By Danny Westneat, Seattle Times Jan. 13--There's a news war going on in this city. And the command center for it is a laundry room in a small West Seattle home. There, at 6 a.m., a former TV news director gets up and checks a log of the overnight 911 service calls.

By Danny Westneat, Seattle Times Dec. 5--Six months ago, when a notorious 20-something dubbed the "Spam King" was busted in a downtown penthouse, the feds promised we'd see a big drop in spam. "Aurelia" begs to differ. Aurelia is my latest pet spammer.

By Danny Westneat, Seattle Times Nov. 28--Our transportation crisis is a bit like Mark Twain's quip about the weather: If you don't like it, just wait a few minutes. We once had a viaduct about to fall. Remember? Then we had a floating bridge about to collapse.

By Danny Westneat, Seattle Times Nov. 21--Call me a Luddite, but I'll say it anyway: I'm terrified of Amazon's new electronic book reader, the Kindle. This week the company that digitized the buying of books announced it is off to do the same to the reading of books.

By Danny Westneat, Seattle Times Oct. 17--Here is a tale of two local megaprojects. Both cost $11 billion. Both take 20 years to build. Both will help people move around the region. The first I'll call Project A. It is widely praised, considered a no-brainer.