City council watchers are now saying it's unlikely that the amendment to the impound ordinance, proposed by four council members and once thought to be a shoo-in to pass, may now die for lack of a fifth vote.

What happened? The issue, which is at or near the top of the list of political priorities these days in the African-American community because of its disproportionate impact on blacks, is being raised by the council's only person of color, Richard McIver--no flaming liberal--and is being seconded by Licata, Steinbrueck, and Nicastro. But of the likeliest fifth votes, Richard Conlin is said to be declining, while Heidi Wills, counted by the papers as an undecided swing vote, is perhaps harkening back to her campaign acceptance of money conditional on her public support for Mark Sidran's "civility" agenda, of which the original impound ordinance is a piece. She also formerly worked for County Exec Ron Sims, who is reportedly lobbying behind the scenes on Sidran's behalf.

These two are also--like the three white co-sponsors--erstwhile members of the Green Party, and it's troubling that a party that's been criticized for its lack of diversity can't keep its own members from bolting on an issue of key importance to the black community. It's not really the Green Party's fault, though; Conlin can't be counted on for anything, and as for Wills--well, let's just say that it's touching that she prospectively cares more about circus animals than African Americans or the poor.--Geov Parrish

Traffic congestion on the streets of Seattle is an everyday reality for me as a bike messenger. Cars backed for blocks and blocks in and around downtown not only makes my job more difficult, they pose an increased risk to my physical well-being as I am forced to make split second decisions that prevent me from hitting the pavement on a daily basis. All of this makes the attempts by those individuals gathering signatures for state Initiative 711 on the streets of Seattle even more unbelievable.

711 is arguably the most ill-conceived policy proposal in the history of modern industrial transportation planning. 711, if passed by the voters in November, would require the state to spend 90 percent of its budget on new road construction and eliminate car pool lanes. Like the myth that a workable missile defense system will ever be developed by the Pentagon, the myth that we can build our way out of traffic congestion just won't go away. We know that building new roads and adding news lanes to old roads quickly fill to capacity shortly after completion, so it is needless to say that this idiotic ballot initiative must be defeated if it gets on the November ballot. It is clearly an attack on public transportation, as a city like Seattle has no space for building new roads, but badly needs funding for public transportation. Seattle would see its state transportation funding decline significantly under such an asinine policy.

What's next for 711's backers? Banning all automobiles less than 15 feet in length? I have a recommendation for 711's backers: move to Southern California! Road building has been the top priority there for decades and the traffic congestion has only gotten worse.--Rick Giombetti

There were several reasons for the two NASDAQ stock market crashes in April. The first was record levels of margin debt. An investor racks up margin debt when he or she borrows money from a broker to buy stock. Margin debt is extremely risky, because the investor is required to keep investments in his or her account that are worth at least double (or more) what the investor owes the broker in margin debt. But when stock prices begin to see-saw (as they did in March) or begin to fall precipitously (as they did twice in April), brokers will call up their investors and immediately demand cash to pay off some or all of the investors' margin debts, and raising that much cash can be a problem. When the market downturn is rapid and severe, as it was in April, there's simply no time for investors to take out bank loans or borrow the cash elsewhere, and selling deflated stock locks in investors' losses. Furthermore, nearly all margin debt agreements allow brokers in an emergency to sell off their investors' stocks to cover the debt without notifying the investors first, and that's what happened in April. As you would expect, this made the market downturn worse by increasing the number of shares that were being sold once the downturn began. But investors are not entirely to blame; most brokerage firms (especially on-line brokerages) heavily market the "benefits" of margin debt to their investors, but don't spell out the risks.

There were other reasons, too. One of the big contributing factors to the mid-April downturn was that investors were selling stock to pay large tax bills due on April 17th. It turns out that 1999 was a record year for investors, who made a lot of money in capital gains. But none of them remembered or realized that the inevitable tax bill would come due. In spite of deep capital gains tax cuts (care of the Clinton Administration), the tax bill was still a big one.

Finally, the third factor was the onset of the inevitable dot-com shake-out. Most new Internet and high-tech companies have finally exhausted their first round of financing (bank loans, initial public offerings of stock, credit lines, venture capital investments, etc.) and are still not making money--and in some cases are hemorrhaging severely. The second round of financing is simply not materializing: banks are expecting profits, venture capital has dried up or moved overseas to fund Internet startups in Asia, and the shaky NASDAQ stock market is forcing companies to delay stock offerings. The news in Silicon Valley is that most of the unprofitable dot-coms are now fishing for a bigger company to buy them out and assume their enormous debt. Those that don't find a willing buyer will go bankrupt. Add in the continuing phenomenon of computer viruses and cyber crimes, which have effected an estimated 70% of Fortune 500 companies and cost an estimated $653 million last year (according to an FBI survey of computer professionals) and you have a severe disenchantment with Internet business and all things high-tech. The party's over.