We don't have any pictures of the Reign, which I would have liked to include, so here are some starfish. Not necessarily the starfish. We'll miss you, Reign FC. Credit: Velvetfish/Getty Images
We dont have any pictures of the Reign, which I would have liked to include, so here are some starfish. Not necessarily the starfish. Well miss you, Reign FC.
We don’t have any pictures of the Reign, which I would have liked to include, so here are some starfish. Not necessarily the starfish. We’ll miss you, Reign FC. Velvetfish/Getty Images

Our starfish are dying—do you care about the environment yet?! I don’t know how important the sunflower starfish is to you, but fuck what you think, the sunflower starfish is dying! The West Coast is losing one of its staple sea critters because of warming oceans, climate change, and “sea star wasting disease.” That is not an optimistic name. The sunflower starfish is not recovering.

The Seattle Reign is moving to Tacoma: Ugh. This is sad. They’re going to Cheney Stadium in Tacoma. The team is excited, though! And hey, that’s an investment in women’s sports! Memorial Stadium, the Reign’s home field, wasn’t suitable for home matches and would need an upgrade, but that wasn’t feasible. The only other field that could have hosted the Reign was CenturyLink. That didn’t work out. So, the Tacoma move.

In less sad news:

She’s running: Councilmember Lisa Herbold is up for re-election. There was a question about if she would run. Well, you can unclench those fists and stop it with that bated breath bullshit. She’s running. Feel better? Didn’t actually care? Sweet. Herbold is running in District 1 so if you aren’t in West Seattle, Delridge, or South Park then forget I said anything.

Say goodbye to the emissions test, Washington: After 38 years, the Department of Ecology says that Washington’s air quality is doing just dandy and there’s no need to keep requiring vehicle emissions tests for vehicle registration. The levels are on track with projections and there will be no more need for emissions tests starting in 2020.

Snow????: Snow levels are supposed to start dropping by Thursday. That means we could get some—could—by maybe Sunday. But weather is fickle so who the fuck actually knows if it’ll snow? Besides GOD.

The Legislature is trying to make evictions in Washington less fucked: Sen. Kuderer said she’s looking into doing a study about the effectiveness of requiring civil legal aid in all eviction cases, and she also wants to make renters assistance programs “more robust,” according to Rich Smith.

Gov. Jay Inslee (and the rest of the country) don’t want Schultz to run: Howard Schultz, the former CEO of Starbucks, is quickly becoming the bane of the Democratic Party’s existence. Inslee, Washington’s governor, is taking a firm approach to Schultz, ostensibly a Washington byproduct. Schultz, though he has ties to Washington, has never been involved in any sort of Washington state politics. He actively sold the Sonics, a treachery Seattleites won’t soon forget. He’s also a Yankee’s fan. Anyway, Inslee “thinks it would be ‘inexcusable’ if Starbucks billionaire Howard Schultz ran as an independent.”

Our Valentine’s Day Issue is out! Great news! Sustain your love life, or lack thereof, with our V-Day Issue. It’s on the streets now and contains a plethora of self-love (can you remember all the places you’ve rubbed one out?), some creative date ideas (an app that will plan one for you? And make it fun?), what the fuck is up with all these Cancers (astrology, not people with the disease, though those things may not be mutually exclusive I don’t claim to be an expert but now I’ve dug myself this hole), and a lot more.

Apple gives Facebook a slap on the wrist: Yesterday, news broke that Facebook was paying users—including teens—to monitor their phones via a “Research App.” Apple didn’t know about that shit and, once they found out, cut the cord on the Research App, something Facebook didn’t mention when they announced the discontinuation of the app. Since then, Apple has banned some of Facebook internal iOS apps that employees use.

Weirdly, Facebook is doing okay: Despite the rollercoaster of a year including leaking everybody’s private data and being embroiled in a new scandal in what seems like every week, Facebook is actually growing. It reported record earnings and more new users. Shit. Weren’t we all abandoning that ship? (Disclaimer: I still have and use my Facebook. But I am thinking, at least daily, about getting rid of it.)

Eight people are dead in the Midwest from these sub-zero temperatures: The temperatures are insane in the Midwest. With wind chill the temperature in Minnesota clocked in at -66 degrees. It’s supposed to be -26 degrees in Chicago, one degree above its coldest temperature ever. This article lists 8 known deaths from the temperature and only lists the cause of two—one death by snowplow, the other, a man found frozen in a garage. It also lists a zebra who froze to death in Indiana.

This will get the blood pumping and your bones thawed:

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Nathalie Graham covers anything she finds fun, weird, or interesting. You can find a lot of that in her column, Play Date. Her work has also appeared around town in The Seattle Times, GeekWire, and the...