Seattle news

• Alaska House committee gets blowback to dividend proposal

  23-05-2019 23:46
  JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — House lawmakers heard angry reactions to a bill that would pay residents a full Alaska Permanent Fund dividend this year but seek to change the dividend formula going forward. The dividend traditionally has been paid with permanent fund earnings. The bill would use fund earnings and money from savings this year. […]
  
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• 25 Non-SIFF Movies Worth Watching in Seattle This Weekend: May 23–27, 2019

  23-05-2019 23:40 via thestranger.com
  
  by Stranger Things To Do StaffEven when Booksmart reminds you a little too poignantly of high school, it's a lot of fun.
  As the Seattle International Film Festival finishes its second week (see our list of SIFF picks this week and our full guide), other great movies are also playing around town. Aladdin is an ugly dud, but Olivia Wilde's Booksmart is deliciously acted fun, Terry Gilliam's long-awaited The Man Who Killed Don Quixote has been released after 25 years of on-and-off production, and T
  
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• 24 Non-SIFF Movies Worth Watching in Seattle This Weekend: May 23–27, 2019

  23-05-2019 23:40 via thestranger.com
  
  by Stranger Things To Do StaffEven when Booksmart reminds you a little too poignantly of high school, it's a lot of fun.
  As the Seattle International Film Festival finishes its second week (see our list of SIFF picks this week and our full guide), other great movies are also playing around town. Aladdin is an ugly dud, but Olivia Wilde's Booksmart is deliciously acted fun, Terry Gilliam's long-awaited The Man Who Killed Don Quixote has been released after 25 years of on-and-off production, and T
  
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• Chastity Belt Is Back, Baby!

  23-05-2019 23:30 via thestranger.com
  
  by Jasmyne KeimigThese sleepyheads play the Clock-Out Lounge tonight with opener Red Ribbon Courtesy of Hardly Art/Carley Solether
  The always charming post-party-punk quartet Chastity Belt is back, Seattle! Not that they went anywhere too far, but this is their first tour since calling off dates last year due to health reasons. We’re glad they’re feeling better and ready to hop back into action! Tonight, they play at the Clock-Out Lounge to a sold out audience.Meeting as students in
  
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• Owner of Bend Bulletin plans to dissolve the company

  23-05-2019 23:25
  BEND, Ore. (AP) — The owner of the Bend Bulletin plans to dissolve the company and sell all seven newspapers in its Pacific Northwest chain, according to a liquidation plan filed in federal bankruptcy court Wednesday, Oregon Public Broadcasting reported Thursday. In the plan, Western Communications outlines the terms of its own demise, but provides […]
  
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• 24 Non-SIFF Movies Worth Watching in Seattle This Weekend: May 23–26, 2019

  23-05-2019 23:01 via thestranger.com
  
  Booksmart, The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, The Biggest Little Farm, and Other Stranger Critics' Picksby Stranger Things To Do StaffAs the Seattle International Film Festival finishes its second week (see our list of SIFF picks this week and our full guide), other great movies are also playing around town. Aladdin is an ugly dud, but Olivia Wilde's Booksmart is deliciously acted fun, Terry Gilliam's long-awaited The Man Who Killed Don Quixote has been released after 25 years of on-and-off product
  
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• Task force created to improve Idaho broadband infrastructure

  23-05-2019 22:46
  BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Gov. Brad Little has created a task force aimed at improving broadband infrastructure across Idaho. The Republican in a news release on Thursday announced he had signed an executive order creating the Idaho Broadband Task Force. Little says connectivity in a data-driven society is imperative for a vital economy. Little directed […]
  
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• Tiny Idiot Indulges in Holy Drivel: A Q&A with Seattle Comedian Derek Sheen

  23-05-2019 22:45 via thestranger.com
  
  A Q&A with the great, manic Seattle stand-up Derek Sheen in advance of his next album, which he's recording at Clock-Out Lounge Saturday.by Dave Segal"My sense of humor is really just a defense mechanism against fear and stupidity." Luke Douglas FieldsBrave enough to mock his chubbiness and lack of phallic endowment (“I got cockblocked by my own body.”), Derek Sheen (no relation to Charlie, et al.) is building a body of work that's as towering as his own stature is diminutive: Hi
  
