Seattle

cross-posted from: https://infosec.pub/post/49217102

cross-posted from: https://infosec.pub/post/49217101

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FYI: It is illegal in the state of Washington for law enforcement officers (local, state or federal, including ICE) to wear face-concealing masks while interacting with the public. The law went into effect upon signing, March 19, 2026.

Law signing press release: https://senatedemocrats.wa.gov/valdez/2026/03/19/masked-law-enforcement-banned-under-new-washington-state-law/

Text of the law can be found here.

This is video evidence of federal law enforcement breaking Washington state law.

Tacoma says new data centers, of any size, are not permitted.

The city took a different tack than Seattle, which passed a one-year ban on new large-scale data centers last month. Instead of passing a bill, Tacoma’s Planning and Development Services Department issued an interpretation of its existing code last week, saying data centers were not listed as an allowable use in the city. It’s not that code explicitly says they’re prohibited. They’re just not mentioned at all. By default, the city says that means they’re not allowed.

In effect, until the Tacoma City Council passes an amendment to its zoning code saying data centers are permissible, and the conditions under which they are, the planning department says they won’t be. The interpretation doesn’t affect existing data centers in the city.

Hey y’all! Wanted to test the waters here on adding in more news from surrounding cities here - any interest in more activity from Olympia, Everett, and the peninsula?

The description for the community includes surrounding areas, but I’m not sure how many people here are actually in Seattle or if we have a more diverse crowd location-wise than I can tell.

Anyway, been enjoying posting here and I hope you all haven’t minded me too much!

ECB: There seems to be a tension between people in your administration who are government veterans, who are like, ‘This is how the process works, and this is what you do, and this is how you compromise in advance so you can get things through’—and then people who worked on your campaign, who are saying ‘We were elected to do these things, we need to do them fast. How is that tension playing out, and is it causing problems?

KW: There is a tension, and I think it’s a productive tension and an inevitable tension. And it’s a tension within myself, as someone who’s coming in from an organizing background, wanting to shake things up and get things done. But also, in order to do that in a way that works and that’s sustainable, you actually need to know how the city works. You need to not burn things down in a bad way. And so, yeah, that tension exists within my office, and I think that’s healthy, and that’s I think why ultimately we’re going to be successful.

And I’m really proud of the things that we’ve accomplished in these first six months. We’ve had a lot of headwinds. We came in with ICE scares, and we had to stand up our federal response work really fast. We moved $4 million out to the community. We had to immediately figure out the library levy and transmit that to council. Our [Families, Education, Preschool, and Promise levy] implementation got free school meals, which was not easy. (After our interview on Tuesday, City Council President Joy Hollingsworth introduced an amendment to the that would delay universal free meals and use the funding instead on vouchers for kids from low-income families to get meals on weekends and holidays during the school year).

We got the Graham Street Station to affordability on Sound Transit. We’ve transmitted a Seattle Transit Measure package that will expand transit at a time when many jurisdictions in the country are pulling back on public transit, when gas is many dollars a gallon. We’re painting bus lanes on Denny. We got our rapid shelter expansion work off the ground. We’ve opened with one big new shelter, which has been key to the success of the Pioneer Square efforts that [Purpose Dignity Action] and others have led [during the World Cup]. And we have a number of additional shelters that are going to be opening up in over the course of the rest of this year. Obviously, we’ve had to deal with the KCRHA and everything going on there. We launched Taller, Denser, Faster. We transmitted [rental] junk fee legislation, and you know what, we’re the most successful World Cup host city in America.

We are learning a lot, and obviously, there are things that, in hindsight, we could have done better, and are going to do better moving forward, but I’m incredibly proud of what we’re accomplishing.

A 14-year-old boy died Tuesday evening after crashing on an electric bike at the I-5 Colonnade mountain bike park, Seattle police said.

The teenager was riding down steep stairs at the mountain bike park underneath Interstate 5 in the Eastlake neighborhood when he lost control and fell, police said.

