Classes Canceled at San Bernardino Elementary School After School Shooting: School officials told The Associated Press that North Park Elementary School, a magnet school, would be closed at least through today or Wednesday following a shooting that took the lives of special education teacher Karen Elaine Smith and 8-year-old Jonathan Martinez on Monday. Another 9-year-old boy is still hospitalized.
Smith Recently Left Her Husband: Smith and Martinez were killed when her husband, Cedric Anderson, opened fire inside Smith’s special needs classroom. They had been married for about two months after being friends for four years. But then things changed, Smith’s mother, Irma Sykes, told The Los Angeles Times. “She found out he was not wonderful at all,” she said. “He had other motives. … She left him and that’s where the trouble began. She broke up with him and he came out with a different personality. She decided she needed to leave him.” Law enforcement officials noted that Anderson had been arrested for domestic violence before he and Smith were married.
A Reminder That Toxic Masculinity Is Real: Heidi Groover wrote this after last year’s shooting in Mukilteo: “More than a third of women in the United States have experienced rape, physical violence, or stalking by an intimate partner at some point in their lifetime, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention—and those rates are higher for women of color and women who are not straight or cisgender. When abusers have access to firearms, the odds are higher that violence will end in death. Women in abusive relationships are five times more likely to die at the hands of their abuser if their abuser has access to a gun, according to a study published in the American Journal of Public Health in 2003.”
Downtown Will Get Denser: The Seattle City Council yesterday unanimously approved an upzone in downtown and South Lake Union, the second upzone that will require developers building taller buildings to also set aside 2 to 5 percent of their buildings as rent-restricted apartments or pay between $5.50 and $13 per square foot into a fund to build affordable housing. Council Member Lisa Herbold attempted to increase the affordability requirements to a minimum of 5 percent, but only Council Member Kshama Sawant joined her in that effort and Herbold’s amendment failed.
Where the City’s New Utility Billing System Went Wrong: The new system, which was launched last year for Seattle City Light and Seattle Public Utilities customers, was “11 months late and about $43 million over budget,” Daniel Beekman reports for The Seattle Times. Recent audit reports cited “unrealistic” scheduling, among other issues.
Fire Destroys a Garage and Damages a Duplex in Renton: The fire broke out around 4 a.m. today. One person “suffered minor burns and was treated at the scene,” KOMO reports. The cause of the fire is unclear, but a neighbor told the news station that “the garage was notorious for housing transients and having drug activity.”
“United We Stand. Divided We Fall. God Bless You. Your Life Matters. Love You. Stay Strong.” This is what Fred Pepper, 67, chants as he walks on N.E. 44th Street overpass in Renton while waving an American flag. Pepper told KING 5 that he does this because “When we hear that — that somebody is going through all that to tell us that our lives matter — I think for a moment they consider it. … I’ve had people tell me that I’m the reason they did not kill themselves.”
The Vietnam veteran, who served in the Navy from 1969 to 1973, said he started the routine years ago to raise awareness about the prevalence of military suicide. The exit number is the same as the ship he said he was stationed on during the Vietnam War, USS Henry B. Wilson DDG-7.
After United Airlines Passenger Is Brutalized On Plane, Kentucky News Outlet Talks About the Man’s Alleged Criminal Past: This does not excuse the fact that while Chicago Department of Aviation officers forcibly removed David Dao, 69, from the plane, he was left bleeding from his mouth. ThinkProgress notes: “Detailing the criminal records of victims of police brutality — especially in cases where the victims are minorities — is a tactic commonly used to explain away police misconduct.”
@courierjournal So not being a perfect human being forfeits your right to be treated with dignity. Ok.
— Angel Jimenez (@angeljimenez) April 11, 2017
And the author of this irrelevant hit piece? And the editor? What do we know about their pasts? https://t.co/o9yyZTR56Y
— Dan Savage (@fakedansavage) April 11, 2017
Pulitzer Prize Winners Announced: Check out the full list of winners here. But here’s a teaser…
Congrats to this year’s Pulitzer Prize winners:
The “Failing” New York Times
The “Phony” Washington Post
The “Left-wing blog” ProPublica
— Jordan Uhl (@JordanUhl) April 10, 2017
