Pinch me, I must be dreaming: Sound Transit finally announced the opening date of the light rail's Line 2, which will "make eight stops from South Bellevue to Redmond Technology stations"—or, about 6.6 miles. Mark your calendars. Trains start running on the Eastside on April 27. But, don't get too excited yet. The trains won't actually connect the Eastside to Seattle until later in 2025. That I-90 connection is delayed since crews are still replacing defective concrete plinths. 
 
Alexei Navalny is dead: The 47-year-old Russian known for staging anti-Kremlin protests and for speaking out against corruption was considered Vladimir Putin's "fiercest foe." Navalny died Friday at an Arctic penal colony where he was serving a 19-year sentence, about a month before a presidential election. His cause of death is currently unknown, but Navalny reported feeling unwell after a walk. On Thursday, Navalny seemed lively in a court appearance where he laughed and cracked jokes.
Bellevue Art Museum needs scratch: The Bellevue Art Museum is in a “dire financial crisis" and is scrambling to raise $300,000 in funds to support operations such as paying salaries and funding building upkeep. According to a report by the Seattle Times, for the last six months the museum has been relying on board donations to survive. If enough money doesn't come the museum's way in the next six weeks, it could face a closure. Because the museum's building doesn't have an endowment and because there is no permanent art collection, finances have always been pretty tight. Yet, this time things feel a bit more desperate. 
 
An immaculate stingray conception? A North Carolina stingray got knocked up and nobody knows how—there's no male stingray in her tank. Could the sharks in her tank be her baby daddy? Well, maybe...? Scientists aren't too sure how possible those different anatomies could fit together. That just leaves spontaneous asexual reproduction as the father. We'll know more whenever she pops that kid out. 
The weather: Crisp and cool today. Could be cloudy sometimes, could be not cloudy other times. Rain doesn't seem likely, but I've been wrong before.
 
Hold on, Ashley's got some news for you. Take it away, Ashley! 
 
Woman reports assault, theft of hijab: Seattle Police Department (SPD) detectives are investigating an assault against a woman who said someone put her in a chokehold, displayed a knife, and stole her hijab. The woman said the person made hateful comments about her perceived religious beliefs and national origin. SPD has made no arrests but plans to investigate the incident as a hate crime.
 
Council on American-Islamic Relations of Washington Executive Director Imraan Siddiqi released a statement and called the forced removal of the woman’s hijab a “form of sexual assault.” CAIR-WA, a civil rights organization, said the assault reflected a national pattern of anti-Muslim attacks, which the organization linked to the ongoing conflict in Gaza. Siddiqi reminded community members to “stay vigilant,” contact law enforcement if they experience hate or harassment, and contact CAIR-WA if they need any legal or advocacy assistance.
 
Alright, now back to me. 
 
AI-riddled research paper makes it through peer review: AI has gotten its grubby mitts into academia. A scientific research paper titled “Cellular functions of spermatogonial stem cells in relation to JAK/STAT signaling pathway” has a lot of ridiculous AI images and garbled AI text, yet the paper was peer-reviewed and published. Some of the AI images feature a picture of a rat with a penis so massive it's like double the size of the rat. Um, I guess I should put a  trigger warning for an anatomic drawing of a massive rat penis:
Greeks legalize gay marriage: Greece became the first Christian Orthodox-majority country to legalize gay marriage after a parliamentary vote on Thursday. The Orthodox Church is not too thrilled about this. 
 
Timber: A tree fell onto Highway 18 near Issaquah-Hobart Road, hitting a barrier. The tree then splintered and crashed onto a 23-year-old Pasco man's car, crushing it and killing him. 
 
ICYMI: New York Magazine keeps releasing bangers this week. On Thursday, an essay came out penned by a woman who fell so hard for a phone scam that she went to the bank—the scammer was on the phone with her the whole time—withdrew $50,000 in cash, put it in a shoebox, and put that shoebox in the backseat of a big SUV driven to her house by whom she thought was an undercover CIA agent. He wasn't a CIA agent. And this woman? She's the personal finance advice columnist for the magazine. Insanity! Read the best comment on the article by a guy named Mr__Piss:
Maggots may have shifted during flight: A Delta airline flight from Amsterdam, Netherlands to Detroit, Michigan had to turn around about an hour into the flight because maggots fell onto a passenger from the overhead bin. The flight crew eventually found the source of the maggots: A different passenger had rotten fish wrapped in newspaper inside one of his bags. 
 
Decision day in Trump civil fraud trial: Donald Trump’s New York civil fraud trial should reach a verdict Friday. The trial centers around Trump's business dealings and how, as Judge Arthur Engoron already ruled, Trump "inflated his wealth on financial statements" in order to "make deals and secure loans." The verdict could result in millions of dollars in penalties for Trump plus sanctions such as a ban on Trump doing business in New York. 
 
A long read for your Friday: ProPublica detailed a Tennessee woman's attempt to get an abortion and the year that followed when the state didn't allow her to terminate her pregnancy. The story begins when the woman, whose pregnancy could kill her after it implanted into scar tissue left from a recent cesarian section from a different pregnancy, is denied an abortion. Then, when she has the baby, the state, which was so inclined to save its life, offered little to no help. As ProPublic puts it, this story chronicles "what life truly looked like in a state whose political leaders say they are pro-life."
 
Missouri Department of Transportation claims fetus was employee: A pregnant MoDOT worker was killed on the job when a car hit her worksite. Employee deaths on the job are considered worker compensation issues rather than wrongful death issues in Missouri. In order to avoid a wrongful death suit over the death of the nearly six-month-old fetus, MoDOT is claiming the fetus was considered an employee. "I think that if an unborn fetus is an employee, then every pregnant MoDOT employee should be paid double," said state Rep. Renee Reuter. 
 
And, some music to wash it all down with: Beyoncé is going full country in her latest release. Let's go back to the twang from her album "Lemonade."