Hopefully Suzzallo Librarys 1926 architecture will hold up during The Big One
Hopefully Suzzallo Library's 1926 architecture will hold up during 'The Big One' urbanglimpses / Getty

Seismic safety comes to schools: About 72 percent of Washington schools are in areas of high seismic risk. Even more schools — 88 percent — were constructed pre-2005 when building codes weren’t up to earthquake regulation snuff. Now, $1.2 million is being allocated to conduct seismic assessments for 220 school buildings. This is just the beginning of making schools earthquake safe.

Sound Transit partners with rideshare: First-last mile solutions are all the rage these days. This is especially true at Mercer Island’s transit center where the 447 stalls in the park-and-ride garage fill up before 7 a.m. To remedy that, Sound Transit is subsidizing Lyft and Uber rides to and from the transit center. Beginning April 23rd, rides will cost $2 for the first three months. After that, rides will cost $2 for groups and $5 for individuals. The cost increase is meant to prioritize carpooling to mitigate Lyft and Uber traffic at the transit center.

Durkan doesn’t disappoint on campaign promise: The mayor is putting into action the homelessness-prevention program she talked about during the election. A politician we can trust? I’m skeptical. Either way, Durkan is launching a two year $2 million rental-assistance program to give money to people on the waitlist for federal rent vouchers. The program will stop people on the cusp from becoming homeless.

State’s financial-aid program fully funded: During a short legislative session, Lawmakers pledged to fully fund the $300 million State Need Grant. In the past, the grant wasn’t able to help all of the students who needed it. Lawmakers vowed to put more money into the fund each year to help more students. They also voted to give the UW’s computer science program $3 million more dollars. Yay. More bills were passed in the interest of higher education during the session. You can read about them here.

Two teenage girls die in Burien shooting: They were shot in a Burien parking lot Wednesday night. They were pronounced dead at the hospital. Officers initially believed they were injured in a drive-by shooting but now think the incident started as a disturbance in the parking lot.

Dramatic Amber Alert conclusion: A five-year-old boy was taken from his home by his father. Police pursued the man, but he got away. Tips kept flooding in and ultimately the man was cornered by police near NE 63rd Street and 15th Avenue NE. My roommate was driving by and texted me updates about the whole thing. Over to Nicole with the report:

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Just a side note, we don't endorse distracted driving. Not distracted driving gives you fewer typos.

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To be fair, Nicole doesn't have autocorrect on her phone so, while distracted driving is very bad, her accuracy is impressive. Yesterday was her birthday, too, so I'm not going to harsh on it too much. She also gave a great play-by-play.

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The boy was okay. The father is in custody. Mystery solved.

Trump confirms he hates Amazon:


Presidential pardons: Trump’s lawyer reportedly discussed pardons for Michael T. Flynn and Paul Manafort, two of Trump’s former top advisors, last year. John Dowd, Trump’s lawyer, resigned last week. Dowd may have been offering pardons to the men in order to sway their decisions about pleading guilty and participating in the Mueller investigation.

Another one bites the dust: Trump fired David J. Shulkin, Department of Veteran Affairs secretary. He said he’s replacing Shulkin with White House physician Dr. Ronny L. Jackson. Trump wants his doctor, a man with no bureaucratic experience, to run a major bureaucracy.

Blabbermouth Podcast: Gasping at Our Facebook Data and Digging the Roseanne Re-boot Listen to it now!

WannaCry Boeing? Nah, they’re okay, apparently. Yesterday, the Seattle Times reported Boeing was hit with the WannaCry virus, malware that exploits flaws in Windows software to gain access to the network. Boeing was initially scared that the breach would halt production but the bug was squashed quickly.

“Are you my Uber?” Cheetah hops into Seattle man’s Land Cruiser on African safari.

Indian brothel owners convicted for trafficking children: The two owners received a life sentence for the trafficking, abuse, and rape of children. According to Reuters, this is “an unprecedented sentence in a country where fewer than two in five trafficking cases ends in a conviction.” Four of nine girls testified. This is rare, usually trafficked children return home after rescue and are never heard from again.

Washington bans conversion therapy: Gov. Jay Inslee signed the bill officially banning therapists from practicing gay conversion therapy. Washington is only the tenth state to do so.

The Onion has unionized: Nope, it’s not satire. Onion Inc. formed a union and it comprises all of the Onion’s creative tabs: The A.V. Club, The Onion, ClickHole, The Takeout, Onion Labs, and Onion Inc.’s video and art departments.

An update from my alley:

This one is short. There’s nothing super significant about it except that I felt like I needed a bath after.
My friend and I were making our way through our alley when we saw a group of people clustered near the fringes. They were tucked just out of sight, their dark hoodies blending in with the black trash cans. They were right near the little alcove where that one neighbor trains his security camera. I hope, for his sake, he burns the footage.

There were four people. One girl with ill-fitting jeans, a graphic sweatshirt of some kind, fogged up glasses, and hair that was probably green at one point but had lost its luster was making out with another person. That person’s face was obscured, was wearing black and aggressively making out with the girl. The two other people were just watching.

We passed them and couldn’t help but gawk. One girl, not the one making out, looked up from the live entertainment and fixed us with a cold stare. We made eye contact. I shivered. Her eyes tracked us as we went past. I wanted to tear my eyes away and look back at the couple — who, I’d like to point out, literally never stopped making out—but I couldn’t. Not under such scrutiny. The other person not involved in the impassioned public display never looked up. I don’t know what I witnessed. I don't know who I am anymore.

Tonight's best Seattle entertainment options include: A comedy set with Margaret Cho, a concert with Beth Ditto and SSION, and a Word Works reading with acclaimed Seattle writer Charles Johnson.