Viva La Cola!

Founded in January 2009, PubliCola is a blog about Seattle written by journalists who are dedicated to non-partisan, original daily reporting that prioritizes a balanced approach to news. Started by longtime local editor and award-winning reporter Josh Feit, PubliCola is the first online-only news site in state history to get media credentials to cover the state capitol.

PubliCola was off and running. In June 2009, PubliCola hired another award-winning journalist, super-sourced Seattle city hall reporter Erica C. Barnett.

People were afraid that blogging would change journalism. Instead, we believe journalism can change blogging. Twenty-first century journalism may look and feel different, and yes Erica isn't afraid to get cranky, but we're committed to making sure online news still delivers independent, reliable, even-keeled coverage. And most of all, we're committed to making sure the coverage sparks honest civic debate.

Bringing you cola for the people, PubliCola is named after Publius Valerius PubliCola, the alias for the authors of the Federalist Papers—the original bloggers.

The first online-only news site in state history to get media credentials to cover the state capitol and Seattle city hall, PubliCola has been called a “must-read” by the Seattle Post Intelligencer and a hot “New Media Mover and Shaker” by Seattle Magazine—which also cited our own Erica C. Barnett as the city's No. 1 news nerd.

The Morning Blotter: WTF, Greenlake?

Greenlake is having a tough couple of weeks.

First some dude tries to drag a female jogger off into the woods. Then last night a homeless man was assaulted as he slept in the park.

Today, we’ve got news about an armed robbery in the park.

According to a police report, a woman was getting out of her car near the north end of the lake at about 7:00pm on April 15th and was about to take her new puppy for a walk when a man approached her with a knife in his hand and told the woman “give me your money. Everything in your pockets.”

When the woman told the man she didn’t have anything on her, the man then said “give me all your jewelry.”

The woman handed over her jewelry—the report doesn’t say exactly what was taken—and the suspect fled.

The report doesn’t include a detailed description of the suspect, but the report says the woman told police he was “very dirty and smelled awful.”




  • Anonymous

    It is time we put some decoys out there near Greenlake. People who look like they would be easy to rob but are in reality highly trained police officers. After catching the thief, force them to tell what they do with the goods they steal. Now that the fencing operation at Liberty Loan ( http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008117571_p ) has been shut down, who else is buying stolen goods? Time to go after them.

  • JT

    Good luck with that, you’d have to pull a cop off of radar-gun duty, and we need everyone on radar-gun duty that we can possibly find. No, seriously, totally important.

  • Randall Palmer

    I agree with decoys. There is a significant correlation between the implied presence of police and the actual presence ( fake radar stations; speed cams; dummy cars on the highway) and the reduction of crimes of opportunity. If the criminals don’t think they will be caught, they will continue to thrive. Don’t let that happen. We all slow down when we see a cop on the highway. Lets not stop that process in our neighborhood. Thanks.