In a truly practical, taking-care-of-business move, the City Council voted Monday to approve a series of common-sense regulations for medical marijuana dispensaries, establishing medical marijuana dispensaries as the businesses as they are and clarifying some finer points of the law. On the Seattle city level, at least. more ›

When Amazon's cloud went down, it brought the Internet to a screeching halt, as massively popular sites crashed left and right. People we furious. The world stood still. Behold, the power of Amazon. And yet, even with its cash, creativity and exceptionally marketable products, the locally-based bookseller, publisher and retail giant isn't invincible. Its own site experienced crashes and crawling speeds this weekend-- the result of a single cut-rate promotion. The total loss? Estimated to be between $2.6 and $3 million. Behold, the power of Lady Gaga. more ›

Today is the coffee giant's 40th anniversary and the much-discussed wordless logo is officially emblazoned on cups and cardboard cupholder thingies. Though people who care enough to read this probably discovered that fact for themselves on the way to work this morning. more ›

If the first couple days of this week were any indication, this won't be a bad week for Seattle-area businesses to take a long weekend and spend some time licking their wounds in the company of their nearest and dearest. more ›

The Wall Street Journal just released a job-trend list of the cities that are expected to attract the most young, educated people after the recession. Seattle made number 1, edging out New York, Chicago, and Portland handily. No surprise there. WSJ listed “Seattle's combination of a diverse high-tech sector, cultural life, access to rugged natural terrain and a strong university presence” as big draws. They also pointed out the tech angle: more ›

William Whitteker makes up with confidence what he lacks in any coherent business strategy, saying: "Bill Gates is going to have to move down the line. He's not going to be top dog anymore." more ›

Amazon buys Zappos, the online shoe store. Amazon already runs high-end shoes and accessories site Endless.com. Zymogenetics stock is up with promising new lupus treatment. more ›

The captains of Ballard industry just had their complaints against the Burke-Gilman trail's extension (it's in their way, it'd be a traffic hazard) tossed by Seattle's Hearing Examiner in June, so now they're filing an appeal. more ›

Amazon is getting sued for broken Kindles and promises to replace them at no charge. JP Morgan says there will be no new layoffs in Seattle, where it purged WaMu's operations after taking it over several months ago. More UW scientists are cashing in on their lab work and raising venture capital to go into the biofuel business. more ›

Yesterday we thought only a huge idiot would really believe Boeing was going to leave its Northwest workforce behind and move to South Carolina. But then Matt the Engineer commented: "Bad news, or perhaps part of the bluff: I just received an e-mail from Boeing letting me know that an engineering job I had applied for has been cancelled. I went back to their site to see if other jobs are available (there used to be a handful), and found absolutely no engineering jobs posted for Washington." more ›

A Frenchman runs Amazon's worldwide customer service; a French-made engine powers Boeing's 737s. In all, some 600,000 Americans owe their jobs to French investment in the U.S., while American investment in France employs 600,000 Frenchies. Despite the economic crunch felt by both countries, there's still a billion dollars of bilateral trade between the U.S. and France every day, says Pierre Vimont, the French ambassador to the U.S. more ›

Word came down today that Eddie Bauer might be up for sale again. Bloomberg is reporting that Eddie Bauer Holdings is in talks with potential buyers including Gordon Brothers Group and Hilco Consumer Capital. Naturally, no one has a comment just yet. more ›

We got a postcard on Saturday that there's a "Restaurant, Retailing & Business Seminar" today at 3 p.m. at Seattle Central Community College for businesses around the Capitol Hill light rail station. "Come learn proven techniques to increase sales and profits," it says, and is co-sponsored by the Capitol Hill Chamber of Commerce. Two restaurant consultants, a retail consultant, and an HR executive will be there to talk about taking orders over the noise from the backhoe...uh...branding and reducing employee theft. more ›

Today, we decided to call WaMu to ask about getting our mortgage bailed out in some sort of way, since all the other kool kids are doing it, including WaMu's new sugar daddies themselves. more ›

A lot of courteous people in nice suits downtown are feeling a bit tense today; Moody's Investor Service has downgraded its rating of Nordstrom's from "stable" to "negative." That's a rating of Nordstrom's creditworthiness, and isn't all that surprising considering Nordy's themselves anticipate 16 percent less sales this holiday season than last. We're going to bet that that number turns out to be optimistic. Especially since even Baby Jesus can't save them now. more ›

