THeyre back, starting today.
They're back, starting today. Kelly O

Ride the Ducks Returns Today, Ducks Will Cross Fremont Bridge: And that concerns Seattle Bike Blog writer Tom Fucoloro, because the ducks have huge blind spots and there's a difficult merging situation there for cyclists. He's calling for safety upgrades to the area before the Ducks are allowed to ride through. "If we are going to allow them on our streets, then we need to make sure we aren’t setting them up to hurt more people," he said.

Head of SPD's Mounted Patrol Faced Firing, Resigned: Perhaps Chief Kathleen O'Toole is culling the ranks, after all. An investigation found that Sergeant James Scott, a 28-year veteran of the department, was stealing hay, using an SPD vehicle for private use, and created a "hostile environment" for a female subordinate by sharing a women's locker room with her. He retired rather than face firing by O'Toole, much like another officer who was found to have inappropriately contacted a woman.

The Rumors of Immigration Raids Continue: Activist Maru Mora Villalpando tells KUOW a 24-hour hotline she set up for undocumented immigrants in Washington to report any activity has been deluged with calls. ""We have seen in the past how people really get into panic mode when they hear ICE is coming—la migra is coming," she said.

Imagine if homeless encampments were allowed in residential areas—you know, where the rest of us are allowed to live.
Some say the Murray administration has used its support for sanctioned tent camps to justify increased sweeps targeting homeless people in unplanned encampments. Kelly O


City Council to Look Into Homeless Encampment "Sweeps" Next Week: That word is so strange to me. My understanding is that each "sweep" by city workers entails getting homeless people to grab whatever they can and move off to some other location. So these are really displacements, or evictions of people who do not own land from the small pieces of land they've claimed. "Despite promises from the City that encampment sweeps typically come with an attempt to link residents with services," Seattlish reports, "there are wildly conflicting stories about what actually happens when SDOT, the police, or outreach workers show up to 'clean up' an encampment."

"Silicon Refugees" Will Drive Up Home Prices in the Seattle Area: That's according to a a new analysis from Zillow, KPLU reports, "in part because many tech workers are opting to live in and around Seattle instead of the San Francisco Bay Area"—since homes in, say, Kirkland are only half a million dollars, while homes near Google's headquarters in Mountain View run in the million dollar range. "He forecasts a 6.1 percent jump in Bellevue and a 5.4 percent increase for the whole Seattle region."

Today Is the Last Day of a Delta 5 Trial in Lynnwood: Activists who engaged in civil disobedience to block an oil train last year are attempting to put climate change on trial. Get caught up to speed on developments in the courtroom with Sydney's last update.

Career Bridge Emerges in 2016 With More Funding, Support: Bryan Cohen at CHS reports on the expansion of the once-embattled program helping ex-convicts get jobs and housing. "I think that the powers at be need to understand that these programs really do work," said Urban League President Pamela Banks. "They really do work.”

Jeff Bezos' Space Rocket-Building Company Wants Tax Breaks to Stay in Washington: The company's president "lamented the fact that two tax incentives that applied to Blue Origin’s work—the high-technology research business and occupation tax credit and sales-tax exemption—were both allowed to expire at the beginning of 2015," the Seattle Times reports.

The Mayor's Nominee for Seattle City Light CEO Sounds Awesome: Doesn't sound like an arrogant, over-paid bureaucrat at all. He's the old head of Austin's energy utility, where he recently called that city's council members "very naive." Council Member Bruce Harrell responded: "If he’s going to succeed in this job, he should embrace the fact that he’ll be getting a lot of policy advice from nonexperts."

Miss Washington USA Resigns: I'm not entirely sure why this is important (does anyone actually see these pageant winners as role models?), but apparently Stormy Keffeler, the winner, resigned after a report about her arrest for drunk driving months ago and possible stabbing of former Sounders player Marco Pappa.

This Week on Blabbermouth, Our Week in Review Podcast: Contributor Matt Baume talks to Eli Sanders about building a park over Interstate 5 between downtown and Capitol Hill. Can you imagine?