Charge-less in Seattle: On New Year's Eve in 2018, Officer Jared Keller shot Iosia Faletogo, 36, in the head after Faletogo fled a traffic stop on Aurora Avenue. Six officers chased and tackled Faletogo, who had a stolen handgun on his person. He dropped the gun during the chase and the cop dogpile. In bodycam footage, officers yell at Faletogo to "Stop reaching!" for the gun. He shouts, "Nope! Not reaching!" Seconds later—as Faletogo was surrendering—SPD's Keller fired off the shot that killed Faletogo. He will not face charges because his actions are protected by a Supreme Court rule granting cops leeway for their actions under stressful conditions.
A 45-car pile up: Drivers going too fast on I-5 caused a big mess on Sunday. Forty-five vehicles crashed, shut down all lanes of the southbound freeway for a few hours, and backed up traffic for miles. It was a busy day for tow truck drivers.
UPDATE 4: All lanes remain blocked on SB I-5 just south of SR 516 in Kent. Tow trucks are making some progress. Just a few more vehicles left to tow.
— WSDOT Traffic (@wsdot_traffic) October 27, 2024
Once all vehicles have been removed, a sand truck will come in to clean up a minor oil spill.
Backups are just over 5 miles. https://t.co/xHwjzxLmg2 pic.twitter.com/fCW2y12Fla
I-5 hell day continued: Up in Bellingham, a landslide on Sunday closed northbound I-5 lanes for 10 hours when an estimated 2,000 cubic yards of debris spilled across the freeway.
UPDATE 3 755AM: All lanes NB I-5 just north of Iowa St in @CityofBhamWA remain closed with crews working to clear slide debris. You can see we already have heavy machinery & personnel onsite. Our geotechs have also been called for further assessment of the area. Use alt routes. https://t.co/N0PeiWepsZ pic.twitter.com/13dFx3N3Wj
— WSDOT North (@wsdot_north) October 27, 2024
One arrested at Timothée Chalamet lookalike competition: Fine-boned twinks took over New York's Washington Square Park on Sunday vying for a chance to win the grand prize in the first-ever Timothée Chalamet lookalike competition: $50. The event drew hundreds of onlookers and, eventually, the New York Police Department. Officers hit organizers with a $500 fine for having an unsanctioned costume contest and required people to disperse. The actual Timothée Chalamet showed up for a bit. One faux-Chalamet was arrested. Police did not disclose why they took the fake Timmy away in handcuffs.
Welcome to the wet: Anyone else get drenched walking to Trader Joe's yesterday? Just me? Well, it could still happen to you. Showers will continue off and on during the day Monday. More wet weather will come in later in the week, too.
Scattered showers continue across western WA this morning. Shower activity will gradually taper across most of the area throughout the day. Though, a convergence zone developing this afternoon may bring some additional rain to the central Sound through the evening hours. #wawx pic.twitter.com/nh1JDLLSaL
— NWS Seattle (@NWSSeattle) October 28, 2024
Saturday morning stabbing: At 10:35 am near Broadway on Capitol Hill, a 17-year-old girl allegedly stabbed a 55-year-old man multiple times. He underwent surgery for life-threatening injuries. The girl, who had an active warrant in Snohomish County for assault with a weapon, was taken to Harborview for evaluation. Later, she will likely be booked into the youth jail.
It's Seattle Restaurant Week! Go treat yourself to dining out deals. Discover a new restaurant, a new part of town. Just because it's cold and wet now does not give you permission to stay inside every evening until May. There's a whole world out there beyond your four walls.
Lose power in Ballard? Blame the birds. A bird nest fell on a power line and knocked out power for 13,000 Ballardites Sunday morning. It is unclear what kind of bird the nest belonged to.
The importance of endorsements: On Friday, The Washington Post announced its editorial team would not be endorsing a candidate in the presidential election. It will also not be endorsing any candidate in any presidential election in the future. The shocking decision came from Post owner Jeff Bezos. Last week, the Los Angeles Times' owner, Patrick Soon-Shiong, also blocked the paper's endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris. This is scary stuff. Editorial endorsements are critical: They are where the people who are the most in-the-know about in-the-weeds political bullshit can lay out their opinion with facts and a time-tested process about who is best to lead the country. Private interests should not control the flow of vital information. We should all be scared of this.
The optics get worse: Within hours of the news breaking that Bezos' paper would not endorse in the election, executives from his aerospace company, Blue Origin, met with Donald Trump.
Trump at Madison Square Garden: Trump hosted a hate-filled rally at Madison Square Garden in the heart of New York City on Sunday evening. Critics likened the event to the Nazi rally held at MSG in 1939. Trump and company spent the rally doing their normal vitriolic song and dance. For instance, the presidential hopeful promised to start “the largest deportation program in American history” if elected again. One of his cronies, a smarmy little podcaster named Tony Hinchcliffe, did a weird standup set where all the jokes were just racist stereotypes. His remark that Puerto Rico is a "floating island of garbage" caused such an uproar that the Trump campaign had to separate itself from Hinchcliffe's views—the guy they invited to speak at their rally to express his views.
Trump rally speaker: “There’s literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. I think it’s called Puerto Rico” pic.twitter.com/pbw88p5PhI
— Kamala HQ (@KamalaHQ) October 27, 2024
Cheddar thieves: A group of frauds posing as cheese wholesalers duped a cheese specialist out of more than £300,000-worth of specialized cheddar wheels. They made off with 950 wheels—more than 22 tonnes—of artisan cheese.
It's going to be a long two weeks: An incendiary device inside a Portland ballot box lit it on fire. According to the FBI, Russia made and circulated a video of Trump ballots being destroyed in Pennsylvania. Seems like things will only get worse as we near Election Day. Speaking of—have you voted yet?
In case you've forgotten what's at stake in this election: ProPublica's newest report spells out Trump's cronies' agenda for if he wins. Spoiler alert: It's bad.
A song for your Monday: I dunno, just in a Lana del Rey mood I guess.