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• Police commander resigns after drunk driving accusations

  23-05-2019 22:34
  PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A longtime Portland police commander who was accused of driving drunk off duty and crashing a police SUV into a light pole has resigned. The Oregonian/OregonLive reports 47-year-old Steven James Jones was head of the bureau’s Professional Standards Division at the time of the June 2018 crash. His lawyer says Jones […]
  
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• The Vinyl Frontier: The Time NASA Shot a Record into Outer Space

  23-05-2019 22:24 via thestranger.com
  
  Jonathan Scott’s book recounts the history of the Voyager Golden Record project.by Ned LannamannIn 1977, NASA sent two Voyager probes out into space, and during the next few decades each beamed back vital information about the outer reaches of our solar system. But while they were primarily meant to transmit data back to Earth, the Voyagers had a secondary purpose: sending information about us into the vast unknown.{{ image:3, align:right, width:200 }}Famously, each probe had a gold-plated
  
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• State’s high court upholds $1,000 fines for rogue electors who didn’t vote for Hillary Clinton in 2016

  23-05-2019 22:09
  The four electors, three of whom voted for Colin Powell, argued that a state infringes on their free speech rights and interferes with a federal electoral process. A Superior Court judge and the state Supreme Court have disagreed.
  
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• 4 Washington state electors decided not to vote for Hillary Clinton in 2016. They were fined $1,000, went to court and lost.

  23-05-2019 22:09
  The four electors, three of whom voted for Colin Powell, argued that a state infringes on their free speech rights and interferes with a federal electoral process. A Superior Court judge and the state Supreme Court have disagreed.
  
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• Sexually Inexhaustible Husband Expects Too Much From Completely Exhausted Wife

  23-05-2019 22:01 via thestranger.com
  
  Savage Love Letter of the Dayby Dan Savage
  I’m a 35-year-old straight woman married to a 42-year-old straight man. We have four kids and although my body came out of it all in pretty hot shape, I am fucking exhausted. I absolutely love sex and have a pretty high sex drive. We have sex nearly daily. I have come to accept that I am vanilla. Maybe like a jalapeño vanilla, but still pretty damn vanilla. My husband is incredible. Handsome, kind, a great father and a generous, creative lo
  
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• Seattle’s Newest Craft Beer Brand Is Coming for Rainier

  23-05-2019 21:55 via thestranger.com
  
  Can a local beer compete with Rainier and Bud Light?by Lester BlackChris Smith, Dan Martinez, and Seiky Huerta want to convince Rainier drinkers to buy local beer. Lester Black
  It’s normal for any small business owner to be worried before they launch a new product, especially if it’s an entirely new brand. But the precise worry that is on Chris Smith’s mind the day before he launches his new brand, Seattle Lite, is somewhat strange when you consider he is the owner of a so-call
  
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• Senate approves cut to public employee retirement benefits

  23-05-2019 21:44
  SALEM, Ore. (AP) — In a surprise vote, the Oregon Senate has approved a short-term pension fix cutting public employee retirement benefits. Lawmakers voted 16 to 12 Thursday to redirect 2.5% of employee salary toward the Oregon Public Employee Retirement System, or PERS. The change is expected to cut employees’ supplemental pension account by anywhere […]
  
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• Iranian Drama Widow of Silence Illustrates the Legal Limbo of a "Half-Widow"

  23-05-2019 21:03 via thestranger.com
  
  by Andrew WrightLife ain't easy for a "half-widow" in Iran.
  Deep within the powder keg of Kashmir, a beleaguered Muslim “half-widow” repeatedly makes the hazardous trek to the nearest government center to try to claim the death certificate of her long-missing husband. Her attempts to move on, however, are stymied by a society where, to quote one of the wormier bureaucrats, it’s the “responsibility of the people to keep their government happy.”Writer/director Praveen
  
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• The Stranger's Resident Vegan Goes to the (Plant-Based) Ice Cream Shop Two Blocks Away

