Residents across the state of Washington breathed a sigh of relief this week after the passage of Initiative 638 guaranteed girls are finally safe now that they’re required to show an adult their vagina in order to play school sports.

“Thanks to I-638, all my 12-year-old daughter has to do now to be spared the trauma of losing 5th place to a trans girl in track is show her vagina to an adult,” said local father Hank Hanson. “I love that under this new law, not even a birth certificate is enough for a girl to prove her gender because that deprives children of the opportunity to proudly show their reproductive organs to an adult while I stand in the room and watch to add that extra feeling of comfort and safety.”

Girls who play sports from middle school on up thanked the 1.5 million adults who went so out of their way to make minors living in a country run by a pedophile feel that much more seen.

“Nothing makes me feel safer and more excited to play sports quite like being forced to spread my legs for an adult who’s in at least their 30s,” said 13-year-old soccer player Brittney Rigby. “I don’t know why anyone thought passage of this law might deter girls from playing sports at all. What kind of 7th grader isn’t excited to let an adult they don’t know get a good look at her privates? Pretty routine middle school physical stuff, I’ve heard.”

At press time, boys who play school sports were still sadly completely unsafe due to not being forced to show an adult their penises.

Seattle’s public safety departments – particularly the Seattle Police Department (SPD) – have historically received unique treatment and favored allocation of resources, including both money and technological tools. Reviewing recent developments in the City of Seattle, that special treatment does not look to disappear any time soon.

Until it was terminated after 15 years by Judge James Robart last fall, SPD’s consent decree acted as a reminder of the impunity under which SPD had routinely been allowed to operate. The dismissal of the consent decree was postponed after SPD officers responded to the George Floyd protests of 2020 with violence and the indiscriminate use of less lethal weapons such as tear gas, pepper spray, and rubber bullets.

In the final consent decree hearing, Robart repeatedly talked about how the Seattle Police Officers Guild (SPOG) contract had “neutered” Seattle’s police accountability ordinance. While utilization of the Community Assisted Response and Engagement (CARE) team has recently improved following the departure of former SPD Chief Shon Barnes, the SPOG contract has also hampered the CARE team’s ability to respond to appropriate calls.

SPD receives a large share of the City’s discretionary General Fund. Public safety as a whole accounts for 53% of the $2 billion of General Fund expenditures in Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson’s proposed 2027 budget, and by itself, SPD receives more than a quarter of the total General Fund.

That largesse comes in spite of the lack of fiscal responsibility demonstrated by the department. One recent example: in June of this year, SPD overpaid about 900 of their employees by $13.1 million due to a “payroll error.” Because most of these employees are represented by SPOG, the City will have to negotiate with SPOG to try to recover the bulk of these funds, meaning it could be years before the money returns to the City’s coffers.

Four and a half months after the error, neither the Mayor’s Office nor SPD would comment about whether they have identified the person or persons responsible for this mistake or whether any disciplinary action would be taken.

In addition, neither the Mayor’s Office nor SPD shared any plans to avoid such errors in the future. While the overpayment was one time in nature since it was caused by an error in the calculation of payment of retroactive pay increases provided by recent union contracts, it could presumably be made again the next time new contracts require a similar calculation.

“When I was hired in 2024, I was asked to assess and rebuild a young organization that had significant challenges,” Kinnison told the board. “I’m proud of what I’ve achieved, including surfacing structural issues in our finance department and contributing to the path forward for a more accountable homelessness response system.” 

Kinnison’s resignation comes after months of financial challenges for the Authority that oversees homelessness response and services across King County and Seattle, including $8 million that was missing and a deficit that was originally thought to be $4.26 million, but a report in October showed had grown to more than $16 million.

...

King County and Seattle had announced taking over contracts from KCRHA amid the scandal. Lawmakers in both the city and county have called for the KCRHA to be dissolved after this year’s federal funding cycle is complete.

“I have a responsibility to the people of Seattle to ensure that financial challenges at KCRHA are addressed and stabilized,” said Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson. “I join Executive Zahilay in thanking Dr. Kinnison for her leadership and partnership, and we will make a recommendation soon on interim leadership.”

