The Stranger’s morning news roundup.

by Nathalie Graham

17-year-old dead after shooting outside Garfield: A lunchtime shooting in the Garfield High School parking lot struck a student multiple times in the chest and abdomen. After being transported to Harborview Medical Center, the student later died from his injuries. According to police, the student attempted to break up a fight and then his assailant pulled a gun on him, shooting him at close range. This is only the latest in shootings around Garfield in the last calendar year. In March, a bullet struck a girl waiting for her bus outside the school. In one instance last October and several times last June, shootings by the school, which did not involve students, put Garfield and its community on high alert. Police are still searching for the suspect in Thursday’s shooting, who they believe to be high-school aged. Garfield will not have classes on Friday or Monday due to Thursday’s events. Friday happens to be Gun Violence Awareness Day. 

Dave Reichert’s coy little nod: The former King County Sheriff and current Republican candidate for governor has avoided saying publicly whether or not he’ll vote for Donald Trump for president, since he wants to capture undecided moderates but also Republicans who would see not voting for Trump as party betrayal. Reichert gave his answer at a private Republican event back in March. When asked if he’d vote for Trump, he said Trump has nicknamed him “Sheriff,” and that he has a signed MAGA hat at home, and then he nodded. A Democratic operative in the audience recorded Reichert’s statements and reported the nod, which the Seattle Times confirmed with other people who were present. Bob Ferguson’s campaign for governor sent the recording to the Times. “Behind closed doors, Dave Reichert unmasks who he really is—just another MAGA hat wearing Trump lover,” Ferguson said. 

Good news for mountain lovers: All you sick fucks who love Mount Rainier are going to be so jazzed these next few days. 

Yes, it is.
We all know the question. More mountain viewing the next couple of days with highs in the mid 70s to lower 80s for the interior. #wawx pic.twitter.com/k3vLOWh0cf

— NWS Seattle (@NWSSeattle) June 7, 2024

No Pride flag for Newcastle: The city council for the suburb of Bellevue and Seattle voted 4-3 Tuesday to not raise a Pride flag for the month of June. Mayor Robert Clark essentially argued that the City’s support for Pride would disservice bigots. And, besides, the American flag is already flying, which is the “most unifying symbol in the history of the world,” he said. “That’s diverse enough for me. That includes everybody in the community, everybody. Nobody is left out with the American flag.” Clark also said that raising the Pride flag would lead to a slippery slope of having to raise other flags, such as MAGA flags or Hamas flags. Quite the cognitive leap to connect Pride, a celebration of LGBTQIA+ people’s existence, with extreme politics. 

Get ready for the newest Seattle Trader Joe’s: According to permit plans, the chain’s newest store will be in Greenwood in the bottom floor of an apartment building at Greenwood Avenue North and North 87th Street. 

Bye, Pat Sajak: The Wheel of Fortune legend is retiring after 41 years of telling people to spin the wheel. Friday’s episode will be his last. And, like, good. Take a break, Pat. Let your cheeks rest after 41 years of smiling that perpetual game show smile. Ryan Seacrest will succeed Pat as Wheel‘s host. 

Good for them: A Seattle couple, Larry R. Dalton and Nicole A. Boand, donated $10 million to the University of Washington School of Nursing. Dalton is a former UW chemistry professor and Boand is a former registered nurse. Look, we have 54,200 millionaires in this city, I think all of them should be funneling some of those millions back into their community, especially if the city or the state refuses to tax their wealth. 

I will take credit for this: Sound Transit finally (mostly) fixed its elevator/escalator breakdown problems. Logically, I know they were probably working on the issue before I wrote about it, but I’m going to inflate the importance of the appropriately dramatic exposé on broken escalators I wrote back in 2018 and say that journalism pressured them into fixing this. 

Saw some incredible data at @SoundTransit Rider Experience Committee just now. Over the past few years, the number of hours that elevators and escalators are out of service in the light rail system have plummeted from 17,100 hours/month to 2,500/month. Really great trend. pic.twitter.com/uMf8gOQ2Aw

— Girmay Zahilay (@GirmayZahilay) June 6, 2024

College essay material: Three boys—two brothers and their cousin—discovered fossilized remains of a young Tyrannosaurus rex while hiking in North Dakota’s Badlands. Young T-rex fossils are rare finds. See what happens when you put your phones away, kids? 

