Seattle news

• Transparency Activist Tim Clemans Cancels Most of His Public Disclosure Requests, Volunteers with Seattle Police

  03-02-2016 23:59 via thestranger.com
  
  Tim Clemans. Ansel Herz
  Award-winning programmer Tim Clemans is still searching for a way to make a difference in the fight for government transparency. He's become notorious for filing massive public disclosure requests (PDRs), using the state public records law as a blunt instrument to force state agencies to share more data. But he's tired of that approach. On January 22, he sent the Seattle Police Department the following e-mail message:
  After speaking with Jonah [Spangethenal-Lee] at Seattl
  
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• GOP Candidates Back Anti-Gay Bill That Also Punishes Straight Sex

  03-02-2016 23:42 via thestranger.com
  
  "Here's another fine mess you've gotten us into, Stanley." Christopher Halloran / Shutterstock.com
  Okay, so you already know that the Republican candidates don't care for homosexuals. Obviously. Their conservative base has been gunning for gays — sometimes literally — for decades, and the right-wing obsession with regulating queer sex shows no sign of stopping.
  So you will certainly not be surprised that some of the leading candidates have signed a pledge to push for an anti-gay bill
  
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• James Franco hits Pike Place Market

  03-02-2016 23:37
  
  Looks like "Pineapple Express" made a stop by Seattle's Pike Place market recently.
  
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• NASA: Newly discovered asteroid won't hit us but it could be damn close

  03-02-2016 23:29
  
  NASA scientists say we're going to be alright. But, yeah, it could be close shave.
  
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• Santorum Dribbles Out of Presidential Race

  03-02-2016 23:22 via thestranger.com
  
  Oh, right. This happened:
  Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum is ending his presidential bid, two Republican sources told CNN. He is expected to make the announcement Wednesday night and will endorse a candidate. Santorum won the 2012 Iowa caucuses and ended that race with the second-most number of delegates to eventually GOP nominee Mitt Romney. But he was unable to capture any momentum this year, despite extensive barnstorming efforts in Iowa.
  I called it. Four and half years early... but I
  
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• Ted Cruz Attempts to Force His Daughter to Hug and Kiss Him

  03-02-2016 22:48 via thestranger.com
  
  Ugh. I felt dirty watching this video and I honestly feel pretty squicky about posting it. And I wouldn't be posting it... if it weren't for the glance Ted Cruz shoots at the camera. It's an unnerving glimpse into what passes for that man's soul.[ Comment on this story ][ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]
  
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• Star Wars channels John Updike to resolve sexual tension swirling around Rey

  03-02-2016 22:05
  
  There's lot of talk out there on the Internet about who's going to get with Rey. The super-ninja-Jedi-in-the-making is female and so must be in want of a man. Even Ellen DeGeneres brought it up (see below).
  
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• The Silent-Reading Party Is Tonight! With Live Piano from 6 pm to 8 pm

  03-02-2016 21:19 via thestranger.com
  
  Hotel Sorrento, under construction in 1909. The silent-reading party takes place in its lobby. Courtesy of Sorrento Hotel
  There are a lot of things to do tonight. Eli Sanders is talking about his book While the City Slept (excerpt here)—which grew out of his Pulitzer Prize-winning reporting in The Stranger—at Town Hall at 7. Dan Savage is giving a talk stoned at King Street Station (it's very sold out). And Hillary and Bernie are having a Town Hall with the good people of New Hampshi
  
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• Vote Yes on the School Levies

  03-02-2016 21:14 via thestranger.com
  
  SEATTLE SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 1
  Propositions No. 1 and 2
  Yes
  The ballot now in your mailbox is asking you to renew two existing Seattle Public School levies that do very important things: (1) cover the day-to-day costs of teaching our kids, like books and part of teachers’ salaries, and (2) fund school construction. In an ideal world, all children would get shame-free sex education, all parents would get ample supplies of vape juice, and these local levies wouldn’t matter so much beca
  
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• An Excerpt from While the City Slept, the New Book About the South Park Murder Case and Its Lessons

