Fifty years ago, the launch of the first satellite changed the world, but one of the places that felt the impact most was Seattle. Not only did the orbiter alter the city's course, it influenced the generation of world-shapers that includes Bill Gates and Paul Allen.
You can pay your Seattle utlitity bill online, but you can't opt out of snail-mailed notices, and they won't alert you by e-mail when it's time to pay. Meanwhile, the private sector is well along the path to paperless transactions.
Jackson County couldn't make up $7 million in lost federal funds, so book-lending and other tasks are being outsourced.
University of Washington computer science professor Ed Lazowska, a onetime Bush appointee, says scientific research and education are sputtering in the "dark time" of the Bush years. He also says Washington state's higher ed system is failing the next generation.
On Seattle cable channel 21, some of the area's best coverage of civic issues comes from from an unlikely source – City Hall.
