Seattle news

• T-Mobile’s phone financing plan draws complaint

  11-12-2015 23:41
  
  Change to Win, a union federation based in Washington, D.C., has asked the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to investigate what it calls T-Mobile’s “misleading advertisements and abusive debt collection practices.”
  
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• Charges: Prior crimes didn’t stop Columbia City girl’s killer from getting gun

  11-12-2015 23:41
  
  A freshly convicted felon shot and killed his 14-year-old niece for a pair of shoes, according to charges filed in the Sunday afternoon killing.
  
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• Last-Minute Plans: 23 Free & Easy Things To Do This Weekend

  11-12-2015 23:40 via thestranger.com
  
  This is what SantaCon looks like in Times Square. This weekend, you can participate in Seattle's version of SantaCon. a katz/Shutterstock
  Why spend money on entertainment this weekend when you could go to Georgetown Art Attack, getTheo chocolate at Pike Place, or catch a comedy show featuring Emmett Montgomery and Elicia Sanchez—for free? See details on all of those and more on this list, and find even more events on our Things To Do calendar. Plus, check out our list of holiday gift marke
  
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• My Top 10 Films of 2015 and the Golden Globe Nominations

  11-12-2015 23:37 via thestranger.com
  
  Kornél Mundruczó's White God is the best film of 2015.
  Here are my top 10 films for 2015…
  1.White God
  2. Two Days, One Night
  3. 99 Homes
  4. Amour Fou
  5. Court
  6. Advantageous
  7. The Martian
  8. Clouds of Sils Maria
  9. Ex Machina
  10. Taxi
  Three films from my list—The Martian, Ex Machina, and 99 Homes—were nominated for the 73rd Annual Golden Globes yesterday. Leading the nominations, however, are two films I have not seen, Carol and The Big Short. The former is by
  
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• I, Anonymous: Happy Fucksgiving

  11-12-2015 23:15 via thestranger.com
  
  STEVEN WEISSMAN
  You and your mom (?) came into my workplace on Thanksgiving Day. We were slammed. As soon as you found out you were being seated at the bar, you both immediately started bitching. I explained that this was all we had left. Finally, you took your spots at the bar and your mom spat, “Well, this sucks!” loud enough for the whole place to hear…
  
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• Taking aim at leftover turkeys

  11-12-2015 23:13
  We’re well over a week past the final “toss-by” date for turkey and trimmings, but here in the Wrap Department, where the big red Solo Cup of Life’s Bounty is always viewed as at least half full, we pause now to give thanks. Specifically, for a couple notable exceptions to the broad, unnatural phenomenon of […]
  
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• The Seattle Police Officers Union Reportedly Voted Down a New Contract Proposal That Could Move Reform Forward

  11-12-2015 22:38 via thestranger.com
  
  Chief Kathleen O'Toole and most city officials are on record supporting civilian-recommended accountability reforms—but whether many of them are implemented depends on the outcome of negotiations with the guild, which claims it's "under attack" by Black Lives Matter Activists. Alex Garland
  The Seattle Times' Steve Miletich has the scoop:
  In a setback to police reform, the board of the Seattle police guild has voted to reject a tentative labor contract with the city seen as a key opportunit
  
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• Police Reports Illustrated: The Man Who Mistook a Traffic Stop for a Coke Party

  11-12-2015 22:30 via thestranger.com
  
  Callan Berry[ Comment on this story ][ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]
  
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• Family of inmate who died of dehydration settles claim

  11-12-2015 22:15
  
  The family of a man who died from dehydration and malnutrition in the Island County Jail has reached a $4 million settlement with three counties.
  
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• Family of inmate who died of dehydration in Island County Jail settles claim for $4M

  11-12-2015 22:15
  
  The family of a man who died from dehydration and malnutrition in the Island County Jail has reached a $4 million settlement with three counties.
  
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• Tentative razor clam opener scheduled around Christmas at Copalis Beach, the first opening after marine toxins closed beaches last spring

  11-12-2015 21:55
  Coastal razor clam diggers can start making plans to head to Copalis Beach on Dec. 24-26 – after being closed due to marine toxins since last spring. “We got an early Christmas present in the form of razor clams to open Copalis,” said Dan Ayres, the head state Fish and Wildlife coastal shellfish manager. “We […]
  
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• Razor clam opener scheduled around Christmas at Copalis Beach, the first after marine toxins closures last spring

  11-12-2015 21:55
  Coastal razor clam diggers can start making plans to head to Copalis Beach on Dec. 24-26 – after being closed due to marine toxins since last spring. “We got an early Christmas present in the form of razor clams to open Copalis,” said Dan Ayres, the head state Fish and Wildlife coastal shellfish manager. “We […]
  
