Most-Determined Pro AthleteSue Bird is a point guard, so rebounding has not been her forte—until recently. During the 2004 WNBA playoffs, the Seattle Storm star collided with Minnesota guard Teresa Edwards, leaving Bird with a busted beak. But she stayed on the court before and after surgery, helping the Storm win the first pro-sports championship Seattle has seen in 25 years. Two months ago, Bird had another run-in, this time with teammate Lauren Jackson’s elbow. Almost a week after her second broken nose, Bird went under the knife again. “I don’t think I can say enough about Sue’s toughness,” says coach Anne Donovan. Along with rebounding from injuries, Bird, just 24, must also keep her standards high after a championship season and all her other achievements, including an NCAA championship with the University of Connecticut and an Olympic gold medal for the U.S. Despite her injuries and her fashionable face mask, Bird continues to take care of business on the court. This season, she has been at or near the top of the WNBA rankings for assists, free-throw percentage, and three-point shooting percentage. Through July 31, Bird’s team was 14-10 and had won six in a row.—Sarah McGuire Seattle Storm, 206-217-WNBA, www.wnba.com/storm.Best Local TV Talk ShowMost of the time, local TV news treats politics as an afterthought. In this world of mediocrity, KING-TV’s well-regarded Up Front With Robert Mak stands alone. Everything from the monorail to the gas tax gets hashed out without the bloviating pundits and bloggers. And then there’s Mak’s regular political reporting on KING-TV’s newscasts. He performs the superhuman feat of getting context and depth into 90 seconds and manages to be fair to both sides of an issue—which is probably why even media-hating local conservatives find Mak to their liking. —Philip Dawdy Up Front With Robert Mak , Sundays at 4:30 p.m. on KING-TV (5) and 10:30 p.m. on KONG-TV (6/16), www.king5.com/upfront.Best Local TV Entertainment ShowProfessor Fred’s Movie Marvels is not the first television show to glorify terrible B movies, and here’s hoping it’s not the last. It’s the best, though, in part simply because it’s ours—it airs on the South Seattle Community College channel—but also because it’s very good. Movie Marvels stars Fred Hopkins, a veteran of the legendary Seattle music newspaper The Rocket and the local comedy TV show Almost Live! and a Seattle film and music scene longtimer. The, uh, “professor” knows how to pick them—Carnival of Souls, The Tormented, and Peter Bogdanovich’s Voyage to the Planet of the Prehistoric Women, to name just a few—and his “discombobulated” “triviata,” to employ a couple of his favorite words, adds a pinch more absurdity to the mix.—Laura Cassidy Friday nights at 9 p.m.; check with your cable provider for channel.Best Political RookieOn the campaign trail in 2004, U.S. Rep. Dave Reichert, R-Auburn, was simply awful. He was uninformed, overly sensitive to criticism, and seemed uncomfortable with politics. It appeared that the well-known sheriff who tracked down the Green River killer was going to have a terrible time becoming a congressman for the Eastside’s 8th District. Instead, once elected, Reichert got off to a stellar start. He bucked the GOP leadership when he voted against congressional involvement in the medical affairs of Terri Schiavo; he voted to preserve funding for the Public Broadcasting System and National Public Radio; and he used his seat on the Transportation Committee to secure federal funding for his traffic-choked district. Of course, Reichert remains a conservative Republican—supporting the war in Iraq and Social Security privatization and opposing stem-cell research—but he has shown enough independence and savvy to strengthen his political support in his swing district.—George Howland Jr. 2737 78th Ave. S.E., Suite 202, Mercer Island, WA 98040; 206-275-3438, www.house.gov/reichert.Best Grace Under FireIt’s been a tough year for Seattle Public Schools Superintendent Raj Manhas. He produced a seriously flawed plan for getting the district out of a financial crisis, and it faced a firing squad of the public, politicians, and the press. But there’s a sense of decency about Manhas that has always shone through. His concern for the district seems deeply felt, even if his proposed solutions were wrongheaded. A former banker who grew up poor in India, he also has a way of making people feel respected. “A lot of people are mad at the district, but nobody is angry at Raj,” former Seattle Council PTSA President Lisa Bond said while the uproar was at full volume. “He’s a good man. This has been extremely painful for him.” What saved him was his ability to back down graciously and not only listen to critics but enlist their help in solving the problem. Whether the resulting goodwill will lead to a better plan remains to be seen.—Nina ShapiroBest JudgeChelan County Superior Court Judge John E. Bridges did a fantastic job with Dino Rossi’s legal challenge of the 2004 election victory of Gov. Christine Gregoire. Bridges, of course, rendered the correct decision June 6 in Wenatchee when he skewered Rossi’s case by affirming the election. In so doing, Bridges slammed the door on more such legal challenges that are based on partisan rancor rather than sound evidence. He also used his bully pulpit to call for a cultural change at the troubled King County Elections Division. The most important thing that Bridges did, however, was use his courtroom to educate the public on the troubled gubernatorial election. He permitted TV cameras to cover the entire proceedings, so they were broadcast on cable TV statewide and on the Internet worldwide. He admitted all the evidence offered by both sides, building a complete public record of the election’s problems. Finally, Bridges managed to maintain a sense of humor and grace under very trying circumstances. —George Howland Jr.Best Attention GetterDid Pastor Ken Hutcherson’s threat to call a boycott of Microsoft products really scare one of the world’s most powerful corporations from supporting state gay-rights legislation? It seems hard to believe. But boy, it makes great copy. Hutcherson’s claim to have intimidated the domineering Redmond giant prompted stories in just about every paper in town, as well as front-page coverage in The New York Times. “I told them I was going to give them something to be afraid of Christians about,” Antioch Bible Church’s leader told The New York Times’ Sarah Kershaw. Subtle this former Seattle Seahawks player is not. Funny, though: After all the coverage and an internal debate, Microsoft reversed course and said it would support the narrowly defeated legislation next year. And yet there’s been nothing heard about any crippling boycott by outraged Christians.