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

Slog AM: The Supreme Court Stomps on Trump's Tariffs, New Voter ID Bill Is Bad News, and Seattle Women's Hockey Captain Breaks Olympic Record

Hannah Murphy Winter — Fri, 20 Feb 2026 08:43:00 -0800

The Stranger's Morning News Roundup. by Hannah Murphy Winter

Good Morning! Did you see a little snow yesterday? It was spotty, and fleeting, and it might be the only snow we get this year, so I hope you got a taste of it. Today promises to be cold (low 40s), but probably dry, so get outside for a bit. Tomorrow, the rain starts again.

MAHA Moms Revolt: On Wednesday, Trump invoked a Korean-war era law that allows the government to force the manufacture of supplies “in the interest of national defense.” What’re we manufacturing? Glyphosate—a probably-carcinogenic pesticide that’s sold in the hardware store aisles as Roundup. And the anti-vax, raw milk chugging, horse dewormer-obsessed MAHA crowd is pissed. The founder of Moms Across America (named Zen Honeycutt, of course), which has led the anti-glyphosate campaign, called it “an egregious offense to what he promised,” and Republicans are worried that it could impact how many women vote red in the midterms. To be clear, MAHA is off base on a lot, but they’re right to hate this pesticide. Studies have shown that it very likely causes cancer. But it’s a Monsanto favorite, and every decision is for sale in Trump’s America.

UN Who? On Thursday morning, President Trump emceed the inaugural meeting of his knock-off United Nations, aka the Board of Peace, which he created and oversees. (Any nation can get a permanent seat, as long as they’re willing to pay $1 billion to get it.) In the meeting, Trump announced that the US was committing $10 billion in aid to Gaza, but Congress doesn’t appear to have appropriated that money, so who knows where he’s getting it. “Beyond that, there were few clear objectives from the meeting. It was like the United Nations General Assembly, if everything about the United Nations revolved around Donald Trump,” the New York Times wrote.

Speaking of Peace: Trump is sending the largest force of American warships and aircraft to the Middle East in decades, and said that Iran needs to strike a meaningful deal with the US about their nuclear program, “otherwise, bad things happen.” He’s given the country “10-15 days” to strike a deal that’s been deadlocked for years.

Israeli Settlers Kill Palestinian American: His name was Nasrallah Abu Siyam, and he was 19 years old. According to residents, settlers marched into the town of Mukhmas and attacked a farmer. When villagers intervened, Israeli forces joined the settlers and, according to residents, that empowered the settlers to start firing into the crowd. Settlers in the West Bank killed 240 Palestinians last year, a campaign that the UN says could be considered ethnic cleansing. Nasrallah Abu Siyam is the first Palestinian killed by settlers in 2026.

Tariff Tumble: On Friday morning, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that Trump does not actually have the authority to impose his insane tariffs. So far the Treasury Department has collected about $240 billion in tariff revenue since Trump’s “Liberation Day” last April, and they could be forced to issue massive refunds, which, in Brett Kavanaugh’s wise words, would be a “mess.”

New Neon: Pike Place Market got its first new neon sign in almost 100 years. It’s mounted on the elevator shaft attached to the Waterfront Park. I think it classes up the place.

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Vote ID Law Would Do Its Job: Sen. Maria Cantwell and Washington election officials warned that the Trump-backed SAVE America Act (which requires proof of citizenship to vote) would turn our midterm elections into chaos. Fortunately, even Republicans in the Senate think it’s harmful bullshit, so it’s got slim chances.

Mom and Dad Are Fighting Again: Governor Bob Ferguson has some big feelings about the Millionaire Tax—namely, who should benefit from it, and who gets a tax break alongside it. But rather than working directly with lawmakers on it, state legislatures are complaining that at every stage, he’s simply taking to the microphone to bah-humbug their work. In this comically short session, they have just three weeks to land this plane.

The Latest from NWDC: Nurses at St. Joseph Medical Center in Tacoma told KUOW that since the beginning of Trump’s second term, they’ve seen a spike in ICE detainees coming to the hospital as patients. They say that agents have repeatedly ignored standard practices to safeguard patients’ privacy, health, and safety, including “refusing to leave detainees’ rooms during catheter changes, shackling a detainee so tightly to a bed they caused nerve damage to the person’s hand, and refusing to wear required masks and gowns in rooms where patients had communicable diseases,” KUOW reported. “I feel like [ICE agents] treat [detainees] like they’re animals,” one nurse told them.

Are you a renter? Probably. And if you are, you have until midnight to fill out the mayor’s renter survey. This is an opportunity to tell the City how much your rent has spiked, what kinds of bullshit charges you deal with every month (wtf is a valet garbage fee, really), and any other challenges you deal with as a renter just trying to keep a roof over your head.

Coming Home With the Gold: After a perfect Olympic season, the US Women’s hockey team won the gold in overtime against Canada. Hilary Knight, the captain of Team USA (and the Seattle Torrent), scored the shot that tied up the game, and at the same time, broke the record for most career Olympic goals (15 of them, if you were wondering). The players are coming home next week, and the Torrent will play their first post-Olympics game against the Toronto Sceptres on Friday the 27th.

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More Olympics Shine: US figure skater Alysa Liu won the gold on Thursday, breaking a 24-year drought for women’s figure skating. For reference, the last time the US won a gold in women’s figure skating, Liu hadn’t even been born. And to make it even more badass, she claimed the win after a two-year break from the sport. The US women’s curling team also made it to the semi-finals for the first time in 24 years.

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Have you played Routle today? It’s like Wordle, but for the King County Metro system. You get the shape of the route on a blank background, and five guesses. Are you King of the Bus?

A Song for Your Friday: A perfect track to make your commute feel like a little adventure, or to keep you company while you take a walk for your stupid mental health before the rain comes.

Slog AM: The Government’s Out of Money Again, Two Immigrants Were Released from Tacoma’s Detention Center, and Who Knows, We Might Get Some Snow

Hannah Murphy Winter — Mon, 16 Feb 2026 10:00:00 -0800

The Stranger's morning news roundup. by Hannah Murphy Winter

Good Morning! It’s Presidents Day, which our president is celebrating with an AI-generated Time magazine cover and the quote: “I was the hunted, and now I’m the hunter.” This is probably what George Washington had in mind, right?

The Weather: We had our taste of False Spring, and now we’re back to winter for a bit. Highs in the 40s, lows right around freezing, and we might even get a little snow later in the week.

Some Good News: ICE released Wilmer Toledo-Martinez, a Vancouver, WA man who was mauled by an ICE dog in December, from the Northwest Detention Center. He still has to continue his immigration case, but he’s doing it from home with his wife (who is an American citizen) and three kids.

And He Wasn’t the Only One: Greggy Sorio, a Filipino immigrant who came to the US on a green card, had to lose a part of his foot to infection, bleed out of his rectum for a month, and lose a “dramatic” amount of weight before a judge demanded that he be released from the Northwest ICE Processing facility in Tacoma. Sorio is able to access real medical care now, but he’s still at risk of deportation.

Another Shutdown: In a Valentine’s gift to us all, the Department of Homeland Security technically ran out of funds on Saturday while Dems in Congress try to fight for some limitations on ICE’s funding. Unfortunately, ICE and Border Patrol will barely be affected. And nearly 85 percent of FEMA employees and 95 percent of TSA’s are expected to work without pay through the shutdown.

ICYMI: Last week was a really good week for local anti-ICE legislation. City Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck introduced a moratorium on new detention centers in Seattle, and the County and the Port are blocking immigration agents from using their non-private land. Next up: let’s talk about the CCTV and ALRP cameras.

Trump Bombs 39th Boat: On Saturday, the military bombed another supposed narco-trafficking boat in the Caribbean. This illegal 5-month campaign, theoretically to fight the drug trade, has killed 133 people. This bombing killed three.

Pity the Millionaires: According to the Seattle Times’s Danny Westneat this weekend, taxing the rich is generally a popular and successful proposition. We learned that last week when, it turns out, the tax meant to fund our Social Housing Developer brought in more than double what was projected in its first year. (As Mayor Katie Wilson put it, this city is “filthy rich.”) And we know that the Millionaire Tax currently scooching through the leg is wildly popular. But Dems in the state leg (and Jamie Pedersen, specifically) are still considering a rollback for our Estate Tax to avoid the myth of the Fleeing Rich People.

Sheriff Certification: Right now in our state law, elected sheriffs are required to get certified by the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission within a year of taking office. Seems reasonable, right? But right now, if they just… don’t do it, there’s nothing anyone can do about that. The state legislature introduced a bill that would oust sheriffs who aren’t certified. So naturally, Pierce County’s hyperconservative, transphobic Sheriff Keith Swank thinks it’s unfair.

A Headline From Popular Mechanics to Breakup the Doldrums Today: “Jesus Was a Psychedelic Mushroom, a Controversial Theory Suggests. Could It Reshape Christianity Forever?”

Olympic Breakdown: NBC spent the first half of the games talking about American figure skater Ilia “Quad God” Malinin as the new face of the sport and the inevitable gold medalist. And he is the only person who’s ever landed a quad axel in an international competition. But in his final skate in the competition, the 21-year-old fell twice, struggled to deliver any of the quad jumps he’s famous for, and ended up placing eighth in the competition. Watching reporters try to make him explain what happened within minutes of his walking off the ice was brutal, and he handled it with a lot of grace. He told the Athletic that he was feeling overwhelmed when he got onto the ice. “I just felt like all the just traumatic moments of my life really just started flooding my head,” he said. “And there’s just like so many negative thoughts that just flooded into there and I just did not handle them.” We’ll see him again in four years, and by then he’ll surely have figured out how to fight the yips.

The Curlers Are Fighting: Both the men’s and women’s Canadian curling teams were accused of cheating—both for getting too handsy with the stone after they released it. And if you’ve watched curling, you know it’s a very mild-mannered sport (they’ve got brooms for fuck’s sake), but the head of the Men’s curling team threw around enough “fucks” that news reports called the exchange NSFW.

Wanna watch some of the action for yourself? Our local Granite Curling Club is throwing watch parties all weekend.

They Don’t Make ’Em Like They Used to: Naturally, when Olympians medal, they fuckin’ party. And who would take their medal off?? But it turns out, someone cut some corners on this year’s medals, and they’re popping right off their ribbons while the athletes celebrate. “Don’t jump in them. I was jumping in excitement and it broke,” said women’s downhill ski gold medalist Breezy Johnson. “I’m sure somebody will fix it. It’s not crazy broken but a little broken.”

Fun Olympics Fact: There’s a move in ice dancing called a twizzle. You’re welcome.

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Local Lawmakers Are Finally Moving Against ICE

Hannah Murphy Winter — Fri, 13 Feb 2026 09:12:00 -0800

Impeding ICE with the combined powers of the city, county and the port. by Hannah Murphy Winter

This morning, Seattle City Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck announced legislation to bar new or expanded detention facilities from being built within city limits. At the same time, Seattle Port Commissioner Toshiko Hasegawa announced an order that would bar any expansion of immigration activity on Port land, and a second that provides civil rights education to anyone working on Port property.

Their announcement follows an anti-ICE-filled week. On Tuesday, City Council’s public safety committee passed a bill from Councilmember Maritza Rivera that struck dated language from the Municipal Code requiring city employees to “cooperate with, not hinder” immigration enforcement. On the same day, the Port Commission unanimously passed an order requiring that Port police clearly identify themselves so the public is less likely to confuse them with immigration enforcement. And yesterday, the County took action: County Executive Girmay Zahilay signed an executive order barring ICE from non-public spaces on King County-owned properties (like Mayor Katie Wilson did in Seattle last month), and County Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda introduced a bill to codify his order into law.

None of this can stop ICE from operating in Seattle. But it can impede the agency.

The Detention Moratorium

As of last month, ICE was holding more than 73,000 people in detention across the country—a record high—and they expanded into 104 new detention facilities, almost doubling from the previous year. ICE is not releasing people on bail, so that number will continue to multiply. So, too, will the number of detention facilities. Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill accounted for that. He set aside $45 billion, enough funding to to imprison another 135,000 people in new facilities by 2029, according to the American Immigration Council.

The closest ICE detention facility to Seattle is the Northwest Detention Center (NWDC) in Tacoma. But in December, the federal government posted a pre-solicitation notice from the Department of Homeland Security and ICE, putting local contractors on notice that they were looking to build a facility about the same size as the NWDC, able to detain 1,600 people.

Rinck’s emergency legislation would block the construction of that facility or any other within city limits for the next year, giving City Council time to explore more permanent restrictions on ICE expansion. SeaTac actually beat her to the punch, passing their own detention moratorium this week.

The bill treats the threat of an ICE detention center as a bureaucratic land use issue, arguing that the city needs time to address any “mitigation measures" needed to build a facility in “Seattle’s dense urban environment."

“We need to be using every tool at our disposal to be really ensuring that we're not eating this administration's unconstitutional work and lawless agenda, and even if that means looking to land use as a tool,” Rinck tells The Stranger.

Rinck says she plans to share her bill with the Local Progress network, so other cities can copy her homework.

Rinck’s office says that Council President Joy Hollingsworth has agreed to allow the bill to skip the Land Use Committee, and instead be heard by the full council on Tuesday. Council could pass the bill as soon as February 24.

The Port’s Anti-ICE Agenda

Earlier this week, the Port Commission passed an order that helps make ICE clearly identifiable to the public—requiring that Port police are clearly identifiable, and can’t be confused with immigration enforcement.

Port Commissioner Hasegawa also plans to introduce two orders to regulate how ICE can interact with the Port, both of which will be introduced on February 24. The first order provides Know Your Rights education to anyone that’s working in the airport or other Port property, like the shops and restaurants at SeaTac. Immigration enforcement unavoidably operates in those areas, Hasegawa told The Stranger, and this order gives those workers the best chance to protect themselves and their colleagues.

The second mirrors the orders from Mayor Wilson and County Executive Zahilay: banning immigration enforcement from expanding their use of Port land for their operations. The presence of immigration at the Port is, again, unavoidable, Hasegawa acknowledges, but “the use of Port properties is narrow, and that it has to have an industrial purpose for one of our industries, our industry is not the prison industrial complex,” she says.

The commission could vote on both orders the day they're introduced, and Hasegawa says she's confident they'll pass.

The Ban from County Property

Mosqueda’s bill would lock Zahilay’s executive order into law, blocking ICE from entering (without a warrant) non-public areas of buildings, parking lots, garages, and vacant lots. They also can’t be used as an ICE staging area, or to process detainees. The bill would also require that County Executive Zahilay identify properties that ICE is likely to try to commandeer, and to preemptively plan for better security measures.

Mosqueda also accounted for private land. One whole section of the bill is dedicated to designing a template that reads:

"This property is a Stand Together King County partner. No agent of the federal government, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), may enter these premises for purposes of civil immigration enforcement, absent a valid judicial warrant or court order. This property may not be used for civil immigration enforcement operations, including as a staging area, processing location, or operations base."

You can also just write that on your door with some printer paper and a Sharpie, as we saw all over Minneapolis in the last few weeks.

Stranger Suggests: Wikipedia Rabbit Holes, a Masked Chillwave Band, and a Retelling of Cupid and Psyche

Julianne Bell — Mon, 09 Feb 2026 12:17:00 -0800

One Really Great Thing to Do Every Day of the Week

by Julianne Bell MONDAY 2/9

Asher Perlman & Tom Toro

(LITERATURE) If you’ve ever found yourself shedding a tear at a comic strip or recoiling with existential dread from a political cartoon, this one’s for you. New Yorker contributors Asher Perlman and Tom Toro are coming to Elliott Bay Book Company to discuss their new cartoon collections, Hi, It’s Me Again and And to Think We Started As a Book Club…. The former from Perlman (also a writer for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert) pairs sharp, surreal humor with relatable existential spirals, while Toro’s new release skews wry and whimsical. With both artists exploring everything from anxiety to mortality to modern bureaucracy, expect a dynamic conversation about why life’s strangest moments often make the best punchlines. (Elliott Bay Book Company, 7 pm, free with RSVP, all ages) LANGSTON THOMAS

TUESDAY 2/10

Olivia Barton: For Myself and For You Tour

Cry along to Olivia Barton's cathartic music at Barboza on Tuesday, February 10. BLAIRE BEAMER

(MUSIC) It's hard to ignore the similarities between Orlando-born indie folk artist Olivia Barton and folk-rock darling Phoebe Bridgers. Barton's recent track "Dad Song" brings to mind Bridgers' "Kyoto"—both songs allude to complicated relationships with their fathers as Barton laments "God, I'm such a hypocrite, writing this instead of picking up the phone" and Bridgers sings "You called me from a payphone / They still got payphones / It cost a dollar a minute / To tell me you're getting sober." Barton also explores queer love, heartbreak, and anxiety on her third full-length For Myself and For You, which was co-produced by Pinegrove’s Sam Skinner and highlights her songwriting talent and ability to balance delicacy with an emotional punch. Don't miss this show from the singer-songwriter who's toured with Lizzy McAlpine and Madi Diaz; this time, she's headlining with support from confessional Utah artist Rachael Jenkins. (Barboza, 7 pm, all ages) SHANNON LUBETICH

WEDNESDAY 2/11

Blood Cultures

(MUSIC) They’re an anonymous, experimental indie-pop band who rock out on chillwave in hoods. What more do you need? I’m all about bands wearing disguises, and with the Residents out of commission for the moment (sigh), a quartet that tinks and reverbs and chirps along to videos of themselves (or somebody in hoods) lifting weights, shooting guns, making a mess with Chinese takeout, and turning themselves into scarecrows, just might fill dat gap. That was the gist of their video for the “Set It on Fire” single from their 2021 album LUNO, at least. What they’ll do in concert, I have no idea whatsoever, but it’s got to be conceptual. (Neumos, 7 pm, 21+) ANDREW HAMLIN

THURSDAY 2/12

Depths of Wikipedia

Dive deep into the weirdest corners of Wikipedia with comedian and journalist Annie Rauwerda at the Neptune on Thursday, February 12. IAN SHIFF

(COMEDY) Launched in 2001 as an end-all, be-all online encyclopedia, Wikipedia has fully reached cultural icon status in today’s world—not necessarily for its reliability (s/o misinformation and donation pop-ups), but for the absolutely ridiculous humans who write, edit, and speedrun it ad nauseam. Wildly popular (1.6 million followers and counting) account Depths of Wikipedia bears witness to this chaos, spotlighting the site’s strangest corners. Comedian and journalist Annie Rauwerda, who helms the site, has turned the most absurd Wikipedia gems into a live show that’s part comedy, part podcast, part beautifully deranged PowerPoint presentation, and she’ll kick off the latest tour in Seattle! I have no idea what to expect, but that’s kind of the point. (Neptune Theatre, 7 pm, all ages) LANGSTON THOMAS

FRIDAY 2/13

Till We Have Faces

See Taproot Theatre's production of C.S. Lewis's Greek mythology retelling Till We Have Faces, running Tuesday through Saturday until February 21. GIAO NGUYEN

(THEATRE) In one of his letters, C.S. Lewis wrote that he believed that his final novel, Till We Have Faces, was “far and away” his best, “but it has, with critics and the public, been my greatest failure.” So when I saw that Taproot Theatre was premiering an adaptation of the book, I figured it was time to read it. I’m happy to report the critics were wrong. The book is a reinterpretation of the myth of Cupid and Psyche, written from the perspective of Psyche’s older sister. She’s filing a complaint to the gods (relatable). Taproot’s staged production is the first of its kind—a passion project of the theater’s producing artistic director Karen Lund—and it’s only running through this month. (Taproot Theatre, 7:30–10 pm, 16+) HANNAH MURPHY WINTER

SATURDAY 2/14

Valentine's Day Show: Glenn Hendrick with John Bellows, babyboy, and Plastic Wildflowers

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(MUSIC) Disclaimer: My best friend Kirsten is helping organize this event and will be performing, but even if they weren't, I'd still recommend it—it's a night of excellent artists at a cozy, intimate venue, all in support of some truly essential causes. The lineup includes the lush, groovy quintet babyboy, the nostalgic yet lyrically frank Cleveland group Plastic Wildflowers, and the San Juan Island artist and musician Glenn Hendrick, who weaves "heartbreaking lyrics with stripped down hooks to reel you into the apocalypse" and will perform alongside singer-songwriter John Bellows. Merch sales and a raffle will raise funds for Gaza and for supporting Seattle families with legal fees for immigration court. What better way to spend your Valentine's Day than honoring art, love, and community in all of its myriad forms? (The Rabbit Box Theatre, 8 pm, all ages) JULIANNE BELL

SUNDAY 2/15

Cécile McLorin Salvant

(MUSIC) Cécile McLorin Salvant has the most exciting voice in contemporary jazz. It’s not just her pitch-perfect voice, which reaches the heights of Edith Piaf, Ella Fitzgerald, Eartha Kitt, and Kate Bush, but the inventiveness with which she flexes her vocals. On her most recent album, Oh Snap, the three-time Grammy Award winner and MacArthur Fellow croons through a dozen short, intimate original songs (plus an a cappella cover of the Commodores’ “Brick House”) that she never intended to see the light of day. Setting out on a personal creative quest to place spontaneity and joy at the heart of her writing process, Salvant tinkered with home recording programs to craft personal songs inspired by the music that soundtracked her childhood in 1990s Miami, from grunge and pop boy bands to classical and folk music. The result of the album is a delightfully chaotic audio journal that will please fans of traditional jazz as well as genre rule-breakers like Erykah Badu and Solange. (Jazz Alley, 7:30 pm, all ages) AUDREY VANN

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Slog AM: The Seahawks Won, Bad Bunny Won More, and Trump Had a Terrible, No Good Sunday

Hannah Murphy Winter — Mon, 09 Feb 2026 09:47:00 -0800

The Stranger's morning news roundup. by Hannah Murphy Winter

The Seahawks Won Benito Bowl LX: They did it. On Sunday, for the second time in the franchise’s 50-year history, Seattle won the Super Bowl. They beat the New England Patriots 29-13 and got to have their redemption arc after losing to the Pats in 2015. Get ready for the parade downtown on Wednesday! Not a football fan? Hometown pride not enough for you? Let me offer you this: Thanks to the Seahawks, Trump had a bad day on Sunday. He wanted the Pats to win so badly.

Benito Also Won the Benito Bowl: Thanks to Trump’s hissy fit about having a Spanish-language performer for the halftime show, Bad Bunny’s performance was always going to be political, and holy shit did he kill it. The entire performance was a love letter to Puerto Rico. The only English he spoke in the whole show was to say “God Bless America,” before listing all of the countries on the American continent. And when he appeared on stage with the Puerto Rican flag, it was the one with the light blue triangle—the independence flag. And on top of that, it was an impeccable performance. The set was a series of vignettes—including Benito giving a 5-year-old Latino boy his Grammy and an actual fucking wedding—and it was without a doubt the most lush, joyful performance I’ve seen on the Super Bowl stage. Watch it in full here.

Meanwhile, at the “All-American Halftime Show”: Because watching a Puerto Rican perform might make conservatives’ dicks fall off, TurningPointUSA hosted an “alternative” to the Super Bowl halftime show on YouTube. Apparently, about 2 million people streamed the pre-taped TPUSA fundraiser on YouTube, filling the live chat with American Flag emojis while Kid Rock, Brantley Gilbert, Lee Brice, and Gabby Barrett performed. Pete Hegseth threw a football. And that’s about all that happened.

Ring Tries to Pup-Wash Surveillance: In their 30-second Super Bowl ad, Ring cameras highlighted “Search Party,” a way to trigger all of your neighbors’ cameras to look for a dog if it’s gone missing. Sweet, right? But the system could have just as easily been called “Manhunt.” As USA Today put it, it’s The Dark Night brought to life. “Indeed, the Ring camera technology that uses AI to track multiple cameras in a vicinity to locate a lost dog is basically the same function that Wayne used to hack people's cell phones to create a high-frequency generator receiver to pin down the location for Gotham City's Clown Prince of Crime.”

Weather: Looks like the weather gods are smiling upon the Super Bowl parade. We’ll likely have some rain today, but Tuesday through Thursday should be sunny and in the 50s.

Got a spare $5 mil? Bill Gates isn’t selling Xanadu 2.0 (his megamansion) in Medina, but he is shedding one of his bonus houses around it. For a man worth more than $100 billion, selling a multi-million-dollar house is sort of like selling books to a used book store for the rest of us. For the low, low price of $4.8 million, you can be Bill Gates’s neighbor. But considering how many times his name has shown up in the Epstein files (namely for trying to sneak STI medication to his wife after he caught something from “Russian girls”), that might be bringing the price down a couple mil.

Speaking of Epstein and Microsoft Execs: It looks like Nathan Myhrvold, the chief tech officer for Microsoft from 1986 to 2000, did some time on Jeffrey’s island. He also emailed Epstein about how hard it is to “FedEx pussy,” and Epstein offered to “leave” a girl for Myhrvold at his lab.

The DOJ’s Hiring: But no one wants the job. Chad Mizelle, a former chief of staff to US Attorney General Pam Bondi, posted on the porn site formerly known as Twitter that “if you are a lawyer, are interested in being an AUSA, and support President Trump and anti-crime agenda,” you should slide into his DMs. Once a coveted position for lawyers around the country, the application questionnaires now include questions like: “How would you help advance the president’s executive orders and policy priorities in this role?” And prioritizing loyalists has meant that they’re hiring shittier lawyers. I’m sure Nick Brown doesn’t mind.

Here's that Ring #SuperBowl commercial: pic.twitter.com/1gAxIJATdz
— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) February 9, 2026

Two Million Souls: According to a recent study, after almost four years of fighting, the death toll in the Ukraine War is nearing 2 million. Two-thirds of those deaths are Russian, who lost about 35,000 troops a month in 2025.

Here’s a Dystopian Headline for You: “Chatbots Make Terrible Doctors, Study Finds.” Apparently, ChatGPT and other LLMs could theoretically get into medical school, but diagnosing real humans is a whole other matter. Sometimes the chatbots generated information that was just wrong—fixating on elements of the patient’s descriptions that were irrelevant, providing a partial US phone number, or telling them to call the Australian emergency number. “In an extreme case, two users sent very similar messages describing symptoms of a subarachnoid hemorrhage but were given opposite advice,” the study’s authors wrote. “One user was told to lie down in a dark room, and the other user was given the correct recommendation to seek emergency care.” I know insurance is hell, but go to the doctor.

Biiiiig Hug: It’s been an unusually warm winter, even in Spokane, so when a deer was spotted stranded on the ice on top of Loon Lake, it was never going to be an easy rescue. Firefighter Gavin Gallagher scooched out to the center of the ice, lassoed her neck, and bearhugged her to keep her secure while the folks on land reeled them in. Rudely, she didn’t say thank you. “She ran off as, as expected,” one of the rescuers said, “to do deer things.”

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News We Didn’t Know We Needed: 404 Media published a roundup of studies about sex in space. Key lesson: Don’t make babies in space.

Because there’s no such thing as too much Bad Bunny today:

February Things to Do: Film

Audrey Vann — Mon, 02 Feb 2026 15:00:00 -0800

The best film events in February in Seattle. by Audrey Vann

Want more? Here's everything we recommend this month: Music, Visual Art, Literature, Performance, Film, Food, and This & That.

The Pacific Northwestern

TUESDAYS THROUGH FEB 24

Despite the Western genre being associated with images of cowboys in dusty deserts, there are, surprisingly, a large number of Western films set in the lush Pacific Northwest, and SIFF’s Pacific Northwestern series is bringing these gorgeous movies to the big screen. The series kicked off last month, but there is still so much great programming to come, like 1959’s The Hanging Tree, starring Gary Cooper as a doctor in a Montana gold rush town (but filmed entirely in Yakima), Kelly Reichardt’s First Cow, following a cook and a Chinese immigrant as they team up to steal milk from a prized cow in Oregon Country, and, my personal favorite, McCabe & Mrs. Miller, Robert Altman’s snowbound Western starring Warren Beatty and soundtracked by Leonard Cohen. (SIFF Film Center, 6:30 pm) AUDREY VANN

The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo

FEB 5–8

Set in the Chilean desert in the early ‘80s, director Diego Céspedes’s feature debut follows Lidia, an 11-year-old who was abandoned as a baby and raised by a fiercely loving queer found family. Their ragtag clan is ostracized by their sleepy mining town, blamed for a mysterious plague that is believed to be transmitted by a single gaze when two people fall in love. Lidia sets out to defend her loved ones and determine whether the rumor is true or not. The surreal Western explores AIDS panic, transphobia, violence, revenge, marginalization, and prejudice, mixing folktale vibes with the scrappy tenderness of Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Shoplifters. (Northwest Film Forum, times vary) JULIANNE BELL

HUMP! Film Fest

FEB 26–APRIL 30

Look, HUMP! is always good. You already know that this indie porn festival is nothing like the 5-minute clips you watch while bathed in the cold, blue, loveless light of your laptop. They’re creative and silly and usually feel like a friend is sharing their new, naked, art project with you. But if the trailer for this year is any indication, this year’s spring lineup isn't one to miss. It has stop-motion praying mantises, pottery, a sexy Bop It, and the Starfish Sex Beetle. One person managed to weave in sanitation workers and labor solidarity into their submission. Another clearly knows what it’s like to bomb on stage as a standup comedian, and used the power of porn to reimagine it. This festival only happens twice a year, and it’s never the same. Don’t miss this one. (Various locations) HANNAH MURPHY WINTER

More

Truth to Fiction: Black Is… Black Ain’t Feb 5, Northwest Film Forum, 7 pm

Fools’ Paradise (lost?) Feb 6–7, SIFF Film Center, 7 pm

Resurrection Feb 6–8, Northwest Film Forum, times vary

A Void in the Cosmos and From There You Sing: Early Pasolini Feb 8–Mar 5, Beacon, times vary

Friday the 13th Feb 13, Beacon, 10 pm

The Bridges of Madison County Feb 14, Beacon, 7 pm

In the Mood for Love Feb 14, Beacon, 10 pm

2026 Sakinah Film Festival Feb 14–15, Northwest Film Forum, 3 pm

Daisies (with Velocity Dance Center) Feb 18–19, Northwest Film Forum, 7:30 pm

Star 80 Feb 22 & 25, Beacon, times vary

Martin Scorsese: Maestro of Cinema Wednesdays Feb 25–Apr 29, SIFF Cinema Uptown, 7:30 pm

Slog AM: Everyone Protested ICE This Weekend, Liam Ramos Is Home, and the Department of Homeland Security Is Afraid of Memes

Hannah Murphy Winter — Mon, 02 Feb 2026 09:43:00 -0800

The Stranger's morning news roundup. by Hannah Murphy Winter

Good Morning and Happy Groundhog Day! Phil saw his shadow this morning, so the fates have promised us another six weeks of winter. Which makes sense. It’s February.

ICE Out: From New York to Kansas City to Portland to Seattle, everyone hit the streets this weekend. The marches came out of an amorphous social media call for a “general strike” on Friday, but after spending the entirety of January watching ICE brutalize Minnesota on the screens in our pockets, people needed to shout about it. In Seattle, we had a critical mass bike ride, and three separate rallies held by tech workers, healthcare workers, and educators. It all came together to mean thousands of people were in the streets telling ICE to fuck off.

