Just recently a “change candidate,” Mayor Katie Wilson took a page from tradition in her first crack at the City budget: Cuts for almost every department besides the cops. In part, her hands were tied with raises for cops mandated under the last administration, but plenty of 13.9% increase is Wilson’s own doing — at least enough to shut up any Laurelhurst pearl clutchers still dutifully regurgitating campaign era accusations that Wilson wants to defund the police. As Mayor W

Seattle internet enjoyers proclaimed over the weekend they would find a new quirky establishment from which to buy their rubber chickens when several viral posts exposed that the owner of novelty shop Archie McPhee, Mark Pahlow, gave $10,000 to Let’s Go Washington (LGW), a right-wing campaign promoting anti-LGBTQ+ initiatives and a social-services-starving repeal to Washington's Millionaires Tax. Pahlow publicly apologized, claiming he somehow missed all the anti-queer garbo

The UW 33, a group of UW students and community members who occupied a campus building funded by war profiteer Boeing, will not go to trial, face jail time, or face any fines after they sign pretrial diversion agreements. While the agreement comes with stipulations, the anti-war activists called this outcome a win for the protesters, for the broader movement for Palestinian liberation, and for their ongoing fight against political repression. On a Monday evening in May 2025

Washington State has helped ICE arrest 76 people just this year thanks to an exemption in the State’s flagship law protecting immigrants. These arrests account for a small percentage of overall ICE arrests this year, but they are arrests directly in the State’s control — custodial arrests that transfer immigrants from state jails to ICE detention centers. And the refusal to amend the law to stop this practice as part of their flashy legislative efforts to stand up to ICE, sh

The Seattle City Council will vote next Tuesday on legislation to expand the City’s existing civil rights protections to include people in consensually non-monogamous relationships. Some may roll their eyes or make a clumsy joke comparing the whole ordeal to a Portlandia sketch (yes, Portland already has an ordinance protecting poly people), but the personal testimonies from non-mongamous Seattlites gave greater understanding of how this simple addition will deliver massive

The University of Washington wants to crackdown on protest, pushing changes to the Student Code of Conduct that would trump up punishment for students that cover their faces or are merely present when someone else damages property. Initially, UW tried to sneak these new rules through while most students were away for summer break. But after backlash, implementation will have to wait until after the faculty senate can review the new changes. To combat the crackdown, students w

Washington’s most groan-inducing Democratic member of Congress crossed party lines this week to support an amendment condemning socialism, clearly in response to the Democratic Socialists of America’s rise in popularity. No one should be shocked that Gluesenkamp Perez signaled her moderate virtue in yet another time-wasting resolution to finger wag the left. But what’s possibly more controversial is the fact that voting “yes” on this resolution is also a vote urging the enac

Uber Eats will pay more than $4.3 million to over 14,000 gig workers for allegedly violating Seattle’s App-Based Worker Minimum Payment Ordinance thanks to the enforcement of Seattle’s Office of Labor Standards (OLS). The settlement highlights the vital role OLS plays in protecting vulnerable workers, but it’s just a drop in the bucket compared to the tens of millions OLS has recouped for Seattle workers in its decade of existence. And as City Hall stares down a difficult bud

Earlier this year, Washington State House Representatives Melanie Morgan (D-Tacoma) and Amy Walen (D-Kirkland) crossed party lines to oppose the signature progressive legislation of the session: the Millionaire’s Tax. Now, they’re facing the consequences of voting like Republicans in their blue districts. As of Friday’s ballot drop, both Morgan and Walen are behind their progressive challengers, Tacoma small business owner Krista Perez and Redmond City Council Member Jessica

Right wingers are losing what’s left of their lead-paint-infected minds over the Seattle City Council allocating a measly $300,000 to LGBTQ+ organizations grappling with an influx of trans and queer people who are fleeing their hostile hometowns for solace in Seattle. Some made an argument in public comment that dedicating dollars to the trans refugee surge amounts to a waste of taxpayer money. But their issue is not fiscal responsibility— if it were, they would be coming to