3:01pm

Mon May 13, 2013
special session agenda

Gov. Inslee narrows special session agenda

Credit Rachel La Corte / Associated Press
Washington state Gov. Jay Inslee holds a news conference on the first day of the special legislative session, on Monday, May 13, 2013, in Olympia, Wash

With the state Legislature back in session for a 30-day extra inning, Gov. Jay Inslee on Monday narrowed his agenda to three key items: the budget, a roads-and-transit funding package, and a crackdown on impaired drivers.

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2:23pm

Mon May 13, 2013
government probe

DOJ obtains phone records of Associated Press journalists

Credit Molly Riley / Associated Press
FILE - In this April 18, 2013 file photo, Attorney General Eric Holder testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington.

The Justice Department secretly obtained two months of telephone records of reporters and editors for The Associated Press in what the news cooperative's top executive called a "massive and unprecedented intrusion" into how news organizations gather the news.

The records obtained by the Justice Department listed incoming and outgoing calls, and the duration of each call, for the work and personal phone numbers of individual reporters, general AP office numbers in New York, Washington and Hartford, Conn., and the main number for AP reporters in the House of Representatives press gallery, according to attorneys for the AP.

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2:10pm

Mon May 13, 2013
Business

Comp time or cold cash: Which would you pick?

Originally published on Mon May 13, 2013 10:19 am

Overtime or comp time? Which one suits you best?

Both you and your boss may agree it would be best for you to work a sixth day when a big project is due in March, and then take off for a long weekend in June. No big deal.

But under the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, private employers must pay time and a half to workers who put in more than 40 hours on the job in any one week.

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11:19am

Mon May 13, 2013
Iraq killings

Judge: Soldier premeditated Iraq killings

Credit Ted S. Warren / Associated Press
Soldiers assisting with communications and security tasks stand at lower left outside the building at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash., where the court-martial for U.S. Army Sgt. John Russell began, Monday, May 6, 2013.

A military judge has found Army Sgt. John Russell guilty of premeditated murder in the 2009 killings of five fellow service members at a combat stress clinic in Iraq.

Russell now faces a sentencing phase to determine whether he will face life in prison with or without the possibility of release.

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10:59am

Mon May 13, 2013
Environment

Greening up historic buildings: Seattle’s Town Hall as case study

Credit Bellamy Pailthorp Photo / KPLU News
Town Hall Seattle received Landmark status last year, but it's also embarking on a multi-million dollar green retrofit. Meeting requirements of both is the subject of a "design charette" Wednesday during the 2013 Government Confluence in Seattle.

Seattle has been in the spotlight lately as the home to the world’s greenest new office building, the Bullitt Center. Also under construction is the headquarters of Brooks Sports in Fremont, which promises to be “deep green.”

But what about all the buildings that are already standing?

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9:41am

Mon May 13, 2013
death penalty

Inmate who killed prison guard could face death

Credit Associated Press

The same jury that convicted a Monroe Reformatory inmate of aggravated murder for strangling a prison guard starts work Monday in Everett on the penalty stage of the trial to determine whether Byron Scherf will be executed.

Snohomish County jurors were told during the trial that the convicted rapist was already serving a sentence of life without parole in 2011 when he strangled Jayme Biendl in the prison chapel.

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5:01am

Mon May 13, 2013
Ways of the Wild

Eagles return, drive entire colony of herons out of Kiwanis Ravine

Credit Philip Maser / Heron Habitat Helpers
A great blue heron is seen building a nest at Commodore Park.

The great blue heron is one of Washington’s most iconic birds, as is the bald eagle. Now, it seems eagle attacks on heron nests are driving herons to abandon the largest colony in Seattle. And volunteers are asking local residents to help them figure out where the herons have gone.

For more than a decade, Pam Cahn has monitored the dozens of heron nests at Kiwanis Ravine near Discovery Park in northwest Seattle. The volunteer citizen-scientist has kept track of eggs laid, chicks hatched and fledglings flown, then sent the data to the state Department of Fish and Wildlife for record-keeping.