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• Congressional delegation wants feds’ help in repairing storm-damaged highways — and gets it

  11-12-2015 21:54
  
  Washington state’s politicians in the “other” Washington have received and responded to a reality check: There is nothing like a natural disaster to focus the mind. The full Washington delegation, putting aside its partisan disagreements, on Friday urged the U.S. Department of Transportation to speedily approve emergency relief funding to repair heavy damage to highways in Washington caused by storms from Nov. 30 to Dec. 8. State department of transportation officials survey th
  
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• Congressional asks for feds’ help in repairing storm-damaged highways

  11-12-2015 21:54
  
  Washington state’s politicians in the “other” Washington have received and responded to a reality check: There is nothing like a natural disaster to focus the mind. The full Washington delegation, putting aside its partisan disagreements, on Friday urged the U.S. Department of Transportation to speedily approve emergency relief funding to repair heavy damage to highways in Washington caused by storms from Nov. 30 to Dec. 8. State department of transportation officials survey th
  
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• Search under way for missing Seattle firefighter

  11-12-2015 21:46
  
  Police are asking for the public’s help in locating a missing Seattle firefighter.
  
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• As an Austrian, I'm Baffled by America's Love for The Sound of Music

  11-12-2015 20:52 via thestranger.com
  
  Contrary to popular opinion “Edelweiss” is not the Austrian national anthem.
  They forced me to watch it. Never in a million years would I have watched it of my own accord. But I had no choice. My American friends were relentless. They plunged me into the sticky, yodeling happiness of The Sound of Music.
  Contrary to popular belief, "Edelweiss" is not the Austrian national anthem. Virtually nobody has seen the movie in Austria, where this travesty is set. The reason: When the movie was
  
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• Mayor Murray to UW: Don’t skirt affordable-housing fees in Rainier Square development

  11-12-2015 20:49
  Seattle Mayor Ed Murray told the University of Washington he wants millions more in affordable-housing fees from its Rainier Square high-rise development, calling its plan to pay less “inappropriate.”
  
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• Emotions Run High at Ballard's Bauhaus Coffee, Which Is Closing Forever Because of "Financial Difficulties"

  11-12-2015 20:44 via thestranger.com
  
  Ballard Bauhaus employees, left to right: Jasmine Morse, Brandon Green, and Katie Gower. On Sunday, their jobs will end.AG
  The line for coffee at the Ballard location of Bauhaus Books and Coffee has reached the door most of the morning, just as it does every day. The cafe is bustling and full of people typing away on laptops and parents with their small children, all of whom seem to be regulars. It feels like a typical day, except that before leaving, instead of waving good-bye, customers are hu
  
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• Top 11 Concerts to See This Weekend

  11-12-2015 20:30 via thestranger.com
  
  Give a hearty happy birthday to Funhouse booker Brian Foss on Friday.
  In addition to our list of holiday concerts you should check out this month, our music critics have also recommended great holiday-related live shows this weekend—like the two-night hesher paradise that is Hail Santa and a birthday celebration for Sonic Reducer's Brian Foss (who's sort of like a punk Santa Claus). See all of this weekend's picks here, and find even more great concerts this weekend on our Things To Do cal
  
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• Prosecutors: Knife-wielding stranger tackled woman on Seattle trail

  11-12-2015 20:27
  
  A Seattle man accused of tackling a woman as she jogged on the Burke-Gilman Trail has been charged with assault.
  
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• Congress Once Again Barely Able to Keep the Government Lights On

  11-12-2015 20:12 via thestranger.com
  
  House Speaker Paul Ryan asks onlookers at his magic show to verify that there's nothing up his sleeve. Seth C Fisher / Shutterstock.com
  The useless twerps taking up space in Congress have let us down again, failing to pass a budget by yet another deadline. The US government was scheduled to shut down today — good riddance, as far as I'm concerned — but a temporary spending bill should keep it hobbling along until Wednesday.
  I'm pretty confident they'll manage to get something passed
  
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• Ski report: Snoqualmie’s Summit West opens; road damage closes White Pass with no timeline to reopen the highway

  11-12-2015 19:54
  
  The deluge punched the Cascade mountainsides with enormous amounts of rain, but it wasn’t a knockout and almost every ski area managed to weather the storm  — except for the White Pass Ski Area. White Pass will remain closed until the state Department of Transportation can make repairs to multiple damages along both sides of […]
  
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• Seattle misses out on City of Literature bid

  11-12-2015 19:34
  
  The UNESCO City of Literature designation is awarded to cities that show a fervent interest in literature and publishing. In this round, nine cities received the designation, none of them in the U.S.
  
