The FDA Warns Washington Businesses That Are Making Marijuana Meds for Dogs: "In its letter to Seattle’s Canna-Pet, the FDA noted that the company promotes its product as especially beneficial for pets with 'nausea, chronic pain, cancer, seizures, among other maladies,'" reports the Seattle Times. Um, wait, is there any evidence that pets benefit from medical marijuana? "Patricia Talcott, professor and veterinary diagnostic toxicologist at Washington State University, said she isn’t aware of any controlled studies that have been published dealing with the use of CBD products for animals," the Times reports.
The Columbia Tower Is for Sale: "Beacon Capital Partners, a Boston-based private-equity real estate company, will begin marketing the building for sale in the coming months," the Seattlepi.com reports. "At 937 ft., it is the second-tallest U.S. building on the West Coast, after the U.S. Bank building in Los Angeles."
What the Low Snowpack May Mean for Fire Season: "Low snowpack this winter could lead to an earlier and more extreme fire season in the Northwest," reports KUOW. "In many parts of Oregon and Washington, the snowpack is just ten to twenty percent of the average. It's not that precipitation is low, it's just that it has fallen as rain rather than snow."
State Senate Wants to Prohibit Sexting, Calling, and Other Cell-Phone Uses While Driving: "A bill to expand Washington’s texting-while-driving ban to include all cell-phone use while driving except for certain hands-free functions passed the Senate 35-14 Tuesday," the Seattle Times reports. "Amid debate, those in opposition to the bill pointed to behind-the-wheel habits they said were as dangerous as using a phone: eating burgers and milk shakes, fumbling for dropped items, and calming frisky dogs, to name a few."
Related: Here's the 2010 press event that taught Lindy West and her cameraman (me) a valuable lesson about all this:
When Should a Mentally Ill Killer Be Freed? "A court hearing Thursday is putting a spotlight on the debate over when a killer should be released from the custody of mental health professionals after the killer has pleaded insanity," KING 5 reports. "Jeffrey Schuler is eligible for conditional release from Western State Hospital, 13 years after he murdered Sophia Kim in their Ballard apartment."
"Prolific" Car Thief Captured: "After breaking into countless cars for three months and stealing dozens of credit and debit cards, 31-year-old Jacob Benjamin Larsen became one of the most wanted men in the Seattle area," KIRO reports. "The previously convicted car prowler and identity thief was caught on surveillance sorting through stacks of stolen cards at stores in Bellevue Square Mall, buying Apple iPads for $550, and hitting the self-checkouts at Safeway stores. On Tuesday, detectives used Larsen’s criminal pattern to find him."
Two Police Officers Shot in Ferguson: "Thursday’s shooting threatened to ratchet up tensions," the New York Times reports, "as well as unravel efforts to change the way the police here do business and to heal the anger and frustration that [Mike] Brown’s killing had unleashed."
Serious Condition: The Washington Post has more on the Ferguson shootings: "'This is really an ambush,' Jon Belmar, chief of St. Louis County police, said during a news conference Thursday morning. The two officers, one of whom was shot in the face, were in serious condition after the shooting, but police said that the injuries were not life-threatening."
The Embarrassment of Olympia's Climate Change Deniers: Danny Westneat on the "anti-science cocoon" of our state's elected Republicans. Meanwhile, here's Vice on the reality of climate change:
