Brrr: Don’t expect anything special for the weather today, Seattle. The morning starts off in the mid to upper 30s. The temperature will steadily climb until we hit a peak of 46 degrees around 3 pm. The sun will set at 5:34 pm, which is a minute later than yesterday. Get hype!
DICK'S TURNS 69: The Seattle Times went to great lengths to put "Dick's" and "69" as far from each other as possible in its headline "Dick’s Drive-In has been coming to our late-night rescue for 69 years." But they didn't fool me. I saw the word "dick" and the sex number and I laughed at you instead of with you. Missed opportunity.
That reminds me: Have you taken The Stranger's sex survey yet? If not, then do it!
CHOP Update: Yesterday, the City of Seattle settled a lawsuit against top officials including the former Mayor and Chief of Police for deleting texts during the short-lived CHAZ/CHOP era. According to the Seattle Times, the Wednesday filing didn’t say how much the City wants to pay to avoid sanctions, and the City didn’t respond to a request for comment.
I-135? More like I-one-thirty-THRIVE: Get it? Because the initiative is thriving? No? Whatever. ANYWAY! Yesterday afternoon the good people at King County Elections counted more votes for the social housing initiative, and the results look pretty dang good for I-135 supporters. 54% of voters want to establish a public development authority and 46% read the Seattle Times Editorial Board endorsement I guess.
So… did they win? According to King County Elections, there are at least 45,000 votes left on top of the 119,000 they already counted. You know how it goes, though. These ballots came in later, so they'll be more representative of younger, poorer, hotter voters who tend to side with progressives. But if for some reason all the affordable housing developers told their people to vote last-minute just to fuck with us, then, sure, the initiative could flop. Someone else will call the election, but I’ll keep you updated.
Important advocacy:
morning2midnight closing at 9:30PM!!! is so unserious lol
— jas keimig (@jaskeimig) February 16, 2023
New! New! New! Prosecutor Efrain Hudnell announced this morning that he wants to take over Council Member Kshama Sawant’s seat in District 3. He’s quite the candidate, and by that I mean he used to be part of a crazy conservative lawyer cult that launched the career of Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barett, and now he’s abolitionist-adjacent in his approach to prosecuting misdemeanors?
One of many: Hudnell has a lot of competition. District 3, after a decade of socialist rule, has attracted more candidates than any of the six other seats up for election. In case you’ve lost track, there’s genderqueer actor Ry Armstrong, cannabis advocate Joy Hollingsworth, urbanist Alex Hudson, Seattle LGBTQ+ Commission Co-chair Andrew Ashiofu, another cannabis dude Alexander Cooley, and also Asukaa Jaxx. Whew!
Bitter: Also, Tanya Woo announced she will challenger Tammy Morales in District 2. I was under the impression that I had to hold her candidate announcement until 10 am, but her team sent out the press release early. Tsk tsk. Anyway, its news to me that she got endorsed by Senator Bob Hasegawa, Representative Sharon Tomiko-Santos and Seattle Port Commissioner Toshiko Hasegawa. Good for her!
In case you missed it: Council Member Andrew Lewis almost had to face a challenge from the “left,” but now no longer. Tech worker and Magnolia stan Ryan Krumbholz announced he’s out of the race to represent District 7 less than a week after officially launching his campaign. You can read his manifesto on Medium or catch the TL;DR in my Tweet thread.
Ryan Krumbholz will no longer challenge CM Andrew Lewis in District 7, he wrote this morning. https://t.co/xLgtxXmMzN
— Hannah Krieg (@hannahkrieg) February 15, 2023
What are the cops up to? During a council briefing Tuesday, Chief Adrian Diaz explained the Seattle Police Department’s new scheduling strategy to compensate for their ongoing staffing shortage. Cops will start working 10-hour shifts instead of 9-hour shifts, and they’ll work four days, get a two-day break, work another 4-days, and then get a three-day break. Top cop Diaz thinks the new schedule will cut back on expensive overtime hours and put more cops on streets in the crimey-ist hours of the day.
Red means stop: For 64 years, Washington let drivers turn right at red lights, which some argue puts convenience for cars over the safety of pedestrians. The State Legislature is on the case as lawmakers consider a ban on right-on-red near places like schools and senior centers.
No thanks! Starbucks CEO Howard Shultz will not go to Washington D.C. to answer for his sins even though Sen. Bernie Sanders and some Democrats demanded he give testimony about Starbucks labor law violations during its workers' struggle to unionize. The company argued in a letter to Congress that he’s the wrong guy to represent the Starbucks since he will only be CEO for a few more weeks. Instead, they’ll send over their Executive Vice President and Chief Public Affairs Officer. Sanders still has the power to subpoena Shultz, so the object of many workers' grievances might not get off the hook so easily.
Greater Idaho: The Idaho House of Representatives wants to launch formal negotiations for the largest border change since the Civil War to create “Greater Idaho.” The House Reps are mostly memeing in passing the non-binding measure, according to the Idaho Capital Sun. But joke or not, the legislation stems from a real movement in the state that wants to absorb 63% of Idaho's neighbor, Oregon. Fear not, Oregonians, you almost certainly will retain your crunchy status in the Beaver State. Both state legislatures and Congress would have to sign off on the deal before anyone goes redrawing lines.
Big day for annoying people: President Joe Biden might give a speech later today about the balloon that y'all tweeted about non-stop.
The verdict is in: Yesterday, an Erie County Court judge sentenced a white supremacist gunman to life in prison without the possibility of parole for shooting and killing 10 Black people last year at a grocery store in Buffalo, NY.
Happy Birthday, Danielle Haim: