the largest project in Hanfords history. But wait, it gets worse. The governor's signature came only days after the Department of Energy had sent a team of investigators over to England to look into BNFL's latest scandal. Apparently both Germany and Japan returned shipments of BNFL-produced fuel pellets intended for use in their nuclear reactors after discovering that BNFL had falsified the fuels quality assurance records. So why didn't the governor give BNFL the boot instead of a billion dollar break? --Mike McCormick

U. of Iowa students occupy President's office! U. of Oregon student sit-in continues for second week! Purdue students on hunger strike! 12 U.of Kentucky students arrested in campus demonstraion! No, it's not a flashback--these are current events, activism at colleges and universities across the U.S., as students demand their schools stop profitting from the sweatshop labor that creates the ubiquitous sweatshirts, caps, jackets, etc., emblazoned with the school's logo. Colleges and universities earn big bucks on the sale of this gear, most of which is made in Third World countries. Many schools belong to the "Fair Labor Association," an industry-funded oranizations which pretends to protect the sweatshops workers. The FLA was created by Nike and other companies known for their hollow PR tactics and obscene profits. Students at over 60 campuses, from U. Penn. and Purdue to Sarah Lawrence and Northwestern, are demanding their schools leave the FLA. Many students want their schools to join the Worker's Rights Consotrium. Sponsored by Global Exchange, the WRC receives no industry funding and requires factories to pay a living wage, protect worker safety, and honor collective bargaining rights. 34 schools have joined the WRC, many repsonding to student protests. Now the sweatshop industry is fighting back: When Brown U. recetly joined the WRC, Nike dropped its contract to provide hockey equipment. UC Berkeley withdrew from the WRC after Nike's action. Students are staging a sit-in at the U. of Oregon (where Nike donates big $$ the library is named after Nike CEO Phil Knight, the new law school after Knight's father). It's heartening to see the fight against global capital igniting on campus. And the focus isn't just overseas: some students are making larger connections to the need to protect workers' rights at home. Students at Wesleyan U. recently won a living wage for their school's custodial workers. These students are showing signs of being educated and aware! Info from United Students Against Sweatshops (U.S.A.S.) http://www.umich.edu/~sole/usas. --Valerie Jean

I finally viewed the countenance of City Attorney Mark Sidran, or Darth Sidran as Geov Parrish likes to call him, for the first time in the April 6- 12 Stranger ("Sidran's Costly Sins," by Phil Campbell, p. 9). I never thought another male on this planet could cut a figure so nerdy and unerotic as to make Bill Gates look like an exotic dancer until my eyes were forced to view the blight of Sidran's visage appearing in the photo accompanying said article. Apparently, Sidran's desire to rid Seattle of her homeless people is only matched by his desire to keep the City Attorney's office union- free. Campbell's article reports the city's $126,000 settlement with former-Assistant-City Attorney Margaret Boyle for her 1997 firing by Sidran, allegedly for her unionizing efforts. Since Sidran is so eager to rid Seattle of her homeless, I suggest he force the public to endure the sight of himself performing a strip tease dance at selected homeless hang outs around the city. That would clear the homeless off the streets of, say, 2nd Avenue in Belltown faster than the sight of any SPD pig van ever could. Of course, no union organizer would dare enter any workplace where he/she would be subjected to the sight of a thong-clad Sidran. The sarcastic front-page headline for the story says it all, "Sexy Sidran Faces The Music." Is Sidran the first virgin to ever be gainfully employed by the City Attorney's Office? Had Sidran ever had sexual relations with anybody? Anything? His own hand? -- Rick Giombetti

My second day in the Emerald City was nearing its end on the evening of April 3 as I was shopping at the Red Apple on South Jackson. I noticed the funky dance beat emanating from the store's speakers shortly after my entry. I figured it was reflective of the store's more racial diverse, urban clientele. Never did I think that my observation would see the light of day acouple of days later in a Seattle Times "soft feature" that may very well represent an all-time low in journalistic mediocrity.

Said article appears in the April 5 Times on the front page of its "Local News" section titled, "Shoppers Groove To Music." The story notes the line-up of dance music played at the Union Street Red Apple. The stereotyped notions the story conjures in its words are more powerfully represented by the four-color photo of a black woman dancing while shopping in the aisles of said Red Apple. The story quotes the managers of several Seattle-area grocers on the topic of their musical preferences for their stores. The story also notes the musical preferences of other businesses, like the Starbucks located across the street from the Red Apple. Said Starbucks plays jazz. Would an article appearing in the Times ever point it out if jazz were being played at a downtown Starbucks catering to a mostly white, yuppie clientele? Yes, it's 2000 and the mass media is still pedaling the myth that black people are born with rhythm and are the only people who like to dance to disco, funk and hip-hop.

Earth to the Times: When media critics argue that the mass media should try to improve its reporting of minority communities, bs-filled articles that recycle racist stereotypes IS NOT WHAT THEY HAVE IN MIND! -- Rick Giombetti