Cats Outta the Bag!?!! Pussy Riot, the feminist punk band jailed in Russia for demonstrating in a cathedral, could be freed in an amnesty deal, Reuters reports.

The Hole Story Mike Lindblom at the Seattle Times has more detail on the tribulations of Bertha, the Highway 99 tunneling machine, which is stuck under downtown due to a mysterious obstruction. It may be steel. Officials could send in divers—yes, divers, like Jacques Cousteau—who they keep on hand to work in the highly pressurized gap between the cutter blades and the blockage. The tunnel is now two months behind schedule—due to a labor dispute, difficult conditions, mechanical failure, and now this… thing in the way. Seattle Tunnel Partners (STP), the company contracted to build the tunnel, refuses to speak.

City Attorney’s Office Wastes More Than $200,000: The City of Seattle has paid out a $235,000 settlement to a man who was wrongly denied police records. An off-duty officer pulled a gun on the man in 2009 and the city, with its head planted so far up its ass that it could lick its own intestines, fought to keep the records sealed. To be clear: Withholding police records from a victim—a problem the SPD has had with dash-cam footage and other records—is nearly always untenable and defending the practice is immoral. Seattle should have settled this long ago for about $20,000 and saved taxpayers a shitload of cash. While the incident occurred under former city attorney Tom Carr, the decision to defend the city’s obstruction apparently continued under the current city attorney, Pete Holmes.

Stabbed in the Nuts, Allegedly: A Central District barber became upset after a customer asked him to quit joking around, according to a Seattle police report, and reacted in the most natural way possible: stabbing his customer in the testicles with his shears, ripping the man’s pants. The barber then allegedly followed the man out of the barber shop and punched him in the face.

Weed Rather You Didn’t: King County passes onerous rules for marijuana businesses. As Ben recently pointed out, though, cities and counties that go to far will likely get sued.

Weed Rather You Did: Denver City Council votes to allow smoking pot on front porches.

Rent Actually Too Damn High: The Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University finds that more half of Americans pay more than 30 percent of their income on housing.

How Right-Wing Propaganda Affects the Stupid: Man who viciously beat a Sikh cab driver, mistaking him to be a Muslim taking all our jobs (not that his excuse matters a nanofuck), has been convicted and will be sentenced to federal prison for his hate crime. He’s asking for leniency.

Because the Gun Lobby Is Evil: This chart shows how they ramped up spending to lobby for less gun control immediately after a nutcase with guns—cheap, easy to obtain, and poorly regulated—murdered 20 children at Sandy Hook Elementary School last year:

What They’re Lobbying For: Since the Newtown shooting, at least 194 more children have been shot to death.