Seattle news

• The Gates Foundation Is Staying Pretty Quiet About Mike McGinn's Fossil Fuel Divestment Campaign

  10-09-2015 23:57
  
  The Gates Foundation says that an outside entity manages its endowment, which has $1.4 billion invested in fossil fuel companies. But local activists are pointing out that Bill and Melinda Gates advise those investment managers. lembi / Shutterstock.com
  Underfunded public schools aren't the only reason Bill Gates may be feeling the heat from his Seattle neighbors this week. On Wednesday, former Seattle mayor Mike McGinn, along with a coalition of 24 local activists and organizations, launched a
  
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• Rock bands rock Republican presidential candidates for unauthorized use of hit songs

  10-09-2015 23:55
  
  Mike Huckabee is facing a $1.2 million lawsuit, and Tea Party organizers are getting a strong protest, over unauthorized use of two hit songs — “Eye of the Tiger” and “It’s the End of the World as We Know It (and I Feel Fine” — at political rallies this week. The Survivor song was played as 2016 Republican presidential candidate Huckabee, Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis, Davis’ latest husband and her attorney celebrated Davis’ release from a
  
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• The Complete Schedule for the Seattle Design Festival is Now On Our Calendar

  10-09-2015 23:44
  
  This year's Seattle Design Festival runs from Sept 12-25. Trevor Dykstra/Seattle Design Festival 2014
  Starting on Saturday, the fifth annual Seattle Design Festival will take over the city for two weeks with over 40 excellent workshops, performances, talks, parties, and more events celebrating the way design can contribute to a better world. Now, all of those events are in one place on our Seattle Design Festival calendar.If you haven't heard of it, here's Charles Mudede on why you should go:"Th
  
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• Voices from the Picket Lines: John Marshall K-8

  10-09-2015 23:18
  
  Rose Palmer and Jam Shidkhajavi Ansel Herz
  ROSE PALMER
  Jane Addams K-8 (temporarily relocated to the grounds of the John Marshall building near Greenlake)
  Teacher, grade six
  Salary: Unsure
  Why are you picketing today?
  I was in the first strike in 1985. This is a different strike. We have never been more unified. When we voted for that strike in 1985, it was not unanimous. And we were out there for a very long time. There were the court injunctions. Oh, get back to work. It's like, "No. We need t
  
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• Voices from the Picket Lines: Hazel Wolf K-8

  10-09-2015 23:18
  
  Rose Palmer and Jam Shidkhajavi Ansel Herz
  ROSE PALMER
  Hazel Wolf K-8 (temporarily relocated to the grounds of the John Marshall building near Greenlake)
  Teacher, grade six
  Salary: Unsure
  Why are you picketing today?
  I was in the first strike in 1985. This is a different strike. We have never been more unified. When we voted for that strike in 1985, it was not unanimous. And we were out there for a very long time. There were the court injunctions. Oh, get back to work. It's like, "No. We need th
  
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• Savage Love: Guys

  10-09-2015 23:15
  
  JOE NEWTON
  Is it legal for a man to procure the services of a dominatrix? In the kind of session I have in mind, there’s no nudity or sexual activity or contact involved. There’s not even any whipping or flogging or caning or hardcore BDSM stuff. I just want to see what it would be like to be bound and gagged. That’s it. So is it against the law to pay a woman to tie me up?
  Boy Into Nonsexual Domination
  
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• Burgess gets backing from Seattle police commission members, social-justice leaders

  10-09-2015 22:29
  
  A who’s who of Seattle socia- justice leaders, including eight of 13 Community Police Commission members, endorsed reelection of Seattle City Council President Tim Burgess in a letter Thursday, describing Burgess as “a consistent voice for police reform and better policing.” The letter follows by two days a statement by challenger Jon Grant, calling for the immediate firing for “inexcusable behavior” of Seattle Police Officer Cynthia Whitlatch. Grant was given
  
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• The Sucky Education System in Seattle Is Working Exactly As It's Supposed To

