​There are many celebrations and events all across Seattle Metro Area.
In Seattle, the eclipse will be about 92% complete. It will still be amazing to watch. The eclipse should reach its peak at about 10:20 in the morning.
If you’re looking for more natural and spontaneous experience, and if the weather allows it, you can try to find a viewing point on your own: a southeast view will be preferable. The eastern edge of Lake Washington is highly recommended.
Make sure you’re watching the eclipse using certified eclipse glasses or any other method for safe viewing.
 
1- Northgate Library
Astronomy education and related activities will be organized before viewing the eclipse.
 
2- Greenwood Park
The Phinney Neighborhood Association is hosting a viewing party at 9 am in Greenwood Park.
 
3- Redmond Library
King County Library System’s Redmond is throwing a party at 9:45 in the morning. It will be located right between Redmond Library and City Hall.
 
4- Bryant Neighborhood Playground
The Seattle Public Library is putting on this shindig at Bryant Neighborhood Playground, which will combine astronomy education with a group eclipse viewing.
 
5- Pacific Science Center
Opening time is early, at 8:30 am which means that attendees will have enough time to arrive before the eclipse starts. If the weather is not clear, the event will be live stream ed from another place with better atmospheric conditions.
 
6- Seattle Central Library
This event focuses solely on showing NASA’s live stream of eclipse images. It starts at 10 am.
 
7- High Point Public Library
The event is very family-friendly and starts early at 8:30 am. It will include a “Make your own eclipse viewer” workshop.
 
8- South Park Community Center
The viewing party will start at 8:30 am and you will learn how to create a simple viewer in order to watch the eclipse in the best conditions possible. If the weather is not good enough, the party will be called off like a lot of similar events.
 
9- Des Moines Library
Depending on the weather, the library will host a viewing event in the green patch on the east side of the Des Moines Library. The event starts at 9:45 am.
 
10- Pierce College Science Dome
”The South Sound’s only planetarium!” will host its own party—you will be able to watch the eclipse outside but in any case, the total eclipse will be live-streamed inside the dome, regardless of weather conditions. There will also be a preliminary presentation in the Dome before the eclipse.

​Recently, the SDOT (the Seattle Department of Transportation) has awarded permits to two private bike-sharing businesses called respectively Spin and LimeBike.
In a matter of hours, a lot of orange Spin bikes were available in the streets of the city for all the wanna-be riders. On the contrary, LimeBike has taken its time to roll out its fleet of lime-green bikes. Sharing a bike is an excellent idea and the program is rather easy to use—the app, that you can download on both iOS and Android, looks for bikes that you can unlock and ride immediately—but not many bikes are available for now and most of them are far away.
“We want to be extra careful and follow a scientific process at the beginning before rolling out the program elsewhere,” they said.
This preliminary process is applied even when they work with smaller communities such as small town or universities where the risks taken are a lot less important than in bigger cities such as Seattle.
“Before taking the idea to the next level, we are looking to be 100% sure that we can manage the day-to-day operations in a smooth manner,” they told us. “Our goal is to apply the same idea to Seattle by applying what was learned in different cities and markets”.
The way it is done is pretty simple: if they can deploy 500 bicycles, they’ll put them mainly in the city center and see what people are doing with them and where they are taking them. It has to be a natural process where bikes flow from one place to the other.
No limits and no boundaries: that’s the way the founders of these bike-sharing companies see things. Just letting the bikes go from one neighborhood to the other and observing customer’s behavior is the best way to learn a lot in a short period of time. The bikes can be dropped off wherever you want to and the only plans made were made based on the available data and predicted usage.
Some people take their bikes to West Seattle or even to neighborhoods that were not even considered before by the initial deployment team. It is a great way to learn what works and what doesn’t work, and also a way to learn about what customers really want. The data collected will be extremely useful when they finally dump 500 bicycles or more in the streets of Seattle. By being responsible and studying carefully the market, they make sure that this upcoming experience will be a success.

