Seattle Times

Striking workers at the Seattle Times rejected the newspaper's latest contract offer, saying they weren't willing to accept layoffs that could last as long as a year. The vote, coming in the sixth week of the strike, was 348 to 87, according to the Pacific Northwest Newspaper Guild. Union leaders had recommended that their members reject the offer. Employees at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, who also went on strike Nov. 21, voted Thursday to accept their paper's contract proposal.

SEATTLE -- For the city of Seattle, Amazon.com has long been the 500-pound gorilla. But it isn't on fine display at the zoo, where the city can preen and show off the $48-billion-a-year company to visitors. Rather, the company is more like King Kong in the jungle, a powerful, largely invisible and vaguely threatening presence. Started in 1994 in the Seattle suburbs, the online retailer is one of the city's biggest downtown tenants, spread across a dozen buildings in the city's up-and-coming South Lake Union neighborhood.

As this city's newspaper strike entered its second day Wednesday, a major news organization said it had offered to buy all of the Seattle Times that it does not already own, saying it was poorly run. Frustrated with subpar profits at the Times, Knight-Ridder Inc., which owns a 49.5% stake in the paper, has offered repeatedly to buy the founding Blethen family's 50.5% controlling stake, Knight-Ridder spokesman Polk Laffoon said.

Max Browne, a highly regarded high school quarterback from Washington, announced Wednesday that he would attend USC, according to the Seattle Times. Browne, a 6-foot-5, 210-pound junior, reportedly chose the Trojans over Oklahoma, Washington and Alabama. Browne passed for 45 touchdowns last season at Skyline High in Sammamish, Wash. "As more and more offers came in, I was able to evaluate schools, talk to a bunch of coaches and meet some great ones but, at this point, I've seen enough," Browne told the Seattle Times.

Four years ago, editors at the Seattle Times were instituting a "pay-for-performance" salary system when they discovered what they thought was a troubling disparity--many minority staffers generally appeared to be paid less than their white colleagues. Most editors--most executives in any business--would probably have concealed that data or, perhaps, tried to quietly correct the situation.

Max Browne, a highly regarded high school quarterback from Washington, announced Wednesday that he would attend USC, according to the Seattle Times. Browne, a 6-foot-5, 210-pound junior, reportedly chose the Trojans over Oklahoma, Washington and Alabama. Browne passed for 45 touchdowns last season at Skyline High in Sammamish, Wash. "As more and more offers came in, I was able to evaluate schools, talk to a bunch of coaches and meet some great ones but, at this point, I've seen enough," Browne told the Seattle Times.

Many people who encounter Mikael Moore, the chief of staff for Rep. Maxine Waters, see a typical Capitol Hill aide: a young, serious, BlackBerry-toting workaholic in a business suit with an intense belief in the importance of his work. If they know he is also Waters' grandson, making him a rarity in Congress, it is not because he talks about it much, if at all. Colleagues say Moore rarely offers information about his family connection, and that they have instead come to know him as a talented, politically gifted peer who has brought order to a sometimes tangled office and quickly grasped the intricacies of Washington.

Sam Schulman, the original owner of the Seattle SuperSonics, the basketball team that in 1979 gave the city its only world championship, has died. He was 93. Schulman, who won a landmark legal battle that ended the National Basketball Assn.'s policy on drafting players only after their four-year college eligibility expired, died Thursday at his home in Century City of complications from a blood disease.

Frank A. Blethen, son of a former president of the Seattle Times, will become president and chief operating officer of the paper March 1, succeeding W. J. Pennington, president and publisher.

Sifting through the tens of thousands of words that have been spoken and written about Brian Mullan over the past week or so, two conclusions are inescapable. The first is that Mullan is not the devil that he is being made out to be. The second is that he should retire right now from Major League Soccer. Had he done so 10 days ago, he would have been remembered as an aggressive, ball-winning midfielder who won five MLS titles, one with the Galaxy, one the San Jose Earthquakes, two with the Houston Dynamo and a fifth last season with the Colorado Rapids.

SEATTLE — It's no wonder that stores post-recession are working harder to keep themselves at the forefront of shoppers' minds. Gone are the days of easy credit and soaring home values. Today's price-minded shoppers aim to spend within their means, and they scour the Web for deals. So if you're Walt Disney Co., and you want to increase the amount of time and money spent inside your stores, you sell the same popular merchandise as before but try to make it an experience. Take, for example, Disney's new store in Seattle.

