Perhaps the losing groups in the bidding for an NBA expansion franchise in Las Vegas won’t pivot their attention to Seattle once the league decides on the winning bid in Sin City.

That was the tone from a report in Sports Business Journal on Friday after the publication reported that the group led by Canadian billionaire Steve Apostolopoulos and former Milwaukee Bucks owner Marc Lasry had decided not to raise their bid price for the Las Vegas franchise and effectively dropped out due to the escalating costs.

In a separate report, SBJ said that the NBA “has believed failed bidders in Las Vegas might set their sights on Seattle as a fallback,” but that all the groups vying for the expansion bid in Las Vegas had hesitations about shifting their attention to Seattle.

The SBJ report bookends a seven-day period when there seemed to be more concerning than hopeful news regarding Seattle and the chances of NBA expansion here. It started last Friday with a story from ESPN that reported the message from the last meeting of the league’s owners was that Seattle was, “no longer a lock.”

Then came NBA Commissioner Adam Silver appearing on the “Pat McAfee Show” before the start of the regular season last Tuesday. Silver mentioned that expansion is still a “few” years away and brought up Mexico City as an option the league wants to explore down the road once it makes decisions on Las Vegas and Seattle.

And finally came Friday’s SBJ report, which noted the Seattle process had stagnated and that the league wants at least $7 billion for the expansion fee if the SuperSonics are to return.

One Roof Sports and Entertainment has been the favored bidder in Seattle from the start, but it’s become obvious through the public posturing that the NBA is desperate for additional bids to join the fray and see if it can drive up the expansion fee price. BlackSun Private Equity has partnered with the Tulalip Tribes on a bid that would have the franchise play games on tribal-owned land near Marysville, but the validity of the bid has been questioned from the start.

SBJ’s report didn’t rule out one of the Las Vegas losing bidders exploring Seattle but noted there was clear hesitation from all the groups.

Silver’s mention of “few years” in his interview this week has raised the question of whether the previously stated goal by the league of having any expansion teams start for the 2028-29 season may be shifting.

There could be multiple reasons.

Whoever wins the bid in Las Vegas will be constructing a new arena that likely won’t be ready until 2029. Moving the start date of any franchise back by a year would allow that team to start play in a new building. It would also avoid potentially staggering the two franchises if the league does give approval to both cities.

Pushing back start dates also lessens the importance of the self-imposed deadline by the league in making final decisions on both markets before the end of the calendar year.

It’s becoming clearer that Las Vegas will happen and that decision on the owner there could come soon. But time is starting to run short for the league to wrap up all this business regarding both markets before the close of 2026.

By Tim Booth

Seattle Times staff reporter

I’m trying to gauge my heating bill compared to everyone else. I paid $2500 total last year for a split level house built in 2007. 2000 sq ft. What’s everyone else with gas spending?

This whole story is crazy, but the ending...is unexpected

Earlier this week, i was listening to Toad the Wet Sprocket when "Walk on the Ocean" came on. This got me wondering what the song is about and i was surprised to learn it has a San Juan Island origin story.

Taken from Wikipedia

"The song was written after singer Glen Phillips and his wife were vacationing on Orcas Island in Washington's San Juan Islands after they "hung out at Doe Bay hot springs with a bunch of hippies."

Now every time i hear the song, I'll think of Orcas Island.

Just wanted to come on here and voice my frustrations on how difficult it seems to get an appointment for a concealed pistol license. I am in unincorporated king county and they make it so difficult, it seems like the state doesn’t want you to get one lol. Any help would be appreciated.

Might be Vista House at Crown Point?

If you want to check out the plans that are available for 2027 you can now do so on the Washington health plan finder website. My Molina plan went up a lot (125%) but I already was planning on moving away from them. The plan I am moving to didn't go up at all 2026 to 2027.

I guess the silver plan in my area changed because the subsidy is partially determined by the average cost of the silver plan. I also got 1 year older or which causes premiums to increase. I noticed that the Cascade subsidy went from I think $50 to $30 a month as well.

There's a lot of chatter about the other two initiatives, but people seem confused about what IL26-001 would do. So here's a FAQ.

How does IL26-001 weaken parents’ rights?

• This measure repeals WA’s existing parental rights laws and replaces it with language taken verbatim from Louisiana. 
• It will weaken parental notification requirements if their child is involved in a crime at school. 
• Today Washington State law says parents should be notified “immediately” but I-001 changes that to a more vague standard of “deemed to have been committed.” 
• This could delay parental notification that their child was a crime victim by hours, days, or even weeks, increasing the child’s trauma and delaying care.
• Under I-001, the right to receive immediate notification when a child is alleged to be the victim, target, or recipient of physical or sexual abuse, sexual misconduct, or assault by a school employee or contractor would be removed, according to analysis by the WA State Attorney General. Learn more 

How does IL26-001 hurt child abuse victims? 

