What to do? What to do? Is it Rossi or is it Gregoire for governor? Should we have yet another recount or a run-off election? I have a better (and cheaper) solution. Make them job-share. Dino can work half-days and Chris can take over in the afternoons. Or vice versa. It's not like there's much difference between the two, policy-wise. And it would send a message to Washington State's major employers, like Boeing and Microsoft: if you want to get rid of one of the highest unemployment rates in the nation, stop making your workers do mandatory overtime. Hire more people and allow them to work fewer hours. Better yet, everyone should start working flex-time, which will relieve some of the traffic congestion on the roads. Anybody else up for a 30-hour work week?--Maria Tomchick

Alternatively, we could make each gubernatorial candidate work a six-month stint, then be jobless for six months. (They'd get a taste of job-insecurity, which might work wonders for their policy positions.) They might also decide to repeal the horrifying state policy that forces Medicaid recipients to reapply for coverage every six months. The awesome nonprofit group Children's Alliance has issued a report showing that 62,000 children have dropped off the Medicaid rolls in Washington since early 2003 when the new six-month application requirement made its debut. Most are children in low-income, working families that are not covered by employer-provided healthcare plans. Many of the employers in Washington who don't provide health insurance are major corporations (like Wal-Mart, for example) who make obscene profits from stiffing their employees and their employees' children--kids who get sick and can't go to the doctor or the hospital until they're near death's door or just past it. That kinda makes the controversy over who becomes governor seem...sorta trivial.--M.T.

When Greg Nickels announced an expansion project for Key Arena, I groaned in agony. Not more stadium construction! Key Arena was just renovated nine years ago. Of course, the city is being held hostage by the Sonics, who've declared that they'll go elsewhere unless they get their new practice court and parking spaces. Please. What makes this particularly nauseating is that nearly all the improvements are perks that the Sonics already have, just not right next to Key Arena. No one can explain why it's important to move the Sonics' practice court from one side of the Seattle Center to the other. Somebody needs to call the Sonics' bluff, for once. Then we should all start asking Mayor Nickels a few pointed questions. For example, let's ask why this proposal is considered "revenue neutral" when it will extend for several more years hotel and sales taxes that are currently being used to pay off two other stadiums in this city--stadiums that have drained business away from Key Arena, which is suffering a budgetary shortfall. Nickels says he wants to issue bonds now to get construction under way, and the bonds will be paid off eventually by the diverted hotel and sales tax revenue. ("Diverted" isn't really the correct word, is it? "Additional" is.) And what about the interest on those bonds? That's an additional expense. And what if construction goes over budget and they have to issue more bonds a year or two down the road when interest rates have risen dramatically? More additional expense. "Revenue neutral," my ass.--M.T.

For the first time, a major US contractor has pulled out of Iraq. Contrack International had a $325 million contract to rebuild roads, bridges, and other transport infrastructure, but the security situation (i.e., the guerilla war) simply made it too dangerous for them to do the work they were being paid to do. Their construction sites were under regular small-arms fire and mortar fire and their headquarters building in Baghdad was attacked in October. Then one of their drivers was kidnapped and killed in December. They couldn't even get the materials they needed because Iraqi businesses refused to sell to Contrack for fear of being attacked by the insurgents. Contrack received $30 million in the past eight months, but was only able to complete the refurbishment of a few train depots. In the end, 60% of their costs were devoted to security. Their CEO simply couldn't justify it either to his employees, to taxpayers, or to his own conscience. So he withdrew from the contract.

Meanwhile, Vice President Dick Cheney's old corporate employer, Halliburton, continues to take and spend US taxpayer money like it's going out of style. Halliburton subsidiary KBR has received over $10 billion for its Iraq-related contracts. They're too greedy to do what Contrack did and admit that the money's all going for a combination of security expenses and corporate profits. As long as the profits roll in, Halliburton can't afford to get a conscience. So, instead, they need to get the boot. But neither the Pentagon nor Congress is willing to stand up to the Bush administration and say "enough is enough." Guess that's what we're for, huh?--M.T.

Three years ago I wrote a profile here of Ruel Bernard, a carpenter from upstate New York who was inspired in the mid '80s by a solidarity brigade to Nicaragua. He decided he wanted to do more in life than building third bathrooms in suburban mansions, and so in the late '80s began Building Communities, a group that for 15 years has been building low-cost housing in Puerto Rico, Guatemala, Ecuador, and on Native reservations in the US. I've known Ruel for about a dozen years. He's a great guy. And this week he's missing in Indonesia; his family hasn't heard from him since last Sunday's earthquake. Say a prayer that he's still somehow alive, and consider that his is only one of over 100,000 such stories.--Geov Parrish