Some of the best coffee shops in Seattle are tiny—just a few sets of tables and chairs, not a lot of wiggle room. Yet there you are, barging in with your giant-ass stroller that you refuse to leave outside when coming in to get some coffee. You loudly push tables and chairs out of your way (using the stroller!), you bump into people who are standing in line or sitting and enjoying their coffee, and then giggle, “Whoops!” as though you didn’t just assault them with your SUV-sized baby-carrying machine.
(VISUAL ART) Buzzy Ballard gallery Get Nice has decided that spring has sprung, equinox be damned. Their latest group show, reBLOOM, opened on March 8 for the Ballard Art Walk, featuring a bouquet of fresh artworks by over 20 artists. I'm excited to see pieces by Brandon Vosika, whose painting graced the cover of The Stranger's Fall Arts + Performance issue, and Portland-grown painter-illustrator Ryan Bubnis, among many other local and further-flung faves. Can't make it to the gallery? You can peep the seasonal works online, too. (Get Nice Gallery, daily through April 6, 5–9 pm, free, all ages) LINDSAY COSTELLO
Rising inflation, surging poverty, and the looming threat of mass unemployment—are we reliving the 1930s, or glimpsing America's future in the 2030s?
At the federal level, it's clear who is driving the chaos and distress through program cuts and job losses.
Good morning! And welcome to the last full day of winter. Tomorrow is the Spring Equinox, which means we get 12 hours of daylight, and the promise of 9 p.m. sunsets in our future. But for today it’s still winter, and we get the same weather as yesterday: highs in the low 50s, a little rainy. The usual Winter Special.
Welcome Party: Yesterday, NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams came back to Earth. After a botched test flight left them stuck in the International Space Station for more than nine months, their capsule splashed down in the Gulf of America Mexico, off the coast of Tallahassee. According to the AP, Wilmore and Williams spent 286 days in space—278 days longer than anticipated. They circled Earth 4,576 times and traveled 121 million miles. When they landed, the astronauts were greeted by a pod of dolphins—which almost makes up for the fact that they had to come back to…all the rest of this.
Seen Any Burning Teslas Lately? After protesters lit the EVs on fire at dealerships around the country, Attorney General Pam Bondi released a statement saying her office will treat these incidents as “domestic terrorism.” There’s no one law that defines and punishes domestic terrorism, so this is more of a Big Feeling than anything else. But domestic terror aside, burning EVs creates super toxic smoke. Can we find another way to vandalize Elon’s stuff?
Protect the Chickens: RFK’s newest idea to combat bird flu is to let the virus run through infected flocks, and then identify the surviving birds as “immune” to H5N1. Sound idiotic to you? That’s because it shows a basic lack of understanding of what we’re up against here. The biggest concern with the virus right now is mutation—every new infection represents a chance for the virus to mutate into something that’s more easily transmissible to and between humans. Encouraging more infections within a flock will do exactly that. RFK doesn’t have any authority over our country’s farms, but the agriculture secretary, Brooke Rollins, has said she’s willing to try this. “It’s a recipe for disaster,” one veterinarian told the New York Times.Â
Trans Military Ban Halted: U.S. District Judge Ana C. Reyes blocked the Trump administration from enacting an order that would ban trans people from serving openly in the military. The administration claims that allowing trans people to serve impacts their combat readiness, which Reyes called “totally, grossly misleading.” “The law does not demand that the Court rubber-stamp illogical judgments based on conjecture,” she wrote.
Close but Not Quite: A different U.S. District judge ruled yesterday that the Trump administration wasn’t acting in contempt of court when it cancelled an NIH grant to Seattle Children’s Hospital to develop an online tool for health education for trans kids. “Research programs based on gender identity are often unscientific, have little identifiable return on investment, and do nothing to enhance the health of many Americans,” wrote an NIH. “Many such studies ignore, rather than seriously examine, biological realities. It is the policy of NIH not to prioritize these research programs.” On top of being wildly factually inaccurate, AG Nick Brown argued that it violated the injunction on the ban on funding for gender-affirming care. While the judge found the National Institutes of Health’s interpretation of her orders “unreasonable and self-serving,” she said there isn’t enough evidence to hold the Trump administration in contempt.
Who Said Impeachment? All of these injunctions are starting to piss Trump off. Yesterday, after a judge paused his efforts to deport 200 people to El Salvador, Trump went on an all-caps rant on Truth Social, calling the judge a “radical left lunatic” and calling for him to be impeached. The unhinged claims inspired Chief Justice Roberts to make a rare exception, and make a public statement. “For more than two centuries,” the chief justice said, “it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision. The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose.” I know the chief justice on the Supreme Court can’t just call the president an idiot, but wouldn’t it be fun?
FYI: It’s day 59 of the Trump administration. We have 1,403 days to go. But who’s counting?
