The various newsworthy events and people in the Seattle region, as reported on by its neighborhood blogs. more ›

If you want something done next year, instead of 30 years from now, you've got to do it yourself. more ›

You made it! It's Friday. Here's what to talk about over happy hour. more ›

Good morning, sunshines. What did you miss while you were safely sleeping (and not being raided)? more ›

Seattle, what the hell is wrong with you? Punching cabbies, driving into light rail trains, and robbing medical marijuana dispensaries? You should be ashamed. more ›

Inside the Sound Transit train about to dock @ Westlake by Joe Kunzler from the Seattlest Flickr pool. more ›

Bellevue decides not to sue Light Transit, Oil companies are looking for the State's OK to transport equipment across the border, and if car tab fees happen, it won't be as cheap as $40, all in today's Headlines. more ›

State Democrats stand alone, a proposal to lightly infuse our air with carbon is floated, local homeless are about to be cruelly hit again, and apparently construction workers name their boring machines. more ›

Today's big news: A foiled plan to attack a military recruit processing center located in South Seattle, Jay Inslee is officially in it to win it for the Washington gubernatorial election, and a major Seattle construction project comes in on-time and under-budget. more ›

Kemper Freeman, Jr has given $500,000 to the inaptly-named Voters Want More Choices, the committee to pass Tim Eyman's latest measure, an anti-tolling initiative, the Seattle Times reports. Freeman says that he likes "the spotlight that I-1125 puts on" strengthening transportation, but this seems beyond just liking -- that kind of money is unprecedented in the developer's giving history, which rarely goes above a couple of thousand dollars, according to PDC records. His company, Kemper Holdings, had already given $25,000 to the initiative in March. According to PDC records, Kemper Holdings also gave a total of $500,000 in three separate contributions to Voters Want More Choices; since the Times article says Freeman's contributions haven't shown up in the PDC database yet, we're not sure whether those are separate from the contribution from Freeman. more ›

More information about the woman hit by a light rail train; a painful fight in the ID; a Presidential pardon for a local man, while another man is arrested for being at the top of a drug ring; finally, the Mariners are looking good again *knock wood, spin three times, crosseyed blinking for 15 seconds*. more ›

Kemper goes to court over transit on I-90. Final score: Light rail: 1, Kemper: 0. more ›

Holiday travel is notoriously difficult, but be prepared for greater delays this year. In case you haven't been following all the hullabaloo and the sudden influx of people's junk on the Internet (if that was even possible), just in time for this, the most joyous of seasons, the Transportation Security Administration has imposed whole body scans, inciting privacy and heath concerns. Out of the two types of whole-body scans, Millimeter Wave and Backscatter X-ray, the latter has raised caused a larger health uproar. The latter type, the health-uproar kind, are what they have at our own Sea-Tac Airport. more ›

We're coming late to the party on this one, we admit, but it's too good to pass up: the ninth annual (it would appear) "No Pants" ride, on our new light rail line, from Westlake Center to SeaTac and return, is coming up on Sunday. As you might expect, it's a piece of theater, staged by Emerald City Improv. The significance of riding to and from SeaTac in your skivvies? Checking for explosive devices, perhaps. more ›

"Looking down the light rail tunnel" by Wendi Dunlap, from our Flickr pool more ›

The folks at Sound Transit must be in good spirits this week--the lowest construction bid for the University Link tunnel was $20 million lower than Sound Transit's original estimate. 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 ›

There is good eating to be found near the station, even if you have to dodge a few cars to find it. Thai Recipe is located in the same strip mall as Domino’s on McClellan, and it is the only Thai restaurant we know of that even borders on North Beacon Hill. The very friendly staff serves good, reliable, and tasty Thai food, available for take out or to eat in the small dining room. more ›

• Enjoy the end of the work week by tasting wines from 12 different wineries tonight, at South Lake Union Block Party's Discover Wine with proceeds going to help-out Seattle's Junior League. Where else can you drink AND help the community at the same time?
• A Bothell home was raided today and animal control officers removed six matted dogs who had been severely neglected by a woman who is suspected of hoarding animals.
• Excited as they are about a fighter jet-inspired Light Rail station on Capitol Hill, CHS blog looks at the more worrisome logistics that aren't nearly as cool. Like the 24 hours a day of construction noise.

