Dense fog continues: People will deal with pockets of fog between 8 am and 10 am, which can be especially dangerous for drivers and the National Weather Service recommends delaying travel where possible. Pedestrians, I know it shouldn’t be your responsibility to look out for multi-ton metal vehicles, but maybe take extra precaution crossing the street in this weather. Otherwise, go enjoy the horror movie vibes out there today everyone! High of 44 degrees later today, and the fog should burn off by mid-morning.

Rejected Rankin recall: On Monday, a King County Superior Court Judge threw out an attempt to recall Seattle Public School Board President Liza Ranking, ruling the recall “lacks legal and factual sufficiency,” according to the Seattle Times. The recall effort spearheaded by five parents, in part, tried to hold Rankin solely responsible for the district not meeting its academic goals. The judge called this out as dangerous, especially blaming a single director for a broad failure “without citing specific acts of misfeasance, malfeasance, or a violation of the oath of office.” It feels good to read that because literally every time I argue with some of the recall backers, I feel like pulling out my hair trying to make them stick to factual examples—it always feels like their arguments are, in actuality, very petty, targeted dislikes of Rankin personally. 

SPOTTED: Alexis Mercedes Rinck taking her rightful place on Seattle City Council. After a swearing-in ceremony last week, Rinck joined the City Council briefing Monday and already she’s making waves. As Hannah reported yesterday, Rinck is looking to force a debate on progressive revenue on her second day on the dais. Progressive maxing over here. 

Rival Fitness on Pine closes: Apparently, the Rival Fitness Gym on Pine Street owes more than $200,000 in back rent after it started falling behind on payments in February of this year. I reached out to the owners this morning to ask about what happened, but it’s big drama on Reddit.

Martin Selig’s financial woes: Seattle’s least favorite Republican real estate developer and big-time campaign donor, Martin Selig, has fallen on hard times. Selig defaulted on a $240 million loan secured by two of his latest downtown office buildings. The financial picture in the post-COVID world has been bleak for Selig’s real estate empire. Still, he’s dug himself out of big debts before. And, his guy won the presidency. 

Boeing Field to be used for deportations: As Trump promises mass deportations, a federal appeals court ruled last week the federal government can use King County-owned Boeing Field for deportation flights over county objections, according to the Seattle Times. King County will not appeal the decision. 

Support the Everett Herald: The journalists at the Everett Herald head back to the bargaining table today for a fair contract! After two years of bargaining, devastating lay-offs that whittled away the newsroom, now management is requiring the remaining skeleton crew write two to three stories a day for a measly $1 per hour raise. Send an email telling their bosses to stop trying to tie raises to a ridiculous story quota. Let me tell you something, story quotas suck. They turn reporters into stenographers. I loved my first job in journalism, but part of my duties required me to just literally summarize six or seven court affidavits a day. No one needed that. Better to have high quality journalism than just words on a page.

Nutcracker season: I got the chance to see the Pacific Northwest Ballet’s “The Nutcracker” this weekend and it really is such a cool show. They have the rat king dressed in a costume with multiple heads like an actual rat king, which made me laugh. The mysterious uncle, Herr Drosselmeyer, played by Miles Pertl the night I attended, did an incredible job with their exaggerated reactions and comedic timing. And, even though the entire show had a revamp from when I was a kid, they kept the part where the Christmas tree grows like three times larger, and that made me clap like a delighted eight year old. I highly recommend herding up a group of your friends (ten or more and you can snag a discount on tickets) and seeing the show this year. 

Speaking of the holidays: Bakers of Seattle, you’re needed! The Christmas People, an organization that collects homemade cookies and delivers them to shelters and centers across Seattle in time for the holidaysm want your cookies. West Seattle Blog has more details, but The Christmas People hope to collect at least 9,000 cookies this year and they plan to pick them up December 21-24 at select locations. Put your depression baking to good use! 

