Seattle news

• Washington Healthplanfinder exchange site down again

  16-12-2014 23:59
  
  The Washington Healthplanfinder website was taken down for unscheduled maintenance at approximately 12:45 this afternoon. According to an exchange post, the exchange's IT integrator, Deloitte, has been notified that an error had occurred during scheduled maintenance last night. "The i
  
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• State Says Crews Can Start Digging for Bertha Again

  16-12-2014 23:26 via slog.thestranger.com
  
  Washington State Department of TransportationSeattle Tunnel Partners will resume digging at the Bertha rescue pit tonight.
  During a blizzard of bad news and "we don't know" answers about the tunnel project last week, the Washington State Department of Transportation took one small action. It told Seattle Tunnel Partners (which has the contract to build the underground tunnel meant to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct) to stop digging at the pit where they're hoping to access and
  
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• Sony Hackers Threaten Terrorist Attacks on Movie Theaters Showing The Interview

  16-12-2014 23:25 via slog.thestranger.com
  
  When I first heard about the plot of The Interview, I made a joke about how it would be kind of silly if World War III started in part because of a Seth Rogen/James Franco comedy about assassinating Kim Jong-un. And the film has caused an international incident. In recent days, Sony was hacked by "Guardians of the Peace," a supposedly North Korean hacking organization, which led to some truly embarrassing e-mails going public. But as the film's Christmas release date approache
  
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• Chewbacca, Seattle Aquarium seal, dies

  16-12-2014 23:23
  
  Chewbacca, Seattle Aquarium’s northern fur seal, has died following surgery he underwent  last week.
  
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• Shots fired at would-be intruder in Lynnwood

  16-12-2014 23:19
  
  An occupant of a Lynnwood-area home opened fire on a man who was trying to break in Tuesday afternoon, the Snohomish County Sheriff's Office said.
  
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• Seattle Housing Authority Shelves Its Rent-Hiking "Stepping Forward" Proposal

  16-12-2014 23:07 via slog.thestranger.com
  
  Alex Garland"Housing is a human right, fight fight fight!" shouted low-income housting tenants as they filed into Yesler Terrace Community Center on September 17.
  After month of outcry from low-income housing tenants and affordable housing advocates, the Seattle Housing Authority is backing off on a plan to raise rents on thousands of people.
  "It is clear that we did not succeed in getting this message across through our outreach efforts," SHA Director Andrew Lofton said in a
  
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• Richard McGuire Expanded His Legendary Comic "Here" into a Book, and the Result Is a Disaster

  16-12-2014 23:00 via slog.thestranger.com
  
  Originally published in 1989, Richard McGuire's six-page black-and-white comic "Here" offered a definitive demonstration of comics' secret weapon—the ability to transcend time. The reader's perspective in "Here" focused on a single corner of a single house in a series of nested panels, each displaying the same location in a different year: a dead mouse in a trap in 1999, an old man in 1986, and a stegosaurus in "100,650,010 BC." Time is the narrative device that unlocks
  
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• Harvard Exit building will house restaurant, offices

  16-12-2014 22:57
  
  Details on the sale of the historic Harvard Exit Theatre building are coming to light.
  
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• For Tchaikovsky's Sake: Why Does Seattle Have So Many Goddamned Nutcrackers?

  16-12-2014 22:46 via slog.thestranger.com
  
  It seems like the Nutcrackers keep multiplying each year—it's hard to believe there can be sufficient demand to sustain so many productions.
  In 2014, you've got the Arc School of Ballet Nutcracker in Shorewood, Land of the Sweets: The Burlesque Nutcracker at the Triple Door, Pacific Northwest Ballet's Stowell/Sendak Nutcracker (2014 is you last chance to see it if you've been procrastinating for the past few decades), a Nutcracker plus a spinoff called The Tale of the Har
  
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• Seattle teacher under investigation for sexual misconduct

  16-12-2014 22:45
  
  Seattle elementary teacher under investigation for sexual misconduct with teenager
  
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• We Asked 12 People at Cafe Pettirosso: What's the Most Awkward Gift You've Ever Received?