​According to state Employment Security Department, the unemployment rate has been steadily decreasing for the past 5 months and reached a new low at 5.2% last December.
In a recent press release, Paul Turek, an economist for the department, said that Washington State’s economy is strong and job projections are overwhelmingly positive, at least in the short-term.
There are more and more companies hiring and the economy finished strong by adding 6,700 jobs in December compared to 4,000 jobs the month before.
Unemployment insurance benefits are paid to 70,238 people as of December. The preliminary job estimates have been released. The data comes from the federal bureau of labor statistics and its monthly employment report including seasonally adjusted figures.
 
Labor force in Washington is increasing
 
The labor force remains at the same level with 3.69 million people and only 800 less than in november.
The labor force includes all the people over 16, whether they are employed or not.
 
 4 sectors are contracting but 8 are expanding
 
Employment in private sectors has increased: 7,400 new jobs were created meanwhile government jobs decreased by 700 during the month of December.
 
Lesiure and Hospitality grew the most at the end of 2016: 3,400 new jobs were created in this sector alone in December.
 
On top of this, the information industry added 2,500 jobs, retail trade added 2,200 jobs, wholesale trade also grew and added 800 new jobs, while the financial industry added 300. Education, health services, transportation, warehousing and utilities, and manufacturing created 200 new jobs each.
 
Some other services lost jobs such as construction (-400), professional services and government too. Logging and mining remain at similar levels this year.
 
Yearly growth remains vigorous
 
Washington State has created around 82,300 new jobs from last December until now if you don’t take into account seasonal adjustment. The public sector is growing at a slower pace than the private sector: 2.5% (14,000 jobs) versus 2.6% (68,300 jobs).
There are 13 different industry sectors in Washington State and from December 2015 to December 2016, 11 of them created new jobs and along with them many opportunities. Traditional industry sectors such as manufacturing, mining, and logging unsurprisingly reported numerous job losses: respectively 5,900 and 100 jobs lost.
 
The 3 sectors that have seen the biggest employment growth compared to the years before are:
•      Education and health services with 20,800 new jobs;
•      Government and Local Administration with14,000 new jobs and
•      Hospitality-Leisure-Tourism with 11,300 new jobs

There are already plenty of juice shops in Seattle—Starbucks is making bottled juices and makes them available to order for only a few selected stores, Kari Brunson takes care of the colorful Juicebox on Capitol Hill, and Anar is specialized in gemstone-hued juice. They are located inside the Amazon Doppler building.
 
New York City’s Juice Press  has received support from Russell Wilson, the Seahawks quarterback . Wilson absolutely loves organic juices and he publicity stated a few days ago that he’ll get involved with this juice company that comes from the East Coast. Their first flagship shop will be established in Seattle in the coming months, probably early next year. It is their first store on the West Coast.
 
Wilson is partnering with Marcus Antebi, the founder of Juice Press, to expand their current offering of plant juices like ginger tumeric and green vegetable blends to Seattle and the rest of the West Coast. Other offerings include almond milk and coconut water–based smoothies, acai bowls, supplements, grab-and-go salads, and more. About this new venture, Antebi stated that he never thought that his company would become so big when he started it 6 years. Partnering with such sport icons like Russell Wilson and of course, his current business partners is something incredible for him.
 
Last summer, we already heard that Russell Wilson, the famous Seattle quarterback champion, was planning to open a Juice Press store (Juice Press is a juicery based in NYC) to Seattle as a foothold for their expansion on the West Coast. They looked at many different cities and finally picked our city.
 
Wilson, who will get some help from Juice Press’s Michael Karsch and Marcus Antebi, will open their first Seattle store in University Village. Actually, the organic juice shop will open in Evolution Fresh space at 2620 NE University Village Street.
This upcoming fall, this place will once again offer fresh juice. Juice Press’s offering of plant-based drinks is expanding and you will be able to enjoy ginger turmeric and green vegetable mixes. You will be delighted to have some almond milk and smoothies with coconut water, acai bowls, supplements, healthy salads to eat on the go, delicious hot soups, and a wide range of snacks to recharge your batteries whether you shop or play football.
(But if you don’t live close-by, you can find Juicebox by Kari Brunson on Capitol Hill, try also Anar in the Denny Regrade. These are both nice places for fresh juices full of colors)

