So it begins: Opponents of Seattle's transportation levy have begun coming out of the woodwork, including a one-time assistant to former Mayor Norm Rice who claims tax fatigue in a Seattle Times op-ed. On the other side, Seattle Bike Blog is amped on the levy, calling it "by far the best Seattle transportation funding measure in recent memory."
Former Port police chief wins $24M in wrongful termination case: A King County jury awarded former Port of Seattle Police Chief Rod Covey $24.2 million in damages Monday following a wrongful termination lawsuit suit. The Port placed Covey on leave in 2020 after a port police officer accused his superiors, including Covey, of racial discrimination. The port then fired Covey the following year. Covey's attorney claims Port investigations were unfair, and that the Port "capitalized on" the 2020 racial protests, the Seattle Times reports.
Cops arrest teens for brandishing guns at a parade: Seattle police say they arrested two 14-year-olds and a 13-year-old for brandishing handguns at a Seafair Parade in the Chinatown-International District this weekend, KING 5 reports.
Surveillance cameras coming to a neighborhood near you: The City hopes to reduce crime by adding closed-circuit cameras to the Chinatown-International District, Aurora Avenue North, and Third Avenue downtown, the Northwest Asian Weekly reports. The ACLU is not pleased.
Initiative polls don't look great: In an online poll of likely voters conducted by SurveyUSA, 46% of Washingtonians say they will vote to repeal the capital gains tax, 23% will vote no, and 31% don't know yet. That tax on the rich brings in money for education. In that same poll, 52% of likely voters say they'll vote to effectively repeal the state's new long-term health care benefit, 27% say they'll vote no, and 22% don't know. A payroll tax funds that first-in-the-nation benefit, which gives people a pot of money to help deal with the financial costs incurred for any long-term care; caregiver pay, accessibility improvements to homes following catastrophic injury or just old age stuff, et cetera.
Heather Weiner, a consultant working on the initiative campaigns, notes some flaws in the surveys:
2 major failures in @seattletimes @KING5Seattle poll on WA initiatives I-2109, I-2124, I-2117
— Heather Weiner (@hlweiner) July 23, 2024
1. Used fictional ballot language, not actual ballot titles voters will read
2. Hid fiscal impact statements, which tell voters effects of initiatives#waelex
Remembering Matt Driscoll: The 43-year-old Tacoma News Tribune columnist and one-time alt weekly writer died unexpectedly on Sunday. Driscoll's colleagues and wife remembered him as empathetic and welcoming, with an eye for stories in his community. "For me, Matt Driscoll is Tacoma. He is Pierce County," said the paper's president and editor, Stephanie Pedersen.
Tacoma still has the Rainiers and the Narrows Bridge, but our City of Destiny has a hole in our hearts at the loss of Matt Driscoll. What a big heart and an insightful pen he gave us. I miss him already. https://t.co/agGeNTM8Zj
— Governor Jay Inslee (@GovInslee) July 23, 2024
Matt was a skilled writer, a thoughtful and caring community advocate, and a devoted husband and father. His passionate commitment to making the City of Destiny a better place to call home will have a long lasting impact. https://t.co/RbKuKvCmCb
— Rep. Derek Kilmer (@RepDerekKilmer) July 23, 2024
Denny Blaine activists to Bruce Harrell: What the fuck? The organizers who fought to save the historically queer nude beach were angry to learn that Mayor Bruce Harrell shared the "disgust" of the rich beach neighbor who was apparently the impetus for the City's disastrous and short-lived plan to build a children's playground at Denny Blaine, Vivian reports. "Everybody else has to go through chains of command. Everything the working class population has to deal with is so further down his list of to-do," beachgoer Lex Leighty told The Stranger. Friends of Denny Blaine is now raising money for improvements to the park, and a $25 donation will get you a postcard sent to the mayor’s office reading, "This member of a disgusting subgroup votes."
Pedestrian killed in Lake City: Police say a driver hit a 33-year-old pedestrian early Monday morning, killing him. Police say there was a "disturbance" between two men ahead of the crash. The suspect fled and police have not found him.
Do you have your tickets to Candidate Survivor yet? Yes? Well then thank you, I can't wait to see you tomorrow at Madam Lou's in Belltown at 7:30 pm. No? Well then what could you POSSIBLY be waiting for??? Don't you want to watch candidates eat hot wings while answering tough questions, and then show off a little talent for your vote?? Remember when WA Stonewall Democrats Chair Andrew Ashiofu performed a number in a leather harness? Or when state Sen. Bob Hasegawa vape-fluted? Or when former Mayor Jenny Durkan passed out tequila to an all-ages crowd? Nutso stuff. You don't want to miss. Reserve your tickets here. As always, it's free!
