According to their annual report of the disease and its prevalence in the region, King County's Public Health office has found that our area is rife with it. In fact, we've got some of the highest rates in the country. more ›

If you feel like this forecast is excessively rainy, and perhaps even cause for concern, you're right, says the National Weather Service. more ›

Just when we thought the Occupy protesters would be safe for the long haul, down comes the hammer from SCCC. In other news, buying a house is expensive, but renting is kind of cheap. Also, budget cuts. Also, Sky Metalwala's mother is still stonewalling. But at least it's Friday? more ›

Don't be a horrible person. Watch these nifty candidate videos, read up on the issues, and cast your damn ballot! more ›

Proposition 1 renews the already-existing, but expiring, Veterans and Human Services Levy. Do you like it when veterans' affairs programs are funded, at-risk families receive much-needed services, and homeless shelters get some much-needed cash? Then you should probably approve it. more ›

If you've recently spied a startlingly low-flying beast in the sky, don't worry--it's not Google trying to get a more recent photo of your back yard, and it's not a search party looking for bad guys in your neighborhood. It's just trying to get a read on how much radiation you might exposed to. more ›

What did you miss while you were riding your bike to Portland this weekend? Oh, just the recovery several bodie, a giant fine for King County and a kid in a tree. more ›

Happi(er) ending for the terminally ill woman blocked from her flight, UW students protest Sodexo, clarification on jaywalking laws, whatever will become of that photo of Bin Laden and more, in this morning's headlines. more ›

KC Metro wants to know what you think. Really. more ›

There's a feature in the Seattle Times today about the #7 bus that seems to be celebrating it as a "colorful" part of Seattle history, but also makes the claim that "most" and "many" #7 riders prefer it to the light rail. Try as we might, we can't find any numbers in the story to back up that assertion. We emailed reporter Phillip Lucas, but it bounced back undeliverable, user unknown. We've also called Metro's community relations line three times this morning, but no one's picking up. We'll update if it's the rapture and no one else is at work this morning. UPDATE: It's not the rapture. But here's Publicola's ECB, an actual #7 rider, going off on exactly how colorful the route is. more ›

Our August 18 primary is being held entirely by mail--we got our ballot last week. If you're still scratching your head over the mayor's race, check out Publicola's interviews with the mayoral contenders (scroll down to item #5). more ›

Police are searching for the cocoa butter bandit, believed to be responsible for up to 17 tanning salon robberies (Tanning salons, really?) throughout Snohomish and King County. more ›

The PostGlobe reports that I-100 gathered about 5,000 less signatures than required. If placed on the ballot, the initiative would have asked Seattle voters to require "the city to analyze successful and cost-effective jail diversion programs, address the effects of racial disparity within the incarceration system, work collaboratively with King County, and put the matter of a new jail to a public vote before a new jail could be constructed." Even the pro-jail website admits, "No one wants to build a jail," but argues that the King County Jail is planning on turning city inmates away, once a jail space agreement concludes in four years. more ›

Seattle PostGlobe's Kery Murakami follows up on his earlier story about the Tenants Union travails with the good news that an anonymous donor has handed over $25,000.The Tenants Union helps out renters with a range of advice and aid (hotline: 206-723-0500 ); not everyone knows their rights as a renter and not every landlord is scrupulous about the law. When King County cut their funding recently, the Union was sent scrambling for cash, raising about $17,000 before they hit the $25,000 jackpot. Anonymous donor, you're one of us. more ›

The trains will open with service from Westlake to Tukwila on July 18. It will be free to ride on the 18th and 19th with paid service starting on Monday, July 20. The base ticket price will be $1.75 with a .05-cent increase with every mile. When the Tukwila to SeaTac section opens in December, it will cost $2.25 from Westlake to the airport. Trains come about every 7.5 minutes during peak times, and every 15 minutes otherwise. more ›

The real estate sales report from Northwest MLS says median home prices are up 4.4 percent across the area, with King County coming in at just over $363K. Bargain homes are selling, but condos are still taking a beating. The main thing is that people are out making offers on houses, so realtors have a reason to change out of their pajamas--pending sales (offers made and accepted) are up, though a significant portion of those fail in the financing round. The Seattle Bubble has a good media-coverage round-up, and notes with some satisfaction that the rah-rah contingent is getting less play this time around. more ›

Today marks the sixth of ten furlough days that major King County buildings and facilities will be shut down, requiring eligible County employees to take an unpaid day off. It's all due to those pesky budgetary issues the County has to face. Emergency service 911 is on call, buses are working, wastewater treatment plants are flushing (?), and don't get your hopes up if you have jury duty or a scheduled court date today. King County's website notes that the Courthouse and its many district courts will still be open bright and early.
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Provided with limited information, the state's auditors still managed to unveil a few--okay, a lot--of big red flags within King County's financial system, including poor construction management (What's a statewide construction project and budget tracking system?), poor cash and inventory management (loose control of cash fares collected on buses, the tracking of ammunition inventory for the Sheriff's Office, and top-down oversight on cash receipts, expenditures, and assets), and many more potential opportunities for the County to abuse and misuse public resources. more ›

We'd like to take credit for this, but we didn't plug the King County Water Taxi until last week. The West Seattle Herald (and @westseattleblog) are reporting ridership between downtown and West Seattle was up 20 percent in May compared to last May, a total of 31,557. To plan your sailing schedule, click here. more ›

