Climate: Glad Earth Day! At the moment’s forecast: sunny with a excessive close to 60. It’s good climate for pretending we’re not hurtling towards local weather collapse. So get on the market, hug a tree, recycle your plastic, and take a look at not to consider how Exxon knew within the ’70s.
Born Into Freedom, Dad Denied It: Dr. Noor Abdalla and political prisoner Mahmoud Khalil welcomed their first baby yesterday. Khalil had requested a two-week furlough from his detention in Louisiana to be current for the start. Per the cruelty of the Trump regime, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement official named “Mellissa” denied Khalil’s request.
Non secular Freedom Means By no means Having to Be taught Something: The tradition struggle circus is again on the Supreme Court docket, the place Justices are weighing whether or not books with LGBTQ+ characters in public faculties trample on spiritual freedom. A college board in Montgomery County, Maryland okayed 5 storybooks to advertise tolerance—scandalous!—however some mother and father declare that simply seeing queer individuals in print violates their spiritual beliefs. They’re arguing {that a}) mother and father ought to management what their children study and b) the Structure ensures them the best to not be mildly uncomfortable in a pluralistic society. With a bench stacked by Trump and dominated by justices molded in Catholic faculties, odds are good that the Court docket will carve out some spiritual opt-out.
Venezuela Fires Again at Bukele’s Prisoner Swap Scheme: Venezuela’s lawyer basic, Tarek William Saab, went scorched earth on El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele, branding him a “neo-Nazi” and “serial human rights violator” after Bukele proposed a prisoner swap with Nicolás Maduro. Bukele supplied to commerce 252 Venezuelans deported by Trump to his US-backed focus camp, CECOT, for an equal variety of political prisoners held in Venezuela—additionally naming out activists and journalists swept up in final 12 months’s crackdowns. “The one motive they’re imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” Bukele posted on X to Maduro. Saab hit again on state TV, calling the provide “cynical,” accusing Bukele of narcissism, and demanding particulars on who’s detained, their authorized standing, and medical circumstances.
Trans Athlete Ban Fails, Barely: In yet one more try and legislate bigotry below the guise of “defending sports activities.” The Washington Interscholastic Actions Affiliation (WIAA), the state’s highschool sports activities governing physique, virtually handed a rule banning trans ladies from ladies’ sports activities. The WIAA got here only one vote shy of greenlighting this retrograde coverage. And only for kicks, additionally they floated a separate “open” division—as a result of what’s extra inclusive than institutionalized exile? That gem of social engineering misplaced in a blowout, 13 votes for and 40 towards. Let this be your newest reminder: trans bigotry isn’t only a DC export, it’s alive, properly, and nonetheless making an attempt to run drills in your native health club.
Now let’s cross it to Hannah Murphy Winter for a blurb cameo:
Excellent news! On Friday night, the US District Court docket for the Western District of Washington dominated that, whether or not you’re an insurance coverage firm or a healthcare supplier, you may’t deny gender-affirming high surgical procedure to trans children after which flip round and supply it to cis children. In a ruling towards Premera Blue Cross, the decide discovered that it was a violation of the discrimination clause of the ACA. “The courtroom decided in no unsure phrases that Premera Blue Cross’s coverage categorically denying protected, evidence-based, and efficient well being care…is discriminatory and illegal,” mentioned Lambda Authorized’s Omar Gonzalez-Pagan. “In truth, the courtroom couldn’t have been clearer. Because it wrote within the ruling: ‘The Court docket needn’t select between the divergent interpretations of the time period ‘intercourse’ as a result of, below both view, Premera’s medical coverage facially discriminates on the premise of intercourse.” Somebody inform Seattle Youngsters’s that…
ICYMI: Regardless of the aforementioned excellent news, our Vivian McCall wrote a follow-up about Seattle Youngsters’s Hospital deciding to nonetheless yank gender-affirming surgical procedure for sufferers below 19. The choice led to greater than 550 well being professionals and advocacy teams calling them out for breaking the legislation and selling dangerous, outdated views, whereas vowing to take authorized motion. However, in true “we don’t give a rattling” trend, the hospital’s gone radio silent, leaving trans youth and their households twisting within the wind.
Seattle’s Conflict on Tents (and Folks in Them): The Seattle Occasions stories that the Metropolis is completely crushing it—if “it” means shattering information for homeless encampment sweeps as a result of nothing says progress like forcing individuals right into a perpetual state of worry and displacement. However hey, so long as your Golden Retriever has a poop-free patch of grass within the park, who cares if persons are overdosing and dying on the street? A bit dehumanization is a small worth to pay for vibes, proper?
Ferguson Indicators 35 Payments, Nonetheless No Wealth Tax: Gov. Bob Ferguson signed 35 payments into legislation yesterday, proving as soon as once more that paperwork can transfer quick, no less than if it’s received caffeine and a legislative majority. From blocking out-of-state Nationwide Guardsmen from taking part in Weekend Warrior on our turf, to creating positive pets aren’t left behind when the local weather disaster comes knocking, to creating positive your native on line casino is barely reasonably shady, it’s a buffet of, “Hey, that truly is smart.” Someplace in there, they even discovered time to battle a burrowing shrimp, as a result of in Washington, we battle fascism, crustaceans, and any try and cross a wealth tax with equal gusto.
Particular Election, At the moment! Let’s preserve it a buck, you most likely thought that poll that confirmed up in your mailbox this month was both spam or a coupon for a Domino’s 2-for-1 (what disgusting pizza, btw). And even for those who did crack it open, likelihood is you had no concept we had been voting right this moment, not to mention on what. However don’t fear, we’ve received your again: our SECB information breaks down why you must vote NO on the fingerprint renewal measure, as a result of handing over your biometric information to the federal government on this dystopian hellscape? Yeah, arduous cross. Simply be sure to drop your poll in a field by 8 pm or slap a stamp on it earlier than midnight, or it’s simply one other piece of paper misplaced to the surveillance state.
Our EIC in Motion: If you happen to’ve received a pulse and a mind, swing by City Corridor Seattle tonight at 7:30 pm. Our editor-in-chief will probably be moderating a dialog for Earth Day. You’ll hear from native leaders combating the nice battle on local weather and fairness, and meet some grassroots of us really doing the work!
And to mark the event, I’ll go away you with this splendidly acceptable tune by the late, nice Marvin Gaye:
