In a decisive and timely move during an emergency special session Saturday night, the Kirkland city council voted unanimously to pass Ordinance 4188, which prohibits any further layoffs at any company within the city limits.

"As the economic crisis continues deepen, Kirkland simply cannot afford to be marred by the destructive connotations associated with layoffs," said Kirkland Mayor James Lauinger in a prepared statement.

Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels' extended his recent streak of secreting pure, unfiltered awesomeness on Wednesday by officially declaring Seattle as the "Number One Bestest City in the Entire Universe—For All Time."

The bold call comes hot on the heels of his proclamation that the city's response to the Colossal Blizzard Whiteout of Aught-Eight deserves a "B," widely considered by critics to be his most delightfully bizarre move to date.

As brutally low temperatures and relentless treacherous snowfall beat down on the Puget Sound for the sixth consecutive day Thursday, weather soothsayers prophesied a sustained assault on the Northwest with icy blasts and perilous precipitation continuing into next week.

According to local officials the Dismal December Discharge of Aught-Eight has already resulted in three trillion dollars in lost productivity in the city of Seattle alone.

Nearly one week after attending a big family get-together in the Portland area, 20-year-old Burien emo Nathan Peters is reportedly only halfway through the process of emotional detox.

"It's just so much to try to handle all at once, you know?" Said Peters. "All these happy relatives and so-called friends that have oh so much to be thankful for that they feel the need to mercilessly rub it in my face for three days straight every November."

According to a series of recent radio ads, Jesus Christ—Lord and Savior of all mankind who died on the cross for our sins and was raised again on the third day—is primarily interested in granting His followers the easy life.

"In this fast-paced world," begins one ad, "it's easy to lose sight of what's really important ... your life."

In the wake of historic prosperity and financial abundance, residents of Seattle are begging, pleading, and petitioning the city council for massive hikes in taxes and fees. In response to the citizens' increasingly vocal requests, the city council held a special session last Friday to discuss existing taxes and fees that can be raised and new sources that can be created.

"Raising fees and taxes is ordinarily the last thing we would want to do," said Council President Richard Conlin...

On the eve of the big election day, political enthusiasts throughout the Seattle area are hunkering down to prepare for the inevitably nasty post-election fallout.

The 2008 presidential election, like the six or seven elections preceding it, is quite possibly the most important election in most voters' lifetimes. With heightened emotions and a simmering rage boiling just beneath the surface on both sides of the nation's political scene...

Law enforcement officials in Tacoma are ecstatic over an unprecedented one percent drop in the latest violent crime statistics.

It is important to note that although the announcement from the Sheriff's Office implies that Tacoma's violent crime rate declined by one percent, in actuality it was the rate of increase in violent crime that decreased by one percent—from a 9% year-to-year increase in September 2007 to an 8% increase in September 2008.

Throughout the entirety of his 18 mile commute this morning, something just seemed "different" to Bothell commuter Rick Vance, though he couldn't quite put his finger on it.

Upon arriving at his workplace in downtown Seattle, it dawned on him: "I didn't encounter a single rude, oblivious, or otherwise incompetent driver on the road this morning," he recalled.

Accustomed to frequent altercations...

The growing worldwide economic crisis has finally hit home, as residents across the Puget Sound are taking unprecedented measures to make it through these tough times. The Naked Loon performed a series of man on the street interviews with regular folks about how they are coping with financial despair.

What follows are unedited excerpts of these heart-wrenching personal tales.

Local meteorologists released a series of photographs Monday of a menacing cloud formation spotted in the skies above Pierce County.

Curiously darker than the surrounding fluffy white billows of water vapor, the mysterious shadowy wisps seem to be gathering for some foul purpose, according to KOMO 4 weather expert Jim Castillo.

Just two years out of college, 28-year-old journalist Joshua Licks has big dreams for the future. Currently a reporter for the Bothell / Kenmore Reporter, a small local paper delivered weekly to about 15,000 homes, Licks dreams of one day landing a job at The Seattle Times, where he will subsequently be laid off due to the paper's continually declining circulation and ad revenue.

"It's every journalism student's dream to make it to one of the slowly dying big dailies," said Licks. "Hopefully, if I write enough interesting, hard-hitting pieces, I'll eventually be good enough to get hired, and soon thereafter fired by the Seattle Times."

Seattle City Councilman Richard McIver has been caught in an embarrassing situation after taking advantage of a legal loophole in city code to pay a $1,000 ethics fine with taxpayer money, but McIver's ethics fine is just the tip of the iceberg, according to an in-depth investigative report.

City records obtained by The Naked Loon indicate that city council members have been dipping into taxpayer funds to pay for everything from Botox pedicures to servant monkeys—and it's all totally legal.

Matt Johnson has a lot of money. More importantly, he has more money than you. We caught up with Matt for a little chat about the burdens of wealth:

Naked Loon: A lot of people envy you for your three Saleen S7s, your fashionable clothing, and your endless supply of spending money. What would you like to say to these people?

Matt: (Sighing – rubs forehead) I just can’t deal with these people. They just don’t understand what I have to deal with. Granted, I have more money—a lot more. I mean, you could work your white collar desk job at Microsoft for a lifetime just to make as much money as I spent on lunches last week. But having more money means I also have more worries.