  03-02-2016 20:41 via thestranger.com
  
  On old maps, the Duwamish River bends like discarded ribbon as it passes through a valley on the southern end of this city, winding across land that was once marshes and tribal fishing villages and then emptying into the salt water of Elliott Bay. Melt from nearby mountains carved this path, rich with salmon that fed the Duwamish Indians in the years before their last unfettered chief, Si'ahl, learned his name would be hammered by white settlers into the name of a new American city: Seattle. No
  
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• Tell Us What to Do with a Sad Misogynist Who Wants Us to Pay Attention to His Misogyny and Homophobia

  03-02-2016 20:32 via thestranger.com
  
  This woman is drinking misogynist tears.wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock
  Daryush "Roosh" Valizadeh is a homophobe and a misogynist. He runs a group called "Return of Kings" (ROK), which, if you've ever had the misfortune of clicking a link to the site, endorses a theory of "neomasculinity" that embraces the idea of legalized rape on private property. On "Roosh V's" list of favorite ROK posts, he highlights pieces like "'Rape Culture' Was Manufactured to Wage an Unjust War Against Men" and tips for "g
  
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• Today In Presidential Hopefuling

  03-02-2016 19:03 via thestranger.com
  
  Donald Trump: Trolling.
  Donald Trump on Wednesday accused Ted Cruz of committing fraud, and called for a new election in Iowa. Ratcheting up his rhetoric after his loss in the Iowa caucuses on Monday, Trump first tweeted an accusation that the Texas senator had "illegally" stolen the election, before tweaking the message. "Ted Cruz didn't win Iowa, he illegally stole it. That is why all of the polls were so wrong any [sic] why he got more votes than anticipated. Bad!" Trump tweeted Wednesday mor
  
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• A Man Died Inside Club Z Last Night

  03-02-2016 18:58 via thestranger.com
  
  An archival photo of the building Club Z now occupies, back before someone obscured its windows. Washington State Archives
  According to Capitol Hill Seattle:A man died of an apparent drug overdose inside a room of Capitol Hill sex club Club Z just before midnight Tuesday.
  Police were called to a reported drug overdose as Seattle Fire responded to the 24-hour club in the 1100 block of Pike just before midnight. According to radio dispatches, a person at the club was attempting CPR to revive the v
  
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• The Morning News: State Representative Resigns After Questions About His Military Record

  03-02-2016 17:57 via thestranger.com
  
  Graham Hunt: No longer a state representative.Washington state legislature
  Last Month, the Seattle Times' Jim Brunner Reported on How State Rep. Graham Hunt May Have Exaggerated His Military Service: "Until recently," Brunner reported then, "in his official and campaign biographies Hunt listed three medals that a military personnel center has no record of him receiving—though a military spokeswoman cautioned that its records are sometimes incomplete."
  Yesterday, Hunt Resigned: Brunner deta
  
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• Obama signs disaster declaration for Washington state’s December storms

  03-02-2016 15:30
  
  Federal assistance will be available in 10 counties for damage from the storm, when rainfall exceeded 20 inches in parts of the Olympic Mountains and up to 10 inches in lowland areas.
  
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• Lost Seattle hiker rescued after ‘beautiful night’ on Mount Hood

  03-02-2016 15:24
  
  The 51-year-old Seattle man called emergency personnel, saying that he had supplies, was in good condition and had built a snow cave for shelter.
  
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• Nominees sought for Seattle’s African American Male Scholars Committee

  03-02-2016 15:10
  
  Members of the African American Male Scholars Committee will report to Superintendent Larry Nyland through the start of the 2017-18 school year.
  
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• Spacewalkers collect experiments, toss flash drive overboard

  03-02-2016 14:11
  
  CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Spacewalking Russians gathered seeds and spores that have been stuck outside the International Space Station for months if not years and gave a ceremonial send-off Wednesday to a flash drive containing special messages for their motherland. Cosmonaut Sergey Volkov waited for good camera views before tossing the flash drive overboard […]
  
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• Russians go spacewalking to collect experiments, test glue

  03-02-2016 14:11
  
  CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Two Russians are taking a spacewalk to install fresh experiments outside the International Space Station and gather old ones. Cosmonauts Yuri Malenchenko and Sergey Volkov stepped out Wednesday. Their first task, added a few days ago, is to release a container with a flash drive that has videos and messages […]
  
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• Tornadoes in the South; snow in Plains and Upper Midwest

  03-02-2016 13:41
  
  JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Heavy rain prompted an apartment evacuation in northwest Georgia one day after storms spawned tornadoes in Mississippi and Alabama and dumped snow on places farther west. The National Weather Service, citing a report from an emergency manager in Catoosa County, Georgia, said the apartments being evacuated before dawn Wednesday were near […]
  
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• With Hail, Caesar!, The Coen Brothers Goose Hollywood

  03-02-2016 13:00 via thestranger.com
  
  With Hail, Caesar!, The Coen Brothers Goose Hollywoodby Ned LannamannIt doesn't matter that Hail, Caesar! barely hangs together. It's too much fun to watch. Joel and Ethan Coen have given us more than their share of bone-chilling noir and ink-black comedy; they've made films that deal with morality and mortality and the divine absurdity of existence. With Hail, Caesar!, they've forgone the brow furrowing and decided to revel in their favorite topic of all—movies. In what amounts to little
  
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• The Pride (and Prejudice and Zombies) of Jane Austen

  03-02-2016 13:00 via thestranger.com
  
  The Pride (and Prejudice and Zombies) of Jane Austenby Courtney FergusonHeading into Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, there are only two things you're dying to see: Mr. Darcy and zombies. The more the better (especially of the Darcy variety). Well, good news for all you empire waistoids—this adaption of Seth Grahame-Smith's 2009 parody novel of Jane Austen's classic is playing with a full deck of whist cards. It's funny, gory, and packed with moist-eyed Mr. Darcys (well, just one, but he's
  
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• Cheat Sheet

  03-02-2016 13:00 via thestranger.com
  
  Vote Yes on the School Leviesby The Stranger Election Control BoardSEATTLE SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 1
  Propositions No. 1 and 2
  Yes
  The ballot now in your mailbox is asking you to renew two existing Seattle Public School levies that do very important things: (1) cover the day-to-day costs of teaching our kids, like books and part of teachers’ salaries, and (2) fund school construction. In an ideal world, all children would get shame-free sex education, all parents would get ample supplies of vap
  
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• 14 Lunar New Year Celebrations In Seattle

  03-02-2016 13:00 via thestranger.com
  
  Ways To Celebrate From Street Festivals to Nightclubsby Stranger Things To Do StaffThe Lunar New Year begins on Monday, February 8. As Angela Garbes writes in her food feature this week, "even though it doesn't get the fanfare that New Year's Eve meals get, for Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese people, Lunar New Year is a deeply significant holiday." And in Seattle at least, there are several events to mark the occasion, from a free celebration at the Asian Art Museum to the Chinatown-Internationa
  
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• Higher temperatures make Zika mosquito spread disease more

  03-02-2016 12:02
  
  WASHINGTON (AP) — The mosquito behind the Zika virus seems to operate like a heat-driven missile of disease. The hotter it gets, the better the mosquito that carries Zika virus is at transmitting its buffet of dangerous illnesses, scientists say. Although it is too early to say for this outbreak, past outbreaks of similar diseases […]
  
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• Ammon Bundy from behind bars: Oregon refuge ‘belongs to the people’

  03-02-2016 10:30
  
  Ammon Bundy again urged four holdouts at the Oregon wildlife refuge to leave, and said local residents should control the federally owned property and U.S. officials do not belong there.
  
