One Shai Sachs has written several pieces on MyDD.com pondering what a progressive cable-TV channel might look like, and how it might be funded.

It’s an intriguing idea, pregnant with possibilities.

Let’s imagine one now.

Not just a little volunteer show on an access channel, but a whole 24/7 venture with a professional staff and everything.

There’s no shortage of potential material to fill such a channel. There are plenty of writers, pundits, and documentary filmmakers available to be tapped. There are plenty of national and international stories that could provide compelling viewing/listening, but are mostly or wholly ignored in today’s mainstream media.

ProgTV could also have arts/culture/entertainment segments, emphasizing “our” priorities in those realms (indie films, non-double-platinum musicians, live theater, literature, etc.)

There could be oral-history interviews, viewer-submitted video shorts (a la Current TV), unedited speeches (a la C-SPAN), funny fake news (a la Jon Stewart), funny real news (a la Keith Olbermann), historical docs, educational shows for all age groups, etc. etc. etc.

Ms. Sachs warns, rightly in my opinion, that any ProgTV shouldn’t try to replicate PBS, or adhere to outmoded institutional “objective journalism.” That, she says, is what got the “liberal” media so suckered into becoming BushCo’s mouthpieces in 2002-03.

I may have more ideas about this later on.

…a new month, and largely the same ol’ nooze:

• Ron Paul, in town for two quick speeches, brought forth some more of his right-fringe, anti-gov’t. talk. Then he and his aides drove off in a minivan to Spokane, presumably hoping the WSDOT crews had gotten the passes reopened.
• Microsoft offers a whoppin’ $45 billion in an unsolicited bid to take over Yahoo! (which, in turn, owns Flickr, HotJobs, GeoCities, and a bunch of other stuff).Of course, I remember when its name was a “backronym” for “Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle,” and its chief service was a categorized directory of other Web sites. For a couple of years, my daily morning routine included a quick glance through the “What’s New On Yahoo!” page, which told me everything that was new n’ exciting on that rapidly-growin’ World Wide Web. In time, as you can imagine, that became a too-cumbersome way to look for stuff online. Yahoo! expanded into other Web-based businesses—a lot of other Web-based businesses.

  Now, MS wants Y!’s search sites, and will pay big bucks to get ’em. What would happen to the rest of Yahoo!’s sprawling network of sites? MS would likely keep (and rebrand) some, fold others into its existing MSN, and close or sell the rest.

• The former Harvey’s Tavern in “Freelard” (Leary Way, between Fremont and Ballard) is yet another ex-dive bar going upscale.
• Remember when Kroger/QFC wanted to take over the Metropolitan Market site on Upper Queen Anne (nee Queen Anne Thriftway), as part of a huge condo project? Now it’ll be a smaller apartment project, and the developers have invited Metropolitan Market back when it’s done.
• Joe Isuzu calls it quits, at least in the U.S. market. No more “millions of standard features.”
• Mayor Nickels hearts Obama.
• A former Bartell Drugs pharmacy technician pleaded guilty to filing fraudulant prescriptions on his own behalf.
• New border rules bring no big delays, at least in terms getting south from There to Here.
• Freak accident of the day: A truck, being towed by a crane, gets loose, rolls downhill, and runs into two bicyclists.
• Sound Transit might suspend plans to extend its still-under-construction light rail line all the way to Tacoma. Don’t stop now! Channel your inner Little Engine That Could!

• The Philadelphia Cheese Steak stand at 23rd and Union, formerly Philly’s Best, is the best of its type in town. It’s had two owners over the years. Both are now homicide victims.
• A consultant from out-of-state refers to Seattle’s schools “a tale of two districts,” of the haves and the have-nots. Essentially, education for the downscale has floundered, while administrators have spent the bulk of their attention trying to keep upscale families from fleeing to private schools or the burbs.
• Port of Seattle officials promise to be more transparent in their operations in the future. Of course, that could mean the bribes and the kickbacks and the sweetheart deals could just become more overt.
• Developers want to stick up a high-rise hotel where the beautiful, if age-showing, 81-year-old Seattle Greyhound bus station is now. Damn! I love that place. It’s got so many stories within it of people parting, reuniting, etc. etc.
• There’s a computer store somewhere with a window sign proudly offering, “We Remove Vista.”
• Amazon buys Audible. Say that five times fast.