It's those pesky tree roots throwing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers off their levee fixin' game. Before the engineers can begin flood repairs--all by the federal rule book, of course--King County will have to chop down 150 potentially problematic trees along seven levees. Select trees will be removed from alongside the Green, Snoqualmie, and Raging rivers to strengthen the levees. King County plans to replant 600 trees elsewhere, in the wake of the fallen trees. more ›

...try the bill for treatment for ingesting levamisole. Blog belltownpeople pointed us to the King Country Public Health Office notice that alerts the cocaine set that someone's been cutting their happy powder with an animal antibiotic (originally used as a de-wormer) that knocks out your immune system: "One individual needed extensive surgery, and another resulted in a hospitalization cost that exceeded $100,000." Paranoid but health-conscious drug users are warned to trust the government about this dangerous development, and be on the alert for cocaine that makes them feel like they're gonna die--but, you know, in a bad way--or if their worm infestation suddenly vanishes. more ›

King County Superior Court's Judge Palmer Robinson sentenced James A. Williams to a 35-year sentence for the slaying of 31-year-old Shannon Harps on Capitol Hill, on New Year's Eve 2007. "Williams pleaded guilty to first-degree murder last week rather than proceed to trial and, conceivably, mount an insanity defense," reports the P-I, which earlier took an in-depth look at how a known paranoid schizophrenic with a long history of violence and assault was walking around Capitol Hill. In 2006, the cost of prison incarceration in Washington was $26,736. At 35 years, that's $935,760. Mental health care in Washington was cut nine percent in the proposed 2009-11 budget. more ›

Christopher Harris is in a coma and on life support after being chased by two King County Sheriff's Department deputies, says the Seattle Times: "He suffered life-threatening skull fractures when his head struck a concrete wall as one attempted to arrest him early Sunday in Belltown." To be precise, his head had some help in striking that wall. A video is said to show one of the deputies smashing into Harris after he halted--having run as two men started shouting and heading toward him from out of a dark alley. We're not sure if the online P-I will append this to their "Conduct Unbecoming" series, exposing a troubling history of brutality in the King County Sheriff's Department, but it feels like nearly killing an innocent person should raise some questions on how the Sheriff's Dept. is doing on all that reform we were promised. more ›

• A little more stank than King County can handle, as they begin to battle the mass blossoming of the garlic mustard plant.
• What a charged season for public policy. Online political site Publicola wants you to share your fan favorite nominee for Lobbyist of the Year.
• Be nice to others because you never know who's packin'. A threatened mom of four was released today. She shot a 25-year-old man after a bus ride brought a verbal altercation and threat of an attack in Belltown.

Yes, there's snow on the ground, but on Sunday, April 5, the most-awaited emblem of spring in Seattle finally arrives: the Elliott Bay Water Taxi begins its run, wrapping up in fall on October 31. (As you know, residents of West Seattle begin their winter hibernation about then, and have no need of transportation across the perilously stormy Elliott Bay.) more ›

Up in Kenmore, a woman awoke to a giant, 15 foot sinkhole in her driveway this morning. When unusual seemingly natural phenomena occur at Seattlest HQ, our kneejerk response is to think back over our possible sins of the last 24 hours in case we managed to unknowingly aggravate the pantheon. However, in this case, it looks like the sinkhole was caused not by malicious pavement sprites but by a tunnel boring machine chipping away at the earth 150 feet below Pauline Chihara's driveway. The machine is part of King County's Brightwater sewage water treatment project. Brightwater officials are saying something about a "migrating void" and promising to investigate further, lest more upright county citizens find unpleasant pits of hell on their property as the project continues. more ›

To everyone who remembered to vote, bless you. To everyone in King County, up to and including those who spaced on yesterday's mail-in election, congratulations: you get Sherril Huff as your Director of Elections for another few years. Even before all the absentee ballots rolled in, officials declared that Huff won a "decisive victory" over the other, mostly unqualified candidates. She will earn $146,000 a year, which is almost half of what it will cost the county to pay for the special February election. The King County Elections office has an interesting set of graphics on their site that clarify how they operate; it's worth a look [pdf], especially the second page, which shows the process each ballot undergoes in order to be counted. more ›

Today is the deadline to mail in your ballot for the King County special election this month. Unless you live in Fall City or Enumclaw, all you'll be voting on is the new county director of elections. Seattlest will be sending ours today, since we didn't bother to look up the candidates until this morning. We're voting for Sherril Huff, the incumbent, who is endorsed by such illustrious organizations as the 43rd District Democrats and the Stranger (she is "competent, sane, and qualified" compared to our other options, says the Stranger Election Control Board). Huff was also one of two candidates recommended as "outstanding" by the Municipal League. It may be ridiculous that we have yet another expensive election to vote on just one position--doesn't it take millions of dollars to send out ballots?--but vote anyway. Just do it. more ›

The Victorian poem "Inversnaid" by Gerard Manley Hopkins extols the savage beauty and energy of pristine wilderness; it's become a staple of Sierra Club promotional literature: more ›

We realize plenty of people are still steamed about the loss of our public transportation system during the recent snow and, currently, during the widely celebrated "It's almost New Year's Eve" holidays. Most of you are probably at home right now, sipping hot cocoa. Enjoy it! It's the holidays! more ›