We Just Set a Record for All-Time Warmest February "Since Official Measurements Began": The average temperature in Seattle last month was 48.8 degrees. We also had our warmest winter ever "by far!"
More Than 20 Cities in the West Have Set Records This Year for Warm Winters: Including San Francisco, Salt Lake City, and Las Vegas. Meanwhile, hilariously, "February brought a snow record for Boston."
We're Also in the Deadliest Flu Season in Washington State in at Least Five Years: Please make a note of that while you're updating our record books.
Environmental Groups Are Suing the Port of Seattle: Over their secret business dealings to stash a Shell oil rig in our port.
The City of Bellevue Has a New Police Chief: "Stephen Mylett has accepted the city's conditional offer to be its next police chief," KOMO reports. He's from Texas. You can see his picture and read more about him on this page of the four finalists for that job.
Pierce County Has Banned Recreational Pot Shops: But a recreational pot shop opened in Pierce County yesterday anyway, saying they are allowed to be there under state law.
LA Police Shot and Killed an Unarmed Homeless Man in Downtown LA Yesterday: The poor guy had recently spent years in a mental-health facility. Video here.
Meanwhile, in Ferguson, Missouri, Police Are Coming Under Fire from the Justice Department: No, not that kind of fire, metaphorical fire. "The Justice Department has nearly completed a highly critical report accusing the police in Ferguson, Mo., of making discriminatory traffic stops of African Americans that created years of racial animosity leading up to an officer’s shooting of a black teenager last summer."
A Seaplane Capsized on Lake Union Over the Weekend: Here's what an upside-down seaplane looks like.
Pussy Riot Play Themselves on the New Season of House of Cards: They dump their drinks and storm out of a dinner party where the Russian president is eating. They also teamed up with Le Tigre to do a song for the show. Listen and watch the video for it here.
Meanwhile, over the Weekend, There Was a Seattle Protest Against Vladimir Putin: "Dozens of people held a rally outside the Russian consulate in downtown Seattle to mourn the death of Boris Nemstov, who was gunned down near Moscow's Kremlin."
A Literary Fight Happened 11 Years Ago Today in New York City: The above list of entrances and exits of great male writers comes from A Reader's Book of Days, which also includes an anecdote about something that happened on March 2, 2004:
Declaring, "I've waited two year for this. You spat on my book!" Richard Ford spat on Colson Whitehead at a literary party, two years after Whitehead panned A Multitude of Sins in the New York Times. Whitehead later remarked, "This wasn't the first time some old coot had drooled on me."
Speaking of Writers Fighting, Have You Read the Essay That Has Writers "Freaking Out Across the Internet"? That's the way ArtsJournal is describing Ryan Boudinot's piece for The Stranger, "Things I Can Say About MFA Writing Programs Now That I No Longer Teach in One."
We've Gotten at Least One Letter to The Stranger Asking That We "Pull the Article": Which we're not going to do. Novelist Hari Kunzru says it has "sound but hard words for MFA students on who's a 'real writer' and who's not." Some person I've never heard of says Boudinot's essay is so infuriating, "it's like my urethra is filled with bees."
