On Tuesday, Mayor Katie Wilson did her big one: Finally, fully capitulating to her bootlicking predecessor’s proposal to dramatically expand the Seattle Police Department’s (SPD) surveillance capabilities, a proposal Wilson took a strong, public stance against when it was politically advantageous to her leftward challenge. While her office may try to retroactively downplay her opposition to mass surveillance or hide behind the recommendations of an audit, it's hard to see thi

The political equivalent of a “Christmas and Easter Catholic” is suddenly blowing up your group chats with national blue-wave memes and TikToks. And while you (the designated election-nerd friend) have their fleeting attention, now’s your chance to gently redirect it toward the progressive victories happening right here in our own backyard. And maybe, just maybe, they might find themselves inspired to roll up their sleeves and get involved locally. A Historic Night in the So

Emails reveal Pierce County Sheriff Keith Swank is organizing an anti-trans demonstration at Sunday’s Seattle Reign game against the Orlando Pride. It is unclear why a self-proclaimed defender of women’s sports would attend a women’s soccer match just to center himself, but there is a silver lining: every hour he spends on this stunt is one less hour he can spend appealing to Pierce County voters, who will decide whether to end his term early in Tuesday's election. After righ

Data center tycoon and ICE’s newest Western Washington landlord, Sabey Corporation, is backing a handful of Democrat State lawmakers in the upcoming November election: Reps. April Berg, Dan Bronoske, Jake Fey, Mari Leavitt, Alicia Rule, Amy Walen, and Sens. Marko Liias and John Lovick. As the Democratic Party tries to ride a wave of popular sentiment against the big, AI bro-ligarchy and Trump’s fascist deportation machine, party members who take money from a company profite

Mayor Katie Wilson could try to stop Council Member Dan Strauss’s cruel, ineffective ban on RVs, but it wouldn’t be easy. After the council passed the ban 6 to 3, against the consensus of homelessness service providers and advocates, Wilson vaguely flagged “serious concerns” with the legislation, drumming up rumors she may not sign it. But the bill would become law with or without here signature. If she feels passionately about stopping the ban, Wilson could veto the bill, bu

Seattle made history this summer as the first major City in the country to pass a temporary moratorium on the construction of large data centers amid a wave of popular frustration with the tech broligarchy. While the Mayor and the City Council basked in national praise from the anti-data center majority, two large scale data center projects snuck into the permitting pipeline just before the moratorium took effect. But long after the public backpatting has petered out, climate

Seattle’s first renter Mayor in recent memory did not restore funding for tenant services slashed by the previous administration in her first crack at the City budget, so now advocacy groups are asking the City Council to add at least $500,000 for the cause. In balancing a $175 million deficit — all cuts, no taxes — making an argument to increase funding anywhere (except for the police apparently), can be a tough sell. But advocates from 29 organizations argue that one of the

Seattle Forward (SeaFor), former Council President Sara Nelson’s new dark money pseudo PAC, just dropped $30,000 into the District 5 City Council race to support the conservative lane candidate, Julie Kang. And I don’t say “dark money” lightly. SeaFor was explicitly designed as a back channel to avoid pesky campaign finance transparency laws, blatantly promising to conceal the identity of its conservative donors. If you think that sounds like it’s against the rules, you’re no

Big business has spent a jaw dropping $410,000 in independent expenditures to defend Rep. Amy Walen (D-Kirkland) against progressive challenger Jessica Forsythe. That’s on top of hundreds of corporate donations padding the stunning $395,000 her campaign has raised itself. Walen earned big business’s loyalty as one of the handful of Democrats to vote against the Millionaires Tax last session, arguably against the will of her constituents who broadly support taxing the rich to

Ferry service has returned mostly to normal after 23 ferry engine room workers called out sick, shutting down 13 out of 18 vessels on Monday. While there’s no official confirmation workers coordinated these absences to flex their collective power to their bosses, Washington State ferries appeared to try and squash sympathies for the union ferry workers by publishing the tippy top of their highest paid worker’s possible salary if they were constantly overworked: $350,000. This