This morning, Cindy Zetts, the Seattle Times real estate editor, decided to head for greener pastures, which seems to say something not good about both the real estate market and the Seattle Times. It's a kind of Black Friday Remix over there, as reporters make long walks into management offices. At the Times, the involuntary staff exodus shows no signs of abating--management keeps talking about belt-tightening but without giving any sense of where the last notch on the belt might be. And as the Seattle Bubble points out (with a sadly hilarious "bottom-calling" graph), the Seattle real estate market's bottom is proving to be elusive. more ›

Tera will be catching the Saturday evening premiere of Spring Awakening at the Paramount. Saturday evening will be followed with a leisurely plane ride to Orlando where she’ll be trying out for the Mickey Mouse Club, or riding rollercoasters--however you want to look at it. more ›

On this afternoon's Fast Money, the CNBC show for the ritalin-munching financial types, a segment of the show was dedicated to the Royal Bank of Scotland, which is looking less and less regal with each passing day. Today, the stock was down 44% and now trades at less than 2 bucks. (Sound familiar?) When asked if the stock was worth the risk as a buy, commentator Jeff Macke responded, "RBS is nothing more than WaMu in a kilt," which made us shudder at the thought of Kerry Killinger's pasty white legs. more ›

We've all thought about it. You've got this really great idea and you are sure it would make millions. Only you're not sure how to go from that sticky note you jotted the idea on three months ago to actually starting to build a real live business. Plus there's the whole family/rent/mortgage/band thing that sucks up your time. And your job. more ›

Business reporter John Cook, who came to the P-I in 1999 and founded a cottage enterprise of entrepreneurship coverage (including his Venture Blog), and tech reporter Todd Bishop (at the P-I since 2002, and author of the Microsoft Blog) are departing the P-I, leaving two huge holes in the daily's business coverage and web stats. Outside of sports, their blogs were the top traffic-getters for the P-I website, and both are award-winning reporters. What makes this news even more startling is that both are joining the Puget Sound Business Journal. It's like the Ms losing Beltre and Ichiro to the Aquasox. Word is, the PSBJ has big plans for its new blog-ebrities. more ›

• White Center Now reports that King County Executive Ron Sims has proposed two staggered fare increases for Metro buses on his blog. In other news--Ron Sims writes a blog?!
• Yesterday's late afternoon thunder and lightning struck a little too close to home for a West Seattle Blog reader. A cedar tree in their neighbor's back yard was split in two by a lightning strike, sending cedar chips flying everywhere.
• PhinneyWood wants to let you know that, if you've had trouble with getting a green building permit, there's a meeting scheduled just for you this Wednesday at the Phinney Neighborhood Association.

There are 13 weeks until Election Day, and 13 issues in our state's gubernatorial race (14 if you count Eastern Washington's concerns). Each week we'll be taking an award-winning look at where the candidates stand. more ›

Apparently we're not the only ones with hope for Microsoft! Wired Magazine published an interview this morning with Mary Jo Foley, author of the cutely-titled book Microsoft 2.0, about the future of the company as Bill Gates leaves the day-to-day ops in the hands of Steve "I walked away from Yahoo" Ballmer. more ›

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Until about 30 minutes ago, we were excited about our switch to Clearwire, a provider we'd never tried before. But as we were signing up for their ~$35/mo. Premium (1.5 Mb/s) plan, we discovered whoops some extra costs not mentioned before: the modem was either $99 to buy or $5/mo. to lease. And of course there was a $50 installation fee. (You know, for the service you just plug into a outlet.) more ›

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While the city goes about with itself, Seattlest spends countless hours in an ivory tower somewhere between Pike Place Market and the Lusty Lady. We pace the floor with a hunched back, wringing our hands, wrinkling our nose and whispering, "what, what, what... is the meaning of this?" more ›

Last night there were tons of Ron Paul's people outside the Showbox Sodo. Before, during, and after Barack Obama's fundraising event/rally, the Paul supporters waved their signs and interacted with anyone who would give them the time of day. Too bad they couldn't afford tickets to the event due to the current tax structure--if only someone would abolish the IRS and the Federal Reserve.... Meanwhile, inside the venue was a crowd of teens, twenty-somethings,... more ›

We have it on good authority -- namely, the UnSpun list of Best Pub Quizzes in Seattle, which we created last week and which has been voted on by a whopping 4 people -- that the quiz at the Old Pequliar is the 9th best trivia quiz in Seattle. more ›

Already (as of 8:35 am): more ›