From The Stranger:

Washington voters ban trans girls from trans sports: I-638, the far-right-sponsored public initiative, has passed, and as of latest vote totals it wasn’t even close, 57-43. Voters in most counties supported the ban, and opponents didn’t pick up enough votes in the counties that recognize bigotry for what it is (like King County). Expect a human rights lawsuit to accomplish what Washington voters were too stupid to do. In the meantime, the Gender Equity Movement has organized a rally and march set for 6 p.m. tonight at Westlake Park if you need somewhere to scream.

A progressive advocate, Jenks led the nonprofit FairVote Washington, which fought for the ranked-choice voting reform that is going into effect in Seattle municipal elections next year. She also ran for city council in 2023 and finished third in the primary, trailing centrist Cathy Moore and ChrisTiana ObeySumner, whom The Stranger endorsed. The Urbanist Elections Committee (on which I serve) endorsed Jenks in that 2023 race and again in 2026.

After victory became apparent Tuesday, Jenks told The Urbanist that safety-focused designs of Aurora Avenue N and Lake City Way were among her top priorities. Aurora has a $50 million state grant earmarked for it, but state lawmakers like Seattle Rep. Julia Reed have grown impatient with the slow pace of getting the project shovel-ready.

"I would love to get the money allocated for Aurora moving and actually really get more, so that we can make Aurora a place that everybody gets to enjoy from bikers and walkers, and have good dedicated bus lanes, but also so that you can go to those businesses along there that deserve our support," Jenks said. "I also want to get similar funds for Lake City Way. It's another area where a lot of people get hit, and you know, it's not safe for pedestrians."

At the end of his famous speech in 1854, Chief Seattle spoke about the changes coming from white settlers and the displacement of his people. His final remarks, according to a man who recorded them as best he remembered, were these:

“At night, when the streets of your cities and villages will be silent, and you think them deserted, they will throng with the returning hosts that once filled and still love this beautiful land. The dead are not without strength.”

At that time and in this place, the Chief was not the only one who believed in the power of spirits. Among the whites was a growing belief in the ability of the dead to communicate with the living. The afterlife was not a one-way trip.

Article: https://www.cascadepbs.org/mossbacks-northwest-2/2026/10/mossbacks-northwest-4/

My patients span the socioeconomic spectrum: Some are well off, some are middle- or working-class, and some are experiencing homelessness. All of them benefit from public health investments. Whether they rely on vaccine information, restaurant health inspections, or the incredible free dental, vision, and health clinics Public Health-Seattle & King County offers, all my patients are healthier when they come to me because of these local investments.

So when I saw King County Executive Girmay Zahilay’s proposed budget cuts to the health department, I had serious questions about his priorities. Earlier this month, the Executive sent the King County Council a budget proposal that cuts approximately $2.8 million from the Department of Public Health while spending more than $18.7 million on his return-to-office proposal.

In the scheme of a county budget, $2.8 million could come across as budget dust. But as a nurse at Harborview who witnessed repeated cuts to public health care since the peak of the pandemic, and who is currently worried about the federal Medicaid cuts that will impact my patients, I want to see deeper investments in public health. Instead, for every dollar cut from public health, Executive Zahilay is proposing nearly seven dollars for office space.

Kanzler, 36, has never managed a team at any level, but he now succeeds Dan Wilson, the longtime catcher who oversaw one of baseball's most disappointing teams this past season. The Mariners made it all the way to Game 7 of the American League Championship Series in 2025 and were a popular pick to advance to their first World Series in 2026 but never got it together, ultimately finishing 76-86 and failing to make the playoffs despite playing in a mediocre division.

Kanzler will inherit one of baseball's deepest, most talented teams, one stocked with starting-pitching depth and headlined by two superstars in Cal Raleigh and Julio Rodriguez. He will also be tasked with helping to diagnose what went wrong in a season in which almost all of the Mariners' best players struggled offensively and their pitching somehow abandoned them down the stretch.

A former outfielder who was drafted in the 20th round in 2013, Kanzler previously spent five years in the Houston Astros organization, serving as a major league coach in 2022 and 2023. The Cubs hired him as their director of player development at the start of 2024 and watched him help in the development of young players such as Pedro Ramirez, Matt Shaw and Pete Crow-Armstrong.

