P... R... I...

My first time on Public Radio International. (Re: Gay softball.)

"I Would Like You to Know My Name"

Jennifer Hopper, the survivor of the South Park attacks, in her own words.

The Bravest Woman in Seattle

For herself, for the woman she loved, and for justice, the survivor of the South Park attacks tells a courtroom what happened that night. (Illustration by Aaron Bagley.)

Gay Ball

How some drama at the Seattle Gay Softball World Series became a federal case. (Illustration by James Yamasaki.)

The Hatchet

The scariest thing about the alleged Capitol Hill hatchet murderer is that a lot more people like him are going to be on the streets—without help—soon.

High Court Hypocrite

Washington State Supreme Court justice Richard B. Sanders describes himself as a defender of civil rights and civil liberties even though he’s anti-choice, was “not a fan” of Martin Luther King Jr., once showed up at a party in a Nazi uniform, and in 2006, signed an opinion denying marriage equality to gay couples—because they have “more sexual partners” and because other courts have found that monogamy is “the bedrock upon which our culture is built.” Meanwhile, he’s been divorced twice, and this election season it became clear he has multiple simultaneous girlfriends. He doesn’t see anything inconsistent in any of that.

Update: He's no longer a Washington State Supreme Court justice.

The Great West Coast Newspaper War

Seized delivery vans, murderous editors, irate blog posts, allegations of insanity, connections to the Church of Satan, illegal predatory-pricing schemes, and more than $21 million on the line—the crazy alt-weekly war in San Francisco has it all.

A Murder In South Park

Two Stranger features on a gruesome crime, the troubled man accused of committing it, and a scrappy neighborhood reeling from loss: While South Park Slept and The Mind of Kalebu.

The Inheritance Of Loss

NPR's On the Media looks at the Seattle media ecosystem now that the print edition of the Seattle Post Intelligencer is no more—and I say something about feathers in online caps.

Anatomy of a Netroots Failure

A piece about the blog-fueled campaign of Darcy Burner, in this month's American Prospect.

Too Beautiful to Live

It was a typical evening on Too Beautiful to Live, the Seattle radio show that has been happily predicting its own demise since it launched 11 months ago, and host Luke Burbank was getting ready to share a special bit of audio he'd come across online. People had been trying to suppress this audio file, forcing its deletion from websites that were hosting it, but as fast as it came down it would pop back up somewhere else, and now Burbank was going to play it for the world. "What it is, is a tape of George Brett, longtime Kansas City Royal third baseman, and he's... it's right before a baseball game, and he's mic'd up, they're going to interview him for some reason, you know, probably during the game, but they have the microphone turned on early, and he's telling a fellow player named Tony Peña, longtime catcher in the major leagues, a story about a time when, well, uh, he pooped his pants."

The rest...

Milk and the Idea of California

I'm a bit late in posting this, but Netflix's decision to finally—finally!—send me Rob Epstein's The Times of Harvey Milk remdinds: here's what I wrote for The American Prospect about Gus Van Sant's more recent cinematic take on the Mayor of Castro Street.

Rx for Election Anxiety Disorder

A work of public service health journalism.

How the West (And the Presidency?) Will Be Won

I have a piece in this month's American Prospect that takes a long look at demographic and political changes in the Mountain West—and what they mean for Democrats. You can read it here.

How the Party Parties

A week in Denver during the Democratic National Convention produces some odd experiences.

Some parties were just strange, and made one wonder whether the combination of perpetual boozing and Denver's high altitude was triggering some sort of psychic break. A friend of a friend reported: "It was right about the time that I was eating coconut-covered shrimp at the Denver Aquarium and watching a tiger lick up the words 'DNC 2008' written in whipped cream that I realized I had no idea what the convention was about." Why there was a tiger at the Denver Aquarium could not be answered by anyone I encountered.

Interview With a Vampire

Ten questions for Stephanie Meyer.

Who's Your Daddy?

I might be the last person in the world to review Barack Obama's Dreams from My Father and John McCain's Faith of My Fathers. But I think I'm probably the first person to review the books jointly, use the review as an opportunity to explore the candidates' father issues, and put it all under the headline Who's Your Daddy?

Moving On

My piece about finally becoming bored with the gay marriage movement, from this year's Stranger Queer Issue.

(Illustration by Justin DeGarmo)

Almost Infamous

In my new Stranger feature, I read my first autopsy report and look at the life and death of William F. Ball—the man who didn't kill Shannon Harps.

(Illustration by Maxwell Holyoke-Hirsch)

Dalai Lama to Journalists: "My Hope is That You're Also Part of Humanity"

I don't know if all of his press conferences are like this, but the early-morning media availability that the Dalai Lama held in Seattle on Sunday (I was there, randomly, as the invisible hand of AFP) ended up being quite a remarkable deviation from every other presser I've attended. The Dalai Lama opened with this:

Good morning, everybody. I have nothing to say.

He then spent about five minutes talking to the assembled journalists about the ways in which we might live more successful, happy lives—also unusual, but rather apropos given the state of our industry.

"Anger, hatred, jealousy, brings inner sense of insecurity," the Dalai Lama was saying.

I was thinking: Have you ever worked in a newsroom?

"Compassion open our heart..."

I thought: Good luck with this crowd.

He continued with his version of Journalistic Humanity 101:

In modern time, particularly in modern country, media people are very, very important. Now, in democratic country, people are the real democracy. Leadership very important—but ultimately people are the most important. Everything depend on the people.

Therefore, fuller knowledge of every event by the public is very essential. So media people have very, very important role to inform the people. For that reason, usually I make a habit of telling media people: You should have long nose, something like elephant nose, and smell everywhere—front, and side, and also behind. That’s I think very important.

For writing you should be objective and unbiased but then tell me, make clear, what’s going on—good thing or bad thing? I think that’s very important. So that the public knows: What’s going on? What’s the reality? Then the public can judge. I think that’s very important.

So my request and my hope is that you’re also part of humanity, the promotion of human values, and the promotion of harmony. I think, in these things, you also have responsibility. So, keep in your mind, that’s all.

I was stuck on his hope that media types might—just might!—also be part of humanity. I guess even the Dalai Lama wonders whether we have it in us to be human. Nice to know he's still holding out hope, though.

"Now," he said, "questions."