The city's only self-mangaged homeless shelter provider, SHARE/WHEEL, received a one-month reprieve from the city when funding was extended for several providers until April 30. SHARE/WHEEL's funding was axed when its residents refused to go along with the city's program of computer tracking of homeless people, "Safe Harbors," a system to which they have voiced opposition for the past six years. SHARE/WHEEL isn't opposed to gathering meaningful, aggregate data.

As an alternative to individual tracking by government owned computers, the residents of SHARE/WHEEL developed, answered, and tabulated a forty question confidential questionnaire. Councilperson Nick Licata presented a proposal to Deputy Mayor Tim Cies on March 28, recommending that the city accept the questionnaire as a replacement for participation in Safe Harbors. The proposal included a compromise from SHARE/WHEEL to include an "opt in" box on the front of the questionnaire which would allow members who agreed to enter their initials, date of birth, and age, with an accompanying statement that the information would be forwarded to the city for inclusion in the computer data base and that no one who refused to turn over their personal identifiers would be refused shelter.

On Monday, April 10, representatives from the city and SHARE/WHEEL met for a five-hour mediation session facilitated by Dean Robert Taylor of St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral. Progress was made, but more discussion will be needed, and participants are checking back with their constituencies. SHARE/WHEEL is preparing to set up three new tent cities in Seattle public parks so that its members can stay together and safe if their funding is not restored and are asking the community to stand with them in case the mayor tries to make them scatter. For more information call SHARE at 206-448-7889 or WHEEL at 206-956-0334. --Peggy Hotes

Several hundred people attended a kickoff rally for Aaron Dixon's Green Party campaign for US Senate at Garfield Community Center on April 8. In addition to keynote speaker Elaine Brown, a nationally renowned former leader of the Black Panther Party, several local progressive community leaders spoke on behalf of Dixon's candidacy, including Juan Bocanegra, Amy Hagopian, and the Rev. Dr. Robert Jeffrey, Jr. Many other prominent progressives were present in the multi-racial, multi-generational audience. Amid a much more diverse group than typically seen at Seattle political events, the energy and enthusiasm was palpable for challenging the status quo incumbency of pro-war, pro-Patriot Act, pro-CAFTA, Alito-acquiescing, Senator Maria Can't-represent-us-well.

Recent media revelations about Dixon's past legal troubles notwithstanding, most in attendance seemed to care much more about Cantwell's dismal Senate voting record and Dixon's long history of service to his community. Ultimately, it's up to voters to decide what's most important. As Dixon himself said, "This campaign is not about Aaron Dixon." It's about building a broadly representative movement to challenge the increasingly narrow spectrum of political discourse and electoral choices offered to voters in Washington state and across America. If this kickoff event was any indication, such a movement may indeed be possible. --Lansing Scott

One of the lowlights of the Clinton presidency was the execrable 1996 salvage logging rider, shepherded through Congress by Slade Gorton, supported by Patty Murray, and signed by Clinton not too long after he traveled to the Pacific Northwest to feel our forests' pain and broker a "compromise" between environmental groups and timber companies. The salvage bill was virtually written by the big timber companies, which used it to help decimate old growth forests in the Pacific Northwest.

It's back. Meet the "Forest Emergency Recovery and Research Act," or HR 4200, a bill that passed out of the House Resources Committee at the end of March with all Republicans and six Democrats supporting. The bill now goes to the full House when Congress returns from its two-week Easter vacation, er, recess.

FERRA is being pushed by Greg Walden, the Oregon Republican who is the single largest congressional recipient of timber industry donations, and that pretty much tells you all you need to know about who this bill is written by and for. It would make logging mandatory after natural disturbances like fire, drought, and windstorms. The logging would be exempt from every relevant environmental law, including the Endangered Species Act. The bill includes no protections for old-growth reserves, roadless forests, salmon streams, or other sensitive areas. In a natural forest, of course, the dead tree is part of the life cycle, rotting as it nurtures new generations of growth. It's part of the overall life cycle of the forest for disasters to sweep through on occasion and create a generation of such logs. But under this law, leaving that essential component of a healthy forest in place would literally become illegal. All that matters is the board feet.