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• Regulator: Michigan should have forced Flint to treat water

  03-02-2016 09:19
  
  WASHINGTON (AP) — Michigan should have required the city of Flint to treat its water for corrosion-causing elements after elevated lead levels were first discovered in the city’s water a year ago, the state’s top environmental regulator told Congress Wednesday. State officials “relied on technical compliance (with the law) instead of assuring safe drinking water,” […]
  
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• Scientists to inject fuel in experimental fusion device

  03-02-2016 08:17
  
  GREIFSWALD, Germany (AP) — Scientists in northeast Germany were poised to flip the switch Wednesday on an experiment they hope will advance the quest for nuclear fusion, considered a clean and safe form of nuclear power. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute in Greifswald planned to inject a tiny amount of hydrogen and heat it […]
  
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• Scientists in Germany switch on nuclear fusion experiment

  03-02-2016 08:17
  
  GREIFSWALD, Germany (AP) — Scientists in Germany flipped the switch Wednesday on an experiment they hope will advance the quest for nuclear fusion, considered a clean and safe form of nuclear power. Following nine years of construction and testing, researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics in Greifswald injected a tiny amount of […]
  
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• Skydiving at 91: You’re never too old to spread your wings

  03-02-2016 05:46
  
  Barbara Huggins, 91, went indoor skydiving for the first time. “It felt like you were flying all by yourself,” she said. “It was funny, really.”
  
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• Earthquake early warning gets a boost from businesses

  03-02-2016 05:44
  
  The Obama administration Tuesday offered strong support for an earthquake alert system on the West Coast that would warn residents and businesses seconds to minutes before the shaking starts.
  
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• Rep. Wilson of Vancouver, Wash., to run for Benton’s seat

  03-02-2016 05:29
  
  Rep. Lynda Wilson, R-Vancouver, made the announcement on Tuesday about the seat being vacated by longtime Republican state Sen. Don Benton.
  
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• Metro buses test alarms to improve pedestrian safety

  03-02-2016 05:23
  
  King County Metro and Community Transit will beta-test alarms that flash when people approach the driver’s blind spots. Metro has averaged 24 bus-pedestrian crashes a year over the last decade.
  
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• State’s donors hot for Bernie Sanders

  03-02-2016 05:12
  
  Vermont presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has amazingly gotten more donations from our state than all the other presidential campaigns combined.
  
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• Shops may not survive Seattle’s Central District road project, owners say

  03-02-2016 05:02
  
  Some small-business owners in the Central District say Seattle should be doing more to ease the pain of long-term road work along 23rd Avenue. But officials say providing financial support is against city policy.
  
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• Lawsuits claim insurers unfairly refuse pricey hepatitis C drugs

  03-02-2016 04:29
  
  Two Washington state insurers — Group Health Cooperative and BridgeSpan — are targeted in class-action lawsuits that claim the companies are unfairly rationing new drugs that can cure hepatitis C based on high cost, not medical need.
  
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• Rep. Graham Hunt quits Legislature after false military claims

  03-02-2016 04:26
  
  Embattled state Rep. Graham Hunt, an Orting Republican, quit the Legislature on Tuesday, days after The Seattle Times questioned his claim to be a "combat veteran" of Afghanistan and Iraq.
  
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• Mobile-home industry may get state scrutiny

  03-02-2016 03:50
  
  A bill backed by Gov. Jay Inslee and the state Department of Commerce calls for a study of how the industry sells, finances and repossesses mobile homes.
  
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• While the City Slept

  03-02-2016 03:22 via thestranger.com
  
  An Excerpt from Eli Sanders's New Book, While the City Slept, Which Grew Out of His Pulitzer Prize–Winning Coverage of the South Park Murder Caseby Eli SandersOn old maps, the Duwamish River bends like discarded ribbon as it passes through a valley on the southern end of this city, winding across land that was once marshes and tribal fishing villages and then emptying into the salt water of Elliott Bay. Melt from nearby mountains carved this path, rich with salmon that fed the Duwamish Ind
  
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• What Does a Conductor Actually Do?

  03-02-2016 03:22 via thestranger.com
  
  "What Does a Conductor Actually Do?" and Other Bonehead Questions I Asked Seattle Symphony Music Director Ludovic Morlotby Rich SmithLike many of the so-called high arts, symphonic music suffers from its intimidating reputation as both boring and good for you—a bunch of uptight blue-hairs nodding off in a golden room. The concert hall itself gets pegged as a bank-breaking fancyhaus people attend out of obligation to The Arts, if they even attend at all.But none of these associations hold u
  
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• We Saw You Tied to a Bondage Table, Rollerblading at Green Lake, and Dancing Like a Hippie in West Seattle

