Tag Archives: local news

The Weekend Debrief

Seattle is a unique animal. Downtown may dominate as the hub of commerce and activity, but chances are, you — like the rest of us — call one of the surrounding neighborhoods or suburbs home. Wherever you hail from, we’re Seattleites, and The Sunbreak wants to keep you connected to the heartbeat of this city and the happenings that matter.

You can expect a debrief at the start of every week from The Sunbreak, as part of our new blog series for each weekday. So enjoy your weekend. We’ve got you covered come Monday.

Playtime is outdoors now for Woodland Park Zoo’s tallest baby.

Via Woodland Park Zoo Blog

Woodland Park Zoo announced on Friday the new viewing hours of Seattle’s tallest one-month old. The as-yet unnamed baby giraffe, born of first-time mom Olivia, popped out feet first August 6 at a whopping 6 feet tall. And, kind of like with Prince George’s first debut, all we have right now is a gender. Baby and mother, however, now have access to the outdoor corral and can be viewed to the delight of all between 9:30 and 2:30 daily, scary thunderstorms permitting.

If you haven’t already witnessed this miracle of life — dangling hooves and all — here is Mama Olivia shooting out her newborn right into the chain-link fence. Oops.

After just one month, the little one is doing well. He is nursing, wobbling, and has already shot up to 7 feet tall. For more zoo babies, check out Woodland’s blog that regularly updates new animal births.

Seattle Subways get swarmed upon firing employee for selling a cookie. Seriously.

Via @GoodJobsSeattle

Hundreds rallied in front of Subway franchises Saturday to support Carlos Hernandez, a former Subway employee and leader in the Good Jobs Seattle movement who was fired from the sandwich chain last week on questionable grounds. His crime? Selling a $0.60 cookie to a 3-year old child. Which is why Hernandez’s friends, colleagues, and supporters allege Subway fired him for reasons other than a cookie transaction. Instead, they believe it’s tied to Hernandez’s public stand for a $15 minimum wage, and Subway’s retaliation for all the bad press. Follow the tweeting here.

This isn’t really a new story for Seattle, though. The minimum wage has been disputed the past few months in the form of fast-food strikes and boycotts, garnering national attention for the plight of lower-income workers, many of whom are attempting to support entire families at $9.19 an hour. ($1.94 more than the federal minimum wage.) The Seattle Times calls it the Summer of Labor Discontent.

“Pop-up Cheese Cafe” debuts in SoDo.

If you want to eat cheese for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, the experts at Cheeses of France certainly have your back. On Saturday, cheese lovers congregated at The Piranha Shop in SoDo to prove it can be done. While the Mariners crushed the Rays 6-2 next door, turophiles gathered for live cooking demonstrations, wine, and so. much. cheese—all of it utterly French. This was the first Seattle location for the pop-up cafe, which had former stints in New York, San Francisco, and Chicago. Seattle’s deliciousness ranged from flank steak roulade with Fourme d’Ambert, sage and pickled onions; Camembert and pear chutney on a walnut crostini, and the one of which there never seemed to be enough: potato dauphinoise with Pont l’Eveque and sautéed leeks.

For recipes, info, and to get in on curd culture, visit the website. For samples, visit Greenlake PCC on Wednesday from 11-3. (Among other locations.)

Thousands party in the ID for Night Market and Autumn Moon Festival.

The International District welcomed 20 locally beloved food trucks and thousands of Seattleites for an outdoor moonlit market on Saturday evening. Union Plaza transformed into a bustling bazaar of Asian craftsmanships, wares, hot food, and cultural performances of dance and music. Browse the photo gallery from The Seattle Times.

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French cheese for everyday! Viva la France.
Tower of cheese!
Love the deliciously stinky petit camembert, but if a triple creme brie is too rich for your liking, try a light comte instead.
Cheeses of many French varieties, tête-à-tête.

After Belo Sale to Gannett, Who Owns What in Seattle TV News?

“After the close of the combination,” reads a Gannett memo about the $2.2-billion purchase of Texas-based Belo, owner of KING 5 in Seattle and NW Cable News, “Gannett will strengthen our position as the number one local media company in America.” Virginia-based Gannett says it will be the fourth-largest owner of major network affiliates (leading in NBC and CBS affiliates, fourth in ABC), reaching one-third of U.S. households — though the company is perhaps best known as the owner of the USA TODAY newspaper.

If the FCC approves this media consolidation, the deal may close by the end of 2013.

The sale of Belo comes on the heels of the sale of Fisher Communications to the Sinclair Broadcast Group, a $373-million transaction that, also subject to FCC approval and any shareholder legal suits, is expected to close in Q3 of 2013. Maryland-based Sinclair, heavy on FOX and CBS affiliates, claims to reach about one-third of all U.S. households currently, a number that may climb to 37 percent after the acquisition. Their purchase of Fisher adds Seattle’s ABC affiliate KOMO 4 (and KOMO AM and FM stations) to their holdings — KOMO 4 had been the last locally-owned, commercial-broadcast TV station in Seattle.

KIRO 7, Seattle’s CBS affiliate, is owned by Georgia-based Cox Media Group (in 1997, Belo had traded KIRO 7 to Paramount/Viacom, who almost immediately traded it to Cox). Cox, famous or infamous for its ownership of Valpak, recently sold four TV stations of its own to Sinclair. Its two remaining West Coast stations, besides KIRO 7, are KTVU and KICU in California’s Bay area. KIRO 7’s sixteen years with CMG is almost matched by FOX affiliate KCPQ’s 15 years of ownership by The Tribune Company, the Illinois-based media conglomerate whose broadcast division runs 23 local TV stations, mostly CW and FOX affiliates.

KCTS 9 has been a PBS affiliate since 1970.