—Nina ShapiroBest Political DialogueLast fall, former Marine Maj. Terry Thomas, recently back from Iraq, walked past the Wallingford QFC store and saw a bunch of antiwar protesters carrying banners proclaiming, “War Kills the Innocent.” A supporter of the war, Thomas decided to confront them. What you would expect to be a shouting match turned into something quite different. Thomas and the protester who stepped forward to engage him, Howard Gale, began to talk, seeking to understand where the other was coming from. They found they could both agree on one thing: The public needed to hear from the people who had actually been to Iraq. And so the two ideological opponents started meeting for weekly breakfasts to plan a veterans forum, which took place March 16 at Town Hall. The forum presented a range of opinion, all from vets: Thomas; former Navy Lt. John Oliveira, who turned against the war while serving as a public relations officer, or, as he puts it, “salesman for the war”; and former-Marine-press-officer-turned-media-celebrity Capt. Josh Rushing, a central figure in the documentary Control Room, who is now ambivalent about the war. Partisans from both sides showed up, but the crowd was mostly respectful, devoted for one night to hearing whatever veterans had to say.—Nina ShapiroBest LobbyistIt’s not too often that you can use the words hero and lobbyist in the same sentence, but not all lobbyists are Randy Revelle. The former King County executive and former Seattle City Council member, who now works as a health care lobbyist for the Washington State Hospital Association, has been on a mission the past few years to change state law that allowed insurance companies to discriminate against the mentally ill by offering them lesser coverage than they would for physical ailments. This year, Revelle and dozens of allies finally managed to convince the Legislature— after seven years of trying—to equalize coverage for 1.6 million Washingtonians. Revelle also chipped away at society’s quiet discrimination toward people with depression, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder. He has good reason to. Diagnosed as bipolar in 1977, Revelle has led an active, influential life. Why shouldn’t everyone else?—Philip DawdyBest PoliticianState Rep. Ed Murray, D-Seattle, excels at fighting for gay rights and building coalitions to fund our state’s transportation infrastructure. This unusual combination illustrates Murray’s smarts as an elected official. When he was first appointed in 1995 to serve Seattle’s 43rd District, which encompasses Capitol Hill and the University District, Murray found many state legislators hostile to gay rights, and he was Washington’s only out gay lawmaker. While he never backed away from gay rights, he also patiently worked his way up the ladder of seniority until he became chair of the state House’s Transportation Committee. Since all legislators have some transportation issue they would like addressed in their home district, their attitude toward the chairman’s civil rights stance has warmed up considerably. In 2005, Murray put together an increase in the gas tax that enjoyed broad support from Republicans, Democrats, businesses, and labor to fund desperately needed transportation improvements. At the same time, Murray’s gay-civil-rights bill failed by just one vote. It’s not a coincidence but rather a testament to Murray’s strategic ability.—George Howland Jr. 324 15th Ave. E., Suite 103, Seattle, WA 98112; 206-720-3074, hdc.leg.wa.gov/members/murray/index.asp.Best Hands-On Public ExecutiveGov. Christine Gregoire has been praised by both sides of the aisle in the Legislature for her willingness to do nitty-gritty work on behalf of new laws. Former Gov. Gary Locke was known for being unwilling to take a clear position on legislation—much less lobby for it personally. Not Gregoire. In her first year, she developed a reputation for rolling up her sleeves and lobbying individual legislators on important votes. Unlike Locke, Gregoire made a point of visiting the hallways outside of the Legislature’s chambers, asking key state senators and representatives to come out and talk about specific laws. Legislators say Gregoire worked particularly hard on behalf of vital new funding for the state’s transportation infrastructure, including replacing the Alaskan Way Viaduct along Seattle’s waterfront and the state Route 520 floating bridge between Seattle and Bellevue. She also lobbied passionately on behalf of civil rights for gays and lesbians. For her sweat equity on behalf of righteous causes, Gregoire earns our praise.—George Howland Jr. PO Box 40002, Olympia, WA 98504-0002; 360-902-4111, www.governor.wa.gov.Best Environmental AdvocatesWhat with the war in Iraq, budget crises at home, and an administration in Washington, D.C., that believes global warming is fiction and pollution is a public good, you’d think that the environmental movement was in worse shape than the northern spotted owl. That might be true in some states, but not in ours, thanks to the Washington Environmental Council. Along with sundry allies, the 38-year-old advocacy group shepherded two important bills through a Legislature that was consumed with budget cutting. One bill requires public buildings in Washington to be certified as “green” (using less energy and water), while the other bill requires new cars sold in the state to pollute 30 percent less than current law allows—a bill the big car companies fought tooth and nail in Olympia. WEC is also one of the state’s chief watchdogs on state forest policy and stream water quality, all in keeping with the group’s sustainable communities mantra. —Philip Dawdy www.wecprotects.org.