AIPAC tanks another progressive politician. Credit: Michael M. Santiago / GETTY

Which 20 Seattle public elementary schools will close? We don’t know, and SPS won’t release the full list until fall. Superintendent Brent Jones said he plans to present the list in September–three months before the board votes on the plan in December. He claims that summer break is not an ideal time to engage people for input. So I guess leaving them in suspense is better? Sorry, Mr. Jones, I’m not seeing your argument, especially when parents expected to hear about this plan at today’s board meeting. Instead, they’ll get a presentation explaining the rationale behind SPS’s decision. I bet they really just want that secret list.

Washington performing more abortions after Dobbs decision: At a Tuesday press conference with US Senator Maria Cantwell, a group of Washington abortion providers said they’re performing far more abortions in the two years since the US Supreme Court issued the Dobbs decision that struck down Roe v. Wade. Last year, out-of-state abortions increased 36%. During that same time period, abortions performed on patients from Idaho climbed 56%. Washington doctors are providing 18% more abortions overall.

Seattle’s Living Computers Museum + Labs is done-zo: The institution, created by the late Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Paul Allen, won’t reopen. It closed at the start of the pandemic four years ago. The museum’s website and social media accounts have gone dark, and the estate confirmed to Geekwire that Allen’s collection of computer artifacts will be auctioned off for charity.

Someone smashed windows at the Freedom Socialist Party offices: A Palestinian flag and sign reading “End US military aid to Israel” hung in the windows. Last Friday, a person or persons hurled two bricks through those windows, causing about $2,000 in damage, KING 5 reports. The party did not file a police report because it didn’t think the cops would be able to find whoever was responsible.

Android users can add their ORCA Card to their Google Wallet now: Neat! Now do iPhone :).

Release the names: Yesterday the Washington State Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case about whether the Seattle Police Department must release the names of the cops who attended Trump’s Jan 6 rally. The justices will need to decide whether the public records law protects the officers’ names, and whether agencies must consider a person’s constitutional rights before releasing public documents. A lower court created that latter (and new) standard on appeal, which could slow the already glacial pace of document release. If you’re curious, DivestSPD identified the cops back in 2021. 

UN may suspend aid in Gaza: Senior UN officials told Israel that they will suspend aid operations in Gaza unless the country starts protecting its humanitarian workers. The UN demanded in a letter that Israel must provide a way for aid workers to directly communicate with soldiers on the ground in Gaza. There’s been no final decision about suspending aid operations, and as of yesterday talks with Israel still continued.

GI Joe: President Joe Biden pardoned former US military personnel convicted of violating the now-repealed consensual gay-sex ban, opening a pathway for them to regain lost benefits. The move affected potentially thousands who will now be able to apply for documentation that proves their conviction has been expunged. This will change lives damaged by homophobic policy, but I’d wager many lefty voters will see it as a rainbow-colored attempt to garner their support before the election.

#Oyez: The US Supreme Court threw out a claim that the Biden administration illegally coerced social media companies to remove content, and in doing so overturned an injunction that would have limited contact between the companies and government officials. The Republican Attorneys General of Louisiana and Missouri and five social media users who filed the suit said the government went too far when it pressured the companies to limit misinformation about COVID-19.

DC city council approves money to study reparations: Before any money could go to the Black descendants of enslaved people or to people impacted by racist Jim Crow laws, the City is forming a task force so they’d be able to hit the ground running if (or when) the council advances a reparations bill. Nine council members co-sponsored a bill to establish the commission, making passage of a bill like that quite likely. 

Lauren Boebert won her primary: Colorado Rep. and MAGA fiend Lauren Boebert, who evaded defeat by swapping House districts this year, won a packed congressional primary in the state’s conservative eastern plains. She’s one of the most annoying people in Congress, and last September this family values, glock-hipped, anti-groomer conservative was ejected from a Denver performance of Beetlejuice: The Musical for allegedly vaping indoors and fondling her date. Dems hope to pick up the seat she left behind, but they probably won’t beat the establishment Republican lawyer who won the primary last night. 

