Seattle news

• How a Bill to Roll Back Payday Lending Reforms Got One Step Closer to Being Law

  11-03-2015 23:22 via thestranger.com
  
  Washington State passed tough restrictions on payday lenders in 2009. Now some Democrats want to roll back those reforms. (Shockingly, those same Democrats have received campaign donations from payday lenders.) Thinglass / Shutterstock.com
  A controversial bill backed by Seattle-based payday lender Moneytree took another step closer to becoming law Tuesday after the state senate approved an amended version of the measure 30-18.
  The tweaked proposal would scrap the traditional pa
  
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• Jimmy Graham Is a Seahawk Now and Other Very Good Seattle Sports News

  11-03-2015 23:10 via thestranger.com
  
  Jimmy Graham looks okay in a suit. He will look better in a Seahawks jersey. Joe Seer / Shutterstock.com
  Seahawks general manager John Schneider has raised the bar to the point where he can acquire the league’s best red zone receiving threat and Seahawks fans are all like, “Eh, yeah, okay.” It’s categorically insane. The Seahawks now have one of the two best tight ends in the world in former Saint Jimmy Graham. Remember all those tight end drops last yea
  
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• What Piketty Tells Us About a Court's Decision to Fine Robin Thicke and Pharrell For Sounding Like Marvin Gaye

  11-03-2015 23:00 via thestranger.com
  
  Robin Thicke and Pharrell fined millions for blurring the lines with Marvin Gaye. Screenshot from YouTube
  In his bestseller Capital in the 21st Century, the French economist Thomas Piketty makes the depressing predication about a future that's observable from current economic data: inherited capital is going to dominate more and more of everything. In this world, which, according to Piketty, is right around corner, if you are not born rich (or marry someone who is rich), yo
  
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• Carnation defense witness: 'It was survival mode'

  11-03-2015 22:53
  
  Carnation defense witness: “It was survival mode - kill or be killed”
  
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• Seattle's Own Sculptors of Light, Ben Zamora and Etta Lilienthal, Go Their Separate Ways

  11-03-2015 22:44 via thestranger.com
  
  LILIENTHAL|ZAMORA's Never Finished, which finished at Suyama Space on Dec 19. LILIENTHAL|ZAMORA
  You never knew where artistic collaborators Ben Zamora and Etta Lilienthal—aka LILIENTHAL|ZAMORA—were going to turn up next.
  They might be designing a softly minimalistic set for Washington Ensemble Theatre, or a set made entirely of screens and light at New City Theater, or building video and light installations for a collaboration between Kronos Quartet a
  
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• The Next Big Monster

  11-03-2015 22:15 via thestranger.com
  
  A leaked still from Boneyard!
  First things first, I loved zombies before anybody else, because apparently I'm a hipster like that. However, since you can no longer swing a severed, lesion-covered arm without hitting a zombie-themed TV show, movie, comic book, novel, web series, Twitter account, or nail-polish remover, I've decided to move on to what will surely become the next big thing in monster obsessions: living skeletons and/or werecats...
  
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• O’Toole names 4 new Seattle assistant police chiefs

  11-03-2015 21:55
  
  Seattle Police Chief Kathleen O’Toole announced Wednesday her selection of four new assistant chiefs in a major overhaul of the department’s top ranks.
  
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• New NW Hiphop from Kayzee and Q Dot, plus Magma Fest and Live Rage from Talib Kweli

  11-03-2015 21:00 via thestranger.com
  
  Kayzee employs the hazy cool of the vintage-nod production.
  For your approval, another young NW rapper you haven't heard of—god knows I never write about those: Tacoma's Kayzee, who hit me with his Don't Mind if I Do mixtape, a smooth, blunted, and braggity work of clever shit-talk that (mostly) keeps it witty and light over 28 (!) tracks. Far from easy. Peep the video for the smoky standout "Strollin," which captures well those molasses-slow, high-as-fuck-in-the-store mo
  
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• Electronic Musician/Synth Builder Kaori Suzuki to Enter Music MFA Program at Prestigious Mills College

  11-03-2015 20:20 via thestranger.com
  
  Kaori Suzuki finesses some acutely sculpted drones at Chapel Performance Space. Emily Pothast
  Over the last five years or so, Kaori Suzuki has been one of Seattle's most interesting and rigorous experimental-electronic musicians, as well as a builder of synthesizers for the innovative Magic Echo Music company. So it makes sense that she would want to further sharpen her skills at Oakland's Mills College, pursuing a music MFA this fall at perhaps the most prestigious American sc
  
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• SPD hires Amazon VP to lead tech operations

  11-03-2015 20:16
  
  For Seattle police, technology has become a constant focus. Chief Kathleen O’Toole on Wednesday announced Greg Russell, a vice president at Amazon, as SPD’s new chief information officer.
  
