Hey there from the KUOW Newsroom.

This is Seattle Now.

I'm Patricia Murphy with a roundup of today's top stories.

It's Thursday, September 11th.

Before we get to the news, huge thank you if you've donated to Seattle now this week.

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Now on to the news, the company that owns Fred Meyer says it's moving forward with closing four Seattle area locations in spite of efforts by elected officials to save the stores.

The news comes in a letter from Fred Meyer President Todd Kammeyer to State Representative Jerry Paulette, according to the Seattle Times.

The letter says retail theft and the burden of regulations are still a problem.

The company plans to close stores in Seattle's Lake City neighborhood as well as in Redmond, Kent, and Everett.

Test scores for Washington students improved slightly this year for both math and English,

but they're still well behind pre-pandemic levels.

State Superintendent Chris Rake-Dahl announced the test results this week.

It includes grades 3 through 8 and 10th grade.

He says math is being taught in isolation.

Especially in our elementary schools, we have to integrate math into more content areas.

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