Jamaal Bowman lost his primary: In 2020, Bowman won a surprise progressive victory in the New York suburbs, and last night he became the first member of the “Squad” to be knocked out of office, in large part because of criticism of Israel. Progressives dumped money on his campaign, but they couldn’t outspend the American Israel Public Affairs Committee PAC, which threw $14.5 million into the most expensive House primary ever. Even Dem moderates generally supportive of Israel told Axios they saw the spending as “overkill.”

Robert Eggers is BACK, baby: The dark, gothic trailer for Eggers’s (The Witch, The Lighthouse, The Northman) Nosferatu is out. The film is scheduled for release this Christmas, more than 100 years after the brilliant F.W. Murnau original. I’m so stoked.

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

40 replies on “Slog AM: SPS Won’t Yet Say Which Schools Are Closing, WA Performs More Abortions Now, Jamaal Bowman Loses New York Primary”

  2. @1. What, no word about the vandalism and broken windows at the Freedom Socialist Party offices? After all, you have to take action on every bit of vandalism that occurs right? Or does that only count for megacorp McDonalds property and stances you agree with?

  3. SPS, can you include in your math as an alternative how much savings if you eliminate the “Executive Director of schools” positions?

    Namely:

    Dr Mercer (absent from district issues besides sitting on a panel for WRS and say nothing)

    Dr McCarthy (MIA)

    Katrina Hunt (Enabler. Won’t touch her pals even as they deeply hurt communities. Anitra Jones, Chanda Otis-I am looking at you)

    Dr Davis Brown (No response from her regarding student safety post Ingraham murder)

    Dr Chris Carter (Unable to support Pathfinder administration resulting in community outcry)

    And also:

    Dr Starosky (Nobody knows what he does besides collecting his paycheck)

    Dr Pritchett (Climbed her way up to HR supreme bully. Covers up for sisters. Hunt, Otis, Jones – looking at you).

    So many doctors in such sick district and we are not even close to health.

    So, by my calculations their salaries, those of their assistants and benefits, we can save close to 8 million dollars a year and avoid closing 8 schools (one million reduced expenses per school)

    DO IT.

  4. “[…] I’d wager many lefty voters will see it as a rainbow-colored attempt to garner their support before the election.”

    Stranger Lefties when Biden does anything that they should like: What a cynical old fuck! Let’s all stay home again and then cry when we lose

  5. I guess I’m a “Lefty” but I was leaning towards voting for an ur-fascist, treasonous, narcissist, sociopathic con-artist dipshit rapist clown – until the Biden Admin pandered to me by pardoning gay soldiers.

  6. @5 YUP. The savings of closing 20 schools is nothing compared to the magnitude of that $1.2 B budget. The district never got that clear on what the savings actually was $750k – $2 M/ school could save us $15 M or $40 M. Which is it? Whose running the numbers???

    SPS has no credibility. Dang right parents want to know if their school is closing.

  7. I’d like to note again that the rubber stamp school board is populated by candidates The Stranger endorsed last cycle while calling upcoming school closures “fear-mongering”. Yet to see that mea culpa printed here, with an internal review of how they botched it so badly.

    Still radio silence here.

  9. I know parents are upset about schools closing, but two things: start grilling the admin about the likely hundreds of six figure jobs for whatever bullshit administrative titles that aren’t tied to actual teaching and schooling. There’s so much money wasted in admin bloat it’s embarrassing. Second, millennials can’t afford to buy a house in Seattle proper and are moving out to the suburbs in droves. The schools out in Maple Valley are some of the best in the state, and property taxes are less than they are in Seattle. That’s before we even get into the fact that millennials are having less kids, which leads to less HC in schools.

  14. So, now that the excuse of protecting incumbents has been shown to be a lie, what are establishment Democrats going to invoke to protect conservative Democrats from progressive challengers?

  17. @22 If you actually, you know, go and read the article, you’ll note that there isn’t a single member of the synagogue or counterprotestor who was quoted and was injured. Unless you want to provide any other sources, the only Jews being beaten up were protesting illegal land sales or were journalists covering the protests.

  18. “I’d wager many lefty voters will see it as a rainbow-colored attempt to garner their support before the election.”