Get your ass to jail, Steve: Former Trump advisor Steve Bannon needs to start serving a four-month sentence by July 1. Bannon defied a House committee’s subpoena for an investigation into the Jan 6 insurrection, and he was convicted by a federal judge Thursday for contempt of Congress. Bannon is not going quietly. He will likely “seek a stay of the judge’s order,” the Associated Press reported. He told reporters, “There’s not a prison built or jail built that will ever shut me up.”

Jobs: Hey, I know you can’t get hired anywhere even though you’ve applied to 1,000 jobs on Indeed, but the jobs report is actually better than forecasted. Employers added what CNN has dubbed “a blockbuster” number of jobs last month—272,000 of them—and unemployment dropped from 4% to 3.9%.

Report Finds Encouraging Rise In Jobs That Involve Torturing Somebody https://t.co/uezS0mPDdC

— The Onion (@TheOnion) June 7, 2024

More comeuppance for bad guys: Alex Jones finally agreed to liquidate his assets so that he can start paying back the families of the Sandy Hook massacre who he spread lies about and to whom he owes a cool $1.5 billion in damages for his defamatory comments. Jones has yet to pay the families any money despite being found liable in 2022. With this liquidation of assets, Jones will no longer own InfoWars, his conspiracy theory empire. 

The US is doing well in the *checks notes* cricket World Cup? The USA’s cricket team just upset the cricket powerhouse Pakistan in this year’s Twenty20 World Cup. That’s all I’ll say about that because I don’t know anything else about cricket despite learning the rules in middle school gym class and watching the Vox Explained episode on the sport multiple times. 

Bird flu watch: Bird flu has made its way into cows. Alarming! Many of the infected cows—though we don’t know the exact number—have died from bird flu infections or have been slaughtered after they did not recover from bird flu symptoms. Even more alarming! In South Dakota on a 1,700-cow dairy farm, 12 infected cows died after being infected, and the farmer slaughtered another 12. A Michigan farm killed 10% of its 200 infected cows after they didn’t recover. Michigan has the most cow infections and is where two of three human dairy workers contracted bird flu.

ICYMI: My newest “Play Date” column came out, and this time it’s also in print! Sexy! I learned how to cheerlead for this one.

Isn’t this the land of the free? A Phish fan has been banned from the Las Vegas Sphere after he filmed what he dubbed the first ever bong rip inside the venue. This pioneer, named Acid Fartz, will now not be able to attend this summer’s Dead & Company show at the Sphere. Free Acid Fartz! Let him drop acid at the Dead show at the Sphere! Hot box the sphere with a thousand bong rips until Acid Fartz’s good name is cleared, damn it. 

A song for your Friday: Charli XCX’s new album, Brat, just came out. Here’s a song off of there. I can’t tell how much I like it yet, but some albums are growers not showers. 

The Stranger

See someone? Say something!

by Anonymous

Beautiful man at LCD Soundsystem show

at the end of the 5/17 LCD Soundsystem show you made your way through the crowd, before leaving you touched my shoulder and said ‘beautiful man’ ❤️

Paper Bag Helmet

I saw you riding your bike down Pike in the rain with a brown paper bag with eye holes over your head. I admire your ingenuity, did you get home safe?

Sculpture Park with big White Husky

Your dog came and said hi to me, you apologized and I smiled at you. I asked your dog’s name, shanoah I think. Wish you would have asked my number.

Saw you at Ballard Wells Fargo

Your voice — it was warm and kind — made me turn my head. And you looked like you might have been a punk rocker 40 years ago, like me!

Quick bite at Crown Hill Dicks with 🇬🇧 Jeans

You: amazing vtg style w/kids in tow Me: the same except amazing style part up for debate We: should meet up? Discuss style tips? Just grab a bite?

Columbia City 6/1, handsome man outside Geraldine’s/jackalope

You: grey hair, messing with your phone. Me: 40s, blond hair in a ponytail walking a big grey dog. We shared a smile and I wished it was more

Smiles and stripes

You were dancing in your own world at Monkey Loft with blue stripes and smiley face elbow patches. We made eye contact but I was too shy to talk.

Main character femm in the wild

You tore up to the bar on a rented scooter, skidded sideways to a stop, jumped off and ran inside. I’m in love with your main character energy.

Is it a match? Leave a comment here or on our Instagram post to connect! 

Did you see someone? Say something! Submit your own I Saw U message here and maybe we’ll include it in the next roundup!

The Stranger

Find the best CBD gummies of 2024. Leafly reviewed popular CBD gummies & chose what we think are the top picks for different needs & budget.

The post Leafly’s top 6 CBD gummies of 2024 appeared first on Leafly.

