Paula Wissel

A Seattle man has a special reason to celebrate the release of two American hikers from an Iranian prison. One of those who was freed, Josh Fattal, is his nephew.

If you’ve ever used a cash machine, here’s something you should be aware of. The Justice Department has disrupted one of the largest debit and credit card skimming rings on the West Coast.

Washington students appear to be acing one test, the SAT test. 

Average scores were the highest in the nation among states where more than 50 percent of eligible students take the college-entrance exam.

A brightly colored totem pole was given a send off celebration at the Seattle Center. The carved cedar log is embarking on a 4,000 mile journey.  It’s headed to the National Library of Medicine at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., where it will be the centerpiece of an exhibit on Native American concepts of  healing. 

'NORAD provided us and the public with a highly erroneous history of what happened ...'

On Sept. 11, 2001, former U.S. Senator Slade Gorton was at a conference in Leavenworth, Wash.  He'd gone out for an early morning run when he got word a plane had flown into the World Trade Center in New York.  He drove home to Seattle over a  Steven's Pass, which had almost no traffic on it,  trying to absorb the news of the attacks.

Gorton was later tapped to serve on the 9/11 Commission by President George Bush.  He considers the work he did some of the most important of his life.

Just a year ago, Seattle was promoting its roadside rain garden project in Ballard. Now, the city is spending half a million dollars to dismantle huge sections of it.

Some neighborhood residents say, despite good intentions, the whole thing has been a fiasco.

If you have feral cats in your neighborhood, you know they can be a major headache, what with the loud cat fighting and territorial spraying. 

In Grays Harbor County, two women have taken it upon themselves to fix the problem, literally. They trap cats in order to get them spayed or neutered. They then release them back where they came from.

Kids will pay 50 cents more to ride the bus starting tomorrow.  Bus fares on King County Metro increase from 75 cents to $1.25 to travel in all zones at all times. 

Recently, Washington's Employment Security Department sent out a news release announcing it had identified 9,000 people in 2010 who were not actively seeking work. The state said the individuals would have to pay back $23 million in benefits.

But those claims of jobless benefit fraud may be overstated.

The Nordic Heritage Museum in Ballard was packed last night as hundreds gathered to pray, sing and offer their condolences to the people of Norway. The Vigil of Remembrance, as it was called, was organized by the Museum, the Honorary Consul of Norway and the Pacific Lutheran University.

One of Seattle’s most -influential arts patrons and real estate developers has passed away.  Bagley Wright died of a heart attack yesterday at the age of 87, according to Seattlepi.com.

His name is synonymous with much of what makes Seattle unique.

"Good Lord, how did we get here ..."

Seattle has become the first city in Washington to regulate medical marijuana dispensaries. A number of other cities have banned the businesses outright.  The Seattle City Council decided to take the opposite approach after efforts to regulate medical pot at the state level failed.

The city of Seattle is getting closer to regulating medical pot dispensaries.

The Housing, Human Services, Health and Culture Committee of the Seattle City Council unanimously passed a measure that would require the marijuana shops to comply with city building codes, zoning ordinances and fair employment laws.

Could cuts to Metro bus routes result in more college dropouts? Student leaders at the University of Washington say it’s something they’re deeply concerned about.

Students testifying last night at a hearings in King County over a proposed $20 car tab fee argued in favor of the charge. The money would  help keep Metro busses running at current levels. Without the fee, Metro service is expected to be cut by 17 percent.

The city of Seattle is pouring an extra $3 million into road repair. The city is using money it made selling property along Aurora Avenue North, known as the "Rubble Yard," to the state Department of Transportation.