  16-12-2014 22:31 via slog.thestranger.com
  
  Kelly O Isabella "My dad's family is from New Zealand, and I had never met them yet... When I was 12 years old they sent a bunch of really risqué lingerie. I opened it in front of my whole family. My mom took it away and gave it back when I was like 15 or 16. I still have some of it!"
  Kelly OAaron "A girlfriend once gave me a pair of socks, mainly because I had told her a previous girlfriend had given me socks and that I was disappointed when she did that. We broke up shor
  
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• State insurance exchange working well for Medicaid

  16-12-2014 22:30
  
  Washington's exchange website --- the one that has struggled with glitches in its sales of insurance plans --- is smoothly managing its Medicaid accounts. Since October, the exchange has been automatically renewing Medicaid enrollees with no significant problems. In December alone, some 150,000 Medi
  
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• Digging to resume tonight at Bertha's repair vault

  16-12-2014 22:09
  
  Seattle Tunnel Partners have gotten the green light to resume digging Tuesday night in front of Bertha, the stranded boring machine for the Highway 99 tunnel project.
  
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• Tony Perkins: Same-Sex Marriage Destroys Currencies

  16-12-2014 22:08 via slog.thestranger.com
  
  Right Wing Watch:
  On Monday’s edition of Washington Watch, Family Research Council president Tony Perkins said marriage equality and the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell will lead to America’s economic collapse. Perkins’ argument is a little hard to follow, but the gist of it is that gay rights will somehow weaken America to the point that Russia and China feel emboldened to “move away from the US Dollar as the international standard” and
  
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• The Stax Records Singles Box Sets Volume 2 & 3 Are Being Reissued

  16-12-2014 22:00 via slog.thestranger.com
  
  Granted, the '60s ended mostly all about "the album," but when it came to soul music, even tho' there are a few fantastic examples of well-made soul albums, the single was the biggest driving force for every artist, group, and record label. Next to Motown, the mighty Stax Records was one of the best, most prolific, and successful single-driven soul labels, EVER. And with that kinda cultural weight comes great recognition; it's why Stax is afforded these way-deep, and COMPLETE,
  
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• Boeing 737 factory to move to clean energy

  16-12-2014 21:55
  
  Boeing said Tuesday it plans to buy renewable energy credits to replace fossil-fuel power at the factory in Washington state where it assembles its 737 commercial airplanes.
  
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• 5th Avenue Theatre makes new plans as ‘Something Rotten!’ flies to Broadway

  16-12-2014 21:53
  
  The new musical “Something Rotten!,” which originally was slated to debut at the 5th Avenue Theatre, is bypassing Seattle for Broadway. The 5th Ave promises another world premiere in its stead.
  
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• WIN TICKETS to the First Night of Dancer and Prancer's Xmas Extravaganza!

  16-12-2014 21:43 via slog.thestranger.com
  
  Kelly o Connie & the Precious Moments Dancer and Prancer, Seattle's best strictly-Christmastime surf band, are throwing a two-day Xmas Extravaganza with headliners Shannon and the Clams!
  I'm giving away tickets to the first show (this Thursday, December 18, at Chop Suey), which features support from local bands Connie & the Precious Moments and Gazebos.
  In order to WIN TWO TICKETS to this evening of merriment, be the first person to answer the Xtreme Trivia question
  
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• Inslee: Major polluters to help pay for transportation projects

  16-12-2014 21:38
  
  Gov. Jay Inslee proposes a 12-year, $12 billion transportation plan, saying fees on the state’s biggest polluters will help fund improvements.
  
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• Nordstrom fires worker over police killings post

  16-12-2014 21:34
  
  The Associated Press
  
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• Hanford waste storage tanks continue to deteriorate

  16-12-2014 21:24
  
  Underground nuclear waste storage tanks on the Hanford Nuclear Reservation continue to deteriorate, raising questions about how the waste will be managed in the future, according to a report released Tuesday by the Government Accountability Office.
  
