Washington State Supreme Court upholds Seattle’s “first-come, first-served” law for renters. The Supreme Court overturned a King County court’s decision to strike down the law that requires landlords to accept the first prospective tenant who meets the criteria advertised by the landlord. In a separate case, the court also prohibited landlords from screening possible tenants due to criminal records.  These actions by the council, which the liberal court have upheld, will increase the cost of renting in Seattle. They make it less attractive to be a landlord, thus reducing supply in the market.  (Seattle Times and BIAW blog)

The Makah tribe is seeking court approval of hunting and killing a grey whale off the coast of Neah Bay.  In 1999 the Makah’s conducted a whale hunt that created opposition from many animal rights and environmental activists. (KING News)

Radio talk show host Jason Rantz called a recent article in Crosscut “a lazy puff piece” on Redmond city council candidate Varisha Khan which labeled both ShiftWA and Rantz as being part of an Islamophobic attack on her campaign. In the Rantz article and his subsequent tweets, he correctly points out that no evidence was provided in the article that the criticism of the candidate had anything to do with her religion.  Portions of the story have since been edited by Crosscut.  ShiftWA will also be discussing the Crosscut article in the coming days. (MyNorthwest and Twitter)

Barry McDonnell, a write-in candidate for Camas mayor, obtained 53% of the vote and easily defeated the incumbent Shannon Turk.  Mayor Turk was behind the $78 million bond levy for a new community center with an indoor pool and gymnasium.  If passed the measure would have raised annual property taxes $474 on a 464,000 home for 20 years. That bond vote (Proposition 2) lost by nearly 90%-10%. (KOIN)

Communities along the Pacific coast are looking to build structures that could withstand a major tsunami.  Ocean Shores, Westport, Long Beach, and South Bend are looking for both state and federal financial assistance to build towers that can protect hundreds following a large earthquake. (KOMO News)

A warning was broadcast to those in the new Highway 99 downtown underpass to get out of their cars and evacuate the tunnel.  Someone at the command center mistakenly pushed the wrong buttons causing this alarm.  Despite the warnings, no one followed the instructions. (KIRO Radio)

Apparently Sound Transit was racist when they called their light rail service the “Red Line.”  The agency was informed by Transportation Choices Coalition and Puget Sound Sage that the name recalls the racist policy of “redlining” which denied loans and home ownership to non-whites.  Sound Transit CEO Peter Rogoff said they will develop a new name.  “We will apply an equity lens that is responsive to our service delivery area and capitalizes on the opportunity to create a welcoming and inclusive transit system for everybody,” said Rogoff. (Seattle Times)

With the margin now 503 votes and 0.78% (exceeding the 0.50% margin needed for an automatic recount), Cindy Wendle has conceded the race for President of the Spokane City Council to Breean Beggs.   Beggs will replace Ben Stuckart who lost his bid to become Spokane Mayor to Nadine Woodward.  (Spokesman Review)

Yakima Chief Hops was successful in shipping 720 pounds of fresh hops to South Korean brewers in just one day.  Hops have a 36-hour window for going from the farm to the brewer. Yakima Chief Hops had to work travel logistics and customs restrictions to deliver this Washington product to a foreign market. (YakTriNews)

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