Seattle Washington

"Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; but remember that what you now have was once among the things only hoped for." --Epicuru...

After hearing her sentence, they waited up past midnight, made her warm milk and reassured her with hugs when she walked back into her c...

Maurice Clemmons, the man suspected of gunning down four police officers in a suburban Seattle coffee shop, was shot and killed by a lone patrolman in...

The man suspected of gunning down four police officers in a suburban coffee shop was shot and killed by a lone patrolman investigating a stolen car ea...

SEATTLE (AP) — A suspect in the slaying of four police officers gunned down in a suburban coffee shop was holed up at a Seattle house early Mond...

The Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle has humanely killed a giraffe that had degenerative bone disease. The zoo says the 13-year-old male named Joha...

A man shot by police as he was sought in connection with the Halloween killing of a Seattle police officer has been identified as 41-year-old Christop...

Sleepless in Seattle? Hardly. West Virginia is where people are really staying awake, according to the first government study to monitor state-...

Google offices in Seattle and Kirkland support Referendum 71 to uphold expanded domestic partnerships for same-sex couples. ...

In Portland and Seattle, or throughout the coastal or mountain backcountry of the Pacific Northwest, you won't have to look long to find a Subaru ...

LONG BEACH, Calif. — Move over, it's Saturday night at Club Bounce and people are bouncing onto the dance floor in a big, big way.

These are big, big people, all dressed to the nines and many tipping the scales at 250, maybe 300 pounds.

That's because this expansive nightclub a couple blocks from the Pacific Ocean, with its flashing lights, friendly atmosphere and wall-rattling hip-hop sounds, caters specifically to fat people.

That's right, fat people. Not just any fat people, either, but fat people who are proud to call themselves fat people. People who joke that they are part of the new Fat is Phat movement.

"Self-conscious? No! Not at all," laughs Monique Lopez, a curvaceous woman of 23 as she arrives in a tight, black dress and heels. "I was like, 'I'm going to Club Bounce tonight. I'm going to wear my shortest skirt.'" (Which she did.)

SEATTLE — The United States has to take a strong role if the world hopes to deal with global warming, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says.

"All the world is now looking to the leadership of the United States and President Obama," Ban said in an interview Sunday with The Seattle Times.

Ban is making a two-day visit to Seattle as part of a trip to call attention to global issues such as climate change and to promote the U.N. to the American public. He was to receive an honorary degree from the University of Washington on Monday, after meeting earlier in the day with Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and his wife, Melinda.

Ban has been pressing nations to commit to firm emission limits when they meet in December in Copenhagen, Denmark, to work out a new treaty to slow global warming, replacing the 1997 Kyoto Protocol on carbon dioxide emissions. The meeting has been billed as a last chance to avoid the impact of global warming.

This week, the Senate environment committee will take up its version of a global warming bill. The legislation would cut greenhouse gases by about 80 percent by 2050 and require more domestic energy to come from renewable sources.

U2 is coming to rock Spartan Stadium. The acclaimed Irish rock group announced Sunday that its summer 2010 tour will take it to the Michigan St...

— Where many NFL fans see hideous matchups, fantasy football players see opportunity.

Consider the worst of this week's schedule, the disastrous clash between the Rams and Jaguars. Or the slightly less heinous showdown between the Panthers and Buccaneers. While these games will prompt many viewers to reach for the remote, fantasy geeks will be drawn to the potential points offered up by the Rams (allowing 29 points a game), Bucs (28 points a game), Jags (30th-ranked pass defense) or Panthers (No. 30 run defense).

But before you get too carried away with those Donnie Avery and Torry Holt starts, remember this universal truth: Bad teams are bad because they do bad things.

Take last week's Browns-Bills game. The awful defenses lured some unfortunate souls to gamble and start Trent Edwards or Derek Anderson. Yet in the end there were no touchdowns and more field goals (3) than completions by Anderson (2). There was similar ugliness in earlier ineptitude contests, such as Washington's 9-7 win over the Rams and Oakland's 13-10 win over the Chiefs.

As you again wonder how Anderson can average one completion every 30 minutes, here are some players to start and some to avoid in Week 6:

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — An arrest report says a Georgia man caused a flight to make an unscheduled stop in Tennessee after he chanted Bible verses and kicked and flailed.