The unveiling of an exquisitely-crafted bronze statue honoring a pair of admirable local stars triggered widespread panic and confusion among residents of Seattle's Fremont neighborhood Sunday afternoon.

The superb level of detail and craftsmanship in the statue titled "Late for the Interurban" mystified residents, accustomed to crude concrete depictions found in such local treasures as the Fremont Troll and "Waiting for the Interurban."

The deserving nature of the local heroes now enshrined in bronze also served to upset and bewilder the locals. Home to a contentious statue of communist leader Vladimir Lenin, Fremont has long maintained a sense of community pride in its ability to embrace art that would ordinarily cause any self-respecting American throw up a little in their mouth.

As construction crews began gutting the Denny's building in Kenmore this week to prepare for a massive remodel of the 31-year-old structure, thousands of passing motorists and local residents remained completely oblivious to the project.

Located on a busy stretch of Bothell Way (Hwy 522) through Kenmore, the forgettable building was the subject of a widespread lack of interest in June after its sexier, more popular cousin in Ballard was demolished.

Not a single person could be found Wednesday that cared or even noticed the major demolition project at the site...

A new study released Friday finally proves what most Americans behind the wheel already knew: speeding saves time.

Specifically, speeding was found to save the average American roughly two minutes every day. This number was determined by analyzing vast amounts of data and performing deeply complicated calculations—it definitely was not pulled out of thin air.

The Loon Institute for Calculative Knowledge (LICK)—a highly regarded and definitely not fictitious think tank—conducted the rigorous study of the nation's drivers...

In a landmark unanimous 7-0 vote Monday, the Seattle City Council decisively addressed one of the cities' biggest problems: rogue scooter-movers.

As the price of gasoline has risen to absolutely unbearable levels and riding a bicycle has remained as physically challenging as ever, an average of 50,000 new scooters per week have been added to Seattle streets. Feeling increasingly alone and intimidated in the massive sea of brightly-colored two-wheeled toys, some car drivers have taken indecent moving liberties with scooters that do not belong to them.

"I cannot believe that some people would have the gall to move a scooter just so they can get their car out of a parallel parking spot," said Councilmember Jan Drago, chair of the Transportation Committee. "It is low-life criminals like this that can really ruin an otherwise perfect paradise of a city."

Lines of cars stretched for over ten miles in every direction from Newcastle on Monday morning, as a gas station running a $3.80 per gallon promotion was overwhelmed by thousands of rabid motorists.

Beginning at 7:00 in the morning, Hayden's Chevron at the corner of Coal Creek Parkway and Newcastle Way offered gas at only $3.80 per gallon, over fifty cents less than the usual current price.

People began queuing up at the station about 3:00 Sunday afternoon, station manager Harrison Phoenix said. By the time the station opened this morning, virtually every road into Newcastle was packed with cars...

The state Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision Friday, clearing Michelle Obama of wrongdoing in the mysterious placement of marijuana-scented metal spikes discovered buried on the floor of Greenlake.

The spikes were discovered by a policeman during a routine patrol of the lake. When one of the ten-foot, machine-sharpened, diamond-tipped spikes was pulled from the slimy lakebed, the unmistakable smell of marijuana led to the discovery and subsequent arrest of nine-hundred more, scattered throughout the lake.

In addition to the Greenlake spike Supreme Court ruling, Mrs. Obama's visit to Washington State this week was also timed to coincide with a fundraiser for Christine Gregoire and the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale...

Seattle city officials held a progress review meeting today to update the city's civil defense preparations. The meeting was hastily ordered by Mayor Nickels after a city clerk discovered an obscure city code dating back to the 50s that requires the city to update its civil defense plans and distribute updated materials to the public every ten years. Seattle has not updated its civil defense plans since 1951.

...changes to the civil defense materials include updates to lists of subversive organizations and replacing detailed explanations of death by atom bomb with comprehensive descriptions of death by chemical or biological attack.

"We're pretty proud of what we were able to produce on such a short notice," said Mayor Nickels, who explained that updated civil defense pamphlets and books will be available to Seattle residents as early as next week.

One week after the iconic Ballard Denny's building was unceremoniously smashed to bits, the 31-year-old Denny's restaurant building in Kenmore continues to remain standing, a blatant mockery of all that is good and wholesome.

While the architecturally interesting Ballard Denny's met the steel claw of progress last week, the exceptionally ordinary Kenmore Denny's building has so far avoided meeting the same fate.

Since the closure of Denny's in May of 2006, the nondescript building has been sitting gutted and empty without so much as a peep from local neighbors...

One week into their new lives as allegedly contributing members of society, recent local high school graduates are still riding an emotional high from completing the biggest achievement of their lives: meeting the criteria for graduation as defined in the Washington State law and school board policy.

"It's like, so great to finally be like, done with school" said Sarah Donohue, a graduate of Inglemoor High in Kenmore.

Local teens reported feeling a lasting sense of accomplishment and satisfaction after successfully reaching the level of education required to obtain such illustrious jobs as cashier, car salesman, and food preparation worker.