Off-duty cops, weather shifts, and the chicken initiative goes national. Happy Friday. more ›

NOAA has announced that they're hauling anchor away from Lake Union, and relocating their center-Pacific operations to Newport, Oregon. Seattle City Council's Jean Godden has already fired off a response, noting that Seattle has the UW (Newport doesn't), fresh water (Newport 0), and the Duwamish River (Newport FAIL). Godden says Seattle still looks to her like the best choice for NOAA, but that "Clearly the selection committee felt differently, perhaps influenced by millions of dollars in state subsidies offered by the Oregon legislature." ZING! more ›

We just got back from biking downtown, and even the flats felt like uphill because of the wind gusts. If they had been sustained, we're pretty sure we would have ended up going backwards. The B-Town Blog, sharing our surprise, has a post up about the 43-mph wind gusts they've recorded at Sea-Tac today. Maybe this is that windstorm from the other week that never showed up. Cliff Mass calls this a "modest Pacific disturbance," which we're not sure we entirely agree with. Anyway, watch out for loose branches and umbrellas for the duration. UPDATE: Also, try not to get sand in your eyes--in the wind canyons of downtown, we hear pedestrians are getting pelted by sand, which is also migrating into buildings. more ›

Sorry local fisherman. After the NOAA ruled out shooting as a cause of death, we know we passed the blame to your understandable anger at the gluttonous sea oafs. But the latest theory on just how six local sea lions died places the blame squarely on mother nature's shoulders. Now, according to investigators, the sea lions do not appear to have died of gunshot wounds, puncture wounds, or murderous fisher-folk, but rather heat exhaustion. The NOAA, who's obviously been wrong before about the cause of death, hopes that studying samples of the sea lions tissue will settle the mystery once and for all. more ›

Remember how we wrote yesterday that six sea lions were found shot in traps in the Columbia River? Turns out they weren't shot. According to a NOAA press conference held this morning regarding the sea lion deaths, necropsies of the animals showed no evidence of recent gunshot wounds. X-rays did show metal fragments in the soft tissue of two of the sea lions, and another had a metal slug in its blubber. Another one of the sea lion victims had several shallow puncture wounds, consistent with a sea lion bite. Now that shooting as a cause of death has been ruled out, investigators say the possibilities are wide open. more ›