Grand Illusion is packing their bags and moving....somewhere. Credit: Grand Illusion Cinema

Surprise: Hannah and I switched Slog days. Because I respect tradition, we’ll begin with the weather, which is quite nice today. Expect a mostly sunny day, with a high of 64. Tonight, it’ll be cloudy with a low around 49 and a slight chance of rain.

Virginia Mason is closing its downtown birth center, women’s health clinic: Administrators said the hospital is closing its only birth center in the city to expand its “critical care capacity” for patients with cardiovascular, spine, and neurological needs. The Seattle Times reports that while Virginia Mason Franciscan Health will continue to offer gynecological services downtown, it’s unclear what this means for patients who are planning to deliver at the center or those that rely on it for prenatal care, lactation consultation, and a host of other services. When it closes, the closest place for obstetric care within that hospital system will be 12 miles away at St. Anne Hospital in Burien. The Washington State Nurses Association union told the Times it is concerned how the closure will affect expecting families and called for more regulatory oversight of closures to review potential impacts.

One less place to see a cool movie (temporarily): The Grand Illusion, an awesome, super vibey single-screen movie house in the University District is closing after more than 50 years this January. Though, it’s less goodbye and more see ya later. The movie theater is actively looking for a new spot (and seeking donations, if you’re so inclined) that retains some of the same charm while “improving the experience,” and is also planning a series of pop-ups with Northwest Film Forum starting in February. 

Tim Walz is coming to the Seattle area: The Vice President’s Vice President is scheduled to attend a private fundraiser at Hunt’s Point next Tuesday morning, but he’s got nothing public planned. Say any of you get the chance though, it’s a good time to tell him he could be a little meaner on TV and be a little less weird the next time someone asks him about Tiananmen Square.

Who is she: Rachel Savage looks like a cool aunt, gives not so cool aunt vibes, and might run for Mayor of Seattle. Hannah has more here.

More Israeli strikes on Lebanon: Israel says its fighter jets hit intelligence-gathering means, command centers, and “additional terrorist infrastructure” in a series of strikes on Hezbollah’s HQ in Beirut overnight. Meanwhile, Al Jazeera reported the European Union’s foreign policy chief Joseph Borrell condemned the Israeli Defense Forces killing 7 civilians including paramedics overnight, adding to the total of 97 medical personnel Israeli strikes have killed so far.

How’s Democracy doing? Special counsel Jack Smith dropped a 165-page filing describing President Donald Trump’s actions leading to January 6 in more detail than ever before. According to the filing, former Vice President Mike Pence, party leaders, state leaders, as well as Trump’s own election lawyers and campaign officials told him that there was no evidence of a stolen 2020 election and yet he trudged ahead with a plan to overturn the results (can’t a boy dream, folks?). Prosecutors are arguing that Trump was not acting as president here, but as a private candidate for office, and therefore not immune from prosecution.

RIP Bear #402: The National Park Service delayed the bracket reveal for Katmai National Park’s beloved Fat Bear Week after a bear (#469) MURDERED a contestant, bear #402, on a live webstream Monday. NBC reports that “it was not immediately clear what prompted the incident between the bears.” Are they thinking mob hit, or something personal?

Workers trapped by Helene: Tennessee state officials are investigating Impact Plastics after several factory workers in rural Erwin, Tennessee alleged that by the time they were allowed to leave work, the power had gone out and floodwaters from the nearby Nolichucky River had spilled into the parking lot. Authorities were only able to rescue five of the 11 workers at the factory. Four are still missing and two are confirmed dead, adding to a 180 person death toll across six states.

Rose and a thorn: Drugmaker Gilead Sciences announced Wednesday that it would allow six companies in Asia and North Africa to make and sell a generic version of lenacapavir, an extraordinarily effective bi-annual injectable HIV treatment, to 120 countries around the world, including all of those with the highest rates of infection. Leaving just enough room for evil, most high- and medium-income countries—where researchers say HIV is spreading among marginalized groups—will pay a higher price for Gilead’s brand-name version. While researchers at Liverpool University say it could profitably produced for $40 a year, Gilead charges more than $42K in the US.

The babies will be CGI: Paramount is making a live-action Rugrats movie. That doesn’t seem necessary to me, but they’re adamant about this and they’re insisting the babies will be CGI. Because babies aren’t very charismatic or something? The adults will not be CGI, which seems … okay. According to Variety, the movie is set in the “real world à la ‘Sonic the Hedgehog,’ which—unless I’ve missed something essential about Rugrats—presumably would have been the case even if the babies were not CGI? I don’t know who this is for.

Vivian McCall is The Stranger's News Editor. In her private life, she is a musician and Wii U apologist. If you’re reading this, you either love her or hate her.

35 replies on “Slog AM: Virginia Mason To Close Downtown Birth Center, Grand Illusion To Move (Hopefully), A Fat Bear Slayed”

  2. Biden wants Harris to lose the election?

    Joe Biden, the US president, said he was “discussing” possible Israeli strikes on Iranian oil sites in response to Tehran’s missile attack on Tuesday.

    [..]

    Crude oil price jumps 5% to $77 a barrel after President Biden, asked if he would support Israel striking Iran’s oil facilities, responds “we’re discussing that”:

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2024/oct/03/israel-lebanon-hezbollah-war-strikes-live-updates-middle-east-crisis?filterKeyEvents=false&page=with:block-66fea4628f081e31ced3938a#block-66fea4628f081e31ced3938a

  3. A total of nearly 2,000 people have been killed, including 127 children, and 9,384 injured since the start of Israeli attacks on Lebanon over the last year, the country’s health ministry said.

