DEAD PIG UPDATE: Don Baxter, an enforcement supervisor for the Seattle Animal Shelter, just called to say an officer has visited the scene of the swine.

“The individual had picked [the pig] up and disposed of it,” Baxter says. “The individual owns farm in Snohomish County. The piglet had died there and he brought it in as he was doing business in Seattle and he left the pig at his rental property.” The Animal Shelter was concerned primarily for the animal’s welfare in the city. “We wanted to make sure it hadn’t suffered and the reason for it becoming deceased was some instance that happening in city of Seattle.” He added that the carcass "could potentially attract rats, rodents or other vermin.”

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Keith Salender was walking past his neighbors' house near the corner of Belmont Avenue and East Howell Street today, and, in their littered back yard, he saw a pig. A dead pig. Just laying there. Here's Salender on confronting his neighbors:

When I asked them about it they said, "yeah we know."

When I advised them that it was a somewhat concernable thing that someone may consider contacting the animal police thingy over they said "oh well we're just feeding it to the dogs."

On the phone a minute ago, Salender says, "They do have dogs, but their dogs weren't out there. There's a fence. They have chickens and crap back there, too." Considering Slog has already posted images of soda splatter, milk crust, ketchup water, and a basement pudding bath, we will post the dead-pig/winner of today's "what's grosser?" contest after the jump.

Seattle School District Superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson has released her final school closure recommendations:

Goodloe-Johnson has recommended closing the African American Academy, Cooper Elementary, Meany Middle School, TT Minor and Summit K-12. As I posted earlier, Montlake Elementary and AS#1 were removed from the closure list.

The school board will vote on the recommendations on January 29th.

Seattle School District Superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson is expected to announce the final school closure list later today.

So far, it appears Montlake Elementary and Alternative School #1 are off the closure list.

The district's initial list of proposed closures, released in November, recommended closing the African American Academy, Arbor Heights, Meany Middle School, TT Minor and AS#1.

The proposal also recommended relocating Lowell, NOVA, Pathfinder, Van Asselt, Summit K-12, and Thornton Creek elementary.

Also at this morning's city council briefing (a detailed account of Metro head Kevin Desmond's presentation available here), Seattle Public Utilities solid waste director Tim Croll told council members that SPU will be trying to make up for service missed during the storm. Although Croll, in response to a question from council member Richard McIver, said SPU couldn't do much about squirrels getting into trash—"they can chew through just about anything"—he did say that customers who missed more than two trash pickups (a lot of folks in West and Southeast Seattle, apparently) can expect a rebate. "We will do our best to confirm which areas were missed twice" and "come up with options for a rebate," Croll said. Council members also grilled Croll and SPU deputy director Sharon White about the whereabouts of utilities director Chuck Clarke, who resigned to become chief executive of the Cascade Water Alliance in December. "Is he in town now?" Tom Rasmussen asked. "Yes," White replied. "Was he invited?" "Yes." "Did he decline?" "I will be here when Chuck leaves, so there’s a bit of continuity, so I felt I was best suited to come here." That wasn't enough explanation for Tim Burgess, who remarked sharply at the end of the meeting, "If we have invited a department head to come, they should come."

SPU spokesman Andy Ryan says the department is still figuring out how many people went more than two cycles without trash pickup, and will figure out how much of a rebate to issue, what it will cost the city, and how to pay for the rebates in the next few weeks.