These tech companies are just too dang big. Credit: WIN MCNAMEE / GETTY IMAGES
These tech companies are just too dang big.
These tech companies are just too dang big. WIN MCNAMEE / GETTY IMAGES

Developers smell blood in the water: The blood of the soon-to-be demolished viaduct is running green throughout the western side of downtown as developers hurry to buy up adjacent properties. This narrow strip of land is now one of Seattle hottest commodities, and developers want to repurpose, renovate, and cash in on every square foot of land. Parking lots are becoming buildings, and old office building are either getting torn down or redone. Commercial property values for buildings within a quarter mile of the viaduct have risen almost 60 percent since 2011, compared to 38 percent for the rest of the city.

Senator Elizabeth Warren wants to break up giant tech companies: Yeah, she’s looking at you, Amazon, Google, and Facebook. Don’t think I forgot about you, Microsoft, the sentence just flowed better with three companies. She wants to appoint regulators to “unwind tech mergers that illegally undermine competition.” Her plan would also prohibit companies from hosting an online marketplace like, I don’t know, Amazon, and also participating in that marketplace, like AmazonBasics. Is Bezos quaking in his boots?

Surgeon general came to visit our measles-ridden state: US Surgeon General Jerome Adams came not only to throw some subtle shade at anti-vaxxers, but also to throw his support behind the Washington Legislature’s bill to end personal exemptions for childhood vaccines. Unsurprisingly, states with more exemptions for parents to choose from have lower vaccination rates, so the surgeon general’s fix is simple: Ax those exemptions. For those playing along at home, at least 71 people have now contracted measles in Washington, which shouldn’t be a sentence we have to write anymore.

We might get snow, but I don’t know: Yesterday’s flurries were gone in a hurry, so there’s no need to break out the salt. But the snow may come back, and you can count on that, but if not, it’s the weatherman’s fault. Gah, it takes too much time to make Slog AM rhyme.

No, it’s not spring yet: But we do have to set our clocks forward this Sunday morning. Daylight saving time is upon us once more, and it’s time to “spring forward,” which means losing an hour of sleep. Watch out on the Monday morning commute, there are significantly more car accidents after turning our clocks forward every year. Expect Slog AM on Monday to be even more scatterbrained and dad-joke-filled than usual.

The SpaceX Dragon returned to Earth today: From its journey to Earth’s orbit and back. The uncrewed mission is a massive achievement for the budding private spaceflight industry and will pave the way for more daring missions with a human crew. NASA has increasingly been turning to private companies like SpaceX and Boeing to build their spaceships and rockets. The next trip could be as soon as June, where they’ll simulate a malfunctioning thruster.

February jobs report is far below expectations: The US economy added 20,000 jobs in February, but this pales in comparison to the 180,000 jobs economists expected that month. The jobs numbers have been really high the past year, so this marks a record low since September 2017. But some economists think it may just be a weather-related fluke. Both the Northwest and the Northeast saw pretty insane snowstorms in February. The Midwest wasn’t exactly warm, either. These weather events may have something to do with the meager jobs number.

Washington isn’t the only one with anti-vaccine problems: Pakistan is nearing complete eradication of polio in their country, but rampant rumors about vaccines threaten that. The prime minister said that parent’s refusal to vaccinate their kids based on misinformation is “the major obstacle in achieving complete eradication.” Maybe they should start spreading positive rumors about vaccines, like if you get inoculated for polio, you will never go bald. On second thought, that’s a terrible idea, history doesn’t smile on lying to people about medical treatment.

It’s International Women’s Day! And women around the world are taking to the streets to hold protests and rallies. If I see any comments about establishing a Men’s Day, then you’re canceled. That’s pretty much every day including today.

Wake up the right way! Listen to Whitney Houston.

Happy International Women’s Day! This weekend’s best Seattle entertainment options include: The Women’s History Wiki Edit-a-Thon, Christopher Chen’s play Caught, and the last couple days of Seattle Cocktail Week.

Timothy Kenney is a former Slog AM intern. He's written for multiple Seattle outlets, helped CNN cover a mudslide in Sierra Leone, and almost threw up on James Franco once.