This week on Sound Effect, we explore the ties that bind. We hear stories of the unique and surprising things that connect people and communities from alien languages to cigarettes.

Mark O'Connor is a flexible master of the violin, or fiddle - depending on the music, earning awards playing classical, jazz, and bluegrass. It's this last style that dominates on his latest album, "Coming Home," which finds Mark joined by his musical family: wife Maggie on violin and vocals, son Forrest on mandolin and vocals, and Forrest's wife Kate Lee also playing violin and on vocals.

Researchers from the Washington Sea Grant confirm that a crab found by staff of the Padilla Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve is in fact one of the much dreaded invasive species. This is after one was trapped in San Juan Island’s Westcott Bay in late August.

Glen Alexander, the  Education Coordinator at the Padilla Bay Reserve, says he wasn’t really surprised when he found it, but it’s scary.

High rates of diabetes and other health problems in Seattle's Chinatown-International District are due in part to a lack of safe outdoor space, a community organization says.

InterIm CDA, a housing and advocacy group, released a report Sept. 21 saying the district has less green space per person than any other Seattle neighborhood. 

Fall got off to a damp and cloudy start in the Pacific Northwest on Friday. But knkx weather expert Cliff Mass says he expects “a nice fall weekend” ahead with plenty of sun, warming temps and an especially sunny flourish on Monday.

Mass says a weak Pacific front was moving in Friday morning “and it’s kind of getting split apart, so we’ll have clouds over most of the region, showers along the coast, in the Cascades and in the South Sound, but only a few sprinkles around Puget Sound because we’ll be somewhat rain shadowed by the Olympics.”