Weather: I’m not a winter girlie, but one thing I do love about winter is the fact that we all talk about the weather so much. I love talking about the weather. “Icy out there, huh?” “Mmhmm. Did you see they delayed school?” “Yeah, and SeaTac’s a mess.” Tonight, I leave the weekend weather chatter to the experts at the UW Dawgcast: Wild weather:

Flu: The flu has hit Washington hard. State officials reported 1,300 new flu cases just in the timeframe of November 20-26. As of November 26, 13 people have died from the flu in Washington this year, including two children. That’s a big jump from November 19 when the State only knew of seven deaths. Go get your flu shot. 

Seattle is dying: So sad that criminals keep running amuck in our beautiful City. For example, the Northgate Red Robin stole $400,000 from its employees, and thanks to the Office of Labor Standards, the criminal corporation will have to pay those workers back and shell out $200,000 to the City of Seattle. And to think the crime conversation in this City is just a bunch of boot lickers hoping for police to bonk people over the head when they try to steal TVs from Target. 

ACAB, especially Loren Culp: Ferry County and the City of Republic will have to pay $275,000 to a victim because their cops failed to investigate child sex abuse allegations in 2013. The fuck up falls on the shoulders of Deputy Talon Venturo and Loren Culp, a cop who ran for governor in 2020 as a miniature Donald Trump.  

Once again begging you to give a fuck: Right now, the City is working on its 10-year growth plan, known as the comprehensive plan. It sounds like an absolute snooze, but if you want transit, housing, the City in general to NOT SUCK, Andrew Engelson implores you to listen up. 

Giving Mosqueda her flowers: We give the city council a lot of shit here on the blog. But Council Member Teresa Mosqueda did something pretty cool in comprehensive plan discussions by pushing for the City to take bolder action on zoning reform, the Urbanist reports. Good for her!

Another wild meeting: The Seattle Human Rights Commission (SHRC) continues to baffle me. At the commission’s meeting last night, the agenda did not include the resolution to condemn sweeps, which the commission tabled (very dramatically) in its meeting last month. The resolution’s sponsor, Matthew Mitnick, tried to put the item on the agenda, sparking a long argument about how that would extend the meeting (which extended the meeting lol). Instead, the commission spent an hour reviewing its bylaws. TBH, they honestly needed a review because holy shit do they struggle to conduct a coherent meeting.  

Try that again, SHRC: After that, Mitnick made another motion to allow 10 minutes for a vote on his opposition to the sweeps proposal, which members had already seen. Again, two commissioners made a HUGE stink about extending the meeting. Still, the motion passed, prompting one of the frustrated commissioners to leave the meeting before the discussion. Mitnick explained a few minor changes to the resolution (it no longer attempted to transfer funds to mutual aid groups, which is probably illegal and turned several commissioners off in the past). While the commission discussed friendly amendments and prepared to vote, the remaining frustrated commissioner went on a long-winded rant about Mitnick continuing to extend meetings. She left, accusing other commissioners of disrespecting her. With that, the commission lost quorum and could not vote on the opposition to sweeps.

Commission pisses off attendees: Several commenters in the meeting’s live chat expressed frustration with the commission's failure to do “the bare minimum” and vote on a bill that is barely more than a virtue signal (it calls a meeting with the Mayor and council). Many speculated that members ran down the clock on purpose to give plausible deniability for leaving before the vote that they avoided once before. One attendee emailed me after the meeting and said they were “saddened to see that they used every trick in the book to avoid discussing the violent displacement of our unhoused neighbors.” The SHRC will discuss the item in its meeting NEXT month. Seems like a long time to spend on a pretty easy W. Are sweeps bad, yes or no?

Boozy hot choccy: Craziest thing happened. I was getting espresso martinis with the girls earlier this week. The snow on the ground had us longing for a hot holiday drink, but we didn’t know where to go. Enter my place of work. The Stranger and EverOut put together a weeklong event to help you explore the city’s best holiday drinks. Catch me drinking “Santa’s Rump” at the Athenian Seafood Restaurant and Bar next week.

Election season never ends: Here's what you need to know about the runoff election in Georgia between Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican challenger Herschel Walker as early in-person voting wraps up. Also, a kid got shot over this election. 

2024 primary with a twist: There’s been rumbles among Democrats about reshuffling the order of states to vote in the primary, but apparently no one expected President Joe Biden to publicly propose his own idea. Yesterday, Biden released a letter he sent to the Democratic National Convention (DNC) Rules and Bylaws Committee, calling for a more diverse lineup of early-voting states, that way Black voters get their voices heard earlier in the process. He wants South Carolina to go first. The committee approved his plan, but it still needs to go to a full DNC vote. The only problem: The DNC can't just vote the change into reality. The states set their primary dates.

Speaking of Biden: The Scab-in-Chief signed legislation that forces rail workers to take a shitty deal that didn’t even include additional sick time, not even the seven day compromise proposed by Sen. Bernie Sanders. 

Our Mayor couldn’t resist: Mayor Bruce Harrell decided to weigh in on the situation, congratulating Congress for fucking over workers. What a dork.

Trouble for Trump: Today, the January 6 criminal grand jury heard hours of testimony from former Trump White House counsel Pat Cipollone and deputy counsel Patrick Philbin. CNN called the two "key witnesses to Trump’s actions in the last days of his presidency." Catch up on all of the former president's legal battles here and peep the recent news that he sanctioned tax fraud here because I cannot keep track of it all. I am but a simple City reporter. 

She did WHAT? Police arrested a 72-year-old woman who allegedly got so annoyed with the sound of her 79-year-old hospital roommate’s ventilator that she switched it off. Twice. 

To celebrate the coming Lana album: "DON’T BE A JERK, DON’T CALL ME A TAXI/SITTING IN YOUR SWEATSHIRT, CRYING IN THE BACKSEAT."