Leafly

Plus, Bob the Drag Queen and More Event Updates for June 6

by EverOut Staff

Flamboyant singer and cultural icon Cyndi Lauper’s first tour in a decade will also be her final. Nepo baby Gracie Abrams is set to hit the road following the release of her soon-to-be-released second album The Secret of Us. Plus, get ready for Bob The Drag Queen to walk into the Moore Theatre purse first. Read on for details on those and other newly announced events, plus some news you can use.

ON SALE FRIDAY, JUNE 7

MUSIC

ALLEYCVT
The Showbox (Fri Oct 4)

An Evening with Kristin Chenoweth
Pantages Theater (Sat Oct 5)

An Unfunny Evening With Tim Minchin and His Piano
Moore Theatre (Wed Aug 7)

The Stranger

When I picture the kind of community I want to grow old in—the kind of community I want my kid to inherit—this is what I think about.

by Anna Zivarts

Nearly a third of us can’t drive. 

That’s the reality. There are people like me who can’t see well enough to drive, and a lot of other people with all kinds of disabilities–physical, sensory, mental health and chronic health conditions–that make driving unsafe. There are also people who are too young to drive, people who can’t afford to drive, people who don’t know how to drive, including immigrants from other countries where driving wasn’t so wrapped up in notions of adult- and person-hood. And there are people who have aged out of driving: 35 percent of women over the age of 75 don’t drive.

Not being able to drive or afford to drive also impacts younger women. In communities with reliable bus or train systems, these routes and schedules were designed to prioritize the needs of people traveling to and from work. But for many caregivers–a disproportionately high number of whom are women–travel involves lots of other trips beyond the commute: dropping kids off at child care or sports, getting groceries, running errands. For caregivers like me who are unable to drive, what would be a fifteen-minute drive to the dentist becomes a two-and-a-half-hour journey with three bus transfers.

Of course, “nondrivers” isn’t a strict binary. Someone can be a nondriver most days because their household has one car and their partner needs to use it. They can have a chronic health condition that flares up and prevents driving, or they can only safely drive in certain conditions or on certain familiar roads. Or maybe their car is broken and that spare part will have to wait until the next paycheck. 

But the American notion of independence is tightly wrapped up with the idea that driving equals freedom. If you’re too young to drive, just wait. If you’re too poor to drive, you better hustle. And if you’re like the rest of us where driving just isn’t safe, too bad. 

When I talk about how many of us can’t drive, I’ve started to anticipate a lot of pushback. Are there really that many nondrivers? Kids and youth shouldn’t count! They’re not old enough to drive! 

But kids should count—16 is a construct we invented for when we allow people to test for a driver’s license. There’s no magical thing that happens at 16 where a child suddenly emerges from a cocoon and needs to go places. Kids much younger than 16 travel places all the time; we created the school busing system because we recognize we can’t always expect parents to drive them everywhere. 

And when kids can’t safely or comfortably get somewhere on their own, the responsibility of chauffeuring usually falls to moms, eating up their afternoons and weekends. Not every family has the resources or flexibility for this chauffeuring. Research by Rutgers Professor Dr. Kelcie Ralph found that young adults who grew up in a family without a car completed less education, had lower incomes, and faced more unemployment than their peers who were raised in families with consistent car access–even when controlling for family wealth, residential location, family composition and race. Car dependency is bad both for families with car access and for those without. 

Let’s pull back for a moment and consider why there is such resistance to acknowledging that driving doesn’t work for so many of us. 

First off, people who can’t drive or afford to drive are more likely to be Black, brown, and Native American. Decades of structural racism in housing and land-use policies, and a profound underinvestment in transit systems that were seen as primarily serving poor and non-White populations, mean that the transportation options available to people outside of driving are abysmal. 

This bias against nondrivers is even enshrined in state constitutions. From Washington State to Alabama, constitutional amendments adopted in the last century prohibit gas tax revenue (the main transportation funding source) to go to transit. The resulting underinvestment in transit means that in most places in our country, the only way to get places if you can’t drive there yourself is to ask for a ride. 

I think that’s the world my parents envisioned for me as I grew up. I could just ask them for rides. As I got older, I could ask my friends, and then I’d get married and get rides from my spouse. 

If you ask anyone who’s had to rely on favors to get where they need to go, it gets old, fast. In Washington State, our Legislature funded a study about the mobility of nondrivers and the researchers were surprised to find that while relying on rides was a major source of mobility for nondrivers, the emotional burden of asking for those rides was a significant deterrent, especially for women, low-income and disabled people. 