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• Will Ferrell to play in Cactus League game between Mariners, Oakland

  11-03-2015 20:04
  
  Will Ferrell to play in Cactus League game between Mariners, Oakland
  
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• FBI tracks down felon’s Sammamish survival bunker

  11-03-2015 19:46
  
  Federal agents have uncovered a felon’s underground bunker above Lake Sammamish. The FBI and ATF are now looking for at least two more constructed by Bradley Robinett, an ex-Marine and survivalist who was a fugitive for five years.
  
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• In Search of Seattle's Best Crepes

  11-03-2015 19:38 via thestranger.com
  
  The crepe au saumon at Crepe de France is transcendent. Tobias Coughlin-Bogue
  Crepes have come quite a ways from their humble beginnings as buckwheat pancakes peeled off of large flat stones in the fireplaces of Brittany. Today's flavor combinations are limited only by a chef's imagination.
  Here in the Northwest, we are blessed with excellent fish, and thus have an excellent selection of salmon crepes. My older, more worldly friend first introduced me to the salmon crepe at Cr
  
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• Seattle’s Columbia Center up for sale

  11-03-2015 19:26
  
  Seattle’s Columbia Center up for sale
  
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• Transgender Action, Departed Documentarians, and the Painful Intersection of Prayer and Fajitas

  11-03-2015 18:00 via thestranger.com
  
  Probably more dangerous than fajitas. THINKSTOCK
  MONDAY, MARCH 2 This week of transgender action, departed documentarians, and the painful intersection of prayer and fajitas kicked off in Seattle, where numerous residents were waylaid today by a potent batch of heroin. "As of 4 P.M. Monday, both police and fire officials received at least six reports of overdoses in North Seattle and downtown, requiring hospitalization," reported the SPD Blotter, offering no other details beyon
  
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• Morning News: Washington State Senate Gives Poor People the Finger, Guts Payday Loan Reforms

  11-03-2015 16:51 via thestranger.com
  
  (Some) State Democrats to low income borrowers in Washington state: Fuck you guys. You know who we really care about? A company whose logo is money growing on a tree.Andrey_Kuzmin/Shutterstock
  It's Shit Like This, Democrats: For more than an hour last night, the Senate's newest crop of progressives—led by Senators Cyrus Habib and Pramila Jayapal—fought valiantly against a bill that rolls back hard-won 2009 reforms of the payday loan industry. The proposal "decimate
  
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• Morning News: Olympia Gives Poor People the Finger, Police Chief Shakes Up Command Staff

  11-03-2015 16:51 via thestranger.com
  
  (Some) State Democrats to low income borrowers in Washington state: Fuck you guys. You know who we really care about? A company whose logo is money growing on a tree.Andrey_Kuzmin/Shutterstock
  It's Shit Like This, Democrats: For more than an hour last night, the Senate's newest crop of progressives—led by Senators Cyrus Habib and Pramila Jayapal—fought valiantly against a bill that rolls back hard-won 2009 reforms of the payday loan industry. The proposal "decimate
  
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• Protesters Forced Seattle's Arctic Drilling Deal Onto the Port Commission Agenda Yesterday

  11-03-2015 14:00 via thestranger.com
  
  A show of hands, at this Raging Granny's request, of how many people in the room opposed the port's decision to host Shell's Arctic drilling rigs. Alex Garland
  More than 150 people packed into an airport conference room on Tuesday where protesters dominated a public comment session on the prospect of Shell's Arctic drilling fleet staying in Seattle over the next two years. Many wore red, held up signs, and spent a total of three hours asking five port commissioners to rescind a
  
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• You’re Unlikely to See a Better Thriller This Year than Yann Demange’s ’71

  11-03-2015 12:00 via thestranger.com
  
  You’re Unlikely to See a Better Thriller This Year than Yann Demange’s ’71
  
  by Kathy Fennessy
  
  
  
  Everyone knows war is hell, but not all directors know how to bring that concept to life. In their pursuit of literal-minded accuracy, they forget about such seeming irrelevancies as lighting and pacing and full-blooded human beings. Britain’s Yann Demange, a first-time filmmaker of French Algerian descent, make
  
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• This Doc About the Mekons Captures the True Meaning of Being an Alternative Band

  11-03-2015 12:00 via thestranger.com
  
  This Doc About the Mekons Captures the True Meaning of Being an Alternative Band
  
  by Emily Nokes
  
  
  
  It’s safe to say there is no band quite like the Mekons. Formed in Leeds, England, in 1977 in the art-school scene that birthed their friends Gang of Four, the Mekons had no idea what they were doing, and maybe still don’t—and that’s the best thing about them.
  
