Cascadia today: ICE breaking rules at King county airport + how to fix OR's economy + Jimothy wins the internet
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ICE breaking rules at King County airfield
KING-5 reports that the advocacy group La Resistencia says that ICE is breaking rules about refueling deportation flights while passengers – immigrants in custody, often in shackles – are on board the aircraft. This is in violation of King County refueling rules for Boeing field, which state, ""Passenger loading or unloading shall not occur during Fuel Handling unless the flight is for a military operation or emergency medical transport of a patient." Read more about ICE violations at Boeing field in a report from La Resistencia.
This is unacceptable. Speak up now: tell County Executive Girmay Zahilay to enforce King County's regulations and cite ICE for violating these rules and endangering the lives of detainees. Email Zahilay here: kcexec@kingcounty.gov.
How to fix Oregon's economy?
Oregon Capital Chronicle looks at the results of Oregon governor Tina Kotek's controversial "prosperity council" which was convened to address the state's tepid economy – the article notes that Oregon was 49th in US states in job growth between May 2025 and May 2026. But much of that was due to major corporate layoffs by Intel and Nike. Also at Oregon Capital Chronicle is an opinion piece that notes that the prosperity council offers only tired trickle-down economic solutions including giving tax breaks to the wealthy. That's not the way forward. Oregon's climate for business is bad because rents and costs are high, transportation infrastructure is crumbling, and health care and education are lacking for workers.
One boost, especially for eastern parts of the state: investing in new renewable energy sources such as wind and solar, as well as improving the state's electricity transmission grid. Oregon and Washington have been dead last in the US in new wind and solar projects, offering a missed opportunity for economic growth.
Seattle's dumb move to cut free school lunches
The Urbanist reports on a plan by several city council members to cut a program that would offer universal free school lunches to students in Seattle. Council members Joy Hollingsworth and Dionne Foster offered an amendment to mayor Katie Wilson's plan to offer free school lunches in order to trim about $4 million from the city budget.
That amount of money can be found as spare change in the cushions of Jeff Bezos' couch in his Seattle condo. What a dumb move by Hollingsworth and Foster. Meanwhile the city council somehow did the right thing and didn't ruin a transit levy going on the ballot this fall. Cartoonist Brett Hamill at the South Seattle Emerald has the rundown on how the vote went.
BC small towns push back on data center
The Tyee reports on how the small northern British Columbia town of Terrace and other cities in rural BC are pushing back against new data centers to fuel the stupid AI boom. York University researcher Lyndsey Rolheiser told the Tyee that supposed job growth in small towns from huge, energy-sucking data center is non-existent: “That evidence is not quite there," Rolheiser said.
Seattle's Jimothy takes over the internet
KUOW reports on how the unusually shaped Seattle racoon dubbed Jimothy took over social media and the internet over the weekend, inspiring tattoo artists, muralists, and plenty of jokes. Because of a congenital deformity in his spine, he looks much different from your usual racoon... but as some wag pointed out on Bluesky, at least he has a spine – which can't be said for many elected leaders failing to push back on Trump's fascism.
Thanks for reading! Keep loving and keep fighting. --Andy