    Wow, those “lefty voters” don’t miss a thing. Hopefully, they won’t be engaging in the usual purity test nonsense and will do the right thing in the election.

  20. @22 You have to be some kind of simpleton to believe that pro-Palestinian protestors went to a synagogue and proceeded to beat up Jews. Although, it does show what media and pols think of you when they assume that you are going to swallow this horseshit hook, line and sinker.

  21. @26 “the screaming outside had disturbed afternoon prayers.”

    If they were both praying and selling land stolen from Palestinians, it must be okay.

  23. @26 You were the one who said in 22 that Jews were beaten up in front of the synagogue. So back that up with some reporting. Or admit that you were making stuff up. As far as we have been shown with reporting, the only ones beaten up were protestors.

    I would have thought that a proponent of civility such as yourself would think that yelling is not as bad as assault. I guess I was wrong.

  24. @26 Also, if you’re bound and determined to find an analogy to Nazis in 1938, it seems like the folks beating up journalists while police look on and do nothing fit the part.

  25. @33 at the 20s mark you can see people pulling the pro Hamas crowd off a man desperately trying to protect a woman laying on the ground. Also someone was arrested for carrying a spiked club which I’m sure was for “defensive” purposes only.

    https://youtu.be/ENJS9oqcrnM

    How sad do you have to be to even by the premise of the protest? They were they to protest stolen land deals? Other than the protestors words what proof is there of these land deals? In the pro Hamas crowds mind all Jewish land is stolen so how do you even define that? I’m continually amazed by how you and your other pro Hamas brigade justify antisemitism. Just imagine if these were people protesting at a mosque. I seriously doubt you’d be defending them.

  26. From the link @21:

    “…a real estate event at the Adas Torah synagogue…”

    Allowing money-changers into their temple could result in a painful ‘come-to-Jesus’ moment for this congregation. The government may not view this commerce in a house of worship as compatible with tax-exempt status. The best way to protest such activity would be to file a complaint with the IRS.

    ‘One of the real estate companies named in an advertisement for the Los Angeles event, My Home in Israel, has listed high-end properties for sale in West Bank settlements on its website, including boutique apartments in Ariel and luxury villas in Efrat. Israel’s settlements in the West Bank are widely considered illegal under international law. The US recently restored its position that they are “inconsistent” with international law.’

    Offering for sale property in another country, property which has uncertain legal status, merits investigation by federal and international law enforcement organizations. The best way to protest such potentially criminal activity would be to file a complaint with the FBI.

    By contrast, the worst way to protest the synagogue’s possible abuse of tax-exempt status, and involvement in potentially criminal transactions, would probably result in a scene like this:

    “Video footage from the protest, which began around noon on Sunday, showed hours of furious and sometimes violent confrontations, first in front of the synagogue, and later elsewhere in the neighborhood. Some local news outlets reported they had seen video footage showing pro-Palestine protesters blocking the entrance to the synagogue, and Rabbi Hertzel Illulian, the founder of a Beverly Hills community center, told the Los Angeles Times that protesters had blocked some visitors from going inside, and that the screaming outside had disturbed afternoon prayers.

    “Protesters on both sides of the conflict described an out-of-control situation where people were targeted with bear spray and scuffling in the streets, and criticized police for failing to stop the violence.”

    Freedom of peaceful religious expression is not merely a bedrock American value, the very first one of our Four Freedoms protected by our First Amendment, but graduates of American public school systems have all had it pounded into their heads that before actual genocide of the Jews, came the violent Nazi attacks upon Jewish religious buildings, businesses, and private properties. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kristallnacht) Anything which even looks vaguely like a physical attack upon Jews will remind Americans of this.

    There’s a lot to criticize in Israel’s treatment of Palestinians. Having the campus (and other) protests led by an anti-Israel eliminationist hate group pissed away any opportunity for a civil dialog about it. There’s a lot to criticize, and even investigate, in the offering of potentially stolen property in a religious organization. This violently confrontational protest at a house of Jewish worship may have buried those opportunities as well.

  27. @34, Israel is actively displacing Palestinians in the West Bank (Palestinian territory) in violation of international law, and the realtor in question is selling partitions of this land to American citizens, hence the protest.

    If you read the article you would see that the official position of the Biden administration is that these settlements are “inconsistent with international law.” It’s okay if you don’t care about any of this but the premise of the protest is entirely sound.

  28. @35 It’s big of you to agree that there’s a lot to criticize about Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians. However, the moment anyone does criticize Israel, you jump in and declare them to be antisemitic eliminationists. So how should one criticize Israel? In the dark all alone so nobody notices?

  29. Bye antisemite Bowman. You didn’t have to be that, but you chose to be, for votes. How you like them apples?

    You just found out that most of the Democratic Party remembers 9/11 and what Islamic terrorism is really all about. And that America responds to it not by giving Al qaeda or ISIS or Hamas a state, but by delivering bombs.

    Because those people want to genocide us.

  30. @37: Once again, since you seem to have a lot of trouble with the whole evidence & conclusion thing: Students for Justice in Palestine and SUPER UW organized the national and local campus protests, respectively. Each group had openly celebrated the kidnapping, rape, and slaughter of Israelis as “necessary.” None of that was my idea or doing; I was just one of several persons who noticed it and called attention to it.

    If hearing the truth about persons and groups with whom you’ve chosen to ally yourself makes you feel bad, that is your problem, not mine. Concerning such discomfort, I suggest you try doing something a little more useful than engaging in junior-high levels of straw-man generalization against persons who dare bring you bad news.

    In a similar vein, I hope persons who truly believe stolen property was on offer at Adas Torah synagogue literally make a federal case out of it. That would be a lot more useful than looking like they’re trying to re-enact Kristallnacht in 21st century LA.

  31. @29 & 30 Nobody attacked a synagogue so stick to the facts. I have no idea (neither does anybody else commenting here) how violence erupted but the testimonies indicate that violent counter-protestors attacked people and the press while police watched. Very much like what happened on the UCLA campus a couple of month ago during student protests so I wouldn’t be surprised if the same people were involved (AKA some version of the far right who routinely attacks journalists). It would also make sense that people being physically aggressed had to defend themselves so images showing someone involved in an altercation is not evidence of this person having attacked someone.

    If someone were selling property stolen at gun point out of a church you wouldn’t just claim that protests disrupted prayers. The refusal to comment or give a name from the real estate outfit in the linked article suggests they may know how their business stands with respect to the law. Your comparison with Germany 1938 or Kritallnacht (Tensor the liar) are Orwellian. Using the Holocaust to justify illegal dispossession of land, under threat and sometimes physical harm, is not only disgusting but also a dangerous inversion of morality and ethics. Never again always meant never again for anybody.

  32. @40 “make a federal case of it”

    Your act isn’t very convincing. Repeatedly claiming that “wars have consequences” and denying the settler colonial nature of Israel like you do to justify land grabs flaunts Israel’s longstanding violation of international and humanitarian laws, so advising critics of Israel to file suit for land theft is nothing more than an attempt from you to appear even handed. Anybody reading your logorrhea knows where you stand.

    “The [UN] report asserts the Israeli occupation violates Palestinian territorial sovereignty by seizing, annexing, fragmenting, and transferring its civilian population to the occupied territory.

    The occupation furthermore “endangers the cultural existence of the Palestinian people”, said the UN rights office press release summarizing the report, by erasing or appropriating symbols expressing Palestinian identity and violates Palestinians’ ability to organise themselves, free from alien domination and control, by repressing Palestinian political activity, advocacy and activism.”

    https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/10/1129942

  33. @38, You’ve said that about every protest against Israel so far. Starting to feel like a cop out, particularly for someone whose position on every other expression of bigotry is live and let live. Even people calling in death threats is met with a shrug from you. It’s very off-brand for you to be so sensitive to it in the one specific case when you otherwise completely disregard it.