  Their earliest interest was punk, the then-new
  
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• The People Who Work at the Chinese Amusement Park Kingdom of the Little People Traded Their Dignity for a Paycheck

  11-03-2015 12:00 via thestranger.com
  
  The People Who Work at the Chinese Amusement Park Kingdom of the Little People Traded Their Dignity for a Paycheck
  
  by Krishanu Ray
  
  
  
  The subject of the new documentary Dwarves Kingdom is so self-evidently problematic that at first it’s even a little hard to fathom: Kingdom of the Little People, a Chinese amusement park where all entertainment is provided by performers who are less than four feet tall. They dres
  
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• His Name Is Elliot "White Lightning" Scott, He Is from Nova Scotia, He Wants to Become Canada’s First Action Hero

  11-03-2015 12:00 via thestranger.com
  
  His Name Is Elliot "White Lightning" Scott, He Is from Nova Scotia, He Wants to Become Canada’s First Action Hero
  
  by Grant Brissey
  
  
  
  As Kung Fu Elliot tells the story of a delusional Canadian who wishes to make films but resides in hopelessly straitened intellectual and financial circumstances, it’s tempting to think of this film as Canada’s answer to 1999’s American Movie.
  
  In both, our protagonists are
  
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• Featured in this Year’s Seattle Jewish Film Festival Is A Borrowed Identity, a Film About the Complex Identity of an Arab Israeli

  11-03-2015 12:00 via thestranger.com
  
  Featured in this Year’s Seattle Jewish Film Festival Is A Borrowed Identity, a Film About the Complex Identity of an Arab Israeli
  
  by Kathy Fennessy
  
  
  
  According to a statistic that opens Eran Riklis’s coming-of-age film, which plays as part of this year’s Seattle Jewish Film Festival, “20 percent of Israel’s citizens are Arab.” Drawing from Sayed Kashua’s semiautobiographical novel Dancing Arabs, Rik
  
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• Bill to change payday lending rules wins approval, 30-18, in the state Senate

  11-03-2015 09:31
  
  A controversial proposal to revamp Washington’s payday-lending rules won state Senate approval Tuesday night. It now goes to the state House.
  
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• State Senate’s collision with science and climate change

  11-03-2015 06:01
  Our state Senate’s anti-science cocoon on climate change was on full display this week.
  
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• State Senate passes expanded limits on using phone while driving

  11-03-2015 06:01
  The state’s current law was passed in 2007, when smartphones were less advanced and ubiquitous. It banned texting while driving but not surfing the Web or using GPS or Twitter.
  
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• Spring shows up early on UW campus

  11-03-2015 06:01
  
  Trees on the University of Washington’s Quad had almost reached full bloom Tuesday, even though spring doesn’t officially start until March 20.
  
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• Bill would mandate larger crew on oil trains

  11-03-2015 05:46
  The oil transportation-safety legislation passed Monday by the state Senate could set a nationwide precedent by requiring railroad workers in the rear of oil trains.
  
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• $2 million bail for man who drove slain girlfriend to hospital

  11-03-2015 05:16
  A King County District Court judge set bail at $2 million for a man suspected of killing his girlfriend and then turning himself in to employees at a state mental hospital.
  
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• Student group seeks end to UW coal investments

  11-03-2015 05:01
  
  University of Washington students are calling on the UW’s regents to remove coal companies from the investments made by the school’s $2.6 billion endowment.
  
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• Felon leads FBI to his Sammamish survival bunker

  11-03-2015 05:01
  
  A bank robber on Tuesday led federal agents to his underground bunker above Lake Sammamish. The FBI and ATF are now looking for at least two more constructed by Bradley Robinett, an ex-Marine and survivalist who was a fugitive for five years.
  
