A report just released by Office of Professional Accountability Auditor Kate Pflaumer appears to have cleared the Seattle Police Department of allegations from civil rights groups and attorneys that officers have used obstruction charges to cover for improper or violent arrests. Pflaumer, who compiled the report at the request of Mayor Greg Nickels, examined "obstruction only" arrests between January 2006 and July 2008 and found "no pattern of abuse" in how officers use obstruction charges. According to ...

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In this week's paper, Jonah Spangenthal-Lee takes a hard look at the "epidemic" of violence in Southeast Seattle... In the last month alone, there have been at least half a dozen shootings, many of them attributed to rising tensions between rival gangs. As Mayor Greg Nickels trots out his Youth Violence Prevention Initiative—a $9 million program designed to keep kids out of gangs and reduce violence in South and Central Seattle—South Seattle residents like Rachel ...

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