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Crocodile bartender Elizabeth Hefe Farman. The venue is moving a few blocks.
Crocodile bartender Elizabeth "Hefe" Farman. The venue is moving after it was unable to renew its lease. KINGMON CREATIVE

RIP Old Crocodile, Hello New Crocodile: Seattle's world-famous music venue The Crocodile is setting sail. After 30 years in Belltown, the venue is packing up and moving four blocks away. Seattle Times's Michael Rietmulder has the news:

With the club’s lease expiring in the coming weeks, ownership had approached their landlord about purchasing the 1920s building, looking to secure its future in a development-happy neighborhood. One looming residential project threatens to engulf the rest of the block. The years-in-the-making project, which would raze a sizable chunk of Seattle’s funkiest nightlife corridor, contributed to the closure of Tula’s Jazz Club and Shorty’s punk/metal pinball dive, though Shorty’s found new digs nearby.

When purchase talks halted, the Crocodile owners asked about re-upping its lease instead, only to be shot down without explanation, Wakeling says.

The landlord could not immediately be reached for comment.

The Crocodile will move into the nearby El Gaucho building, which houses an 18-room hotel (!!), and "plans to create a multivenue entertainment complex that will expand the Croc’s footprint on the local concert landscape." That sounds exciting, but the move brings up a lot of emotions.

Trump wanted to strike Iran last week: Presumably to own the libs. The New York Times reports that "President Trump asked senior advisers in an Oval Office meeting on Thursday whether he had options to take action against Iran’s main nuclear site in the coming weeks." Pence and Pompeo reportedly talked Trump off that nuclear cliff. The conversation came just days after Trump fired his Defense Secretary. Fox News's take is that "President Trump weighed all options to stop Iran's growing nuclear program but was talked out of it."

The state of Washington finally kicked off its court case against "serial initiative filer" Tim Eyman today: The state alleges that Eyman has ignored campaign finance law and laundered political donations for about a decade. It wants "substantial monetary penalties" and an injunction "that will put an end to Mr. Eyman’s ability to profit from concealment and deception." Eyman's lawyer described him as "a man of modest means," just "an enthusiastic proponent of the initiative process." Lol. Attorney General Bob Ferguson's office released a fact check on many of Eyman's recent claims here.

President-elect Joe Biden attacked Trump's coronavirus response in a news conference in Wilmington today: The speech focused on the Trump administration's lack of cooperation with the incoming administration. Biden estimated his administration would be “behind" in distributing a potential coronavirus vaccine by "over a month, month and a half" if the Trump admin continues to refuse to cooperate.

One member of Biden's coronavirus advisory board, Michael Osterholm, recently suggested a four- to six-week national lockdown paired with financial aid.

Other team members pushed back at Osterhold's suggestion: Osterhold later admitted that "nobody’s going to support it. It’s not going to be supported out of the administration. It’s not going to be supported in Congress." (I support it.) When asked about Osterhold's suggestion, Biden's comms person reiterated that Biden is committed to mask mandates nationwide and boosted testing. But look at Washington—masks and tests are only two parts of the solution, Joe.

Hurricane Iota heads for Nicaragua: It's a CAT 5 and expected to batter Central America, which got hit by Hurricane Eta a few weeks ago. The end of the hurricane season (Nov. 30) can't come soon enough.

Donald Trump will need to pay $7.9 million if he wants a recount in Wisconsin, according to the Wisconsin Elections Commission. Trump lost the state by around 20,000 votes. The President has said he will ask for a recount in the state, but his campaign hasn't requested one. He must request a recount and pay for it by Wednesday for Wisconsin to consider it.

Meanwhile, in Georgia: Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger says he's received death threats over the Georgia recount and that multiple fellow Republicans, including Sen. Lindsey Graham, have pressured him to question the legality of ballots. Biden currently has a lead of around 14,000 votes in Georgia, and the state is in the middle of an expensive hand recount. More from WaPo:

Graham questioned Raffensperger about the state’s signature-matching law and whether political bias could have prompted poll workers to accept ballots with nonmatching signatures, according to Raffensperger. Graham also asked whether Raffensperger had the power to toss all mail ballots in counties found to have higher rates of nonmatching signatures, Raffensperger said.

Raffensperger said he was stunned that Graham appeared to suggest that he find a way to toss legally cast ballots. Absent court intervention, Raffensperger doesn’t have the power to do what Graham suggested, as counties administer elections in Georgia.

“It sure looked like he was wanting to go down that road,” Raffensperger said.

ICYMI: Don't move to Georgia just to vote in the runoff election... It's a felony! Jasmyne Keimig has more updates on the pivotal Senate races here.

Nathalie Graham looks at how the city is offering COVID-19 relief $$$ here: And Rich Smith has a girthy interview with Seattle's Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal on the possibility of progressive legislation in 2021 here.

Judd Apatow will make a quarantine movie for Netflix: Deadline reports that Apatow will make a film about "a group of actors and actresses stuck inside a pandemic bubble at a hotel attempting to complete a film." The project is currently untitled, and details are scant.

Central Idaho's had 13 earthquakes in just 24 hours: Most of them registered between 2.7 and 4.1 magnitude, reports CBS2. They're most likely related to the 6.5 magnitude earthquake that hit the Stanley area in March. CBS2 reports that some Stanley residents "have felt their homes shake almost every day since that historic earthquake."

It's not just Washington: Governers all over the country are strengthening COVID-19 restrictions ahead of Thanksgiving. In California, the state is closing many nonessential indoor businesses. In New Jersey, indoor gatherings are now restricted to 10 people, as opposed to 25. Over in New Mexico, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued a new stay-at-home order. "We don’t really want to see mamaw at Thanksgiving and bury her by Christmas," said the president of the Mississippi State Medical Association. Words to hopefully live by.

We'll all be in quarantine sooner or later: Over 25 members of Congress and at least 150 workers have reported testing positive for the virus. NPR notes that Congress's plan to "test as many as 2,000 [people] a week still falls woefully short for a Capitol complex that includes more than 530 lawmakers and a workforce of 20,000 or more."

The Trump administration is rushing to destroy the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska before Biden can do anything about it: Today, the administration announced it would start selling leases to companies so they can begin drilling for oil in the refuge. The Cut estimates that "even with the administration’s accelerated timeline, the earliest lease sales could occur would be January 17, three days before inauguration." Prezzy-elect Joe B. opposes pumping the refuge of its oil, and many analysts expect companies to avoid the offer, fearing a PR disaster.

Bezos announced the recipients of the Bezos Earth Fund: The $10 billion program is Bezos's largest charitable commitment—one of the biggest ever—and most of the money will get directed toward non-profits.

Here's Recode on the move:

Bezos is awarding $100 million each to the Environmental Defense Fund, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Nature Conservancy, the World Resources Institute, and the World Wildlife Fund. Those five groups are among the largest environmental nonprofits in the country. The Nature Conservancy had almost $1 billion in revenue in the most recent fiscal year on file, and the other four had over $100 million each.

To be sure, some of the $791 million is going to less recognizable groups. But in his first major contributions, Bezos is largely playing it safe.