News Today 5:53 PM

Seattle City Council Requests Draft Legislation to Repeal Minimum Wage for Gig Workers

The Move Comes after the Council Consulted with Uber-Backed Lobby Group Instead of Workers

The Seattle City Council’s Governance, Accountability, and Economic Development Committee began discussing possible changes to the City’s “Pay Up” policy, a minimum wage ordinance for gig workers that went into effect in January. Committee Chair and Council President Sara Nelson said that she sees three options. The council could preserve the policy as is—an option she rejects. They could repeal the minimum wage—an option for which she has requested draft legislation. Or they could implement the “fix” they discussed Thursday, which Nelson also requested central staff to draft legislation for. 

Workers who support their own minimum wage told The Stranger they would discuss changes, but so far it looks like Nelson’s definition of “fix” means making changes for one side of the debate: the bosses. 

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Grammy-nominated R&B gem Jhené Aiko has dropped dates for the Magic Hour tour—her first headlining tour in five years. Aussie rap phenom The Kid LAROI has also added a Seattle stop to his First Time tour this spring. Plus, who let these freaks off their leash!? Korn is coming to the Tacoma Dome in October. Read on for details on those and other newly announced events, plus some news you can use.


Tickets go on sale at 10 am unless otherwise noted.

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Music Today 1:00 PM

Candid Reflections From Music Pioneer Laurie Anderson on Releasing Rage, Yoko Ono, and Amelia Earhart's Legacy

Anderson Brings Her Let X = X Tour to Seattle, With New York Jazz Ensemble Sexmob Handling the Horns.

Pioneering electronic musician Laurie Anderson has produced a treasure trove of work throughout her 55-year career. Last week, we took readers through "Five Laurie Anderson Songs That Aren’t “O Superman," but that barely scratched the surface of her seven major label albums, two full-length films, and the numerous experimental instruments she's invented—just to name a few of her projects.

On Saturday, Anderson brings her Let X = X tour to the Benaroya Hall to revisit material from across her career with a reinvigorated perspective, spirit, and sound—thanks, in part, to her backing band, the New York jazz ensemble Sexmob. 

Just mere days before embarking on her West Coast tour, Anderson polished her violin and tested her equipment while we chatted about revisiting old work, releasing rage, and worshiping Yoko Ono.

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Sports Today 11:00 AM

Icing Out Pride

As the NHL Caves to Homophobia, the Seattle Kraken Steps Up to Support the LGBTQ+ Community

The Seattle Pride Hockey Association (SPHA) has a sticky origin story. 

In 2019, Joey Gale, who had recently moved to Seattle from the Midwest, hit the ice to play in a local rec league game. But his stick stood out among the rest, as he’d wrapped his in Pride Tape, a rainbow-colored departure from the black adhesive players typically use. The tape set off queer hockey peer Steven Thompson’s gaydar.

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Transportation Today 10:00 AM

Baltimore's Key Bridge Wasn't Built for 21st Century Capitalism

To Be Fair, No American Bridges Are Built for 21st Century Capitalism

Let's begin with what has to be the most important reading of the deadly accident that destroyed a huge section of Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge on March 26, 2024. It appears near the middle of a NBC News report with this headline: "Why the Baltimore bridge stood little chance against a fully loaded cargo ship." It takes the form of a statement made by Roberto Leon, "a structural engineer at Virginia Tech." According to his perspective, which is, of course, a professional one, "while engineers try to account for 'extreme events' during the design and construction process, 'when this bridge was built, there were no ships of this size.'"

And there you have it. That bridge, which was completed in 1977, had no chance against a 21st-century cargo ship carrying 4,700 containers. Indeed, the builders and designers of the bridge could never have imagined, and therefore factored in, a ship like the Dali, which, despite being nearly 1,000 feet long and able to carry a confounding 10,000 standard containers, is not is not even one of the behemoths of today's seven seas. There are ships out there that can carry twice as many containers. And keep in mind that when construction began on Francis Scott Key Bridge, container-ship capitalism was still in its infancy.

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News Today 9:00 AM

Inside Ann Davison’s War with a Judge She Doesn’t Like

A Week After Judge Pooja Vaddadi Disqualified a Prosecutor in a Case, Prosecutors Moved to Disqualify Her in Every Case

Last week, Republican City Attorney Ann Davison asked a higher court to review Municipal Court Judge Pooja Vaddadi's decision to disqualify an assistant city attorney from prosecuting a case. Vaddadi’s ruling came a week before the City Attorney’s Office (CAO) created a policy to disqualify her from presiding over all new Seattle Municipal Court (SMC) criminal cases. The policy has led to reshuffling within SMC and has limited Vaddadi from performing her duties as an elected judge, all during a chaotic time in the court as it switches its digital case management system, causing some headaches and slow-downs. 

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Weather girl Hannah here: REAL Seattle-heads will love this. Today, it's gonna rain. Like, the whole fucking day. This morning, temperatures will hover around the high 40s and then tip over to the low 50s around 1 pm. So I’d suggest some boots and a water-proof jacket, but you’re an adult, you can dress yourself. 

