Last week, Councilmember Mike "Credit Union" and the rest of the City Council floated a big idea: banning plastic bags in the city of Seattle. The idea came just after a report Port Townsend Marine Science Center, which estimated that people in Washington State use 2 billion plastic bags each year. But now, the Seattle Times reports, the decision is being criticized--by the people who make plastic bags. more ›

Slices.jpg by photosbysomeguy from the Seattlest Flickr pool. more ›

The Times published a very serious article about something a bit silly, and only managed one measly pun. Luckily, we're really, really good at puns. more ›

"STYROFOAM BEACH" by ELISABETH from the Seattlest Flickr pool. more ›

If you're jogging near Shilshole Marina this morning, look for a couple of upended pontoons. The pilot, Roger Collins, was flying from Paine Field to Bremerton when his plane had an electrical short and had to make an emergency landing on Puget Sound. The wheels did not retract and caused the plane to flip on landing. The pilot was not hurt. KIRO has video of him, and he seems pretty calm about the whole thing. Judging from pictures, his plane’s an insurance loss, though. Too bad! more ›

Nearly 70,000 gallons of raw sewage spilled into Pungent Puget Sound on Saturday near Eagle Harbor. The Bainbridge Island Public Works were able to put a quick fix band-aid on the broken and corroded 30-year-old pipe, which normally carries the stinky sewage beneath Puget Sound from point A, the beach near the ferry terminal, to point B, the wastewater treatment plant. Currently, crews are twiddling their thumbs waiting for Tuesday's low tide to come in, so they can fix the pipe for good. Until then, the department expects a total of 140,000 gallons will seep into Puget Sound. more ›

KING 5's SkyKING chopper was out over the Puget Sound today, getting footage of about 40 orcas swimming the frigid waters. Whale researchers "believe the L and K pods are cruising through, possibly in search of Chinook or Coho." Guess they finished up with Bo Derek's leg years ago. more ›

Around 5:25 a.m., an earthquake with a 4.5 magnitude rattled the towns of Puget Sound--including Seattle. According to the UW-based Pacific Northwest Seismic Network, the quake was centered about 2 miles north of Indianola (in the Port Gamble area--here's a topographical map of that specific region), or about 14 miles northwest of Seattle. Locals reported feeling the quake in areas stretching from Puyallup to Snohomish, which is typical for such a shallow quake. There are no major damages reported at this time. We found an interesting graphic from the PNSN which shows all of the quakes in the last two weeks in the Pacific Northwest, and a reassuring statement from the West Coast And Alaska Tsunami Warning Center about this earthquake in particular: "The magnitude is such that a tsunami WILL NOT be generated." Great! Did you feel this one, readers? more ›

There's an interesting piece in the today on the Puget Soundkeeper Alliance, a citizens' group that's come up with an apparently effective way of decreasing pollution going into Puget Sound: suing the hell out of polluters. more ›

Seattlest is getting in her invisible jet and touching down at Seward Park at 10 a.m. tomorrow for the Wondergirl 5K, which benefits an awesome afterschool program for girls 8-11 called Girls On the Run. more ›

We never, ever tire of the gorgeous colors of Seattle sunsets or the joys of looking in any direction and seeing mountains. There's something absolutely enchanting of this capture of the sunset, though; we think it's the watercolor, Monet-ish feel to it. Whatever it is, we'd be content gazing at its glory all day. Share your favorite sunset shots with us in the Seattlest Flickr Pool. more ›

We don't think we could possibly be any more enamored with a photo than we are with this beauty. It looks like a misplaced masterpiece you'd find at an antique store, buried beneath piles of unwanted snapshots. Please keep uploading your gems to the Seattlest Flickr Pool, and we will remain in constant awe of you all...and of this beautiful city we are lucky enough to call home. more ›

One thing Seattlest really wanted to do this summer was learn to fly fish. Turns out the best time to fly fish is during the cold weather, so our one and only summertime goal this year has now become our one and only autumn/winter/spring goal. Anyone with any tips about how to do it without hooking ourselves in the back of the neck, or if you know a good fly fishing teacher, we welcome your comments. In the meantime, we just love this shot for all its romantic vastness of water and the one quiet guy hoping for a solid catch—brought to you courtesy of our always romantic Seattlest Flickr Pool. more ›

Thanks to these high, high temperatures (OMFG!!1! 80 degrees?! *pantpant*), the P-I reports, the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency is close to calling a smog alert. The shame! The agency's Dave Kircher says to do everything possible to keep from driving the next few days: "Stay home, have an iced tea or whatever, and don't mow your lawn." Here we just laugh! As bicyclists, we're gonna pack extra water, but otherwise, Kircher, we'll do whatever the hell we want and go wherever the hell we want. (Okay, and shower much more often.) Don't worry, we'll keep an eye on the air quality for those of you trapped in cars. If there's a good reason to be wheezin', we'll let you know. more ›

Twenty minutes south of Olympia we take exit 95 off I-5 towards Little Rock. The road changes name a couple times until we're on 28th Ave SW, which ends at Waddell Creek Rd. SW. This was the closest point we could map to where we were going: the Mima Mounds Natural Area Preserve. From here, we take a right and drive down Waddell for about a mile, just like the article in the told us, and then just barely noticed the turn in time. more ›

"Molten Sky" by aaronbrethorst more ›

"but we were just getting to know each other" by Taylor Hain more ›

"What did you do on Saturday?" more ›

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Twenty-one years ago, a suburban Seattle elementary school science class signed type-written messages, put them in bottles, and dropped them in Puget Sound. Earlier this month, Merle Brandell, a bear hunter in Alaska found one of the soda bottles in the Bering Sea and was intrigued by the message. The letter read:

[This letter] is part of our science project to study oceans and learn about people in distant lands.Please send the date and location of the bottle with your address. I will send you my picture and tell you when and where the bottle was placed in the ocean. Your friend, Emily Hwaung.

Well, the local transit blogosphere is all atwitter about the results of Sound Transit's recent survey. more ›

After Seattlest arrived at the office today, saw all of these big white trailers across the street, and had our little "Well, this is unusual" moment of tilted equilibrium, we got curious. Is this another episode of our friendly German invasion of last August? more ›

A friend of Seattlest sent us a link to Cakespy's examination of the history of the ubiquitous pink frosted cookie. Turns out "ubiquitous" only applies in the Seattle area:

If you don't live in Seattle, you might not even know about this cookie (while it exists elsewhere, we've never seen it in quite the same proliferation in our assorted travels); even if you do live in Seattle, you might not have stopped to question why it is that this confection is always around--gas stations, delis, grocery stores, drugstores--everywhere!

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Around the Seattlest newsroom, this contributor's distrust of : more ›

"Shipping cranes" by Murray plays guitar more ›

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 ›

There they were last night, perched at the counter at Steelhead Diner, enjoying a glass of bubbly and gossiping with the chef: Jon Rowley and his wife, Kate McDermott, quietly celebrating their appearance in the new issue of Saveur. The least ostentatious of Seattle's food stars, Rowley is probably the most influential. He's the oyster guru, the peach guru, and above all the salmon guru. No one in town has done more to change the way we eat, or the way our farmers and fishers think about the food they grow or catch. more ›

Dennis McLerran, head of the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency is "pissed." Governor Schwarzenegger is suing federal regulators. According to more than 500 news articles, The Environmental Protection Agency denied California’s bill to place limitations on vehicle emissions, which would have cut greenhouse-gas emissions by 30 percent in the next 10 years. McLerran claims in a Seattle Times article the EPA’s decision is purely political, not factual. more ›