We get it, Seattle is weird. Truth be told, perhaps most of us would like to keep it that way.From city chandeliers comprised of shattered CDs and a gargantuan pair of boots alongside a cowboy hat, to giant popsicles tilting under a (rare) Seattle sun, the Emerald City has its fair share of wacky attractions for both locals' and visitors' amusement amid the hustle and bustle of an ever-expanding city life.

Four patients who have tested positive for the new strain of coronavirus arrived at Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center on Thursday to receive treatment in the hospital’s special pathogens unit, one of 10 units in the country with federal certifications to treat highly infectious diseases.The patients, all U.S. citizens, arrived at Spokane International Airport aboard a specialized medical transport plane. The plane made two flights, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, from Travis Air Force Base in Sacramento, California.

OLYMPIA, WA — A legislative effort to automatically restore voting rights to felons after they are released from state prison failed to garner enough support to clear the state Senate Wednesday night.The News Tribune reports Democrats let the bill die after it became clear there was not enough support to pass a final vote. According to the Northwest News Network, both parties had agreed to amendments that would have barred some sex offenders from voting, but could not reach a consensus on a proposed amendment regarding those convicted of violent offenses.

This weekend and into next week, the city of Seattle is getting fat.Mardi Gras, French for "Fat Tuesday," refers to the events of the spring Carnival celebration, beginning on or after the Christian feasts of Three Kings Day and culminating the day prior to Ash Wednesday. Fat Tuesday, therefore, represents all manner of celebrating with bright colors, alongside copious amounts of rich and fatty foods, just before the fasting of the Lenten season begins and leads up to Easter.

SEATTLE, WA — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released its annual spring outlook Thursday, with the odds favoring a warmer-than-normal March through May in the Pacific Northwest. The three-month outlook shows a higher probability of above-normal temperatures in the months ahead, with equal chances for a wetter or drier spring. Our seasonal outlook for March, April, and May sees increased chances for a wet period across the eastern half of the country, while most areas are favored to be warmer than usual. https://t.co/Gv7URMbjkOpic.twitter.com/K1da43IA6E — NWSCPC (@NWSCPC) February 20, 2020

Washington's Lieutenant Gov. Cyrus Habib has endorsed ex-South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg for the Democratic presidential nomination and will co-chair Mayor Pete's campaign in Western states."If Democrats are going to win this presidential race, we need a candidate who can unite the country while delivering on progressive promises," Habib said in a statement."Having known and worked with Pete for 15 years, I have every confidence that he is the candidate that will defeat Donald Trump. Pete is offering a fresh perspective with a vision to move this country forward." Habib is an Iranian-American who was elected lieutenant governor in 2016. He presides over the Washington State Senate.

Police said they arrested 28 climate-change protesters in downtown Seattle on Thursday afternoon for allegedly refusing to leave a bank office.Officials responded to a call around noon that a group of demonstrators wouldn’t leave a bank in the 1500 block of Fourth Avenue, a Seattle police statement said. While “a number” of protesters stayed inside the building, another group moved between the office and the sidewalks on Third and Fourth avenues, the statement said.

If you're considering moving from renting to buying a home in Seattle, a new study says you might want to think twice about it.According to a report from Self Financial, Seattle ranked No. 1 on the list for having the highest price-to-rent ratio among large cities with populations of over 350,000. Seattle has a price-to-rent ratio -- which indicates the "relative affordability of buying compared to renting" -- of 27.5.

SPOKANE — A state appeals court has allowed a Grant County man to withdraw his guilty plea for the 2015 killing of two of his co-workers in Royal City, court documents show.Eduardo Ibarra Valencia was charged in November 2015 with first-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder for shooting two of his co-workers at Callahan Manufacturing, killing one of them.In 2017, those charges were amended to second-degree murder and attempted second-degree murder, both with firearm enhancements. On the same day the charges were amended, Ibarra Valencia took a plea bargain with the state, and both sides agreed to a 20-year sentence.

A 40-year-old Lewis County man shot a longtime acquaintance in the face in May 2018, dismembered his body and recruited other people to dispose of the victim’s remains, vehicle and shoes, according to premeditated first-degree murder charges filed against the suspect last week in King County Superior Court.Born Justin Roy McLeod, the suspect legally changed his name to Two Dogs Salvatore Fasaga, though his new surname is sometimes spelled Fasanga, federal and state court records show. Fasaga has been in federal custody on other charges for nearly a year: He is scheduled to be sentenced in April in U.S. District Court in Tacoma after pleading guilty in January to being a felon in possession of ammunition as part of a plea deal that saw federal prosecutors drop two other firearms charges against him, according to court records.

Seattle Mariners legend Ichiro Suzuki will take the field for the club to start the 2020 season.Not to actually play though, of course.The retired Ichiro will throw out the ceremonial first pitch on Mariners’ Opening Day, when the team hosts the Texas Rangers at T-Mobile Park on March 26, the team announced at spring training in Peoria, Arizona.RELATED: Seattle Mariners announce signings of 3 players to minor-league contracts

SEATTLE, WA — While we may not know what the future holds for Marshawn Lynch in the NFL, he may have a bright future in Hollywood. HBO released the trailer for season 3 of its hit science fiction show "Westworld" Thursday, and it features a familiar face.You can spot Lynch briefly around the 54-second mark. The network has not said how big of a role he will have.Not one to take too much of a break, even when he was retired, you can also catch Lynch on an episode of "Bar Rescue," premiering March 1.

