City Will Defend Kshama: In her second defamation suit. In this one, the two police officers who shot and killed Che Taylor last year take issue with City Council Member Kshama Sawant’s characterization of the shooting as a “brutal murder” during a rally. An inquest jury later found that the officers had believed Taylor had posed an immediate threat of death or serious injury before they shot. Council president Bruce Harrell explained his decision to defend Sawant in a seven-page letter that describes Sawant’s words as part of a larger point about police reform and accountability. The statements, Harrell wrote, “are consistent with policy positions that she has taken on behalf of her constituents.”
Resident Orcas Will Probably Go Extinct Within a Century: Unless we do something about it. That’s the finding from a new report that examined the threats to the survival of local orcas over the last 40 years. The biggest problem the study identified was lack of Chinook salmon in local waters, then pollution, and noisy vessel traffic throughout Puget Sound. “Lower abundance of salmon in a sea noisy from vessel traffic means the whales must forage longer to find their food — even as chinook populations also are declining,” Seattle Times environment reporter Lynda Mapes writes. “And if they can’t get enough to eat they burn their own fat, laden with chemicals stored in their tissue, absorbed from pollutants in the waters of the Salish Sea.”
New Group Endorses Teresa Mosqueda for Position 8 in City Council Race: The group—made up of former mayoral candidate and state legislator Jessyn Farrell, the C is for Crank’s Erica Barnett, Transportation Choices executive director Shefali Ranganathan, former congressional candidate and state representative Brady Walkinshaw, former Ed Murray speech writer and PubliCola founder Josh Feit, Sightline’s Keiko Budech, poet and writer Elisa Chavez, political consultant Nicole Willis, The Washington Bus executive director Emilio Garza, and director of King County’s Human Resources Division David Sarju—is protesting the Seattle Times and Stranger endorsements of Jon Grant. Read more here.
Group Mails Names, Addresses of Alleged Undocumented Immigrants in Burien: That group is Respect Washington, which is primarily funded by anti-immigrant organization and white nationalist publisher US Inc. “The flier, which apparently went out to thousands of people living in the suburb of Burien, includes a map where undocumented immigrants are said to live,” Crosscut reports.
GOP State Legislators Request Info About Attorney General’s Trump Lawsuits: They’re wondering how much the 17 lawsuits cost.
King County Prosecutors Won’t Charge Eastlake Shooting Officers—For Now: Prosecutors sent the case back for further investigation, the<a href=”
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/crime/prosecutors-tentatively-decline-to-charge-seattle-police-officers-in-eastlake-shooting/”> Seattle Times’ Steve Miletich writes.
Here’s Some Video of Workers Illegally Dumping Waste onto the Ground at Hanford: The workers were contractors at Washington River Protection Solutions, the main company hired to manage the millions of gallons of radioactive, toxic waste at Hanford.
15 More Foster Care Beds Disappear in South King County: Which means that children may be forced to stay in hotels or offices until they can find families to take them in.
