Jake Ellison

Sure they are stressing out in Florida, what with all that sun, but Seattle?

Sperling’s BestPlaces, a research firm specializing in livability rankings, has released its new study of major cities with the most stress. 

Seattle comes in 9th. Florida has five metro areas in the top 10.

Seattle’s greenest building – on paper, since it is still under construction – jumps back into the news with this headline from MSNBC:

“Could this $30 million green tower be the future of world cities?”

The Hearst Corporation, owners of the Seattle Post-Intellingencer, announced today that it will give the iconic Seattle P-I globe to the Museum of History & Industry and the city of Seattle.

Seattle city councilmembers Sally J. Clark, Jean Godden and Tim Burgess said in a press release that MOHAI would take the globe down from its perch atop the old P-I building on Elliott Avenue West sometime this year, refurbish it and then put it up somewhere else.

The proposal will go before the city's Landmarks Preservation Board this afternoon.

An agreement among Hearst Corp., the city of Seattle and the Museum of History and Industry is expected to preserve the Seattle P-I globe, an icon of the city for more than 60 years.

The fate of the 18-ton, neon-lit orb has been uncertain since the Hearst-owned Seattle Post-Intelligencer ceased printing and became seattlepi.com in 2009. The website reports that three city council members who are all former reporters — Jean Godden, Tim Burgess and Sally Clark — are expected to announce an agreement to preserve the globe on Wednesday.

Battles over billboards and bus ads have gotten heated in many cities, most notably the battle between atheists and believers in New York City that's heating up again, but not many end up in court. One that did in Seattle last year, is back on the streets … on the sides of King County Metro buses.

“I’m Palestinian … Equal rights for all.”

The message, resonate of the pleasant smiling faces declaring they are Mormon on many Metro buses, seems innocuous enough. But the new ads come from the same group that took the county to court after officials felt the group’s original ad campaign could result in violence.

After writing about the latest developments in space travel yesterday, I wondered whose ship I would want to ride and automatically saw myself in Jeff Bezos' ship the New Sheppard. Upon reflection, I just liked the retro-scifi style of it. Although, blowing up did come to mind.

What ship would you take into space?

What is it about our super rich tech guys and local culture that makes them want to send people into outer space?

Yesterday, the space venture backed by Jeff Bezos (of Amazon fame) announced it was ready to conduct a “pad-abort test” in the summer of 2012, according to Flightglobal. The test is a crucial milestone in qualifying the company's New Shepard vehicle for human spaceflight.  

Students journalists covering "Our Thirsty Planet," a symposium about water put on by Pacific Lutheran University’s Wang Center for Global Education, have wrapped up their coverage on "Water For Thought," a Website created for KPLU's experiment in student-sourced journalism.

With videos and stories, the students review the impact of the symposium and new perspectives on water. Below are headlines and highlights:

With the quality of water worldwide declining and the increasing scarcity of it in many places becoming more prominent, student journalists at Pacific Lutheran University took up a challenge by KPLU to cover a local symposium on water.

"Our Thirsty Planet" centers on the exploitation and need for clean water around the world and is put on by Pacific Lutheran University’s Wang Center for Global Education. The symposium is under way and the students have begun publishing their efforts on "Water For Thought," a Website created for this experiment in student-sourced journalism.

You can check out their work on that site and follow them on Twitter at @waterforthought.

Like everyone else, we sometimes just sit back and cruise the internet. We got on the meme kick this time. Here's five we thought related to where we live ... what we do ... who we are ... who we think we are ...

In his “State of the City” address, Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn made an impassioned plea today for the legalization of marijuana saying in the illegal trade in drugs was fueling crime in the city.

“It is time we were honest about the problems we face with the drug trade. Drugs are a source of criminal profit, and that has led to shootings and even murders. Just like we learned in the 1920s with the prohibition of alcohol, prohibition of marijuana is fueling violent activity,” the mayor said in the written version of his speech.

Perhaps Starbucks has gotten so good at making coffee without people that it sees brick-and-mortar coffee shops as a thing of the past - much how Redbox’s automated DVD dispensing helped usher in the demise of the video store.

Or, perhaps the deal it has struck with Bellevue-based Coinstar (which owns Redbox) to dispense Starbucks' Seattle’s Best brand coffee for a buck at every convenience store and street corner across the nation is just a way to make a … buck.

State public health authorities have confirmed that the norovirus – also known as the bug that causes wintertime vomiting disease – sickened more than 200 attendees of a cheerleading and dance event in Everett.

Attorneys who accuse Greg Mortenson of defrauding readers in his best-selling "Three Cups of Tea" say his case is no different from that of James Frey, who admitted on the "Oprah Winfrey Show" that he lied in his memoir "A Million Little Pieces."

That lawsuit ended in a settlement that offered refunds to buyers of the book.

The high profile fight over Mortenson’s book and questions about his work has aid agencies worried, said KPLU’s global health and development writer Tom Paulson.

In a story worthy of our “I Wonder Why … ?” series, a Seattle TV station has resurrected the mystery of Mel’s Hole located somewhere (but no one knows where) near Ellensburg.

KOMO wrote on Tuesday:

From Bigfoot to the disappearance of D.B. Cooper, the Pacific Northwest is full of mysteries. Another mystery burred deep in the hills of eastern Washington keeps resurfacing. Ellensburg and its surrounding valleys and Manastash Ridge are beautiful in any season. Some believe what lies beneath is a deep, dark hole with supernatural powers.