GOOGLE101 PROGRAMMING CLASS DEBUTS AT UW

BUSINESS C1

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BASEBALL

HEALTH

Cougars move up to No. 9 in the AP poll

SPORTS E2

KEN GRIFFEY JR. ON LIFE AFTER THE MARINERS

JIM MOORE E1

Healthy heart guidelines for women

NATION A3

T U E S D AY, F E B R U A R Y 2 0 , 2 0 0 7

TOP STORIES

Gregoire backs arena

Gov. Chris Gregoire has warmed to the idea of a new Sonic arena in Renton, but said NASCARs proposal for a racetrack in Kitsap County appears dead. SEE E1

Gregoire firm on viaduct plan

Elevated waterfront route the only way to go, governor says
BY CHRIS McGANN
P-I reporter

OLYMPIA Plan A is to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct with a new elevated highway. There is no Plan B, Gov. Chris Gregoire asserted Monday. Despite growing calls to further explore a surface street and transit option, Gregoire refused to back away from her position. Today, there is no viable option other than an elevated structure, Gregoire said. I know people dont necessarily like the elevated structure, I appreciate and respect that,

but the fact of the matter is we cannot do nothing. Concerns about accomplishing nothing are, in large part, the impetus for growing support of the surface plan now that the state has essentially killed the tunnel option proposed by Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels. Opponents of the elevated structure have vowed lawsuits to stop it. And moving ahead with the $2.8 billion rebuild puts Gregoire at odds with the city of Seattle, King County, the Seattle delegation in the state Senate and a slew of Seattle power brokers who hate the idea of a new high-

way blocking the waterfront. Seattle voters will weigh in on the issue in a March 13 election. The so-called surface option is widely seen as the obvious fallback position that could prevent a protracted legal battle and an all-out political meltdown But not by Gregoire. I have yet to see any surface option that works, she said. Gregoire has said the surface option would jam the regions already overloaded transportation system.
SEE VIADUCT, A4

I cant see just tearing it (viaduct) down and letting it go and creating a parking lot on I-5. I think the citizens would be appalled.
Gov. Chris Gregoire

Insurgents hit U.S. base

A coordinated attack used a suicide car bombing and gunfire on a U.S. post north of Baghdad. Two U.S. soldiers were killed and 17 wounded. Altogether, nine U.S. service members have been reported killed since the beginning of the weekend. SEE A5

On the Internet, uncensored, unfiltered

Whats in your lipstick?

State lawmakers are backing a new law that would strengthen the limited regulations on the ingredients of makeup, shampoo, soap, deodorant and other personal-care items. SEE B1

Videos show Iraq war through troops eyes

BY LEVI PULKKINEN
P-I reporter

ALSO IN THE NEWS

NATION
George Washington: President Bush likens long struggle that gave birth to this nation to the war on terrorism. A3

SEATTLE
Walkability: Seattle study says how much people walk seems to depend on the distance to stores, length of blocks and perceived safety. B2

Dust jumps as bullets strike a concrete balcony. Soldiers beat down doors, storming into dark rooms. A medic bandages a naked, bleeding boy on the street. This is Iraq. Recent. Real. Raw. On YouTube. May god have Mercy on our souls is the title of this six-minute compilation apparently made from film shot by a Fort Lewis Stryker recon platoon known as Deuce Four. Part tribute and part documentary, the video and hundreds like it posted on the Internet are seeing more traffic from people hoping to understand the war through soldiers eyes. Not traditional journalists, but soldiers and others in Iraq have been sending the war home by way of digital video on the Internet, sharing their views with the world, uncensored and unfiltered. YouTube.com has about 35,200 videos carrying Iraq as a keyword, many of which have been viewed more than 100,000 times. Video-sharing Web sites are home to some of the most striking images from the war. Video showSEE VIDEOS, A5

BUSINESS
Finding places: Over the past two years, location-awareness technology has been spreading from hand-held digital compasses to cell phones, laptops, dashboards and dog collars. C2

WHAT TO WATCH

A memorial to Spc. Jeremiah Schmunk: youtube.com/watch?v=XFlKNoEGWTwv The Mullet Mafias year in Iraq: youtube.com/watch?v=oBTQcZ2gBTQ v George Algozzinis Web site: www.georgelikestacos.com 1st Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment of the Fort Lewis Stryker Brigade Combat Team, Deuce Four, videos: May god have Mercy on our souls: youtube.com/watch?v=tMxTarA_mcg Iraq . . . the Sickness: youtube.com/watch?v=7XnrcpUbKr4 Brett Netsons Seattle peace protest : youtube.com/watch?v=PuczWPJYB4A&mode The Iron Pony Express Web site: ironponyexpress.com Videos from 172nd Stryker Brigade out of Alaska: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yksdcnh4Ums www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCy5eumHZAw

JEFFERSON AWARDS
Each year, Washington residents nominate inspirational volunteers for the Jefferson Awards, a national program created by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and others. The Seattle P-I has been a sponsor since 1976. To nominate, go to seattlepi.com/jefferson.