Delegate Domme: In just a day, Vice President Kamala Harris secured more than enough support from delegates ahead of the Aug 19 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, according to a survey from the Associated Press. The "unofficially tally" shows Harris with 2,668 pledged delegates, and candidates only need 1,976 to win. At the moment, none of those delegates come from Washington State, but Hannah will have more to say on that score sometime today or tomorrow.
Donor Domme: On Sunday night a virtual meeting of Black women organizers that usually draws around 1,000 drew over 44,000 people to support Our Lady of Context, the Washington Post reports. The Win With Black Women group raised "more than $1.5 million for her campaign in three hours." Not too shabby. Overall, Harris "smashed" fundraising records, raising "more than $81 million in the 24-hour period since Biden’s announcement," a campaign spokesperson told the AP.
Kamala’s menu of potential VPs pic.twitter.com/JUf9BSFodM
— Zack Bornstein (@ZackBornstein) July 21, 2024
Who's gonna be the VP's VP? CNN's most recent roundup includes all the names that have been flying around for the last couple days: Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro (good location, bad on Palestine), North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper (great location, he's term-limited out of another run, and he's good at fighting Republicans), Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly (good location, vacated seat would be filled by a Dem), Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear (a "light crisp dry white," good at fighting Republicans), Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker (a very rich white, charismatic, midwestern), Transportation Secretary Pete Booty-Judge-Judy (gay, midwestern, good at fighting Republicans, tweets @Delta more often then a travel influencer with lost luggage).
Kamala's list so far also includes Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer (aka Big Gretch!!) and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.
Breaking on @MSNBC:
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) July 23, 2024
The Harris campaign has requested vetting materials from the following potential vice presidential nominee picks:
NC Gov. Roy Cooper
PA Gov. Josh Shapiro
AZ Sen. Mark Kelly
MI Gov. Gretchen Whitmer
MN Gov. Tim Walz
Harris will skip Netanyahu's address to Congress, but not because she's cool. She already had plans to speak at the nation's oldest Black sorority this Wednesday, the day Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson arranged for the butcher of Gaza to speak before all the House lawmakers who've voted to enable the genocide of Palestinians. According to the New York Times, Harris will meet with Netanyahu later. The Times also notes that our very own US Senator Patty Murray declined to fill in for Harris.
Who the fuck drinks Diet Mountain Dew? In an attempt to own the libs, JD Vance claimed we'd probably call him racist for drinking Diet Mountain Dew. No, Vance, we'll just call you a phony. As any true hillbilly knows, Middletown, OH, where Vance was born and raised, AIN'T IN APPALACHIA. (I am not a true hillbilly, but I did go to grad school in Appalachia, go Bobcats.)
Guy says he’s from Appalachia and then talked about drinking DIET Mountain Dew. https://t.co/mnFgQbvbz5 pic.twitter.com/YTxIpZvoK8
— nick (@nickmoscato) July 22, 2024
JD Vance's only redeeming quality is that he kinda looks like this guy:
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The slaughter of Kan Younis continues: The latest assault in southern Gaza raised the death toll by 77 Palestinians, Al Jazeera reports. The Israeli military also allegedly attacked "a 'clearly marked' UN convoy traveling to Gaza City in 'coordination' with Israeli authorities," showing once again that Israel holds little respect for the "rules-based international order" that US war hawks accuse so may other countries of disrespecting.
Labor unions come out against funding genocide:
Seven major labor unions, the UAW, AFA, SEIU, NEA, APWU, UE, and IUPAT have called on the Biden Administration to halt all military aid to Israel pic.twitter.com/8X8VnM2mii
— Michael Sainato (@msainat1) July 23, 2024
Welcome to the club, Congress: At a House Oversight Committee meeting yesterday, Democrats and Republicans united over their irrepressible frustration at Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle for deflecting all their questions to other law enforcement agencies and for declining to answer other questions due to an ongoing investigation into the assassination attempt on Donald Trump. To give you a taste of the vibe in the room, US Rep Nancy Mace of South Carolina said Cheatle was "full of shit today," according to Politco. NOW YOU KNOW WHAT IT'S LIKE TO TRY TO GET INFORMATION OUT OF THE COPS, CONGRESS. NOW YOU KNOW HOW WE JOURNALISTS LIVE. Anyway, to no one's surprise, Cheatle resigned this morning.
We gab like chimps: Recent research in the journal Current Biology finds that chimps also only wait a split second to take their turn to talk, and they sometimes talk over each other using hand signs and facial expressions, the BBC reports. Dialogue delay ranges among chimps were larger than they were with humans, though. Fun related fact: "One 2009 linguistics study timed these differences—showing that, on average, Japanese speakers took seven milliseconds to respond while Danish speakers took about 470 milliseconds to intervene."
In honor of Appalachia, I leave you with the biggest band to make it out of Athens, Ohio. Hold onto your butts: