Category Archives: Seattle

Anti-Trump protests erupt across US from New York City to Seattle

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Thousands of people take to streets to protest threats to reproductive rights and pledges of mass deportations

Protests against Donald Trump erupted in the US on Saturday as people on both coasts took to the streets in frustration about his re-election.

Thousands of people in major cities including New York City and Seattle demonstrated against the former president and now president-elect amid his threats against reproductive rights and pledges to carry out mass deportations at the start of his upcoming presidency.

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Five family members shot to death in home outside Seattle

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Authorities have arrested a teenage suspect in what appears to be an instance of ‘family annihilation’

Authorities found five people shot to death inside a home south-east of Seattle on Monday morning and arrested a teenager in connection with the killings, police said.

The killings in Fall City, Washington, were the 25th mass murder in the US so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive. The nonpartisan archive defines a mass murder as one in which four or more victims are killed.

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Hundreds gather on a Seattle beach to remember US activist killed by Israeli military

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Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi was killed while protesting against West Bank settlements, though a witness says she posed no threat

For her 26th birthday in July, human rights activist Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi gathered friends for a bonfire at one of her favorite places, a sandy beach in Seattle where green-and-white ferries cruise across the dark, flat water and ospreys fish overhead.

On Wednesday night, hundreds of people gathered on the same beach in grief, love and anger to mourn her. Eygi was shot and killed by Israeli soldiers last Friday in the occupied West Bank, where she had gone to protest and bear witness to Palestinian suffering.

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More than 10,000 US hotel workers strike on Labor Day weekend

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Staff demand wage increases and reversal of pandemic-era cutbacks that impose ‘painful’ working conditions

Thousands of US hotel workers went on strike on Sunday for improved pay and conditions in a dispute likely to disrupt many Labor Day weekend holiday travelers, amid union warnings that industrial action could escalate.

More than 10,000 workers walked off the job at hotels in Boston, Seattle, Honolulu, Kauai and Greenwich, Connecticut, as well as the Californian cities of San Francisco, Sand Diego and San Jose after contract talks with the establishments’ owners collapsed.

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Divided Washington state to choose Biden or Trump: ‘Everything seems a mess right now’

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A recent poll puts Biden leading Trump 54-38, but the ex-president has committed supporters ahead of state’s primary

Had he heard it, Joe Biden would surely have been delighted by Bianca Siegl’s comment – and the fact she barely paused before making it.

“Of course I will be voting on Tuesday,” says the 47-year-old, speaking at a farmers’ market in Seattle’s University district. “If Trump were to get elected, it would be incredibly dangerous for the world and for my family.”

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Speeding Seattle officer who struck and killed student will not face charges

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Death of Jaahnavi Kandula, 23, from India, ignited outrage after fellow officer was recorded making ‘appalling’ remarks about case

Prosecutors in Washington state said on Wednesday they will not file felony charges against a Seattle police officer who struck and killed a graduate student from India while responding to an overdose call – a case that attracted widespread attention after another officer was recorded making callous remarks about it.

Officer Kevin Dave was driving 74mph (119km/h) on a street with a 25mph (40km/h) speed limit in a police SUV before he hit 23-year-old Jaahnavi Kandula in a crosswalk on 23 January 2023.

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US-bound plane returns to Tokyo after man allegedly bites flight attendant

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Incident reportedly happened on All Nippon Airways flight with man, 55, arrested after plane brought back to Tokyo

A drunk US man allegedly bit the arm of a flight attendant on a passenger jet headed to Seattle from Tokyo on Tuesday night, forcing the plane’s return to the Japanese capital, according to local reports.

The attack happened over the Pacific Ocean on All Nippon Airways flight 118, Japan’s Kyodo News reported. Crew members restrained a 55-year-old American man accused of biting an attendant on the arm, and police arrested him after the Seattle-bound plane was brought back to Tokyo’s Haneda airport.

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Monsanto ordered to pay $857m to ex-students of Seattle school for toxic leaks

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Parent volunteers and students claimed polychlorinated biphenyls leaked from the firm’s light fixtures made them sick

A jury in Washington state on Monday ordered Bayer’s Monsanto to pay $857m to former students and parent volunteers of a school north-east of Seattle who claimed that chemicals known as PCBs made by the company leaked from light fixtures and made them sick, according to an attorney for the plaintiffs.

The jury found the company liable for selling polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) used in the Sky Valley Education Center in Monroe, Washington. The verdict included $73m in compensatory damages, and $784m in punitive damages, according to Henry Jones, an attorney at the law firm Friedman Rubin, who represents the plaintiffs.

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US man who killed woman by driving car through BLM protest pleads guilty

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Dawit Kelete, 30, pleads guilty to multiple charges after hitting two protesters, one fatally, during 2020 protest in Seattle

A man who hit two Black Lives Matter protesters with his car, killing one of them, during a 2020 demonstration in Seattle has pleaded guilty to multiple felonies.

Dawit Kelete, 30, pleaded guilty Thursday to vehicular homicide in the death of 24-year-old Summer Taylor, the Seattle Times reported. He also pleaded guilty to vehicular assault and reckless driving charges.

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Five wounded, two critically, in Seattle parking lot shooting

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Shooting on Friday night, in lot near where community event was taking place, the 413th US mass shooting this year

The latest mass shooting in the US left five people wounded in a Seattle parking lot Friday night, including two who were in critical condition, the city’s police chief said.