Above left: A video posted to YouTube.com by an American soldier previously stationed in Iraq shows members of the Mullet Mafia, wig-wearing soldiers. Above: Reservist George Algozzini began posting a video journal online after returning from Iraq. Right: Retired Washington National Guard Sgt. Rob Kauder produced a video montage honoring squad mate Jeremiah Schmunk, killed in Iraq.

INDEX
TODAYS WEATHER Breezy with scattered showers. High 46, low 36. B8 Comics Crosswords Editorial Horoscope Lottery Obituaries Television

D5,6 D5,6 B6,7 D2 B2 B5 C4

Some home buyers shop with hammers in hand

High housing costs make fixer-uppers look good
SEATTLEPI.COM
Rather than fix up old Seattle houses, many developers are leveling them and building new ones that meet modern trends as home buyers in Seattle and nationwide move back to the city, bringing with them suburban expectations of size and amenities. See the story on teardowns from Mondays P-I at seattlepi.com.
BY AUBREY COHEN
P-I reporter

(FJECD|12000Z
The P-I and seattlepi.com reach 1.3 million readers a week in Western Washington, including three quarters of a million Monday through Saturday. To subscribe, call 206-464-2121.
2007 SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER

For those undeterred by the sales flier that warned a 96-year-old Columbia City house is an extreme fixer, to be entered at your own risk or by the hazardous environment sign on the door, Al Johnson left a flashlight just inside the entry. Im on my second battery, said Johnson, an associate broker with Windermere Real Estate, during an open house earlier this month. He posted this listing on a Sunday evening and got calls about the house every half-hour the following day. One, its about the cheapest thing around,
SEE FIXER, A4
GILBERT W. ARIAS / P-I

Sara Finneseth, of Kenmore, tours an old house at 4425 Cascadia Ave. S. in Seattle with her mother, Laura Bolser, of Edmonds. The house is an extreme fixer; the current owner stripped it down to the studs and then stopped work on it 15 years ago.

SEA

VIDEOS: Some are light, some tragic

FROM A1
ing the hanging of Saddam Hussein found a worldwide audience thanks to such sites and a witness with a camera phone. The cockpit video of a U.S. pilots accidental attack on British troops, originally released by a British newspaper, almost instantly streamed around the globe. And the Internet hasnt played favorites. Video of insurgent snipers firing on American soldiers is widely available online. Suicide bombers also have taken to posting video statements before carrying out attacks. During the Civil War, he said, soldiers letters to their hometown newspapers were often the best source for news from the front. Wartime censorship of the press wasnt common until World War I, Harris said. During that war and those that followed until Vietnam, the media relied heavily on the military for access to the battlefield. In Vietnam, Harris said, most news outlets wouldnt broadcast or publish tactical information or recognizable photos of American dead. But embarrassing or tragic events were fair game, Harris said. The Army wasnt all that thrilled, because the Army didnt like a lot of the coverage, he said. In part to rein in journalists, the military decided to embed journalists during the invasion of Iraq and the early phase of the war. Little has changed in communication restrictions for soldiers. Aside from overarching dictates from the Pentagon, unit commanders may impose any reasonable restrictions. One such order came in October 2005, when soldiers in Iraq were ordered not to take, post or distribute photos of detainees or casualties, the Pentagons Ryder said. Unit commanders, he said, have in some cases set more restrictive guidelines. That hasnt stopped some video producers who appear to be American soldiers from posting shots of dead Iraqis or wounded Americans. Another video uploaded by the same user who posted the Deuce Four video depicts footage of a severed head.

For a fallen squad mate

Retired National Guard Sgt. Rob Kauder said hes proud of the video he made for his fallen squad mate. A young man saunters up a snow-dusted sidewalk to the first mournful notes of Guns N Roses playing Knockin on Heavens Door. The kid, Jeremiah Schmunk, grips a toothbrush in his teeth cigar-style, wearing a smile equal parts joy and mischief in this musical tribute to his life. Five minutes and 42 seconds later, the 20-year-old soldier from Warden is clad in baggy desert fatigues, his face tan and poised. Schmunks name, rank and final job infantryman appear on the screen just above the date he died. For Kauder, an online producer for a Spokane television station, making movies during his deployment to Iraq was second nature. He found his soldiers loved the short films and that those videos helped their families see the life they led over there. It gave them a sense of what was going on behind the headlines, Kauder said. Like hundreds of other soldiers, Kauder chose to post his videos online after returning from Iraq. Some war videos are lighthearted soldiers wearing wigs and doing front flips off walls into sand dunes. Others break your heart.