The only real liberal on local commercial talk radio, David Goldstein, has been axed from his weekend-night shift on KIRO-AM. The station, which recently came under new/old management, has decided to fill more of its lower-rated hours with repeats and syndicated fare.

(If you don’t remember Mike Gravel): John Edwards, the most consistently progressive of the top-tier Dem candidates this season, is ending his campaign and voting himself off the island. Just as I was gonna endorse him. Oh well…

…Rudy Giuliani to kick around anymore. In other nooze:

• It’s a June trial date for the case of Seattle v. Sonics. That way there won’t be any distractions in the way like, say, playoffs…
• The state will stop the hideous practice of shipping inmates to out-of-state private prisons, far from families and appeal attorneys.
• When an independent entrepreneur deliberately bilks folks who pay into doomed investment schemes, he’s called a criminal. When, oh let’s say, banks and mortgage companies do it…
• “29 reforms.” Remember this number. It’s the number of changes a task force sez the city needs to make to bring more accountability to the Seattle Police.
• For now, Costco won’t get to buy beer and wine direct from their makers. A court said the chain has to still buy thru wholesalers in this state.
• Patty Murray hearts Hillary Clinton.
• Did you know Panasonic made TV sets in Vancouver USA? (Emphasis on the past tense.)

…we remain snowless yet another day (and for the whole season?).

In other nooze:

• The city’s program of forcibly clearing homeless camps is inhumane, according to community advocates who spoke at a public hearing.
• The bureaucratic process of investigating the Seattle Police Dept.’s internal investigations might have conclusions soon.
• Rumors say Boeing just might shift some 787 assembly to San Antonio.
• And that Bush guy apparently said something Monday night, but nobody seems to remember what it was.

…endorsed Obama as the Democratic candidate of choice in the Washington caucus/primary combo. As David Goldstein sez, it’d be more impressive if they didn’t endorse a Republican.

…anxiously awaits the long-threatened but still nonexistent Snowstorm ’08, here’s what else has been going on:

• That plan to restore the boarded-up, aluminum-clad windows at the King County Courthouse? Not gonna happen.
• That plan to channel state money for a Husky Stadium remodel? Not dead yet.
• Seattle’s finally getting a new strip club; sure enough, it’s situated right alongside the unofficially-named South Lake Union Trolley.
• The many human services groups based at First United Methodist Church are packin’ up and movin’ out. The last church service at the classic sanctuary: Easter, 3/23. That building’s being saved for commercial use, but the ’50s-era annex building’s going away.
• There’s good news for music lovers: Capitol Music, the city’s top vendor of orchestral instruments and sheet music for more than 90 years, has reopened in Roosevelt, a year after development consumed its last downtown location.
• Caucus or primary? Wash. state’s got both.

…if any of you find these morning headline thangs useful. I find them useful, at least. So without further ado:

• There’ll be another Sound Transit referendum. We just don’t know when or for how much.
• But there won’t be legislation to provide state funding for a Husky Stadium rebuild.
• There’s a heartwarming human interest story about several local radio vets and legends who’ve put together an online radio station with the aid of Seattle Community Colleges, streaming the sounds of Seattle airwaves’ past.
• More Port of Seattle shenanigans were recently unearthed, including a sweetheart deal to cover up cost overruns on the Sea-Tac third runway.
• Seattle’s homeless population is up 15 percent from the last “one night count.”

…before WashState’s Presidential caucuses, but Tim Egan’s already got one Seattleite’s perspective on the election: How does Obama sell himself as an Historic Moment in American History without mentioning race?

