Good Morning! It’s winter again, but the normal Seattle-y winter we’re used to. High around 50, rain in the evening. It’s the kind of weather you can get used to. Which is good—we’ve got the same forecast for at least the next 10 days. Settle in!

College Crackdown: Yesterday, the Department of Education sent warning letters to 60 US colleges and universities, letting them know that they could face repercussions if they don’t “fulfill their obligations…to protect Jewish students on campus, including uninterrupted access to campus facilities and educational opportunities.” Our own UW was one of those schools. UW has already been through a DOE investigation for anti-semitism after the pro-Palestinian protests last year. The investigations found no wrongdoing on UW’s part, but did find gaps in how the university responded to bias incident complaints—which they committed to address. Why doesn’t that matter to the Trump admin? Because this isn’t about Jewish students, or antisemitism, or protecting literally anyone. This is about suppressing dissent on college campuses, where that dissent is most likely to build power. 

Good Karen Energy: Need a little dose of hope? The AP profiled one of the rank and file federal employees who is pushing back on the Trump agenda. Karen Ortiz is an administrative judge at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which has been totally rocked by new Trump policies. The last straw for Ortiz was when her supervisor directed administrative judges to pause all their current LGBTQ cases and send them to DC to comply with Trump’s anti-trans executive order. She sent an email to almost 200 colleagues encouraging them to resist, but that email “mysteriously” disappeared. So she leaned in, and cc’d 1,000 of her colleagues in an email to the EEOC’s acting chair, questioning her fitness to serve in the role, “much less hold a license to practice law.” That’s the kind of Karen energy we like to see. 

The Tariff Train Continues: I’m still not convinced Trump knows what a tariff is. This morning, he announced on Truth Social (in VERY RESPECTABLE CAPITAL LETTERS) that he plans to raise the tariffs on Canadian aluminum and steel to 50 percent. He said they’d go into effect on Wednesday. How can Canada avoid these tariffs? According to Trump: Become our 51st state. Baby, Canada doesn’t wanna go on a date with you. Negging them isn’t gonna help. (Separately, I’d really like to stop reading major geo-political updates in the form of shitposts on Truth Social.)

Pure Nonsense: In an interview on Fox, RFK Jr. (who, bafflingly, is still our health and human services secretary), outlined his strategy for containing the measles outbreak in West Texas. It included: exaggerating the risk of “vaccine injury” from the measles vaccine, insisting that “natural immunity” to measles from infection protects against cancer and heart disease (it doesn’t), and encouraging treatments like cod liver oil (which the NYT called “questionable.”) 

Hometown Pride: Washington AG Nick Brown sued Adams County on Monday, accusing it of breaking state law by aiding ICE enforcement. According to Brown, the county in Eastern Washington is being Trump’s dream narc: illegally holding people based only on their immigration status, helping federal immigration agents question people in custody, and sharing confidential personal information, like birthdates, addresses, driver’s license numbers and fingerprints. The county is being represented by Stephen Miller’s very own legal outfit, America First Legal. Eww. 

Democracy Vouchers Are Back on the Table: Funding for Seattle’s democracy voucher program expires at the end of the year, but Mayor Bruce Harrell is hoping to keep them alive. Yesterday, he proposed a 10-year, $45 million property tax to keep it afloat. (That comes out to about $12 a year for the average homeowner, so you can unclench your butthole, Karen.)

Looking for a Little Culture? The Stranger’s Spring Arts issue is in print everywhere. Can’t wait to grab your copy? You can also read a lot of it here! Including this amazing preview of “arists & poets” at the Jacob Lawrence Gallery at UW, by Rachael Kessler, our Great Bagel Throwdown, Eva Walker’s column about the day her daughter was born (and why she’ll be an only child), and Michael Wong’s elbow-deep exploration of Viet-Cajun cuisine. 

Like Horror or Thriller Movies? But do you always have to check DoesTheDogDie.com? I do. Every damn time. But! A few weeks ago, I was watching The Meg, an incredibly, perfectly stupid shark attack movie about discovering a Megaladon in the depths of the Mariana Trench. There’s no dog death, and while we lose a few decent humans and one whale that will absolutely haunt our asses to the end of time, we also get to watch a Megaladon eat a billionaire. And that got us thinking: When else can we watch the shitty, manipulative billionaire get what’s coming? And so we made: DoesTheBillionaireDie.com. Have a favorite fictional billionaire death? Send it to us at billionaires@thestranger.com

Tanya Woo Is Back: It looks like the twice-failed city council candidate just refuses to take the L. Yesterday, we noticed that Tanya Woo was registered to receive democracy vouchers, but not registered as a candidate with the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission. Then, a few hours after we reached out to her, she appeared on the SEEC website. She still hasn’t formally acknowledged she’s running (she told The Stranger that she was simply exploring the option). But this sure looks like the beginning of a run to us. Read more about it here. 

Seahawks Switchup: In some local sports news, the Seahawks pulled a classic "we totally meant to do that" move this week, shipping off former starting QB Geno Smith to the Raiders after contract talks fizzled, and betting on Sam Darnold to replace him with a $100.5 million deal. Sure, Darnold is younger and had a solid year with the Vikings, but given his playoff faceplant, Seahawks fans probably want to keep the receipt on this one.

ICYMI: City Hall is back on their Denny Blaine nonsense. Remember 2023, when we learned that the millionaire owner of University Village lives next to Denny Blaine Park, which has been a queer, nude beach for at least four decades? And how he was tired of the naked people outside his mansion, so he donated $1 million to the city in 2023 to build a children’s playground at Denny Blaine? After some major community organizing, the playground is off the table. Now, neighbors want a ranger at the park. The park’s stewardship group really does not. Read all about this saga’s next chapter from The Stranger’s Vivian McCall here. 

Move Over Moo-deng. Have you met Ume? She’s a one-month-old endangered spot-covered tapir calf, and she lives just down the train tracks at Point Defiance Zoo. 

 

 

 

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