1. Jim Brunner over at the Seattle Times' Politics Northwest blog has a piece about longtime reporter Robert Mak's return to KING TV after a controversial (and brief) stint in Mayor Greg Nickels' office.

Mak caused a stir in 2008 when sold out and left KING, where he'd been for 16 years, to work as Nickels' communications director at a salary of $160,000, making him one of the highest-paid workers in the city.

As of June 21, Mak will be hosting KING's public affairs show, Up Front. PubliCola will report back when we find out what, if anything, the move means for the folks who've been hosting the show in Mak's absence.

2. Joel Connelly at SeattlePI.com reported on Strange Bedfellows that Denny Heck, the Democratic frontrunner for Rep. Brian Baird's (D-WA, 03) seat, has made the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's list of top-priority candidates. The group put Heck on its "Red to Blue" list, started in 2008 to identify races in which Democrats were seeking seats held by Republicans. However, as Connelly points out, in this case it should be called the "Blue to Blue" list, as Heck is seeking to hold on to a seat that has long been held by a Democrat, Brian Baird, who is retiring.

Connelly reports:

"A Red-to-Blue (or Blue-to-Blue) designation indicates candidates 'are running strong campaigns and demonstrating their commitment to being independent leaders who will make job creation back home their first priority,' said Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Maryland, chairman of the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee."

3. Props to Goldy at the Democratic blog HorsesAss for hounding this story about Attorney General Rob McKenna butting heads with Peter Goldmark, commissioner of the Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR) over a land-use dispute in Okanagan County. Goldy argues that McKenna is once again overstepping his bounds as AG by refusing to represent the DNR in a land use dispute.

5. At last, the Slog: We've got Steven Humphrey on kitten facial deformities and Kelly O on the time she watched a chimpanzee rape a frog. Bon appetit!