Sifting through the tens of thousands of words that have been spoken and written about Brian Mullan over the past week or so, two conclusions are inescapable. The first is that Mullan is not the devil that he is being made out to be. The second is that he should retire right now from Major League Soccer. Had he done so 10 days ago, he would have been remembered as an aggressive, ball-winning midfielder who won five MLS titles, one with the Galaxy, one the San Jose Earthquakes, two with the Houston Dynamo and a fifth last season with the Colorado Rapids.

Galaxy tonight at Seattle When: 6:30. Where: Qwest Field. On the air: TV: ESPN, ESPN Deportes. Records: MLS season opener. Record vs. Sounders (2010): 4-0. Update: The Galaxy swept the regular-season and playoff series against the Sounders in 2010, outscoring Seattle, 10-2. Los Angeles goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts was shaken up in a preseason friendly against Tijuana, and backup Josh Saunders might start in his place.

SECOND ROUND: SEATTLE AT CHICAGO SUNDAY, 10 A.M. PST, CHANNEL 11 The Seattle Seahawks set their goal of winning the NFC West, and then Ã?Â?Ã?Â? and then Ã?Â?Ã?Â? "We never talked about what was beyond that but we all know that there's just great stuff beyond that," quarterback Matt Hasselbeck told reporters this week. "So here we are and to have a second-round playoff opportunity is really exciting, and that's what we care about right now. " The Seahawks aren't likely to say so, but even they have to be surprised about the way things have unfolded.

Seattle Mariners General Manager Jack Zduriencik appears to be in hot water — and for reasons that have little to with a promising season gone horribly wrong. Zduriencik is in trouble over apparent misstatements he made to team President Chuck Armstrong regarding minor league pitcher Josh Lueke , the key player the Mariners received in the July trade that sent Cliff Lee to Texas. Earlier this month the Seattle Times quoted ousted Mariners pitching coach Rick Adair , a former minor league instructor with the Rangers, as saying that he had made Zduriencik aware before the trade that Lueke had off-field problems, including a 2008 sexual assault case in which Lueke, according to court documents, repeatedly lied to police.

Many people who encounter Mikael Moore, the chief of staff for Rep. Maxine Waters, see a typical Capitol Hill aide: a young, serious, BlackBerry-toting workaholic in a business suit with an intense belief in the importance of his work. If they know he is also Waters' grandson, making him a rarity in Congress, it is not because he talks about it much, if at all. Colleagues say Moore rarely offers information about his family connection, and that they have instead come to know him as a talented, politically gifted peer who has brought order to a sometimes tangled office and quickly grasped the intricacies of Washington.

SEATTLE -- For the city of Seattle, Amazon.com has long been the 500-pound gorilla. But it isn't on fine display at the zoo, where the city can preen and show off the $48-billion-a-year company to visitors. Rather, the company is more like King Kong in the jungle, a powerful, largely invisible and vaguely threatening presence. Started in 1994 in the Seattle suburbs, the online retailer is one of the city's biggest downtown tenants, spread across a dozen buildings in the city's up-and-coming South Lake Union neighborhood.

The winners PUBLIC SERVICE The Bristol (Va.) Herald Courier BREAKING NEWS REPORTING The Seattle Times staff INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING Barbara Laker and Wendy Ruderman of the Philadelphia Daily News, and Sheri Fink of ProPublica, in collaboration with the New York Times Magazine EXPLANATORY REPORTING Michael Moss and members of the New York Times staff LOCAL REPORTING Raquel Rutledge of the Milwaukee...

And now a word from my colleagues. To piece together my mock draft version 2.0, I simulated an actual draft by calling, in order, newspaper writers who cover the first-round teams on a daily basis. There were some surprising results. Among them, center Maurkice Pouncey went earlier than I expected, USC's Taylor Mays and Everson Griffen fell out of the first round, and Dez Bryant was the only receiver chosen. Scribes, you are on the clock: 1. St. Louis — QB Sam Bradford, Oklahoma: (pick by Jim Thomas, St. Louis Post-Dispatch)