  23-05-2019 20:25 via thestranger.com
  
  by Dave SegalA scoop of Salty Caramel Ash and a scoop of Mexico Morning (their coffee flavor).ANTHONY KEO
  Are there stronger signs of gentrification than vegan ice-cream joints? Maybe the flotation spa nearby has Frankie & Jo's beat. But if we're going to have nouveau-riche luxury in 2019 Seattle, it might as well transpire without cruelty to animals.
  Frankie & Jo's bolsters your moral rectitude while hitting you with many flavors you can't find elsewhere. Their niche is narrow, but they
  
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• This Is Not Berlin, It's Mexico City in the '80s and People Love New Wave

  23-05-2019 19:55 via thestranger.com
  
  by Chase BurnsIn case you missed it: GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY.
  Film critic Nate Jones (or his editor) wrote a good headline in his review of This Is Not Berlin for Vulture: “The Movie That Will Make You Want to Become a Pansexual New-Wave Performance Artist in 1980s Mexico.” I very much identified with that headline while watching director Hari Sama’s semiautobiographical film about being a teenager in mid-1980s Mexico City, although the looming AIDS epidemic part is certainly somet
  
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• Aladdin Is Loud, Cheery, Tacky, and Vacuously Good-Natured

  23-05-2019 19:52 via thestranger.com
  by Ned LannamannIt could have been worse.Disney's live-action remake of 1992’s Aladdin is a loud, obnoxious concoction of demographic targeting, corporation-backed nostalgia pandering, and ugly CGI. It has all the urgency of a (very expensive) piece of community theater and all the artistry of a quarterly earnings report.It’s entirely devoid of personality, which is kind of impressive, considering Guy Ritchie directed it (his presence is entirely undetectable except for a few weird S
  
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• Cigarette company asks US Supreme Court to review tax case

  23-05-2019 19:22
  The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last year that King Mountain Tobacco was on the hook for $58 million in unpaid taxes. The tobacco company claims the Yakama Treaty of 1855 protects it from the federal taxes.
  
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• GOP, Dems team up to address ‘surprise medical bills’

  23-05-2019 19:13
  WASHINGTON (AP) — Senior Republican and Democratic senators are proposing legislation to address the problem of surprise medical bills. Those are the shockingly high charges insured patients can get hit with when a hospital or doctor is not in their insurers’ network. The proposal Thursday from Sens. Lamar Alexander, a Tennessee Republican, and Patty Murray, […]
  
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• GOP, Democrats team up to address surprise medical bills

  23-05-2019 19:13
  WASHINGTON (AP) — Plunging ahead despite paralyzing partisanship in the nation’s capital, senior lawmakers of both parties Thursday proposed legislation to tackle surprise medical bills and other concerns, from prescription drug costs to uneven vaccination rates. The draft bill from Sens. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and Patty Murray, D-Wash., echoes a time when health care issues […]
  
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• Presidential hopeful John Delaney seeks carbon emissions fee

  23-05-2019 19:02
  WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic presidential candidate John Delaney is the latest 2020 contender to introduce a climate change plan, and he’s proposing a fee on carbon emissions that he says aims to reduce them by 90% by midcentury. That idea is part of the former Maryland congressman’s $4 trillion plan, which is similar to one […]
  
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• Historic Seattle Makes a Preliminary Offer to Buy The Showbox, and Save It From Demolition

  23-05-2019 18:55 via thestranger.com
  
  A nonprofit has made a preliminary offer to try to purchase the historic Showbox venue.by Lester BlackPreservation or 44 floors of apartments? A local nonprofit might get to decide. Lester Black
  There’s a new player in the fight to save the Showbox from demolition. The nonprofit organization Historic Seattle said they made a preliminary offer last week to Roger Forbes, the venue's owner. The nonprofit is asking Forbes to delay his lawsuit for a year while they hunt for the funds to purchas
  
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• Governor picks Idaho man as new Kansas corrections secretary

  23-05-2019 18:38
  TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly has selected an Idaho prison official as her new secretary of corrections. The governor said in a news release Thursday that she had picked Jefferey Zmuda, the deputy director of the Idaho Department of Correction. He starts July 1. Kelly says this is a critical time of […]
  
