That's the new number we heard from staff last night at the public hearing on budget priorities. We will likely show a $40 million gap between what we thought we could spend this year and the amount of revenue we'll actually see. That includes a really bad fourth quarter in 2008 and a pretty bad first quarter of this year. Not a surprise, right? Most of us know someone who has lost their job or is experiencing a severe slow-down in business compared to last year.

The painfully ironic thing is that this is exactly the time we need to invest more revenue in safety net pieces like food banks. Area food banks are seeing huge jumps in requests for help. We heard from several food bank representatives, but more poignantly from people now dependent upon food and shelter help because of the economy. A mother who had been sleeping in her car with her kids, another who lost her son in an apartment fire and was left with nothing. Last evening more than 50 people came downtown to testify and plead with Council to not cut funding to human services. We receive the official revenue numbers and projection April 6. Then we figure out how to balance the budget without cutting the very services people need most now to survive.

This past weekend while many of you are studying NCAA "bracketology" and mourning the Huskies' loss to Purdue, kids from all over Seattle competed in the city league basketball championships. From morning to night kids raced on the fast break, sank three-pointers, set clean picks, bounce-passed to the inside and played all around great ball in the gyms at Garfield and Miller Community Centers. The teamwork, the skills, the effort -- it all demonstrated why sports can be such a great place for kids to learn, push themselves and excel. At the end of each game Saturday and Sunday, one team went home with silver medals and one with gold. Special congratulations to Jefferson Community Center's 12-year-old boys, coached by Council Central Staff Analyst Mike Fong and my Legislative Aide Dan Nolte. Sunday I had the honor of handing out medals to winners of the 11-year-old girls bronze level, Magnolia Community Center, and to winners of the 13-year-old girls gold level, Garfield Community Center. Congratulations!

Big thanks to the volunteer coaches, City of Seattle Parks and Recreation staff and volunteers, and to all the family members who make the basketball season happen.

With Dan Savage's declaration that he'll run for mayor of Seattle I've decided to declare my intention to form an exploratory committee. This committee will help me decide whether or not to declare for the position of editor of the Stranger. With the decline of print newspapers I believe the Stranger will need an experienced editor who can guide editorial development in a rapidly changing city and rapidly changing journalism economy.

I'm prevented by ethics rules from discussing my election intentions further. I look forward to discuss the idea further in other forums.

With the shutdown tomorrow of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer this city loses part of its common dialogue, part of its history, and a necessary part of its democracy. I lose my morning routine, a way of checking in with the world and the ideas of others. Others lose their jobs in the best career there is. Yes, some will stay on and work for the new online P-I, but it will be different. Better? Not likely. Different. The remaining writers and editors will be joined by people like me, "regional leaders," in producing the first "on-line reformed" newspaper. The multiplicity and diversity of voices will be great, but will an on-line P-I attract readers and drive dialogue the way the newspaper did? We'll see.

David Horsey did a great cartoon image of Thomas Jefferson back in January when the impending closure was announced (cloaked as putting up a for sale sign). Jefferson looks shocked next to his words:

"Were it left for me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter."

Of course, Jefferson is also to have said:

"I do not take a single newspaper, nor read one a month, and feel myself infinitely the happier for it."

I do not feel myself infinitely happier for losing the P-I. Our understanding of each other and of the issues that challenge us locally, regionally and nationally will be the worse. Many thanks to all the great writers, editors and photographers.