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Chat rewind: Experts talk about marijuana legalization


Times reporter Bob Young and a trio of marijuana experts held a live chat on Friday. State Liquor Control Board Deputy Director Rick Garza, ACLU of Washington drug-policy director Alison Holcomb, and dispensary owner John Davis all answered questions on marijuana legalization. Read their comments below. [do action=”scribblelive” chatid=”110649″ width=”630″ height=”500″/]  




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Saturday Memo: STP … Big road closures … milk-carton madness … royal baby watch


Ten thousand bicyclists: The grand parade of neon and spandex is under way as thousands of bicyclists departed Husky Stadium this morning for the Rose City. It’s an annual classic where the greyhound riders will finish the 200-mile ride in a single day. The big pack will finish Sunday, exhausted but happy to be in […]




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Saturday Memo: Thunder and more showers…ride to end cancer…Ken Griffey Jr.


That was loud. Unstable air mass triggered a lightning and thunder show over many parts of Puget Sound last night. And there’s a chance today for more flash showers, especially near the Cascade foothills. A whole lot of bikers with a cause. The  weekend-long ride Obliteride continues today through Sunday. Hundreds of bicyclists will be riding 25, […]




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49er coach Jim Harbaugh’s wife says the khakis have to go


You can forgive a lot of things about Jim Harbaugh, coach of the San Francisco 49ers, but even his wife gets critical when it comes to his long-standing love affair of pleated khakis. Turns out even his wife thinks the pleats have to go. Sarah Harbaugh reportedly called Bay Area radio station 99.7 Now and […]




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How to work with nature instead of against it to tame flooding rivers


Tearing out old levees and allowing room for our rivers to flood — safely — can save lives, property and restore crucial salmon habitat.




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Steeled courage from state lawmakers needed for steelhead habitat


A last legislative push is needed to save Nisqually River’s storied steelhead run.




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Headline contest: What do you think will happen in 2017?


THE new year is a little over a month away. Much happened in 2016 that is worth reflection as we look forward and think about what could happen next year. What do you hope to see happen in 2017? Will the state fully fund basic education? Which campaign promises will President-elect Donald Trump keep or […]




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Rev. Jesse Jackson to Amazon: You have the power to lift up our youth, diversify boardroom


Jackson calls on CEO Jeff Bezos to create a board of directors and a workforce that looks more like America.




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Boeing workers’ return after coronavirus closure is a test case for industrial recovery


The initial days of the Boeing experiment as 27,000 workers are asked to return won't be easy to assess, because a significant number of employees chose to stay home this week.




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As Boeing goes back to work, employees who got sick earlier are confirmed coronavirus cases


Confirmed positive coronavirus tests were reported for two Boeing Everett employees on Tuesday — the day employees returned to work at the factory. This raised fears and rumors among the workforce. However, the two had become ill in mid-March.




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Boeing kills its $4.2 billion purchase of Embraer as coronavirus roils the aviation industry


Boeing terminated its proposed $4.2 billion deal to acquire the commercial jet business of Brazil's Embraer. The smaller company responded with a scathing declaration that Boeing "has manufactured false claims as a pretext to seek to avoid its commitments."




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Boeing tells workers terms of voluntary layoffs, says air travel recovery will take years


CEO Dave Calhoun tells shareholders that when the market for jets does revive, "our customers' needs will be different." Boeing also told U.S. employees Monday what it is offering in the first wave of voluntary job cuts.




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Bezos, Musk win contracts for spacecraft to land NASA astronauts on moon


Boeing, typically among NASA's key contractors but whose space program has experienced setbacks and delays, submitted a bid but was not selected.




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Alaska Airlines to require passengers to wear masks


Alaska Airlines joins several other major airlines launching mask requirements for passengers.




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Cash crunch from coronavirus crisis will force Alaska Air to shrink


The company's cash burn rate peaked at $400 million for the month of March. Management hopes to reduce the cash burn rate to zero by year end and will make whatever cuts are necessary to do so.




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2 arrested in slaying of Michigan guard over face mask order


FLINT, Mich. (AP) — Two men were arrested Friday in the fatal shooting of a security guard who demanded a woman wear a mask while shopping at a store. Genesee County authorities said Ramonyea Bishop, 23, was taken into custody at an apartment in Bay City. His alleged accomplice, Larry Teague, 44, was arrested Thursday […]




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Court halts ban on mass gatherings at Kentucky churches


FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — A federal court halted the Kentucky governor’s temporary ban on mass gatherings from applying to in-person religious services, clearing the way for Sunday church services. U.S. District Judge Gregory F. Van Tatenhove on Friday issued a temporary restraining order enjoining Gov. Andy Beshear’s administration from enforcing the ban on mass gatherings […]




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Not giving it up cold turkey: Bird hunters just winging it