  10-09-2015 21:47
  
  A girl unknowing flipping a bird to a system that's meant to suck.Kelly O
  Kendra Rose, who teaches at Franklin High School, recently had an upsetting conversation with a "dude" about the teachers' strike, which began on Wednesday. The dude, an engineer, expressed with great confidence the opinion that Seattle Public Schools teachers should not go on strike because they are asking for too much. They already have more than most others in society, and so should be reasonable about what the school d
  
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• Lions club has U.S. flags stolen before Sept. 11

  10-09-2015 21:17
  
  Lions club has U.S. flags stolen before Sept. 11
  
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• On Sherman Alexie's Choice to Use Racial Bias When Selecting Poems for Best American Poetry 2015

  10-09-2015 21:05
  
  Sherman Alexie used racial bias in his selection process for BAP. Good for him.PHOTO BY CHASE JARVIS
  Yesterday I glossed over Sherman Alexie's revelation that he'd employed "racial nepotism" in his search for the best American poetry of 2015. My only regret—where that one blog post is concerned, anyway—is that I robbed myself of the opportunity to congratulate Alexie on that choice.In response to the controversy over his decision to include "Yi-Fen Chou's" poem in the Best American P
  
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• How Can Washington Properly Fund Its Schools? Do What New Jersey Did.

  10-09-2015 20:53
  
  Teachers on strike at Garfield High School in Seattle. KELLY O
  There was a small detail you could easily have missed in my post Tuesday on the context of the Seattle school employees' union strike.
  It was something I noticed in a Slate story from earlier this summer about our situation here in Washington, and it bears repeating: "When, in 1976, New Jersey was in a similar situation [to Washington], the Supreme Court shut down the schools for eight days. The fruits of that conflict remain with Ne
  
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• SL Letter of the Day: That's So GAY.

  10-09-2015 20:52
  
  Originally posted on December 31, 2014.
  Vanilla straight guy here. As a fellow Washingtonian, I feel proud to live in a state that was among the first to legalize marriage equality by a popular majority vote of the people. I avidly follow the NFL and eat fried bologna sandwiches and do lots of other manly things. However, I have always loved musical theater. Whenever I go to New York, I have to see at least two or three big shows. My question: Is it socially acceptable for me to good-naturedly s
  
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• Q and A about Seattle Public Schools strike

  10-09-2015 20:46
  
  Q and A about potential Seattle Public Schools strike
  
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• Abduction Records to Reissue Sun City Girls’ Lusted-After Classic LP, Torch of the Mystics

  10-09-2015 20:46
  
  Soon you won't have to spend three figures to obtain this Sun City Girls classic.
  During a chance meeting with Alan Bishop after Neil Hamburger’s set Monday at Bumbershoot, he related some huge news sure to cause tremors throughout the rock underground: Finally, he set in motion the machinery to get Sun City Girls’ long-out-of-print classic ethnodelic album Torch of the Mystics back in circulation. Majora originally issued it in 1990. To celebrate the record’s 25th anniversary
  
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• FBI: ‘Pedo mom’ molested girl, 2, online for boyfriend

  10-09-2015 20:42
  
  A Longview woman accused of sexually abusing children on camera has been indicted on child pornography charges.
  
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• Murray releases latest proposal in plan for affordable Seattle housing

  10-09-2015 20:37
  
  Mayor Ed Murray continues pushing for programs to develop more affordable housing in Seattle, now with a push to expand the affordable housing tax exemption program.But how much housing will get created, how long will it take, and how much good will it really do for Seattle's housing crisis?
  
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• Mayor releases latest proposal in plan for affordable Seattle housing

  10-09-2015 20:37
  
  Mayor Ed Murray continues pushing for programs to develop more affordable housing in Seattle, now with a push to expand the affordable housing tax exemption program.
  
