THERES A LOT OF NEWS TO GET TO But its kind of hard to concentrate on it when staring into Jack Kerouacs eyes, dontcha think? This is his Naval Reserve Enlistment photograph. Today is his birthday.
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  • THERE'S A LOT OF NEWS TO GET TO... But it's kind of hard to concentrate when staring into Jack Kerouac's eyes, dontcha think? This is the photograph taken of him when he enlisted in the Navy Reserve. Today is his birthday.

What Seattle Business Owners and Activists Are Debating Behind Closed Doors: As Dom writes, the current debate isn't between passing $15 immediately across the board for everyone or doing nothing at all. The debate "is how we graduate to $15 an hour—a number that even the mayor supports." To that end, there are a bunch of specific policy ideas on the table, and Dom breaks down them right here. For example: "How does Seattle ensure that corporate behemoths such as AMC Theatres, McDonald's, Office Max, and Target begin paying $15 immediately—because their economies of scale would allow them to absorb the added payroll—while ensuring that tiny coffee shops and the like don't drown? Or even if little businesses stay afloat, some ask, how can the law be implemented so small shops don't need to raise prices by 30 percent to break even, thereby disadvantaging them next to national chain stores that don't need to raise prices?"

Corporate Behemoths Are the Enemy in the Minimum-Wage Battle, But They're Conveniently Not Showing Up for the Debate: As Anna points out, "All the Targets and Walmarts have to do right now to avoid getting the stink of a difficult conversation on them is to stay the hell out of the way—which lets them off the hook way too easily. A conversation that pits local workers and local small-business owners against each other is a fight that benefits big business more than anyone. And it’s big business reaping record profits, it's the big businesses that employ more than 60 percent of low-wage workers, and it's the big businesses that are the egregious offenders in the wage fight."

How the NSA Plans to Infect "Millions" of Computers with Malware: That's the headline on a new piece of reporting by Glenn Greenwald and Ryan Gallagher this morning, based on documents from Edward Snowden. "In some cases the NSA has masqueraded as a fake Facebook server, using the social media site as a launching pad to infect a target’s computer and exfiltrate files from a hard drive. In others, it has sent out spam emails laced with the malware, which can be tailored to covertly record audio from a computer’s microphone and take snapshots with its webcam."

Kshama Sawant's First Standalone "No" Vote on City Council: Was against Homeland Security funding for SPD facial-recognition technology. Brendan has the details.

Third Potential Last Sighting of the Malaysia Airlines 777 Adds to the Confusion: "In a new twist to the mystery, officials suggested the plane may have been detected on military radar at 2.15am on Saturday, 200 miles north-west of Penang." To be clear, they're talking about an unidentified aircraft that may or may not have been the one they're looking for. And really, who the hell knows. "Authorities acknowledged Wednesday they didn't know in which direction the plane and its 239 passengers was heading when it disappeared, vastly complicating efforts to find it."

Immigration Authorities Might Start Force Feeding Detainees Who Are on Hunger Strike: Ansel reports that an attorney who's met with them says detainees are being "threatened with forced feeding if they continue their protest. Asylum seekers are being threatened with denial of their cases." Kshama Sawant sent President Obama a letter yesterday about the situation. We're on day six of the hunger strike.

Olympia Passed Two Anti-Sex-Trafficking Bills Yesterday: They're good legislation, Hanna says—well, good for everyone "except scum-of-the-earth sex traffickers."

Police Find Alleged Bank Robber in a Top Pot Doughnuts: Right after a bank robbery on Capitol Hill yesterday. Doughnut shop employees said the guy had asked them to call him a cab.

But a Cinnabon Burglar Is Still At Large: "Seattle police are looking for a man they believe broke into the Northgate Mall Cinnabon last week and took thousands of dollars and milk."

A Building—or Two Buildings?—Exploded in New York City This Morning: Or one building exploded and took out the building next to it. At least one person has died. Twitter is full of images like this:


As Mentioned Above, It's Jack Kerouac's Birthday: And also Dave Eggers's birthday, according to my favorite new book, A Reader's Book of Days. Happy birthdays, Jack and Dave.

The Terrible War Between Mankind and Goats: A newspaper correction from the UK this morning to brighten things up a bit.