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Fears Over Elysian Sale, Is it Time to Kill Bertha & More

The top Seattle news stories you should be reading today

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It’s Media Day in Arizona for Super Bowl XLIX. King 5 News is on the scene with live updates from the football frenzy, including some super odd moments like a wedding dress-clad Associated Press reporter’s marriage proposal for Tom Brady. Find it all here.

Is it time to kill Bertha? Two state senators seem to think so. According to MyNorthwest.com, Doug Ericksen (R-Ferndale) and Michael Baumgartner (R-Spokane) have proposed measure SB 5646, which would completely kill the Alaskan Way tunnel project and instead use the leftover money to research alternatives such as “shoring up the viaduct.” Seattle’s highway tunnel-drilling project has been plagued with problems since it first began in 2013. Those problems have landed the project near the top of the U.S. Public Interest Research Group’s list of highway boondoggles.

Last week, we learned that mega beer company Anheuser-Busch has purchased Elysian Brewing Co. Sadness ensued. Now the craft beer community is speaking out and spouting warnings that Elysian will become Anheuser-Busch’s “weapon” against other craft breweries, the Puget Sound Business Journal reports. Washington Beer Blog writer and frequent Seattle magazine contributor, Kendall Jones, told the Journal that beer-lovers should “stay calm” in the wake of this upsetting news. 

When I ride the bus and am lucky enough to score a window seat, I tend to count the number of drivers I spot on the road who are also scrolling through their phones while driving. The count is fairly high: Yesterday I tallied seven out of 12, and we (shockingly) weren’t sitting in traffic. Browsing the web, scrolling through Twitter or checking email on your smartphone while driving technically isn’t illegal under the current ban on texting-and-driving. Lawmakers are seeking to change that, the Seattle Times reports. “Lawmakers, urged by the Washington State Patrol and Washington Traffic Safety Commission, are sponsoring legislation expected to be filed this week that would ban all cellphone use while driving, except for making calls with hands-free devices.”

Were you forced to read a book or talk to other human beings last night? Facebook is sorry. The social network (and its photo-sharing social site Instagram) experienced an hour-long outage yesterday evening. The disruption was caused by a technical change and was not the result of any cyberattack. You hopefully are back to your regularly scheduled postings of baby photos, Internet memes and uber-patriotic diatribes.

 

Rearview Mirror: Spinasse at Home, a New Spa Experience, and Seattle Mag’s Reader’s Choice Awards 

Rearview Mirror: Spinasse at Home, a New Spa Experience, and Seattle Mag’s Reader’s Choice Awards 

Things I did, saw, ate, learned, or read in the past week (or so).

YOUR VOTE MATTERS Everyone has a favorite restaurant, coffee shop, or local boutique. Call me old-school, but I will die on the hill that Caffe Vita has the best coffee in town. Disagree with me? Now’s your moment to speak up. Each year, we survey Seattle magazine readers, asking them to weigh in on everything…

Studio Sessions: Ling Chun

Studio Sessions: Ling Chun

The Seattle-based artist brings playful color to ceramics and neon while exploring memory, transformation, and life between cultures.

For Ling Chun, creating begins with something sensed before it can be named. Working with clay, glass, light, and sometimes synthetic hair, the Hong Kong-born artist gives physical form to things that words cannot always hold. “For me, the magnitude of making goes far beyond the object that is eventually produced,” Chun says. “The object…

The Magic of PAX Is Stronger Than Ever

The Magic of PAX Is Stronger Than Ever

PAX West draws more than 100,000 people to Seattle each year. Co-founder Jerry Holkins reflects on what the gaming convention set out to change, how its community has grown and why gathering face to face still matters.

Access to game news as it was happening was difficult back in the day. Even with the advent of the internet, communication between game publishers and journalists was still a very elite affair.  I used to fake credentials—via fax machine!—to attend the Electronic Entertainment Expo, mostly just known as E3. It was simultaneously as loud…

Your Guide to Bumbershoot 2026

Your Guide to Bumbershoot 2026

Navigate Seattle’s wildest end-of-summer weekend with 20 picks spanning Death Cab for Cutie, Blood Orange, wrestling, skateboarding and—obviously—movies made in 48 hours.

Four years after Bumbershoot returned with its quirkiness revivified, Seattleites broadly acknowledge the two-day multimedia extravaganza as a welcome finale to the summer festival season. Fests like Bumbershoot are designed around a choose-your-own-adventure model, but if you’re the kind of person who looked at this year’s sprawling lineup—featuring multiple bands, artists, and exhibits happening at…