…the major record labels have been quietly pursuing their schemes to put Internet radio out of business via usurious royalty rates.

The file-sharing software maker’s launched a “legit” download portal. As I always say after these announcements, wake me when it’s Mac-compatible.

…will stay in Seattle at least one more season. But they still wanna go to the former Cirque du Soleil site in Renton as quickly as they can get the public to pay for it.

…of new-age philosophy evolves ever more passive-aggressive odes to hyper-happy obedience, a Rice U. researcher claims “grumpy workers” make the best employees.

David Goldstein informs me that not only do the Oklahomans want $300 million or more in subsidies for a new Sonics arena, they’d also like free land to put it on. That might cost one taxpaying jurisdiction or another $150 million or more.

Goldstein, and several other folks I’ve talked to, believe the Oklahomans have deliberately made an offer they know we’ll refuse, as a ploy toward quickly moving the team out of state.

I say we must, and can, get this nonsense over, keep the team here, and do so without draining the public coffers. More about this later.

If any of you have last Sunday’s final edition of the King County Journal (nee the Bellevue Journal-American), I’d love to see it.

Meanwhile, some of the usual anonymous speculators are guessing that David Black, who bought and closed the KCJ while keeping its printing plant and its community weeklies, might have done so as the first step toward buying and preserving the Seattle P-I. My take: Possible, I suppose…

…of indie espresso stands, drive-thru division, gets a little colder (this time of year, at least) as baristas don lingerie and retro-burlesque attire. This is apparently a suburban-only phenomenon, at least so far. I won’t pass judgment on them vis-a-vis “empowerment” issues. But I will note that (1) the gimmick goes back at least to the thonged hot-dog vendors of Miami (if not to the serving wenches of old English country inns), and (2) back in the ’90s, a porno mag created a fictional pictorial about nude baristas at a supposed Seattle “Big Cups Coffeehouse.”

…(besides the beautiful, beautiful snow, of course): “GE buys aerospace division of Smiths Group.” I needed a buyout, and then I got a buyout, and heaven knows I’m miserable now….

An Oregon State U. study shows that anti-smoking ads may actually encourage teens to smoke. As if that wasn’t the less-than-completely-hidden aim of the tobacco-company-sponsored “anti-tobacco” ads to begin with. You know: The ones that show smokers as gross-out outcasts (as in cool), and non-smokers as nice clean-cut jocks and cheerleaders (as in dweebs).

Some Georgia-Pacific workers thought their jobs were relatively safe after the company “went private,” in a deal that took it off of the stock market, and presumably disengaged it from the need to maintain a high stock price at the expense of everything else. Not so. The “privatized” G-P’s shedding thousands of jobs, and reaping “job development” tax breaks at the same time.

…that three years ago, the International Association of Machinists tried to buy Boeing Commercial Airplane and move the unit’s HQ back to Seattle. I can’t think of a better set of hens who could’ve run their own henhouse. Of course, someone among them would’ve had the unenviable task of choosing which others among them would get laid off…

…in its incessant search for trends to parse, has suddenly discovered “The Starbucks Aesthetic.” As you assuredly already know, it’s onr of comfort, reassurance, self-congratulation, and smug pseudo-hipness.

General Electric’s gonna slash 700 jobs at NBC and Universal Studios. More importantly, but buried in this linked story, is that NBC will drop all dramas and comedies from the 8-9 PM prime-time hour, presumably starting either next season or this next midseason, presumably filling the hour with more cheap “reality” shows.

…to almost nobody, Google’s buying the popular, unprofitable YouTube for $1.65 billion.

Question 1: How are they ever going to make money from it?

Question 2: Will YouTube’s in-house intellectual-property police now take even more aggressive steps to take down the music videos, TV clips, and old cartoons users have posted there?

Question 3, if they do, will anyone bother to use the site anymore?

…the “50 Most Powerful Women in Business” includes two celebrities but only one Seattleite.