Carolyn Adolph

Fast food workers and advocates for a higher minimum wage marched from the City of SeaTac to Seattle today as a part of a national day of demonstrations.

Voters in SeaTac this fall narrowly passed a ballot measure to raise the minimum wage to $15 for some workers in transportation and hospitality businesses within city limits. Now, organizers of the march want that expanded to other areas too, and they have support beyond the workers.

Three weeks after Election Day, supporters of a measure to increase the minimum hourly wage to $15 in SeaTac celebrated their victory. With the last batch of votes counted, King County declared the proposition had passed with more than 1 percent of the vote.

In the hours after Boeing machinists overwhelmingly voted down an eight-year contract, a theme emerged: The machinists view themselves as a family that could not vote for a contract that would hurt future generations.

Boeing said Thursday it has no further plans to negotiate with its Machinists after the union voted against a  contract extension Boeing said was key to its decision to build the 777X in the Puget Sound region. Now the company said it is looking at other locations. It said it would continue to consider the Puget Sound region, but as part of a competition with other places.

In a vote that could ultimately move Boeing out of Washington state, Boeing's machinists rejected the company's proposed contract, with 67 percent of union members opposed.

Standing before a crowd of Boeing machinists on Thursday night, Tom Wroblewski, president of the Boeing machinists union, tore up a copy of the proposed contract and said he would try to stop it from coming to a vote.

“I know this is a piece of crap,” Wroblewski said, according to The Seattle Times.

The machinists before him were openly hostile to the eight-year deal, which would replace their health care costs and strip down their pensions.

Microsoft stock rose 6 percent after an earnings report that had analysts cheering. The Redmond, Wash.-based employer has been struggling to change as consumers move away from computers and toward mobile devices.

Suwanee Pringle, a worker at a shop at Sea-Tac International Airport, lights up at the mention of Proposition 1, which would raise her wage to $15 an hour.

"I’m really going to be happy, " Pringle said. "So I can afford to pay all my bills. Now I cannot afford to eat. I eat a cup of noodles even though I work so hard."

Microsoft servers around the world are dishing out a new version of Windows 8. The new version brings back a start button, something users said they missed.

A lot is riding on the success of the operating system, which is the backbone of Microsoft’s transformation into a devices company. It’s Microsoft’s effort to create a single experience for all Microsoft devices, from smartphone to tablet to laptop.

A 440-foot superyacht named Serene is approaching a deadline date with Washington’s tax authorities.

If it cruises through that deadline by staying longer than 60 days, its owners will have to pay 10 percent of the yacht’s value, which is $30 million. 

The mood was somber at Employment Security Department offices across the state on Tuesday, as hundreds of workers found themselves in the position of those they usually help: Out of work.

Although employees of the state, 900 workers have been furloughed or lost hours because their pay comes from federal government sources. They will remain without pay until the impasse in Washington, D.C., ends.

Governor Jay Inslee said on Wednesday that he will propose to extend tax breaks to Boeing -- so long as the aerospace giant agrees to build the 777X in Washington.

Construction is now the fastest-growing industry in Washington state. Construction cranes fill the skyline. Public works projects like light rail lines and the tunnel project snarl our streets. But despite appearances, construction has not yet fully recovered from the 2008 recession.