• What to do with the historic, shuttered Seattle INS building? How ’bout selling it at an online auction?
• Would a fence deter potential Aurora bridge suicides? And if so, why hasn’t it been proposed ’til now?
• Gov. Gregoire’s budget proposal would keep more than $1 billion stashed away in the state’s “rainy day fund.” Gee, didn’t we have a few really rainy days this past month?
• A double-hulled fuel barge ran aground near the central waterfront. No spills have been reported as of yet.
• Onetime gym-equipment king Nautilus Inc. is now losing wads of cash, and is the target of a takeover attempt. The company’s fate was to have been decided this week, but now won’t be.

…and occasional rock star Sean Nelson’s got a handy guide to the worst movie endings ever.

• As the Crocodile’s sudden closing gets its much-worthy big splash coverage, the Seattle City Council finally passed tougher new nightclub noise laws, for which the Belltown condo crowd had particularly lobbied. Any Croc buyer might have to put some dough into extra soundproofing.
• Gov. Gregoire and Legislative leaders are proposing a big affordable-housing push, packaged in with a bill for flood relief.
• Seattle to White Center: “Maybe I still like you after all.”
• Madrona Creek has been “daylighted” after a decade-long volunteer effort to get the stream out from underground pipes.
• Meanwhile, King County’s trying a different kind of answer to recurring floods—don’t fight ’em, at least in yet-to-be-developed areas.
• Those state ferries that got abruptly retired, after having been used years past their pull date? The state had been selling “depreciation rights” to the boats, one of those weird derivative investment schemes that have been going around lately. The state may have to pay off the investors, to the tune of $2.73 million.
• Some Beacon Hill kids apparently think it’s fun to set elaborate traps in the road, with hidden spikes that cause instant flat tires.
• The Olympia Oyster House: It’s not a drive-thru restaurant. Someone apparently didn’t know this.

…to purchase a freshly autographed copy of Seattle’s Belltown or Vanishing Seattle will occur this Friday solstice evening, 6:30-8:30 p.m., in the exotic Wallingford district at Not A Number Cards and Gifts. Can you say “last minute gift ideas for the impossible-to-please”? I knew you could.

…this totally fictional (for now) ad would show up. (I found it at Seattlest; it’s been poppin’ up all over the local blog-O-sphere.)

As far as reality, there’s little more to report Croc-wise. The joint’s still closed. Stephanie Dorgan, its owner these past 16 years, isn’t talking to the media. At least one potential new ownership group has apparently shown up, but a lot of behind-the-scenes haggling would need to be done. Shows had been booked at the Croc into January (some touring gigs had been booked into next April); new venues or cancellations will be announced one show at a time.

I’m trying to figure what to say about the beloved, loud, crowded Croc, it of the tasty bar grub and the long lines, the way past-their-pull-date ceiling hangings and the exterior windows still (partly) commemorating the place’s 10th anniversary in 2001. The opening party for Loser took place there in 1995; I took care to place hand-scrawled signs at the door, warning that it wasn’t a secret Pearl Jam show.

I fell in love several times in that building, and out of love at least once. Darn, I hope someone figures out how to revive the place.

• Seattle to White Center: “Maybe I don’t want to hook up with you after all.”
• All those new jobs that were gonna result from Wash. state giving Boeing huge tax breaks? Not so much.
• I’ve only eaten at five of the Public Health Dept.’s 10 most-cited local restaurants.
• A new home for Opus: Woodland Park Zoo’s thinking of building a big new penguin habitat.
• You know those inflatable indoor playground thingies? Two adult males fell out of one, landed on a three-year-old, and accidentally crushed the lad’s skull.
• More nasty rumors about the Crocodile Cafe: Could they be closing up for good?

…in today’s SeaTimes for Dr. Vernon Skeels, who passed on last month at age 89. I’ve had the privilege of knowing Skeels and his family since 1982. He was one of the genuine ones, a gentle soul with a bright wit and a manner of quiet elegance. He’ll be missed.

