Drone Hits the Great Wheel: "A flying drone hit the giant Ferris wheel near downtown Seattle’s waterfront Wednesday, crashing into a nearby pier and prompting a police response, according to Seattle police," Jessica Lee reports. "Seattle Great Wheel security workers reported the strike to police around 4:45 p.m., police spokesman Mark Jamieson said. When officers arrived to the observation deck, they looked for possible damage and confiscated the aircraft. No injuries or damages were reported." If you're surprised by this, don't be. A quick Google search for videos uploaded by people buzzing the Great Wheel with their drones found this, and this, and this...

Wait, Now Someone Does Want to Put Basketball and Hockey Teams at KeyArena? "A New Mexico-based real-estate investment company has expressed interest in overhauling KeyArena and funding the estimated $285 million cost so that it could host NHL and NBA teams," reports the Seattle Times. "In a July 20 letter, Seattle native Christopher Brozovich, vice president of M.T. Phoenix LLC, wrote to Seattle Mayor Ed Murray that his company had reviewed a new report on KeyArena’s viability and agreed it could be renovated at its existing size. He’s still waiting for a response."

And Now the Old Seattle Times Building Is Smoldering: After being taken over by squatters who remodeled it to their liking—and after those squatters went through a few cycles of being evicted and returning—the old Seattle Times building is now smoldering. "Firefighters used crowbars and circular saws to cut through doors and get inside the former Seattle Times building early Thursday morning, as two columns of smoke rose from the building’s west side," the Seattle Times reports from around the corner. "Firefighters found a fire and were able to put it out quickly; no one was injured, said Sue Stangl, a spokeswoman for the Seattle Fire Department."

A New App for Keeping Tabs on Seattle's Illegally Dumped Trash: "Bibles. Blowup dolls. A rotting cow head. Containers filled with urine. Lots and lots of used diapers. Car engines. A hand grenade. A skinned dog in a plastic bag. These days, the city is kept especially busy with citizens reporting illegally dumped trash — 8,200 reports so far this year, 75 percent more than in all of 2014," reports Erik Lacitis. "That’s because of a new app that Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) released last year."

How Large Should Seattle's Police Department Be? Who Knows! Policymakers Are Still Waiting for a Study to Tell Them: To help Chief Kathleen O'Toole and others figure out how to make the Seattle Police Dapartment "a model for urban policing," reports David Kroman, "the Seattle City Council commissioned a study —at a cost of $500,000— to determine the ideal size and structure of the Seattle Police Department. SPD selected Berkshire Advisors in Ohio to carry it out. It would be a map for how many officers to hire and where the department could function more effectively. But more than year into O’Toole’s tenure, that study has still not materialized. It’s so late that the Seattle City Council has gone into another round of budget talks without it, putting councilmembers in the slightly awkward position of either blindly authorizing new police hires based largely on an anecdotal sense of need, or risk pushing the department even further behind where many say it already is."

Strong Weather Coming in Today on an "Atmospheric River": "Weather forecasters are advising Puget Sound commuters to take extra caution getting home Thursday afternoon as powerful winds and heavy rains push across Western Washington, according to the National Weather Service," reports Jessica Lee. "Winds are expected to start in the afternoon with rain to follow in the evening. And in the Cascades and Olympic Peninsula, forecasters say an “atmospheric river,” or a warm stream of moist air with tropical origins, will burst at high peaks, dumping rain and snow that could cause lowland rivers across the area to flood."

"10 Ways to Make Seattle Politics More Inclusive in 2016:" Building on a forum held in south Seattle on Tuesday called “Young, Gifted and Brown: 2015 Seattle Post-Election Analysis," the Seattle Globalist offers some action items. Here's the first: "1. People of color must be employed at every level of the political process — from consultants, to campaign managers, to staffers."

A Coworking Space with a Bar! Dangerous. The Seattle Times reports: "Inside the former Northern Trust bank vault at Fourth and Union in downtown Seattle, there now stand several rows of posh, wooden lockers. Just outside the heavy vault door is a series of curtained booths, a sleek, fully stocked bar and rows of small desks set up to look like a cafe. A blend of restaurant, bar and lounge, the location has another function: It’s a co-working space."

This Was in Yesterday's Morning News, but It's Worth Repeating: There are ways to use the passage of Tim Eyman's budget-destroying Initiative 1366 to get action on improving Washington State's highly regressive tax system.

And Clinton Leads Among Democratic Primary Voters: "Despite a month of sharpened attacks, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont has failed to significantly dent Hillary Rodham Clinton’s lead in the Democratic presidential race, according to a New York Times/CBS News survey released on Thursday," the New York Times reports. "Mrs. Clinton has support from 52 percent of Democratic primary voters, while Mr. Sanders has backing from 33 percent, the poll found. In an early October CBS News poll, she led Mr. Sanders 56 percent to 32 percent."