They are majestic, fragile creatures.
They are majestic, fragile creatures. SERGEI DUBROVSKII / GETTY IMAGES

Gov. Inslee and the State of the State: It sounds like a fun situational comedy but it's just a political speech! You knew that. I'm not funny. Get me fired, I dare you. Inslee addressed the Legislature on Tuesday and urged lawmakers to take action on climate change. There are three policies that will go before the Legislature this session. Inslee, as a prospective 2020 presidential candidate, needs to make this session count if he wants to prove to the country that he can get implement his vision. He also talked mental health and orcas. The holy trinity.

Seattle Squeeze chaos averted: There were four Interstate 5 crashes and stalls today, the second day of the Alaskan Way Viaduct closure in the 2019th year of our Lord. Quick responses from the Washington State Department of Transportation's incident response teams (there are 27 deployed per day during the Squeeze!) allowed us to avoid crippling traffic. Overall, traffic was a little slower today than normal. It will get worse with rain on Thursday.

Exhibit A:


Most cranes in America, baby! Seattle still holds the record for most cranes in America. That's gotta feel good! Don't you love winning???? I'm looking at three cranes right now and my view is literally just Cal Anderson Park. We're clocking in at 59 cranes!! Woo! Except, Seattle was left off of Zillow's list of hottest housing markets.

Banning plastic straws might not be Washington's best battle to fight: The Legislature is pondering a statewide plastic straw ban this session. Katie Herzog doesn't think this is worth it. Sure, baby steps to ending the plastic problem and all that. But, what about people who can't lift up a cup who depend on a straw for autonomy? The people who are sick or have had surgery and need a straw to drink?

Three people dead in Sammamish: The King County sheriff found three dead bodies in a Sammamish home after a relative requested a welfare check. There are no further details at this time.



Update:


Despite shutdown, tax returns will happen: Maybe. The Trump administration said that the shutdown wouldn't impact people getting their tax returns as the tax filing date—Jan. 28—approaches. To make that happen, the Internal Revenue Service is recalling 46,000 of its furloughed employees to get the ball rolling on tax returns and refunds. That's about 60 percent of the IRS's workforce. None of those people will be paid.

Rest in peace, Carol Channing: A legend.

Did you hear about the 17-year-old Stephen Spielberg cast in West Side Story? In case you haven't heard, they're making a film remake of West Side Story because there are no original stories anymore. But really, this is pretty tight. Spielberg set out to find young Latino and Latina actors and he found Rachel Zegler, a 17-year-old student from New Jersey. She'll be playing the lead role of Maria. Check out her singing that song from A Star is Born, a movie I still haven't seen.

UW is for nerds: This confirms it. The University of Washington is building a gaming lounge and esports arena in the Husky Union Building. According to GeekWire:

Tapping into the highly popular world of competitive video games will make the UW both the largest public, higher education institution in the nation and the first university in the state of Washington to have a dedicated esports arena.

The gay media landscape is changing: Grindr, the gay dating app, shut down its online news site Into today. The move comes just six weeks after Into published a piece about Grindr's president's homophobia. That's a fucking power move. It didn't play out well for Into but some of them have moved to Out magazine. Into was alive for just 17 months.

Former Mexican president took bribe from El Chapo: The trial in New York against the drug lord known as El Chapo revealed through testimony that former Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto took a $100 million bribe from El Chapo. The worst part is that Peña Nieto said he would call off a nationwide manhunt for El Chapo if the criminal gave him $250 million. El Chapo countered with the $100 million.

Catastrophic Brexit collapse a bad sign for Trump: The plan for Britain to exit from the European Union was shot down in Parliament today. Charles Mudede argues that this is a bad sign for Trump since both he and Brexit are cut from the same idea of racism as a solution to the decline of the welfare state. There may be a no confidence vote.

Bad news: First, Netflix's Fyre Festival documentary gets undermined by Hulu (and then exposed for being produced by the people who produced Fyre Festival). Now this???