Be careful out there.
Be careful out there. Lhb1239, CC 3.0

South Korean international student detained by ICE: Rachel Kim, a 20-year-old international student at Shoreline Community College, was detained at the Canadian border while she was reentering the country to renew her visa. She was sent to the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma. Her lawyer tried to lobby ICE with a request for discretion since her client’s detainment was a technicality. She was told that ICE no longer considered requests for discretion, something the lawyer attributed to Trump’s new immigration enforcements. After ICE was contacted by The Seattle Times for comment, Kim was suddenly released. Her lawyer, shocked at the turn of events, believed it was because they didn’t want bad publicity.

Third snowboarder in three months missing on Mount Baker: The search for Vitaliy Datskiy, 24, was called off due to heavy snowfall and high avalanche risk. Drones with thermal imaging were deployed. Still, there has been no sign of Datskiy. During the last 10 days, the Pacific Northwest has received more snowfall than Idaho and Colorado get in an entire winter. Two other snowboarders went missing in November. They haven't been found.

Relevant: This video shows a snowboarder who gets briefly buried under a snowbank in Whistler, British Columbia. It also depicts how easy it would be to get lost boarding in those conditions, especially alone.


Dreams are coming true in 2018! Mark your calendars because the waterbed is making a comeback this spring. It’s the moment nobody has been waiting for, but Charlie Hall, Bainbridge-based inventor, thinks the so-called “Pleasure Pit” will really make a splash with millennials.

Is this fitness app the next Snowden? Strava is a fitness app where users can track their progress online. The company released a data visualization map of all the activity tracked by its users. What Strava didn’t account for was that soldiers at secret military bases were part of the fitness app fad. Spots of activity in barren places — especially bright spots in the middle of Afghanistan, Djibouti, and Syria — show the location of secret military bases. By zooming in closer to these areas, the routes tracked by multiple soldiers going for a jog put the internal layout of the bases on display. A lone cyclist’s route shows the border of Area 51. If there's anything our government is about it's (accidental) transparency!

New school-funding plan causes bump in property taxes: The McCleary decision is the response to a Supreme Court ruling in 2012 that said the state was violating its constitution by underfunding public schools. Property-tax bills will increase on average by 17 percent in order to fund the new education plan.

Seattle’s 911 is not meant for homeless people in crisis: According to an article by The Seattle Times, 911 operators are ill-equipped to handle non-emergency calls, especially those related to the homeless. Not only that, but they’re annoyed about getting these calls. If you need a dose of cynicism with your coffee, there are some snarky remarks from dispatchers in that article that will leave you jaded and ready for the day. Seattle City Councilmember Sally Bagshaw is trying to fix this. She's going to start by clarifying protocols and adding services to 911 dispatch centers equipped to handle these particular issues.

If you see someone outside in need of aid:


The Grammy Awards were last night: And they were long. I think I aged three years watching last night's ceremony. There were some buzz-worthy parts that I’m sure most people have heard about by now. Most notably, Hillary Clinton made a cameo to read bits of “Fire and Fury.” I don’t know how I feel about it. How do you feel about it? We know how Nikki Haley felt:


There were some other big moments:

Like, Kendrick Lamar’s show-stopping, politically-charged opening number: Which proved why he deserved to win four Grammys and is quickly earning the title of the Greatest Of All Time (GOAT, for the uninitiated). Even if he did get snubbed for Best Album — again.


Kesha sang her heart out performing her single ‘Praying’: It’s a song all about the abuse she endured at the hands of her producer, Dr. Luke, for years. It was that abuse that kept her from contractually making music for years. This was the first song she released after winning her case against Dr. Luke. She sang it last night at the height of the #MeToo movement and to a room full of the most powerful people in an industry that allowed her abuse to continue. And yet, she lost the Grammy for Best Pop Solo Performance to Ed-fucking-Sheeran.


U2 was there and they kept showing up: I think U2 had three or four performances last night. It felt like hundreds. They were on the stage with Kendrick and then they were on a barge in New York Harbor singing a song about DACA. Bono grabbed a stars-and-stripes adorned megaphone and shouted patriotic stuff. He had a microphone hooked up to a state-of-the-art sound system right in front of him. It was confusing. I don’t know if I was supposed to feel moved or concerned at how cold all of them looked performing outside in New York City during the dead of winter.

The Grammys were male-dominated: It’s sad when reality knocks. Especially when there’s a whole movement attempting to call out gender inequality. Last night, women or female-fronted groups only took home 17 out of 85 awards. That’s just under 20 percent.

Light rail update: See where it's headed next!

I have some bad news: Pull up your PoĂ€ng chair and take a seat, this one’s heavy. I’ll grab you some soothing tea in your FĂ€rgrik mug. Is it okay if I set it on the Åmliden? Okay, you ready? Ingvar Kamprad, the founder of Ikea, is dead. He was 91. He founded Ikea when he was only 17, so don’t worry. He had a fulfilling life. Look upon his works [at this point I motion grandly to every piece of furniture in the room, it is all from Ikea] and tremble.

It’s Monday, so I have some homework for you for the week: If you’re inclined, read up on what I think is interesting and not-being-talked-about. Whatever is going on at the LA Times is weird. Not a good weird, either. I’m hyperlinking your reading list in here. It’s fishy. They’ve just unionized and their owner is making shady moves under the noses of some very accomplished, and suspicious, reporters. Nobody is being told anything and people are being suspended or replaced without the newsroom knowing. It's not required reading, there won't be a quiz, but we can discuss later this week.

Speaking of which, get your week off to a good start: Tonight’s best entertainment options include a Sgt. Pepper Sing-Along, a Green Milk from the Planet Orange concert, and David Cay Johnston’s It’s Even Worse Than You Think talk about Trump.