​SEATTLE - The Mayor of Seattle, Ed Murray, has picked the prestigious investor group Oak View Group to revamp the more than fifty-years old KeyArena.
 Since the current mayor is not seeking to be re-elected, the next mayor will have to supervize the KeyArena renovation project that is worth more than half a billion dollars.
Jessyn Farrell, who is a candidate in the next election, will take a close look at  the transportation issue.
Oak View Group CEO say that they will deal with the area and transportation problems.
Candidate Mike McGinn is the former mayor who backed the SoDo option. He thinks that this option should be kept alive.
What is their proposal in Seattle?
OVG's proposal offers an ambitious overhaul and the money will come from various income streams.
The plan is called “New Arena at Seattle Center.” The whole facility will be rebuilt except for the roof.
Was it the only proposal?
Another bid came from Seattle Partners but they withdrew their proposal. The city was heavily criticised for the way it handled proposals which prompted this offer to be withdrawn.
Is a new Seattle sports team in the works ?
Seattle has historically been a basketball town but the NHL has also shown interest.
The NHL is still waiting to see how and when the project will start since there have been many roadblocks since the beginning of the project.
The proposal says the arena should be completed by 2020, in time for the new NBA season.
What is the current status of SODO arena plans?
Chris Hansen, another investor, is still waiting for an opportunity to create a  new arena financed by private funds near Safeco Field and close to the city's maritime businesses even though they don’t want to see another sports venue anywhere near them.
The SoDo has been voted down but has not been buried yet.
What are the implications for traffic?
Alternate traffic solutions are being explored such as shuttles, rideshares, and cycling. A light rail station will also open nearby meaning that car access will decrease overtime.

​Now is the time to start your own business if you have decided that enough is enough and that you don’t want to work for someone else anymore. Assessing your skills and taking into account your current interests is crucial before deciding on what type of company you want to start. Our best advice is to pick an industry with a promising future.
 
Here below we will list 5 industries that will drive growth and jobs in the near future. The data it is based on comes from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the market research company IBISWorld and the financial data comes from Sageworks.
 

1. HEALTH CARE

 
There are close to 80 million baby boomers and they are aging fast, which means that health care services will be in high demand very soon, and they actually already are. More than 50% of the occupations that will grow the most by 2024 are in health-related industries. Meeting the needs of an aging population creates opportunities for physical therapists, doctors, optometrists and other specialists to open their own practices.
 
If you don’t have the required expertise to start a business in the healthcare industry, you can still consider starting a home health aide staffing company. 38% by 2024: this is the expected increase in employment of house health aides, and finding competent staff should be rather simple since their occupation doesn’t require a degree.
 
3. ONLINE SELLING
 
Household’s disposable income should grow by 4% per year between 2014 and 2024, and so does the quantity and quality of online purchases meaning that customers buying online pay more attention to what they buy.
 
E-commerce can be an easily saturated market, since starting an online business doesn’t require much capital. If you want to have more chances to be successful, you should care about your clients — create custom products and services, excellent customer support and focus on fast delivery of your products.
 
4. TECHNOLOGY
 
Similar to e-commerce, the tech industry should continue to create brand new opportunities for entrepreneurs comfortable with new technologies.
 
Smartphone application development alone will see 31% growth in 2017. Support is also huge in the industry; tech consultants and  software installation businesses have been doing particularly well in 2016.
 
5. HOUSE AND BUILDING MAINTENANCE
 
companies in the maintenance industry servicing residences and commercial buildings alike saw a 13% increase in sales in 2016. It’s relatively easy to start this kind of business because of low upfront costs and limited inventory, employees or office space. Landscaping, pest control or cleaning witness a steady growth and healthy profit margins. 

