The Seattle City Council voted 8-0 to pass Mayor Katie Wilson’s rental junk fee ban, legislation that codifies what fees landlords can impose, mandates upfront transparency, and bans any charges not explicitly permitted. To the relief of tenant advocates, the council also completely rejected amendments to water the legislation down. But not only is this a win for Seattle’s renter majority, it is a win for the Mayor, especially coming off a few particularly nasty public spats

At their 2pm Tuesday meeting, the Seattle City Council will vote on Mayor Katie Wilson’s junk fee ban, an ordinance that lays out what landlords can charge for, mandates upfront transparency for those charges, and bans anything not explicitly permitted in that list. The legislation can pass as is — it earned five votes in committee — but there’s a chance the council waters down the bill with amendments to cap “pet rent” instead of outright banning it and to allow landlords to

Seattle City Council President Joy Hollingsworth passed an amendment to the supplemental budget redirecting $250,000 in unused funding, originally set aside for an unrealized surveillance camera expansion, to pay for Community Violence Interruption ambassadors from We Deliver Care (WDC). Hollingsworth, a supporter of last year's controversial surveillance expansion, is, through this amendment, acknowledging reality: The mayor will not use all of the surveillance funding the c

The 2026 election could be another “change” election with younger challengers aiming to unseat longtime incumbents in several State legislative races around Seattle. But these young, scrappy candidates will likely have their best shot if their peers make it to the ballot box. And so far, per usual, older voters make up the vast majority of ballots in King County boxes. As of 1pm Monday, King County voters 65 years old and older have cast four times as many ballots as voters u

State House candidate Ron Davis is accusing his opponent Will Dreher’s campaign of stealing thousands of dollars of campaign yard signs — and over the weekend, they obtained video they believe proves it. However Dreher, who has reviewed the video, said the woman in the video is not the specific campaign staffer Davis's team alleges or anyone else on his team. Besides, Dreher believes the signs amount to "removable litter." This yard sign fiasco is perhaps the penultimate i

Mayor Katie Wilson just canned Seattle Police Chief Shon Barnes in the fallout of the shooting at Bite of Seattle, which called into question the frequent out-of-state traveler’s investment in the City he is supposed to serve and protect. Among other qualities, Wilson said in a press conference Friday morning that she’s looking to replace him with someone who is “consistently present” in Seattle and will keep travel to an “appropriate minimum.” For now however, Seattle will h

Tens of people gathered outside of the Seattle Storm vs. Indiana Fever basketball game to support the WNBA’s transphobe of the month, Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham. The bench warmer suddenly rose to notoriety when she voiced support for excluding trans women and girls from women and girls’ sports earlier this month, quickly becoming a new icon for the right wing. While their obsession with policing trans women is concerning, their pitiful turnout should give queer-fr

It’s happening again. The bosses at Puget Consumers Co-op (PCC) are once again sending workers home from their shifts at the Greenlake Village location for wearing watermelon pins, a symbol commonly associated with Palestine. But this time, managers are dismissing workers for wearing union-branded watermelon pins — disciplining workers for insignia that workers argue is explicitly permitted under PCC policy and protected by federal labor law. Not only that, the crackdown ra

After picking a pointless fight and losing miserably in the court of public opinion Wednesday, three Seattle City Council’s changed course and decided they don’t need to pit one child’s hungry belly against another. Council Members Joy Hollingsworth, Dionne Foster, and Dan Strauss announced a plan Thursday to do the obviously right thing: Pay for both the Mayor’s universal meal program and the modest voucher program they voted Wednesday to delay it for. “Some investments are

The Seattle City Council manufactured a false choice: Use a little bit of Families, Education, Preschool and Promise (FEPP) levy funds to pay for Mayor Katie Wilson’s promise to start up universal breakfast and lunches for Seattle students next year or throw only the lowest income families fairly modest grocery vouchers for food outside of school hours. In a 6-3 vote Wednesday morning, the council approved the amendment that delayed the universal program in favor of the vouch