The Stranger

Our Favorite Bowls of Hot Soup in Seattle

Julianne Bell — Fri, 20 Feb 2026 16:20:00 -0800

Don’t worry, we’ll start yelling at politicians again soon. by Julianne Bell

It’s cold. Earlier this week we saw a few tiny flurries of snow, even! And while some weather reports suggest we might soon break out of this chilly, mid-40s prison we’ve been locked in, it’ll be by just a few degrees. And probably rainy. It’s the perfect weather for soup. So we took a break from screaming about Trump and City Hall, and switched gears for a minute to appreciate some of our favorite warm and comforting bowls of soup. Don’t worry, we’ll start yelling at politicians again soon.

Isarn’s Chiang Mai

Look, this whole soup is fucked up. The curry noodle soup from Northern Thailand comes out looking like a sculpture, with a nest of fried noodles perched on top of perfectly poached chicken and surrounded by a thick curry broth—creamy and spiced so it feels like it warms you from the inside out. When it’s served, you’ll get three things on the side: raw red onion, chopped pickled veg, and a deep red chili oil. After your first bite, you’ll be tempted to roll up your sleeves and forget about these little treats. Do not be that fool. These bits and bobs are what turn each bite into its own experience. Is your palate feeling a little tired of the richness of the broth? Add a little pickle on top of that spoonful of noodles. Repeat until you see the bottom of the bowl. HANNAH MURPHY WINTER

Situ Tacos’ Soup of the Day

Yes, the Ballard oasis Situ Tacos is primarily known for its fried Lebanese Mexican tacos, but soups are one of owner Lupe Flores’s favorite things to make, and it shows. As the shop’s resident animatronic parrot, Armando, occasionally squawks: “Don’t sleep on the soups…uh, don’t sleep in the soup. Uh, the soup is super!” They rotate weekly, and there’s a meat and veggie option each day, so you might encounter molokhia (Lebanese seven-spice chicken and rice stew), chorizo potato kale, Lebanese veggie stew, fideo con bistec, vegan pozole rojo, zuppa toscana, pumpkin curry, broccoli cheddar, chicken tortilla, or something else altogether. Whatever it is, it’s sure to be soul-soothing and seasoned to perfection—you really can’t go wrong. Get a combo with tangy, crunchy slaw and/or a couple of tacos for dunking. JULIANNE BELL

Halcyon Brewing's Vegan Butternut Bisque

I first happened upon Halcyon Brewing’s vegan butternut bisque by chance. Well, sort of. I was attending Ravenna Brewing Company’s annual “Soup Battle,” where local bars and breweries go head-to-head with their best soups, mostly because my good friend runs the event. Saddled with four delicious soups, I didn’t know where to begin. But Halcyon’s yellow-y orange soup with a swoop of coconut milk and a crack of black pepper on the top beckoned. I finished my bowl. It was sweet, it was savory, and it had a nice kick of spice—the brewery’s homemade chili crisp— that warmed my insides. Something vegan had no right to be so good and so creamy. Everyone at my table agreed that it should take the top prize.The rest of the Soup Battle patrons thought so, too—Halcyon’s vegan butternut bisque won the coveted Golden Ladle. NATHALIE GRAHAM

Pho Than Bros’ Veggie Pho with No Mushrooms and No Cilantro and Extra Broccoli

I’m not about to tell you how to order pho. And I’m not going to try to convince you that Pho Than Bros is the best pho in Seattle, even though every bowl comes with a sweet little custard-stuffed pastry puff. Pho is personal, pho is sacred. How I pho and how you pho can be—and should be!—very different experiences, each one custom-tailored after years of slurping and experimenting and learning the hard way that your sriracha threshold isn’t nearly as high as you thought it’d be. And, at Than Bros, I have perfected my order. I get a small veggie pho with no mushrooms, no cilantro, and extra broccoli, then I load it up with black pepper, a fat ring of hoisin sauce, a delicate squeeze of sriracha, and as many of the bean sprouts that I can manage before my husband says, “Stop taking all the bean sprouts.” I finish it off with a squeeze of lime and dig in.

This isn’t an invitation for you to try what I think is the best pho in Seattle; this is an invitation for you to find your own. But if you’re looking for a place to start, or a change up from your usual, to me, Than Bros is perfect. It’s my happy place. And it comes with a cream puff. MEGAN SELING

Metropolitan Market’s Cioppino

Metropolitan Market’s cioppino has been there for me since I was a child, when my parents would bring home a pint of the hot seafood stew on chilly winter nights when they didn’t feel like cooking. The rich, tomato broth, seasoned with white wine, and filled with a potpourri of shrimp, mussels, salmon, and white fish, will always feel like a luxurious treat, despite coming from a grocery store’s hot food buffet. Considering that cioppino was created as a way for fishermen to use up unsold seafood at the end of the day, I would advise not making it yourself. Not because it’s difficult, but because it will cost you approximately $5 million to buy four types of fresh seafood. Instead, buy a 16-ounce cup from your nearest Metropolitan Market store for a mere $7.39, and buy yourself a nice warm cookie while you're at it. AUDREY VANN

Biang Biang Noodles’ Curry Tofu Dry Mix

Massive Chinese hand-pulled noodles boiled to a perfect chewiness texture, doused in a delectable yellow curry sauce and flavorful broth with chunks of tofu and cabbage, in a bowl so massive you might need two people to finish it. It’s the hearty Asian noodle dish you dream of on a frigid evening. It’s Biang Biang Noodles’ Curry Tofu Dry Mix.

If you’ve been to Biang Biang, you might be thinking, Seriously? This isn’t soup, it’s a quart of hot oil. Well, to that I say: 1) oil is a liquid, and Managing Editor Megan Seling said we could write about “anything served in a bowl that is at least 50 percent liquid,” and (2) this oil is delicious.

Call it soup, call it hot oil, call it a bowl of molten comfort—the Curry Tofu Dry Mix does exactly what the best soups are supposed to. It satisfies your savory tooth and warms you up when the weather’s unforgiving. So if you’re asking me to grab a casual dinner with you on a dreary winter day, gimme those chopsticks and a Chinese soup spoon and find me at Biang Biang. MICAH YIP

Gorditos’ Vegan Pozole

The biggest mistake I’ve made in my life was going to Gorditos for years and only ordering one thing from the menu: A veggie burrito, wet, with a side of chips and salsa. It’s no Veggie Nolasco from Mama’s, but I love it, and I have probably eaten hundreds of them in my 45 years on the planet with zero regrets. Well, zero regrets until one fated day in December. On that day, I was finally turned on to other parts of Gordito’s menu. Did you know they have tacos! And enchiladas! They even serve breakfast! What have I been doing all my life!? And, most importantly on a cold winter’s day such as the ones we’ve been experiencing this week, they have soup. Their current soup is a vegan pozole that is an explosion of flavor in your mouth. A savory red base that tastes not unlike a brothier version of the red sauce they ladle over my beloved burrito is loaded with onions, zucchini, corn, mushrooms, and hominy, which gives each spoonful a toothsome, meaty bite. The broth is salty and rich, in a craveable way, and while eight-ounces with a side of chips is definitely enough to be its own meal, I recommend opting for the four-ounce cup, adding a taco to your order, and then proceeding to use every curved chip in the bag as your spoon. MEGAN SELING

Ooink’s Spicy Vegetarian Miso Ramen

If I am going to pay to eat soup outside of my home, it’s going to be ramen. And the best ramen I’ve found, for a vegetarian such as myself, is from Ooink. There’s a Fremont location, but I can only speak for the Capitol Hill spot—the one in the strip-mall above the lit QFC on Broadway and Pike.

My order is the Spicy Vegetarian Miso Ramen (it can be made vegan, and there’s a version without “spicy” in the title). Not to worry: it has a warm kick, but is not the kind of spice that will make you cough or harsh your tastebuds.

The sturdy buckwheat noodles have just the right amount of tooth, and the miso broth has depth without being too salty or greasy—common traps that many vegetarian broths fall into when trying to overcompensate for something they do not need to overcompensate for. The toppings are correct: a springy pile of kikurage, little heaps of corn and green onions, a few sheets of seaweed, and a handful of happy baby bok choy that are blessedly not soggy and therefore retain a hint of peppery mustard flavor. This ramen also features a pat of melting corn butter, and a subtle sesame dressing drizzled onto the greens. I get mine without the tofu skin, but that’s just a personal preference (or aversion, maybe, that has something to do with its resemblance to, um, the second word there).

The star of the bowl is the house-made chili crisp. I sometimes wait until I absolutely have to stir it in because it’s such a banger taste all on its own; it’s crunchy and a little smoky and a little sweet, and the sesame seeds and spicy peanuts keep it interesting as you make your way to the bottom. Vegetarian ramens can get weird, and feel half-assed, but Ooink’s well-balanced version is the way to do it. EMILY NOKES

Think You Are the King of the Bus?

Nathalie Graham — Wed, 18 Feb 2026 12:43:00 -0800

I was excited to play. And then I lost. Twice. by Nathalie Graham

People who take the bus are superior to exclusive light railers, who are only cosplaying as serious transit riders. That measly track can be the gateway drug into the vastness of Seattle’s public transportation network. It can only take you two directions today—and a third and fourth when the Cross Lake Connection unites the 2 Line with Seattle proper on March 28. On the bus, you can go anywhere.

At least, this is what I thought of myself. I take the bus frequently and have since I moved here almost 12 years ago. But a new game has humbled me.

Routle is a new daily iteration in the vein of Wordle (for the logophiles) and Worldle (for the geophiles), except it puts transit route knowledge to the test. Made by software engineer and self-described “mysterious train-loving hacker” one-time San Francisco resident River Honer, Routle shows one unlabeled King County Metro (or Sound Transit light rail) route each day. Players only see the route’s shape—there’s no map of Seattle—and have five guesses at which route it is (wrong guesses will appear on the screen). As transit nerds will note, it’s missing a few ferries, doesn’t include rapid ride routes and is limited to the Seattle area. Honer says she didn’t include everything because “Seattle’s bus network is very far reaching.” She’s open to feedback if people think she should expand the routes, but doesn’t want to make the game too hard.

Honer started with San Francisco’s transit routes and recently released versions of the game for us, Portland, and AC Transit in Alameda County, California.

Honer made the Seattle version because she used to spend summers here. She figured it would be a good option for Routle because of our “good number of iconic routes” and we have a population of transit enthusiasts.

I was excited to play. And then I lost. Twice.

It turns out I only know the buses I know, from the four Seattle neighborhoods I’ve lived in.

My husband, a lifelong Seattleite, got yesterday’s Routle (Route 3) in two guesses. Last night, we talked about how many routes in Seattle we knew. We attempted to name where each bus traveled from Route 2 through Route 79. This is hard to do. He paused to complain about the neutering of the 43, which used to run all the way to Ballard, and the 48, which used to reach Rainier Beach.

I sent the game to my mother-in-law, also a lifelong Seattleite. She mused about it. She grew up taking one set of routes, then used another set in young adulthood, and a whole different set as parents. The transit routes we know are extensions of our lives at any point in time.

It’s the same for Routle’s creator, Honer. She used to visit Seattle in the summers. “I remember when the link tunnel was the ‘bus tunnel,’” she reminisced. “I used the 12 and 10 buses to get to my summer job at Pike’s Place Market [sic]. I was also there when the South Lake Union streetcar was opened.”

For me, I knew the University District routes well, but they changed when the light rail came. I remember taking the 45 to Ballard for a first date at the end of freshman year. I learned the 65 when I graduated and had to commute to my first job. Then, it was all Capitol Hill routes. (And others, but I will not be doxing myself, you freaks).

Slog AM: SPD's May Day USA Fuck Up, EPA Won't Regulate Greenhouse Gases Anymore, Michigan Town Must Slaughter Park Deer

Nathalie Graham — Fri, 13 Feb 2026 08:27:00 -0800

The Stranger's morning news roundup. by Nathalie Graham

Protect and Serve? Last summer's May Day USA event, the right-wing Christian extremist event held in Cal Anderson, was a clusterfuck largely because of the Seattle Police Department's biases against the people of this city, a new report found. SPD apparently didn't see what the big deal was about holding an anti-LGBT rally in the park—they "weren't familiar with the neighborhood's history," according to PubliCola. They viewed May Day USA as a "church group" and the counterprotesters as "antifa." They entered the event with a "anticipatory defensiveness" toward the counterprotesters—who they started referring to as "transtifa" after hearing May Day USA security use the term. SPD—which is largely made up of people who do not live in Seattle—also shared information with May Day USA security. This big mess of bias and animosity toward the people SPD is supposed to protect caused an aggressive police response and 23 arrests of counterprotesters.

Impeached: The Federal Way City Council voted 4-3 to remove Martin Moore from his post as council president. Moore posted on his official Facebook page in support of the anti-ICE student walkouts. The rest of the council did not like this. Despite public commenters speaking largely in favor of Moore's actions at a meeting Tuesday, the council sided against him. He'll still stay on council, but he's lost his presidential role.

The Weather: Say goodbye to dry skies. The rain is back. In case you're wondering if we'll get any more wintery weather, the Seattle Times has the answer: There is no hope for Seattle snow this year.

Well, what about ICE? In his first executive order, King County Executive Girmay Zahilay banned Immigration and Customs Enforcement from doing anything on nonpublic county-owned land. This includes "parking lots, vacant lots, buildings, and garages and prevents them from being used for staging areas, processing or operations bases." The executive order won't stop ICE if those gooners have a judicial warrant. Zahilay's order also directs $2 million to immigrant communities for "emergency food, housing, and legal aid" and steers the King County Sheriff's Department to make a plan for dealing with ICE, including how to identify undercover agents and how to respond if ICE and the public get into conflict.

Hey, get off of there! A person in Spokane hitched a ride on an ambulance, clinging to the back of the emergency vehicle on eastbound Interstate 90. That's not the suggested way to get to the hospital.

The EPA Is Done Regulating Greenhouse Gases: Hahaha. We are so boned. On Thursday, Donald Trump repealed the bedrock scientific finding that greenhouse gases endanger human life, thus ending our government's capacity to legally control pollution. This sweeping move means the Environmental Protection Agency can no longer regulate emissions of carbon dioxide, methane, and other greenhouse gases. It's a rejection of science and an absolutely dismal backslide as the US faces the realities of climate change: more intense storms, wildfires, droughts, and natural disasters. This, of course, is only good for "billionaire polluters," reports The Guardian.

"Jayapal Pramila Search History": Attorney General Pam Bondi had a piece of paper titled "Jayapal Pramila Search History" detailing the un-redacted Epstein files Washington state Rep. Pramila Jayapal accessed in her review of the documents. This outraged House members since it showcased the Department of Justice's alleged betrayal of the separation of powers. The DOJ confirmed it is keeping tabs on what searches lawmakers are doing in the disgusting pit that is the trove of Epstein files."It is an outrage that [the justice department] is tracking members’ investigative steps,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin. He plans to open an inquiry into this "abuse of power."

Antitrust Dust Up: Gail Slater, the head of the Justice Department's antitrust unit, announced her resignation. This shake-up comes as the DOJ is set to deal with corporate mergers like the tug-of-war battle between Netflix and Paramount Skydance over ownership of Warner Bros. Discovery. Slater's deputy in the antitrust unit also left this week.

DHS Shutdown Imminent: With Democrats saying they won't approve more funding for DHS, funding for the department is expected to run out on Saturday. Democrats are holding out until Republicans agree to implement more stringent restrictions on ICE. Agencies under DHS like ICE and TSA could be affected. Will the Gestappo work for free?

Honoring the Dead Is Politics: Ukrainian skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych was disqualified from the Winter Olympics because he insisted on wearing a helmet honoring the athletes killed during Russia's war in Ukraine. His tribute apparently violated the Olympics' athlete expression guidelines. "I believe I am right in this case," Heraskevych told NBC News. "For me to back down is betraying [the people pictured on the helmet]."

Ukrainian skeleton slider withdrawn from Olympics after insisting on wearing helmet honoring dead athletes killed in Ukraine https://cnn.it/3ZtrjXN

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— CNN (@cnn.com) February 12, 2026 at 12:47 AM

Blood Moon on the Rise: A big, red Blood Moon—which is not just a fun way of saying having your period—will gush all over Washington night skies on March 3.

Oh Deer: The Michigan town of Iron Mountain has a deer problem. One of its parks has had a deer enclosure for 75 years. This is an odd choice since wild deer are prevalent. It's not like these people are lacking access to deer. Anyway, the enclosure is in dire need of upgrades. Like, $22,000 in one-time fixes and $16,000 in annual upkeep. The city council voted to close the pen. But, what to do with the deer? They are inbred, stupid, and diseased. They cannot be freed. So, they must be shot and killed. The people do not like this. Can't they save the deer? Probably not.

Good for Them: The Winter Olympic village ran out of condoms in three days. More are on the way.

A Long Read for Your Friday: You liked that Atlantic deep dive on Attorney General Pam Bondi? Then you'll love this Wall Street Journal story about what craven ghouls Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and her advisor Corey Lewandowski are. A tidbit: Noem fired a US Coast Guard pilot after he left her blanket on a plane, but reinstated him when she realized there was no one else to fly her home. Plus, Lewandowski has been really trying to get someone to issue him a gun.

Happy Almost Valentine's Day: Here is a date idea. If you're looking for gifts, or a gesture, I recommend heading to Salmonberry Goods Green Grocer in Crown Heights and buying some of their handmade Valentine's Day pastries. Also, buy a bouquet while you're there.

A Song for All You Lovers:

The Legislature Is Ready to Tax The Rich

Nathalie Graham — Thu, 12 Feb 2026 15:18:00 -0800

The millionaire's tax seems good, but is it great? by Nathalie Graham

Who will weep for the millionaires?

A 9.9 percent tax on annual earnings upward of $1 million could become reality in Washington state. A Senate bill is up for a full vote as soon as next week, and its companion in the House is still in committee. If either bill reaches Gov. Bob Ferguson’s desk with enough tax relief for small businesses and low-income households, he’s likely to sign it. With his pen stroke, we’ll join the ranks of futuristic societies such as New Jersey and Minnesota that have achieved the impossible: taxing income, perhaps fairly.

This is a good thing. The state needs new revenue. Over the next two years, we’ll have a $2 billion budget deficit. Across the next four years, we’re seeing double that. If the Leg hadn’t passed the biggest tax increase in state history and cut spending (even in areas they really shouldn’t have, like behavioral health, higher education, and healthcare) last session, we’d be dealing with a $16 billion deficit. When people complain that our ass tax code is the second most regressive in the nation behind Florida (a state that cannot decide if disease is bad), this is why that matters. We don’t have enough money for the basics and are still in a hole.

The millionaire’s tax will help dig us out. Democrats project it to siphon $3.5 billion from Scrooge McDuck-esque pools of money each year. The state will use that cashflow to expand the eligibility criteria for a low-income tax credit (basically, a sales tax rebate), fund public defenders (we’ve got a shortage), and extra padding for the scrawny general fund. It also cuts taxes on hygiene products, much to the amusement of esteemed doofus Danny Westneat. But is it enough?

With President Trump picking our state pocket book, maybe not. His Big Beautiful Bill, HR-1, will cut at least $3 billion in federal funds annually starting next year ($3.5 billion - $3 billion = goddamn it). And the millionaire’s tax won’t begin to offset that until 2029, the year we see our first payments.

The millionaire’s tax also comes with sweet savings for the Business Community—a juicy $600 million we’d otherwise collect. Similar to the Seattle Shield Tax passed last year, the millionaire’s tax would exempt thousands of small businesses from paying state Business & Occupation (B&O) taxes. To appease big business, the bill ends a B&O surcharge a year earlier than planned, unspooling work the Legislature did last session. A lot of people are not happy about this. But, we might not have been able to get a millionaire’s tax without this penance.

Sen. Jamie Pedersen (D-Seattle), sponsor of the Senate bill, says the millionaires tax is our only option.

“It’s the proposal in front of us that we actually can have the votes to get out of the legislature,” he says. Plus, it’s broadly supported by 60 percent of voters, according to public opinion pollsters GBAO and DHM Research (which conducted polling for The Stranger last year). Their enthusiasm could make all the difference when the referendum enthusiasts, hedge fund millionaire Brian Heywood and anti-tax goblin Tim Eyman, come begging for signatures.

The people aren’t as jazzed about the business-friendly cuts. Pedersen says they’re “necessary” to dissuade big business from going to war with the bill. Last session, the People for an Affordable Washington PAC, which was made up of businesses not people, accumulated nearly $2.7 million to warp public opinion on new taxes. Behind the scenes, the businesses were “girding for battle” last session and preparing “to take the legislature’s tax increases to the ballot.” As he put it, “some deal" stopped them from doing that.

For years, Pedersen has sponsored or co-sponsored bills for progressive taxation—solutions that give Washington another revenue source other than sales taxes, business taxes, or property taxes. Pedersen has attempted to get some version of an income tax passed for years. The partial capital gains tax, which passed in 2021 was the closest he’s gotten. Last year, he sponsored bills for a wealth tax and a payroll tax, and they died tragically from a lack of votes. It’ll be the same fate for other progressive revenue taxes proposed this year, Pedersen says, pointing to Rep. Shaun Scott’s proposed state payroll tax, the Well Washington Fund. Pedersen, who shares a district with Scott, did not support the bill, modeled after Seattle’s JumpStart tax, because “it’s politically not feasible in the legislature” right now.

Scott, who must have wronged the Pedersens in a past life, says that’s “too bad, because people of our district deserve leaders who believe in collaboration.” He signed onto the House version of Pedersen’s bill, even though he didn’t like the B&O cuts, and he saw other shortcomings.

“Senator Pedersen’s income tax bill would barely skim the reductions we’ll be seeing to K–12 schools, housing, healthcare, and higher education,” says Scott.

He says the Well Washington Fund would prevent cuts to those essential services while making big companies pay their fare share and begin to fill the budget holes in 2027, two years before the millionaire’s tax kicks in.

“If Senate Majority Leader Pedersen had chosen to engage in the discussion around [the payroll tax bill] he would know that the Employment Security Department (ESD) has confirmed that my payroll tax could start being assessed by 2027, perhaps as soon as late 2026,” Scott wrote in an email.

“That is not true,” says Pedersen. “He either has not interacted with the agency or he’s not representing that correctly.”

Except it is true. The ESD confirmed Scott’s payroll tax could be up and running by August 2027.

As it stands now, the payroll tax is stalling out, but as Eli Goss from the Budget and Policy center says, bills aren’t truly dead until the session is over. The millionaires tax, meanwhile, is moving to the full Senate next week. The millionaires are unhappy. The Republicans are bristling. Tim Eyman keeps sending emails with AI images of mud-splattered pooches to represent the “Godless dirty dog Democrats.”

Pedersen isn’t counting it as a win yet. Not until it passes the legislature, survives the inevitable referendum campaign and Supreme Court challenge. “Those are the three big gates to pass through, before we can actually start to make a significant change in the second worst tax system in the country,” he says.

Slog AM: Oregon's Attorney Crisis, Gov. Bob Ferguson Meets with NBA, Olympic Penis Acid Scandal?

Nathalie Graham — Fri, 06 Feb 2026 09:30:00 -0800

The Stranger's morning news roundup. by Nathalie Graham

Tacoma Detention Facility Sued: Three Black men detained at Northwest ICE Processing Center are suing the facility's owner, GEO Group. They claim guards "engaged in sexual assault, violent beatings and retaliation" and that the Tacoma Police Department deferred abuse complaints to GEO Group, allowing the company to investigate itself, according to KING5. A 2025 report from the University of Washington's Center for Human Rights affirms the claims about TPD. According to that data, out of 150 reports of abuse at the facility, only two led to prosecutions. But in both cases, the alleged victims were GEO group employees.

Waterfall for Sale, Heftily Used: The owner of Oregon's iconic Abiqua Falls plans to auction it off . A private buyer could restrict public use of the waterfall and that state isn’t in the market for more land.

Public defenders needed: Oregon is so short on public defenders that 1,400 criminal cases may need to be dismissed, ruled the Oregon Supreme Court. The accused simply have no one to represent them. Should the state scrounge up the lawyers, the dismissed cases could be refiled.

A Date with Destiny: Gov. Bob Ferguson had an "introductory Zoom meeting” with NBA commissioner Adam Silver yesterday. Could the Sonics be coming home? The Zoom took place almost exactly a year after Bruce Harrell did that stupid fucking basketball gag where he proved he did not achieve the one thing tacked onto his vision board: bringing the Sonics back. Well, that, and we aren’t One Seattle yet.

Speaking of Sports: There's a big game this weekend. The Seattle Seahawks vs. the New England Patriots. A re-do of that dreaded 2015 showdown. We just need to figure one thing out: Who's bringing the dip to the Super Bowl party?

Athletes Abound: It's Winter Olympics time, baby. Time to remember how much you love to watch ice dancing. The opening ceremonies are today! If you watch them live on Peacock, that'll be at 11am PST. You can watch the official NBC broadcast on delay at 5pm.

Dicking Around: Size doesn't matter... unless you're an Olympic ski jumper. One way to get ahead in the sport is to have a bigger dong. It’s science: If you're toting a larger package, you get a larger suit. With a bigger suit, there's less drag and more lift. There’s no hard evidence yet, but supposedly to juice their suit sizes, some ski jumpers have been injecting hyaluronic acid into their junk. The World Anti-Doping Agency says this is not allowed. They're firm on this and are investigating.

Times article has an incredible illustration

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— honeybakedsam.bsky.social (@honeybakedsam.bsky.social) February 5, 2026 at 11:45 AM

Hey, That's Good: King County reported a 35 percent decline in shots fired incidents between 2024 and 2025. We also saw a 22 percent reduction in shooting deaths—58 people died and 177 survived.

You'll really be saying "wow" after you hear who's running for Congress in Texas. It's Vince "ShamWow" Shlomi, the infomercial star who hawked super absorbent pads to handle spills and messes. Now, he's got his eye on "soaking up the swamp." Don't get it twisted, Shlomi is an anti-woke warrior whose slogan is "Make America Grow Some Balls Again." His campaign promises to "slap chop the nuts out of the 'woke,' making less blue-haired commies and more red-blooded Americans." I miss Billy Mayes.

DHS Shutdown Nears: Congress’ stopgap deal to fund the Department of Homeland Security lapses on February 14. So they’ll have to do what they do worst: reach another deal. Democrats, who are still busy putting up missing posters for their spinal cords, have said they refuse to authorize more spending toward DHS without new regulations on the agency. You’d think immigration agents killing Renee Good and Alex Pretti would’ve been a step too far. Republicans have already rejected demands to ban ICE agents from wearing masks, to have them display identification, and to have them obtain warrants before they arrest people. All bottom of the barrel stuff.

Heavy is the head that wears the sad ugly crown: The Louvre thieves dropped Empress Eugénie of France’s crown as they made their escape last fall. It got all fucked up. Now, the Louvre is looking for someone to restore it to its former glory. Napoleon III, who commissioned the crown for his wife, would be so sad.

The crown of Empress Eugénie was one of nine invaluable royal ornaments snatched by burglars during the Louvre heist in October, but the thieves dropped it on the sidewalk before making their escape. The Louvre announced it will soon invite restorers to submit proposals for the crown’s repair.

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— The New York Times (@nytimes.com) February 5, 2026 at 2:50 PM

92-year-old Driver Kills Three People in LA: A 92-year-old driver hit a cyclist and then crashed into the front of 99 Ranch Market in Westwood, trapping people under her car. Three people died. All of them had been in the store's bakery section. Two people were taken to the hospital. Four sustained less serious injury.

Weird: Nancy Guthrie, mom to Today Show anchor Savannah Guthrie, was likely kidnapped last weekend. As of Thursday, authorities have no leads. They found blood on Guthrie’s porch, but a DNA test found it was hers. Guthrie is 84, has a pacemaker, and could die without access to her heart medication. Authorities say they have verified a ransom note from the alleged kidnapper demanding the Guthrie family fork over money in exchange for Nancy's return.

Yoo-hoo, renters! Mayor Katie Wilson wants to hear from you to make your life better. Take the renter’s survey. The landlords are quaking in their big, home-owning boots.

The weather: Partly sunny with highs reaching toward 60.

Sounds good, right? Wrong. This mild winter has led to the third-thinnest snowpack in 40 years. For the last three years, Washington's less-than-ideal snowpack levels led to drought. Three years of drought was unprecedented, but, as the Seattle Times reports, we're headed toward a fourth. While there's still hope for more winter weather, climatologists aren't optimistic about where the current trends are heading. In other words, don't listen to that hack groundhog.

A song for your Friday: Some are calling Sunday the "Benito Bowl" because of the Bad Bunny half-time show (Benito is his real name). I have high hopes. Remember this banger?

Protests! Get Your Protests Here!

Nathalie Graham — Fri, 30 Jan 2026 11:35:00 -0800

The demands are simple: Get Target to denounce ICE, those chuds terrorizing and murdering people in Target’s hometown, and to stop allowing them to operate in their stores. Shouldn’t the company do something? Money is power and Target is the fourth largest employer in Minnesota. Hot deals can offer a company only so much protection. by Nathalie Graham

On Friday at 1:30pm, MLK Labor and Troublemakers Community will gather outside the downtown Seattle Target to protest the Minneapolis-based brand’s ties with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. It’s a direct action on a day of loose, unfocused, pat-on-the-back politics.

This Friday afternoon, join us at 🎯, Seattle!

For the why's and demands: www.instagram.com/p/DUE7_KGkfrF/

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— Troublemakers (@troublemakers.bsky.social) January 28, 2026 at 6:18 PM

These targeted Target protests have sprung up around the country. Seven people were detained while protesting outside the store in Chicago’s West Loop. People in Philadelphia (home of Democracy and cheesesteak) and Emeryville, California (home of Pixar and Peet’s Coffee) have gathered to yell at their local Targets. Across the Twin Cities, protesters are staging sit-ins at 17 Targets where they will surely be subjected to a lot of Taylor Swift music played on loop. Many say this is like being auditorily waterboarded.

The protests are the cherry on top of a bad year for the big box store. Nearly a year ago, people began boycotting Target for rolling back its diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. Sales dropped.

So, if you are participating in Friday’s amorphous national general strike and don’t know what to do with yourself, join the masses at the downtown Target. The organizers emphasized that it will be peaceful. No broken windows here.

If that’s not your cup of tea, you can join a slew of anti-ICE actions on Saturday between noon and 1pm. The teachers will be gathering at Seattle Central College, the tech workers will rally at the Cal Anderson Park fountain, and the hospital workers will hold it down at Harborview Medical Center.

Slog AM: Feds Arrest Don Lemon, Seattle to Pay $30 Million in CHOP Death, Who Is Going to See Melania?

Nathalie Graham — Fri, 30 Jan 2026 08:45:00 -0800

The Stranger's morning news roundup. by Nathalie Graham

Don Lemon Arrested: Federal agents arrested journalist Don Lemon in Los Angeles on Thursday where he was covering the Grammy Awards. Lemon's crime? The feds believe Lemon was “connected” to the anti-immigration protest that disrupted a Minnesota church service because a pastor at the church has a little sidegig—leading the local ICE field office . The protest happened almost two weeks ago. A magistrate judge previously rejected the case brought against Lemon by the Department of Justice due to insufficient evidence. Lemon says he was simply doing journalism. The DOJ claims Lemon was trespassing and his presence at the church interruption "may have impeded... churchgoers’ constitutional rights to express their religion." Constitutional rights for me but not for thee, hm? Independent journalist Georgia Fort, who filmed the church demonstration, was also arrested. Aside from journalists, feds arrested two other people involved in the church demonstration. Cool First Amendment we've got here. Strong. Sound. Unbiased.

The Feds Showed Up at Fort’s Door:

Georgia Fort, an independent journalist and vice president of the Minnesota NABJ chapter, was also arrested by federal agents this morning

I was sent this video of agents at her door:

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— Phil Lewis (@phillewis.bsky.social) January 30, 2026 at 6:58 AM

$30 Million for CHOP Death: The City of Seattle must pay $30.5 million in damages to the father of Antonio Mays Jr., the teenager shot and killed inside 2020's autonomous Capitol Hill Organized Protest. A King County jury found the city was negligent in its response to Mays' shooting and that negligence caused his death.

Wilson Preps for ICE: Mayor Katie Wilson laid out several actions to get Seattle and its residents ready in the event of an ICE surge. Her orders include barring federal “civil immigration enforcement activities” on Seattle property, directing the Seattle Police Department to investigate and verify reports of ICE activity, doling out $4 million to immigrants support organizations, and creating a community hotline. She hasn't said anything about those pesky police CCTV cameras, though.

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A post shared by Mayor Katie B. Wilson (@mayorofseattle)

The Weather: It's going to rain.

Measles, Shmeasles: That's the attitude some of you have about vaccinating your little gremlins. Snohomish County just reported three more measles cases, bringing the county's total cases this month to six. The most recent case involves an unvaccinated twerp who went to a church service while infected.

Congrats: Washington state now has a population of 8 million people. Between 2024 and 2025, the Evergreen State added more than 73,000 people—ranking our state sixth for population growth—and pushed us over that sweet, sweet, 8 million line.

Today's the Day We've All Been Waiting for: The Melania documentary is coming out! Amazon spent $40 million for the rights and then spent $35 million marketing the movie about Melania Trump in the days leading up to her husband's second inauguration. The director is Brett Ratner. This is his first film since he disappeared after six women accused him of sexual assault back in 2017. Disaster has already struck. The first screening of Melania in the United Kingdom was cancelled because distributors allegedly forgot to send the film. That's okay, people can just read the erotic parody Melania Devourer of Men which is currently topping Amazon charts.

Not Melania Fans? That aforementioned $35 million Amazon-funded ad campaign paid for a bunch of Melania posters at Los Angeles bus stops. The bus-going public in Tinseltown did not appreciate this. They scribbled Hitler mustaches on the Melania on the Melania poster, writing "Eva Braun" around her head, the name of Hitler's wife. Others gave their local Melania posters devil horns or left a note that the film's subject was in the Epstein files. Fearing more unsanctioned art by this city of artists, LA Metro, which has buses plastered in Melania ads as well, opted to relocate the buses to different routes away from hot graffiti zones.

Eva 'Melania' Braun

...being in a position to know and nevertheless shunning knowledge creates direct responsibility for the consequences...

- Albert Speer, Inside the Third Reich -

Inglourious Basterds - The Verdikt
(Dopo La Condanna) Ennio Morricone 🎼

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— Nicky Schwenzer (@nickyschwenzer.bsky.social) January 29, 2026 at 2:07 AM

Boston, You Could Earn $50: Someone is supposedly paying people to see Melania in Boston. It's on Craigslist, so it's probably real.

Federal Reserve Gets New Dad: Donald Trump nominated former Federal Reserve governor and outspoken critic Kevin Warsh to run the whole thing. Warsh will replace Jerome Powell as the chair of the Fed. This could be good for Trump who was beefing with Powell who wouldn't cut rates. In the past, Warsh has echoed Trump's frustrations about the Fed's resistance to cutting interest rates. The financial tea leaves (the strength of the dollar) seemed to approve of Warsh.

No Death Penalty for Luigi: A federal judge ruled that prosecutors won't be able to seek the death penalty in their case against 27-year-old Luigi Mangione who is accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. The judge dismissed two counts against Magnione, “including murder through use of a firearm… and a weapons charge,” according to The Guardian. Mangione still faces two federal stalking charges and the possibility of life in prison without parole.

Can You Be Addicted to Hair Transplant Consultations? My child, you can be addicted to anything.

A Long Read: Remember when that army helicopter crashed into a passenger plane in D.C.? Here's what went down in that cockpit.

Waymo Hits Kid: A Waymo robotaxi struck a child near a Santa Monica, California elementary school. The kid is okay and only suffered minor injuries. Waymo has started a probe into the incident to see what went wrong. I have an idea: No one was driving the car.

Downhill Doozy: Olympics-bound skier Lindsay Vonn, 41, crashed in the final World Cup downhill in Crans-Montana, Switzerland due to bad conditions (snow everywhere). The decorated Olympian came out of the crash clutching her knee. She was airlifted from the slopes via helicopter. She is due to compete in the Milano Cortina Olympics that start next week. Crans-Montana has seen far worse this month.

A Song for Your Friday: You've probably heard this by now. The tradition of protest music lives on. Bruce Springsteen has carried that torch for decades. He cannot snuff it out yet.

Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that a King County judge found the city negligent in the Antonio Mays trial. This was a jury trial, and a jury found the city negligent. We regret the error.

State Sen. Jesse Salomon Wants to Bring Ibogaine Therapy to Washington

Nathalie Graham — Tue, 27 Jan 2026 11:00:00 -0800

State Sen. Jesse Salomon, Washington's mushrooms legislator, wants to broaden the state's psychedelic horizons with Ibogaine therapy, a drug that supposedly acts as an almost miracle balm for psychic pain. But do we know how it works? by Nathalie Graham

I met up with Sen. Jesse Salomon (D-Shoreline) to talk about drugs.

We sat at a back table in Cafe Aroma, a Shoreline coffee shop that got busted in 2024 for hosting a bondage event without the proper licenses. On his bicep, a tattoo of an ancient scroll with a Biblical verse peeked out of the sleeve of Salomon’s Trophy Husband T-shirt. Across the street was Landmark’s Crest Cinema Center, where I’d just seen the new Knives Out movie. I told him this. “What’s Knives Out?” Salomon asked. He did not know of movies, only hallucinogens.

For the last four years, Salomon has introduced legislation in Olympia to try to regulate and open access to psilocybin, the psychedelic compound in magic mushrooms. The closest he’s gotten to progress is his 2023 bill that put $2 million toward a University of Washington study on the therapeutic application of shrooms.

The results should be published in about a year, according to Dr. Nathan Sackett, who is running the trial at UW. “These clinical trials are painfully slow,” he says. “I hope that it'll at least provide some evidence for some folks… and hopefully that'll move the needle ever so slightly in terms of future funding and future research around efficacy and safety long-term.”

At least, that’s what Salomon’s banking on. And maybe it’ll help with his new bill in the legislature to give medical professionals the power to prescribe psilocybin.

When Salomon reached out for an interview, I assumed it was about this latest psilocybin bill, so I suggested we microdose shrooms at the Pacific Science Center’s laser dome during their Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon show. Salomon said no. I suggested we could do the K-Pop Demon Hunters showing instead? Still, no. Salomon doesn’t microdose.

So, we met for a standard, ropeless interview at the cafe. Except it still wasn’t what I expected. Salomon didn’t talk about psilocybin much, he wanted to talk about ibogaine.

Ibogaine, a psychoactive compound found in an African rainforest shrub, is having a moment across the political spectrum. The reason? Some believe the drug might be a panacea—especially for addiction, traumatic brain injuries, post-traumatic stress, and depression. Two 2024 studies—one conducted at Stanford University and another published in the journal Nature—showed that veterans who used ibogaine saw leaps and bounds of improvement in their PTSD and traumatic brain injuries. But no matter how promising ibogaine may seem, this early research is far from conclusive. The trials were small-scale and not placebo-controlled. Much of the data is anecdotal.

Still, the ibogaine hype has caught on. Liberals see a potential game changer in how we treat mental health and addiction; Republicans envision a new way to suture the mental lacerations of war. But it’s not legal here. Salomon wants to change the limitations on ibogaine. And he almost did back before ibogaine was cool.