Seattle Fire Department crews arrived before police and tried to save the boy’s life, but he had died, police said. When officers responded after 6:15 p.m., they found that he had severe head and body injuries.

The boy was wearing a bike helmet, but he should have been wearing a motorcycle helmet, said police spokesperson Brian Pritchard. The electric bike had big tires and was more akin to a motorcycle.

Title is misleading in my opinion. It's a combination of problems - too much pot that spoils before sellers can move it, cities banning dispensaries and forcing people to buy black market again, the rise in THC products derived from hemp, and high taxes. I also think a lot of people tried marijuana when it was more accessible and have now cooled off and use it sparingly.

The high taxes is whatever to me, buying weed in other states is much, much more expensive than WA in my experience.

Crow Harmony never felt at ease living in Florida as a transgender guy. The state has some of the most restrictive anti-LGBTQ+ laws in the country, and Harmony said he struggled to find employers willing to hire trans people. Last fall, after Harmony’s boyfriend transitioned, the couple lost their housing.

They were just 21 and 20 with no money or job prospects, so Harmony reached out to a Seattle nonprofit for help getting out of Florida. The nonprofit, a trans-led organization called Traction, welcomed the couple with a place to sleep and money for moving. But unbeknownst to Harmony, Traction was struggling, too.

Since the 2024 election, Traction has helped 1,500 trans people flee red states — more than 20 times the 70 people it aided in the 18 months before the election. And it’s just one of several Seattle nonprofits whose leaders say they don’t have the resources to help the number of trans people who’ve left their homes for the safety of the Pacific Northwest.

Though trans people make up just 1 percent of the population in Washington state, the nonprofits that help them say their budgets are drained and their staffs are stretched so thin that last month the Seattle LGBTQ Commission asked Mayor Katie Wilson (D) to declare a civil state of emergency. Such a declaration would free up general fund dollars to bolster the nonprofits’ finances as they help transplants find housing and jobs.

“The conditions,” the commission wrote in a June 2 letter to Wilson and the City Council, “are an urgent policy concern and a life-and-death matter for internal displaced persons fleeing to Seattle for safety.”

The Tacoma City Council at its July 7 meeting voted unanimously to send the “Safe Homes For All” initiative to the ballot on Nov. 3 — following an unusual lack of discussion in public meetings about the measure. The measure would create an enforcement mechanism for the city’s existing tenant protections, which now can only be enforced by individual legal action. The initiative outlines a per-unit rental license fee that landlords would pay to cover the cost of enforcement.

It also would require landlords to pay penalties for each violation of Tacoma’s tenant laws and require the city to create a program to educate landlords and tenants on those laws. The measure is making its way to the ballot via Tacoma’s initiative petition process, which allows Tacoma residents to put ballot measures to the people by collecting a certain number of signatures. Tacoma For All, the group that spearheaded the effort to pass a “Tenant Bill of Rights” in Tacoma, also led the effort to get Safe Homes For All on the ballot.

Tyron Moore, executive director for Tacoma for All, said the group is now gearing for “a big fight.” “We fully expect the landlord lobby, real estate interests to once again spend hundreds of thousands of dollars of outside corporate money to try and stop this,” Moore told The News Tribune.

cross-posted from: https://infosec.pub/post/48961587

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Pike Place Market is a connector to Seattle’s Downtown neighborhoods – from the Waterfront to Westlake, from the stadiums to the Seattle Center, the Market is in the middle of it all. Now, locals can enjoy the Market they know in a new way, and for later in the evening. This summer and fall, Seattleites are invited to rediscover Pike Place Market after dark. Beginning Friday, July 24, and continuing the fourth Friday of every month through October, Pike Place Market will debut The Night Shift, a free monthly evening series celebrating local art, music, food, and creativity after the daytime shoppers have gone home.

