Are you ever disappointed when you look for Eat the State! at your favorite bookstore, coffee shop, or news stand? Do you look in vain through stacks of Little Nickels, outdated concert announcements and ad-filled Strangers? Struggle no more! You can ensure access to stimulating, scathing media by volunteering a couple of hours a month helping distribute ETS! to hungry readers everywhere.

Or you can spend a couple hours a month helping to distribute ETS! without leaving your home, as the new Distribution Coordinator. It's an easy way to volunteer your support--a few hours of startup time, then a couple of hours each month, communicating with new and existing volunteer distributors by e-mail or phone. Be your own boss! Work from home! Retire when you want to! Call before midnight and receive absolutely free--actually you can call at 3AM if you want to--206-903-9461, or e-mail, ets@scn.org.

Before he died last month, Curtis Chappel was our stellar distributor--from his truck, or, at the end, from his wheelchair, he distributed 2000 papers every month. You don't have to take on his 2,000 papers, but for some time we've had distribution coordinators who got really busy, or, um, really sick, but for whatever reason haven't been able to carry out this vital task. You can still carry out Curtis' astounding commitment--join us in the kitchen to help us bring ETS! to discerning media consumers everywhere.--Valerie Jean Rose

When the National Association of Broadcasters (a.k.a. the WTO of media) comes to town in September, join rest of us at the Reclaim the Media Convergence. The Cascadia Media Alliance (CMA), an exciting coalition of progressive radio, print and on-line media creators, has secured access to Freeway Park, across from the Convention Center's NAB bash, from Sept. 12-14, for protests, music, and DIY media. Maybe some NAB execs will sneak out of their meetings and wander into the park when they see concerts, puppets, and intelligent rants from community media pioneers; they can also catch videos and workshops at the Indy Media Center Sept. 10-15, the Rendezvous/Jewel Box Theater Sept. 12, 2nd Ave. Pizza Sept 13, and a day-long teach in at Town Hall on Friday the 13th--bad luck for corporate owners, good fortune for critical media consumers & creators.

We have reasons to celebrate and to organize. Last year it looked like Pacifica was on a tragic trajectory toward NAB-style dictatorship and market research; this year the programmers won, and Amy Goodman is once again hosting Democracy Now!. Goodman will speak at Reclaim the Media (Seattle-area listeners can hear her excellent daily show at 5PM on KBCS 91.3 FM, beginning on Labor Day.) In addition to Goodman, David Barsamian and other North American media activists will share their wisdom in workshops, DIY trainings, and strategy sessions to challenge the growing corporate control of mass media. Details at www.reclaimthemedia.org; to volunteer, contact 206-709-0558 or susan@reclaimthemedia.org.--Valerie Jean Rose

The King County Council took a shocking step in its attempts to resolve the fight over the regional transportation plan, which is now expected to go to the ballot in May of next year. The main point of contention was over funding for mass transit. Councilmember Dwight Pelz wanted more money for Sound Transit, while Councilmember Rob McKenna wanted more money for roads, particularly I-405. Last week Pelz gave in and the council completely removed all funding for transit from the package. The extra funds will be allocated instead to replacing the Alaskan Way Viaduct, an $11 billion white elephant project. Although this proposal will now provide $3 billion for the Viaduct, that leaves the Viaduct project still short $7-8 billion, with no plans in the works for where that money will come from. Mayor Greg Nickels, formerly a Sound Transit booster when he sat on the county council, quickly praised the shift of funds to the Viaduct, which is a city project. It's hard to find a more gross example of opportunism. In the meantime, forget about transportation equity, progressive funding, and a sane system that takes cars off the road (i.e., transit). The main source of funding for the regional plan will be, you guessed it, a sales tax increase. As Pelz was fond of saying, "Poor people ride the bus." Yes, and poor people pay a disproportionate amount of sales taxes. Go figure.--Maria Tomchick

Early this year, the state legislature finally passed a law to remedy bullying in Washington State schools. The law requires schools to write up an anti-bullying policy that includes specific means to discipline students who pick on others. Some folks, particularly Republican lawmakers, questioned whether a law was needed to address minor discipline problems, whether school bullying was really as bad and widespread as the bill's supporters claimed, and criticized the bill for freedom of speech reasons--in other words, calling someone a derogatory or racist name might be a form of protected speech. The legislature disagreed, fortunately, and passed the law this year. Now, the Seattle-King County Department of Public Health has released a survey that shows 8 in 10 kids in the 8th grade in Washington State have been picked on by bullies, and 40 percent of those victims say it happens often. The most common forms of bullying are name-calling and insults, followed by being the object of lies or rumors. Girls are twice as likely to be harassed because of their gender as boys, and 32 percent of students reported being harassed because of their ethnicity--most of them Hispanic or Latino students. A full 6 percent of students were harassed for being gay. Yes, it is a problem--a bad one--and it's about time someone acknowledged it.--M.T.

You can now hear Eat The Airwaves! on the Internet. Go to our web page at http://www.eatthestate.org and scroll down to the bottom of the page. Look for the Eat The Airwaves! headline and click on the KEXP link for our most current show. Prior shows are archived in Mp3 format at www.radio4all.net. You can access them from a link on our web page. If you can't get up at 8:30 AM on a Saturday morning and you're curious to hear what you've been missing, this is a good way to check it out.--MT

Thanks to all the people who showed up at the Eat the State! table at the Rolling Thunder Tour last Saturday. We avoided sunburn, met a lot of great readers, and discussed politics (of course). We also sold a lot of our new T-shirts. The design is one you may have seen printed in a recent issue of ETS!: the international symbol for dining (a plate, fork, spoon, and knife). Inside the plate is a US flag with a big dollar sign in the blue field, and our logo "Eat the State!" across the bottom. On the backside is our mission statement: "Missions were used by the Spanish to colonize Mexican California in the 18th century. Their establishment was instrumental in the genocide of California's native peoples. We oppose them." We have the shirt in both black and white (although the black ones are going fast) in Medium, Large, and X-Large. They're $15 and you can order one by sending a check to Eat the State!, PO Box 85541, Seattle, WA 98145. Please specify size and color.--Editors