Former Astros manager Joe Espada was reportedly also a finalist for the position, but the Mariners valued Kanzler's combination of intelligence, intensity and creativity and believe he will help players continue to develop in the major leagues, which they see as crucial to a roster featuring several up-and-coming young players.

A group of anti-transgender protestors showed up at a women’s soccer game between the Seattle Reign and the Orlando Pride at Seattle’s Lumen Field on Sunday following several local news reports that Pierce County Sheriff Keith Swank had been encouraging a demonstration.

But many attendees at the game only saw a “fortress” of trans Pride flags surrounding the protesters that largely blocked them from view, as one fan described it on social media. Some of the flags bore the slogan “Trans Rights Are Human Rights.” Per social media posts, the protesters wore apparel from the XX-XY brand, a women’s athletic gear brand that often contains lightly coded anti-trans messaging such as “Refuse to Pretend,” and that advertises its mission as restricting participation in women’s sports only to those with XX chromosomes.

Prior to the Sunday match, the Tacoma-based News Tribune reported that the sheriff for Pierce County, which contains Tacoma and the surrounding area, had allegedly been organizing an anti-trans demonstration through email.

Emails obtained by Defend Washington, a political action group opposed to a current Washington State ballot initiative seeking to ban trans girls from playing in girls’ school sports, showed that Swank allegedly planned to disrupt the match with anti-trans messaging. According to the leaked emails, he was looking for a group of people — up to about 90 — to purchase tickets in the same section of the field where Reign fans often wave Pride flags and other regalia.

An October 26 email from Swank, with the subject line “stand up for women and girls,” asked people to “Go into the stadium with your shirt covered, and at half time, put it on full display.”

Swank did not respond to a request from The News Tribune for its October 30 story about the planned demonstration. However, after the reporter attempted to contact Swank, he reportedlysent another email to the group of demonstrators claiming there was an "infiltrator" in the group who had leaked the protest to the media.

While the alleged emails between Swank and protesters were obtained by Defend Washington, Swank also posted about his plans on his official social media page. On October 24, Swank posted that he was looking for “a few (actually a lot) good men and women to join me. We will go to a sporting event where these radical leftists are (soccer or wnba), and we will wear xx-xyathletics.com.” He continued, “We will stand up for free speech. It will be a lot of fun. If you want to join just email me at: boysareboysandgirlsaregirls@gmail.com.”

Locally, a special election in Seattle Council District 5 presents an opportunity for the progressive coalition to gain a seat and momentum heading into the 2027 election when all seven district seats will be on the ballot. Progressive standard-bearer Nilu Jenks has the advantage based on primary results, when she won 54% of the vote. The Urbanist Elections Committee (on which I serve) endorsed Jenks.

However, centrist donors are spending aggressively to prop up former bank chair Julie Kang in hopes of closing the gap. They're using a familiar formula, seeking to paint Jenks as soft on crime.

...

In their haste, a pro-Kang political action committee (PAC) called North Seattle Neighbors potentially broke election laws to rush attack ads out the door, and the Jenks campaign is calling on the PAC to fully disclose its donors and has appealed to the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission seeking a cease-and-desist order barring it from "any further political advertising until it files every overdue report and discloses all its contributors and the true sources of its money."

John Wyble, a spokesperson for the Jenks campaign, argued this dark money-fueled attack ads has no place in Seattle politics.

"This is how Republican super PACs operate in swing states: scary pictures, old quotes, and money nobody can trace. It has no place in a Seattle council race," Wyble said. "The PAC can't keep its own donor list straight, and the people who put up most of the money won't say who they are. District 5 voters deserve to know who's paying to fill their mailboxes, and they deserve to know before they vote."

Interestingly, a major funnel of this dark money was Seattle's former Council president who lost her seat in a 2025 election drubbing: "SeaFor is a 501(c)(4) formed by former Councilmember Sara Nelson. It is not registered with the PDC or SEEC and does not disclose its donors," the Jenks campaign noted. "According to PubliCola, its website pitched the structure as protecting 'the privacy of businesses and individuals.'"

