11:03am

Thu February 3, 2011
Religion

Religious Groups Tackle An X-Rated Secret

Originally published on Mon February 7, 2011 1:06 pm

This Super Bowl Sunday, church may be as jarring as a quarterback sack for some worshippers who, after settling into their pews, discover that the subject of the morning's sermon is pornography.

More than 300 churches are expected to celebrate National Porn Sunday on Feb. 6. The members will watch a video sermon featuring current and former NFL players talking about their struggles with pornography.

"No one knew my problem was this bad," former New York Jets wide receiver Eric Boles says in the video.

Read more

11:03am

Thu February 3, 2011
Religion

Religious Groups Tackle An X-Rated Secret

Originally published on Mon February 7, 2011 1:06 pm

This Super Bowl Sunday, church may be as jarring as a quarterback sack for some worshippers who, after settling into their pews, discover that the subject of the morning's sermon is pornography.

More than 300 churches are expected to celebrate National Porn Sunday on Feb. 6. The members will watch a video sermon featuring current and former NFL players talking about their struggles with pornography.

"No one knew my problem was this bad," former New York Jets wide receiver Eric Boles says in the video.

Read more

11:03am

Thu February 3, 2011
Religion

Religious Groups Tackle An X-Rated Secret

Originally published on Mon February 7, 2011 1:06 pm

This Super Bowl Sunday, church may be as jarring as a quarterback sack for some worshippers who, after settling into their pews, discover that the subject of the morning's sermon is pornography.

More than 300 churches are expected to celebrate National Porn Sunday on Feb. 6. The members will watch a video sermon featuring current and former NFL players talking about their struggles with pornography.

"No one knew my problem was this bad," former New York Jets wide receiver Eric Boles says in the video.

Read more

9:59am

Thu February 3, 2011
TRANSPORTATION

Metro bus route changes take effect this Saturday

Credit Gary Davis / KPLU
Waiting for public transit Metro bus in downtown Seattle on 4th Avenue.

King County's Metro Transit is making lots of changes to its bus schedules starting this Saturday, February 5.

Who's affected?

The changes will impact all areas of the county and include routing and bus stop changes for approximately two dozen routes from various areas of the county that pass through downtown Seattle.

Read more

8:12am

Thu February 3, 2011
K-12 Education

Foss High supporters to hold rally to save school from closure

Credit Save our home: Henry Foss High School facebook page
Students across the Puget Sound have made posters in support of keeping Foss High School open. This one was created by students at Gig Harbor High School.

Foss High School students, parents and community supporters will line the streets around the school today in an effort to save it from temporary closure.

The superintendent of Tacoma Public Schools has proposed mothballing Foss and some small elementary schools for at least three years to reduce the district’s budget deficit. He says closing the high school could save $2 Million next year. 

Read more

7:35am

Thu February 3, 2011
News Roundup

Thursday morning's headlines

Credit AP
The 787 Dreamliner, after a test flight in Dec. 2009. Boeing is hinting it might make the 787 production line in Everett permanent.

Making headlines around the Northwest this morning:

  • Budget Cuts Create Backlog for King County Prosecutor
  • Boeing Says More 787 Work Possible in Everett
  • Six Years of Rate Increases Needed, Says Seattle City Light
  • State Patrol to Investigate Gig Harbor Police Chief

 

Budget Cuts Strain King Co. Prosecutor Staff

The King County Prosecutor says his office can’t keep up with high-priority crimes because of budget cuts and a jump in aggravated assaults. Doug Satterberg has asked the County Council for $225,000 in emergency funding. The Seattle Times' Keith Ervin reports the request comes six months after voters rejected a proposed sales tax increase:

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4:49am

Thu February 3, 2011
Record Bin Roulette

Super Bowl halftime show review

Credit Dave Martin / AP
Tina Turner and her band perform at the Super Bowl XXXIV in Atlanta, Ga., January 30, 2000.

It's the unlikely history of the biggest halftime show on the planet: the Super Bowl. Sunday's game between the Green Bay Packers and Pittsburgh Steelers will be  Super Bowl XLV - yes, 45 years of the Big Game - and among the millions watching some will be hanging on to see what passes as entertainment for the masses.

