The Susan G. Komen Foundation backed away from its decision to give no more money for breast cancer screenings at Planned Parenthood clinics, but not before inflicting wounds on its own image, according to a post-flap poll. Last week’s nationwide flap, including a protest letter signed by 26 U.S. Senators — Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., helped organize it — registered on 82 percent of those surveyed Friday and Saturday by Public Policy Polling. “Do you support or oppose Susan G. Komen’s decision to stop funding breast cancer screenings by Planned Parenthood?” PPP asked. Fifty-three percent of those polled opposed the decision, 39 percent supported Komen’s position, with just 8 percent [...]

Gubernatorial hopeful Rep. Jay Inslee, seeking a job Democrats have held for 27 years, on Monday unveiled an economic program with sweeping promises of job creation on both sides of Washington’s “Cascade curtain.” Inslee pledged that “the farmer in Colfax” and “the welders of South Seattle” will be as one as Washington develops bio-fuels, combats software piracy, angles for defense contracts, and closes tax loopholes while giving B & O tax breaks to start-up research companies. “‘Job One’ is growing jobs,” said Inslee. After months of denouncing and debunking Republican hopeful Rob McKenna, Inslee is promising a series of positive unveiling events on topics ranging from restoring resources for education [...]

We aren't good at a lot of things here in Seattle. (Football and suntanning come to mind.) But there's one thing we have going for us: geekdom and gadgets. Travel + Leisure magazine recently polled readers about "America's Techiest Cities," and Seattle beat out San Francisco and Austin for the No. 1 spot. Here's what the magazine said about Seattle:

A student at Olympia High School set out to find out how much his classmates know about American government, history and common-knowledge trivia.What he found will make you cringe. What's the capitol of Washington state? Come on guys... you know this one. You live there.

Seattle has its share of bizarre foods. (Just see the list posted below, if you're not sure what I'm talking about.) But when the Travel Channel's Andrew Zimmern came to Seattle to film an episode of his Bizarre Foods America show recently, he didn't make a beeline for the hotdog sushi or the gourmet dishes made from insects. He drank coffee. He foraged for geoduck. He visited Nathan Myrhvold’s Intellectual Ventures to see where science and food meet. And he stopped off at FareStart.

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin feels it is “astonishing” and “nonsensical” that Alaska Airlines has stopped its longstanding practice of including a prayer card with meal service. The cards, featuring quotes from the Book of Psalms, were of late given only to passengers in first class.  The airline announced last month that they would be discontinued. It is apparently “hip to wage war on American traditions lately,” Palin, 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee, wrote on her Facebook page. “It seems astonishing that someone would be offended by a simple prayer card placed on an airline’s meal tray, but I guess that’s the politically correct world we live in now.” Palin [...]

President Obama has moved out ahead over potential Republican challenger Mitt Romney amidst signs the GOP nomination contest is bruising Romney, according to a new ABC News/Washington Post national poll. Obama leads Romney 51-45 percent among registered voters and 52-43 among all those surveyed in the poll, which was taken Wednesday through Saturday of last week. The President has a 50-46 job approval rating in the poll.  While still on the down side of a 47-50 percent evaluation by Independent voters, Obama has come up substantially from a low 34 percent approval figure in October. And while Romney once enjoyed a 12 point edge among Independent voters, Obama now leads [...]

Opponents of same-sex marriage used passages from the Bible and tales of the barnyard in a Monday morning hearing, seeking to derail a marriage equality bill heavily favored to pass in the state House of Representatives. “I’ll put it in farmer’s terms:  When you put two bulls in a pen, you don’t get a calf,” Kennon Forester, a farmer from Royal City in Eastern Washington, told a House Judiciary Committee hearing. A few moments later, Tri-Cities resident Jennifer Morris used a different metaphor, declaring:  “If you were building a skyscraper, you would not be putting bolts with bolts and nuts with nuts.” The opponents’ testimony reflected, in coarser language, a [...]

Josh Powell, the person of interest in the 2009 disappearance of his wife Susan Powell, set fire to his home in Pierce County Sunday to kill himself and his two young boys, Charlie and Braden Powell, sheriff’s deputies said. Police in Utah, where Susan and Josh Powell lived before she went missing, were told of the arson and deaths Sunday afternoon. In a letter that police took as a confession, Josh Powell told his attorney, “I’m sorry, goodbye,” Detective Ed Troyer said. Investigators were expected to travel from West Valley City, Utah, but it was not immediately clear that Susan Powell’s case would be solved. The Sunday arson, believed to [...]