Both the students, one from Seattle and the other from Bellingham, attend California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly SLO). Both were aboard a train involved in the crash Wednesday in Spain's Toledo province, south of Madrid.

One of the survivors, 21-year-old Leah Silver-Fajardo, sustained multiple broken bones and other serious injuries. Her family is now in Spain helping her through what is expected to be a lengthy recovery.

Leah Silver-Fajardo suffered a broken knee, broken pelvis, multiple broken ribs, bruised lungs and burns. She has undergone knee surgery and faces additional treatment and rehabilitation.

"I mean, she's alive. She's in a great amount of pain," Hannah Silver-Fajardo, Leah Silver-Fajardo's older sister, said. "We're sort of taking things minute by minute right now. We're trying to find out what this is going to look like moving forward."

For Hannah Silver-Fajardo, the hours immediately following the crash were filled with uncertainty.

"The world kind of just stops for a second and I don't even know how to describe it," Hannah Silver-Fajardo told KING 5 from Spain.

The family spent approximately six hours trying to locate Leah after learning she had been involved in the collision.

"Horrific, not knowing what the next thing was going to look like, what that meant being in a foreign country, not having access to her, just having no idea," Hannah Silver-Fajardo said.

Friends of Leah Silver-Fajardo's who were studying and traveling throughout Europe began searching for her, Hannah Silver-Fajardo explained. They went from hospital to hospital in Toledo and eventually located her.

The Silver-Fajardo sisters grew up in Seattle and graduated from Roosevelt High School. Hannah Silver-Fajardo is completing her final year at New York Law School, while Leah Silver-Fajardo is a junior at Cal Poly SLO, studying psychology.

Leah Silver-Fajardo moved to Florence, Italy, in August for a semester abroad. She celebrated her 21st birthday there Oct. 7, surrounded by family and friends. She was visiting Spain during a break from her studies and taking a day trip to Seville when the crash occurred.

Amazon Web Services is the company behind plans to develop a data center campus with up to 21 buildings at West Richland’s sprawling Lewis & Clark Ranch.

Trammell Crow Co., a Dallas, Texas real estate firm with a data center development business, purchased nearly 1,000 acres from the estate of the late agriculture icon Frank Tiegs in July.

Monday, AWS confirmed it is the actual buyer behind the $264 million deal in a phone call. It said that such arrangements are standard.

AWS, the data arm of the Seattle e-commerce giant, will hold a public open house from 5-8 p.m. Nov. 19 in the cafeteria of Enterprise Middle School in West Richland, 5200 Paradise Way.

The “science fair” style event will share details about its future data center campus along Ruppert Road and give participants a chance to discuss concerns with staff.

AWS has not yet submitted a site plan to the city of West Richland. The project is subject to scrutiny under the Washington State Environmental Policy Act.

As it is focusing most of its year-end energy on pounding out the city’s 2027-2028 budget, the Seattle City Council passed a bill last week advancing safety measures aimed at shielding pedestrians and cyclists from fatal side-impact collisions involving large vehicles.

The passage follows the June death of bicyclist Christian Salyer after the Seattle school teacher was struck and killed by the driver of a city contractor recycling truck turning off 12th onto Yesler in June.

Sponsored by Councilmember Rob Saka, the ordinance directs the Department of Finance and Administrative Services with the Seattle Department of Transportation and community stakeholders to draft recommended safety requirements for all city contractors.

Modeled after Boston’s safety standards, the proposed rules will focus on requiring truck side guards which cover the exposed space between a truck’s front and rear wheels to prevent vulnerable road users from slipping underneath.

Loren Jewett's family has owned and operated La Palma Family Mexican Restaurant near Ballard for 50 years. Jewett's grandparents, Pedro Perez Estrella and his wife, opened the restaurant after taking it over from a business partner in 1976.

Perez Estrella said he named it La Palma, because it was the name of a store that his father owned in Mexico.

The restaurant had many great years. It grew to be a staple for Mexican cuisine -- and according to many --the best, and largest, margarita in Seattle.