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Best News All Week: Five-year-old Liam Ramos is home. After immigration agents took the Ecuadorian preschooler and his dad from Minneapolis more than a week ago and shipped them 1,300 miles to an ICE detention center in Texas, a judge ordered their release this weekend. His written decision is brief, scathing, and sassy. “The case has its genesis in the ill-conceived and incompetently-implemented government pursuit of daily deportation quotas, apparently even if it requires traumatizing children,” US District Judge Fred Biery wrote. “Apparent also is the government's ignorance of an American historical document called the Declaration of Independence. Thirty-three-year-old Thomas Jefferson enumerated grievances against a would-be authoritarian king over our nascent nation…We the People are hearing echos of that history.” He then goes on to cite “that pesky inconvenience called the Fourth Amendment.” Read the full text below.

ProPublica Does the Government’s Job: For the last week, the government has protected the identities of the two agents who shot Alex Pretti 10 times while he was pinned on the ground. ProPublica’s editors said, in their much more diplomatic way, that that’s bullshit. According to the investigative outlet, which identified them based on government documents, the two men are Border Patrol agent Jesus Ochoa and Customs and Border Protection officer Raymundo Gutierrez. They are both from South Texas, and neither are new recruits—Ochoa joined in 2018 and Gutierrez in 2014.

A note from our editors:

[image or embed]
— ProPublica (@propublica.org) February 1, 2026 at 1:10 PM

Speaking of the Government’s Job: We’re back in a partial government shutdown. Dems finally refused to fund ICE, which means, as of this weekend, we’re working with the backup generators. On Friday, the Senate did pass a two-week patch to fund DHS and give Republicans time to offer an alternative that doesn’t fund Trump’s personal secret police, but its future in the House is uncertain. Fortunately, this shutdown won’t impact essential services like SNAP benefits, but this spending bill does include FEMA and TSA.

Trump Doesn’t Want You at His Arts Center Anyway: Nobody wants to perform at the Kennedy Center after Trump gutted its board and scribbled his name on the side of it, so he’s closing it down for two years for "renovations." He’s closing it on July 4, the country’s 250th birthday, presumably so he doesn’t have to remember another date. And he says he’ll make it “new and spectacular.” Tell that to the East Wing.

He Did Not Have Sexual Relations With That Plane Broker: Like every other filthy rich person you’ve ever heard of, the former Seahawks quarterback’s name cropped up in the Epstein files, apparently trying to buy one of his planes. Wilson hopped on the porn generator formerly known as Twitter to set the record straight: “NOPE!!! ABSOLUTELY NOT! Not TODAY satan!,” he wrote. “Some Random plane broker tried to sell me a plane. I had no idea whose plane and never bought the plane. Never talked nor Never met the man. Thank God!!!”

Beware the Memes! There’s a massive winter storm getting ready to wallop most of the US, which means most of our roadways are going to be covered in warning signs. But the DHS has asked FEMA to pretty please avoid the word “ice” in their warning, because they just can’t handle the memes. They’ve asked FEMA to use “freezing rain” instead. Snowflakes.

Would Ya Lookit That: The Grammys still happen in an autocracy. A lot happened at the award show last night, I think, but I really only want to talk about Chappell Roan’s nipples.

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In Non-Nipple Related News: Bad Bunny won Album of the Year last night for Debí Tirar Más Fotos, the first all-Spanish album to win the award. In front of a crowd full of musicians wearing “ICE OUT” pins, he was the first to actually say the thing out loud. “Before I say thanks to God, I’m going to say ICE out,” he said. “We’re not savage, we’re not animals, we’re not aliens. We are humans, and we are Americans.”

What’s it like outside? We’ve got soft weather today. Standard drizzle. Highs in the 50s. Lows in the mid 40s. Like Punxatawney Phil said, it’s still winter.

Bus Stop Shooting: Four Seattle schools are starting late this morning after two teenagers were killed at a Rainier Valley bus stop on Friday, right after school let out. The kids haven’t been identified by the coroner’s office yet, but about 100 friends and loved ones gathered at a vigil at the bus stop on Saturday. “He didn’t deserve this,” said one of the victims’s moms. “He was a great kid. He’s my only child, and he’s gone.” SPD thinks the shooting was targeted, and doesn’t believe that the community at large is in danger, but they have increased patrols in the area.

Evictions Are Up, Again: They’ve been climbing up consistently since the pandemic, and 2025 was no different. Both Washington State and King County recorded more evictions last year than they ever have before. Almost half of renters in Washington pay more than 30 percent of their income on rent, which means they’re often just one setback away from an eviction notice. And with the rise in corporate landlords, they’re less likely to negotiate with tenants who are behind on rent.

A Few Suggestions to Take That Edge Off: In San Francisco, if you make $230,000 or less, childcare is now free. And if you make up to $310,000, you still have access to a 50 percent subsidy. And in Massachusetts, Governor Maura Healy announced her plan to ban medical debt from being reported to credit agencies. Alright, Mayor Wilson, you’re up!

I’m not saying we made this happen, but…: In December’s complaints issue, The Stranger’s Nathalie Graham put her foot down. “Around the world, transit riders are waving their phones or gently tapping their credit cards to enter the glorious universe of a bus, a train, a ferry. In some parts of China, people pay for transit with their palms. Meanwhile, in Seattle, we are stuck in the past,” she wrote. Not anymore! The RapidRide G Line is soft-launching a Tap-to-Pay system on Monday. Riders can use debit cards, credit cards, or their phones to pay the $3 fare. The program should expand to the rest of the system by the end of the month, but don’t worry, your ORCA card won’t have to retire anytime soon. It’s still the system’s “preferred” payment method.

A Song for Your Monday: Sometimes you want your morning to sound like the beginning of a jolly adventure. Haruomi Hosono will always deliver on that.

Stranger Suggests: Sparkly Majorettes, a Classic Fairy-Tale Ballet, and an Underwater City Made of Trash

Julianne Bell — Mon, 26 Jan 2026 12:20:00 -0800

One really great thing to do every day of the week. by Julianne Bell MONDAY 1/26

Lady Windermere's Fan

(FILM) I attended my first Silent Movie Monday last month, and now I am completely obsessed. The film series pays homage to the history of our beloved Paramount Theatre, which opened in 1928, showing silent films accompanied by live musicians on the theater’s original Mighty Wurlitzer (a single organ that’s connected to various pipes and percussion instruments), and serving free, old-fashioned bags of popcorn—it’s truly like stepping into a time machine. For the next Silent Movie Monday, organist Donna Parker will soundtrack Ernst Lubitsch’s 1925 adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s Lady Windermere’s Fan. Set in 1890s London, the film follows an elegant society woman who’s convinced her husband is having an affair. It’s full of drama, scandals, and stunning costumes. Warning: You will likely leave the theater wanting to cut your hair into a 1920s bob. (Paramount Theatre, 7 pm) AUDREY VANN

TUESDAY 1/27

Honorée Fanone Jeffers

See Honorée Fanonne Jeffers at Town Hall Seattle Tuesday, January 27. SYDNEY A. FOSTER

(LITERATURE) National Book Award-nominated fiction writer, poet, and essayist Honorée Fanonne Jeffers spent 15 years researching archives for her critically acclaimed 2020 collection The Age of Phillis, which reimagines the life of revolutionary 18th-century poet Phillis Wheatley. For her next act, she published her 2021 debut novel The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois, an ambitious 816-page intergenerational epic that traces a Black family’s lineage from before the Civil War to the present. Her latest work is her nonfiction debut Misbehaving at the Crossroads, which explores the crossroads—defined by Jeffers as “a location of difficulty and possibility, a boundary between the divine and the human”—in Black American and African cultures. Jeffers will join host Colleen Echohawk, Community Roots Housing CEO and Seattle Arts and Lectures’ Community Curated Series director, for a discussion on this fascinating intersection. (Town Hall Seattle, 7:30 pm) JULIANNE BELL

Cate Le Bon, Frances Chang

(MUSIC) Sometimes you listen to an album, and your first thought is “Well, this is gonna be my whole personality for a while.” Cate Le Bon’s newest, Michelangelo Dying, is one of those. It’s a no-skip record, and one of my favorites, “Is It Worth It? (Happy Birthday),” could be a B-side on Ziggy Stardust. You have two chances to see Madame Le Bon today: first at 11 a.m. at the KEXP In-Studio show (which is free! As long as you’re willing to get there early and snag your spot), and second, at 8 p.m. at the Neptune, with special guest Frances Chang. (Neptune Theatre, 8 pm, all ages) HANNAH MURPHY WINTER

WEDNESDAY 1/28

Stuff You Should Know

(COMEDY) If you’ve ever lost an hour falling down an internet rabbit hole, there’s a good chance Stuff You Should Know contributed to it in some way. Hosted by Josh Clark and Chuck Bryant, the SYSK podcast has spent nearly two decades unpacking the history, science, and cultural weirdness of everything from Ouija boards to Pop-Tarts to Nazis on meth (yes, really). Racking up 2,700+ episodes and billions of downloads across the web, the pod has been the inspiration of many a YouTube deep dive, and now it’s coming to Seattle, live! It’s all that curiosity, joking, and banter delivered directly to a room full of fact-loving nerds, sans the HelloFresh commercials. (Paramount Theatre, 8 pm) LANGSTON THOMAS

THURSDAY 1/29

Ogemdi Ude: MAJOR

(PERFORMANCE) Majorette dance has been a staple of Black girlhood since the 1960s, when it was popularized at HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) in the American South. Dressed in their signature glittery costumes, majorettes dance alongside marching bands and display bold showmanship, glamour, precision, power, and sensuality. In this contemporary performance directed and choreographed by Ogemdi Ude, six Black femmes will pay homage to the majorette dance form, accompanied by composer Lambkin’s score blending “Southern rap, horns, drumlines, and melodic R&B and soul.” Back in September, On the Boards executive director Megan Kiskaddon told Stranger staff writer Nathalie Graham that MAJOR is the show everyone must see in the venue’s 2025–2026 season, explaining, “It’s one of those pieces that anyone would get something out of, because it’s so exuberant.” (On the Boards, 8 pm, all ages) JULIANNE BELL

FRIDAY 1/30

Merlantis, or the Great Pacific Garbage Patch

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(VISUAL ART) What lies beneath the Great Pacific Garbage Patch? An underwater city loosely based on Seattle and built of fallen trash, of course. While “the damaging effects of commodification and rampant capitalism on our planet” sound like heavy themes for troubled times, this exhibition put on by the group True Misschiff promises to handle the subject with campy panache in an attempt to “normalize non-normative approaches to life and gender” through the adventures of characters like Brosiedon, the douchey ruler of the merpeople. Base Camp 2 has recently restructured its exhibition timeline to focus on four big shows a year, which is great news, as the massive old luggage store space lends itself to immersive worlds such as Merlantis promises to be. In addition to ticketed events and cabaret performances (sponsored by the fictional corporation Blissfish), there will be art for sale, a thematic gift shop, and more fishy shenanigans available through March. (Base Camp 2, through Feb 28) AMANDA MANITACH

SATURDAY 1/31

Cinderella

The Pacific Northwest Ballet's production of Cinderella runs through February 8. ANGELA STERLING

(PERFORMANCE) Pacific Northwest Ballet’s production of Cinderella was conceived and choreographed in 1994 by founding artistic director and choreographer Kent Stowell, who sought to emphasize the romantic nature of the fairy tale in contrast to the tragicomic sensibilities of earlier modern productions. The result is an enchanting, swoon-worthy confection filled with dazzling costumes by Tony Award-winning costume designer Martin Pakledinaz and fantastical sets by scenic designer Tony Straiges. Fun facts: The production features over 120 costumes, which required more than a mile of tulle to make, and the trim on Cinderella’s ball gown alone took over 100 hours to create and sew. (McCaw Hall, various times, all ages) JULIANNE BELL

SUNDAY 2/2

The Chronology of Water

Imogen Poots as Lidia in The Chronology of Water. THE FORGE

(FILM) “I remember things in retinal flashes. Without order. Your life doesn’t happen in any kind of order… It’s all a series of fragments and repetitions and pattern formations. Language and water have this in common,” the Oregon-based author Lidia Yuknavitch writes in her 2011 memoir, The Chronology of Water. It follows, then, that director Kristen Stewart’s film adaptation of the book opens without clear exposition. Instead, the camera is submerged, trained upward toward a figure in a red swimsuit. Blood spills onto a shower’s tile floor. The two images—which happen years apart in Lidia’s (Imogen Poots) life—set the tone for a film revealed in fragments of trauma. Read the full review at the Mercury. (SIFF Film Center, 7 pm) LINDSAY COSTELLO

Slog AM: ICE Executed a Man on the Street in Minneapolis, the Government Is Lying About It, Abolish ICE

Hannah Murphy Winter — Mon, 26 Jan 2026 09:43:00 -0800

The Stranger's morning news roundup. by Hannah Murphy Winter

Good morning. We have to stop meeting like this.

Okay let’s start with what you’ve surely already seen with your own eyes. On Saturday, ICE agents executed a man on the street in Minneapolis. Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old who worked in the intensive care unit at a VA hospital, was part of a small group of demonstrators protesting around federal agents on the street. At the time, he had a handgun in a holster on his waist, which he had a permit to carry. Pretti was trying to help another protester who’d been pepper-sprayed by the feds when agents tackled him to the ground. Agents shouted that he had a handgun on his waist, and one agent pulled it out of the holster and moved away from the scene. Less than a second later, while Pretti was firmly pinned to the ground, agents started shooting him. They shot him at least 10 times in five seconds.

The Government Is Still Lying: Just like the Renee Good shooting, the federal government is counting on their ability to spin a narrative that their base can sink their teeth into. They immediately pushed the story that agents fired on civilians because they feared for their lives. DHS claimed that Pretti approached agents with the gun, and that he responded violently when they tried to disarm him. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem claimed he was committing “domestic terrorism,” trying to inflict “maximum damage” and “massacre law enforcement.” But also, just like the Renee Good shooting, the New York Times has already done a frame-by-frame analysis that proves this is all a lie. When challenged with this readily available video, head of Border Patrol Dan Bovino interrupted CNN’s Dana Bash by saying, “Let’s not freeze frame adjudicate this now.”

Bovino then claimed that the shooting was Pretti’s fault, because he “meant to be there beforehand” and knowingly inserted himself into an “active law enforcement operation.” “With respect, it feels as though in some ways you’re blaming the victim here,” CNN’s Dana Bash said. “The victims are the border patrol agents,” Bovino replied. “It’s too bad the consequences had to be paid because he injected himself into that crime scene.”

And if It’s Not Pretti’s Fault, It’s the Dems: Over the weekend, the Trump administration insisted that Pretti’s killing should be blamed on the Democrats, particularly Governor Tim Walz and Mayor Jacob Frey, because of their “violent and heated rhetoric” about ICE’s actually violent actions. “Democrat run Sanctuary Cities and States are REFUSING to cooperate with ICE, and they are actually encouraging Leftwing Agitators to unlawfully obstruct their operations to arrest the Worst of the Worst People!” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “By doing this, Democrats are putting Illegal Alien Criminals over Taxpaying, Law-Abiding Citizens, and they have created dangerous circumstances for EVERYONE involved.”

What’s Next? As of Monday morning, lawyers for the State of Minnesota and the City of Minneapolis are arguing in front of a federal judge that Trump’s immigration surge violated the state’s sovereignty. The Trump administration calls their case an “unprecedented case of judicial overreach,” which is pretty rich.

Trump’s “Secret Weapon”: Meanwhile, in foreign policy news, the New York Post reported that Trump told them about his secret new weapon that he called “The Discombobulator,” that he says the US military used in their mission to snatch Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro. “I’m not allowed to talk about it,” he told the Post, after explaining that US military personnel “pushed a button” that kept any of Venezuela’s missiles from launching. This Scooby Doo-ass story sounds like something Trump’s decaying brain would make up, but there might be some truth to it. A senior official told CNN that the president may be conflating several things into a single weapon. US forces did use “cyber tools” to disable Venezuela’s defense systems, and used an acoustic weapon to disorient personnel on the ground. Our military also has a literal heat ray, but it’s not clear if they used it in Venezuela.

Weather: Twenty states got more than a foot of snow over the weekend, from New Mexico to Maine, and more than 80 million people are still under extreme cold warnings this morning. The storm has already killed at least 11 people, knocked out power, and led to thousands of cancelled flights.

As an incentive to keep New Yorkers out of the dangerous weather, Mayor Mamdani announced that the New York Public Library is making Heated Rivalry available on e-book or audiobook for anyone with a library card. The People’s Mayor, ladies and gentlemen.

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Meanwhile: Seattle’s in one of the country’s rare mild pockets today. Our highs are in the high 40s, with some possible frost overnight.

The Hawks Are Going to the Super Bowl! On Sunday, the Seahawks beat the Los Angeles Rams to become the NFC Champs, and now they’re headed down to the Bay Area to play the Patriots in a rematch of the 2015 game. The Seattle Times’s Matt Calkins says that if we could beat the Rams, the Patriots should be a walk in the park. Bad Bunny will play the halftime show, but lest that be a little too “challenging” for the average football fan, never fear: Green Day will be the opening act before the game.

Loser has to paint a bus lane in the winning other city
— Gordon Padelford (@gordonofseattle.bsky.social) January 25, 2026 at 8:32 PM

Transit Board Shakeup: King County Council’s Claudia Balducci is likely the reason that the 2 Line exists at all. She championed it through legal challenges, mapping fights, the works. Then, on the heels of the announcement that the 2 and 1 lines will finally connect in just two months, Balducci was just booted from her position as chair of Sound Transit’s expansion committee, which she’s led since 2018. She was also removed from the Executive Committee. The board chair, currently Snohomish County Executive Dave Somers, officially makes those assignments, and didn’t offer The Urbanist or public commenters any explanation for the changeup.

Star-Crossed Lovers: Speaking of the cross-lake connection—when the connection date was finally announced last week, The Stranger’s Nathalie Graham did some essential sleuthing. The Cross-Lake Connection is an Aries. And she might not vibe with the 1 Line, a Cancer. “To be honest they probably shouldn’t date,” Nathalie’s sister-in-law told us. Dive into their birth charts here.

Adios to the PacSci Gates: As part of the City’s plan to integrate Seattle Center and the Pacific Science Center into one big public space, PacSci started taking down the big metal gates that partitioned off the science center last week. Now we can all reflect beside the pools that leak 26 gallons of water each year. (They say they’re fixing that too.)

Some Music for Your Monday: I’d forgotten about this 2017 song from Olympia’s CCFX until it popped up on a playlist this weekend. Figured I’d do you the same favor.

WATCH: The Spring HUMP! Trailer Is Here

Hannah Murphy Winter — Thu, 15 Jan 2026 12:50:00 -0800

There are stop motion praying mantises, pottery, a sexy Bop It, and the Starfish Sex Beetle. by Hannah Murphy Winter

The Stranger's Sex Survey is out. Our reader valentines are rolling in. Love is in the air! And while yes, 2026 has been a dumpster fire so far, people are still humping. And some of you wonderful freaks put that humping on video, sent it to the geniuses at the HUMP! Film Festival, and 24 of those made it into the spring lineup.

And look, HUMP! is always good. But if the trailer for this year is any indication, this year isn't one to miss. There are stop motion praying mantises, pottery, a sexy Bop It, and the Starfish Sex Beetle.

Watch the trailer here.

Still from 'Prey for Sex.' COURTESY OF HUMP!

Don't know what the heck I'm talking about? I went to the live festival for the first time last year, and I had some thoughts: "Don’t mistake this for the two-minute clips you watch in the cold blue light of your laptop. The five-minute shorts that make up the festival feel like your best friends sharing something cool they made. Don’t get me wrong, they’re flirty, silly, hot, and sweaty. But they’re also earnest, and creative, and probably something you’ve never seen before."

And if you want to catch up on what you've missed, you can stream the archive here.

King County Prosecutors Won't Charge Pedro Gomez

Marcus Harrison Green — Tue, 13 Jan 2026 15:08:00 -0800

Cheryl Delostrinos' case represents a structural crevasse in sexual assault crimes, caught between the limits in the definition of consent, and a jury’s willingness to believe victims. by Marcus Harrison Green

Cheryl Delostrinos, a South End organizer and abolitionist, doesn’t believe in the criminal justice system.

She didn’t believe in it on June 18, 2024, when she says she went to a strictly-professional meeting over drinks with Pedro Gomez, the one-time director of external affairs for former Seattle mayor Bruce Harrell.

She didn’t believe in it when, according to police reports, she woke up drunk and disoriented to Gomez performing oral sex on her. Or when she told him “no,” and Gomez continued to pull her toward him, lift her, and force her back onto the bed despite her repeated verbal refusals.

She didn’t believe in it when she made the police report and submitted to a sexual assault kit.

But she turned to the system anyway, because she believed it was the only way to find some accountability for what happened to her. Then she waited a year and a half for a charging decision on her case. Delostrinos was right to doubt the system’s ability to help her find justice. In December, Delostrinos learned that the King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office declined to charge Gomez with a crime.

KCPAO didn’t decline to charge Gomez because they doubted her account. In fact, in a written response to The Stranger’s questions, the prosecutor’s office emphasized on five separate occasions that they do believe her.

What is at question is how her experience fits into state law. And in this case, everyone The Stranger spoke to agrees that it’s simply too limited to deliver justice in many sexual assault cases like hers. Her case represents a structural crevasse in sexual assault crimes, caught between the limits in the definition of consent, and a jury’s willingness to believe victims.

In a confidential declination memo shared with The Stranger, the Prosecutor’s Office said the case was “legally insufficient” under Washington law, meaning prosecutors concluded they could not prove the elements of rape in the second- or third-degree beyond a reasonable doubt when weighed against what they described as the “most plausible, reasonably foreseeable defense.”

For Delostrinos, the decision arrived as both confirmation and a fresh rupture. “The process of learning about the KCPO’s decision felt broken,” she said, describing how direct communication came only after her attorneys reached out, and how an SPD advocate followed up days later with information she already had. She said she was “not surprised” by the declination because, in her view, “I do not believe the criminal legal system is structured to believe or meaningfully support survivors of sexual violence, especially in cases that live in the gray areas where there is no direct video evidence of harm.”

The standard being quietly demanded of survivors, she said, is both unreasonable and revealing: “It is not my instinct, nor should it be expected, to video record an assault or a moment of non-consent while in a situation of violence.” Without that, she added, “it becomes my word against his.”

KPAO considered the possibility of charging Gomez with second- or third-degree rape, both as “alcohol assisted” sexual assault. First, they’d have to demonstrate that Delostrinos was too drunk to consent.

In the police report, Delostrinos reported that she came-to during the alleged rape, and said “no” when she realized what was happening to her.

The legal and cultural definitions of consent differ. Colloquially, we tend to learn that a drunk person cannot consent, particularly if they’re blacked out. But according to Washington state law, a victim’s intoxication isn’t enough for a charge to stick. They have to be incapacitated, and that incapacitation needs to be obvious—like someone struggling to walk, vomiting, or phasing in and out of consciousness.

Bridgette Maryman, a senior deputy prosecuting attorney for the county and chief deputy of the gender-based violence and prevention division, recognizes the limitations of this definition.

“Alcohol can cause someone to be in a blackout state where they have no memory of what happened, but they're walking, they're talking, they're driving, they're making purchases, and seeming to other people that they may be capable of consent, and that's just the reality of the way alcohol impacts us and the limits of our law as it relates to rape,” she told The Stranger. “It sucks.”

The other hurdle in this case is reasonable doubt. In Washington, like all other states, for a prosecutor’s office to press charges, they must demonstrate that they can prove the case “beyond a reasonable doubt.” In Delostrinos’ case, the DNA evidence indicated that sexual contact indeed happened. So the defense’s job would be to cast doubt on Delostrinos’ incapacitation. KPAO identified several routes that the defense was likely to take—security camera footage showing her walking steadily out of the building, a phone call to a friend where she simply called the encounter a “wild night,” and the possibility that a fight with her fiancé after the alleged rape might have motivated her to file a false report. (Yes, false reports are incredibly rare—somewhere between 2 and 10 percent of cases—but the statistical likelihood of a crime is not admissible evidence.) The legal burden of a criminal case is intentionally high and meant to avoid wrongful prosecution.

“The defense can present and argue mutually exclusive theories of the case that conflict with each other,” says Patrick Lavin, the chair of the special assault unit at KPAO. But as long as one of them can cast reasonable doubt—perhaps that a victim had a motive for making a false report, or that an assailant had reason to think they had consent—a charge can’t stick. That’s a defense attorney’s job. This is all standard, good lawyering, the KPAO lawyers emphasized to The Stranger.

And the KCPAO memo is explicitly about the legal calculus. It’s not an assessment of whether Delostrinos was harmed, but whether the case state could survive a jury instructed to acquit if they have a reasonable doubt.

“We believe Cheryl and our charging decision is in no way a reflection of the reality of what happened to her,” says KPAO’s Bella Halroyd, who wrote the charging decision. “It is merely an assessment of what we can legally prove beyond a reasonable doubt, and those are very different things. Our system is inadequate to provide healing to most survivors.”

Delostrinos is unsure whether she’ll pursue a civil case against Gomez and emphasized that she first filed charges “to create accountability by naming the harm, informing my community, and removing this person from a position that allowed them to continue using their power and platform to harm others,” she said, adding that she is “deeply grateful” for the people who navigate the system in alignment with her abolitionist values.

“I don’t know what accountability looks like moving forward,” she told The Stranger. “But I am committed to my own healing and to supporting other survivors of sexual violence in my communities.” She hopes that the act of coming forward opens the door to “deeper conversations, shared responsibility, and collective action toward safer, more accountable communities.”

Still, the declination carried its own loss: “While I would not have chosen to move forward with charges even if they had been filed, I am still disappointed that I was not given that choice,” she said. “The loss of that agency matters.”

Slog AM: Trump Wants Greenland for His Mental Health, Portland Shooting Victim Arrested, and I-5 to Be Congested for Two Years

Hannah Murphy Winter — Mon, 12 Jan 2026 09:44:00 -0800

The Stranger's Morning News Roundup by Hannah Murphy Winter

Good Morning! We’ve got a mild one today: highs in the low 50s, no rain. The sky’s bright, even if it’s gray. If you’ve been complaining about the Big Dark, today’s the day to walk that extra couple blocks to the next bus stop or keep your coat on and drink your coffee outside.

But in the meantime, let’s do the news.

Trump Surprises No One: Four New York Times reporters sat down with Trump for a two-hour interview, and the paper has been talking about it nonstop for four days now. (Did you know the transcript is 23,000 words? We do, for some reason.) The interview was, as usual, unsettling for readers who are typically grounded in even the loosest understanding of facts. Trump said that the Civil Rights Act was “reverse discrimination,” claimed that his administration “didn’t even know about all the oil” in Venezuela, said he captured Maduro because too many Venezuelans were coming into the US, and that he doesn’t need international law to govern his decisions because he had his “morality” and “that’s very good.” Oh, and he said that it was very “psychologically” important for him to own Greenland.

Crush ICE: Thousands of people hit the streets across the country this weekend to protest ICE and memorialize the people that have been killed by the agency since Trump started his anti-immigration campaign. In Seattle, Mayor Katie Wilson spoke to the crowd gathered at Cal Anderson Park. “I grieve with the people who have lost their lives this week in Minneapolis, the people who were snatched away from their lives in Seattle,” she said. “And all of those in our history, who have been subject to violence and oppression from a government that should belong to them, too. So today we grieve, and we mourn, and we organize.”

Meanwhile, in Portland: Luis David Nino-Moncada, the man who Border Patrol Agents shot in the arm while in his on Thursday, was arrested and booked by the feds yesterday. Court records don’t show his charges, but they claim they’re investigating an assault, so it appears that they might be setting up another “self-defense” claim for the officer who shot him. Yorlenys Betzabeth Zambrano-Contreras, the passenger in the car, was shot in the chest and is still in the hospital.

ICYMI: On Friday, Rep. Emily Randall co-sponsored articles of impeachment against DHS head Kristi Noem. “Kristi Noem’s lawless agents are out of control,” Rep. Randall wrote. “We cannot have rogue government agencies killing its own people in our communities.” The Hill reported that House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said that he hasn't ruled out impeaching Noem—if Democrats win the House in the 2026 midterms, as if protecting citizens is a treat we only get if we do what he wants.

Case in Point: A Guatemalan family in South Seattle “self-deported” last week, and a reporter for KUOW followed them throughout the process. Diland, the family’s 10-year-old boy, had never been on a plane before, and sobbed through his time at the airport. “Thanks for being my best friend,” he wrote in a letter to his classmates, “and I will never forget that time that you gave me snacks.” His mom, who left Guatemala in 2021 after getting robbed and physically threatened, cut off her immigration ankle monitor with scissors she borrowed from a desk agent. It took ICE 12 hours to get her travel papers, and now she and her two kids have to start over. “She's gonna need to get set up with a job, long-term housing, children need to get enrolled in school,” said Raiden Kallberg, with the advocacy group that helped the family plan the trip and get a motel room in Guatemala City. “There's not, like, people waiting for her there necessarily in Guatemala.”

Trump Still Fighting the Fed: On Sunday, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said that the DOJ served the central bank with a subpoena, and threatened a criminal indictment. Theoretically, this is about the fact that the Fed remodeled their offices, covering them in white marble. But it’s actually about the fact that Trump doesn’t like that the Fed is an independent entity that doesn’t do what he says.

The Golden Globes Still Happen in an Autocracy: And they were weird. The award show was the weekend after the United States invaded Venezuela and an ICE officer shot and killed Renee Good in her car, but speakers “kept it festive.” Producers booted “Best Score” from the broadcast to make space for the new podcast category which, inevitably, rewarded a celebrity showing up in a studio with their friends (Amy Poehler’s Good Hang), and gave journalism (NPR’s Up First) a shrug. The audience seem to be the only people in the country who haven’t watched Heated Rivalry. And announcers spent a weird amount of time talking about Polymarket betting on the award categories.

Plus, whatever this was:

Leonardo DiCaprio during the commercial break at the Golden Globes

#GoldenGlobes2026 #LeonardoDiCaprio

[image or embed]
— Every Film Now (@everyfilmnow.bsky.social) January 11, 2026 at 11:57 PM

Oh, and the Winners! One Battle After Another and Adolescence swept the show. The Pitt and The Studio both took home fresh, shiny Globes. And for some reason, they gave Ricky Gervais the award for stand-up comedy? You can see the full list here.

Nurses on Strike: Almost 15,000 nurses went on strike today in New York City. Let this be a warning to Seattle Children’s Hospital, whose nurses already approved a strike if execs refuse to come to the table with a real offer. Don’t fuck with nurses.

White Out: Two skiers died in an avalanche this weekend in the Cascades. Four skiers had snowmobiled about 10 miles out into the backcountry at Longs Pass, just south of the Enchantments. Two were fully buried by the avalanche and killed, while the other two survived and were rescued. It’s the first deadly avalanche of the year.

Let the Race Begin: Seattle Port Commissioner Toshiko Hasegawa announced in The Stranger this morning that she’s throwing her hat in the ring for Girmay Zahilay’s old seat on King County Council. She’s running against State Sen. Rebecca Saldaña, who announced in December. Hasegawa is ambitious and really pissed off about ICE. “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,” she told The Stranger’s Nathalie Graham.

WTF: Six puppies survived a suspected fentanyl overdose in Gold Bar on Saturday when firefighters gave them CPR and administered Narcan. The pups are now at an emergency clinic and looking for their forever homes. The lesson: Narcan works on puppies, and not everyone is allowed to have a dog.

Buckle Up: Seattle has some fun new traffic for you. This weekend marked the start of two years of lane closures on the Ship Canal Bridge. The 65-year-old bridge needs a lot of love, so we’ll be playing this game for most of 2026 and 2027. “I think if you are leaving your house and going somewhere, you are probably going to be affected by Revive I-5,” said Tara Peters, communications director for Commute Seattle. She is urging businesses to let employees arrive before 7 a.m. or after 10 a.m., and to provide carpool parking, secure bike storage, and transit fare cards. If you aren’t already a light rail/bus rider, now seems like a great time to start.