It would be nice if some of the allegedly environmentalist Democrats (or even the "environmentalist" Republican) representing Western Washington in Congress would step up and take a leadership role in stopping this dreadful industry gift of a bill. It would undercut Walden's inevitable argument that the economy of the Pacific Northwest depends on this sort of environmental degradation. But I'd settle for making sure that certain moderate Democrats--like Adam Smith, whose district contains Weyerhaueser's headquarters--don't actively support this bill. Either way, anyone who cares about the remaining forests of the Pacific Northwest, or anywhere else in the US, had better get busy. --Geov Parrish

At a community meeting in Kenmore on April 5, 250 people in attendance witnessed as King County Sheriff Rahr and King County Council member Bob Fergusen squared off in a debate over Fergusen's proposal to create a citizen's oversight office for the Sheriff's Department. The legislation would also appoint a county auditor to oversee the department.

Sheriff Rahr criticized Fergusen for proposing legislation before a blue ribbon panel has completed its study of the law enforcement agency. The council member is chairman of the Council's Law, Justice and Human Services Committee.

Fergusen's proposal is co-sponsored by County Council member Julia Patterson. The citizen's oversight office would appoint both an auditor and an ombudsman to assist in resolving disputes with the public. Both Fergusen and Patterson said their legislation was inspired by a series of investigative reports by the Seattle Post Intelligencer.

According to the P-I, sheriff's deputies have been able to avoid disciplinary measures for cases of serious misconduct. In addition, citizens and deputies who reported misconduct say they felt they had suffered retaliation from law enforcement officials. --Mark Taylor-Canfield

Students at the University of Washington demonstrated on campus April 6 against LVI Services. The company has been given a contract to demolish facilities containing the university's training nuclear reactor. The Student Labor Action Project (SLAP) and Jobs With Justice claim that LVI Services has a notorious reputation when it comes to workplace safety, environmental protections and workers' rights. Organizers for the Laborers Union challenged LVI Services' disregard for workplace safety during hurricane cleanup operations in the Gulf Coast region.

Student and labor union protesters marched to the building where the reactor is located and demanded that UW President Mark Emmert take action to protect the community from LVI's questionable labor and environmental practices. Student groups presented street theater with puppets and a satirical hazmat suit fashion show. A forum was held to discuss the LVI Services contract. Featured panelists included a former LVI Services employee, union organizers and a toxicologist from the Institute of Neurotoxicology and Neurological Disorders. --M.T.C.

While local media went wall-to-wall with the Capitol Hill massacre, three measures, one bad, two good, quietly slipped through local legislative bodies. The bad one was Seattle City Council's spineless agreement to pick up the millions (so far) in cost overruns on Paul Allen's transit vanity project, the South Lake Union trolley. A proposal to have local property owners pick up the tab failed, meaning, also, an ominous precedent for anyone hoping that the waterfront property owners that stand to benefit enormously from the two most expensive Alaskan Way viaduct options, a tunnel and a waterfront boulevard, might pick up part of the extra cost.

The good news was twofold: first, the city council approved a measure that allows the city to weigh the costs vs. the environmental benefits and decide whether to require developments to daylight creeks impacted by their projects. The measure was, of course, strongly opposed by developers and their hand-picked "environmental" mayor. Secondly, King County Council agreed (on a 5-4 party line vote) to extend the county's non-discrimination laws to include "gender identity," meaning queers of all kinds. The point is to cover the county's butt in case Tim Eyman's hateful, dishonest initiative to overturn the state's new gay civil rights law succeeds this fall. If it does, non-discrimination will still be the law in King County. --G.P.

Another good news/bad news: the good news is that a state court ruled as unconstitutional Washington state's barbaric practice of disenfranchising felons, even after they've done their time, unless Washington's unusually onerous assortment of fines, court costs, restitutions, costs of incarceration, etc. are paid in full, plus interest. The net effect is to bar from voting anyone who can't pay--a poll tax, in other words--and, not surprisingly, black males are disproportionately affected. The good news is that the court struck it down. The bad news is that usually sensible Republican (sic) Secretary of State Sam Reed, and often insensate Attorney General Rob McKenna--the state's only two statewide elected Republicans--have vowed to appeal. --G.P.

Got caviar? As Congress debates whether to make permanent the 2003 Bush tax cuts on investment income, the first study is in on the actual impact of those cuts, and it's not pretty. At the time, critics said cutting taxes on investment income would disproportionately benefit the rich, who, after all, tend to be the folks with more investment income. But there was no proof. Now there is. For Americans making more than $10 million a year (and I'm sure that includes many of you, though sadly I fall just short), the average annual savings from this one round of tax cuts alone is over $500,000.

Happy Tax Day. --G.P.