SOUTH KOHALA, Hawaii - A Bellevue man is under arrest for investigation of murder after his wife's body was found Wednesday along the shoreline of the Big Island of Hawaii, police officials said.The wife, identified as Smriti Saxena, 41, of Bellevue, had been reported missing by her husband on Tuesday evening, and he had issued a public plea for help in finding her.The husband, Sonam Saxena, 43, said his wife was last seen on the beach near Anaehoomalu Bay in the district of South Kohala. She was wearing a black dress with a multicolored floral design and a black jacket, he said.

SEATTLE, WA — New and exciting events are coming to the Seattle area all the time. Whether you're looking to attend a concert or sporting event, theater performance or magic show, Patch's partnership with TicketNetwork has you covered. Here's your weekly roundup of the top big-name shows coming up near you.Want to check out more great events in your area? Click here to find local tickets. (Pro tip: Enter the promo code "PatchTickets10" at checkout to get 10 percent off!)

A 43-year-old Bellevue man was arrested in Hawaii on Wednesday for allegedly playing a part in his wife’s death, police there said.Police discovered a woman’s body Wednesday near Anaehoomalu Bay in South Kohala on the island of Hawaii, often known as the Big Island, according to a statement from the Hawaii Police Department. Authorities haven’t officially identified her yet, but the statement said the body was located in the general area where 41-year-old Smriti Saxena went missing Tuesday night.

SEATTLE, WA — Seattle Police arrested 28 people during a climate demonstration inside a downtown Seattle bank Thursday afternoon. According to the police department, officers responded to the Westlake Park area around noon after a group of protesters refused to leave a nearby bank branch. Police said a second group moved between the building and the sidewalks along 4th Avenue and 3rd Avenue.Police did not identify the bank involved, but local climate justice group 350 Seattle said the action was part of a national campaign to force JP Morgan Chase & Co. to divest from fossil fuel companies and pipline projects. The group posted a photo of several people gathered inside the building on social media.

SEATTLE (AP) — Four Americans who tested positive for the new virus that caused an outbreak China are being sent to a hospital in Spokane, Washington, for treatment, officials said Thursday.The four were passengers on the Diamond Princess cruise ship and were flown back to the U.S. over the weekend, according to a spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Human Services. They were being transferred from Travis Air Force Base in California, hospital officials said.

Julie Blacklow is what my pre-#metoo movement, Brooklyn-born father would have called a "pushy broad."Blacklow was, for 36 years, as aggressively curious a TV journalist as Seattle has ever seen. She had a head start from girlhood growing up in Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C., going to the 1963 March on Washington and viewing President Kennedy's funeral cortege.Fearless: Diary of a Badass Reporter (Book Publishers Network, $28) centers on her years at KING-TV. It is part confessional: Readers learn of an aborted suicide attempt after a firing which she would overturn. And there was the day Blacklow zipped the body of her second ex-husband, actor Ted D'Arms, into a body bag and helped drag it to the mortician's waiting car.

Seattle was one of the fastest growing cities this past decade, and from 2013 to 2018, it was the fastest growing large city in the U.S., according to a recent study.The study was an analysis by Car Insurance Companies of data recently released by the U.S. Census Bureau that showed recent gains in population across certain cities, but an overall decline in the country's population growth — the study said it was an 80-year low. It looked at population data from 2013 to 2018 to find growth rates, total population growth and the rate of college-educated residents.

The Washington State Patrol (WSP) has agreed to pay $105,000 to settle a civil-rights lawsuit filed by a 19-year-old man who claimed he was wrongly accused of assaulting a state trooper during a 2017 protest against President Donald Trump in downtown Olympia.Kieran Moulton Shell claimed in a federal lawsuit filed last year that he was the “victim of a blatantly false pretextual” arrest during competing pro- and anti-Trump rallies held March 4, 2017, at Heritage Park.

A traveler arrives at Sea-Tac Airport after a 12-hour flight and files off the airplane with other passengers into the airport’s international terminal, or “S” gates.After a long wait in line, she eventually takes her turn at a passport-control kiosk, where a U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agent checks travel documents.If she recently visited mainland China, the agent flags her as a medium risk and she’s ushered to a nearby waiting area outside a federally run airport clinic called the Division of Global Migration Quarantine (DGMQ).

Seattle could now allow up to 40 tiny house villages or other transitional encampments across the city under a new ordinance approved this week by the Seattle City Council.The council this week passed the ordinance related to land use and zoning, allowing 40 transitional encampments to operate at one time, a significant increase from what the city had permitted previously. Transitional encampments include tiny house villages, tent encampments and safe parking lots. The ordinance also eliminates certain restrictions on transitional encampments, in terms of length of time they can remain on property and where they can be set up.

It's well-known that when buying a car, a person is likely to save money by buying used.On average, a car that is one year old costs 20.1% less than its new counterpart, according to a new study by automotive search engine iSeeCars.com. But some cars have a much slower depreciation rate, some as little as 5.2% over the first year. Others are much higher, being worth 43.4% less at one year old. In Seattle, it pays to buy a GMC Sierra 1500, where the price difference from a new to one-year-old car is -41.5%.