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‘Loud’ young crane escapes from Woodland Park Zoo, hides out in garage


A white-naped crane that briefly escaped from the Woodland Park Zoo was returned to its open-air exhibit Wednesday afternoon, according to a statement from the zoo. The crane traveled a short distance down North 55th Street around 4 p.m. and entered a sunken garage near Greenwood Avenue North, where animal keepers caught it, the statement […]




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Man arrested trying to quarantine on private Disney island


ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Florida deputies arrested a man who had been living out his quarantine on a shuttered Disney World island, telling authorities it felt like a “tropical paradise.” Orange County Sheriff’s deputies found Richard McGuire on Disney’s Discovery Island on Thursday. He said he’d been there since Monday or Tuesday and had planned […]




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A strange dinosaur may have swum the rivers of Africa


Think of it as a cross between a lizard and an eel — at the scale of a Tyrannosaurus rex.




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In Japan, the ‘murder hornet’ is both a lethal threat and a tasty treat


In the mountains of rural Japan, “murder hornets” are known for more than their aggression and excruciating sting. They are seen as a pleasant snack and an invigorating ingredient in drinks.




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Woman killed by alligator in S.C. was doing homeowner’s nails


COLUMBIA, S.C. — The woman attacked and killed by an alligator in a gated community along the South Carolina coast was visiting the homeowner to do her nails and was trying to touch the animal when it grabbed her, authorities said. After briefly getting away from the alligator Friday, the woman stood in waist deep […]




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1,000-year-old mill starts up again to keep homes in the U.K. supplied with flour


"When COVID-19 struck, all of the local shops ran out of flour very quickly," said a museum employee. "We had a stock of good-quality milling wheat and the means and skills to grind it into flour, so we thought we could help."




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Space agency: Human urine could help make concrete on moon


Using materials available on site for a moon base or other construction would reduce the need to launch supplies from Earth.




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Elon Musk’s baby name isn’t just weird, it may be against California regulations


Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced that he and his girlfriend have named their newborn boy X Æ A-12. But that might cross the line with state of California, which has limits on what parents can name their children.




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Colombian company creates bed that can double as coffin


BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — A Colombian advertising company is pitching a novel if morbid solution to shortages of hospital beds and coffins during the coronavirus pandemic: combine them. ABC Displays has created a cardboard bed with metal railings that designers say can double as a casket if a patient dies. Company manager Rodolfo Gómez said […]




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Some people miss travel so much they’re ordering airplane food delivered to their homes


In addition to selling some of their excess, airlines have put donation programs in place.




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Homelessness: Spend the right way


Re: “Our homelessness crisis is urgent, tragic — and completely solvable” [April 24, Opinion]: The authors, U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal and Diane Yentel, propose a “Housing is a Human Right Act” taxing and spending $200 billion over 10 years in housing and homelessness services. No details are offered in this solution except block grants that […]




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Stay Healthy Streets: Let’s open many more


Re: “Seattle will close 6 more miles of street” [April 24, Northwest]: The city’s Stay Healthy Streets initiative provides a safe way to get out and maintain a six-foot perimeter. We need many more of these streets. Seattle is lucky to have a long stretch of public right-of-way that’s ready to become part of the […]




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Big-business tax: It’s definitely not the time


The reintroduction of the business head tax by Seattle City Councilmembers Kshama Sawant and Tammy Morales is the height of irresponsibility. Only an ideologue could survey the current landscape — an economy in induced coma, a downtown deserted and a business climate of unparalleled uncertainty — and think, “Now’s a splendid time to put a […]




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Small-business boost: Don’t forsake LGBTQ community


Re: “King County Executive Dow Constantine proposes additional $57 million for coronavirus response” [April 23, Northwest]: While this proposal, expected to be voted on by the Metropolitan King County Council Tuesday, distributes $16 million among small businesses; tourism promotion; homeless-youth programs; and arts and culture groups, it designates no allocation for queer bars and nightclubs. […]




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Early learning: ‘Think both locally and globally’


Re: “Pandemic exposes our neglect of children, families” [April 26, Opinion]: Tim Burgess points out that “nowhere are our systemic failures more damaging and longer lasting than in the education of our children,” and he goes on to note research that early learning opportunities in child care and preschool can have a lifetime impact. As […]




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Meat and dairy: ‘Unsustainable’


Re: “The business of burps: Scientists smell profit in cow emissions” [May 2, Business]: The lengths to which humans will go to subdue and tweak nature and animals for their own whims and profit boggles my mind. When I read that scientist are lending their names and investors money to studies about how to make […]




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Lockdown order: Where’s the ‘practicality and common sense’?


