The deadline for registering to vote in Washington State is this Saturday, October 4th. We know all of our readers are well-informed, politically savvy, perpetually active voters, but you still might want to make sure your voting status is up-to-date. If you don't mind using a partisan website, Obama-affiliated VoteForChange is a super-easy tool to verify and update your registration status and address of record. The other options are the Washington Secretary of State's MyVote......

Have you heard about WISAARD? It's a really cool toy research tool from the Washington State Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation (DAHP) that helps you locate historic sites statewide, searchable by county, city, and registered site name or status. It might not be stylized or streamlined, but WISAARD is just plain neat--and useful, if you're looking for details but don't know precisely which details you're looking for yet. Amateur local history nerds, read on:......

The Washington state Supreme Court says you can. They agreed with Chris Clifford, who argued that Port of Seattle commissioner Pat Davis committed malfeasance when she, as commission president, signed an agreement with outgoing Port CEO Mic Dinsmore to pay his salary a year after his retirement. In fact, the Court agreed 9-0 that Davis "intentionally acted outside the scope of [her] duties by signing an agreement with Dinsmore." Clifford now needs to collect 150,000......

Lunar Colors of the Eclipse by Grundlepuck The West Seattle Blog notes, with great pride, that a West Seattle High School alumnus has been chosen to command the next space shuttle mission. We bet that guy's stories will be hard to beat at the next class reunion. "So Greg, what have you been up to?" "Oh not much, just being an astronaut with NASA, commanding space shuttles in, you know, outer space."The Slog reports recently-for-sale......

Well, cheaper than it was at its all-time high earlier this month. AAA says the average cost of a gallon of gas in Washington dropped by 12 cents since July 6th. While that sounds great on the surface, don't get too excited...even the cheaper gallon of gas in Washington costs 27 cents more than the national average. The most expensive gallon of gas in Washington can be found in Bellingham ($4.27 per gallon), while the......

"The Rhythm of the Falling Rain by Grundlepuck This story reminds us of a line from The Beatles' "Taxman". The fact that it's illegal to collect too much rain that falls on your property because of state water laws seems just as ridiculous as the idea of the government taxing your feet to walk. But these are strange times, friends, because in Washington, the rain that falls is property of the state and up to......

Useless Bay Sign courtesy of John Klein We love the quirky names found in Washington State. We never tire of hearing of places with names like Zillah, Hooker's Cove, Sequim, and our life-long personal favorite Humptulips. But Humptulips might have to make way for a new-found favorite, Useless Bay. Apparently, Useless Bay is located off Whidbey Island and was so named because it was too shallow for the tall ships of yore to explore.......

While we don't know if Mayor Greg Nickels' latest proposal to ban concealed weapons on city lands will ever become law (we imagine a little thing called the Constitution and this little group called the NRA might have some problems with that one), hundreds of new laws will take effect in Washington this Thursday. At midnight this Thursday, 280 new laws will be on the books. Over a hundred of the new laws will......

We'll be the first to admit Hillary Clinton's embarrassing statement last week (and other occasions), when she recalled RFK's assassination in June of 1968 as an example of things that can happen late in a campaign. We all know there's a possibility the first viable black presidential candidate could get shot. It's been talked about and analyzed and discussed (and, yes, joked about by the other party). But, somehow, to hear another Democratic candidate......

We think this counts as "writing on both sides of your brain." Starting tonight and running through June 1 at CHAC is one of the more unusual solo performer shows we've heard of: former Washington State Insurance Commissioner Deborah Senn (a theater major, natch) has written a play about her experience wallowing in the mud of the election politics. Granted, the wallowing was not her idea--the mud was pumped in from out of state--but you......

Photo of Seattle tourists courtesy of the FBI About those photos we released to the world, implying you were terrorists...really sorry about that. Clearly, you're just innocent European businessmen who appear to be of Middle Eastern descent. On Monday, the FBI announced that a world-wide manhunt for two unidentified men who were spotted "acting suspiciously" on a Washington State Ferry last summer has been called off. The previously mysterious men in the photos went to......

What do you do with hardened, scary misdemeanor criminals when there's no room in the county jail? Create new programs that focus on counseling, job training, and other rehabilitative services? Feed cash to community centers and mentoring programs that help head off the problem before it starts? No, stupid, you build more jails. Says the P-I:Cities [around King County] have responded in a variety of ways -- through adopting alternatives to incarceration, including home......

Mt. Baker and Twin Sisters Panorama courtesy of Flickr User cathyb_dc Yesterday, the Senate approved a bill that could create the first new wilderness area in Washington state in over 20 years. The Wild Sky Wilderness Area would include 167 square miles in the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest north of Sultan, Wash and would permanently protect 106,000 acres of wilderness. The bill was introduced by Washington State Senator, Patty Murray, and is part of......

Mt. Rainier photo courtesy of Seattlest Flickr Contributor, mraaronmorris A search for a missing hiker on Mt. Rainier continued at daylight this morning. The search for Devin Ossman began Monday night after park rangers spotted his car, and his wife reported him missing. The 45 year-old man from Mukilteo arrived at Mt. Rainier on March 17th for a day hike and has not been heard from since. A ranger spotted Ossman's vehicle near Kautz......

This Seattlest just returned from Austin, Texas, for the annual South by Southwest music festival. While enjoying Austin, we were struck by one thing over and over again--how much Texas really wants to be its own nation. Nothing drove that point home more than comparing Texas' Capitol building to our very own Capitol. The state building in Austin is easily three times the size of Washington States and rivals the size of the Capitol building......

