Washington House passes a Strippers’ Bill of Rights: After killing the legislation last year, House lawmakers passed SB6105, a bill that improves working conditions in Washington strip clubs and repeals the antiquated lewd conduct laws in the state’s administrative code that the Liquor and Cannabis Board used to raid Seattle gay bars last month. We’ve freed the nipple and the jockstrap, and advocates say strip clubs will finally be able to apply for liquor and tavern licenses. We’ll have more on this later!
Council really listening to community: During public comment at last night’s council meeting, asylum-seekers and their lefty allies once again asked the City to fund housing for hundreds of Venezuelan, Angolan and Congolese refugees facing homelessness. At the start of the meeting, Council President Sara Nelson limited public comment to 20 minutes. After things got loud, police removed the protesters, and at one point Council Member Cathy Moore called for their arrest because she said she feared for her safety. According to SPD, police arrested and booked six protesters on suspicion of trespass. Hannah has more here.
Cops arrested 6 of Seattle Council President Sara Nelson’s political enemies after she antagonized them to point of protest all because she didn’t want to listen to them talk about housing for refugees during public comment, the one time she has to listen. https://t.co/LE7xlcI8Ph
— Hannah Krieg (@hannahkrieg) February 28, 2024
Bad apple? Ashley reported yesterday that the Seattle Office of Police Accountability opened an investigation into Officer Mike Rawlins after he threw a handcuffed, 58-year-old Black man to the floor, necessitating a visit to the hospital. You can read more about it here.
NEW: Office of Police Accountability investigating SPD Officer Mark Rawlins who threw a handcuffed 58-year-old man to the ground inside the King County Jail. [VIDEO]https://t.co/QBlA91qNmw
— Ashley Nerbovig (@AshleyNerbovig) February 27, 2024
Shut up, planes: The Port of Seattle Commission directed staff to assess how effectively previously installed, federally-funded noise insulation still works in communities near Sea-Tac, and it approved a $5 million pilot program to repair and replace insulation that isn’t working well enough. A lot of it is not working, and failed soundproofing led to mold and other damage. The Port said it’ll be seeking matching federal dollars to help.
Bird murder: Travis John Branson of Cusick, Washington pled guilty to illegal wildlife trafficking for helping kill 3,600 golden and bald eagles to illegally sell their feathers on the black market. Prosecutors say Branson’s killing spree on the Flathead Indian Reservation in Montana lasted a year. (“Killing spree” are his words, by the way; he literally texted buyers to say he was on a “killing spree,” according to court documents.) Court documents don’t say how many birds he admitted to killing, but who among us could remember so much death. A second suspect, Simon Paul of St. Ignatius, Montana, worked as Branson’s “shooter.” He didn’t show up to his court date. Eagles of North America could do the funniest thing right now.
Police investigating rape at Bellevue college: Administrators closed the campus after a woman told police she was raped in a bathroom at knifepoint around 9 am Tuesday. She was taken to the hospital with injuries, police say. Police initially warned of a suspect possibly armed with a knife and later said there was no ongoing threat to students or the surrounding community.
Uncommitted: Thirteen percent of Democratic primary voters selected “uncommitted delegates” over President Joseph R. Biden in the Michigan primary last night as part of a protest movement organized by local Arab American leaders in Dearborn, Michigan in response to the President’s handling of Gaza. Uncommitted delegates don’t have to cast their vote for any particular presidential candidate at the convention in August, so they can be noisy in calling for a ceasefire. Biden only won the battleground state by a slim margin of 150,000 votes in 2020, so any wavering support matters and could shift his position on Gaza. On the eve of the primary, he said he hoped for a ceasefire within a week. The Stranger endorsed the “uncommitted delegates” option for Washington voters, for reasons we explain here.
Gaza water supply at 7 percent of pre-October levels: Maurizio Martina, deputy director general of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, said restrictions on fuel and non-functioning desalinization plants have reduced water supply to a trickle. One quarter of wells have been destroyed. He added that fuel shortages are preventing bakeries from producing bread, and that 46 percent of all Gazan cropland was damaged.
