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Katie Wilson Is Likely Our Next Mayor: ICYMI, Wilson’s lead grew in yesterday afternoon’s ballot drop—she’s up 1,346 votes with 1,355 ballots left uncounted. Remember, if a candidate wins by less than half a percent or less than 2,000 votes, there will be an automatic machine recount. She hasn’t declared victory, and Bruce Harrell hasn’t conceded, but our week-long rollercoaster could come to an end after this afternoon’s ballot drop. In the meantime, make sure your ballot counted!
Speaking of Emotional Rollercoasters: The House is expected to vote today on the funding bill that would end the government shutdown. Are we fucked re: healthcare costs? Probably! But Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said that Dems will “seek to amend the bill reopening the federal government to also address expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies.” K. The vote is expected to begin around 5 p.m. EST. Will any local bars be showing it? We should be together at a time like this.
Washington Dems Are Pissed… Mostly: Murray, Jayapal, Cantwell, DelBene, Smith—most local Democrats have made it clear that they’re going to vote against this bill. One hasn’t, though: US Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, who is up for re-election next year. Gluesenkamp Perez hasn’t said one way or the other as of last night, according to the Seattle Times. Here’s how to contact her office: (360) 695-6292, Instagram, Threads, online contact form.
Flights Are Still Fucked, Too: Already today, nearly 900 flights have been cancelled nationwide, including 34 at SeaTac, due to staffing shortages and interruptions caused by the shutdown. More than 700 flights have been delayed across the country. Even if the government votes to reopen this evening, issues may linger. “It’s gonna take a bit to unwind,” former FAA administrator Randy Babbitt told NPR.
“Trump Knew”: Dems may have caved in the shutdown, but they haven’t forgotten about the Epstein files. This morning House Dems released messages suggesting that Trump “knew about the girls” (Epstein’s words) and Trump spent hours at Epstein’s house with one of his victims. The New York Times points out that messages were released days after a whistleblower suggested Ghislaine Maxwell “was preparing to formally ask Mr. Trump to commute her federal prison sentence.”
I guess we know why Trump, Bondi, Patel and Mike Johnson have been covering up the Epstein files. I’m sure there is a whole lot more and a whole lot worse.
— Ron Filipkowski (@ronfilipkowski.bsky.social) November 12, 2025 at 6:26 AM
The Cruelty Is the Point: The U.S. Supreme Court extended an order blocking full SNAP payments for at least a couple more days, citing the possibility of the shutdown ending soon. (During this back and forth, Washington Governor Bob Ferguson confirmed that our state did send out on-time payments to all of our SNAP recipients, but not all states were that lucky.) If the shutdown ends, SNAP will resume payments nationwide, but how long that will take varies by state. And what if the shutdown doesn’t end? Why not let people have access to food even a day sooner? WTF, dickholes?
What the Flock: A Washington judge ruled Flock’s AI license-plate scanning images are part of public record and can be requested as a records request, despite the fact that cops very much wanted to keep the records for themselves. In September Seattle City Council voted to expand the use of police surveillance cameras in Capitol Hill, SoDo, and Garfield High School despite concerns about privacy, bad policing, and federal incursion. No good can come from any of this. Redmond knows.
Into Haunted Puppets? Don’t miss Manual Cinema’s The 4th Witch tonight at the Moore Theater! Seattle’s Most Beloved Goth Bess Lovejoy says, “the show feels like magic, just as in the phantasmagorias of old.” Read her fascinating interview with Manual Cinema’s co-artistic director Drew Dir here.
An Upsetting Must Read: The Guardian has an interview with José Bertin Cruz-Estrada, one of the men who was detained by ICE while fighting the Bear Gulch fire in August. Cruz-Estrada was locked up in an ICE facility until the end of October, when he was deported to Mexico and separated from his family, including his 14-year-old son, in Oregon. Cruz-Estrada had lived in the US since he was 12 years old. His mother was a wildland firefighter, too. Now he doesn’t know if he’ll ever be allowed to reunite with his family the US.
You Thought Seattle’s Spider Season Was Bad: Do not read this story about the largest ever colonial spiderweb with more than 111,000 arachnids if you do not like spiders.
Rest in Pennies: The last penny will be minted today in Philadelphia. It costs nearly four times its worth to mint. “The penny outlived its sibling, the half-penny, by 168 years,” CNN writes. “It’s survived by the nickel, dime, quarter, and rarely seen half-dollar and dollar coins.” But don’t throw them away! They’re still legal tender. For now.
