Don't panic, but a glitch in the state's liquor distribution system is leaving store shelves bare just in time for the Fourth of July holiday, this morning's Seattle Times reports. State officials blame a problem with a new software system for the backlog of orders. (The bureaucratic equivalent of "the dog ate my homework.")

"For us, the timing is really brutal," said Anthony Anton, president and CEO of the Washington Restaurant Association, who said some restaurants have been unable to get key ingredients for their most popular cocktails. "For a small-margin industry like ours, where every sale counts, that's an issue."

Dozens of "temporarily out of stock" signs dot the shelves of some state liquor stores, and store managers say they're not sure when their complete product line will again be available.

There is a bit of good news for those of us who imbibe: For the first time, state-run liquor stores will be open on the Fourth of July - a product of the budget crisis.

Here's a link to the full story.

A public records request made by Timothy Smith – a spokesman for the local Bill of Rights Defense Committee, which has been fighting the expansion (and existence) of the Northwest Detention Center on the Tideflats – shook loose several years worth of Homeland Security meeting minutes from the Tacoma Police Department.

The .pdf file is 256-pages long and too big to post here. And, honestly, I only read through the last 50 pages or so, which cover 2007 and 2008.

The meeting minutes note various events and situations that caught the interest of the cops. What they don't say is what they did with that information – a subject for another reporter (as this is my last day at the paper).

Take this entry from September 2007:

"On September 18, there was a derogatory article published on the Seattle Indymedia website that summarized some of the complaint findings against TPD personnel stemming from the Port of Tacoma protests. The article mentions that in each case, the police were exonerated.

The article listed the phone number to TPD Internal Affairs and the e-mail address of City Manager Eric Anderson, so citizens can 'let them know how happy you are that we have a rubber stamp committee to oversee the police and approve of everything they do!' '...tell [Eric Anderson] how proud you are to live in a city where the police can get away with anything.'"

Maybe I'm paranoid (or not paranoid enough), but last time I checked it was still legal to write (non-threatening) derogatory statements about the police and their internal affairs process on a Web site; to republish the phone number of a subsection of a local government agency (253-591-5283 – according to CityofTacoma.org); and to send e-mails to the city manager expressing your grievances or disagreements (and/or encouraging others to do so).

Maybe Tacoma Police were simply making note of the article, but again, it begs the question: to what end.

More excerpts after the jump.

=> Read more!