Climate pledge who? Wednesday morning, “troublemaker” protesters blocked Amazon’s downtown corporate headquarters, a parking garage, and an Amazon Go store in effort to pressure the e-commerce giant to divest from a natural gas pipeline project that would increase greenhouse gas emissions by 3.47 million metric tons every year for the next three decades, according to a 2022 filing with Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The protesters argued that supporting the project runs contrary to the “Climate Pledge,” in which Amazon promised to run strictly on renewable energy by 2025 and to decarbonize by 2040. 

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I, Anonymous Yesterday 12:00 PM

Bus Seat Hog

I see you on a full bus, sitting in the aisle seat while the inside seat is empty. You might as well tape a sign to the seat next to you that reads, "My Comfort Is More Important Than Anyone Else’s."

Sometimes people have lots of stuff that takes up a seat on a crowded bus, and that’s the unfortunate reality of life. But you? This? This is different. 

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Olympia Yesterday 11:00 AM

New Law Requires More Inclusive School Curricula in Washington

Lessons to Include Contributions from LGBTQ People and People of Color

This month, Gov. Jay Inslee signed a bill that requires Washington schools to incorporate into lessons the history and contributions of people from marginalized groups–including LGBTQ people, people of color, and people with disabilities. 

Under Senate Bill 5462, the Washington State School Directors Association, with help from the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, must review and update its model policy and procedures on course design and the selection of instructional materials by June of 2025. 

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Elections 2024 Yesterday 10:00 AM

Josh Binda Launches Progressive Challenge to Rep. Rick Larsen

With a Crowded Left Lane, the Incumbent May Face an Easy Battle Against a Freedom Caucus Wannabe

In his 23 years in office, US Rep. Rick Larsen hasn’t had much reason to fear for his seat. A Republican hasn’t come within striking distance in Washington’s 2nd Congressional District since 2010, and a leftward challenger has never made it through the primary—that’s a worse record than WA02 libertarians. 

This year, Lynnwood City Council Member Josh Binda, who made history in 2021 as the youngest BIPOC elected official in the state of Washington, pledges to bring Larsen his most serious leftward challenge to date. But Binda’s not alone in the quest to bring new, progressive leadership to WA02. Jason Call, a Green party candidate who has run against Larsen twice before, announced a third challenge against Larsen last April.

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WEDNESDAY 3/27 

Tales of Lust & Madness with Lydia Lunch & Joseph Keckler

(MUSIC) Here's your chance to see a living legend in the flesh! Counterculture icon Lydia Lunch is best known for her '70s no-wave band Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, as well as her later collaboration with Sonic Youth (their song "Death Valley '69" was named one of the "50 Most Evil Songs Ever" by Kerrang!) Nowadays, Lunch spends the bulk of her time leading self-empowerment workshops and performing spoken-word poetry. For these performances, she will be joined by fellow New Yorker and multi-hyphenate Joseph Keckler for two intimate evenings of "musical and linguistic intrigue." (The Rabbit Box Theatre, 94 Pike St #11, 8-11 pm, $30-$35, 18+) AUDREY VANN

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While Transgender Day of Visibility happens annually on March 31, this year it’s happening against a backdrop of state officials legislating transgender people out of public life. Right now, more than 140,000 transgender adolescents have lost or are at risk of losing access to best-practice medical care due to bans in 23 states. Health care providers in Washington have a chance to help save transgender lives.

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Ashley rode along with Seattle’s dual dispatch team: By “rode along,” I mean they didn’t get a single call in five hours because the City hasn’t fully bought into this pseudo police alternative. The six social workers who compose the Community Assisted Response and Engagement (CARE) team are supposed to respond to low-priority calls alongside cops and then take over the scene if the cops say it's okay. The program aims to save police a little time so they can focus on higher-priority calls. Read more about it here.

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Sex Tue 11:00 AM

Pal Power!

With Rhaina Cohen of The Other Significant Others

So, is he gay? The evidence: He likes sucking wieners, anal play, and he has a sex machine that he uses on his butt. Also, he is showing less and less interest in having sex with the caller, and when she asks him about it he responds, “Is sex all you care about?”

An anxious cougar is suspicious of the young men who hit on her. Why would they want to be with someone twice their age? She knows she should count her blessings, and her friends all roll their eyes at her discomfort. How can she get out of her head about this and enjoy the youthful dick already?

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Film/TV Tue 10:00 AM

Netflix's 3 Body Problem Turns Out to Be Porn for Conservatives 

The Political Movement that Brought You Climate Denialism Somehow Thinks the Show Owns the Libs

How to begin? Well, last week, Netflix dropped its bold adaptation of the first book of Liu Cixin's trilogy, Three Body Problem. This version has eight episodes (the Chinese TV adaptation, which also covers the first book, has 30 episodes), and it has its pluses and minuses.

On the plus side, for example, the series accurately portrays the opening of the science fiction novel, which is set during the Cultural Revolution in the mid-1960s. On the minus side, this opening scene really excited, delighted, and validated the Musk-loving right.

They equated the "struggle session" that kills a Chinese physicist for believing spacetime composes the fabric of the universe with the "woke mind virus" that's stunting, stifling, and castrating Western Civilization. Behold, with a content warning for ableism: 

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