Our weather map looks so scary right now: Good morning and batten down the hatches, we're about to be dealing with a bomb cyclone. The Associated Press said heavy rain and high winds are set to "pummel" Northern California and the Pacific Northwest. While most of the bomb cyclone will pound that sweet spot between Portland and San Francisco, the weather people at the National Weather Service still expect lots of rain and wind today in Western Washington, with some gusts as high as 22 miles per hour. So, you know, stay safe and dry out there. 

Seattle City Council votes on budget, JumpStart today: After an arduous and opaque process, the Council is scheduled to vote on the 2025 budget this afternoon as well as whether to loosen up regulations on where it can spend JumpStart dollars. If you don't know anything about JumpStart, that's okay. Basically, it's a tax on big Seattle businesses meant to be spent on affordable housing. But Mayor Bruce Harrell wants to use it to plug the City's deficit because the tax is so effective. That means taking money originally meant to help people afford to live in this tech-ridden expensive-ass city and spending it, in part, on a bloated cops budget rather than passing another progressive tax such as a capital gains tax. The Seattle Times wrote a good little explainer on it today. Also, follow Hannah today for budget vote stuff. You can now find her on X and BlueSky. 

FOB Sushi update: Nathalie wrote yesterday about how TikTok food reviewer Keith Lee stopped in at Belltown's FOB Sushi Bar and, during his video review of the restaurant, his sushi twitched. TikTok sleuths and Lee himself accused the restaurant of serving him a piece of Hamachi sushi with a worm in it. FOB Sushi denied this last week, but then this week they closed their Seattle and Bellevue locations, according to KIRO 7. 

A cop on every crosswalk: The Mayor constantly talks about policing and crime, but according to the Seattle Public Safety Survey, people in Seattle consider stuff such as a car hitting them to be the biggest public safety threat in their lives. Agree? Disagree? Great, take the survey and tell Harrell your thoughts. As KUOW reports, the survey is open until November 30. 

Speaking of traffic and cops: Have I mentioned lately how much I despise carceral urbanists? They're people who act like they're progressive because they support a protected bike lane, but then they also support cops harassing people out of their 15-minute cities. Or, in the latest iteration, they advocate for policing the shit out of people who cover their license plates. A random urbanist from Philadelphia shared his perspective that we could somehow fix the number of people killed by dangerous drivers by impounding all cars with covered license plates. Honestly, everyone should be allowed to cover their license plates—especially when parked—and especially in Seattle with its proliferation of Automatic License Plate Readers. We're now all the subject of mass surveillance in Seattle, a dangerous prospect considering the incoming Trump administration.

Not All Urbanists: Before too many of you yell about how you're a good urbanist who hates mass incarceration, I know, I know. Don't worry, I love an urbanist who just wants the city to build street cars and improve traffic safety. A recent argument from The Urbanist kind of turned me around on how I feel about Seattle's streetcar system. We actually should have a city line. It would connect South Lake Union to Capitol Hill, something that, as someone who lives on the wrong side of I-5 from Capitol Hill, I would personally really enjoy.

Gaetzgate: Two women told the House Ethics Committee that they witnessed former Florida Representative Matt Gaetz have sex with an underage girl at a party in 2017, according to the lawyer who represented the women. The women also said Gaetz paid them for sex multiple times in multiple locations. Politico reported that numerous Senate Republicans hope Trump chooses someone else to be his Attorney General.

Speaking of being above the law: Trump's sentencing hearing in his hush money case was today, except the judge adjourned the court. The sentencing is paused until further notice. Since sitting presidents cannot be prosecuted, the judge must decide whether to delay sentencing until after his second term or dismiss the case entirely. Man, consequences really slip off this guy like water off a duck's back. 

Trump expected to ramp up deportations immediately: The incoming Trump Administration plans to begin its crackdown on immigrants starting on his first day in office, according to Politico. That means ending parole for people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela, undoing deportation constraints, as well as considering a host of executive actions to block people entering the country. While legal challenges to his actions may be hard to win, considering the 200 federal judges he managed to appoint in his last term, the project still raises serious logistical questions.

Even more alarming: Trump confirmed on Truth Social that he wants to use the military to carry out his sick mass deportation dreams. We don't have many details from the post since all he did was post "TRUE!!!" to a conservative commentator's assertion that Trump would "declare a national emergency and use military assets" to drive the deportations, according to the BBC. 

That Monsignor espresso: Catholic church officials stripped the priest who let pop start Sabrina Carpenter film her music video for "Feather" at a New York City church, according to The Guardian. The video played a role in the investigation of New York City Mayor Eric Adams earlier this year when an inquiry into Monsignor Jamie Gigantiello's decision allowing Carpenter to film at the church led to the discovery of "unauthorized financial transfers to a former top aide in Eric Adams’s administration," according to the Guardian piece. Just girly things.

And with that, I leave you with the Feather video that, arguably, helped nail Adams on charges of bribery and corruption.