A Song for Your Monday: If you’re not already listening to Cate Le Bon, now’s the time to start. This Welsh alien queen is coming to Seattle at the end of the month—first at KEXP and then at the Neptune—promoting her new album. Here’s one of my favorites from it. It sounds like it could be a B Side from Ziggy Stardust.

Slog AM: Trump Chooses Oil Over the Constitution, Ferry Service to Kitsap Is Screwed, and the Seattle Times Has a New Blethen in Charge

Hannah Murphy Winter — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 09:41:00 -0800

The Stranger's Morning News Round-up by Hannah Murphy Winter

It took three days. Three days into 2026 for Trump to do something absolutely batshit crazy. Welcome to the first full week of 2026, and I’m already sorry about the news you’re about to read.

Political scientists today

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— Melissa Baker (@melissabaker.bsky.social) January 3, 2026 at 9:18 AM

Let’s start with the news that you’ve surely already heard. Late Friday night, President Donald Trump ordered the US military to disable the country’s air defense and capture President Nicolás Maduro and his wife. At least 80 people were killed, including a large part of the president’s security team. Shortly after the attack, Trump posted a photo of Maduro being transported, cuffed and blindfolded, to New York, and Trump announced that he now “runs” Venezuela.

View this post on Instagram
A post shared by The White House (@whitehouse)

Can we just… kidnap a president? Good question. Theoretically, Trump brought Maduro to New York to face drug trafficking charges: narco-terrorism and conspiracy to import cocaine. Marco Rubio claims that this was a law enforcement action, not a military one, which means it would require a smidge less congressional oversight. Meanwhile, Trump told Fox & Friends that everyone should stop their whining. “They should say, ‘Great job,’” he said. “They shouldn’t say, ‘Oh, gee, maybe it’s not constitutional.’” The UN Security Council was called to emergency session on Monday morning to discuss the attack after UN chief António Guterres told ambassadors that the US had set a “dangerous precedent” for global order.

So why did Trump really do it? Oil. Venezuela has about 17 percent of the world’s untapped oil reserves, and Trump wants them. In a speech on Saturday from Mar-a-Lago, he told reporters: “We’re going to have our very large United States oil companies—the biggest anywhere in the world—go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure.” Since the attack, he’s casually threatened Colombia, Cuba, and Greenland with a similar fate.

Don’t mistake this for a madman’s whim. This strike has been in the works for months. A team of CIA agents started tracking Maduro’s movements in August, and offered a $50 million reward for information that led to his capture, which paid off.

What about Venezuela? Secretary of State Marco Rubio keeps trying to claw back Trump’s claim that he now “runs” Venezuela, but Rubio is Charlie Brown, Trump is Lucy, and he’s not gonna let Marco kick that football. Venezuela’s interim leader, Delcy Rodríguez, has tried to offer to work with the US “on a cooperative agenda,” but Trump just reiterated that he’s “in charge” of the country.

What’s next? Maduro and his wife were reportedly brought to the federal courts in downtown New York to be arraigned on Monday morning. The New York Times has live updates here.

Walz Is Out: Minnesota Governor Tim Walz announced on Monday morning that he’s dropping his reelection bid, blaming the current political climate. “I came to the conclusion that I can’t give a political campaign my all,” he said. “Every minute I spend defending my own political interests would be a minute I can’t spend defending the people of Minnesota.” The MAGA-sphere has been obsessed with Minnesota for a few weeks now, after a video from right-wing influencer Nick Shirley went viral, claiming that there was widespread fraud in the state’s childcare facilities. This all seems to stem from an old 2022 indictment, during the Biden administration, in an alleged $250 million fraud scheme. And because some of those defendants were of Somali descent, it’s been catnip for Trump’s anti-immigration rhetoric.

Hammer Time: A 26-year-old man brought a hammer to JD Vance’s home in Cincinnati and broke his windows. Vance and his family were in DC at the time, so the house was empty. But after Vance spent a news cycle mocking the Pelosis for the attack in their home, the internet is having a field day.

as I learned from our discourse, the responsible thing to do is to mock JD Vance and theorize this guy was his lover

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— jesse (@jesseltaylor.bsky.social) January 5, 2026 at 7:12 AM

Your Least Favorite Initiative Man Is Back: Tech millionaire Brian Heywood’s org, Let’s Go Washington, filed signatures for two anti-LGBTQ initiatives. One continues his obsession with the Parents Bill of Rights, restoring parts of the bill that were undone by the state legislature last year because they were illegal in Washington state. The other would bar trans girls from sports. Let’s Go Washington says they collected over 400,000 signatures for both initiatives, which, if certified, would be enough to put the initiatives in front of the state legislature when the session starts on January 12. No one’s asleep at the wheel, though. The Gender Justice League, SEIU 775, the ACLU-WA, and the state’s teachers union are all backing WA Families for Freedom, which is lobbying against the initiatives.

More Ferries Sidelined: Good luck getting to Kitsap this week. The Seattle-Bremerton and Seattle-Bainbridge ferry routes are both down to one boat. The Tacoma, one of the state’s biggest boats, was taken out of service over the weekend because of an issue with an oil tube. And last Thursday, the Walla Walla had to be benched because of a damaged propeller. Has anyone told the orcas that these aren’t yachts?

New Year, New Government: In case you missed it, Katie Wilson was sworn in as Mayor of Seattle on Friday in a packed ceremony at City Hall. But that’s not all! Today at noon, Erika Evans will take her oath of office. And tomorrow at 2 p.m., Councilmembers Alexis Mercedes Rinck and Dionne Foster will be sworn in.

The Seattle Times Has a New Blethen: On January 1, Ryan Blethen took over as publisher for the Times, following his father Frank’s retirement. He’s the fifth Blethen generation to run the paper. Frank famously shot his neighbor’s 11-month-old yellow lab with a pellet gun, so here’s hoping Ryan’s a different breed.

The End of an Era: There are only five Sears stores left in the country, and none of them are long for this world. The store that once sold the American Dream in the form of mail-order houses is expected to be sold off for parts as soon as possible.

A Song for Your Morning: This was a lot, so here’s a little groove out of PDX to help shake it off.

Wilson Comes in Strong at Her Swearing-In

Hannah Murphy Winter — Fri, 02 Jan 2026 16:38:00 -0800

“I want to live in a city that honors what you're doing when you're not making money,” Mayor Katie Wilson said, “like the time that you spend with your kid at the playground or caring for a sick friend... A city that thinks that you should have time to read a book and lay on the grass staring up at the clouds. Because we need bread, but we need roses too.” by Hannah Murphy Winter

Standing in front of a packed room in the lobby of City Hall around 11 a.m. this morning, Mayor Katie Wilson asked the crowd: “Is anyone here at Seattle City Hall for the very first time this morning?” At least a dozen hands shot up and a few people shouted yes.

“Welcome,” she said. “This is your building, and I'm going to need you to come back here again and again and again.”

Continuing her first speech in office, Wilson delivered a clear message that, as mayor, she planned to be the same exact person who’s been working in those halls since she co-founded the Transit Riders Union in 2011.

The address was, at its core, anticapitalist. “I want to live in a city that honors what you're doing when you're not making money,” she said, “like the time that you spend with your kid at the playground or caring for a sick friend. I want to live in a city that celebrates the labor that people perform voluntarily…. A city that values the pursuits that create beauty and community, whether or not they ever turn into careers. A city that thinks that you should have time to read a book and lay on the grass staring up at the clouds. Because we need bread, but we need roses too.”

The speakers before her swearing in represented the many parts of her work before she ran for office. Ifrah “Iffy” Abshir, a Somali-American health services researcher, worked with Wilson when Abshir was a sophomore at Rainier Beach High School fighting for free buses. Jarvis Capucion is an organizer for Nickelsville who worked with Wilson on protections for homeless people. And John Burbank, the founder of the Economic Opportunity Institute, has been reimagining a more affordable Seattle with Wilson in the months before she co-founded the Transit Riders Union. All of them talked about her good character, her doggedness as an organizer, and the change in City Hall that she represented.

Cynthia Anne Green, an eight-decade Seattle resident and the mother of Stranger contributor Marcus Harrison Green, noted Wilson’s consistency. “She didn't just organize for change when it was fashionable,” Green said. “She showed up when it was hard, that's the difference.”

“The path ahead will be hard,” Green continued. “You will be celebrated, and then you will be scrutinized. Your work and actions will be looked over, you will be lifted up and then torn back down. This is the pattern. And when those days come and they will come, I want you to remember this: You are not alone. You have assembled a team that reflects the true Seattle, multiracial, multi generational, rooted in community, rich and lived wisdom, people who understand that loudness is not clarity, that ego is not leadership, that passion is not weakness.”

Fresh off a heated, negative campaign, Wilson is familiar with criticism. And while she nodded to her shout out from Trump (“I had the honor of being noticed by the President of the United States, who called me a very, very liberal slash communist mayor. It's nice to feel seen”), she spent much of her speech addressing concerns from the near half of the city who didn’t vote for her—especially the handwringing from moderates convinced that City Hall was about to be overrun by purple-haired leftists.

Wilson didn’t deny that the building would see a lot more progressives than recent administrations. But she made clear that progressive bonafides weren’t a free ticket into the mayor’s office. Her hiring process comes down to “character,” she said. “Someone might share my vision and my worldview. They might be competent and experienced and effective, but if they're not in this work for the right reasons, if they don't have enough self awareness to reflect on their own motivations and rise above themselves when needed, then that's not a person that I should put in a position of power.”

She acknowledged that she’s not someone who’s experienced in wielding positional power. “I've spent my career organizing with the people who often get left out of official narratives,” she said. But as mayor, she has to represent institutional power as well. “I had a little bit of a crisis of conscience,” she told the crowd. “Can I do that? Can I be the mayor of the waterfront and the World Cup and the stadiums in the Seattle Center and the Convention Center and any other centers we might decide to build?”

“Well, I have some good news for our city: Yes, yes, I can,” she said. But “I'll do it in my own way.”

Stranger Suggests: Lord of the Rings Weed Pairings, a Comedian Who Speaks Truth to Power, and TRAINS!

Julianne Bell — Mon, 22 Dec 2025 12:28:00 -0800

One really great thing to do every day of the week. by Julianne Bell MONDAY 12/22

Sippin Santa

(FOOD & DRINK) This holiday-tiki-themed pop-up (a spinoff of Miracle on 2nd at nearby Rob Roy) returns to Belltown with a curated list of cocktails served in seasonal vessels. From classic drinks like a Jungle Bird served in a Santa-hat-wearing pelican mug to inventive originals like the "Frost Bite" (tequila, sage, pineapple, lime, cranberry syrup, and spiced cranberry bitters in a Santa shark cup), the menu has fun options that will warm the ice-cold heart in even the Scroogiest of us. New for 2025: the "Designated Sledder," a zero-proof option made with lime, coconut, pineapple, pandan syrup, and tonic water. The bar’s soundtrack of remixed holiday tunes and classics matches its decor, where stockings and lights have been hung with care and everything that could be covered in wrapping paper is. (Navy Strength, through Dec 25, 21+) SHANNON LUBETICH

TUESDAY 12/23

The 29th Annual Model Train Festival

(TRAINS) If you think model trains are boring, this is the perfect event to broaden your horizons. The Model Train Festival returns to the Washington State History Museum with a vast array of meticulously crafted layouts from railroad clubs across the region. Visitors can marvel at miniature steam engines, downsized Western Washington landscapes, and even the museum’s own massive permanent layout, which is apparently the largest in the state. Train operators are on hand to answer questions, and the auditorium is screening train-themed flicks throughout the festival. (Washington State History Museum, Tacoma, through Jan 1, all ages) LANGSTON THOMAS

WEDNESDAY 12/24

Lady Vengeance

(FILM) This bloody 2005 South Korean thriller, the third and final installment in director Park Chan-wook’s Vengeance trilogy, made the short list for my personal favorites of 2025 and has unexpectedly become my new favorite feel-good holiday movie. It tells the story of Lee Geum-ja (Lee Young-ae), a female prisoner who was framed for the kidnapping and murder of a five-year-old schoolboy. While in prison, she performs remorse and spiritual conversion to curry favor with the public, but as soon as she’s out, she is hell-bent on revenge. The film juxtaposes the potential for ugliness and sweetness in humanity to great effect, culminating in a surprisingly poignant conclusion in the snow that would be perfect to watch on Christmas Eve. It will also make you really want a polka dot dress, a leather trench coat, and blood-red eyeshadow. (Be warned that this movie contains some hard-to-watch scenes of sexual violence and child abuse, so proceed with caution. For a less violent Christmas Eve viewing alternative, may I suggest The Umbrellas of Cherbourg?) (Streaming free on Tubi, Pluto TV, and Kanopy, and also available to rent at Scarecrow Video) JULIANNE BELL

THURSDAY 12/25

Watch Lord of the Rings and Get High

(CHRISTMAS) I’m a Seattle transplant celebrating my tenth holiday season away from family. But even without family, you are never really alone when you have a fellowship and some pipe weed to ring in the holiday. That’s why my Christmas Day suggestion is simple: Get high and watch The Lord of the Rings trilogy straight through. True LOTRians know this means the extended editions. (I can’t believe how many people have never seen the Funeral of Theodred.) If you are committing to a full journey through Middle-earth, strain choice matters. Fellowship is cozy, hopeful, and Shire-heavy, so start with something relaxing and euphoric like Space Queen. By The Two Towers, the plot thickens and demands focus, making Jack Herer the ideal companion. Return of the King is epic battles and emotional payoff, and Gelato 33 keeps things euphoric and grounded, and will prep you for a good cry all the way to the shores of Valinor. CHRISTIAN PAROCCO

FRIDAY 12/26

The Jinkx & Dela Holiday Show

(PERFORMANCE) After eight years of extravagant holiday shows from drag queen icon besties Jinkx Monsoon and BenDeLaCreme, I think it’s time to ask: Is this just The Nutcracker now? Do we still need The Nutcracker? In this theatrical tradition, the pair interview sentient snacks before being kidnapped and held for ransom by holiday traditions. Imagine if that lay on the shoulders of a junior high drama department. Well, it’s not a canon work yet; it changes every year. Don’t miss the singing-dancing sweetness of these two very different queens serving Christmas—because I’ll be telling your kids this is The Nutcracker. (Moore Theatre, various showtimes through Dec 28, all ages) SUZETTE SMITH

SATURDAY 12/27

Eat Dumplings at Korochka Tavern

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(FOOD & DRINK) This little nook of a bar is easy to miss—a tiny storefront on 45th, tucked between Tres Lecheria and the Stop N Shop. But on a cold, wintry day, it’ll cure whatever’s ailing your soul. Their Eastern European menu is small, but I’ll tell you what to do anyway: at the very least, order the pickle plate and the vareniki (there are meat, vegetarian, and vegan options). If you’re still hungry, it’s time for Piroshki. And in the meantime, their cocktail menu is worth every moment of your time. We’ve emphatically recommended the Bonfire before, but we’ll do it again. And they house-make beet-infused vodka for their take on a lemon drop—the Lenin Drop. Once you’ve finished your food, and you realize that you’re not ready to leave the warm red light of the bar, it’s time for the Honey Cake. And when you leave, you’ll notice that you barely feel the winter chill through the padding of dumplings, good hospitality, and the beet vodka. (Korochka Tavern, open Tues-Sun [closed Christmas Eve and Christmas Day], 21+) HANNAH MURPHY WINTER

SUNDAY 12/28

Roy Wood Jr.

(COMEDY) Now more than ever, we need comedians who speak truth to power (with caustic wit, of course), because the MSM have proved themselves to be entirely too complicit in downplaying and normalizing 47’s world-class corruption and enshittifcation of America. Thankfully, Roy Wood Jr. is on the case. He’s shown his heady mettle as a correspondent on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show With Trevor Noah and as host of CNN’s Have I Got News for You. His jabs and uppercuts from the left have caused deep bruises on many deserving mofos. As MC of the 2023 White House Correspondents’ Dinner, Wood hilariously roasted Dems, Repubs, and the media in a tight 25 minutes. And his takes on race are among the most sizzling in the business, including this one: “But if we get rid of the Confederate flag, how am I gonna know who the dangerous white people are?” Beyond those topics, Wood has funny thoughts about relationships, fatherhood, white allies, the travails of grocery shopping, and the ramifications of getting a BBL, among other things. (Neptune Theatre, 7 pm, all ages) DAVE SEGAL

Slog AM: Trump Blocks an Oil Tanker, MAGA Fractures at AmFest, and DC Had a Funeral for the Penny

Hannah Murphy Winter — Mon, 22 Dec 2025 09:50:00 -0800

The Stranger's morning news round-up. by Hannah Murphy Winter

Good Morning! We did it. We survived the Longest Night. Today, the sun rose at 7:56 a.m., and we’ll get fractions of a minute back every day. We still have to get through the sneakiest part of winter—February and March—which somehow feel darker and colder than December, but that’s a problem for future us. But for today, we’ve got highs in the 40s, lows in the 30s, with a 100 percent chance of rain.

Let’s do the news.

Trump Blocks Another Oil Tanker: Last week, Trump announced “a total and complete blockade” of oil going in and out of Venezuela, claiming (without evidence, naturally) that Venezuela is stealing American oil to fund narcotraffickers. But he followed that by saying that they’d be blocking sanctioned vessels, which is not a complete blockade, so no one seemed to know exactly what he was going to do next. Then over the weekend, the US Coast Guard chased and boarded a private supertanker carrying Venezuelan oil. That boat, called the Centuries, was headed to Asia and was not on the sanctioned vessel list. The Venezuelan government called it “theft and hijacking,” and the “forced disappearance of its crew.”

Pound the Alarm: This weekend, in the third level of Hell (Phoenix), all of the fascist talking heads gathered for the Turning Point USA annual conference, AmFest. Attendees posed in the same kind of tent that Charlie Kirk was shot in. Erika Kirk walked on stage with literal pyrotechnics, flanked by Nicki Minaj, and they hugged before diving into a Q&A on stage. I’ll just leave these two quotes from Minaj here for you:

“I have the utmost respect and admiration for our president. He has, I don’t know if he even knows this, but he’s given so many people hope that there’s a chance to beat the bad guys and to win, and to do it with your head held high and your integrity intact.”

“I can relate to them when I hear them speak, I know that they’re one of us… They haven’t lost touch of the world. You know, they’re still connected to the world. And what’s happening in the world, with the younger people and older people, with the richer people and not so rich people—they have the ability to still connect and be real and make us feel proud to be American.”

Girls Fall Like Dominos: The big takeaway from AmFest, though, is that the MAGA acolytes are fracturing. Under Trump, the conservative “big tent” has included conspiracy theorists, bigots who sell antisemitism, and white supremacists. And now, as they’re trying to figure out what the future of the MAGA party looks like, they’re all swinging at each other. Ben Shapiro went for Megyn Kelly, saying she’s “guilty of cowardice” for not denouncing Candace Owens for spreading conspiracy theories about Charlie Kirk’s death, and called Tucker Carlson’s decision to host Nick Fuentes on his podcast “an act of moral imbecility.” Megyn Kelly literally laughed at Shapiro, saying, essentially, I made you, bitch. Steve Bannon called Shapiro a cancer.

Do We Have a Problem?: Now, the party’s heir-apparent, JD Vance, has to decide if he wants to continue that legacy. At AMFest, he decided to lean into the bickering. “I know some of you are discouraged by the infighting over any number of issues. Don’t be discouraged,” Vance said. “Would you rather lead a movement of free thinkers who sometimes disagree than a bunch of drones who take their orders from George Soros?”

Actual Censorship: Just hours before 60 Minutes aired this weekend, new CBS head Bari Weiss pulled a segment about Venezuelan men deported by the Trump administration to what the program called a prison in El Salvador, claiming that it needed “additional reporting.” The story had gone through all of the program’s typical checks and balances, including reviews from their legal and Standards and Practices departments. Sharyn Alfonsi, the long-time 60 Minutes correspondent who reported the segment, accused CBS of pulling the segment for political reasons (duh). After viewing the segment, Weiss had demanded that they include a voice from the Trump administration (who had previously declined to comment) and questioned their use of the term “migrant,” because, she said, they were in the country illegally.

Even Fascism Doesn’t Kill Frippery: Hundreds of people attended, mourned, and grieved at a funeral at the Lincoln Memorial this weekend. For whom, you might ask? The penny. The Trump Admin discontinued the coin—which has long cost more to produce (four cents) than it’s worth (one cent)—in November, and hundreds of people gathered to say goodbye to our one-cent piece. The funeral started at 1:01 p.m., and included interpretations of Mary Todd Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, and George Washington, and so many top hats.

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The Kennedy Center Needs a Shower: Maybe in the fetal position. At the end of last week, the Kennedy Center board voted to add Trump to the center’s official name. The renaming is very likely illegal without an act of Congress, but within hours, “Donald Trump” had been added above John F. Kennedy’s name on the side of the building. But to take the edge off: the domains TrumpKennedyCenter.org and TrumpKennedyCenter.com aren't available. MadTV and South Park writer Toby Morton bought them months ago.

ICE Hires Bounty Hunters: US Immigration and Customs Enforcement has hired BI Incorporated, a surveillance company, to track immigrants to their homes and places of work so federal agents can easily swoop in and make arrests. The company is a subsidiary of GEO Group, the for-profit prison company that operates our ICE detention facility in Tacoma. According to records obtained by the Intercept, ICE has already paid BI $1.6 million, and the contract could grow to as much as $121 million by the time it ends in 2027.

“It Really Comes Down to Speed”: Washington State Trooper Tara-Marysa Guting was investigating a two-car crash on Highway 509 on Friday night when she was hit by two different cars. The 29-year-old was killed in the crash. “It’s a very dangerous part of our jobs,” Rick Johnson, a State Patrol spokesperson, told the Seattle Times. “It’s a tough place to be in on the freeways, when you have 4,000-pound vehicles out there.” Police are looking for any information you might have on the second driver, who hit Guting between 7:20 and 7:30 p.m., near mile marker 2. They’re looking for a dark four-door pickup, either a Chevrolet Avalanche or a Cadillac Escalade EXT. Tacoma police are urging anyone who witnessed the collision, has dashcam footage, or has seen the pickup to contact 1-800-222-TIPS.

She’s Not Alone: A trooper was hit and injured on Highway 512 on Sunday, and a driver fleeing from cops ran a red light and crashed into a car carrying a family of four. All four family members were hurt, including a 4-year-old critically injured kid. Slow the fuck down. And I know the holidays feel like fantasy land, but you still can’t get behind the wheel if you’ve been drinking. (We tested it.)

Snoqualmie’s Open for Business: The back-to-back atmospheric rivers may have trashed our local infrastructure, but they did dump a bunch of much-needed snow in the mountains. Crystal Mountain opened on Saturday, Mount Baker opened on Sunday, and now Summit at Snoqualmie is catching up, opening tomorrow.

Meanwhile: Renton residents are taking kayaks into the Cedar River, using axes and rakes to try to break up logs and other flood debris clogging up the river. It’s cold, heavy, stinky work, but someone’s gotta do it.

Some Music for Your Morning: KEXP released their 2025 top albums, ranked by their listeners, and local faves Deep Sea Diver made Number Two with their album Billboard Heart. Here’s one of their singles from that album.

Slog AM: The Senate Still Doesn't Have a Plan for Healthcare, the Race for D2 Has Begun, and an Atmospheric River Is Coming

Hannah Murphy Winter — Mon, 08 Dec 2025 09:50:00 -0800

The Stranger's morning news roundup. by Hannah Murphy Winter

Good morning! It might be two weeks until the Winter Solstice, but by my metrics, winter is already here. The weather is moody. The sun sets at 4:18 today. The storm drains are full of that sticky batter of dead leaves, mud, and dog poop. It’s hibernation time.

Speaking of Weather, She’s Comin’: We’ve got an atmospheric river on the way. The National Weather Service says the mountains could see up to 10 inches of rain. It tapers off as it gets closer to the water, but even in Seattle, we’re looking at two to three inches of rain from Monday to Wednesday. Rivers will flood. Highways will pond. Be safe out there.

Heavy rain is expected to begin across the Pacific Northwest tomorrow and linger through the week. Rainfall amounts up to 10" are possible within the Olympics, Cascades, and coastal ranges. 🌧️

Check conditions before traveling and never drive across a flooded roadway.

weather.gov

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— National Weather Service (@nws.noaa.gov) December 7, 2025 at 7:20 AM

The ACA Blues: The ObamaCare healthcare subsidies are still set to expire at the end of the month, and so far, there’s no good plan to stop it. Republicans and Dems haven’t even tried to come up with a bipartisan option. Senate Democrats proposed a straight-ahead three-year extension that isn’t likely to get enough votes when it hits the floor on Thursday. Republicans haven’t offered a counter-plan yet, but GOP Senator Bill Cassidy is trying to push a high-deductible alternative that converts ACA money into health savings accounts for anyone on Marketplace plans. And so far, Trump is simply staying out of it.

The Race for D2 Begins: With Girmay Zahilay officially in the County Executive’s office, his seat in the county council is wide open. Yesterday, Seattle Port Commissioner Toshiko Hasegawa announced that she’s “strongly considering” running for the seat, which represents south King County. Like everyone else in the Democratic party, she seems to have realized that running on affordability works. “People are fighting to remain in the neighborhoods that shaped them,” she said in a statement. “They are fighting rising housing costs, displacement, and uncertainty. Affordability is not an abstract issue for me. It is the story of my family’s survival.” This promises to be just the first (not quite) announcement. In the meantime, Zahilay has nominated three people, all Black women, to take his seat for now. One of them will be appointed by the County Council on Tuesday, but they’ve all promised that, if appointed, they won’t run in the election next year.

Tacoma ICE Facility Still a Nightmare: Three weeks ago, ICE lured Wilmer Toledo-Martinez, an undocumented immigrant who’s lived in the US since he was 15, out of his home by posing as construction workers, and telling him that they’d accidentally hit his car with their truck. When he stepped outside, even though he wasn’t resisting arrest, they released a dog that mauled his arm and torso before they arrested him and took him to the Northwest ICE Detention Center in Tacoma. There, he waited hours without proper medical care, and according to his attorney, he has struggled to get the medication he was prescribed for the injury. This weekend, after seeing the pictures of his wounds, Senator Patty Murray made a public call for his release.

PSA: Don’t chop down trees from public parks, even if it’s Christmas. We didn’t think we’d need to say this, but some genius decided to cut down a small cypress tree in Miller Park last week. Don’t do that.

Here’s a Headline for Ya: “‘I’m Not Fleeing’ — Alleged Antifa Cell Member Says He Was Accidentally Released From Jail.” Daniel Sanchez Estrada was arrested for transporting “anarchist zines” from one Dallas suburb to another. The day before Thanksgiving, he was released without explanation. He figured it was a mistake, so he spent the week enjoying time with family while he could, and willingly turned himself back in when the jail realized what they’d done. He could wait in jail for months for his trial.

LOYALTY! He Says: After pardoning Dem Representative Henry Cuellar for taking $600,000 in Azerbaijani bribes, Cuellar is planning to run for his seat again as a Democrat. Trump was shocked and appalled to find out his pardon wasn’t enough to radically transform his politics and turn him into a Republican. The rest of us are appalled that taking $600,000 in bribes isn’t enough to run someone out of politics.

SCOTUS Update: This morning, the Supreme Court is hearing oral arguments about Trump’s decision to fire the FTC director, a position that’s usually protected from political whims. The New York Times is live-reacting here. So far, the conservative justices seem very skeptical that Congress should be allowed to limit Trump’s ability to fire anyone in the executive branch.

Rest Well, Shanty Tavern: After winnowing down their hours for years, the Lake City roadhouse will host its final show on December 19 before the Tavern’s 94-year-old owner and bartender John Spaccarotelli plans to retire and shut down the venue. "Although the Shanty is my sweetheart, she does require a lot of time and attention," he told KING 5. He says he's still in good health, but wants to do different things with his time in 2026, like play piano and gather with family. The goodbye party will be sometime in January, and he said he’s still open to renting the space out for parties.

It’s Moira Rose’s Favorite Season: The full list of Golden Globe nominees came out today. One Battle After Another snagged the most with nine noms, followed closely by Sentimental Value. But there’s more! For the first time, the Globes include a podcast category, which so far appears to just be a place to reward celebrities like Dax Shepard and Jason Bateman for sitting on a couch once a week.

A Wild Longread for Your Monday: A Chinese virologist was convinced the Chinese government created COVID in a lab and released it intentionally. Her husband, also a virologist, with more experience in the field, insisted that she was mistaken. Then one day, she disappeared, and reappeared as a talking head on Fox News, backed by the Trump administration. Her husband and her parents haven’t been able to find her since.

A Chinese virologist fled to the U.S. in 2020, aided by President Trump’s powerful allies who sought to promote her unproven theories about the origins of Covid-19. Her husband still can’t find her. In interviews, she made clear that she does not want to be found.

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— The New York Times (@nytimes.com) December 7, 2025 at 10:10 AM

Senator Murray Calls for the Release of Man Mauled by ICE Dog

Hannah Murphy Winter — Mon, 08 Dec 2025 09:06:00 -0800

Washington Senator Patty Murray is calling for the immediate release of Wilmer Toledo-Martinez from the Northwest ICE Detention Center. He was arrested on November 14, outside of his home, and attacked by an ICE dog, and has struggled to get proper medical care for his injuries in the Tacoma facility. by Hannah Murphy Winter

Washington Senator Patty Murray is calling for the immediate release of Wilmer Toledo-Martinez from the Northwest ICE Detention Center. He was arrested on November 14, outside of his home, and attacked by an ICE dog. Toledo-Martinez's attorney said her client has repeatedly reported that it has been "extremely difficult" to get adequate medical care in the Tacoma facility.

According to the release from Murray’s office, which spoke to Toledo-Martinez’s attorney, an ICE agent lured Toledo-Martinez out of his home by posing as a construction worker claiming that he’d hit Wilmer’s car with his truck and needed to exchange insurance information. Another agent was hiding nearby, and when Toledo-Martinez stepped outside, Toledo-Martinez’s attorney says, the agent released a dog, which attacked him.

Photos from his attorney show deep gouges in his torso, arm, and hand. And a video released by his lawyers shows an agent holding the dog over Toledo-Martinez, ordering his wife to “back up” or the dog will bite him again.

Content warning: Images and video, linked here, provided by Sen. Patty Murray’s office show these injuries.

According to information given to Murray by his attorney, Toledo-Martinez is undocumented, and was brought to the US when he was 15. His wife and three kids are US citizens.

“This should shock the conscience of every one of us,” Murray wrote in a statement. “I do not want to live in an America where federal agents can sic attack dogs on peaceful residents with impunity and face no consequences.”

His attorney says Toledo-Martinez was dizzy and shaking after the attack, and that at one point his vision went black, but he wasn’t given medical attention for hours. Eventually, he was taken to a hospital where he got stitches, and was prescribed antibiotics and other medications. The antibiotics were delayed, and he never got the other medications, his attorney told Murray.

Toledo-Martinez has been detained for three weeks now, and throughout his detention, his attorney says he’s struggled to get the medical attention he needs.

ICE did not respond to a request for comment before publication.

