Ever since a University of Washington study published in a major medical journal in 2007 showed baby videos don't make infants smarter, the creators of the Baby Einstein series have been battling the university in court and in the media.

On the same day the members of the Seattle Storm were honored by President Obama at the White House, the ladies learned that teammate and three-time WNBA MVP Lauren Jackson is having hip surgery today and will be out up to 12 weeks.

It's a blow to the team whose season has not gotten off to a great start. They were WNBA champions just a year ago. Can the Storm claim the title again this year – without a lot of help from Lauren Jackson?

Hear KPLU sports commentator Art Thiel's take on that tomorrow morning at 5:35 and 7:35 on KPLU. And you'll find a blog of our conversation right here tomorrow morning as well. 

One of the three teens convicted of killing a popular Seattle street musician in 2008 continues to make headlines for his tangles with the law. Billy Chambers – who's now an adult – was most recently locked up for hit-and-run. It turns out he did not qualify for supervision by a juvenile parole officer because of state budget cuts.

'Oh, my God. That's a scorpion.'

An Oregon man got a surprise — and some pain — when he was stung by a scorpion during a commercial flight from Seattle to Anchorage, Alaska.

It’s an icon of the northwest.

With its muted brown feathers and dark eyes, the northern spotted owl doesn’t look all that impressive. But scientists say its survival indicates the health of the entire forest ecosystem. That’s why conservationists want the government to protect more of the old-growth habitat spotted owls prefer.

But a recovery plan for the owl due for release this morning is ruffing feathers.

Scattered showers. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 62. Forecast here.

Making headlines in the Northwest:

• Feds sell Seattle crime family strip club Rick's
• Off the wire: Kabelu case goes to jury; burglary arrests
• Facebook’s Zuckerberg talks up Seattle talent
• Longtime Nisqually tribal administrator retiring
• Tacoma’s Martinez doesn’t become ‘The Voice’

For the Fourth of July, we cover our Top Ten Patriotic Songs of All Time, ever, at least 'til next year. And it’s amazing what you can find when you dare to look beneath the surface…

For a grab bag of irony, it’s hard to top “God Bless America."

The 27th Annual Victoria International JazzFest is underway now through July 3 in various venues in downtown Victoria.

JazzFest presents a culturally and musically diverse program of 85 stunning performances and four workshop/clinics on 12 stages in downtown Victoria. Over 350 musicians in 66 bands from over nine of the world's most diverse countries including Australia, Cuba, Denmark, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the U.S. will be performing in Victoria during the Fesival.

The Washington Department of Corrections says one inmate was killed Wednesday during an escape attempt at the Clallam Bay Corrections Facility.

Spokesman Chad Lewis says that just after 10 a.m., a corrections officer was taken hostage by a prisoner with a pair of scissors. At the same time, another prisoner drove a forklift through the doors of the work area and into the prison fence.

President Barack Obama welcomed the Seattle Storm to the White House Rose Garden today. Obama said the 2010 WNBA champions set a good example for young girls with big dreams. The President is a basketball fan and his daughters, Malia and Sasha, also like to shoot hoops.

The southern African nation of Botswana has one of the world’s highest rates of HIV infection and yet is also widely considered one of the big success stories in the fight against AIDS.

On Tuesday, at a Seattle event sponsored by the World Affairs Council, former Botswanan President Festus Gontebanye Mogae spoke and took questions from an audience of several hundred people at the Bell Harbor International Conference Center.

Read more.

The state Department of Ecology says it has fined the Boeing Co. more than $100,000 for a 300-gallon jet fuel spill in to the Duwamish waterway.

According to the department, the spill happened in May, 2010 at Boeing fuel terminal in south Seattle. It says that workers were delivering to a storage tank when they noticed the spill. However, they thought the spill had been contained to Boeing's property.

OLYMPIA, Wash. – The Washington Department of Corrections failed to adequately supervise Maurice Clemmons from the day he arrived in Washington from Arkansas. That's the conclusion of a former corrections supervisor who's now an expert witness in a new lawsuit against the Department.

Call them what you will: wieners, franks, tubesteaks, Fourth of July must-haves. In this reprise of Food for Thought, Seattle Times food writer Nancy Leson and our own Dick Stein discuss (burp!) everybody's favorite dog.

Scattered showers. Cloudy, with a high near 63. Forecast here.

Making headlines around the Northwest:

• Patrols for illegal fireworks blasts begin soon
• Tech news: Online crochet empire; Zuckerberg in Seattle
• Off the wire: Shootout in Seattle; Inslee nets $100,000
• Bothell looks to annex more than 22,000 people