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.

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.

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.

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.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/73939581

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.

In the late 19th and early 20th century, the Salish Sea from Victoria BC to Olympia was filled with elusive pirates on a decades-long crime spree.

Here's the article: https://www.cascadepbs.org/mossbacks-northwest-2/2026/10/mossbacks-northwest-pirates-of-the-salish-sea/

King County Superior Court Judge Veronica Galván said Wednesday investigators have found that none of the evidence recovered ties the defendant to the deaths or injuries at the Seattle Center festival on July 26.

After nearly three months in detention at the youth jail in Seattle’s Central District, Galván ruled the 15-year-old defendant could return home to his father and step-mom.

“We’ve got him enrolled in school, he has a full support system,” Charles Black, the defendant's father, told the judge. Black said between him and the teen’s step-mom, there would always be someone at home.

Galván ordered the teen to be on 24-hour electronic home monitoring, and said he must remain home full-time with an adult present, be enrolled in online classes, and speak to a counselor.

The teenager was released Wednesday morning shortly after the judge's decision, according to Hong Tran, his attorney.

He also cannot go to Seattle Center or come into contact with anyone else involved in the shooting case. The 15-year-old was arrested on the day of the shooting with a gun in his jacket, court records show. KUOW is not naming the teen since he is a minor.

Seattle Police officers who arrested him wrote in statements afterward that he cooperated without incident.

In an interview with police shortly after the shooting, the teen said he fired his gun out of self-defense after others in the crowd shot at him.

The shooting left three people dead and multiple others injured.

Hundreds of new curbside Level 2 EV chargers will be installed in Seattle, in an effort to make life easier for electric car owners who live in multifamily buildings. The project will prioritize areas with apartment buildings and few charging options, and residents can apply for new sites on the Seattle City Light portal.

In total, up to 200 new Level 2 EV chargers will be installed across the city by 2030. Until fall 2027, residents can send in applications for new locations. Then, City Light and the Seattle Department of Transportation will review those applications and select the locations where the new stalls will be installed. According to the city, locations will be chosen in batches of 40-50 at a time, on an ongoing basis.

An outreach model that housed nearly 90% of people living outside in Pioneer Square earlier this year will be used across Seattle, Mayor Katie Wilson said Wednesday.

Her plan, contingent on a related effort to build up the city’s stock of shelter units, is the latest effort by a first-year mayor to get control of a complex issue that has foiled a string of Seattle mayors before her — as well as cities across the nation.

Wilson said she recognized the factors that could upend her plan — from local opposition to the global economy — but said a coordinated effort among the city, businesses and service providers was a combination that she believed would finally work to house the thousands of people who sleep outside in the city.

“For years, mayors and their teams have come and gone, but the moral outrage and homelessness in one of the wealthiest cities and richest countries in the world has only worsened,” she said. “Homelessness is not a natural occurrence. It is a policy failure.”

Wilson delivered few details. She declined to share where the model would first be replicated, or how much the plan would cost the city in total. But with with an array of City Council members, business leaders and service providers standing around her, she had already won broad support to try something new.

Overall, Wilson’s plan will overhaul how the city connects people to shelter, so those on the streets with the greatest challenges get into shelters or housing that match their level of need. She wants to prioritize people with mental health or addiction issues and people living in public areas.

“Our public parks and public sidewalks belong to the public,” Wilson said, adding that the city will still clear encampments at its current pace. “They should be kept open and usable for their intended purposes.”

The employee stated that when she reported the rape to Amazon and gave credible evidence, the company told her that if she wanted to keep her job, she would have to keep working with the senior manager and not speak about the attack, according to the complaint obtained by MyNorthwest.

“I reported it to HR,” the employee told KIRO Newsradio. “Two days later … they allowed me to continue working with this person. And they told me not to mention anything, which kept me from warning other people. Ultimately, I had to continue working with him in that job if I were to keep it.”

The employee was allegedly raped in October 2023 on an Amazon-funded work trip in New York.

“One evening, after an Amazon-hosted open-bar event ended, numerous Amazon employees and partners, including [the employee] and [the senior manager], continued the gathering at karaoke and bars, all paid for by Amazon,” the complaint stated. “[The employee] and [the senior manager] flirted. They joked. They got along. Towards the end of the night, he kissed her. [The senior manager] persuaded [the employee] to go back to her hotel room with him. But [the employee] did not want to have sex with him. She refused to have sex with him. After all, this is not the 1800s. A man cannot demand a woman have sex with him because she drank, flirted, and was kissed.

