2:26pm

Wed May 15, 2013
Education

Seattle instructors to help parents stem kids' summer brain drain

Credit pastorbuhro / Flickr
Summer break typically sets students back by about a month in their studies.

Summer vacation may be fun, but research shows it wipes out about a month’s worth of learning. This weekend, Seattle schools officials will offer strategies to reduce summer learning loss.

Since kids are understandably wary of anything that makes summer break feel like school, the key is to make it fun, said Seattle Public Schools’ Bernardo Ruiz.

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1:04pm

Wed May 15, 2013
Code Switch

Immigrants to be largest driver of U.S. population growth

Originally published on Thu May 16, 2013 6:56 am

Credit LM Otero / AP
Immigrants take the U.S. oath of citizenship during a naturalization ceremony in Irving, Texas.

New immigrants will be the main driver of population growth in the U.S. by as early as 2027, according to new Census Bureau projections.

This would be the first time in almost two centuries that new births will not be the largest source of U.S. population growth.

The Census Bureau says its projections show a combination of declining fertility rates, aging baby boomers and ongoing immigration to the United States.

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11:10am

Wed May 15, 2013
The Salt

Go fish (somewhere else): Warming oceans altering catches

Originally published on Wed May 15, 2013 4:39 pm

Credit Melissa Farlow / National Geographic/Getty Images
Crew members unload a catch of sockeye salmon at Craig, Alaska, in 2005. Researchers say fish are being found in new areas because of changing ocean temperatures.

Climate change is gradually altering the fish that end up on ice in seafood counters around the world, according to a new study.

"The composition of the [global] fish catch includes more and more fish from the warmer areas, and cold-water fish are getting more rare, because the temperatures are increasing," says Daniel Pauly at the University of British Columbia, a co-author of the study.

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10:52am

Wed May 15, 2013
Dog attacks

Yikes! Seattle ranked 2nd worst city for dog attacks on mail carriers

It appears being a mail carrier in Seattle can be dangerous.

Seattle ranked second on a list of cities that saw the most dog attacks on mail carriers during the last fiscal last year, according to the U.S. Postal Service.

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10:12am

Wed May 15, 2013
death penalty

Inmate sentenced to death in prison guard slaying

Byron Scherf

A 54-year-old inmate has been sentenced to death for killing a Washington state corrections officer in a prison chapel two years ago.

Byron Scherf is a convicted rapist who already was serving life in prison when he attacked and strangled Officer Jayme Biendl with an amplifier cord in January 2011.

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5:20am

Wed May 15, 2013
Food for Thought

Now you Caesar salad bowl

  • Dick and Nancy talk Caesar salad and Caesar salad bowls.

I don't expect you to forgive me for that headline. To paraphrase Tammany Hall "Honest Grafter" George Washington Plunkitt, I saw my opportunity and I took it. But I digress. In this week's Food for Thought we come to praise Caesar salad.

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12:00am

Wed May 15, 2013
givebig today

GiveBIG today and support KPLU!

Support KPLU through the Seattle Foundation's one-day, Give Big Campaign!

JOIN IN on one of the biggest days of giving in our region.  

Thanks for your support!

11:38pm

Tue May 14, 2013
held in north korea

North Korea: Lynnwood man starts life at 'special prison'

Credit Associated Press

North Korea says an American citizen sentenced to 15 years hard labor has started life at a "special prison."

No other details were immediately available Wednesday about Kenneth Bae. Pyongyang said earlier this week that Bae informed his family on Friday that he couldn't appeal his April 30 sentence and that he asked his family to urge Washington to push for his amnesty.

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5:52pm

Tue May 14, 2013
cyber security

Wash. Courts seek IT security review, audit following breach

Credit Shane Pope / Flickr

Washington’s court system will hire an outside expert to perform a computer security review and audit in the wake of a hacking incident that targeted system’s public website.

The hacking, the details of which were released last week, exposed nearly a hundred social security numbers and perhaps up to a million driver’s license numbers. But now there’s another cyber security concern at Washington Courts, this time with the state’s Judicial Information System.

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4:28pm

Tue May 14, 2013

4:25pm

Tue May 14, 2013
Arts

Seattle Symphony, Opera musicians approve contract

Credit Jessie Hodge

Labor disputes have shut down performances across the country, but Seattle Symphony and Seattle Opera fans don’t have to worry about cancelations anytime soon. The musicians have agreed to a new contract. 

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1:51pm

Tue May 14, 2013
Boeing Dreamliner

Boeing resumes 787 deliveries after 4-month halt

Credit Associated Press

Boeing is delivering 787s again after a four-month halt while it fixed problems that led to smoldering batteries.

Boeing announced a delivery on Tuesday to Japan's All Nippon Airways.

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9:52am

Tue May 14, 2013
GMO produce

Biotech apples may be harbinger for GMO spuds

Credit Okanogan Specialty Fruits
This photo shows a "conventional" apple, left, next to an Arctic apple

As Idaho's J.R. Simplot Co promotes its genetically engineered potato, a tiny Canadian apple breeder is working on a similar product that could provide a glimpse of how consumers react.

Okanogan Specialty Fruits expects U.S. and Canadian government approval for Granny Smith and Golden Delicious apple varieties with their genes modified to halt browning.

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9:30am

Tue May 14, 2013
protecting songbird

Can this rare songbird be lured away from risky neighborhoods?

Credit U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
A streaked horned lark is seen in this photo.

A songbird called the streaked horned lark has a curious propensity for risky neighborhoods. That's not a good quality for a bird proposed for listing as a threatened species. Its preferred hangouts include airports, Army training fields, and dredge spoil dumping sites along the lower Columbia River. A two-state experiment seeks to find out if these rare larks can be enticed to safer habitats.

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7:58am

Tue May 14, 2013
Krulwich Wonders...

What is it about bees and hexagons?

Originally published on Thu May 16, 2013 10:26 am

Solved! A bee-buzzing, honey-licking 2,000-year-old mystery that begins here, with this beehive. Look at the honeycomb in the photo and ask yourself: (I know you've been wondering this all your life, but have been too shy to ask out loud ... ) Why is every cell in this honeycomb a hexagon?

Bees, after all, could build honeycombs from rectangles or squares or triangles ...

But for some reason, bees choose hexagons. Always hexagons.

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