Seattle

Nicole RamirezAlaska Airlines shareholder meeting Posted by news intern Ansel Herz Slog tipper Nicole Ramirez says she and about 100 protesters are inside the Alaska Airlines' annual shareholder meeting, happening now at Pier 66 in downtown Seattle. Thirty flight attendants, plus at least three airport workers from Los Angeles, are outside the meeting, she says. "After a faith leader led supporters in the meeting in a song of solidarity, an Alaska representative threatened to end the meeting if there was an additional disruption," says Ramirez, an activist with Bayan USA Pacific Northwest, which is part of a coalition of labor groups—including Working Washington, Unite Here, SEIU, Teamsters, and Puget Sound Sage—organizing the action. She sent the photo above and the following e-mail statement: While Alaska Air boasts huge profits today, they deny their workers, (many who come from people of color and migrant communities) livable wages, benefits, paid time off, and their right to unionize. Our message as a community: We love workers and will continue to support workers at SeaTac until they receive the dignity they deserve. The workers have formed unions but are being denied union recognition by the contract companies Alaska airlines employs (ASIG, DGS, AirServ, BAGS, Menzies.) Alaska claims that they treat their workers well, but they overlook the contract workers who clean, fuel and load their planes. Just last month, an Alaska Airlines contractor was fined for "failing to protect workers from urine, feces, blood, and vomit," Goldy reported. And recall that last year, activists disrupted Amazon's shareholder meeting at the Seattle Art Museum. The tech giant promptly announced it would withdraw from ALEC, a right-wing coalition, and invest $15 million in air conditioners for warehouse workers. This year, Amazon moved its shareholder meeting to the "less visible" Seattle Repertory Theatre, Puget Sound Business Journal notes. I'm not sure it matters where your average mega-corp holds its shareholder meeting. If you're treating workers like shit, chances are your shareholder get-together is going to get crashed. [ Comment on this story ] [ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]

Quarterback Josh Portis has been released, the team announced today. Portis signed with the Seahawks as rookie free agent in 2011, when he made the 53-man roster as the No. 3 QB. He was inactive for 15 games and the backup in one because then-starter Tarvaris Jackson was injured. Portis was released from the practice […]

Apparently, it's not just the AP. The New Yorker reports: The Obama Justice Department has seized the phone records of numbers that are associated with White House staffers and, apparently, with Fox News reporters, according to a document filed in the case of Stephen Jin-Woo Kim, on October 13, 2011. Kim is a former State Department contractor accused of violating the Espionage Act for allegedly leaking classified information to James Rosen, a Fox News reporter. Ronald C. Machen, Jr., the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, who is prosecuting the case, has seized records associated with two phone numbers at the White House, at least five numbers associated with Fox News, and one that has the same area code and exchange as Rosen’s personal-cell-phone number (the last four numbers are redacted). Fucking Christ. These are indefensible, Bush-style tactics. How much deeper is this bullshit going to go? [ Comment on this story ] [ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]

Less than two weeks after filing a City of SeaTac initiative that would assure better wages and working conditions for thousands of low-wage SeaTac Airport workers, backers have announced that they have already surpassed the signature threshold. In an email to supporters, the SeaTac Committee for Good Jobs announced that it has collected 2,100 signatures and counting. Only 1,541 valid SeaTac voter signatures are needed to qualify for the ballot. The measure would set basic employment standards for about 5,000 airport workers, including paid sick leave, a guarantee that workers would receive 100 percent of all tips and service charges, and perhaps must significantly, a living wage of at least $15 an hour. Most of these workers currently earn less than $10 an hour, 40 percent less in inflation adjusted dollars than they did back in 2005 before Alaska Airlines contracted out many of their jobs. It's a pretty clever move on the part of organized labor, pushing a ballot measure in tiny SeaTac that would have such a huge impact on the welfare of airport workers. It will be interesting see how this plays out. [ Comment on this story ] [ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]

This is pretty old so you may have already seen this, but it's worth another watch.

Former Governor Chris Gregoire and former Seattle Mayor Charlie Royer (who last ran for office when Anna was in diapers) have both endorsed state Senator Ed Murray in his bid to unseat current Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn. In a prepared statement, Gregoire lauded Murray for "building coalitions no one believed were possible." (You mean like that Majority Coalition Caucus that now controls the state senate?) Whatever. Good for Ed. Although we all know that here in Seattle, there is only one endorsement that really matters. And the SECB endorsements won't be published until July 17. [ Comment on this story ] [ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]

At dawn last Sunday morning, in a remote and wooded area of Seattle, Saint Genet director Ryan Mitchell re-created Chris Burden's notorious 1971 artwork Shoot. In the original, Burden was shot in the arm with a .22 rifle inside a gallery and called it sculpture. Mitchell was shot in the arm with a .22 rifle beneath a tree, then walked approximately 10 miles to a theater and called it performance. The re-creation of Shoot was secret—I had to sign a nondisclosure agreement before I was even told what was happening—because the stakes were high. First, the action was probably a crime. Second, there were some serious liability issues. Third, the action happened the morning before Saint Genet's closing-night performance of Paradisiacal Rites at On the Boards, and if On the Boards artistic director Lane Czaplinski got wind of it, he might've pulled the plug on the whole show. The shooter, who has been hunting with guns and bows since he was 8 years old, stood in the dim forest with a few other people watching. He said there wasn't enough light for him to take the shot safely... Continue reading » (A long interview with Ryan, in which he explains his rationale for all this, is coming soon.) [ Comment on this story ] [ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]