When we insist on visibility as nondrivers, our presence demands a reckoning of the costs and moral efficacy of car dependency. Rather than being ashamed about our disabilities or the lack of resources that prevents us from driving, we should be proud of our status as nondrivers. Instead of a future of congested drive-thrus, oceans of parking lots and freeway-ramp spaghetti nests, our existence tips the scales in favor of communities designed in ways that work better and are healthier for all of us. 

Right now, in most communities in the US, getting a coffee, taking a kid to sports practice, or attending a medical appointment require getting in a vehicle. The distances we need to travel, and the segregation of where we live from where we work, go to school or recreate mean that we are locked into car dependency, whether or not we can afford to drive or are able to. Additionally, even if the distances aren’t too great, the environment for traveling outside a vehicle is too often unsafe and miserable, a maze of missing sidewalks, unsafe crossings, and deafening traffic noise.

What if, instead, there were a coffee shop and a grocery store within walking distance of your home, and to get there you didn’t have to sprint across a multi-lane arterial and trudge to the front door across vacant acres of parking lot? What if the sports field or school wasn’t on the outskirts of town but rather easily accessible by biking paths or the bus so that your seventh grader could get to soccer practice on their own? What if when you wanted to go to the mountains or the beach, you could catch the bus, enjoying the trip with a glass of wine and a good book? When I picture the kind of community I want to grow old in—the kind of community I want my kid to inherit—this is what I think about. 

And it’s not an unachievable dream. We know that our current system of car dependency excludes so many, and pushes up the cost of living so that many more families are teetering on the edge. The good news is that we aren’t locked into it. Over the last century we painted ourselves into this corner, where personal cars became the only option for access. Over the next hundred years, guided by the vision of nondrivers, we can paint ourselves out, bit by bit, creating communities where cars aren’t necessary. 

Anna Zivarts is a low-vision parent, nondriver, and author of When Driving Is Not an Option: Steering Away from Car Dependency (Island Press, 2024). Anna launched the Week Without Driving challenge and directs the Disability Mobility Initiative at Disability Rights Washington, where she organizes to bring the voices of nondrivers to the planning and policy-making tables. Anna sits on the board of the League of American Bicyclists and serves as a member of the Transportation Research Board’s Committee on Public Health and Transportation. 

The Stranger

A double dose of Biscotti is just what your next sunny afternoon ordered.

The post ILGM+ Phylos Bioscience help you find your Biscotti Bliss—June 2024’s Leafly HighLight appeared first on Leafly.

Leafly

Marination, Frelard Tamales, and More

by EverOut Staff

Happy Pride Month! It’s a great time to think about how you can put some of your hard-earned dollars toward supporting local LGBTQ-owned businesses, both while you’re out and about this June and all year long. From Frelard Tamales to Marination, we’ve rounded up some of our favorite queer-owned bars, restaurants, and cafes in Seattle. For more ideas, check out our food and drink guide.

A La Mode Pies
Owned by Chris Porter, “Seattle’s premier pie bakery” serves up flaky creations in flavors like spiced apple, Blue Hawaiian, key lime, Mexican chocolate mousse, strawberry rhubarb, raspberry crumble, sour cherry, banana cream, and toasted coconut.
Ballard, Phinney Ridge, West Seattle

The Stranger

This Tropical Syrup Will Give Relief From Summer Colds

They are the worst and can spoil the fun, but this tropical syrup will give relief from summer colds!

The post This Tropical Syrup Will Give Relief From Summer Colds appeared first on The Fresh Toast.

The Fresh Toast

The Stranger’s morning news roundup.

by Hannah Krieg

Weather: Good morning. Thanks for being here. Let me tell you a little bit about the weather before we get too rowdy, okay? Okay. So, according to the National Weather Service, Slog readers who live or work in Seattle can expect sunny skies and a high of 69 degrees (haha, sex number). The warm weather will continue through the weekend.

But wait: I hate to yuck your yum if you are excited about the sunny day ahead, but climate change is bruuuuuutaaaaaaaallllll. Yesterday, United Nations Secretary General António Guterres delivered a speech in New York, saying we are at a dangerous tipping point in the climate catastrophe. Guterres said, “We are playing Russian roulette with our planet” and “we need an exit ramp off the highway to climate hell.” This comes after hitting a “shocking” new milestone—12 consecutive months of unprecedented heat. Yikes! 