Martial law declared in South Korea: South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law Tuesday while accusing the opposition party which has parliamentary majority of sympathizing with North Korea and preventing the state from governing, according to the Associated Press. So to protect the country’s constitutional democracy, Yoon declared martial law. Governmental leaders really seem unaware of irony sometimes. Yoon’s approval rating has fallen recently, and he’s fought independent investigations into scandals involving his wife and other top officials in his government. Soon after Yoon’s declaration, the South Korean parliament said, “No thanks” and voted to lift martial law. 

Transgender care for youth hits US Supreme Court: On Wednesday, the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments in US v. Skrmetti, a case brought by the Biden Administration challenging a Tennessee gender-affirming care ban that prevents doctors from administering puberty blockers and hormone therapy for transgender minors, according to CNN. So far, 26 states have passed laws banning gender-affirming care for transgender youth, though some are currently blocked by the courts. Government attorneys argue this is necessary and safe health care, and, if they win, it could significantly protect transgender rights across the country. If they lose, it could be disastrous for transgender youth, who already deal with higher rates of depression and anxiety, which are maladies gender-affirming health care could help ease. Take any and all hope with a grain of salt whenever this Supreme Court of ghouls is concerned. 

More clips of “The Nutcracker” to send you on your way: At the front of McCaw Hall you can take a photo of you coming out of Mother Ginger’s skirts. I love Pacific Northwest Ballet. 

More in NEWS

Local (and not-so-local) news from your favorite writers.

The AI Wars Come to Ravenna

There’s a contentious election in a normally sleepy North Seattle legislative district, with out-of-state money pouring in. Blame the robots.

Ashley Nerbovig is a staff writer at The Stranger covering policing, incarceration and courts. She is like other girls.

58 replies on “Slog AM: Alexis Mercedes Rinck Ascends the Dais, School Board President Recall Attempt Rejected, Transgender Care for Youth Heads to Supreme Court”

  2. “Pedestrians, I know it shouldn’t be your responsibility to look out for multi-ton metal vehicles…”

    So, just stumble straight into the intersection on a green light, or maybe slowly push yourself backwards in a wheelchair. You’re high on meth &/or opiates; you’re invincible!

  12. @2,3:

    Pretty much every law on the books relating to pedestrians vs. cars gives the pedestrian primacy when legally crossing routes of travel. Granted, that’s small solace when one is brutally injured or killed by an inattentive driver, but that doesn’t negate the very obvious fact that the pedestrian has the right-of-way in such a situation, and it has absolutely no bearing on their mental or physiological state at the time.

    tldr: You injure or kill someone who’s legally crossing a road, street or intersection while you’re driving, you suffer the consequences, period.

  13. One of Rinck’s first actions on the job is to create amendments to focus on state politics and this is some sort of win for progressives? Of course her amendments are focused on increasing taxes as well. sigh. It’s going to be hard to keep up next year with all the new “progressive” revenue proposals that will no doubt be forthcoming from the state/county/city.

  14. @11:

    Wait. When did we have the vote electing you as “Speaker For Everyone”? I certainly didn’t get a ballot, so STFU already with your spurious “no one gives a dam (sic)” assumptions.

  16. @13:

    I realize participatory democracy is difficult for you,

    but I’m sure you’ll just do just like you always do:

    take whatever position Jason Rantz or John Carlson tells you to…

  17. @5,7,8,

    Those are only dark or bad stories if someone’s individual conscience tells them so. If not, then what is reported is not a problem. That is the problem with individual conscience as arbiter of good, bad, better, worse, etc. It’s a totally relative standard where any person’s individual conscience and preference is no worse than any other person’s. It also makes it no better. It makes the world nihilistic, since if one value is as good as another, none is better than any other.

    Something for metaphysical contemplation that seems to suit this time of the year.

    Happy Holidays!

  19. @17. I didn’t expect you to wholeheartedly embrace cruel intent, malevolent family separation, The Jungle-esque migrant child labor, and unregulated factory farming poisoning indigenous lands and water supplies. But then again, I guess I did. You too can join the rabid inhuman beast club, Herr Frothingfuck.