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• Watch Hillary Clinton Lecture Us on the Importance of E-mail Privacy—Ha-ha-ha

  11-03-2015 02:43 via thestranger.com
  
  During a hastily arranged press conference at the UN this morning, Hillary Clinton broke her silence on the controversy about her use of private e-mail for official secretary of state correspondence. She was at the UN to give a speech about women's rights around the world, and after the speech was done, she returned to the podium (at the 57:00 mark below) to bring up a matter "in the news" that wasn't the matter in the news everyone's been talking so much about. (It was the let
  
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• Watch Hillary Clinton Lecture Us All on the Importance of Email Privacy—Hahaha

  11-03-2015 02:43 via thestranger.com
  
  During a hastily arranged press conference at the UN this morning, Hillary Clinton broke her silence on the controversy about her use of private email for official Secretary of State correspondence. She was at the UN to give a speech about women's rights around the world, and after the speech was done, she returned to the podium (at the 57:00 mark below) to bring up a matter "in the news" that wasn't the matter in the news everyone's been talking so much about. (It was the lett
  
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• Has Chet Hanx Made Hiphop's Worst Video?

  11-03-2015 01:50 via thestranger.com
  
  I meant to get on this a couple weeks ago, but did y'all know Tom Hanks has a son who fancies himself a rapper? Well, he does and he goes by the handle Chet Hanx. I was hipped to Chet via Bristle, as they insisted the "latest video for his track 'Thirst' is one of the worst videos we’ve ever seen." Well, all right! So I watched Chet's video. Um, I sat through the song/video, twice and, tho' the track's generic and his moves rote "hiphop gestures 101," the video isn't so m
  
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• What's a Nice, Middlebrow German Film Like Beloved Sisters Doing at the Grand Illusion?

  11-03-2015 01:49 via thestranger.com
  
  What's a Nice, Middlebrow German Film Like Beloved Sisters Doing at the Grand Illusion, and Why Did Landmark Drop It?
  
  by Charles Mudede
  
  
  
  There was a time in our movie-loving town when the natural fit for the German film Beloved Sisters would have been either the Harvard Exit or the Seven Gables. But the former is gone, leaving the latter to cover not only for it, but also for the Varsity, which Landmark vacated
  
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• Under a Dead Moon

  11-03-2015 01:49 via thestranger.com
  
  Goodnight, Dead Moon: A Timeline of the Deathless NW Punk Lifers
  
  by Emily Nokes
  
  
  
  When the good news arrived that Chop Suey (sadly, the name had to stay, but feel free to refer to it as Chop) would reopen its doors with a renewed commitment to a community stung by its (brief) absence, it wasn't hard to know what to say: Fuck. Yes.
  
  But for the even better news that the grand reopening would be headlined by a reun
  
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• They Are Time—Post-Punk Legends the Pop Group Still Agitating 35 Years Later

  11-03-2015 01:49 via thestranger.com
  
  They Are Time—Post-Punk Legends the Pop Group Still Agitating 35 Years Later
  
  by Dave Segal
  
  
  
  Only the most blinkered curmudgeon would oppose all reunions, but let's be real: Some regroupings make more artistic sense than others... and some do serious damage to legacies. Was anyone clamoring for Gang of Four's Content or Pixies' Indie Cindy? Will fans develop lifelong relationships with the comeback albums t
  
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• The Dream of the '90s Is Alive in New Century Theatre's Workplace Drama The Flick

  11-03-2015 01:49 via thestranger.com
  
  The Dream of the '90s Is Alive in New Century Theatre's Workplace Drama The Flick
  
  by Brendan Kiley
  
  
  
  The Flick, Annie Baker's new, Pulitzer Prize–winning play about three employees at a run-down movie theater, owes a lot to October of 1994—a watershed moment in the history of American workplace conversation. That month, the movies Pulp Fiction and Clerks opened within five days of each other and becam
  
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• Seattle's OCnotes Aims Deep on Color Wheel, His Best Record Yet

  11-03-2015 01:49 via thestranger.com
  
  Seattle's OCnotes Aims Deep on Color Wheel, His Best Record Yet
  
  by Trent Moorman
  
  
  
  OCnotes is Otis Calvin III, a Seattle-based DJ/diviner, beatmaker, and bard. His albums and live sets run psychedelic hiphop and jazz through convex progressions of dub, soul, and house. At any given moment, OC will pick up a guitar or bass, play keys, or sing with a handsome voice you're surprised yet not surprised to hear coming
  
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• Meet the New Cinderella, Same as the Old Cinderella

  11-03-2015 01:49 via thestranger.com
  
  Meet the New Cinderella, Same as the Old Cinderella—How Disney Could Have Updated Its Most Boring Princess
  
  by Ijeoma Oluo
  
  
  