But like many businesses, specifically restaurants, costs have only continued to go up and margins have become even thinner.

Jewett says the situation was becoming worrisome for La Palma.

"We're pretty close to a point where we have to make a decision, or close down," said Jewett, "There were five other locations of La Palma, so this is the last one. So it's really tugging on our heartstrings. This is it," she explained.

Jewett has a full-time job, and said she hadn't been working at the restaurant in about 10 years -- but she came back to help as the situation was changing.

Looking to do whatever she could to try to coax in new customers, Jewett says she posted to the restaurant's Instagram and Tik Tok pages on Friday, to explain the situation and to see if it could get traction online.

She states in the original video posted on October 30, that she would post every day for 30 days, to see if social media could help revive her beloved family restaurant.

She did not realize that it was only going to take about 24 hours.

"I was up till like 1 a.m. on Friday just watching all the comments and sharing the stories with my mom, and I said, 'Can you call grandpa and tell us in the morning that we need more staff?'" Jewett explained, as the Instagram post has now racked up over 26,000 likes, several thousand shares, and hundreds of comments.

By Saturday afternoon, she was even more stunned by the response.

“I pulled up at noon yesterday, and the parking lot was full," Jewett told KOMO News on Sunday. "That has not happened ever at opening; we opened at noon, it was packed."

Home to the headquarters for the precinct for 40 years, the 109-year-old building is being lined up for a major infrastructure project as the Seattle Police Department prepares to renew its investment in the one-time automobile showroom, service center, and garage at 12th and Pine.

The City of Seattle has completed the pre-application phase for a $2.2 million mechanical overhaul of the building at 1519 12th Ave including its operational patrol headquarters, roll-call and administrative offices, locker rooms, evidence processing areas, and temporary holding cells for officers serving Capitol Hill, First Hill, and the Central District. The stuffed building also supports neighborhood community policing teams and maintains secured, monitored fleet parking for patrol cruisers, police bicycles, and specialized tactical vehicles.

A SPD spokesperson tells CHS the facility will remain open during construction and that “all precinct operations will remain fully functional.”

According to the paperwork, the capital project focuses on modernizing the facility’s heating and ventilation infrastructure to transition away from fossil-fuel heating in compliance with commercial energy codes.

The investment follows uncertainty around the building that first began serving the neighborhood as a showroom for the Wyllis-Overland Company and part of the city’s auto row in 1917. The East Precinct opened at the corner in the 1980s.

Prior to that time, patrol officers covering the precinct were dispatched out of centralized SPD headquarters at the downtown Public Safety Building located between 3rd and 4th Ave and James and Cherry.

Following voter approval to decentralize police stations in 1977, the City of Seattle initially planned to build the East Precinct in the Central District at 23rd and Yesler, but abandoned the plan in 1984 after years of resistance, protests, and a 1981 site occupation led by Black civil rights and community organizers advocating for housing over police infrastructure.

In response, officials selected 12th and Pine as a compromise boundary location serving both Capitol Hill and the Central District, moving forward despite pushback from Capitol Hill queer and progressive activists wary of police harassment, and alongside counter-appeals from local business owners seeking faster response times.

The station opened in January 1986.

June 2020 brought new scrutiny about the facility as Black Lives Matter protests grew in the city.

The East Precinct’s location placed it directly at the boundary between Capitol Hill’s nightlife and LGBTQ core and the Central District. Barricades outside the station became the nightly standoff site for racial justice marches, with protesters opposing a fortified police presence in a dense arts and residential neighborhood. When police boarded up and evacuated the building on June 8, the precinct became the physical center of the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone and its walls were covered in art and memorials as demonstrators called for defunding and reallocating police resources.

Hi, I've been exploring the area around Seattle on my dual-sport for a couple of years and I have a decent number of dirt routes that I have found, but I run into locked gates more often than not. So, I was wondering if there are any other dual-sport or ADV riders that would want to share where to find good dirt to ride.

