Wall Street Journal reporters Matthew Karnitschnig and Robert A. Guth today report that Microsoft is still in pursuit of Yahoo — Yahoo's search business, anyway — and is trying to team up with another media company, perhaps Times Warner or News Corp., to do a deal. Any day now we expect Microsoft to approach Crosscut, so anxious seem the Redmondians to get a piece of Yahoo. But today's WSJ story is much more than a few paragraphs about another twist in CEO Steve Ballmer's obsession. It's the backstory, an exclusive account, something which the paper typically prints the day a deal is announced. Maybe the editors got tired of waiting for closure. Aw, screw it, let's just run it now.

Democratic congressional candidate Darcy Burner's home was "severely damaged" by a fire this morning. Horse's Ass has the coverage, while NorthWest Cable News has the video. ...

Tri-City Herald reporter Chris Mulick digs deep into Washington state's bungled attempt to land a $2 billion uranium enrichment plant, along with its 400 high-paying jobs. According to Mulick, Gov. Chris Gregoire chose not to pursue bidding for the plant, deciding instead to play it cool politically. As a result, Idaho got the plant. Washington lost the money. And Dino Rossi just got more ammo for his campaign. Still, Gregoire's got a sizable lead in the polls, at the moment. ...

King County Council member Larry Phillips is starting to get organized to challenge fellow Democrat Ron Sims for County Executive in 2009, according to this account in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Ordinarily a Democrat wouldn't have much chance of toppling a still-popular Democratic incumbent, but our new election laws are changing the odds.

With sunny, hot weather now and the coldest spring in memory starting to fade into the past, local media ramped up its predictable gloom-and-doom coverage of sunshine. The Saturday, June 28, edition of The Seattle Times carried a classic of the genre: "Sun isn't always good news," blared the headline previewing the first warm weekend of summer.

On a cloudy Sunday in early June, I spent the morning with poetry bookshop proprietors Christine Deavel and John Marshall. The results of our conversation were an article on the poetry bookselling biz for Crosscut and a Q&A for Poets & Writers about Marshall's first book, a poetry collection published by Oberlin College Press called Meaning a Cloud. The middle section of his book is called "Where Else," which takes on the subject of Seattle directly, for example:

Gov. Chris Gregoire unleashes her latest "hit" campaign on GOP challenger Dino Rossi today, primarily attacking Rossi's state Senate record. Now, of all outlets that would come to the defense of a Republican, the first place not to look would be a local left-leaning blog like Horse's Ass. But after yesterday's political circus surrounding Gregoire's previous ad, backhandedly comparing Rossi to TV mob boss Tony Soprano, Horse's Ass blogger David Goldstein rushes to Rossi's defense. ...

It's too soon to tell if gun enthusiasts will henceforth consider June 26 "Possess a Pistol Day," but here's the immediate reactions to the Supreme Court ruling rejecting the D.C. gun ban, from both sides of the aisle: Goldstein, Earling, Obama, McCain. ...

Now that the Ballard Manning's/Denny's has been thoroughly demolished ‐ I took a look at the site last evening and believe me, the landmark structure is hamburger — owner Benaroya will be ending its legal action against the city's Landmarks Board.