With mounting pressure for the City to proactively safeguard Seattle from a potential ICE crackdown, newly elected Mayor Katie Wilson sent a press release Thursday afternoon detailing initial steps to protect Seattleites. Compared to first steps taken on the state level , Wilson’s list of actions read much more concrete — in the most eye-catching actions, she’s ordering cops to verify and document ICE activity and prohibiting the feds from using City-owned and controlled prop

During the constant chaos of the Trump 2.0 experience, you could be forgiven for forgetting that early in this second term, Trump and the Republicans passed H.R. 1, also known as the ‘Big Beautiful Bill’.  H.R. 1 contains not only massive tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy, but massive cuts in social services for the most vulnerable.  My father has spent the past 35 years working as a social worker in Spokane, WA serving Washingtonians who are facing very dire and immediate reper

In a press conference Monday morning, Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson listed five ways the State is preparing for a potential ICE crackdown as the nation watches Minneapolis in horror. He conceded that he cannot order ICE out of Washington, but vowed not to be a “passive bystander” either. However, the measures he touted — a strongly worded letter, some staffing changes in his office, a conversation with the national guard, more meetings with elected officials, and  a few laws W

A difficult day. Today I was present as ICE agents detained a father a mile from my house--while his two-year-old son sat scared in the backseat. It began with an early phone call from immigrant day laborer friends at our nearby Home Depot parking lot. They’d spotted two cars in the lot that looked like they could be ICE, and they asked that we come check it out. I and several other volunteers from our solidarity group quickly went. The cars were ICE—one’s driver had a police

On Thursday, seven Democrats betrayed their party and the overwhelming outcry from the American public by voting to pass a bill giving the Department of Homeland Security a whopping $64.4 billion. A stunning $10 billion of that will go to ICE, a rogue agency that continues to terrorize communities across the country.  Washington’s very own Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez was among the seven Democrats as well as Reps. Henry Cuellar (Texas), Jared Golden (Maine),, Laura Gillen (N.

It’s all but official: The evil rich dude got his anti-trans initiative on the ballot. On Thursday morning, Washington Secretary of State Steven Hobbs delivered official notice  to the Washington State legislature that his office has completed the signature verification and certification process for Let’s Go Washington’s IL26-638, which would require invasive medical verification of sex for school-age kids to play on girls’ sports teams. Will Washington voters be as obsessed

In seemingly unlikely opposition, the State’s largest public universities testified against a bill in the Washington State Legislature that would pay for the higher education of more working class families. Supporters of the measure seem to think big tech is pulling the strings.  House Bill 2098, sponsored by Rep. Julia Reed (D-Seattle), would massively expand the State’s ability to subsidize   tuition for working families. Stick with me. This gets a little weedy.  HB 2098 wo

In the latest episode of unsubstantiated claims of ICE activity going viral and causing undue panic, a post on Threads  (of all places) inaccurately claimed that armed ICE agents were wandering about the Seattle-Tacoma International (SEA, formerly SeaTac) airport Wednesday morning. It turns out, the well-meaning rumor starter probably saw regular ole cops in gray uniforms. Once again, if you want to post about ICE activity, make sure you post specifics and post photos.  On We

If it sounds like a bill you’d read about in a red state, that’s because it is. A bipartisan coalition in the Washington State legislature is borrowing from policy “role models” such as Texas, Florida, Mississippi, and Louisiana to require residents to surrender their personal identifying information in order to access websites that host sexual material “harmful” to children. As with most obscenity laws, the prudes pushing the age verification bill support it as a means to pr

Alright, Big Tech. You’ve had your libertarian fantasy with Artificial Intelligence (AI) for the past few years — clogging our feeds with deepfakes, letting chatbots send lonely people into psychosis, and automizing discrimination in the workplace. This legislative session, Washington Democrats are more serious than ever about setting some ground rules on the anything-goes tech playground.   No, The Chatbot Doesn’t Love You At the request of Gov. Bob Ferguson, the state legis