Shooting in remote whaling village of 675 people: Two adults are dead and another two are wounded after a 16-year-old boy shot them in Point Hope, Alaska, an Iñupiat village above the Arctic Circle. The boy’s father escorted him to the police station after the boy admitted to the crime. His motive is unknown. Parents were told to keep their kids home from school Tuesday so they could “hug them.”
A “Papa Swift” kick in the ass: Taylor Swift’s father, Scott Smith, allegedly punched an Australian photographer in “the chops” as the pop star and her friends boarded a yacht at a Sydney-area wharf Tuesday morning. She’d just finished the last show of her worldwide Eras Tour. New South Wales police said they are investigating an incident of a 71-year-old man assaulting a 51-year-old man, but they didn’t confirm who was involved … kind of. “We don’t confirm names of victims and offenders of crimes, but if every other news agency in the world is using those names, you wouldn’t be wrong,” a police statement said.
An Australian photographer accused Taylor Swift’s father, Scott Swift, of punching him in the face as the pop star and others disembarked a yacht.
“Papa Swift” was seen giving the finger to cameras as he walked with his daughter before the incident. https://t.co/E4Wm884a6t
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) February 27, 2024
Two men found guilty of murdering Run D.M.C’s DJ more than 20 years ago: DJ Jason Mizell, known worldwide as Jam Master Jay, was shot point-blank in his Queens recording studio in 2002. Mizell’s own godson, Karl Jordan Jr., fired the fatal bullet after he and Mizell’s longtime friend, Ronald Washington, ambushed him for cutting them out of a lucrative drug deal.
What are we even doing: “A surge fee on your Frosty? Wendy’s to test ‘dynamic pricing’ in 2025.”
I feel that Wendy’s surge pricing thing is going to fail hard. I’m guessing a significant portion of any chain’s fast food business is from repeat customers, and who wants to go to their fave nearby spot without knowing what they’re gonna be paying? When I was younger I always had a pretty solid idea of what I’d be getting from Taco Bell before I went so a price fluctuation would have pissed me right off and had me walking out the door.
And if it does work…oh well. Let dumb people pay more for their shitty food.
7% of pre-October levels?
Seems as though Hamas bit off more than they could chew when they broke the peace.
It’s funny to me how proprietors of strip clubs have been trying to get the Lewd Conduct laws changed for decades and neither party really paid much attention to them.
As soon as the gay bars were affected though, Olympia was tripping over itself to change the law.
“Biden only won the battleground state by a slim margin of 150,000 votes in 2020, so any wavering support matters and could shift his position on Gaza.”
nope.
take whatchya
fucking Get and
either Like it or it’s
a vote for El trumpfster.
remain
Quiet or
Else trumpfy
wins. your Choice
Electorate! take it
or fucking Leave it.
@2
“Let
dumb
people
pay more
for their shitty food.”
but it’s FAST!
so eat it Fast
or Taste it.
Uncommitted actually got less than most other Michigan elections, but, hey, tell yourselves it’s a big deal.
Trump not even getting 80% is a big deal.
@3
“As soon as the gay bars
were affected though,
Olympia was trip-
ping over itself
to change the
law.”
hmmm.
One might
think we the
Peeps have Schway
but One’d be
WRONG. so shut
the Fuck UP & just
Take whateverthefuck.
“Seems as though Hamas
bit off more than they
could chew when
they broke the
peace.”
‘peace’?
“living” in an
Open-air Concentration
Camp is fucking “Peace”?
how many Americans’re
Willing to Make
THAT Deal?
END
The Massacre.
Ceasefire and Dump
BiBi Nutnyahoo Pronto, baby.
“Cathy Moore called for their arrest because she said she feared for her safety.”
Didn’t take long for this council to go Full Karen
I’m presuming that uncommitted dems in MI who are of the Muslim faith are cool with the possibility of a Muslim ban as well as a likely ban on Palestinian refugees if Trump is elected. Trump would cheerlead continued slaughter in Gaza.
