Kshama Sawant is now facing two defamation lawsuits.
Kshama Sawant is now facing two defamation lawsuits. City of Seattle

It's Up to Bruce Harrell: To decide whether the city will defend Seattle City Council Member Kshama Sawant against two defamation lawsuits—one from Carl Haglund, who Sawant called a "slumlord," and another from the two police officers who fatally shot Che Taylor last year. (The officers say Sawant defamed them when she called the shooting of Taylor a "brutal murder.") Litigation costs for the city could reach $300,000, the Seattle Times reports.

Even Tech Workers Can't Afford Seattle Homes: One 30-year-old tech worker told the Seattle Times that he and his wife had been saving up to buy a home while renting for the last two years, but had fallen behind instead. “Where do I have to be in my career in the Seattle market to be able to afford something?” Colin Perez said. “I’m 30 now; if I wait until I’m 40, is it even going to be affordable? You can’t catch up.”


Authorities Arrest a Lakewood Man Who Allegedly Threatened to Commit a "Las Vegas" Mass Shooting: The arrest followed a car chase down I-5 in Cowlitz County. He was not armed, but police "haven’t determined whether he has access to firearms," KING 5 reports.

Malheur Militia Occupier Wants to Delay Trial Because of the Las Vegas Shooting: "[Ryan] Payne, who was present at the standoff and also pleaded guilty for his role in the 2016 armed occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon, is asking Judge Gloria Navarro for a delay until the end of this month or move the trial to Reno," KNKX reports. "In the motion, his attorneys argue that Sunday's shooting has already prompted a broader discussion about guns 'with much negative attention focused on a perceived laxity of gun laws and on persons who choose to bear and carry high-powered firearms, which is legal in Nevada.'"

Police Say a 13-Year-Old Fatally Shot a 14-Year-Old in Everett: A mentor to the 14-year-old says she is frustrated by "negative assumptions" about the shooting victim. "I'm scared because he grew up in an impoverished neighborhood and because he was a kid of color that people are going to make assumptions that he was someone that he wasn't and we do that in our community," Joy Galindo told KING 5. "He was a good boy. He was a smart boy; he was a giving boy."

State Legislators Are Investigating Sound Transit: Lawmakers, particularly Senate Republicans, are upset about car tab fees, which they say could be miscalculated, and Sound Transit's campaign advocacy before voters approved ST3.

The Seattle Times Editorial Board Outdoes Itself: On Thursday, the Ed Board wondered if, because the Washington State Department of Ecology concluded that a massive coal export facility on the Columbia River would be a bad idea, Ecology would be "morphing into an exuberant, job-killing agency." Wow, guys.


Hollywood Producer Harvey Weinstein Piled Up Decades of Sexual Harassment Allegations: This is one of the two big stories making the rounds on the Internet. This BuzzFeed story on how Trump officials and sympathetic media helped slip white nationalism into the mainstream is the other. Weinstein allegedly invited women to his hotel room, where he asked them to watch him take a shower or give him a massage. "Across the years and continents, accounts of Mr. Weinstein’s conduct share a common narrative: Women reported to a hotel for what they thought were work reasons, only to discover that Mr. Weinstein, who has been married for most of three decades, sometimes seemed to have different interests," the New York Times reports. Read the whole thing. This kind of behavior more common than you think.

The Firm That Installed the "Fearless Girl" Statue Underpaid Black, Women Execs, Government Says: The State Street Corporation will pay $5 million to settle claims with the Department of Labor that it paid a "statistically significant" amount less to black and women executives. The financial services company denies any wrongdoing.

Jeff Sessions Issues Guidance on "Religious Liberty": "Attorney General Jeff Sessions instructed federal agencies and attorneys on Friday to protect religious liberty in a broad, yet vague, guidance memo that critics fear could give people of faith — including government workers and contractors — a loophole to ignore federal bans on discrimination against women and LGBT people," BuzzFeed reports.