FALMOUTH, Maine (AP) — The coronavirus pandemic has canceled dozens of spring traditions, from college basketball’s Final Four to Easter Sunday services, but there’s one rite that’s going on largely unfettered — turkey hunting. Every state except Alaska, which is the only state with no turkeys, hosts a spring turkey hunt each year. The birds, […]




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3 NY children die from syndrome possibly linked to COVID-19


NEW YORK (AP) — Three children have now died in New York state from a possible complication from the coronavirus involving swollen blood vessels and heart problems, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Saturday. At least 73 children in New York have been diagnosed with symptoms similar to Kawasaki disease — a rare inflammatory condition in children […]




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Little Richard, flamboyant rock ‘n’ roll pioneer, dead at 87


NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Little Richard, one of the chief architects of rock ‘n’ roll whose piercing wail, pounding piano and towering pompadour irrevocably altered popular music while introducing black R&B to white America, died Saturday after battling bone cancer. He was 87. Pastor Bill Minson, a close friend of Little Richard’s, told The Associated […]




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Small tribes seal borders, push testing to keep out virus


PICURIS PUEBLO, N.M. (AP) — On a dusty plaza in a Native American village that dates back nearly a millennium, a steady trickle of vehicles inched through a pop-up coronavirus testing site. From the bed of a pickup truck and backseats of cars, wide-eyed children stared from behind hand-sewn masks and then sobbed as testing […]




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Sculpting a killer whale: The process behind making an orca infographic


Seattle Times graphic artist Emily M. Eng takes you through the process of making a 3-D model of an orca so we could better explain the animals in an ongoing series about them.




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The orca and the orca catcher: How a generation of killer whales was taken from Puget Sound


HOSTILE WATERS | Namu was Ted Griffin’s greatest prize, a live killer whale, put on display at Seattle’s waterfront. The orca’s journey from wild to captive would spark a worldwide sensation and change everything we knew about "blackfish."




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For the crew of the Destination, crab fishing on the Bering Sea took ‘a serious emotional toll’


Growing up in Alaska, two brothers understood the grueling work, risks and rewards of fishing on the Bering Sea. Read Chapter 3 of No Return: The final voyage of the Destination.




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What happened? Tracking the last minutes of the doomed Destination


At 6:13 a.m., the Destination’s emergency beacon sent out a distress signal. At 6:14, the transponder quit transmitting. The boat was sinking to the bottom of the Bering Sea. Read Chapter 7 of No Return: The final voyage of the Destination.




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‘I always thought our boat was safe’: Former Destination crew member speaks his mind


The Destination is finally discovered lying on its side at the bottom of the Bering Sea. In federal hearings a month later, Dylan Hatfield, who’d lost so much when the crab boat went down, gets to speak his mind. Read the final chapter of No Return: The final voyage of the Destination.




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In the Dark: A young mother and son slain. A surprising lead. A family’s 25-year wait for answers.


After 23-year-old Stacy Falcon-Dewey and her 3-year-old son, Jake, were found slain in 1994, Renton police detectives chased one dead-end lead after another. But even after a break in the case came years later, charges were never filed and the case slipped through the cracks. All the while, the victims’ grieving family learned virtually nothing.




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As Bering Sea ice melts, Alaskans, scientists and Seattle’s fishing fleet witness changes ‘on a massive scale’


With winter ice largely gone for two years, a food chain is at risk. What lies ahead for a body of water that produces some of the world’s biggest seafood harvests and helps sustain communities ranging from Alaska to Seattle, homeport for much of the Bering Sea fleet?




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Public Crisis, Private Toll: Key findings of The Seattle Times’ investigation of private psychiatric hospitals in Washington


Washington state has approved or expanded 10 private psychiatric hospitals since 2012, promising to transform the way mental-health care is delivered in a state with a chronic shortage of treatment options. Yet on the inside, these new institutions have failed patients in ways both known and unknown to regulators and all but invisible to the […]




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Free to check in, but not to leave: Patients seeking mental-health treatment in Washington have been held against their will


In hundreds of cases, patients seeking mental-health treatment in Washington state have been held against their will or threatened with involuntary commitment.




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As climate change melts Alaska’s permafrost, roads sink, bridges tilt and greenhouse gases release


The accelerating melt is a global concern: Permafrost, which mostly lies in the northern reaches of the planet, is a vast carbon storehouse of frozen plants and animals that release greenhouse gases as they warm and decompose.