Trouble in Oly: It’s been a rough start to Governor Ferguson’s term. First, after an inauguration speech that felt like a love letter to state Republicans and Danny Westneat, House Democrats rewrote a long-standing rule allowing the Governor’s aides easy access to their chambers. (Dems said it wasn’t connected to that stinker of a speech, but they kinda have to say that.) Then, last week, two of Ferguson’s aides resigned—his legislative director, Joyce Bruce, and her deputy. And yesterday, Sen. Yasmin Trudeau (D-Tacoma) told the Seattle Times that his chief strategy officer, Mike Webb, may have been the reason. Trudeau said she heard from “current executive staff and former campaign staff about a hostile and toxic workplace culture,” and she went to a senior staff member in the governor’s office to report her concerns. Ferguson denies receiving any complaints, but this morning, Webb resigned.Â
Revenue Woes Just Got Worse: Outside of his staffing chaos, Ferguson’s biggest issue right now is the state’s budget. Going into his term, the state was already looking at a massive budget shortfall (some $15 billion), and in a report released yesterday, the Office of Financial Management found that the state should expect to bring in $845 million less in the next four years than it estimated in November. Ferguson appears to be willing to propose anything but taxing the wealthiest in our state, including proposing a massive $4 billion in cuts over the next four years, which would require two years of monthly furloughs for state employees.
Who Wants to Live in SoDo? Soon, you might be able to. Last night, City Council voted to allow almost 1,000 new apartments on the edges of our main industrial district. Like the gig worker wage bill last year, this bill was one of Sara Nelson’s pet projects—maybe to expand our housing stock, maybe to help out billionaire hedge fund manager Chris Hansen. Stranger contributor Tobias Coughlin-Bogue gets into it here.Â
ICYMI: After a brief flirtation with running for the open City Council seat for District 2, Tanya Woo appears to have taken her hat out of the ring. We were this close to making a punch card for her. Lose three elections and the fourth one’s free!
Block Party Is Growing Up: At least, the crowd is. Capitol Hill Block Party announced its two-day lineup for the 27th annual music festival yesterday (shaving a day off its usual three-day run.) And for the first time, the festival is going to be 21+. The festival’s producers say it’s to “optimize the festival layout, providing a better customer, fan, and neighborhood experience.” The whole event is a bit scaled back, which Stranger Arts Editor Emily Nokes says “seems fine given the pink-and-rhinestone beating the Pike/Pine corridor took from the glorious Chappell Roan show that dominated last year's CHBP; a beating I personally loved, but I was um, having a psychedelic experience and didn’t have to work there, or clean anything up afterwards!”
Looking for Something to Do Tonight? Torrey Peters, author of Detransition, Baby, will be at Town Hall tonight to talk about her new book Stag Dance. Read about the book here before you go!
Some Parker Posey for Your Wednesday: Her voice has been stuck in my head for days, and I hope it stays there.
Earlier this month, we did a slightly deeper dive into what's up with Council President Sara Nelson’s sudden interest in reviving a failed plan to rezone SoDo for residential housing. Is it about adding housing? Or is it a giveaway to a billionaire friend? Â
Either way, at today’s full council meeting, she got her wish. A motion from District 6 Councilmember Dan Strauss to delay consideration of the bill until the council’s July 15 meeting failed 6-3, garnering support only from District 7 Councilmember Bob Kettle and District 8 Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck. After debating a whole raft of amendments, the bill passed council 6-3, with only Kettle, Rinck, and Strauss opposing, the latter with an emphatic “absolutely not.”
The birthday party/launch party for Ry Armstrong’s mayoral campaign last week promised to be “the most fun political event” I had ever attended.Â
It isn't at every one of these things that a drag queen mistakes flimsy stage panels at Here-After for a solid wall, leans back on them mid-strip tease and nearly knocks them helter-skelter. They wobbled and she froze, standing stick straight with her hands clasped to her face. This got a laugh, so with a grin she resumed, slipping gold sequined fabric over her ankles like it'd gone off without a hitch. It wasn’t a packed room, but attendees filled at least three quarters of the seats. Standing at a podium in an emerald green jumpsuit, Armstrong asked the crowd to look at the people beside them.
It’s happening: the 27th annual Capitol Hill Block Party is scheduled for July 19-20 with a notably scaled-back lineup (which honestly seems fine given the pink-and-rhinestone beating the Pike/Pine corridor took from the glorious Chappell Roan show that dominated last year's CHBP; a beating I personally loved, but I was um, having a psychedelic experience and didn’t have to work there, or clean anything up afterwards!). The festival will also be 21+ for the first time, “in an effort,” the production company Daydream State says, “to optimize the festival layout, providing a better customer, fan and neighborhood experience.”
I’ve been happily married to my wife for fifteen years. I’m a 54-year-old man, she’s a 55-year-old woman. While sex has never been our strongest suit, we’ve made the effort. But she now finds sex too painful and no longer wants to have intercourse. I’m on the larger side, which may or may not be relevant. She’s still willing to do oral sex, which we do maybe once a month. I don’t want to go without intercourse for the rest of my life and have told her as much. Recently, in couples therapy, I proposed opening things up in a variety of ways, all of which she refused to do, saying it would cause her shame and that she’s too afraid it would lead to me falling for someone else.