“During public comment at last night’s council meeting, asylum-seekers and their lefty allies once again asked the City to fund housing for hundreds of Venezuelan, Angolan and Congolese refugees facing homelessness” – in spite of the fact that this was not an item on the agenda, thus denying others the opportunity to lawfully participate in the process of representative government.
So – how would The Stranger react if there were a public hearing on affordable housing for immigrants and some old White boomer guy disrupted it by grandstanding on whatever-the-fuck irrelevant issue was on his mind?
I can barely blame Sara Nelson for putting a lid on meeting interruptions, because this Alex Zimmerman-style protest is old hat. The Council needs to do business, not listen to the unhinged.
All the ballyhoo about the “success” of the protest vote in MI without acknowledging that 11% also voted uncommitted against Obama in 2012.
Surge pricing works for Uber because people are generally captive when they get sucked into it, i.e. they need to get somewhere in the very near term. Other than late night drunk food walk up places or Taco Bell, no one is going to feel captive to a Wendy’s.
To provide a little more context on Michigan, in the 2020 election 5.45M votes were cast for president. Last night about 1.85M were cast (representing 35% of the 2020 turnout). Of those, 101K voted uncommitted representing 5.4% of the primary vote and less than 2% of the electorate from 2020. I don’t think Biden will pay heed to that turnout and even if he did he would lose far more votes by joining the antisemitic brigade being led by Tlaib.
nyt: Biden Should Be Worried
About the Protest Results
in Michigan
When ‘Listen to Michigan, ‘
the group organizing people
to vote uncommitted in the
state’s primary, said it hoped
to get 10,000 to 15,000 votes,
it was setting expectations low.
As many have pointed out,
20,000 people voted uncommitted
in the heated Democratic primary in 2020,
when no high-profile campaign was asking them to.
One Democrat in the House
told me that any percentage in
the double digits would be worrisome.
If so,
Biden’s
campaign
should probably
be worried. By Wednesday
morning, there were more than 100,000
votes for uncommitted — 13.3 percent of the total.
–by Michelle Goldberg
more:
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/02/27/opinion/thepoint#biden-protest-uncommitted-michigan
@ Wow, Trump would “cheerlead continued slaughter in Gaza”? Biden has funded and armed unconditional support for Israel’s war every step of the way – if that’s what Biden’s opposition looks like, I’d hate to see what it’d look like if he were on their side!
Rep. Cathy Moore totally overreacted to rowdy activists at the City Council meeting. It’s one thing to ask for protesters to be removed, but calling for their arrest was an hysterical dick move. As a former judge, she is used to be feared and in control. Welcome to democracy, you corporate business tool! I’m looking forward to voting you out in four years.
@12, 13 Not to mention that the situation in Gaza will be substantially different in October than it is now. We don’t really know how, but it seems likely that there will be a cease-fire in not very long even if it’s not on the ice cream timeline. The new requirements for Israel to get more weapons will also take effect in a couple of weeks, as will a re-hearing in the ICJ on Gaza and likely the result of the hearings on occupation. All of those will give Biden the opportunity to take more pro-active steps. And lots of people will have something to say about the difference between Trump and Biden.
for more on the Uncommitted
from Democracy Now:
The major battleground state is home to one of the largest Arab American populations in the country, but the movement to vote “uncommitted” is now expected to spread to other states, including Minnesota and Washington.
“I’ve rarely seen such an organic and authentic movement come together,” says former Democratic congressmember from Michigan Andy Levin. “We really need actual change in policy, and I think we sent that message strongly last night.”
President of the Arab American Institute James Zogby says that Democratic voters need a reason to come out to the polls. “We gave them a reason with ‘uncommitted.’
Joe Biden’s got to give them a reason in November,” says Zogby. “There is genocide unfolding. People want it to end. The president either is going to have to act decisively to end it, or it’s going to have an impact in November.”
more:
https://www.democracynow.org/2024/2/28/michigan_2024_primary_uncommitted_biden_gaza
‘’Joe Biden’s
got to give them a
reason in November,’ says Zogby.’
ultimately do We serve our
Leaders or do they
Answer to US?