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• On Poison Season, Destroyer Leaves the Indie Zeitgeist Behind and Heads into the Mystic

  10-09-2015 20:29
  
  Dan Bejar: Contrarian genius.
  The Established History of Rock and Roll rightly reckons the influence of Bob Dylan and Van Morrison to be nearly limitless in scope and scale—upon the slender shoulders of these two diminutive titans rests much of the firmament of serious popular song. Their canonical works from the 1960s (Highway 61 Revisited, Astral Weeks, etc.) are liturgical documents within the critical community, considered so unimpeachable as to serve as permanent bulwarks against the
  
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• Voices From the Picket Lines: Maple Elementary School

  10-09-2015 19:45
  
  Andy Allen AG
  ANDY ALLEN, 39
  Maple Elementary School
  Math Specialist, Grades 3-5
  Salary: Unsure, in the $40,000s
  Tell me why you're out here today.The major point forteachers here is the extension of the day without adequate compensation. I think everybody at my building at Maple would be more than willing to work a longer day or for kids to be here longer. But the way the district is putting it is, "The kids are going to be here longer, but you don't have to be here longer," which is a totally
  
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• Football Season Is About to Start, So Where the Hell Is Kam Chancellor?

  10-09-2015 19:38
  
  Kam Chancellor tells NFL Network he's "willing to meet Seahawks halfway," uses term "petty." http://t.co/Ep3JaEKcUu pic.twitter.com/bCdHPjU5Ex— The Seattle Times (@seattletimes) September 10, 2015 Seahawks football is almost back. After some reassuring yet meaningless good preseason play (which came on the heels of meaningless bad preseason play), Marshawn Lynch and friends are headed to St. Louis to play the Rams on Sunday. Can you taste the near-insufferability? Can you smell it wafting
  
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• Rallying to Help a Homeschooled Christian Kid Who Got Thrown Out After He Came Out

  10-09-2015 18:30
  
  Earlier this summer, I heard about a kid named Joel whose conservative Christian parents disapproved of both his sexuality and his dream of dancing professionally.Someone sent me a link to a Go Fund Me page that told his story.Joel was this homeschooled Christian kid who wasn’t allowed to take dance classes until he could get a job pay for them himself, which he started doing at age 15. This was a kid who, with the encouragement of a dance teacher in a tiny town in Michigan, auditioned fo
  
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• The Morning News: No Talks As Seattle Teachers Strike Continues

  10-09-2015 17:59
  
  Yesterday Seattle teachers went on strike for the first time in 30 years. Kelly O
  Day One of the Seattle Teachers Strike Ended With No Talks and No Contract: "As Seattle teachers prepared to walk the picket lines for a second day Thursday, district officials are saying they simply don’t have enough money to pay educators as much as they’re asking," reports The Seattle Times. "And although the Seattle School Board has authorized Superintendent Larry Nyland to take legal action, the di
  
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• How to update the KIRO 7 iPad app

  10-09-2015 17:40
  
  How to update the KIRO 7 iPad app
  
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• Watch Sarah Palin Sprinkle Words Blown From Without Her Ass

  10-09-2015 17:34
  
  She appears to be reading. So she wrote this stuff down. These aren't extemporaneous remarks. They're premeditated. She actually meant to say, "Only in an Orwellian Obama world full of sprinkly fairy dust blown from atop a unicorn as he's peeking through a really pretty pink kaleidoscope would he ever see victory or safety of America or Israel in this treaty."
  Thanks again, John McCain.[ Comment on this story ][ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]
  
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• Voices From the Picket Lines: Salmon Bay K-8 School

  10-09-2015 15:02
  
  "I’m a single mom and I live in the south end and I can’t afford to live close to my school," says Salmon Bay 4th grade teacher Xena Eckert. "I can’t live in this neighborhood."HGXENA ECKERT
  Salmon Bay K-8 School
  4th grade teacher
  Salary: $54,000
  Tell me about why you’re out here today.
  For me, this strike is not about pay or about any of these smaller issues, but it’s about bringing everyone together to finally show some unity and have a voice [and] to have the sha
  
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• Inslee wants review of prosecutor’s decision not to charge Pasco officers in February shooting death

  10-09-2015 03:27
  
  Gov. Jay Inslee has ordered a review of the decision by Franklin County Prosecutor Shawn Sant, announced Wednesday, not to prosecute three Pasco police officers who shot to death Antonio Zambrano-Montes last February, after the orchard worker had thrown rocks at police in a busy Pasco intersection. “I want to ensure that people have confidence and trust in the decision that is made in this case:  It is critical that, in the wake of this tragic incident, the community and leaders of th
  
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• Inslee orders review of prosecutor’s decision not to charge Pasco officers in February shooting death