  20. @14: Even the Stranger admitted, “Gaza Isn’t Driving Votes,” after ten solid months of trying to make Gaza drive votes:

    “Gaza Isn’t Driving Votes. We’ve marched, we’ve shut down traffic, we’ve written countless emails to our local, state, and national representatives … when it comes to the electorate, single-issue Palestine voters are not a dominant force in Washington State.”

    (https://www.thestranger.com/elections-2024/2024/08/07/79637812/seven-takeaways-from-washingtons-2024-august-primary)

    Please do try to keep up.

  21. Reads articles about multiple egregious OSHA and child labor violations: who’s to say whether this is good or bad? It’s just, like, your individual conscience

    There has to be a freshman philosophy major subreddit for this kind of shit so you don’t have to keep embarrassing yourself here

  23. barth @21, I’m reading this comment @17 myself, and I guess the thought process boils down to, each of us is entitled to our own morality, and who are we to judge? Or maybe it’s more, there is no morality because there is no shared reality. Kinda reminds me of Raskolnikov in Dostoevsky’s “Crime and Punishment” as he’s plotting to kill his neighbor just because he can.

    What I find fascinating, though, is that somehow this individual came across the comments @5 @7 @8 and felt compelled to offer a rebuttal or a counterpoint, as if those comments were directed personally at him. He couldn’t just let it be; he couldn’t just read it and move on. It was that agitating to him. Sort of reminds me of these guys who can’t help jumping on the comments thread about a women’s college or pro basketball game to say, “Sorry, but they couldn’t beat a boys’ high school team.”

    Wish I could engage in a deeper discussion, but (A) I’ve got to get back to work, and (B) my small, myopic mind will not stand it, especially on the sleep deprivation I’m dealing with today.

  24. @11: It is tasty junk food at a reasonable price. Also convenient. To go through the next four years evaluating company CEOs to whether or not they gave deference to Donald Trump seems only pseudo virtuous. Life is too short and activism is better obtained by other means, like indivisible.org.

  25. 23, I get that’s what he meant but child exploitation and polluting the water supply aren’t examples of the trolley problem, they are straightforward violations of the golden rule. Someone may personally feel it’s ok to do these things but they bring tremendous harm to others purely for the sake of greed and that’s why they are illegal.

  26. @14

    People care enough to make useless gestures here in the good ‘ol’ US of A, but they don’t care enough to actually go to Gaza and put their money (and lives) where their big mouths are.

    Stop pretending that you make a difference.

  27. @25. Speaking of the Golden Rule, today I learned about the Platinum Rule. It is good to treat others the way we want to be treated, but it is good to treat others the way they want to be treated too.

  30. @28

    Stop pretending they don’t what?

    Make a difference?

    They don’t.

    The war is still going on. The US is still pouring money and weapons into Israel.

    All of their little protests have brought about zero change.

  32. @19, I didn’t embrace it.

    I am just pointing out that your previous statement of individual conscience being the guide, makes embracing it just as morally acceptable as not embracing it, since each individuals conscience is the only authority or code.

    Right and wrong cease to have any absolute meaning, when they are totally determined in the eye of the beholder when you make individual conscience the source of right and wrong.

  33. @30, Your original comment was that people don’t care enough to send money or risk their lives for Gaza, which is not true. Americans have donated hundreds of millions of dollars and countless health care and international aid workers risk their lives every day in Gaza to save others. You can make a difference without ending the war.

  34. @21, Precisely.

    Tell that to @19 who has made the claim that the source of morality is individual conscience.

    @23, If everything is morally relative, we should just read it and move on. But Dizzle, and everyone else here, makes moral arguments. I.e. This is bad. That is good. It would be better if we did . By what standard or moral code is something good or bad?

    If its a relative standard, in the eye of the beholder, that determines good or bad, then they aren’t really moral arguments, just preferences. Nothing is good, nothing is bad, there is just what you prefer, and what others prefer, with neither being better than another, and no basis to object to someone’s evil belief, because there is no such thing as evil (or good).