Authorities said Paul Marchuk III was under evaluation Wednesday in Tennessee a day after a Delta airliner headed to Atlanta from Seattle had to stop in Nashville. An arrest report says the 22-year-old began talking loudly and touching other passengers.

The report says the man from Canton, Ga., also wouldn't let a fellow passenger use the bathroom and told her that "his blood would be on her."

Six of the 178 passengers then helped a flight attendant subdue Marchuk about 15 minutes before the plane landed.

He has been charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. Officials say he doesn't have an attorney.

RENTON, Wash. — Seahawks defensive back Ken Lucas is home in Mississippi to bury his father but will play on Sunday against Arizona.

"He will absolutely play. But, (we're) respecting the fact that he lost someone significant in his life, his father. And there's more important things in life than a football game," Seattle coach Jim Mora said Wednesday.

Lucas will miss all the team's main practices and preparation for the Cardinals' high-powered passing offense to remain home through Friday's burial. The ninth-year veteran decided to stay in Seattle and start last weekend's win over Jacksonville less than 48 hours after he found out his father, Clyde, had died unexpectedly.

Mora, the son of a former NFL head coach by the same name and a former walk-on linebacker at the University of Washington, said he can't imagine playing in such a situation. He lauded Lucas for how he got through an extremely difficult weekend.

"Kenny poured his heart out Sunday, stayed and played – played well. It was emotional. It was tough on him," Mora said. "He needs some time to grieve and be with his family. He's going to have to bury his father on Friday, that's going to be tough. But he'll come back and he'll be a pro about it."

SEATTLE — Maxi Sopo was living the dream of a fugitive abroad, kicking back on the beaches of Cancun by day, partying in the clubs by night.

Then he did two things that are never a good idea when you're on the run from authorities: He started posting Facebook updates about how much fun he was having – and added a former Justice Department official to his list of friends.

Because of that indiscretion, the 26-year-old native of Cameroon is now in a Mexico City jail awaiting extradition to the United States on bank fraud charges. Federal prosecutors say he and an associate falsely obtained more than $200,000 from Seattle-area banks and credit unions.

"He was making posts about how beautiful life is and how he was having a good time with his buddies," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Scoville, who helped find Sopo. "He was definitely not living the way we wanted him to be living, given the charges he was facing."

Even in the hold-nothing-back world of social networking, where police search Facebook photos for evidence of underage drinking and watch YouTube videos to identify riot suspects, it's rare that a fugitive helps authorities this much.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A Delta airliner headed to Atlanta from Seattle diverted to Nashville, Tenn., after a disturbance. No one was hurt.

Nashville International Airport spokeswoman Emily Richard says passenger Paul Marchuk III was charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.

Delta spokesman Anthony Black in Atlanta said a passenger became unruly Tuesday afternoon and was removed by local police, but he had no further specifics. The Boeing 757 with 178 passengers and a six-person crew flew on to Atlanta where it landed some 1 1/2 hours late.

WSMV-TV in Nashville reported that a passenger had to be subdued by other passengers after he began quoting Bible passages. Richard said she had no information about that.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — A federal judge in Rhode Island has thrown out a $388 million patent infringement jury verdict against Microsoft.

A jury in April found that Microsoft, the world's largest software maker, had infringed on a patent owned by Uniloc Inc.

Irvine, Calif.-based Uniloc makes software that prevents people from illegally installing software on multiple computers. Uniloc says Microsoft's Windows XP and some Office programs infringe on a related patent.

U.S. District Judge William Smith dismissed the verdict Tuesday and ruled in Microsoft's favor. He sides with Microsoft's objection to a pie chart Uniloc used at trial showing $19.27 billion as the total revenue from Windows XP and some office programs.

Microsoft, based in Redmond, Wash., says it is pleased. Lawyers for Uniloc did not immediately return a call seeking comment Wednesday.

ATLANTA — Drug-related deaths outnumber those from motor vehicle accidents in a growing number of states, according to new government data that highlight a shift in the top cause of deaths after disease and illness.