• Clearcuts, landslides. Could there possibly be a cause-n’-effect thang goin’ on?
• The Church of Mary Magdalene, a vital ministry to downtown’s homeless women, needs a short-term home.
• Did a Boeing subsidiary operate charter flights to CIA secret prisons/torture chambers? That’s what an ex-employee alleges.

Tacoma’s own Ventures, kings of instro surf-pop lo all these years, have got their totally deserved berth in the Rock n’ Roll Hall O’ Fame.

• Also from T-Town, somebody wants to replace part of the historic ex-Heidelberg brewery with a hotel. Yep, preservationists don’t like the idea.
• Columbia Winery will move its winemaking and bottling operation from Woodinville to eastern Washington. Its retail and “hospitality” operations, which employ more people than its wine production does, will stay on this side of the mountains.
• And the old Olympia brewery might be “sold on the courthouse steps” if a bankruptcy trustee, representing the bottled-water venture that tried to buy it, can’t negotiate a sale.
• In allegedly healthier drinkies, a big Colorado agribiz operation has been selling “organic” milk in several states. Health-food advocates call foul, claiming the big agribiz operation’s breaking or bending the rules on what can be called organic.
• Mayor Nickels’s son Jacob was sentenced for his role in a casino scam operation. Insert your own “Nickels slots” joke here.
• As you might have already heard, twelve ex-Mariners are on the Mitchell Report list of baseballers who’ve allegedly used or trafficked in steroids. Meanwhile, P-I columnist Art Thiel compares the whole scandal to “a look through the keyhole at a ballroom full of elderly, naked dancers. Something exotic is going on, but exactly what isn’t clear, and few are in any trouble aside from embarrassment. At least the line for the keyhole is short.”
• A GOP state legislator from the Eastside decides he’d rather be a Democrat.
• Another urban church is thinking of selling its historic building. University Baptist, a local leader in diversity and social-justice causes for more than two decades, hasn’t decided what to do yet, but has decided to offer up the building and see what offers show up.
• Gov. Gregoire’s latest plan to end the worn-out-ferry-boat crisis: Build three new boats ASAP (insert newsreel footage of the Kaiser shipyards in WWII here), lease one boat from Pierce County immediately, and run special foot boats from Seattle to Pt. Townsend. (I’m holding a group excursion on one of these boats in the next week or two; keep watching this space for details.)
• Sound Transit showed off its plans for an elaborate University transit station. In keeping with the current UW pecking order, the light-rail stop would be close to the football stadium and the medical center, farther from the upper-campus liberal arts buildings.

• To the surprise of absolutely nobody, Paul Allen and Amazon will get to build 160-foot-tall office buildings in South Lake Union.
• Can the Sonics be saved? Some say yes! Among them: MS head honcho Steve Ballmer. There’s a lot more dealmaking and haggling to go, though.
• What should be done with the ex-Public Safety Building block downtown, which has been a big hole in the ground for more than two years now? Some city officials (read: Mayor Nickels) would like a “civic square” project. This turns out to be, as you might have guessed, a privately-developed office/condo tower with a bit of a bricked public plaza at the base.
• Pike Place Market officials want to raise $80 million, presumably from public sources. They claim the money’s needed for essential infrastructure improvements, some of which weren’t done when the Market was “saved” in the ’70s.
• How to save Pt. Townsend’s tourist biz: How ’bout a passenger ferry direct from downtown Seattle?
• The SLUT’s first day of passenger service was interrupted for half an hour when somebody found a stray ball bearing in the track.
• Meanwhile, Lake Union businesses are already helping pay for the next phase of transportation improvements–additional bus runs on two existing Metro routes.

