NEWS TEAM: GOOD MORNING SOUTH SOUND >>>

Get Back Here Legislature: The Guv needs action on three bills: limits on school levies; immediate deportation of illegal immigrants convicted of crimes; and reduce minimum sentences for certain drug offenses.

Armor Doesn't help: Lakes Lancers shut down the castle.

Who Knew?: They’ve figured out that prompt medical care is essential in preventing death by influenza A(H1N1).

Farming 2.0: Modern factory farms have created a “perfect storm” environment for powerful viruses

Oooh Pick Me, Pick Me: President Obama will get his first crack at nominating a SCJ.

Bite Out Of The Apple: Disney joins Hulu.

The 1976 swine flu propaganda commercials still relevant, just like the Weekly Volcano putting green in our lunchroom.

NEWS TEAM: GOOD MORNING SOUTH SOUND >>>

That Stinks: Swine Flu in Washington state

No Shake: Weekly Volcano's news team's rude habit actually OK now.

Venti Plan: Starbucks plans to launch a multimillion-dollar marketing campaign.

State Budget: Balfour Dock building wins! Balfour Dock building wins!

WTF: Rihanna will get back $1.4 million worth of borrowed.

Just In: IKEA buys GM

PAUL SCHRAG: BAR OWNERS GET THE SHAFT FROM LEGISLATORS >>>

There’s no way this latest legislative session was going to be good. For anyone. Legislators know it, and now business owners and citizens will know it in no uncertain terms.

“Unfortunately, the people of Washington will feel the pain of the difficult choices required to address the budget crisis. Like nearly every other state, we are managing our way through a deep recession, and severe budget cuts across the entire government were unavoidable,” said Gov. Chris Gregoire in her official post-session agitprop. “We also prepared our state for a 21st century economy â€" especially in the monumental steps we took to build a transportation system that will create jobs and help us emerge stronger from this recession.”

Well, yes. Probably. But there are some people that will feel the bite of all these legislative adjustments more than others. Discover who they are here

ERIK EMERY HANBERG: BRITNEY, RUSTON, AND THE RIGHT TO ASSEMBLE >>>

In 2007, Ruston resident Karen Pickett was frustrated with the town council of Ruston. Public comments at meetings had been curtailed, and Pickett felt like residents had lost their voice. She opened a free account on Blogger and started Ruston Home, a place for Ruston residents to talk about their town.

Since then, as Ruston has seen mayors resign and its very existence questioned--some on the town council believe the town should be annexed into Tacoma--Pickett’s blog has been on the scene, combining reporting with commentary. It provides a valuable way for busy residents to find time to discuss their community and participate in its future.

Pickett’s blog, and the community that has formed around it, has been around for a year and a half.

But many online groups are much more fleeting.

Three weeks ago, right before Britney Spears brought her circus to the Tacoma Dome, a radio station plastered stickers and posters around the Dome District. Some people in the neighborhood found them tacky.

Before the rapid social networking available through blogs and Twitter, that might have been the end of the story. Maybe a complaint to the City of Tacoma or a complaint to the radio station, but not much beyond that.

Instead, one person posted photos of the offending ads on his blog with links from Twitter. Another person posted a phone number to the appropriate Tacoma Dome official. And yet another posted email addresses for the station’s staff. Those people may have never met in person, but they were all part of a quickly-formed small group aimed at getting the ads taken down.

Links to the photos were sent to the City via Twitter complaining about the signs.

@CityofTacoma, the official City of Tacoma Twitter account, quickly replied: “Thanks for the heads up about this sign. I will pass this along to our sign code folks.” Three hours after that, they followed up: “The Tacoma Dome folks are helping look into this. Your pic is very helpful. As far as I can tell so far, no permission was given.”

The Tacoma Dome staff contacted the station and got the ads taken down. And that was that. The group’s mission was accomplished.

Rob McNair-Huff, the Community Relations Manager who runs the City of Tacoma’s Twitter Account @CityofTacoma tries to respond to questions and complaints like this as often as possible. A combination of broadcasting news, and fielding questions, the account has nearly 600 followers and grows daily.

The stories above are only possible thanks to those tools. Before they were available, hosting a forum to a town of 800 people would have meant renting a hall.

Affecting change used to take a lot more time and effort. Because of that, relatively small complaints--like signage on public fences and glass in the road--just weren’t worth the hassle to try to get fixed.

Now governments have to deal with small, informal groups trying to affect major and minor change. Some--like the City of Tacoma--are trying to work with those groups. Those that don’t, and that write off small online groups as insignificant, are going to find the ground has shifted underneath them.

