I love that Brandon Redtailhawk Olebar story! And in news affecting zero Slog readers, Poverty Rock water's just been declared safe. http://blogs.seattletimes.com/today/2014…

The headline and the top of the post have just been rewritten, given the lifting of the water ban.

Asshole scuba divers should not disturb the wildlife by shining blinding lights on them and pursuing them when they try to get away. See how it opens and closes its eyes like "Gah! Stop!" It spends the entire video just trying to get away & hide -- it's probably terrified. This is not environmentally responsible cinema. Leave the fucking octopus alone!

@3: Agreed. And blasting Pink Floyd while underwater is simply too much.

The criminal justice system rarely gives a shit about finding the actual criminals... they just want to close cases. Period. Innocent person convicted? Who cares as long as they can chalk up another closed case.

take your pick: assholes with lights or assholes with spearguns (see previous Slog PGO kerfluffle). if I were the PGO, i'd take the former.

In the case of Brandon Olebar, much credit also goes to King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg for accepting the new evidence of Brandon's innocence and himself moving to vacate the conviction.

Too often in such matters prosecutors resist the new truth and work to keep innocent people locked up, for reasons that rational people cannot possibly fathom.

not that i ever read unregistered comments, but wtf are you talking about @9?

You know who slacks their way through youth? Rich Mercer Island kids. Because they get good jobs and money from their parents.

Great Bernie Sanders interview at Salon.

on disenfranchisement and rigging of the political process:
"[pundits] estimate that 60 percent of the American people aren’t going to vote. So those guys didn’t vote for it. So you have 40 percent whose incomes are substantially higher, by the way, and are better educated than the general population. Of the 60 percent who don’t vote, no one knows exactly, the guess is 75-to-80 percent of low-income workers don’t vote. I recently talked to a union organizer in South Carolina who’s trying to organize fast food people. And she just checked with the people — the five or six hundred people that she’s working with, with the voter registration files, and I think 15 of them are registered to vote. You have 5 percent or lower of people working at minimum wage who participate in the political process. It’s not relevant to them. And young people to very large numbers don’t vote as well. And then the Koch brothers spend $400 million.

So the election system, the electoral system, is clearly rigged. And by that I mean culturally, throw in the media and everything else, what you have is a situation where a majority of the people — I shouldn’t say majority — but many people do not understand the significance of government and politics on their lives. "

http://www.salon.com/2014/09/28/we_need_…

@10, but spare a kind thought for the burnouts who crack under the pressure, as my friends and I did. Some break the Rock, some are broken upon it.

lol @12... I thought no one escaped The Rock! Except Sean Connery of course

We are told our "Intelligence" over estimated our friend's military ability and under estimated our enemy's military ability. This sounds like plain old hubris. We've done this same stupid thing consistently. And James Clapper should have been fired long ago!!!

Um, it should be a minimum of 1 millions dollars per year compensation for an innocent person being in prison. A very high penalty would hopefully motivate for less mistakes (prosecutors should be fined, as well). What a nightmare having so many years stolen.

I too got a knot in my stomach watching the octopus being harassed for far to many minutes.

@18, First thing I thought was that the monetary award was on the low side.

sigh: "too"