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• Man dies 6 years after he was slammed into wall by deputy, disabled

  11-12-2015 19:10
  
  A man who suffered a catastrophic brain injury from which he never recovered after being slammed into a concrete wall by a King County sheriff’s deputy six years ago died on Thursday night.
  
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• Five Months After a Devastating Fire, Columbia City's Bob's Quality Meats Has Reopened

  11-12-2015 19:01 via thestranger.com
  
  Just in time for Christmas, Bob's Quality Meats is back in business.AG
  This past July, a two-alarm fire melted the ceiling and walls of Bob's Quality Meats, the Columbia City butcher shop that has been run by the Ackley family since the late 1970s. (The building, built in 1892, has been a meat store, owned and operated by multiple generations of two different families, since 1909.) The fire caused more than $300,000 in property and product damage. As customers, myself very much included, mourned
  
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• Want Organic Weed? Third-Party-Certified Pot Is the Next Best Thing

  11-12-2015 18:31 via thestranger.com
  
  Plenty of people claim their weed is "all-natural," free of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, and watered by wizard tears straight from Gandalf's face. But no weed can be officially organically certified because the federal government still classifies it as a Schedule 1 drug.
  In the absence of USDA organic certification, however, third-party organizations have stepped in to fill the void. There are currently two cannabis certification programs in Washington State, Certified Kind and Clean G
  
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• Seattle's Upcoming Uber Vote Has D.C. Libertarians Freaking Out

  11-12-2015 18:28 via thestranger.com
  
  On December 14, the Seattle city council will vote on an ordinance that would allow Uber and Lyft drivers union representation. It looks like Washington D.C. libertarians are paying close attention. eskay / Shutterstock.com
  On Wednesday, a policy analyst for theCompetitive Enterprise Institute (CEI)—a D.C. "free market" think tank well-known for pushing climate change denialism—published an op-ed expressing concern about Seattle's upcoming vote to allow Uber and Lyft drivers union re
  
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• OSU fraternity charged, suspended after toga party

  11-12-2015 18:25
  
  An Oregon State University fraternity is in hot water following a drunken toga party last week.
  
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• The Morning News: Bill Bryant on the Minimum Wage, Possible Hate Crime Against an Uber Driver, More Bauhaus Closures

  11-12-2015 17:47 via thestranger.com
  
  Republican Bill Bryant: Yes to the tunnel; no to a statewide minimum wage increase. WSDOT
  Bill Bryant Doesn't Support a Statewide Minimum Wage Increase: While Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee supports raising the minimum wage across Washington, Republican challenger (and outgoing Port of Seattle commissioner) Bill Bryant told the Northwest News Network's Austin Jenkins, “The concern I have is that we can’t or we shouldn’t pin a minimum wage to the cost of living in King County. So I
  
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• Body of missing Yakima doctor reported found in Kiev, Ukraine

  11-12-2015 17:22
  A body believed to be that of a retired Yakima physician who disappeared in Kiev, Ukraine, in 2013 has been discovered near the park where he was last seen.
  
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• Rare elephant species found in war-torn South Sudan

  11-12-2015 16:50
  A critically endangered elephant species has been photographed by researchers for the first time in South Sudan, significantly expanding the known range of the animal. But even in these remote central African forests, it faces threats from illegal logging and from war.
  
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• Blabbermouth: Our Week-in-Review Podcast Talks to Congressman Jim McDermott and His New Challenger, Brady Walkinshaw

  11-12-2015 15:06 via thestranger.com
  
  Episode 32 of our Stranger week-in-review podcast features Congressman Jim McDermott, left, and the guy who wants to unseat him: State Representative Brady Walkinshaw, right. (Wanna subscribe to the show on iTunes? Right here!)
  This dark week was a reminder that it matters who we elect to speak for us at the national level—a whole hell of a lot. And if you live in Seattle, you probably already know that the guy who speaks for you in the US House of Representatives is named Jim McDermott. H
  
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• Student poets tell their stories of coming to America

  11-12-2015 15:02
  
  Students at Foster High School in Tukwila, all of them refugees, tell their "Stories of Arrival" in verse. An anthology of their work will be released next week.
  
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• Amid disputes, critical Paris climate talks run over

  11-12-2015 14:45
  
  LE BOURGET, France (AP) — High-stakes climate talks outside Paris are dragging into an extra day as diplomats try to overcome disagreements over how — or even whether — to share the costs of fighting climate change and shift to clean energy on a global scale. Negotiators from more than 190 countries are aiming at […]
  
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• NASA: 3 space station astronauts safely return to Earth

  11-12-2015 14:41
  NASA's Kjell Lindgren, Russia's Oleg Kononenko and Kimiya Yui of Japan returned to Earth Friday in their Soyuz TMA-17M capsule after 141 days in space. They touched down on schedule northeast of Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan.
  
