The Qwest for fire continues. On Wednesday, May 1, Qwest announced its quarterly financial results: a $698 million loss, more than double what analysts had predicted. Adding to its woes, regulators in several states are now investigating Qwest's secret deals with competing phone companies. Evidently Qwest struck agreements with Eschelon Telecom of Minneapolis, McLeod USA, Covad Communications, and other smaller telecom companies, giving them preferred rates and access to its equipment, if they would refrain from opposing its merger with US West and efforts to enter the long distance market. The 1996 Telecommunications Act, however, says that Qwest and other regional phone companies have to provide "non-discriminatory" access to all phone lines and equipment. It seems Qwest wasn't happy just doing the Enron thing with its finances; it had to do the Microsoft thing with its business practices, too. The penalty: in Minnesota, the state Department of Commerce wants to fine Qwest $200 million. Here's some easy math that even Qwest can't obscure: multiply $200 million by five--Arizona, Oregon, New Mexico, Utah, and Colorado are also investigating Qwest for the same problems.--Maria Tomchick

Speaking of Microsoft, it seems like our local Daily Fishwrapps (poor fish!) run an article every time he wears something new to breakfast, but where has the coverage been of Bill Gates' quiet acquisition of large amounts of the stock of a local media company? The company in question is Fisher Communications, owner of KVI, KOMO radio and television, and over two dozen TV and especially radio stations in smaller cities, mostly in the Pacific Northwest. Fisher, too, has been much in the news lately--due to financial troubles, it sold off its real estate operations ("to concentrate on growing our communications holdings"), lost the rights to broadcast Univ. of Washington sports to the stunningly misogynist KJR-AM radio, and then paid an outrageous sum to outbid KIRO radio for Mariners' games. Interestingly, the UW rights were auctioned off not to KJR, but to a Paul Allen company, which in turn bought the air time on KJR. This, of course, was all exhaustively covered in local media. But when Allen's uber-peer, Bill Gates, bought not just air time but a substantial chunk (5.3%) of the publicly traded Fisher--including KVI, the city's far-right purveyor of Rush Limbaugh, John Carlson, and other political frauds--the silence has been deafening. Gates has frequently been suspected of aspirations for future media monopolies (due, for example, to the company's successful lobbying to be awarded hundreds of billions of dollars' worth of future spectrum space) for Microsoft. But when Gates actually has started buying a media property--and it was local--and overtly political--the silence has been deafening.--Geov Parrish

Of all the nightmares that have transpired since September 11, 2001, the worst may be having John Ashcroft as US Attorney General. Fortunately, the judicial backlash has begun. On April 30, US District Judge Shira A. Scheindlin ruled on a case that has the potential to free nearly all of the Arab-American detainees that the Department of Justice scooped up and held incommunicado, in violation of their rights, post-9/11. The case involved 21-year-old San Diego community college student Osama Awadallah, a permanent US resident and Jordanian citizen, arrested when the FBI found his phone number in a 9/11 hijacker's car. Held without access to his family or lawyers, he was shipped to New York, and forced to testify before a grand jury. Since then he has been held in indefinite custody and has never been charged with any crime.

Judge Scheindlin ruled against the jailing of a material witness, equating the US government's actions with the British Crown's use of "general warrants" to jail colonists in the 1700s--one of the main grievances that sparked the American Revolution. She further said that material witnesses can only be jailed after a grand jury has issued an indictment and only as a last resort for securing testimony from a witness. In other words, if the Department of Justice wanted Awadallah to testify, it should have issued him a subpoena. She dismissed the indictment against Awadallah, saying the government's case was "not particularly strong," and that it was based on statements Awadallah made while in detention, without access to a lawyer. Mr. Awadallah is now free, although the DOJ is expected to appeal. The precedent for others held in indefinite detention is highly encouraging.--M.T.

Last week another federal judge handed down a ruling on the city's Teen Dance Ordinance. US District Judge Robert Lasnik reluctantly ruled that the ordinance is constitutional and that the city isn't restricting teens' rights to free expression. But Judge Lasnik was clearly against the spirit of the Teen Dance Ordinance: "The court has serious concerns about the impact of this ruling on the teenagers of Seattle who, the record shows, need and deserve more opportunities to enjoy dancing to music." Weigh this against the media response, which has been largely anti-teen, anti-music industry, and anti-musician. Give us a break. JAMPAC, the group that's pushing to overturn the Teen Dance Ordinance, is not composed of bar-hopping pedophiles and TimeWarner executives. Teens can and do express their opinions, join political action committees, and try to organize for their rights, as do musicians (most of whom are not millionaires) who need more places to perform for their under-21 audience. It's time for the mayor and several city council members to live up to their campaign promises: start repealing some of those Sidran civility ordinances. As Judge Lasnik said: "All of the various interest groups--particularly Seattle's teenagers--deserve better from their elected officials."--M.T.

Just a thought: Iraq refuses a UN inspection team--after past such teams have been revealed, much to the UN's embarrassment, to be contaminated with American spies--and the United States can threaten to not just bomb Iraq, but invade it and replace the government. But Israel has for decades refused international inspection of its nuclear weapons program, the least secret of its "weapons of mass destruction." And now, Israel has successfully resisted, thanks in part to some behind-the-scenes US deal-making (see this issue's One Planet column below), an inspection for evidence not of a potential to commit war crimes, but a search for evidence of actually committed war crimes, the United States is notably restrained in its rhetoric threatening to bomb Tel-Aviv, invade Israel, and assassinate Ariel Sharon. Instead, oddly enough, Congress is putting its stamp of satisfaction on the whole affair. Remember, way back last September, when a few mystified patriots were asking why people in other parts of the world could possibly hate us? --G.P.