Seattle police responded to the shooting about 9pm on Rainier Avenue South in the parking lot of what was formerly known as King Donuts, and a community event was occurring nearby, the city’s police chief, Adrian Diaz, said at the scene.

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Seattle activists occupy old cedar tree to stop it being cut down for housing

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Protest on private lot the latest episode highlighting tensions as climate crisis diminishes Seattle’s urban canopy

With ropes, a harness, a hammock and a bucket pulley system, masked activists in Seattle have taken residence in the branches of an old, thick cedar tree to prevent it from being cut down to make way for new homes.

The protest on a private lot is the latest episode highlighting tensions behind tree policy in Seattle as the climate crisis increases temperatures and urban canopy decreases.

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Corporate Amazon workers walk out over climate goals and return to office

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Employees also objected to the recent layoffs, with about 27,000 jobs cut since November 2022

Hundreds of corporate Amazon workers protested what they decried as the company’s lack of progress on climate goals and an inequitable return-to-office mandate during a lunchtime demonstration at its Seattle headquarters.

The protest on Wednesday comes a week after Amazon’s annual shareholder meeting and a month after a policy took effect requiring workers to return to the office three days a week.

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Seattle becomes first US city to ban caste-based discrimination

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Provision comes amid calls for change from South Asian diaspora communities but faces opposition from some Hindu Americans

Seattle has become the first city in the US to ban caste-based discrimination, after council members voted on Tuesday to add the provision to the city’s anti-bias laws.

Calls to outlaw discrimination based on caste, a division of people based on birth or descent, have grown louder among South Asian diaspora communities. Proponents of the ordinance, which was approved by a 6-1 vote, say without such laws, those facing caste discrimination in the US will have no protections.

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Seattle public schools sue social media platforms for youth ‘mental health crisis’

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Lawsuit accuses companies behind TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and YouTube of harming young people’s mental health

Seattle’s public schools district has filed a lawsuit in the US against multiple major social media companies, accusing them of harming young people’s mental health across the country.

The lawsuit which was filed on Friday with a US district court accused the social media companies behind TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and YouTube of creating a “mental health crisis among America’s youth”.

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Human toll of deadly US storm grows in ‘blizzard of the century’

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Heartbreaking stories pour in about people missing a heart transplant or dying inside a car

One man never came home from a grocery run. Another man missed a chance at a new heart. A woman died after getting trapped in her car.

The human toll that the winter blast which gripped much of the US last week has continued to mount. Since the “blizzard of the century” swept through multiple parts of the nation last week, at least 60 people have died countrywide, and details about the heartbreak their families are enduring have been trickling out.

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Renton shooting: one dead and five injured in Seattle suburb

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Police say initial investigation suggests dispute outside of large gathering that led to gunfire, possibly by more than one suspect

One person was confirmed dead and five others were treated for gunshot wounds after multiple shots were fired in the Seattle suburb of Renton, Washington, police said.

The Renton police department tweeted that officers were called before 1am Saturday and found multiple victims, five of whom were treated for injuries. Police confirmed one fatality in the shooting.

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Kurt Cobain’s Smells Like Teen Spirit electric guitar to be auctioned

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The 1969 Fender Mustang, on display in Seattle’s Museum of Pop Culture, is expected to have a starting price of over $600,000

The electric guitar played by Kurt Cobain in the Smells Like Teen Spirit music video will be put up for sale this weekend by Julien’s Auctions.

Speaking about the 1969 Fender Mustang during his final interview with Guitar World, Cobain said: “I’m left-handed, and it’s not very easy to find reasonably priced, high-quality left-handed guitars. But out of all the guitars in the whole world, the Fender Mustang is my favorite. I’ve only owned two of them.”

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US cities scale back New Year’s Eve events and urge people to scrap parties

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Americans face stay-at-home celebration again as some mayors scale back or cancel public events amid Covid surge

Americans are again facing a stay-at-home New Year’s Eve as US political leaders and senior health advisers have urged people to scrap party plans and avoid larger public events as daily cases of Covid-19 break all previous records.

In New York, attendance at the Times Square celebration known as the Ball Drop – in essence, tens of thousands of people watching a 12-foot geodesic sphere inlaid with Waterford crystals descend a long pole – has been capped at 15,000, down from pre-pandemic 60,000, with organizers encouraging revelers to watch it on TV or online.

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US man who survived Covid says sorry to doctors for not getting vaccinated

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Richard Soliz from Seattle, who spent month ill in hospital, thanks staff and says he ‘deeply regrets’ not getting vaccine

After being hospitalized for 28 days with Covid-19, a man returned to the Seattle hospital that saved his life – to apologize for not getting vaccinated.

Richard Soliz, a 54-year old graphic artist, developed blood clots on his lungs after contracting the coronavirus. Admitted to Harborview medical center in late August, he spent close to a month on a ventilator and heart monitor, as doctors worried one of his blood clots might transfer to his brain or his heart.

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‘We thought it wouldn’t affect us’: heatwave forces climate reckoning in Pacific north-west

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Left-leaning states had focused on how global heating would affect others. Then the ‘heat dome’ arrived

The record heatwave in the Pacific north-west is forcing a reckoning on the climate crisis, as many living in the typically mild region consider what rising temperatures mean for the future.

A “heat dome” without parallel trapped hot air over much of the states of Oregon and Washington in the United States, and southern British Columbia in Canada, in past days, shattering weather records in the usually temperate region.

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