In 2024, Salomon worked with Sen. Kevin Van De Wege (D-Sequim) to propose an amendment to add $250,000 to the state’s supplemental budget for ibogaine-assisted therapy research. Their attempts to increase that amount or conduct additional studies are, like this psilocybin pursuit, stalled. But with that initial money, Dr. Sackett conducted an observational study on the drug in Mexico, where he observed the treatments at an ibogaine clinic “to better understand the safety profile and the clinical outcomes.” The results should be published later this year.

However, conservatives are the ones most enamored with ibogaine right now. The drug’s biggest supporter is none other than former Texas governor Rick Perry, who cofounded Americans for Ibogaine, the largest ibogaine advocacy group in the country, after serving as energy secretary during President Donald Trump’s first term. In June, his successor, Texas governor Greg Abbott, signed over $50 million in public funds toward ibogaine research, in large part due to the size of Texas’s veteran population.

Republican operative Rex Elsass, one of the most powerful men in conservative politics, is a fan of the drug. So is Texas congressman and former Navy Seal Morgan Luttrell. Boxer Conor McGregor said he was visited by a vision of Jesus when he did ibogaine at a clinic in Mexico. Notably, ibogaine did not cure Hunter Biden’s drug and alcohol addictions in 2014 (or solve his laptop problems, which ibogaine cannot do).

Mexico is the spot for ibogaine clinics, according to Dr. Eduardo Ramirez Juárez, the clinical director at Beond, an ibogaine facility in Cancún. “It’s because Mexico is the best,” Juárez says. He laughs. “No, it’s because ibogaine is in a legal gray area here.” It is neither legal nor illegal, and it’s not regulated. So, clinics like Juárez’s have sprouted up. Veterans and people with substance use disorders are flocking there to try this seemingly magic medicine, sometimes as a last resort.

Salomon doesn’t have PTSD, or a TBI, or a substance-use disorder, he simply wanted to be more perceptive. So Salomon spent seven medically supervised days at Beond. The clinic administered two doses of ibogaine: a macro “flood” dose at a medical facility, and a second, smaller dose poolside several days later, where he was surrounded by veterans and depressed and anxious people in search of relief. A lot of people who’ve tried it, have found just that.

Do We Even Know How This Works?

Juárez, who went to medical school and then spent most of his career doing emergency medicine on cruise ships and oil rigs, believes the drug is therapeutic because he’s seen the results. “You can see it as a master key that opens different doors in your brain but mainly will act in the cortex and mesolimbic area,” he explains. The cerebral cortex is the “gray matter” of the brain, the outer layer housing everything responsible for who we are and how we act: attention span, perception, awareness, consciousness, memory, thought, and language. The mesolimbic area is the reward pathway, dopamine-releasing neurons that regulate motivation and desire. Pleasurable by definition, but hell when knocked out of whack.

Once ibogaine has reached those areas, according to Juárez, it stops the release of glutamate and dopamine for at least a couple of hours and at most a couple of days. It has a regulating effect, he says, that’s particularly helpful for addicts and people with mental health conditions.

Ibogaine also releases proteins that fix broken connections in the brain, acting as construction crew for those with traumatic brain injuries. However, it can be a wrecking crew, too. If administered without magnesium, ibogaine can cause arrhythmia, so the heart beats irregularly. Sometimes that causes cardiac arrest. As of 2021, the drug has killed at least 33 people worldwide, according to public data.

But these clinics say they know the risk. They screen patients for heart conditions, administer magnesium, and have staff cardiologists. Safely done, the experience can be spiritual and psychedelic, magical and life changing, Juárez says. But he’s just one guy.

“I'll tell you the truth about Ibogaine,” says Dr. David Edward Olson, director of the Institute for Psychedelics and Neurotherapeutics at University of California Davis. “We really have no idea how it works.”

Olson, who researches the drug, believes “there’s a lot of promise” in ibogaine, but “most of the information that we have is from anecdotal reports and some open, labeled clinical trials,” he says.

Olson was the lead author on a UC Davis study about synthesizing ibogaine into a drug that mitigates the heart-stopping risks of the substance in its raw form. He said a lot of people took the Stanford study as proof that ibogaine is more effective than other treatments for TBI and substance abuse. But that data is simply “not sufficient” to draw such a broad conclusion. And there are still many questions.

“With classic psychedelics, we have a pretty good idea of how they work,” Olson says. “We know the receptors, we know the pathways, but ibogaine is a bit more mysterious. We don't even really know the optimal doses for Ibogaine.”

What we do know, Juárez says, is that ibogaine has an impact on mesolimbic circuitry, the parts of the brain involved in reward. “And it does seem to produce long-lasting effects,” Olson says. That’s a sign of “neuroplasticity,” or brain repair. “It's as simple as, a synapse is broken, you give someone the drug, that synapse that was broken gets reconstituted,” Olson says. “And so that's how a drug like ibogaine might produce these rapid and sustained therapeutic effects, especially for something like traumatic brain injury.”

Salomon’s Big Mexican Trip

At Beond, Salomon was paired with a professional trip sitter, a coach to prepare him for the intense psychedelic experience. He was a veteran, “buff as hell,” with a buzz cut and tattoos, says Salomon.

A “pretty standard military guy, like, not a hippie,” he says. Ibogaine was the man’s last resort, Salomon says. “He was like, ‘It was this or a casket. I was at the end of my rope.’”

His name was Jon Stevens, a Marine Corps special operations veteran who served for 13 years. Near the end of his military career, something shifted, tossing him into “a pit of despair” at the bottom of which he felt “completely dead inside.” Then there was the pain.

“On the way out, I got injured,” Stevens explains, speaking at the fast clip of a military man. During a parachute training jump gone wrong, he broke his pelvis, fractured his hip, and shattered an eye socket. Back in civilian life, he reached for pills and alcohol to ease the physical and psychological pain. He sought out every treatment the VA had to offer.

“I was a candidate for two brain clinics in the United States after the military,” Stevens says. “They told me all my problems weren't just PTSD. I had brain damage, but there really wasn't anything they could do for me.” Their treatment? Stick to a high-fat diet. Read. Do puzzles.

Nothing changed until he tried ibogaine.

“It took down the prison walls I built around myself, the reasons why I can't do things or why I'm not successful, and also reminded me who I was,” Stevens says. “It made me like myself again.”

Stevens had plans to become a nurse practitioner, which he ditched to become an ibogaine coach. He started out coaching veterans. In the last year, working with a nonprofit called Beond Service, Stevens helped bring 15 cohorts of veterans and first responders—around 100 people—down to the Beond for ibogaine treatment.

“Ibogaine is a beautiful medicine,” Stevens says.

Salomon saw the beauty for himself in a room with two other patients. As he lay in a hospital bed hooked up to monitors, medical professionals gave Salomon a pill of ibogaine. The flavor was nearly indescribable, bitter and closest to diesel fuel, Salomon says.

A cardiologist came in every hour to check his heart; a nurse stayed by his side for the entire 10-hour trip. A curated playlist of mostly trance, EDM, and “What a Wonderful World” by Louie Armstrong drowned out the beeping, droning hospital equipment. To “go deeper” into himself, he wore the sunglasses provided by the clinic.

People on ibogaine often report experiencing a “life review,” as if the drug is laying their whole life out before them. Salomon didn’t experience that. He threw up “like 15 times,” and grieved his mother’s death.

“She had been killed in a car accident years ago.” Salomon says, his voice catching. “I had to organize the funeral and be strong for that whole process. And I had never really thought about it, and then, in such a therapeutic environment, it just came out.”

Salomon came back from Mexico ready to reignite the ibogaine conversation he started.

The Money? What Money?

It really is just a conversation.

“I haven’t been able to get any traction in the legislature,” he says. Within Washington’s pinched purse of a budget, Salomon didn’t see a penny of funding, but smelled a coming check.

Over the next 15 years, the state will receive $105.6 million from Purdue Pharma, which settled after states sued the company for causing the opiate crisis by pushing its drug oxycontin. Another $16 million will be coming our way from other drugmakers. Most of the funds received so far are spoken for. But Salomon wants ibogaine to get a slice of future payouts

“It's not for everybody, and it doesn't need to be, but it does need to be an option,” Salomon says. This year, though, the only drug he’s pushing in the legislature is psilocybin. He’s the shroom guy, after all, and he knows the ibogaine funds are more of a long game. But when the settlement money comes …

“Then you can call dibs?” I ask.

“I would hope so, but it’s not that easy,” he says. “All the budget writers aren’t quite all on board yet.”

“You gotta get all the budget writers to the clinic,” I joke.

“It could happen,” Salomon says, not joking. “If they want to do it, we can make it happen.”

The Light Rail's Cross Lake Connection Will Be an Aries

Nathalie Graham — Fri, 23 Jan 2026 12:44:00 -0800

My sister in law says there are serious astrological complications. by Nathalie Graham

Huge news! This morning, Sound Transit announced that the new light rail connection bridging Seattle’s 1 Line and Bellevue’s 2 Line will open on March 28, 2026. And, yes, you’re correct, that makes the watery connection a fiery Aries.

How will this bode for one unified Seattle metropolitan area? Will the 1 Line and the Cross Lake Connection get along? Well …Seattle’s 1 Line opened on July 18, 2009, making it a Cancer. I texted my 27-year-old sister-in-law, who knows about these things and has also seen ghosts before, what to make of this astrological pairing.

“OOH, now that’s interesting,” she texted back. “Plain logic would say idiot idea.”

Uh oh.

This connection has already been mired in complication. This bridge between worlds—Seattle, a Sagitarrius (December 2, 1869), and Bellevue, an Aries (March 31, 1953) (I told my sister-in-law this and she said “that’s tea I believe it”)—was supposed to open back in 2020. Planning disputes with Bellevue (classically argumentative Aries) and 5,400 concrete track ties that needed rebuilding delayed the project by six years.

My sister-in-law said that because both Aries and Cancer are cardinal signs, these are the signs that start each new season and are often seen as the “alphas” of the Zodiac, they could “get along way better than makes sense.” I sent her their complete birth charts. “The argument could be made for balancing each others’ energies, but to be honest they probably shouldn’t date,” she responded.

Then, she followed up with, “Genders?”

“They’re technically non-binary,” I said. “These are the birth charts for Seattle’s light rail lines.”

“Well, they’re not traditionally compatible, I’ll tell you that much,” she said.

Analyzing the chart, the trouble seems to be that the Cross Lake Connection (or, as my SIL calls it, Miss Aries) has a moon in Leo which means a lot of “unadulterated confidence/main character syndrome.” That tracks. The Cross Lake Connection is the first ever instance of a light rail train crossing a floating bridge with its own power. But, this main character energy might not get in the way too much because, with Mercury and Mars in Pisces, the Cross Lake Connection “doesn’t really know how to fight” (as a Pisces with too much Pisces in my own chart, I can attest to this).

The 1 Line on the other hand—Cancer Mommy, according to my SIL— “loves and hates herself ad nauseum with all that prominent Gemini. And though she will try to scream (Mercury in Leo) it comes off more like little volcano spit ups than anything because where’s the rest of the fire in her chart?? That’s right. NOWHERE.”

Artistic renderings of the birth charts. NATHALIE GRAHAM

This could explain why our sweet little 1 Line is always starting and stopping.

So, there may be troubled waters ahead for the Cross Lake Connection. Cafe Astrology affirms this.

“The two persons are drawn towards each other, but the union can be unstable at times, largely because there will inevitably be division, probably through misunderstanding on romantic levels, which may frustrate the partner." The division could also be Lake Washington.

Of course, the 1 Line and the Cross Lake Connection are not the only two lines in this tango. Bellevue’s 2 Line is part of this as well. That line is a Taurus. “Ughhhh unfortunately queen shit,” my SIL says about that. How does that line fit into this mix?

“She would be the undisputed leader if she gave a fuck, but she just doesn’t so the Cross Lake Connection will operate as the de facto leader,” my sister-in-law says.

According to the chart at large, the Bellevue 2 Line “doesn’t really prize communication (there’s no air energy).”

The most surprising thing about this dive into the light rail line stars is that, according to Cafe Astrology, Line 1 (Seattle) and Line 2 (Bellevue) are two loving, tolerant partners. Not only that but they have “enormous physical passion. The sexual attraction is intense and insistent. They want to be around each other as much as possible. Their sexual relationship evolves with time, instead of dissolves."

The Cross Lake Connection should be bringing them together, but it could be keeping those two apart with its Aries-ness.

Slog AM: Amazon Plans More Layoffs, Minnesota Is on Strike, Hockey Podcast Busted for Queer Baiting

Nathalie Graham — Fri, 23 Jan 2026 08:55:00 -0800

The Stranger's morning news roundup. by Nathalie Graham

The Shareholders Are Hungry: They must feast on livelihoods! And bones! And they demand more! More! More! Amazon is planning to cut thousands more corporate jobs next week, according to a report by Reuters. Back in October, Amazon trimmed 14,000 jobs. The plan, supposedly, has been to cut around 30,000 jobs. Why? Not because of artificial intelligence, or earnings, but "culture," as per CEO Andy Jassy. Too many people? Too much bureaucracy. Sorry, tech brethren.

Save the Date: Sound Transit is going to announce when it's going to open its Crosslake Connection and knit together the spine of the 1 line with the east side 2 line. They'll make that announcement at 10 a.m.—which is in the future at the time of this writing. I will update this if I remember.

Two Hikers Dead on Mount Rainier: Two backcountry hikers on Mount Rainier were reported missing earlier this week. Rangers found them, both dead, on Wednesday.

Timber: A falling tree on Lena Lake Trail in the Olympics hit and killed two women in their 70s.

ICE Out Act: Down in Olympia, Rep. Tarra Simmons, D-Bremerton has introduced a bill that would bar anybody who became an Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officer during Donald Trump's second term from ever becoming a law enforcement officer in Washington. "I don’t want people that are trained in that culture to come and infiltrate our culture," Simmons said. Rep. Shaun Scott, D-Seattle, is the only other sponsor of the bill.

The Weather: Another crisp, sunny day. Meanwhile, seemingly everyone else in the country is going to get rocked by a dramatic winter storm. Texas and Oklahoma are preparing for snow! The storm will stretch from the southern Rockies up through New England. You know who is not included in that? Us. It's so lonely in this mild winter. Though, maybe I should be grateful. Dozens of states have issued states of emergency in advance of the oncoming storm.

White House Uses AI-altered Photo as Propaganda: The Justice Department arrested demonstrator Nekima Levy Armstrong for the crime of interrupting a church service in St. Paul, Minnesota because of the pastor's alleged ties to ICE. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem posted a photo of Armstrong's arrest to X. In it, Armstrong looked calm, composed, stoic. Later, the White House posted its own photo showing Armstrong open-mouthed sobbing, tears streaming down her face. The picture was manipulated with generative AI tools. In a response to questions about the doctored photo, Kaelan Dorr, the deputy communications director for the White House, said, “Enforcement of the law will continue. The memes will continue.”

This is the first example I’ve seen of an American government using AI to meaningfully misrepresent actual events with the intent to deceive the public. We are at Stalinesque levels of propaganda.
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/past-the-b...

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— Don Moynihan (@donmoyn.bsky.social) January 23, 2026 at 6:23 AM

There's a Big Game This Weekend: The Seahawks will play in the NFC Championship game in Seattle on Sunday. As the old adage goes: Fuck the Rams.

Minnesota on Strike: The Day of Truth & Freedom general strike is on in Minnesota this Friday. To protest the ICE killing of Renee Good, Minnesotans are participating in a "no work, no school, no shopping" blackout. It's been endorsed by the Minneapolis City Council. Businesses around the state are shutting down in solidarity. The demands of the action are simple: ICE needs to GTFO, Jonathan Ross—the agent who killed Good—needs to be held accountable, Congress needs to stop federal funding for ICE, and there needs to be an investigation into the agency's actions.

JD Vance Pins Blames on Minnesota Officials: Vice President, expectant father, and couch lover JD Vance told the press that the one thing that would "lower the temperature" in Minnesota is if local officials cooperated with federal law enforcement by "helping ICE identify and arrest violent criminals so that the operation could be more targeted," as The Guardian reports. In fact, the federal government suspects Minnesota officials are conspiring to impede federal efforts in the state. The US Justice Department subpoenaed local officials like Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz this week to investigate these conspiring claims. Walz called it "political theater."

Good's Autopsy: Renee Good's autopsy—which was commissioned by her family—showed she was shot four times. Once in the forearm, once in the right breast, and once in her head near the left temple. That bullet exited through the right side of her head. She also sustained a graze wound. Why the fuck did that man shoot her at close range four times?

Everyone Has a Role in Resistance: A Minnesota man offered up his screen printing talents and studio to help stand up to ICE.

You don’t know your role yet maybe, but we are all finding out just what we have to offer.

In Minneapolis, one man knew immediately what he could offer and said “Bring me your clothing”.

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— LorennaCleary.bsky.social (@lorennacleary.bsky.social) January 22, 2026 at 6:57 PM

Deuces: Trump has officially pulled the US out of the World Health Organization since the organization is, as he says, "straying from its core mission." That's surely a sign of our country's good health, right?

Good News for Brainrot: TikTok finalized a deal to create an American entity, a move that circumvents the national security concerns that threatened a ban of the app. US investors in the new joint venture include Oracle, Silver Lake, and MGX. President Donald Trump praised the deal, thanked China's President Xi, and said he hopes, "that long into the future I will be remembered by those who use and love TikTok."

Hell Is Also Elsewhere: Wildfires are raging in Chile. They've gobbled up record 45,700 hectares of forest which is the equivalent of a 176 square miles. The fires have killed 21 people so far. While firefighters are trying to stop the blazes, people are trying to hurt them. There have been two attacks on firefighting brigades—one of which included gunfire (it's unclear why they were attacked). Plus, arsonists are having a field day. At least 70 people have been arrested for setting or attempting to set new fires this fire season.

A Food Review: Have you seen the ads for the new Applebee's cheeseburger sitting open-faced in a pile of cheese? This man has. "The O-M-Cheeseburger, the purest distillate of Americana yet produced."

Queer Bait: The straight ex-hockey player brothers behind the hockey podcast "Empty Netters" are in hot water after publicly praising the steamy gay hockey show Heated Rivalry but bashing it in private. Their episodes praising Heated Rivalry have hundreds of thousands of more streams than their regular content. The hosts, realizing the grift at their disposal, started hawking Heated Rivalry t-shirts. Too bad they actually hate the show.

A Song for your Friday: Marty Supreme gave me a new appreciation for this song. Sad that the soundtrack was snubbed from the Oscar nominations, but ya can't win 'em all, right? Which is probably one of Marty Supreme's themes.

Six Seattle Schools Sheltered-in-Place After Unconfirmed ICE Activity

Vivian McCall — Tue, 20 Jan 2026 15:09:00 -0800

At least six schools sheltered-in-place after these unconfirmed reports. by Vivian McCall

At least six Seattle public schools sheltered in place after unconfirmed community reports of ICE activity in the city’s South End.

The confirmed schools included Mercer International Middle School, Cleveland STEM High School, Maple Elementary School, Dearborn Park International Elementary School, Beacon Hill International Elementary School, and Aki Kurose Middle School, according to Seattle Public Schools Chief of Staff Bev Redmond.

Redmond says several schools sheltered-in-place after these unconfirmed reports. Sheltering-in-place is different from lockdown—while exterior doors are locked, students are free to move between classrooms. The decisions were made on a school level and out of an abundance of caution, Redmond says.

Some schools may have stopped sheltering-in-place, while others will continue until the end of the school day. Redmond says the district is working to confirm additional details, and compile a list of the schools that sheltered-in-place.

Seattle Public Schools Safety and Security staff have been on site throughout the day and have not seen ICE. Staff remain on alert, Redmond says.

The Stranger has asked the US Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement if agents are in the area. The department has not responded.

School Board Director Joe Mizrahi says the potential of ICE activity was treated like any other threat to student safety, which, unfortunately, most students have experienced and run drills for all the time.

“But ICE is a pretty unique threat and we are in such a fast moving environment [that] we need to push to have a more clear protocol and make sure that teachers, students, families, and community understand it. Because there is a lot of the same and a lot different.”

Port Commissioner Toshiko Hasegawa, who is running for King County Council District 2, said in a statement, “No one–no child, parent or educator, deserves to live in this kind of chaos and fear.”

Hasegawa first heard the reports of the shelter-in-place order from a friend with a child at Cleveland High School. Hasegawa’s children attend a daycare just blocks away. Hasegawa wants to see childcare centers partner with SPS to send out alerts to families if anything like this happens again.

But, she cautioned against spreading inaccurate information.

“As always, we must balance the need to keep our community members safe against the risk of causing undue fear or spreading misinformation,” Hasegawa said in a statement. “I will continue to share information as I receive it, and I’ll always take reasonable steps to verify any reports before I share them on my platforms.”

Texting from a hearing for the farm worker bill of rights and immigrant worker notification bills in Olympia, State Sen. Rebecca Saldaña, who is running for the same seat as Hasegawa, wrote that the shelter in place has been lifted at Cleveland STEM High, and her daughter, a student at the school, joined students across the district to protest ICE “trying to intimidate our children while they should be focused on learning, targeting our children when their hard working parents are at work.”

The Stranger was unable to confirm with Cleveland STEM High that the shelter-in-place had been lifted.

Saldaña continued: “It is heartbreaking and maddening that kids and teachers had to shelter in place out of fear that they could be targeted by ICE. I'm thankful to Seattle Public Schools for their quick action to put families first.”

Seattle City Councilmember Eddie Lin, who represents District 2, writes in a statement that “schools should be safe, welcoming places for all, and it is heartbreaking that ICE is now creating such intense fear in schools. ICE's activities are immoral, unconstitutional and antithetical to our democratic ideals. This is another dark stain in our nation’s history and those responsible must ultimately be held to account. We all have a moral duty to resist this tyranny.”

This article has been updated with additional detail since its original publication.

Civil Rights Nonprofit Director Imraan Siddiqi Wants to Represent Legislative District 32

Nathalie Graham — Mon, 19 Jan 2026 08:30:00 -0800

Sitting at Shoreline Diva Espresso, Imraan Siddiqi looked tired. Diva down? Not this diva, who wore a shirt with the words “I know my rights” inside an outline of Washington State. by Nathalie Graham

It has already been a long year for Imraan Siddiqi, the executive director of the civil rights nonprofit Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) Washington, which is working to protect immigrants from being sucked into the gears of Donald Trump’s administration. Sitting at Shoreline Diva Espresso, he looked tired. Diva down? Not this diva, who wore a shirt with the words “I know my rights” inside an outline of Washington State. It’s a mantra pivotal to his work.

That morning, CAIR had achieved the culmination of three weeks’ worth of effort, getting a Palestinian immigrant out of the Northwest Detention Center on bond. The man had been detained the day after Christmas, when CAIR was on a holiday break. No matter. Siddiqi, at home with his family, picked up the phone and jumped into action.

He called CAIR-WA’s four lawyers and directed a team member to drive out to Auburn to comfort the man’s wife, who was alone with their newborn. In the weeks leading up to the man’s bond hearing, Siddiqi sent community members and religious leaders to sit with him, to make sure he was less alone.

Three weeks later—“Imagine how long those weeks were for him,” Siddiqi says wearily—the man could finally go home. Siddiqi showed me the video on his phone of the man’s release that morning. A woman greeted him outside a chain-link fence. “Happy New Year,” she said, embracing him.

It’s this kind of work, and the prospect of helping people on a grander scale, that makes Siddiqi want to run for office. He wants to be the representative for Legislative District 32, a seat already held by a Democrat, Lauren Davis.

“I have nothing against the incumbent,” Siddiqi says, “but I feel that there is a shortfall in terms of leaders who have failed to meet this moment, to stand up as our communities are being ravaged by ICE.”

Siddiqi is not shy about challenging Democrat incumbents, either. In 2024, he tried to unseat Rep. Kim Schrier (WA-08), who he felt hadn’t stood against Israel’s war on Gaza. She crossed a line when she voted to censure Rep. Rashida Tlaib, the only Palestinian member of Congress, he says. Siddiqi believed running against Schrier could “change the narrative on the genocide” and show “that there are voices out there who are going to stand up.”

Siddiqi didn’t make it past the primary, but he’s feeling optimistic this time. He pointed to Zohran Mamdani’s win in the New York City mayoral race, and Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson’s razor-thin triumph over Bruce Harrell.

“There has been an energy shift in this country within this last year,” Siddiqi says. “Young people will turn out [to vote] if you have people who are willing to stand on business. We don't want the same corporate Democrats occupying these offices for decades and not moving the needle at all.”

Davis has been in office eight years and isn’t the picture of a corporate Democrat. She’s pushed for progressive taxation legislation and drug decriminalization in Olympia (which is why we’ve endorsed her so many times). However, recently, she’s backed off some of her progressive ideals. Just this week, she broke ranks with Democrats to oppose a bill that would allow for the release of three-strike offenders currently serving a life prison sentence if any of the strikes occurred while the offender was a juvenile. The bill coincides with a 2012 Supreme Court ruling that found life sentences for juvenile offenders to be cruel and unusual punishment and a 2018 Washington State Supreme Court ruling that upheld the same sentiment. She expressed her “alarm” on conservative radio host Jason Rantz’s show. Last year, she hand-wrung over the public health implications of allowing retail cannabis stores to operate within Lynnwood’s city limits.

“I'm just the strongest candidate,” Siddiqi says.

All his life, he’s had to explain himself, to educate his peers about Muslims. Growing up in Auburn, Alabama, and Atlanta, Georgia, he and his family were often the only Muslims around.

He felt this kind of activism was what he was meant to do, but in 1999, he came to a crossroads. His older brother, who was starting to take over the family jewelry business, was in a horrific car accident and lay comatose in a hospital bed. Siddiqi, a college student, knew someone would have to support his parents. His brother survived. But by the time he’d mostly recovered, Siddiqi had dropped out and taken over the business.

Two years later, the Islamophobic fallout of 9/11nudged him back toward activism. He penned op-eds. He got his degree, and an MBA. In 2010, shortly after opening a coffee shop in Phoenix, Arizona—called “Where You Bean?”—he joined a mostly defunct chapter of CAIR. Six years ago, he moved north to lead our state chapter.

CAIR mostly fights anti-Muslim discrimination, but after Afghan refugees fled their collapsing country for the US in 2021, Siddiqi knew the organization would have to change.

“There was going to need to be a deeper integration of immigration law into what CAIR Washington was doing,” Siddiqi says. “It initially started with evacuees from Afghanistan, refugees who are coming here and helping them either reunite with their families or start their new life over here.”

It’s come in handy quite a bit since. Given, you know, everything.

So, Siddiqi is running for office to help more people with his expertise.

His biggest focuses when he gets into the legislature will be affordability and protections for immigrant and nonwhite communities. His platform is still fuzzy.

Recently, CAIR-WA has been helping local Somali immigrants who have been threatened by right-wing misinformation campaigns. Many have had their businesses and personal information doxxed, or exposed online. Siddiqi would like to beef up protections against doxxing—that is, people targeting others by publishing private and identifying information online. That could help the Somali community and anyone protesting ICE. In 2023, the legislature passed a bill allowing anyone who was harmed by doxxing to sue a doxxer. Siddiqi would like to see those protections for doxxing victims go further. He didn’t explain how.

As far as affordability goes, Siddiqi wants to reduce costs. How? Also unclear. When asked, he offered one idea: starting with the exorbitantly wealthy.

“I'm very passionate about holding billionaires accountable,” Siddiqi says.

His business background means he gets the whole economics thing. “Income inequality is the gulf that is growing exponentially,” he says. (The real Gulf of America.)

He supports the new millionaires tax that’s being talked about in the legislature. Gov. Bob Ferguson has championed a 9.9 percent tax on income over $1 million. There’s also talk at the state level of pursuing a broader income tax. Siddiqi wouldn’t say outright whether he supported that, fearing it could be a “hot button issue” that would turn voters off.

“That is something that, if it reduces other areas of taxes, we should definitely explore,” he says of the income tax. “Getting a vibe from our voters is going to be extremely important.”

Mostly, it’s about bringing change to Olympia, especially when it comes to protecting people against ICE.

“I'm going to push all these people, whether it's the attorney general, whether it's the governor, [to] act on the behalf of these people who are impacted by this fascist administration,” Siddiqi says.

Stranger Suggests: Video Game-Inspired Dream Pop, a Hopeful Play For These Hopeless Times, and a Pistachio Sundae with Black-Currant Sauce

Audrey Vann — Fri, 16 Jan 2026 12:30:00 -0800

One really great thing to do every day of the week. by Audrey Vann MONDAY 1/19

Crushed with Swinging

See Crushed at Baba Yaga on Monday, January 19. BEN RAYNER

(MUSIC) Crushed leans into the video-game aesthetic—titling their debut EP extra life and their more recent full-length no scope—but that doesn't mean they make video game music (aside from a few glitch-pop moments). Singer Bre Morell provides bold, powerful vocals as Shaun Durkan layers beats, samples, and occasionally his own voice to create atmospheric, electronic-influenced dream pop. It's experimental and genre-bending, but still incredibly accessible. The duo met online while sharing their love for '90s alt-radio hits, and they now record out of different cities: Morell is based in Los Angeles and Durkan calls Portland home. Last fall, Paste Magazine named Crushed as "The Best of What’s Next," describing their songs as the perfect combination of "lyrics that come from a place of real despair and struggle and doubt; a trip-hoppy beat, beautiful atmosphere, and simple, lazy guitars; a metamorphic, surging finale." Portland-based artist Swinging opens the show with their experimental and ethereal alt-folk. (Baba Yaga, 8 pm, 21+) SHANNON LUBETICH

TUESDAY 1/20

Publish Your Valentine in The Stranger!

Declare your love in The Stranger's February Issue! MS

(LOVE) Love is in the air! Grocery store shelves are lined with boxes of chocolates, and people on social media are debating whether or not chalky heart-shaped candy actually tastes good. (YES, AND I WILL DIE ON THAT SUGAR MOUNTAIN.) Valentine’s Day is upon us, and we’re filling our February issue with hundreds of your love notes! Just head over to thestranger.com/valentines and spill your heart in 150 characters or less. And new this year: The first 20 people to purchase a one-year subscription to the print edition of The Stranger get a special super-sized valentine! Just buy your subscription here, and then forward your receipt to valentines@thestranger.com using the same email address you used when submitting your valentine message. We'll display your declaration of adoration in larger font with an extra cute design to make it unmissable to your honey bunny/baby poo/sweetie pie. Yay, love! Get them in by January 23 for print, and February 14 for online. MEGAN SELING

WEDNESDAY 1/21

The Heart Sellers

See 'The Heart Sellers' at Seattle Repertory Theater through February 1. SAYED ALAMY

(PERFORMANCE) So, you might not know this, but everything is terrible right now. The federal government and its goons are upending the spirit of America. They’ve tipped over the melting pot and hawked a loogie into the dregs that remain. The American dream is now a polymarket bet that you’ll never win. The new play at the Seattle Repertory Theater, The Heart Sellers, tells the story of the immigrant experience at a time when America was finally opening its doors to people outside northwestern Europe. There is hope in this play, and there is sadness. In it, two women—one from Korea, one from the Philippines—find friendship when they need it most—on Thanksgiving in 1973. The whole play takes place with two characters in one apartment. The Heart Sellers strikes a chord for American immigrants and lets those of us who aren’t strangers in a strange land step inside their shoes (or house slippers) for a spell. Plus, the acting is phenomenal. (Seattle Repertory Theater, 2 & 7:30 pm) NATHALIE GRAHAM

THURSDAY 1/22

Yarn/Wire, Yiğit Kolat, and Yonatan Ron

(MUSIC) The sound of avant-garde classical ensemble Yarn/Wire is in the name—fuzzy, fibrous threads interwoven with scratchy, metallic chords. Founded in NYC back in 2005, the adventurous piano/percussion quartet pushes the boundaries of contemporary music with their annual Currents project, which serves as an incubator for innovative experimental music. While their music can be unconventional, the pianos maintain a sound within the classical music realm that is accessible to the general public—meaning, yes, you can bring your parents or grandparents to this without fearing their judgment or discomfort. This is the relaxing kind of experimental music, not the chaotic kind. (Meany Hall, 7:30 pm, all ages) AUDREY VANN

FRIDAY 1/23

The 2026 Annual Disabled List Comedy Festival

(COMEDY) Now, more than ever, we need to laugh. And this week, the fourth annual Disabled List Comedy Festival is giving us several opportunities to do just that, with five days of stand-up performances and a variety show starring some of the country’s most hilarious comedians. The Disabled List was co-founded by Kayla Brown and Dan Hurwitz (one of The Stranger’s Champions of Comedy in 2024), and this year’s festival features notable headliners including Hayden Kristal (I hope she brings her dog Creatch!), Comrade Tripp, Derek Shen (another Champion of Comedy alum), and Tina Friml, who so perfectly balances comedy and her experiences as a person with cerebral palsy that when Stranger contributor Mindi Lind interviewed Friml in 2024, she wrote, “This magical unicorn has broken through the impenetrable wall between prime time and the disabled experience, delivering lines so smart, so cunning, so potently real that entire universities have spent decades trying to distill these ideas into hundred-page dissertations.” You cannot lose—pick any show from their stellar line-up and go laugh until your tummy hurts. (Jan 22–25, various venues) MEGAN SELING

SATURDAY 1/24

Judy Collins

(MUSIC) After deep-diving into the catalogs of legendary songstresses like Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell, and Carole King, I finally found my way to the discography of Judy Collins. I was already aware of her iconic voice, but given the number of her albums in record store dollar bins, I did not expect her exploration of different genres. Her music is not simply straightforward vocal pop, but swims around trad-folk, country, and jazz, incorporating the occasional experimental flourish (such as the ethereal ocean sounds in “Farewell to Tarwathie.”) Collins has released and collaborated on over 50 albums in her lifetime, with additional career successes as an author, filmmaker, social activist, guitar designer, and record label founder. She’s also been gigging for over 50 years, so show up and make this stop in Seattle a memorable one for her. (Jazz Alley, 7:30 pm, all ages) AUDREY VANN

SUNDAY 1/25

Devour a Deep Sea Sugar and Salt Ice Cream Sundae at Milk Drunk

Get it before it's gone! COURTESY OF MILK DRUNK

(FOOD & DRINK) Deep Sea Sugar and Salt serves up some of the fattest, most indulgent slices of cake in the PacNW. Milk Drunk sells some of the funnest soft serve sundaes and cones—dipped in and covered with toppings like butterscotch hard shell, Fruity Pebbles, and cinnamon streusel—in the city. Together? Fuck. I knew this collaboration was going to be good, but I did not expect it to be so delicious that I can say with certainty that it will remain on my personal top 10 list of best things I ate in 2026. And it’s only January! A mountain of pistachio and black-currant soft serve is smothered with a tart black currant sauce, rich pistachio butter, and a shortbread crumble that makes all the flavors pop. Because it’s a limited-edition collab—Milk Drunk hosts different sundae chefs every month—Sunday, January 25, is your last chance to try it. Don’t miss out. (Milk Drunk, noon–9 pm) MEGAN SELING

Prizefight!

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Slog AM: Women Don't Want to Work at SPD, Trump Has the Nobel Peace Prize Now, ICE Teargassed Six Children in Minneapolis

Nathalie Graham — Fri, 16 Jan 2026 09:01:00 -0800

The Stranger's morning news roundup. by Nathalie Graham

911 Calls from Good Shooting: The New York Times obtained the 911 calls and first responder reports from the day an ICE officer shot and killed Renee Good. The first ones came in at 9:38 a.m., moments after Good was shot. “There’s 15 ICE agents, and they shot her, like, because she wouldn’t open her car door,” one caller reported. According to the Times, Good sustained two gunshot wounds on the right side of her chest, one on her left forearm, and a possible fourth gunshot wound on the left side of her head. She was not breathing, but had an irregular pulse when paramedics arrived at 9:42 am.

Video Analysis Confirms What We Already Knew: The NYT analyzed videos from Good's killing and determined that she did not run over her killer, ICE agent Jonathan Ross, will her car.

Congress Will Give Us Money After All: Despite Donald Trump's attempts to cut deeply into the spending of a new federal funding package, a bipartisan effort in Congress kept things mostly intact. The three-bill package will funnel money toward energy and water projects, scientific research, weather programs, and more. It includes $5 billion for Washington state projects like cleaning up the Hanford nuclear site, salmon recovery efforts, and a dam on the Green River that won't hurt fish. “I said I would tear up Trump’s budget and write a new one—and I did,” Sen. Patty Murray told the Seattle Times. "These are not the bills I would have written on my own; they are the result of tough bipartisan negotiations with Republicans who control every branch of government. But these bills ensure that Congress—not Donald Trump—is deciding how taxpayer dollars get spent."

Sausage Fest at SPD: The Seattle Police Department is a long way off from its goal of having a recruit class that's 30 percent women by 2030. In 2025 only 10 percent of SPD's 165 new hires were women, according to Publicola. In 2024, the numbers were marginally higher with 14 percent of 84 new hires. The boys club is staying for the boys.

L8 No Longer: Mayor Katie Wilson announced one of her first executive orders as mayor will be to speed up the King County Metro line 8 bus, one of Seattle's most in-demand and unreliable routes. To fix the bus, Wilson is directing the Seattle Department of Transportation to "add bus lanes or other transit-priority infrastructure along Denny Way." Wilson's other executive order directed city departments to speed up the creation of emergency shelter and housing options to get people off the streets.

Road Rage: I-5 drivers are fuming over the Northbound Ship Canal Bridge lane closures. Sure, winnowing down northbound traffic to two lanes is a headache, but it's the southbounders who are stuck in bumper to bumper traffic. That's because the Washington State Department of Transportation has Seattle's express lanes open northbound 24 hours a day. Those headed south are pleading for a shred of express lane relief. They better get used to this—or ditch their cars—since the construction on both sides of the bridge will take two years to complete.

The Weather: Could it be...? A sunny day? Don't believe it 'til you see it, but I would not be surprised given this mildest of mild Januarys. There will be hell to pay later, I'm sure.

Is This Bad News for Your Big Game? Seahawks fans are sweating after quarterback Sam Darnold appeared on the injury report for an oblique injury ahead of Saturday's big game against the dreaded San Francisco 49ers. Darnold assured people he'd be just fine on Saturday. But, you gotta worry a little, right Hawks fans?

Sam Darnold said he felt a little something in his oblique early in practice, but said he expects to play Saturday.

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— John Boyle (@johnpboyle.bsky.social) January 15, 2026 at 1:41 PM

RIP: Alaska's third-largest political party, the Alaskan Independence Party, is dead. Its leaders announced last month that the party, which has been advocating for private landownership and against taxation since 1970, would dissolve. The party's more than 19,000 registered members will need to find a new home. But the leadership doesn't give a shit because they view its members as apathetic or confused, assuming the independent party is just an arm of the Republican party. But, some say the party was goalless and directionless since its founder Joe Vogler died in 1993. A ship without a captain. Vogler had dreams of Alaska seceding from the US and becoming its own country.