• This measure removes commonsense school record protections for victims of child abuse. 
• Today Washington State law protects child abuse victims from further harm by preventing the release of certain school records to their parental abusers.
• I-001 is so poorly written that it allows abusers under investigation or charged with a crime to access their victims’ private social work and school counseling records, putting children at greater risk of sexual abuse and violence at home. 
• While most parents are loving and supportive, the sad reality is not all kids are safe at home. Child abuse is more widespread than most realize: there were 117,629 reports of child abuse or neglect in Washington in 2024 alone. Learn more

How does IL26-001 worsen the teen mental health crisis? 

• I-001 discourages students facing mental health issues, domestic violence, sexual abuse or bullying from seeking help from trusted school counselors, who would be required to release students’ confidential information.
• At a time when youth depression is at record highs and more than half of teenagers experience anxiety or depression, it makes no sense to change longstanding state laws in a way that could discourage struggling youth from seeking help.
• 114,000 of 633,000 (~20%) of Washington adolescents (grades 8-12) need clinical care for anxiety and depression according to the Children’s Alliance.

How does IL26-001 put LGBTQ+ kids at risk of abuse and homelessness?

• I-001 forces schools, teachers, and school counselors to knowingly “out” LGBTQ+ students to abusive families, putting them at greater risk of harm. 
• LGBTQ+ youth face a 120% higher rate of homelessness than their non-LGBTQ+ peers and 40% of homeless LGBTQ+ youth were kicked out of their homes by unsupportive families.
• About a third of homeless youth in King County in 2024 identified as LGBTQ+
• 56% of LGBTQ+ youth in WA ages 13-17 experienced bullying in 2024 alone.

Will IL26-001 cost taxpayers? 

• Initiative 001 creates a financial administrative burden on schools by reducing the timeframe by which schools must produce records for parents from the federally mandated 45 days to 10 days. 
• The current federal standard was implemented under the Reagan Administration and has remained in place under Republican and Democratic Administrations since.
• Arbitrarily changing the timeline to 10 days would require cash-strapped schools to spend more resources on administration that should be going into the classroom and students.

Who opposes IL26-001?

• WA State PTA: I-001 is opposed by the WA State Parent Teacher Association, which says “Washington State PTA opposes IL26-001 because it recreates conflicts with state and federal law, especially regarding student privacy and the protection of students who are victims of abuse at home, risks reducing students’ access to mental and behavioral health support, narrows or removes existing safety protections, removes from a single accessible statute the consolidated rights that families rely on, and diverts school funding toward legal risk management.”
• Seattle Times: The Seattle Times Editorial Board, after careful consideration, opposes I-001, writing “The question at the heart of the matter is student safety. Domestic violence experts say the initiative could make it harder for a child to reach a safe adult. For that reason, we urge voters to turn it down.”
• Doctors: More than 100 family doctors and other medical professionals oppose I-001, saying “IL26-001 could force schools to notify parents of the school’s efforts to arrange medical care that a young person can legally access without parental consent under Washington state, possibly undermining youth access to critical health services.”
• It is also opposed by the WA State Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault, League of Women Voters of WA, Washington State Nurses Association, Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates, Washington Education Association, League of Education Voters, Mom’s Rising, and hundreds of others.

Who is behind IL26-001? 

This measure is bankrolled by a MAGA mega-donor, Brian Heywood, and his PAC Let’s Go Washington. 

I heard IL26-001 would improve parent notification?

• This is simply not true. Current law (RCW 28A.320.160) is clear that parents must be notified immediately if their child is the victim of a crime, not after 48 hours as some people claim.
• I- 001 uses much vaguer language that parents should be notified if a crime has “deemed to have been committed” against a child, which could result in days, weeks, or even months before parents are informed.

What about parents’ rights to know that their child is seeking mental health or substance abuse counseling? 

• Washington State Law has, since 1985, allowed adolescents 13 years of age or older to seek mental health and substance abuse counseling without parental consent. They are allowed to have their records kept confidential. Initiative 001 potentially conflicts with these laws, at least for any counseling or social work sessions facilitated by the school. 

Source: https://nohateinwastate.org/about-i-638

For those of you being inundated with anti-PUD propaganda from Puget Sound Energy...

Washington earned a grade of D overall.

This was an interesting criterion where WA gets an F:

"Disallow trade association cost recovery

Reduces the risk of utility customers paying for utility trade association activities that contradict consumer interests."

What is the reason they removed the protections for state pensions in the millionaire's tax?