This kind of medical neglect is a pattern at the Tacoma facility. This weekend, the Seattle Times reported that a Filipino detainee, Greggy Sorio, lost a toe because of a severe bone infection during his time at the Tacoma facility. He was also reportedly anemic and passing blood in his stool when officials brought him to the hospital in October.

As we’ve previously reported, Zahid Chaudhry, an army veteran and husband of former congressional candidate Melissa Chaudhry, could lose his eyesight because, according to declarations provided by his family and supporters, he hasn’t had access to proper medical care.

And La Resistencia, a grassroots organization working to end immigrant detention, has collected immigrant testimonies for years of extremely dirty spaces, spoiled food, and lack of medical care, and last week, 70 detainees went on a hunger strike, the fifteenth this year to protest those conditions.

Slog AM: Trump Shuts Down Asylum Claims, SNAP Benefits Are Under Threat Again, Women's Hockey Finally Comes to Seattle

Hannah Murphy Winter — Mon, 01 Dec 2025 09:41:00 -0800

The Stranger's Morning New Roundup by Hannah Murphy Winter

It’s December. Which is rude. Didn’t the election just happen? The weather got the memo, though. Expect clouds all week, and we’ll have rain off and on. But! We’ve got a break this morning, so get outside before the sun goes down at 4:20 p.m.

National Guard Shooting: On Wednesday afternoon, after driving across the country from Bellingham, a 29-year-old Afghan national named Rahmanullah Lakanwal allegedly shot two National Guard members in DC. One, Sarah Beckstrom, was killed, and the other, Andrew Wolfe, is still in critical condition. Lakanwal has been charged with first-degree murder.

What We Know: Lakanwal came to the US during the chaotic troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, as part of a program to resettle Afghan citizens who had worked with the US military in the war. He’d been part of the Zero Units, military units that worked with the CIA, conducting night raids. His motive is still unclear, but it is clear that he was struggling with his mental health before the shooting. According to emails written by a caseworker who was helping him and his family settle in the US, he was struggling to find work. He’d isolated himself in his bedroom, even from his wife and five kids. And he had manic episodes where he would take off for weeks with the family car.

The Fallout: After the shooting, Trump said on Truth Social that he planned to "permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries” and “remove anyone who is not a net asset to the United States.” He’s already stopped all asylum decisions, and yesterday, Trump told reporters that he expected the situation to last “for a long time.”

Just the (Unsexy) Tips: Trump followed through with his campaign promise to stop taxing tips, but now there’s a caveat: the IRS doesn’t want to give that tax break to anyone doing “pornographic activity.” And specifically, that means OnlyFans tips don’t count. On the bright side, though, some of the tax professionals think the IRS will have a hard time spotting porn in your tax filing.

Trump Doesn’t Know What Part of His Body Was Scanned: And he doesn’t know why. But he knows the MRI was “perfect.” He told reporters that if they wanted the MRI released, he’d release it. *crickets*

SNAP Benefits Are Under Threat: Again. The USDA seems to think they’ve uncovered “massive fraud” in the SNAP program, which currently helps feed 42 million people in the US, and says they’re releasing information about a massive restructure of the program this week. It’s not clear what those changes will be yet, but the USDA did submit draft regulation to the Office of Management and Budget that tried to roll back the long-standing rule that allows anyone on welfare to access the program.

Rubber Hits the Road: But not like that. Seattle is the first city to test out bike lane barriers made out of recycled tires. The barriers are made out of bricks of rubber, about 12 inches tall, and a few feet long. Each brick is about 100 pounds, and made from a whole car’s worth of tires. Turns out, most “recycled” tires are just burned or incinerated. Now, instead, they get to replace the flimsy barriers made of just paint and plastic bollards.

Some Bad News for E-Bike Riders: First, we found out that Rad Power Bikes is probably going out of business in January. Then we found out their batteries should probably be recalled for lighting on fire if they get too wet, but the company is too broke for a proper recall. And this weekend, NYT Magazine dove into the e-bike injuries we’re not really keeping track of. According to one hospital in California, their patients’ chance of dying in a conventional bike crash is less than 1 percent. But if you slap a motor on that baby, it goes up to 11 percent. Right now, e-bikes are allowed to go up to 20 mph and still stay in bike lanes. In Europe, it’s around 15 mph. “The technology has moved forward way faster than our ability to measure its impact or develop sensible regulation,” one public health officer told NYT Mag.

But Good News for Train Riders: Three new light rail stations are opening on Saturday, December 6: Kent Des Moines, Star Lake, and Federal Way Downtown. Our southern extension adds almost 8 miles to the 1 Line, and Sound Transit expects it to add as many as 23,000 riders on an average weekday. Maybe it’s finally time to visit the Masonic building in Des Moines that’s haunted by some ghost named George.

Danny Westneat Keeps Saying Things: And this week, Seattle Times’ NIMBY columnist’s take is about King County’s plan to buy up hotels during the pandemic and house people there. The column fixates on one really bad purchase the County made: the Inn at Queen Anne. First, they overpaid for it, by some 75 percent. Then the hotel turned out to be in far worse shape than the County was originally told, and after closing it down room by room, the whole place is now shuttered and wrapped in razor wire. That sucks. A lot. But it’s just one building in a county-wide program. What seems far more important is that the program has fallen massively short of its promises. The county was supposed to have 1,600 units open by the end of 2022. As of now, they have 600 units open. With at least 9,800 people sleeping unsheltered in King County, we need those units yesterday.

Four teenagers were arrested after stealing a car and firing a gun at a cop on I-5. No one was injured, but a nearby car was hit, leaving bullet fragments in a witness’s lap. SPD is still looking for two teens who fled the scene.

Seattle’s Big One: The big race, that is. The Seattle Marathon was yesterday, and more than 8,000 runners took on the 26.2 mile route. This year’s map looked a little different. Instead of running through Capitol Hill, on the I-5 express lanes, and around Green Lake, runners looped around Magnolia. The Seattle Times cataloged some Facebook posts from residents who were not pleased about the traffic disruptions: “The reason for the ellipses in the excerpts from comments is that they contained, shall we say, unrestrained language?”

The Torrent Comes Home for the First Time: Seattle’s brand-new professional women’s hockey team played their first home game on Friday. The Torrent lost 0-3, but in all fairness, the team has only existed for a few weeks, and they were playing the Minnesota Frost, who have won the Walter Cup (the Stanley Cup, but for ladies) both years that the PWHL has existed. And while we may not have won the game, Seattle fans showed up in force. We broke the league record with 16,014 people in the stands. Their next game is on Wednesday, December 3 against the New York Sirens. Get out there.

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How Community Organizing Turned Into a Campaign Strategy

Hannah Murphy Winter — Wed, 26 Nov 2025 07:00:00 -0800

For many, Mamdani and Wilson represent a new possibility for the Democratic Party. One that’s less entrenched in the institutions of politics, and more interested in the well-being of working people in their cities. But to win, the two ran remarkably different campaigns. Mamdani is an extraordinary politician. He’s charismatic, charming. He can work a room and rock a podium like nobody’s business. That’s not Katie Wilson. She didn’t run her campaign as an emerging political star. She ran it as an organizer. And as a result, she offered the left a whole different model for how progressives can win power for working people. by Hannah Murphy Winter

This story was published in partnership with the Guardian.

On November 4, while a blue wave was sweeping key races in New York City, Virginia, and New Jersey, Seattle progressives were biting their nails down to the quick. At 8 p.m., only the first round of ballots had been counted in Seattle, and Katie Wilson, a longtime community organizer and the progressive challenger in the mayoral race, was behind by seven points.

But it wasn’t over that night. That first ballot count was less than a quarter of the vote. Progressives votes late, and the lines at the ballot box at 7:50 p.m. on election night were longer than one election worker had ever seen.

As the week wore on, and progressives’ fingernails disappeared, Wilson’s share of the vote crept up, slowly but steadily. Eight days later, on November 12, the city declared that Katie Wilson would be the next mayor of Seattle.

When she won, comparisons to New York City’s mayor-elect, Zohran Mamdani, were everywhere—and understandably so. They had both seemed to come out of nowhere, with strong on-the-ground campaigns that energized voters months before their elections. They were also both progressives challenging institutional politicians. Mamdani was up against the former governor of New York, who was asking the public to trust him after a very public sexual harassment scandal that forced him to resign. Wilson was up against Bruce Harrell, who’d been in Seattle City Hall for 16 years, first on the city council, then as mayor for the last four years. He, too, had weathered his fair share of scandals: His executive office had a reputation for sexism and sexual harassment, leading to several high-profile resignations; in the middle of his term, it surfaced that early in his career, he’d pulled a gun on a pregnant woman in a dispute over a parking spot. Both men were proud moderate Democrats who had carried on the storied tradition of answering to their big-dollar donors.

That’s not Katie Wilson. She didn’t run her campaign as an emerging political star. She ran it as an organizer. And as a result, she offered the left a whole different model for how progressives can win power for working people.

From Organizer to Mayor

To understand Wilson’s win, you need to start with three truths: First, Seattle hasn’t reelected a mayor to a second term in almost 20 years. Second, every political institution believed that the incumbent, Mayor Bruce Harrell, was going to break that streak. And third, as of this past spring, almost no one in Seattle knew who Katie Wilson was.

In the lead-up to the primary, the Harrell campaign was riding on those last two truths. Most observers say he ran a “flat campaign.” The message was, more or less, “you want more of this, right?” And many of the major institutions bought it, including the influential labor council MLK Labor, US Representative Pramila Jayapal, Washington State Governor Bob Ferguson, and Attorney General Nick Brown.

That seemed like a reasonable strategy at the top of the campaign. Early polling showed a huge swath of undecided voters, and while press coverage pointed to Wilson’s work as an organizer—helping to raise the minimum wage across the region, save bus lines, increase access to free public transit, fund social housing projects—she was never the face of these wins. She worked in the background to get it done.

Wilson’s record was rooted in a tiny, grassroots organization that she cofounded back in 2011 called the Transit Riders Union. It started with a campaign to save King County Metro bus lines that were facing the chopping block in a recession-era austerity budget. Wilson, who had spent her young adult years researching and studying how to organize working-class power, saw public transit as a vital public good for working families.

Originally called “Save Our Metro,” the campaign had a slow start. Only 30 people showed up for the first meeting (Wilson calls the whole experience a massive learning curve). But then they kept showing up. And as the campaign built momentum, through people power alone, they were able to save those Metro lines.

Wilson (third from right) in the early days of the Transit Riders Union. COURTESY OF KATIE WILSON

The Transit Riders Union gradually expanded their scope. They started with improving access to transit by reducing fares for low-income families and making it free for kids under 18. Then they took on renter protections. Then they raised the minimum wage in cities throughout King County. The tiny nonprofit clocked substantial, impactful wins in every campaign, with barely any budget to speak of. Each campaign was driven by passionate volunteers, hitting the pavement and knocking on doors, and Wilson’s knack for coalition building—pulling in the right coconspirators at the right times.

Jake Simpson, who would eventually become her campaign’s political consultant, first met Wilson in exactly one of those situations. It was 2022, and it was his first year on the SeaTac City Council. She and another member of the Transit Riders Union approached him with a fully written renters’ protection ordinance, requiring that landlords give 120 days notice for major rent increases. It was “ready to go,” he says. She asked him to champion it on the council. He enthusiastically agreed.

“Her approach was amazing,” he says. “I think she knew that a lot of politicians don’t know what the hell they’re doing when it comes to policy work at all,” he says, so rather than advocating for ideas and asking him to translate them into policy, she did the policy work, and then asked him to get it over the finish line. That bill is now law.

So in April, if you knew who Wilson was, it was likely because you had worked alongside her, either as a politician like Simpson had, or as an organization helping to push these policies through. But to those in the know, she was a fighter, a person running a tiny organization that consistently punched above its weight, and someone whose work was always directed at improving the quality of life of working people.

“Every single community organization and every single nonprofit knew Katie Wilson,” says Anthony D’Amico, the recording secretary for the Transit Riders Union. “And I think that’s why she went from an unknown to a known so quickly.”

A New Ground Game

Those punchy nonprofits came out in force when she announced her campaign in the spring. Tech 4 Housing and House Our Neighbors, two grassroots campaigns that advocate for affordable housing, provided a backbone of early volunteers to help the campaign hit the ground running.

When I asked people who’d worked with her why they showed up so enthusiastically when she announced, it consistently came down to one thing: trust.

A politician like Mamdani draws people in with charisma, says Suresh Chanmugam, a member of the steering committee for Tech 4 Housing and volunteer for her campaign. But Wilson, who was never the face of her work, had no experience selling herself. Instead, her campaign was built on trust that she’d been cultivating for years. “She has a 14-year track record of selflessly working to help make life better for our most marginalized neighbors,” he says.

I asked Wilson if that rang true—if she relied on trust in her record to rally people behind a common goal. It reminded her of the days after the primary, when it was suddenly clear to power brokers in the city that she could soon be the mayor. She’s never had “positional authority” like that, Wilson tells me. The Transit Riders Union always ran on a shoestring budget and at most had two paid staff, including Wilson. So instead of having a staff working for her to achieve her goals, she asked people to work with her.

“The way that I’ve been able to do big things is by getting to a place where people want to work with me, because they’ve had a good experience doing that, because they see that that’s the way that we accomplish big things,” she says. “The authority that I’ve built up over the years is based on goodwill and trust.”

Running a campaign on trust allowed her to do something unusual: run a decentralized one. For most of the campaign, she had a minuscule staff of three—all former labor organizers. “That was really intentional for Katie,” Simpson, her political consultant, says. “She wanted a team of organizers doing this work.”

But that’s where the traditional structure of her campaign ended. It started with “establishing some very core values: that the city really should be one that everyone can survive in, not just if you’re a software engineer or CEO,” Chanmugam says.

By asking people to buy into these core values, he says, the campaign doesn’t have to be guided exclusively from the top. Instead, she had an enormous network of extremely dedicated volunteers. Yes, some were doing traditional door knocking, but the campaign’s Slack channel had 200 core volunteers, and at their largest, the campaign had 2,000 volunteers. There was a small team of dedicated data analysts. There were artists. A photographer. A videographer. Some people only volunteered to write video scripts.

One of the hallmarks of an organizer “is knowing that if you set out your values, there are a large number of people who will come out and support that,” Chanmugam says.

Xochitl Maykovich, one of the campaign’s two field directors, ran the operation on the ground after the primary. Between August and November, her team knocked on 50,000 doors. To do that, Maykovich essentially ran an organizer training camp. Each neighborhood had a “neighborhood captain” who went through Maykovich’s training for how to recruit volunteers, run a canvas, and report back to the team.

Wilson with a supporter on election night. RYDER COLLINS FOR THE STRANGER

“The thing the Harrell campaign didn’t have—and I think probably almost every other campaign in Seattle recently has not had—is this groundswell of volunteers who are willing to put a ton of their time and energy into this campaign, unpaid,” says Alex Gallo-Brown, her campaign manager.

What Harrell did have was money. He and the PAC that supported him outraised Wilson two to one, backed by big business, developers, and some of Seattle’s wealthiest individuals. In October alone, they spent half a million dollars on TV attack ads. Like Cuomo did with Mamdani, he tried to frame Wilson as an inexperienced communist who would ultimately destroy the city.

And that spending made a difference—at least for a moment. In The Stranger’s polling in October, Wilson’s lead had shrunk from nine points to a statistical tie. That shift likely came from voters who were undecided, says Hannah Borenstein from DHM Research, who conducted the polling. “We can infer the amount of money Harrell spent likely helped him close the gap and prevent Wilson from gaining support among the around 80,000 additional voters that turned out between the primary and the November election,” she says.

Wilson ultimately won in the tightest mayoral race in Seattle’s recent history, taking just over 50 percent of the vote. But to politicos in Seattle, that doesn’t represent a lack of a mandate for progressivism in Seattle. It shows that hard-won progressive organizing actually can overcome the money that moderates and conservatives are willing to throw at these races.

“I think people want to see themselves reflected in who’s in office,” Simpson says. “Experience is relevant if you’re interested in getting the same kind of outcomes that we’ve seen for the last 20 years, but when people are tired of those outcomes, then they want someone that’s a lot more like them.”

Slog AM: Marjorie Taylor Greene Is Out, Trump Has a New Crush, and the Olympic Pipeline Could Screw Over Your Holiday Plans

Hannah Murphy Winter — Mon, 24 Nov 2025 09:27:00 -0800

by Hannah Murphy Winter

Good Morning! It’s Thanksgiving week, which means, depending on your job, you’re either facing an easy breezy three day week, or one of the most nightmarish customer service weeks of the year. Be kind to your friends in the latter group this week. Bring them a treat. Maybe a hug. Or a pillow to punch.

MTG OUT: After four years of talking about “Jewish space lasers,” harassing the survivors of school shootings, and equating mask mandates to the holocaust, US representative Marjorie Taylor Greene announced on Friday that she’s resigning from Congress. According to Greene, DC just couldn’t handle her sound: “I’ve always represented the common American man and woman as a member of the House of Representatives which is why I’ve always been despised in Washington DC and never fit in,” she wrote at the beginning of her four-page statement. She found out that there’s no “insane 4D chess game being played,” just the “Political Industrial Complex…ripping this country apart.” We all have to realize it some day, Marge. Her last day in Congress will be January 5.

What Does It Mean?? AOC called it MTG’s “revenge tour” after Trump turned his back on her. Greene had been a MAGA loyalist for years, but Trump recently turned on her, nicknaming her Marjorie “Traitor” Brown. When she announced that she’s stepping down, she framed herself at the true MAGA, uninfluenced by DC powerbrokers. She said she felt “cast aside” by Trump. But the New York Times thinks it’s also emblematic of deeper fracturing within MAGA and the GOP: “Some conservatives are slowly imagining a future where his priorities, whims and vendettas no longer steer their movement.”

Trump’s New Crush: Trump piled on the confusion on Friday when he met with New York Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani. He told reporters that the meeting “surprised him,” and called Mamdani a “rational person.”

Trump frickin' loves this guy lmao

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) November 21, 2025 at 1:04 PM

Weather: High around 48, with some clouds but no rain. That’s the last time we’ll be able to say that for a while: if the forecasts are right, we’ll have rain from tomorrow through Thanksgiving. Breathe in that crisp autumn air while you can!

Harbor Island Studios’ Short Runway: Last week, our local, publicly-owned sound stage Harbor Island Studios was unexpectedly on the County Council’s chopping block. After a last minute call to action, dozens of people showed up to the council meeting before they voted to finalize the budget, and it was saved in a last minute amendment.

The Catch: It’s only funded for six months, and then it needs a new sugar daddy. County Councilmember Claudia Balducci, who told The Stranger’s Julianne Bell that she’s a “convert” to the cause after hearing the impassioned public comment, says that right now, they have a lot of ideas—including letting a nonprofit run it or “passing the hat” and running a massive fundraiser—but no actual plan. I really want to make a joke about Love Is Blind here, but honestly we really need infrastructure like this if we want a functioning arts industry in the city.

The Olympic Pipeline Is Still Fucked: And it’s starting to fuck up air travel. Since the fuel line started leaking into a blueberry farm two weeks ago, BP has dug up 200 feet of pipe, but they’re still struggling to find the leak. When it’s working, it provides fuel for SeaTac and PDX. Without it, airlines are trucking and ferrying in fuel from elsewhere, but it might not be enough. For international and long-haul domestic flights, airlines are preparing to build in refueling stops or making “scheduling adjustments” (it’s not clear if that’s a euphemism for cancellations or delays. Maybe both!) Best of luck in your holiday travel plans, you’re gonna need it.

Unfortunately: The FAA says this Thanksgiving will be the busiest in a decade and a half. And if you’re driving instead of flying, beware of the mountain passes. The Cascades could get hit by more than a half-foot of snow this week, and holiday traffic could turn fender benders into crazy delays.

This Is Definitely the Best Way to do This: In 2025, we’ve gone from crowdfunding our own healthcare, to crowdfunding entire clinics. Between changes to Medicaid and the cuts to federal subsidies for the ACA, about 380,000 Washingtonians are expected to lose their health insurance next year. Community health centers that take patients whether or not they’re able to pay are preparing for a massive influx of need, and a huge loss to their income.

Filling the Gaps: KUOW talked to the CEO of Healthpoint, a network of 20 community health centers about their looming crisis. About three quarters of their patients are on Medicaid. For any of their current patients that are legally authorized immigrants, or who can’t keep up with the new work requirements, Healthpoint will stop getting reimbursed. To try to make up the difference, the clinics will start asking for donations.

Florida Man Tries to Fix Problem He Created: According to Politico’s sources, Trump plans to announce his own ObamaCare extension as early as today. Details are sparse, but insiders say it’s expected to be just a two-year extension, with a minimum premium payment and creating income caps for eligibility. TrumpCare: It’s ObamaCare, but worse.

Teslas Are Still Death Traps: According to a new lawsuit in Tacoma, a man and his wife were driving in their Tesla in 2023 when it “suddenly and rapidly accelerated out of control.” The disgruntled robot slammed them into a utility pole. The car caught fire, and trapped the two inside. The woman was killed in the accident, and the man was badly burned. Now, he’s suing the company for gross negligence.

We’re Number Two! According to the Seattle Times’s FYI Guy, Seattle is #2 in CBD use in the country. Honolulu has us beat. Catch up, slackers.

Buyer Beware: Infant botulism is still on the rise thanks to a bad batch of ByHeart baby formula still lingering on shelves around the country. It’s already sickened at least two kids in Washington. If you see it on the shelves, don’t trust that it’s safe. Choose another brand. (I know that sucks, but botulism is worse.)

Meet Mount Drainier: In our delightfully unserious city, the Washington Department of Transportation held a contest to name one of the scuppers on the Ship Canal Bridge. The winner, Mount Drainier, was installed on the bridge yesterday, with “25 of his closest friends.”

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A post shared by Washington State Dept. of Transportation (WSDOT) (@wsdot)

A Guide to Getting Penetrated This Winter

Hannah Murphy Winter — Wed, 19 Nov 2025 17:26:00 -0800

In Washington, all of our necessary shots are still widely available, thank goodness. by Hannah Murphy Winter

We live in a post-truth society now, and nowhere is that more impactful than in the funhouse mirror world of the US Department of Health and Human Services, where Tylenol causes autism, vaccines cause autism, and talking back to your husband causes autism. Reading this article probably causes autism.

It’s made it especially hard to figure out the who, what, where, and why of our annual vaccinations. But the good news is, in Washington, all of our necessary shots are still widely available. For most of you, getting poked protects you, your family, your friends, and your neighbors. All for the low, low price of a sore arm.

COVID: The official guidance around this vaccine has been deeply confusing and at odds with the science for months. First, the HHS only recommended the updated shot for people over 65 or for those at high risk for hospitalization with the virus—which often required a referral from a doctor. Then Washington, Oregon, and California banded together to create the West Coast Justice League, I mean Health Alliance, and promised that patients wouldn’t have to get a doctor’s note to get the COVID vaccine. And then, Washington State established a program to provide free vaccines to uninsured Washingtonians, but the updated shot wasn’t available for weeks after the announcement. Finally, in October, the CDC tucked its tail and signed off on the newest vaccine.

All of it might make you want to throw your hands up and skip the shot this year. Don’t do it. They’re readily available at most pharmacies now. And if you got COVID during the August spike we had, November is the perfect time to reup your immunity.

Mpox: The oozy, blistery virus is back, and by all accounts, you don’t want to mess with it. Health experts told The Stranger that young people who are sexually active now likely didn’t get the shot during the outbreak three years ago, because they weren’t having sex yet. Losers. So if you’re new to cumming with an audience, or if you didn’t get the shot the first time around, now’s the time. This one isn’t always a walk-into-the-pharmacy situation, but your healthcare provider probably offers the vaccine. If you don’t have insurance or if your insurance doesn’t cover the full cost, you can get vaccinated for free at the county’s Sexual Health Clinic at Harborview, and you have access to the shot regardless of immigration or documentation status.

The Flu: If I had a dollar for everyone I’ve heard complain about the flu vaccine—that it makes them feel crummy, that they still got the flu after getting the shot—well, I’d have a few bucks. And one of them would be because I myself have been griping about those very things for years. But we’re missing the point. Yes, it reduces your chance of infection. And yes, it reduces your chance of hospitalization. But most importantly, the more people who get the shot, the less likely it is to spread through the population, and the less likely vulnerable people are to be exposed to it.

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.

Slog AM: All Seattle Elections Have Been Called, Trump Flip-Flops on Epstein, and the Pentagon Is Pulling Feds Out of Chicago and Portland

Hannah Murphy Winter — Mon, 17 Nov 2025 09:55:00 -0800

The Stranger's morning news roundup. by Hannah Murphy Winter

Good morning! It’s a grey one again, but after the deep, moody fog over the weekend, today is comparatively pretty bright. High of 49 and rainy, but we should get a break from the wet for a few hours in the middle of the day.

Election Update: Every race in Seattle has now been called. We know what City Hall will look like next year. (We technically won’t have the final counts until the window to cure ballots is closed next Monday, November 24, but they won’t change anything dramatically.) So now seems like a great time to remind everyone that Seattle just passed a progressive tax with more than 70 percent of the vote. The Shield Tax, championed by the unlikely pairing of Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck and Mayor Bruce Harrell, cut taxes for thousands of small businesses and raised taxes for the city’s largest, increasing the city’s revenue by at least $80 million. It’s the second time we’ve voted to support progressive revenue this year (the first was Proposition 1A, to fund social housing). Now let’s do it again. And again. And again.

Speaking of the Election: We know that we at the SECB complained about how long the vote took. We might have made a couple jokes about King County Election doing the whole count on a single abacus. But let us take a moment to clarify that the time it took to tally the election results was totally normal. It was a tight race, and voters turned out late, which is typical for an odd-year election. Why are we telling you this? Because after Mayor Bruce Harrell’s concession speech, someone in the crowd asked if he planned to ask for a recount, and he replied that “a lot of people were saying that I shouldn’t concede and that there were anomalies, differences, and stuff,” before skating past that and saying he was conceding anyway. KCE says there were no anomalies in the count. And it’s massively irresponsible to imply otherwise. Where have we heard that before?

All Eyes on Seattle: The national media have all been weighing in on Mayor-Elect Katie Wilson’s win. Most recently, the Washington Post (owned by our hometown start-up founder Jeff Bezos), decided to say their piece: that Harrell was the best mayor we’ve had in decades, that “residents find the city unaffordable because it’s long been a petri dish of failed progressive social experiments and absurdly high taxes,” and that Wilson would run businesses like Amazon out of the city. Then they ended by vaguely making fun of queer people. Good one, Jeff.

Dear John: According to the Seattle Times, SPD sent 21 letters to the homes of people who paid for sex on Aurora last month. This is part of SPD’s new program to try to shame Johns out of buying sex by staking out sex workers, photographing the cars that they lean into, and then sending those photos to the address the car is registered to, paired with a letter describing the suspected crime. There’s basically no evidence that shame is an effective deterrent in the sex industry. But the Mayor’s Office told both Publicola and the Seattle Times that they back this tactic, saying that it’s supported by the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, a right-wing group that has spent the last 60 years campaigning against same-sex marriage, sex toys, and comprehensive sex ed.

ICYMI: Starbucks’ PSLs and caramel macchiatos are still across the picket line, which means today is a very good day to find your new favorite indie coffee shop. They probably won’t add protein to your coffee, but can we collectively decide that that’s a good thing?

The Mariners and Naylor Are Getting Back Together: After helping get the Mariners closer to the World Series than they’ve ever been, first baseman Josh Naylor’s contract ended, and he was suddenly a free agent. But it turns out, the Mariners wanted to keep him just about as badly as he wanted to stay. So Naylor, one of the few players in the American League who’s capable of fitting an entire pack of gum in his mouth when he’s at bat, will be with the Mariners for another five years.

SCOTUS Takes on Trans Sports Case: The court plans to hear oral arguments in Little v. Hecox, on January 13. The Idaho case will decide if trans women and girls can play sports. Lindsay Hecox, the trans student at Boise State University who filed the case against Governor Brad Little, tried to get the case dismissed before it went to the Supreme Court because she was concerned that she’d “personally be subjected to harassment that will negatively impact [her] mental health, [her] safety, and [her] ability to graduate as soon as possible.” A federal judge denied the request, so we’re full steam ahead next year.

Trump Addresses Groypergate: Weeks after Tucker Carlson invited Holocaust-denying white supremacist Nick Fuentes onto his podcast, Trump has finally weighed in: “You can’t tell him who to interview.” Trump really only talked about Carlson, but that was all Fuentes needed to imply that his views had the co-sign of the White House. Fuentes had already taken Trump’s weeks of silence as implied support, and he shouted his thanks on social media on Sunday for Trump’s stamp of approval. If you’re not familiar with him, here are some highlights of what Trump just co-signed: he has repeatedly praised Hitler; he said that Jim Crow was “better for them”; and he said that women should be subordinate to their husbands.

Epstein Flip Flop: After running a massive pressure campaign to convince the GOP to lay off the Epstein files, Trump has now turned on his heel. “We have nothing to hide,” he wrote on Truth Social. Sure, Jan. House republicans are expected to vote on the release this week, but it’s not clear how long it’ll take for the files to be released, considering that move lies with Pam Bondi.

Buh-Bye: The Pentagon is pulling the National Guard out of Portland and Chicago. The Guard, sent from Texas and California, had been stationed in both cities since October, but never deployed because every judge they asked said absolutely not. Apparently, they just couldn’t handle these shithole cities.

Good News! If you’re travelling for the holidays, you can unclench your cheeks just a little bit. The FAA has lifted all restrictions for commercial flights as of 6 a.m. on Monday. So now Thanksgiving travel will just be the normal amount of hell.

Harrell Concedes the Mayor’s Race, and Wilson Takes Her Victory Lap

Hannah Murphy Winter — Thu, 13 Nov 2025 15:00:00 -0800

Bruce Harrell Says “One Seattle” One Last Time

by Hannah Murphy Winter

Bruce Harrell conceded the mayoral race to Katie Wilson this afternoon. And he finally said her name in public.

In a packed room full of aides, campaign staff, city council members, and supporters, Harrell announced that he’d already congratulated Katie Wilson on her win, and offered his administration’s support in the transition. He put on his best face.

“I feel very good about the future,” he said. “I've said repeatedly that this job does not belong to one person. It certainly didn't belong to me. I simply borrowed the title of The Mayor to enjoy the wonderful opportunity to serve the public, and it's been my absolute honor, the honor of my lifetime, to serve in this role.”

He was conciliatory, hopeful, and genuinely kind of funny (he didn’t pull out a basketball, but he did announce his rapper name-to-be: Master B Rucie, watch out Stereogum).

Harrell’s scripted speech acknowledged that this election may have been decided by the thousands of new young voters that jumped into this election. He said we have to be open to “new ideas,” from young voters and from Wilson herself.

Harrell touted his record, highlighting how many cops he’d hired, and the levies he’d passed. He also insisted that he’d been an advocate for LGBTQ people, but didn’t say how. He certainly didn’t show that with Denny Blaine.

He said that he had faith that he and Wilson ultimately have the same set of values, but clearly not enough to fully step back.

“Seattle will be fine. I'll make sure of that. I'm not retired. I'm not going anywhere,” he said.

His tone changed when a KIRO 7 reporter asked if he “adequately understood how much people were struggling with affordability in Seattle”—the central issue of Wilson’s campaign.

Harrell put his arm around his wife, called the question offensive, and insisted that he knew the plight of poor people. “You don’t know the scars I had” from growing up with two parents that weren’t college educated, in a house with siblings and only one bathroom, he told the reporter. He and his wife both struggled, he said, and they’d dedicated their lives to serving “the poor.” This was not an answer.

Harrell then abruptly ended the speech with thanks to his supporters.

“For the last time, you’re going to hear me say this: One Seattle.”

What a relief.

An hour later, Wilson stood in front of a makeshift podium (with nowhere to put her many, many sheets of paper) in the lobby of the Labor Temple in Georgetown for her first speech as the official Mayor Elect.

“Hello, Seattle,” she said. “I am so happy to be here on this quintessentially Seattle day, a rainy day in November, to say to all of the people of Seattle: this is your city, and I am delighted, beyond delighted to be your next mayor.”

She didn’t offer many details about her transition into the mayor’s office, saying most of those would come next week. “I look forward to working with the mayor's team to ensure a smooth transition over the next two months, and I look forward to working with every member of the city council next year to make progress on our various challenges together,” she said.

She listed what she wanted to accomplish in this city: universal child care, K-8 summer care, “world class” transit, safe public spaces, affordable housing, and social housing, to name a few.

“I want a city where everyone has the basics of a dignified life, including healthy food, access to healthcare and supportive communities,” she said. “I want a city where your health and your life expectancy and your children's future doesn't depend on your zip code or your race. I believe that I will be stepping into office with a strong mandate to pursue this vision.”

She also echoed her speech on election night: that her supporters’ involvement doesn’t end with this win. “I am a community organizer, and I will not stop being a community organizer when I step into the mayor's office,” she said. “To the people of Seattle, I say, what I am able to actually accomplish in office will depend on you. It will depend on the support and the pressure and the people power that you all are able to build in the most of the years ahead. It's your work and your initiative that will continue to drive our city and our society forward.”

Slog AM: Katie Wilson Is Our Next Mayor, the Government Shutdown Is Over, and Google Chooses Evil

Hannah Murphy Winter — Thu, 13 Nov 2025 09:44:00 -0800

The Stranger's Morning news roundup. by Hannah Murphy Winter

Katie Wilson Is Our Next Mayor: After more than a week of edging, we can finally call the mayor’s race, and it’s good news people. In the ballot drop yesterday, Wilson was up by 1,976 votes. It’s tight, but it’s mathematically impossible for Harrell to catch up. Katie Wilson will be Seattle’s next mayor. Shortly after the ballots dropped, Bruce Harrell announced that he planned to address the city at noon today. He’ll probably concede.

So What’s Next? Contrary to the narrative Harrell wanted us to believe, Katie Wilson does have a job right now, and someone now has to replace her as the head of the Transit Riders Union. Then it’s transition time. Come January, we’re going to have a whole new government: two new City Council members, a new Council President, a new City Attorney, and a new mayor. We’ll still have some conservatives in the City Council—Bob Kettle, Rob Saka, Maritza Rivera, and Debora Juarez are still comfy in their seats, for now—but our new elected officials represent a real progressive caucus. Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck, who has been a progressive caucus of one for the last year, told The Stranger that she’s excited to help get the newbies up to speed. She has so many spreadsheets to show them, she says.

Speaking of Governance: After the longest shutdown in the history of this country, our federal government is open again. Six Democratic representatives seem to have forgotten why the government was shut down in the first place (attention spans these days, am I right?) and broke the blockade in the House, passing a spending bill that screws over the millions of Americans that depend on ACA subsidies for their healthcare. Unsurprisingly, one of those representatives was Washington’s own Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, who called the government shutdown a “car crash” and said that the fight for healthcare benefits was nothing more than a “messaging victory.” I hope our friends in southern Washington remember this when she runs for reelection.

The Upside of Caving: The government says that SNAP benefits should be fully online today. And those federal workers who’ve been going without pay? Historically it’s taken about a week to get everyone caught up, but since the Trump Administration DOGE’d some federal agencies’ payroll offices, they could see some unpredictable delays.

Aaaand Another Consequence: The 20 Head Start early-childhood programs that had to shut down could take weeks to get back up and running.

More Dems Piss Off More Dems: On Wednesday, DNC head Ken Martin announced a mandatory return to office starting in February, in the leadup to the midterm elections. According to the New York Times, the move was meant to ensure that information wasn’t siloed and to make sure that people were clued into time-sensitive decisions. This happened on a Zoom call, and Martin was met with a flurry of thumbs down emojis, like a scene from The Circle. Martin suggested that people who were unhappy with the decision were welcome to find other jobs, which went over as well as you’d expect: their union called his reaction “callous” and “shocking.”

Going by the Book, This Time: On Wednesday, America’s Roman Catholic bishops made a rare, almost unanimous statement against Trump’s anti-immigration campaign. The statement, which was passed at the bishops’ annual conference in Baltimore, said they “oppose the indiscriminate mass deportation of people” and “pray for an end to dehumanizing rhetoric and violence, whether directed at immigrants or at law enforcement.” The letter goes on to say that they “feel compelled now in this environment to raise our voices in defense of God-given human dignity.” (The last time they did this, they were coming out in opposition to the Affordable Care Act’s birth control mandates.) This statement is awesome. Next, let’s find that yen for human dignity when it comes to women, trans people, and victims of sexual abuse.

Don’t Cross the Picket Line: Do you really want that Starbucks Red Cup today? No you don’t. After being stonewalled in their fight for a fair contract corporate for literal years, the Starbucks union is going on strike. Lynne Fox, president of Workers United, said in a press conference this morning that she’s negotiated hundreds of contracts, but has never seen “an employer act with such reckless disregard” of labor laws. More than 1,000 union baristas across 40 cities are going on strike today. In Seattle, workers plan to picket this morning outside stores in the U-District (4147 University Way NE) and on Queen Anne (1144 Elliott Ave. W). Then, at 4 p.m., workers will rally outside the closed Starbucks Reserve Roastery on Capitol Hill. Go get a coffee at Cafe Vita and then show up in support.

Another Bad Day for Sara Nelson: Remember earlier this year, when Council President Nelson pushed through a bill to allow new housing in SODO? It moved quickly, had a huge amount of opposition, and got through council despite concerns from the surrounding industries? It all felt a little sketchy, and it turns out it was.

Oops! According to the city’s Growth Management Hearing Board, the city didn’t follow proper procedure to greenlight the housing in the area, relied on an outdated 2022 environmental review, didn’t notify the state’s commerce department, violated the State Environmental Policy Act, and failed to meet the city’s requirements for public participation. So for now, the city won’t be allowed to build housing in the area, but Council is welcome to draw up new legislation, and put it through the proper process like they should’ve.

Relevant to Our Interests: San Francisco, a city famously mired in bureaucracy, may have found a very straightforward solution to a very complex problem. The city opened a new facility in an old Goodwill building that serves as a round-the-clock clinic for people having public mental health breakdowns. According to the New York Times, “It is always open. It is always staffed with a nurse and several mental health specialists. A doctor is always on call. Police officers, paramedics and street crisis counselors can drop off people who need help at any time. People in crisis can walk in themselves, or be brought in by family members or friends. As of Oct. 1, the state has certified it as an alternative to emergency rooms, which means that ambulances can drop people there.” It’s showing early success, and it’s something Seattle should watch.

A Headline That Shouldn’t Surprise You: “Google Had Chosen a Side in Trump’s Mass Deportation Effort,” and it’s the side of Mass Deportation. The company is hosting a CBP app that uses facial recognition to ID immigrants, and has actively removed apps that help citizens report ICE. Remember when they removed “Don’t be evil” from their code of conduct?

A Song for Your Thursday: Robyn saw what 2025 was doing to us, and she gave us new music, as a treat.

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: Film

Audrey Vann — Wed, 12 Nov 2025 04:00:00 -0800

The best film events happening in November. by Audrey Vann

Want more? Here's everything we recommend this month: Music, Visual Art, Literature, Performance, Film, Food.

Talking Pictures: Ken Jennings presents Quiz Show

Nov 10

SIFF’s Talking Pictures series is like getting a really great movie recommendation from your friend, if your friend is Ben Gibbard (Drifting Clouds), J. Kenji López-Alt (Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory), or Eric “ConcernedApe” Barone (The Straight Story). This time around, your friend is Ken Jennings, our hometown quiz-show champion and Jeopardy! host, and he’s telling you why you should watch the late Robert Redford’s 1994 Quiz Show. The film is a dramatization of the quiz show scandals of the 1950s, back when scandals were more intrigue and less fascism. Jennings will give an extended introduction for the film about how a narrative centered on fixing quiz shows impacted his life as a Jeopardy! champ. I want to hear that story. (SIFF Cinema Uptown, 6 pm) HANNAH MURPHY WINTER

Didn’t Do It for Love

Nov 10-11

I won’t pretend like I’ve seen the rarely screened 1997 film Didn’t Do It for Love, but the premise alone is enough for me to blindly recommend it. The film traces the unbelievable real-life story of Eva Norvind, whose career spanned Parisian showgirl, Marilyn Monroe-esque actress, journalist, and, most notably, New York’s most successful dominatrix. There is perhaps no one better to convey the nuances of Norvind’s story than Hamburg-based filmmaker Monika Treut, who has devoted her life to fearless explorations of sexuality and gender since the 1980s, spotlighting queer stories and the kink community. The German newspaper Die Zeit once wrote that “films like Monika Treut’s are destroying cinema.” So you know it’s going to be good. (Beacon Cinema, various times) AUDREY VANN

Classified Cinema

Nov 18

Do you remember what it was like before we streamed everything, when you could channel surf and stumble onto a movie you’ve never heard of? Sometimes it was trash, but a blast. And sometimes it was a treasure that you end up coming back to over and over again. Classified Cinema helps recreate that feeling. You arrive at the theater with no idea what film is showing, and buckle in. The screening series has three rules: It’s free, it’s fun, and it’s never pretentious. If you want to do a vibe check, just call their Late Night Hotline Voicemail. They won’t come to the phone because they’re busy “sorting and alphabetizing [their] DVD and Blu-ray collection,” but you can leave a message and they might play it before the show. (SIFF Cinema Uptown, 7:30 pm, free) HANNAH MURPHY WINTER

Derek Jarman’s Blue

Dec 4

If you want to experience Derek Jarman’s experimental masterpiece Blue, then you must see it in a proper movie theater. That way, you can be immersed in complete darkness and publicly shamed if you check your phone. Thought to be one of the most challenging watches in cinema history, Jarman’s final film consists of an unchanging, solid blue screen soundtracked by narration and music by his friends (Tilda Swinton, Brian Eno, and Sleazy of Throbbing Gristle, to name a few) that tell the story of his life and artistic vision. Jarman tragically died of AIDS-related complications just four months after the film’s release, which gives Blue an undeniable heaviness. And, the film’s lack of visual elements can be explained by Jarman’s illness, which left him partially blind during its creation and only able to see shades of blue. (Northwest Film Forum, 7 pm) AUDREY VANN

More

Happyend Nov 9–21, Northwest Film Forum, various times

My Neighbor Totoro Nov 14–19, Central Cinema, various times

The Last Dive Nov 14–23, Northwest Film Forum, various times

Twin Peaks: The Return Nov 14–Dec 12, Beacon Cinema, various times

Fargo (SIFF Cinema Workers Union Fundraiser) Nov 16, Beacon Cinema, 5 pm

Silvestre Nov 17–18, Beacon Cinema, various times

Cinema Dissection: Double Indemnity Nov 22, Northwest Film Forum, 10 am

SIFF Movie Club: The Night of the Hunter (70th Anniversary) Dec 3, SIFF Cinema Uptown, 6 pm

Early Warnings

SIFF ’n’ Stitch: Elf Dec 7, SIFF Cinema Uptown, 12 pm

The Muppet Christmas Carol Dec 11–14, SIFF Cinema Uptown, various times

Cinema Dissection: Pan’s Labyrinth Dec 13, SIFF Film Center, 10 am

Vengeance Is Mine Dec 14–16, Beacon Cinema, various times

Fiddler on the Roof Sing-along Dec 25, SIFF Cinema Uptown, 12 pm

Moulin Rouge! New Year’s Eve Sing-along Dec 31, SIFF Cinema Uptown, 6 pm

Showgirls: The Annual Showing Jan 17–18, Northwest Film Forum, 7:30 pm

Stranger Suggests: A Bloody Theatrical Performance, an Art Show That Oozes Chimeric Chemistry, and Singer-Songwriters Who’ll Rip Your Heart Out

Julianne Bell — Mon, 10 Nov 2025 14:30:00 -0800

One really great thing to do every day of the week. by Julianne Bell MONDAY 11/10

Seattle Eats Live with Tan Vinh, Rachel Belle, and J. Kenji López-Alt

(FOOD) Seattle Times food critic Tanh Vinh’s podcast Seattle Eats is dedicated to sharing “the area’s hottest restaurants, road-side food stalls, and everywhere in between, to find the best meals in the city and to meet the people who make them sing.” For this special live edition, he’s enlisting the help of two local culinary heavy-hitters: chef/writer and noted teriyaki connoisseur J. Kenji López-Alt, and radio personality and author Rachel Belle, who hosts the Your Last Meal podcast. The trio will take questions from the audience and dispense advice on navigating the local food scene, from the best steakhouse in Seattle to how to recreate your favorite takeout meal at home. (Town Hall Seattle, 7:30 pm, all ages) JULIANNE BELL

TUESDAY 11/11

David Byrne

(MUSIC) 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

WEDNESDAY 11/12

LAnd SEA

See 'Through the Overgrowth' by Sarah Gordon at LAnd and SEA through January 9. SARAH GORDON/COURTESY OF AMcE CREATIVE ARTS

(VISUAL ART) Before opening their Seattle galleries, longtime friends Eleana Del Rio (Koplin Del Rio) and McLean Emenegger (AMcE) ran separate art spaces in Los Angeles. Their camaraderie continues as they team up for the group exhibit LAnd SEA, which pairs artists from both galleries to make new collaborative works. While some group shows can be meh, this one promises to ooze genuine chimeric chemistry from powerhouse duos like painters Niki Keenan + Drie Chapek, photographers Daniel Carrillo + Eirik Johnson, and artists-who-defy-boxes Tim Cross + Robert Hardgrave (who are constructing their own mini-gallery to go within the gallery). Bring cash for holiday purchases, not only from AMcE’s Niche Market in the front, but for craveable collabs like Tommy Gregory’s memento-mori mash-up with the renowned de la Torre brothers: a 30-inch hand-blown glass figure encircled by serpents, crowned with a dove where his genitals should be, grasping a tiny bottle of liquor, with a bronze skull for a head. Says Gregory: “It’s about drinking too much (and life and death, obviously).” (AMcE Creative Arts, Wed-Sun, various hours, free) AMANDA MANITACH

THURSDAY 11/13

Miranda July

See Miranda July at Moore Theatre Thursday, November 13. AUTHOR PHOTO BY ELIZABETH WEINBERG

(BOOKS) Miranda July is known for her prolific and expansive body of work, which includes performance art; her films Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005), The Future (2011), and Kajillionaire (2020); and her books No One Belongs Here More Than You, It Chooses You, and The First Man. Most recently, her 2024 novel, All Fours—which follows an unnamed 45-year-old married perimenopausal artist who embarks on a road trip and undergoes an intense sexual awakening—has become a galvanizing cultural phenomenon, sparking countless group chats and book club discussions. The New York Times called it "the first great perimenopause novel," and Starz has acquired the rights to adapt it into a TV series. July has kept the dialogue going with her Substack chat, where her fans swap wisdom on subjects like divorce, polyamory, and hormone replacement therapy. The multi-hyphenate creative joins Stranger arts editor Emily Nokes for this conversation. (Moore Theatre, 8 pm, all ages) JULIANNE BELL

FRIDAY 11/14

Neko Case, John Grant

(MUSIC) 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

SATURDAY 11/15

'The Nosebleed'

See 'The Nosebleed' at On the Boards November 13-15. COURTESY OF ON THE BOARDS

(PERFORMANCE) 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

SUNDAY 11/16

Julie Doiron, Black Belt Eagle Scout

(MUSIC) 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

What is Stranger Polling, Anyway?

Hannah Murphy Winter — Tue, 04 Nov 2025 16:15:00 -0800

by Hannah Murphy Winter

You might not expect us to produce reputable polling (you’ve seen our sex survey). And rest assured, we didn’t! But we paid someone to do it for us. Specifically, DHM Research, a nonpartisan public opinion firm that specializes in the Pacific Northwest.

We decided to do this because we were asking questions that other people weren’t—at least not to the same group of 600 statistically significant people around the city. Questions like: Do they really hate Seattle? Is it dying? Are they afraid to leave the house for fear of running into the public safety crisis in a dark alley? What issue drives them to dig their ballot out of their junk mail? Is Bruce Harrell Superman?

We didn’t ask them like that—that would lead to very biased study results. And thankfully, the data scientists DHM knew how to ask these questions scientifically.

Those geniuses pulled together a 46 question survey for the masses (you can read more about the methodology in the fine print here, if you’re that kind of nerd). And they came back with pages and pages of insights into your brains.

If you ever frequent our website, you may have seen our polling about the election—or in the Seattle Times! (We love it when they have to cite us.) We learned a lot about the stakes of the election before the ballots were counted: that progressives were kicking ass; that the city wanted to elect Katie Wilson, but not all of them were planning to show up to the polls; and the people voting for Bruce Harrell didn’t really like the city he’d been leading for four years. But that’s not the end of Stranger Polling. We actually asked a stressful number of questions, and discovered what crosstabs are.

Through the end of the year, we’ll be doling out this information like children at a petting zoo. Why did people vote like that? What do they expect from their newly elected (or reelected) officials? Were they voting for candidates they loved? Or against losers they were tired of? How does income, age, and politics change those answers?

We’ll have all of that and more. Keep reading.

Slog AM: Tomorrow Is Election Day, Speaker Johnson Says Funding Foodstamps is Hard, the National Guard Gets Blocked Again

Hannah Murphy Winter — Mon, 03 Nov 2025 09:09:00 -0800

The Stranger's morning news roundup. by Hannah Murphy Winter

Good morning! Yesterday was the end of daylight savings, so we’re well on our way to those 4:30 p.m. sunsets we all love, and the weather got the message. We’ve got a grey, drizzly day ahead of us.

Tomorrow Is Election Day: If you’ve been ignoring our pleas to vote early, it’s time to get your butt in gear. Thanks to USPS’s new rules, officials do not recommend dropping your ballot in the mail this close to the election. But that’s okay! Just pop it in your nearest drop box before 8 p.m. on Tuesday night. Need to know who to vote for? We got you. Want to know why you should vote for them? We’ve got that too. Need a reason to vote? Here’s your reminder that this election is going to be all about turnout this year.

Speaking of Turnout: As of last night, the county had counted 232,810 ballots. Almost 33 percent of those are 65-plus. And if history (and Stranger polling) are any indication, those voters are conservative. Meanwhile, voters under 45 make up less than a quarter of the current ballot stack.

Breaking News: Danny Westneat’s column in the Seattle Times didn’t piss me off this weekend. He talked to the leader of the PAC supporting Bruce Harrell, who’s pretty frustrated that Seattleites don’t appear to be falling for Harrell’s Man of the People schtick. After Wilson trounced him in the primary, the PAC held some voter focus groups, and learned that voters weren’t that moved by Wilson’s support of the DefundSPD movement, and they didn’t care that she was proposing new taxes. The only thing they could attack was her lack of experience, but that’s also backfiring. Turns out, a two-decade record that people aren’t stoked about doesn’t have the kind of grip on the electorate that they were hoping for. Between his incremental progress, the support he’s received from the city’s ultra-rich, and the anger and frustration people feel toward institution politics after Trump’s election, Seattle U’s Erik Olsen told the Times, Wilson has the edge in this election.

SNAP Runs Out: On Friday, two federal judges ruled that the USDA’s Dickensian plan to force Americans to go hungry during the government shutdown was illegal, and the administration was required to throw $6 billion in reserves at this mess. That’s great, but the ruling was too late to avoid delays in benefit funding, which ran out over the weekend. The Trump administration is required to tell the judge how they’re planning on funding the program today.

“But It’s Hard”: House Speaker Mike Johnson told the press that providing SNAP benefits is “not as easy as hitting go send on a computer,” which I’m sure made sense to someone. He insisted that the Republicans really do want to feed people, it’s just a lot of work. “[Trump] wants that to be done,” Johnson said, before blaming every other federal department. “He doesn’t see the mechanism to do it. So you have treasury, you have USDA, you have the other agencies involved that are working overtime, literally around the clock over the weekend, trying to figure out how to do this.” He also emphasized that the emergency fund does not have the full $9 billion that the government needs to fund the program. “But everybody needs to know, it’s not the full amount, assuming they could get this done and processed,” he said, inspiring confidence nationwide.

Meanwhile: Our local food banks were already feeling stretched by the huge swathes of furloughed employees that suddenly needed food assistance, and this weekend, they felt the new pressure of SNAP lapsing. While the feds figure out who’s on first, here in Seattle, the City has directed $8 million dollars toward our food banks and meal programs to try to help bridge the SNAP gap, and the State pitched in another $2.2 million. If you need food, here’s our (surely incomplete but very robust) list of resources.

National Guard Gets Blocked, Again: Late last night, a federal judge told the Trump administration that no, they still cannot send federal troops to Portland. This is another temporary order, because she’s still weighing the evidence presented in a three-day trial. She plans to make a final ruling this Friday. In the meantime, judges are hearing arguments for the National Guard’s deployment into Memphis and Washington DC today.

If you’re feeling sensitive today, maybe skip this one. The J-pod lost another orca calf. J42 gave birth to her first calf in October, but when researchers went to check on the kiddo’s development, he was nowhere to be found. This orca pod has been losing calves year after year, thanks to the loss of Chinook salmon runs and toxins in the water.

For Anyone Who’s Stopped Watching After the Mariners Lost: On Saturday, in extra innings in Game 7, the Dodgers won the World Series. This is the first time in 25 years a team has won the Series two years in a row. It’s not the first we were looking for this year, but it’s the one we got. (In other news, look at the size of that trophy??)

People Ran Far, Fast: Fifty five thousand people ran the New York City Marathon on Sunday. Kenyan runner Beson Kipruto won the men’s race in a split-second finish, Kenyan Hellen Obiri won the women’s, and the signs just won.

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A Long Read for You: “She Was Ready to Have Her 15th Child. Then Came the Felony Charges.”

You know how sometimes you have to do a double take in the Halloween store, because some of the decorations look so real? Well in Plano, Texas, that monkey on the ceiling actually was real.

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.”

How a KUOW Story Became a Weapon in the Mayoral Race

Marcus Harrison Green — Mon, 27 Oct 2025 15:47:00 -0700

His Recent Attacks on Wilson Are Sexist and Classist. They’re Also Factually Wrong, Her Family Says.

by Marcus Harrison Green

On October 21, KUOW published a story with the headline: “Katie Wilson can barely afford to live in Seattle. That's why she wants to be mayor.” The story then goes on to reveal that while she “speaks the language of the working people,” there’s something missing from her campaign narrative: “Her parents give her money,” the reporter wrote.

Harrell’s campaign seized on the idea that support from her parents undermines Wilson’s credentials as an advocate for working-class Seattleites. Two days after the KUOW article came out, Harrell sent out a press release with the headline: “Katie Wilson is Not Who She Says She Is.” It went on to say that the profile “shatters Wilson’s carefully constructed narrative: she is not a working-class Seattle resident, and doesn’t bear the stress felt by cost-pressured Seattleites.” His campaign website dedicates an entire page to the article.

And this weekend, a bunch of Seattleites got a text from the Bruce for Seattle campaign linking to the KUOW like a tabloid scandal: “Katie Wilson’s campaign built around working class identity, but parents paid her bills.”

It was a classist, sexist attack from a millionaire with a household income that falls somewhere between $500,000 and $1.2 million.

According to Wilson’s family, it also wasn’t true.

For the two decades Wilson’s been in Seattle, “we have been very apart from her finances,” Wilson’s mother, Anne Clark, tells The Stranger. “We haven’t had anything to do with supporting her materially, in any way.”

That only changed earlier this year, when Wilson told her parents that she planned to run for mayor. Clark knew that campaigns are enormously taxing, and that Wilson and her husband had been getting by without paying for childcare up to that point. She and Wilson’s dad thought they might be able to help with the stress by contributing to the cost of Josie’s daycare. “I don’t even think we cover the whole cost,” she says. And, she clarifies, she has never underwritten Wilson’s bills. “I don’t even know what her bills are.”

She says she plans to keep helping when she sees opportunities to. “This is my only grandchild. What grandparent doesn’t want to invest in their grandchild if they can?”

Clark has read the KUOW story about Wilson. She was “irritated and amused,” she says. “It made me think: I don’t know who wrote that for Harrell's campaign. But he has kids. Surely he’s invested in his kids.”

Even without the clarification from Clark, the story was a relatable one for a lot of voters. Nearly half of millennials and Gen Zers rely, in some measure, on familial support. That help may take the form of a grocery run, a lingering phone plan, a subsidized insurance premium, or the occasional rent check, small acts of intergenerational care, as wages have lagged farther and farther behind inflation.

The original story clearly lays out a narrative that Wilson would not be able to live in Seattle without her parents’ support. “Wilson presents herself as a sensible coalition-builder who runs a small nonprofit—the Transit Riders Union – and has lived a mostly working-class life. A renter and a mother, she runs on issues close to her heart. She speaks the language of struggling people,” the story reads. “But not included in the narrative Wilson tells on the campaign trail is how she affords this expensive city. The answer is simple, and arguably very Seattle: Her parents, professors in New York State, give her money.”

Wilson’s campaign reached out to KUOW to request a correction or clarification in the story. The news station said they wouldn’t add a correction or editor’s note because the article was inspiring “really interesting conversations about what it takes to live in the city,” and that they would prefer to simply do a follow-up interview. The Wilson campaign declined.

The Stranger contacted the station over the weekend to ask if they wanted to comment about their decision to not clarify the story. On Monday morning, they added an editor’s note stating that they’d added “context and an additional quote” to “further illuminate Katie Wilson’s parents’ financial support.”

The two paragraphs read:

“Before I decided to run for office, my husband and I were just kind of juggling our kid back and forth,” Wilson said. “We didn't have her in daycare because it's so expensive. But then when I decided to run, we're like, we really need childcare.”

Wilson has mentioned the exorbitant cost of child care in Seattle throughout the campaign —noting what it costs to send her 2-year-old to daycare — but without noting how she paid for it.

The changes do not address the clear narrative in the story that Wilson could not live in Seattle without her parents’ support—something she did for decades. “We stand by our reporting and plainly did not state that Katie Wilson was receiving money from her parents at any other period than what she told us herself,” the station said in a comment.

There are eight days left in this campaign season. Polls from The Stranger and Northwest Progressive Institute both show Wilson in the lead, but this election will all depend on turnout. And so for those eight days, we should expect a lot of the same: Wilson holding rally after rally trying to get out the vote, and Harrell pulling out every class-shaming, sexist half-truth he can find to make voters wonder if maybe they just shouldn’t vote this time around.

Stranger Suggests: A Convention for Cats, an Intimate Evening with a Pop Culture Icon, and the Shrew We Deserve

Langston Thomas — Mon, 27 Oct 2025 14:18:00 -0700

One really great thing to do every day of the week. by Langston Thomas MONDAY 10/27

Farmers Markets Halloween Trivia Night

(TRIVIA) It’s Halloween week, which means you’d better plan carefully if you’re going to stretch that costume through Sunday. To kick things off while you dial in your KPop Demon Hunters wig, head to Halcyon Brewing for a festive night of trivia hosted by Neighborhood Farmers Markets and the Phinney Neighborhood Association. Go solo or bring a team of up to six for brews, bites, and bragging rights. Prizes will be given out for best costume, best team name, and top trivia champs, plus raffle giveaways from local vendors, with proceeds from the night supporting Seattle’s seasonal and year-round farmers markets. (Halcyon Brewing Company, 5:45 pm, 21+) LANGSTON THOMAS

TUESDAY 10/28

Olivie Blake

Olivie Blake will be at Third Place Books Lake Forest Park Tuesday, October 28. MICHELLE TERRIS

(BOOKS) I’m very much here for the recent influx of dark feminist fiction about female appetites (e.g., Woman, Eating; A Certain Hunger; Hungerstone), so I was instantly hooked by the premise of The Atlas Six author Olivie Blake’s new novel, Girl Dinner. College sophomore Nina Kaur is accepted into The House, the most sought-after sorority on campus. Meanwhile, adjunct professor Dr. Sloane Hartley, who is struggling to manage her career alongside the travails of new motherhood and a less-than-supportive husband, becomes the mysterious society’s new academic liaison. Soon, the two women find themselves pulled progressively deeper into an uncanny world of cannibalistic rituals and feminine rage. Blake will discuss her book with local speculative fiction writer Isabel Cañas, author of The Possession of Alba Díaz. (Third Place Books Lake Forest Park, 7 pm, all ages) JULIANNE BELL

WEDNESDAY 10/29

Shrew

(THEATER) We can all agree that Shakespeare is mad queer to begin with, but Union Arts Center’s Shrew really got the brief. This reimagining of The Taming of the Shrew is almost completely true to the original script, but through costuming, blocking, and performance, director Bobbin Ramsey tells the story that we all hope ol’ Bill was trying to get at in the first place. Most of the male roles are played in drag. And in case you were wondering how Ramsey felt about the minor male characters vying for ownership of our female leads, several of them are played by the same hand puppet passed around by the actors in drag. This is the first Shakespearean play the theater has done since ACT Theatre and Seattle Shakespeare joined forces to create Union Arts Center, and came out with a bang. This is not Shrew a la 10 Things I Hate About You (though if you listen closely, you’ll catch a few references to it). This is a Shrew for 2025, one where the Shrew is never tamed, and the patriarchy is a nightmare for everyone, not just her. (Union Arts Center, through November 2) HANNAH MURPHY WINTER

THURSDAY 10/30

An Intimate Evening with Pamela Des Barres

Miss Pamela (Pamela Des Barres), pictured here at Rodney Bingenheimer's English Disco in 1973 with her beau, Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page. RICHARD CREAMER MICHAEL OCHS ARCHIVES/GETTY IMAGES

(BOOKS) Even if you have not read Pamela Des Barres’s 1987 memoir, I’m With the Band: Confessions of a Groupie, I promise you’ve seen its mark on pop culture (see: Cameron Crowe’s Almost Famous). Along with being a best-selling author and the original “rockstar girlfriend,” Des Barres was also a member of all-female performance art troupe the GTOs (Girls Together Outrageously), who released the incredible experimental rock album Permanent Damage, produced by Frank Zappa, back in 1969. Des Barres will bring her one-woman show to the Rabbit Box to share her wit, wisdom, and firsthand experiences with everyone from Mick Jagger to the Manson Family. (Rabbit Box Theatre, 8 pm, 21+) AUDREY VANN

FRIDAY 10/31

Shea Couleé Presents Creepy.Sexy.Cool.

(DRAG) Chicago-based drag icon, recording artist, and RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars winner Shea Couleé is embarking on their first-ever headline DJ tour and bringing a “Halloween-inspired celebration of fantasy and fierce beats” to six different cities, and Seattle is lucky enough to host their tour stop on actual Halloween. Famed Chicago DJ MISTER WALLACE will join them, as will their drag sisters Kerri Colby, Aja, and Luxx Noir London. According to Shea, costumes are “not just encouraged, but expected,” so be sure to serve “dark glamour meets ’90s nostalgia” to avoid having to sashay away—there might just be a prize awarded for the most sickening look. (Showbox, 9 pm, 21+) JULIANNE BELL

SATURDAY 11/1

Seattle Catrinas Festival 2025

(FESTIVAL) Just like the spirits of our forebearers, Seattle’s Catrinas Festival is back with a vibrant tribute to the ancestors and Mexican tradition featuring music, folklore, and a towering altar adorned with flowers and ofrendas (offerings). Inspired by La Catrina (aka the iconic skeleton figure of Día de Muertos), this fest hosts live catrinas and catrines in full costume for an impressive living procession. Families are invited to bring photos and mementos of loved ones and enjoy a bustling street market with traditional food, crafts, art, face painting, and more. Plus, kids five and under are free. (Town Hall, Sat–Sun, all ages) LANGSTON THOMAS

Note: We previously had suggested Jimmy O. Yang, but that performance has been postponed to February.

