Two down, 10,000 to go. If you want a fat-laden, sugar-infested McBurger, you still won't be able to get it in the International District, thanks to a valiant culinary defense mounted by an alliance of community groups led by the Interim Community Development Association. The ICDA and others mounted a successful drive opposing the location of a new McDonald's franchise at 5th and Jackson, in a prime spot across from Paul Allen's new Union Station development and close to the two publicly financed stadiums. This isn't a new battle--there was heated community opposition to the construction of the Kingdome in the 1970s on the grounds it would destroy the unique character of the ID. It didn't, and now McDonald's won't. Along with the abandonment of the Mickey D location on the Ave this year, it hasn't been a good year for bad McNuggets in Seattle.--Geov Parrish

Interesting goings-on at the Port of Tacoma, where a direct action led by rank and file union activists against Kaiser Aluminum got zero, zilch, nada media attention 30 miles away in Seattle--just like every other aspect of the struggle at Kaiser, now the longest labor lockout in U.S. history. For two weeks, steelworkers picketed an aluminum ore ship at Terminal 7 in Tacoma, preventing it from being unloaded by longshoremen who refused to cross the picket line. A corporate-friendly judge issued an injunction moving the picket back to the street, ending the legal justification for the longshoremen's refusal to unload the ship, but not before the action had cost Kaiser significant money. Kaiser was already hurting from unrelated hikes in hydroelectric rates (your taxpayer-subsidized dams provide a huge chunk of corporate welfare for the energy-intensive aluminum industry, and hence for Boeing, its chief Northwest customer). As a result of the rate hikes, Kaiser announced a layoff a couple weeks ago of 400 scab workers from its Tacoma plant. What goes around comes around--but not fast enough for Kaiser owner and modern robber baron Charles Hurwitz, an all-around parasite of the corporate world.--G.P.

"Only two beer trucks this year!" That was the early, and optimistic, assessment of one attendee at this year's gay pride parade and festival, which has been plagued in recent years by niche corporate advertising. It's been a long time (31 years) since Stonewall, and the sense of political urgency and oppression that fueled the queer movement throughout the deadliest epidemic in modern U.S. history is only present in bits and spurts these days. The lesbians are, as always, active--Dyke Action and a resurgent Lesbian Resource Center have been quite visible in the last year--but the men are busy partying like it's still 1999. Or 1979. There's Resist the List, and the Gay City Health Project, and that's about it. Chicken Soup is merging with NW AIDS Foundation, meaning that the community's leading queer nonprofits just got even less accessible to grassroots activists. Well, at least it's a nice parade.--G.P.