Last week, the Massachusetts state legislature passed, and the Republican governor has promised to sign into law, a new plan that represents the first nearly universal health coverage plan in the US.

The Massachusetts plan will require each resident to buy health insurance--just as there is a requirement for auto insurance--by July 2007. However, the bill also includes a mechanism for the state picking up some of the costs of insurance for its lower income residents. The result: Democrats are helping the less fortunate, Republicans get individual responsibility, insurance companies still get their business, and an estimated 95% of Massachusetts' uninsured residents will get health insurance. Less than one percent of the state's population is anticipated to be uninsured after this takes effect.

It's a model that may be useful for other states, as well. And the same day it passed, George Bush was next door in Connecticut, peddling Health Savings Accounts to the three people who think they're a good idea and reminding everyone of the federal government's catastrophic failure to even partially fix our country's inexcusable health care mess. --G.P.

The Bush administration quietly sent to Congress last week a comprehensive plan to update, consolidate, and upgrade the nation's nuclear weapons complex. The production facilities, as well as the munitions themselves, all date from the Cold War, and rather than, say, abolish these useless (and unfathomably dangerous) relics of another national security era, Bush wants, naturally, to build newer and better ones. By 2022 the plan is to be cranking out 125 new nukes each year, with the capacity to design and build a new type of nuclear weapon within four years as some or another new phantom threat is produced to justify one or another new pork barrel weapon system. The US still has more nukes than all other countries combined, no way to permanently store the waste they produce, and, oh, yeah, the more nukes we build, the more other people will build in response, and the more likely that one will eventually be built by or fall into the hands of (gasp) non-state terrorists. As opposed to the nation-state kind, who all have comfortable, well-paid jobs producing plans like this one. --G.P.

The Pentagon quietly revealed last week that files on at least an additional 260 US peace groups, that had been spied upon as part of its TALON program, had been improperly kept in a terrorist database long after the files were (in 90 days) supposed to be destroyed. The revelation--having difficulty keeping up with all the different federal programs and which ones have been spying on how many of which kind of Bush administration critics?--came as the result of an internal Pentagon review ordered when an NBC report in December revealed that several hundred peace groups had been spied upon and their records illegally kept in the same manner. The ACLU has filed Freedom of Information Act requests in 20 states to try to learn the full extent of the Pentagon spying.

Media already seem bored with the phenomenon of government agencies monitoring groups or individuals, and labeling them "terrorists," because they don't like Bush or the war or both. The Pentagon announcement got very little media play. Hey, if you don't have anything to hide, like, say, a relative who's a Democrat, you have nothing to fear. --G.P.

Dueling stories on the same day last Friday. In Britain's Financial Times, an article revealing that the government of Iran wants and is ready to have talks with the US not just on the previously agreed-upon topic of Iraq, but also on regional security and Iran's nuclear program. Meanwhile, over in the New York Times, we learn that the Bush administration has put even talks with Iran over its role in Iraq "on hold," preferring to rattle sabers and develop war plans rather than actually talking with Tehran about anything at all.

Remember this in a few months, when Bush starts lecturing the world about how his proposed (or launched) military strike upon Iran was a last resort, that Tehran wouldn't negotiate, and that the US had no other options. --G.P.

The British press also reported last Friday that of eight Sudanese names the British government had referred to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions (and eventual referral to the International Criminal Court) for the crime of genocide in Darfur, all but two had been struck down--one because he had died, but the other five because the US government had vetoed their inclusion. Why is the Bush administration protecting people accused of committing genocide in Darfur? Because the five Sudanese in question are all government officials. Apparently the Bush administration doesn't like the idea of government officials being prosecuted for ordering and carrying out genocide.

Unless their name is Saddam, of course, and then we'll set up our own kangaroo court, thank you very much. Otherwise, well, you're safe. Ask our embassy about credits on purchases of our second-hand small arms. --G.P.

Lastly, it didn't get much play in US media, but American troops have pissed off our erstwhile Shiite allies once again by massacring a bunch of them. Happened in late March at a northeast Baghdad mosque; 16 unarmed worshippers dead, with video taken afterwards of the bloody, bullet-strewn prayer hall. Naturally, the Pentagon is denying everything, even that the building in question is a mosque at all. Check out this priceless quote from one Lt. Gen. Peter Chiarelli, the second-ranking US commander in Iraq, who's probably never left the Green Zone: "After the fact, someone went in and made the scene look different than it was." Yeah, right. --G.P.