Vagrants, Misery, and Despair! Oh My! Doing important journalism, the Daily Mail sent a reporter to hang out at the 3rd Avenue and Pine Street McDonald's—or McStabby's, as they gleefully report the locals call it— and write tragedy porn about a fast food restaurant so wracked by crime it doesn't even have a door. It's written so seriously it almost feels like satire, but I know the Daily Mail and its readership were not smiling one bit.

Who's the Participation Trophy Generation Now? After a lot of whining and kidnapping a Venezuelan dictator, Trump might have actually gotten his mitts on a Nobel Peace Prize. Did he win it? No. Venezuela opposition leader María Corina Machado, who actually won the prize, reportedly gave her prize to Trump. The worst part is he accepted it, as if that counts and he now is a Nobel Peace Prize laureate (the Norwegian Nobel Institute was very clear that that isn't how this works). Machado bequeathed her prize to Trump behind closed doors with no cameras around, a rarity for Trump. Despite debasing herself, Trump still won't let Machado lead Venezuela. He doesn't believe she has the support. Sad.

FOX & FRIENDS: In spite of the Nobel Prize Committee saying you couldn't transfer your Nobel Prize to anyone, especially to President Trump, you did. Why did you do that?

MARIA CORINA MACHADO: Because he deserves it. It was a very emotional moment.

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) January 16, 2026 at 6:23 AM

Airball: An alleged point-shaving scheme to fix games ran from September 2022 through February 2025 and involved 17 college basketball players including All-American Antonio Blakeney, a man whose name I've never heard of but maybe you have. In total, 20 people have been indicted for fixing NCAA and Chinese Basketball Association games in exchange for bribes. The operators of the scheme then placed sports bets on the outcome of the games. If anyone is concerned about fairness in competition in this country they should swivel their little microscope around to focus on sports betting.

Trump Sucks: The majority of Americans—58 percent to be exact—think Trump's first term was a failure. You'd like it to be more than 58 percent, but we are surrounded by idiots. Only 36 percent of Americans think Trump has the right priorities, which is a decline from the 45 percent who thought so in the beginning of last year. His overall approval rating is 39 percent. Again, high enough to baffle me, but low enough to rankle him.

A Solution: Who cares about the bad optics when you can do whatever you want? In an interview with Reuters, Trump suggested that we shouldn't even have the midterm elections this November since he's already accomplished so much. Don't worry, he was "just joking."

Q: Americans for generations have fought and died for democracy. Are you saying the president finds the idea of canceling elections funny?

LEAVITT: Where you in the room? Only someone like you would take that so seriously

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) January 15, 2026 at 10:43 AM

More News from Minneapolis: ICE terrorized a family driving home. They were caught in the middle of a clash between the feds and protesters when ICE agents allegedly threw a flash bang and tear gas into their car that had six children in it. The flash bang caused the six-month-old baby to stop breathing and lose consciousness. The mother of the kids performed CPR on her baby while protesters poured milk into her other children's eyes to stop the burn of tear gas. Three of their six children aged six months to 11 years old were hospitalized. The mother said she didn't have the urge to protest ICE, but this radicalized her.

Community Steps Up: Mutual aid networks in Minneapolis are helping neighbors in hiding. Since ICE rolled into town in December, the church that's been a hub for grocery deliveries has given out 12,000 boxes of food to families in hiding. They have around 20,000 families registered to receive food donations.

A good read for your Friday: A very vocally anti-ICE reporter went to an ICE recruitment event to write about it. They didn't bother to look her up. She got the job.

The Heart Sellers Is Unfortunately Really Fucking Relevant Right Now

Nathalie Graham — Wed, 14 Jan 2026 16:13:00 -0800

See 'The Heart Sellers' at the Seattle Repertory Theater through February 1. by Nathalie Graham

The day The Heart Sellers premiered at the Seattle Repertory Theater, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and killed a 37-year-old woman in Minneapolis. One day later, when I saw the show, a federal agent shot two people in Portland after, court documents claim, six border agents attempted to pull them over.

For the last year, President Donald Trump has waged war against immigrants. He is destroying real people and families. He has ripped through the fabric of our country, criminalizing those who come here for a better life—the very principles America was founded on. Even before he won re-election, Trump and the Republican Party stoked the fears of its already paranoid base by magnifying the crimes of a few immigrants and inventing disgusting narratives about others. Throughout the play, I could not quiet the outside world in the Leo K. Theater.

The Heart Sellers by Lloyd Suh is a story about immigrants. Directed by Sunam Ellis, the play is beautiful, and it is sad. It centers on Luna (an electric Becca Q. Co) and Jane (played quietly, and then dynamically, by Seoyoung Park), who meet each other in a grocery store on Thanksgiving in 1973. Neither one of them is from the US. Luna is from the Philippines. Jane is from Korea. They came to the US with their medical resident husbands to escape dictators (Ferdinand Marcos for Luna, Park Chung Hee for Jane). Their husbands are working at the hospital all night. They are alone, but not only on this holiday. They are always alone. Luna and Jane recognize each other as outsiders.

Luna invites Jane up to her apartment. Jane accepts. Luna wants to do Thanksgiving. She bought a turkey but doesn’t know how to cook it. Jane, who’s been watching Julia Child, knows what to do. Except, the turkey is frozen. Cooking it will take hours. They have nothing but time.

There is a hunger for friendship and connection pervasive throughout Heart Sellers. It’s awkward at first as outgoing, bold Luna tries to coax something—anything—out of quiet and reticent Jane. Soon—after a taste of Cheez Whiz and a bottle of wine their husbands wouldn’t approve of—Jane loosens up. Personality pours out of each of them as the play evolves. They both have communist sisters! Jane likes to paint! They both watch Soul Train! It verges on manic at times. All of this has been bottled up. They have not been able to be themselvessince moving to America. Because they sold their hearts upon entering the country.

The Hart-Celler Act, otherwise known as the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, passed during the height of the Civil Rights movement is the only reason Luna and Jane could be in America. The policy abolished the National Origins Formula, the bedrock of American immigration policy since the 1920s, which reduced immigration from outside northwest Europe. Adolf Hitler gave the National Origins Formula a coveted (to, ahem, some) Mein Kampf shout-out, commending it for excluding immigrants of certain races.

Now, they are here. Every day, they’re left to wonder: Was it worth it?

Luna—prone to wild daydreams and an active imagination—tells Jane about how she always pictured the Hart-Celler Act literally, as though it was someone selling hearts on the side of the road. And that, when she came to America, waiting in the immigration line, she pictured the border patrol agents asking people to exchange their hearts in order to enter the country.

As of 1965, America truly embraced the whole melting pot thing and started welcoming people like Luna and Jane into the fold. Except, it is not so welcoming to be a stranger in a strange land.

While showing Jane her photo albums, Luna points out a picture of herself and her husband at Disneyland.

“You went to Disneyland?” Jane exclaims.

Yes, Luna says. Then she clarifies: Well, only outside Disneyland. They couldn’t afford the tickets to actually go in. But they could see the castle! And the tram! It was fantastic.

Luna and Jane and their young families are as close to the American dream as Luna was to Disneyland, but they are as far from it as Luna was from getting a picture with Mickey Mouse. It is something they can appreciate, like the country town Luna and her husband drove through, where she saw a crowd of people celebrating, a picturesque barn, and seasonal flowers. She knew she couldn’t stop and join in the fun, because she was too different. They will always feel as though they’re on the outside looking in while in America. She still fantasizes about that barn.

Together, though, it’s better. She and Jane make plans for tomorrow, for the next day. They are friends now. But their friendship isn’t a guarantee, because anything could happen. And, who are they really? This experience—this place—has changed them. They have left their hearts at the threshold of this country. Still, they envision a future. It is what is best for them and their families.

Heart Sellers, a one-act play with only two actors, is small and it is intimate. Because of Co’s nimble acting from comedic to sentimental and Park’s tender trepidation mixed with genius physical comedy, I left the theater caring for these characters. Which makes it all the more tragic to know that things seem to be trending far worse today for immigrants in this country than they were in 1973. With ICE raids, travel bans, and canceled citizenship appointments, we have put restrictions on who can dream of more. Luna and Jane were so full in that theater—they brought me to laughter and to tears—but the American dream has never felt so hollow.

The Heart Sellers plays at the Seattle Repertory Theater through Feb 1.

Week One as Seattle’s Top Lawyer

Nathalie Graham — Mon, 12 Jan 2026 11:30:00 -0800

City Attorney Erika Evans has a lot of work ahead, especially if she’s going to stick to her campaign promises of bringing back community court and addressing the backlogged DUI and domestic violence cases. by Nathalie Graham

So many sneakers and Blundstones. In a sterile lobby of the hulking Columbia Tower, next to the Monorail Coffee stand, office workers in jeans walked by. Schlubs. Breaking from the crowd, Erika Evans walked briskly from the elevators in black heels with a leather binder stamped with “Seattle City Attorney’s Office” in her hands.

It’s Wednesday, just two days after Evans was sworn in and officially took over the buzzing lawyer hive that is the City Attorney’s Office. Evans, the first Black person and second woman in the office’s 150 year history, will oversee prosecutions of criminal misdemeanors, the most serious of which are driving under the influence and domestic violence crimes. She’ll also be the city’s lawyer in all civil matters, like when big businesses sue the city for implementing any kind of progressive revenue or when the federal government attacks the city.

Evans started the week by kicking the right-wing media hornets nest. In an attempt to start untangling the mess her predecessor, Republican Ann Davison, made of the city, Evans issued a memo directing prosecutors in her office to prioritize diversion over court for drug cases in a way Davison, whose whole thing was arresting drug users, hadn’t. The plan is to work closely with the Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) program to assess options for those caught with or using drugs. A 2023-era city ordinance codified that approach—diversion over recidivism—but Davison flouted that with her own punitive policies which were unsuccessful at getting people into treatment, which Davison claimed was the point.

Evans has a lot of work ahead, especially if she’s going to stick to her campaign promises of bringing back community court and addressing the backlogged DUI and domestic violence cases. The Stranger met with Evans at a weird office lobby to ask what Seattle can expect from her in the coming days, weeks, and months.

This Q&A has been edited for length and clarity.

You hit on this during your swearing in ceremony, but let's dive in again. What are your immediate priorities for this office? Day, one week, one month, one what can we expect?

We have already told our prosecutors we're no longer doing blanket affidavits on judges. There was a big battle with one of the elected judges, Judge Puja Vaddadi, and that resulted in more cases getting on a backlog, because there's not an elected judge hearing matters.

[Editor’s note: Davison preemptively disqualified Vaddadi from hearing criminal cases. Vaddadi filed a bar complaint against Davison and Davison’s at-the-time criminal justice chief, Natalie Walton Anderson.]

And so that was something that we told our office that effective January 1, we're no longer going to be doing blanket affidavits. It's an individual basis. There is discretion we have, but we're not going to be trying to unseat elected judges through other means, just because.

And had a blanket affidavit—which broadly bars a judge from hearing cases—happened before Anne Davidson and her office had stopped Judge Vaddadi from overseeing criminal cases? Was that an action typical of the city attorney’s office?

Not in my nearly decade recollection of this office had there been a blanket affidavit. There were individual affidavits of prejudice that get filed occasionally, but to have a directive to an entire office that all these prosecutors, shall not allow [Vaddadi] to hear cases—I don't remember that happening.

Any more plans for this week that get the ball rolling?

You may have seen some stuff on the [memo I released].

Oh, yup, I saw that. But, I’d love to hear what you have to say about it.

Oh, it was simple, some people lost their minds with things we've said on the campaign trail, things I am going to deliver on, the things that I've talked about— that's important to me. It's also important that we're being good stewards of our public dollars and of public safety and essentially just directing our prosecutors that if we're getting cases for someone using or possessing user quantities [of drugs], the first approach is to make sure they're getting connected with LEAD (Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion) or some diversion.

And that's even what the law says. The ordinance says it is recommended and encouraged that people that are arrested for that get diverted. The City Attorney’s Office was just criminally charging folks and not giving them that opportunity. And the numbers that the Department of Public Defense came out with said 97 percent got that prosecution and no treatment.

So we're actually going to be following the law and making sure people have that opportunity to get connected with services and treatment. And we are saying, if there is no meaningful progress, we're really trying, and that's not happening, we reserve the right to do other methods or traditional approaches.

On that note, this memo that you put around drug use and drug possession diversion seems to have been misinterpreted.

[Laughs] Yes.

Seattle Police Department Chief Shon Barnes sent an email that overstated your memo and sent things into a tizzy. He said all charges related to drug possession and drug use would be referred to LEAD. Is that a misunderstanding? Is that incorrect?

I think [the memo] was just interpreted that [SPD] won't make any more arrests, which that's not true. He didn't say that in his memo, either. [Editor’s note: According to an internal email obtained by Publicola, Barnes wrote, “Effective immediately, all charges related to drug possession and/or drug use will be diverted from prosecution to the LEAD program.”] Officers still have the discretion to make arrests. That's something that the mayor and the chief control, we're just saying on our end that we're going to let them get diversion. And [Barnes] is just saying, also in conjunction and partnership, we're going to make sure these folks get that opportunity for diversion, too.

Would you say that Mike Solan's interpretation of your memo was correct? In case you missed it, he called the memo “an ignorant political decision to arrest offenders for open drug use.”

No, no, it wasn't. The way he put it out there there's gonna be no more arrests. It’s misinformation. Don’t believe the hype!

Just staying on this since it’s really the only news that’s happened since you’ve been in office. Sorry, about that.

You know what? Thank you for saying that. Because it's like, damn Mayor Wilson and me, can we just get inaugurated and try to get things done?

But, anyway, Councilmember Rivera sent an email to her constituents mentioning your memo and that she is really concerned about it, that she's going to watch your decision “very closely” and that in the past two years Seattle has made significant progress combatting overdoses, reducing property and violent crime, and that she doesn't want Seattle to go backwards. What is your response to that?

It seems she believed in the hype. Which was inaccurate information. I did reach out to Councilmember Rivera yesterday about this and we have a meeting on the books now. I really look forward to speaking with her, talking to her about some of the misinformation.

It seems like there's going to be a lot of resistance to policies that help drug users and poor people. How are you going to both deliver results that you mentioned on the campaign trail while fighting these narratives that people are going to leverage against you?

That's a deep question. It really touches on what I mentioned on Monday. I think back that my grandpa did, wearing a black beret, raising his fists and just being met with outrage. He got death threats. People were so angry. It was what was needed in that moment, and it stood the test of time. And so I'm putting that lens on what's been currently happening that hasn't been working.

We can go to 12th and Jackson, we can go to parts of Belltown. We need to have better, smart approaches to what we're seeing on our streets, and people are going to be angry, but I'm committed to being a good steward of public safety and our dollars, and not just saying things that sound good, but trying to actually address underlying root causes. And I say that with the backbone of someone that's been working in public safety for nearly a decade at almost all levels. Having that perspective as well is important when you've been doing the work. Evidence is in our streets right now of how the status quo has not been not working.

Going back to your priorities on the campaign trail. You talked about bringing back community court. What does it take to bring that back? And are those wheels in motion?

Yes, they are in motion. We have met with the Seattle Municipal Court. They're very excited. They want it back. We're working in partnership with the Department of Public Defense. We have folks from their office that have helped us on our transition team, so stay tuned, because I want to make sure we have a good relationship and the priorities of [community court] in conjunction with DPD, the courts, and our office. We're setting the things in motion to get it to get it back. It's going to take time.

Okay, and we’ve talked about this before, but refresh my memory: Is bringing back community court something that has to go through city council, or is that something that you have all of the levers and pulleys that you do on your own?

It's kind of mixed. From speaking with the court, it seems that we might be able to do certain things to get—not a skeleton—but something kind of there without needing all the additional funding yet from city council. That's something we're actively figuring out right now.

Another one of your priorities, speeding up these case backlogs, specifically around domestic violence and DUIs. Anything in the works for that right now?

I just got the data. We currently have about 1,300 cases that are in the backlog, which is not as high as it's ever been. [Editor’s note: When Davison took office, due to the pandemic, the case backload reached 5,000.] But considering the former city attorney dismissed and just dumped a whole bunch of cases to try to clear it, it's like a new backlog has been created now and I’m making sure that we're just being really intentional about what we're filing.

I'm meeting with our DV folks in the next week or two, and so that is a priority to making sure those cases are getting charged quickly. Same with DUIs. Another thing that is a priority this legislative session is trying to find private funding for the labs, because the toxicology backlogs do contribute to some of the delays with the DUIs. We're hoping to get things moving to deliver on those things.

Are you expecting turnover in the city attorney's office? I know your predecessor was not the most ideologically aligned with you. I don't know if that extends to the attorneys that were under her. Will they be staffing changes?

Deputy Seattle City Attorney Scott Lindsay, he's no longer staying on board. Her Criminal Division Chief, Fred Weiss is no longer staying on board, and her Civil Division Chief is no longer staying on board, so I have essentially hired a whole new leadership team.

I'm bringing on board, for our Civil Division Chief, Becca Cohen. She's coming from the Department of Justice. She's been leading the civil division of the US Attorney's Office and is someone that Attorney General Nick Brown put into that spot. She was at the DOJ for 20 years and she also identifies as a woman of color. We're bringing on board, as our Criminal Division Chief, Jenna Robert. She is coming from Nick Brown’s attorney general's office right now. And we have Alan Pyke as our communications director. He worked on Bernie Sanders campaign previously.

So, a little different from Ol’ Ann?

[Laughs] Yes.

So, this may have changed, but during the election, some public defenders came forward and were not supportive of your candidacy. They brought up concerns that, as a prosecutor, you worked against their clients and worried you wouldn’t stay true to the progressive values you championed on the campaign trail. What do you say to those people? Are you still hearing these doubts?

I'm a city attorney for the entire city. I had multiple people from the Department of Public Defense on our transition team to help lead our action items and priorities. I am all about collaborating and partnering with them, and I really want to change the culture between DPD and our office there. Historically, it hasn't been something that is a good partnership. There's always people that aren't gonna be happy. They have some great people in their office and I look forward to working with them.

You're Seattle’s first Black city attorney. What does that mean to you?

I'm thinking more so what it means for our city and what it really means for young Black and brown folks, when they see this, they think, “This is possible. This is something that we can and will also do.” And it also is something we did together as a city to make history together. It's meaningful. It's about damn time.

When we met last year when you were just launching your campaign, I got the sense that you didn't want to center your identity.

Yeah, I didn’t want to be the Black candidate.

Right, you didn't want to run on identity politics. Can you just walk me through that choice?

I know that as diverse folks, when that becomes a focal point, everything else gets missed. I needed to lean in. I'm the most qualified person. I might be the youngest out of everyone that ran. But when it came to actual boots on the ground, actual experience, I was the most qualified. That was important because I didn't want me being a Black woman, to get people thinking, “Oh, that's just the reason why.” I’m not explaining this well, damn it!

Is there room for any New Year's resolutions for you as a person who just became the city attorney?

Absolutely. I’m trying to drink more water.

Port Commissioner Toshiko Hasegawa Is Running for King County District 2

Nathalie Graham — Mon, 12 Jan 2026 08:00:00 -0800

“We can do hard things,” says Port Commissioner Toshiko Hasegawa, who just announced her candidacy for King County Council, District 2. by Nathalie Graham

Port of Seattle Commissioner Toshiko Hasegawa leaned forward over the too-small table at Avole, the Central District coffee shop on Friday. Two days earlier, an ICE agent, Jonathan Ross, had shot Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis, and the government had spent the week lying about it..

“I went to the protest last night,” Hasegawa says, dry eyed with a voice strangled by emotion. “There's so many different feelings, but what can we do?”

Her resolve strengthened. “No one is above the law,” she says, her voice echoing in the empty coffee shop. “I want to see King County arrest, prosecute, and convict Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers who should be equally as afraid that when they break the law that somebody is going to come knocking at their door.”

After four years as a Port of Seattle commissioner, Hasegawa is ready for a new job, one where she can flex her muscles on criminal justice reform, housing, and mental health access, none of which she could do at the Port. She’ll deepen the work around building up childcare services and transit-oriented development she started at the Port. Hasegawa is running for King County Council District 2, the seat Girmay Zahilay’s ascendence to King County Executive left open. Rhonda Lewis, the current District 2 council member appointed to the seat as a caretaker, will not seek election. The district spans from the University District to Tukwila, covering everything in Seattle east of I-5.

Hasegawa already has an opponent. State Sen. Rebecca Saldaña announced her candidacy last month, and brings a decade-long progressive record with her on the campaign trail. Hasegawa has an impressive resumé, filled with positions on state agencies like the Washington State Commission on Asian Pacific American Affairs and the King County Office of Law Enforcement Oversight, but only four years in elected office. She’s leaning on her ideas.

Hasegawa has a priority list that reads like a progressive politics fanfiction, because her priorities are everything. And a stacked list of local elected officials are backing her, from Seattle City Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck and King County Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda to her own dad, Sen. Bob Hasegawa and Seattle City Attorney Erika Evans.

When it comes to ICE, Hasegawa is not playing around.

If elected, she’d says she’d evaluate whether or not the King County Sheriff’s Office is complying with ICE. The Department is restricted by a King County ordinance to protect immigrants that mandates non-compliance and the state-level Keep Washington Working Act, but Hasegawa wants the King County Office of Law Enforcement Oversight to have subpoena authority to check their work. The county should know exactly what role the sheriff’s office is playing in all of this, and the office should be proactive in protecting our people from the feds, she says.“The Sheriff's Office should not hesitate to make referrals to the prosecuting attorney's office when something illegal has happened,” Hasegawa says, “and the prosecuting attorney's office should not hesitate to bring charges and try an individual who has violated the law should they have the preponderance of evidence and feel they can bring that case.” It’s one of the most specific plans for fighting ICE from a local politician in the past year.

Hasegawa set her jaw. She made strong eye contact.For her, it’s personal.

Hasegawa is a fourth-generation Japanese Seattleite. She lives in the same Beacon Hill home her grandfather bought in 1954. Years prior, he, his siblings, and his father passed through the barbed wire fences at Camp Harmony, an internment camp in Puyallup, land now used for the state fair. Later, the Hasegawas were moved to Minidoka, another internment camp in Idaho, where they slept in horse barracks. They committed no crime, and were not given due process.

“And that became the rallying cry of Japanese Americans: Never again,” Toshiko says, pausing for emphasis. “That's exactly what's happening right now.”

Hasegawa says that Japanese Americans believe Japanese Internment happened due to a lack of political leadership, Hasegawa explained. Representatives did not stand up to protect Japanese Americans. By running for this office, Hasegawa feels as though she’s fixing history. “I see my role as being the political leadership that I wish my grandparents had during World War II.”

For Hasegawa, representing District 2 wouldn’t just be about protecting her community from the tangible boogeyman of ICE. She wants to protect them from unaffordability, she says. A real concern is childcare. A mom of two, Hasegawa is paying $4,200 a month for daycare. That mounting expense led her to decide against a third child.

“I wish that I had time for hobbies, I do,” she says. “We’re too busy surviving.” Hasegawa, who has the hashtag #bossegawa in her Instagram bio, beat the drum for childcare when she ran for Port. Without her, she says, the Port wouldn’t have implemented its new navigator program for childcare which helps airport workers access programs and available subsidies or the “brick and mortar” childcare facility for airport workers now underway.

“If it's possible at the Port, it is possible at King County,” Hasegawa says. She plans to build more “brick and mortar childcare facilities” near transit corridors and wants to establish an easily-navigable portal where people can see all their childcare options and resources available to them.

Now, for the rest of everything. Hasegawa wants to build more housing. She wants to invest in community land trusts that mirror the Africatown housing development in the Central District. She wants to reimagine policing and boost diversion programs. She wants Rainier Avenue South to have a protected bike lane and a strip of grass running down the middle like “a lung.” A lung? Yes, a lung. “I would love that for us,” she says about this imagined stretch of greenery down Rainier Ave. And, she wants to put a lid on I-5.

Those last two aren’t really in her jurisdiction as a county council member—they’re more city things, but they’re on her list anyway.

“Absolutely nothing that major happens in a vacuum,” Hasegawa says. The county will need to work “mano y mano” with the city on these projects.

While a Lid I-5 feasibility study was published in 2020, there hasn’t been much movement on making that plan a reality. Maybe it just needs a strong advocate on the King County Council, she reasoned.

“I would love to see King County lean in, in a major way, and advocate for lidding I-5, that concrete scar that has divided our community, that has plagued us with noise and air pollution that has been at the center of environmental injustice conversations,” she says.

“That’s a lot of ambitious things,” I said.

“We can do hard things,” says Hasegawa bossegawa-ly.

Slog AM: Border Patrol Shoot Two People in Portland, An ICE Raid on Aurora, QAnon Shaman Enters Arizona Gubernatorial Race

Nathalie Graham — Fri, 09 Jan 2026 09:30:00 -0800

The Stranger's morning news round-up. by Nathalie Graham

Feds Shoot Two People in Portland: On Thursday afternoon, US federal agents conducting a "targeted vehicle stop" opened fire on two people in a car after the agents say the driver tried to run them over. We have heard that line before, like, maybe a day before when Immigrations and Customs Agents lied about Minneapolis' Renee Nicole Good attempting to run them over, thus allowing them to kill her. According to a Border Patrol spokesperson, the agents in Portland were targeting an undocumented immigrant and alleged member of Tren de Aragua, a gang tied to a Venezuelan prison. Trump has claimed (newly-captured) Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro directed the gang to infiltrate the US and commit crimes here.

Of course, there is no evidence. The victims were able to drive away, both wounded and found by police. They received emergency medical attention and were rushed to the hospital. Local Portland cops showed up on the scene, but the FBI is taking over the investigation. Portland Attorney General Dan Rayfield said he's launching an investigation into the shooting.

Six People Arrested in Portland Protests: After the shooting, hundreds of protests flocked to the Portland ICE facility. Protesters at times blocked the road in front of the facility. Police arrested six people for disorderly conduct.

Back in Minneapolis: The ICE agent who killed Good has been identified. In an attempt to explain the agent's actions—shooting a woman in the head, in case you forgot—the Department of Homeland Security explained that the agent had been involved in an incident in June where "a child sexual predator [was] trying to evade an immigration enforcement arrest" and "dragged" him with their car. He had to get stitches. DHS Director Kristi Noem first released that information which was enough for the Star Tribune to uncover the agent’s identity, which DHS confirmed. He is Jonathan Ross, doxxed by his own agency.

"You’re white, you won’t be any fun anyway:"ICE agents arrested Pastor Kenny Callaghan while he was protesting in Minneapolis after Good's killing. He intervened as agents were "circling" a young Hispanic woman, telling them to arrest him instead. He described an ICE agent putting a gun in his face and asking if he was afraid. He said he wasn't. The agents arrested him and threw him in an SUV. They came back several times asking if he was afraid yet. "I’m not afraid of you, and I’m never going to be afraid of you," he replied. After a while, the agents let him go, saying, according to Callaghan, "You’re white, you won’t be any fun anyway. You can get out of the car.”

Doubling Down: The Trump administration is deploying more than 100 more Border Patrol agents to Minnesota from operations in Chicago and New Orleans to Minnesota. In fact, they're pausing all operations in Chicago to send a chunk of those agents and all their nonlethal weapons up to Minnesota instead. This means they are not listening to the pleas from Minnesota elected officials urging ICE to get the fuck out of there.

Jobs: The jobs report is here. It's weak. Trump's Labor Department reported that employers only added 50,000 jobs in December, a dismal cherry on top of a dismal year for job growth. Unemployment is at 4.4 percent, which is marginally lower than November's 4.5 percent. This is the first "clean" jobs report in three months. The government didn't initially put anything out in October during the shutdown and November's numbers were impacted by the closure, too. Both of those reports were revised retroactively to show bigger declines than initially reported

The Weather: Cloudy. Maybe a chance for a sliver of sun in the afternoon if we are good.

ICE Raid on Aurora: On Wednesday, ICE agents detained people in North Seattle near Evergreen Washelli Cemetery, Seattle Police Chief Shon Barnes confirmed. Barnes said the Seattle Police Department does not have authority over federal agents, but documents all ICE incidents. In a statement, he promised that SPD was "here to keep people safe, regardless of anyone's immigration status." Mayor Katie Wilson responded to the incident in a social media video saying it is "unacceptable to kidnap people going about their lives" and that she's working with other city leaders on how to best protect Seattleites.

View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Mayor Katie B. Wilson (@mayorofseattle)

Citizenship Interviews Cancelled: Washington state green card holders are in limbo as their naturalization interviews have been abruptly cancelled without cause the last few weeks. Trump stopped accepting immigration applications from citizens of "high-risk countries" after an Afghan national shot two National Guardsmen in November. Yet, lawful permanent residents from countries not on those lists are seeing their citizenship interviews cancelled. Oath ceremony appointments, citizenship interviews, and naturalization interviews have been cancelled across the board for Washington immigrants since early December.

Coug Suit: Families of the four University of Idaho students stabbed to death in 2022 are suing Washington State University claiming the school failed to act on reports that Bryan Kohberger, the criminology student and teaching assistant at WSU who pleaded guilty to murdering the students, was stalking other students before the murders. WSU did not comment on the suit. Kohberger is spending life in prison with no chance of parole.

Iranian Leader Promises Crackdown on Protests: Protests in Iran are reaching historic levels. They started on Dec. 28 when protesters took to the streets over the sudden tailspin of the country's currency, but quickly became about much more. Protesters demanded political reform. On Thursday, the son of the exiled shah of Iran, Reza Pahlavi, called for protests. This is not a great thing for Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who is calling for a "greater crackdown" on these "vandals" and "saboteurs." He's blamed the US for fanning the flames of the demonstrations. Meanwhile, despite a harsher, militarized response, the threat of serious consequences, and a country-wide internet shutdown, more Iranians joined protests around the nation.

The scale of the protests in Iran are absolutely unbelievable. Hard to quantify, but I've seen some speculation that this uprising is more significant than the 2023 protests (themselves the largest challenge to the regime since it came into power in '79.)

(Video from @AmirMiresmaeili on Twitter)

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— Justin Ling (@justinling.ca) January 8, 2026 at 12:27 PM

A Real Sentence: The QAnon Shaman is running for governor of Arizona.

Isn't Efficiency Beautiful? An analysis from Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (Peer) shows that destructiveness of the Department of Government Efficiency's cuts. Peer estimates that DOGE's assault on the federal workforce placed 154,000 employees on paid leave and that all the paid leave cost taxpayers about $10 billion. “Spending over $10bn of taxpayer money to prevent people from working is a hell of a way to run a railroad,” Peer senior counsel Peter Jenkins told The Guardian.

A Song for You: Does this help?

Slog AM: Katie Wilson Gets Sworn In as Mayor Today, Swiss Resort Fire Kills 40, RIP to NASA's Biggest Library

Nathalie Graham — Fri, 02 Jan 2026 08:38:00 -0800

The Stranger's morning news roundup. by Nathalie Graham

Welcome Back to Reality: Happy New Year to everyone and welcome back to consuming the news to those of you who vanished from regularity and routine (which means consuming all information at all times) during the purgatory between Christmas and 2026. To everyone who couldn't fuck off, sorry about that. Today we will start answering the question on everyone's lips: Is 2026 bad yet? All I can offer you is this: I don't know, probably? Make your own assessment.

Mamdani Is the Mayor: On New Year's Day, Zohran Mamdani became mayor of New York City, the first Muslim and South Asian person to do so and the youngest in a century. And, he's the first mayor to be sworn in as a Democratic Socialist. Mamdani maintained that he would not be shying away from his Democratic Socialist priorities like making New York more affordable and focusing on improving lives for working class New Yorkers. “I will not abandon my principles for fear of being deemed radical," Mamdani said in a speech. Sen. Bernie Sanders did the swearing in while Mamdani placed his hand on a Quran. People in the crowd—which numbered in the thousands at City Hall plaza with 40,000 others gathered in the streets of lower Manhattan—started chanting "tax the rich." Now, the Mamdani era begins. The world is watching the example he sets.

Bernie Sanders publicly swears in Zohran Mamdani as NYC mayor

[image or embed]
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) January 1, 2026 at 11:44 AM

Katie Wilson Is the Mayor: It's the new year and we are all getting new mayors! Katie Wilson will officially be sworn in as Seattle's mayor in the City Hall lobby at 10 a.m today. We'll be there. The weather calls for socialist hellfire to rain down on the city in the immediate aftermath.

Just Kidding: It'll be cloudy with a smattering of rain expected throughout the day. Same old story, except the temperature is in the mid-to-high 40s in January? Wilson may be the last mayor we have before the world ends. More serious rain and wind will come this weekend.

On the Other Hand, Holy Fire: A New Year's Day fire burned up Amsterdam's 19th-century Neo-Gothic Vondelkerk church. The blaze collapsed the tower, but the church's structure is expected to remain intact. Officials still don't know the cause of the fire.

Swiss Fire Kills 40: A fire ripped through a bar at the Crans-Montana, a Switzerland ski resort, less than two hours after midnight. The flames took 40 souls and altered the trajectory of the year for 119 injured. The Associated Press reports most of the injuries were serious. Many of the victims were international tourists, most were young. And many of the dead have yet to be identified due to the severity of their burns. Officials say waiters carrying bottles with sparklers in a basement where people were dancing caused the ceiling to catch fire. Authorities suspect a "flash over" occurred, a phenomenon where a fire in an enclosed space engulfs the area in moments. A crush of revelers attempted to escape the bar, crowding the only stairway up and out. Switzerland will hold five days of mourning due to the tragedy.

SPD Arrested Man with Guns on NYE: Seattle police arrested a 21-year-old man near the Space Needle at around 7:20 p.m. on New Year's Eve. He was carrying a shotgun, pistol, and multiple rounds of ammunition near where many people were gathering for a fireworks display. (Yes, despite all that fog.) He was clad in all black and wore a red hat with "WAR" on it. Witnesses spotted him holding the partially concealed shotgun and called the cops who recovered the gun and found a handgun, which the suspect had a valid concealed carry permit for.

A Clogged Polar Plunge: Around 1,800 Seattleites dipped in the waters of Lake Washington surrounding Matthews Beach for the annual New Year's Day polar plunge. That's too many people. Just jump off a dock somewhere else and avoid the crowds if you want to do all that.

New Minimum Wage Alert: The Washington state minimum wage rose as 2026 dawned. It's now $17.13 an hour. That's 47 cents more than it was in 2025.

Weekend Light Rail Station Closures: Starting Friday at 11 p.m. until Monday at 4 a.m., Westlake, Symphony, Pioneer Square, and International District/Chinatown light rail stations will be closed. Good luck, those of you flying home this weekend. Sound Transit crews are going to work on the Automatic Train Protection system which, as the Seattle Times reports is something that "will prevent trains from encroaching on each other once the Eastside’s 2 Line crosses Lake Washington to merge with Seattle’s 1 Line, increasing train volumes." Seems important. Sound Transit estimates trains could be in service across Lake Washington by May. I'm knocking on wood.

Mercer Island Man Allegedly Kills Three Family Members: According to police, a 45-year-old man killed three of his family members and then himself in December 30 shootings at a home on Mercer Island and one in Issaquah. The man, an unemployed computer engineer, allegedly killed his wife, his disabled younger brother, then his mom, and then himself. Hours before police found the bodies, the man sent an email to friends about his firearms, informing them that "if any or all of you want to make some effort to recover my guns and associated property then you are welcome to it,” the email read. “It may require you to go into my house and see some things that you would prefer not to." Last year, the man's mother filed and won a protection order against him which required him to turn over 53 firearms to the Issaquah Police Department. The protection order was dropped three weeks ago.

Trump Threatens Intervention in Iran: Political demonstrations in Iran escalated this week when several protestors died during clashes with police. These protests, over worsening economic conditions after the collapse of the country's rial currency, is the first major protest since Iranians took to the streets in 2022 after a young woman detained for not wearing her hijab was killed in police custody. After news of this year's escalating protests, Donald Trump entered the fray, posting on Truth Social that if Iran kills more "peaceful protestors" the US "will come to their rescue." Trump ended with: "the US is locked and loaded and ready to go." It is always good to threaten war on a social media site.

A Silver Lining: One of the South Park founders, Toby Morton, bought the domain for the Trump Kennedy Center. If you go to trumpkennedycenter.org, you'll see that the "Epstein Dancers" have an upcoming performance. Apparently, Morton bought the domain back in August, predicting Trump would slap his name on the Kennedy Center.

Something to Take the Edge Off: ICYMI here is what Americans got stuck up their orifices in 2025. I have questions for whoever stuffed an apple core in their penis. I respect the out-of-the-box thinking of the woman who shoved two diamond rings up her vagina at a party because she thought they would be stolen. I don't want to know anything about the person who got a corncob pipe stuck up their ass.

Pour One Out for the Space Library: NASA's biggest library and central research hub since 1959 is closing today. The closure is part of "reorganization drive" which will see "13 buildings and over 100 science and engineering laboratories" at NASA's at Goddard Space Flight Center shut down by March. NASA will review the library's holdings over the next two months and determine what material should be stored in a government warehouse. Everything else will be "tossed away." Seven other NASA libraries have closed in the past three years. Three of those closures happened last year.

Something for Your New Year: I don't have a song for you. But, uh, how about you start the new year by perfecting your egg cooking?

Anyone Who’s Anyone Was at Frito’s Holiday Party

Nathalie Graham — Wed, 24 Dec 2025 09:00:00 -0800

Anyone who regularly finds themselves south of Madison Street and east of 17th Avenue probably knows Frito, a roving cat who does, in fact, have a home. by Nathalie Graham

On Halloween night, Meganne walked from the rain into her Cherry Hill apartment building and found a brown striped mackerel tabby cat roaming the halls, sodden and mewing. He looked like her neighbor Ruby Jean’s cat, Jorge, so she gave her a call.

Ruby Jean answered the phone. “It was 9 p.m. or something. I was at Wildrose,” she told me. Neighbors had frantically called and texted her about seeing her cat in the halls of her apartment building before. Like every other time, it was not her cat.

Meganne didn’t know what to do. She opened the door to her apartment and the cat ran in. “This wet furball goes underneath my bed, and I'm like, ‘What's going on?’” After pulling the cat out, she noticed the phone number printed on his collar and made another call.

“The person said, ‘Oh yeah, that's normal. Just let him go,’” Meganne says. “And it was raining, and I was like, ‘Okay,’ and I sort of pat him dry and let him off and that’s the story.”

A month later, Meganne got a text with a link to a Partiful invitation.

“Has my cat ever followed you home? Has he slept in your bed, eaten your food, and attempted to steal the affection of your own fur babies? If you’re getting this text the answer is probably yes. Which means YOU deserve to be celebrated.” The cat’s name was Frito. He was having a holiday party at Katy’s Corner Cafe and she was invited. So was the rest of the Central District, it seemed.

Anyone who regularly finds themselves south of Madison Street and east of 17th Avenue probably knows Frito. (Some people in farther-flung places even know Frito—he once wandered a mile and a half from home.) When you’re walking home from the Madison Safeway laden with groceries, he coils around your legs like a snake. He hangs out at Lilith Tattoo and has rolled around under salon chairs on Union Street. The baristas at Katy’s Corner Cafe know him well. He often climbs on customers and on at least one occasion has tried to snatch bacon from a breakfast sandwich.

Jenny, Frito’s owner, has only lived in the area for about two years. She moved from Bellingham, where Frito, a pandemic adoptee, roamed free despite Jenny’s best efforts. When she moved to the Central District, Frito insisted upon his outdoor lifestyle. If he’d survived Bellingham’s coyote packs, Jenny figured he could dodge the oncoming 2 bus. He’s savvy. And he quickly made a name for himself.

