During the game is fine too.

This seems fake but it's completely real: Audio of Seattle's current Mayor dreaming of a giant computer-simulated Martin Luther King, something the King family has explicitly asked people not to do. Big thanks to Erica Barnett for being the only reporter in town covering these events so closely!

Relatedly from just the other day… www.bet.com/article/n9fz...

Harrell has said a lot of wild things during this campaign, but this one might take the cake.

When she announced her campaign, Wilson was unknown to most Seattleites. Then she won the primary in a landslide that no one expected, not even her. We at The Stranger thought it was time we got to know her better. My takeaway: I don’t think Harrell has any idea what he’s up against.

The city is obsessed with shutting down unlicensed taco trucks and people selling fruit from tables, saying they've gotten complaints from vendors who paid their fees and got to be vendors the right way. I'm 100% with Charles on this one: Unauthorized vendors are a feature of real cities.

Seattle mayoral candidate Katie Wilson is really fucking interesting. This stunning profile by @hmwinter.bsky.social takes a look inside who Wilson is and what shaped her. Give it a read: www.thestranger.com/news/2025/10...

Hey!!!! People (and real estate development groups) are trying to buy the mayoral election again: www.thestranger.com/news/2025/09...

"In explaining the rationale behind the lane’s planned removal to The Urbanist, the department was open about the fact that it was driven by property owners in the area, not nearby residents or people who frequently use these transit connections." Ugh this is my bus and my neighborhood booooooo

In his closing statement, Harrell said, "This is not the time for hope. Passion and great ideas and inexperience is just not going to get us there. Trump will walk all over a person without experience, period."

Earlier this month, three trans women were beaten by a group of young men in Seattle's gay neighborhood. According to the county prosecutor's office, there's been at least four more group beatings since June 2024. In one case, strangers joined in. The kicker? www.thestranger.com/news/2025/09...

Seattle City Council voted 7–2 to expand police surveillance cameras to Capitol Hill, SoDo, and Garfield High School. Civil rights groups and 17 state legislators warned this hands Trump’s feds a tool to track immigrants, queer people, abortion seekers, and activists.

Seattle Children's is eliminating 5 percent of its staff (155 filled roles, 350 open ones) over Trump's Medicaid cuts. www.thestranger.com/news/2025/09...

MLK Labor just voted to convert their sole Bruce Harrell endorsement into a dual endorsement of Harrell + Katie Wilson. The decision "shows both candidates have earned meaningful support from working people and accurately reflects the views of union members across Seattle," they said in a statement.

Wrote about the manifold splendors of the late John Whitson's legendary Holy Mountain label for @thetonearm.com . This one really meant a lot to me, and I thank editor Michael Donaldson for the opportunity. www.thetonearm.com/requiem-for-...

They're looking at you to keep you safe, even if research shows it won't keep you safe. More on a vibes-based conservative council here. www.thestranger.com/news/2025/09...

In a recording of a recent virtual meeting obtained by The Stranger, Council President Sara Nelson laid out a plan to keep her seat, part of which was to "bump up my sort of anti-Trump rhetoric, or acknowledge that we're under attack, or whatever." Inspiring. www.thestranger.com/news/2025/09...

Seattle's long in-person public hearing on the Comprehensive Plan has officially kicked off. First comments were from @ceceliablack.bsky.social: "As you're going through this Comp Plan, I would really hope you ask yourself what you would do if you were disabled tomorrow and you couldn't drive."

Seattle City Council voted to expand police surveillance in Seattle, despite two and a half hours of public comment opposing it. CMs Rinck and Strauss voted against the two ordinances. Solomon, Hollingsworth, Kettle, Nelson, Rivera, Saka and Juarez vote for them. Story TK.

At the Seattle City Council meeting rn: public commenters don't want the Council to expand a police surveillance program. Why? Surveillance doesn't work and it's risky. Especially now, as the federal government can use this tech to target immigrants, trans people, and women seeking abortions (1/?)

BREAKING: Sound Transit expects to conduct its first LIVE WIRE test on the I-90 bridge TONIGHT, at around 11pm. "A single light rail vehicle will travel at incremental speeds between 10 and 55 mph to test power systems between Mercer Island and Judkins Park stations, including the I-90 bridge."

This is important, and easy to miss! Pharmacies in Washington state should not be able to turn you away for a COVID vaccine if you don't have a prescription.

There's a nude-in at Denny Blaine Park today (with this weather, it may be a bit nippy). www.thestranger.com/guest-editor...

A very Seattle tragedy. Aquarium layoffs decimated the beloved summer Beach Naturalist program and spells doom for the forthcoming Cedar River Salmon Journey program www.thestranger.com/news/2025/08...

BREAKING: According to an email obtained by The Stranger, MultiCare's Mary Bridge Children's Hospital & Health Network in Tacoma is cutting its wait list for gender-affirming care and won't prescribe hormones or puberty blockers to NEW patients after Sept. 12. www.thestranger.com/news/2025/08...

“Recognising the playbook doesn't mean communities should remain passive in the face of targeted harassment. Instead, it means developing strategic responses that protect vulnerable people without feeding the Christian nationalist content machine.”