​According to state Employment Security Department, the unemployment rate has been steadily decreasing for the past 5 months and reached a new low at 5.2% last December.
In a recent press release, Paul Turek, an economist for the department, said that Washington State’s economy is strong and job projections are overwhelmingly positive, at least in the short-term.
There are more and more companies hiring and the economy finished strong by adding 6,700 jobs in December compared to 4,000 jobs the month before.
Unemployment insurance benefits are paid to 70,238 people as of December. The preliminary job estimates have been released. The data comes from the federal bureau of labor statistics and its monthly employment report including seasonally adjusted figures.
 
Labor force in Washington is increasing
 
The labor force remains at the same level with 3.69 million people and only 800 less than in november.
The labor force includes all the people over 16, whether they are employed or not.
 
 4 sectors are contracting but 8 are expanding
 
Employment in private sectors has increased: 7,400 new jobs were created meanwhile government jobs decreased by 700 during the month of December.
 
Lesiure and Hospitality grew the most at the end of 2016: 3,400 new jobs were created in this sector alone in December.
 
On top of this, the information industry added 2,500 jobs, retail trade added 2,200 jobs, wholesale trade also grew and added 800 new jobs, while the financial industry added 300. Education, health services, transportation, warehousing and utilities, and manufacturing created 200 new jobs each.
 
Some other services lost jobs such as construction (-400), professional services and government too. Logging and mining remain at similar levels this year.
 
Yearly growth remains vigorous
 
Washington State has created around 82,300 new jobs from last December until now if you don’t take into account seasonal adjustment. The public sector is growing at a slower pace than the private sector: 2.5% (14,000 jobs) versus 2.6% (68,300 jobs).
There are 13 different industry sectors in Washington State and from December 2015 to December 2016, 11 of them created new jobs and along with them many opportunities. Traditional industry sectors such as manufacturing, mining, and logging unsurprisingly reported numerous job losses: respectively 5,900 and 100 jobs lost.
 
The 3 sectors that have seen the biggest employment growth compared to the years before are:
•      Education and health services with 20,800 new jobs;
•      Government and Local Administration with14,000 new jobs and
•      Hospitality-Leisure-Tourism with 11,300 new jobs

The company made an announcement today: their service, UberEATS, will be officially available now on the Eastside, hungry customers in Bellevue, Redmond, and Woodinville, among other cities east of Seattle across Lake Washington will be able to get food delivered at their doorstep or at their office.
There will be over 50 Eastside restaurants available, including Freshii, Kizuki Ramen & Izakaya, Lunchbox Laboratory, Monsoon, Racha Thai, and many more. Customers order using UberEats’s dedicated app and their food is delivered in less than an hour on average. No delivery fee will be charged this summer.
Uber is very active and has launched its restaurant delivery app in the area last March. They have served more than 25,000 people for the moment and are well on their way to serve a lot more as the service grows in popularity.
Uber used to offer lunch delivery in Seattle via UberEATS last october. Drivers would bring to their customers pre-cooked meals and deliver them to clients who ordered them using the existing Uber transportation app.
UberEats has been reviewed and tested by a prominent online blog recently and it seems to be a good experience even though it’s a bit expensive when you include the delivery fee.
UberEats, which is available in more than 20 cities in the world, is Uber’s venture trying to use the logistical framework built over the years for their taxi service and benefiting from the huge number of drivers already present in the city.

​
Uber, worth $68 billion, is going head to head with its competition using the power of technology to help its clients get food, groceries, and any other products delivered to their customers quickly and efficiently.
Food delivery companies in Seattle are plenty: DoorDash, Peach, Lish, Munchery, Square-owned Caviar, Postmates, Bitesquad, Seamless, Gobble, GrubHub, Farmigo, Eat 24 (owned by Yelp), and many other similar businesses.
E-Commerce giants like Amazon — with AmazonFresh, competing with Instacart — are getting involved too.
Amazon also launched Daily Dish, a food delivery service targeting the workplace that is supposed to compete with Peach, a local startup.
The stakes are huge and there is competition, some of them experience failure. Food delivery companies backed by millions of dollars of venture capital such as SpoonRocket or Ola stopped their operations, and others just cannot raise more money.
But similar companies such as Postmates — now worth $450 million — is having a hard time to lower prices and is not telling the whole truth to their customers about this situation.