Oh, and its going to be finished later than expected.
Oh, and it's going to be finished later than expected. Nattakorn Maneerat/Getty Images

KeyArena renovation gets pricier: The price tag was originally around $600 million. It was raised to $700 million. The estimates for Seattle's very own NHL stadium have creeped up and up. Now, the renovation is clocking in at over $900 million due to rising building and labor costs. Additionally, it will take longer than expected. The grand opening has been pushed back and may impede the Seattle Storm's 2021 return to the arena.

The media (but not The Stranger) got a tour of the renovation today:


Look at this presentation:


Tango came home: The African serval that escaped from his home in Gig Harbor (where he lived as a DOMESTICATED ANIMAL) was on the lam since Sunday. Tango (probably not his birth name) was living in the wild this whole week; his family was worried and I was a little worried since he is declawed. But he was found Wednesday night. You gotta love a resolution.

Ownerless Capitol Hill bench in need of renovations: There's a dilapidated bench on 17th Avenue E that's supposedly been a neighborhood fixture for decades. Seattle Department of Transportation hasn't been able to find who owns the bench. The neighborhood is banding together to fix it themselves. It's expected to cost around $2,500. That feels like a lot, but I guess wood slats, metal bolts, and a permanent trash can nearby add up.

HIV diagnoses increase in King County among drug users: King County drug users saw more HIV diagnoses in 2018 than 2017. There was a 286 percent increase! There was an outbreak last year among homeless people in North Seattle. You know... I wonder what these numbers would have been like if we had safe consumption sites.

North Cascades Highway is officially open: This is the earliest that scenic route SR 20 has opened since 2015. Crews successfully cleared snow off the roadways and it's open for business.

Gooooaaaaaal: This kid is under 17. Get him a contract!


Facebook probably leaked your Instagram password: About a month ago, Facebook admitted that it had stored thousands of users' passwords in plaintext and that employees could have easily accessed them. Today, in the middle of the Mueller report dump, Facebook clarified that instead of the thousands of leaked passwords it was actually millions.

Lori Loughlin's husband lied about college: Mossimo Giannulli and his wife, Loughlin, allegedly paid nearly $500,000 to get their daughters into USC. You know, by lying. It turns out Giannulli is no foreigner to blurring the lines when it comes to secondary education. Giannulli has bragged about his own time in college—also at USC—where he lied to his parents about attending and forged report cards and pocketed the tuition money his dad gave him and, instead of getting an education, started his fashion line. Additionally, the pair's youngest daughter could be complicit in the scheme.

Weight is controlled by genetics: But it's not about metabolism, according to this New York Times report. There's a certain gene that determines whether people are hungry or not. A genetic alteration makes it so people don't ever really feel that hungry, never fixate on food, and are satiated easily.

This guy is DESTROYING on Jeopardy!: He's already the second winningest player in the history of the game show and he's done it all in 10 days.

Some takeaways from the Mueller report from Stranger staffer Christopher Frizzelle: There are basically two Mueller reports, volume one (which is about Russian meddling and who was in touch with Russia and when) and volume two (which is about obstruction of justice). There are ten different instances in which the president may have committed obstruction of justice, according to the report. But in a legal mind fuck, Mueller decided that because a sitting president cannot be indicted or brought to trial, it would not be fair to charge him with any crime (like obstruction of justice), because the defendant (the president) would not be able to defend himself, because there would be no courtroom in which to do that (as if Trump needs a courtroom to defend himself), therefore Mueller rendered no verdict. But he makes it clear in the report that these are the facts, and that after Trump is no longer president, he could face any or all of these obstruction charges. Read his full update here.

The LA Times ran the numbers: Of all the ways Mueller's interview subjects forgot details.


Congress gets the green light: So generous, Barr.