“A year and a half ago, I started noticing that people were calling me [saying], ‘Hey, your cat's following me down the road,’” Jenny says.

Soon, people were calling Jenny in the middle of the night. Frito was eating their cat’s food. Frito had made it onto their third-floor balcony. Frito was sleeping on their chest inside their apartment. Could Jenny come pick him up?

“For two weeks, I got a call every single night between 11 p.m. and 4 a.m. about him,” Jenny says, noting she would pick him up at any hour.Unable to live like this, Jenny bought Frito a fancy collar with a QR code. It takes anyone who scans it to his profile page. Jenny summarized the message there as: “Hey, my name is Frito. I'm gonna act like an orphan, but I actually have a loving home, and I get fed all the time. Please, let me back outside.”

“This started a crazy journey for the next year where every single day, I was getting eight to 14 text messages or phone calls and voicemails a day about either him jumping on people's backs in random locations—people walking on the street and he's just riding on their shoulders down the street—him in people's beds, in people's couches, eating their cat food on their deck,” Jenny says.

Random strangers kept calling and texting—but instead of asking her to fetch Frito, they were sending updates. Some sent her photos of themselves with Frito.

“He's all up in their business, but people love him,” Jenny says.

Jenny loved the stories. She often thought she should do something with them, but never did until she wandered into Katy’s Corner Cafe this past spring.

“I came in and I didn't know they knew Frito, and I introduced myself as the owner of the crazy cat,” Jenny says.

According to Jenny, Katy, the owner, gasped. She shut up the whole coffee shop and announced, “Everyone, this is Frito’s mom!”

The whole cafe reacted. Someone in the corner told Jenny, “Your cat is famous!”

Jenny hadn’t realized he was a public figure. So, she planned a reception to build up the community that had taken shape around him and make a cold, dark, wintery Seattle feel warm.

“I harnessed the power of Frito,” Jenny says.

Frito on his front stoop. He couldn't stay at the party for long (he's a cat). BILLIE WINTER FOR THE STRANGER

To find her guests, Jenny dove into her phone. She combed through her 183 missed calls and 40 unread texts, searching the terms “your cat” and “Frito” in her text history. She eventually sent 220 invites to those phone numbers. Around 50 people RSVP’d yes. Forty people said maybe.

On the second shortest day of the year, in the middle of yet another atmospheric river, people came to Katy’s Corner with chili and meat stew. The eponymous Katy had pushed back the cafe counter to make more gathering space. People chatted next to the espresso machine. There were plates of pecan pie squares and lemon bars abutting the window on the table where the milk and sugar usually sit. A cake bore Frito’s image. People brought white elephant gifts. They posed against the cafe’s outside wall with Frito-themed props and took pictures as the rain poured down. But mostly, they mingled.

“This is the most un-Seattle Seattle party ever,” said Ruby Jean, the owner of Frito’s dopplegänger. She wore a shirt covered in her own cat’s image. “I’m Canadian, so I can really tell you that this is not a normal Seattle thing.”

This is Ruby Jean. Guess the cat's name. BILLIE WINTER FOR THE STRANGER

“It’s kind of an overwhelming feeling,” Jenny says. “I didn’t quite realize people were going to show up in the way they did.”

Throughout the night, she watched strangers swapping stories about Frito turn to their common interests, building connection and then community.

Neighborhood cats never cease to bring joy (unless you are a local bird). They are like little pockets of whimsy traipsing across your path. Just a neighborhood over, the people of Capitol Hill recently lost their beloved neighborhood cat, Lord Byron, a year ago. He broke into homes and martial arts studios. By the end, he belonged more to the entire neighborhood than he did to just his owner. His death—and the tributes it inspired—showed how much he meant to people.

Judging from the turnout for Frito’s Holiday Party, this Central District cat may have already broken his way into this neighborhood’s heart.

Slog AM: Ferguson Has a Ferry Plan, Brown Shooting Suspect Found Dead, Don't Go to the Patrick Mahomes Steak House

Nathalie Graham — Fri, 19 Dec 2025 08:47:00 -0800

The Stranger's morning news round-up. by Nathalie Graham

Bob's Billion Dollar Boats: Gov. Bob Ferguson announced via his supplemental budget plan that he intends to buy three new ferry boats ($1 billion) and spend cash ($150 million) to keep the current aging fleet alive. It's not cheap to save the Washington State Ferry system, but, in spite of all bad budget news, Ferguson thinks it's possible through the magic of selling bonds.

Shred Season: The good news from all this weather is snow finally fell in the mountains. Crystal Mountain Ski Resort will open on Saturday after being graced with over a foot of snow. Getting to the slopes should be fun—the main route to Crystal Mountain, Highway 410, was damaged in the weather and will be operating a single lane of alternating traffic.

It's easy to forget now that we have snow, but this past fall was the warmest ever on record for the Pacific Northwest. The lack of snowpack accumulated throughout these last few months is alarming.

Speaking of the Weather: It should be chilly and dry today. Maybe we'll even see our old pal the sun again. Don't get too used to that guy, though. Rain returns Saturday.

Rachel Savage Shutters Shop: Failed Republican candidate and incense maven Rachel Savage announced her crystal shop, The Vajra, will be closing its one Broadway location in Capitol Hill at the end of this year. “We’re not really going anywhere. We’re just going virtual, baby,” Savage said. To be fair, she probably read this in her tarot cards. If anyone wants some discount candles, the store is having a clearance sale.

Oh, That Explains It: In Seattle, 32 percent of the adult population is made up of millennials. It's the most represented generation here.

Suspected Brown Shooter and MIT Killer Is Same Guy: Police found the man suspected of carrying out the mass shooting at Brown University last weekend, killing two students and injuring another nine. Police also believe the man was responsible for the killing of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor two days after the Brown shooting. They found the man dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in a New Hampshire storage facility. A Reddit tipster helped identify the man. His motives are unclear but he attended Brown University decades ago and appeared to have known the MIT professor who he allegedly killed.

The Suspect Was a Portuguese National: He studied at Brown University starting in 2000. Eventually, in 2017, he received a green card through a lottery program. Learning all of this, Donald Trump used the man's immigrant status as an excuse to suspend the green card lottery program which issues 50,000 each year to countries not well represented in the US. The suspension will likely trigger a legal challenge.

Pause for One Sec: I want to do the New York Times' faces of 2025 quiz and then I'll get back to writing the news.

Need a Last Minute White Elephant Present? Several hundred thousand files Epstein files are getting released today. They'll come in all different forms, like photographs and "other materials," according to deputy attorney general Todd Blanche. Some files will be held back to protect victims, Blanche said. That might only be temporary, though. Blanche said the department plans to release even more documents in the coming weeks.

Because I Know You Care: The Seahawks had a crazy come-from-behind victory last night in overtime against the dreaded Los Angeles Rams. They're now sitting pretty at the top of the division. Here is the weird, wonky moment that tied the game for the Hawks even though their 2-point conversion attempt failed:

THIS is how the Seahawks tied things up against the Rams:

[image or embed]
— Dianna Russini (@diannarussini.bsky.social) December 18, 2025 at 8:04 PM

That Sounds Familiar: Trump announced that next year, in celebration of America's 250th birthday, he'll be hosting the first ever Patriot Games. No, not the 1992 Harrison Ford thriller. This will be a four-day tournament where high school athletes—one boy, one girl—from each state or territory compete. Sounds a whole lot like The Hunger Games, huh? Supposedly, this will not be a fight to the death, but I guess we'll see.

Blaze It: Trump reclassified marijuana from a Schedule I drug to a Schedule III drug. This doesn't really do anything—it doesn't legalize weed or stop people from getting arresting for having it in place where it's still illegal—but it makes it easier to conduct research on the drug.

No, Really, Blaze It: But also water your tree. Or, if yours is like mine and it refuses to drink water, hope for the best?

You might be thinking, "CPSC, does a dry Christmas tree really burn that much faster than a well-watered tree?"

Friend, let's find out together by watching this PSA.

[image or embed]
— U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (@cpsc.gov) December 19, 2025 at 6:31 AM

Do You Want to Know What It's Like to Eat at Travis Kelce's and Patrick Mahomes' Kansas City Steakhouse? Well, you don't have to wonder anymore. This Defector restaurant review dives into all the weirdness at 1587 Prime, the hot new fancy steakhouse by the Kansas Chiefs superstars.

FBI Investigates Domestic Terrorism From Anti-ICE Protests: The FBI is busy conducting "criminal and domestic terrorism investigations” into anti-Immigrations and Customs Enforcement protests. A memo from Trump in the wake of far-right podcaster Charlie Kirk's death steered the FBI to stop “violent and terroristic activities” associated with “anti-fascism," according to The Guardian. Ah, yes, the domestic terrorism of checks notes fighting fascism. Anyway, anything seen as “anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism and anti-Christianity” could warrant an anti-terrorism investigation. So far, the FBI has launched investigations in 23 regions and seems to be focused on anti-ICE actions.

Is That Enough News? Okay, good. If you need me, I'll be over here learning about animal sleep.

A Song for your Friday: I like a holiday song that makes me want to cry.

Seattle Children’s Hospital Nurses on the Verge of First-Ever Strike

Nathalie Graham — Thu, 18 Dec 2025 15:31:00 -0800

Seattle Children's nurses and their union, the Washington State Nurses Association, say they don't want to strike, but the hospital, and it's anti-union law firm, aren't giving them a choice. by Nathalie Graham

For the first time in Seattle Children’s Hospital’s 118-year history, its unionized nurses are on the verge of a strike.

After going back and forth over contract negotiations since May, 2,200 nurses are holding a strike vote on December 21 and December 22. If the nurses strike, much of Seattle Children’s Hospital will grind to a halt. Children receiving specialized care—like those undergoing cancer treatment, or relying on an artificial heart and lungs to survive—would likely have to relocate to Stanford in California.

The nurses and their union, the Washington State Nurses Association (WSNA), say they don’t want to do this, but the hospital has given them no choice.

Nurses at Seattle Children's are asking for an average 10.4 percent wage increase in the first year of the contract as well as workplace improvements like three paid sick days for nurses injured during workplace violence.

Contract negotiations between Seattle Children’s and WSNA used to be collaborative. This year they’ve been aggressive. The hospital hasn’t moved forward on any of the nurses’ proposals and have held tight to a few anti-union measures.

“It’s not something any of us have any desire to do when it comes to taking care of our patients,” an acute care nurse and WSNA co-chair Kara Yates says, “The only reason that it is even on the table is because people feel like we're in a bad enough place that our patient care will be more at risk if we move forward in the direction that they would like to move as a hospital than if an acute action try to make a stand.”

What the Nurses Want

The job is difficult and nonstop, nurses say. Seattle Children’s nurses are supposed to receive two legally mandated meal breaks during their 12-hour shifts. But, because of the realities of nursing—you’ve seen a medical drama—matters of life or death can derail lunchtime.

Annika Hoogestraat, a nurse with two decades of experience at Seattle Children’s who also cochairs the WSNA, works in the Intensive Care Unit. She has to be available to her patients at all times, she says, and ends up waiving her second meal break. Often, other nurses aren’t able to cover for her.

“We have this situation multiplied by 20 nurses,” Hoogestraat says, referring to the nurses on shift at one time. “It's very challenging in order to get everybody what they legally are required to have.”

The nurses want Seattle Children’s to institute a breaking system for nurses to fix this… broken system. The hospital hasn’t agreed to the proposal yet, but it’s already paid for violating the law. When nurses sued the hospital over frequently skipped breaks, it agreed to settle for $16 million.

Nurses are struggling. Retention rates aren’t nearly as bad as they were during the thick of the COVID-19 pandemic, but they have not recovered to pre-2020 levels. They’re hovering at about 12 percent turnover among nurses hospital-wide, according to nurse and WSNA co-chair Yates.

Nurse turnover is even higher in the hospital’s Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine Unit (PBMU), the union says.. The nurses who remain have less experience; 28 percent have one year of experience, 42 percent have less than two years, and 65 percent have less than four years of experience in the BMU. Patients in the PBMU stay in rooms together and participate in group therapy, which is a lot to manage, Yates explained.

“It’s an incredibly hard job that takes nurses years to learn how to do,” Yates says.

The inexperience combined with the increase in PBMU patients due to mental health facilities closing around the region leads to more dangerous conditions for nurses. WSNA reports that 437 violent incidents occurred in the PBMU last year, out of a total of 574 incidents at the hospital. Nurses have been bitten, beaten, concussed, and sexually assaulted.

In response, the nurses are asking Seattle Children’s to provide an additional three paid sick days for nurses hurt on the job.

“What we're asking for is not an unreasonable thing,” Hoogestraat says. “These people are putting their lives on the line… and they deserve to be cared for as well.”

Hoogestraat says Seattle Children’s has denied the request because the hospital is concerned “other people will want it” and “it sets a precedent that they're not willing to accept.”

Seattle Children’s did not respond to a specific question about this, but instead said in a statement, “Nurses at Seattle Children’s are vital members of the team and play an important role in providing the highest level of care to patient families.”

Strike a (Anti-Union) Pose

For the first time in Yates’s 16-year tenure at Seattle Children’s, the hospital has been hostile in negotiations.

Yates, who has negotiated four contracts with Seattle Children’s, says the hospital is usually a partner in negotiations. Three years ago, nurses won a landmark contract with “historic” wage increases and measures to retain nurses. But this year, Seattle Children’s is fighting against contract improvements and attempting to whittle away at the union.

This go-around, Seattle Children’s hired the law firm Morgan Lewis to represent their interests. Morgan Lewis is an anti-labor, union-busting juggernaut. For perspective, Amazon hired the firm back in 2020 to fight unionizing efforts at its Bessemer, Alabama, warehouse. SpaceX, Apple, and Tesla have also hired Morgan Lewis.

“It very much feels like they came out with the idea that they were going to put us in our place,” Yates says.

The Washington State Labor Council (WSLC) has noticed this change in tactic from the hospital. April Sims, the president of the WSLC, described Seattle Children’s and WSNA as having a “collaborative relationship” for decades. “We've seen a real shift with them bringing in an outfit that's known for its union-busting tactics,” Sims says. “That is very concerning… Why Children's would choose to engage with a union-busting firm at this moment in time is beyond me,” Sims says.

Nationwide, union favorability is 68 percent—an all-time high.

Yates says Seattle Children’s first proposal baked in mandatory arbitration, rescinding nurses’ right to hold the hospital accountable in court and requiring them to settle grievances with a hospital-appointed third party. It also proposed limiting access to the nurses’ union representative, to stop deducting union dues from their paychecks like it does for benefit payments, thus gumming up the process. The hospital also wanted to turn Seattle Children’s from a closed shop to an open shop, meaning instead of only hiring unionized nurses, Seattle Children’s could start hiring non-union nurses.

WSNA was able to fight off the bulk of those proposals. But mandatory arbitration is still on the table—specifically for claims regarding missed meal and rest breaks.

“It felt like they were coming at us to keep workers in their place and remind workers that they're just a number, that they're easily replaceable, that none of us matter individually,” Yates says.

While there hasn’t been a change in leadership at Seattle Children’s that would explain this change, Hoogestraat thinks a few factors have contributed to a shift in the hospital’s tactics: First, WSNA is more active. Second, Hoogestraat believes the national political landscape has warped Seattle Children’s.

“We've been holding them accountable to a lot of things including their commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and the care of our transgender youth,” Hoogestraat says. “[Seattle Children’s] has been influenced, it seems quite heavily, with the federal changes since the Trump administration took over.”

Earlier this year, Seattle Children’s stopped performing gender-affirming surgeries for patients under 19 years old after President Donald Trump issued an executive order banning them. A federal judge blocked that executive order, nullifying it. Seattle Children’s still put those surgeries on pause. Additionally, to comply with Trump’s orders, Seattle Children’s scrubbed diversity and inclusion references from their website.

There’s also been a “real focus” on holding onto the money, Hoogestraat says. Last year, Seattle Children’s reported a gross revenue of $4.18 billion and a $1.9 billion endowment.

In an emailed statement, the hospital stated, “Seattle Children’s is committed to being a leader in total compensation (pay, benefits) in the Puget Sound region and must also prioritize financial stewardship in the face of potentially devastating economic headwinds, including significant federal and state cuts and taxes.”

What Could Be Next

The Seattle Children’s nurses have never been on strike, but they’ve gotten close.

It takes a lot to make these nurses strike. During the great Seattle-area hospital strike in 1976, the nurses at Seattle Children’s didn’t participate because of how critical their specialized pediatric care was. But they’ve gotten close. In 1967, Seattle Children’s nurses signed a petition saying they would resign unless they received a fair contract. The hospital settled the contract before that happened. Then, in 1971, the nurses issued a strike notice, but a federal mediator helped find a settlement within three hours of the strike deadline.

“It's very hard to get them to even think about the possibility of striking, but they've been pissed off enough by this process and by the stance of the hospital,” Hoogestraat says.

If the vote goes through, then WSNA will go back to its Labor Executive Council to get authorization to strike. If that happens, they’ll give the hospital at least a 10-day notice of their intention to strike, plus when it would happen and for how long. In the meantime, they’ll continue negotiating.

In a statement, Seattle Children’s writes that it remains dedicated to working collaboratively with WSNA to reach a fair agreement as soon as possible.

Levee Breached in King County

Nathalie Graham — Mon, 15 Dec 2025 15:39:00 -0800

About two hours after a levee on the lower Green River broke, bringing the possibility of a life-threatening flash flood to parts of Tukwila, King County Executive Girmay Zahilay held a press conference outside the King County Emergency Operations Center in Renton. by Nathalie Graham

“This is a very serious and emerging situation,” Zahilay said, overseeing his first emergency as executive, a position he took less than a month ago.

At 11:51am, King County issued a “GO NOW” evacuation notice for residents and businesses in the Orillia area in Tukwila, Renton, and Kent. The Desimone Levee on the Green River had failed, cutting a “v” shape into the structure and triggering a flash flood warning. The King County Department of Natural Resources and Parks had been monitoring the levee because it had shown signs of weakness after a week of historic rain. When the levee broke, crews were already on site doing repairs. It was the first levee in the county to fail, but others have shown signs of stress.

John Taylor, the director of the King County Department of Natural Resources and Parks, said they worried the damage would be more dramatic, and was relieved when he saw the small cave in.

He expects crews to finish temporary repairs on the levee in a matter of hours. They’ll keep monitoring the situation to make sure those repairs hold.

“The thing that we want folks to understand is it's not typical to have these levees have this much water behind them for this long,” Taylor said, “and so they're getting saturated, and they're starting to show the effects of that, which is why we're paying close attention to them.”

Initial reports indicated around 46,000 people were at risk. Later, that number was updated to 6,000 people as the extent of the problem became clearer. The situation hasn’t caused any injuries thus far, but is still developing.

The breach came after a week of record rainfall and flooding. Just today, Western Washington was hit with a Pineapple Express, a tropical flavor of atmospheric river. This week could bring high winds and another 5 to 10 inches of rain, raising river water levels and straining already over-taxed infrastructure.

National Weather Service (NWS) meteorologists are monitoring the storms and advising local agencies on how to proceed, said Reed Wolcott, a warning coordination meteorologist with the NWS, at the press conference. Wolcott stressed the levee failure was “one small event within a larger disaster that is still unfolding across the Pacific Northwest.”

High winds and wet soil could lead to tree falls. Rivers are straining levees elsewhere in the region. People should keep paying attention to possible emergency alerts and evacuation orders, officials say.

“As rain returns and water levels continue to rise and change in unpredictable ways, the most important action that residents can take is to please listen to experts, listen to responders and listen to law enforcement,” Zahilay emphasized.

“If you are advised to leave your workplace or your home, please follow the advice and evacuate to a safe location,” Zahilay said. Don’t drive on closed roads, don’t take unnecessary risks. Up to date information on the breach and the evacuation order can be found on KCEmergency.com.

Republican Lawmaker Wants to Kill Coroner Elections

Nathalie Graham — Fri, 12 Dec 2025 14:30:00 -0800

Rep. Jeremie Dufault says he’ll save the taxpayers money on “unnecessary” elections. Washington coroners say the bill has no pulse. by Nathalie Graham

In Washington, 17 counties elect their coroner, the person who deals with death investigations. Rep. Jeremie Dufault (R-Yakima) prefiled a bill ahead of the legislative session that would change that and make it so all coroner positions in the state are appointed rather than elected. Dufault says he’ll save the taxpayers money on “unnecessary” elections.

“Hopefully, you never meet your coroner,” Dufault says, ignoring the reality that we all will die, one day, “and, if you do, it's too late to vote for that person.”

This is a “good governance” thing for Dufault. The state coroner’s association thinks the bill has no pulse.

The cost of putting a coroner on the ballot is negligible, they say. The only place this policy could have a real impact is in Dufault's legislative district, where Yakima County had to recall its coroner because he stole drugs off dead people and then got high while on the job. That drama will lead to two elections in as many years, with the next one coming up in 2026. It’s a blanket policy to address one situation.

Since the biggest counties have appointed medical examiners, many people aren’t aware that coroners are an elected position elsewhere in the state. Annie Pillers, Whitman County’s elected coroner and legislative committee chair for the Washington Association of Coroners and Medical Examiners (WACME), believes most people are ignorant about coroners.

“People don’t understand what we do,” Pillers says. “We’re not body snatchers.”

Coroners are the people who determine the cause of death for sudden, suspicious, violent, and unattended deaths and write the death certificates that inform important county statistics. They’re responsible for talking to the families of the deceased, collecting evidence, interviewing witnesses, and ordering and overseeing autopsies. But they don’t perform them, and aren’t required to be physicians.

Washington only required death investigators to receive standard training in the last year, a result of years of WACME lobbying. Prior to that, anyone, regardless of training, could do the job.

In certain counties—those with a population of more than 40,000 and less than 250,000—coroners are elected every four years just like other elected officials. Smaller counties and larger counties can appoint a coroner or a medical examiner.

Electing coroners in those counties has happened “since the beginning of time,” according to Bill Leach, the elected coroner for Benton County and vice president of WACME. It’s a non-partisan position, but coroners still indicate a party.

“By law, you have to decide you're going to run as a Democrat, Republican, independent, or with no party preference,” Leach says. Usually, you pick the party preference that aligns with your county if you want to win, he says. That doesn’t change how coroners do their jobs, though. “We don't look in their wallet for a political affiliation.”

Leach believes elected coroners circumvent the nepotistic “good ol’ boy system” of political leaders appointing their friends instead of the best person for the job. “Elected coroners are not beholden to anybody except the voters,” he says.

Plus, “the cost to put us on the ballot is so negligible, it's not even countable,” he says.

Counties foot the bills for staff, printing, postage, mailing house costs, mileage for ballot pickup, and more. Those costs will happen regardless of whether a coroner is on the ballot. According to the Lewis County auditor, a county that elects its coroner, the cost per position in the 2022 general election was around $4,800. Skagit County, which has a much larger population and thus processes more ballots than Lewis County, spent $10,100 per position in its 2022 general election. It’s likely the same in all these mid-size counties.

Unless your coroner, say, lifts drugs off of dead bodies, snorts those drugs, lies about it, and gets caught lying. That’s is exactly what former Yakima County Coroner Jim Curtis did last year. An investigation into Curtis found he also wrongly identified a man’s death in police custody as “natural.” A forensic pathologist later changed the cause to “negligent homicide.” The victim’s family is suing the county for $50 million.

Curtis was understandably recalled, but not before going on paid leave to a rehab facility. The man appointed to fill his spot, Marshall Slight, ran in a special election for the seat this year. He’ll need to run for election again next year when his term ends.

“The taxpayers of Yakima County have spent a lot of money on hiring a coroner that could have been better spent on dozens of other things,” Dufault says.

How much? Dufault has no idea, but he’s hoping to have it in hand before the session starts, which seems a bit like putting the coffin before the hearse.

“We do want to be able to provide the relevant committees in the legislature with that information,” he says about the cost data that he doesn’t have for his bill about saving taxpayers money. For what it’s worth, Leach doesn’t think appointments would save counties much money since the hiring process would add up.

WACME would rather the legislature focus on other priorities to benefit death investigators, like designating them as first responders so they receive post-traumatic stress benefits, Pillers says. Or, funding more forensic pathologists, the people who do autopsies, to address the ongoing shortage.

“Our association does not support this bill by any, any means,” Leach says. Electing a coroner isn’t the expense here, cleaning up after a Jim Curtis-type is. “[Dufault’s] ideas are not bad, just poorly put out there. He sure is a nice guy, though.”

Slog AM: Skagit County Flood Risk Persists, a Ghost Ship in Mukilteo, Indiana Republicans Vote Against Trump Plan

Nathalie Graham — Fri, 12 Dec 2025 08:34:00 -0800

The Stranger's morning news round-up. by Nathalie Graham

Listen to the Evacuation Orders! Around 78,000 people live in the Skagit River's flood plain. While the rain has lessened, flood waters are still accumulating. The water level is rising in the river and testing the limits of a series of dikes and levees. The crest of the water should arrive in Mount Vernon this morning, a foot higher than normal. Despite officials issuing evacuation orders, many haven't left. Not to get all Led Zeppelin about it, but... some of that infrastructure is over 100 years old. The National Weather Service even issued a flash flood watch in the event the levees fail. Get outta there!

Won't Anyone Think of These 68 Miniature Donkeys? A Mount Vernon woman owns a farm of 68 miniature donkeys. They're only three-feet tall and would not fare well in a flood. She posted on Facebook asking her community for help getting all 68 donkeys out of harm's way. It is hard to evacuate with 68 miniature donkeys. The Seattle Times does not currently have an update on if she found a solution and it is, frankly, killing me.

More to Come: The rain has stopped for now, but more is on the way. Another wet storm will hit Washington on Monday.

What's next for the Pacific Northwest?

Unfortunately, another big rainstorm, fueled by an atmospheric river targeting British Columbia this weekend before it dips toward Washington by Monday. The orientation of the moisture plume will be different, putting new rivers in the crosshairs.

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— Anthony Edwards (@edwardsanthonyb.bsky.social) December 11, 2025 at 10:46 AM

Stay Away from Snoqualmie Falls: All that rain water has made Snoqualmie Falls a roaring, thundering, spectacle. But the Snoqualmie Tribe wants people to stay away until it calms down.

An Omen? You best start believing in ghost stories, Washington State Ferries. You're in one. An unlit "ghost boat" drifted through the Washington State Ferries' Mukilteo docking as a ferry was coming in. Nobody was hurt by the wayward vessel.

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Indiana Breaks with Trump: Republican state senators in Indiana broke with their party and voted down a new, redrawn congressional map that would win them more seats in the US House of Representatives. The 19 to 31 was a shocking rebuke of Donald Trump and his priorities. In recent weeks, Trump had put serious pressure (blasting them on social media) on these state senators to vote the way he wanted them to. While Trump failed here, the fact that the Indiana Senate even held a vote at all is evidence of the power Trump still holds. Many senators didn't want to discuss it since the redistricting came "outside the usual once-a-decade redistricting cycle," according to the New York Times.

Undetainable: A federal judge has ruled that immigration officials cannot detain Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the US citizen mistakenly deported to an El Salvador prison earlier this year. The Trump administration begrudgingly brought Abrego Garcia back to the US in June, but arrested him on trafficking charges later in the summer. Abrego Garcia pleaded not guilty to those charges. This newest ruling released Abrego Garcia from detention. Immigrations and Custom Enforcement agents cannot detain him again until a court conducts a hearing on the motion. He's a free man for now.

Time Magazine's Person of the Year Sucks: The coveted honor for 2025 went to... "The Architects of AI." To that I say: boo, hiss. The stock market agrees. On the same day of Time's announcement, AI-company Oracle's shares were down by 14 percent. Additionally, amid fear that the AI bubble is going to burst, "Chip makers Nvidia and AMD, as well as tech conglomerates Microsoft and Meta all fell Thursday," reports CNN. In hindsight, these gooners perfectly exemplify the year 2025.

I guess it's fitting that it's a reimagined, worse version of someone else's artwork

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— Thor Benson (@thorbenson.bsky.social) December 11, 2025 at 8:00 PM

No Corruption Here: Trump signed an executive order that blocks any state laws that limit AI and prevents states from limiting its use. Don't worry, the executive order also establishes a federal task force with the sole purpose of fighting any state AI regulations. Hell is empty and the devils are here.

Arkansas Sends Sesame Street Packing: The state is the first to sever ties with PBS after the eight-member Arkansas Educational Television Commission staffed entirely from governor appointees decided the annual $2.5 million membership dues were "not feasible.” (In previous years, the state has gotten about that much funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, but Trump took care of that.) No more Sesame Street or Antiques Roadshow for people in Arkansas. I'm sure they will become worse people because of this.

Self-Plug: Nothing to do tonight? How about you come to a science-themed improv show at the soon-to-be-dead Here-After in Belltown? Full disclosure: I'll be in it. Will I be funny? TBD. But, maybe you'll learn something from our scientist presenter who is an expert in landslides. Topical!

A Big Wall: French marine archaeologists (a real job!) found a massive undersea wall they think dates back to 5,000 BC and might have belonged to a sunken stone age city that was overtaken by rising seas. The 394-foot-long wall is off the coast of Brittany and is the biggest underwater construction ever found in the area. The marine archaeologists believe it was used as "a fish-trap or a dyke for protection against rising sea-levels." Hm, guess that didn't work out.

A Song for your Friday: I've finally gotten around to listening to Rosalía's new album "LUX." And it's a masterpiece.

Seattle Pride World Cup Match Features Antigay Egypt and Iran

Nathalie Graham — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 16:06:00 -0800

Teams from two antigay countries are playing Seattle's "Pride Match." by Nathalie Graham

The World Cup is coming to North America next year—and Seattle’s hosting a handful of games. You know, the ones Donald Trump threatened to take away because he doesn’t like our politics. Since that’s not happening, we’ll host four group stage games at Seattle Stadium (née Lumen Field) during June. Hm, what else happens in June and is a big deal? Pride.

Naturally, Seattle’s FIFA organizers, Seattle FIFA World Cup 2026 (SeattleFWC26), decided we should host a Pride Match to celebrate LGBTQ+ culture and soccer. It’s the world’s biggest stage—2.9 billion watched 2022’s tournament—so this was an opportunity to showcase what Seattle’s all about.

SeattleFWC26 will have colorful rainbow art for the occasion (see the finalists for the art competition here) and gay celebratory activities outside the match, too.

Mayor-elect Katie Wilson is hyped about the opportunity to showcase Seattle Pride. “FIFA World Cup is coming to Seattle, and we are excited to be a part of the global celebration," Wilson wrote in a post. (Also, did everyone see her other soccer post of her juggling?) "With matches on Juneteenth and pride, we get to show the world that in Seattle, everyone is welcome. What an incredible honor!"

It sounds pretty good. Except, by the bad luck of the draw, the countries playing in that June 26 game criminalize homosexuality.

They couldn’t have known which countries Seattle’s game would feature. The World Cup draw solidifying the schedule was only last Friday.

Belgium vs. Egypt on June 15
USA vs. Australia on June 19th
Qatar vs. TBD (whoever wins the Union of European Football Associations playoffs between Bosnia and Herzegovina/Italy/Northern Ireland/Wales) June 24
Egypt vs. Iran on June 26
Unknown contenders will face off in a Round of 32 match on July 1
Unknown contenders will face off in a Round of 16 match on July 6

Egypt and Iran will be squaring off for the Pride match. In Iran, the maximum punishment for homosexuality is death. Egypt uses morality laws to quash LGBTQ+ rights and relationships.

Neither are happy. Earlier this week, the Egyptian Football Association sent a formal letter to FIFA “requesting LGBTQ+ ‘Pride Match’ celebrations at one of their 2026 World Cup matches do not go ahead.”

The letter stated that “information had been circulating indicating the local organizing committee’s decision and plan to hold some activities related to supporting (homosexuality) during that match, and that it completely rejects such activities, which directly contradict the cultural, religious and social values in the region, especially in Arab and Islamic societies.”

According to ESPN, the president of Iran's Football Federation, Mehdi Taj, said, “Both Egypt and we have objected, because this is an unreasonable and illogical move that essentially signals support for a particular group, and we must definitely address this point.”

Both countries plan to complain about the Pride Match at a FIFA Council meeting in Qatar next week.

There’s no easy fix. Egypt is playing Belgium on the 15th, and on the 24th, Qatar—another country that criminalizes homosexuality—is playing whoever wins the Union of European Football Associations playoffs between Bosnia and Herzegovina/Italy/Northern Ireland/Wales. That leaves USA vs. Australia on the 19th, but that’s already the Juneteenth match.

Hana Tadesse, the vice president of communications for SeattleFWC26, indicated the group would still celebrate the Pride Match as planned.

Over email, Tedesse writes that football had “a unique power to unite people across borders, cultures, and beliefs. The Pacific Northwest is home to one of the nation's largest Iranian-American communities, a thriving Egyptian diaspora, and rich communities representing all nations we're hosting in Seattle. We're committed to ensuring all residents and visitors experience the warmth, respect, and dignity that defines our region."

The Pride Match is not an official FIFA event anyway, so there won't be any celebrations inside the stadium. FIFA controls that realm. They don’t allow political flags, but flags supporting “sporting and social symbols” are okay.

The crowd can wave as many rainbow flags as they wish, contrary to how Qatar ran its World Cup in 2022, when it defied FIFA rules and banned any fans or players from wearing rainbow garb for homophobic reasons. FIFA told Qatar to knock it off.

Not everyone is going to be happy with the Pride Match. But, not everyone was happy with the last World Cup either when Qatar forced migrant workers to build its stadiums. Many people in other countries complained about that, but then their countries still played in the Cup.

It’s unclear how the complaints will be received, but SeattleFWC26 is holding firm.

“There’s no world in which outside pressure would force this to change,” she says in a phone call.

Sen. Rebecca Saldaña Is Running for King County Council District 2

Nathalie Graham — Tue, 09 Dec 2025 16:12:00 -0800

It’s Not a Demotion

by Nathalie Graham

King County Executive Girmay Zahilay’s county council seat has barely cooled, and next year’s election is already on. Washington State Sen. Rebecca Saldaña (D-Seattle) announced—first at a private event Sunday, then officially on Monday—that she’s running.

The seat will be wide open in the November election because Zahilay only considered appointees who would “care take” the position, not seek election for the seat.

Saldaña started her career as a politician by way of the King County Council. Back in 2016, the council appointed her—then the executive director of racial justice advocacy organization Puget Sound Sage—to fill Pramila Jayapal’s seat after she peaced out for Congress. She became the only woman of color in the senate. From that first session, Saldaña made her name as a bold progressive. She’s won workplace protections for farmworkers, ride share drivers, and strippers. She helped shepherd the Climate Commitment Act and the Paid Family Medical Leave program. Currently, she’s banging the drum for more progressive revenue—one she’s been pounding for years and that’s gotten her results like the state’s capital gains tax. In short, she is really good for the state senate.

But, after 10 years in the legislature as the poster child for progressive policy-making—and a brief moment running for commissioner of public lands—Saldaña wants to trade Olympia for somewhere closer to home.

“A lot of people think that people come to the county to retire, because it's not as high profile,” Saldaña says.

She says she’s not doing that—even though being on King County Council will let her play on the softball team called the Rebels she had to abandon in North SeaTac when she started working in Olympia. Ten years without softball! “I finally found the fall ball, and I was able to do the league this fall,” she says. Okay, nine years.

But no, it’s not about softball, that’s just a perk. And it’s not just that she wants to ditch the senate after a decade.The real draw to the county council for Saldaña is that she’ll be able to effect change more directly.

Saldaña says counties in Washington have dragged their feet in ways that have limited some legislative wins. “ Counties have not been progressive in how they show up in Olympia, and have often been really a challenge,” Saldaña says. Some of those legislative areas are in public safety and behavioral health. She says part of improving behavioral health systems includes beefing up those services in King County jails. “No one should lose their life when they're in our custody,” she says, citing the King County jail system where people keep dying in custody. A bill she sponsored last session created a statewide board to “improve jail conditions, transparency, and accountability.” It died in committee.

Plus, being on the council will allow her to be closer to the people her policy-making impacts.

At the state, she’s worked on policies to protect people, especially immigrant communities from Trump. Being on council would take it a step further.

“Being closer to my community at this moment is something that I think I need for my own heart,” she says. Together with the other Latino members of the council, Jorge Baron and Teresa Mosqueda, Saldaña says she’ll use her position “to provide as much protection as possible for the community.”

Just being local would add a whole dimension to Saldaña’s efforts, especially around supporting workers. County council members can show up to strikes, leverage their roles, and encourage private sectors to support worker rights, Saldaña explains. Saldaña will be on those picket lines—sorry to everyone whose hands are still sore from all the wringing they did about Seattle mayor-elect Katie Wilson supporting the Starbucks strike.

For now, Saldaña’s county council priorities look a lot like her senate ones, just smaller, and less specific, since we’re still operating in the hypothetical realm of “announcing a campaign a year in advance.” (She has to announce so early because legislative laws forbid her from fundraising a month before the legislative session starts—that date is Friday—and throughout the session). She wants to improve transit, reduce budget cuts, increase affordability, make the air and storm water cleaner, and support workers.

Saldaña also penned the Washington Voting Rights Act so she’s hoping other people run for the seat, too.

“It's important that people have choices,” Saldaña says. And they likely will. Port Commissioner Toshiko Hasegawa announced in a weird press release Sunday that, no, she wasn’t running for the seat, but she was strongly considering it. I guess we’ll just have to wait until she makes up her mind.

The New Version of Come from Away Is Still Wonderful, But a Little Weird

Nathalie Graham — Fri, 05 Dec 2025 11:28:00 -0800

Perhaps a 10-Year-Old Show Doesn’t Need to Be Changed

by Nathalie Graham

Here is the thing about Come from Away: you really can’t mess it up. The 2015 musical about the 38 planes diverted from the US airspace during 9/11 and the 7,000 people stranded in the bumfuck nowhere town of Gander, Newfoundland, is wonderful. Delightful and oh-so-Canadian strangers opening their doors to these stranded newcomers is a microcosm of hope in the story of a nation made paranoid and afraid by tragedy. It is a musical that never fails to remind me I have a soul.

I cannot help the welling up that happens when I watch Come from Away. The Seattle Repertory Theatre’s new production of the beloved show is no different in that regard, but it has changed a few things. Not all of them are for the better.

Written by Irene Sankoff and David Heinie, Come from Away first premiered at the Rep a decade ago. It’s a big source of pride for the theater—and Seattle. Which is understandable. After that run, the show went off to Broadway and award-studded acclaim. The Rep celebrated this in its different staging.

Instead of happening on September 11, 2001, the show introduces its story—none of it actually altered—as a 10-year reunion. “Welcome Back Come from Aways,” yellow banners proclaim in the Rep’s lobby and then above the stage, which now looks like a Gander high school gym. As the audience filed into their seats, the actors walked on stage toting casserole dishes for a potluck banquet table. It’s a reunion for Seattle audiences, too. “We loved it during the first run so much we had to bring our kids,” one audience member said.

Another replied, “Ten years ago I came to the opening and I brought a friend. She came back to see it three times.”

