• Congress passes BushCo’s economic stimulus. O, wouldst that we had an economy that didn’t so desperately require incessant stimulation. And yes, some commentators have already used the dirty-joke possibilities inherent within that.
• Are biofuels actually worse, emissions-wise, than petroleum products?
• On the other hand, it is possible to run an entire fringe theater production on human energy, including the lights.
• Some dude from the Natl. Assoc. of Realtors claims Seattle area housing prices may be “too low.”
• Sen. Clinton in Seattle: “…If we get our focus right in America there is no stopping us.”
• Sen. Obama in Seattle: Later today. (He’s just been endorsed by Gov. Gregoire.)
• Sen. McCain in Seattle: That’ll be $2,300 to get in.
• Gov. Gregoire: Our economy’s still fab.
• Gangs are setting up shop in the exurbs, AKA meth-lab country. Included in the linked story: “An all-white chapter of the Black Gangster Disciples is working the Bothell area.”
• Another day, another ferry out of service.
• A load of newly minted Canadian quarters got spilled in a truck accident. These days, that’s real money.

…in Saudi Arabia arrested an American woman for sitting with a man at a Starbucks. (One of the news items about the incident included a pic of the chain’s Arab-world logo, in which the mascot mermaid is completely missing.)

NOW WE KNOW why David Letterman rattled off so many Mitt Romney jokes this past week—he wasn’t gonna get to tell ’em much longer.

…mighty blustery day, here’s what’s nooze:

• Obama, Clinton, and one of them Republicans: They’re all coming to town to cajole caucus goers.
• Local house prices somehow held their own.
• Boeing’s 787 flies in June—this time they’re sure.
• There’s one less indie dairy operation in Western Washington. Wilcox Farms plans to leave the biz.
• Delta and Northwest sitting in a tree…
• The all mail-in ballot? Not yet, in King County.
• Beyond every formerly-new computer, TV, and cell phone lies the wonderful world of potentially toxic e-waste.

…are being axed at the Seattle offices of the store formerly known as The Bon Marche, as the Cincinnati parent co. decides the answer to a failed consolidation strategy is even more consolidation.

…is over, and the party races are just as muddled as before. In other nooze:

• Seattle transportation planners have a desire named streetcar.
• We say goodbye today to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, TM founder, mantra seller, and guru to everyone from John Lennon to David Lynch; to Barry Morse, costar of the original The Fugitive and Space: 1999; and to Dr. Ernesto Illy, purveyor of canned espresso beans and a promoter of better coffee back when Howard Schultz was still playing college football.
• Starting this June: Nonstop flights from Sea-Tac to Beijing.
• Wall St. goes kablooey, recession’s probably already here.
• Meanwhile, the housing slump’s shut down 18 sawmills in the state.
• Issaquah bans panhandling, car washes, not cookie sales.
• Guy pretends to be a member of rock vets Queensryche, as part of a plan to steal people’s IDs.
• “Boy hit in the face with water bottle thrown from car.”
• A judge rules against BushCo, says the Navy still has to protect orcas from sonar.
• One more reason to visit my ol’ hometown: A museum full of vintage telephone gear.
• Tornados in the South kill at least 48. Could climate change be one reason for the storms’ severity?

…publicly endorsed any candidates in Election Ought-Eight. (I’d briefly, privately, been an Edwards guy.) But here’s a local, unofficial pro-Obama music video shot at the Columbia City Theater, with gospel singer Pat Wright and Pearl Jam member Matt Cameron among its participants.

(My apologies if that word-wraps weirdly in your browser.) As we await the potential end of at least one party race, knowing we’ve got our own state caucuses this Saturday, here’s some other nooze:

• Bush’s budget has good news for Sound Transit, bad news for education and health care.
• The Legislature’s working on relief for tenants of condo-converted apartments, just as that trend seems to be reversing.
• Oregon had gay marriages, then it didn’t. Now it’s got “domestic partnerships.”
• Georgetown: Potential haven for live theater groups displaced by gentrification elsewhere.
• Tully’s Coffee, which has turned a profit in exactly one of its 16 years, might be for sale.

…that this Presidential campaign is indeed about the Sixties legacy—specifically, that aspect of said legacy whose epicenter was not Berkeley but Birmingham.

…know, there used to be a segment in this endeavor called “Junk Food of the Week/Month.” I phased that out two or three diets ago. But that doesn’t mean the food-tech geniuses have stopped devising new and wondrous things. Why, just this wek, the ol’ Blog-O-Sphere has caught on to the latest thing from a German hiker’s-supply company: A cheeseburger in a can! Just drop the unopened can in boiling water for a minute, take it out, open it up, and enjoy, sesame-seed bun and everything. (Apparently, it’s only sold in Europe at this time.)

…bidding for Yahoo! only “serves as a confirmation that Microsoft’s glory days are in the past.”

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.

…discover the shocking fact that skiers like snow in the mountains. In other nooze:

• The UW’s latest big fundraising campaign hit its goal five months early. No word whether they’ll just keep going to fund that new stadium remodel.
• Capitol Hill activists hope to prevent another spate of gay-bashing crimes this next summer.
• Driving in snowy mountain passes is tough. Attacking a snowplow driver sure doesn’t help.

…already got a list of five potential Microsoft/Yahoo! “enhancements:” “The new MyMicrosoft! offers features like real-time Web chat with Microsoft programmers who can explain how you’re using your computer wrong, and E-mail newsletters on how dumb the general public is. Unsubscribing costs just $9.95 per month.”

…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.