Trump’s New Muslim Ban Begins at 5 p.m. PST: Visa applicants, including refugees, from Syria, Sudan, Somalia, Libya, Iran and Yemen must prove they have a “bona fide relationship” with a close family member or business entity. But the definition of a “close” family member is mystifying. “They must prove a relationship with a parent, spouse, child, adult son or daughter, son-in-law, daughter-in-law or sibling already in the United States to be eligible,” The Associated Press reports. “Grandparents, grandchildren, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, cousins, brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law, fiancees or other extended family members are not considered to be close relations, according to the guidelines that were issued in a cable sent to all U.S. embassies and consulates late on Wednesday.” People whose visas have already been approved are exempt from the ban.
Only in America is your grandmother not a bona fide relationship. #MuslimBan #NoMuslimBanEVER #thisisnotnormal
— Faiza N. Ali (@faiza_n_ali) June 29, 2017
Washington State Legislators Have a Budget Deal: The details, including plans to fully fund public schools to comply with McCleary, won’t come to light until about noon today, Melissa Santos and Walker Orenstein report for The News Tribune. If Governor Jay Inslee doesn’t sign the budget into law by midnight tonight, a full or partial shutdown of government agencies will be triggered.
Seattle’s Growing Faster Than All of King County’s Suburbs: Last year, Seattle added 20,847 people, while King County suburbs, combined, added just 14,867 people—”the first time that’s happened since the U.S. Census Bureau began producing annual population estimates in 2000,” reports Gene Balk for The Seattle Times.
A Race to Address Homelessness: Seattle Mayor Ed Murray, in partnership with the city’s Human Services Department, recently offered up $30 million in a request for proposals for homeless services contracts. “More than half will go toward emergency shelters, about a quarter will go to outreach, diversion and permanent supportive housing,” David Kroman reports for Crosscut. “Of the $30 million, only $2 million will go to transitional housing, while $8 million will now go toward rapid re-housing.”
Long-Awaited Navigation Center Will Open in Little Saigon: It’s happening on July 12, despite community opposition.
Tommy Le Was Shot the Night Before He Graduated High School: “I could tell you 100 people I would have imagined this happening to before him,” Curt Peterson, Career Link director and Le’s teacher, told the Seattle Times. “If we had a discipline file on Tommy it would be completely empty. He was the sweetest kid in the world. He didn’t have an aggressive bone in his body.” A King County Sheriff’s deputy fatally shot Le, 20, after a Burien resident reported a man threatening people with a sharp object. Le turned out to be holding a pen.
Can Mayoral Hopeful Jessyn Farrell “Infuse a Sense of Urgency” to Solve Seattle Issues? The former state legislator champions herself as an advocate for housing density and transit. Read Heidi Groover on Farrell’s plans in the final installment of our mayoral frontrunner profiles.
Have You Met the Other Frontrunners? Get out from under your rock and check ’em out here.
Speaking of the Election… Are you registered to vote? To vote in the upcoming primary election, you must be registered to vote by July 3. You have just four days to register online, by mail, or in-person. Get to it, folks!
Why Are So Many Orca Pregnancies Failing? Nutritional stress due to dropping salmon populations, according to a local study.