Read more

3:35pm

Wed February 2, 2011
Payday Lending

Internet lending worries spur move to end payday loan limits

Credit Photo by taberandrew / Flickr
Under a law that went into effect last year, brick-and-mortar payday lenders are highly regulated in Washington state. There's concern the law may be driving low-income borrowers to the "wild west" of the Internet, where fees are even higher.

A state law that went into effect early last year limited the number of payday loans borrowers could get per year to eight. It aims to protect people from falling into an endless spiral of debt.

But a Tacoma legislator, who originally backed the law, says it's driving people into the clutches of far worse lenders, on the Internet. 

Read more

3:21pm

Wed February 2, 2011
Education

Gregoire makes rare appearance before legislature to tout education system reforms

Credit AP
Governor Chris Gregoire appeared Wednesday before a Senate committee to discuss her plan to reorganize Washington's education system.

Christine Gregoire says she had an "aha moment" last summer about why Washington's education system isn't getting any better.

The governor made a rare appearance before a legislative committee Wednesday to talk about her proposal to create a new cabinet-level Department of Education that would oversee all the state's education efforts, committees and boards, from early learning to college.

Read more

1:34pm

Wed February 2, 2011
Life in the Northwest

Historic schooner mast travels along I-5 Thursday

Commuters on I-5 may see something a little different on Thursday: a truck carrying a 114-foot, tall ship's mast. It's for the Bellingham-based historic schooner Zodiac.


The Zodiac lost its old mast and boom last September in an incident near Lummi Island.

Read more

11:04am

Wed February 2, 2011
State Budget

State cuts benefits to welfare families

Credit Manuel Valdes / AP Photo
Hundreds of people rallied at the state capital on Martin Luther King Jr.'s holiday to protest proposed cuts in the state's budget to social services.


In a single day, Washington cut more than 5,000 families from the state's welfare-to-work program. That's because a strict, five-year limit on benefits kicked in. It's a cost-cutting measure ordered by the Governor.

Read more

10:00am

Wed February 2, 2011
Environment

Visitors rave over new boardwalk at Nisqually Wildlife Refuge

Credit U.S. Department of the Interior
Visitors on the new boardwalk at the Nisqually Wildlife Refuge experience the estuary in a way nobody has since the early 1900s.

For over a hundred years, nobody saw the mouth of the Nisqually River in its original, natural state. Now, thanks to a new, mile-long boardwalk and the removal of the dikes that fenced the water out, you can experience the estuary in a way that no living person ever has.

Read more

8:55am

Wed February 2, 2011
Technology

Google accuses Microsoft of snooping on its searches

Credit Joerg Sarbach / AP
Google charges Micosoft of spying on its searches.

Here's how bitter it's become in the battle between Google and Microsoft's Bing search engine.

At a conference in San Francisco, a Google executive stood on stage and accused Microsoft of using the latest version of its Internet Explorer browser to spy. Google ran a sting operation to prove his point, as summarized by Todd Bishop at TechFlash:

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6:36am

Wed February 2, 2011
News Roundup

Wednesday morning's headlines

Credit AP
Students at the University of Washington's Red Square in front of Suzzallo Library . Will the state's Guaranteed Education Tuition (GET) program weather enrollment hikes and demand? The state legislature is looking at potential fixes.

Making headlines around the Northwest this morning:

  • Monroe Prison Employees Faced Previous Assault
  • State Tuition Program Heading Toward Trouble?
  • Pierce County Takes Stand Against All-Mail Vote

 

Report: Evidence Prison Guard May Have Fought Back

Investigations into the death of Officer Jayme Biendl at the Monroe Correctional Center chapel Saturday night reveal evidence of a physical struggle. The Herald of Everett reports a physical examination of the prime suspect showed signs he'd been involved in violence.

Read more

5:32am

Wed February 2, 2011
Weather

Why sunny in Seattle means snowy in Chicago

Credit Gary Davis / KPLU News
A skateboarder cruises past the Space Needle in Seattle during a sunny day on Feb. 1, 2011.

You might have wondered -- as you gazed out your sunny window and listened to news of record cold and snow sweeping the midwest and East coast -- is there a connection?

Yes, there is.

"Our weather often is the just the opposite of what it is in the eastern part of the united states," says Cliff Mass, professor of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Washington. 

"When we are cold, like it was just before Thanksgiving, they tend to be warm," says Mass.

The reason we're yin when they're yang, and vice versa, has to do with the jet stream and "ridges" of high and low pressure in the sky, as Mass explains it.

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