3:59pm

Tue June 4, 2013
special session

State budget impasse prompts finger-pointing

Credit mathteacherguy / Flickr

There’s one week left in Washington’s special legislative session and still no budget deal. Gov. Jay Inslee and the Senate majority caucus held dueling news conferences Tuesday, complete with plenty of finger-pointing.

The governor went first. Inslee, a Democrat, blasted the mostly-Republican senate majority for an estate tax measure that passed out of committee late last week. Inslee called it a new tax break for more than 200 wealthy Washingtonians at the expense of public schools.

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3:18pm

Tue June 4, 2013
Business

Amazon adds Dora the Explorer, other kids' shows with Viacom deal

Credit Alan Alfaro

Amazon has signed a deal with Viacom for online rights to hundreds of TV shows. But the most important shows are ones geared toward kids.

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12:51pm

Tue June 4, 2013
GMO produce

USDA adds more investigators to Ore. GMO wheat probe

Credit <> / Flickr

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has increased the number of investigators and field staff looking into the genetically-modified wheat found on Oregon farm.

There are now 15 people on the ground in the Northwest—up from nine last week.

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12:25pm

Tue June 4, 2013
Mount Rainier National Park

Mount Rainier makes changes after ranger's death

Credit lawdawg1 / Flickr

The National Park Service says a climbing ranger who fell to his death during a rescue operation at Mount Rainier National Park last year was not roped for safety or equipped with an ice ax at the time of the accident.

Thirty-three-year-old Nick Hall was a four-year climbing ranger at the park. He fell roughly 2,400 feet while helping to rescue four injured climbers from Texas on June 21, 2012.

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10:27am

Tue June 4, 2013
Census Data

Census: Redmond has highest commuter population boost in U.S.

Credit Robert Scoble / Flickr

During the business day, the city of Redmond, Wash. sees the nation’s biggest spike in population, according U.S. Census data.

The Seattle Times revealed that commuters increase Redmond’s population by 111.4 percent—the biggest increase seen in cities with a population of 50,000 or greater. The city has a population of 55,150.

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9:28am

Tue June 4, 2013
Shots - Health News

That employee who smokes costs the boss $5,800 a year

Originally published on Wed June 5, 2013 5:42 am

Credit John Moore / Getty Images
A man smokes outside an office building in New York City in April. Smoking breaks cost employers almost $3,000 per year per smoking employees, a study says.

Smoking is expensive, and not just for the person buying the cigs. Employers are taking hard looks at the cost of employing smokers as they try to cut health insurance costs, with some refusing to hire people who say they smoke.

But figures on the cost of smoking have been rough estimates at best, with a very general estimate of $193 billion a year nationwide.

Researchers now say they're got much tighter focus on the number: $5,800 per smoker per year.

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5:01am

Tue June 4, 2013
Street Cents

Money for thin air: Selling your home's 'air rights'

Credit Joey Cohn

The air above your house could be worth a lot of cash if you have a view that's enjoyed by others in your neighborhood.

If you have a low-lying home that sits on a bank overlooking Puget Sound, for example, chances are the neighbors on the hill behind you may want to pay you to keep you from building up and blocking their view.

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5:00am

Tue June 4, 2013
prescription narcotics

Wash. state earns 'A' grade for pain prescribing, for now

Credit (white rabbit) / Flickr

Washington state has earned a top grade from the American Cancer Society when it comes to helping people suffering from long-term pain. However, the state’s law on pain medication is unusual enough that the Cancer Society is surveying doctors to learn more about how it’s working.

In the past, many patients in chronic pain—lasting months or years—believed they were just supposed to suffer through it.

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5:49pm

Mon June 3, 2013
FBI crime stats

FBI report: Seattle, Tacoma saw spike in murder, robbery in 2012

Credit Alan Cleaver / Flickr

Violent crime has gone up in our region, according to the latest statistics from the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

According to the FBI's Preliminary Annual Uniform Crime Report for 2012, Seattle and Tacoma saw more murders, robberies and aggravated assaults in 2012 than in 2011. Some other Washington cities, including Bellevue, also saw more crime.

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4:50pm

Mon June 3, 2013
Hepatitis outbreak

Frozen berries sold at Costco in Wash. tied to hepatitis outbreak

Credit joelgoodman / Flickr

An outbreak of hepatitis A, which has sickened more than 30 people in five states, has been linked to frozen berries sold at Costco stores.  

Anyone who purchased frozen berries under the brand “Townsend Farms Organic Anti-oxidant Blend” from Costco should discard them, according to the state Department of Health. The blend includes cherries, blueberries, pomegranate seeds, raspberries, and strawberries.  

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3:43pm

Mon June 3, 2013
fun with books

Watch: Seattle Public Library tries to break record for longest book-domino chain

The Seattle Public Library says it has shattered the world record for the longest book-domino chain.

Two college students teamed up with the library to coordinate a winding chain of 2,131 books with the help of 27 volunteers who consumed 112 slices of pizza during the seven-hour process last Friday, according to the library.

The first four tries brought heartbreaking glitches, including the fourth try failing "about 10 books short of finishing", according to Amy Twito, the library's youth program manager. 

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3:24pm

Mon June 3, 2013
special session

Lawmakers start final stretch of special session

Credit tsparks / Flickr

With just over a week left in an overtime legislative session, negotiations between key lawmakers are set to continue, but there's still no budget deal in sight and limited activity at the Capitol.

A floor session in the Senate was scheduled for Monday afternoon, but it was uncertain what action might be taken.

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2:42pm

Mon June 3, 2013
Music Interviews

Authentic early jazz, from a 23-year-old 'WomanChild'

Originally published on Mon June 3, 2013 3:53 pm

Jazz musicians Cecile McLorin Salvant and Aaron Diehl, both in their 20s, have already racked up major industry pr

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12:39pm

Mon June 3, 2013
The Salt

Grass: It's what's for dinner (3.5 million years ago)

Originally published on Mon June 3, 2013 12:49 pm

Credit iStockphoto.com
Some 3.5 million years ago, our ancestors put grass on the menu.

If you could travel back in time about 8 million years, you'd find a creature in an African tree that was the ancestor of all current apes and humans. And that creature in all likelihood would have spent a big part of its day munching leaves and fruit — pretty much what apes eat now.

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9:12am

Mon June 3, 2013
life behind bars

Inmates’ families: Video-only visits have financial, emotional costs

Credit Jessica Robinson
Jennifer Lopez, 30, of Pocatello, Idaho, says a video system that has replaced in-person visits at the Bannock County jail is hard to navigate and often has technical problems.

Even if you've never visited a jail, you probably have a pretty clear image of what inmate visitation is like: a shatterproof glass barrier, two people sitting on either side, speaking into telephones. But that's changing in some parts of the Northwest.

More and more county jails are switching to privately-operated video conferencing systems that are not unlike Skype for inmates. But these systems have technical difficulties, and come with costs for the inmates’ families.

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