Crashes still cost more lives nationwide, but state-by-state calculations show the rate of drug-induced deaths outpaced vehicle accidents in 16 states in 2006, up from about a dozen states the year before and eight in 2003.

Drug overdoses make up the vast majority of the drug-related deaths, and there was a sharp increase in fatalities tied to cocaine and to drugs known as opioid analgesics – including methadone, fentanyl, sedatives and prescription painkillers like Vicodin and OxyContin.

From 1999 to 2006, death rates for opioid analgesics increased for every age group. Deaths from methadone alone increased sevenfold, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a report released Wednesday.

Based on death certificate data, CDC researchers counted more than 45,000 U.S. deaths from motor-vehicle crashes in 2006, and about 39,000 from drug-induced causes. The CDC does not have finalized data for 2007 or subsequent years.

If your normally reliable fantasy football stars are struggling, you can probably blame somebody who wasn't on any preseason draft board: linemen.

The early season failures of this normally anonymous bunch is getting the notice of fantasy geeks everywhere, especially owners of Aaron Rodgers. He's been sacked an NFL-worst 10 times and hit a bunch more. Kurt Warner was flawless against the terrible Jags, but the week before his line couldn't stop anybody. Numerous others have looked far from comfy in the pocket.

It's not just quarterbacks who've been regularly confronted by unblocked defenders. First-round picks Steve Slaton (51 yards, 2.0 yards per carry) and Matt Forte (84 yards, 2.2 yards a carry) haven't sniffed the end zone. Willie Parker has 66 yards while tiptoeing for 2.4 yards per carry. Kevin Smith was decent last week, bringing his average up to 2.6 yards a pop.

The good news is, this surely can't last. After all, many struggling lines are the same ones that did well last year and their coaches should adjust. By now coaches are figuring out which 350-pounders need more help or need benching, so it seems safe to assume most of them will fix the problems.

As you wonder how much longer Rodgers can remain upright, here are some players to start and some to avoid in Week 3:

The Chicago Bears like to call themselves a team that "gets off the bus running." So far, there's been no sign of that heading into Sunday's game at Seattle.

Running back Matt Forte – the focal point of the Bears' offense last season – is averaging just 2.2 yards per carry, with no runs longer than 10 yards.

"It's somewhat frustrating, but you can't get frustrated because then you start looking for holes to run through and then you miss a cut here and then you miss out on some yards," Forte said Wednesday. "So you can't get frustrated."

Players and coaches blame a lot of the early running game woes on the blitzing Green Bay and Pittsburgh did in the first two games.

"The defense made some plays on us and it's been difficult to get to the second and third levels (of the secondary)," Forte said. "We've been struggling a little bit."

Colton Harris-Moore's rap sheet already spans a good chunk of the teenager's life, including convictions for theft, burglary, malicious mischief and other crimes.

But the list may be growing longer by the week, authorities say, as the 18-year-old eludes officials on a crime spree they believe includes store break-ins, boat thefts and even joyrides in airplanes.

"He's more than a menace," said Bill Cumming, the sheriff in San Juan County, where authorities say he may be to blame for 14 thefts and burglaries on their islands. "He's an incredible liability to people's safety."

In 2004, at age 12, Harris-Moore was convicted of possessing stolen property in Snohomish County. Over the next three years came convictions for theft, burglary, malicious mischief, and assault, among other crimes.

In 2007, the boy was sentenced to three years in a juvenile lockup after pleading guilty to three burglary counts in Island County. But he fled the minimum-security facility in April 2008.

A resort and residential development that would be the largest of its kind in Maine has been unanimously approved by a state planning board.

Plum Creek Timber Co.'s proposal was approved Wednesday, nearly five years after the Seattle-based company announced plans to build two resorts and more than 2,000 housing units in the Moosehead Lake area.

Critics say the decision threatens the character of the North Woods made famous by writer Henry David Thoreau.

Plum Creek must obtain additional approvals before construction, and opponents say they intend to sue to stop the development.

Prior to the vote, police arrested several protesters who disrupted the meeting, yelled at board members and accused them of selling out.

I have argued for some time that the right wing use of hate speech to stir up its base into a frothy tizzy has led to an increase in intolerance and h...