Ceasefire long overdue: Early this morning, Israel launched airstrikes at a UN school where displaced Palestinians were taking shelter from the bombardments in Israel’s ongoing genocide. Israel killed at least 40 Palestinians, including many children, according to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital. The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) claimed that Hamas was hiding in the school, but like usual, they did not provide any proof of their claim. According to IDF spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner, he’s “not aware of civilian casualties” and he’s telling media not to believe death counts from Gaza sources. With all the bullshit the Israeli government spews about how there’s no “innocent civilians” in Gaza, no one should trust that the IDF is being selective about which Palestinians they kill. 

Israeli forces have bombed a UN-linked school in central Gaza, killing many forcibly displaced Palestinians and injuring dozens more, according to officials and local media. pic.twitter.com/QvrGqcdwih

— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) June 6, 2024

Ethic schmethics: Council Member Tanya Woo, after hearing advice from Seattle Ethics and Elections Committee Director Wayne Barnett to recuse herself from a controversial vote to roll back the minimum wage for gig workers, sought a “second opinion” from the whole committee. In a meeting yesterday, most of the committee agreed that she had a financial interest in the bill because of her father-in-law’s restaurant, but they did not act. Barnett told me that means the committee left his opinion in place. According to Seattle Times reporter David Kroman, Woo said she was hoping for more clarity in the commission meeting. He tweeted that Woo is “‘leaning’ one direction but needs more time to consider.” If she recuses herself, the bill is pretty clearly dead.

The commission didn’t take any action. They mostly agreed that Woo should recuse but not unanimously. I talked to Woo afterward who said she was hoping for more clarity. She said she’s “leaning” one direction but needs more time to consider https://t.co/ja66xKNTIk

— David Kroman (@KromanDavid) June 5, 2024

Kent update: As I reported earlier this week, the City of Kent did not sweep an encampment of more than 200 migrants on Tuesday, despite getting the go-ahead from King County. The County told Kent that they wouldn’t send King County sheriffs to help, so Kent backed off, telling press they wouldn’t sweep without the sheriff’s office support. The County told me yesterday morning that “If Kent is no longer planning to enforce their request, then the County will not enforce the trespass but will continue our work with the organizations we have funded to do outreach to asylees.” So, the encampment and the migrants who live there are in limbo again. The Seattle Times has more. 

Speaking of sweeps: Seattle loves them!

NEW: Seattle’s $26.6 million Unified Care Team carried out more than 2,800 sweeps in 2023, a three-fold increase from 2022. For @RealChangeNews, I investigated the city’s policy of systemic displacement and dislocation against its homeless residents.https://t.co/tH81Pt8kH0

— Guy Oron (@GuyOron) June 5, 2024

I hate them so bad: Senate Republicans killed the Right to Contraception Act, which Democrats designed to protect access to birth control and help them win favor with voters heading into an election. The Democrats also plan to vote on a package of legislation to protect IVF next week. Good luck with that!

We are here and we are queer: Hey! We wrote a bunch of gay stuff for Pride month, put it in a print edition, and now we want you to go find it in the wild and read it. Have fun!

Our 2024 Queer Issue has landed!

Given Seattle Pride’s 50th anniversary, in our first print Queer Issue since COVID-19, we decided to focus on that future rather than dwell on our past. pic.twitter.com/nTVtZ7sYSW

— The Stranger 🗞 (@TheStranger) June 5, 2024

Mr. Trump: In a new order filed Wednesday, a Georgia appeals court indefinitely paused former President Donald Trump’s election subversion case. According to CNN, this amounts to a massive victory for Trump (who is looking for a W after he got convicted on 34 felony counts last week lol) because the decision probably pushed the issue until after the election this November. 

Also: Trump may not be allowed to carry a gun in New York soon. 

More Trump: Okay, last thing I promise. All the national news girlies are speculating about who Trump may select to be his VP, an interesting job to fill given how he probably would have let his supporters hang the last guy he picked. It looks like Trump’s narrowed his search to four dudes: North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, Florida Senator Marco Rubio, South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, and Ohio Senator JD Vance. Trump has requested documents from all of them, which is part of the selection process. But other rumors insist the former president already ruled out Vance, or that Trump will most likely pick Scott. A senior campaign manager is trying to keep the mystery alive. He said, “Anyone claiming to know who or when President Trump will choose his VP is lying, unless the person is named Donald J. Trump.” 

In honor of her upcoming album: This is the best Charli XCX song, hands down. When you are older and we go get drunk at a dive bar on a weeknight, I will tell you why this song hits me as hard as it does. I am so soft.

The Stranger