Weather Weather on My Phone, Will I Be Trapped in My Home? It's likely to rain (and maybe thunder) for most of today, but the sun should come out again tomorrow.
ICE Detained Filipino Green Card Holder at Sea-Tac: Olympia resident Maximo Londonio, 42, is a lawful permanent resident who came to the US from the Philippines as a boy. Last Thursday, he had just returned home from a trip to the Philippines with his wife and daughter, where he was visiting family and celebrating his 20th wedding anniversary, when US Customs and Border Protection officers pulled him aside at Sea-Tac airport. He was detained and later sent to the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma where he awaits a hearing. Organizers with Tanggol Migrante Network WA believe he’s being detained for stealing a car more than 20 years ago when he was 19. Londonio’s story is similar to that of Lewelyn Dixon. Officers detained Dixon, A green card holder and University of Washington lab technician from the Philippines, at Sea-Tac over a 25-year-old conviction for embezzlement. Dixon is still at the Northwest Detention Center.
Labor Backs Bruce Harrell: MLK Labor, our county's union of unions, announced that it was proud to offer its sole mayoral endorsement to Harrell over his “proven track record of delivering real results for working people … Now more than ever, blue cities like Seattle need experienced, strong elected leaders to uphold our values.” Seems odd for a body that also endorsed Alexis Mercedes Rinck, but labor appears to think they've found a friend Bruce after 2023, when he took over the city's labor negotiations and increased the city's offer by almost $200k.
Crashing the Computer (Party): Dozens of pro-Palestine No Azure for Apartheid protesters tried pushing their way into Microsoft’s annual software conference at the Seattle Convention Center Monday afternoon. Security pepper-sprayed several and Seattle Police arrested one person, reported The Seattle Times. The company is under pressure to stop selling its Azure cloud services and AI products to Israel. Microsoft claims there's no evidence that their technology has been used to harm Gazans. As The Guardian reported in March, Israel uses Microsoft products to manage a registry of Palestinians and a database of airstrike targets. According to Al Jazeera, Israel has killed 87 people in Gaza since midnight local time.
Breaking News—Older White Men Hold Disproportionate Power in Washington: Shocking, I know. A recent report from the Washington Community Alliance found that our state is more diverse than its deep bench of white male elected officials over age 45. Roughly 35 percent of Washingtonians are people of color. But between 2016 and 2024, only 10 percent of candidates were people of color. And only 10 percent of them won their elections. The report found the biggest gaps in county-level elections (statewide, 66 percent were men, 97 percent were white), particularly for fast-growing Latino communities in Central Washington. Many of the 33 “highly representative” municipalities in the state were in the Puget Sound area, including Seattle, Tacoma, Redmond, Shoreline and Burien.
Something Good: Gov. Bob Ferguson signed a bill that extends unemployment benefits to striking workers in Washington. Republicans and businesses said the bill would make workers more likely to strike, but striking is not a decision any union makes lightly. It’s a last resort to push stalled negotiations out of the mud. With this bill, at least workers and their families don’t have to suffer in pursuit of fair working conditions. Though it’s only a temporary reprieve. Unemployment benefits typically last up to 26 weeks. Strikers will only get six, according to the Washington State Standard.
Crying in H Mart, in Ballard: H Mart is opening a new grocery store on June 5th. The 25,000-square-foot space at 951 NW Ballard Way used to be a New Seasons grocery store, and was supposed to become one of those panopticon-y Amazon Go stores, but that didn’t happen and H Mart took the lease instead. Better a deli and imported noodles than a cashless Bodeg-zos.
A Little Update: Last week, Nathalie and I reported on the neighbors and business owners up in arms about a possible crisis center in Capitol Hill. A few of them, including ice creamist Molly Moon, signed a petition-esque letter to Joy Hollingsworth about it, but apparently not Steven Severin, co-owner of Life on Mars, Neumos, Barboza and Runaway Bar. He says the letter writer, Russell Normann added his name by mistake and agreed to remove his name from the list of signatories. Normann, managing partner of 4N Properties, told The Stranger via email that there was a “misunderstanding,” but didn’t say how that misunderstanding happened.
A Big, Beautiful Push for One Big, Beautiful Bill: President Donald Trump is milling around Capitol Hill so he can convince Republicans to vote for his multi-trillion dollar, 1,116 page bill of tax breaks, spending cuts, and billions for Trump’s border wall. Nonpartisan analysts said the bill could add $3 to $5 trillion dollars to our big, beautiful national debt.
Now You Cease It, Now You Don’t: Trump backed off his demand that Russia call a ceasefire in Ukraine. Now he’s saying Russia and Ukraine should handle negotiations because Russia and Ukraine “know details of a negotiation that nobody else would be aware of.” But didn’t he say he’d personally end the war in 24 hours?
$$$: The Trump administration wants to spend $250 million earmarked for foreign aid to send migrants back to active combat zones, including Ukrainians, Haitians, Palestinians, Afghans, Libyans, Sudanese, Syrians and Yemenis who fled extreme violence, according to draft documents obtained by The Washington Post. The proposal was in development before the administration announced its plan to give $1,000 to immigrants who voluntarily self-deport.
And Today in Vaccines: Top officials with the Food and Drug Administration announced new requirements for yearly tweaks to the COVID-19 vaccine. While new vaccines will be available to high-risk adults, children and folks over 65, the FDA won't approve them for most of the adult population until companies conduct large, lengthy studies. It's likely to make vaccines less insurable and available, one vaccine expert told the AP.
Trump’s Trade War Is Screwing Over Our Farmers: Eastern Washington wheat farmers typically sell 90 percent of what they grow to countries like Japan, Korea, and the Philippines, where it is made into noodles and cakes (and bought back happily by Americans). Wheat prices were already low and the tariffs aren’t going to help, a big deal when a new tractor and combine runs about $1.75 million. Overseas markets the US spent decades building are in limbo. Farmers from the rural West to Midwest worry they’ll be bankrupted, NPR reported.
Get My Son’s Hands Off My Son! A mother in Kansas is suing Chaturbate, Jerkmate, Techpump Solutions (Superporn.com), and Titan Websites (Hentai City) in four separate federal suits because her 14-year-old son found an old laptop in her closet and went to town. The woman (Jane Doe) alleges that her son (the masturbator) had “unfettered access” to these sites only because they didn’t adequately verify his age (last year, Kansas passed into law one of the US's most extreme age verification laws). According to the suit, the woman had been vigilant in monitoring her son’s exposure to “harmful material” (gee, you think?). The National Center for Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) is acting as co-counsel. The conservative anti-porn lobbying group has gone after Reddit and Twitter over sexual content and supported a PornHub ban. This case is hilarious, but gosh, poor kid. What are family dinners like after your Mom itemizes your spank bank into a court case?