New from me for @thestranger.com With Feucht coming to Seattle this weekend I took some time to lay out his playbook, in detail. Understanding how the rage machine works will help folks respond while keeping those most vulnerable safe www.thestranger.com/news/2025/08...

A must read: The fantastic @katerqburns.bsky.social breaks down the controversy Christian Supremacist/Nationalist celeb Sean Feucht will try to manufacture in Seattle this weekend. You don't have to be a fortune teller to know what Feucht's up to. www.thestranger.com/news/2025/08...

Former state senator Joe Fain is on KUOW’s board slate. In 2018, KUOW reported on rape allegations against him. He denied it, lost reelection, and the investigation was dropped. Now the station that covered the story may bring him into leadership.

The first thing that pops up when you Google “KUOW Joe Fain,” is the station’s headline from 2018. “‘You raped me.’ Former Seattle official accuses Washington state Sen. Joe Fain of rape.” Now he's a candidate for KUOW’s board. www.thestranger.com/news/2025/08...

BREAKING: Pakistan-born US army veteran Muhammad Zahid Chaudhry, husband of a former Washington congressional candidate Melissa Chaudhry, was taken into ICE detention during a citizenship interview on Thursday in Tukwila. www.thestranger.com/news/2025/08...

Christian supremacists aren't coming to Cal Anderson on August 30, but they're still coming to Seattle. The city met with organizers and convinced them to move "Revive in 25" to Gas Works Park instead. This is no ordinary prayer rally. www.thestranger.com/news/2025/08...

There's a lot to say about St. Rat, the hottest babe in town.

The local impact of a landmark SCOTUS case can be hard to grasp. I talked to legal experts and local advocates about what the Skrmetti case on trans youth care means for Washington, which has some of the most protective laws for trans people in the country. www.thestranger.com/news/2025/06...

Anti-Democratic groups came to Seattle to cause conflict. Our city leaders want the conversation to begin and end with "free speech." They should be clearly naming the threat. A guest rant from the Executive Director of Western States Center: www.thestranger.com/guest-editor...

Faire workers have started a Change.org petition in response to this piece www.change.org/p/petition-t...

Short context: Trump's EO on gender-affirming care (for people under 19) directed the DOJ to prosecute gender-affirming care docs under laws against female genital mutilation. In May, AG Pam Bondi directed US Attorneys to start investigating and prosecute FGM cases to the "fullest extent possible."

Had some more thoughts about The Last of Us’s version of Seattle so I teamed up with @mudede.bsky.social to make sense of it all www.thestranger.com/tv/2025/05/3...

On Memorial Day weekend, far-right group Mayday USA brought their anti-LGBTQ+ rally to Cal Anderson. Protesters pushed back, cops lined up, and arrests followed — all part of a bigger Christian nationalist playbook. Get the full story, only at The Stranger. www.thestranger.com/news/2025/05...

@vivmccall.bsky.social and I dug into the far-right Christian groups that came to Seattle, and what they were really trying to accomplish with Saturday's protest.

Five years after the murder of George Floyd, @pluroco.bsky.social is still carrying the trauma from documenting Seattle’s protests — and still asking: what’s really changed? These photos aren’t nostalgia. They’re a reminder the fight’s still here, and it still needs you.

The City Let Anti-LGBTQ Religious Zealots Take Over Cal Anderson

I learned so much reading this story! How tapes are literally crumbling. How archivists try to preserve them the best they can (FOOD DEHYDRATOR!). MIPoPS is doing important work here in Seattle, but (as is the case for so many), their funding and future are unstable.

Some of your favorite Stranger writers are on Bluesky! We put them all in a handy list so you can keep up with the latest: bsky.app/profile/did:...

Corporations are dragging their feet on Seattle's two big pride events, putting them tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands behind where they'd expect to be. PrideFest, which throws big events in Cap Hill and Seattle Center, had to launch a GoFundMe today www.thestranger.com/news/2025/04...

Trump's Executive Order Is Blocked, So It's Unclear Why Seattle Children's Has Again Stopped Providing Gender-Affirming Surgery For Trans People Under 19

THREAD: As trans people in Wisconsin rushed to update their IDs after Trump’s reelection, a 167-year-old name change law stopped them in their tracks. People must publish their old and new names in the local paper for 3 consecutive weeks, it said. 1/

THIS IS SO EXCITING! Nathalie is a goddamn gem, a journalist who will swing from a trapeze, play underwater hockey, do improv, or hang out at a stinky garbage dump all day to tell Seattle's stories. I'm thrilled to get to work with her even more.

Seattle Children's has *again* stopped providing gender-affirming surgery for people under 19 in (partial) compliance with a Trump executive order. A federal judge in Seattle blocked that order, so it's unclear why. www.thestranger.com/news/2025/04...

• Musk's company will likely win the contract to build Trump's Strategic Defense Initiative • Hackers put Jeff Bezos's voice in crosswalk buttons • The James Webb Space Telescope spotted chemical signs of matter behaving bizarrely on another planet www.thestranger.com/slog-am/2025...