  03-02-2016 03:22 via thestranger.com
  
  We Saw You Tied to a Bondage Table, Rollerblading at Green Lake, and Dancing Like a Hippie in West Seattleby Stranger StaffBOY IN BONDAGEYou were tied to a table in the studio where the NoSafeWord podcast is recorded. Apparently that's a thing with the locally produced and wildly popular gay BDSM/kink podcast: There's always a boy tied to the table in the recording studio during recording sessions. You seemed like a nice boy—does your mother know what you get up to on a Sunday night?EVESDR
  
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• Three Things Seattle Is Doing About Homelessness

  03-02-2016 03:22 via thestranger.com
  
  Three Things Seattle Is Doing About Homelessnessby Heidi GrooverSeattle is in the midst of a homelessness crisis.
  That's not news. The number of people living unsheltered in the city has been climbing for years. Last year, the mayor and city council allowed tent encampments to open on city-owned land—an unprecedented recognition that a practice long considered illegal is necessary in order to give people somewhere to live safely. Then, as temperatures dropped and an important city council
  
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• The Multiversal Appeal of Constellations

  03-02-2016 03:22 via thestranger.com
  
  The Multiversal Appeal of Constellations: Great Valentine's Day Theater for Pop-Sci Nerds (aka All of Seattle)by Rich SmithScenic designer L.B. Morse sets Constellations in what looks like a blue Rothko painting. With the exception of one gorgeous, hyper-real moment in the play where the stage shape-shifts into a spectacle I won't describe here for fear of ruining everything, all there is to look at onstage is Roland and Marianne (Max Gordon Moore and Alexandra Tavares, respectively) carrying ou
  
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• Son of Saul Is a Masterpiece That Moves You from Horror to Sadness to Anger to Guilt to Anger to Sadness

  03-02-2016 03:22 via thestranger.com
  
  Son of Saul Is a Masterpiece That Moves You from Horror to Sadness to Anger to Guilt to Anger to Sadnessby Charles MudedeMy experience of László Nemes's debut feature, Son of Saul, was very intense and confusing. My emotions went this way and that—horror to a deep state of sadness to anger. And then I would swell with guilt about this angry feeling. And then I would become angry about this feeling of guilt. And then another scene would sink me into sadness again. Altogether,
  
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• Seattle to Lose One of Its Few Minority-Owned Pot Businesses

  03-02-2016 03:22 via thestranger.com
  
  Seattle to Lose One of Its Few Minority-Owned Pot Businessesby Tobias Coughlin-BogueFusion, a rare minority-owned applicant in Seattle's current class of dispensaries trying to become recreational marijuana retailers under I-502, might not get to move forward with plans to open a location in downtown Seattle. According to owner Maryam Mirnateghi, on January 13 she received a notice from the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board (WSLCB) that there weren't enough licenses to go around. Many o
  
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• Pass the Chlorinated Chicken, S'il Vous Plait

  03-02-2016 03:22 via thestranger.com
  
  Huge Trade Agreements Like the TTIP and the TPP Don't Spur Growth—They Undermine Democracyby Charles MudedeI must begin this review with a confession. I had no idea that many of the chickens sold in supermarkets in the United States have been bathed in chlorine. I know all about hormone-enhanced beef and genetically tricked veggies. But somehow I missed the memo on the chlorinated chickens, many of which I have eaten, and many more I'm condemned to bake and braise in the future.Europeans f
  
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• My Philosophy: Pop Culture Pop-Offs, "Purrposley," and the Folly of Trying to Sum Up Seattle Hiphop History

  03-02-2016 03:22 via thestranger.com
  
  My Philosophy: Pop Culture Pop-Offs, "Purrposley," and the Folly of Trying to Sum Up Seattle Hiphop Historyby Larry Mizell Jr.My laptop was sorely trippin' the day Rihanna's excellent ANTI came out, the day that Kanye gave an itemized list of reckless statements to Wiz Khalifa (a highlight being "I own your child") that resulted in him (Kanye) being savagely kink-shamed by his ex. Also the day that Kells, never helping, recounted the time he tried to marry his mama.Pop culture pop-offs, high pol
  
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