The Stranger’s morning news roundup.

by Vivian McCall

Trust the process? After months of meetings with queer activists and neighbors to hash out a policy that works for everyone, Seattle’s gay nude beach, Denny Blaine, isn’t getting new rules after all. They tried, but the proposal for nude and clothed areas went over poorly. (If you want a recap, I wrote the whole story in our recent Pride issue.) Still, something could come from all this. In a blog post, the Department of Parks and Recreation wrote that they’re planning to improve the park’s staircases in the near future, and that it may study long-term improvements such as restrooms and additional parking.

That ransomware attack hit the library hard: Systems are still not a ‘go‘ more than two weeks after someone cyber-attacked the Seattle Public Library. The library won’t give details on the attack but said it is working with outside organizations specializing in forensics and recovery. Digital materials and services, including e-books and audio-books, remain unavailable. The Wi-Fi still isn’t working, either.

Just so we’re clear: Whether or not the US Supreme Court soon rules that federal law requires hospitals to provide emergency abortions, Washington already ensures that they do. Gov. Jay Inslee explained at a Tuesday news conference that our state laws around emergency services pertain to abortion, and he’s directing the state Department of Health to write a rule clarifying that fact.

Cop who hit guy once bragged about how hard he hits: Sergeant Nathan Patterson, one of the two officers caught on video late last month beating an arson suspect, has a history of complaints and lawsuits. Back in 2012, Patterson was videotaped whacking another person with his baton so hard that it broke, and when asked if he was proud of that, he said he was. Ashley wrote more on Patterson here.

This is huge. Sgt. Nathan Patterson is like the poster child for police brutality at SPD, and he supervises officers in the city’s most diverse precinct. https://t.co/zNAvaiYMY3

— DivestSPD (@DivestSPD) June 11, 2024

New leopards just dropped: Snow leopard parents Marai, 7, and Aibek, 6, welcomed three adorable little cubs into the world on Memorial Day, and we’re just finding out about it. Because they’re born eyes-shut and helpless, they’ll be penned in with their mom Marai in a private but camera-monitored maternity den for the next few months. They’ll be introduced to solid food and the outdoor exhibit at the end of summer. While it’s pretty heteronormative of the snow leopards to gloat about their straight family during Pride month, we’ll let it pass because they’re cute and there are only between 4,000 and 6,390 wild snow leopards in the world.

Shameless self-promotion: If you do go to the zoo to see the cubs in three months or so, you might as well throw some fish at Woodland’s hungry, hungry penguins while you’re there, or try one of The Stranger’s 98 other suggestions for How To Seattle before an earthquake rends the PNW to pieces.

Bruce Harrell spoke to parents at Garfield High: Garfield students returned to school yesterday morning, days after someone shot and killed their classmate, 17-year-old Amarr Murphy-Paine, in the parking lot. The Mayor joined Principal Tarance Hart for a special early-morning orientation to reassure parents they’d keep their kids safe for the last nine days of school. Harrell said the City was devoting additional resources to “get to the bottom of it.” No one has been arrested for the killing.

The Sandy Hook shooting survivors are graduating high school this year: Nearly twelve years ago, 60 of the 330 seniors graduating from Newtown High in Connecticut lived through one of the deadliest school shootings in US history. A man with a gun stalked the halls of their school, killing 20 of their classmates and six teachers. The Associated Press spoke to five of them about leaving the “bubble” of their hometown, which has protected them from the outside world. It breaks your heart to know what they live with, and it’s even worse knowing we’ve done almost nothing to stop it from happening again.

The sandy hook survivors graduating high school this year is such a head fuck. Nothing has changed ever since they had to witness that senseless carnage.

— Ashley Reese (@offbeatorbit) June 12, 2024

Gaza death toll hits 37,200: This is according to the latest figures from the Gazan Health Ministry. Thousands more uncounted dead are believed to be buried underneath the rubble of destroyed buildings. The number of wounded rose to 84,932. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said there’s no guarantee the pending ceasefire deal will come through.

ICYMI: A jury found Hunter Biden committed three felonies when he lied about his drug use on a background check form and possessed a gun while addicted to said drugs. He could face 25 years in prison and a $750,000 fine at sentencing, but he likely won’t receive the maximum penalty as a first-time offender.

Speaking candidly: A woman posing as a Catholic conservative caught Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito saying on a surreptitious audio recording that compromise between the American left and right may be impossible at this point. He then agreed when she said the nation should instead return to a place of godliness. Chief Justice Roberts didn’t take the bait, and he pushed back when she said the court was obligated to lead our “Christian nation” on a more “moral path.”

We’re at the COVID shot, we’re at the flu shot, we’re at the combination COVID-flu shot: Data shows that Moderna’s combined flu-COVID mRNA vaccine not only works but works better for older adults than separate shots. While promising, this information should be taken with a grain of salt, as the results of Moderna’s clinical trial have not been peer reviewed or published in a medical journal.

Chiquita held liable for Colombian murders: A jury in South Florida says the multinational banana grower is liable for the deaths of eight farmers and civilians killed by a far-right paramilitary group the company helped finance from 1997 to 2004. The company has faced hundreds of suits like it, but this is the first time Chiquita has been found culpable. The company plans to appeal, but experts say it’s significant. In cases where a corporation is held liable for deaths in the politically destabilized regions in which they operate, juries rarely side with victims.

Hundreds of US cops have abused children: A Washington Post investigation revealed that 1,800 state and local law enforcement officers were charged with sex crimes involving children between 2005 and 2022, and the criminal justice system enabled them every step of the way. Police and sheriff’s departments botched background checks and mishandled investigations. Cops used their knowledge of the legal system to stall cases and evade convictions. Prosecutors offered generous plea deals to admitted child rapist cops. Judges let cops off easy, allowing them to avoid prison time. You can read all about it right here.

Orcas could have done the funniest thing for Pride: Unfortunately, they’re very rare that far down the Atlantic coast.

‘Harry Potter’ author J.K. Rowling’s yacht anchored off James Island https://t.co/Rshz6RJvzA

— The Post and Courier (@postandcourier) June 10, 2024

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