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The Portage Bay Bridge is to be replaced by a new concrete-girder crossing by the early 2030s. Recent soil tests found worse conditions than expected, one factor in a $406 million cost increase for the Highway 520 megaproject.
(Ken Lambert / The Seattle Times) — The Portage Bay Bridge is to be replaced by a new concrete-girder crossing by the early 2030s. Recent soil tests found worse conditions than expected, one factor in a $406 million cost increase for the Highway 520 megaproject. (Ken Lambert / The Seattle Times)

Traffic Lab

Cost jumps for Highway 520 bridge work; here’s why, and who might pay

Washington state transportation officials reveal a big cost increase for the final segments of the Highway 520 rebuild between Montlake Boulevard and I-5.

Don't Miss

Senators stand during start of the legislative session at the state Capitol in Olympia on Monday, Jan. 10, 2022. About a dozen senators showed up in-person Monday for the start of the session, while the rest attended remotely.

Local Politics

State Senate approves delay of WA Cares, sending long-term care bills to Inslee’s desk

Doug Gibbons, a research engineer with the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network, points to a computer screen that is showing how much the ground has shaken as he and others put finishing touches on a new seismic station in Enumclaw Wednesday, April 21, 2021. The station is one of hundreds around the region that detect shaking from earthquakes and can send warning signals in advance of strong ground shaking. 216938

Local News

Earthquake warning app now available in WA

Bill and Melinda Gates in 2018. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which focuses on global health and development, and on education in the United States, has given out more than $50 billion in grants in 135 countries. MUST CREDIT: Photo for The Washington Post by Daniel Berman

Local News

Gates Foundation adds billionaire, baroness to board in wake of Gateses' divorce

A woman heads to one of the portable classrooms at Louisa May Alcott Elementary in Redmond Wednesday, January 19, 2022. There are 12 portables at the school and one third of the students attend classes in the portables. In their six years at the school, all students will spend two years at the K – 5 school in the portable classrooms.

The Lake Washington School District is running a capital levy measure to construct new classrooms throughout the district because of overcrowding that makes schools like Alcott reliant on these portables. This is for an overview story on the slew of levy and bond measures going before voters.
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Education Lab

Why King County schools are asking voters to fund billions in levy and bond measures

Project Homeless is a new Seattle Times initiative that explores and explains the region’s complex, troubling problem of homelessness. With strong watchdog reporting and vivid storytelling, Project Homeless seeks to spotlight what is working, and what is not working, in responding to homelessness. We will also feature solutions-oriented reporting from elsewhere in the country.

Transportation

As a train pulls into the Northgate Light Rail Station Saturday morning, passengers get ready to board the train Saturday, October 2, 2021. Some 25 years after voters first approved Sound Transit taxes for light rail, the line becomes more regional with three stations opening Saturday. The stations are the U District Station, the Roosevelt Station and the Northgate Station. 218218

With fares depressed, Sound Transit grapples with ‘financially unsustainable’ trajectory

Local News Photography

Brian Rigmaiden holds his daughter Bella, 6, as she waves goodbye to Santa during the Westlake Center lighting in Seattle on Black Friday, Nov. 26, 2021.

Local News

Westlake Center tree is decked out for the holidays VIEW

The rescued green sea turtle, now named Shi Shi, is lifted from a holding pool by Angela Smith, left, Dr. Caitlin Hadfield, hidden, and Lindy McMorran at the Seattle Aquarium where itâ€™s receiving critical care.
(Hadfield is the senior veterinarian at the aquarium)

Ref to more photos and video online

Friday Nov. 19, 2021

Its sex is not yet determined. Age: called sub-adult

Found washed ashore at Shi Shi beach near Neah Bay, WA by a Makah tribal member. 218882

Environment

A sea turtle found off Washington’s coast, cold and clinging to life, recovers at Seattle Aquarium WATCH

Alex Zerbe brings his Zaniac one-hour comedy show to the Seattle Center stage at Winterfest, aimed mainly at youngsters. He juggles, dances, engages the audience and tells jokes. It’s free and is among the things visitors can see without charge including the return the expansive train set in the Armory. Visitors should check the Seattle Center website.

Ref to More online

LO free events at Seattle Center on Saturday November 27, 2021 218920

Local News

Trains, rockets and laughs among the festivities at Seattle Center VIEW

Son Nate Fezzie, 2, gives dad Dominic a hand in hauling out the tree the family has cut to take home.

U-cut Christmas Creek tree farm, with some pre-cut trees.

LO Wednesday April 24, 2021 218900

Local News

Seeking the perfect Christmas tree in North Bend VIEW

Education

This cover image released by Pantheon shows “Maus” a graphic novel by Art Spiegelman. A Tennessee school district has voted to ban the Pulitzer Prize winning graphic novel about the Holocaust due to â€œinappropriate languageâ€ and an illustration of a nude woman. (Pantheon via AP) NYET411 NYET411

Holocaust novel ‘Maus’ banned in Tennessee school district

Education Lab

Why King County schools are asking voters to fund billions in levy and bond measures

School levies and bonds on the Feb. 8 ballot in King County

About Education Lab

Education Lab is a Seattle Times project that spotlights promising approaches to some of the most persistent challenges in public education.

Health

Hong Kong cuts foreign arrival quarantine from 21 to 14 days

Hong Kong is cutting the length of mandatory quarantine for people arriving from overseas from 21 to 14 days, even as the southern Chinese city battles a new surge in COVID-19 cases. VIEW

Times Watchdog

A still from a video shows former Tukwila police officer Nick Hogan used an unsanctioned takedown against Alvin Walker in 2011, breaking Walker’s elbow. Hogan was fired after multiple investigations found he violated department policy, and later pleaded guilty to violating a suspect’s civil rights, but he retained his state certification.

Fired, but still a cop: How Washington state’s decertification process leaves troubled officers with their guns

More Special Reports

A photograph of stepfather Sean Rowe and mother Carmen Rowe is taken in downtown Seattle Monday, Dec. 12, 2016. Their son Andrew Westling, 19, died while in the Nisqually Jail earlier this year. They described Westling as friendly and that he loved music, horses and fishing.

Times Watchdog

Fatal confines? A teen’s troubling death in Nisqually tribal jail

Monday, October 31, 2016. Hundreds of untested Rape Kits fill a freezer isle in the Seattle Police Departments evidence room (kits kept at 5 degrees).

Crime

Rape-kit backlog grows at state crime lab — despite new money WATCH

Tom Wales, assistant U.S. Attorney and president of the gun-control group Washington CeaseFire, was the apparent victim of an execution-style slaying Thursday night in his Queen Anne home. The gunman shot Wales through a basement window, hitting the prosecutor in the neck and side.

Thomas Wales

Crime

Unsolved slaying of Seattle prosecutor 16 years ago today has ‘hallmarks of a hit’

Special Report

‘My God, that’s Kimberly!’: Scientist solves perplexing mystery of identity thief Lori Ruff

Data

Kraken fans are loud and proud during Friday’s game with St. Louis.

The St. Louis Blues played the Seattle Kraken Friday, January 21, 2022 at Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle, WA. 219272

Seattle's pro hockey fans differ from other sports fans in several ways

Law & Justice

Kent police find body inside car

The body of a 44-year-old man was found inside a car along Green River Road in Kent after police responded to reports of a shooting in the area early Thursday.