Local News

The Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute will wean itself off its city subsidy and become a standalone non-profit in the next five years, according to a plan presented to the Seattle City Council this morning. The Central Area performing arts center, which has deep roots in the African-american community, is the only theater in town…

Overzealous application of de-icer was to blame for a series of crashes on the West Seattle Bridge Dec. 2, officials said in a report to the Seattle City Council today. But it wasn’t only that the city applied de-icer while the temperature was a balmy 43 degrees. A worker also put on twice as much…

The beleaguered city of Gold Bar is in trouble with the Washington State Auditor’s Office again for lax financial procedures and spending more than it brought in for three of the past four years. The city of 2,000 has only enough money in its emergency fund to cover 1.5 days of general-fund expenditures, and it owes its own water utility $80,000.

In its third straight negative annual audit, the auditor criticized the city for loose financial policies. According to the audit, the city’s travel policy doesn’t require receipts, it keeps its city credit cards in an unlocked safe “where all employees have access and can self-check-out by use of a logbook.” And city fuel cards are in envelopes with the PIN written on the outside. The city’s petty cash drawer is unlocked and, at the time of the audit, short $145.

There is no purchase-order process, and expenditures by the council are approved by a panel of one council member and two city residents who don’t consider the city’s current policies, the auditor wrote.

Updated | 10:20 p.m.  Seattle City Light said it expects to restore power to 13,000 customers currently without power by 10 a.m. Sunday. Gusty winds rattled the region Saturday, leaving at least three people injured, cutting power to some 200,000 and even forcing officials to close the Highway 520 bridge for about two hours. The State Patrol closed the bridge about…

If the federal government is still shut down at the end of October, 38,000 women and young children will lose access to an important federal nutrition subsidy called WIC, and 82 King County staff will be laid off. That is the chief message delivered this morning by King County Executive Dow Constantine, Metropolitan King County Council…

Nickelsville, the 5-year-old homeless encampment currently on West Marginal Way, plans to move to three different sites this weekend. The Seattle City Council directed the mayor to clear the current site by Sunday. The group won’t say where it is going. Tim Harris, a homeless advocate, said one of the sites is in the Central District…

The family involved in a tragic crash this spring in Northeast Seattle has filed $45 million in claims against the city of Seattle for failing to supervise the driver of a truck that hit them while they were out for an afternoon walk. The crash killed a couple and critically injured their daughter-in-law and infant…

A propane tank exploded Sunday morning at the North Transfer Station in Seattle’s Wallingford neighborhood, shattering the windows of at least one vehicle and prompting people from Eastlake to Wallingford to call 911, saying the explosion shook their houses. The explosion happened around 8:25 a.m. Seattle Fire spokesman Kyle Moore said workers at the station were using…

The victim of an early-morning shooting on Capitol Hill is at Harborview Medical Center, and Seattle Police say his injuries are life-threatening. Several people called 911 at about 3 a.m. today to report a man had been shot several times at 10th Avenue and East Pine Street, police said. Police  arrested a man they say was running north through…

A motorcyclist was seriously injured Sunday morning when he collided with a truck while a police car was chasing him, attempting to stop him for speeding. An officer in a Seattle patrol car saw the motorcycle at about 7:30 a.m. turning onto Greenwood Avenue North, northbound, from Holman Road Northwest. The officer turned on his…