Rob B Taylor was gay-bashed in Georgetown on Sunday night.
Rob B Taylor was gay-bashed in Georgetown on Sunday night. Courtesy of Rob B Taylor

He Had to Get Six Stitches in His Upper Lip: After four guys in Georgetown started chatting him up, he says.

One of them said, "Hey, you look like a faggot."

Taylor replied, "Thank you," and kept walking.

"Hey, faggot!" Taylor heard again before something—he thinks it was a boot—hit his face, slicing his upper lip.

The four men are described here. The mayor's response: a task force and talking to the police chief about the way her department handles these cases.

You Know What Would Be Great to Hear from You, Mr. Mayor? A description of the way the Seattle Police Department handles these cases. From you. From your heart. You are the first gay mayor we've ever had, which also means you are the first gay police chief's boss we've ever had. And this is the first police chief we've ever had who's not a dude. Have a look around together and tell us what you both find out. In your words.

Not to Rub It In Too Hard, but Only a Week Ago: We ran a piece called "How to Fight the Rise in Hate Crimes on Capitol Hill." Capitol Hill and Georgetown are far away from each other.

Franchise owners whove been trying to argue that theyre small-business owners have not been successful in court so far.
The mayor rightly points out that the wage movement was started "by fast food workers from large franchise restaurants." Bikeworldtravel / Shutterstock.com

A Federal Judge Made a Good Ruling on the Minimum Wage Yesterday: Ruling specifically that "the city does not have to hold off on increasing the minimum wage for fast food and other franchise employees while it fights a court battle over whether franchises should be treated as large or small employers."

In Other Minimum Wage News, Seattle Times Debunks a Claim from Seattle Magazine: That restaurants are closing because of the impending raise. The quotes Bethany Jean Clement gets from restaurant owners are amazing.

Washington Policy Center Also Asserted “Seattle’s $15 Wage Law [Is] a Factor in Restaurant Closings”: This statement prompted the owner of Little Uncle "to send a note to the author of the Washington Policy Center post saying: 'Our business model is conducive to the changing times and we would appreciate it if you did not make assumptions about our business to promote your political values.'"

Go Have Lunch at Little Uncle Today to Thank Them for Being Awesome: I recommend the noodleless pad thai. I could eat that every day for the rest of my life.

In Transportation News, This Is What's Supposed to Start Happening to Bertha as Early as Today:

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WSDOT

As Sydney Reported Yesterday: "STP has to lift three pieces of Bertha's shield out by crane before it can lift the cutterhead and driving unit."

Why Does Bertha Get All the Attention? What About Brenda? We Have Seriously Been Ignoring Brenda: According to Sound Transit, Brenda reached the wall of the future Roosevelt light rail station yesterday, "exposing a small section of the boring machine cutterhead and completing the first 1.5-mile segment of a 4.3-mile tunnel that will serve light rail trains from Northgate Mall to the University of Washington starting in 2021."

Here's a Profile of Brenda from Way Back: With video.

You Know What Brenda Needs? Visibility. A Spokesmodel. I wonder if...

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…is available. s_bukley / Shutterstock.com

Some Ideas About How to Make Housing in Seattle More Affordable: Floated by people not on the mayor's top-secret committee.

"I'm on #TeamRyan": That's what Dan Savage tweeted shortly after we broke the news that Ryan Boudinot's board had resigned en masse after (according to Ryan's description) they asked him to apologize for writing this article and he refused. What's the board's side of the story? Who knows, they wouldn't talk to me. The Seattle Times picked up the story this morning: "War of words sidelines Seattle's 'City of Literature' bid."

Meanwhile, Boudinot Is in Talks with Fantagraphics Books: To launch a new literary imprint!!!

Fantagraphics Is Also Publishing a New Boudinot Book of Stories This Summer: Here's one page from it. Preorder now.

The title page.
The title page. Jacob Covey

Cyberattack on Premera May Affect Six Million in This State, 11 Million Health-Care Customers Total: Attackers may have gained access to customer "names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, addresses, bank-account information, and claim information."

Did You Hear the One About the Starbucks Senior Vice President of Communications? He deleted his Twitter account, evidently not interested in communicating anymore. #racetogether

Boiler in Bellingham Becomes a Bomb: Boy, alliteration's a blast. It's the bomb. I wouldn't really call this a bomb bomb, nor would I call it "total destruction," but that's TV news for you. Glad that family's okay.

Eight People Were Injured in a Bus on the 520 Bridge Last Night: "When a Metro bus and a large freeway sign were hit by a load being lifted by a crane at the state Route 520 construction project."

A Woman Died Yesterday After She Veered off Highway 101 and into Hood Canal: She was "trapped inside the car as it sank below the surface."

A New Kind of 3-D Printer Has Been Developed: Inspired by "the futuristic liquid metal in the movie Terminator 2."

A Kickstarter to Investigate Yelp: "Billion Dollar Bully is an investigative documentary about Yelp that examines the claims by business owners of extortion, review manipulation and review fabrication."

Whoa, Look How Big Wall Street Bonuses Are: Those are really big bonuses.

This Joke from ClickHole Was Either Set in or Based on Seattle:


A Leprechaun Was Spotted Last Night on Saint Patrick's Day: In the basement of the Cha Cha.

A tiny, no pot-of-gold-having leprechaun...
A tiny, no-pot-of-gold-having leprechaun... Kelly O