The Stranger’s morning news roundup.

by Rich Smith

The gays win again: Newcastle’s city council voted two weeks ago not to raise a Pride flag at City Hall. At the time, Mayor Robert Clark said raising the flag would lead to a slippery slope—if they raised the Pride flag, then they’d also have to raise the Hamas flag, a MAGA flag, or even an Antifa flag, KOMO reports. After a flood of people spoke up during public testimony and called bullshit, the council reversed that decision in a 4-3 vote Tuesday and the City put the flag up. But before the vote, the mayor railed against the “hate” in the “midst” of the pride movement and registered his staunch opposition to recognizing the ongoing legacy of slavery and Jim Crow in contemporary society as well as any attempts that seek to repair it. 

Cop stops former deputy mayor in what she called a “stop and frisk”: A Seattle police officer stopped former Senior Deputy Mayor Monisha Harrell in Greenwood on Sunday and told her he was checking for stolen vehicles in the area, Publicola reports. Harrell, the mayor’s niece, stepped down in September after reported disagreements with other city leaders about public safety. She says the stop was an example of racial profiling. SPD says the stop was part of the officer’s training and “was made because the [license] plate was obscured by a dark license plate cover,” the department told Publicola.

Mass layoffs at the Everett Herald: The Daily Herald‘s new owners cut more than half of the newsroom’s jobs Wednesday in part of a series of layoffs across Sound Publishing. The company laid off two editors plus 10 reporters, photographers, and designers. The cuts leave just one photographer, no full-time designers or digital staff, and a handful of reporters and editors. Publisher Rudi Alcott claimed “readers won’t notice” changes from the cuts. Lol fuck off. 

🧵(1/5) Today, Carpenter Media Group announced layoffs affecting more than half of newsroom staff @EverettHerald, effective July 1.

This will undoubtedly harm and weaken our newsroom.

Rest assured, we will fight for each and every one of our affected colleagues.

— Everett NewsGuild (@EverettGuild) June 19, 2024

Experts assure us there’s no need to worry about the little earthquakes under Mount St. Helens: Hundreds of small earthquakes below Mount St. Helens signal increasing magma levels beneath our region’s most seismically active volcano, but the United States Geological Survey “emphasized that this increase in activity does not indicate any increased threat or danger associated with the mountain,” KING 5 reports. 

Pierce County deputies shoot, injure man: Deputies shot the man early Wednesday after responding to a call about an argument, though details are unclear. KIRO reports the 911 caller said her brother had a knife, deputies attempted to talk to him, he ran to a shed, and “deputies reported that shots were fired and a man was hit.” The man is now in critical condition.

MAX crash families seek fine, criminal charge against Boeing: Some families of people killed in two Boeing 737 MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019 say federal officials should fine Boeing $24.8 billion and pursue a criminal charge against the company. The ask comes as the Justice Department began reconsidering a prosecution that paused three years ago after Boeing struck a deal to meet certain safety conditions. Federal prosecutors said in May Boeing did not comply with the terms of that agreement. 

The weather: Yesterday was gorgeous, and today will follow suit. Expect highs near 80 in Seattle today through Saturday. 

Seattle is dying: “Rainier Square … saw robust leasing activity in the first quarter as users ate away at more of the 720,000 square feet that Amazon never occupied,” the Puget Sound Business Journal reports. 

kind of remarkable. when amazon chose not to fill rainier square, it felt like the sky might be falling. one pandemic later and it’s one of the more occupied towers in downtown seattle. good find from @MarcStilesPSBJ https://t.co/8dzIhYc3mi

— alex halverson (@AlexPSBJ) June 19, 2024

Holocaust Center for Humanity vandalized: Someone wrote “Genocide in Gaza” on the window of the Holocaust Center in Belltown and the police are now investigating the vandalism as a hate crime, KOMO reports. Quit fucking tagging Jewish institutions; you’re co-opting an anti-genocide movement with antisemitic nonsense. 

