Seattle Scream

8 April 2069 Issue 39

Lone Star Crackdown Cleaning Up Seattle

Lone Star - Seattle is engaged in a metroplex wide sweep of high crime areas targeting known and suspected criminals. More than 5,000 people have been arrested over the last month, 96% of those have been charged with various crimes. We will leave this city cleaner than we found it, commented one Lone Star officer when asked about the crackdown. A more cynical explanation is that Lone Star want to collect a final set of case closure bonuses before handing the Seattle Contract over to Knight Errant. Whatever the reason for the crackdown, Lone Star forces are working overtime and they have been reinforced by Lone Star personnel from across North America. Among the criminals arrested are several groups of alleged shadowrunners including one such group that was using a security company as a front for their illicit activities. It is unknown if Lone Star will continue with this high pace of operations until the hand over or if this is a more limited operation.

Body Lottery-Seattle for the week of 1-7 April 2069, the winning number is:

New Series of Road to Stardom to film in Seattle

The Seattle Metroplex welcomes the 12th series of A-Primes megasuccessful Road to Stardom series. Four weeks of tryouts across North and Central America have selected the initials acts with a bonus last call in Seattle itself taking place this week. The winner, as decided by popular vote, will receive 100K and a one album deal with Solar Entertainment. A-Prime promises that there will not be a repeat of last years hacking incident that almost crashed the voting system during the final show. As in the previous three years there will be a simsense component in the show with viewers able to watch from the perspective of some of the judges. Rumors of a surprise new perspective simsense channel are going around but no details have been released.
For those local musicians interested in participating in the Seattle Last Call, it will be taking place at Theater Avalon this Friday through Sunday, forms are available on the Road to Stardom matrix site.

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Congratulations to the lucky winners! Condolences to the relatives
of the victims.

NAN, US and CAS in Negotiation for Trade

Hoping to expand on the Denver Accords of 2062, negotiators from the NAN, CAS and US are meeting in Los Angles to build a new trade deal for North America. Trade is the life blood of the modern world, said Dr. Ford, leading the CAS delegation, and benefits all of us. The NAN have traditionally been more resistant to opening their borders to trade deals but that consensus has been under pressure lately as various groups within the NAN have been pursuing more export driven development.
The US wants to unify North America into a single market of peaceful trade, said Vivian Winter, chief US negotiator. Excluding parts of North America from the benefit of a free market helps no one. Negotiations are expected to last until June if not later.

Courts Overstretched
The large numbers of arrests and cases made by Lone Star in the past weeks have put great pressure on the Metroplex legal system. Judges and the public defenders office have been working overtime to deal with the situation. Lone Star has provided funding for the hiring of legal temps to assist the Metroplex courts and the Mayor office has released additional emergency funds for the same purpose. The backlog of cases is expected to persist at least until Summer.

Music in the Museum Concert Series begins

Rebel Entertainment and the J. S. Mills School Project are sponsoring the Music in the Museum Concert series across the Metroplexs museums for the next month. With period and thematically appropriate musical groups playing to enhance the theme and identity of the museum. With musicians ranging from the Ancient Voice Ensemble to Rick Rockets Cartoon band and everything in-between, there is not lack of variety. The concerts are free but some museums charge admission fees.

NAUBL Seattle Screamers to play the Portland Paladins

The Seattle Screamers Urban Brawl team plays against the Portland Paladins on Wednesday.
The Screamers are trying to climb out of the basement of the league and a win over the top tier Paladins would be a great accomplishment. The Paladins team has seen a spate of recent injuries and is considered the weakest team they have fielded all season so a win for the Screamers may be possible.