Remember when The Crocodile Cafe closed unexpectedly in December? Remember how up in arms everyone got, yelling about how likely it was that yet more new condos would be the result? Well the future of The Crocodile Cafe wasn't known then and still isn't known now, according to the PI: Groupee Inc., a privately held Seattle-based Internet software company, has withdrawn its application for a restaurant and lounge license at the site, said Susan Reams,......

First it was severed feet washing ashore, now it is empty bottles of rat poison. The bottles, which have thus far been empty, have been washing up on Washington shores since last fall. That spring trip to the coast is sounding less appealing every day. The Department of Ecology warns people to stay away from any silver one-liter canisters with red or white caps, that are found on the beach. (No word on what to......

Woot! Slowly, but surely this Seattlest is starting to see some semblance of equal rights for ourselves and others like us, as a bill has passed the state legislature granting us over 100 more rights. Chris Gregoire is expected to sign it, no problemo. Last year, we were awarded a handful of rather morose rights that mostly had to do with the death of a partner. Very important rights, mind you, but a little......

It seems every time we check a local news site, which is pretty regularly...okay hourly, there's a report of another malfunctioning ferry. According to our unscientific, educated guesstimate, The Washington State Ferry Service has only had a few days of normal running schedules in the past month. Today's affected ferry route: the Point Defiance/Tahlequa service. The Rhododendron--a 48-car-capacity ferry which serving the route from Vashon Island--is suffering from mechanical problems. The boat will be......

In other Washington State primate news....a Spokane family's illegal pet monkey, escaped from their home Thursday and went on a biting rampage. A group of friends walking their dog first noticed the monkey running down the street. "At first I thought it was cute, until it growled," said Grey Pressitin, who encountered the monkey on 16th Avenue. After the growling, the group realized the monkey might be aggressive and tried to run away from......

Spawned by one too many Mary Kay Letourneau-like stories coming out of the state, a new bill is waiting for Senate approval in Olympia. The "Student Protection Bill" would expand the crimes for which Washington State teachers could lose their certification. The proposed bill also seeks to encourage more oversight at the local level, asking school districts to report teachers who have displayed "boundary issues," which would not necessitate legal action. It also hopes to......

Another gorgeous photo from slightlynorth As Seattlest reported a couple of weeks ago, Washington State was trying to unload a used passenger ferry on Ebay. Sadly, the time has come and gone for bidding on the Chinook, without an acceptable bidder. This wasn't one of the "your best offer" sales on Ebay, Washington State wouldn't part with the boat for less than $4.5million and no one laid down that kind of offer. Bidding on......

No, Seattlest is not just a fan of alliteration and 80's slang, as the headline might suggest. Burying the beef, is the current plan of the Seattle Public School District to rid itself of 230 cases of possibly contaminated beef. The beef, provided to school districts through a USDA lunch program, came from a California slaughterhouse in the center of the largest beef recall in USDA history. Nearly two-thirds of the school districts in......

It was an active week in the on-going legal battle over the prescription of the Morning After Pill (Plan B) in Washington State. Amidst legal challenges to a state-wide regulation that requires pharmacists to fill all valid prescriptions, a federal judge in Tacoma said pharmacists can still deny customers the morning after pill if they have moral objections to the use of the pills. The ruling came the same week NARAL Pro-Choice Washington published......

photo by Flickr Contributor lachance This weekend the Washington State Senate narrowly passed a bill approving remote cameras to take photos of speeding drivers. A single one of these cameras, so-called "photo cops," can issue as many citations as 25 police officers. Washington State is eager to approve more uses for police cameras, as the installation of four red-light cameras in Seattle have brought in more than a million dollars of revenue in their......

Any Seattlest readers in the market for their very own Washington State Ferry? If so, you can head on over to EBay and make a bid on the decommissioned Chinook Passenger Ferry. (Guess you really can find everything on EBay!) The Chinook was posted on the site late Thursday night, with an asking price of $4.5 million dollars. The auction for the ferry will remain open to bidders until February 24th. The ferry's condition......

photo from Seattlest Flickr Contributor, artvortice The Washington State Chapter of the ACLU and local travel guide guru Rick Steves have joined forces to reform marijuana laws in the United States. Steves has long been an outspoken advocate of marijuana reformation. He sits on the board of the National Organization for the Reformation of Marijuana Laws (NORML), and has been a featured speaker at Seattle's annual Hempfest. Steves and The ACLU are comparing the......

Is Washington State thinking of creating a modern day scarlet letter? Republican State Senator Mike Carrell has authored a bill that would require a person convicted of a DUI to have special fluorescent yellow license plates. If passed, the law would require anyone convicted of a DUI to have the plates for one year on both the front and back plates of their vehicles. Within that year, if a driver convicted of a DUI is......

Photo by Cynthia ParkSeattlest's cousin is among the 75 people trapped in Diablo, a City-Light owned town in the North Cascades. There's no danger--they are in contact with the outside world and if they need supplies, City Light will helicopter some it. But they'll probably first finish what they've got. My cousin reports via the irrepressible Tubes:It is snowing heavily right now. Three more feet are anticipated over the next 3 days. DOT says the......

We're gonna start asking Seattlest Dan to pick our lottery numbers. A full year ago he looked into a cloudy future and typed:We predict next year will see even higher numbers at Metro Transit as job growth continues and "gas prices remain high." Ridership is going to skyrocket when either the Viaduct closes to traffic or light rail starts coming on line, but neither of those will likely happen in 2007.The bus people have dutifully......