Grieving for Tommy Le: Nearly two months after a King County Sheriff's deputy fatally shot 20-year-old Le in Burien, Le's family and community gathered at the Buddhist Co Lam Pagoda in Rainier Valley to mourn him. "If he were still alive, he would want to take care of grandma,â Le's aunt, Xuyen, told Crosscut's Lilly A. Fowler.
.@LillyAFowler and I attended a funeral for #TommyLe in Seattle last Sunday, 49 days after being killed by sheriff: https://t.co/srZpqjKAmK pic.twitter.com/MWW9VKBIt3
â Matt M. McKnight (@mattmillsphoto) August 10, 2017
A New Effort to Help People Struggling with Homelessness: Seattle City Council member Mike O'Brien's proposed legislation that would exempt people living in their cars from paying parking tickets or being towed "for one year if they enrolled in a diversion program to connect them to social services," Heidi Groover reported. And even though penalizing people living in their vehicles with tickets and towing can plunge individuals even further into homelessness with no connection to social services, NIMBYS are already freaking out. Surprise!
Portland Pays Inmates $1 Per Day to Sweep Homeless Encampments: Like Seattle, Portland is also navigating a homeless emergency under pressure from its own NIMBYs. However, having men who are incarcerated in the county jail, some of who were once homeless themselves, "sweep" tents from roadsides is especially cruel, the Guardian reports. Inmate work crew that once tended land along highways owned by the Oregon Department of Transportation "now focus exclusively on homeless camps," a department representative told reporters. "You looked in there, and the bed was all made, and family pictures, and that was someoneâs home,â Jeff Nelson, a member of an inmate work crew, told the Guardian. âAnd they made us take that down, and throw it in the fucking trash. And itâs like, what are you doing? ... Itâs just straight up bullshit, but thatâs the way the system rolls, and we have no choice [but] to roll with the system.â
A Morning Discovery: Seattle Police found an adult man's body in Salmon Bay early this morning. The King County Medical Examiner will determine a cause of death.
Well, Shit: Anyone hoping to cool off on the Eastside this weekend should stay away from Kirkland's Juanita Beach Park due to high levels fecal coliform bacteria in the water. The park will be closed for "at least a week," KOMO reports.
Semi Truck Overturns on I-90 in Central Washington and Spills... Lots of corn.
Number of Drug-Related Deaths in King County in 2016: A record-breaking 332, according to a recent study from University of Washington.
Speaking of the Opioid Crisis: President Donald Trump announced yesterday that he plans to declare the opioid crisis a "national emergency."
And Speaking of Trump: White House staffers don't know how to spell "opioid."
so, iâm waiting for trumpâs opioid briefing to start and just noticed ⌠the white house spelled opioid wrong pic.twitter.com/nyCvLlOp4Y
â kelly cohen (@politiCOHEN_) August 8, 2017
The New B-Word Is "Bubble": As home prices skyrocket, 71 percent of adults across Washington State are worried about a housing bubble, according to a new national survey.
Want a Free Tree? Applications are open for Seattle's Trees for Neighborhoods program. You must apply by Monday, August 14. The deets are here.
Take a Break from News to Learn Some LGBTQ+ History: Actress and activist Laverne Cox teaches us about the long fight for transgender rights. Watch the beautifully illustrated video, below.