This morning shortly after 2 a.m. two men from the "Drama Boyz" motorcycle club were involved in a fatal motorcycle crash after they hit something and lost control of their bikes at 9000 Block of Martin Luther King Jr. Way South. The crash left one man dead at the scene, while the other victim was taken to Harborview with critical injuries. The impact of the crash sent one of the motorcycles onto the Light Rail tracks, suspending service at the Othello Station in Rainier Valley for several hours. Police say the investigation is ongoing, and it will be some time before they know what happened. more ›

Damon Agnos at the Weekly reports on the the coalition suing to prevent I-90 light rail from happening, a weird last-ditch attempt to keep Seattle from driving its train deep into the Eastside, again and oh god again, via tunnel. The suit--claiming light rail can't use I-90 because that would besmirch its use by upstanding automobile drivers--is ridiculous, as are most of Kemper Freeman's suits. Personally, we can't wait to pull on our flip-flops and stained wife-beater, hit the light rail, and terrorize the hell out of Bell Square while drinking our Volvic out of a brown paper bag. more ›

Sound Transit says weekday ridership is at estimated at 12,000 per day--with 15,000-17,000 on the weekend, so suck it, Seattle Times. ST is aiming for 21,000 riders per day by the end of this year, with another 5,000 daily stragglers due to board after the final leg to SeaTac opens end of December. Events like last weekend's Sounders FC and Seattle Mariners games, and the Seattle Seafair Torchlight Parade have boosted ridership--coming up, ST will be running free shuttles from the Othello light rail station to Seafair's hydroplanes and air show on Lake Washington on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. more ›

The ORCA card is, of course, the new, handy way to pay fares for many kinds of transit including the new Link light rail. Like all good Seattle things (e.g., a trendy restaurant, your friend's house, or the Fremont Troll), the youth ORCA card is not that easy to find unless you know where to go already. more ›

Link Light Rail hasn't been open a full two weeks, and sadly we're already passing along news of the first light rail fatality--though it may have been a suicide. The accident took place late last night in the SoDo area, as the rail car was heading southbound, past South Holgate Street and 5th Avenue South. The SPD Blotter reports a man jumped over a barricade and into the path of the train, where he was struck and killed. With no crosswalks in the vicinity, police are still investigating the accident and what the man was doing in a non-pedestrian area. No light rail passengers were witness to the accident, and they were later bused away. more ›

Link light rail is again visiting the Westlake station in the bus tunnel. Sound Transit got the "signal system" problem under control at about 11 p.m. last night. For riders complaining about the lack of information, set yourself up with a subscription to ST alerts. And then be nice and tell everyone else without a smart phone what's going on. more ›

Says Sound Transit: "Central Link light rail service has been temporarily suspended in the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel due to a loss of power at one of the stations and associated impacts to systems for controlling tunnel equipment. Crews are working to address the issue and expect to restore service soon. Bus service in the tunnel is continuing at this time. Northbound light rail trains are stopping and turning south at Stadium Station. Bus service northward into downtown Seattle is available just to the west of Stadium Station at the intersection of the Busway and Royal Brougham Way. Light rail service between Stadium Station and Tukwila International Boulevard Station remains in operation." [UPDATE: As of a 10:57 a.m. email, they're rolling in the tunnel once more! WHOOPS! As of an 11:25 a.m. email, they're not rolling. Buses are still rolling in the tunnel, but light rail is not. Crews working feverishly, etc.] more ›

We departed Seattlest world headquarters at 12th and John Street at 11:49 and landed at SeaTac at 12:45. Our trip included a ride on the #10 bus to Westlake, a light rail ride from Westlake Center to Tukwila, and a shuttle bus from the Tukwila station to the airport. For speedphiles, the actual train trip ride from Westlake to Tukwila was 34 minutes. It was also 34 minutes last Friday. It will probably be 34 minutes next week. more ›

Earlier today, we were smiling over the Seattle Times trying to use the first day of light rail ridership as a benchmark. "What was the Times headline on February 4, 1965?" we asked, thinking of the opening of I-5. Then we really wanted to know, so we looked it up. more ›

From the Times: "On the first day of regular light-rail service, ridership on Sound Transit's new Link train system is rather light. Midway through the morning commute, trains were arriving at Tukwila from downtown Seattle with fewer than 10 passengers aboard." And: "Normal use is projected at 26,600 per weekday next year—far more than today's trend." One morning is a trend? This makes us curious. What was the Times headline on February 4, 1965? "I-5 Looks Awfully Open"? Times commenters are through waiting for ridership to increase--they sound about ready to rush out and pull up the tracks. more ›

Over the weekend and again this morning, a bug has been affecting Link light rail's ticketing system, telling aggrieved would-be riders no soup for you "transaction canceled." Bummer. more ›