Presented in partnership with the Seattle Office of Economic Development and The Rabbit Box, and as part of the Downtown Seattle Art Walk, The Night Shift transforms Pike Place Market into an after-hours cultural hub where visitors can wander through open galleries, discover handmade goods, and enjoy food and drinks while experiencing live performances under the famous Public Market Clock & Sign.

Issaquah Food and Clothing Bank’s Annual Campaign to Fight Childhood Food Insecurity

Did you know that 2,540 children in the Issaquah School District receive free or reduced-price school lunches and that many of these children and more may need help accessing nutrition outside of school hours? Issaquah Food and Clothing Bank’s Summer Lunch, Power Packs, and Lunch for the Break programs play a vital role in ensuring children have easy access to healthy food at all times.

Issaquah Food and Clothing Bank’s annual Illuminating Hope fundraising campaign — capped off with a fireworks celebration — has raised more than $466,000 since 2015 to support childhood food security in our community. Last year alone, our community came together to help raise over $95,000. With your help and our partnership with The KLD Group at Windermere Real Estate, hundreds of children will be ensured sufficient nutrition every day of the year.

At this time when food costs are astronomical and food supports are continually being cut, we need your help more than ever. Help us reach our $110,000 goal by donating, then join us in celebration from the shore, from Vasa Park, or by boat for our amazing fireworks show over South Lake Sammamish on Friday, July 4th at 10:00 p.m. Doors open at 5 p.m.

A wildfire sparked by lightning has been burning for nearly a week in the Olympic National Park.

The 86-acre Mount Tom Creek Fire is long and narrow, burning slowly and creeping up steep forested terrain onto a ridge in the foothills of Mount Olympus, approximately six miles from the Hoh Rain Forest visitor center. It is burning in old-growth forest and is 0% contained.

“A typical Olympic fire is just that. It’s fuel and slope-driven,” said Donald Svetich, a retired U.S. Forest Service fire captain who worked at the national park for nearly thirty years.

But a wildfire in one of the dampest parts of the state in June, “that’s the anomaly,” Svetich said. Lightning fires this early in the year do happen in the Olympics, he added, “it’s just not a typical pattern.”

The park received more than an inch of rain over the weekend, but the dense tree canopy prevents rain from extinguishing the fire, according to the National Park Service.

All Hoh Rain Forest facilities remain open. But the Lake of the Gods backcountry campsite has been closed, and a campfire ban is in place inside the park.

Just a reminder that Tacoma celebrates Pride in July! If you didn't get enough celebration in Seattle or missed it, come on down!!

Saturday, July 11, 2026 Wright Park in Tacoma

Seattle and King County are taking back control of millions of dollars’ worth of homeless service contracts and responsibility for strategies to get people into housing.

This will leave the region’s homelessness agency, started in 2019, with only federal funds to manage. It is the most dramatic extension of a slow retaking of homelessness services that started just a few years after the authority’s creation.

King County Executive Girmay Zahilay and Mayor Katie Wilson said in an interview they want their respective governments to again bear the political weight of solving homelessness. The city and county provide nearly all of the authority’s funding and sit on its governing board.

“Part of this, for me, is really about taking political responsibility,” Wilson said.

A Joint Base Lewis-McChord Army captain was sentenced to 12 years in prison after pleading guilty to secretly administering an abortion drug to a pregnant junior enlisted soldier he was dating, causing her to miscarry their unborn child.

Capt. Brandon Jones-Adams, 34, entered the guilty plea during his court-martial on June 24 at the Cascade Court Complex at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, according to the U.S. Army.

Jones-Adams also pleaded guilty to domestic violence, fraternization and conduct unbecoming of an officer.

A military judge sentenced him to 12 years in prison, ordered the forfeiture of all pay and allowances, and dismissed him from the Army. Under his plea agreement, he faced between four and 12 years of confinement.

A dismissal is the military equivalent of a dishonorable discharge for commissioned officers.

Many U.S. cities have put their unique spin on the humble glizzy. And this week, the Seattle Dog was named the best regional hot dog in the country in a New York Times taste test.

