My reporting:
Right before my vacation, I wrote about the two WA state anti-trans initiatives that will be on the ballot this November.
This week, I wrote about the news that Seattle and King County will be drastically downsizing the King County Regional Homelessness Authority (KCRHA) by taking back all their homeless provider contracts. I also wrote a bit about the new 2026 Point-in-Time Count report that shows that homelessness in the region is continuing to grow, albeit more slowly (meanwhile, unsheltered homelessness is growing more quickly).
In related news, PubliCola reported today that KCRHA CEO Kelly Kinnison might have been trying to avoid the public disclosure of some of her emails.
Stay tuned next week as I turn my attention to the FEPP levy and some interesting local election news.
Other news:
Marcus Harrison Green has an insightful column out today about the news that Seattle didn’t have any homicides during the month of June.
Once the World Cup was over, Mayor Katie Wilson did indeed turn off the surveillance cameras in the Stadium District. Their final fate is TBD depending on the all-important results of the audit she ordered earlier this year. At a rally this week, anti-surveillance activists demanded the removal of all the SPD surveillance cameras in the city.
Speaking of surveillance, a former police officer from the Puyallup Police Department who retired in 2022 wrote an op-ed against the surveillance state and the use of Flock license plate readers in Puyallup. I think it is telling when even former police officers are speaking out against surveillance technology.
And in Renton, the council voted to postpone their decision regarding their Flock license plate readers, which means for now, the cameras remain off.
Washington State will be on the hook for large penalty fees to the federal government (due to H.R. 1 from last year, what else?) if the state doesn’t improve its accuracy rate when dispensing food stamps. The Washington State Standard reported it could owe more than $90 million, a number that could increase due to the new SNAP work requirements, which could cause more errors as the state works to adapt.
Yesterday, a judge ruled that the Northwest Detention Center, operated by the GEO Group, must allow Washington state Department of Health inspectors inside the facility. However, the inspectors do not need to be allowed to inspect areas of the facility operated by ICE, which immediately made me think of the recent reporting that CoreCivic sold two of its detention facilities in California to DHS in a move to avoid oversight.
The injunctions ordered by the judge won’t go into effect for two weeks, giving the GEO Group time to appeal.
And the U.S. lost its long-term status as a liberal democracy for the first time in over 50 years.
“The scale and speed of autocratization under the Trump administration are unprecedented in modern times,” reads the V-Dem 2026 Democracy Report. “Within one year, the USA’s LDI score has declined by 24%; its world rank dropped from 20th to 51st place out of 179 nations.”
Recent Headlines:
- PubliCola’s two-part interview with Mayor Katie Wilson: Part 1 and Part 2
- Community Passageways Will Cut Staff in Rainier Beach This Summer When City Contract Ends
- Seattle mayor endorses challenger to WA Senate majority leader
- Mayor Says City Will Address Public Safety in Little Saigon, North Beacon Hill for ‘As Long as It’s Needed’
- Bainbridge Island Police Department Women’s Self-Defense Instructor Charged with Domestic Violence
- King County Council Searches for Footing with a New Executive
- Internal DOL documents raise questions about impartiality and transparency
- State Supreme Court Candidate’s (Probably) AI-Generated Website Invented a Fake Sitting Justice, Who May Also Be an AI Musician
- How Flock Cameras Wrongly Tracked Me for Days Over ‘Stolen’ Plates and Sent Police After Me
- Newly released records show nearly 2,000 ‘immigration’ and ‘ICE’ searches on Cleveland’s Flock cameras
- SCOTUS Ruling Could Be Bad News for Flock — But Won’t Stop Mass Surveillance
- AI surveillance is being supercharged – and it will chill social progress
- AI Is Turbocharging Bosses’ Efforts to Spy on Their Workers
- Footage Shows Cop Stalking Woman He Met on a TV Set After Surveilling Her With a License Plate Reader
- WA economy grows fastest in nation thanks to AI spending
- Countering Authoritarian Disinformation Requires More than Platform Governance
- Human Rights Experts Should Engage in Age Assurance Standards
- These Immigrant Kids Were Once Protected. Under Trump, Their Deportations Have Tripled.
- This Maine Lawsuit is Testing the Boundaries of Suing Federal Immigration Agents
- ICE’s Internal Watchdog Is Now Investigating Online Critics
- Public Records Show FBI Secretly Extracted Data From ICE Protesters’ Phones
- Despite the State’s Attempts to Stamp Out Opposition, Our Movements Persevere
- Murder in the US Fell Dramatically in the First Half of 2026
- DivestSPD: Day drunk gang cop found ‘slumped’ in his truck
- Safer Cities: Three Things to Read This Week
- Safer Cities: Three Things to Read This Week