  34. @40 Thank you for making my point for me. The protestors at the synagogue were protesting the expropriation and sale of Palestinian land in the West Bank. You’ve decided that they’re pro-Hamas in Gaza and assumed (without presenting evidence) that they’re allied with the Students for Justice in Palestine. I’ve primarily focused on Israel’s apparent commission of war crimes in Gaza, with occasional stops to point out your double standards. I’ve said before and say again that I’ve never attended a pro-Palestine protest. I’ve never chanted “From the river to the sea.” What do I get? An assumption from you that I’m allied with SJP. If I raise any objection to Israel’s actions, I’m labeled as pro-Hamas.

    I suppose turnabout is fair play. You’re pro-Israel, so you must therefore be allied with the most extreme Israeli leaders? You’d naturally agree with Belazel Smotrich that “What needs to be done in the Gaza Strip is to encourage emigration. If there are 100,000 or 200,000 Arabs in Gaza and not 2 million Arabs, the entire discussion on the day after will be totally different.” If you don’t appreciate that kind of assumption, then don’t make those assumptions yourself.

    For someone who tells others to get a clue about how the justice system works, you certainly have a tenuous grasp of it yourself. There’s a little thing called standing that you can’t sue without (Fifth Circuit notwithstanding). I can’t just go sue Adas Torah or My Home in Israel for selling stolen land unless I’ve suffered an actual injury. My Home isn’t actually selling the land either–they’re just showcasing properties that others are selling. Maybe they get a finder’s fee if someone buys, maybe it’s just an ideological organization.

  35. @45: “There’s a little thing called standing that you can’t sue without…”

    Well, then, it’s probably good that I made absolutely no mention of suing anyone, isn’t it?

    The form for reporting alleged abuse of tax-exempt status is at https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/irs-complaint-process-tax-exempt-organizations

    (The only “standing” required appears to be requirement of an adult’s signature.)

    Reporting of crimes concerning stolen foreign real estate appears to begin at the local level, but can also involve reporting to the FBI, who can contact Interpol directly. (https://www.interpol.int/en/What-you-can-do/If-you-need-help#:~:text=Always%20contact%20your%20local%20police,national%20and%20local%20police%20forces.)

    Of course, all of this assumes the protesters (and their supporters here) actually care about the issue enough to, um, fill out a form or two. I’ll believe that only after it happens.

  36. @46 Ah yes, “making a federal case out of it” clearly doesn’t indicate a lawsuit. Sure.

    What has the synagogue done that would interfere with their tax exempt status? They just rented space to an outside organization. If they have decent lawyers, their rental form will say that the synagogue doesn’t endorse the views of anyone renting space, which would clear them of liability. And given that the IRS has steadfastly reused to go after churches that routinely violate rules against political endorsements, I don’t see why you’d expect action on this one that a lot murkier.

    Wow, I am sure glad that you posted a link to contact Interpol and tell them about land theft in the West Bank. I bet they’ve never heard of that before. I mean, it’s not like anyone’s been saying that land theft and settlements in the West Bank are a violation of international law any time in the last 50 years. I’ll get right on making that report. I’m sure it will make a huge difference once they know!

  38. @48: Everything in that article (which was about the NYC area, not LA) indicated authorities may still be considering the complaints, and at least one of the events was cancelled because of the activism, so I’m not sure why you claimed the complaints were “brushed off.”

    @47: Your erroneous assumptions about what I write don’t really interest me, but I clearly wrote protesters (in LA, btw) should have filed complaints with the IRS and FBI. Do you actually believe those are courts where lawsuits are filed?

  39. @49 Protests and complaints had been filed for several years with no action by authorities. This event got cancelled because the protests went viral and a lot more people showed up. You know, pretty much exactly what you’re complaining about happening in LA.

    How do you know there have been no complaints filed in LA? You keep saying that as an article of faith.

  40. @50: I can’t prove a negative; I’ve simply not seen any mention of complaints being filed in LA. You found some filed in the Tri-State area, so thank you for validating my point about how such actions might prove more effective than, say, protests which cause local political leaders to decry anti-semitism.

    There’s also a rather large difference between “found meritless,” and “brushed off.” If complaints have been filed, but no actions taken, doesn’t that begin to imply the complaints, and therefore the protests, lack merit? If there are no criminal acts taking place, then aren’t the protesters just trying to bully other persons out of engaging in consensual legal activities?

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