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Good morning! Yesterday was the end of daylight savings, so we’re well on our way to those 4:30 p.m. sunsets we all love, and the weather got the message. We’ve got a grey, drizzly day ahead of us.
Tomorrow Is Election Day: If you’ve been ignoring our pleas to vote early, it’s time to get your butt in gear. Thanks to USPS’s new rules, officials do not recommend dropping your ballot in the mail this close to the election. But that’s okay! Just pop it in your nearest drop box before 8 p.m. on Tuesday night. Need to know who to vote for? We got you. Want to know why you should vote for them? We’ve got that too. Need a reason to vote? Here’s your reminder that this election is going to be all about turnout this year.
Speaking of Turnout: As of last night, the county had counted 232,810 ballots. Almost 33 percent of those are 65-plus. And if history (and Stranger polling) are any indication, those voters are conservative. Meanwhile, voters under 45 make up less than a quarter of the current ballot stack.
Breaking News: Danny Westneat’s column in the Seattle Times didn’t piss me off this weekend. He talked to the leader of the PAC supporting Bruce Harrell, who’s pretty frustrated that Seattleites don’t appear to be falling for Harrell’s Man of the People schtick. After Wilson trounced him in the primary, the PAC held some voter focus groups, and learned that voters weren’t that moved by Wilson’s support of the DefundSPD movement, and they didn’t care that she was proposing new taxes. The only thing they could attack was her lack of experience, but that’s also backfiring. Turns out, a two-decade record that people aren’t stoked about doesn’t have the kind of grip on the electorate that they were hoping for. Between his incremental progress, the support he’s received from the city’s ultra-rich, and the anger and frustration people feel toward institution politics after Trump’s election, Seattle U’s Erik Olsen told the Times, Wilson has the edge in this election.
SNAP Runs Out: On Friday, two federal judges ruled that the USDA’s Dickensian plan to force Americans to go hungry during the government shutdown was illegal, and the administration was required to throw $6 billion in reserves at this mess. That’s great, but the ruling was too late to avoid delays in benefit funding, which ran out over the weekend. The Trump administration is required to tell the judge how they’re planning on funding the program today.
“But It’s Hard”: House Speaker Mike Johnson told the press that providing SNAP benefits is “not as easy as hitting go send on a computer,” which I’m sure made sense to someone. He insisted that the Republicans really do want to feed people, it’s just a lot of work. “[Trump] wants that to be done,” Johnson said, before blaming every other federal department. “He doesn’t see the mechanism to do it. So you have treasury, you have USDA, you have the other agencies involved that are working overtime, literally around the clock over the weekend, trying to figure out how to do this.” He also emphasized that the emergency fund does not have the full $9 billion that the government needs to fund the program. “But everybody needs to know, it’s not the full amount, assuming they could get this done and processed,” he said, inspiring confidence nationwide.
Meanwhile: Our local food banks were already feeling stretched by the huge swathes of furloughed employees that suddenly needed food assistance, and this weekend, they felt the new pressure of SNAP lapsing. While the feds figure out who’s on first, here in Seattle, the City has directed $8 million dollars toward our food banks and meal programs to try to help bridge the SNAP gap, and the State pitched in another $2.2 million. If you need food, here’s our (surely incomplete but very robust) list of resources.
National Guard Gets Blocked, Again: Late last night, a federal judge told the Trump administration that no, they still cannot send federal troops to Portland. This is another temporary order, because she’s still weighing the evidence presented in a three-day trial. She plans to make a final ruling this Friday. In the meantime, judges are hearing arguments for the National Guard’s deployment into Memphis and Washington DC today.
If you’re feeling sensitive today, maybe skip this one. The J-pod lost another orca calf. J42 gave birth to her first calf in October, but when researchers went to check on the kiddo’s development, he was nowhere to be found. This orca pod has been losing calves year after year, thanks to the loss of Chinook salmon runs and toxins in the water.
For Anyone Who’s Stopped Watching After the Mariners Lost: On Saturday, in extra innings in Game 7, the Dodgers won the World Series. This is the first time in 25 years a team has won the Series two years in a row. It’s not the first we were looking for this year, but it’s the one we got. (In other news, look at the size of that trophy??)
People Ran Far, Fast: Fifty five thousand people ran the New York City Marathon on Sunday. Kenyan runner Beson Kipruto won the men’s race in a split-second finish, Kenyan Hellen Obiri won the women’s, and the signs just won.
A Long Read for You: “She Was Ready to Have Her 15th Child. Then Came the Felony Charges.”
You know how sometimes you have to do a double take in the Halloween store, because some of the decorations look so real? Well in Plano, Texas, that monkey on the ceiling actually was real.