But this wasn’t the Come from Away they knew. In director Brandon Ivie’s fresh take—one of 23 different reinventions of the show running nationwide this year—every actor plays an instrument. Meant to mirror the Newfoundland tradition of “kitchen parties,” the actor-musician twist aims to bring the audience into the story more. It’s a lot to ask of the 12 actors already tasked with quite the job.

Historically, Come from Away has sparse staging. It relies on its few actors to play both the islanders of Gander and the “plane people” diverted from the skies to Newfoundland, plus any filler characters. The set is mostly 12 chairs maneuvered (by the actors!) to be plane seats, or Tim Hortons chairs, or the rows on the school buses transporting the newcomers to the gym floor they’ll sleep on that night. Ivie’s set is more real, his props more fleshed out than in the original. He complicates the original version further by adding in instruments—guitars, violins, a big ol’ drum that makes your heart skitter during the opening banger, “Welcome to the Rock.”

At times, the instruments felt clunky and awkward, especially in the beginning. I wasn’t sure what they were adding aside from a whole lot to keep track of for the actors. But, in sequences like “Blankets and Bedding”—when the islanders scramble to find supplies for their unannounced guests with countless trips to Shoppers—the instruments aided the frenzy. I hadn’t realized before how nonstop the pace of Come from Away is. There’s an urgency I could feel only through watching handoffs of accordions and violins.

A few moments even benefited from the instruments. Hannah (Corinna Lapid Munter), a mother stranded in Gander, hasn’t heard any word from her New York firefighter son. She won’t leave the phone in case he calls. During “I Am Here,” Hannah sings about her helplessness. In Ivie’s rendition, Munter plays the piano, spun around by other actors as she sings. It’s a manifestation of her inner turmoil, the haunting upper notes ringing more true when played by her fingers rather than the backing band.

Similarly, “Stop the World,” the love song between Diane (Vickielee Wohlbach) and Nick (Rob Burgess), is made even more poignant when Nick grabs the neck of Diane’s acoustic guitar and holds down the strings to play the chords while she strums. Perhaps, though, it’s simply the charisma Wohlbach and Burgess bring to their characters.

As the “plane people” become more changed by the experience, and more open to Newfoundlander life, they gain their own instruments—they are joining the kitchen party. This is not especially clear since everyone is playing both Newfoundlanders and plane people and the story gets muddied by all that aforementioned frenzy. By the end, [spoiler alert] when everyone returns home to a country far different from when they left it, they lose their instruments. They stare at their empty hands as they croon “Something’s Missing.” Looking around at our country today, I think whatever it is might still be gone.

Ivie’s stab at a new Come from Away is bold, and it often works, but it does not make an already perfect show any better. If I were seeing this version of Come from Away for the first time, surely I would have no notes. As it is now, the Rep’s Come from Away distracts a bit, but this story, this charming cast, and this reminder—especially in times like these—that humanity is, at its core, good, will bring you to tears. And then to a standing ovation.

See Seattle Rep’s Come from Away at Bagley Wright Theater, Nov 28–Jan 4.

Slog AM: New Lightrail Stations Almost Open, Harrell's Favorite Club Gets More Grants, the Color of the Year Is White

Nathalie Graham — Fri, 05 Dec 2025 08:28:00 -0800

The Stranger's morning news roundup. by Nathalie Graham

It's New Light Rail Station Eve: On Saturday, Sound Transit plans to open three new stations and eight miles of new track. The light rail will probe the very-ready-for-probing parts of south King County, extending down to Federal Way and becoming the second-longest light rail line behind Los Angeles's. The new stations are expected to add between 19,000 and 24,000 riders to the light rail system every day. The ribbon-cutting ceremony will happen at the new Federal Way station at 11 a.m. on Saturday.

Train Delay: Finally building out our region-wide transit system is good, of course, but it would be a lot better if the train wasn't riddled with delays. According to the Seattle Times, in October, light rail trains made only 83 percent of trips on time. That's still a passing grade! And it's up from the 77 percent on-time numbers from May. Even light rail disruptions—though they seem frequent and annoying—aren't as bad as they used to be. In 2024, light rail averaged 38 hours of unplanned disruptions a month. This year, they've been averaging 15 hours. Still, riders worry adding new stations will strain a system they see as already struggling.

More Money for Harrell's Favorite Club: Lame duck Mayor Bruce Harrell announced $27.8 million in new anti-displacement grants under the city's Equitable Development Initiative. Surprise, surprise, the private club where Harrell used to serve on the board and where he held he election night party received a $184,000 grant. The Royal Esquire Club and Harrell go way back, reports Publicola. When he was city council president, Harrell got into an ethics dust up because he allegedly tried to hush up a wage theft investigation into the club. At the time, he was also reportedly making his council staff do secretarial work for the club. In 2022, as mayor, Harrell granted the club $800,000. That money and this new $184,000 are meant to fund a renovation. It better look pretty fucking swanky in there after all that cash.

Oh no: A University Place house fire killed the 13 pets living at home. On Thursday, seven dogs and six cats died from smoke inhalation. While that may be more pets than anyone needs, the residents described each one as "family members." Rest easy, lil guys. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.

And Now, the Weather: It's raining. It will probably never stop.

Watch Out, Drunk Drivers: For the first time since 2019, the Seattle Police Department will roll out a driving under the influence emphasis team over the holiday season. The DUI squad will be patrolling city streets from around 6 p.m. to 4 a.m. throughout December. Staffing issues forced SPD to disband the DUI squad, upending 50 years of looking for lushes on the roads. New retention rates means we can get those drunks off the road. Happy holidays.

Who Will Play in Seattle during the World Cup? We'll find out who will play at Seattle Stadium during next year's World Cup after this morning's World Cup draw. It's happening after this blog posts, so you will have to update me in the comments. As World Cup planning moves forward, Donald Trump's threats to pull the tournament out of blue cities feels emptier and emptier.

Goodbye, Hep-B Vaccine for all Newborns: RFK Jr.’s federal vaccine committee full of vaccine skeptics voted on Friday to end recommendations that all newborns receive vaccinations against hepatitis B. In an 8-3 vote, the advisory Committee on Immunization Practices decided women who test negative for hepatitis B can decide whether to vaccinate their babies against the disease. Since 1991, the Centers for Disease Control has recommended vaccinations for all newborns against hep B. Doctors are horrified by the recommendation changes. It opens the door to more changes in vaccine policy and sows even more seeds of doubt in whether or not we can trust the CDC.

Navy Admiral Says There Was No "Kill Them All" Order: In a closed-door briefing with lawmakers, Navy Admiral Frank “Mitch” Bradley said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth did not issue a "kill them all" order on the survivors of a US attack on a boat in the Caribbean. However, video showing the killing of the survivors left Congress with more questions. Washington state Sen. Adam Smith, who is leading the charge for a further investigation, said the survivors were "basically two shirtless people clinging to the bow of a capsized and inoperable boat, drifting in the water—until the missiles come and kill them.” While this incident alone is horrific, the probe into Hegseth's actions has not even begun to address the broader issue here: The US has used war powers on 20 strikes on suspected drug smuggling boats and killed 80 people.

Republicans Meanwhile... Sen. Tom Cotton is doing his darnedest to defend the war crimes.

Q: What did you see in the second strike?

Cotton: "I saw two survivors trying to flip a boat — loaded with drugs, bound for the United States — back over, so they could stay in the fight."
— Jen Bendery (@jbendery.bsky.social) December 4, 2025 at 9:45 AM

Showing Hole: The home goods company, Kohler, is selling a $600 camera to put in your toilet to snap pictures of your big, beautiful BMs for "health & wellness insights," according to Kohler. The camera and its services cost an additional $6.99 per month. As 404 Media writes: "If you want to track the piss and shit of a family of 6, you’ll have to pay $12.99 a month." But, if you want to make sure no one else is peeping on your poos, you might need another toilet bowl camera company. Kohler promised all this data was end to end encrypted. It simply is not. They're just saying that.

Bad News for Movie Theaters: Netflix has struck a deal to buy Warner Bros. Discovery for $72 billion. All Warner Bros. property, including the streaming service HBO Max, would be owned by Netflix. The deal, which will close in the next 12 to 18 months, will likely inspire a hefty anti-trust conversation. It will likely reduce choices for consumers in the long run. I fear a future where everything is as flat and uniformly lit as all Netflix productions. If it goes through, this is a bad thing for movie theaters. Though it says it will still honor theatrical releases for Warner Bros. films, Netflix has been transparent that its business model does not fuck with movie theaters. The trade association for movie theaters, Cinema United, asserted that the deal would absolutely kill move theaters. To that I say, over my dead body.

Something Happy: You deserve this.

Mark Zuckerberg’s gamble on the "Metaverse" has lost his company more than $77 billion.
— More Perfect Union (@moreperfectunion.bsky.social) December 5, 2025 at 7:41 AM

Five Stars Please: FBI Director Kash Patel allegedly ordered the FBI security detail protecting his girlfriend to take his girlfriend's drunk friend home after a night out. Not only is it weird to use the FBI as Uber, it's weird that his girlfriend even has FBI protection at all. His girlfriend is Alexis Wilkins, a 27-year-old Nashville country singer who has an FBI detail made up of local SWAT members. Never before has the FBI provided a detail for a director's girlfriend. Apparently, they've only ever provided security a director's spouse while the spouse was traveling with the director. Is everyone else also loving having a country controlled by grifters?

Surprise, Surprise: The Supreme Court said Texas can go forward with its redrawn, gerrymandered congressional maps. This overturns a lower court ruling which found the redrawn districts to be "likely an unconstitutional racial gerrymander." The Supreme Court decision came just days before the December 8 filing deadline in Texas. It's yet another Trump-friendly Supreme Court decision and another that was made without hearing oral arguments since it was part of the emergency docket of cases, otherwise known as the shadow docket.

Reading the Room: Pantone, the "global color authority," named the 2026 color of the year. It's Cloud Dancer. Which is just a fancy name for white. Yes, the color of 2026 is white. Pantone explained its choice, saying that the “billowy, balanced white... acts as a whisper of calm and peace in a noisy world.” Pantone's expert-selected color of the year is meant to "draw attention to the relationship between culture and color." So, Pantone's color soothsayers are saying white reigns supreme in 2026, hm? This passed the sniff test?

Surprise Again: The man accused of laying pipe bombs near the Republican and Democratic National Committee headquarters ahead of the 2021 insurrection told the FBI he believed the 2020 election was stolen. His admission gives insight into a possible motive for the bombs. I didn't realize that was something we were still looking for with this guy. He's charged with transporting an explosive device in interstate commerce and attempted malicious destruction and is expected to appear in court Friday.

A Song for your Friday: Everyone should see Come From Away. It's on now at the Seattle Repertory Theater. While it's not the original version, the show is still worth your time.

Rep. Shaun Scott Wants to Fight Trump Cuts with a Statewide Payroll Tax

Nathalie Graham — Wed, 03 Dec 2025 13:30:00 -0800

Scott introduced a small package of bills to make up for the cuts in Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill,” but the “Well Washington Fund” is the centerpiece. The payroll tax is similar to Seattle’s, which raked in more than $1 billion over its five-year existence and kept the city above water in the pandemic years. by Nathalie Graham

The press conference on the steps of Washington’s Capitol Building was lowkey hostile. After Rep. Shaun Scott announced his bill to create a statewide payroll tax for high-earners, right-wing journalists peppered him with whataboutisms.

Like Jumpstart, a payroll tax on Seattle employees earning $150,000 or more, Scott would tax US-based companies with more than 20 employees and $5 million in total income. The bill would put a tax on salaries above $125,000 a year. Scott compared it to the Medicare payroll tax that high-earning employees already pay. The only difference is this time, their employer is on the hook.

Scott says the tax could raise up to $3 billion each year. Of that, 51 percent will be distributed to “higher education, energy and economic development, food assistance via the supplemental nutrition assistance program (SNAP), and health care.” The remainder will pad the state’s general fund. We could use the money. Washington is facing a $390 million budget shortfall this year, and a $1.1 billion hole in the two year budget cycle in between 2027 and 2029.

The state also has big beautiful cuts to worry about—cuts to higher education, the environmental sector and clean energy, food stamps, and Medicare, $50 billion over the next decade in Washington alone, Scott said.

“The way for Washingtonians to fight back is to build a bolder Washington, a Washington that defends the programs that people depend on, while the other Washington defunds them,” Scott said. He mentioned his bill could be a step forward toward fixing Washington’s regressive tax code. At mention of the regressive tax code, a baby in the crowd wailed.

Still broken by Boeing’s departure, Republican lawmakers, immune to the screams of babes and vulnerable to the cries of the moneyed, worry businesses will pack up and leave.

“Do you understand that there is a likelihood that businesses could decide—Microsoft just said they would—to move jobs out of the state. Are you concerned about that?” asked right-wing influencer Brandi Kruse.

It’s a familiar refrain.

“We have seen many times in the state legislature, the threat of jobs being relocated hung over the head of state lawmakers,” Scott said. “[Boeing] shook the state legislature down for the single largest corporate welfare package that was granted by a state government in the history of the Republic. And then they moved the jobs anyway.”

Emily Vyhnanek, an advocate for tax and economic justice at the Budget and Policy Center, says when facing new taxes, it’s common for companies to threaten an out of state move. They also lobby. Last year, when Democrats introduced a suite of progressive taxation bills to alleviate a budget shortfall between $12 to $16 billion, six of the largest companies in Washington—including Amazon, Microsoft, and T-Mobile—poured $2.1 million into a political action committee opposing the bills.

But it’s an empty threat. It’s not that easy to pick up and leave our talent pool behind. Life here is pretty good, in-part because of state funded-infrastructure like public transportation, affordable early learning programs, and paid family and medical leave.

Vyhnanek said the 2019-era Workforce Education Investment was a prime example of the support that keeps people here.

“It includes a wide range of workforce development programs, including scholarships and career connections designed to encourage students in technical and community colleges to pursue degrees and certifications in high-demand fields,” Vyhnanek says.

Additionally, the tax burden on the top percent of companies wouldn’t be felt as hard because of Trump, according to Vyhnanek. The Big Beautiful Bill included $148 billion in tax breaks for ultra-wealthy companies including locals like Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta.

“The perspective that you are speaking from,” Scott said to Kruse, “frankly is very well represented in the state legislature by the major corporations that have spent millions over the years lobbying the state legislature, and they expect a return on investment.”

That well-represented point of view threatens the Well Washington Fund’s survival. That, and some residual tax shyness. Last session, Democrats pushed through billions in new taxes, including higher business taxes, more sales taxes, and a broadened nicotine tax this past session to balance a very unbalanced budget.

Similar legislation floundered then, too. Sen. Rebecca Saldaña, who is co-sponsoring Scott’s bill, introduced legislation that attempted to do the same thing as the Well Washington Fund—adopt a statewide high-earners payroll tax. Despite making it to the Senate and House floors, the bill sputtered out and died.

Scott believes this time it’ll be different. He’s had a few “promising” conversations. Additionally, he said part of why Saldaña’s bill failed was because legislators didn’t know the full economic impact of Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” and other federal funding cuts.

“Now that we have that policy making context…my hope is that there's going to be an added sense of urgency,” Scott said.

Conservatives Zeroed In on Tumwater in Washington State’s Fight Over Trans Athletes

Nathalie Graham — Tue, 02 Dec 2025 11:00:00 -0800

“When a school board tells students they don’t deserve inclusion, it’s heartbreaking.” by Nathalie Graham

It’s been a long year for Tumwater, a politically purple town with 24,852 people and three craft breweries that’s become a pawn in a political chess match over transgender rights.

And the whole year, it’s never gotten far from the paint. It began with a high school basketball game. It was February, and the girls’ JV Tumwater High School Thunderbirds basketball team was playing the Shelton High School Highclimbers.

Fifteen-year-old Thunderbird Frances Staudt was warming up when she noticed a girl on the other team was trans. She later told KOMO that she feared the girl would injure her during the game, and complained. But in Washington, trans girls and boys have played with, and against, cis girls and boys for nearly two decades. The trans girl could play, no matter how much Frances complained. She sat out in protest. So did one of her teammates. They still won, 33-16.

Frances said the situation “put her on the spot in the whole gym.” She said she looked over at the trans girl and said, “You are a man.” That was her First Amendment right, she later told KOMO.

The President and Republican Party were behind her. The day before, Trump had signed an executive order banning trans girls and women from playing sports against cis girls and women. Not that there are very many, or that there’s credible scientific evidence proving athletic advantage. But Washington State and the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA), the state’s governing body for high school sports, were not on Staudt’s side. The Washington Law Against Discrimination protects transgender people in places of public accommodation, which include school athletic programs, and the WIAA was the first state athletic association in the nation to adopt a trans-inclusive policy.

The WIAA slapped Frances with an ethics violation for calling her opponent a man. This was a catalyst.

First came a civil rights complaint filed on Staudt’s behalf by a right-wing nonprofit called the Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism, or FAIR. Cofounded by Bari Weiss, the “anti-woke” opinion columnist now running CBS news, FAIR’s purpose is to dismantle diversity efforts, like when it sued the Washington State Housing Finance Commission over a homebuyer assistance program for nonwhite people, or when it sued Arkansas for reserving one board seat on a medical board for someone “of a minority race.” The complaint led the Department of Education to investigate the Tumwater School District over alleged Title IX violations. Last April, the Biden Administration expanded Title IX, a 1972 law against sex discrimination in education, to cover anti-gay and anti-trans discrimination. The legal rationale is simple: Discrimination against a gay or trans person is a perception that someone is not performing their sex or gender the right way. Trump promised to do away with the change during the campaign, and a federal judge struck it down in early 2025.

Three weeks later, on February 27, the Tumwater School Board held a vote. The WIAA was considering rolling back its trans athlete policy. Back in December, 14 out of 294 Washington school districts had voted to amend these WIAA rules, but not in Tumwater, where the board had not taken up the vote. But then the executive order and the basketball game happened. A resolution to support those amendments passed three to one.

School board member Melissa Beard cast the lone vote against the measure. Nationwide, conservatives have created panic over trans people to mobilize their base, get elected to public office, and warp curriculum. Republican lawmakers in 28 states have effectively banned trans kids from playing sports, even in places where there had never been issues, or even evidence that trans kids were competing.

Conservatives are attempting to use trans kids as a political wedge here, too. The Let’s Go Washington’s ballot initiative campaign targets queer and trans kids under the banners of protecting “parents’ rights” and “fairness” in girls’ sports. Extremist Moms for Liberty candidates have won several school board elections statewide. Beard’s lonely vote was evidence that not all elected officials would speak out against bigoted policy.

Months later, she had a new political challenger. It was Aimee Staudt, Frances’s mother.

Tumwater is situated in one of the only legislative districts in Thurston County with Democratic representatives—Rep. Beth Doglio and Rep. Lisa Parshley—but like its blue neighbors Lacey and Olympia, the conservative politics of nearby rural towns often encroach on the small city.

Those conservative politics prompted the vote to change WIAA’s trans athlete policy. When the vote came, Melissa Beard sat on the dais and reread what she was going to say. “I was like, ‘Yeah, this is it. Tumwater may not be ready for this. You may lose the election,’” Beard told herself. “And I was okay with that, because I was willing to go down on this issue. It was that important that people knew where I stood.”

Every seat in the room was taken, a few by people wearing “Protect Trans Kids” shirts. Standing in the back, teens with dyed hair held a trans flag.

Even though the room was packed with people who agreed with her, Beard knew her vote could cost her the election this November.

But she knew she was right.

Beard says that when board members are sworn in, they take an oath to “uphold the constitution and the laws of the United States and the state of Washington.” Trans people are a protected class in Washington. Supporting the measure would go against state antidiscrimination law and violate her oath, she says.

She said exactly that from the dais to the crowded room. “I’m concerned that this resolution communicates that we do not see these students as an equal part of our community,” Beard said. The crowd cheered.

After she said her piece, only one of the four other school board members spoke. Jill Adams, who abstained, worried out loud about Trump’s executive order. “Federal laws have supremacy over state and local items,” Adams said, saying she was caught “between a boulder and a hard surface” with this vote.

A woman in the crowd shouted, “Executive orders are not law!”

“We’re not going to do this,” Beard said. “No.”

She moved on to hear comments from the rest of the board.

Casey Taylor, Ty Kuehl, and Darby Kaikkonen said nothing. Then they voted yes.

“They were all very upset. They were all very frustrated with me,” Beard says. “I don’t know what they thought. I don’t know why they were frustrated.” She paused. “I mean, I lost the vote.”

Beard likes finding common ground. She cut her teeth as an analyst in the Washington State House of Representatives during a deadlock between Republicans and Democrats 25 years ago. She even found compromises during COVID on this board, when other members bristled at the state mask mandates and school closures she supported.

“For whatever reason, they did not want to have that conversation about this particular resolution,” Beard says.

When asked for comment, Kaikkonen sent links to comments she made at a different school board meeting two weeks after the initial vote. Kaikkonen started off by criticising the February 27 meeting for not following the board’s rules of order—criticism of Beard and how she ran the meeting. Having a crowd present that did not support the policy “created a situation” where Kaikkonen felt she could not “express my point of view… [and] be listened to in an open, fair, and impartial manner.”

“This issue is impossible,” Kaikkonen said about trans kids playing sports. “[It’s] a stalemate, a game of tic-tac-toe in which there’s no winner.” She supports the transgender community, Kaikkonen says, but she also supports women. By way of explanation, Kaikkon told a story.

“I started swimming competitively when I was 8 years old,” she said. She detailed her whole swimming career, at one point holding up her collegiate All-American award for breast stroke.

A week later, Kaikkonen was fired from her job at the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction. Superintendent of Public Education and Kaikkonen’s boss at OSPI Chris Reykdal has been vocally supportive of trans kids competing in school sports. In a lawsuit, Kaikkonen alleged her firing was retaliation for her vote. The Office says it filed a motion to dismiss the case because Kaikkonen’s “legal claims all lacked legal merit.” The US District Court in Tacoma dismissed the case in early November.

The other board members did not respond to The Stranger’s request for comment.

Two months after the vote, the rest of the board asked Beard to resign as board president, and she did. Beard explained she’d planned to rotate the presidency throughout the year, so this was a good opportunity to do so. But it seems as if she just wanted the issue to go away so she could keep working with her fellow board members.

“I will always put organization over self,” Beard says. “So rather than make them extend any of this pain, they asked me to resign, and I said, ‘Fine, I’ll just resign.’ Can we just get past this?”

Aimee Staudt saw an opportunity. Four days after Beard filed to run for a third term, Staudt filed to run against her. Beard didn’t think it was personal. They lived in the same district. She assumed Staudt would have run anyway.

As an experienced campaigner, Beard normally reaches out to her opponents before the race heats up. But she didn’t do that with Staudt. (“I just didn’t get the sense that she was in it for what’s best for the district,” Beard says.)

Staudt did not respond to our request for an interview.

She also didn’t run much of a campaign. She raised just $1,063. Staudt didn’t spend any money on mailers herself, but was included on a $5,100 mailer campaign from Sarah Overbay, a candidate for the District 1 school board position. Those mailers praised Overbay, Staudt, and other more conservative candidates. On the back, the mailers went negative on their opponents, claiming Beard and the other progressive school board candidates running only cared about “gender politics,” which ironically seemed to be Staudt’s sole issue.

That became clear during a candidate forum hosted by the League of Women Voters, the only forum she attended. Staudt—who didn’t even have a campaign website—said she was running to “use common sense and put education first again.” Schools were wasting too much time on political and social agendas and not enough time on teaching students how to read, she said. She called for transparency, to give families a choice and to make sure schools partnered with parents instead of trying to replace them. Her talking points emphasizing a need for parental power and control are textbook for right-wing candidates.

Beard worried about her chances of beating Staudt. She stressed over the possibility of her campaign becoming a national talking point. And for good reason.

In the last month before the November election, anti-trans politics flared up in Tumwater once more.

A sore loser, hedge fund manager Brian Heywood is again funding a signature-gathering campaign for his anti-trans, anti-LGBTQ, and anti-public-education ballot measures.

Heywood’s campaign, Let’s Go Washington (LGW), is gunning for two initiatives on next year’s November ballot.

The first would reinstate the parents’ bill of rights that already passed as an initiative last year. But, much to Heywood & co.’s chagrin, the Legislature mostly nullified it during this year’s session. So, LGW is trying to volley it back.

“We don’t co-parent with the government,” Heywood said in a statement first reported by the Washington State Standard. “No government employee can care about or love your child like you do.”

What Heywood really wants is to do away with student privacy and control public education. The Parents Bill of Rights initiative allows parents to “examine” curriculum decisions and school policies, something they already had the right to do, while granting access to their child’s mental health and counseling records. The rule could force teachers and guidance counselors to out LGBTQ kids to their parents, which could be dangerous for those living in unaccepting homes. In an emailed statement, LGW wrote that the initiative would strengthen “communications between parents and school.”

Heywood’s second initiative would ban transgender athletes from playing girls’ sports. The initiative would require athletes to have a doctor certify their sex before they can participate in girls sports. This could require a genital examination.

As Seattle Police Department detective Beth Wareing said at a WA Families for Freedom press conference in November—a campaign to kill Heywood’s initiatives—genital examinations “would increase the risk of sexual abuse for girls participating in sports.”

The LGW campaign seems unbothered by the criticism. Campaign spokesperson Hallie Herzberg called the risk of sexual abuse a lie. “The opposition is proving again how little they care about females in sports,” she said. And the campaign is asking people to literally rally around them inside schools. It’s held five so far, with eight more planned between now and January 2, when LGW plans to turn in its signatures to the Secretary of State’s Office.

In late September, days before she jetted off to Washington, DC, for Trump’s antifa roundtable, right-wing commentator Brandi Kruse promoted LGW’s signature-gathering event at Tumwater Middle School. Kruse has no official or financial association with LGW, but volunteered to speak at the event, a “Super Signer Kick-Off” for its anti-trans initiatives.

Board member Beard thought holding the event in Tumwater was bizarre and opportunistic. Liza Rankin, Seattle Public Schools board director and member of the Washington State School Directors Association, also thought it intentional and “a little bit weird.”

Holding the rallies at schools can show voters that the initiatives are “about children,” so they can say, “If you love children, you’ll come to this thing,” Rankin explains. But it could also be setting up a confrontation.

The Tumwater rally was planned for October 4, a month ahead of the Beard vs. Staudt race. Kruse spent the days leading up to the event drumming up attention for the rally. When The Stranger asked why, she told us “radical gender ideology belongs in the dustbin of American politics.”

The week before the planned rally, her tweets turned angry. Tumwater School District had denied the event permit.

“In Washington state, schools will grant facility use permits for grown men in panties to dance for little children. But want to hold an event to support parental rights? Sorry, no can do!” Kruse tweeted, citing a drag event at a school.

Kruse tweeted that the school district “caved to left-wing activists.” Kruse said it was the only LGW event denied a permit.

Schools are sensitive places for politicking. State law doesn’t allow any campaigning involving public resources. Public schools count as a public resource. However, because the LGW initiatives aren’t yet on the ballot, it creates a gray area.

“If they aren’t allowed to do it, they can throw a tantrum,” Rankin says. “What they want is to say they’re being politically persecuted. They want the narrative that ‘We’re just standing up for parents… and it’s the liberal lawmakers who are being mean to us.’”

LGW denies that. “We aren’t looking for a freedom of speech fight,” Herzberg said. The public schools offer a space for people to “turn in their petitions without being harassed, attacked, or stolen from,” Herzberg said.

The reasons were more mundane, according to records obtained by The Stranger. LGW’s campaign submitted a permit application three days before the planned event. Tumwater School District requires that applications for permitted events be submitted seven days prior to the event.

“Due to the short timeline, the request wasn’t approved,” a spokesperson with the district said. “It’s our understanding that they met outside of the fencing at Tumwater Middle School on the date they requested use of the building.”

At the event, Staudt’s daughter, Frances, spoke about her experience and about the lack of fairness in girl’s sports. Kruse amplified it online. From the internet attention, the issue seemed big, but only a few dozen people had shown up to the rally.

That could explain the election results in Tumwater.

Beard defeated Staudt with 61 percent of the vote. Beard thinks voters valued her experience, and her record, more than this one issue.

They also valued progressive Julie Watts over Sarah Overbay, the conservative who sent out those negative mailers, in a race for an open seat. On her campaign website, Watts wrote, “Our district is caught in unnecessary political fights—like banning transgender athletes—instead of focusing on what matters. These aren’t abstract debates; they’re about real kids who just want to belong.

“When a school board tells students they don’t deserve inclusion, it’s heartbreaking,” the website read.

But Tumwater is still purple. Incumbent Kuehl, who voted to change WIAA’s policy, and newcomer Rob Warner, who said at a forum that he would not rescind the policy, made it through.

That split feels apt for Tumwater, Beard says.

Girmay Zahilay Is the New King County Executive

Nathalie Graham — Tue, 25 Nov 2025 15:28:00 -0800

Zahilay’s ascension is historic. He’s the youngest ever King County Executive and the first immigrant to lead the county. Plus, like Seattle Mayor-elect Katie Wilson, he’s the first millennial to hold this seat. by Nathalie Graham

For about five minutes, King County Councilmember Girmay Zahilay didn’t have a job. He officially became the King County Executive when the election results were certified Tuesday. But, before he was sworn in, he had to resign his role as councilmember.

After US District Court Judge Richard Jones swore him in, the now-gainfully employed Zahilay exclaimed, “We did it!” with much, much more power over the 12th largest county in America than he had before.

“It is the honor of my lifetime to stand before you today as the King County Executive,” Zahilay said. “This is one of the greatest responsibilities that a person can be entrusted with, and I'm going to work every day to earn the trust of 2.3 million people across 39 cities and unincorporated areas that I now represent.”

Normally, we’d expect the political pomp and circumstance in January. But Zahilay won a special election, triggered when Dow Constantie left the job to run Sound Transit this March.

Since his election win over King County Councilmember Claudia Balducci, Zahilay has been preparing for this day with his 100 member transition committee.

So far, two of the transition team’s senior members have full time gigs in his administration. Karan Gill will be deputy executive, a job he did for interim King County Executive Shannon Braddock. Before that, he was Constantine’s chief of staff. Jasmin Weaver, the Executive Vice President of the income-inequality focused organization Civic Ventures, is Zahilay’s chief of staff.

But with big change comes big turnover. During his speech, Zahilay said that he’ll “transmit proposals to restructure the executive office … so that our government can better reflect the priorities that I ran on.”

Those priorities include “addressing homelessness, addiction, and incarceration; expanding housing, child care, transit, and infrastructure; making King County government more visible, connected, and community-driven; delivering a government that is more transparent, efficient, and accountable.”

“We have an extraordinary opportunity in front of us, an opportunity to reset the region, rebuild trust, and deliver a government that is closer to the people that we serve,” Zahilay said.

According to a report by Publicola, Zahilay plans to restructure the entire executive office and chop off at least some department heads.

The Seattle Times reports 133 of the 182 jobs in the department are appointed by the executive. Zahilay can do what he wants with them. This isn’t unusual when a new executive comes to town. We may have forgotten this during Constantine’s 16-year Dow-nasty.

But Zahilay spokesperson Erik Houser writes in an email to the Stranger: “There has been no notice to appointees that they are being laid off.”

The Zahilay administration plans to connect the heads that do roll with “departmental jobs” if they don’t receive another offer letter from the man himself.

As one of his first acts of executive, Zahilay will submit three names to fill his vacant King County Council seat. Whoever the Council chooses will reign over District 2 until a special election next fall. Zahilay said he will only consider appointing someone who won’t run in that race.

Before all that though—some goodbyes. The Council bid adieu to District 5 County Councilmember De’Sean Quinn—who was appointed to Dave Upthegrove’s seat after he moved to the greener pastures of state lands commissioner—and swore in Quinn’s replacement, Steffanie Fain.

The County Council also honored outgoing interim King County Executive Shannon Braddock, the first woman to lord over the county, and declared today “Executive Shannon Braddock Day.” At the end of her address to the room, Braddock said, “King County rules, as does public service. Karaoke later.” Hell yeah.

Stranger Suggests: Dead Bugs, One Decent Reason to Leave the House on Black Friday, and the Perfect Pie Crust

Bri Brey — Mon, 24 Nov 2025 15:43:00 -0800

One really great thing to do every day of the week. by Bri Brey MONDAY 11/24

Christopher Marley: Exquisite Creatures

(BUGS) Dead bugs may seem like a strange medium for artistic expression, but Christopher Marley has made a career out of arranging the corpses of insects, lizards, birds and more while simultaneously fighting for the conservation of the creatures he makes artistic use of. He sustainably harvests and preserves every beetle body, butterfly wing, and crab shell he uses to precisely arrange his kaleidoscopic mosaics. Less creepy crawly and more visually fascinating, the exoticism of the creatures on display and the ability to see them up close is reason enough to visit this curious exhibit. (900 Alaska Way, all ages) BRI BREY

TUESDAY 11/25

Built to Spill, Papas, Larry Yes

(MUSIC) Built to Spill is the best thing to come out of Idaho since the potato crop. Doug Martsch has been rocking out Boise-style since ’92. In that sense, they’re a “legacy act.” But good songs never die, and There’s Nothing Wrong With Love and Keep It Like a Secret are timeless because they were never super on trend. Built to Spill always did its own thing. (But if you’re worried the new-ish songs from 2022’s When the Wind Forgets Your Name will ruin your precious nostalgia, even these “new” songs were written a long time ago.) The band is joined by Boise’s Papas and Portland’s Larry Yes, two artists so small that putting them on this bill with indie-rock legends is, like Built to Spill, rad, old-school scene love. (Neptune Theatre, Nov 25–26, 8 pm, all ages) VIVIAN McCALL

WEDNESDAY 11/26

Minus the Bear: Menos El Oso 20th Anniversary Tour

(MUSIC) Seattle loves Minus the Bear, and for good reason: they've been playing energetic rock shows here for over two decades, and even played the last show of their farewell tour at the Showbox in 2018. Lucky for us, the quintet reunited this year, putting out a 20th anniversary deluxe edition of their sophomore release, Menos el Oso, and promising to play the album in its entirety on tour. They return to the Showbox for three shows in November, and I know hardcore fans are going to go to every one, just in case this is indeed the last time they play their hometown—plus, they're mixing it up each night with a different local band on the lineup. Minus the Bear is known for their guitar-filled math rock, incorporating influences from pop and punk in a way that inevitably gets everyone in the audience headbanging. (Showbox, Nov 26 and Nov 28–29) SHANNON LUBETICH

THURSDAY 11/27

Bake a Pie

BILLIE WINTER

(FOOD) Pies are the most complicated "simple" dessert in the world. "Bake a pie!" they say. The crust is just a few ingredients!" they tell you. Liars. Yes, the best crust is one of just flour, butter, salt, and water, but you must have them all in exact proportions and handle them with care to achieve delectably flaky results. Over mix? Tough crust. Not enough butter? Dry. Too much water? The dreaded soggy bottom. For those who flex their pie-making muscles just once a year for Thanksgiving, stop it. Let Coyle's Bakeshop help. Not only do they have pie tutorials on Instagram, but their Greenwood shop is stocked with supplies, including pie dough and pie shells, and yes, they're open early on Thanksgiving morning. (Coyle’s Bakeshop, 7 am-11 am) MEGAN SELING

FRIDAY 11/28

Record Store Day Black Friday 2025

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(SHOPPING/MUSIC) It's almost impossible to escape the consumerism of Black Friday, so why not support a local record store while you're at it? If you're looking for special Record Store Day releases, I recommend making these shops your first stop, but casually flipping through crates can be a nice break at any point in your hectic shopping day. Participation varies store-to-store, but expect sales, exclusive merch, and extended hours; West Seattle's Easy Street Records opens at 7 a.m. and serves up free coffee and bacon as a little added incentive to get there early. Highlights from this year's exclusive RSD releases include The Original Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan on vinyl for the first time (with never-before-seen liner notes), a paper airplane-shaped record from King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, and the soundtrack to Wicked For Good, which was released in theaters last week. Check out the RSD website for a full list of participating stores. SHANNON LUBETICH

SATURDAY 11/29

Come From Away

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(THEATER) Ugh, I love Come From Away more than I can articulate. The hit musical tells the story about the small town of Gander, Newfoundland coming together to help the passengers on 38 planes stranded there after American airspace closed on 9/11. It is a musical that reminds us of the generosity of strangers and the goodness that persists in spite of large-scale evils. Come From Away got its start at the Seattle Repertory Theatre a decade ago when producers staged an early version of the show. It returns to that stage this fall, but the show won’t be the same version we all know. The Rep is putting a twist on Come from Away this year. All I know is there will be an emphasis on actors also playing musical instruments. Whatever version of Come From Away graces Seattle stages, I’m excited to see it and be welcomed back to The Rock. (Seattle Repertory Theatre, through Jan 4, various times) NATHALIE GRAHAM

SUNDAY 11/30

UMI – People Stories World Tour

(MUSIC) On people stories, the highly anticipated follow-up to Seattle-born singer UMI's 2022 debut Forest in the City, the soul artist turns personal reflections and fan confessions into deliciously groovy tracks. This isn't the first time UMI has used her music to promote collective healing: she last stopped in Seattle on her Meditation tour, which included an opening yoga flow, breathwork, journaling, and an intimate acoustic performance. The new album explores questions such as "How can I be happy if the world is unhappy?" and "What if I did a psychedelic trip on my lunch break at the grocery store?" (if you want to learn more about the stories behind the songs, check out her Instagram post). Blending influences from R&B, folk, reggae, and Japanese pop, UMI's music grabs your attention, then pulls at your heartstrings. (The Showbox, 8 pm, all ages) SHANNON LUBETICH

Slog AM: Arboretum Coyote Killed, Seattle Aquarium Acquires New Otter, Border Patrol Is Tracking Drivers' Movements

Nathalie Graham — Fri, 21 Nov 2025 09:21:00 -0800

The Stranger's morning news roundup. by Nathalie Graham

Seattle City Council Moves to Adopt $9 Million Budget: There's still one more vote to come on the budget Friday, but it's looking like the Seattle City Council will green light the city's nearly $9 billion budget. They'll pass all of lame duck mayor Bruce Harrell's priorities like funding raises for the cops and sweeping homeless encampments. But, they've also thrown money toward rental assistance and the city’s budget reserves. Still, going into 2027, Mayor-Elect Katie Wilson will have a daunting $140 million deficit to deal with. That's a problem for future Wilson. For now, the budget is balanced.

Yay? Not according to council member Maritza Rivera. “I don’t feel like celebrating,” she told the Seattle Times. Thanks?

Coyote Too Wily: Two female coyotes have been living in the vicinity of the Washington Park Arboretum. At least one of them had gotten too comfortable around people. It had two recent no good incidents. First, it attacked a dog on a leash. Second, it stole food from a parkgoer. That's a bad sign since coyotes usually keep their distance. Sadly, the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife trapped and killed the coyote on Tuesday.

In Good Animal News: The Seattle Aquarium acquired its first ever southern sea otter. Meet Ruby. She hails from Monterey Bay. Another no good California transplant, huh?

For over 30 years, the Seattle Aquarium has led in sea otter research, contributed to recovery efforts and cared for northern sea otters who are unable to live in the wild.