Protest caught on video

Like several soldiers who have posted video online, the individual who posted that video on YouTube.com did not respond to requests for interview. Others posters declined requests for comment, one pointing to a perceived bias in the media against the war and those who fight it. Looking at the coverage of the Iraq war, Seattle resident Brett Netson came to the opposite view. Netson, an indie-rocker who splits his time between Seattle and Boise, Idaho, took his video camera to an anti-war rally last month, hoping to catch some video of a group of Iraq Veterans for Peace delivering a photo album of soldiers killed in Iraq to a South Seattle military recruiting station. Instead, he caught protesters clashing with police. What shocked him, Netson said, is that recruiters at the station declined to open up their doors to war veterans. That stuffs not covered in the mainstream media at all, Netson said. Im pretty upset myself, and I think a lot of people are. The low cost of producing videos for the Web has made it an ideal place for citizens media, he said. Hes used it to distribute short satirical films jabbing at contemporary American culture and politics. Renee Taylor uses the Web to counter what she sees as excessively negative coverage of the war. Taylor started posting video online while her husband, Mark, was in Iraq driving a mail truck for Halliburton subsidiary KBR Inc. She said television coverage of the war didnt reflect the world experienced by truckers such as her husband or members of the Fort Lewis-based unit whose task it is to protect them. So, Taylor started ironponyexpress.com a site dedicated to truckers in Iraq and posted several videos online. Im hoping that (viewers) will come back with that sense of pride, from seeing firsthand the job theyre doing and the dangers they face, she said from her home in Arkansas. As the Web has allowed more people such as Netson and Taylor to share their views, it has actually helped polarize opinions on the war, said Ralph Berenger, editor of Cybermedia Go to War, a book about online medias role in coverage of the Iraq war. With so many voices all at once, people had little difficulty finding those viewpoints that mirrored their own, said Berenger in an online interview from Cairo, Egypt, where he is a professor of journalism. Not all who post video online have an ax to grind, though. Kauder said his motives in taking his videos to the Web werent political. The videos were done for the guys who are assigned to do this task, said Kauder, a 17-year veteran of the Guard and the U.S. Marine Corps. They had to be uprooted from their jobs, their families and their lives. It was tough. It was really, really tough.
P-I reporter Levi Pulkkinen can be reached at 206-448-8348 or levipulkkinen@seattlepi.com.

A story of terror, horror

Viewers were just about the last thing on George Algozzinis mind when he started posting a video log or vlog detailing his experience in Iraq. The Phoenix reservist said he just needed to get it out of his head. Hurt while training at Fort Lewis before deploying in January 2003, Algozzini spent a year in Iraq with a disabling back injury hell likely have the rest of his life. The war also left psychological wounds that are only now beginning to heal. Ive been home for a couple of years now, and I just hadnt really dealt with the whole being over there, he said. Algozzini has posted eight videos of himself staring and speaking into the camera, telling his story. He talks about the terror he felt knowing hed be going to war, the horror of seeing a charred body left to rot by the roadside. It was just there on the side of the road like a dog, Algozzini said, tearing up as he described the scene into the camera. I mean, in the United States even dogs get picked up. Algozzini said watching himself say what hes been through has made his time in Iraq seem more real to him and, unexpectedly, some others. Soldiers and their families have thanked him for giving them some idea of what to expect. During his 15-month deployment, Kauder shot more than 27 hours of digital video. He used his laptop computer to make video CDs his squad mates could send home to loved ones to show them what everyday life in Iraq was like. Kauder said his superiors in his National Guard battalion a subordinate unit in the Seattlebased 81st Brigade werent concerned with him shooting video while deployed. They denied his request to keep a blog, but didnt prevent him from sending letters and video home by e-mail. Individual commanders set the rules for soldiers when it comes to what they can post online, said Patrick Ryder, a Defense Department spokesman based at the Pentagon. But the department does have some overarching rules on personal use of government resources and barring the release of information about military activities and unit morale.

Embedding journalists
During the Korean War, retired Navy Capt. Brayton Harris was assigned while serving on a warship to censor sailors mail. Years later in Vietnam, the military and press historian served as a press liaison officer in Saigon. Letters home have always served to inform Americans attitudes about wars their countrymen are fighting, Harris said.