  4. @1: It’s one heck of a bear fight! Even the victorious bear is visibly injured:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTtpWqLZXp8

    Bear behavior is notoriously difficult to understand. There does appear to be some predation, but it’s hard to imagine predation as the primary motivation for the attack, given the abundance of salmon in the river at this time of year and the obvious danger involving in killing another large bear. But who knows? They are unpredictable animals.

  5. “While researchers at Liverpool University say

    it [HIV vax] could [be] profitably produced

    for $40 a year, Gilead charges more

    than $42K in the US.”

    it’s already been Established:

    the Citizenry of America’s

    here SOLELY For the

    Profiteers’ Bottom

    (bottom-Less)

    Lines.

    if YOU cannot Afford it

    how on Earth might

    That be the Profit-

    eers’ ‘problem’?

    whiners!

  8. @2 I keep wondering how much Biden’s head having gone AWOL is part of the problem. Almost all US presidents faced with a rogue Israel ally have threatened to stop the flow of armament, not Biden. Meanwhile Netanyahu wants Trump to win.

  9. “Helene: Four are still missing and two are confirmed dead, adding to a 180 person death toll across six states.”

    How long until there is a backlash against the climate change deniers in control of these parts?

  15. @12 I know. If only they had a governor who created a giant slush fund by dishonestly passing legislation to jack up gas prices and then used that money on programs that they openly admit they don’t measure in the name of climate justice I’m sure Helene would have passed them by.

  17. After seeing the response to the covid vaccine I have lost all faith in using evidence to change people’s minds. They are more apt to double down on their ignorance than to work through it.

    This is probably even more true with climate change than vaccines because isolated weather events aren’t themselves proof it’s happening. They will simply point to a random extreme event in the past and say these things always happen.

  18. Really? Just a small blurb on Virginia Mason closing down it’s birthing center, but yet… another long-winded “woe is me” dissertation about a transgender individual. This in a nutshell is why we lost Roe vs. Wade.

    Priorities.

  19. 18, “We” lost Roe because republicans spent 50 years focused on stacking the supreme court, not because people also care about trans rights.

  21. @15 I am not for regressive taxes to address climate change but what are you proposing to effectively finance the decarbonization of our economy, because there is no getting around that it is what we have to do. We could tax the hell out of oil corporations while we invest heavily in renewable infrastructure and storage but it’s likely a national initiative via a green new deal. We could sue big oil for big money for blatantly lying about the safety of their product and blocking policy toward renewables for decades. What else?

  22. @17 it is sobering to think that the response to covid and the backlash to public health policies were essentially the same as for the previous global pandemic of that magnitude, the influenza of 1918-1920.

    The difference with climate breakdown is that extreme climate events are unfortunately much more frequent, and become more so as time go by. Climate change also has permanent consequences like people being ruined by floods or hurricane that happen almost every year, people unable to buy home insurance, farmers seeing crops being hammered with immediate effects on food supply and its cost, refugees at the border or within the US, etc … People soon won’t be able forget about it for very long, if they aren’t already.

  23. Looks like someone should connect the Grand Illusion folks with the Ark Lodge Cinemas folks (one needs a building – one can’t seem to manage the building they have).

  24. @22 the first rule needs to be the solution can’t be worse than the problem. As noted the CCA is a regressive tax that is affecting far more than gas prices. It is having an outsized impact on too many people. The second rule is we should identify specific issues, make sure we can measure it so we can actually determine if what we are doing is helping. This will ensure we are spending effectively. This is not happening now. Finally it should be done openly and transparently. The gov absolutely lied about this became he knew voters had already rejected similar programs twice. He continues to lie to this day and the ads supporting the CCA are full of fear mongering.

    Regressive taxes are unfortunately the best way to do that so everyone feels the pain but if you follow the rules above they wouldn’t be so punitive and people would support them because they could see measurable results and were part of the process. The WA voters have time and time again shown they support taxes for things that make sense. The hubris of our officials to ram this down our throats is ridiculous. If this passes, and I think it will, we’ll end up with a costly, ineffective program that hamstrings our ability to create something effective while providing officials a giant slush fund to pay off unions and non profits that support democratic causes. Not to mention the dollars removed from the economy won’t be available for the market to invest in better solutions.

  25. Who is a friend to the land of Canaan who kowtows to its corrupt leadership reflexively without accountability? Who loves their country who negligently permits its usurpation by Jager Tharns wrapped in false flags?

  33. @32. Honor bright. I was only ever offered it once when I was invited to the queer/bar with some lady and her friends who kicked a soccer ball at me at Cal Anderson. I had one of those fate-defining moments and declined. After that, I guess they thought I wasn’t cool enough and took off, so much the better.

  35. @26

    when eltrumpfster

    Steals 2024 he’s already

    Promised he’d do this, co-hosted

    by Himself & his Idol Hannibalecter

    this Will be Required viewing and

    there will be No cutting away

    from the Gore ~ the Pool of

    Contestants drawn from

    registered Democrats &

    Schlog commentariat.*

    *centrist & corporate

    Dems Exempted,

    obv.

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