An apartment building near Othello Station.
An apartment building near Othello Station. Charles Mudede

New Affordable Rental Building With 108 Units Receives Applications from Nearly 2,100 Households: Apparently Seattle's housing market, which is often said to be determined by the noble economical laws of supply and demand, is not interested in the huge demand for affordable housing. The market is only interested in supplying the city with what it already has plenty of, market-rate units. If you have the money, you have the freedom to choose where you want to live (lots to pick from). But if you don't, if you want a place that will not make you rent burdened, you are condemned to a lottery, such as the one that was held for a new South Seattle building that's offering rents that range from about $470 to $1,150 per month. If you win, you and your family get to live in a nice place near the Othello light-rail station. If you don't, you are a loser! Seattle Times has all the depressing details of this lottery and our housing crisis. It's hard to understand how we can be a sanctuary city without affordable housing. The market will not fix this morally significant problem. The city's government must intervene, must do something about the housing crisis.

A Honduran Family Crossed the US Border into British Columbia Because of Trump: The family (Juan, Carmen, and their 11-year-old son) left Honduras two years ago, made it through Guatemala and Mexico, and settled in the US. Things were fine until Trump came into power. Fearing separation, incarceration, and deportation, the family crossed one more border and entered Canada two weeks ago. “My work friends, a lot of them said they were going to come to Canada,” a said Juan to the Vancouver Sun. The Washington Post also reports that there has been a surge of asylum seekers crossing into Canada from Minnesota, a state with a large Muslim population from one of Trump's banned countries, Somalia. The Washington Post: "For the 70 previous years there was about 50 [crossings] annually. In 2016, 300 asylum seekers crossed into Manitoba. In the first week of February, as many as 30 people crossed over." Lastly, the New York Times reports that more and more migrants from Latin America are settling in Mexico. The US is no longer the dream destination.

A Driver Is Suspected of a Hit-and-Run on I-5: Before sunrise on Sunday, a pickup truck crashed into a car, which then rolled and split into two. The driver of the pickup split from the scene, drove to 50th Street and 2nd Avenue Northeast, and, not knowing if life was lost in the car that was hit (it wasn't), abandoned the pickup truck and ran into the night. KOMO says the driver is still at large.

A Driver Is Suspected of Fleeing the Scene of a Crash That Killed a Woman and Injured Two: The accident happened on Saturday night in Kent. KOMO says the driver who caused the accident by running a red light, got of out of their smashed car and fled on foot. The police are still looking for this person. But where in the world can you go after something like this has happened? The hills? Live in the woods? Become a hunter and gatherer for the rest of your days? Live in a cave? Dance with the wolves? Hide when you hear humans? Where did this person think they were running to?

A Seattle Fishing Boat Called Destination Is Missing: Six people were on-board Destination when it went missing in the Bearing Sea. The Coast Guard is searching for it. Some pieces of the ship have been found. Things do not look good. "We are saturating the area with Coast Guard and good Samaritan assets and hoping for the best," Chief Petty Officer Joshua Ryan of the Coast Guard's 17th District is said to have said.

Boeing Vice Chairman Ray Conner Sold $15.75 Million Worth of His Company's Shares Last Week: Puget Sound Business Journal has the story, which of course, did not make the front pages.

Mix Aging Infrastructure With Climate Change and the Headlines of the Future Appear Today: New York Times - "Flood Risk Near Oroville Dam Causes Thousands to Evacuate in California." The dam in question was built in 1968.