AS A HYPER-HUSTLING SOCIETY pressures folk to be smiling and assertive 24/7, one Eric G. Wilson dares to praise good old-fashioned melancholy.

…GOP presidential frontrunners as of this morning, and none of them are Fred Thompson. In other news:

• Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner may face still more delays. How smart does globally-outsourced component construction sound now?
• Raw milk— its proponents claim it’s really good for you. Except when it isn’t.
• An appeals court ordered the Belltown-based Mars Hill Graduate School (not connected with Mars Hill Church) to pay $300,000 to its first female faculty member, in a long-standing discrimination suit.
• REI’s building an eco-friendly store in Texas. Now the weekend warriors who drive 75 miles or more to their wide-open spaces can feel a little less guilty.
• A state legislator would like to ban plastic grocery bags. Yeah, but then how will our children learn the pleasures of self-asphyxiation?
• There was a cable TV outage in Kent Tuesday, due to pranksters shooting at utility lines.
• Richard McIver’s charges were dropped, one day before his domestic-abuse trial was to have started.
• Tully’s Coffee underwent another executive purge. Make your own “grounds for concern” joke here.

• Marshall Alternative School will finally close this year, its remaining programs scattered around the city.
• A Tukwila hotel manager turned himself in to face accusations that he stole $1.4 million from hotel guests’ corporate accounts.
• Gregoire’s next big idea for the 520 corridor: A mediation team.
• Makah tribal leaders want to go whaling again.
• How to keep school bus riders pacified: Use satellite music, specially curated to be squeaky clean.
• And the Mac universe impatiently awaits whatever Steve Jobs is going to announce this morning.

…in which we can tell you of the following recent events:

• With all the talk about the new Legislative session being all about “safety and security,” and fiscal restraint, you’d think we didn’t have a bunch of Democrats running the joint.
• First came the highly publicized, potentially legally shady sting operation at Seattle nightclubs. Now, the bar employees charged as a result of the sting claim the city’s trying to throw the proverbial book at ’em, for no good reason.
• Different cops are being assigned to different patrol districts these days. In other public-safety news, the city promises to finally do something about the infamous Pine Street “zigzag,” in which pedestrians heading downtown have to cross Pine twice, due to only-one-side sidewalks that suddenly switch sides.
• You can now become a registered voter online.
• Tacoma’s Point Defiance Zoo claims it now has a safer tiger enclosure. You can test it if you want to; I think I have to wash my hair today.
• An Eastern Washington couple has been accused of running an Internet diploma mill, selling some 6,000 bogus degrees.
• Only in Alaska: “Most of the 30 bald eagles who survived a disastrous dive into a truck full of fish guts are close to recovery.”

…to the 27 people who attended my li’l book event at the Form/Space Atelier gallery. If I’d known I’d have had a mike and a stage and a desk, I’d have scripted something.

IN SATURDAY’S NOOZE:

• Declared too damaged to be preserved, the City’s allowed developer David Sabey to demolish the Stock House at theold Georgetown brewery complex on Airport Way, the pre-Prohibition home of Rainier Beer.
• A marriage made in heck: Wife runs a street ministry to drug addicts in Tacoma, hubby sells crack in Seattle.
• Sonic Boom Records is leaving Fremont, in another instance of the arty and funky disappearing from neighborhoods that have been sold to home buyers on the basis of their artiness and funkiness.
• BankAmericrap is bailing out Countrywide Financial, onetime big blowers of the housing bubble.
• Wash. state challenges the Bushies on draconian anti-privacy regulations.
• The ferry system doesn’t know where to put all its out-of-commission boats.
• What? You mean to tell me old pier pilings are bad for the water?
• Pat Cashman has a 30-year-old son, who won some online joke-telling contest. In other passage-of-time news, Madonna will be eligible to join AARP this year.
• And in case you haven’t heard, the Seahawks play an extremely important playoff game this afternoon.