But Cahn says this season, eagles have wreaked havoc on the approximately 90 heron nests in Kiwanis Ravine.

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5:00am

Mon May 13, 2013
Education

Wash. universities look to 'redshirt' freshman engineers for one year

Credit Curtis Cronn / Flickr
University of Washington's electrical engineering building is seen in this photo.

Some freshmen engineering students at Washington’s largest universities will get an extra year to find their footing, thanks to a new “academic redshirting” program.  

The idea of redshirting comes from college sports, and here’s how it works: When Huskies quarterback Keith Price joined up as a freshman in 2009, he didn’t take the field. Instead he got a year of practice and workouts to acclimate before starting his four years of eligibility.

Now the University of Washington, along with Washington State University, want to apply that to academics.

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11:36pm

Sun May 12, 2013
Art & Design

Litterbugs beware: Turning found DNA into portraits

Originally published on Sun May 12, 2013 2:22 pm

Heather Dewey-Hagborg was sitting in a therapy session a while ago and noticed a painting on the wall. The glass on the frame was cracked, and lodged in the crack was a single hair. She couldn't take her eyes off it.

"I just became obsessed with thinking about whose hair that was, and what they might look like, and what they might be like," she says.

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11:17pm

Sun May 12, 2013
life behind bars

State prison brings together solitary inmates

Several inmates at the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla are taking part in a new program to try to ease violence and reduce the number of inmates in solitary confinement.

So far, the program is voluntary, and it targets dangerous, confrontational inmates who have been locked away in isolation.

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7:55pm

Sun May 12, 2013
essentially ellington

Roosevelt High jazz band places 3rd at Essentially Ellington festival

Seattle's own Roosevelt High School's jazz band took third place at the prestigious Essentially Ellington festival in New York this weekend. 

The Tucson Jazz Institute placed first, and Jazz House Kids of Montclair, New Jersey came in second. 

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3:00pm

Sun May 12, 2013
Jazz Northwest

New CD by Chris Amemiya & Jazz Coalescence debuts on Jazz Northwest, May 12

Credit Steve Korn
Chris Amemiya

"In the Rain Shadow," a new release by trombonist Chris Amemiya & Jazz Coalescence is one of the features on this week's Jazz Northwest. This sextet includes several top Northwest jazz musicians, including Jay Thomas, Travis Ranney, John Hansen, Jon Hamar and Steve Korn in a live studio session at Music Works Northwest.  The CD has the benefit of imaginative arrangements as well as  the immediacy of a live performance and the quality of a studio recording.  The individual musicians are all at the top of their game.

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2:00pm

Sun May 12, 2013
Mother's Day tragedy

19, including 2 kids, shot during New Orleans Mother's Day parade

Credit Doug Parker / Associated Press
New Orleans Police investigate shooting at the intersection Frenchman Street at N. Villere on Mother's Day in New Orleans, Sunday May 12, 2013

Gunmen opened fire on people marching in a neighborhood Mother's Day parade in New Orleans on Sunday, wounding at least 19.

The shooting — described by the FBI as a flare-up of street violence — shattered the festive mood surrounding the parade that drew hundreds of people to the 7th Ward neighborhood of modest row houses not far from the French Quarter. Cell phone video taken in the aftermath of the shooting shows victims lying on the ground, blood on the pavement and others bending over to comfort them.

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9:50am

Sun May 12, 2013
13.7: Cosmos And Culture

A Mother's Day gift that makes you feel better, too

Originally published on Sat May 11, 2013 1:41 pm

Credit iStockphoto.com

Dear reader,

Mother's Day is upon us and I'm here to share some news with you. While there's nothing wrong with a well-chosen gift, recent research in psychology suggests your time might be better spent writing a well-crafted card to mom.

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9:57am

Sat May 11, 2013
The Sequester: Cuts And Consequences

Sequester has Air Force clipping its wings

Originally published on Sat May 11, 2013 9:58 am

The Pentagon says the automatic budget cuts known as sequestration could leave the U.S. with a military that is simply unprepared for the most challenging combat missions. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel told Congress in April that the military is eating its seed corn.

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