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• Former PTA treasurer charged with theft of group’s funds

  23-05-2019 18:22
  ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A 31-year-old former PTA treasurer at an Anchorage elementary school has been charged with stealing more than $7,100 from the group. Kayla Faaloua is charged with theft and misapplication of property at William Tyson Elementary School. Anchorage Police Department Detective Michele Logan in a criminal complaint says thefts occurred between April […]
  
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• Vitaly Mansky's Fantastic, Eerie Doc Putin's Witnesses Examines Just How a Dictator Comes to Power and Keeps It

  23-05-2019 17:55 via thestranger.com
  
  by Rich SmithNot a nice man.
  The United States of America elected its first dictator in 2016. Since Trump took office, he's wielded power with all the cunning and foresight of a racist, rampaging baby. But imagine if he actually wanted the job. Imagine if he was, say, a well-trained CIA agent with a plan to stoke the flames of nationalism and somehow expand American imperialism even farther around the globe. Vitaly Mansky's Putin’s Witnesses gives us that opportunity.The fascinating and de
  
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• US sanctions Argentina-based online pharmacy

  23-05-2019 17:45
  WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States on Thursday designated the Argentina-based online pharmacy Goldpharma and eight Argentine citizens as significant foreign narcotics traffickers. The Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control said in a news release that Goldpharma sells illicit opioids to customers located in the United States through its nine entities located […]
  
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• Fairbanks motorcycle driver dies in crash into trees

  23-05-2019 17:41
  FAIRBANKS, Alaska (AP) — A 38-year-old Fairbanks motorcycle driver died when his bike crashed northeast of the city. Alaska State Troopers say Alexander Holder died in the accident late Tuesday night. A witness told troopers that Holder was traveling at high speed on the Old Steese Highway when he lost control and drove into trees. […]
  
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• Slog AM: Whale Watching Captains Sue San Juan County Activists, Washington Is a Sanctuary State, Forest Service Won't Reimburse California Firefighters

  23-05-2019 17:37 via thestranger.com
  
  by Timothy KenneyJust in time for wildfire season. ARISHARAY / GETTY IMAGES
  San Juan whale watching boats sue activists over proposed restrictions: Now that we know orcas are fucking sick of our boat motors, the state is implementing restrictions on how close you can get. But in San Juan County, activists have submitted an initiative to increase the states boundary from 300 feet to 650 feet of protective, no vessel peace and quiet around orcas. The whale watching boats aren’t too thrilled
  
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• US forecasters: Expect weaker Atlantic hurricane season

  23-05-2019 17:36
  WASHINGTON (AP) — The Atlantic hurricane season is off to yet another early start, but U.S. weather officials say it should be a near normal year. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Thursday predicted nine to 15 named storms. It says four to eight of them will become hurricanes and two to four of […]
  
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• US forecasters: Expect near normal Atlantic hurricane season

  23-05-2019 17:36
  WASHINGTON (AP) — The Atlantic hurricane season is off to yet another early start, but U.S. weather officials say it should be a near normal year. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Thursday predicted nine to 15 named storms. It says four to eight of them will become hurricanes and two to four of […]
  
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• Trying to finish, Oregon House to begin Saturday sessions

  23-05-2019 17:01
  SALEM, Ore. (AP) — The Oregon House of Representatives will begin holding Saturday floor sessions next week. Speaker Tina Kotek made that announcement Wednesday in the latest sign lawmakers are ramping up with an eye toward the Constitutional session deadline five weeks away. “Because of the need to continue to move bills on the floor, […]
  
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• Bill would allow cities to lower residential speed limits

  23-05-2019 16:49
  SALEM, Ore. (AP) — The city of Bend is backing legislation that would allow it to lower speed limits in some residential areas below what is currently allowed by state law. Senate Bill 558 is before the Senate for approval. It advanced Monday from the Joint Committee on Transportation on an 11-1 vote. The Bulletin […]
  
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• Wildfires sweep across Israel as heatwave grips region

  23-05-2019 16:44
  JERUSALEM (AP) — Wildfires raged in Israel on Thursday amid a major heatwave, with police ordering the evacuation of several communities in the country’s center and south. Firefighters battled brushfires along the Gaza boundary, as well as near the country’s main international airport and outside Jerusalem. A major Tel Aviv-Jerusalem highway was also closed to […]
  
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• How to avoid falling victim to scam calls

  23-05-2019 16:13
  A significant number of scammers are among the solicitations that flood our phones daily, and a lot of us aren't clued in to their tactics, according to state Attorney General Bob Ferguson, the AARP and others at a “Spoof-Proof Your Life” event in Seattle.
  
