Austerity Bob: Forward of his swearing-in on Jan. 15, Governor-elect Bob Ferguson launched his proposed funds priorities. As a substitute of levying a wealth tax on Washington’s wealthiest residents and including extra enterprise taxes to fill evident funds holes as Gov. Jay Inslee proposed on his approach out of workplace, Ferguson favors slicing state budgets. Lame duck Inslee’s daring plan would have garnered $13 billion in income. Ferguson is “deeply skeptical” of recent taxes, reviews the Seattle Instances, and sees them as a final resort. His proposed 6% reduce to the state normal fund would end in $4.4 billion in spending reductions. He additionally needs so as to add $800 million to new applications. Ferguson’s plan remains to be a sketch and far may change, nevertheless it doesn’t bode effectively.
Goodbye by way of bus: King County Metro will maintain a memorial for bus driver Shawn Yim who was killed final month when a passenger stabbed him. The memorial will start at King County Metro Atlantic and Central Bases in SODO at 10 am. Following remembrances, a procession of buses and transit autos will drive by way of downtown Seattle. About 100 buses are anticipated to take part. Some are even driving down from Canada to affix. Needless to say we’re more likely to see some transit disruptions in the present day—any member of the Amalgamated Transit Union Native 587 is welcome to take off after 9 am. If you’ll want to take transit in the present day, lightrail is your finest guess.
Some climate: It will be largely cloudy in the present day. Maybe there can be snatches of solar. If you happen to see any, get pleasure from them rapidly earlier than the afternoon showers come.
In the meantime, snow within the South: Southern states equivalent to Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and West Virginia may see as much as eight inches of snow by way of Saturday as a part of the polar vortex battering a giant chunk of the nation. Local weather change accommodates multitudes.
Fires hold ravaging LA: 5 fires are nonetheless burning in Los Angeles. Not less than 10 persons are useless and greater than 9,000 buildings have been broken or destroyed. That is probably the worst wildfire occasion in California and could possibly be the most costly pure catastrophe in US historical past. Whereas the winds ought to subside Friday, they are going to return once more on Sunday. As an LA native (a badge I do not bear usually on this weblog), I do know a number of individuals who have misplaced houses. Landmarks on the map of my childhood have been erased. It has been a decade since I’ve lived there and my remaining household within the space is way south from the flames, so the horror is numbed and the sorrow is extra distant, however it’s exhausting to rationalize the impermanence of every part all of us maintain expensive.
My little home that I liked: Hundreds of individuals have misplaced their houses throughout the LA space. The fires have extinguished private histories and flattened communities.
Fran misplaced the house she has lived in for 26 years in Altadena.
She poured every part into it. pic.twitter.com/I2avp8aObe— Brian Entin (@BrianEntin) January 9, 2025
Everybody evacuate: Thursday afternoon when a brand new hearth broke out within the San Fernando Valley officers by chance despatched an evacuation discover to everybody in LA County. That is 10 million individuals.
Simply an unbelievable water drop by this helicopter on the quickly spreading Kenneth Hearth close to West Hills and Calabasas. Heroes. pic.twitter.com/FVPFr7QVdP
— Colin McCarthy (@US_Stormwatch) January 10, 2025
Washington sends support: The Evergreen State is sending “45 engines, 11 vans, and 146 personnel” to assist struggle the fires.
Who else is combating these fires? The California Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation deployed almost 800 incarcerated individuals to struggle the LA fires. These firefighters solely earn between $5.80 and $10.24 a day, plus an additional $1 an hour throughout lively emergencies. If it is a catastrophe, they might earn $26.90 for a 24-hour shift.
Pet aircraft: Seattle will soak up 60 cats and canine from Los Angeles shelters to unencumber area for the wave of pets coming of their doorways after being left behind or misplaced within the wake of wildfire evacuations. These pets, beforehand housed at shelters and never hearth refugees, can be out there for adoption beginning Tuesday. As everybody is aware of, it is not possible to have seasonal despair you probably have a pet!
As a reminder: Everybody ought to learn the prescient “Parable of the Sower.”
Ding dong, Anita Bryant’s useless: The 84-year-old anti-LGBTQIA+ bigot died final month. Bryant, who started her profession as a pop star and mannequin, spearheaded the anti-gay “Save Our Youngsters” marketing campaign within the Nineteen Seventies which efficiently overturned an anti-discrimination ordinance in Miami-Dade County. Bryant additionally impressed a Florida ban on homosexual mother and father adopting kids which was solely struck down in court docket in 2010.
Everybody’s shitting and puking: Are a lot of individuals you understand residents of vomit metropolis lately? The norovirus is wreaking havoc on Individuals in the meanwhile—there have been 91 outbreaks of the abdomen bug at the start of December. That is extra outbreaks presently of yr which have occurred since 2012. To maintain your bowels stable and your cookies un-tossed, wash your fucking fingers.
Queening out in Oregon: Beaverton’s 16-year-old Zoey Tang turned Oregon’s first girl grandmaster in chess. Of the two,000 or so chess grandmasters worldwide, solely 42 have been ladies.
Jobs are up, barely: The financial system added 256,000 jobs in December, sending unemployment again all the way down to 4.1%.
Trump sentenced: The Supreme Courtroom didn’t delay President-elect Donald Trump’s sentencing listening to in his New York hush-money case, so Trump referred to as in to court docket from Mar-a-Lago this morning. Trump stated that “this has been a really horrible expertise” and that he was “completely harmless” regardless of prosecutors discovering him responsible of making an attempt to cowl up a $130,000 hush cash cost to porn star Stormy Daniels forward of the 2016 election. Sadly, the choose went with the uncommon and lenient “unconditional discharge,” a no-penalty sentence. In accordance with the Related Press meaning “no jail time, no probation and no fines could be imposed, however nothing is ultimate till the continuing is completed.” The sentencing, nevertheless, cements Trump as a felon. He’s the primary US president to be criminally sentenced.
I am listening… After Trump’s feedback about taking up Canada, Canadian Inexperienced Get together chief Elizabeth Could recommended as an alternative that California, Oregon, and Washington be part of Canada as provinces and obtain common healthcare and stricter gun legal guidelines. The place will we signal?
A tune on your Friday: Crucial meal of the day is Japanese Breakfast.