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Why the Fuck Would You Do That: What is it about cooking up a Halloween costume that makes people lose all critical thinking skills? Every year, some white guy will put on a Native American war bonnet, or some idiot decides it’s cool to dress as a serial killer. This year, former Vancouver City Councilmember Pat Jollota dressed as an ICE agent at the city’s popular Halloween gathering on October 18. Photos of her were posted to Facebook. People got mad, because of course they did. And Jollota eventually apologized at last week’s city council meeting. In a Facebook post of her own, she wrote that the costume was meant “as commentary, not endorsement,” and that her goal was to portray ICE as the horror that it is.
ICE to Go Mask-Off: Now for some real ICE news. With ICE sightings and whispers of a National Guard deployment to Seattle, Mayor Bruce Harrell proposed an ordinance banning law enforcement from using face coverings. This new legislation would prohibit any officer—including ICE agents—from wearing face coverings, and requires them to wear identification.
But it’s unclear how enforceable these mask bans actually are. Seattle would join other blue states and cities—in California, New York and Illinois—who have (or are trying to) pass similar legislation. But federal agents operate under federal authority, meaning state or local laws can’t always tell them what to do. The Trump administration has already said they won’t comply with Gov. Newsom’s legislation.
Speaking of Harrell proposals, Seattle City Council approved an ordinance on Tuesday banning non-competes for grocery stores and pharmacies. This means that a rival store can move onto a former chain’s lot. The ban, proposed by Harrell on October 1, comes in response to the wave of recent store closures in the Seattle area which have made food less accessible and turned Lake City into a food desert (and Katie Wilson’s campaign proposal to explore public grocery stores). And while the ordinance sounds impressive, it likely won’t have the effect we hope it will. Read my story about it here.
I Hate It Here: The Trump administration’s campaign against trans people continues. NPR got their hands on two proposed rules in the Department of Health and Human Services that would dramatically restrict gender-affirming care for anyone under 19. Both target medicaid reimbursements for trans care, but the second one takes it a step further, threatening to cut off all Medicaid and Medicare funding to hospitals that offer pediatric gender-affirming care—a step that hospitals have clearly been bracing for for months now. These are just proposals right now, and they will surely be challenged in the courts, but it’s another way Trump’s trying to make good on his day-one executive order stating the US will not help trans youth get care.
Ceasefire… Now? Israel announced its ceasefire is back on—right after carrying out devastating airstrikes in Gaza that killed 104 people and wounded 253, making this the deadliest strike since the ceasefire began October 10. Israel said it struck Gaza as payback for the shooting and killing of an Israeli soldier in Rafah. Hamas says they had no involvement in the shooting. We say Israel needs to revisit the definition of ceasefire.
Gas Works Death Lawsuit: The family of Mattheis Johnson, the 15-year-old who fell to his death off the Gas Works Park structures on July 10, has sued the city. The lawsuit alleges that Gas Works’ amalgamation of rusted tanks, pipes, and ladders pose a major threat to visitors, noting that Johnson was the third to die from falling off its structures since 2012. After Johnson’s death, Seattle Parks and Recreation declared an emergency and proposed removing all climbable surfaces. But the Landmarks and Preservation Board rejected the proposal this month, citing historical significance. The board wants to explore alternatives, like security cameras, which are famously effective at saving lives.
Putting the Free in Free-Range: A Northern California animal rights activist is facing jail time after she dressed up like a factory worker, snuck into a Perdue Farms plant, and liberated four chickens. Zoe Rosenberg, 23, was found guilty yesterday in Sonoma County Court for felony conspiracy, trespassing, and other charges, after saving Poppy, Ivy, Aster, and Azalea from the chopping block. Rosenberg said it was worth it. She and her lawyers argued that breaking into the plant wasn’t illegal because she was responding to criminal animal cruelty. She’s facing four and a half years in jail while Poppy and friends have flown the coup, but her lawyer plans to appeal the verdict.
Weather: Well, it was supposed to be mostly cloudy with some sun later on, per the National Weather Service and the Apple Weather app. But I’m sitting next to my window and the sun is pouring in. I don’t know what to believe. I guess we’ll see. High of 56 degrees. Nighttime will see more clouds with a low around 43.
The Storm Has a New Coach: The Seattle Storm just hired Sonia Raman, a former New York Liberty assistant coach and the first WNBA head coach of Indian descent. Her resume is unconventional: she has a law degree from Boston College, worked for the U.S. Department of Labor, turned MIT’s women’s basketball team into a Division III powerhouse, and coached for the Memphis Grizzlies and Liberty. The Seattle Times has the story.
ICE in Issaquah: Two people were arrested by ICE in Issaquah last week—one while dropping her kid off at preschool, another at a McDonald’s—and officials are reacting. Issaquah City Councilmember Kelly Jiang told KOMO she’s urged state legislators to pass protective laws, like requiring all law enforcement to show identification and be prohibited from wearing masks. Mayor Mary Lou Pauly recommended the council allocate $50,000 in the budget for immigration services.
Hurricane Melissa Leaves Dozens Dead: After wreaking havoc on Jamaica and Haiti, Hurricane Melissa set its sights on Cuba on Wednesday. Almost 30 have died from the storm—at least 25 in Haiti and four in Jamaica. Cuba hasn’t reported any deaths yet but 735,000 people were evacuated.
Indicted over ICE Protest: During a September protest outside an immigration building in a Chicago suburb, Democratic congressional candidate Kat Abughazaleh and five others allegedly surrounded a vehicle driven by an ICE officer, preventing it from entering the facility. Now, she and those five people have been indicted with felony charges for conspiring to impede an officer.
Big Tech Flirts With Israel: Leaked documents revealed that Israel’s $1.2 billion “Project Nimbus” cloud deal with Google and Amazon came with a secret clause straight out of a spy novel. Under the so-called “winking mechanism,” the tech giants allegedly agreed to use a secret code through payments to the Israeli government whenever they were being forced by courts to hand over Israeli data. The whole system is based on country codes: they’d send 1,000 shekels if US courts were demanding data because our country code is +1; If Italy (+39) was digging around for data, they’d send 3,900. “It seems awfully cute and something that if the US government or, more to the point, a court were to understand, I don’t think they would be particularly sympathetic,” a former US government lawyer told The Guardian. The deal also forbids Google and Amazon from cutting off Israel’s military or surveillance access.
US-China Trade Is So Back: Trump met with China’s President Xi Jinping in South Korea yesterday for the first time since Trump retook office. The meeting went so well that Trump rated it a 12 out of 10, because that’s how math and the presidency works now. President Xi must have told him he’s very pretty, because he’s cutting tariffs on Chinese goods. In return, Xi agreed to lift China’s restrictions on exporting rare earth minerals.