I'm not really looking for crazy single-track enduro stuff, but I'm not against some more technical riding, especially if it gets somewhere interesting. I typically ride forest roads (FS-## and NF-##) and explore the "closed" branch roads and trails off those networks. Unfortunately a ton of those roads are gated (mostly by logging companies I think), and that isn't usually clear when looking at a map. I try my best to figure out if a road is open with a combination of OsmAnd, Gaia GPS, and Google Maps satellite view, but still hit gates most of the time. I'm hoping to share what I have learned, and pick up some new tips and options from other Seattle area riders.

So if you want to share good dirt rides in the Seattle area, please leave a comment or send me a DM.

SEATTLE — A city program aimed at filling more of Seattle’s empty storefronts is looking for dozens of new businesses to move into those spaces.

Seattle Restored gives local businesses six months of free rent to help them get up and running. Of the businesses the program has worked with so far, more than 30 have gone on to sign long-term leases.

“I think it’s the best thing that’s happened to Seattle. I really do,” said Erika Vazquez-Jun, the owner of Frida in Pioneer Square.

Vazquez-Jun ran her boutique through pop-ups around Seattle for years, but she wanted to take the next step with a brick-and-mortar store.

Seattle Restored lets local businesses operate a six-month pop-up in available spaces, mainly in Belltown, downtown, Pioneer Square and the Chinatown-International District. The program covers rent, utilities and insurance.

After another one of her businesses succeeded through the program, Vazquez-Jun decided to apply for a long-term lease for Frida.

“You have coaches, you have financial advisors, you have tax help, so all of these daunting things that you really don’t like to think about as a business owner, they kind of push you to face and really help you,” she said.

Seattle’s retail vacancy rate currently sits at 3.9%, a slight increase from last year, according to research from commercial real estate firm Kidder Matthews.

Since Seattle Restored launched during the pandemic, it has hosted 100 retail pop-ups, and 33 of them have transitioned into long-term leases.

Brooke Sanders, program manager for Seattle Restored at the city’s Office of Economic Development, says the program also helps landlords fill their other available space.

“When they are showing the other space, you’re seeing an activation on the street,” Sanders said. “You’re seeing customers and people wanting to do foot traffic in that area, which makes it easier for them to try to fill their locations as well.”

From ancient tectonic fractures to 21st Century tremblers, Seattle has been shaped and formed by shaky forces beneath our feet.

Here’s the article: https://www.cascadepbs.org/mossbacks-northwest-2/2026/10/mossbacks-northwest-when-seattle-quakes/

Seattle Public Schools has officially confirmed the list of schools that could be merged ahead of the 2027 - 2028 school year.

In an emailed statement to KUOW, a spokesperson for the district confirmed that families at the following schools received email invitations “about a potential school merger process":

• Licton Springs/Salmon Bay
• Sacajawea /John Rogers
• Rainier View/Rising Star
• John Hay/Queen Anne
• Stevens/Montlake
• Orca/MLK (K-5)/Mercer (6-8)
• Decatur/View Ridge
• Sanislo/Highland Park
• Sandpoint/Laurelhurst
• Cedar Park/Baldwin

The spokesperson added that the district is meeting with staff at the potential merger schools this month, and meetings with families will take place during November and December.

The Seattle Social Housing Developer (SSHD) board has approved a $68 million purchase of Youngstown Flats, a six-story, nearly 200-home apartment complex in West Seattle. The deal marks the agency’s second major building acquisition in five months, signaling a rapid expansion of publicly owned, mixed-income housing in the region.

The purchase of the property—which opened in 2023 with average unit sizes exceeding 800 square feet—is scheduled to officially close in mid-December.

Tenant Benefits & Immediate Protections As part of the transition into social housing, the public developer announced several immediate affordability perks for residents living in Youngstown Flats:

• Two-Year Rent Freeze: Current lease rates will remain locked for two years.

• Free Public Transit: Every resident will receive a free, one-year ORCA transit pass.

• Fee Elimination: The agency plans to abolish "junk fees" and phase out the Ratio Utility Billing System (RUBS)—which divides building-wide utility costs among tenants—within its first year of ownership.

The property features 10 ADA-compliant units, offers access to local transit routes (RapidRide C and H lines), and sits near the DragonFly Garden and Pavilion along Longfellow Creek.