Today is a big day as we welcome Ruby—the first southern sea otter in our care. ✨🦦

(1/4)

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— Seattle Aquarium (@seattleaquarium.bsky.social) November 20, 2025 at 10:24 AM

The Weather: Cloudy and mild today. Rain returns Sunday.

Good 2 News: The Sound Transit 2 Line Light Rail connection across Lake Washington is looking closer and closer to becoming a reality, according to The Urbanist. New testing plans include "operational trials on the segment of the 2 Line that shares tracks with the existing 1 Line." That will start next week. So far, the 2 Line train hasn't headed all the way up to Lynnwood Station. But that’s on the horizon. The ribbon cutting could be in March or April, introducing a pivotal question: Will the 2 Line be a Pisces or an Aries?

Coastguard Downgrades Hate Symbols: On Thursday, it came out that the US Coastguard no longer considered swastikas and nooses to be hate symbols. It reclassified them as “potentially divisive.” The Coastguard clarified that “Divisive or hate symbols and flags are prohibited" and nooses and swastikas were in that category. The Coastguard maintains that everything is still as it was—so why change the language? Unclear!

A Bit on the Nose: Cop30 summit attendees evacuated after a big ass fire broke out at the venue yesterday. Lawmakers were about to strike a deal beefing up international efforts to address climate change. It's not totally clear what caused the fire, but investigators suspect it came from something electronic, like a microwave. I believe it was a grim portent, an omen, a warning.

I Don't Think You Can Say That: Earlier this week, a group of six Democratic lawmakers who formerly served in the military released a video encouraging active duty troops to refuse illegal orders that "violate the law or our constitution," according to The Guardian. Donald Trump did not like this. He called the behavior seditious and "punishable by death." Democratic leaders condemned Trump’s death threats. Mike Johnson, the Republican House speaker, agreed that the Dems’ words were “seditious” and defended Trump, saying Trump was simply “defining the crime of sedition.”

Trump posts again about Democrats, saying their behavior is “punishable by DEATH!”

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— Matt Novak (@paleofuture.bsky.social) November 20, 2025 at 7:23 AM

Bad Year for Planes: Two weeks ago in Kentucky, a UPS plane burst into flames and killed 14 people after the engine flew off during takeoffIdeally, an engine does not do that, but investigators say the plane’s engine mount was cracked. It passed an inspection in 2021 but wasn't due for another inspection until the plane completed "nearly 7,000 more takeoffs and landings." That inspection timeframe comes from the Federal Aviation Administration, however this faulty engine mount may cause them to reevaluate that from now on.

The American People Yearn for Trains: Amtrak finished the 2025 fiscal year with a record ridership of 34.5 million trips, a 5.1 percent increase over 2024. Please... we want more trains. Faster trains. Nicer trains. More reliable trains. Trains to everywhere. Think of the trains we could have.

Border Patrol Loves Automobiles: Attention, drivers, you're being tracked. Border Patrol is keeping tabs on “millions” of drivers’ movements and using predictive intelligence technology to deem if people are suspicious or threats. Not good! According to the Associated Press, "a network of cameras scans and records vehicle license plate information, and an algorithm" will flag "suspicious vehicles" that Border Patrol will pull them, question aggressively, and search. As the AP concluded, this is the natural next step in the ongoing process of turning US Customs and Border Protection into a domestic intelligence operation.

Judge Rules against National Guard Deployment: A federal judge ruled Thursday that Trump and the Defense Department illegally deployed the National Guard in Washington D.C. The troops don't have to leave just yet. Trump has 21 days to file an appeal.

Diplomacy Expert: The US could stop giving Ukraine weapons and sharing intelligence if the country does not agree to Trump's raw deal to end Russia's war. To call off Putin, Trump wants Ukraine to agree to cede territory to Russia, to shrink the size of its military and to stay out of NATO. Ugly stuff.

Flog AM: Singapore-based Folotoy suspended sales of it’s $99 high-tech “Kumma” teddy bear that’s equipped with a speaker and an AI-chatbot. And no, not just because $99 is an insane amount to pay for a stuffed animal. Mostly, it's because the teddy bear was a little freak. It apparently kept bringing up BDSM. It explained good beginner shibari knots to use to tie up a partner in a sexy way. The bear brought these topics up on its own. In between instructions on spanking, the bear also gave helpful tips on how to light a match and where to find knives in the house. Did no one watch M3GAN?

Good News for Everyone Who Hates Progress: U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has been told to stop all primate research. Most of the research the CDC uses those monkeys for is HIV prevention. The order came from Sam Beyda on behalf of RFK Jr., a former Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) employee and 2023 college grad who has failed forward so much that he's the deputy chief of staff at the CDC. Ending animal research is part of RFK Jr’s “Make America Healthy Again” agenda. This is bad.

A Song for Your Friday: Who here has been following the Olivia Nuzzi drama? If you don't remember, New York Magazine fired Nuzzi after her digital affair with none other than RFK Jr. came to light. (They met when Nuzzi penned a profile on him during his failed campaign for president.) Nuzzi, who now works at Variety for some reason, wrote a memoir about it. The magazine published an excerpt. It’s a lot of bad writing and fawning over RFK Jr. Nuzzi’s ex-fiancé also published a piece of bad writing that exposed Nuzzi for having an affair with another old ass politician, former Rep. Mark Sanford. Yikes! To make matters worse, someone online unearthed a song Nuzzi recorded as a teen. It’s called "Jailbait." You simply cannot make this shit up. Please enjoy.

Someone found an mp3 of the creepy "Jailbait" song Olivia Nuzzi released when she was 16 🫣

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— Parker Molloy (@parkermolloy.com) November 19, 2025 at 11:24 AM

Slog AM: The Epstein Files Are Coming (Probably), ICE Detention Footage Was Destroyed, and Girmay Is Cleaning House in the Exec’s Office

Charles Mudede — Wed, 19 Nov 2025 10:15:00 -0800

The Stranger's morning news roundup. by Charles Mudede

The E-Files: A bill to release the Epstein files heads to President Donald Trump’s desk today. He’s said he’ll sign it (hell, he campaigned on that). Expect the files. Unless Trump is chicken. The House vote was 427-1. The Senate vote was unanimous, with no debate.

holy shit mike johnson is SHOOK on Epstein vote in Senate

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— Adam Parkhomenko (@adamparkhomenko.bsky.social) November 18, 2025 at 9:21 PM

The Loneliest Boy in the House: Far-right Rep. Clay Higgins (R-Louisiana) is the “1” special guy who did not vote to release the Epstein files. Higgins said the bill would toss thousands of innocent people—“witnesses, people who provided alibis, family members, etc”—into the maw of the “rabid” media. He indicated that he’d vote for an amended bill that protected the privacy of those “named but not criminally implicated.” But hours later, the Senate unanimously passed the measure.

Creep Creeps Out: After showing up all over the E-files as Epstein’s wingman, Larry Summers is stepping down from most of his public roles. Most recently, he announced he’s stepping down from OpenAI’s board. For now, though, he’s still a teacher at Harvard University, the one role where he’s most likely to interact with young women he has power over. Cool.

Sore Loser? After losing her council seat to Dionne Foster, City Council President Sara Nelson will introduce a bill to restrict City Hall access for political consultants and require them to register with the city, similar to lobbyists. For his entire term, Mayor Bruce Harrell created an unusual role for his political consultant, Christian Sinderman, in the city government—a situation that no one could say was illegal, but everyone called highly “unusual.” Nelson’s opponent, Dionne Foster, also worked with Sinderman, and Nelson said she wasn’t able to have open conversations with Harrell because she worried whatever she said could be used against her in Foster’s campaign. Sinderman said the bill is just an attempt at revenge.

As anyone who rides Link in South Seattle well knows, the gap between Columbia City Station and Othello Station, and between Rainier Station and Tukwila International Boulevard, are very long. The plan has been, for years, to fill the first gap with a station at Graham Street, and the second gap with a station at Boeing Access Road. That plan, which saw the completion of both projects in the distant year of 2031, is now on the chopping block due to, as Ryan Packer of the Urbanist reports, "escalating costs." This is truly bad news because these areas, and particularly the one at Graham Street, are dense. It was bad enough that the stations were far in the future, now they may have no future at all.

Sure enough, the right-leaning MyNorthwest is outraged that the social cost of plastic bags will be partially paid for by a 4-cent increase on January 1, 2026 (the present charge is 8 cents). True, this cost should be paid by those who make the most money from this environmental menace, but they will not. All they want is just the profits and none of the real costs. As a consequence, we the people have to pay for a socialism that only the top earners enjoy.

Cleaning House: King County Exec-Elect Girmay Zahilay is reportedly cleaning house. His transition team said that they plan to completely restructure the county’s executive branch, which means about 100 people who are currently serving in appointed positions are losing their jobs. Some of them will be invited to reapply for their jobs—a time-honored tradition for staff morale.

Fascists Did Fascism: The Washington Secretary of State joined 10 others in a letter to tell the Trump administration about their “immense concern” that the voter rolls they provided to the federal government weren’t just used to check for voter fraud. They were used to try to scrub “illegal aliens” from the rolls. Let this be a lesson to all local governments to not give the feds any information that we don’t have to. Looking at you, City Council.

A Quick Distraction: Have you ever wanted to know if you’re smarter than an eighth grader from 1889? Well, now you can.

Budget Blues in Olympia: Woooooof. Washington’s projected revenue through 2029 is a bit lower than expected. It’s $66 million short of the last revenue estimate. While that’s only a modest hit in the grand scheme of state budgets, it compounds with previous shortfalls to make an even tighter budget ahead of lawmakers’ upcoming 2026 session. With $66 million less to play with, lawmakers may need to reconsider funding priorities and they really should explore new funding sources. Someone tell Gov. Bob Ferguson that we’re all jonesing for an income tax.

Like the Deadliest Catch, Except Happy: At around 8 a.m. Tuesday morning, a fishing boat called the Abby C. radioed the coast guard for help. Their ship was sinking in frigid Pacific Ocean waters off the coast of Westport, Washington. This is not a good thing for ships to do. Nearby crabbing vessel, Lady Nancy, heard the call and made a beeline to Abby C. After searching the area for 20 minutes, the Lady Nancy crew spotted four men in the water. Two were in an orange life raft, two others clung to a survival suit for dear life. They all had hypothermia. One man sunk below the water and a Lady Nancy crew member dove in to save him. Everyone lived!

You Can Go to SAM for Free: If you bring two non-perishable food items to the Seattle Art Museum on any Wednesday through December 17, you can get free admission into the museum. Go see the Tariqa Waters exhibit!

Today and every Wednesday through Dec. 17, get free admission to the Seattle Art Museum with a donation of at least two non-perishable canned food items, supporting the Pike Market Senior Center and Food Bank. Details below:

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— Joe Veyera (@joeveyera.bsky.social) November 19, 2025 at 8:49 AM

Don’t Forget—the World Is Burning: Amidst all the horrors living under authoritarian hell, we’ve forgotten a different threat to humanity. Climate change is not joking around, and don’t get it twisted, Trump’s “America First” agenda is making it worse. Those policies double down on fossil fuels and do away with efforts to cut emissions. People will die from this. According to ProPublica and The Guardian, “extra greenhouse gases released in the next decade as a result of the president’s policies are expected to lead to as many as 1.3 million more temperature-related deaths worldwide as the earth heats in the 80 years after 2035.” This analysis comes as most countries gather at a conference in Brazil to discuss the threat of climate change. The US is not there.

On the Weather: Patchy fog before 11 am. The chance of rain tonight is a 50/50 coin flip. Can you bet on this?

Blue Moon Rising: A new poll from NPR, PBS News, and Marist found that Democrats are looking good ahead of next year’s midterm elections. The survey of 1,443 adults found that most would vote blue if the elections were held today. Trump’s approval rating sat at 39 percent, his lowest since the aftermath of January 6.

Government Lapses in Comey Indictment: Look, we are no law experts over here, but this seems like a pretty flagrant bad practice in the James Comey case. The Trump-appointed US Attorney who brought charges against former FBI Director Comey told a judge that the full grand jury had never seen the final indictment, so the charges against Comey on the docket currently were not reviewed.

MORE: Under questioning by the judge, prosecutor Tyler Lemons said that he’s under orders from the Deputy Attorney Generals’s office not to disclose whether there is a declination memo recommending against the prosecution of Comey
— Anna Bower (@annabower.bsky.social) November 19, 2025 at 8:40 AM

Operation Creep: Minnesota police arrested 16 men in a minor sex trafficking investigation known as “Operation Creep.” One of the arrested men was an Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officer. “When he was arrested, he said, 'I'm ICE, boys,'" Bloomington Police Chief Booker Hodges said, according to Newsweek. "Well, unfortunately for him, we locked him up." Okay, no more child porn stuff, I promise. Unless there’s another blurb about the Epstein Files…?

How Could This Have Happened? Detainees at ICE’s Broadview Detention Center in suburban Chicago filed a class action lawsuit, alleging terrible treatment. The suit outlines inhumane conditions, such as detainees being forced to sleep on plastic chairs or concrete floors, not receiving adequate food or water, living in squalid conditions, and being abused by ICE officers. In the discovery phase, the plaintiffs’ lawyer requested security footage from the facility starting in mid-September. Conveniently, the Department of Homeland Security said two weeks of footage from October 19 through October 31 has been irretrievably destroyed.

An Unfortunate Reality for Them: Vancouver indie-rock band the New Pornographers debated changing their name after their drummer, Joe Seiders, was arrested and charged with possessing child pornography earlier this year. After “time passed,” the band decided they would keep the name. Granted, they have been around since 1997, and that drummer only joined in 2014. Optics, shmoptics.

Monster Couch

Nathalie Graham — Tue, 18 Nov 2025 11:00:00 -0800

My experience getting the couch should have tipped me off that it was not the couch for me and was in fact evil. But I really needed it. by Nathalie Graham

I have had a terrible couch for almost two years.

Trying to get rid of my terrible couch made me feel like a bad person. It was like I was in The Ring, passing off the videotape that kills you to an unsuspecting victim. Except I was trying to sell a couch, because I knew I’d never get rid of it for free. It's a neutral blue-grey. It pulls out into a bed. It has storage built into the chaise lounge. It only cost me $350. Those are its only good qualities.

The bad qualities are innumerable. Springs create stiff, sproingy mounds in the couch cushions—a molehill I’ve happily made a mountain of. The back has no give. You must sit ramrod straight and at an odd angle. The pullout bed pulls out unevenly, probably because I broke it in a fit of rage. It sucks so bad. I’m telling you this because this isn’t Facebook Marketplace. I have a guilty conscience. And this is a place I am duty-bound to be honest.

If I talked to you about buying this couch, please scroll on. And also, I’m sorry.

My experience getting the couch should have tipped me off that it was not the couch for me and was in fact evil. But I really needed it. At the time of couch acquisition, my then-fiancé (now husband, hold the applause) Harry and I were moving. We had one dresser each, a desk, a bed frame, a mattress, nightstands, a table, chairs. But we didn’t have a couch. You really cannot be fully moved in if you don’t have a couch.

It is the cornerstone of the living room. Without it, that’s just room. No living. Harry and I had just moved from a roommate situation, sharing a house with our friends, and were excited about lounging in our own space, watching whatever we wanted on a TV that was at the right height. Not neck-achingly above a mantel (see: r/TVTooHigh): I made like JD Vance and scoured Facebook Marketplace for the perfect couch.

My progressive, city-dwelling life limited my options for several reasons. First, I didn’t have a truck. No one I knew had a truck. That rocketed any couch purveyor who could deliver to the tip-top of my list. Second, our apartment—while in an excellent location and so cute with high ceilings and tasteful crown molding—only had one closet. We needed a couch with dual or triple function, so we could have a tasteful hole for our shit, which was needed as much as the couch itself.

I found my couchman after a day of scrolling. The photo showed the couch in front of a storage unit. “Great condition,” the post read. A lie, so I don’t feel guilty about my attempt to haggle for a lower price.

Big mistake. This pissed off the couchman. He blocked me. I sent Harry to do our bidding instead. The man accepted Harry’s full-price offer and charged an extra $30 for fuel costs—something he did not advertise in a post that listed free delivery. They had words, but, likely because Harry is a man, the couchman did not block him.

By the time he arrived, we did not feel warmly toward the couchman. As he unloaded it from his very small pickup truck, we took in its actual state. Blond, wiry dog hair coated the cushions. “It’s as-is,” the man said. I spied a stain in the center cushion.

“I do not clean. That is extra.”

I sidebarred with Harry, muttering, “Do we still want this?”

Harry clearly felt uncomfortable after all the trouble we’d gone through to get the couch. “I’m still down, but we can back out if you want to,” he said. Here was a couch in front of me and a grumpy couchman. I could not speak my truth. We took the couch upstairs.

Harry left an “accurate and balanced three out of five star review the couchman did not take kindly to,” he says. (He wants it to be known that he complimented the couch and accurately represented the poor delivery experience.)

The couchman wrote back: “Dude u should ve [sic] do business alsewhere [sic], I don’t need this negativity. Very unhappy I sold u my couch. I prefer to sell to people who are thankful and not a backstabbing review writers. I should ve [sic] sell it to normal buyer that are grateful to go business. Sorry on autocorrect incorrectness. No name calling.. But I’m extremely unhappy I dealt with u.”

We were soon to be extremely unhappy with this couch.

On the bright side, the couch did fit perfectly into our space. Unfortunately, it’s a rock. Springs jut up into the cushions at weird angles. The back is too straight. There is no sinking into this couch. It’s calcified. I tried to make peace with it. I bought fabric cleaner. I spent days vacuuming it. I dug dog treats and old crayons out of the cracks between the cushions, imagining the couch as an entity that had sucked out the souls of a Tacoma family.

I griped about the couch constantly. Harry said I was too picky. (“Those weren’t my exact words,” he says). He was mostly fine with the couch. We spent whole seasons of The Amazing Race on it.

Soon, we started complaining about aches on the same side of our necks. It’s the couch, I said. Harry admitted the couch could be a factor, but insisted there were lots of parts of our life that could cause bad necks. We were planning a wedding. We had bad posture. Life was stressful enough to knit knots within our muscles. This was not only the couch. It was systemic.

I knew that was wrong. Earlier this year, I took a stand. Or, really, a seat. I decided I could not sit on the couch anymore. I rolled out a yoga mat on the floor when we watched TV. Eventually, Harry joined me with his own yoga mat. A win for the anti-couch campaign. And, yet, we did not get rid of it.

We’ve been doing this for months, the couch behind us, watching us, waiting for us to sit on it so it can sap us of more life force. Sitting on the floor with the couch instead of on it, like children. We try to convince ourselves we’re stretching, but we are simply settling. Our cat, Cricket, jumps on the couch during these times, looking for a lap to sit on. He looks down at us. He cannot understand why we are on the floor instead of up high. Yet, even Cricket refuses to nap on the couch sans lap.

Finally, we decided we would get a new couch, but it’s a classic chicken and egg problem: You cannot get rid of a couch without having a new couch, but you can’t get a new couch if there’s an old couch there, and it’s hard to get rid of a couch without a truck.

Finally, in spite of the economy and the tariffs, I bought a new couch. It’s delivery was imminent. I had to get rid of this horror couch. So, I posted on Facebook Marketplace.

My listing said, “Great couch, good storage, good condition.” It omits the hurt it does to bodies. I worried I was lying.

“Are any of the cushions sagging from use?” one interested party asked me.

“No, actually they’re quite firm,” I replied, knowing the rocksolid truth.

“On a scale from one to 10 with 10 being the comfiest thing you’ve ever sat on, how comfy is the couch?” she replied.

First of all, this is an insane question. I glanced at the bulge in the middle cushion that I knew was all spring. “Um… like a six?” I said, like a liar.

She was coming to pick up the couch. I felt immense guilt. Soon, she would be stuck with it. Or, worse, she’d have rented a U-Haul van to transport this couch and realized it is a cursed object.

I did not have to endure this. I could have taken the couch to the dump immediately, and written it off as a loss, but, technically, it is still a pretty good couch. There’s storage.

And maybe this is a Goldilocks thing. A friend who cat sat for us once didn’t even notice the couch was bad. He slept on it a bunch, he said, and never noticed the lumps or springs. “Do you want it?” we asked our friend. He did not. Suspicious.

When the young woman arrived in her rented U-Haul with a friend (roommate? girlfriend?) in tow, I led her up to the couch. Harry and I showed it to her. “Give it a try,” I said. I watched in horror as she pressed her hand on the lumpy mound of springs.

“Oh, it’s really comfortable,” she said.

“That’s great,” Harry said. “That’s the part we like the least.”

Relief flooded my veins. My whole body uncoiled from the stress, the couch. We helped carry the load downstairs—It had been a while since Harry and I had lugged furniture together. We did it a lot better than those two, I thought. We’d been doing this dance for years, in different apartments and houses across the city. Apparently, this was their second couch this week. But the first one hadn’t fit into her elevator. She hadn’t measured.

Before we stuffed our couch into her truck, the chaise flew open, a flapping maw commanding us not to part with it. We muscled it in. The two women looked on warily, likely imagining how they were going to do this themselves on the other side. “A little late, but straps might help with that,” I suggested helpfully.

With the couch finally packed up, the woman paid me for it. I couldn’t believe it. We walked back inside our apartment and both of us jumped for joy. “It’s gone! It’s gone!” we said.

Only a sliver of me still felt bad that I had dumped this terrible couch onto this unsuspecting young woman. Such is the way of the couch. I expected she would have it and then burden some other person with it in roughly two years’ time. It will truly be like The Ring—and like the American remake, set in Seattle—until some brave soul decides to destroy it.

Except, hours later at midnight, I received a Facebook message. They had found a bug on the armrest. They had found a few more dead bugs in a seam, too. None were bedbugs, but maybe I wanted to check the rest of my furniture? the woman suggested. A blurry picture accompanied this. In the cracks of the couch that were not my business, I saw the shapes of an exoskeleton or two among the leftover scraggly blond dog hair that no amount of vacuuming could truly get rid of. Couchman’s legacy lived on.

The couch was no longer in their apartment, she said. I could come get it if I wanted. I did not. I felt terrible—and kind of gross—and sent her money back.

The next morning, I told Harry.

“What? They’re going to be couchless over a bug?” he said. “They didn’t just vacuum it?”

I thought of them schlepping my terrible couch up to their apartment, returning the U-Haul, and then bringing the couch back down after finding the bugs. I thought about the inevitable third couch they’d go for. Maybe this was a Goldilocks thing. But still, all of that work to be left with no couch, even a terrible one?

“Ridiculous standards,” I replied.

There Was Nothing Unusual About Seattle’s Election, or the Results

Nathalie Graham — Fri, 14 Nov 2025 13:10:00 -0800

This Is a Message for Mayor Bruce Harrell and SPOG President Mike Solan

by Nathalie Graham

There was nothing odd, wrong, or suspicious about Seattle’s election results. They sure felt slow, but they weren’t.

Someone tell that to outgoing Mayor Bruce Harrell and Seattle Police Officer’s Guild President Mike Solan. They seem misinformed.

Yesterday, at his concession speech, the always-extemporaneous Harrell offered some off-hand election misinformation.

“A lot of people were saying that I shouldn’t concede and that there were anomalies, differences, and stuff,” Harrell said, before skating past that and lauding himself for conceding anyway.

Halei Watkins from King County Elections said she didn’t know what Harrell was referring to. “There’s been nothing amiss on our end,” she wrote in an email. “Happy to chase something down if there are specifics or more information.”

Neither the Harrell campaign nor the mayor’s office responded to The Stranger’s requests for comment about Harrell’s claims that there were “anomalies,” so Watkins had nothing to chase down.

In a statement Friday, Seattle Police Officer Guild President Solan suggested that the election process, which was no different from previous elections, needed reform.

“The vote count for Seattle’s next mayor took so long that I almost forgot we had an election. And much like public safety in Seattle, our election process needs to be reformed. SPOG members also want to thank Mayor Harrell for his efforts to build back SPD. We look forward to continuing his legacy with Mayor-Elect Wilson.”

SPOG did not respond to The Stranger’s request for comment.

According to King County Elections, nothing was different from this election compared to other odd-year elections. Typically, people vote earlier and more consistently during even-year elections when there are national races on the ballot. Odd-year elections inspire more last-minute voting, Watkins says. The slower feeling this election had to do with a more than 30 percent uptick in voter turnout in the last day of the election, with most of those people opting to use ballot boxes.

“I went back and looked at posting numbers from 2023 and 2021 and we are right in line with our pace from those years,” Watkins said last week.

Ben Anderstone, a political consultant who worked on Sara Nelson’s campaign, writes in a text message to The Stranger that there’s “absolutely nothing suspicious here.”

“We had slightly higher turnout than expected, and King County took the normal amount of time to count—in pace with many other counties. Neither is an ‘anomaly.’ Neither is even particularly weird. Anyone who is worried about fraud can easily go to the Elections website and download a list of every voter who returned a ballot. The voter file is very much public record.”

“I don’t think we should be slinging around claims of election irregularities without meaningful evidence,” he writes.

In the weeks before election day, Harrell signed off on a new SPOG contract that boosted Seattle Police Department starting salaries by 42 percent to almost $120,000, according to a report by Publicola.

While Wilson is in favor of hiring more cops, she was critical of Harrell’s handling of the SPOG contract, saying he should have negotiated more accountability measures and more alternative response capacity like the Community Assisted Response and Engagement (CARE) team. Historically, SPOG has resisted expanding the CARE team, but in the new contract, SPOG acquiesced to a twofold increase in CARE team members and more direct power for those responders. Wilson has also nodded toward decreasing the power of SPOG.

Sowing seeds of doubt in a fair election is a playbook we know well. “Losing candidates who cast unfounded suspicion on election results have unfortunately become far too normalized over the past five years,” Kate Bitz, a senior organizer at the Western States Center, a pro-Democracy nonprofit, tells The Stranger.

Bitz points out that Solan has a history of playing into right-wing misinformation. In 2021, he blamed the January 6 insurrection—which was about a “stolen election”—on the “far right and far left.” Solan and SPOG also inhibited investigations into SPD officers who attended the insurrection, trying to protect them from “cancel culture.” Bitz called those actions “especially reckless… evidence-free musings.”

Comments like this “[diminish] civic trust,” and have “negative effects on voter participation, and even threats and political violence.”

Above all, Bitz believes these comments from Harrell and Solan undermine the will of the people.

“Seattle voters deserve better than to have their choice disrespected like this,” Bitz says. “The King County Elections Office also deserves better than insinuations from public servants undermining their hard work to provide a secure, reliable process.”

News editor Vivian McCall contributed reporting.

November Things to Do: Music

Julianne Bell — Wed, 12 Nov 2025 04:00:00 -0800

The best music events in November. by Julianne Bell

Want more? Here's everything we recommend this month: Music, Visual Art, Literature, Performance, Film, Food.

Ginger Root

Nov 4–5

Once upon a time, Ginger Root’s DIY visionary Cameron Lew told Atwood Magazine he hasn’t considered working with an outside producer because each idea he has “moves so fast that I’m afraid if I lose momentum, then the whole song is going to go away.” Lew’s frantic creative energy is apparent in most everything he puts out. Ginger Root’s most recent full-length, 2024’s SHINBANGUMI, was accompanied by a 20-minute mockumentary about a struggling video producer in 1987 Japan who finds the courage to start his own production company. His live show is no exception. Rounded out by a jumpsuit-clad video-effects specialist wielding a newscast-grade camera for live video mixing, a Ginger Root show is a multimedia delight where every aspect is both unexpected and essential. Lew’s quirky Huntington Beach outfit performs as a quartet (gotta count the cameraman), and if you showed up to Japanese Breakfast’s ZooTunes show in September, for which Ginger Root opened, you already get the draw. Musically, Lew and co. zip between bedroom city pop, goofball soul, and jammy, Mattson 2–esque jazz, all buoyed by Lew’s sketch-comedy banter and nasty electro-slide-whistle riffs. (Crocodile, 8 pm, all ages) TODD HAMM

Triathalon, YUNGMORPHEUS

Nov 5

When Triathalon’s 2014 debut, Lo-Tide, came out, beach-goth rock arrangements and whammy bar surf-guitar work were their calling card, but soon, any coarseness in tone was smoothed out like fine-grain beach sand. By the time 2018’s Online came around, keyboards and a drum machine had entered the chat, and we were left with the suave, breathy, post-chillwave beats we would come to rely on. Their guitars had become seductive garnish, and cinematic postcoital shower vibes were on the menu. Fast forward to 2025, and the only thing remaining in the New York trio’s creative story arc was, you guessed it: existential dread. The band has said their newest effort, Funeral Music, answers the growing question of what sort of vibe their memorial services would put out, and interestingly enough, the tracks find the band leaning back into their more foundational rock and specifically shoegaze impulses. (Barboza, 7 pm, 21+) TODD HAMM

Freakout Festival

Nov 6–9

You may not know most of the lineup, but if you’re agile enough to hit up multiple rooms per night and you Do Your Own Research™, you can discover several new artists—local and foreign—who’ll long-term enrich your life. That’s the magic of Freakout Fest, now in its 13th year. With 70 acts performing at nine venues in Ballard and Fremont, Freakout promises a diversity of sonic adventures. Japanese noise-rockers Melt-Banana are as wild as ever, 32 years on. Portland’s Møtrik honor their name with klassik, ekstatik krautrock accelerations. Switzerland’s L’Eclair—some of whose members moonlight in Zambian rock gods W.I.T.C.H.—elegantly and cinematically funk you up (and down and all around) and will make you feel very sophisticated. Seattle shoegazers glass egg will unveil songs from their new, serenely misty visions & ecstasies album. The industrial-electronic group Chalk will bring their foundation-shaking capabilities all the way from Northern Ireland. My can’t-miss pick is Mexican psych-rock group Diles Que No Me Maten, who purvey an eerie, mysterious strain of post-punk. I could go on, but I don’t want to annoy my editor. [Ed. note: I did in fact let Dave go on—check out his 20 (!) Freakout Festival picks at TheStranger.com.] (Various venues and times, 21+) DAVE SEGAL

ECSC: 20th Rare Soul Weekender with Bernadette Bascom

Nov 7

In the early and mid 1980s—when grunge was merely a sprout in the dirt—Bernadette Bascom, the daughter of civil rights activist Rev. Marion C. Bascom, was keeping R&B and soul flowing through the Pacific Northwest with jams like “I Don’t Wanna Lose Your Love” and “Seattle Sunshine.” This is just a small fraction of what makes Bascom a local legend, along with being a member of funk groups Acapulco Gold and Robbie Hill’s Family Affair, becoming the first artist signed to Stevie Wonder’s Black Bull label, and teaching singing lessons across the region for decades. Long-running DJ collective Emerald City Soul Club will kick off their 20th annual Rare Soul Weekender with a live performance from the local legend, along with DJs spinning heat from their rare vinyl collections. (Black Lodge, 9 pm, 21+) AUDREY VANN

Freddie Gibbs & the Alchemist, Mavi, Sven Wunder

Nov 7

Individually, Freddie Gibbs and the Alchemist are two of the finest remaining practitioners of classic rap orthodoxy. The two have shown that hard-bodied street rhymes (Gibbs) and sample-based, neck-snapping beats (the Alchemist) never really went out of style, it’s just that fewer people were doing them hard enough. The Gary, Indiana–bred emcee is also hilarious. On record, Gibbs is quick to rap about “smashing like mashed potatoes,” and lament forgetting how many kids he has, like he did between songs at his Bumbershoot set last summer. For his part, the Beverly Hills–raised Alan Daniel Maman, aka the Alchemist, has produced for an enormous chunk of the rap pantheon, ranging in style from Action Bronson to Dilated Peoples, Schoolboy Q to Earl Sweatshirt. Of late, his penchant for album-length collabs has resulted in more than a few gems, but most notably, 2020’s Alfredo with Gibbs, which was nominated for Best Rap Album at the following year’s Grammys. This year’s sequel, Alfredo 2, is another notch in the duo’s illustrious win column. (Showbox SoDo, 8:30 pm, all ages) TODD HAMM

Reyna Tropical

Nov 8

Fabiola Reyna has mastered both the agile guitar picking of several vintage Southern Hemisphere subgenres and the art of homage, to turn tragedy into enduring legacy. Originally one half of Reyna Tropical, Reyna suddenly found herself the sole remaining band member when, in 2022, her musical partner Nectali “Sumohair” Díaz died in a scooter accident. After much contemplation, Reyna decided to carry on, keeping the moniker as tribute. Early RT EPs featured equal guitar/vocal songwriting and MPC input in the vein of a sunny Chico Mann/Captain Planet collab, and while Reyna’s 2024 solo debut, Malegría (a fitting mashup of the Spanish words for “bad” and “happiness”), does contain a dose of dance flare à la Bomba Estéreo, the album features her brilliant soukous-inspired, high-register guitar flourishes and lively dance BPM, with moments of more loping chicha tempos, all while honoring the band’s original motto, “Queer love and Afro-Mexico.” (Nectar Lounge, 8 pm, 21+) TODD HAMM

Shudder to Think, Zwei Null Zwei

Nov 8

Shudder to Think made the rare leap from DC punk stronghold Dischord to major label Epic (thanks to an Eddie Vedder endorsement), but it was hard for indie die-hards to be mad at them in those nutty, post-Nevermind ’90s. Bands as weird and audacious as Shudder to Think deserved to get a shot at next-medium-sized-thing status, damn it. Despite the Dischord association, STT were never punk, per se. Rather, they were actually a strange mix of math rock, post-punk, and glam rock, which Craig Wedren then launched skyward with a voice that swooped from delicate falsetto to powerful roar like an American Freddie Mercury. STT really bloomed on 1992’s Get Your Goat, a dazzling collection of songs that swerved unpredictably, flexed impressive guitar muscles, and invented new forms of rock beauty, thanks largely to Wedren’s demonically angelic vibrato. The 1994 Pony Express Record solidified STT’s status as quirky genii; its slanted and enchanted rock left Pavement sounding like flat-footed normies. Seeing a reunited Shudder to Think—one of the featheriest heavy bands that America’s produced—in 2025 seems like an improbable yet necessary dream. (Barboza, 6:30 pm, 21+) DAVE SEGAL

The Saints ’73-’78

Nov 9

Who was the first punk qua punk band? It’s an argument that can last for days, but Australia’s the Saints can legitimately contend for that honor. Although the Ramones’ first LP came out months earlier than the Saints’ 1976 debut single, “(I’m) Stranded”/“No Time,” both groups were germinating their fast and noisy songs synchronously on different continents in ’73 and ’74. Whatever the case, the Saints’ early tunes have aged very well, and new generations of punk-rock lovers still hunger to hear them played live. Ergo, this tour. Mudhoney front man Mark Arm’s replacing the Saints’ late, raw-throated singer Chris Bailey, and though his voice isn’t as adenoidal, Arm has the pipes and agitational energy to do these snarling anthems justice. Thankfully, original guitarist/songwriter Ed Kuepper’s still kicking ass, and he’ll be joined by OG Saints drummer Ivor Hay, ex–Birthday Party/Bad Seeds mensch Mick Harvey, and bassist Peter Oxley. Expect middle-aged folks moshing to the swashbuckling punk nuggets of (I’m) Stranded, Eternally Yours, and Prehistoric Sounds, plus singles from this vital era that have never been performed in North America. (Neptune Theatre, 8 pm, all ages) DAVE SEGAL

Doechii

Nov 10

All hail Doechii the don, Doechii the dean, Doechii supreme, the Swamp Ruler! Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last two years, I feel confident in assuming that you’re probably already familiar with the Grammy Award–winning rapper, singer, and fashion icon and her insanely brilliant, inventive 2024 mixtape, Alligator Bites Never Heal. In that case, maybe you, too, shed a few tears over her historic Grammys performance, cackled over the sitcom-inspired “Denial Is a River” video, and braved Ticketmaster to secure tickets to the Seattle stop on her Live From the Swamp Tour. The Swamp Princess herself has decreed a school-inspired dress code for the tour and proclaimed that the “runway starts at the venue,” so I suggest treating this assignment like the Met Gala and taking a cue from Doechii’s chic, menswear-inspired personal style—time to start raiding the thrift stores for sweater vests, pleated skirts, blazers, and button-downs! (WAMU Theater, 8 pm, all ages) JULIANNE BELL

Patti Smith

Nov 10

Patti Smith (who will also be in town the night before for a book event) is the punk poet laureate, a National Book Award–winning author, Instagram sensation, and overall national treasure. And, despite her status as an American icon, I am constantly in awe of her down-to-earth personality and approachability. In 2015, during the release of her second memoir, M Train, I caught Patti at a now-demolished U-District cathedral for a reading. To my surprise, the evening was delightfully unstructured, with acoustic songs, stories, and an unmoderated Q&A. Having now seen her on three different occasions, I’ve found that she brings that authentic, inviting energy to every show she plays. Smith will celebrate the 50th anniversary of her debut album, Horses, by playing the album in its entirety. My fingers are crossed that she’ll also perform her first single, “Piss Factory,” which also happens to be my go-to karaoke song. (Paramount Theatre, 8 pm, all ages) AUDREY VANN

David Byrne

Nov 11–13

When Byrne released Who Is the Sky? earlier this year, he posted a full-album listening party on YouTube. “Hello and thank you for listening to my record for the first time,” he said to the screen before the first track, in that David Byrne voice that is somehow awkward and stilted and completely charismatic. “Now, since this is the first time you’ve heard this record, there’s some tips I suggest: Be with someone you love, and cut some onions. Prepare a nice meal, together. Eat it when the record’s over.” He’s a delightful weirdo on stage and on screen, and one of the few boomer white men I still want to give a mic to. He won’t tour forever, so take advantage of this chance to see him. And you may ask yourself, “Well, how did I get here?” (Paramount Theatre, 8 pm, all ages) HANNAH MURPHY WINTER

Neko Case, John Grant

Nov 14

Good things come to those who wait, and for me, that good thing is Neko Case’s first album in seven years, Neon Grey Midnight Green. Between the breezy, Virginia Astley–esque “Winchester Mansion of Sound,” which is an ode to her dearly departed friend/collaborator Dexter Romweber, and the cinematic love song “Wreck,” the album is already in the running to be my favorite of the year. Before I had even heard the full album, I was immediately drawn to its cover, which features Case swathed in green fur beside a fallen chandelier, with a puff of smoke in her hand, evoking the 19th-century surrealist artists Leonor Fini and Leonora Carrington. The album was recorded at her home studio in Vermont—Carnassial Sound—and is her first produced by her alone. Case writes: “I’m proud to say I produced this record. It is my vision. It is my veto power. It is my taste.” She will support the new album alongside singer-songwriter John Grant (formerly of the Czars). (Paramount Theatre, 8 pm, all ages) AUDREY VANN

