In Case The Sun Was Too Much for You: It’s raining again this week.
Coal Export’s Days Could Be Numbered in the Northwest: Only two of six planned energy export facilities are still on the table in Washington. “Now, only the plans for Longview in Southwest Washington and Gateway Pacific near Bellingham’s Cherry Point remain,” reports KPLU. As Sydney noted in February, the Lummi Nation in Bellingham has a 150-year-old fishing treaty that could block the Gateway Pacific coal terminal.
Seattle Is Second Only to San Francisco for Bus Ridership: About 78,000 Seattleites ride the bus to work. “Between 2010 and 2014, Seattle experienced the biggest jump in bus ridership of any major U.S. city, according to my analysis of census data. In this period, Seattle’s workforce population grew by about 44,000 — and nearly 19,000 of those folks are commuting by bus. That’s 42 percent of the total increase,” the Seattle Times reports.
Human Remains Were Found in a Central District Recycling Bin: A man and his neighbor reported discovering a foot with toenail polish inside a white garbage bag on Saturday afternoon. “It didn’t hit me until I heard about the nail polish. … When it’s assumed to be violence against a woman by a man, it hits harder,” another neighbor told KUOW. A King County Medical examiner plans to examine the remains today, KOMO reports.
One Thing About BMW’s New Car Sharing Program… What we didn’t note on Friday: Although ReachNow runs all the way up to Northgate, service cuts off in the middle of SoDo at Utah Avenue South & South Lander Street, barring service in South Seattle. WTF?
This Didn’t Turn Into a Crab-tastrophe: During a trip up to British Columbia, a semi-truck hauling 45,000 pounds of bananas overturned on Interstate 5. The driver admitted falling asleep at the wheel close to a rest stop in Skagit County, KOMO reports. Thankfully, the driver was not injured and none of the bananas spilled onto the highway. Phew.
The State Takes D.C. Lobbyists to Court: Trial begins today for the Grocery Manufacturers Association, which “created a ‘defense of brands’ account, collected $14 million in contributions, and donated $11 million to the ‘No on 522’ campaign. … Donations to the ‘defense of brands’ account included $2.69 million from Pepsico; $1.75 million from Nestle USA; $1.74 million from Coca-Cola; $996,000 from General Mills; $949,000 from ConAgra; $441,000 from Campbell Soup; $413,000 from the Hershey Co.; $401,000 from J.M. Smucker; and $369,000 from Kellogg,” the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports. Washington voters rejected Initiative 522 in 2013, which would have required labeling genetically modified foods.
Police Killed A Homeless Man In San Francisco: Luis Gongora, a Mexican immigrant who locals described as “friendly” was shot seven times, the Guardian reports. Residents in the Mission District are mourning him.
The Attawapiskat First Nation Declares State of Emergency After String of Suicide Attempts: Eleven people of the Cree community in Ontario, Canada attempted to take their lives on Saturday alone, NPR reports. There are about 2,000 people living in the area. “Including Saturday’s spate of suicide attempts, a total of 101 people of all ages have tried to kill themselves since September, Shisheesh said, with one person dying. The youngest was 11, the oldest 71,” CBC says. The Cree community have faced a lack of housing, high unemployment rates, among other challenges.
“For much of the year,” the [Toronto] Star wrote, Attawapiskat “is accessible only by air, which complicates life here terribly. For example, home repairs are near impossible because neither materials nor skills are available locally. There is no permanent doctor at the local hospital. … Teachers and nurses, almost all non-aboriginal, feel marooned and don’t stick around too long.”
Unemployment was at 70 percent in 2012, the Star wrote, and many students didn’t attend school regularly, seeing no point.
This is what hope looks like: Attawapiskat youth coming together to talk of hopes and dreams.Kicking at the darkness pic.twitter.com/eXqOlfdyBu
— Charlie Angus NDP (@CharlieAngusNDP) April 11, 2016
A Fireworks Display Turned Deadly for South Indian Temple-Goers: A firework landed on a building where other devices were being stored and exploded, killing 106 and inuring 383 others. Several buildings were also leveled. The show, which was for a religious festival, had been banned by Kerala officials, but temple leaders went ahead with it anyway, the New York Times reported.
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