Seattle resident Ruadhri “Rory” McCormick, 44, entered a plea agreement in July for failing to pay Social Security, unemployment and Medicare taxes related to his Capitol Hill establishment, Single Shot.

Employing as many as 87 cooks, servers and bartenders between 2014 and 2024, McCormick “withheld payroll taxes from employee paychecks,” but “kept the money and failed to pay it over to the Internal Revenue Service,” according to the U.S. Department of Justice. The subsequent investigation found he spent nearly $400,000 buying and renovating a house on Vashon Island, nearly $125,000 in connection with casinos and upwards of $38,000 on travel, according to the release.

“This defendant chose to use money that should have gone to pay for the employee’s future benefits, to pay to remodel a home on Vashon Island,” said Neil Floyd, acting U.S. attorney for the Western District of Washington, in prepared remarks. “Unfortunately, the employee’s Social Security work records now show gaps where they don’t have credit for the years they put in at McCormick’s restaurant.”

McCormick was also ordered to pay about $1.45 million in restitution. In his plea agreement, McCormick also stated that he did not file personal income taxes for any tax year between 2015 and 2024, according to the release.

According to a defense sentencing memorandum, McCormick grew up in North Vancouver, B.C., and has worked in the Seattle restaurant industry for about two decades. He had partial ownership of El Grito Taqueria and late-night restaurant re:public in South Lake Union, though only the restaurant he wholly owned, Single Shot, was linked to unpaid taxes.

Sergio Stuardo Monroy, 51, was charged in King County Superior Court with indecent liberties by forcible compulsion and unlawful imprisonment with sexual motivation. The charges stem from an August 2026 incident during what was supposed to be a date in Seattle, according to court documents obtained by KIRO Newsradio.

Prosecutors alleged Monroy pinned his date inside his vehicle, forcibly kissed and groped her, and attempted to remove her clothing. Court documents stated he prevented the woman from leaving the vehicle and later drove away while restricting her ability to escape. She eventually jumped from the vehicle at a Ballard intersection and called 911.

The incident allegedly occurred after Monroy and the woman spent the evening drinking at several bars in Seattle. The two had returned to Monroy’s vehicle after leaving a venue when the assault allegedly took place.

If Monroy is convicted, prosecutors argue the case could qualify him for a mandatory life sentence without the possibility of parole under Washington’s persistent offender law, commonly known as the state’s “three strikes” law.

Monroy was convicted of second-degree rape in King County in 2018 and spent about six years in prison. Since his release in December 2024, he has remained under lifetime Department of Corrections supervision as a registered sex offender, according to court documents.

In the current case, prosecutors requested $1 million bail, a sexual assault protection order for the victim, surrender of any weapons and his passport, a prohibition on alcohol and drug use, and electronic home detention if released.

"The Voluntary Exit Offer reflects an important part of how we're evolving our approach to change: creating greater flexibility and, where possible, more ways for employees to shape their next chapter," Coleman wrote.

Microsoft's voluntary exit offer is the company's latest attempt to slim its workforce without another round of involuntary cuts. After spending heavily on AI infrastructure and reducing headcount this year, Microsoft is offering remaining employees a chance to leave, testing whether voluntary departures can cut costs.

Eligible employees in the U.S., Canada, India, and the U.K. at level 70, which includes senior leaders at the company, and below, will receive an email later Monday with the terms of the offer. Only some teams are participating, excluding sales organizations, some engineering, and some corporate functions.

Around 60,000 employees — or more than a quarter of the company's workforce — about will be eligible, a spokesperson told Business Insider, and the terms will be similar to Microsoft's standard severance.

After months of dealing with bogus reckless driving charges, jail, impound fees, and the Seattle Police Department holding onto my seized GoPro, the charges have finally been dismissed with prejudice... but more importantly, I have my camera back.

I spent the last 5 months investigating my interaction with SPD on Mayday 2026, guided by official public records, bodycam evidence, and the legal brief written by my public defender. I'll present the facts uncovered through that investigation, deconstruct how targeted, retaliatory policing led to my arrest, expose the documented histories of the specific officers involved, and reveal the internal city emails proving they knew there was no crime to charge me with in the first place.