The Stranger’s morning news roundup.

by Nathalie Graham

Top UN Court says stop: The United Nation’s International Court of Justice has ordered Israel to immediately stop its military actions in Rafah, the southern Gaza enclave where over one million Palestinians have sought refuge. Israel will likely ignore this order. The ICJ has no way to enforce it. Still, it is a symbolic moment that will widen the gulf between the countries condemning Israel’s actions and those, like the big dumb United States, that continue to stand beside Israel and willfully ignore genocide. More than 35,000 Gazans have been killed in this war so far.

Mary Jane goes mainstream: New numbers show more Americans are smoking weed daily than they are drinking alcohol daily. As of 2022, an estimated 17.7 million people said they smoked weed daily or near-daily, a number that trumped the reported 14.7 million daily alcohol drinkers. Don’t get it twisted, though, alcohol use hasn’t declined in the US; marijuana is just more popular than ever, and people have gotten into the ganja habit. Some more stats for the curious.

Group says legal claims against SPD chief are “mutiny:” A trio of police advocates held a news conference Thursday denouncing a string of legal claims and accusations alleging racial and gender discrimination as well as retribution from the Seattle Police Department and SPD Chief Adrian Diaz. The three women of color, whose names I’ll copy and paste from the Seattle Times, included “Victoria Beach, a Seattle Police Department employee who chairs the department’s African American Community Advisory Council; the Rev. Harriett Walden, founder of Mothers for Police Accountability; and Carmen Martinez, a South Park youth advocate and the Latino advisory liaison with the Police Department.” Hosting the news conference because Diaz can’t “speak for himself,” the women said the complaints against the chief were a result of racism and a mutiny. 

Another human catches bird flu: A Michigan dairy farm worker is officially the second human to catch bird flu after working around cows infected with the disease. Bird flu does not easily jump to humans unless they are exposed to infected animals. The worker’s case was supposedly mild and he has now recovered. He first noticed symptoms when he felt “a gritty feeling” in his eye. Health officials don’t know whether he was wearing eye protection while working with the cows. I’m haunted by even the idea of a disease worming its way inside his body via his eyeball. The good news is (and I’m crossing my fingers here) there are still no signs that the virus is spreading among people. It continues to spread among the nation’s cows, however. 

May showers: Sorry, it’ll be soggy for the majority of your Memorial Day Weekend, Seattle. It’s not summer yet, and don’t you forget it, says Mother Nature. Maybe… you deserve this? Maybe… it’s personal? Best to read into it.  

5:30 AM | Wet and unsettled conditions return as radar shows light showers moving into the region this morning ahead of the next weather system. Showers will continue to push inland through the day today. #wawx pic.twitter.com/G0Tj4VorOi

— NWS Seattle (@NWSSeattle) May 24, 2024

Farmworkers die in Idaho crash: Last Saturday, a pickup truck crossed the centerline on US Highway 20 and struck a van carrying 15 migrant farm workers. The crash killed six people, all agricultural workers from Mexico here on H-2A Temporary Agricultural Worker visas. Nine others, including the pickup’s driver, were hospitalized with injuries. 

Triple Bob headache continues: Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mark Mullet is causing a big stink about fellow candidate Attorney General Bob Ferguson—Mullet’s main competition in the primary—sending a letter to the Secretary of State Steve Hobbs concerning the two other Bob Fergusons who entered the race earlier this month. Though the faux Bobs have since dropped out after threat of legal retribution, Mullet is all mad because, before the issue was rectified, the Original Bob Ferguson requested Hobbs help differentiate the Bobs by listing their professions next to their name. OG Bob also requested the order of the names on the ballot be changed—the Imposter Bobs (ImBobsters? [Eds note: Yes.]) were second and third, and OG Bob was 13th. Mullet thinks this was all bad form and wants everyone to know because he needs any help he can get to be relevant in this race. 

Heartbreaking stuff: The man killed in the Capitol Hill light rail station stabbing earlier this month was Harry’s Fine Foods chef Corey Evan Bellett, 37. Bellett was a newlywed of five months to another Seattle-area chef. His death appears to have been an act of violence that occurred when Bellett brushed past two men on the escalator. The men then instigated a fight and one allegedly stabbed Bellett multiple times with a boxcutter. Bellett’s accused murderer has been charged with second-degree murder and intimidating a witness.  Bellett leaves behind his wife, their three pets, their plans to open up a restaurant in Bend, OR, and his parents. 

Happy 70th birthday, Brown v. Board of Education, Clarence Thomas hates you: On Thursday, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, criticized the landmark ruling and said the court overstepped when it banned separating students in schools by race. The historic ruling occurred 70 years ago last week. Thomas rebuked Brown in a concurrence opinion that allowed South Carolina to keep using a congressional map that discriminated against Black residents. Thomas, notably, replaced Thurgood Marshall on the Court, the first Black justice and the lead lawyer on the Brown case. 

RIP, legend: The face of the “Doge” meme, a Shiba inu named Kabosu, is dead. She was 18 years old. Rest easy, queen. 

The Doge Meme dog, Kabosu has died.

She was 18 years old. pic.twitter.com/ScMhYn2kuF

— Dexerto (@Dexerto) May 24, 2024

Cop who arrested golf star didn’t have body cam on: Top golfer Scottie Scheffler was arrested last week for driving through an area where police were investigating a pedestrian death. Police arrested Scheffler, who was trying to get into a golf tournament next to the scene, and charged him with “felony second-degree assault on a police officer, along with lesser charges of third-degree criminal mischief, reckless driving and disregarding signals from officers directing traffic,” according to NBC News. There is a lack of evidence around the arrest, largely because the arresting officer never turned on his body cam. 

Biggest hurricane season ever: National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration just issued its highest-ever forecast for an impending hurricane season. The coming months, NOAA says, will be “exceptionally busy.” NOAA predicts between eight to 13 hurricanes this season and up to 25 named storms, or, in other words, storms with winds of at least 35 mph. With record-breaking hot Atlantic temperatures and a likely La Niña system on the way, things could be pretty bad. Meanwhile, Florida is in the process of scrubbing references to climate change from all of its legislation. Will denial protect them from being battered by record-breaking storms? I doubt it!

Super Size Me guy is dead: Documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock, known for making a film about the effects of eating only McDonalds for a month, is dead at 53. He died from cancer.  

Landslide in Papua New Guinea: A landslide in a Papua New Guinea village killed more than 100 people, initial reports estimate. The land gave way at around 3 am, swallowing buildings and roads with rocks and trees. 

A long read for your Friday: Would you ever go surfing in a mall?

And a song for you, because you deserve it: 

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