NAFTA made things worse on both sides of border, Mexican dignitary told.

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Articles by JP Gritton

Vendor of the Week

by JP Gritton | May 17th, 2009

On July 23, 1933, James Garrett was born in Douglass, Arizona, a little town on the Mexican border. He was the son of a Mexican immigrant and a Dublin-born and New York-raised policeman. In his youth, he spoke both Irish English and Mexican Spanish; and to...

Vendor of the Week : Charles Moore

by JP Gritton | May 14th, 2009

Charles Moore, Vendor of the Week. Photo by J.P. Gritton Charles Moore pounds the fist of just about everybody he comes across in a friendly salute. But first and foremost Moore, this week's vendor of the week, is a businessman. A few months ago, Moore was...

Storing up Trouble

by JP Gritton | May 14th, 2009

In the event of an arrest in King County, smaller personal belongings (wallets, purses, jewelry, etc.) are kept with the accused at jail and returned on release. There are few complaints about this system. But anything larger than a purse (say, a backpack)...

Storing up Trouble

by JP Gritton | May 14th, 2009

Just the Ticket

by JP Gritton | May 14th, 2009

The narrator of "Flying to America," the short story in Donald Barthelme's new collection of the same name, has two main objectives between March 18th and May 1st -- namely, 1) to make his film, and 2) to "have a drink" with Perpetua, the film's star...

Vendor of the Week: Morrie

by JP Gritton | March 18th, 2009

Back when the Smith Tower was the highest building in what was then a backwater port, Real Change's first (and maybe only) indoor vendor, Morrie, was living and working in his native Seattle. His has been a life of work. He has done his share of odd jobs...

How the Media Treated the Black Panther Party

by JP Gritton | March 18th, 2009

A young, bereted Panther stares authoritatively from a throne, a rifle in one hand, a spear in the other; behind him, a Zulu shield looks on sightlessly. The image has been emblazoned across t-shirts and TV screens, posters, magazines, and newspapers. And,...

Vendor of the Week: Claude Shumpert

by JP Gritton | March 18th, 2009

Claude Shumpert, Vendor of the Week. Photo by J.P. Gritton If you'll forgive the sentimentality: getting to know most people is like peeling a piece of fruit: layer by layer, they reveal themselves. But some -- a few -- are like a sliced orange: seeds, meat...

Vendor of the Week: Jack Makovsky

by JP Gritton | March 17th, 2009

Around the time the czar's armies were falling en masse to German machine guns, Jack Makovsky's grandfather was taking the first steps toward America. Makovsky's grandfather, a conscript in the Russian army, had escaped from the czar's doomed ranks and...

NAFTA made things worse on both sides of border, Mexican dignitary told.

by JP Gritton | March 17th, 2009

Last Thurs., Feb. 21, a crowd of chanting Seattle University students gathered outside the Shaffer Auditorium of their campus library, protesting the visit of the Trade Commission of Mexico's Sergio Rios. As the Northwest's Mexican trade commissioner, Rios...