Seattle Bands Stand With Gaza: Mt Fog, Reverse Death, Westmoreland

Nov 16

Good cause/good bands alert. Seattle’s Mt Fog have morphed from the solo project of vocalist/musician/songwriter Carolyn B. into a trio featuring Afrocop drummer/Select Level keyboardist Andy Sells and bassist Casey Rosebridge. Carolyn’s kaleidoscopic vocals hint at the artful acrobatics of Kate Bush, Björk, and Sinéad O’Connor while the songs on their latest album, 2024’s Ultraviolet Heart Machine, cohere into compelling hybrids of emotion-laden synth-pop and funk. They should be much better known. Led by multi-instrumentalist Daniel Onufer, Reverse Death have become one of my favorite local rock bands, making psychedelic music that’s beautiful, languorous, and suffused with mystery. Their 2022 album, Stretching to Infinity, basks in a tranquil, sacred aura of liquid guitar chime-bliss that’s as devotional as German mystics Popol Vuh. The track title “Floating Delight” telegraphs its effect. The new Reflectors, Vol. 1 showcases Reverse Death’s affinity for gorgeous minimalist psychedelia à la Spiritualized, with hints of a more chill 21st-century Beach Boys. Seattle seldom produces music of this beatific nature, so treasure it, you ingrates. (Tractor Tavern, 7:30 pm, 21+) DAVE SEGAL

Julie Doiron, Black Belt Eagle Scout

Nov 16

Canadian singer-songwriter Julie Doiron is the only person on Earth who wrote a song about a dying grandma so catchy and affecting that it’s a Vivian go-to when a fool passes me the aux cord (Broken Girl is foundational for sad girls everywhere). A former member of the dreamy, punky Eric’s Trip, Doiron is a songwriter’s songwriter who has consistently released interesting folk-ish alternative music for three decades. She’ll share the stage with Black Belt Eagle Scout, or Katherine Paul, the Anacortes-born, Portland-based Indigenous singer-songwriter whose 2023 record The Land, the Water, the Sky, is a beautiful heart-ripper. Recommended for fans of Phil Elverum (Mount Eerie/the Microphones), who is musically and personally connected to both artists. (Vera Project, 7 pm, all ages) VIVIAN McCALL

Shrek Rave

Nov 21

The lords, ladies, and fairy-tale creatures of Far Far Away are gathering for a night of absolute bedlam in Shrek’s Swamp—regardless of his “KEEP OUT OGRE” signs. There will be costumes, a kaleidoscope of Shrek-meme visuals, and an EDM-ified Shrek soundtrack. People will be sipping on swamp juice. What’s in it? Nobody knows, but definitely a fuckton of alcohol. This is the Shrek Rave. Be warned: This is literally a rave. If you go into it thinking it’ll be a fun Shrek costume party like some of us did back in 2023 or whenever this party went on its viral national tour, you may be disappointed. That happened to me. Go expecting a sweaty, bass-thumping party with a pocketful of MDMA in a pair of donkey ears and you’ll have the time of your life. (Crocodile, 10 pm, 21+) NATHALIE GRAHAM

Built to Spill, Papas, Larry Yes

Nov 25–26

Built to Spill is the best thing to come out of Idaho since the potato crop. Doug Martsch has been rocking out Boise-style since ’92. In that sense, they’re a “legacy act.” But good songs never die, and There’s Nothing Wrong With Love and Keep It Like a Secret are timeless because they were never super on trend. Built to Spill always did its own thing. (But if you’re worried the new-ish songs from 2022’s When the Wind Forgets Your Name will ruin your precious nostalgia, even these “new” songs were written a long time ago.) The band is joined by Boise’s Papas and Portland’s Larry Yes, two artists so small that putting them on this bill with indie-rock legends is, like Built to Spill, rad, old-school scene love. (Neptune Theatre, 8 pm, all ages) VIVIAN McCALL

More

Sir Chloe, Venus & the Flytraps Nov 5, Showbox, 8:30 pm, all ages

Tomo Nakayama ‘Ocean’ Album Release Nov 7, Fremont Abbey, 7:30 pm, all ages

Belly: 30th Anniversary of ‘King’ Nov 9, Crocodile, 7 pm, 21+

Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass & Other Delights Nov 9, Benaroya Hall, 7:30 pm, all ages

TeZATalks, N3PTUNE, Pussy Willow, and Porcelain Nov 9, Barboza, 7 pm, 21+

‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ Live in Concert Nov 15, Paramount Theatre, 7 pm, all ages

The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Federale Nov 15, Showbox, 8 pm, 21+

King Princess: The Girl Violence Tour Nov 16, Showbox SoDo, 8 pm, all ages

Boris: ‘Pink’ 20th Anniversary Tour Nov 17, Crocodile, 8 pm, all ages

Donnie Emerson & Nancy Sophia Rabbit Box Nov 19, 8 pm, all ages

Khruangbin Nov 19, Neptune Theatre, 8 pm, all ages

Piano Starts Here Presents: The Music of Sun Ra & Fletcher Henderson Nov 19, Royal Room, 7:30 pm, all ages until 10 pm

An Evening with the Residency in 3-D with Macklemore Nov 20, Showbox, 7:30 pm, all ages

Bryan Adams: Roll with the Punches with Pat Benatar & Neil Giraldo Nov 21, Climate Pledge Arena, 7:30 pm, all ages

Dean Johnson, Theo Lawrence Nov 21, Showbox, 8 pm, 21+

Tei Shi, Harmony Nov 21, Madame Lou’s, 6:30 pm, 21+

Heart, Cheap Trick Nov 23, Climate Pledge Arena, 7 pm, all ages

Oblé Reed, Parisalexa, and Esebree Nov 26, Neumos, 7 pm, all ages

Sarah McLachlan Nov 26, Paramount Theatre, 8 pm, all ages

Deep Sea Diver: Homecoming Concert Nov 28, Paramount Theatre, 8 pm, all ages

Seattle’s Tribute to The Last Waltz Nov 29, Neptune Theatre, 8 pm, all ages

The Mountain Goats Dec 3–4, Neptune Theatre, 8 pm, all ages

Early Warnings

SYML Dec 5, Moore Theatre, 8 pm, all ages

A John Prine Christmas with Jenner Fox Band Dec 9, Tractor Tavern, 8 pm, 21+

Smokey Brights: ‘Dashboard Heat’ Album Release Dec 11, Crocodile, 8 pm, 21+

Thunderpussy with Mike McCready Dec 11, Showbox, 8:30 pm, 21+

Earl Sweatshirt Dec 15, Showbox SoDo, 8 pm, all ages

David Benoit’s Christmas Tribute to Charlie Brown with Courtney Fortune Dec 18–21, Jazz Alley, various times, all ages

Jenny Don’t & the Spurs Pre-NYE Bash Dec 30, Tractor Tavern, 8 pm, 21+

Mudhoney Dec 31, Neptune Theatre, 9 pm, all ages

New Year’s Eve with Kenny G Dec 31, Jazz Alley, various times, all ages

The Residents Jan 10, Neptune Theatre, 8 pm, all ages

Cate Le Bon Jan 27, Neptune Theatre, 8 pm, all ages

Julianna Barwick with Mary Lattimore Feb 17, Crocodile, 8 pm, 21+

Cardi B Feb 22, Climate Pledge Arena, 7:30 pm, all ages

Suzanne Vega Feb 22, Neptune Theatre, 7:30 pm, all ages

November Things to Do: Literature

Julianne Bell — Wed, 12 Nov 2025 04:00:00 -0800

The best literature events in November. by Julianne Bell

Want more? Here's everything we recommend this month: Music, Visual Art, Literature, Performance, Film, Food.

Quan Barry

Nov 5

Poet, novelist, and playwright Quan Barry’s 2019 novel We Ride Upon Sticks—which revolves around a girls’ high-school field-hockey team in Massachusetts in 1989, and their foray into witchcraft—is one of the most original, charming, weird, nostalgic, and witty books I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading. So naturally, I have high hopes for her newest release, The Unveiling. The literary horror novel follows Striker, a Black film scout who joins a very white luxury Antarctic cruise in order to photograph potential locations for a splashy Ernest Shackleton biopic. After an ill-fated kayaking excursion, Striker finds herself stranded with a select group of survivors. Gradually, everyone’s “secrets, prejudices, and inner demons” emerge among the frozen, desolate landscape, and Striker begins to lose her grip on reality. It sounds like a combination of The Shining and Get Out with eldritch vibes, and what’s not to love about that? (Elliott Bay Book Company, 7 pm, free, all ages) JULIANNE BELL

Susan Orlean with Claire Dederer

Nov 7

Longtime author and New Yorker staff writer Susan Orlean has written non-fiction books about orchid thieves, library fires, famous dogs, and animal-human relationships, but not until her new book, Joyride, has she ever written a book about herself. The memoir details her life as a writer, including managing deadlines and overcoming writer’s block (consider my interest piqued!) as well as losing love, finding love, and facing her own mortality. Orlean will sit down with one of my favorite writers, essayist and critic Claire Dederer, to discuss the new book and how she adapted from exploring other people’s lives to tackling her own. (Town Hall Seattle, 7:30 pm, all ages) AUDREY VANN

An Evening with Patti Smith

Nov 9

Punk-rock poet laureate, writer, and just general rock star Patti Smith is coming to Meany Hall (the day before her Paramount Theatre show) to talk about her latest memoir, Bread of Angels. The book dives deeper into Smith’s life, covering the ground her 2010 book Just Kids—about her relationship with lover Robert Mapplethorpe—only hinted at. Bread of Angels touches on Smith’s childhood growing up as the eldest of four kids, her teenage years, her marriage to the late guitarist Fred “Sonic” Smith, and how she found writing again after experiencing great loss. Bread of Angels publishes on Nov. 4, Mapplethorpe’s birthday and the day Fred “Sonic” Smith passed. Tickets include a copy of Bread of Angels from Elliott Bay Book Company. (Meany Hall, 7:30 pm) NATHALIE GRAHAM

Oyinkan Braithwaite

Nov 12

Nigerian author Oyinkan Braithwaite’s morbidly hilarious debut novel My Sister, the Serial Killer, a dark comedic thriller about a long-suffering nurse’s toxic relationship with her beautiful sociopathic sister, was a breakout hit that climbed the bestsellers lists and cemented her status as an author to watch. Now she’s back with her latest novel, Cursed Daughters, which explores similar themes of family, death, and love in a much different way. Eniiyi’s family believes her to be the reincarnation of her mother Ebun’s cousin, Monife, since she was born on the day of Monife’s funeral and bears an eerie resemblance to her. They believe this means that she, too, will be doomed to a tragic premature death. To make matters worse, the family also suffers from another curse: “No man will call your house his home. And if they try, they will not have peace.” When Eniiyi saves a man from drowning and inconveniently falls for him, she must fight to prove that she is not destined to the same fate as her foremothers. (Seattle Central Public Library, 7 pm, free, all ages) JULIANNE BELL

Jazmina Barrera and Megan McDowell: ‘The Queen of Swords’ and ‘The Week of Colors’ by Elena Garro

Nov 20

We are living in a golden era of translated literature, and, as a devourer of previously underrated authors like Clarice Lispector, Tove Jansson, and Tarijei Vesaas, I am loving every moment of it. The late Mexican author Elena Garro is the latest translated 20th-century author on my radar, as she is known as a trailblazer of magical realism, feminist horror, and anticolonial speculative fiction, who wrote with palpable rage and a vivid imagination. This talk between biographer Jazmina Barrera and translator Megan McDowell will celebrate the two book releases: Barrera’s exploration of Garro’s life, The Queen of Swords, and McDowell’s translation of Garro’s short story collection, The Week of Colors. Both books document Garro’s legacy as a forward-thinking writer, mystic, socialite, and activist. (Third Place Books Ravenna, 7 pm, free) AUDREY VANN

More

Li-Young Lee Nov 3, Rainier Arts Center, 7:30 pm

Becky Spratford Nov 6, Central Library, 8:30 pm, free

Maya Jewell Zeller ‘The Wonder of Mushrooms: The Mysterious World of Fungi’ Nov 11, Elliott Bay Book Company, 7 pm, free

Nicholas Boggs ‘Baldwin: A Love Story’ Nov 11, Hugo House, 6 pm

Miranda July Nov 13, Moore Theatre, 8 pm (see pg. 40 for preview)

David Sedaris Nov 16, Benaroya Hall, 7 pm

Cameron Crowe: The Uncool Book Tour Nov 17, Benaroya Hall, 7:30 pm, all ages

Malala Yousafzai: Finding My Way Book Tour Nov 17, Moore Theatre, 8 pm, all ages

Tuck Woodstock with Serena Hommes ‘Sex Change and the City’ Nov 17, Elliott Bay, 7 pm

A Conversation with Padma Lakshmi Nov 18, Benaroya Hall, 7:30 pm

Early Warnings

Honorée Fanonne Jeffers Jan 27, Town Hall Seattle, 7:30 pm

‘We Are Not Numbers: The Voices of Gaza’s Youth’ A Community Reading Jan 29, Third Place Books Seward Park, 7 pm

Aja Monet Feb 5, Town Hall Seattle, 7:30 pm

George Saunders: ‘Vigil: A Novel’ Apr 7, Town Hall Seattle, 7:30 pm

November Things to Do: Performance

Julianne Bell — Wed, 12 Nov 2025 04:00:00 -0800

The best theater and performance events in November. by Julianne Bell

Want more? Here's everything we recommend this month: Music, Visual Art, Literature, Performance, Film, Food.

PNB: In the Upper Room

Nov 7–16

Premiering in 1986, Twyla Tharp’s high-energy ballet, In the Upper Room, has become one of the most iconic ballets of the 20th century, admired for its athletic choreography, minimalist costume design, dramatic lighting, and a transcendent score by Philip Glass. The Pacific Northwest Ballet will take on Tharp’s contemporary classic, along with Dani Rowe’s emotionally compelling one-act ballet, The Window. This is a must for not only ballet and contemporary dance fanatics, but for lovers of experimental music and performance art. These performances will also debut the newly minted PNB dancers Christopher D’Ariano and Amanda Morgan. (McCaw Hall, various times, all ages) AUDREY VANN

Aya Ogawa, the Nosebleed

Nov 13–15

Doris Duke Award–winning playwright and director Aya Ogawa’s autobiographical play The Nosebleed explores themes of failure, humanity, empathy, and connection, as well as their strained relationship with their late, estranged father. Ogawa enlisted four actors to play various facets of themself, while taking on the role of both their father and their 5-year-old son. Audiences are invited to project their own experiences onto the blank, minimal set and are engaged in the “theatrical memorial and healing ritual” through audience participation. The New York Times selected it as a critic pick and called it “conversational, unflinching and delicately layered,” writing that “Ogawa’s memoir-like excavation tests the boundaries of love and family obligation through intimate confession.” (On the Boards, 8 pm, 6+) JULIANNE BELL

Conner O’Malley

Nov 20

I’ll be honest, I used to refer to Conner O’Malley as “Aidy Bryant’s husband,” until I saw him in Joe Pera Talks With You as a depressed father who eats chicken in the shower, followed by his feature-length, the straight-to-YouTube film Rap World. He isn’t the typical comedian I’d ride for—in general, I have an aversion to male comics—but his loud, aggressive take on comedy ultimately makes a subversive statement about the absurdity of modern-day masculinity. The Chicago-born comedian, whom the New Yorker has called “the bard of the Manosphere,” plays pathetic, reply-guy characters that shed light on the idiocy of alpha males and/or incel men who have largely gotten us to our current hellscape. In a message on his Instagram, an AI-generated O’Malley states, “I have been in the General Motors psychological experiments labs generating humor sequences infused with alternative political ideas, and I’m finally ready to take it out on the road.” (Neptune Theatre, 7 pm & 9:45 pm, all ages) AUDREY VANN

Come From Away

Nov 28–Jan 4, 2026

Ugh, I love Come From Away more than I can articulate. The hit musical tells the story about the small town of Gander, Newfoundland coming together to help the passengers on 38 planes stranded there after American airspace closed on 9/11. It is a musical that reminds us of the generosity of strangers and the goodness that persists in spite of large-scale evils. Come From Away got its start at the Seattle Repertory Theatre a decade ago when producers staged an early version of the show. It returns to that stage this fall, but the show won’t be the same version we all know. The Rep is putting a twist on Come from Away this year. All I know is there will be an emphasis on actors also playing musical instruments. Whatever version of Come From Away graces Seattle stages, I’m excited to see it and be welcomed back to The Rock. (Seattle Repertory Theatre, various times) NATHALIE GRAHAM

More

Violet vs Gottmik: The Knockout Tour Nov 6, Neptune Theatre, 8 pm, all ages

Whitmer Thomas with Clay Tatum Nov 6, Madame Lou’s, 7 pm, 21+

Nate Bargatze Nov 6–7, Climate Pledge Arena, 7 pm, all ages

Countess Luann Nov 7, The Showbox, 8:30 pm, 21+

Ally J Ward: Imposter Syndrome Nov 9, Here-After, 7 pm, 21+

Manual Cinema: The 4th Witch Nov 12, Moore Theatre, 7:30 pm, all ages

Nutcracker! Magical Christmas Ballet Nov 16, Paramount Theatre, 2 & 6 pm, all ages

World Ballet Company: The Great Gatsby Ballet Nov 16, Moore Theatre, 6 pm, all ages

Penelope Nov 28–Dec 21, ArtsWest, various times

Pacific Northwest Ballet: George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker Nov 28–Dec 28, McCaw Hall, various times, all ages

Spanksgiving Burlesque & Drag Show Nov 30, Tractor Tavern, 7 pm, 21+

A John Waters Christmas Dec 2, Neptune Theatre, 8 pm, all ages

A Drag Queen Christmas with Nina West, Lexi Love, Shea Coulee, Jewels Sparkles, Crystal Methyd, Suzie Toot, Brooke Lynn Hytes, Bosco, and Lydia B. Kollins Dec 3, McCaw Hall, 7:30 pm, 18+

Disney’s The Lion King Dec 4–Jan 4, Paramount Theatre, various times, all ages

Early Warnings

Alaska: A Very Alaska Christmas Show Dec 5, Neptune Theatre, 8 pm, all ages

Matt Rogers: Christmas in December Dec 6, Neptune Theatre, 8 pm, all ages

The 5th Annual Holly Jolly Holiday Show Dec 7, Neumos, 6 pm, 21+

Blue Xmas with Betty Wetter Dec 11, Clock-Out Lounge, 9 pm, 21+

Kitten N’ Lou Present: Jingle All the Gay Dec 12–14, Neptune Theatre, various times, all ages

In Tandem: A Trio of Duets Dec 18–20, On the Boards, 8 pm, ages 6+

The Jinkx & DeLa Holiday Show Dec 23–28, Moore Theatre, all ages

Fortune Feimster: Takin’ Care of Biscuits Dec 31, McCaw Hall, 7 pm, all ages

Seattle Opera: Daphne in Concert Jan 16 & 18, McCaw Hall, various times, all ages

Pacific Northwest Ballet: Cinderella Jan 30–Feb 8, McCaw Hall, various times, all ages

Seriously, Your Vote Might Not Have Counted

Nathalie Graham — Mon, 10 Nov 2025 12:40:00 -0800

Your ballot might be sick. Cure it, please. We can't bear to watch it suffer. by Nathalie Graham

If you’re living under a rock, or you’re the apolitical one of your friend group receiving this article via text message or frantic DM, listen up. We still don’t know who the Mayor of Seattle is going to be.

Whatever happens will be decided along razor thin margins. We’re potentially in recount territory, political consultants say. A mandatory machine recount only happens if a candidate wins by less than half a percent or less than 2,000 votes. Former mayor Greg Nickels hypothesized that the election could be decided by 65 votes out of more than 280,000 total ballots cast (very specific, Greg.) If Nickels is right, we’re in mandatory hand recount, which requires a difference of less than 250 votes and 0.25 percent of the vote total.

So the 1,930 ballots currently being challenged (as of blog time) for no signature, non-matching signatures, or other signature-related issues could actually decide this election. If you are a Seattle voter, you must check your ballot and make sure everything is kosher. Your power is immense right now. Your civic duty is not over.

It’s time to put the youth on, as they say, blast. There are 426 challenged ballots for 18-24 year olds. If you know a young voter in Seattle, yell at them in words they understand. Say something like, “You have to check your ballot, no cap.” The 475 ballots cast by 25 to 34 year old voters must be resuscitated. Tell those voters checking their signature will prove for certain whether they are Gen Z or millennial.

Elder millennials are erring, too. Imply to them that solving their signature issues is a kind of Hogwarts house quiz and then maybe 369 of them will fix their ballot problems. The rest of the age groups aren’t doing as poorly; The 45 to 46-year-olds have 236 challenged ballots, the 55 to 64-year-olds have 183, and the over 65 camp has 241 ballot issues.

Fixing your ballot is easy. Here’s how to do it:

Go to votewa.org to check if your ballot has issues. If it does, you can solve it online.
Sign up to track your ballot. Doing so will trigger alerts from King County and you can correct any problems there.
Check your texts, emails, or mailbox. King County Elections will have sent you communications about any ballot issues depending on what contact information they have for you.

Whatever method you choose to resolve your ballot problems, you must fix your shit by Nov. 24 at 4:30 p.m. Do it! Tell your friends to do it. The future of Seattle depends on you.

Slog AM: Democrats Move to End Shutdown, Zahilay Wins King County Executive Race, Supreme Court Won't Revisit Same-Sex Marriage Ruling

Nathalie Graham — Mon, 10 Nov 2025 08:35:00 -0800

The Stranger's morning news roundup. by Nathalie Graham

This Government Really Is The Worst: Late Saturday night, Trump's U.S. Department of Agriculture issued a memo ordering states to give back any Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits it issued last week. According to KING5, "Washington state has already distributed full benefits to approximately 250,000 households." The Trump administration is threatening states with financial liability if they don’t "immediately undo" these "unauthorized" payments to low-income families. States only issued those funds because a federal judge ruled the Trump administration could not withhold them during the government shutdown. But the heartless devils on the Supreme Court paused that judge's order, casting SNAP into purgatory.

What the hell is going to happen? A federal appeals court blocked the Supreme Court's order, so presumably benefits should flow again, but who knows?

Flight Cancellations Climb at SeaTac: Friday saw 28 cancellations, Saturday had 39, and Sunday hit 70. Last week, the Federal Aviation Administration ordered airlines to reduce flights during the government shutdown. Across the country, 2,200 flights were cancelled Sunday. Will it keep getting worse?

To Answer Both Those Hypothetical Questions: Cowardly Democrats might be buckling and about to end the shutdown. These moderate idiots indicated they're going to reach a deal with Republicans without a guaranteed extension of healthcare benefits. Instead, these chumps are going to fund the government and trust Republicans as they pinky swear they'll hold a vote to fund Affordable Care Act subsidies in mid-December. Part of the deal includes reinstating federal workers fired during the shutdown and giving backpay to furloughed workers—something that had never been in doubt before. Eight Democratic senators broke rank with their party to reach this bad deal. So far, they've only done a test vote. Sen. Bernie Sanders said giving up the fight was a “horrific mistake.”

Essentially:

DONALD TRUMP: [asleep, drooling on long red tie]

SENATE DEMOCRATS: fine, we give in

— born miserable (@bornmiserable.bsky.social) November 9, 2025 at 6:37 PM

In Case You Want to Yell at Them: Here are the names of those Senators: Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania (duh, right?), Senator Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, Senator Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, Senator Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, Senator Jacky Rosen of Nevada. None are up for reelection next year. Some are retiring at the end of this term. They are all spineless and dumb.

Don't Make Me Eat My Words: The Supreme Court isn't entirely depraved, I suppose. This morning, the Court announced it would not hear the case to challenge same-sex marriage. Former Kentucky county clerk and three-time divorcee Kim Davis brought the case after she was jailed and ordered to pay thousands of dollars in fines for not doing her job when she refused to issue any marriage licenses because she opposed same-sex marriage.

Lenny Wilkens Is Dead: Basketball legend, three-time hall of fame inductee, and SuperSonics coach Lenny Wilkens is dead at 88. He will now only do slam dunks in heaven.

North Seattle Stabbing, Then Standoff: In Greenwood on Friday, police arrested a 51-year-old man after a stabbing in a group home. This guy did not come easily. He barricaded himself inside. It took five hours, a SWAT team, and hostage negotiators to get him to come out. His victim, a man in his 70s, died at the scene.

Girmay Zahilay Makes History: Zahilay has officially been elected as King County Executive. He will become the first immigrant and first refugee to ever hold the position. In a national political climate so hostile to America's founding ethos as a nation of immigrants, Zahilay's assumption of King County's biggest seat of power is a statement. Since he's filling Dow Constantine's shoes after the 16-year incumbent bowed out early to become Sound Transit CEO, Zahilay will start his new role quickly—on Nov. 25. (Fear not, King County has not been captainless, appointee Shannon Braddock has been the interim executive.)

Stay Tuned: This afternoon could reveal who our next mayor is. Monday afternoon's ballot drop might indicate a clear winner between Katie Wilson and incumbent Bruce Harrell. Experts are calling it a "coin flip." We on the SECB did not plan on celebrating no nut November. Will we get our sweet release, or a ruined orgasm? Study up on our takeaways from Friday's ballot drop.

The Weather: Cloudy, not too cold. Rain could come, too. These are the days in which you must always assume a chance of rain. The sky is always full of possibility.

No Doubt about Rain in the Philippines: Super Typhoon Fung-wong battered the Philippines' northern coast on Sunday. At least two people died and more than a million people fled to escape "flash floods, landslide, and tidal surges."

Super Typhoon Fung-wong made landfall in the Philippines on Sunday. At least two deaths have been reported and over a million people were pre-emptively evacuated from their homes. nyti.ms/4hMp3TC

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— The New York Times (@nytimes.com) November 9, 2025 at 11:00 PM

Shark Killers: Great white sharks started washing up dead in South Africa in 2017. In Gansbaai on the Western Cape, great whites used to flourish. But they soon disappeared. Something was killing them. What was it? Scientists eventually figured it out. Killer whales, aka orcas. Not a sneaky name. The orcas were precisely biting the sharks between their pectoral fins and sucking out their livers. Rumor has it they do a good Anthony Hopkins impression, too.

The sharks have fled the area. Now, their usual prey—such as the cape fur seal and the bronze whaler shark—are flourishing, which is fucking up the food chain and disrupting the ecosystem. It's a mess. Thanks for nothing, blood-thirsty orcas. But, if we really want a culprit for shark deaths we should look to ourselves. Overfishing is a far bigger killer of shark populations. Speaking of sharks, I watched a crazy movie this weekend about sharks killing people in Japanese hot springs.

A Good Sign? Trump became the first sitting president since Jimmy Carter to attend an NFL football game when he watched the Washington Commanders lose to the Detroit Lions on Sunday. The fans booed him. UPDATE: I have been informed that Trump attended the Super Bowl this year (a game I technically watched, so should have remembered), so this is the first regular season NFL game a sitting president has attended since Carter.

Big Day for Criminals: Trump issued pardons for people like Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, and Mark Meadows for their role in trying to steal the 2020 presidential election. In total, 77 people received pardons. However, they're only good for a get-out-of-jail card in the federal justice system. People like Giuliani and Meadows who face legal trouble in state courts will still need to deal with all of that. Many of those pardoned are in hot water in "numerous states that Biden won, including Georgia, Arizona, Michigan, Michigan, Wisconsin and Nevada," according to The Guardian.

Big Foot on Vacation: Pennsylvanians may have spotted Washington's favorite cryptid in October. According to the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization, they received a very credible report from a a retired civil engineer and Air Force veteran who say a tall, shadowy, humanoid creature cross—no, glide across—a highway and easily step over (or, hurdle—he wasn't sure) a guardrail. Two other people reported seeing something ("I don’t know WHAT I saw. I’m an avid hunter with +50 years in the woods. This was not a bear.”) in the area that day as well.

A Song for Your Monday: Local band, Pansy, which is led by our very own Vivian McCall released its sophomore EPon Friday. Look, I may be biased but its bangers only on here. Don't believe me? Then believe Paste Magazine. Here's one song off the new album:

Slog AM: FAA Cuts Flights, Pelosi Will Retire, Sandwich Guy Is Free

Nathalie Graham — Fri, 07 Nov 2025 08:48:00 -0800

The Stranger's morning news roundup. by Nathalie Graham

Let the Flight Cuts Begin: Starting today, Seattle-Tacoman International Airport will start reducing flights. The Federal Aviation Administration announced the 10 percent reduction in flights across 40 high-traffic airports in order to provide relief to over-taxed and unpaid air traffic controllers doing their work during what is now the longest government shutdown in American history. At SeaTac, the cuts will slowly ramp up to 10 percent across several days. The cuts will initially target small domestic and regional flights, preserving international departures and those flights between bustling hub airports. Which flights get cut are very—forgive me—up in the air right now. Happy almost Thanksgiving?

Cuts Hit Nationwide: So far, around 800 U.S.-linked flights were cancelled as of Friday morning, according to The Guardian. Estimates figure the FAA's 10 percent cuts could result in "as many as 1,800 flights and upwards of 268,000 seats combined." This is all unprecedented stuff. Reopen the government, you cowards. But, only after reinstating health care subsidies.

Chris Murphy: "There will be pretty substantial damage to a Dem brand that has been rehabilitated if on the heels of an election in which the people told us to keep fighting, we immediately stop... if we surrender without having gotten anything, I worry it'll be hard to get them back up off the mat"

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) November 7, 2025 at 6:54 AM

Growing Pains: Light Rail 1 Line (one of two lines) will close between the U District and Westlake Station on Saturday, November 8 to do repairs and work related to finally, hopefully, connecting the 1 Line with the 2 Line. The closure will only last until 2 p.m.

RIP: University of Washington star soccer goalkeeper Mia Hamant died after fighting a rare kidney cancer for seven months. She was 21.

Zahilay Implies Victory* Declares Victory: After Thrusday's ballot drop showed he'd passed the 51 percent threshold of the vote, Girmay Zahilay announced his team "will begin transition work immediately." They fully expect the next ballot drops to keep padding his lead. Because the King County Executive race is a special election to fill Dow Constantine's mid-term departure, Zahilay—if he does indeed keep this lead—will start his new job on Nov. 25. Quick turnaround. *Update: Zahilay's campaign clarified that even though they sent a press release talking about how his team will begin "transition work immediately" that they did not declare victory in the King County Executive race. You know, one of those begin-transition-work-immediately-when-you-haven't-won-yet scenarios.

ICYMI: Katie Wilson gained on Mayor Bruce Harrell in yesterday's ballot drop. Though, the gains were modest. We should hopefully have a better idea about how this race will shape up after today's 4 p.m. drop. Please, I can't keep living like this. I wasn't built for Schrödinger's Mayor. More analysis here.

And Now, The Weather: Today? Not wet. Perhaps, dare I say it, some sun? In fact, the weekend should remain relatively dry and not even too chilly. Could be time to hit the beach. Cowabunga.

Nancy Withdrew: Okay, forgive me, the pun there isn't totally accurate, but it's close enough. Nancy Pelosi announced Thursday she would not seek reelection after this term. Finally! After almost 40 years in Congress, Pelosi says she'll finally take the retirement we've been asking her to take for years. Time to focus on eating soups and playing pickleball. Now, the fight to replace her kicks off amongst the Democrats of San Francisco.

My Favorite Piece from Election Night: On election night in New York, a Mother Jones reporter attended Republican and cat lover Curtis Sliwa's party. The cast of characters she met is nearly indescribable. You just gotta read it.

Sandwich Guy Goes Free: A jury of his peers did not find Sean Dunn, the Former Justice Department paralegal, guilty of a misdemeanor for chucking his Subway sandwich at federal agents this summer. Ever since he hurled that hero at one of Trump's goons, the federal government has been doing all it can to make an example out of Dunn. But it keeps failing. First, they tried to get him for felony assault but the federal jury wasn't convinced. Next, Dunn faced this most recent misdemeanor assault charge. Again, the jury did not reach a guilty verdict.

Not Actually That Funny: The ridiculous sandwich case is funny, until you think about it too much. The government went to a lot of effort to convict this guy for a silly crime. The precedent that sets for the rest of the Trump administration—a time when we can expect more National Guard presence and more protest—is not comforting.

I think this take on the sandwich guy trial is correct. our system is built assuming that prosecutors will show appropriate restraint. the sandwich guy case went on for way too long and that in and if itself should be raising alarm bells www.lawfaremedia.org/article/sand...

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— sarah jeong (@sarahjeong.bsky.social) November 7, 2025 at 7:28 AM

The Jobs Report Remains Dead: Thanks to the government shutdown for the second month in a row the Bureau of Labor Statistics won't release a monthly jobs report. This is the longest time without a report on the state of the labor market in history. So, do we know what's going on? Kinda. Private data, while conflicting at times, shows that overall the job market hasn't changed much since the summer, or the last time we had a jobs report. The data does hint that more troubling times could be around the corner.

Healthcare Exec Passes Out in Oval Office: A guest of pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly fainted at an Oval Office press event about lowering the cost of obesity drugs. Dr. Oz jumped into action to help the man. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. immediately made himself scarce (he has said he went to another room to get the man a chair). Trump sort of just stood there, lording over the whole thing. It all feels very... apt.

incredible photo that's definitely worth at least 1,000 words from Andrew Harnik of Getty

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) November 6, 2025 at 10:10 AM

"Cybersecurity Incident" at Congressional Budget Office: Hm. Looks like the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), a poindexter heaven of processing and disseminating economic and budgetary information to Congress, was hacked. The CBO hack may have been committed by a "foreign actor." What, was it Ralph Fiennes? Sorry, sorry, that was really bad. But not as bad as the CBO being hacked.

We Simply Cannot Comprehend the French Mind: During the Louvre heist where thieves made off with $102 million in jewels, the Louvre's super strong surveillance system had an airtight password. According to an employee, the password was simply "Louvre." Fuck yeah. As for those delightful bandits, four suspects have been charged in connection to the burglary. As for the jewels, they are still in the wind.

A song for your Friday: I know you are dramatic like this.

Your Ballot Might Not Have Counted

Nathalie Graham — Thu, 06 Nov 2025 12:32:00 -0800

As of blog time, King County Elections has challenged 4,119 ballots countywide because of signature-related issues including not signing the ballot at all or the signature not matching the one King County Elections has on file. In Seattle, 1,794 ballots aren’t being counted yet for similar issues. That’s only a little more than half a percent of the total ballots received—small, maybe, yet enough to make a difference in a tight race. by Nathalie Graham

Last year, I was minding my own business, smug and confident because I’d bucked demographic trends and voted weeks before the election. Then, I got a text. King County Elections. An issue? With my ballot? It hadn’t been counted. I’d forgotten to sign the outside of my ballot.

Fuck!

The good news is I wasn’t the first illiterate dumbass to bypass simple instructions. And I am far from the last. This happens all the time (and have you seen those reading scores?), including this cycle.

Voters across all demographics are fucking up their signatures, but particularly the young people. Voters under the age of 35 account for 42 percent of the current challenged ballots. Surprisingly, the 25 to 34-year-olds are fucking this up more than the 18 to 24-year-olds with 428 challenged ballots. Though, not by much. The youths have 330 challenged ballots. Don’t get all high and mighty, elder millennials, the 34 to 44-year-olds also have 341 challenged ballots. You’re not “adulting.” You’re a mess.

Just look at the state of you SCREENSHOT FROM KING COUNTY ELECTIONS

All of your votes matter, of course, but they may really end up mattering in the race for Seattle mayor depending on how things shape up with ballot drops on today and tomorrow. Thankfully, this is an easy fix.

First, figure out if your ballot was counted.

If you wrote your phone number or email on the front of your ballot, King County Elections will drop you a line to let you know if there’s a ballot problem. You’ll also be notified of any problems if you signed up for ballot tracking. Fun fact: King County voters who tracked their ballots had a 63 percent voter turnout compared to 45 percent of county turnout in this election!

But, if you haven’t signed up to track your ballot—which you can still do even after voting—and you didn’t put any contact information on your ballot, King County Elections will mail you a notice letting you know there’s an issue. You can also check to make sure your ballot is counted by peeping at your voter portal.

King County Elections will send a link to cure your ballot online. For me, that looked like signing my signature multiple times on an online form. If you do it by mail, you’ll do the same thing on a paper form and send it back to King County Elections to review.

“We do see more voters use that online option,” Halei Watkins, communications director at King County Elections says. “It's very quick and easy. You get it done in like two minutes, and then you know it's taken care of, rather than filling out your form, waiting for us to receive it, and all of that.”

Whatever method you choose to fix your ballot, you have until 4:30 p.m. on Nov. 24 to do so. And, for snail mail, that means your ballot-curing forms must be at King County Elections by then, not postmarked by then.

According to Watkins, around 50 to 60 percent of challenged ballot voters respond and rectify their issues and their vote counts. The rest remain lonely, uncounted. Sad!

Don’t be one of the uncounted few. Fix your shit.

Slog AM: Mamdani Wins New York, Seattle Mayor’s Race Headed Toward Nailbiter, A Plane Blew Up

Charles Mudede — Wed, 05 Nov 2025 09:10:00 -0800

The Stranger's morning news roundup, post-election edition. by Charles Mudede

Shall we say it? We will say it. Last night, SECB experienced what Chic called “good times,” with the exception of Bruce Harrell, who is still very much in the race. He claimed a 7-point lead on the first drop (53.3 percent to Katie Wilson’s 46.18 percent). But yet his allies suffered what can only be described as disastrous results.

In District 9, Dionne Foster is in a cushy lead against incumbent Sara Nelson. Foster came away with 57.9 percent. Nelson with 41.6 percent.
Over in District 8, Alexis Mercedes Rinck essentially saged the city of Rachael Savage’s presence, winning a dominant 78.7 percent to Savage’s 20.5 percent.
In District 2, Eddie Lin will be the new city councilmember. He left election night with 68.6 percent of the vote. Adonis Ducksworth took 30.9 percent. We’ll still get you that skate park, buddy. Don’t you worry.
As for City Attorney, it’s safe to say that Ann Davison is history. She will be seen as a kind of relic of the post-COVID years, while Erika Evans, who has a 25-point lead (62.5 percent to Davison’s 37.1 percent), is calling the shots as Seattle’s top lawyer.
The County Executive Race is still neck and neck. Girmay Zahilay has a slight lead with 50.1 percent to Claudia Balducci’s 48.4 percent. A lot can shift in that second ballot drop.

Expect Katie Wilson to shrink a good part of Harrell’s lead in the coming days. The question at present is: Will it be enough? My guess? Expect a nailbiter. Voter turnout was lagging in the days before the election, but last night, at 7:59 p.m. in front of the Seattle Central ballot box, an election worker told us that they’d been doing this for five years, and they’d “never seen lines this long, not even for the last presidential election.” A comeback is possible. Kshama Sawant came back. Tammy Morales came back. It's difficult from a math standpoint, but she can pull it out. Watch for our ballot drop update after 4 p.m. today.

This is the guy? You guys are cool with this? There was a lot to be happy about last night, but a perplexing amount of voters seem really chill about having four more years of Harrell. With the progressive ticket winning in droves, but Katie Wilson lagging seven points behind, it makes you wonder: How in the world were these people voting? To vote for a more progressive city council but to select a moderate mayor is to vote for continued dysfunction. The people voting for Harrell are the ones who like the status quo, sure, but they’re also the ones who like to bitch and moan about ineffective governance. Picking a mayor and a council that are at odds with each other is a recipe for another four years of stalemates and lost possibility. It opens the door for an election cycle where people can lambast the progressives on council for being ineffective and we will start this whole “backlash” song and dance all over again. The jukebox is always playing “The Boys Are Back in Town” but the boys here are bad mayors.