• It’s your first day to ride the SLUT, though city fathers hope it won’t be your last.
• Corporate consolidation hits the “alt” music world, as LA-based megapromoters have bought the Showbox and Showbox Sodo nightclubs. Ex-Showbox owner Jeff Steichen will still run the clubs for AEG Live/Anschutz Entertainment Group. That company’s owned by Philip Anschutz, the Denver financier and promoter of various right-wing social and political causes. Outfits he owns, in whole or in big pieces, include Qwest, Regal Cinemas, a string of free daily tabloids in DC, SF, and Baltimore, and the film company that made The Chronicles of Narnia and Atlas Shrugged. Organizations he’s supported include Seattle’s own Darwin-deniers at the Discovery Institute, as well as the astroturf lobby that’s been generating almost every “indecency” complaint sent to the FCC. It’d generally be safe to say he’s not the kind of chap indie-rock folks might want to give money to.
• Someone who’s likely one of Anschutz’s least fave politicians, Sen. Obama, made a quick campaign stop at the Showbox Sodo Tuesday.
• If you thought Rainstorm 2007 was dreadful, which it was, just be glad it didn’t wash away part of 405.
• My old hometown has become a leading source of weird crime stories lately. The latest: A father charged with drugging his own baby.
• Seattle’s rep as Eco-City USA? T’weren’t always thus.
• Should the City condemn land owned by the the Central Area Motivation Program and replace its food-bank building with a fire station? As you might guess, many say no.

Anita Rowland, one of the first Seattlites to call herself a “blogger” and a fixture in local sci-fi fandom, passed away on Monday after a long bout with cancer. She leaves a husband and many dear friends.

Back when “Meetups” were the latest WWW-world novelty, Rowland helped start the Seattle Webloggers’ Meetup. Even after the meetup fad passed its peak, Rowland continued to run two monthly gatherings (one in Seattle, one in Bellevue), where folks new to the online self-expression game could learn a thing or two from those of us who’d been at it a while.

Rowland was always gracious and giving of her time and wisdom; even as cancer and chemo took their toll. She’ll be missed by many. Her guidance directly touched the lives of many people in this area, and indirectly helped dozens of online writers and hundreds of online readers. She’ll be missed.

The Moore Theatre threw a delightfully casual centennial party Monday evening. It was a textbook lesson in how to mount a fun, populist gala. It hewed to the spirit of the Moore’s original purpose as a vaudeville palace.

The above view is from the now seldom-used top balcony. Originally, this was the only part where black patrons could sit; it was accessed from a separate side entrance.

Theater personnel gave informal tours of backstage areas. Buskers performed outside and throughout the lobbies. Free drinkies and snackies abounded. Original posters and playbills hung everywhere.

Civilians were invited to consume wine and popcorn on stage, while one act after another appeared: Operetta, tap dancing, trapeze, burlesque, modern dance, standup comedy, folk music, soul music.

The night started with an old-time theater organist. It closed with a pick-up rock band, including guitarist Kurt Bloch and singer Kim Virant.

Would that all theatrical parties were this much fun. (Hint hint, Seattle Repertory Organization.)

• In the absence of even an unorganized “save the Fun Forest” campaign, the beloved old fashioned amusement park in Seattle Center will close in 2009.
• Washington Mutual Bank, whose national fortunes have risen and fell with the housing bubble, is laying off over 3,000 workers.
• Some 380 gallons of diesel fuel spilled from a factory-trawler boat at the Port of Tacoma.
• The current ETA on fully restoring car-ferry service to Pt. Townsend? Perhaps a year.
• Barack Obama’s coming to Seattle tonight (Tuesday). The campaign event, at the Showbox Sodo (formerly Premiere, formerly Fenix) costs $100.
• UW athletic director Scott Turner is this year’s sacrificial lamb for football mediocrity.

• The British Columbia pig farmer who’s been charged in Canada’s worst-ever serial killing case has been found guilty in six cases of slain Vancouver prostitutes. He still faces charges in some 20 other deaths.
• More folks are pondering whether logging and suburban sprawl played a part in letting last week’s floods get as bad as they got.
• FEMA’s coming to flood-ridden southwest Washington. Is this a good thing?
• In the yeah-duh dept., those 80-year-old ferry boats turn out to be in really bad shape.
• A Westport man who’d been cast as the killer in a local dinner-theater mystery play may have committed the real thing.