Sweet, sweet taxation.
Sweet, sweet taxation. KEVORK DJANSEZIAN/GETTY

Housing growth is slow among Seattle’s construction boom: Housing is springing up all over the place — except for the suburbs. Over the last decade, Seattle construction has increased 130 percent. Housing development in the suburbs is down 43 percent from its historic average, reports the Seattle Times. Yes, there are fewer homes being built, but this is also indicative of history — Seattle suburbs used to build the majority of apartments. That’s shifted. Seattle has now built 70 percent of the city’s dense housing.

BREAKING: Six more women accuse David Meinert of sexual misconduct and assault. This brings the total number of women who have come forward up to 11.


Soda taxation with representation: The soda tax is putting in work. In the first six months, the tax on sugary beverages — the soda tax — brought in $10 million. Before it went into effect, it was estimated that the tax would draw in $14.8 million this year. One of the aims of the tax was to discourage people from buying unhealthy drinks. Researchers don’t know whether the tax has shaped consumers’ buying habits. It’s just too soon to tell.

It’s been 16 days, the orca mother is still carrying her dead calf: Yikes. Researchers are heartbroken. This is not a great sign for the orca’s health, physically and mentally. Yeah, because nothing screams mentally well like towing your child’s corpse around for over a fortnight. The emergency effort to save her and the other ailing orca in the pod are underway. Will it be enough?

Carmen Best is our new police chief
 almost: She made it past another round of the confirmation process when the Seattle City Council’s public safety committee voted 3 to 0 in her favor yesterday. The final round? On Monday, Best will wait for the full nine-member council member vote. It’s been smooth sailing through the confirmation process so far. If all goes to plan, as of Monday, Best will be the first African American police chief in Seattle.

A car fire? Guys, seriously, we talked about this. Quit it with the fire. Don’t give me any excuses like “I can’t control what happens when I’m in a car accident” or “this is obviously not intentional.”


Watch out for that norovirus: Literally yesterday, after the adult rec soccer game I played and am incredibly sore from, someone asked me what I thought about swimming in the lakes around here. I defended it tooth and nail. Port Orchard isn’t exactly in our backyard, but Horseshoe Lake in South Kitsap is experiencing a norovirus outbreak. The beach is closed. It’s like the plot of Jaws but a gastrointestinal virus instead of a man-eating shark.

Someone watch the meteor shower with me: The Annual Perseid meteor shower will reach its peak this weekend. About 60-80 meteors will streak across the night sky each hour at the height of it. That’s on the low end as far as the Perseid goes — its best numbers reach 200 meteors per hour. Either way, if you’re into stargazing, go find yourself a dark place on Saturday night into Sunday morning and look up at the stars.

Here you go: I know you were curious about this. I’m a giver, what can I say?


NASA’s pulling an Icarus: They’re trying to study the sun’s corona, the outermost part of the sun’s atmosphere. To do this, NASA is launching a probe closer to the sun than any mission has been before. Basically, this lucky probe gets to be launched in the sun and we’re left here, grounded on earth with nothing to do but work our jobs and eat too much bread.

I bet we can all make this about Trump super easily: But I won't. Look at these figures about how water is wasted in California. Water waste is something horrific and forbidden that is beaten into every Californian from the youngest of ages.


Temporary ride share cap in NYC: There’s a one year cap for new ride share licenses in New York City, now. The legislation also allows the city to set a minimum wage for ride share drivers. This is New York’s effort to study this quickly changing industry and fix city street congestion, something that ride share presence has worsened.

A New Mexico school shooting training compound: A raid on a ramshackle compound in New Mexico near the Colorado border unearthed a place where 11 hungry children were being held by one man. It also appeared that the man was conducting weapons training. The man is accused of running a school shooting training compound. Remains of another child were found on site.

The Oscars are trying to stay hip and relevant: To combat low ratings and audience disinterest, the Oscars is introducing a new category. Nope, it’s not anything worthwhile like best stunts or voice acting or any cool film technology. It’s — wait for it — “Most Popular Film.” Which. What the fuck? How do you gauge that? Is it by money? Because then it’s not much of a surprise. The film community is absolutely livid. How dare the Oscars tarnish their own reputation?

Georgia defends its voting system despite 243 percent voter turnout: There was a string of irregularities from Tuesday’s primary in Georgia. One of them was that 243 percent of the voting population turned out to vote! Way to go, Georgia! The voting machines the state uses are consistently troublesome.

Headline of the week: Facebook Expresses ‘Regret’ After Balloons And Confetti Decorate Posts About Deadly Indonesian Earthquake

An update from my alley:

She was headed back from somewhere, where was it again? Her memory wasn’t what it used to be these days. Dusk was settled in and she wanted to make it home soon. She tried to walk faster but it was hard to get her walk above its usual amble.

As she turned into the alley she heard a crash that sounded like porcelain breaking. Then laughter.

She shook her head and kept going. When she happened upon the middle of the alley it was streaked with pink powder.

She slowed.

There were five kids standing there. One was gripping a thin plank of wood, studded with nails, poised like a baseball bat. Another was gripping a baseball. Two others were crowded next to each other both wearing — were those gas masks?

She couldn’t help herself. “What are y’all doing here?”

The last one, the one with the camera slung around her neck, turned to her. “Uh. We’re doing a scavenger hunt.”

She nodded as if that made sense. Except it didn’t. She waited.

“It’s a creative interpretation of a prompt which was ‘Love is in the air’,” the girl continued. “So uh, those two” she looked to the masked people “are going to kiss and with some pink powder,” she looked at the girl gripping the baseball, “it’ll look really cool. Like toxic love. You know?”

She absolutely didn’t. Nor did she have time for this.

“Okay.” She said and was on her way.

Moments later, as dusk descended into twilight, she heard another shatter, a shuffle of feet, and when she turned around, a cloud of pink quickly dissipated in the hot summer air.

There was always something in this alley, she smiled softly to herself.

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Tonight's best Seattle entertainment options include: Nine hours of lip syncing with Arson Nicki at Slow Burn: A Durational Drag Performance, a screening of a documentary about local bassist (and glass artist) Preston Singletary's ensemble, Khu.Ă©ex: The Magic of Noise, and the Capitol Hill Art Walk.