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• Derek Kilmer tries to strip campaign cash provision from spending bill

  16-12-2014 21:21
  
  WASHINGTON -- President Obama hasn't signed it into law yet. But that didn't stop U.S. Rep. Derek Kilmer Tuesday from trying to strip a controversial provision inserted into the 2015 federal spending bill allowing wealthy donors to give vastly larger sums to national political pa
  
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• Boeing 737 factory to use all clean energy

  16-12-2014 21:03
  
  Boeing says it plans to switch to all renewable energy at the factory in Washington state where it assembles its 737 commercial airplanes.
  
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• Seattle Housing Authority puts rent changes on hold

  16-12-2014 21:01
  
  The Seattle Housing Authority (SHA) has shelved its controversial plan to raise rents for thousands of tenants.
  
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• Inslee wants carbon tax to fund transportation

  16-12-2014 20:53
  
  Inslee wants carbon tax to fund transportation
  
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• Deputies: Oregon man wounded nuisance cat with arrow

  16-12-2014 20:52
  
  The Associated Press
  
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• Inslee proposes new carbon tax to pay for transportation

  16-12-2014 20:42
  
  Gov. Jay Inslee proposes a 12-year, $12 billion transportation plan, saying fees on the state’s biggest polluters will help fund improvements.
  
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• What's special about Seattle? We're all about volunteering, study says

  16-12-2014 20:32
  
  The Seattle metro area has the highest young adult (16-24) volunteer rate in the country, according to a report released Tuesday by a federal agency.
  
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• Guest Editorial: Seattle, Pull the Plug on the Tunnel Unless You Can Answer These Seven Questions

  16-12-2014 20:30 via slog.thestranger.com
  
  Greg StumpNow is the time to ask some hard questions about the tunnel. Here are seven to start with.
  Seattle City Council president Tim Burgess said something yesterday that should scare Seattle residents shitless. Shortly after a council meeting with state highway officials who run the deep-bore tunnel project, Burgess said in a statement: "There's no turning back at this point. The entire Alaskan Way Viaduct Replacement Project must be completed.”
  This—this—
  
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• Officer shoots at fleeing suspect in Centralia

  16-12-2014 20:20
  
  The Associated Press
  
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• Inslee proposes $12 billion for transportation

  16-12-2014 20:19
  
  Gov. Jay Inslee proposes a 12-year, $12 billion transportation plan, saying fees on the state’s biggest polluters will help fund improvements.
  
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• Smoking Gun Report Calls Ferguson Grand Jury Witness "A Fraud"

  16-12-2014 20:10 via slog.thestranger.com
  
  Here's the first paragraph:
  The grand jury witness who testified that she saw Michael Brown pummel a cop before charging at him “like a football player, head down,” is a troubled, bipolar Missouri woman with a criminal past who has a history of making racist remarks and once insinuated herself into another high-profile St. Louis criminal case with claims that police eventually dismissed as a “complete fabrication,” The Smoking Gun has learned.
  Now go rea
  
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• Woman charged with spitting on Seattle cop during protest

  16-12-2014 20:03
  
  A 24-year-old South Seattle woman was charged last week with third-degree assault for allegedly spitting in the face of a Seattle police officer during a downtown protest against police brutality and racial inequality.
  
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• Paul Allen's Vulcan Announces Massive Seattle Art Fair in July 2015

  16-12-2014 20:00 via slog.thestranger.com
  
  COURTESY OF GREG KUCERA GALLERYSeattle Art Fair: Of and for Seattle (and the horse it rode in on).
  Paul Allen is getting into the art fair game. For four days this summer—July 30 to August 2—his company, Vulcan, is sponsoring Seattle Art Fair.
  "It's really two projects happening simultaneously," says Max Fishko, the fair's director. I reached him by phone at Art Basel Miami Beach, that mother of all American art fairs, happening last week. In Miami, Fishko's four-ye
  
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• SPD assistant chief Nick Metz finalist for chief in Aurora, Colo.

  16-12-2014 19:59
  
  Assistant Seattle Police Chief Nick Metz is one of four finalists to become the next police chief in Aurora, Colo., according to a news release issued by the large Denver suburb.
  
