Supporters of City Council Member Kshama Sawant joined fast food workers in calling for a $15 an hour minimum wage in Seattle. Businesses will start phasing in higher wages in April.
  • Anna Minard
  • Supporters of city council member Kshama Sawant joined fast-food workers in calling for a $15 an hour minimum wage in Seattle. Businesses will start phasing in higher wages in April.

New Year, New Minimum Wage: The minimum wage across Washington went up to $9.47 an hour—or less than $20,000 a year—at the start of 2015. Meanwhile, SeaTac is at $15.24 (except for its largest employer), and Seattle's phase-in starts in April.

New Year, New Laws: Along with minimum wage and that new law about food in the garbage Charles told you about on Wednesday, other new state laws say you can keep your license plates forever and fluorescent lightbulbs will be 25 cents more expensive to pay for a bulb recycling program.

Monfort Jury Selection Continues: A jury is expected to be selected next week to hear the case of Christopher Monfort, the man who allegedly shot two police officers on Halloween night 2009. The Seattle Times reports that deteriorations in Monfort's health have contributed to the lengthy time it's taken to get to trial. "Even so, the case seems especially relevant considering its eerie similarity to the Dec. 20 ambush killings of two New York City police officers shot while sitting in their patrol car in Brooklyn," writes Sarah Jean Green. "Monfort railed against police brutality and threatened even more police deaths in the weeks before [the officers were] killed, according to prosecutors."

Mayor Ed Murray is committed to a tunnel or some other type of tunnel or some other type of arrangement.
  • City of Seattle
  • Mayor Ed Murray is committed to "a tunnel" or "some other type of tunnel" or "some other type of arrangement."

Murray Talks Tunnel: Mayor Ed Murray sat down with KIRO to talk about issues he expects to deal with in the coming year. We can hope their conversation got a little more in-depth on some of these complex issues, but because it's TV news we viewers only get two minutes. Among other things, Murray got nice and vague about his thoughts on the downtown tunnel project: "Whether it's a tunnel, or whether it's some other type of tunnel or some other type of arrangement that we come up with for the central waterfront, the important thing is we find a way to make this corridor work," he told KIRO's Essex Porter. Uh, okay.

Gas Station Stabbing in Georgetown: Police are searching for two robbery suspects who allegedly stabbed a gas station clerk in Georgetown. The clerk is now in critical condition.


At Least Your New Year's Eve Wasn't This Bad: Around 4 a.m. yesterday, a drunk woman in Tacoma smashed a bunch of windows and "left a pool of blood on the hood of one vehicle as well as a bloody hand print on the wall of Bob's convenience store where she broke out the glass front door," reports KIRO. Also, in Renton, two people are dead and one is wounded after a shooting at a New Year's Eve party.

Go get your flu shot!

It's Not Too Late for the Shot: Seven people in Washington State have died from the flu this season, as the CDC says the flu has reached epidemic levels nationwide. Washington health officials tell KUOW it's not too late to get the flu shot. Figure out where you can get the shot near you with this map.

Hate Crime Doubled in King County in 2014: And Capitol Hill was a hotspot.

Surplus Helicopters: To save money, the Department of Natural Resources is rebuilding Huey helicopters (known for their use during the Vietnam War) out of spare parts to fight fires in Washington.

The Hurricane Cafe Is No More: It's all over. The land will soon be home to another Amazon building.

Former New York Governor Mario Cuomo Died Yesterday: Here's the New York Times' obit.