Gov. Jay Inslee’s continued lockdown is not giving us transparency on metrics for reopening the state. Even with the so-called “phased approach,” there’s nothing that the public can look for to know whether the next phase is in sight. The governor keeps talking about “data.” The Seattle Times publishes graphs of the daily number of […]




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‘Fractured politics’: Educate yourself


Re: “How we got here: One country, several nations” [May 3, Opinion]: Thank you to David Horsey for an excellent column that summarized the book “American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America” by Colin Woodard (and also provided a colorful map). It is a book I have shared over […]




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‘Press 3 for coronavirus:’ Even a woman at outbreak’s epicenter can’t cut through bureaucracy to get tested


Kathy Jackson was at Life Care Center in Kirkland, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S., on Friday. By Sunday she was sick. But the public health system still didn't seem interested in testing her.




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It’s starting to feel like Seattle is being symbolically quarantined from America as coronavirus spreads


As Trump bashes our governor and the streets of Seattle get emptier, it's starting to seem like we're being cut off a bit from America — if not blamed for the outbreak altogether. "It feels like we're going it alone," says one relative of a resident at Life Care Center in Kirkland.




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With both Trump and the coronavirus looming, Democrats are suddenly seeking safety


Bernie Sanders was widely expected in recent months to win our Democratic primary, just as he had steamrolled the Democratic caucuses here against mainstream favorite Hillary Clinton four years ago. But in early returns in Washington's presidential nominating contest Tuesday, he was in a dead heat with the more moderate Joe Biden.




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‘Freedom payments?’ The coronavirus exposes the fraud of the anti-government movement.


Suddenly everybody's a fan of big government, now that a crisis has hit. But we're not ready for this one -- precisely because of the decades-long movement arguing that government needs to be slashed and burned.




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There’s a ‘moon shot’ to save the school year from coronavirus, but not in Seattle


School leaders in Seattle have said our district is too big and diverse to transition to online learning in the face of coronavirus, writes columnist Danny Westneat. Yet they're trying exactly that in … Los Angeles?




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Will we go back? From Seattle’s homeless ‘emergency’ to airline fees, the coronavirus is making a new reality.


The news that Seattle and King County have put up 1,900 emergency shelter beds for the homeless in the last three weeks makes you wonder: Why didn't they do that when they declared a homelessness emergency four years ago? It's one of the many issues being suddenly cast in a new light by the pandemic.




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End of the republic? We’re No. 1 in voter turnout — for a reason the president thinks is ‘crazy.’


Washington voters turned out to the polls in nation-leading fashion in March. The reason we were able to do that — even as we were an epicenter of coronavirus — is because we don't actually turn out. We vote from home. The president made clear this week he doesn't like the idea to expand this way of voting, because too many people might vote.




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False advertising: They call it the ‘Amazon tax,’ but it’s so much more


The $500 million a year "Amazon tax" before the Seattle City Council would also likely hit some firms in the health sector that are working on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic.




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‘Crawled through broken glass’: What it’s like to face down the coronavirus — when you’re 96


James Thompson was considered "a goner" when he got COVID-19 last month. But he's here to tell that if he can face down the virus at age 96, and come out the other side, then we can too.




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The real problem with the manufactured coronavirus liberty protests


Recent protests against stay-at-home orders are political theater and a distraction from the real problem facing us — which is that government is failing to ramp up enough testing. The virus isn’t much chastened by guns or bellicose threats, but it can be hunted down relentlessly and isolated, by science. Why aren't we doing it?




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It’s starting to feel like Republicans want to have a ‘chickenpox party’ for coronavirus in the whole of Washington state


Our feel-good story here of how everybody came together, Democrats and Republicans, to let scientists take the lead in fighting the coronavirus is now starting to give way to some anti-science crackpottery.




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A ‘feminine’ crisis? Something unique about the coronavirus may be widening the political gender gap


Research shows women respond to pandemics much differently than men. Some recent polling suggests this may be widening the gender gap in politics, to the point that the old red versus blue divide is becoming more of a masculine party and a feminine one.