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• Fire at old Seattle Times building causes minor damage

  11-12-2015 14:08
  A small fire caused minor damage to the former Seattle Times building early Friday morning.
  
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• SPD releases more footage of Sunday’s wild chase to catch carjacker

  11-12-2015 06:58
  
  The clips include surveillance footage and dramatic dash-cam video.
  
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• SPD should rethink use of blast balls to scatter crowds, report says

  11-12-2015 05:47
  
  Evidence shows blast balls exploded in proximity to people, not all of whom were engaged in destruction of property or posed a threat to public safety, according to an internal report.
  
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• SPD should rethink use of blast balls to disperse crowds, report says

  11-12-2015 05:47
  
  Evidence shows blast balls exploded in proximity to people, not all of whom were engaged in destruction of property or posed a threat to public safety, according to an internal report.
  
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• Crews scramble to open roads, assess damage after storms

  11-12-2015 05:17
  
  Transportation crews made progress clearing debris from mudslides Thursday, but the threat of more damage lingers amid wet conditions.
  
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• 8 lanes: Too many for Seattle’s waterfront?

  11-12-2015 04:31
  Is it possible for Seattle to avoid an eight-lane road expanse on waterfront Alaskan Way, yet still bring more than 30,000 bus commuters to and from downtown?
  
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• Sarah Palin backs Trump, blasts media: ‘Profile away’

  11-12-2015 04:20
  
  Ex-Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin is mounting a mama grizzly’s defense of Donald Trump and his call for a temporary “total and complete shutdown” of entry by Muslims into the United States. She can see Russia from her state, but the former Alaska governor sees danger lurking in those headed out of the Middle East for America’s shores. Sarah Palin backs Trump, blasts media:  “If it saves innocent lives, I say, ‘Profile away'” &ldquo
  
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• Mount Vernon woman one of last nude Playboy centerfolds

  11-12-2015 04:19
  
  Amberleigh West, 24, of Mount Vernon, will be one of two Playmates in the final issue of Playboy magazine to include nudity, as it searches for more profitability in the Internet age.
  
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• Gunshot-locator system may be tested in Seattle

  11-12-2015 03:58
  
  Seattle officials are considering whether to try automatic gunshot-locator technology to help reduce gun violence.
  
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• Group Health stands by rules limiting who can vote on Kaiser deal

  11-12-2015 03:49
  
  Officials at Seattle’s Group Health Cooperative said they’re sticking to plans that prevent most of the organization’s 600,000 members from voting on a proposed acquisition by California’s Kaiser Permanente.
  
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• Savage Love Letter of the Day: My Fuckbuddy, My Cousin

  11-12-2015 03:03 via thestranger.com
  
  I had sex with a second cousin—our mothers are first cousins—a few years ago. We were not raised together. We had only ever met twice. Then we wound up "hanging out" for a week or so. Had sex several times. We swore it was a one-time deal and that we would never to tell anyone. A couple months later I moved across the country and married someone else.
  Well, a couple years have passed, I'm getting divorced, and I've moved back to the area. Now we are talking a lot and both want to mee
  
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• City of Bellevue to get funds to improve data use

  11-12-2015 02:37
  
  The city will get technical support from the Bloomberg Philanthropies “What Works Cities” program to enhance use of data in city business.
  
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• SPD investigating possible hate crime against ride-share driver

  11-12-2015 02:27
  A passenger reportedly accused the driver of being a terrorist and punched him in the head, according to police.
  
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• REVIEW: Reissue of Savant's Artificial Dance Unveils a Long-Lost Local Underground Classic

  11-12-2015 02:24 via thestranger.com
  
  RVNG Intl.
  SAVANT
  Artificial Dance
  (RVNG Intl.)
  ****1/2 (out of 5)
  Strangely, one of Seattle’s most interesting experimental musicians has only come to greater public awareness through the auspices of New York City’s RVNG Intl. Last year, that label excavated and packaged the subterranean music of K. Leimer on A Period of Review (Original Recordings: 1975-1983). (I had the honor of writing liner notes for that release, and part of the process involved asking several local musicians
  
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• Man accused of blinding girlfriend in scissor attack

  11-12-2015 02:03
  
  Prosecutors say a 53-year-old man acted with “deliberate cruelty” when he attacked his girlfriend with a pair of scissors in a Seattle motel room last week, blinding her.
  
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