Amanda Knox Reveals Her Christmas Wish

Former UW student and alleged murder conspirator Amanda Knox has revealed what she most wants for Christmas. I was expecting an iPhone, but it turns out she just wants to get out of jail. What a surprise! More from Fox News.

Seattle DOT Refuses to Salt Roads

Reason #26 Why I Don't Live in Seattle

If you're unhappy with the job SDOT is doing on clearing the roads, too bad. They're icy by design, or so they claim.

Photos by Jeff Wilcox

It seems the problem is that SDOT refuses to use salt to clear the roads.

"If we were using salt, you'd see patches of bare road because salt is very effective," (SDOT Chief of Staff Alex) Wiggins said. "We decided not to utilize salt because it's not a healthy addition to Puget Sound."

So rather than bare pavement, the goal is to leave a compact layer of snow and ice. Wiggins agrees that the end result is less than desirable, but that they have to be sensitive to the impact on the environment.

The worst part is that WSDOT and other local transportation departments do use salt, so the stuff will end up in Puget Sound anyway.

Read more at the Seattle Times

Jets Player Fined $10,000 for Throwing Snow at Fan

Yesterday we told you about Shaun Ellis, who was caught on video throwing snow at a Seahawks fan after the game. We also noted that the fans were throwing snowballs at the Jets, so his response was not entirely unfair. Ellis claims the incident was "all in fun."

Today the NFL fined Mr. Ellis $10,000. That's probably a little extreme, but keep in mind that Mr. Ellis will make a little over $3,000,000 this year. I won't cry too hard if you don't.

Read more at KOMO 4.

The Day in Review: 12-22-2008

A summary of the most interesting stories of the day:

Marysville Roof Collapse
Apparently jealous of all the attention directed at Bellevue, a factory roof in Marysville collapsed under the weight of snow and ice. The roof, belonging to manufacturer Whitley Evergreen, collapsed overnight when no one was in the building. More from KIRO 7.

Cyndy's House of Pancakes Soon to Be Cyndy's House of Ill Repute
The Seattle Times reports that Cyndy's House of Pancakes in North Seattle is being sold and converted into a strip club. Oddly enough, the new owner claims he will keep the name Cyndy's, apparently hoping to attract the all-important confused grandmother demographic.

Museum of Flight Wants to Acquire Space Shuttle
KING 5 reports that the Museum of Flight is attempting to bring a Space Shuttle to Seattle after the spacecraft is retired in 2010.

...

Oh, also apparently it snowed or something.

Jets Player Throws Chunk of Snow at Seahawks Fan

This is called bad sportsmanship.



In fairness, Seahawks fans weren't on their best behavior either, pelting the Jets with snowballs from the stands.

Tent Collapses at Bellevue Skating Rink

From KOMO News:

A large tent covering the ice skating rink at Bellevue's Magic Season festival collapsed Sunday evening, briefly trapping 10 people under a pile of snow and ice.

Apparently organizers were under the impression that their flimsy tent was going to hold up to nearly a foot of snow. One girl was injured and had to be taken to Overlake.

It Is Never Going to Stop Snowing

If you were thinking you might go Christmas shopping, go to work, or even leave your house sometime this week, sorry. Seattle is scheduled to see 3 to 8 inches of snow tonight, and likely will see more snow on Tuesday.

The good news is that we should start to see warmer temperatures some time in, say, July. The bad news is I think someone parked on top of my car without knowing it.

Whatever Happened To: Convicted Embezzler Kevin Dean

Remember Kevin Dean, the general manager of an Anacortes Ford dealership who as general manager stole $1.2 million from the company? I don't either, but the Seattle P-I reports that someone has hired Mr. Dean, despite his shady past. His new employer? Frontier Ford, the very same dealership he worked at before.

The owner of Frontier Ford, Ron Rennebohm, says Kevin Dean was good at his job as general manager and rehiring him is just a business decision.

A bad business decision that is!

UPDATE: Much more from the Skagit Valley Herald, who appears to have originated the story. I'm going to cancel my P-I subscription and start subscribing to the Valley Herald. Ha ha. I'm only half-joking.

Seattle Startup Lets You Process Credit Cards on an iPhone

TechFlash reports that Seattle startup Innerfence has created a $49 iPhone application that allows you to process credit cards using only your iPhone.

That means a merchant selling T-shirts on the Seattle waterfront or a craft maker at the Fremont Sunday market could whip out their iPhone, input a customer's credit card information and process the sale on the spot.

But they still don't accept credit cards at the Boeing cafeteria.

State Picks Two Viaduct Finalists Everybody is Sure to Hate

According to the Seattle Times, the state has decided on two finalists for the viaduct replacement:

• A "surface and transit" plan that features three southbound lanes on Alaskan Way, and three northbound lanes on Western Avenue.

• An elevated bypass highway that has two lanes in each direction, running side-by-side on independent bridge structures — the cheapest of the highway scenarios, the state says. It would include a Western Avenue exit to Belltown, Seattle Center and Interbay.

Yippee! Both options reduce capacity, yet will cost more than $3.3 billion to implement. Does it ever strike you that our leadership is totally incompetent?

Bank Robber on the Loose at UWMC

Seattle and UW police are searching for a suspected bank robber around the University of Washington Medical Center. If you spot the suspect, you are asked to call 911. Also, you should probably RUN AWAY!!! But that's just me.

Source: UW Emergency Alert Blog

UPDATE: Police say the suspect has "eluded" police and that he is likely no longer in the vicinity of the UW campus.

UPDATE 2: Video from KING 5. UMWC was in lockdown for a while.

Seattle Times Cutting Back Content

The Seattle Times has announced that beginning Monday they are reducing daily content in order to cut expenses.

What you will no longer find in the daily paper are some features I know many of you will miss: the Bridge column, the Scrabble game, The New York Times crossword puzzle and the daily television listings. We'll give you TV listings in our Sunday "TV Times" magazine, and those listings and The New York Times crossword will be available on our Web site. We'll keep our long-running Daily Crossword in the daily and Sunday newspapers, and the NYT crossword on Sunday.

Well if they're going to start removing content, why even subscribe anymore? You can't replicate the experience of, for example, filling in the crossword on newsprint.