Next year, Seattle will become one of the first major American cities to discourage the use of paper and plastic shopping bags. On July 28, the Seattle City Council voted 6-1 to institute a 20-cent fee for the use of paper and plastic bags at grocery, drug and convenience stores. Although the measure only applies to Seattle merchants, eco-conscious Island shoppers are jumping on the bandwagon as well.
Those Islanders who listen to AM radio are most-likely familiar with KIXI 880, “Music of Your Life,” either because their ears perk up when the name Mercer Island — the station’s licensed owner — is dropped every hour or because they are devoted listeners to KIXI’s nostalgic music of the 1930s, ’40s and ’50s. Licensed to Mercer Island in the early 1980s, KIXI 880 has been filling Puget Sound homes with the voices of Dean Martin, Etta James, Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole and other big names of the period since 1961. It is the only station in the Seattle area to feature the radio dramas “Imagination Theatre” and “Twilight Zone,” and draws listeners young and old, according to operations manager Dan Murphey, who has worked at KIXI for 15 years.
One of the nation’s biggest names in real estate, Sotheby’s International Realty, will be launching a new office in downtown Bellevue this week, tapping into western Washington’s luxury property market.