Alison Agosti expected to see some weird shit when she attended Nicolas Cage's estate sale. Turns out the first weird and awful thing she saw—a dog peeing blood—turned out to be just about the only weird and awful thing she saw. But the whole report, which just went up at HitFix, is worth reading anyway: My friend and I walked in, really just prepared for anything. At the very least, a sex dungeon, a secret tea room, SWORDS (I was expecting a lot of swords), but we were greeted only by a small foyer with a lone Egyptian-themed chair and some cardboard boxes. I was already wondering If I should have stayed outside for the conclusion of the blood peeing dog saga. Forward was an expansive living room, and to our right was a small weight room. We chose to go into the weight room first. I want you to know that it smelled exactly like a recently emptied canister of Pringles. Not original either, maybe pizza? Or cheddar? None of the equipment was any newer that maybe the late-80s. An old stationary bike, weights, and a menagerie of boxing gloves (including several pairs with flames, which would be a theme throughout the house). I began to feel a sinking suspicion that while this may have been a house that Cage owned, he certainly didn’t spend much time here. Go read the whole thing, and then spend the rest of the afternoon daydreaming about the wonders Agosti would have found in a just world. [ Comment on this story ] [ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]

If you missed it on Twitter, ScoutTheSeahawks and Field Gulls contributor Derek Stephens put together a quick ten-minute reaction podcast to the whole Bruce Irvin situation, specifically with regard to a lot of people's calls that the Seahawks 'do something' about this supposed 'PED/Drug problem' at the VMAC. (Italics on the language because these are some of the main talking points/catch-words being thrown around right now, with much blame being placed with Pete Carroll.) First - Doug Farrar passed along Pete Carroll's opening comments from the OTA Day 1 Practice presser, and it's probably worth reading in conjunction with Derek's take on the situation. "This is a challenge -- it's a challenge for us, and it's a challenge for the league," Carroll said during a five-minute statement at the beginning of his press conference. "The league is doing everything they can to help guys make it through these young careers that they have, from teaching, to instructing, also the punitive side of it. They're doing a really good job and they're in it for the right reasons, and we are too. We go beyond with what the league does. We go well past with what the guidelines ask us to do as far as working with our young guys trying to give them the direction, trying to give them the counseling." Carroll added, which I found very interesting: "We have people on staff that are here specifically to work with our individual guys because I really see this as an individual challenge." He continued: "We try to bring each kid as far along as we possibly can to make them available for the opportunity that they have," Carroll said. "Each one of them is a different story. Each one of them, there is a different road that they traveled. Even though we go together, they have to figure out how to do this right. [We want to see] why guys make choices and why guys will jeopardize their opportunity and their future. The league understands that, we understand it and have been working with it for years and years with young people, and we continue to still face issues that we want to try and deal with in a better way. It's a very important opportunity in a sense for us to go ahead and figure it out, and then help these guys so that they can get what they deserve. Unfortunately if you go wrong, you get popped and that's how this thing works, and I'm really disappointed that we have to deal with anything like this. But there are going to be other issues too, and we have to deal with them." "We're going to try and help him along as best as we possibly can. He made a mistake, and he admitted to it, and he owned up to it to his teammates, and he owned up to it to the staff, and he owned up to it to everybody. He wants to do right and show that he can, and we're going to see that through and see if we can get that done for him. It's no different than I would do with my own son. I do everything I can to teach them, to prepare them, to let them understand what the pitfalls are that are out there, and you hope and pray that your kids make the right decision when they're faced with options. And when they make a mistake, you take them back under and you try to lead them along again and show them and hope that they can learn from the issues that they had to face." What's your reaction to this explanation? Derek gives his in classic Paul Harvey monologue form. Straight off the dome, no notes, no outline: Derek Stephens ScoutTheSeahawks PED Reaction Podcast (right click to download)

Lots of people are sending us links to this Seattle Times story, about Amazon's plans to build three biodomes in the Denny Triangle: The online retailing giant is expected to discuss the new plans at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday in City Hall before the downtown design review board, part of the city’s permitting process for large developments like Amazon’s campus, which the company has nicknamed “Rufus 2.0” after a former employee’s dog...The spheres, which would range in height from 80 feet to 95 feet, would be on the block between 6th Avenue and 7th Avenue and between Blanchard and Lenora streets. And I guess I'm supposed to have some sort of an opinion about this? I dunno. Biodomes are cool. Lots of readers are expecting me to hate on the biodomes, but I don't automatically hate every Amazon idea just because it's Amazon. They can spend their money however they want, I just wished that more of that money went to the arts and to taxes. If I had one wish for these biodomes, it's that I'd like them to be open to the public at least part of the time, because I'd like to walk around in them. I think they'll be a neat addition to the downtown area. [ Comment on this story ] [ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]