A Bellevue man accused of stabbing and killing University of Washington student Juniper Blessing will receive mental health treatment at Western State Hospital after an evaluator found he is not competent to stand trial.

Christopher Leahy, 31, has not entered a plea in his first-degree premeditated murder case and his arraignment was pushed several times to evaluate his competency. On Monday, King County Superior Court Judge Joe Campagna adopted findings from a state psychiatric evaluator that support Leahy is incompetent, meaning he is not able to understand the nature of the proceedings or aid his attorney in his defense.

Leahy was charged with premeditated murder after he allegedly stabbed Blessing more than 40 times in the laundry room of her off-campus apartment complex, Nordheim Court, on May 10. Authorities do not believe the stabbing of Blessing, a transgender woman, was a hate crime.

The 31-year-old allegedly stalked another female student and resident of Nordheim Court and returned to the neighborhood two days after Blessing was killed.

When someone is found “incompetent,” the state is required to offer them short-term treatment — typically a combination of legal education and psychiatric medication — in an effort to restore their competency. If the defendant ultimately cannot be found competent, the charges are dismissed and a civil process to commit them to mental healthcare might begin.

After a brief stint in “competency restoration,” it’s possible that Leahy could be sent back to jail to proceed through the criminal system.

Police announced Dec. 23 that the case was being investigated as a homicide after receiving the medical examiner’s report.

According to court documents, the husband told detectives he and Sabbineni were married June 5, 2025, in an arranged marriage and moved in together in July.

He told detectives he had left the apartment on Oct. 27 to pick up medicine and go to Cold Stone Creamery before returning home.

Investigators later reviewed SmartRent data from the apartment’s electronic door lock and wrote that no one entered the apartment during the 37 minutes he was away.

The same records showed he returned at 6:53 p.m., stayed in the apartment for about 17 minutes, then left at 7:10 p.m., according to the document.

Detectives wrote that the bathroom door could be locked by turning the knob and closing the door, meaning someone could have locked it after Sabbineni was inside.

Investigators also wrote that the husband had a secret romantic relationship with another woman in India and continued communicating with her after his marriage.

Detectives said he did not disclose calls with that woman during his first interview, including calls around the time he said he was trying to get help for the locked bathroom door.

During a later interview with police, detectives confronted the husband about what they described as inconsistencies between his earlier statements and evidence gathered in the investigation.

According to the court document, the woman detectives said he had been communicating with called his cellphone toward the end of that interview.

The court document also describes messages in which Sabbineni complained multiple times about drinks tasting bitter. On the day she died, detectives wrote, she told the husband a smoothie he made tasted like “medicine” and “cough syrup.”

Bellevue police said they do not believe there is an ongoing threat to the public.

Voters in Washington and a dozen other states can continue counting ballots received after Election Day.

In a 5-4 ruling announced Monday morning, Justice Amy Coney Barrett joined Chief Justice John Roberts, and Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson in upholding a Mississippi election law that allows ballots received by mail up to five days after Election Day to be counted as long as they were postmarked on or before Election Day.

The ruling means that there will not be a change to the deadline to submit ballots in Washington.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/51469511

The loss of tree canopy at Sand Point was so extreme that Theo Hoss, a natural resources graduate student at Oregon State University, noticed it as part of his master's capstone project. Hoss was using the city's own light detection and ranging technology to look at changes in the tree canopy between 2016 to 2021.

He found that 94% of the 255 acres of tree canopy lost during that five-year period was from parcels that applied for development permits. Developers were basically clearing lots to build new homes, offices, apartment buildings, and condos.

But the 88-acre Sand Point parcel was an outlier. The club had applied for no development permit but accounted for 5.7 acres of the lost tree canopy.

"What we're seeing with Sand Point is a truly significant net canopy loss over that five-year period in absence of new construction to explain it," Hoss said. "It's actually the fifth highest canopy loss on any single parcel in the city that wasn't subject to redevelopment."