I’m still New To Seattle, but I have to think this has been a hotter few months than normal. And I’m not talking about the weather, either.
Today’s Albuquerque Journal–published in one of the many cities that I used to call home–has a story about a county commissioner there photographed with scantily-clad ladies in a red-light district in the Philippines. The shooter was Seattle photographer John Keatley, who said he was documenting sexual exploitation. You can see some of the photos on Keatley’s blog. The county commissioner, Michael Wiener, says he was just visiting family.
Janet Napolitano (Wikipedia)
Yesterday, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano (who, as it happens, grew up in Albuquerque) told a Congressional committee she knew of no other sex scandals involving the Secret Service, some of whose employees apparently had other things on their minds in Columbia besides protecting President Obama. But just a few hours later, Seattle TV station KIRO aired a blockbuster report about another Secret Service sexcapade a year ago in El Salvador. That boom you heard last night was the explosion from Napolitano’s testimony blowing up in record time.
Meanwhile, Washington State Attorney General and gubernatorial candidate Rob McKenna has taken a leading role nationally in going after Village Voice Media–which owns the Seattle Weekly–on charges its Backpage.com adult-services ad section promotes under-age prostitution and child exploitation. VVM–run out of Phoenix by two brass-knuckle guys, Jim Larkin and Mike Lacey, I profiled for Forbes more than 20 years ago–says it has done nothing wrong. (In case you are confused, the Seattle Weekly is the local alt newspaper that last week didn’t win a Pulitzer Prize).
Want another Seattle angle? According to her LinkedIn profile, VVM General Counsel Liz McDougall, who has taken on the difficult task of defending the company nationally, still lives around here.
Thank heavens for that cooling Seattle rain.