Just in Time, Another Harrell Scandal: At the eleventh hour, KUOW released a real humdinger of a story. Back when Bruce Harrell was city council president and while he was the board chair of the Royal Esquire Club, a Black men’s social club in Columbia City, he allegedly blocked a wage theft investigation into the place. He also allegedly made his council staff do secretarial work on behalf of the Royal Esquire Club. Our mayor is cool and ethical! Let’s elect him again? The story broke just in time for it to be really fucking weird that Harrell’s election night party was being held there. But not in time for any Harrell voters to change their minds. Not that they would have.

The State Legislative races look good, mostly. Democratic State Senate incumbents Vandana Slatter (D-Bellevue), and Victoria Hunt, (D-Issaquah), both seem like they’ll come out ahead of their challengers. For Slatter, that means besting her former House seatmate, moderate Dem Rep. Amy Walen with 56 percent to 42.3 percent of the vote. And Hunt will best Republican forever candidate Chad Magendanz leading 54.5 percent to 45.3 percent.

But one state leg race will be a fight to the finish. Rep. Edwin Obras (D-SeaTac), is defending his seat against Brandi Kruse’s favorite Democrat, evil Burien Mayor Kevin Schilling. As of last night, Schilling led with 50.2 percent to Obras’ 47.2 percent. It’s still within reach for Obras, but for now, it looks like all of Schilling’s attack mailers made a mark.

For more results, and a play by play of last night, visit General Election Night 2025.

Mayor Mamdani: Zohran Mamdani is the next mayor of New York City. Mamdani and handily defeated Andrew Cuomo. He earned the most votes of any candidate since 1969 with his vision of an affordable New York with rent-stabilized apartments, free childcare, and fast and free buses. Without the support of the Democratic establishment, Mamdani captured the hearts, minds, and, most importantly, the hope of the U.S.’s biggest city. If you have the time, watch his victory speech. It will coax a few tears out of even the most heartless among you. He’s really that guy.

That Speech: Mamdani opened with words from Eugene Debs, the socialist who ran for president five times. "I can see the dawn of a better day for humanity," Mamdani said. “New York will remain a city of immigrants, a city built by immigrants, powered by immigrants, and as of tonight, led by an immigrant,” Mamdani said. Mamdani stood firm against Trump, telling him he knew he was watching and that he had four words for him: “Turn the volume up.”

Bomb threats that were emailed to several polling stations in New Jersey were not enough to stop that state’s voters from giving Trump a huge middle finger. And boy was it big. With 95 percent of the votes counted, Democratic Rep. Mikie Sherrill is nearly 13 points ahead of Donald Trump-endorsed Jack Ciattarelli (56 percent for the former; 43 percent for the latter). And, yes, Donnie, this was all about you and your goons, who can now only find sleep at military bases.

Prop 50 Passes: Californians love gerrymandering! Voters easily approved Proposition 50, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s plan to redraw California’s Congressional maps for the 2026, 2028, and 2030 elections to gain up to five new sorely-needed seats for Democrats. Republicans have been redrawing Congressional districts to their benefit for decades while Democrats have twiddled their thumbs abiding by “the rules.” The playbook has changed. Might as well go on offense if we don’t want a Fourth Reich.

How will Donald Trump respond to this obvious defeat? He will of course do what he always does: double down. We no longer live in a world of facts, with regards to the White House and the GOP in general. Even if you are wrong, you must not concede, you must not change your mind and change course. You must double down. (Recall what the greatest economist of the 20th century, John Maynard Keynes, once said: “When the facts change, I change my mind—what do you do, sir?”) So, sane America, this is by no means over. Expect hell to pay with increased ICE raids and all manner of crimes. Expect more lies about Antifa and what have you. And expect an increase of American troops in our cities.

That said, Trump really was wounded last night, and so there’s blood in the waters of American politics. It will be—even as he does the double down thing—a little hard for capitalists and conservatives to bend to his will. In short, we may have left the age of certainty for Trump and entered that of vacillation? And exactly what do I mean by that? Spinoza offers this excellent explanation in his philosophical masterpiece Ethics: “[A] disposition of the mind, which arises from two contrary emotions, is called vacillation…”

The blood is in that water, yo:

WE GOT OUR ASSES HANDED TO US - Vivek Ramaswamy

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— Raider (@iwillnotbesilenced.bsky.social) November 5, 2025 at 7:09 AM

Once again, the devil (for Trump) is in the details. Last night, Mississippi Dems broke the GOP’s supermajority by “flipping 3 legislative seats.” This is huge. Republicans in this deep red state have enjoyed absolute power for 13 years. It’s now over. Mississippi will resume a politics of “checks and balances.”

Weather: Rain, mainly before 4 p.m. Then showers and thunderstorms after 4 p.m. Tonight, you guessed it, more rain. And the leaves will fall in the rain, and we will dream of the dead as the rain and leaves fall on this city, which is really, if one thinks about it, a lake city.

A Plane Exploded: A UPS cargo plane crashed in a fireball on the runway in Louisville, Kentucky, killing 7 people and injuring 11 more. Video shows the plane taking off with a smoking, flaming left wing, lifting off the ground ever so slightly, and slamming back down to earth. The resulting fireball was enormous and shocking to see. Over 200 responders were on the scene last night.

WATCH: Dashcam footage shows truck driver reacting to deadly UPS plane crash in Louisville, Kentucky.

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— AZ Intel (@azintel.bsky.social) November 4, 2025 at 9:57 PM

New Helltool for Demonfingers: The watchful Feds have released the facial recognition app Mobile Identify so local law enforcement can help them round up immigrants. Handing “this powerful tech to police is like asking a 16-year old who just failed their drivers exams to pick a dozen classmates to hand car keys to,” Jake Laperruque, deputy director of the Center for Democracy & Technology's Security and Surveillance Project, told 404 Media.

Child-LIKE? France put a damper on fast-fashion retailer Shein’s first physical store opening in Paris this morning by suspending its online platform until it gets to the bottom of the sex dolls with a “childlike appearance” found for sale on its site. These dolls are not child-like, or ambiguous at all. They look like children. They’re short. They’re prepubescent. They’re physically hard to look at. Shein said it is investigating how these child sex dolls slipped past its screening measures, and has temporarily removed its adult products for review. Why the fuck is a fast-fashion retailer selling sex toys anyway?? Get out of Spencer’s lane. I need a place to buy more lava lamps.

BTW: Shein has always sucked. Don’t buy their shitty clothes if you support workers. But, maybe you can’t even afford to make an unethical decision. According to the New York Times, almost half of all US imports have steep tariffs. They’re expected to dig into Shein’s massive profits this year.

On Tariffs: Today, the Supreme Court is hearing a case about the legality of Trump’s tariff spree. He’s been leaning on his emergency economic powers. He may not be able to do that, and he’s lost traditional conservatives on this. But with Justices like these, what is the law? Trump called the case “LIFE OR DEATH for our Country.” If only.

By the way, Dick Cheney, who died yesterday (the day of the UPS plane crash, and the day a socialist became of New York City), was, for 20 months of his life, something of a Darth Vader. Before he received a meaty transplant in March of 2012, his heart was basically a machine (LVAD device), which resulted in him living with no pulse. Indeed, he even feared terrorists would hack his robot heart. Cheney experienced 5 heart attacks during his time in spacetime.

Sandwich Trial: The man who hurled a Subway footlong at a federal immigration officer in Washington, D.C. is on trial. The officer who he hit, CBP Agent Gregory Lairmore, took the stand Tuesday to describe the incident. He said he felt the impact of the sub as it hit his ballistic vest. The sandwich “kind of exploded,” he said, “I could smell the onions and mustard.” Apparently, some of the ill-effects of being hit with a sandwich include that his coworkers got him gag gifts like a Subway sandwich plush toy. It reads like an I Think You Should Leave sketch.

The defense team presses Lairmore on whether the sandwich really 'exploded.' They return to the photo of the sandwich and wrapper on the ground.

"That sandwich hasn't exploded at all, has it?" defense asks.

"It looks like a little bit is coming out towards the bottom," Lairmore replies.
— Dave Jamieson (@jamieson.bsky.social) November 4, 2025 at 8:37 AM

In Other Important News: Tom Brady cloned his dog. Now he can kiss it on the lips for eternity. Lua died in 2023. Lua 2, named Junie, was made with the same technology used to clone Dolly the sheep in 1996. Brady invests in the company, Colossal Biosciences, that made it possible. You may remember their dire wolf that wasn’t really a dire wolf, but was close enough to be really cool. And “close” is all a clone will ever be, Tom. You can’t bring your dog back, I’m sorry. Death is a heartbreaker, isn’t it? I’m sure you’re a loyal Slog reader, so here is a recommendation: listen to this classic This American Life episode about a man, a cloned bull, and what that cloned bull does to the man. If you and your dog had a special thing with peanut butter, don’t try it.

Conservatives rn:

Polling Shows Seattleites Actually Like Seattle

Nathalie Graham — Tue, 04 Nov 2025 14:23:00 -0800

Well, well, well, not such a shithole, is it?

by Nathalie Graham

You know the narrative by now. Seattle is dying. The CVS downtown is closing. Starbucks is making itself scarce. The Seattle of yesteryear is gone. Instead, we are all living in hell. Leafy green hell. The way the Chamber of Commerce tells it, we’re on the brink of becoming a bust town. People are one straw away from packing it up and moving to Idaho (or at least Bellevue).

Except, that’s not true. Their feelings are not the facts, or the cold, hard data from the new and exciting world of Stranger polling. The pollsters (kind, sapiosexuals) at DHM Research, a reputable, non-partisan PNW-based public opinion research firm surveyed 600 people in Seattle on their thoughts and feelings about this city, its politics, and its issues.

We found nearly 70 percent of Seattleites are satisfied with their quality of life in this city. Seattle is, by all metrics from the people who actually live in it, thriving. When we called a few of them up, they gave us the strong sense that they were grateful to be in this city and state while Donald Trump is in office. Plus, it’s a nice place to be. This is a city of transplants, but it’s also a city of simple pleasures. The water. The trees. The rats. It’s bursting with life.

“They’ve been saying Seattle’s been dying for long enough that I’m pretty sure it’s not, unless it has a long-term condition,” says Lucas Combos, 33.

Of course, a minority of people are dissatisfied with their lives in Seattle—and they are way overrepresented by the richest and the poorest in our sample.

The richest, most conservative, most unhappy people are primarily voting for institutional candidates to keep things as they are. The most satisfied people were neither the richest, or the poorest. They were comfortable-ish, and generally progressive.

But in a city of transplants, “progressive” is not a one-size fits all term. To a Floridian, Bruce Harrell seems very progressive. The difference between him and Katie Wilson, while substantial, is not the yawning gap between Bruce Harrell and Governor Ron DeSantis.

Why ask these questions at all? When the powerful are telling you that this place is a shithole and that everyone agrees with them, this data helps cut through their bullshit, and raises important questions about the narrative that is guiding city policy and shaping our lives in major ways. We’re not very good at saying what we think in Seattle. But we’re really good at answering surveys.

Here’s what we found.

Follow the Money

Other than political leaning, which is the biggest difference on almost any question, DHM told us, money is the most dramatic indicator of satisfaction in our sample. People who make less than $75,000 are 58 percent satisfied, and 38 percent dissatisfied. People who make $75,000 to $100,000 are 73 percent satisfied and 19 percent dissatisfied. People who make $150,000 to $200,000 are 86 percent satisfied and only 11 percent dissatisfied. This is peak happiness, which drops off a shelf when salaries break $200,000. Let’s call it the gold ceiling.

Among the $200,000 to $350,000 group, 68 percent are satisfied with their quality of life in Seattle, and 25 percent are dissatisfied. The $350,000+ group is 56 percent satisfied and 36 percent dissatisfied. Presumably, they’re frowning with a lakefront view.

So, generally speaking, those who have enough to live comfortably, but not excessively are the happiest—and most progressive—here.

Amy Bates is one of them. She’s in her late 50s, living the You’ve Got Mail life without the threat of Tom Hanks. She worked for Amazon in the tech boom, got her bag and now works for Madison Books in Madison Park Beach. She lived “very satisfied” ever after. Though she is “one of the gentrifiers,” something she didn’t realize when she moved to the Central District in the 1990s. She makes between $100,000 and $150,000, or peak happiness.

“I was younger and an idiot and didn’t realize what I was doing,” she says, guiltily.

“I really like being here because the community is coming together to support each other, and the arts and foodbanks,” Bates says. “It gives me hope with everything going on.”

Seattle politics are a dream compared to what lurks in the forest, beyond the borders of King County (Republicans, guns, other counties, oh my.) Bates recognizes that our bubble is blessed, and so is she.

“All feelings of Amazon aside, I wouldn’t be here if I wouldn’t have had that early tech opportunity and gotten that money from that,” Bates said. “I would be priced out.”

Loving a place is not the same as being satisfied with your life. Lifelong Seattleite Ana Erikson is preparing to move to Portland. Not because she wants to, but because she has to. Erikson is a young mother with a 3-year-old who makes between $50,000 and $75,000 a year. Her husband is a pre-school teacher, so their child’s tuition is free. If he wasn’t, “I don’t think we’d be able to afford rent,” she says.

And they don’t even want to be renters. But home ownership in Seattle is out of reach. In Portland, they’d at least have a shot.

“I feel like housing affordability has been getting harder and harder for the last two decades and nothing has significantly been done and it’s only been getting worse,” she says.

We wanted to talk to a sad, rich person, but Mayor Bruce Harrell wasn’t available. Neither were the sad rich people who answered our survey.

But we did talk to a happy one.

Christopher Cowart is in his 40s, “somewhat satisfied” with his life in downtown Seattle, and he’s “filthy tech money” fucking rich. He reports a household income of over $500,000 a year. Based on our survey, he should be a glowering conservative. He’s progressive. When our pollsters asked explain what that meant to him, he answered: “This isn’t a philosophy exam.” Right, it’s a poll.

Cowart has his criticisms, but he’s an optimist.

“Some of the things I’m happy with are the way the city seems to be trying to improve itself,” Cowart says. “We often have our heart in the right place even if we don’t have the execution down.”

We have buses and trains, but they’re unreliable, he says. He’s noticed that an “army” of people are caring for the streets downtown, but stop when they reach Capitol Hill.

“That vibrant neighborhood is way less taken care of,” he says.

We need to make the hard decisions. Piss off the drivers and build a dependable system, which actually makes their lives better, too. Plan comprehensively in our Comprehensive Plan.

“Can we pretty please have a progressive income tax already? Pretty please?” he says.

Shiny Happy People

According to the poll data, more Wilson voters (79 percent) are satisfied with their lives than Harrell voters (66 percent). This is also true of Dionne Foster and Erika Evans voters, compared to people voting for their more conservative counterparts. Happier people are voting progressive, and for change. The people who are unhappy are voting for more of the same.

Duane Duval, 69, describes himself as “pretty affluent.” He’s fed up with Seattle and he supports the politicians who’ve been running Seattle for the last four years, he says. They include Bruce Harrell, City Council President Sara Nelson, City Attorney Ann Davison, and city council hopeful Rachael Savage.

“The city’s gone from almost crime free to almost a crime spree,” Duval says. He grew up in Detroit, so he knows about crime, he says. “The city council has rolled out the welcome mat for drug addicts in this city. ”

Despite them being the powermakers in charge of the city he sees falling apart, Duval wants to give them another shot. He thinks Harrell has some good ideas. If things don’t change, Duval’s not sure he’ll stay.

“There was gunfire in my neighborhood and I’m pretty affluent,” he says. “That’s scary to me.”

He’s been intending to buy a home in his neighborhood, but isn’t sure if that’s in the cards now. “I don’t want to get shot for my wallet or whatever.”

Mostly, he doesn’t believe any type of social programs will work because people don’t take care of things that are given to them, he says. Additionally, making the city affordable “never works,” according to Duval.

“What we need to do is build people up, not tear the city down,” Duval says.

Max, who didn’t want to use his last name, moved to Seattle from Philadelphia eight years ago. His wife grew up here. Happy wife, happy life, right? But also happy Max, happy Max… right?

Max is a socialist who is “somewhat satisfied” with his life here, which is about the most you can ask of a socialist living under capitalism. He loves the climate, the people, the history, the nature—the usual public goods that lure outsiders to this provincial hamlet. He’s fortunate, he says, with caveats. Philly is phunky. Seattle is sterile. The affordability crisis is choking out offbeat places, pushing out families, and eroding his quality of life year by year. He grew up in a neighborhood community. He doesn’t think his sons will have that, he says.

Jade Myers, 28, Minneapolis transplant moved here less than two years ago and she loves it, with a few caveats.

“Most of my positive feelings come from the access to nature,” Myers says. She loves camping and hiking and that Seattle is green year round. Also, she loves the transit. Myers sold her car before she moved and gets around by biking and busing.

“Overall, I mostly love living in Seattle and plan on staying here,” Myers says.

What “deducts points” away from Seattle in Myers’s book is the cost of living—and the restaurants.

While progressive politics won’t fix the dismal food scene, she’s optimistic they’ll help the city’s affordability crisis and create better housing and transit. It’s why she voted the way she did—for change.

Undecided Voters, They’re Among Us

We don’t know what the hell to do with political anomaly and Florida man Chris Adragna, but he entertained us. He was the election personified, and he’s only lived here for 16 months.

“I’m extremely progressive, very affirming toward people,” he says. In our poll, he wrote that his biggest issue was the “Effect of drug-addicted zombies.”

He’s in his late 50s. He makes between $150,000 and $200,000 a year. He gave all his democracy vouchers to Katie Wilson’s campaign, gave her an additional $100, but planned to vote for Harrell. At least that’s what he told our pollsters. He’s done a lot of polls and gives different answers each time. Over the phone, he said he didn’t know whom he planned to vote for. We asked if it was going to be a game-time decision for him. He didn’t know that either.

What’s crazy is he doesn’t even seem to like Harrell.

“I think Bruce is Mayor Quimby from the Simpsons,” Adragna says. “He’s just a doofus, he does things ceremonially, he’s smitten with his own self and doesn’t realize it. The whole thing with the basketball…” Adragna trailed off, referencing Harrell’s sike-out Supersonics non-announcement during his State of the City address. Yet, even though he aligned with Wilson on the issues, he wasn’t sure she had the experience to hack it in the mayor’s office, even if the alternative is a hack.

Dudes rock. Democracy is awesome. Answer your pollsters. As of press time, we don’t know whom Adragna voted for. Hopefully, he’s happy with the results.

Correction: We inaccurately stated that Amy Bates owns Madison Books. She works there. We regret the error.

Learn more about Stranger Polling here.

You Need to Vote

Nathalie Graham — Mon, 03 Nov 2025 15:30:00 -0800

There are more than 1.4 million registered voters in King County. King County Elections has only received 271,163 ballots. According to voter data analyzed through November 3, that means only 18.8 percent of King County ballots have been returned so far. Election day is tomorrow.

And as of Monday, only 105,537 Seattleites had voted. For a city with more than 800,000 people (and at least 630,100 people over 18 as per 2020 census data) that’s a pretty dismal showing. King County Elections data shows that in most areas in Seattle, 91 percent of the population or more are registered to vote. Save for those fools in the University District, the areas with below 91 percent voter registration are in the high 60s and 70s. Certainly, more ballots came in over the weekend. But, still. Where are the voters?

Now, this isn’t abnormal for odd-year elections in Seattle. Last time we did this dance in 2023, almost 50 percent of voters cast their ballots in the last two days of the election. But, only 38 percent of voters turned out. We can and should do better than that. (And we’ve got it in us. In 2024, King County had more than 80 percent voter turnout.)

Without a lot of voters, the will of the people becomes the will of the few. And, as it shakes out with voter trends, that means the will of the old, and the conservative. Over half the ballots cast in Seattle so far—59.6 percent—belonged to people over 55. Recent Stranger polling confirms those voters are more conservative voters, opting for incumbents like Bruce Harrell rather than progressives like Katie Wilson for mayor.

So far, only 12.7 percent of voters between the ages of 35 and 44 have voted. And only 9.6 percent of those ballots came from 25 to 34 year olds. The 18 to 24-year-olds only accounted for 6.2 percent of ballots.

Do we have to spell it out, procrastinating Millennials and Gen-Zers?. You’re going to drop your ballot off at the ballot box at 7:45 p.m. on Tuesday night, right? Well … you should.

If you want to break it down by location, the most votes—16.91 percent—have come from District 3, the district that spans Capitol Hill, First Hill, the Central District, and Leschi, Madison Park, and Montlake. It’s Seattle’s most populous district, but it’s also quite wealthy (and by the water, of course). The second most votes came from District 6 where 16.86 percent of ballots came from. That includes Green Lake, Phinney Ridge, and Ballard. It’s where Sara Nelson lives. The “fleece belt” her campaign has been targeting, according to reporting from The Stranger, or whatever. Is this turnout a good sign or a bad sign? The fewest votes have come from District 2 and District 7. Only 12.64 of the total ballots were from District 2 voters, which is maybe a bit surprising since this is the only district actually voting for a district-specific council member in the race between Eddie Lin and Adonis Ducksworth. The least amount of votes—12.04 percent—were from the downtown, Queen Anne, and Magnolia dwellers in District 7. Maybe that’s for the best.

If you haven’t voted yet, remember: It is too late to mail your ballot. Officials say new United States Postal Service rules make postmarking slower and less reliable. It’s not a guarantee a ballot mailed Monday would be postmarked in time to count for the election. Find a ballot drop box and vote that way.

If you have voted, make sure to track your ballot. In Seattle, 558 of your votes haven’t counted yet because of signature issues—375 of you didn’t even sign your ballot and 184 signed them incorrectly. You can fix it. It’s easy! It happened to me in the primary and King County Elections sent me a digital form to fix my signature. I did so in under five minutes. Make sure your vote counts.

All in all, voter turn out is what is going to decide this election. Money helps—and Bruce Harrell has $3.1 million across his PAC and his candidate contributions. Recent contributions to Harrell’s PAC included $12,500 from Zillow’s CEO and $5,000 from the owner of Beecher’s Cheese. Harrell’s throwing those millions at television ads and flyers to win over low information voters. And he will if the people buying what he’s selling are the only ones who vote.

Stranger Suggests: A Music Fest Worth Freaking Out About, a Party with an Oyster Luge, and Don’t Forget to Vote!

Julianne Bell — Mon, 03 Nov 2025 11:20:00 -0800

One really great thing to do every day of the week. by Julianne Bell MONDAY 11/3

Lael Neale, Guy Blakeslee

(MUSIC) In her bio, singer-songwriter Lael Neale writes that she loves “not listening to music”—and it shows (in the best way). Employing drum machines, power chords, and a Suzuki Omnichord, Neale creates a singular sound that’s all her own: equal parts dream pop, classic country, and gospel. Her latest album, Altogether Stranger, sounds like an ’80s private press record that would eventually land a coveted Light in the Attic reissue (IYKYK). Neale will support the album after a set from LA-based experimental artist Guy Blakeslee. (Sunset Tavern, 8 pm, 21+) AUDREY VANN

TUESDAY 11/4

VOTE!

Choose your fighter. HARRISON FREEMAN

(CIVIC DUTY) The primary was an acid trip for the history books. We gotta make it real. Vote, vote, vote, vote, vote. Just because progressives did well in the primary, doesn’t mean this is a shoe-in. Money has been pouring in for Harrell since his pitiful primary performance. He’s accumulated over $1.5 million from business CEOs and real-estate developers. And that’s just counting his PAC’s money. He’s rocking another million in campaign contributions. They believe this election can be bought. If you don’t show up, it will be. We’re living in hell. Life is expensive, the history book horrors are at our doorstep, the kids have rotted brains, but Seattle can still be a haven. Sometimes bubbles are good. Vote for this city. Vote for your future. Vote for the kids. Vote against your uncle’s next heart attack. Vote like you’ll need to join a naked bike ride for freedom. Vote. STRANGER ELECTION CONTROL BOARD

WEDNESDAY 11/5

Quan Barry

COURTESY OF GROVE ATLANTIC

(BOOKS) Poet, novelist, and playwright Quan Barry’s 2019 novel We Ride Upon Sticks—which revolves around a girls’ high-school field-hockey team in Massachusetts in 1989, and their foray into witchcraft—is one of the most original, charming, weird, nostalgic, and witty books I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading. So naturally, I have high hopes for her newest release, The Unveiling. The literary horror novel follows Striker, a Black film scout who joins a very white luxury Antarctic cruise in order to photograph potential locations for a splashy Ernest Shackleton biopic. After an ill-fated kayaking excursion, Striker finds herself stranded with a select group of survivors. Gradually, everyone’s “secrets, prejudices, and inner demons” emerge among the frozen, desolate landscape, and Striker begins to lose her grip on reality. It sounds like a combination of The Shining and Get Out with eldritch vibes, and what’s not to love about that? (Elliott Bay Book Company, 7 pm, free, all ages) JULIANNE BELL

THURSDAY 11/6

Freakout Festival

(MUSIC) You may not know most of the lineup, but if you’re agile enough to hit up multiple rooms per night and you Do Your Own Research™, you can discover several new artists—local and foreign—who’ll long-term enrich your life. That’s the magic of Freakout Fest, now in its 13th year. With 70 acts performing at nine venues in Ballard and Fremont, Freakout promises a diversity of sonic adventures. Japanese noise-rockers Melt-Banana are as wild as ever, 32 years on. Portland’s Møtrik honor their name with klassik, ekstatik krautrock accelerations. Switzerland’s L’Eclair—some of whose members moonlight in Zambian rock gods W.I.T.C.H.—elegantly and cinematically funk you up (and down and all around) and will make you feel very sophisticated. Seattle shoegazers glass egg will unveil songs from their new, serenely misty visions & ecstasies album. The industrial-electronic group Chalk will bring their foundation-shaking capabilities all the way from Northern Ireland. My can’t-miss pick is Mexican psych-rock group Diles Que No Me Maten, who purvey an eerie, mysterious strain of post-punk. I could go on, but I don’t want to annoy my editor. (Various venues and times, 21+) DAVE SEGAL

FRIDAY 11/7

PNB: In the Upper Room

In the Upper Room runs at McCaw Hall through November 16. ANGELA STERLING

(PERFORMANCE) Premiering in 1986, Twyla Tharp’s high-energy ballet, In the Upper Room, has become one of the most iconic ballets of the 20th century, admired for its athletic choreography, minimalist costume design, dramatic lighting, and a transcendent score by Philip Glass. The Pacific Northwest Ballet will take on Tharp’s contemporary classic, along with Dani Rowe’s emotionally compelling one-act ballet, The Window. This is a must for not only ballet and contemporary dance fanatics, but for lovers of experimental music and performance art. These performances will also debut the newly minted PNB dancers Christopher D’Ariano and Amanda Morgan. (McCaw Hall, various times, all ages) AUDREY VANN

SATURDAY 11/8

Oyster New Year

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A post shared by Elliott's Oyster House (@elliottsoysterhouse)

(FOOD) The apotheosis of the Pacific Northwest’s unofficial regional pastime—slurping oysters—is the eco-friendly Oyster New Year at Elliott’s Oyster House. The all-out briny bash features more than 25 varieties of bivalves served to order by over 40 expert shuckers at a 150-foot oyster bar, plus a selection of over 40 drinks, DJ tunes, a photo booth, raffle drawings, educational shucking demos, and a shucking competition. Be a little superficial and cast your vote for the People’s Choice “Most Beautiful Oyster,” and don’t miss the oyster luge, in which a shucked oyster glides down a frozen ice-sculpture slide, and into your mouth. This year, to celebrate the restaurant’s 50th anniversary, 50 golden oyster shells will be hidden around the venue and the lucky finders can redeem them for prizes. All proceeds benefit Puget Sound Restoration Fund’s efforts to preserve marine ecosystems. (Elliott’s Oyster House, 5:30–9 pm) JULIANNE BELL

SUNDAY 11/9

An Evening with Patti Smith

See Patti Smith at Meany Hall on November 9 and the Paramount on November 10. RICH FURY/GETTY IMAGES

(BOOKS/MUSIC) Punk-rock poet laureate, writer, and just general rock star Patti Smith is coming to Meany Hall (the day before her Paramount Theatre show) to talk about her latest memoir, Bread of Angels. The book dives deeper into Smith’s life, covering the ground her 2010 book Just Kids—about her relationship with lover Robert Mapplethorpe—only hinted at. Bread of Angels touches on Smith’s childhood growing up as the eldest of four kids, her teenage years, her marriage to the late guitarist Fred “Sonic” Smith, and how she found writing again after experiencing great loss. Bread of Angels publishes on Nov. 4, Mapplethorpe’s birthday and the day Fred “Sonic” Smith passed. Tickets include a copy of Bread of Angels from Elliott Bay Book Company. (Meany Hall, 7:30 pm) NATHALIE GRAHAM

Harrell Announces Emergency Funding for Food Banks

Nathalie Graham — Fri, 31 Oct 2025 11:22:00 -0700

Harrell’s limited emergency order will send funding directly to food banks rather than restoring individuals’ SNAP benefits. That means instead of paying for food at reduced prices at any grocery stores, SNAP users will need to line up at a food bank. by Nathalie Graham

The one in 10 Washington residents who rely on the government’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, are preparing for the worst. With the now 31-day-long government shutdown still in effect, SNAP benefits will lapse on Nov. 1 for the first time in the program’s history. To stave off some of the pain, Mayor Bruce Harrell proclaimed a limited civil emergency to direct $8 million in funds toward Seattle-area food banks.

"Our city has a strong network of local food banks, and we're prepared to fill the gap left by the other Washington's dysfunction with immediate action and $8 million to support our neighbors in need,” Harrell said.

The City chose to fund food banks and meal programs because it’s the most barrier-free route available to get food to Seattleites, says Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck. Cities and states don’t have access to the SNAP infrastructure. The only infrastructure we have on a city-level that compares to SNAP is FreshBucks, but there are only 12,000 people in Seattle enrolled in the program, and it would take much more time to enroll new people into it than to direct them to their local food bank.

The funds come from the city’s reserves, and will be distributed $4 million per month. So, hopefully the shutdown lifts before the new year. If it doesn’t “and the need remains,” Mayoral spokesperson Jamie Housen says the mayor “can extend the order and investment.”

According to federal data, Washington state receives more than $173 million in monthly food benefits. It is unclear how much the Seattle area receives, or how much of a stop-gap Harrell’s emergency funding is.

Earlier this week, Gov. Bob Ferguson announced that he was directing the Department of Social and Health Services to direct $2.2 million a week to the state Department of Agriculture, the agency that delivers grants to food banks. That money will funnel toward food banks rather than individuals as well. Even before the government shutdown pushed SNAP off a cliff, Trump cuts and cancelled food shipments had put Washington food banks in a bad way, according to the Washington State Standard.

With the sweeping loss of federal funds, “we’re at COVID-levels of crisis management,” says Rinck. “So we need to move toward these kinds of emergency proclamations.”

Directing this funding into food banks and meal programs will put stress on their existing infrastructure. But by declaring an emergency, the mayor’s office is also able to redirect City staff and vehicles to provide operational support and make sure food is distributed to people who need it. It’s not yet clear if that’s part of Harrell’s plan.

“We have to have a proactive approach to getting that food out there,” Rinck says.

For food banks, this emergency funding is stabilizing. Northwest Harvest, a hunger relief non-profit, operates two free markets—one in Yakima, one in Seattle. It also distributes food to a network of more than 375 food banks and meal programs.

"We are deeply embedded in Washington’s hunger relief infrastructure," Natasha Dworkin, director of communications at Northwest Harvest wrote in an email. "Emergency funding like this will help... keep shelves stocked and meet growing demand with dignity and care."

Dworkin said Northwest Harvest was already seeing increased demand this year ahead of the SNAP benefits pause. Plus, new changes to work requirements and exemptions for SNAP that came from the Trump administration earlier this year reduced food access for many. Medicaid cuts add further strain on those in need.

"The government shutdown has created widespread uncertainty, and families who rely on federal assistance are turning to food banks and community markets in growing numbers," Dworkin said. "We expect this increased demand to continue—and likely intensify—even after the shutdown ends."

City Council will hold an emergency vote on Monday to ratify the order. Council President Sara Nelson, and Councilmembers Joy Hollingsworth, Dan Strauss, and Rinck have already made statements in support of the funding. It’s expected to pass.

Update:

Update: As of Friday afternoon, two federal judges in different states issued rulings opposing the Trump administration’s handing of SNAP benefits. A Rhode Island judge blocked the administration from ceasing to pay for SNAP while a judge in Boston, Massachusetts ruled the suspension of benefits was “unlawful.”

When asked how this would impact Harrell’s order, mayoral spokesperson Kevin Mundt wrote in an email:

“We are currently reviewing the implications of these rulings and monitoring any potential gaps in SNAP payments. It is unclear at this time whether SNAP funding will cover all or only part of regular allocations in November. We have little trust that President Trump will do the right thing and fully fund SNAP for our must vulnerable. There is also the probability of an emergency appeal of the ruling by the Trump administration.

With this uncertainty and because of a possibility for a reduction in funding, at this time the City will continue moving forward quickly to support our food banks and meal program partners to meet emerging needs should a gap in benefits occur.”

Slog AM: Seattle's Soggy Halloween, Prince Andrew Is a Prince No More, Trump Demands That GOP Kill Filibuster

Nathalie Graham — Fri, 31 Oct 2025 08:04:00 -0700

The Stranger's morning news roundup. by Nathalie Graham

Happy Halloween, you little ghouls: I have compiled an especially spooky, scary morning news for you. Except, not really. These are just the regular headlines. Because every day is hell.

The Scariest Thing This Halloween: Amazon CEO Andy Jassy explained the recent 14,000-person tech layoffs (2,303 of which hit Seattle Amazonians). He said the reason wasn't financial nor was it about AI. Instead, it was culture. He said the company grew fast, hired faster, and now had too many "layers." This is not the way to operate, apparently. With so many people the company can't "be flat and... move fast." The culture Jassy speaks of is this: Amazon is not in the business of people, but of course, in the business of profit. Too many people bogs down the profit. This year, Amazon reported $180.2 billion and Amazon Web Services reported $33 billion in sales. It is never enough. After the layoffs, Amazon's stock ticked up 14%.

Watch Out, This Could Be You:

Man Wouldn't Have Worn Costume To Work If He'd Known He Was Getting Laid Off

[image or embed]
— The Onion (@theonion.com) October 31, 2025 at 7:01 AM

Another Halloween Fright: Traffic will be bad for those of you stuck in your little cars. Take a bus or a train to your Halloween party. The I-5 Ship Canal Bridge construction will continue this weekend in the southbound lanes. Rain won't stop that mess. Rain could stop the planned construction on I-405. If it doesn't, then prepare for multiple northbound lane closures between Northeast 124th Street and Northeast 160th Street. Annnnnd all westbound lanes on I-90 from Mercer Island to Seattle are closing Friday night through early Saturday morning.

The real horror: Halloween is the day the most child pedestrian deaths happen in the US. Don't drive your stupid car tonight in the stupid rain and hit any stupid kids. I'm warning you!

Happy Halloween!!!

Reminder that Halloween is the most dangerous day of the year for pedestrians, so:

1. Don’t drive
2. If you must drive, slow down!
3. Longer term, advocate for more walkability where you live

[image or embed]
— Kevin Verhoff (@kevinverhoff.bsky.social) October 31, 2024 at 1:44 AM

Something Wicked This Way Comes: Trick or Treaters beware. An atmospheric river-like weather system will unleash a soggy hell on this evening's festivities and the weekend that follows. It'll be gushers only in your candy pail. Cause of the rain.

Darkness Falls: The clocks roll back starting Sunday morning at 2 a.m. Winter is readying its cold, spindly fingers around our necks. After this weekend, sunset will fall at a dastardly 4:49 p.m.

In Skeleton News: Flava Flav has been anointed the official hype man for the US bobsled and skeleton teams in the 2026 Winter Olympics. In case you, like me, forgot there are Olympics next year, there are and they will be held in Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy.

Stripping Prince Andrew: No! No! Not like that. Well, a little like that? Britain's King Charles has started the process of severing his brother's ties with the monarchy. The now-almost-ex prince has been mired in controversy over his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein. The scandal of being friends with a serial sex pest creep reached new heights recently after Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre's posthumous memoir alleged Andrew assaulted her when she was a teen. Andrew denied these allegations. Not enough! No princely titles and no more lodging at royal estates for you, buddy.

Trump Calls for the End of the Filibuster: President Donald Trump would like the shutdown to end. Not through compromise, of course. On Truth Social, Trump screamed, "INITIATE THE ‘NUCLEAR OPTION,’ GET RID OF THE FILIBUSTER." Overcoming a filibuster in the full Senate requires 60 votes. The Republicans hold 53 seats in the Senate. To abolish the filibuster as a whole would change how the Senate does debate. Democrats continue to block the measure that would fund the government because they're fighting for the reinstatement of healthcare subsidies so Americans don't suffer even more exorbitant insurance costs. Trump called getting rid of the filibuster the Senate GOP's "TRUMP CARD." The GOP fears eliminating the filibuster could hurt them if the Democrats ever regain control of Congress.

Whatever happens, it'll be too late to save SNAP benefits before they run dry on Nov. 1. The government shutdown has lasted 31 days. It will at least last a few more. Senators left D.C. without making any deals. Millions of people will have to deal with their SNAP benefits lapsing tomorrow. However, there is a shred of hope. A federal judge from Massachusetts will decide Friday whether the Trump administration must continue to fund food stamps during the shutdown.

Justice? Some Senators couldn't get home last night after their long day of not re-opening the government. Why? Shutdown-induced delays at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.

Melissa Kills 49: Hurricane Melissa killed 30 people in Haiti, and 20 people are still missing. In Jamaica, Melissa's death toll reached 19. The now-Category 2 storm steered mostly clear of Bermuda, which experienced her wrath as a strong tropical storm.

Illinois Advocates Sue Feds: Attorneys with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Illinois and the MacArthur Justice Center have sued Immigrations and Custom Enforcement for its treatment of detainees. According to the suit, ICE officials have blocked detainees from contacting lawyers, deprived them of food and medical treatment, and forced them to sign papers relinquishing their rights.

Have you voted yet? Well, do it. We made this video to make it really easy. And we made these endorsements to make it even easier. You have until Tuesday night at 8 p.m. to return your ballot to a King County ballot dropbox. If you're mailing your ballot, do it today.

We Have the Louvre Heist at Home: Thieves nabbed more than 1,000 items from the Oakland Museum of California's off-site storage facility. They stole metalwork jewelry, Native American baskets, scrimshaw walrus tusks, and 20th century sports memorabilia. We are in a heist heyday!

A Long Read: Rich liberal family hires part-time live-in nanny for their child at their upstate New York home. The nanny gets kind of weird, then refuses to leave.

I hate when this happens! A Kentucky woman opened a package expecting the medicine she had ordered. Instead, she found "arms and fingers." The county coroner said there had been a mishap with "an airline company, a freight company, and a courier." The coroner picked up the arms and fingers from the woman and intended to return them to the courier so the arms and fingers can go to their intended recipient. It is unclear who ordered the arms and fingers and for what purpose. Likely, not for medicine.

Viva la France: A 77-year-old French cyclist fell 130 feet into a ravine and survived for three days thanks to the bottles of red wine he was toting in his grocery bags.

A Song for Your Halloween: It is really the only song to listen to today.