The Navy is polluting Puget Sound: According to Attorney General Bob Ferguson, the Navy fucked up Puget Sound by emptying about 50 truckloads of hazardous toxic waste into it. In 2017, the Navy was cleaning up decommissioned vessels. It scraped all the paint off one of them into Sinclair Inlet. That's a violation of federal and state laws! Coming from a federal agency! We are doomed. Save us, Bob.
We're going to get that streetcar! As long as we get $285 million to fund it! Mayor Jenny Durkan has decided to go forward with the downtown streetcar—the Center City Connector—after months of head scratching and thumb twiddling. The whole problem with this shit show of a project is that the price has changed at least three times. The first estimated cost in 2015 put the tab at $143 million. David Kroman has more here.
Food benefits coming early for Washington state: Because of the government shutdown, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program recipients will receive their benefits for February by January 20th. That's earlier than usual. It's not clear whether SNAPS will be funded in March. The government shutdown makes that uncertain.
Speaking of the shutdown: It's expected to at least last through January.
It's infuriating, but here's where we are:
McConnell won't call a vote on the House-passed bills to reopen the government because he knows they will pass the Senate too. And Republicans' #1 priority isn't ending the shutdown, it's staying on Trump's good side.
— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) January 17, 2019
House has adjourned, no legislative business on tap till Tuesday night. Senate has no votes scheduled till end of January.
Everyone is on 24-hr notice in case there's a deal, but increasingly looks as if shutdown goes till end of January. At least.
— Paul Kane (@pkcapitol) January 17, 2019
The Stranger won an lawsuit! Former Stranger News Editor Steven Hsieh looked into secret surveillance tools the police use. They can easily demand that communication providers like Twitter or Google disclose your location data, your call history, and even your e-mail records. In 2017, Hsieh found that there was no clear method for the public to track how often authorities use these surveillance processes in Seattle. So, we took them to court, with immense help from the Electronic Frontier Foundation and free legal work from Dorsey and Whitney. Today, we can claim a victory. In response to The Stranger’s petition, the United States Attorney’s Office for Western District of Washington and the Clerk of the Court have launched a new pilot program for tracking these surveillance tools.
Where are our salmon runs? They're still in decline! According to a report from Gov. Jay Inslee's Salmon Recovery Office, most parts of the state salmon levels are below ideal recovery rates, reports KING5. Salmon recovery organizations are in need of more money.
Oh, did you forget it was still winter? Weather is returning.
Friday night plans? I'll spare the crying-laughing emoji.
It'll get quite windy Friday night — stronger than this evening. We'll have gusts in the 30+mph range this evening and tonight. 40+ in many spots tomorrow evening and tomorrow night. #wawx pic.twitter.com/70PWt3jKej
— Morgan Palmer (@MorganKIRO7) January 18, 2019
Get your bitcoin at your local Coinstar: Get some cryptocurrency at your local grocery store Coinstar! You can't turn coins into bitcoin, confusingly. But, you can turn cash into bitcoin! It's unclear how many Coinstar machines will offer this function, but it will be available in California, Texas, and Washington.
Is this the Bird Box Challenge?
Police chase in Dallas features a suspect driving a car that has the hood up flat against the windshield pic.twitter.com/QRcMH4Z7VA
— Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) January 17, 2019
California is getting pounded by heavy rain: That means mudslides and floods! Especially in places that were burnt. Check out this rescue from the surging San Gabriel River:
VIDEO: SWIFT WATER RESCUE. N Peck Rd x San Gabriel River, #LASD Air Rescue inserts LASD SEB Tactical Medics to perform a hoist rescue of person caught in the rising river. Saving lives priority 1! pic.twitter.com/FG8ibv7Zfk
— LA County Sheriff's (@LASDHQ) January 18, 2019
Trump retaliates after Pelosi threatens to cancel State of the Union: On Wednesday, Nancy Pelosi threatened to cancel Trump's State of the Union address in a letter. The White House didn't respond immediately. Today, Trump sent a letter of his own to Pelosi. It postponed her trip to go overseas and visit troops. Congress members were on the bus to the air base when they found out.
Family separation at the border may have been worse than we thought! Thousands of more children were probably separated at the border by the Trump Administration than previously reported. That's because before the family separation policy was officially instituted in 2018, there were sharp increases of children at the border in 2017. The practice of family separation was probably occurring then and the estimate of separated children is likely thousands more than originally thought. The number is unknown.