SUNDAY 11/2

Sea-Meow Con

This beautiful beast made an appearance at last year's Sea-Meow convention. See more wonderful kitties this year at Seattle Center Exhibition Hall, November 1–2. MADISON KIRKMAN

(CATS) Dog people have the luxury of showing off their pets on daily walks, but we cat owners have to settle for photos, hoping that an image can convey our cat’s unique personality and star power—it’s not fair! Sea-Meow Con offers a rare oasis for cats and cat owners to strut their stuff in public, with two days dedicated to our feline friends. There will be merchants slinging cat-related goods (for both humans and cats), advocates, furries, speakers, musicians, filmmakers, and more. There will also be plenty of social cats on-site, including on leashes, in strollers, and in fenced areas for cuddling. (Seattle Center Exhibition Hall, 10 am, all ages) AUDREY VANN

Prizefight!

Win tickets to rad upcoming events!*

Kamala Harris
November 4, Benaroya Hall

ENTER NOW!

Contest ends October 31 at 10 am

Jenevieve
November 12, Chop Suey

ENTER NOW!

Contest ends November 3 at 10 am

Petey USA
November 6, Moore Theatre

ENTER NOW!

Contest ends November 3 at 10 am

Slog AM: Trump Hates Canadian Wolves, French Authorities Make Arrests in Louvre Heist, and King County Is Going to Miss Its Housing Goals, Badly

Hannah Murphy Winter — Mon, 27 Oct 2025 09:05:00 -0700

The Stranger's morning news roundup. by Hannah Murphy Winter

Good morning! We have a break from all the weather today. Expect some sun. Temps in the 50s. Not a drop of rain. The works.

Speaking of Weather: I hope your power is on. After we got walloped by a rain and windstorm on Saturday night, trees came down and took powerlines with them. At its peak, more than 310,000 households lost power, and as of Sunday evening, more than 100,000 of them were still in the dark. Most of the Puget Sound region is back up and running this morning, but if you’re one of the unlucky ones, today should be your last day lighting candles and plugging your phone in at the local coffee shop.

Support Your Local Food Pantry: They’re gonna need it. The USDA announced over the weekend that SNAP benefits are officially halting on November 1, thanks to the government shutdown. The Trump administration had already announced that it wouldn’t dip into the $5 billion they have in backup funds to keep the SNAP program moving—a program that helps one in eight families in the US buy groceries. The party of family values, ladies and gents.

That Government Shutdown Is on Day 26: Want to know how I know that? Because Donald Trump put a Shutdown Clock on the White House’s website. Flights to LAX were temporarily halted yesterday because of staffing shortages with air traffic controllers, who have been working without pay for 26 days. O’Hare, Newark, Reagan, and Teteboro had similar staffing issues this weekend. Real World contestant, competitive lumberjack, and current US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said it’s “a sign that the controllers are wearing thin.” Give us healthcare, and everyone gets their salaries back.

The ICE Crackdown in Chicago Keeps Getting Worse: And they’re crossing over into local politics. Last week, immigration officers pulled over a Democratic Illinois state lawmaker, tried to break his car window, and pulled a gun on him before letting him go with a warning for going door to door to alert residents that ICE was in the area. The next day, at least four US citizens were detained by ICE in the city’s largely Mexican neighborhood, Little Village, including two staffers for a city Alderman. And Trump is still threatening to jail the Illinois governor and Chicago’s mayor. They’re all scare tactics, but what Trump might not have considered? Illinois has an unusual number of congressional seats up for the election next year, and the state’s Dems are using this chaos in their campaigns to retake the House.

Freedom Wolves: After melting down over a Canadian ad over his tariffs, Trump now doesn’t want Colorado to import Canadian grey wolves into the state as part of their ongoing effort to repopulate the area with the apex predator. They now have to pull from wolf populations in the Northern Rockies, which isn’t a realistic option. But at least we won’t have any of those socialist wolves in our midst.

Trump 2028: To try to get around constitutional term limits, MAGA supporters have floated the idea that Trump could run as VP in 2028, with the understanding that the lead on the ticket would step down on day one. On Monday morning, Trump told reporters he doesn’t plan to try to run that gambit because that would be “too cute.” But he’d “love” to run for a third term.

In Probably Unrelated News: He’d really like to meet with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un while he’s in Asia this week.

Election Day Is Coming: And based on the polling that The Stranger conducted with DHM Research, we know that the mayor’s race is all about turnout. When we polled the general population, Katie Wilson had a 12-point lead, but when we asked only likely voters, that lead shrank down to a statistical tie (she was still four points ahead, but the margin of error was 4.9 percent). What does that mean? Everyone has to get out there and vote.

So have you voted? No? Go get your ballot right now. Dig it out of your pile of mail and vote. And if you’re not registered yet, here’s how you can vote anyway. Not sure who to vote for? We’ve got you: the version for people who like to read our funny but highly informed endorsements; and the version for people who just like to be told what to do. And remember, USPS has new postmarking rules that means you’re not guaranteed a day-of postmark, so put it in a ballot drop box, not in the mail.

Why Are You Still Reading? Go vote.

Okay, if you’re still here, I’m assuming your ballot is already safely in a ballot box. I’m trusting you.

Area Man Tries to Get Famous on the Back of a Woman’s Accomplishments: More than 88 years after Amelia Earhart and her plane went down somewhere over the Pacific, Oregon archeologist Richard Pettigrew thinks he knows where it is. “We have a lot of evidence to go on, and I believe the chances are 9 out of 10 that it’s Amelia’s plane, but we won’t know until we go in there and take a look at it,” he said. On November 4, his team of 14 explorers leave for a tiny, remote island halfway between Australia and Hawaii called Nikumaroro in hopes that they’ll be the ones to find her long-lost plane.

King County Drops the Ball on Housing: The County Council commissioned an analysis of their progress to reach their housing goal: 308,677 new homes between 2019 and 2044, half of which would be affordable housing. According to the report, the County would need to scrounge up another $4 billion a year to meet those goals. If it stays at the pace it’s going right now, we’ll only build about a third of it.

There’s New Evidence in the CHOP Shooting: The wrongful death lawsuit that Antonio Mays Jr.’s father filed against the City of Seattle is headed to trial next week, and new video contradicts the City’s prevailing narrative of what happened in the minutes before the Black 16-year-old from Los Angeles was shot. You can read the Seattle Times’s four-part breakdown of the evidence here.

KING 5 Can’t Handle the Spice: That’s the only reason we can think of that they spent a whole news segment on unpermitted pop-up food trucks. Like Micah mentioned on Friday, King County public health officials shut down 17 unpermitted food vendors selling around Lumen Field during the Seahawks game last week, and Snohomish County is juggling a wash of complaints as well. The only person complaining in the news segment? A food truck competitor who did pay for his permits, and he’s grumpy about it. It’s worth watching the news segment just for the comments, though.

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Turns Out Some Food Can Hurt You: But it’s probably not from a food truck. Hormel had to recall almost 5 million pounds of frozen, boneless chicken because customers were finding metal in the meat. The chicken was sold to food service companies, not directly to consumers, so you don’t have to go digging in your freezer unless you own a restaurant, hotel, or cafeteria.

Louvre Robbers Roped: French officials announced that they’ve made arrests in the motorized ladder-based jewelry heist that shocked Paris and delighted everyone else. Details are light: officials haven’t said if they arrested all four of the people who escaped via scooter after the heist, nor did they say whether or not the jewels were on them when they were arrested. Experts say the investigators are racing to find the jewels before they remove the gems and melt down the precious metals.

A Song for Your Monday: For no particular reason.

The Polling Is In: Seattle Wants to Elect Progressives This Fall

Hannah Murphy Winter — Thu, 23 Oct 2025 15:10:00 -0700

Let’s start with the big news: Progressives are ahead. Among likely voters, 33 percent plan to vote for Dionne Foster, compared to 24 percent who plan to vote for Sara Nelson. Erika Evans is polling 11 points ahead of Ann Davison. While Katie Wilson is four points ahead of Bruce Harrell with likely voters, her lead is within the margin of error. That means they’re statistically tied. by Hannah Murphy Winter

The Stranger did something new this year: we teamed up with DHM Research, a PNW-based non-partisan public opinion research firm, to formally survey the city and find out what’s happening this year in Seattle politics.

Let’s start with the big news: Progressives are ahead. Among likely voters, 33 percent plan to vote for Dionne Foster, compared to 24 percent who plan to vote for Sara Nelson. Erika Evans is polling 11 points ahead of Ann Davison. And Alexis Mercedes Rinck is a whopping 34 points ahead of Rachael Savage.

The tightest race is for the mayor's office. While Katie Wilson is four points ahead of Bruce Harrell with likely voters, her lead is within the margin of error. That means they’re statistically tied.

This race is going to be all about turnout.

When we polled the general population, Wilson had a 12-point lead on Harrell, 46 percent to 34 percent. But when we limited the sample to people who are likely to vote in this general election, her lead narrows to that 4-point statistical tie.

To reclaim some of that 12-point lead, Wilson would need to get out the vote with the “50/50 voters”—people who said turning in their ballot this November was a toss-up. Among them—which was about a third of respondents—54 percent are leaning Wilson.

Wilson won the primary almost nine percentage points ahead of Harrell. But 24 percent of the people who voted in the primary say there’s only a 50 percent chance they’ll vote in the general, meaning she can’t necessarily count on those same voters turning out.

We can’t say for sure why primary voters might not come out this time around. But the political climate has changed dramatically since August 5. In the primary, Wilson was still seen as an upstart candidate, riding a wave of populist enthusiasm that surfed across the country from Zohran Mamdani’s campaign. But her primary win woke Harrell up, and he’s spent the past two and a half months attacking her experience. Meanwhile, Harrell’s supporters have fired up the political machine that pushed the 2021 election to the right, rallying support behind a vision of “bipartisan,” “moderate,” “centrist” government.

The progressive cry for voter turnout aligns with political conventions here in Seattle. Young people skew more progressive, but they also tend to vote less.

“We interpret this data to mean that if our supporters turn out to vote, we will win the race,” the Wilson campaign said in a statement. “But that means our supporters need to show up to win this race!”

Harrell’s campaign did not respond to The Stranger's request for comment on this data.

What Makes a Wilson Voter?

There are two fault lines that divide Harrell and Wilson votes: age and income bracket. Younger voters, between 18 and 44, swing heavily toward Wilson. Meanwhile, Harrell has 66 percent of the 65-plus vote.

When it comes to income, Wilson takes everyone with a household income under $200,000 handily, and almost 60 percent of Wilson voters are renters. Harrell vibes most with the $350,000+ crowd.

These polling results mirror what we’ve seen consistently in the campaigns’ fundraising. Harrell’s PAC, Bruce Harrell for Seattle’s Future, is stacked with $1.6 million in big-dollar donations from commercial real estate developers, PACs for the building industry, and a smattering of people that are wealthy enough to own Seattle sports teams (including the Mariners’ John Stanton, and we’re not not saying that he cursed them in the playoffs with that $50,000 donation).

Between her PAC and her campaign, Wilson’s run is fueled by small-dollar donors. Her average itemized campaign donation is just $114, Harrell’s is almost twice that. Among Harrell’s PAC donors, 61 of them donated $10,000 or more. Wilson’s PAC has four.

For details on The Stranger/DHM Research's methodology, go to: Stranger Polling

Slog AM: 90,000 Seattleites Hit the Streets for No Kings, Fed File Their First Antifa "Terrorism" Charges, the M's Play for the World Series Tonight

Hannah Murphy Winter — Mon, 20 Oct 2025 09:37:00 -0700

The Stranger's Morning News Roundup

by Hannah Murphy Winter

Good morning! After Sunday’s wild, chaotic patchwork of sun showers, we’re getting a break from the rain. For the next few days, it’ll be partly sunny with highs in the low 60s. Get outside. The Big Dark starts in 13 days.

But first, the news.

Seattle’s Best Inflatables Hit the Streets: On Saturday, 90,000 protesters hit the streets for the No Kings march in Seattle, according to an initial estimate from the organizers. If their guess is right, this march beat the first No Kings march by 20k, and amounts to about 11 percent of the city’s population. It’s clear that Seattle doesn’t know what our answer to Portland’s protest frogs are. There were inflatable axolotls, inflatable sumo wrestlers, inflatable unicorns, inflatable dinosaurs, an inflatable St. Rat. But our sign game was solid.

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To the march haters: I hear you. You feel like these marches are a way for libs to get their anti-Trump out without actually doing anything. A way for cis, straight, white, wealthy people with less on the line to anoint themselves with a gold anti-fascist star. And you’re right that this isn’t the frontline fight. This isn’t the protests outside ICE facilities or immigration courts or federal buildings. This is a rally. Rallies are silly and energetic and they provide a wide-ass umbrella. And that’s not a bad thing. Making dissenters feel powerless is one of the essential tenets of an authoritarian government. And rallies—whether they’re before a sports game or against a government—their job is to make you feel like you’re part of something big and powerful. Seven million people marched against the sitting president of the United States on Saturday. And it’s a lot easier to do your part, whatever that is, when you have hope. When you feel like you’re a part of something. And when you know you’re not alone.

Plus, visible shows of dissent create a PR problem for MAGA that they don’t know how to deal with, so then…

Trump Blows His Load: Our Dear Leader didn’t enjoy knowing that 7 million people were marching in the streets with signs calling him a turd, so he took matters into his own tiny hands. On Saturday night, he posted an AI-generated video of him climbing into the cockpit of a fighter jet painted with “King Trump.” To the tune of “Danger Zone”—with an oxygen mask on his chin—Top Trump dumps piles of liquid shit over protesters in New York. Not to be one-upped, JD Vance then posted a video of Trump being crowned, which cuts to what appears to be video of the Democratic leadership kneeling during their incredibly cringey Black Lives Matter media stunt.

Meanwhile, in Real Life: Actual Vance gave a speech on Saturday in front of hundreds of US Marines (none of them fat or bearded, we assume), ranting about Senator Chuck Schumer and the government shutdown. Then, Vance watched Marines fire 155-millimeter artillery shells over a major interstate highway, while parachuters jumped from the sky and Navy seals swam out of the ocean. Vance called the whole fever dream “testament to the corps’ strength and unbeatable power.”

First “Antifa” “Terrorism” Charges Are In: On Thursday, federal prosecutors announced that terrorism charges had been filed against two people for their alleged involvement in a shooting that injured a police officer during a July 4 ICE protest in Alvarado, Texas. It’s been about a month since Trump shouted on social media that he was going to designate “antifa” a “major terrorist organization,” which isn’t technically possible for domestic groups in the US. But anything is possible if you make up your own rules, and that’s just what Trump did.

What are they actually charged with? Neither of them are accused of shooting the gun. Instead, the government accused them of “providing material support to terrorists” and having “aided and abetted” the alleged attempted murder of the cop. It also accuses them of being part of an “antifa cell.” Because there’s no such thing as a centralized Antifa organization, that means nothing. But this case will be Pam Bondi’s testing ground for using this terrorist designation as a form of repression.

Speaking of Shit Trump Made Up: Trump’s undeclared war on narcotraffic in the Caribbean is still roaring. On Thursday, the US military hit its sixth boat that they claim is carrying drug traffickers, and unlike the previous five strikes, this one left two survivors. They’re now theoretically prisoners of war? In a war that was never declared or approved by Congress. At least 29 people have been killed in these extrajudicial killings (murders), and Trump is now flirting with continuing these attacks on land in Venezuela.

A Broken Ceasefire: On Sunday, ten days into a fragile truce, Israel launched an attack on Gaza and halted aid deliveries. In a truly spectacular use of doublespeak, Israeli officials said the attacks were “enforcement of the cease-fire.” Israel claims that two of its soldiers were killed by “Palestinian militants” on Sunday before they launched the attack. Gaza’s health officials reported that 44 Palestinians died in Israel’s bombing. Both Israel and Hamas accuse the other of breaking the ceasefire, and both Israel and Hamas say they’re still committed to it.

Ocean’s Four: On Sunday, in broad daylight, two burglars drove a truck carrying an electric-powered ladder to the Louvre, climbed up to the second floor and broke a window into the gallery holding a collection of royal jewels. They smashed two cases and nabbed eight objects, including a royal sapphire necklace and a diadem worn by Empress Eugénie. Then they shot back down the ladder, and hopped on two scooters driven by their getaway drivers. The heist took seven minutes.

It’s Election Time: By now, your ballot has probably arrived in your mailbox. Our general election voters' guide is out, our cheat sheet is live if you don’t feel like reading that much. If your stomach sank because you just realized you’re not registered to vote, fear not. You can register to vote until October 27, and if you miss that deadline, you can still go to a voting center on election day. We have a real, proper slate of progressive candidates, but please, don’t assume the primary results mean we’ve got it in the bag. VOTE!

Winner Takes All: We can’t say the Mariners aren’t keeping it exciting. We’re now 3-3 in a seven game series against the Toronto Blue Jays, and tonight’s game will decide who goes to the World Series. The Mariners are the only MLB team never to go to the Series, and this is the closest they’ve ever gotten, which means at 5:08 p.m. today they’re starting the biggest game in the team’s history. Everybody be cool.

Here’s a Headline for Ya: “Police Break Up Lego Theft Ring, Recovering Hundreds of Beheaded Figurines.” A California man was arrested for stealing $6,000-worth of Legos, the New York Times reports. The article does not address how or why they lost their heads.

Bruce Harrell Spoke at a Fundraiser for the PAC Supporting Him

Nathalie Graham — Wed, 15 Oct 2025 17:03:00 -0700

State Election Authority Calls It “Unusual,” Says It Introduces Questions About Campaign Financing

by Nathalie Graham

On Sept. 16, Bruce Harrell was scheduled to attend a fundraising event for Bruce Harrell for Seattle’s Future, the political action committee supporting his reelection campaign. According to an email invitation obtained by The Stranger, the event started at 5 p.m. at a downtown office building. There were refreshments. At 5:15 p.m., Harrell was scheduled to address the group “regarding accomplishments, progress made, needs, policy priorities, and the campaign.” At 6 p.m., “PAC leader” Tim Burgess, who works under Harrell as deputy mayor, addressed “the current imperatives, leads discussion” and then did a Q&A with the attendees.

According to Kim Bradshaw, deputy director at the Public Disclosure Commission, Harrell speaking at a fundraising event for his PAC is “unusual.”

“[It] does invite questions regarding whether the event was an in-kind contribution to the candidate and/or the PAC,” Bradshaw wrote in an email.

The PAC, which has raised $1.5 million to support Harrell’s campaign, is allowed to fundraise far beyond what Harrell’s campaign can. A PAC can accept a donation of any size, while Harrell, who is participating in the democracy voucher program, can only accept $650 per donor.

According to Washington State Law, they absolutely cannot coordinate. The Washington Administrative Code states that any money spent in "cooperation, consultation, concern, or collaboration with, or at the request or suggestion of a candidate” should be considered a contribution to that candidate. Any expenditure made with “fundraising-assistance” from someone from the campaign—like, perhaps, speaking at the fundraising event—should be considered an expenditure for the campaign.

The Stranger shared the event invitation details with election experts and political consultants familiar with Washington’s election law. The law is complicated and nuanced, they all said, but this event creates the appearance of coordination between the campaign and the PAC. If they did coordinate, the PAC’s big-dollar spending on attack ads this month could be a violation of campaign finance law, or more specifically, the Washington Administrative Code.

When reached for comment, Harrell’s campaign did not answer detailed questions regarding this event and the efforts the campaign might have made to avoid coordinating with the PAC. “Neither Mayor Harrell nor our campaign coordinates with IE groups, and we ensure that we are in compliance with all PDC rules,” was the only response.

Neither the PAC nor Deputy Mayor Burgess responded to The Stranger’s requests for comment.

The event’s invitation came from organizers of the People for Seattle PAC, which backed Chamber of Commerce candidates and papered mailboxes with negative ads about the progressive city council in 2019. Burgess, Harrell’s deputy mayor, co-founded PFS. In the Bruce Harrell for Seattle’s Future event email, the organizers wrote that PFS “contributed significantly to voters eventually changing the make-up of the City Council and to electing Mayor Bruce Harrell.” All of PFS’ 2019 candidates, save for Alex Pedersen, lost their races. However, the more conservative slate of candidates began winning elections in 2021 and 2023.

In order to keep power in Seattle, “we again need to come together and support balanced, moderate City government candidates,” the email read. Harrell and other moderate candidates like Seattle City Council President Sara Nelson, the email cited, experienced bad primary showing “in large part due to the stresses our voters are feeling that have been put on ‘Blue States’ by the current federal administration…non-centrist, unprepared, and inexperienced voices grew support for candidates… that do not align with the moderate and bi-partisan vision we all had.”

The invite urged people to donate to the PAC.

“Your contribution to Bruce Harrell for Seattle’s Future will help us show voters what has happened and outline our future with Bruce as Mayor,” the event email reads. “Our targeted voter outreach will include TV and Internet ads, direct mail, and social media efforts.”

“You can give whatever you feel will help,” the email reads. “There are no limits on contributions to the PAC, which is separate and independent from Bruce’s personal campaign.”

The key issue here is the independence of this “independent” expenditure. Candidates are subject to campaign finance laws that limit the total amount of money they can raise, and how much they can accept from individual donors. Political Action Committees (PACs) are not, and they’re allowed to make “independent expenditures” in favor of, or against, a candidate.

Those expenditures might look like the $103,750 spent on mailers in favor of Bruce Harrell, financing the $34,000 attack ad against Katie Wilson’s record that aired during Monday’s post-season Mariners game, or the $84,130 they spent on ads that will air from this week until the day before the election. To keep their “independent” status, though, these PACs can’t coordinate with the candidates’ campaigns. The campaign can’t tell them what to do, or vice versa. Otherwise, a PAC simply becomes a slush fund that allows candidates to work around campaign finance laws.

Political consultant Crystal Fincher tells The Stranger that an event like the one Harrell spoke at blurs the lines between contributions to him as a candidate and to his PAC. “If you're coordinating directly with the campaign that is essentially exceeding the donation limits there,” Fincher says.

And the event was invite-only. That makes it a private thing, Fincher explains, which is more eyebrow raising.

“They are getting information from and about the campaign that is not available to the general public—that's inside information that they're then using to electioneer on Bruce’s behalf,” Fincher says. “[The PAC] is then just an extension of the campaign. It just flies in the face of our entire campaign finance system.”

And, as we know from the helpful agenda in the email, Harrell was literally scheduled to discuss the campaign with his PAC in the room.

As of October 15, the PAC supporting Harrell has a warchest of more than $1.5 million. Of that, $822,400 came in after this event where Bruce Harrell spoke last month, and 99 percent of those donations were above the limit that would be allowed to give to a candidate.

The PAC is putting that $1.5 million to use—and according to Fincher, that kind of money would make the risk of a campaign finance complaint worthwhile for most candidates. “When you're raising a million dollars on the hard side and the soft side,” Fincher says, referring to candidate funds and PAC funds, “it doesn't seem like much of a penalty.”

Marcus Harrison Green contributed reporting to this story.

Slog AM: SeaTac Doesn't Shill for Trump, Hamas and Israel Release Hostages, and Mariners Have Best Weekend Ever

Hannah Murphy Winter — Mon, 13 Oct 2025 09:45:00 -0700

The Stranger's morning news roundup. by Hannah Murphy Winter

Good morning! It’s Indigenous Peoples Day, the federal holiday that most of us have to work through, when Democrats briefly remember that Indigenous people exist, and conservatives get really angry about respecting Italian heritage. Cheers to all who celebrate.

Let’s do the news.

SeaTac Doesn’t Shill for Trump: Picture it. You’re half asleep, dragging your carry-on through the TSA line, checking your phone every 45 seconds to make sure you’re not about to miss your flight, when, jump scare: Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s face, with a pair of hoop earrings that looks like a model of the solar system, pops onto every screen around you. “It is TSA’s top priority to make sure that you have the most pleasant and efficient airport experience as possible while we keep you safe,” she says in the video. “However, Democrats in Congress refuse to fund the federal government, and because of this, many of our operations are impacted, and most of our TSA employees are working without pay.” The Trump administration wants this playing at every airport in the country. SeaTac airport said “mm, no thanks,” but they will “continue to urge bipartisan efforts to end the government shutdown and are working to find ways to support federal employees working without pay at SEA during the shutdown.”

Speaking of Shutdown: We’re on day 14 and the government is, in fact, still shut down.

Voting Rights Throwdown: SCOTUS will hear arguments this week in a case from the Trump administration and the State of Louisiana that literally takes aim at the Voting Rights Act. On Wednesday, they will make a case to get rid of the state’s second majority Black congressional district, and make it impossible to consider race in redistricting in the future. You know you’re on the right side of history when your agenda is easiest to push through when the fewest, least diverse swath of people vote. Right?

Feds Are Escalating in Chicago: The Trump administration hasn’t managed to send the National Guard to Chicago yet, but they’re doing a lot of harm without them. They’ve sent a deluge of federal law enforcement into the city, and they’re doing exactly what we’ve come to expect. “One unauthorized immigrant was fatally shot. American citizens have been detained along with undocumented immigrants. Border Patrol agents have walked in groups through downtown Chicago. Residents have given chase to federal agents’ vehicles. And chemical agents have been used on protesters, journalists and clergy members,” the New York Times wrote.

Ceasefire Update: On Monday, in the first stages of a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, Hamas released 20 Israeli hostages and Israel released almost 2,000 Palestinian prisoners. According to the agreement, Hamas still has to release the 26 bodies of hostages that died in captivity, and Israel still has to open Gaza up to allow desperately-needed aid into the region.

Rest in Peace, Annie: Just as we all recovered from the social-media-induced panic of Dolly Parton’s mystery health concerns, Diane Keaton passed away this weekend at age 79.

Weather: Clear and in the high 50s. We have a few dry days ahead of us, so get outside and soak in the daylight while we’ve got it.

Holy Shit the M’s Had a Weekend: On Friday night, the Mariners played for five hours and 15 innings to finally beat the Detroit Tigers and claim the AL West Championship title. The game was neverending. There were two salmon runs. And when they won it, fans created a tiny but detectable earthquake. Then on Sunday, after playing that marathon of a game, getting on a delayed flight, and arriving at their hotel at midnight before their first game against Toronto, they still managed to take home the win. It’s a good weekend to be a Mariners fan (or to become one, like half the city did).

Master Debaters: Seattle’s biggest trolls got back from Trump’s “Antifa Roundtable” just in time for Seattle’s conservative political event of the season this weekend: the We Heart Seattle-backed “Great Debate” at the Washington Athletic Club. The event was supposed to host the candidates from all of the city-wide positions that are up for election this year, and the county executive race. But like most conservative events in Seattle, the “great debate” was a media setup. If the more progressive candidates did show up, conservative “journalists” like Jonathan Choe and Brandi Kruse would use the event as a rage-bait clip farm. If they didn’t, they’d use it as a way to “prove” that the progressive left is afraid of a fight. Most of them chose the latter, so Council President Sara Nelson, Council candidate Rachael Savage, and Mayor Bruce Harrell all got on stage alone and debated themselves.

Harrell Finally Found a Vision for Seattle’s Future and We Wish He Hadn’t: Mayoral Candidate Katie Wilson cancelled her appearance at the debate last minute, so the organizers gave Mayor Harrell a full hour onstage to hype the crowd in his own personal WAC rally. Publicola’s Erica Barnett live-tweeted the whole event, and she caught a rare moment of vision from Harrell. Unfortunately, it’s not a vision anyone wants to see: a downtown that’s rejuvenated by a 10-foot wall where people can talk to AI versions of historical figures, like Martin Luther King Jr.

"And you could say, Well, Dr. Martin Luther King, I've always wanted to meet you. What was your day like today? What did you have for breakfast? And he comes back and he talks to you. How cool would that be if we have a series of historical figures that we all could agree on, that we respect?"
— Erica C. Barnett (@ericacbarnett.bsky.social) October 11, 2025 at 4:39 PM

Outside of that nightmarescape, Harrell mostly stuck to his usual talking points, just to a friendlier crowd. According to Publicola, he insisted he isn’t passing the buck on housing and homelessness, but then said that it’s the county’s fault. He pushed the lie that Wilson was a chief architect of the Defund SPD movement. And even in a friendly, more conservative crowd, he still managed to dodge answering many of the questions.

13 Units: This morning, the Seattle Times’ Greg Kim fact-checked Harrell’s repeated claim that he’s added 3,000 units of housing during his term—a claim he’s repeated in debates and campaign ads all year. Turns out, 65 percent of the units of supporting housing that he takes credit for were already in the works when he took office, and counts tiny home relocations as new units. Ultimately, the city only has 13 more units of housing than we did when he took office. Thirteen.

Capitol Hill Shooting: Over the weekend, SPD announced that there was a third victim in Thursday night’s shooting on Pike and Broadway. The shooting was just a couple blocks away from where Robert Fleeks was shot and killed in his SUV last month, but the police haven’t officially linked the two incidents. In response, Capitol Hill Seattle Blog reported that City Councilmember Joy Hollingsworth, who represents Capitol Hill, released a five-point safety plan for the area, which is basically all initiatives that are already happening.

The news was a lot today, so let’s wrap up with the best protest of the weekend: Portland’s naked bike ride.

Slog AM: Israel and Hamas Have Agreed to a Peace Deal, Seattle’s Trolls Go to the White House, SIFF Ends Their Lease With the Egyptian

Hannah Murphy Winter — Thu, 09 Oct 2025 09:51:00 -0700

The Stranger's Morning News Roundup by Hannah Murphy Winter

Good morning! We’ve got a damp one, probably. There’s a good chance of rain this morning, and then we’ll be overcast for most of the day. We’re just barely going to hit 60 degrees, which means it might finally be time to break out your fall boots and jackets. It’s leather weather, baby.

Peace Deal in Gaza: It may have finally happened. Israel and Hamas have agreed to the first phase of a peace deal. The truce would take place on Friday, starting a 72-hour window when they are expected to exchange hostages and prisoners. UN Secretary General António Guterres said the UN is ready to scale up food, water, shelter, and medical assistance in long-starving Gaza once a cease-fire goes into effect. The whole agreement is still on a razor’s edge, but today, Palestinians and Israelis are celebrating in the streets.

Higher Education’s Situationship: Since Trump took aim at most of our higher education system at the top of his term, our major universities have been trying to figure out how to coexist with this administration—and most of them are deciding that a lil’ acquiescence is worth the hundreds of millions of dollars they want to keep from the federal government. Last week, the Trump administration sent letters to nine universities offering to put them at the front of the line for federal research funding if they align their campus with his administration. Instead of telling Trump where to shove it, according to the New York Times, Harvard officials are weighing their options—what’s a liiiittle authoritarianism, if they get to keep their funding?

