In the dead of night, as drunken Halloween revelers streamed into the street from nearby bars, Karen Strickland tried to teach Occupy Seattle protesters how to get their message across to politicians.

Other lessons — including the history of labor movements, writing a “position statement” and the language of a Martin Luther King letter — were held as community college instructors from around the Emerald City gave free classes earlier this week in an attempt to bolster a protest that had been struggling to capture the attention of a city with a vibrant history of protests.

And as the Occupy movement shows signs of fracturing after violent outbreaks in Oakland and elsewhere, instructors here say they’ll continue efforts to mentor the mostly young people who have taken to the streets over the last several weeks.

» via CBS News

As reported earlier this year, Amazon and digital content distribution service OverDrive are teaming up to bring Kindle library lending to thousands of public libraries across the U.S. That partnership, rumored to be launching this month, has apparently now gone live in select locations.

According to postings on Amazon’s Kindle Forum, some users are already seeing this option in the Seattle area. A page on Amazon’s website describing the new service has also gone live.

» via TechCrunch