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• Gifted programs, the new secession, trust-fund taxes: What Education Lab is reading this week

  23-05-2019 16:00
  The long weekend is almost upon us, and you’re still looking for some light reading. Whether you’re hopping on a flight or your couch for the next few days, we have you covered. We’re sharing the “What We’re Reading” section from our weekly Education Lab newsletter right here. Subscribe to the newsletter to see our favorite […]
  
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• A glimpse of Washington state’s first highway from Seattle through the Cascades

  23-05-2019 16:00
  Sunset Highway has changed a lot since Snoqualmie Pass was connected in 1915.
  
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• Police searching in southern Idaho for Utah shooting suspect

  23-05-2019 15:40
  BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Idaho State Police say a manhunt is under way in southern Idaho for a man suspected in a fatal shooting in Utah. Police say 45-year-old Jonathan Llana is a homicide suspect in the case, and they describe him as being armed and dangerous. Police say they believe Llana shot and killed […]
  
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• Police search for driver suspected in Utah highway killing

  23-05-2019 15:40
  BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Police in Idaho were searching Thursday near a small town for a man suspected of shooting and killing a motorist along a desolate stretch of interstate highway in Utah. Jonathan Llana, 45, of Los Angeles was being sought near Burley after crashing his car during a chase by authorities, Idaho State […]
  
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• Hunt on for driver suspected of fatal Utah highway shooting

  23-05-2019 15:40
  BOISE, Idaho (AP) — A search was underway Thursday in southern Idaho for a man suspected of shooting and killing a motorist on a Utah highway, Idaho State Police said in a statement. Authorities were searching for Jonathan Llana, 45, near the small city of Burley and described him as armed and dangerous, the statement […]
  
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• Pets of hospice patients in Texas can also get loving care

  23-05-2019 15:05
  GALVESTON, Texas (AP) — Hospice Care Team, the coastal Texas provider of end-of-life medical support and care, is expanding its mission to include family members that sometimes are overlooked: the pets of hospice patients. “Hospice Care Team has decided to participate in the Pet Peace of Mind program as so many of our patients are […]
  
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• Chimpanzees spotted cracking open tortoises for meat

  23-05-2019 15:04
  BERLIN (AP) — Scientists have observed wild chimpanzees tucking into an unusual snack: tortoises, whose hard shells they crack against tree trunks before scooping out the meat. In a paper published Thursday by the journal Scientific Reports, researchers from Germany say the behavior they spotted dozens of times in a group of chimpanzees at Loango […]
  
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• ‘This works’: Downtown Bellevue bike lanes will stay put, more lanes planned

  23-05-2019 15:00
  The bike lane along 108th Avenue between Northeast Main Street and Northeast 12th Street will be tweaked over the next few months, and the city will also get an east-west bikeway.
  
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• Tell us: What questions do you want Seattle’s dozens of City Council candidates to answer?

  23-05-2019 15:00
  With 56 candidates across seven districts and less than three months before the Aug. 6 primary election, you may be wondering how to make sense of this summer’s Seattle City Council races. We want to help. The Seattle Times will soon be asking all of the candidates to answer a number of questions about their […]
  
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• Rep. Jayapal says it’s time to start a Trump impeachment inquiry. Other Washington Democrats aren’t there yet.

  23-05-2019 15:00
  U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal called this week for the House of Representatives to begin an impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump, saying that “there are serious, impeachable offenses” outlined in the Mueller Report. So far, Jayapal’s Washington colleagues in Congress do not agree. The rest of Washington’s Democratic congressional delegation, while they had harsh words […]
  
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