43rd Legislative District Dems condemn Democratic Congressman Adam Smith: On a podcast, Rep. Smith called protesters who shouted him down at a recent town hall and others who protested at his house “leftwing fascists” and “totalitarians” who only aim to intimidate and silence those who disagree with them on, you know, not sending weapons to Israel, a country currently slaughtering en masse people it has caged in an open-air prison for years. In a recent meeting, the 43rd LD Dems called bullshit on Smith’s remarks, censured him, and reaffirmed the rights of peaceful protesters. 

Sue Rahr is ready to lead on good vibes: The new interim chief of the Seattle Police Department tells the local Fox affiliate that she’s “getting great ideas from the front line.” Rahr describes herself as a “coach” who doesn’t plan to “strap on a gun belt and pretend that I’m still competent to work the streets” and won’t be extending her six-month stay. 

I really need the polls to do something different:

Donald Trump is currently beating Biden in the polls, despite the fact that his campaign aired no advertisements in May, while the president flooded swing states with propaganda.

And Biden’s air advantage won’t hold: Trump is closing the fundraising gap https://t.co/ygJrEvfZOZ pic.twitter.com/OImfGmHCXT

— Eric Levitz (@EricLevitz) June 19, 2024

Get off of my cloud: Wall Street freaks and Silicon Valley goons obsessed with trying to find One Weird Trick to solve every problem are paying University of Washington scientists to brighten clouds, but earlier this month yet another city told the researchers to leave their clouds the fuck alone, Politico reports. The scientists think brightening the clouds will reflect some sunlight away from the Earth and help reduce global warming, which might be true, but imagine if these philanthropists spent as much money trying to get Congress to pass a Green New Deal as they did on this shit. 

SCOTUS rulings: Today the Supreme Court upheld a tax on unrealized gains, which would be good news for wealth tax supporters if Justice Kavanaugh hadn’t written the opinion so narrowly. In another ruling, the clerics decided that prosecutors can use testimony about what “most people” do against defendants. Many people are saying that’s dumb.  

Anyway, the cases I’m still waiting on are:
Trump immunity, J6 terrorists on obstruction, Chevron deference, Guns for domestic abusers, and how close to death women have to be before they are allowed to receive medical care.

Am I missing anything else big?

— Elie Mystal (@ElieNYC) June 20, 2024

Big news: Lily Munster’s (née Dracula) dental bridge sold at auction. The hot-tempered Munster matriarch’s mouth gear went for $1,040. Halloween is just around the corner. 

These kids don’t need Jesus, they need math teachers: On Wednesday, Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry signed a blatantly unconstitutional law requiring schools to display the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms, the Washington Post reports. The law requires the displays to be “at least eleven inches by fourteen inches,” and schools must use “donated posters or spend donated money, rather than public funds, to purchase the displays.” US News and World Report ranks Louisiana K-12 education as 40th in the country. Landry says he “cant wait” to be sued. 

Moses Ten Commandments – Mel Brooks . . . pic.twitter.com/9CvtE2dvKO

— Funny Video Express (@FunnyVideoXP) April 16, 2024

Draft parity talks reemerge: Members of Congress will mull a Senate proposal to extend the selective service requirement to women, and another proposal to automatically register men between the ages of 18 and 25 for the service, according to the New York Times. Republicans like the latter proposal but don’t like the former. Honestly, making women eligible for the draft and even bringing it back sounds like a good way to make people care about foreign policy in more serious ways and reduce the power of The Blob, which would probably make the world a less violent place. 

Israel v Lebanon war heats up: Yesterday Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah “threatened to invade northern Israel if a full-scale war with Israel broke out,” and Israel said that “operational plans for an offensive in Lebanon had been ‘approved and validated,'” according to the BBC. Hezbollah will stop if Israel signs the ceasefire agreement, but Netanyahu wants more war. A full-scale invasion of Lebanon could draw Iran into the war, which would draw the US into the war even more than we already are, and death and destruction would spread. 

Houthis sink another vessel in the Red Sea: Last week Houthi fighters attacked a Greek ship, and that ship has now sunk, Al Jazeera reports. Houthis have been attacking ships with drones and explosives in an attempt to pressure Israel into agreeing to a ceasefire. They’ve hit some US ships, and in response we’ve conducted 400 airstrikes on Yemen, a strategy that doesn’t appear to be working. 

I leave you with Phil Cordell’s “Red Lady.” Enjoy the sun!

The Stranger