When one park closes... Little Saigon's eight-month-old Hoa Mai Park will temporarily close due to public safety concerns. It has become a gathering place for the unhoused and for drug activity such as fentanyl use, according to nearby residents. Unfortunately, since it's in this city's nature to restrict any and all places for impoverished people, the park will close until further notice. This feels like a sweep but in a different font. And, let's be clear—the rising crime in the International District and Little Saigon is correlated with Bruce Harrell's push to "clean up" downtown. There is nowhere for these people to go and there won't be a place unless the city provides one. When it reopens, Hoa Mai Park will do so with a lockable gate and with reduced night time hours.
... Another park opens: Victor Steinbruck Park, the grassy gathering space next to Pike Place Market, will finally reopen today after two years. A dispute over the totem poles delayed the reopening. Don't you hate it when that happens? The March 14 opening will happen regardless of totem poles. As for the poles, they'll be restored now with the help of a Native carver and will be reinstalled once they're good as new.
The weather: Gray. Cold, but not too cold. Rain returns tomorrow.
A Tesla tinderbox: An arsonist in Capitol Hill dumped gasoline onto a Tesla parked at the intersection of 15th Avenue East and East Harrison then lit the car ablaze. No one was injured, but that Tesla sure won't be operable any time soon. Police apprehended the suspect.
Help a Hoh out: The only road to Olympic National Park's Hoh Rainforest has been washed out with big bites eroded away since December. Each year, the Upper Hoh Road carries 460,000 visitors. Without enough funds in the county and with a federal government unwilling to help, road restoration hope has dwindled. But, tight-pursed Gov. Bob Ferguson announced yesterday the state will help. He directed $623,000 of reserve funds to help patch up the road. One hundred individual donors also contributed a total of $27,000. Thanks, Bob!
Did you see the Blood Moon and Lunar Eclipse last night? This was the first total lunar eclipse in two years. If you missed it, you can watch this time lapse from the Griffith Park Observatory in Los Angeles. I hope this is a good omen astrologically. What do we make of it, star readers?
Got home in time for totality!
2nd picture was taken by my daughter who’s at an observatory!
#lunareclipse #photography #moon
— Mubashar “Mubs” Iqbal (@mubashariqbal.com) March 13, 2025 at 11:41 PM
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Reading the tea leaves, it seems as if the omen may be bad: There's an impending federal government shutdown. Democrats are in a tricky situation. Do they side with the GOP ghouls and pass a spending bill that erodes much of Congress's power on government spending and gives that power to Donald Trump and the executive branch? Or, do they allow the shutdown to happen and potentially grant Trump more power that way? Minority leader Chuck Schumer announced he's going to side with the Republicans and vote for the spending bill. Why? He thinks a shutdown is the worse option of the two evils and that it would grant Trump and Elon Musk "full authority to deem whole agencies, programs, and personnel nonessential, furloughing staff with no promise that they would ever be rehired." Ugh, yes, but voting alongside the baddies...? There surely must be better ways to resist than to roll over and show your belly, right?
Dr. Oz goes to Washington: Celebrity doctor and homeopathic freak Dr. Mehmet Oz wants to be the guy who oversees health insurance under the Department of Health. He'll face a confirmation hearing with the Senate Finance Committee today. Seems like he'll get it. Ahead of his confirmation, Oz announced he'd try to mitigate some of his massive financial conflicts of interest and sell "his interest in more than 70 companies and investment funds, including UnitedHealth Group, HCA Healthcare and Amazon, which now has significant health care ventures," according to the New York Times.
Some good news: People keep booing JD Vance.
JD Vance was booed at the Kennedy Center.
— Pop Crave (@popcrave.com) March 13, 2025 at 8:03 PM
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Go for gold: With uncertainty about tariffs and a cratering stock market, investors are choosing to invest in something solid, something tangible, something... gold. The yellow metal broke $3,000 Friday—an all-time high. Gold dust or bust, baby.
Parents sue Trump: A class-action federal lawsuit brought by parents against the Trump administration is suing on the grounds that decimating the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights will lead to discrimination at school. That violates the equal protection clause under the Fifth Amendment, according to the suit. Parents brought the suit three days after the Department of Education announced it was firing 1,300 workers including the entire staffs at seven of 12 regional civil rights offices. The firings amounted to a 50% cut in the department's work force.
Are you a potential political enemy of this administration? If you're reading this on this heretical blog, then you probably are. So read this Wired article about how to protect yourself from digital surveillance.
Climate change stories everywhere: Jessie Holmes, a former cast member on the reality TV show "Life Below Zero," won the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. It was the longest Iditarod ever. Why? Well, the route had to change since there wasn't enough snow north of the Alaska Range. You can't sled dog race without snow. The route changed and ballooned from 1,000 miles to 1,129 miles. Holmes and his team of dogs finished the race in 10 days, 14 hours, 55 minutes and 41 seconds.
New details in Mahmoud Khalil case: I write "case," but there is no case since Khalil, a former Columbia University graduate student, committed no crime. He was taken from his New York home in the middle of the night by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officers. According to a new lawsuit filed by his lawyers, Khalil said the ICE agents never identified themselves. He felt as though he was "being kidnapped" when they took him from his home in front of his eight-months pregnant wife to a detention facility in Louisiana where he slept without a pillow or blanket. "This is a targeted, retaliatory and extreme attack on the right of free expression,” Khalil's lawyer Donna Lieberman. She said Khalil was only detained "for having ideas." He is still in custody.
Protesters demand Khalil’s release: Yesterday, progressive Jewish protesters flooded Trump Tower, demanding the release of Khalil—100 were arrested. Their message? “Fight Nazis, not students,” and “We will not comply.” Khalil’s detention is looking less like an immigration case and more like a test run for mass political arrests.
Columbia’s federal funds ransom: Nearing final form fascist, the Trump administration has outlined its criteria to restore $400 million of federal funding to Columbia. The demands? The Ivy League university cracks down on protests, redefines antisemitism on Trump’s terms, and hands more power to campus cops. Among the specifics: ban most masks, centralize discipline, and put entire academic departments under government oversight. Columbia has until March 20 to meekly acquiesce or stay cut off.
A song for your Friday: This is stuck in my head this morning.
