Three stabbed on Capitol Hill: Just after 2 am, multiple people were stabbed outside a Capitol Hill bar on 14th Avenue between East Union and East Pike Street. When police arrived they found three victims with non-life-threatening stab wounds.Â
Golden Gardens shooting:Â One person is dead and three others are injured after a shooting near the Golden Gardens dog park Thursday afternoon. Near that site, police found a 44-year-old man shot to death and a 24-year-old man in serious condition. The cops then responded to a different call at 26th Avenue Northwest and Northwest Market Street, where they found a 50-year-old woman and a 38-year-old man with gunshot wounds. They said they had driven away from the Golden Gardens shooting. Police believe the shooting possibly involved an altercation over a stolen car.Â
In car traffic news:Â Interstate 90 between Mercer Island and Seattle is shutting down for routine maintenance at 11 pm Friday and reopening on Saturday at 6 am . Plan your trip to the suburbs accordingly.Â
Seattle isn't cost-burdened? According to the Seattle Times' FYI Guy, the majority of Seattle is not cost-burdened. What does that mean? Well, according to the FYI Guy, "the Department of Housing and Urban Development considers households cost-burdened if they spend more than 30% of total income on housing costs, such as rent and utilities." In Seattle, 44% of renters spend over 30% on housing costs. Apparently, that's pretty low compared to other US cities. In fact, Seattle ranked in the third-lowest percentage for cost-burdened renters in US cities in 2022. Yowza. That's gotta tell you a little bit more about life in the US than it does about life in Seattle. If you were curious, Miami ranked the highest, with 60.1% of renters cost-burdened.Â
This balmy fall cannot stay: We were spoiled with multiple sunny days in the 70s this week. No more of that. Today will feature temperatures back in the 60s. Expect clouds.Â
A temperate winter could follow this temperate fall: The El Niño weather system usually brings warmer temperatures and drier conditions to the northwest. KING 5's meteorology team thinks a winter of above-normal temperatures is likely for Western Washington. As for precipitation, they say there are equal chances for things to be normal, wetter, or drier than usual. I love the exact science of weather prediction.
Hold up a sec, The Stranger's Ashley Nerbovig has a little somethin' to say:
Outside expert to look at Jaahnavi Kandula’s death: The King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office (PAO) has sent the investigation into Seattle Police Officer Kevin Dave to an outside collision reconstruction firm. Prosecutors must decide whether to criminally charge Dave, who struck and killed 23-year-old Jaahnavi Kandula with his patrol car while driving 74 mph in a 25 mph zone. The PAO said the outside firm could take several weeks to review all the material, and they expect an update by November at the earliest. The cost to consult the firm will run somewhere between $3,000 to $6,000.Â
Great, thanks, Ashley!Â
Should I write about this for my next column? I stumbled across this flyer on Capitol Hill yesterday. This could be an interesting Play Date, right? But, to do it, would I have to complete all of the classes? Please advise.Â
oh sorry I can’t hang out I have class tonight pic.twitter.com/jxEz1awMVY
— nathalie graham (@gramsofgnats) October 19, 2023
Alex Jones needs to pay up, judge says: Infowars buffoon Alex Jones must pay the over $1 billion in defamation money to families of Sandy Hook shooting victims, a judge ruled. Jones tried to use his Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing to get out of paying all that cash. Well, he shouldn't have regularly and routinely spread lies and conspiracy theories about brutally murdered children. Jones will probably be working off and paying this debt for the rest of his life.Â
Speaking of men not paying their bills: A 50-year-old Lithuanian man was arrested in Alicante, Spain for not paying his restaurant bill. For the last year, this guy has scammed 20 restaurants in the area by pretending to have a heart attack and leaving his tab unpaid. When attempting his latest scam, a restaurant caught him trying to dine and dash. After staff confronted him and refused to let him leave, he "threw himself on the ground and pretended to have a heart attack." The staff called the cops.Â
Biden wants $74 billion for Israel and Ukraine: Man, fuck this. President Joe Biden made the case for increasing military spending and American involvement in two separate conflicts he tried to connect in a 15-minute address from the Oval Office. In Biden's eyes, giving financial aid and weapons to both Ukraine and Israel will improve "global stability and national security," writes the New York Times. He wants $74 billion. We should be spending $74 billion on problems in this country, not funding a genocidal bombing campaign and ground invasion. Fix our crumbling infrastructure, house the people on the streets, give people health care, provide some free lunches at struggling public schools—I don't know, just do something else, something less deadly, with this money. Here's a snippet of the speech:
President Biden on why funding Israel and Ukraine matters to Americans. https://t.co/NFeRPNf8fr pic.twitter.com/ku5eKy0HlE
— CNN (@CNN) October 20, 2023
I'm apparently not alone in this sentiment: A new CBS poll showed that a majority of Dems and independents don't want the US to send more weapons to Israel for their campaign. And the latest polling on Ukraine shows only 41% of Americans support sending more weapons to the country.Â
Wow pic.twitter.com/9ZcO62j57P
— Ken Klippenstein (@kenklippenstein) October 20, 2023
Meanwhile: More bombs. Israel bombarded the Gaza Strip on Friday. The bombs hit places "where Palestinians had been told to seek safety," the Associated Press reports. Israeli military spokesman Nir Dinar said, "There are no safe zones." That's counter to what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said earlier this week when he called the southern region of Gaza "a safe zone" as he encouraged evacuations from the north. In other news, an Israeli ground attack seems imminent.Â
Israel on Friday released footage of night attacks across Gaza, saying it hit what it described as over a hundred operational targets of "terrorist organization" in the Gaza Strip. https://t.co/24uLSRKiz8 pic.twitter.com/dOiEgm4QEy
— ABC News (@ABC) October 20, 2023
Gaza aid corridor still blocked: Egypt and Israel can't seem to agree on how to get critical supplies through the Rafah border crossing, which remains shut despite a United Nations deal that laid groundwork for opening up the aid corridor. The delay seems to center on whether Israel and Egypt should allow fuel to pass through with the rest of the supplies and how to screen for firearms. Gaza is still cut off from food, water, and power.Â
Macklemore chimes in: Look, I wasn't waiting for Macklemore to give his two cents on the Israel-Hamas conflict, but damn, maybe I should've been. Seattle's biggest celebrity wrote a heartfelt, thoughtful, and critical statement about the conflict. Thanks, Macklemore, I'll never talk shit about you ever again:
Like okay!!!! Go off pic.twitter.com/Kn6olfFwa6
— misty quigley’s murderpedia account (@granitelefty) October 19, 2023
Still no speaker: Rep. Jim Jordan, an ultra-conservative freak, still wants to be Speaker of the House. He is expected to fail a third vote Friday morning because he still does not have buy-in from all the people who voted "no" against him during the first two times he tried to become speaker. The Republicans still do not have a speaker.Â
Something's rotten at Colorado funeral home: Authorities came knocking after receiving reports of an "abhorrent smell" coming from Return to Nature Funeral Home in Colorado Springs. Inside, they found 189 decaying bodies. The funeral home appears to have falsified cremation records to clients and, instead of cremating their loved ones, left them to rot. Many of the funeral home's clients suspected the ashes they received—despite a certificate certifying the cremation process—seemed off. Some people even mixed a little bit of water into the "ashes," and it hardened like concrete. The crematoriums where the funeral home said it cremated these bodies have no records of those cremations. In fact, one of those crematoriums sued this funeral home for $21,000 after the home "failed to pay for a couple hundred cremations," according to the Associated Press.
Go see the OL Reign playoff game tonight: Megan Rapinoe's last home game is actually tonight. The OL Reign secured a playoff spot. They play Angel City FC. Go cheer on Rapinoe and the team. How sweet would it be if the Reign won a National Women's Soccer League Shield as a send-off for legendary Rapinoe?
A song for your Friday: I've had "I Have Nothing" by Whitney Houston stuck in my head all week after I heard a woman absolutely nail it at karaoke. I'm sorry that the music video is just The Bodyguard [Eds note: I'm not], but whatever. Strangely, I've never actually seen the The Bodyguard [Eds note: Once you do, you'll never look a silk scarves the same way.] I've only seen the live musical when it came to the Paramount Theater almost a decade ago. I didn't care for it much. [Eds note: No comment.]