I sort of feel like we’re at a dead end. I love her and our life and our teenage kid too much to leave her over this. I looked online for a sex toy that would simulate vaginal intercourse, of which I found a few, but I’m looking for something that we could use together, something that would get as close to the experience (for me) as possible. I assume you’ve gotten hundreds of variations on this question over the years and thought you might have a good suggestion.
Israel Breaks Ceasefire: Early Tuesday morning, Israel “launched a major assault on Gaza,” killing more than 400 people, according to AP. The attack broke the ceasefire agreement that began on January 19, and a Palestinian health official says it’s the “deadliest day in Gaza” since October 2023 and “at least 263 of the 404 people confirmed dead so far Tuesday were women or children 18 and under.” Hamas says two of their political officials were killed.Â
People are Pissed: France, Egypt, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia have condemned the attack. Turkey called it “genocide.” Freed Israeli hostages are upset. Trump? Not so much. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt (who allegedly never repaid more than $200,000 in illicit campaign donations, btw!) told Fox News, “The Trump administration and the White House were consulted by the Israelis on their attacks in Gaza.”Â
Last Wednesday was the final day for bills to make it out of their house of origin in the Washington State legislature. While many bills still in play are worth paying attention to, I want to focus on a pair that didn’t make the cut: Senate Bill 5233 and House Bill 1445.Â
Both bills would have created the Washington Health Trust (WHT), a system of universal healthcare for the residents of our state. Introducing universal healthcare bills to both houses in the same session is a first, and these bills enjoyed unprecedented support. Efforts to enact universal healthcare at a state level have been underway in some form since 1993, but this year the bills received a record number of cosponsors in each chamber—11 in the Senate and 17 in the House—plus the endorsement of the Washington State Democratic Party.
Stag Dance: A Novel & Stories opens with a note from author Torrey Peters. Still on the heels of her 2021 hit novel Detransition, Baby, Peters shares that she was motivated to keep digging into trans identity this time, posing an underlying question connecting the four stories in her new book: “What does it even mean to be trans?”
It’s quite a question to be asking at this moment in time, as fascist gender policing reaches a boiling point. Those in power are interested in defining transness only insofar that they think they can separate and eradicate it. Well-meaning allies seek to define it through the lens of oppression, lack, and cookie-cutter narratives; even trans folks ourselves can get caught up in gatekeeping traps, seduced by the notion that if we can only find the right words, the right timeline, the right way to be trans, then existential threats will vanish.
The trans characters in Stag Dance didn’t fall out of a coconut tree; they all live under the stifling weight of gender norms. But rather than focusing on the macro, Peters zooms into their interiorities, desires, and close relationships, lighting up the pages with specificity, sucker-punch revelations, and some good old-fashioned romantic suspense.
Kells 42nd Annual St. Patrick’s Irish Festival Kells' 42nd annual shamrock-festooned celebration wraps up over a week of revelry today. As usual, Post Alley and First Avenue will be closed to traffic and covered by a large tent to support expanded celebrations, including rugby watch parties and performances by local musicians like the Belfast Bandits, MáirtĂn Ă“ Huigin, and U2 tribute band Vertigo Zoo. Don't forget the house-brewed beers and classic Irish dishes—corned beef, anyone? SHANNON LUBETICH (Kells Irish Restaurant & Pub, Pike Place Market)
Please vaccinate your kids: Measles is running rampant among unvaccinated kids in Texas and New Mexico. The outbreaks have seen a total of 300 cases and two deaths so far. Isolated measles cases are popping up across the country, even in Seattle. You'd think this would be enough to sway the anti-vax parents, yet according to data the Washington State Department of Health measles vaccination rates in kindergartners declined in 36 of 39 Washington counties. The only county with a kindergarten vaccination rate above the herd immunity threshold of 95% was Yakima County where 96.4% of students are vaccinated.Â
Go Dawgs:Â The University of Washington's women's basketball team will head to the Big Dance, otherwise known as the 2025 NCAA Tournament, for the first time in eight years. They'll square off against the Columbia Lions on Thursday.Â
This week, we're cheering for the triumphant return of Mr. Gyros in Greenwood and mourning the closure of Taku and Tio Baby's. Plus, get your hands on some Grasslands Barbecue this weekend and learn where to snag Lucky Charms cookies and horchata chai with pistachio cold foam. For more ideas, check out our St. Patrick's Day guide and our food and drink guide.
OPENINGS
Four Diamonds This casual spot hosted its grand opening downtown this week, serving boba drinks and Vietnamese fare like pho and rice plates. Downtown
A young woman with long, red hair and a glower that would make Miranda Priestly tremble stands in front of the gates of Hell. She holds your Soul File in her hand—a list of everything the Universe weighed when it decided if you were going to Paradise or headed to the gate you’re looking at now.
Most of Hell is run by demons, but Lily, the woman holding your file, is a human: one who had a short lifetime full of customer service experience. And the line you’re in isn’t for everyone. It’s for the Karens, the crypto-bros, people who insist it was “just a joke.” Everyone who, on Earth, learned that if you’re loud, obnoxious, or cruel enough, you’ll eventually get what you want.
