August 31, 2006

Published February 8, 2006

Just Heard...

Chainsaws at Occidental

A legal manuever has given the Parks Department the go-ahead to cut down 17 of the 60 trees in Pioneer Square’s Occidental Park — despite a judge’s ruling in favor of a citizens’ group fighting the action.

Last week, Superior Court Judge Joan Dubuque stated the citizens are likely to win their lawsuit and granted them a stay, which prohibits the tree-cutting until she can hear the lawsuit in May.

But the judge also ordered the group to put up a $120,000 bond that the city demanded to cover the cost of delaying construction. The bond was due by the end of Monday. But “We don’t have $120,000 in cash,” says Jim Klauser, the group’s attorney. The entire bond had to be cash, Klauser says, because bonding agencies refused to front the money.

In effect, lack of money gives the case to the city. Last Thurday, the citizens’ group wrote to each City Councilmember pleading for help in getting the mayor to stop the tree-cutting until the hearing. But that doesn’t look likely.

“The plan is to proceed with construction, which would include the trees,” says Parks spokesperson David Takami. With a contract yet to be signed for the work, he says, “construction wouldn’t start for at least three weeks.”

Saving Darfur

It’s not direct action, but it’s a start: A resolution making its way through the state Senate calls on President Bush to try to stop the violence in the western Sudan region of Darfur.

The resolution, Senate Joint Memorial 8030, sponsored by Sen. Adam Kline (D-Seattle), isn’t binding but calls attention to the crisis by asking the president and Congress to ensure Sudanese victims get access to humanitarian aid — with or without the help of the Sudanese government, which has supported the killing of an estimated 400,000 Black Sudanese by bands of Arab militias.

Last year, a Seattle-area interfaith group called Save Darfur Washington was unable to get the state pension investment board to sell off stock in companies that do business in the Sudan. But it did get Kline to sponsor the resolution, which is expected to pass the Senate Rules Committee this week.

— Cydney Gillis

Disaster

Health care is again in the crosshairs of the Bush Administration (“Prescription Conscription,” Feb. 1), which wants Congress to quell the deficit and cement the tax cuts in its 2007 budget. Bush better make a quick sale: 20 moderate Republicans bolted from the conservatives on a two-month old spending bill, suggesting that the more time Congress has to analyze the Bush fiscal agenda, the less they can countenance it.

— Adam Hyla