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• Jeb Bush Is Running for President, and He's Got a Very Good Shot at Winning

  16-12-2014 19:58 via slog.thestranger.com
  
  This morning, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush tweeted the 19 most anticlimactic words in the English language: "I am excited to announce I will actively explore the possibility of running for President of the United States." That tweet, couched in the unbelievably safe language of a man who is definitely running for president, linked to a Facebook post with the full announcement, in which Bush said he came to the decision after spending Thanksgiving with his family. He promise
  
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• Snohomish County boy, 14, shoots himself in leg

  16-12-2014 19:48
  
  A 14-year-old Snohomish County boy accidentally shot himself in the leg Tuesday morning while target shooting with friends, the sheriff's office said.
  
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• Officer fires shot near Centralia City Hall

  16-12-2014 19:46
  
  Officer fires shot near Centralia City Hall
  
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• Sentencing in Yancy Noll slaying set for Jan. 2

  16-12-2014 19:43
  
  Sentencing for the man convicted of the August 2012 drive-by slaying of Yancy Noll has been scheduled for Jan. 2, the King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office announced Tuesday.
  
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• Artist's 'Angry Birds' lawsuit goes forward

  16-12-2014 19:02
  
  A federal judge refused to dismiss a lawsuit by a Seattle artist who says she was cheated out of millions of dollars when the company that sold her line of plush pet toys called "Angry Birds" reached a deal with the Finnish company that makes the insanely popular video game of the same name.
  
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• Body found near Wapato was homicide victim

  16-12-2014 18:50
  
  The Associated Press
  
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• Seattle has highest young-adult volunteer rate, study says

  16-12-2014 18:49
  
  The Seattle metro area has the highest young adult (16-24) volunteer rate in the country, according to a report released Tuesday by a federal agency.
  
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• Seattle artist’s ‘Angry Birds’ lawsuit goes forward

  16-12-2014 18:40
  
  The Associated Press
  
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• The Morning News: A Water Pipe Is the Latest Victim of the Tunnel Project, Report Finds SPD Making Headway on Federal Reforms

  16-12-2014 17:51 via slog.thestranger.com
  
  WSDOTOfficials can't say how unsafe the viaduct needs to get before it's shut down.
  There Are So Many Unanswered Questions About the Project and the Sinking: In case you missed Heidi Groover’s post yesterday about the latest tunnel project meeting, there’s a lot we don’t know—including when officials will know what’s actually going on, when the tunnel project will be completed, and how unsafe the viaduct needs to get before it’s shut down. Wh
  
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• Self-Checkout Machines and American Ideology: Be the Boss of You!

  16-12-2014 17:09 via slog.thestranger.com
  
  CMYour money is for nothing...
  What is the ideology of our times? That it really is all about you. If you succeed, it is because of you. If you fail, it is because of you. You’re the master and slave of you. In the past, the years before the Reagan revolution and the sharp decline of trade unionism, you were more about your company or factory. You had a commitment to the mission of your employer, and your employer had a commitment to you—wage increases, pension pl
  
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• WSP puts more emphasis on high drivers

  16-12-2014 16:59
  
  Although they have always looked for signs of drug impairment as part of their road patrols, state troopers have become more in tune with drivers who appear to be driving high.
  
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• Infection from fetus death killed orca off Vancouver Island

  16-12-2014 16:47
  
  Canadian officials have released the official cause of death for an orca found Dec. 3 off Vancouver Island near Comox.
  
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• Boys, girls shared sleeping areas on field trip; Seattle Public Schools to investigate

  16-12-2014 16:09
  
  Seattle Public Schools will investigate a recent overnight field trip during which male and female students from Garfield High School shared sleeping areas while camping, the school district announced Monday.
  
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• Southwest baggage workers to protest at Seattle, 15 other airports

  16-12-2014 15:26
  
  Baggage handlers for Southwest Airlines, including workers in Seattle, are protesting the company’s slide in on-time performance.
  
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• Amazon extends Christmas shipping deadlines

  16-12-2014 15:26
  
  Amazon extends Christmas shipping deadlines
  
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