It gets better: We’re crawling our way out of the Big Dark. For the next 10 months, Seattle will see the sun until at least 5 pm everyday.

Revenge of the tech worker: Amazon illegally fired her in 2020 for pressuring the tech giant to do more to protect the environment and its workers. Now, 20-year West Seattle resident and LGBTQ mom Maren Costa is running to replace Council Member Lisa Herbold in District 1. Costa’s still fine-tuning much her platform (she answered most of my questions with something to the effect of “I’d need to look more at the budget,” or “that’s something I would want to talk to constituents about”), but she promised to bring to City Hall the same fighting attitude for climate justice that got her canned at Amazon. 

“It's still possible [to combat the climate crisis]. We still absolutely can build livable, equitable cities, but we need to start doing it right now. And if that requires standing up and taking risks and fighting hard, I have no problem with that,” Costa said in a phone interview with The Stranger.

In other election news: Everyone’s announcing their campaign for City Council! This week, I talked to three City Council hopefuls in District 3: Food justice advocate Joy Hollingsworth, co-chair of the Seattle LGBTQ Commission Andrew Ashiofu, and Transportation Choices Coalition Executive Director Alex Hudson, who announced her candidacy this morning. 

Even more: Ry Armstrong announced their bid for City Council D3 a few weeks ago. They recently moved back to Seattle from New York, landing in the Capitol Hill neighborhood. They stressed the importance of queer representation for the gayborhood and the three Ss: Sustainability, shelter, and safety. They said they agree with many of sitting Council Member Kshama Sawant's policies, but they described themself as more "sugar" and Sawant as more "salt." They didn't know that Sawant's party, Socialist Alternative, is sometimes called Salt, which makes that description wayyyy funnier than the normal critiques about her being divisive.

Good bye, King County Council Member Jeanne Kohl-Welles. Kohl-Welles is the second County Council incumbent to announce she will not seek reelection. Four Seattle City Council Members also won't run again. Saw some Twitter heads addressing calls for them to run for council. How many people need to ask to warrant a PSA? As proof, I'm going to need screenshots from five people asking you to run who aren't members of the 36th, the 43rd, the 46th or whatever Democratic Legislative District. 

It won't be cheap: The King County Regional Homelessness Authority drafted a plan to end homelessness, and its going to cost more than $8 billion in capital costs and up to $3.5 billion every year to keep the response in operation. As the Seattle Times reported, that's more than double what Gov. Jay Inslee proposed to spend on homelessness for the entire state of Washington. 

Jaahnavi Kandula: A Seattle Police Department cop struck and killed 23 year-old grad student Jaahnavi Kandula while she crossed the street on a crosswalk Monday morning. Yesterday, the Seattle Times wrote about Kandula and her commitment to her family. She came to Seattle to study information systems with the goal of one day providing for her mother back in India. Her family remembers her as a “jolly person” who brought joy to every room she entered. You can donate to her GoFundMe here.

It never ends: On Tuesday, a driver struck three pedestrians on Rainier Avenue South, including two children. A spokesperson from the fire department said the victims went to the hospital in stable condition.

They’ve reached a settlement: Snohomish County will pay the wife of a man killed by Deputy Anthony Zayas during a mental health crisis in 2019. Zayas didn’t even get fired for that. He left the department a year later after getting charged with third-degree rape for having sex with a 14-year-old girl he met on Tinder. He said she misrepresented her age and got acquitted.

Big month for guns: KING 5 reports SeaTac TSA found 11 guns in luggage this month, an increase of four additional firearms compared to this time last year. 

Four-day work week: The owner of Bellingham’s Birst Manfacturing was practically beaming in a KING 5 news segment. His company made the switch to a four-day work week two years ago, and since then, morale has improved and productivity is wayyyy up—like, 35% up. To be clear, these workers are still putting in 40 hours a week, working 10 hours a day. That’s pretty brutal. 

Cops respond: Earlier this month, five Memphis Police officers beat a 29-year-old man beyond recognition during a traffic stop. He died from the cop’s abuse in the hospital three days later. The Memphis Chief of Police finally gave a statement, calling the actions of the now-fired cops a “failing of basic humanity.”

Ukraine: Russia launched 55 missiles at Ukraine today, 47 of which Ukraine military managed to shoot down. The attack comes just one day after the US and Germany said they would send tanks to help Ukraine defend itself.

For your ears: I saw a band of recent high school grads called WINEHOUSE at Barboza a few weeks (?) ago. And they were so good. It felt like I was an extra in a real-life Disney Channel original movie a la Lemonade Mouth, except their music was a hell of a lot better than “Determinate.” Enjoy:Â