In order to help consumers make better-informed decisions on where to spend their hard-earned dollars, Better Business Bureau this week announced it will now assign letter grades to local businesses ranging from A+ to F.
The letter grade system -- which replaces a less-detailed scale of "satisfactory" or "unsatisfactory" -- represents the bureau's degree of confidence that the business is operating in a trustworthy manner and will make a good faith effort to resolve customer concerns  ...

The monthly Stage Fright is MC'ed by youth writer-in-residence Ari Bergman, a senior at Lakeside School, and regularly highlights a different reader each month before opening the mic to the crowd.
Richard Hugo House presents a special edition of "Stage Fright," a monthly open mic for teens featuring work created in Hugo Classes for Teens, a new series of workshops launched this fall ...
Photo courtesy of Richard Hugo House

Some of the over 12,000 runners and walkers who participated in the 38th Seattle Marathon and Half Marathon on Sunday Nov. 30 run up the last hill before finishing the race at Memorial Stadium.

On Tuesday, Dec. 9, at 7:30 p.m., audiences are invited to join Seattle Symphony Chorale in a Holiday Sing-Along in the S. Mark Taper Foundation Auditorium in Benaroya Hall ... From "Angels We Have Heard on High" to "Joy to the World," audience members can celebrate the best of holiday music by singing along ...

The dance number "Push Da Button" features Grasan Kingsberry and Sumayah McRae, part of the original Broadway cast tour of "The Color Purple," opening next week in Seattle. Jeannette Bayardelle plays Celie and LaToya London is Nettie. It plays from Dec. 16 to 28 at The Paramount Theatre. For ticket information call ...

Oprah Winfrey Presents The Color Purple, The Musical About Love.
"Pure Heart! A Broadway Hit!" USA Today
"Soaring and Joyful" Time.
December 30 - January 4 • One Week Only!
For Tickets click on the picture ...

LAS VEGAS In the harsh light of the morning after his sentencing, O.J. Simpson's future was clear Saturday. His new home will be a prison cell in the Nevada desert with his door to freedom hinging on an appeal of a trial that his lawyers say was filled with errors ... Galanter has cited six initial issues for appeal. The most significant concern could be the exclusion of Blacks from the jury selection. The defense also will protest the judge allowing comments about Simpson's 1994 Los Angeles murder case in which he was acquitted ...

NEWVoters in Louisiana sent two Republicans to Congress on Saturday, ousting indicted Democratic U.S. Rep. William Jefferson in one race and narrowly keeping a seat vacated by a retiring incumbent in the other. In the 2nd Congressional District, which includes most of New Orleans, Republican attorney Anh ''Joseph'' Cao won 50 percent of the vote to Jefferson's 47 percent and will become the first Vietnamese-American in Congress ...

A judge has ordered a White supremacist charged with threatening a Chicago juror to remain jailed after hearing how he used his computer to discuss killing Blacks and even aimed a veiled threat at President-elect Barack Obama. William White, 31, of Roanoke, Va. stood impassively Friday as U.S. District Judge William Hibbler said he was upholding a previous decision by a Virginia judge to jail him without bond to "ensure the safety of the community ...
An article was posted on White's blog that included a photograph of Obama, a swastika, and concluded with the words, "He should not be allowed to take office by any means necessary." ...

Blackwater Worldwide security guards opened machine gun fire on innocent, surrendering Iraqis and launched a grenade into a girls' school during a gruesome Baghdad shooting last year, prosecutors said Monday in announcing manslaughter charges against five guards ...