Participation has become easy. And, if you resist that, life is going to get really hard.

PREVIOUS HAZARDOUS BUSINESS COLUMNS ON SPEW

ABOUT HAZARDOUS BUSINESS: Erik Emery Hanberg's Hazardous Business column - which looks at the business of technology and the environment in Tacoma and the South Sound, and how it will shape our future- appears every other Tuesday here on Spew.

NEWS TEAM: GOOD MORNING SOUTH SOUND >>>

The Long Recess: As many as 220 educators in the Bethel School District could lose their jobs after receiving layoff notices Monday.

No Recess For You: Legislature didn’t finish its assignment.

Fighting Fire With Firemen: Lakewood and University Place to hold the same hose.

The Real Swines: Thank your GOP members of Congress for stripping flu pandemic funds from the stimulus bill.

Foldio: Portfolio magazine portfolio comes to a halt.

Not A Sly Fox: Fox network decides not to air Obama’s “100th day” press conference tomorrow. Will run “Lie to Me” instead. Ah-huh.

JESSICA COREY-BUTLER: PLUS ABBY'S ON BROADWAY SET FOR THE MIDDLE FLOOR >>>

Tacoma has always delighted me with its uncanny ability to present The Random. And when The Random mixes it up with wine, I become positively giddy.

One long-time random wine haunt of mine has been the Chevron gas station off Pearl Street, near Point Defiance Park. While I loved the ability to multi-task â€" gallon o’ gas with that liter of wine? Yes please! â€" my friends would look at me with something akin to horror when I would offer up a bottle of gas station wine. When that wine was a bottle of Townshend T3 (sadly, not a bottle carried there anymore) or a cute bottle of “Rosé the Riveter” those expressions would meld into pleased surprise.

Now I can expand my random wine shop repertoire to include two new fabulously established businesses. I can’t wait to say, “Oh I’ll just get myself an antique wardrobe, get my eyebrows waxed, and pick up some Infinity Soup with a bottle of red at Sanford & Son.” Or, I can tell the honey, “I’m just going to get my hair done” â€" and come back with a fresh new look and bottles of shampoo and chardonnay from Azarra Salon.

Yes, wine is coming to Sanford & Son and Azarra Salon. Unfortunately, neither place is technically ready for me yet.

Sanford & Son welcomes Abby’s on Broadway to its Middle Floor Merchants. The wine shop received their license to sell last Thursday, and are working on getting moved in and ready to go.  They’ll be joined soon by Infinite Soup in the downstairs Library (huzzah!), who will serve up their hot goodness from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., daily

At Azarra Salon, Aura Mae’s specialty has always been dishing up The Random with serious quality. She has a disclaimer on her Web site, after all, explaining that, if you take yourself too seriously, perhaps this isn’t the salon for you.

“In California, if you aren’t offered a glass of wine, you feel snubbed,” Aura Mae quips, adding hastily, that it’s legal in Cali.  In Washington, the liquor laws are, she suggests, a tad more “provincial.”

She elaborates, “(the Washington State Liquor Board) doesn’t just hand out licenses. While there are salons that do pour glasses to clients, that is, technically, illegal.”

She warns against the expectation of having a glass in the chair.  For one, it doesn’t sound that fun to swallow hair snippets with your sips.  Then there’s the matter of bouquet. Aura jokes, “Mmmm, I smell blackberry, and … ammonia?”

But without a joke, Aura Mae clearly states, “We have a license to sell bottles of wine for off-premise consumption.” She adds, “We’re very interested in following the rules. We want to show the liquor board we’re good people.”

Currently, she’s building an inventory, and expecting to open for wine sales in a few weeks. Those wines, bottles under $20 with labels that share the irreverent values of the salon (expect things like “Bitch,” Mad Dogs and Englishmen,” and others of that ilk) will be deftly paired with recipes and commentary via the Azarra Salon Web site and other social media like Twitter and Facebook.

Aura Mae’s goal is to build her wine sales to the point where it’s 50 percent of her business, which will enable her to do wine tastings in an adjacent room. 

“The more wine people buy, the sooner that can happen,” she says, in her funny-but-serious, pragmatic manner. She points out, quite seriously, “We’re a business. We’d like to make money.”

And then she points out, pragmatically, “These are dicey economic times. I want to be selling whatever people are buying (that’s legal).”

[Chevron, 5043 N. Pearl St., Tacoma, 253.759.7602]

[Abby’s on Broadway, Sanford & Son’s Middle Floor Merchants, 743 Broadway, Tacoma, 253. 272.0334]

[Azarra Salon, 1944 Pacific Ave., Suite 210, Tacoma, 253.752.1519]