Revolutionary Cancer Treatment and More News

Seattle-based Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center has shown extremely promising results with a new experimental immunotherapy treatment for patients with blood cancers like Leukemia and Lymphoma. This treatment uses the body’s own T cells, which are essentially the soldiers of your immune system, to fight against the cancer. Typically, cancer cells replicate and grow too hastily for T cells to make a difference, or they may not even be aware that the cancer cells are a harmful, foreign body that needs to be eliminated.

Dr. Stanley Riddel at Fred Hutchinson seems to have figured out a way around that. First, a patient’s white blood cells (of which T cells are a part) are harvested. Then, those extracted cells are genetically modified in a lab to target the cancer and put back into the patient.

Although the data from this experiment has not been officially reviewed or published yet, the preliminary results are astounding. Over 90 percent of terminally ill patients have gone into remission after receiving this new treatment.

The Tulalip Resort Casino has just started working on a comprehensive facelift to its 360 guest rooms and the addition of the new Cascades Suite. The refresh, from Interior Design International, will provide a more modern asthetic to the AAA Four Diamond resort while still paying homage to the Tulalip tribe through art and decor choices. Guest rooms will also receive major technological upgrades with things like USB outlets, Bluetooth media hubs, 55” OLED 4K Smart TVs, and improved WIFI.

Construction should wrap up in March 2017, but in the meantime it’s business as usual, with none of the resorts services being closed or affected. 

Mayor Murray, during his yearly State of the City address this Tuesday, made clear his intent to hire a total of 200 new police officers for Seattle. “I recognize we need more officers for better visibility throughout our city,” Murray said during his speech. “We will add 100 additional officers to my original goal for an overall goal of 200 net officers.”

Google has just opened the newest expansion to its engineering office in Kirkland, effectively doubling the total size of its campus there, GeekWire reports. The new building is LEED-platinum certified (the highest rating possible), comes in at 180,000 square feet and includes all the delightful quirks of a Google workspace like a crepe-making room, a “human nest,” a living roof deck and more.

If you hadn’t already noticed, this winter is unseasonably wet, even for the so-called Rain City. According to a report from MyNorthwest, the National Weather Service says that Seattle is in the midst of its wettest three-month period from December to February ever recorded with over 22 inches of precipitation so far. For reference, Seattle averages about 34 inches of rainfall per year.

Governor Jay Inslee announced on Tuesday that he’s seeking to have the tolls on the I-405 HOT lanes taken away during weekend and evening off-peak hours, Seattle PI reports. This decision comes in the wake of continued public outcry against the tolls and the effect they’re having on traffic, especially on the north end between Bothell and Lynnwood. A report by the Kirkland-based traffic analytics firm, INRIX, alleges that “speeds in the general-purpose lanes have generally gotten worse for the majority of drivers.” WSDOT, however, disputes this claim by saying that INRIX didn’t use a large enough data sample and adds that the congestion issue is one of capacity, not tolling.

Sea-Tac Airport workers, who have been embattled in a lawsuit for their rightful $15 minimum wage, were handed a well-deserved victory in December when a King County Superior Court judge refused to review the high-profile case regarding minimum wage that was already settled by the state supreme court in favor of the workers. However, a new report says that more than a dozen of them are now bringing a new suit against their employers, alleging that they have still not received the two years of owed back pay.