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‘As sick as you can get:’ How a Seattle man, hospitalized for 2 months, beat the coronavirus and lived to tell about it


Seattle's Michael Flor, one of the earliest coronavirus patients, was at one point considered so far gone his family bid him their final goodbyes. Yet he was discharged from Swedish Hospital on Tuesday after fighting off COVID-19 for two months, including almost a month on a ventilator, writes Danny Westneat.




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At a Republican candidate forum for Washington governor, the coronavirus barely exists


In the middle of a pandemic, the subject of the public's health never came up during a 90-minute GOP candidates for governor forum. It's like a metaphor for the alternate realities of our politics — and also why the GOP may be in more trouble than usual in the local elections this year.




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Due to coronavirus, NCAA grants extra year of eligibility to spring athletes, considers same for winter athletes


After the cancellation of the spring and winter championships tournaments stemming from concerns over the novel coronavirus pandemic, the NCAA will grant an extra year of eligibility to athletes who participate in spring sports, the organization announced Friday.





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10 years later, UW great Quincy Pondexter is grateful for often-forgotten NCAA tourney shining moment


Ten years ago Wednesday, the 11th-seeded Huskies played in the NCAA tournament's Sweet 16, a stage they have not returned to since. The run was fueled by Quincy Pondexter, who looks back on the season as the greatest year of his life.




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Washington gets commitment from Wichita State transfer and Lacey native Erik Stevenson


Mike Hopkins and the Washington Huskies secured a commitment from Wichita State guard Erik Stevenson, who is transferring after two seasons and returning home.




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Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott discusses conference’s financial hit and ‘concern and anxiety’ over athletes because of coronavirus


The Pac-12 is facing a revenue hit of at least $1 million per school from the cancellation of its men’s basketball tournament and March Madness, although the full extent of the damage won’t be known for weeks.




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UW Husky Elijah Hardy enters NCAA transfer portal, Nate Pryor commits


Elijah Hardy averaged just 1.9 points, 1.1 assists, 1.1 rebounds and 1.2 turnovers in 11.0 minutes while appearing in 29 games.




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With Isaiah Stewart and likely Jaden McDaniels NBA-bound, UW should be done with one-and-done players


But the one-and-done thing for Washington men's basketball mirrors Charlie Brown's placekicking habits. The hype surges through the sky every year, and every year it's a disappointment.





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Former Husky hoops star Isaiah Thomas donating more than 1,000 meals to UW Medical Center employees


Former UW basketball star Isaiah Thomas is donating more than 1,000 meals to employees at UW Medical Center.




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As he eyes NBA future, UW’s Isaiah Stewart thankful for mentor and friend Russell Wilson


Russell Wilson talked to Isaiah Stewart about the demands of leadership and how the 18-year-old freshman could guide a young team through adversity and more.




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UW Huskies bolster backcourt, sign transfers Erik Stevenson and Nate Pryor


Mike Hopkins caused a fair amount of consternation among Washington men’s basketball fans due to the team’s inability to attract an incoming high-school recruit after assembling a nationally ranked top-10 class a year ago.




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One-and-none: Why Washington has struggled to make the NCAA tournament with star freshmen


No team has been worse with one-and-done players than UW, which has had the most of any school without reaching the NCAA tournament with one on the team.




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Elijah Hardy leaves Washington and transfers to Portland State


UW Huskies backup point guard Elijah Hardy who averaged 1.9 points, 1.1 assists and 1.1 rebounds gets a chance for a prominent role at Portland State.





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Megan Rapinoe won a Woman of the Year award. She thanked Colin Kaepernick.


Megan Rapinoe, star of the U.S. women's national soccer team and MVP of the 2019 Women's World Cup, singled out Colin Kaepernick in a speech Monday as she accepted an award for being one of Glamour magazine's women of the year, saying, "I don't feel like I would be here without" him.




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Reign FC in negotiations to be sold to Olympic Lyon; team plans to remain in Tacoma


If the sale takes place, current owner Bill Predmore will remain as CEO of Reign FC and home games will still be played at Cheney Stadium.




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US captain, Reign star Megan Rapinoe wins Ballon d’Or award for top soccer player


Lionel Messi won a record sixth Ballon d’Or while World Cup winner Megan Rapinoe earned the women’s prize on Monday.




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Megan Rapinoe is Sports Illustrated’s Sportsperson of the Year, only the fourth woman chosen alone


Megan Rapinoe was Sports Illustrated's choice for Sportsperson of the Year, joining Chris Evert, Mary Decker and Serena Williams as the only women in the 66-year history of the award to win it by themselves.