If everything you just read made you a little queasy, I recommend this guest essay in NYT by a professor of democracy at Johns Hopkins. The attack on the university system is part of “Trump’s bigger agenda to remake American politics so that everyone wants to be his friend and no one dares to be his enemy,” he writes. “If the administration can reshape politics in such a way, it can create an enduring advantage for itself, as Prime Minister Viktor Orbán of Hungary and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of Turkey have done.” They win when society cracks, he writes. So it’s on universities to find solidarity with other institutions, not Trump. “Those who oppose authoritarianism have to play a different game, creating solidarity among an unwieldy coalition, which knows that if everyone holds together, they will surely succeed.”

Seattle’s Trolls Go to the White House: On Wednesday, Trump held an “Antifa Roundtable” and invited the internet’s worst people. The PNW’s far-right media contingent was well represented: Brandi Kruse told Trump that she used to suffer from “Trump Derangement Syndrome,” but now that she’s on board, she’s “happier,” “more healthy,” and “I think I’m even a little more attractive.” Jonathan Choe, who was there on behalf of Charlie Kirk’s TurningPoint USA, told Trump that he should be keeping an eye on Seattle’s Democratic Socialists of America, because their “research” says the DSA is “behind antifa.” Andy Ngo, Katie Daviscourt, and Nick Sortor all told their horror stories of their fight against antifa, and Trump told them they were very pretty.

The Ruse: The Roundtable was all part of Trump’s attempt to validate his belief that we’re in a civil war. Turns out, not even federal law enforcement believe that. Before Trump said he was going to send the National Guard to Portland, federal law enforcement reported that the protests were “low energy.” (Rude.) NYT reports that the on-the-ground info from the feds “offered no indication of a dangerous escalation of tensions, or unusual levels of protest activity that would prompt the level of alarm expressed by Mr. Trump.”

The Government Is Still Shutdown. That’s it. That’s the tweet.

Trump Bombed Colombian Citizens: Remember when Trump attacked an alleged Venezuelan drug smuggling boat in the Caribbean? The president of Colombia says the boat was Colombian, and carrying Colombian citizens. “A new war zone has opened up,” he tweeted, without elaboration.

How are you coping with all this? We all have our vices, but don’t do it with 7 pounds of gummy cola bottles, okay? A man in the UK put himself in the hospital after scoring a bulk bag of the gummies for just 22 bucks, and housing them in three days. Don’t do that.

But What About the Big One?? Last night we had our last major, televised debate in the race for the mayor’s office, moderated by KOMO’s Chris Daniels, Seattle U’s professional-in-residence Joni Balter, and Seattle U student Diego Borromeo. We saw a lot of the same: Harrell insisting that Wilson doesn’t have the experience necessary to run the city; Wilson touting 14 years of coalition building that says otherwise. The vibes were… off. Doing her best Sara Nelson impression, Balter scolded the crowd of students any time they cheered for Wilson—claiming that it was eating into time for more questions. And the moderators threw in some of the weirdest “gotchas” I’ve seen yet. They asked Wilson what she would do if an earthquake hit the region, a non-political emergency prep question that was really just a thinly veiled attempt at taking their own dig at her experience. And then gave her a series of “yes/no” questions about whether or not she’s a Sawant-style socialist (which they then posed to Harrell, and allowed him to ramble on and on and on…). Can we go back to boycotting Sinclair media?

Balter's got a round of gotcha questions! WHAT KIND OF A SOCIALIST ARE YOU KATIE?? Do you support decriminalizing prostitution? A rent freeze? A $30 minimum wage in five years? ARE YOU KSHAMA, KATIE???
— Erica C. Barnett (@ericacbarnett.bsky.social) October 8, 2025 at 7:46 PM

For SOME reason, they're giving the same are-you-a-socialist questions to Harrell, and they're giving Harrell tons and tons of time to answer each yes/no question. How about some rapidfire gotcha questions aimed at him? No?
— Erica C. Barnett (@ericacbarnett.bsky.social) October 8, 2025 at 7:47 PM

Speaking of Experience: Seattleites have a lot of experience with Harrell now (and Sara Nelson and Ann Davison) and it turns out we simply didn’t like that experience very much. The Northwest Progressive Institute, which does regular “Civic Heartbeat” polling in Seattle, found that since 2021, Harrell, Nelson, and Davison’s approval ratings have consistently plummeted. The primary election wasn’t a fluke. It showed the incumbents what many of us already knew: their records suck, and it’s time for something new. Bye, Felicia.

The Egyptian Goes Dark: SIFF announced on Thursday morning that they're ending their lease with the Egyptian. The movie theater has been closed since a pipe burst and flooded the building in 2024, and in a press release, the nonprofit said that reopening "would not have contributed to SIFF's long-term organizational stability." Seattle Central still owns the building, but it's not clear what'll happen to it yet.

Some Vibes for Your Morning: Sometimes you need a song to shake off the cobwebs and get you moving. And sometimes you need a soundtrack that makes you feel like you’re inside Zelda: Ocarina of Time. This is the latter. And if you want more of it, Patricia Wolf will be at the Chapel Performance Space this Saturday.

Stranger Suggests: Hypnotic Synth Music, an Exhibit with More Than 1,400 Artists, and a Cathartic Play Where the Bad Man Gets What's Comin'

Julianne Bell — Mon, 06 Oct 2025 15:45:00 -0700

One really great thing to do every day of the week. by Julianne Bell MONDAY 10/6

Autechre, Mark Broom

(MUSIC) Every Autechre show is a hyperkinetic séance of rhythmic complexity and intense volume. Performing in total darkness without acknowledging the crowd, British abstract-techno innovators Sean Booth and Rob Brown get down to the serious business of submerging their loyal fans (there are no other kind, in my experience) in a shape-shifting torrent of convulsive electronic sorcery. At a typical Autechre gig, hallucinogens are superfluous, as the strangely angled and textured music is more than enough to discombobulate you. Cautionary tale: At a packed 2001 AE set in a bunker at the Detroit’s Electronic Music Festival, I was tripping on ac*d and felt as if I were trapped forever in a fucked-up maze. A friend who was there accurately described the sound as “castanets clacking on a crack-house floor.” It’s amazing that a group this improvisational and abstruse still has substantial drawing power more than 30 years into their existence. An awesome AE live show is one of the few sure things in the music biz and, frankly, the world at large. (Crocodile, 6:30 pm & 10:00 pm, 21+) DAVE SEGAL

TUESDAY 10/7

Turnstile, Amyl and the Sniffers, Speed, Jane Remover

(MUSIC) Since their formation in 2010, the Baltimore-based hardcore punk band Turnstile has grown from hometown darling to mainstream breakout success, racking up multiple Grammy nominations in 2023, headlining festivals, and drawing praise from the likes of Hayley Williams and Dev Hynes. The group counts Bad Brains and Sade among their influences and mixes hardcore with melodic pop structures, resulting in eminently listenable songs with widespread appeal. If you’re still not convinced, the Seattle stop on their Never Enough tour will feature sets from rising digicore artist Jane Remover, Australian hardcore five-piece Speed, and fellow Aussie punks Amyl and the Sniffers. (WAMU Theater, 7 pm, all ages) JULIANNE BELL

WEDNESDAY 10/8

'Stage of Fools'

See 'Stage of Fools' at Seattle Public Theater through November 2. COLIN MADISON PHOTOGRAPHY

(Theater) Stage of Fools was supposed to be a farce. Joy McCullough wrote the play in the summer of 2024, when Project 2025 was a conservative pipe dream, and the idea of a small feminist theater collaborating with a toxic Hollywood has-been in a last-ditch effort to dig themselves out of financial ruin was an entertaining exercise in fiction. But now we’re living in a Trump 2.0 world. The bad men have the money and the power, and arts organizations unwilling to play Trump’s games are slashing budgets, laying off staff, and closing their doors for good. Still, Stage of Fools is hilariously cathartic, despite its depressingly on-the-nose echoes of our terrifying reality, and it’s a must-see for anyone who loves Bikini Kill, meta theater, and seeing the bad man get what he deserves. (There are some top-notch Shakespeare takedowns, too. Fuck that guy.) (Seattle Public Theater, multiple showtimes through Nov 2) MEGAN SELING

THURSDAY 10/9

Eiko Otake & Wen Hui: What Is War

(DANCE) Choreographers, performers, and filmmakers Wen Hui and Eiko Otake first met in 1995 at an experimental theater festival, sparking a collaborative relationship that would span decades. Eiko grew up in postwar Japan and now resides in New York, whereas Wen Hui was raised in China during the Cultural Revolution and currently lives in Germany. In January 2020, Eiko went to visit Wen Hui in China for a month-long artist fellowship, and the two began to excavate the war-related memories stored in their bodies. Throughout the pandemic, they worked together remotely on the documentary No Rule Is Our Rule, which explores their history, friendship, and trauma. This powerful dance performance, which the artists forged together in residencies, expands on that conversation—the women share their somatic stories through a “complex tapestry of language, movement, and video” and prompt the audience to question their own relationship to war. (On the Boards, 8 pm) JULIANNE BELL

FRIDAY 10/10

Telephone Opening Night

View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Base Camp Studios (@base.camp.studios)

(VISUAL ART) An exhibit that is an international game that starts with a single work of art that gets interpreted and translated hundreds of times, with more than 1,400 players and as many works of art? That’s TELEPHONE, an art experiment/exhibit in its third and largest iteration. Conceived by Seattle-based artist and software designer Nathan Langston, the premise is simple: Just like the children’s game, one work of art gets punted along (without context) to multiple recipients, who then interpret it as a new work of art, and so on until there’s a giant family tree of whispered artworks that have evolved in infinite ways. The results of the game will be revealed in a massive exhibit spanning two venues, with artworks ranging from musical compositions and poetry to painting, sculpture, and video. (Base Camp Studios 1 & 2, through December 13) AMANDA MANITACH

SATURDAY 10/11

NonSeq: Patricia Wolf, WNDFRM

(MUSIC) I was once shopping at a small Portland record store with the golden-hour sun shining through the windows, expensive incense smoke wisping through the air, and delightfully minimal ambient music blasting. Eager to recreate the bliss when I got back to Seattle (but too shy to ask the employee what the record was), I turned to good ol’ Shazam for answers. It turned out to be Patricia Wolf’s 2022 minimalist masterpiece, See-Through. Using field recordings, acoustic, and electronic instruments, Wolf unites the natural and synthetic worlds, creating a meditative and hypnotic experience. As a part of Wayward’s experimental music series, Nonsequitur, Wolf will debut new material on a variety of electronic instruments. She will be joined by sound artist WNDFRM (aka Tim Westcott) and trippy live visuals from video artist Leo Mayberry. (Chapel Performance Space, 8 pm, all ages) AUDREY VANN

SUNDAY 10/12

Go Apple Picking

These apples could be your apples! HMW

(FALL) Washington is apple country, so you can throw a fish and find an orchard that will let you fill a bushel full of fresh, delicious treats. But allow us to introduce you to Skipley Farms: seven acres in Snohomish, WA, with hundreds of varieties of apples you’ve never heard of, the tiniest, most delicious little pears, kiwi vines, and acres of wine and table grapes. The owner looks like he might have run a cult at one point (complimentary), and before he sets you free in the orchard, he shares the history of the farm, and explains what pests to look out for (some make the apples sweeter!) They’re also all organic (you don’t want to know what pesticides it takes to keep bugs off apples), and he runs an informal incubator program to teach up-and-coming farmers how to grow fruit of their own. (Skipley Farms, Snohomish) HANNAH MURPHY WINTER

Prizefight!

Win tickets to rad upcoming events!*

Dracula

October 29, Paramount Theatre

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Contest ends October 10 at 10 am

Dua Lipa

October 15, Climate Pledge Arena

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Kaytranada x Justice

October 17, Climate Pledge Arena

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*Entering PRIZE FIGHT contests by submitting your email address signs you up to receive the Stranger Suggests newsletter. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Slog AM: Trump Keeps Trying (and Failing) to Send Troops to Portland, the Government Is Still Shut Down, Local Scientist Wins the Nobel

Hannah Murphy Winter — Mon, 06 Oct 2025 09:50:00 -0700

The Stranger's morning news roundup. by Hannah Murphy Winter

Good Morning! It’s another one of those perfect days that convince unsuspecting visitors to move to Seattle. Clear skies, high of 69, lows in the high 40s. You can practically hear the soundtrack to Practical Magic.

Trump Is Still Obsessed With Portland: And Chicago. And all of our other Godless, queer, blue-haired cities. On Saturday, a judge temporarily blocked Trump’s attempt to activate the Oregon National Guard to “defend” Portland’s ICE facilities against protesters. So Trump decided he’d try and get around that by summoning 200 of California’s National Guard troops to Portland instead. Some 100 troops arrived in the city on Sunday before a judge blocked that order (which covers deployment in Portland from any state). Then Trump remembered that he has friends in high places in Texas, so he ordered 400 members of the Texas National Guard to deploy for “federal protection missions” in Portland, Chicago, and possibly other cities. The judge’s block protects Portland from Texas’s troops as well, but it doesn’t apply to Chicago or other cities yet.

The @oregonian.com social media team spending the weekend making social card after social card explaining the current state of national guards coming to Oregon

[image or embed]
— Nik Streng (@nikstreng.bsky.social) October 5, 2025 at 8:30 PM

And There’s More: One of Stephen Miller’s top deputies, Anthony Salisbury, was chit-chatting on Signal with one of Hegseth’s senior advisers, Patrick Weaver, in public, apparently with his screen “in clear view of others” in Minnesota. The Minnesota Star Tribune saw images of those messages. The two were talking about the Trump administration’s plan to send the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division, an elite overseas military unit that specializes in parachute assaults and forcible entry operations, to Portland, an American city. Weaver told Salisbury: “Between you and I, I think Pete just wants the top cover from the boss if anything goes sideways with the troops there,” Weaver said. “82nd is like our top tier [quick reaction force] for abroad. So it will cause a lot of headlines,” he added. “Probably why he wants potus to tell him to do it.”

Awfully Busy for a Government That’s Closed for Business: We’re starting day six without an operating government, and there’s no sign that an end to the shutdown is in sight. Two million federal workers currently aren’t getting paid, and the White House social media account is still posting AI video of Hakeem Jeffries with an ever-larger sombrero while Trump threatens widespread layoffs for federal workers. The Senate is scheduled to vote on the legislation again today, but the current stopgap bill still strips millions of Americans of their healthcare subsidies, so it’s not going anywhere.

Third Country Deportations Are Still Happening: Amid the noise of government shutdowns, National Guard threats, and AI-generated diss-videos, 10 people who were deported from the United States were sent to the African nation of Eswatini on Monday morning. (For anyone rushing to Google Maps, it’s a small kingdom that borders South Africa.) And they’re just the latest. More than 40 people have been sent to Africa since July, after Trump struck secretive agreements with at least five nations there to take migrants under his third-country deportation program. At least two of them are Vietnamese—none of them are from Eswatini. They’re now in a maximum security facility with no known charges.

Peace Progress: This week will mark two years since the genocide in Gaza began, and on Monday, Israel and Hamas are starting indirect peace talks in Egypt. Everyone seems more onboard than usual: Israel has said it supported the new plan that Trump’s administration has drawn up, dictating that Hamas would release the remaining 48 hostages—about 20 believed to be alive—within three days. It also requires that Hamas give up power and disarm. Notably missing from the coverage: Hamas’s take on the deal.

Flotilla Protesters Deported, Detained: Meanwhile, last week, more than 400 activists who were sailing from Barcelona to try to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza on the Global Sumud Flotilla were arrested in international waters by Israeli forces. The protesters included climate activist Greta Thunberg, Nelson Mandela’s grandson, and our own local protester, Orcas Island resident Jas Ikeda. The protesters were taken to Israel, where they report being held in inhumane conditions “like monkeys.” Today, hundreds of protesters were deported from Israel, but Ikeda is still detained, and is one of 42 protesters on hunger strike in the prison.

Watch for Splinters: Foster Poultry Farms had to recall almost 4 million pounds of chicken corndogs after wood was found in the batter. This is the second corndog recall in as many weeks.

Dr. Brunkow Gets Her Flowers: It’s Nobel Prize season, and Seattle’s Dr. Mary E. Brunkow is one of three researchers who won the Nobel Prize in medicine on Monday for their work on peripheral immune tolerance. What does that mean? It means she helped open an entire new field in immunology that makes it easier for us to treat cancer and autoimmune diseases. And how did Dr. Brunkow react? She didn’t answer the phone because she thought it was spam. Nobel-prize-winning doctors, they’re just like us.

The Ms Tie It Up: Okay, that news was a lot, but guess what?? We’re two games into the post-season, and last night, the Mariners won their first post-season game since 2001. They’re now 1-1 against the Detroit Tigers.

the Mariners would probably win the world series if they brought back "Can't Hold Us" as the seventh inning stretch song
— Nathalie Graham (@gramsofgnats.bsky.social) October 5, 2025 at 7:05 PM

How to Watch Tonight’s Mayoral Debate

Hannah Murphy Winter — Fri, 03 Oct 2025 16:57:00 -0700

If You Think It’ll Be Boring, Just Add Drag Queens

by Hannah Murphy Winter

On Friday night at 8 p.m.—which is a great time for a debate if you don’t want anyone to watch it—Katie Wilson and Bruce Harrell will hop into the ring, and duke it out on live TV. With their words. And Harrell’s very angry pointer finger.

The debate is hosted by KING 5 and the Seattle Times. According to the Times, it’ll be an hour long, starting with opening statements, and followed by questions from the co-moderators, Seattle Times City Hall reporter David Kroman and KING 5 Anchor Mimi Jung. The candidates will get 90-second answers, followed by 45-second rebuttals. The debate will end with closing statements from the candidates.

Debates aren’t usually thrilling, but they’re such an important way to stay engaged with local politics. So we have a couple suggestions for how to watch it tonight.

Go to Neighbours, or any other bar that’s streaming it tonight

The lovely Harper Bizarre and Miss Texas 1988 will be hosting a watch party at Neighbour’s Nightclub on Capitol Hill, starting at 7:30 p.m. The queens will offer “sassy commentary, and ultimately hyping up what gives us hope!” Miss Texas told The Stranger. They’re Wilson stans, but everyone is welcome, she says. “We’re confident that the debate will speak for itself, but a couple of queens on the microphone will certainly add a fun twist, and provide a reminder that if you want to support your local drag artists, we need to keep this city weird, queer, and AFFORDABLE.”

Stream It at Home

It’ll be live on KING 5, but no one has network TV anymore. But the Seattle Times has a streaming link here.

If you’re watching at home, we have some drinking game suggestions to keep that political spark alive.

If you want to get very drunk, you can take a drink every time:

Wilson says “affordable”
Harrell points his finger angrily
Harrell blames another part of King County for Seattle’s problems
Wilson says “This is your city”

And finish your drink if:

Harrell mentions the Seattle Supersonics (do an extra shot if he brings props).
Wilson mentions Big Dumper
Production values look like a ShamWow! commercial
You need to.

If you want to stay sober, take a drink every time

Harrell actually says Wilson’s name.

The Making of Katie Wilson

Hannah Murphy Winter — Thu, 02 Oct 2025 13:42:00 -0700

She’s coming for the mayor’s office. by Hannah Murphy Winter

It’s 7 o’clock on August 5, the night of the Seattle primary election. Most local candidates are hosting their election night parties at industrial-style bars and breweries across Capitol Hill or Ballard, but not mayoral hopeful Katie Wilson. This room in Beacon Hill looks like it was set up for Bingo Night, or a particularly hype, politics-themed children’s birthday party.

And it actually is a particularly hype, politics-themed children’s birthday party. Wilson is sitting at a table, pinning the tight bun her hair is always tied into, when someone carries over a little girl in a cotton floral dress and sets her down. Josie is celebrating her second birthday tonight, watching the scene from the floor, wide-eyed and a little over it.

Balloons are taped to the wall and tied to the backs of plastic chairs. Streamers hang haphazardly by her yellow campaign signs.

Campaign staff, volunteers, and a handful of other candidates for city office mill around the open space, snacking on hummus and veggies and cashing in their drink tickets for beer and wine. A truck outside is selling pizza, a nod to an early campaign video about why a slice can be as much $8 in Seattle now. It’s all so scrappy, just like her.

At 8 p.m., the packed room quiets. The ballot count will drop any minute. For months, Wilson was fighting a narrative as much as she was fighting incumbent Mayor Bruce Harrell. He was entrenched, unbeatable, the institution. She was the progressive upstart without a shot. Early polling showed that voters liked her message, but were barely familiar with her name. Refreshing the King County election website on their phones, the room was eager to know if that narrative was right.

At 8:05, a woman yells: “Katie’s number one!”

The crowd erupts.

Wilson walks to a podium at the back of the community center through a chanting crowd that’s already closing in around her. Her bag is still on her shoulder and she’s wordlessly looking toward her team in the crowd.

When the cheering quiets down, she brings the mic to her mouth, and looks over to her campaign staff. “Are we really at 46 percent?”

The crowd roars.

“Wow, that’s a lot better than I expected,” she says.

Wilson finding out she beat Harrell in the primary. BILLIE WINTER Wilson’s husband celebrates with their daughter. BILLIE WINTER

The general rule of Seattle politics is that older moderates vote early, and younger progressives vote right before the deadline. The first ballot drop skews conservative. An hour earlier, Wilson told me she hoped to be a few points behind Harrell that night, catch up in the next few days, and overtake him in the end.

She didn’t expect to be almost a point and a half up.

“Okay, so we’re headed to the November ballot,” she says to the room.

In the end, she took more than 50 percent of the total vote, leaving Harrell almost nine points behind her.

***

The Friday after election night, I met Wilson at her campaign office in the Smith Tower: a room of mostly empty desks that’s 20 by 20 feet, at most. She’d shared this office with city attorney candidate Rory O’Sullivan and city council candidate Jamie Fackler, but neither of them got through the primary. She’d spent the last four days catching up on the 150 “congratulations” texts from everyone she knew, and quite a few people she didn’t know. Frontrunners are more interesting than upstarts.

Sitting at a desk, looking toward City Hall Park, she started from the beginning.

Wilson was raised in Binghamton, New York, in a home steeped in academia. Both of her parents were evolutionary biologists. Her mom, Anne Barrett Clark, studied birds, and she specialized in redwing blackbirds when Wilson was in grade school. “I have a lot of memories of tramping around her field site, helping her to put little bands on baby birds, or weigh them, measure them,” Wilson says. Today, her mom is focused on crows’ social behavior.

I ask about her dad.

“He’s actually quite well-known,” she says, uncomfortably.

In the 1970s, the biologist Richard Dawkins published The Selfish Gene, a blockbuster pop-sci hit that argued that our very genes, the genes of animals, of plants, all strive for immortality. Living things are completely governed by our own self-preservation. And as a result, everyone and everything is selfish by design. His arguments have been co-opted by every libertarian and cheating ex-boyfriend to explain their rugged individualism for the 50 years since.

Wilson’s dad, David Sloan Wilson, made his career arguing against Dawkins’s theory.

Essentially, he developed a counter-theory that altruism—rather than selfishness—can be a product of natural selection. His publications on the subject span from 1980 to 2022. And in his 2011 book, The Neighborhood Project: Using Evolution to Improve My City, One Block at a Time, he helps find practical ways that evolutionary biology can be applied to the world around you.

“The thrust of my dad’s work is showing that, from a scientific, biological point of view,” Wilson says, “noble, moral motivations are real. And that there’s an evolutionary basis for that.”

It’d be easy to try to draw a connection between Wilson’s dad’s work and her own politics. A household driven by the belief that community-mindedness is inherent to our biology seems like it could create little leftists straight out of the womb.

But when I ask Wilson, she tells me I’m off base. Yes, her household shaped her politics. but not in the way I thought.

She took three essential gifts from her parents, and in spite of them: a refusal to trust authority just because it’s authority, an ambivalence to the ideas of status and money, and a refusal to follow her parents into the world of academia.

From her vantage point, her parents seemed so separated from their subjects, and she wanted to make a tangible impact. “They were genuinely in it because they want to understand how the world works,” she says, but “they were in this ivory tower, right? They’re thinking about things, but there’s a lot about the world that I think they didn’t understand. And that I didn’t understand either, because I hadn’t been in it.”

In high school in Binghamton, she started to get involved in the anti-consumerist, anti-globalist movements of the ’90s, the way that teenagers do when they have a strong sense of moral justice and nowhere to put it. When she was 15, she cofounded a local chapter of Food Not Bombs, a sort of freegan, and vegan, soup kitchen that made free meals for the community.

That’s where she met her now-husband, Scott Myers. At the time, Myers was a self-described punk, with a touch of rockabilly. “My hair was greased up like Elvis or something.” And the chapter was serving food at an animal rights protest against a circus that was coming through town. His first impression of Wilson? “Well, she was wearing Birkenstocks and socks,” he says. “I remember thinking, ‘This is a weird person. I’ve never met someone like this.’”

When I ask Myers if, in any way, she’s still the same person he met that day, he, like anyone who’s known someone for 30 years, struggles to find an answer that could fairly capture decades of growth. But he’s easily able to paint one clear throughline from that teenager at the circus: “If she’s ever ambitious,” he says, “it’s never for her own reasons. It’s always about trying to do the most good for the most people.”

The two went to different high schools, but that meeting started a relationship between the unlikely pair that would last, off and on, through their adult lives. (Wilson and Myers describe their teen romance as “a complicated, adolescent relationship” and “tortured, teenage, fits and starts,” respectively.)

At that point, Wilson still appeared to be on the same academic track as her parents. She graduated from Binghamton High School as the salutatorian, and headed straight to Oxford University to study philosophy and physics (“to get to the bottom of things,” she says). But when it came time to graduate, Wilson considered her parents’ ivory tower again. She didn’t want to be “looking down on the world and trying to understand it,” she says. “I wanted to get my hands dirty.”

And this is where her rejection of her parents’ careers in academia came to a head: Six weeks before graduation, Wilson dropped out of college.

Wilson (second from right) after her first-year exams at Oxford. COURTESY OF KATIE WILSON

“As I got toward the end of my time at Oxford—that’s the time when people are thinking about what they do next, right? Are you gonna go and apply for graduate school or get a job with McKinsey? And so as I got into my final year, as I was having those thoughts, it was like, ‘Well, I’m not doing any of that.’” And so she decided to make sure that that wasn’t an option.

“I have to admit I was at least a little bit of a bad influence on her,” Myers says, sheepishly. While Wilson was in college, he’d gotten his GED, moved to the Bay Area, and gotten deeper into the protest movements of the early 2000s. His life looked drastically different than hers: He was busking on the BART and volunteering at an Indian reservation. “I’m happy it didn’t wreck her life,” he says. “She had to work jobs that she probably wouldn’t have worked, and get a different perspective on life, and on how a lot of people live and make a living. It might look less prestigious, but I think it’s shaped her a lot… But if my daughter did it, I would be like, ‘Don’t do that.’”

“No regrets,” Katie tells me. “And my parents have forgiven me for it, at this point,” she says, in a way that makes me wonder if it really did take until she was in her 40s.

***

Dropping out of college did exactly what she wanted it to do. Like flipping a railroad switch, she veered away from a life that seemed to be inevitably barrelling toward prestige and academia, and into the life of someone who wasn’t raised for Oxford from birth.

Wilson and Myers got married in 2004 and took what they call a “Greyhound Honeymoon,” busing from city to city to decide where they would start their new life. That city, it turns out, was Seattle.

They landed here because, at the time, it was affordable, and because it had an accessible university library system where they could continue their education on their own (which Wilson describes as sometimes “inefficient and weird,” but also a valuable way to fill in some of the gaps that her two majors left).

Their youthful self-education was driven by a central question: Why did the political movements they were a part of in the ’90s and aughts die in the water, and what did it take to make a social movement successful? They’d been involved in the Wolrd Bank protest in 2000, the anti-war movement after the invasion of Iraq, “and we were both somewhat disillusioned with the results of those movements,” Wilson says. “And so we made a joint decision to figure out, ‘How do we change the world?’”

They knew the key was organizing worker power. “We were inspired by the labor movement of the 20th century and the Civil Rights Movement,” she says, “but the world today is not like it was in the 1930s and the 1960s.” What was 2004’s organizing principle? Could they organize Walmart and other big box stores? Could they organize service workers?

But in the meantime, they had to make a living. In Seattle, Wilson’s first job was as an office assistant at an environmental science laboratory, followed by a brief stint at the Seattle Yacht Services, buffing hulls, painting boat bottoms, and repairing yachts.

But her mainstay for a few years was construction. She started out as an apprentice carpenter with a general contractor in Eastlake, renovating apartments. “This was a shady fucking worksite,” she says. The building itself was probably made as a hotel for the World’s Fair in 1962, she says, and then converted into apartment buildings. This time, their crew was turning studio apartments into one-bedrooms and flipping the building. “They were so cheap, they didn’t even buy us ladders,” she says. “So if we were doing work on the ceiling, we had to stand on five-gallon buckets.”

Looking for a construction job that felt less like a death trap, she emailed Mike Cain, a local contractor who had posted an ad on Craigslist looking for a construction laborer. She wrote:

I have some experience with framing, and I am proficient with both a hammer and a nailgun. I did a lot of drywall (both new and repairs), taping, mud, spray texture, painting (spray, roller, and brushwork), cheap flooring, and window trim and baseboard installation. I did demolition and, in general, a lot of carrying heavy things from one place to another… I am strong and competent and I am a hard worker. I learn very quickly, and I have a sharp eye for detail when necessary.

She ended the email: “I have my own tools - a cordless drill, a small skil-saw, a carpenter’s belt, lots of hand tools, and personal safety gear. I have a drivers license, but no car. I commute by bike and I live in North Seattle, which is within easy biking distance from University Village. I am very punctual and reliable…I would be available to start work immediately.” She asked for $15 an hour, but she’d take $12 “for a trial period.”

When I ask Cain what he remembers most about her, he tells me about their face-to-face interview, at the job site. He knew she’d recently moved across the country, and he remembers asking her what she was doing in Seattle. “I’m going to unionize Walmart,” she told him. “That was so cool,” he says. “‘You got the job,’ [I told her], just on the basis of that. Just her spirit and her spunk and everything. I was like, you look like you can lift 50 pound things over and over and over again all day.”

Wilson ended up working for Cain for six months. And she didn’t unionize Walmart. Instead, it took many patient years before she found an entry point to start organizing worker power in Seattle. In 2011, after the Great Recession pushed King County to take up austerity measures, the county was planning to cut Metro bus routes—a direct hit on working people.

“It was personal to us,” Wilson says. “We didn’t have a car, so it legit affected us. And then we just thought, ‘Okay, let’s organize transit riders.’”

Wilson and Myers would eventually run a number of successful campaigns, working within the complex ecosystem of city budgets, policy makers, and communities. When these two now-seasoned organizers talk about their first campaign, they can only see the mistakes they made with that first effort. At the time, “we didn’t know the details of real-world politics,” Myers says. “The political stuff we were in when we were younger was like: make a banner, go to a protest, make a pot of food. We didn’t know anything about taxes and revenue and any of this stuff, so we just dove into it.”

Wilson’s first campaign (and yes, they still have these shirts). COURTESY OF KATIE WILSON

For the “Save Our Metro” campaign, Myers says, “we spent a whole week just flyering down on Third Ave.—the big bus corridor—putting up posters and talking to bus riders. We didn’t know how to organize or anything, so we just thought, ‘Oh, we’ll do this, and all these people will show up to our rally.’ And then like 30 people showed up.”

They hadn’t even learned to collect contact information from protesters yet (“We thought that was cynical, or something,” Myers says). But some of the protesters wanted to keep fighting for their transit system. “It was a lot of figuring it out as we go,” Myers says. “It took us a year to figure out how to write a constitution and bylaws.”

