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The process of burying the dead hasn't changed much over the centuries, but now their gravestones can provide a digital link to their life stories.

A Seattle-based company is creating burial markers that include a scannable, stamp-like image called a "quick read" — or QR code.

Like many of you, we hope, The Two-Way is planning to take some time off over this holiday weekend.

We may put up a post or two, and will certainly jump back in if there's major news. But the general plan is to resume blogging Tuesday morning.

The reason Americans are have a long weekend, of course, is that Monday is Memorial Day. And that's much more than just the unofficial start of summer.

From this year's presidential proclamation:

More than 200,000 people are expected to visit the Seattle Center over the Memorial Day Weekend for the 40th annual Folklife Festival.

About 1,000 music, dance and other events are scheduled over four days, starting Friday, at indoor and outdoor sites. The festival also includes food and craft booths.

Bellingham Mayor Dan Pike has issued a formal apology to the Chinese community for the expulsion of their people,125 years ago.

Pike says the apology is meant to make it clear: authorities now see the racist actions by regional governments and their supporters more than a century ago were wrong.

In 1885 and 1886, thousands of Chinese immigrants were driven out of Puget Sound towns during an economic downturn. Civic leaders and town newspapers argued the new residents were taking jobs away from white people.

The apology and related events this week in Bellingham are part of a year-long Chinese Expulsion Remembrance Project. Seattle, Tacoma, Olympia and Mount Vernon are also taking part. The project also has a Facebook page.

The Washington state budget plan released Tuesday will cut funding for in-home health care workers. In reaction, one health care workers' union has already filed an initiative aiming to mitigate the effects of some of those reductions.

Commerce Secretary – and former Washington governor - Gary Locke is a step closer to becoming the next U.S. ambassador to China. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee completed his confirmation hearing in just
an hour and a half this morning. 

Unless a lawsuit derails the process, a new 520 bridge will soon be built across Lake Washington. 

A company in Aberdeen is already constructing the huge pontoons that will keep the new, 6-lane structure afloat.

And the state is widening the highway on the east side of the lake. 

But exactly what the project will look like on the Seattle side is still being worked out.

Seattle's Board of Park Commissioners will get a briefing on impacts to the Washington Park Arboretum tomorrow night (Thursday).

Rain this afternoon, high 59. Latest forecast here.

Making headlines around the Northwest:

• $32 Billion Dollar Deal Closes State Budget Gap
• Auburn Shooting Suspect Arrested Dressed as Woman
• 3 Seattle Officers Suspended for Foul Language
• Seattle 4th of July Fireworks a Go

House Passes Budget Deal, Hours After Unveiling

House lawmakers have given tentative approval to a state spending plan that cuts teacher pay and makes other massive reductions in education spending.

The measure passed Tuesday evening by a 54-42 margin, just hours after budget writers from both parties unveiled the plan.

Gas prices in Washington and across the Northwest are inching downward again after peaking above $4 a gallon earlier this month. The trend comes too late to erase the blow delivered to Meals on Wheels programs around the region.