Cops keep a close eye on 3rd and Pine after two fatal shootings this week.
Cops keep a close eye on 3rd and Pine after two fatal shootings this week. HK

COVID-19 check-in: Fresh off the Omicron surge, officials decided to relax basically every remaining COVID-19 rule in Washington. So, let’s take a look at my favorite dashboard to see what the pandemic looks like in King County right now.

In the last week, the county has seen a huge decrease in cases, about a 38% decline, which brings us back to roughly where we were in the beginning of December, before Omicron brought some of the pandemic’s toughest times. Still, on average, every day five people in the county die from COVID-19. It’s not a harmless virus by any stretch of the imagination.

Downtown is so scary: We’ve all seen how much Downtown scares the anti-poor crowd. As a concerned citizen, I decided to go investigate. What I’m about to show you may shock you:

All jokes aside, I know that the gun violence at 3rd and Pine is frightening for the folks who live nearby. Why KOMO watchers in Laurelhurst care so much, I’m not sure. Hopefully the relentless, shallow coverage shows them that Seattle has a huge wealth inequality issue. The city’s got billionaires and people who need to sell stolen booze to feed themselves. That’s not the kind of diversity we want. The real scary thing is the lack of action from the city to address poverty and, as my dear Twitter mutual jseattle pointed out, Imagine Dragons. Anyway, I’ll have something on The Blade later this morning. Stay tuned.

I could cry: This weekend will be the start of something beautiful, people. Temperatures will SOAR to the 50s!! AND Seattle will see its first 6 pm sunset. I encourage you, I beg you, I implore you to celebrate the sun with friends.

Everyday is picture day: I borrowed the picture day line from Mike Lindblom at The Seattle Times. It was so cute! But anyway, cameras went live Tuesday on three different streets to catch drivers misusing the Bus Only lanes.

Don’t worry too much, because you get a warning for your first violation, but, after that, using the bus lane will land you with a $75 ticket. While it blows to have an unexpected fee, the money will go to cool stuff. Half the revenue will go into state walk-bike safety projects, and half will go to SDOT for accessible signals to help blind pedestrians.

Mass-shooting survivor Emily Cantrell wants the state Legislature to ban high capacity magazines despite staunch opposition from gun-rights advocates. In 2017, Cantrell attended Route 91 Harvest country music festival in Las Vegas, where a gunman killed 60 and wounded hundreds. Cantrell told Crosscut that “The only chance we had of surviving was when he stopped to reload.” She added, “… Even a matter of a few precious seconds, that is what would save lives.”

Melinda breaks silence before another hot girl summer: Melinda French Gates gave her first interview since divorcing her no-good cheating husband Bill Gates. She said her and Gates are “friendly” but not quite “friends.”

Let trans kids live, please: Surrounded by young, blonde TERFs, Gov. Kim Reynolds signed a law to ban transgender girls and women from women’s sports in Iowa schools and colleges. Very sad to see young children indoctrinated to celebrate state sanction discrimination against other young children.

Tik Tok news: You know I’m going to include the local Tik Tok stories. This Tacoma Tik Tok star is living my dream. Chris Watson is a full-time content creator who documents his walks and the cats he meets along the way.

Absolutely fuck the frats: After a 19-year-old died from a hazing ritual at WSU’s chapter of Alpha Tau Omega, the young man’s parents worked with state lawmakers to create “Sam’s law,” an anti-hazing bill in their son’s memory. According to The Seattle Times, the bill is now on its way to the Governor’s desk to be signed into law.

Celebrate Black Restaurant week: Black Restaurant Week ends Sunday! It’s a promotional event that last year generated an average 15% sales increase for the 1,200 participating Black-owned culinary businesses across the U.S.

Save the whales: Okay, this human mural caught my attention. Now, how do we save the orcas and the salmon?

Hannah Krieg is a staff writer at The Stranger covering everything that goes down at Seattle City Hall. Importantly, she is a Libra. She is also The Stranger's resident Gen Z writer, with an affinity for...