The process of burying the dead hasn't changed much over the centuries, but now their gravestones can provide a digital link to their life stories.

A Seattle-based company is creating burial markers that include a scannable, stamp-like image called a "quick read" — or QR code.

A local mom whose teenage son died from sudden cardiac arrest is pushing to make sure the tragedy doesn’t happen to other families. She's part of an effort to check young people across the state for undetected heart conditions. Its largest screening to date is this Wednesday, June 1st, at Garfield High School in Seattle. 

Showers likely through Thursday. Highs around 60. Latest forecast here.

Making headlines around the Northwest:

• Police Seek Driver After  Stolen Car Hits Girl, 9
• Three Killed in Two Fatal Crashes on I-90 Over Weekend
• Tacoma House Fire Kills Two

Nine-year-old Hit by Stolen Car in Seattle

Seattle Police are seeking information about a hit-and-run driver whose stolen car jumped a curb and hit a 9-year-old girl.

Microsoft is appealing a $1.3 billion fine from European antitrust regulators. But its antitrust worries in the United States appear to be over. The consent decree with the US Justice Department expired May 11th. A lot has changed since Microsoft crushed Netscape in the browser wars of the 1990s. This month on The Digital Future, Strategic News Service publisher Mark Anderson says Microsoft has transformed itself into a much better corporate citizen.

Everything about the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is looking big these days.

Shiny burgundy buses equipped with automated pay stations, three doors each, low-riding chassis and accelerated time tables started serving south King County last fall. They're called RapidRide and they're funded by the Transit Now ballot measure that voters approved in 2006. 

A second route is slated to start serving Bellevue and Redmond in October. The King County Council votes on exactly where they'll go on Tuesday afternoon. 

The American West is home to more young people than any other region of the country according to new data from the U.S. Census. Still there are differences in the age demographics within our region.

When you think of porcelain, your grandmother’s fancy dishes might come to mind. The ones that are taken out of the cabinet only for Thanksgiving and other special holidays. Or maybe you own a beautiful china vase.

There are a lot of delicate dishes and trinkets in the home of Seattle artist Charles Krafft. But his pieces go beyond pastels and pretty flowers.

Krafft has made a career out of messing with our expectations of ceramic art. Pouring tea from one of his teapots or eating from one of Krafft’s plates might make you lose your appetite.

Like many of you, we hope, The Two-Way is planning to take some time off over this holiday weekend.

We may put up a post or two, and will certainly jump back in if there's major news. But the general plan is to resume blogging Tuesday morning.

The reason Americans are have a long weekend, of course, is that Monday is Memorial Day. And that's much more than just the unofficial start of summer.

From this year's presidential proclamation:

Gil Scott-Heron died Friday afternoon in New York, his book publisher reported. He was 62. The influential poet and musician is often credited with being one of the progenitors of hip-hop, and is best known for the spoken-word piece "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised."

This week, the state legislature took the first step toward privatizing liquor distribution. The new legislation allows private companies to submit bids to be the sole distributor of liquor in the state. In Olympia, Bryan Buckalew reports not all advocates of privatizing liquor are happy with the development.

A cool, wet spring has slowed strawberries and other crops in parts of Washington.

One berry farmer, Randy Kraught of Barbie's Berries in Ferndale, told The Bellingham Herald the area needs sun soon to ripen strawberries and following crops of raspberries and blueberries.

More than 200,000 people are expected to visit the Seattle Center over the Memorial Day Weekend for the 40th annual Folklife Festival.

About 1,000 music, dance and other events are scheduled over four days, starting Friday, at indoor and outdoor sites. The festival also includes food and craft booths.

The Mariners are firing on all cylinders these days, with great starting pitching, clutch hitting and good fielding. They enter this weekend's big series with the Yankees on a hot streak. But how long can it last?

Bellingham Mayor Dan Pike has issued a formal apology to the Chinese community for the expulsion of their people,125 years ago.

Pike says the apology is meant to make it clear: authorities now see the racist actions by regional governments and their supporters more than a century ago were wrong.

In 1885 and 1886, thousands of Chinese immigrants were driven out of Puget Sound towns during an economic downturn. Civic leaders and town newspapers argued the new residents were taking jobs away from white people.

The apology and related events this week in Bellingham are part of a year-long Chinese Expulsion Remembrance Project. Seattle, Tacoma, Olympia and Mount Vernon are also taking part. The project also has a Facebook page.