    @25 references the Golden Rule, implying belief that this is a moral absolute binding on us all. That’s a fine candidate for a moral absolute. Since something can’t come from nothing, what is its source? If it’s just humans, we can repeal it at will, and it isn’t really an absolute. If it isn’t an absolute then we can define something as good or bad, in any given moment, to suit our desire, and make anything we choose O.K.

  35. @31, Now you are implying that hardened hearts are immune to recognizing a moral absolute that makes the U.S. providing weapons to Israel wrong.

    So which is it? Right and wrong are whatever an individual’s conscience says right and wrong are, or there are moral absolutes binding on us all?

  37. @12: and sometimes, there are no consequences for hitting pedestrians legally crossing roads. see: Michael Weilert, 13, killed crossing SR 7 in Parkland in 2023 in a marked crosswalk with flashing lights. no citations issued.

    if no one else, you are responsible to yourself to look both ways; cars are trying to kill you.

  38. @12 “tldr: You injure or kill someone who’s legally crossing a road, street or intersection while you’re driving, you suffer the consequences, period.”

    Sure, the legal consequences, but the pedestrian is dead. So it makes obvious sense for them to also be aware of their surroundings and take precautions. Plus your statement is not quite correct because if the driver who kills the pedestrian legally crossing is a cop they won’t suffer any consequences at all.

  39. “Alexis

    Mercedes ‘Benz’

    Rinck Ascends the Dais”

    shall

    I Doff

    my cap?

    Uh-oh

    wormmy:

    “Progressive maxing over here.”

    first Sawant

    the Ineffective ( &

    yet! ) Great Influencer

    who

    somehow

    Haunts your

    Life – omg! – Here

    comes ANOTHER One!

    y’all

    gonna be

    Working Overtime

    let the Whinging proceed.

    @37

    ‘cars

    are trying

    to kill you.’

    wait’ll Elon’s

    ‘autonomous’ autos

    have an Assassin Mode

    their Kill Rate’ll likely quadruple

    tho More likely Intentionals. He’s gonna

    make a Great Bond Villian & MAGA fer like Evah

    [be

    Quick

    wormmy:

    Blame Rinck!

    for EVERYTHING].

  40. Ostensibly, this country is claimed to be founded on Judeo-Christian and Enlightenment values. A large number of folks subscribe to or were raised with a tangible sense of right and wrong. And we have shaped our sense of ethics and morals from our history, which consists of trying literally everything else and learning the hard way from it what its consequences render.

    For those that would heed historical wisdom and wish to preserve our civilization and aspire to greater heights than moral relativist nihilism, that legacy imparts crucial rules and norms to sustain our way of life, which is generally embodied in the rule of law.

    Montesquieu said that every nation and society models its laws after the natural world, taking symbols and behaviors from flora, fauna, and the colors and foods and essential culture of their environment. Nature is brutal and cruel, but also balanced and consists of an interdependent ecosystem. Each society this establishes its own unique ‘spirit’ of laws and morality based on those influences, as well as sometimes arbitrary divine laws. This combination of natural and divine law establishes certain common values. And ways of life that are inefficient and immoral gradually lose influence over time because a society that does not adapt to a changing world becomes destroyed or decines with within or without or both.

    Money doesn’t exist either. It is merely an illusion based on an arbitrary measure of quantified consent to own or not own. But without standards, without ideals, without a sense of truth and justice (arbitrary as it may be), society descends into chaos and warfare.

    If we are to rise above our history, to be worthy to colonize other worlds, we must not descend back into the state of nature but meet our technological advancements in kind with robust and efficient law and policy that maintains order and permits freedom and innovation to varying extents. That balance may shift hands here or there from time to time, but the wholeness in society is only as constant as it upholds its own values and integrates them into its citizens. We already know where the past goes. Adaptation requires an honest and scientific approximation of reality so that we can respond to change.

    The earth is spinning and that force creates weather and climate. Geothermal energy, solar radiation, and our own processing of fossil fuels and gases influences those forces through the basic laws of thermodynamics and chemistry. So long as we choose convenience and denial over responding to change, we are destined to be swept away or destroy ourselves.