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Trump ban on fetal tissue research blocks coronavirus treatment effort


A senior scientist at a government biomedical research laboratory has been thwarted in his efforts to conduct experiments on possible treatments for the new coronavirus because of the Trump administration’s restrictions on research with human fetal tissue. The scientist, Kim Hasenkrug, an immunologist at the National Institutes of Health’s Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Montana, has […]




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How major US stock indexes fared Friday


Stocks closed with broad gains Friday, brushing off a record-breaking report of job losses, as investors reckoned that the very worst of the economic pain caused by the coronavirus pandemic may be passing. Employers cut 20.5 million jobs last month, a record high but less than what the market expected. Technology and financial stocks were […]




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10 takeaways from the worst jobs report in US history


BALTIMORE (AP) — Brutal. Horrific. Tragic. Choose your description. The April jobs report showed, in harrowing detail, just how terribly the coronavirus outbreak has pummeled the U.S. economy. Most obviously, there’s the 14.7% unemployment rate, the highest since the Great Depression. And the shedding of more than 20 million jobs, by far the worst one-month […]




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Inslee: Retail stores can do curbside pickup, 5 counties on faster track to reopen amid coronavirus


Phase two is expected to begin for most areas on June 1, provided public-health data still looks favorable.




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House Democrats ask 5 companies to return coronavirus aid


WASHINGTON (AP) — A Democratic-led subcommittee overseeing federal coronavirus aid is demanding that five companies return loans the panel says should have gone to smaller businesses. The subcommittee led by Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., sent letters Friday to the companies as its first official action. The House voted last month to create the panel over […]




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TSA employees at Sea-Tac, other airports must now wear masks to slow spread of coronavirus


Five TSA employees nationwide have died of COVID-19, and 516 employees have tested positive, including seven at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.




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Fraudsters are faking Washington unemployment claims amid coronavirus joblessness surge


As Washington grapples with a tsunami of legitimate unemployment claims — more than 100,000 last week — the state also is seeing a rise in attempts by fraudsters to siphon off a portion of the benefits.




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Reopenings bring new cases in S. Korea, virus fears in Italy


ROME (AP) — South Korea’s capital closed down more than 2,100 bars and other nightspots Saturday because of a new cluster of coronavirus infections, Germany scrambled to contain fresh outbreaks at slaughterhouses, and Italian authorities worried that people were getting too friendly at cocktail hour during the country’s first weekend of eased restrictions. The new […]




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Pike Place Market’s Hmong flower farmers adapt during the coronavirus pandemic


“My parents have been through worse,” one farmer said. “We'll get through this.”




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Maldives sees rapid spike in coronavirus patients


MALE, Maldives (AP) — The Maldives, an Indian Ocean archipelago nation with one of the world’s most congested capitals, has seen a rapid rise in coronavirus cases over the past few weeks. Health officials predict that more than 77,000 people — or a fourth of those currently living in the country — could become infected, […]




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Coronavirus daily news updates, May 9: What to know today about COVID-19 in the Seattle area, Washington state and the nation


While this year’s Mother’s Day weekend promises warm weather, Seattle officials are restricting hours in city parks out of fears that large crowds hoping to enjoy the sun could further spread the novel coronavirus. A recent report shows the COVID-19 transmission rate in Western Washington may be steadily increasing, suggesting that the number of virus cases […]




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Tech giants are profiting — and getting more powerful — even as the global economy tanks


As the pandemic wreaks havoc on the economy, tech giants Facebook, Amazon, Apple and Microsoft are benefiting enormously from a potentially permanent shift in consumer habits, leveraging their political clout by arguing that they are essential services, and gutting their competition.




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Caffeine bought online killed teen. But is Amazon at fault?


COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Logan Stiner was just days from high school graduation when his brother found him unresponsive in their family’s home southwest of Cleveland in May 2014. Stiner, 18, died of cardiac arrhythmia and seizure from acute caffeine toxicity, a coroner ruled. He had more than 70 micrograms of caffeine per milliliter of […]




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Amazon warehouses are safer, but returning workers remain spooked


Sporadic protests continue at Amazon warehouses. The company has fired employees involved in walkouts or organizing in New York and Minnesota for what it says are violations of corporate policy.




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Amazon will let thousands of Seattle and Bellevue employees work from home until at least October


The extension raises the prospect that one of Seattle’s busiest neighborhoods could be largely deserted for another five months.




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Amazon, Instacart workers launch May Day strike to protest treatment during the coronavirus pandemic


The onset of the coronavirus and the subsequent classification of many of these workers as "essential" have heightened some existing tensions. Workers have accused companies of being slow to provide protective gear and implement precautions, something that may put them in danger.




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May Day protests take on different look this year due to coronavirus


What used to be an annual May Day march for workers’ and immigration rights has taken on a different look this year due to coronavirus stay-at-home restrictions. This year, the march from Judkins Park to downtown Seattle has been canceled. Instead, march sponsors El Comité and the May 1st Action Coalition have scheduled a vehicle […]




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Many businesses may follow Amazon in stretching out work-from-home policies, crimping downtown recovery


Business and government insiders say other companies and organizations are contemplating similarly extended time frames as they consider the new realities of the workplace in the COVID-19 era.




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Whole Foods to provide face masks for shoppers to prevent spread of coronavirus in stores


Amazon-owned Whole Foods will provide grocery shoppers with free single-use masks at all its stores beginning this week, in keeping with the chain's "request" that all shoppers wear masks.