Northwest Briefing

Ben Livingston, a 21-year-old University District resident, has until July 11 to collect 18,830 signatures to put Initiative 54 on the November ballot. If he succeeds, voters will have the opportunity to select the next mayor and decide whether he should be dunked at the same time.

City Clerk Judith Pippin yesterday said the initiative met legal requirements.

It would declare every Nov. 30 "Freedom to Peaceably Assemble Day" in commemoration of the 1999 World Trade Organization protests. Pine Street, between Fourth Avenue and Fifth Avenue, would be cordoned off for a street fair. And whoever is mayor would have to sit on a dunk tank for at least 30 minutes.

Mall to close half-hour early to conserve power

TACOMA -- Tacoma Mall plans to close a half-hour early to cut down on electricity use.

Beginning today, the mall will close at 9 on weeknights and Saturdays instead of 9:30. Sunday hours of 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. will remain unchanged.

"This will save about three hours a week in electrical consumption when we are normally at our peak -- when it's dark outside," Tacoma Mall spokesperson Lynn Castle.

Other measures taken by the mall include installing more energy-efficient lighting and an energy-efficient air-management system. In March, the mall corridor cove0 lights will be converted to more energy-efficient fixtures.

Gov. Gary Locke is urging state residents to cut back on electricity use by about 10 percent, noting that shortages in California and a drier-than-normal winter have reduced the amount of electricity available to the Pacific Northwest this winter.

Extra, extra, get your strike souvenirs . . .

SEATTLE -- Souvenirs from the strike at The Seattle Times and Seattle Post-Intelligencer were up for grabs Saturday at a Pacific Northwest Newspaper Guild garage sale.

Picket signs were going for 50 cents. Copies of the striker-produced newspaper, the Seattle Union Record, were a quarter. Silent auctions were held to peddle 11 picket-line burn barrels, with bidding going as high as $80 for one.

The $3,500 raised will go into the Guild strike fund, which will compensate those Times employees not immediately called back to work. All are to be called back within six months.

All newsroom employees of the Post-Intelligencer, whose printing, ad sales and circulation are handled by the Times under a joint operating agreement, are back.

Scott Peters, whose girlfriend was on strike at the Times, said he was there looking for good deals and was wearing a $15 coat he'd found at the sale. Peters also said he hoped the selling of strike paraphernalia signaled an end to bad feelings that emerged during the strike.

"It would be nice if the sale really did symbolize the end of the strike," he said.

P-I staff and news services