  10-09-2015 03:27
  
  Gov. Jay Inslee has ordered a review of the decision by Franklin County Prosecutor Shawn Sant, announced Wednesday, not to prosecute three Pasco police officers who shot to death Antonio Zambrano-Montes last February after the orchard worker had thrown rocks at police in a busy intersection. “I want to ensure that people have confidence and trust in the decision that is made in this case. It is critical that, in the wake of this tragic incident, the community and leaders of the city of Pas
  
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• Two Phenomenal Asian American Poets Published in Best American Poetry 2015

  10-09-2015 02:43
  
  Jane Wong, a Seattle poet, is featured in Best American Poetry 2015. She helps run Margin Shift, a local series dedicated to championing writers of color.Hannah Sanghee ParkAll the talk about Michael Derrick Hudson's deceitful use of a Chinese pen name is overshadowing the work of actual Asian American poets whose excellent work also appears in Best American Poetry 2015. I'm thinking of Jane Wong and Monica Youn in particular. Can we talk about their poems and how good they are?Jane Wong's "Thaw
  
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• Prosecutors: Seattle music teacher caught ‘grooming’ boy for sex

  10-09-2015 02:12
  
  A Seattle piano teacher accused of making sexual comments to a 13-year-old student has been charged with a sex crime.
  
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• Voices from the Picket Lines: Arbor Heights Elementary

  10-09-2015 01:56
  
  Lawrence Graham Ansel HerzLAWRENCE GRAHAM, 29
  Arbor Heights Elementary
  Teaches: 2nd grade
  Salary: Approximately $60,000
  What’s the biggest issue you want to see solved?
  My main issue is just equity. I think it's a travesty that because of testing—and that's one of our issues, it's huge—schools on the south end of the city, especially east of us here, are getting 15 minutes of recess. And the brain research has shown that's just unacceptable and our brains don't work that way, j
  
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• Free Will Astrology: For the Week of September 9

  10-09-2015 01:55
  
  FESTA/Shutterstock
  VIRGO (Aug 23–Sept 22): I hope it's not too late or too early to give you a slew of birthday presents. You deserve to be inundated with treats, dispensations, and appreciations. Here's your first perk: You are hereby granted a license to break a taboo that is no longer useful or necessary. Second blessing: You are authorized to instigate a wildly constructive departure from tradition. Third boost: I predict that in the next six weeks, you will simultaneously claim new f
  
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• Lawmakers tell feds: A “sustainable, long-term framework” needed for Somalis to send money home

  10-09-2015 01:54
  
  A “sustainable long-term framework” must be put in place so Somalis living in the United States to send money home to families in their impoverished, warlord-ravaged East African homeland, 18 members of Congress, including four from Washington, told the U.S. Treasury Department and National Security Council in a Wednesday letter. “International remittances represent more than 25 percent of Somalia’s gross domestic product:  Nearly a third of Somali families say that
  
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• Voices from the Picket Lines: Washington Middle School

  10-09-2015 01:36
  
  Washington Middle School psychologist Ashley Burchett, far right, today on the picket line. She was joined by school braillist DeeDee Evergreen, far left, and speech therapist Byron Riley, center. Sydney BrownstoneASHLEY BURCHETT, 34
  Washington Middle School
  School psychologist
  Salary: $51,290Why are you here today?
  Seattle as a whole has a lot going on with it, but Washington [Middle School] is a unique apple. For 1,170 students, the district has allocated for me to be here 3.5 days a week. The
  
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• Bankrupt 50 Cent Posts a Video on Instagram of His New Palace in Africa

  10-09-2015 00:03
  
  My crib is almost finished in AFRICA. I'm gonna have the craziest House warming party ever. I'll explain later 😉 I got a good life Man.#EFFENVODKA #FRIGO #SMSAUDIO
  A video posted by 50 Cent (@50cent) on Sep 5, 2015 at 7:53am PDT
  The rapper and Republican 50 Cent, who filed for bankruptcy not long ago and has been musically irrelevant for a good decade, posted on Instagram that his house in Africa is almost completed. It seems no one knew he was building such digs to begin with. 50 also n
  
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