  We're all familiar with the original story of Cinderella. The father of a beautiful girl remarries a horrible woman with two horrible daughters after his wife's death, then dies himself. The evil stepmother forces Ella into indentured servitude and makes her sleep in the attic, where h
  
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• How to Fight the Rise in Hate Crimes on Capitol Hill

  11-03-2015 01:49 via thestranger.com
  
  How to Fight the Rise in Hate Crimes on Capitol Hill
  
  by Ansel Herz
  
  
  
  On February 13, performer Bret Fetzer was walking down 11th Avenue toward Pine Street after seeing a play at Annex Theatre, when a man began talking at him, following him to the bus stop, and calling him "faggot." When Fetzer turned to face him, the man smashed a beer bottle into the side of his head.
  
  Fetzer was lucky to walk away with little m
  
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• Here Are the Five Port Commissioners Who Failed to Stop Seattle from Becoming Shell's Arctic Drilling Homeport

  11-03-2015 01:49 via thestranger.com
  
  Here Are the Five Port Commissioners Who Failed to Stop Seattle from Becoming Shell's Arctic Drilling Homeport
  
  by Sydney Brownstone
  
  
  
  {{ image: 1 }}
  Port Commissioner Bill Bryant
  
  Stance on letting Shell's Arctic drilling rigs dock at Seattle's port in the off-season: Yes, please! "Rejecting this lease would be an act of political symbolism, but it would be symbolism at the expense of the middle class," Brya
  
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• Four Places You Can Get Delicious Fish 'n' Chips for Less Than $10

  11-03-2015 01:49 via thestranger.com
  
  Attention, Penny-Pinching Piscivores: Battered, Fried, and Budget-Friendly Fish Exists!
  
  by Tobias Coughlin-Bogue
  
  
  
  Fish 'n' chips is a dish that is as intrinsically Seattle as excessive politeness and civic gridlock. This classic dish does not originate here, but it is undeniably an Emerald City tradition. Ivar's has been battering and frying cod filets for well over half a century, and fish 'n' chips also common
  
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• Eastern Washington Jurors See Through the Federal Government's Anti-Pot Hysteria

  11-03-2015 01:49 via thestranger.com
  
  Eastern Washington Jurors See Through the Federal Government's Anti-Pot Hysteria
  
  by Heidi Groover
  
  
  
  "You're not a cog in the machine of the federal government," attorney Phil Telfeyan told a jury drawn from self-reliant Eastern Washington on March 2. "You can stand up and say, 'No. The evidence isn't there.'" And that's exactly what they did.
  
  The 12 jurors had been charged with weighing the case of the "Kettle F
  
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• Disneyland Found My $4.99 Earrings Threatening, But They Let Unvaccinated Children Run Wild

  11-03-2015 01:49 via thestranger.com
  
  Disneyland Found My $4.99 Earrings Threatening, But They Let Unvaccinated Children Run Wild
  
  by Rachel Kessler
  
  
  
  Two years ago, on a visit to the happiest place on earth, I wore a sundress, sandals, and not much else. My husband and two daughters and large extended family were with me. This was long before the ongoing, multistate measles outbreak linked to the theme park. The Centers for Disease Control and Preven
  
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• SL Letter of the Day: Secrets and Lies

  11-03-2015 01:11 via thestranger.com
  
  Originally posted on February 1, 2012.
  My husband is a very kinky submissive man. When we were dating, I found out that he had been talking to multiple people online and that he had met up with a professional dom a couple of times. I felt betrayed that he had done this all behind my back, even though I had told him that I would be down with him seeing a dom. (I even offered to buy him a session for his birthday!)
  We got through it, and now our sex life is amazing. I tie him up,
  
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• Ferry Kalakala souvenirs for sale this weekend

  11-03-2015 01:01
  
  Souvenirs from the Kalakala will be available Friday and Saturday at a Parkland storage yard.
  
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• $2 million bail for man accused of driving body to hospital

  11-03-2015 00:53
  A King County District Court judge set bail at $2 million for a man suspected of killing his girlfriend and then turning himself in to employees at the state mental hospital.
  
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• Franchises say Seattle’s minimum wage discriminates against them

  11-03-2015 00:46
  
  Seeking to temporarily halt part of Seattle’s minimum wage law from taking effect next month, the International Franchise Association told a federal judge Tuesday that the law unfairly singles out local franchisees.
  
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• Bellevue cop resigns before results of conduct probe are released

  11-03-2015 00:35
  A Bellevue police lieutenant has resigned before the release of an investigation into allegations he publicly criticized another officer.
  
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