And that’s how the Transit Riders Union was born.

***

For someone who has been in politics, but not a politician, for years, Wilson is rather private. The Transit Riders Union is where Wilson’s story starts for Seattle’s political left. Her brainy family, walking away from prestige, her blue-collar jobs, the long journey of political discovery—it’s not just less a part of her campaign than pizza, it’s not part of her campaign at all.

The first glimpse I got of just how much we didn’t know about Katie Wilson was at a political forum called Candidate Survivor. Hosted by The Stranger and the Washington Bus, the forum includes a talent portion, where candidates are asked to perform. Wilson walked on stage with a guitar over her shoulder and a harmonica in a holder around her neck. She used to busk at Pike Place Market, she told the crowd. It’d been 10 years, though, she said, “so give me some grace here.” And she dove into a bluegrass standard.

Wilson at Candidate Survivor in July. WEST SMITH

How could someone running for Mayor of Seattle go months without telling voters that they’d been a busker at Pike Place Market? It’s the kind of narrative that politicos fall over themselves for. The stories that tell voters that this person really is a real person, not just a pile of ambition in a suit.

That’s a choice. Wilson has been running her campaign like she’s campaigned for minimum wage, progressive revenue, and renter protections. They were never centered on a person or personality, because that wasn’t the point. It was to build coalitions, find where groups had common goals, and pull power out of people by showing them that they agree with one another. That’s her special sauce. When her campaign broke out into the national media, The Nation magazine said she “launched her campaign like a social movement,” an exercise in “new progressive pragmatic political power.”

And it’s certainly not the only way she breaks from the Seattle mayoral tradition. Former mayor Jenny Durkan owned a $7.5 million mansion on Whidbey Island. Harrell bought his Seward Park home in 2011 for $1.4 million. Ed Murray owned his home on Capitol Hill and a vacation home on the Peninsula. Wilson and Myers rent a one-bedroom apartment in Capitol Hill. When they moved there in 2018, it was the first time in years they didn’t have housemates—a luxury they were only able to afford because that year, the Transit Riders Union was able to start paying her for her work. The apartment has four rooms: a kitchen, a living area, a bedroom, and a bathroom. Maybe four and a half, if you consider the small living room nook where Josie’s toys and clothes are tucked away.

Her building was built in the 1920s—a three-story walkup that was meant to help address a severe housing shortage at the time. It’s full of simple, original details: arched doorways, natural wood trim, and a built-in linen closet. And that’s just the bones. Myers was laid off during lockdown, and he used that time to single-handedly turn the apartment into an old-world, maximalist dream—ornate wallpaper cornstarched to the walls, painted ceilings, saturated velour couches. Their kitchen has two refrigerators and two ovens because Myers regularly makes homemade bagels and pizza. It’s all DIY and secondhand. And it works.

But it’s also so small. Two people can’t be in the kitchen together without getting tangled. Their mattress sits on the floor. Josie sleeps in a Pack ’n Play in their bedroom until they go to sleep. Then when it’s time for them to go to bed, they carefully move her, Pack ’n Play and all, into the living room, where she sleeps for the rest of the night. They haven’t figured out what happens when she outgrows the Pack ’n Play, but they’re confident they will. They do a lot with a little.

Wilson and Myers haven’t figured out what they’ll do when Josie outgrows her Pack ’n Play. COURTESY OF KATIE WILSON

The same can be said of Wilson as an organizer. She knows that understanding the world—whether in academia or in politics—is about knowing what she doesn’t know. And she follows that by finding the one person who knows the most about that thing, and makes them a part of her coalition. That’s how she got the city to buy in to subsidized Orca cards, renter protections, raising the minimum wage—every seemingly pie-in-the-sky victory that the Transit Riders Union won.

Until her mayoral campaign, she’d never had a team—even a small one—that was fully dedicated to the cause. “You need to herd cats, to get them all doing their thing. And when it’s a coalition, then there’s lots of organizations who are being paid to do the work as part of their time,” she says.

The challenge, then, was taking the sliver of attention that that incredibly talented group of people could give to her cause, and making it as effective as possible. And it worked. Like she told me the day before she announced her campaign for mayor: “I would be happy to put my legislative record up against Bruce Harrell’s any day of the week.”

Wilson decided to run for mayor after Harrell opposed the social housing proposition that ultimately got almost two-thirds of Seattle’s vote. Wilson saw it as the biggest fumble in his term, and a clear sign that Harrell was out of touch with the voters in Seattle. And maybe that meant he was vulnerable to a progressive challenger. She went home that night and told Myers what she was thinking. “I told her, ‘If you run for mayor, I’ll divorce you,’” Myers says. “But we stayed up all night long talking about it, and by the end of the night, I told her, ‘If you don’t run for mayor, I’ll divorce you.’”

“Honestly, I’m more worried about my ability to put together a mayoral wardrobe than I am running the city,” she told me, gesturing at the combination of Goodwill finds she was wearing that day. “I know so many highly skilled, competent people, people who’ve worked in City Hall for decades. I’m so confident in our ability to assemble this team, and really excited about it.”

The people she’s worked with over the last decade reflect that same confidence. When she launched her campaign, scores of people who’d worked with the Transit Riders Union sang her praises. And of course, Cain, the contractor, gave her the most glowing endorsement of all. “Katie Wilson is smart, tough, running for mayor…and a former Mike Cain Construction employee,” he wrote on Facebook after she announced her campaign. “She was outstanding at moving heavy stuff around job sites.”

When I talked to Cain, he talked about Wilson’s intelligence, her spunk, and how interested he was in how she found herself working in construction in Seattle. “Especially since she’d just dropped out of Oxford,” I added. The voice on the other side of the phone was silent. “I actually didn’t know that,” he said, with a note of surprise.

There’s a lot to be surprised by from Katie Wilson. Her ability to play guitar and harmonica at the same time. Her taste in home decor. That her favorite movie is Orson Welles’s 1965 Chimes at Midnight. I’m confident her parents and her Oxford professors have been floored by her at least once.

When I first arrived at her apartment, she popped her head out of the doorway and waved me in. Her hair is usually tied into a careful knot at the back of her head with a series of bobby pins. But when I got there, her hair was still down. To my surprise, when it wasn’t wound into her signature bun, it fell almost all the way down her back.

While I watched her pin her hair up, I was reminded of the final impression Myers wanted to leave me with when we spoke. “I don’t pay very close attention to all the media. She might seem, on the exterior, staid and unflappable,” he says. “But inside, she’s a really passionate person,” he says. And she’s coming for the mayor’s office.

Welcome to The Stranger’s Food Issue!

Hannah Murphy Winter — Thu, 02 Oct 2025 11:15:00 -0700

Get out there, eat up. Save us a taco. by Hannah Murphy Winter

The first time I saw a proper street-food tent in Seattle, I was sitting at a red light on Aurora and Northgate Way. It was 11 p.m. on a weekday. Most restaurants in the city had been closed for at least two hours. And on the southwest corner, two white tents were lit with utility lights, with smoke billowing from a grill and a line wound around the corner.

My car windows were cracked, and I could smell the char of al pastor on the flat top—which is, undoubtedly, one of the best smells in the world. But the tent did more than just perfume the air. I could also hear the din of dozens of people ordering, scooping pico de gallo, chatting in line. This tent took a dark, unpopulated corner and gave it life. In the words of Charles Mudede: it gives you “that feeling that you’re in a city.”

Welcome to The Stranger’s food issue. It’s all about what this city deserves.

And Seattle deserves an ever-growing ecosystem of street food. Not just because it’s cheap and delicious. But because a food vendor on the corner of 105th and Aurora turns a tense, liminal space into an ephemeral community hub that makes us feel a little safer while it fed us.

Seattle also deserves chefs and restaurants that make incredible food while still prioritizing building community. It deserves Asian restaurants that thrive outside of the International District. When we’re feeling fancy, we deserve Sinaloan street tacos made by Michelin-trained chefs. And we deserve a goddamn banana split every once in a while (even though they’re really annoying to make, we know).

This issue should make you hungry. It should make you want to go out and try something new. It should make you want to thank all of these people who bring us together at a table or a tent or a picnic in the park.

But on the theme of “what we deserve,” we also ventured outside of the food world for a few pages. We think Seattle deserves leadership that cares about this city, and its people, as much as we do. And in these pages, you’ll find a profile of mayoral candidate Katie Wilson that we guarantee will surprise you—because it surprised us. Hell, it surprised me and I wrote it. We told you in our primary endorsements that we think that person for the job is Katie Wilson, and after spending many more hours getting to know her, we’re only more confident that that’s true.

This is all part of what makes a city a place we want to live. So get out there, eat up. Save us a taco.

Hannah Murphy Winter

Editor-in-Chief

COVER ARTWORK

Photograph by Billie Winter

Creative Direction by Corianton Hale

Prop and styling by Corianton Hale and Billie Winter

Witchy produce provided by Artemis Farms and Goblin Farm, except fresh bay leaf (from Corianton’s wonderful neighbor Gwen)

This Issue Brought to You By….

Oblique Strategies

o.b. tampons finally adopting the twist-off wrappers that Europe has had forever

Italian brainrot

Weekday red-wine hangovers from Harry’s (worth it)

Lowrider Cookie Company

All the things we couldn’t say on social media…

Dr. Martens 8065 Mary Janes

Nuns

Jodie Foster in Panic Room

Kalimotxos

Being hungover at puppy yoga

The banana-split remnants in my freezer

Brian Eno’s absolute freak fashion circa Roxy Music

“Ten Cents a Dance” by Ruth Etting

Sisterhood

Katharine Hepburn’s brownie recipe

Belting my lungs out to Paula Cole

Spending too much money on fancy socks

Vintage Polly Pocket videos on YouTube

Crate training an 11-week-old Milo

@blackforager’s “Poison or Snack?” series

Lesbian arm wrestling in Cal Anderson

Megan’s crow army fantasy

“No clusterfucking in the office”

Kevin’s raccoon-sensitive paws

“Espedici!”

The ding bin at MacPherson’s

Jaune flamme tomatoes

Secret soups

Peteena the Pampered Poodle

That’s Showbiz Baby by Jade

Dogs wearing doggles (dog goggles) while riding in a convertible on a late-summer day

The pspspsps of the leaves rustling in the fall breeze

Halloween candy for breakfast

Combining clever with pussy

A black house rabbit in cahoots with satan

Jimmy Cancel

“Boyfriend” by Justin Bieber for some reason

Slog AM: Trump’s Getting Vindictive, Fat Bear Week Crowned a Winner, Harrell Says “This Is Not the Time for Hope”

Hannah Murphy Winter — Thu, 02 Oct 2025 09:59:00 -0700

The Stranger's Morning News Roundup by Hannah Murphy Winter

The Government Is Still Shut Down: And Trump is having a field day about it. The USDA, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the State Department, and HHS all have huge red banners on their websites blaming Democrats for the shutdown. Several call it the “radical left democrat shutdown.” On the USDA’s website, the message reads: “Due to the Radical Left Democrat Shutdown, this government website will not be updating during the funding lapse. President Trump has made it clear he wants to keep the government open and support those who feed, fuel, and clothe the American people.”

It’s Not Just Theater: Obviously Trump wants to blame the Democrats for the shutdown, rather than the fact that he’s trying to strip healthcare subsidies from tens of millions of Americans. But he’s also using this shutdown as a tool to downsize the government and lash out at anyone he considers an enemy. The New York Times reported that the administration is taking steps to “maximize the pain” of the shutdown, “halting billions of dollars in funds for Democratic-led states while readying a plan to lay off potentially droves of civil servants imminently.” The White House budget director announced that they were cancelling $26 billion in funds that were already approved for mostly blue states, with a special jab at New York, which Senator Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader, and Representative Hakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader, represent.

And He’s Being a Racist Piece of Shit in the Process: The Trump administration has a clear social media strategy for the shutdown. 1) Blame the “Radical Left Democrats” for wanting to give healthcare to “illegals.” 2) Tell everyone that Trump really, really wants to keep the government open so it’s not his fault. 3) Post AI-generated videos of Hakeem Jeffries in a sombrero, sometimes with a mariachi band of Trumps behind him. (Also, I know truth has no place here, but for the record: undocumented immigrants generally can’t even access Obamacare.)

We Lost One of the Greats: Dr. Jane Goodall passed away yesterday at age 91. Her work with chimpanzees is one of the key reasons that we understand that humans are not as exceptional as we want to think we are. And her storytelling is the reason that millions of kids cared a little extra about the animals in the world around them. The world is better for having known her, and we're worse off without her. (Pour one out for her today—she’s also the reason we know chimps like booze, too.)

Emergency Nudity: Sometimes, Portlanders know it’s time to light shit on fire. And sometimes they know it’s time to fight fascism with frippery. On Wednesday, the organizers of the World Naked Bike Ride announced that they’re planning to protest the Trump administration’s decision to send 200 federalized National Guard troops to Portland. Let’s see how “Secretary of War” Pete “No Fatties” Hegseth feels about the National Guard trying to arrest people without accidentally touching wangs (is touching a dick while furthering a fascist agenda gay?)

No Hope and Change for Bruce: PubliCola’s Erica Barnett watched the Fremont Neighborhood Council’s mayoral debate from earlier this week, and it was gold. “Harrell's contempt for Wilson has been palpable in every debate I've seen. No one would watch her speak and think she's anything but incredibly intelligent. He also just can't, hard as he tries, use her name,” she posted on Bluesky. But everyone’s biggest takeaway was his closing statement: “This is not the time for hope. Passion and great ideas and inexperience is just not going to get us there. Trump will walk all over a person without experience, period.” Let him never live this one down. “Harrell 2025: This is not a time for hope.”

In his closing statement, Harrell said, "This is not the time for hope. Passion and great ideas and inexperience is just not going to get us there. Trump will walk all over a person without experience, period."
— Erica C. Barnett (@ericacbarnett.bsky.social) October 1, 2025 at 8:23 PM

Seattle’s Wealthiest Still Believe in Harrell: Bruce Harrell’s PAC broke the $1 million mark last week—it’s made up of large-dollar donations from sports team owners, tech CEOs, and PACs that represent the building and real estate industries. Between their campaigns and PACs, there’s $3 million at play in the mayor’s race right now, and Harrell is wielding double what Katie Wilson is. Expect to see a million dollars worth of anti-Wilson attack ads coming our way.

Speaking of Citizens United: Have you heard about the crypto bro trying to buy the Woodinville elections? Jeff Lyon works for Coinbase, and set up a PAC last year called Democratic Woodinville. It calls itself an “independent, non-partisan committee working to ensure that Woodinville’s leaders answer only to the community and not political parties, outside groups, or special interests.” That’s all BS. The PAC has been funded almost entirely by Lyon, and, according to The Urbanist, has thrown hundreds of thousands of dollars at the Woodinville City Council election to fight candidates who support increasing housing in the area. Fortunately, the backlash was swift, and if you take a spin through Woodinville, you’ll find red yard signs that read: “Lyon the Cryptobro” and “$200,000+ to take over Woodinville City Council—WHY?” The primary showed that Lyon’s campaign isn’t working. Let’s keep it that way.

The Weather: Expect the same as yesterday—the classic, autumn 20-degree spread. Highs in the upper 60s, lows in the lower 50s, with some spotty rain and a clear afternoon. We’ll be doing exactly this until winter happens.

The Final BAM Knell: It’s official, the Bellevue Art Museum isn’t coming back. The art museum, and the land it stands on, was sold to the KidsQuest, a children’s museum for hands-on play and learning. Sounds… sticky.

Christian Nationalists Sue Seattle: Mayday USA, the group that organized the prayer rally in Cal Anderson Park on Memorial Day weekend, are now suing Seattle and Mayor Harrell for discrimination. The group claims that the city’s permitting process pushed them out of their preferred downtown location (they wanted to take over and shut down a city street) and into the gay neighborhood, and that the city’s failure to ensure the event’s success was discriminatory. The lawsuit argues that the city allowed the counterprotesters to force the event to be shut down. As a reminder, SPD violently arrested 23 protesters before the city finally asked Mayday USA to end the event early.

All Hail Chunk: With the daily news cycle pressing our heads into a swirling toilet bowl every day, we all really needed Fat Bear Week this year—voters turned out in record numbers last month to vote for Alaska’s fattest bear. And oh boy do we have a winner! Meet Chunk, a 1,200-pound brown bear with a broken jaw, a scar across his muzzle, and a years-long bad boy reputation. We all love a chonky bear, but in a grizzly twist, this year’s hero was last year’s villain: During the summer of 2024, Chunk killed the cub of reigning Fat Bear Champion, 128 Grazer. Plus, he likely broke his jaw throwing down with another bear over a female that probably wanted nothing to do with either of them. But voters were able to look past his dark past to give him the crown. Stay fat, Chunk.

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Slog AM: The National Guard Heads to Portland, a Shooting at a Mormon Temple, and a Cement Company That Just Loves Burning Tires

Hannah Murphy Winter — Mon, 29 Sep 2025 09:55:00 -0700

The Stranger's morning news roundup. by Hannah Murphy Winter

National Guard Heads to Portland: Trump is deploying two hundred members of the Oregon National Guard to “war ravaged” Portland to “protect” immigration enforcement officers and government buildings from largely peaceful protesters. A memo from the newly-Christened “Department of War” said the deployment would last 60 days, and compared it to the federal intervention in Los Angeles in June. But unlike in LA, where 700 active-duty Marines patrolled the streets for a month, it does not appear that Trump or Hegseth are currently sending active-duty troops to the state. Oregon’s Attorney General has already sued.

Why Is Trump Obsessed with Portland: Theoretically, he’s doing this because protesters have been giving a local ICE facility an earful for months now. And because of that, Trump had already deployed extra federal agents into the city last week. According to our sister paper in Portland, the Mercury, those agents have been instigating clashes with protesters.

The Real Reason Is Worse: The Trump Administration probably does care about the ICE facility protests, but according to Politico’s reporting, their obsession with Portland has less to do with the protests right now, and much more to do with the protests in 2020. Portland’s BLM protests that summer lasted 170 days and, like Seattle, the national media were obsessed with the images of looting and fire. Now, “the White House views Portland as a useful example in its law-and-order campaign—a city Trump officials can elevate to push forward their message on everything from immigration to crime to far-left violence,” Politico reported. But also, they occurred five years ago. We’ll be watching this closely, and sharing reporting from Portland Mercury throughout the week.

Meanwhile: Federal law enforcement—masked and in full tactical gear—are patrolling the streets in Chicago, and Memphis is bracing for the same. This isn’t normal. Don’t get used to it.

Shooting at a Michigan LDS Church: On Sunday, crashed his car through the front door of Mormon church and opened fire, killing at least four people and injuring eight more. Authorities believe he also set the building on fire with an accelerant, and they found three rudimentary explosive devices at the scene. The shooter, Thomas Jacob Sanford, was killed by police, and there’s been no talk of motive, yet. We do know that Sanford went to high school nearby and served in the Marines. This is at least the fifth shooting at a religious institution in the last year.

The Weather: We’re starting a proper run of rain this week. Expect drizzly days until Sunday, and maybe some thunderstorms at the beginning of the week.

I Love the Smell of Rubber in the Morning: Ash Grove Cement Company—the giant grey facility that you can’t miss from 99 or the West Seattle Bridge—burns 1.2 million tires a year. Tires make up about 30 percent of its fuel supply to fire its kiln, which is the maximum they’re allowed. But they want more tire fires! So they’ve asked the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency to lift the limit on the number of tires they can burn. The company insists that there will be no increase in their emissions. The Duwamish River Community Coalition called bullshit, and has called for more research before the permit is granted.

Have you seen the new Katie Wilson flyer campaign? I like to think the face of Honey Bucket would be proud.

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Get Poked: The new COVID vaccine is still available in Washington State at no out-of-pocket expense, and without proof of insurance in most places. If your local pharmacy requires that you say you are at high risk, the Seattle Times reports that “people should ‘absolutely feel confident’ in saying they qualify for a COVID shot, according to Jenny Arnold, CEO of the Washington State Pharmacy Association and who sits on the state’s vaccine advisory committee. Including those who are under 65 and aren’t at high risk of developing severe disease from COVID? ‘Just say yes,’ Arnold said.” COVID is awful. And we have a real, practical way to protect ourselves, our friends, and our neighbors. And while you’re at it, get your flu shot too.

Wide-Eyed and Jacked: After shutting down more than 100 stores, including the incredibly popular Capitol Hill Roastery, Starbucks has a new trick of its sleeve: adding protein to your coffee. The homegrown burnt coffee chain is now offering to blend whey protein into your milk, adding 19 to 36 grams of protein to the drink. For the average adult, that’s basically a whole day’s worth of protein.

Paris Hilton Visits Seattle, Pisses off SLU: Last week, famous person Paris Hilton DJ’d a party in a penthouse apartment in South Lake Union. There were strobe lights. There were subwoofers. And apparently Seattleites had the pleasure of seeing, hearing, and feeling them as far away as Queen Anne. That’s hot.

Okay that wasn’t a gentle start to the week, so let’s end with something nice. Here’s a little city pop for your morning.

Slog AM: Trump Threatens More Federal Layoffs, Bruce Harrell’s Political Consultant Keeps Having Access to City Hall, We Have New Wolves in Town

Hannah Murphy Winter — Thu, 25 Sep 2025 09:55:00 -0700

The Stranger's morning news roundup. by Hannah Murphy Winter

Good morning! We’re shifting into fall mode: lows in the 50s, high of 64. If you leave the house this morning, expect to take off your two light layers by 2 p.m. Happy Libra Season to all who celebrate.

Let’s do the news.

Who Needs Federal Workers? Not the Trump administration, apparently. Once again, the government is looking at a possible shutdown if Congress can’t push a budget through by September 30. This time, it’s healthcare on the line. Democrats are refusing to vote for a Republican stopgap that doesn’t continue Obamacare subsidies that would end in December. They’re also demanding that the budget reverse cuts to Medicaid and other health programs that Republicans made over the summer. Trump clearly felt like there wasn’t enough tension in the room, so his Office of Management and Budget told federal agencies late on Wednesday night to use the looming shutdown “to consider Reduction in Force” notices to lay off more federal employees. He also told agencies to eliminate positions that had been deemed “not consistent” with President Trump’s political agenda. Which is, for the most part, anyone that keeps the government running.

But He Also Kind of Does: The AP reported yesterday that hundreds of DOGE’d federal employees are being asked to return to work. Employees have until the end of the week to decide if they want to climb back down to hell.

Violent Left-Wing Extremist Until Proven Otherwise: The Trump administration wants to own the narrative of the shooting at a Dallas ICE facility that, to be absolutely clear, did not shoot ICE agents. He shot three detainees, killing one and injuring the other two. But Trump & friends are not letting their lack of information get in the way. VP JD Vance called the shooter a “violent left-wing extremist,” with no information to indicate that that’s true, which devolved into a Twitter slap fight with Pod Saves America’s Jon Favreau. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said that “our ICE law enforcement is facing unprecedented violence against them,” about a shooting that didn’t injure any ICE law enforcement.

The President Directs the DOJ Now: The Trump administration has warped all of our sense of reality, so let’s start with a reminder. For decades, the Justice Department has been intentionally insulated from the executive branch to avoid politicizing our justice system. On Friday morning, Trump went onto Fox & Friends and told his Fox Friends that George Soros, a billionaire who, through a grant network called the Open Society Foundation, funds Democratic candidates and left-leaning causes, should be “put in jail.” This week, the president appears to have directed the DOJ to investigate Soros, and the department directed a team to explore possible criminal cases. The New York Times reported that “possible charges included racketeering, arson, wire fraud and material support for terrorism, according to a copy of the directive,” but all of their intel appears to be from a report from a far-right group called Capital Research Center.

Starbucks Is on the Rocks: Our hometown burnt coffee purveyor is laying off about 900 non-retail workers and closing more than 100 of their stores (many of which are unionized). One of those stores is the Capitol Hill Reserve Roastery, one of its busiest stores and to my knowledge, the only place in the world that serves a pumpkin spice flight.

Might As Well Go Win the Whole Fucking Thing: The Mariners are officially Division Champs, and for the first time since 2022, they’re headed to the postseason.

Cal Raleigh:

“Might as well go win the whole fucking thing” 🔱 pic.twitter.com/mRhAhDYV1N
— Seattle Mariners ON Tap (@MarinersONTap) September 24, 2025

ICE Releases One Fire Fighter: After arresting Rigoberto Hernandez Hernandez while he was helping to fight the Bear Gulch Fire, and holding him in detention for almost a month, immigration authorities unceremoniously released him without an order from a judge. It’s rare that immigration’s unpredictable nature works in an immigrant’s favor.

Build That Wall: Earlier this month, the Seattle Times reported that Christian Sinderman, one of Seattle's most sought-after political consultants and Mayor Bruce Harrell’s top political strategist, has had unusual access to City Hall during Harrell’s term as mayor. Harrell insisted that he'd ended Sinderman’s contract at the beginning of 2025 to “put up a big wall” and avoid any blurred lines between his reelection campaign and the happenings in City Hall. “Turns out that wall was not so tall,” the Seattle Times reported. Sinderman continued to use his city-issued key card to get into City Hall, including to Harrell's office, 33 separate times this year. And in August, he was awarded a new contract working with the city's Department of Transportation. Time to install an electric fence.

Single Malt Caper: This summer, a freight truck pulled up to the Westland Distillery warehouse in Skagit County. The driver showed warehouse workers a document saying that he was there to pick up 12,000 bottles of whiskey. He was, but he wasn’t supposed to be. They were never seen again. According to the Seattle Times’s Tan Vinh, among the haul were $150 bottles of their award-winning 10th anniversary Garryana whiskey, which the distillery said is irreplaceable. In total, the stolen bottles are worth almost $1 million. Or one really hazy long weekend.

And don’t forget that even while democracy crumbles, we’re still doing Fat Bear Week.

And for Our PNW Version: The Woodland park zoo has a new wolf pack. They’re brothers, they’re six-years-old, and there are four of them. They're awesome. According to the zoo, the wolves are a subspecies of gray wolf, known as the Mexican gray wolf. They’re obviously not from here, but they’re related to native wolves! And they’re critically endangered. These (not so) little dudes are part of a recovery initiative called SAFE (Saving Animals From Extinction).

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Slog AM: The Right Canonizes Charlie Kirk, Trump Feeds the “Civil War” Frenzy, and Shon Barnes Wants to Get Cops Back in Schools

Hannah Murphy Winter — Mon, 22 Sep 2025 09:49:00 -0700

by Hannah Murphy Winter

Good morning! It’s officially fall. Can you feel it? The chill in the air in the morning? The papery sound of the first turning leaves? The looming sense of dread that used to be about school, and is now attached to whatever election is coming up next? They’re all signs that it’s time to break out the light layers, remind yourself how to make soup, and cue up your annual viewing of Practical Magic. If you liked the fall weather yesterday, you’re in luck: we’re looking at the same forecast all week. Partly cloudy, temps starting in the 50s, and ending up hovering right around 70.

Alright, let’s do the news.

The Canonization of Charlie Kirk: Tens of thousands of people travelled to Glendale, Arizona on Sunday for a five-hour live-streamed event honoring Kirk’s life and work. The VIP section represented virtually the entire succession line to the presidency. There were pyrotechnics. A man mimicked Jesus, carrying a massive cross across the stadium (only the cross had wheels, and he was wearing a pretty decent looking suit.) The event helped underscore just how much Christian nationalism is being infused into the federal government. Most of the speeches before Trump’s focused on Christian faith. VP JD Vance said: “I was telling somebody backstage that I always felt a little uncomfortable talking about my faith in public...As much as I love the Lord, and as much as it was an important part of my life, I have talked more about Jesus Christ in the past two weeks than I have my entire time in public life.” Trump told the crowd: “Charlie would have been so proud to hear people today giving glory to God. We need to bring back religion to America, we want to bring God back into our beautiful USA like never before.”

Trump Feeds the Frenzy: In his rambling, 45-minute speech at Kirk’s memorial, Trump fed the “Civil War” narrative that’s agitated the far-right since the shooting. “It was an assault on our most sacred God-given liberties and God-given rights,” Trump said. “The gun was pointed at him, but the bullet was aimed at all of us.” Unlike Erika Kirk, who got on stage and said she forgives the shooter, Trump said, “I hate my opponents.”

Florida Man: Private donors have decided to fund a Kirk statue on the New College of Florida. In an AI mockup, a bronzed Kirk is sitting at a bronzed table, inviting students into the “gotcha” style “free speech” conversations he was famous for.

Meanwhile, at the Sunday Service at our local far-right Christian church, Pursuit NW, Pastor Russell Johson declared that “the plans of the enemy have backfired!” He compared it to the story of Exodus, saying that like the Israelites, they would leave with their fists raised, and come back with swords. “You’re not stopping the people of God!” he shouted. The FBI still hasn’t determined any clear motive for the shooting.

Sinclair Called Their Own Bluff: Just a couple hours before their Charlie Kirk tribute was supposed to air on Sinclair-owned ABC affiliates across the country, the company pulled back, saying they would make the whole special available on YouTube, instead. The program, presented as journalism, started by saying that Kirk’s assassination was a “turning point in our nation’s history, one of those moments where you remember where you were when you heard about it.” The anchor called him an “American patriot, fearless in his faith.”

Don’t Look Over Here, They Say: While the right continues to desperately try to find a way to cast Charlie Kirk’s shooter at trans or gay, or at least antifa, and Trump threatens to classify antifa as a domestic terror organization and trans people as terrorists, 404 Media found that the Department of Justice has removed a study showing that white supremacist and far-right violence “continues to outpace all other types of terrorism and domestic violent extremism” in the United States. The study was conducted by the National Institute of Justice and hosted on a DOJ website, and was available there at least until September 12, two days after Charlie Kirk was shot.

Bruce Keeps Scrambling to Look Progressive Before the Election: Last week, Mayor Bruce Harrell announced that he plans to help fund the team of non-police first responders called the CARE Team (yay!) with a sales tax (boo.) The plan will double the size of the CARE team from 24 to 48 people, which is great news. Unfortunately, increasing our sales tax is just one of our incredible limited, regressive mechanisms that taxes someone making $50,000 a year at the same rate as someone making $500,000 a year.

Credit Where Credit Isn’t Due: Expanding our public safety spending wasn’t Harrell’s idea—and not all of it is new. Governor Bob Ferguson’s budget allowed cities to introduce a 0.1 percent new sales tax for public safety. And of the $39 million Harrell announced, only $19 million of it will be new. About $15 million of that will replace the city’s current general-fund spending for the city’s CARE Team, PubliCola reported, and $5 million will backfill a one-time federal investment. The remaining $19 million will be spread across fire departments, 911 dispatch, EMTs, and rehab centers. The CARE team ultimately will see a little less than $7 million in new dollars.

Shon Barnes Is Ready to Put Armed Officers in Schools: Last week, the school board delayed a vote to decide whether or not they would put an armed school resource officer (SRO) at Garfield High School, pushing it to October. But in an interview with the Seattle Times, SPD Chief Shon Barnes said he’s ready to put an officer in their halls. He said he wished we were in a world where no one needed to be armed in schools, “but that’s not where we are.” That, frankly, is uninformed bullshit. The research shows that SROs don’t typically reduce the risk of school shootings, and they do increase the risk of harm to students of color and students with disabilities. Put the gun away, Shon.

Tunes for Your Monday: Coral Grief is playing with Anika and Lauren Early at the Vera Project tomorrow. If you’re thinking of missing it, give this a listen and think again.