“… the movement to vote “uncommitted” is now expected to spread to other states, including Minnesota and Washington.”
In.
take
Heed
G. Joe.
Question-would Biden breaking with Israel in a meaningful way guarantee he loses in November?
Not loses Michigan, but loses the entire election?
Second question-if Trump is elected in November, does that increase or decrease the number of dead Palestinians in the long run? How about the odds for an eventual two-state solution?
Biden’s legacy, and the reason his approval rating is in the toilet, his sole accomplishment, will be the immolation of young Air Force members who believed that was the way to build a better world than what Biden offered.
===> some old White boomer guy <===
@20 It depends on the break. I don’t think that Biden will stop all military aid. I that it’s more likely that there will be meaningful actions to stop the conflict and/or change Israel’s approach to the conflict. With the new requirements on weapons delivery, Biden has the power to shut off the tap and Israel knows it. If senior US leadership tells Israel to knock the fuck off of the war crimes, there’s real teeth behind it now. Biden shook things up symbolically by changing the US policy on settlements back to something reasonable and adding sanctions on settlers who encouraged/led violence in the West Bank. No, those aren’t going to end the war, but they are certainly heard in Jerusalem. Likewise, the US’ veto at the Security Council may not be as freely available as in the past. Again, I think it’s unlikely that the US will abstain on a particular resolution rather than veto, but I do think it’s likely that US officials will communicate that the US’ support is not boundless, leading to changes on the ground.
As far as the war goes, I think the most likely scenario is that there’ll be a 2-3 month cease-fire in the next month or so and the war won’t resume after that. Once there is a pause in the fighting and most or all of the hostages are released, the Israeli government is going to turn on itself as they start pointing fingers about who supported Hamas in the leadup to the war. It will be an excellent opportunity for Netanyahu’s enemies to ditch him.
Why do I think Hamas will release the hostages? Because now is probably the best deal they’re going to get. While the IDF probably can’t completely destroy Hamas militarily, they likely will not want to take the risk that they are whittled down to a shell of their former power.
But what do I know? I’m Some Dude on the Internet. But we’ll see what happens.
@25 Biden could literally not do more to vehemently support Israel’s war in Gaza, he has applied the absolutely opposite of leverage by doing nothing but finance and arm its war from day one, and you appear to seriously believe that Biden will end the war in Gaza in one month, with a total absence of evidence. I am astonished at this fantasy.
when Smolderin’ Joe
went to Israel & hugged
the Bibi* and handed to him
Carte Blanche it was Over. now
he’s trying to claw it back & not Piss
Off his Zionist fan club. good Luck with that, Joe
a Whole Lotta
Israelis on the Anti-
Nutnyahoo Bandwagon
but he’s Gone
when his War on
Palestinians is over
he cannot delay
the Inevitable
*Bibi
whom
“Republicans”
invited to Congress
to Lecture Obama on whatevertf
“he cannot delay
the Inevitable”
can
& Is.
he can Postpone
for a time the Inevitable
becoming Dictator or WWIII co-Owner
or perhaps
forever
@28 & @29 kristofarian: Jesus fucking wept. I just don’t know this Orange Turd’s-butt-ugly dystopian world anymore! Don’t these MAGAts, RWNJs, NRA gun nuts, global terrorists, and fellow neofascist RepubliKKKan shitwipes realize that we’re all on the only life sustaining planet in existence?
Has anyone heard from xina lately?
@17: “As a former judge, she is used to be feared and in control.”
She’s used to working in a place where courteous and respectful discourse delivers information relevant to the issue at hand. For far too long, the Seattle City Council chamber has been a place where Socialist Alternative’s rent-a-mobs screamed obscenities and shouted threats at Council Members for not obeying diktats from Comrade Sawant. Voters have tired of such antics, and have restored order to Council chambers. Anyone who didn’t get that memo can quiet down, leave, or get arrested. Their choice.
“I’m looking forward to voting you out in four years.”
Just like you voted to keep her out, last November?