Join us for KPLU's "Red, White & Blues Weekend" 2011 at the 24th Annual Waterfront Blues Festival in Portland July 1-4, 2011.

KPLU has put together a specially-priced listener package which reflects a 25% discount compared to retail prices. 

A world-class blues lineup will perform against the backdrop of the Willamette River with a view of the glacial peaks of Mt. Hood.  This year's artists include Buddy Guy, Robert Cray, Maceo Parker, Lucinda Williams, Ivan Neville's Dumpstaphunk, Chubby Carrier, Black Joe Louis and the Honeybears, and many, many more.

Leslie Seaton is a writer who loves to eat, drink, and tell people what to do. That’s part of the reason why she started her food events site called Fresh-Picked Seattle which then led to Freeattle.

The Social Security Administration has released its list of the most popular baby names in Washington for 2010. Sophia is number one for girls and Jacob tops the list for boys.

When the Frye Hotel opened for business, President Roosevelt was a guest at the grand opening. That's Theodore Roosevelt. The new hotel was a hot spot for important gatherings and conventions. Like the National Association of Master Horseshoers and Blacksmiths.

The year was 1911. That's three years before the iconic Smith Tower - also pictured above - was constructed.

Today the Frye Hotel has federal landmark status and is part of the Pioneer Square Historic District.

Bill Gates was the keynote speaker for Seattle-based Climate Solutions‘ annual fund-raising breakfast today.

The gist of Gates’ message: The best way to fight climate change is to create forms of energy production that significantly reduce carbon emissions and are cheap enough to be of value to poor people worldwide.

Read more:

Students at tiny Bridgeport High School shed some tears Tuesday with news that President Barack Obama won't be giving the commencement address.

Five girls who helped make a video touting the school waited with the principal in her office for the call. They cried when the call came from the White House and waited in the office as other students filed into the gymnasium for the announcement.

I spoke by phone today with New Orleans trumpeter and educator Irvin Mayfield about his beautiful new book, “A Love Letter To New Orleans”.

Mr. Mayfield talks about the beauty of being influenced by the film "Mo Better Blues", musical and cultural similarities between NOLA and places like Haiti, Cuba, Brazil, and the beauty of New Orleans and the people of the city.

Click below to listen to the interview, and find a link at the bottom of the page to purchase the book.

Partly Sunny and 63 today.

Making headlines around the Northwest this morning:

• Microsoft Agrees to Buy Skype for $8.5 Billion
• Fatal Crash on I-5 at Arlington
• Mariners Cut Temperamental Outfielder Milton Bradley

Microsoft Will Buy Skype in its Biggest Deal Ever

Microsoft has agreed to buy the popular Internet telephone service Skype for $8.5 billion in the biggest deal in the software maker's 36-year history.

Buying Skype would give Microsoft a potentially valuable communications tool as it tries to make a bigger splash on the Internet and become a bigger force in the increasingly important smartphone market.

Gas prices are topping $4/gallon. Oil is over $100 a barrel. Gold and silver are at record highs. Food is more expensive. Does all this mean inflation is about to pounce on us? On this week's Money Matters, KPLU financial commentator Greg Heberlein says things may look discouraging, but there's no need to worry about runaway inflation.

A federal judge has ruled the city of Seattle can go ahead with its effort to limit free phone books on doorsteps. Yellow pages companies were trying to block the city’s anti-phone book plan.

Public records show JP Morgan Chase is collecting more than $100,000 a month in ATM fees from welfare recipients in Washington. But the bank doesn't disclose the fee at the cash machine. This is happening at the same time the state has cut the monthly benefit for families on welfare and individuals in the Disability Lifeline program.

Over the past few years, a lot of people have pushed to get local, fresh produce into meals at public schools. Far less attention has been focused on kids in childcare programs. That effort is finally underway.  

Kentaro Toyama is clearly a heretic. A geek heretic.

And, based on his career path, I would guess brilliant.

A computer scientist currently at the University of California, Berkeley, Toyama co-founded Microsoft Research India in 2005 and remained there as assistant managing director until 2009.

If you’re not familiar with what they do at Microsoft Research, think artificial intelligence, computer vision, terabyte juggling, high-octane mathematics and the craziest things you can try to do with bits, bytes or any kind of information technology.

Read more:

• No Light Rail to South King County Until at Least 2034
• New 520 Opening Bridge May be Delayed
• Kent Man Severely Injured in Apartment Explosion
• Washington Gas Prices Up Again

Making headlines around the Northwest, Monday, May 9:

Sound Transit Lacks Cash for Light Rail to S. King County

There's no money to extend a voter-approved plan to extend light rail to Federal Way by the original deadline of 2023.

Throughout Seattle, on any given night, you can find some place hosting karaoke, which means “empty orchestra” in Japanese.

There’s karaoke in friendly community halls in Greenwood; in swanky clubs on Capitol Hill; in private rooms underneath cutesy bubble tea houses in the I-D.