    At the very least, we must base our morality and aspirations for society on striking the right balance with our world. And trying to help the Nothing by blowing up the future and the dreams and aspirations of our collective futures in the hearts of children and the innocent in order to have temporary control and the illusion of power will yield a predictable end to humanity and morality which we are on the cusp of allowing to happen the more we devalue others and thereby devalue ourselves.

    Have the courage to believe in something. Apparently you believe in the law. Try to believe in what it is meant for, not just how it works or what it says. The Sabbath was made for Man, not Man for the Sabbath.

  42. Alexis Mercedes-Benz Rinck ascends the dais. Shall I doff my cap? Uh-oh. Wormy. Progressive maxing over here. First Sawant the ineffective and yet great influencer. Who somehow haunts your life? Oh my god! Here comes another one. You all are going to be working overtime. Let the whinging proceed. Cars are trying to kill you. Wait until Elon’s autonomous autos have an assassin mode. Their kill rate will likely quadruple the more likely intentionals. He’s going to make a great bond villain and MAGA for like ever. Be quick. Wormy. Blame Rinck for everything.

  43. “MUX’s gonna make

    a great Bond villain and

    Make America GREAT Again

    for, like, ever; be Quick, Wormy:

    and Blame Rinck for Everything.”

    –@notkristoyet

  44. from fucking Montana

    where lamb is con-

    sidered a veg-

    etable:

    Montana Lawmakers

    Reject Bid to Restrict Bath-

    Room Use for Trans Legislators

    The proposal would have

    effectively barred transgender

    women from using the State Capitol

    restroom for female lawmakers. Some Re-

    publicans joined Democrats in voting it down.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/03/us/montana-transgender-bathrooms-zooey-zephyr.html

    free

    Truck Nutz

    for ALL MT Law Makers ~

    wear ‘em with Pride, bitches.

    here’s Willy and

    Deliverance Star

    Big Burt Reynolds

    on what a Cowboy

    really Needs/ wants

    https://duckduckgo.com/?q=willy+gay+cowboy+song&atb=v314-1&t=chromentp&iax=videos&ia=videos&iai=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D1u4CXlIYjyE

    it’ll

    likely

    Tickle

    your Fancy.

  45. I’m a recall backer and wonder who exactly Ashley has talked to. Nobody I know at least. The specific complaints were 1) opma violations 2) eliminating financial committee, when there is a financial oversight requirement 3) not following school closure protocol especially wrt Interagency. The judge agreed these were “serious problems,” but said this didn’t meet the recall threshold, which is very high. Not petty (no financial committee for a 2 billion dollar operation is the actual opposite of “petty”?) and not personal. I know the Stranger likes to pretend kids don’t exist, but we care about the 50,000 we think her leadership is harming.

  48. @40, “WE MUST not descend back into the state of nature but meet our technological advancements in kind with robust and efficient law and policy that maintains order and permits freedom and innovation to varying extents.”

    “We must,” is a moral argument. What is the source of the moral guidance that follows? Human invention? If that is so, then humans are free to uninvent that guidance to suit whatever their desire is at some future point, are they not?

    You are back to moral relativism where we really must not do anything. If we want or desire something, we can just change the moral code to permit it. Nothing is really moral or immoral, just change any moral codes whatever you choose to do.

  49. @40,

    “So long as we choose convenience and denial over responding to change, we are destined to be swept away or destroy ourselves.”

    So what? If we are merely evolved beings, would that not just be failure of the unfit? A product of how we have evolved?

    Evolution is a deterministic bitch.

  50. @31

    The flood is rising?

    What in the wide world of sports does that even mean?

    @33

    No. My original comment was to put their money where their mouth is. It’s a challenge to people who talk a lot but don’t actually do anything that will bring about change.

    Getting the Apple Store to shut down did nothing. Apple isn’t going to change how they operate as result. The only thing that was accomplished was making life more difficult for the staff. I’m willing to bet they have some district or regional person who is now telling them to push even harder to make up for lost sales on Black Friday.

    I’d also be curious to know how many of the ‘activists’ have iPhones or Apple laptops they used to organize their little hootenanny.

Comments are closed.