“[The senior manager], however, had other plans,” it continued. “In [the employee’s] hotel room, during the early morning hours, [the senior manager] raped her. Before the rape started, she said no. During the rape, [the employee] asked him, ‘You realize this is,’ and [the senior manager] finished her sentence, saying, ‘rape? Yes.’ He ignored her protests. He raped her.”

A woman who tried to get a ride from an Uber driver in Seattle wound up in a scary situation. Police say a fake rideshare driver picked her up instead.

The woman told police a vehicle arrived, and she opened the door, asking the driver if it was for her. He said it was, so she sat in the backseat.

However, police said that she saw the driver pass her exit and got a notification that her Uber ride had been canceled.

As the woman looked around, police say that she noticed the driver was following directions from Google Maps and was not using the Uber App. Then she started texting her friends about what was going on. She eventually jumped out of the car at a red light in Kent and the driver sped off.

A short time later, police say her friends found her near Military Road South and Kent Des Moines Road in Kent.

When someone leaves jail in King County and across the country, they typically have no supplies of their medications or any connection to a medical provider. But that’s starting to change. New efforts at the federal, state, and local level aim to provide a lifeline from inside the jail to next steps outside.

CaSandra Adams spent a decade cycling in and out of local jails for crimes related to her opioid addiction. Adams said 90% of the time, she left jail with no means and nowhere to go.

“Just completely to the streets, in a town I didn’t know,” she said, with “clothes inappropriate to the weather, no ride, no money, no phone, no ID, no nothing. Just having to survive, figure it out.”

Adams said while in jail she’d sometimes have a moment of clarity where she really wanted to seek treatment and make a change. But at release there was no one to help her, except other people walking out the doors at the same time.

“We’d get into their boyfriend’s car and I’d be passed something,” she said. “And there I am, back in the same hamster wheel” of addiction.

Adams is now a peer advisor for King County’s jail reentry initiative, drawing on her experiences to design better options for people exiting jail. Most people in jail are low-income and qualify for Medicaid health coverage, but historically the program has excluded health care provided within jails and prisons. But now 22 states including Washington have qualified for a waiver; it allows Medicaid reimbursement for certain transition-related expenses in the 90 days before someone is released.

Megan Murphy, who manages this new initiative, said the waiver allows Jail Health staff to help people plan their transition back to life outside, rather than starting from zero the moment they’re released.

“We can leverage non-local dollars to pay for services in the jail,” she said. “This comes with a requirement for release planning for all eligible people in addition to that warm handoff to an appropriate service provider to continue those services.”

The new reimbursements cover things like case management, scheduling treatment for substance use disorder, and a 30-day supply of prescription medication and medical supplies as someone exits the jail.

SEATTLE, WA (October 14, 2026) — On the last day of September, the corner of Denny Way and Stewart Street echoed with chatter and car horns as about 60 Seattle Times workers in light blue t-shirts gathered for their first picket in at least 20 years. The journalists and newsroom staff of the city’s paper of record took this rare public action after months of negotiations with Seattle Times’ management that have failed to produce a new collective bargaining agreement.

More than six months into bargaining, workers and management are still far apart on wages. In fact for months, Seattle Times management refused to even bring a wage proposal to the table, forcing the union to file an unfair labor practice charge in June. When Times management finally passed an offer across the table, it fell far short of workers’ needs: a measly increase of $1,250 a year, just $48 extra per paycheck — before taxes. For a bargaining unit where a third of the members are already working second jobs that wage offer just won’t cut it.

“So many of our members here are experiencing the cost of living crisis that we’ve covered in our own papers,” said Amanda Zhou, a reporter and bargaining committee member with the Seattle Times Union, affiliated with NewsGuild-CWA. With inflation rising 4.4% in the Seattle-area over the year, agreeing to management’s wage offer of less than a 2% raise for most union members is effectively agreeing to a pay cut.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/53250951

The early voting for the Midterms is now available in many places. You can early vote at a polling place: https://www.eac.gov/voters/register-and-vote-in-your-state

Or you can use mail-in voting: https://www.eac.gov/voters/national-mail-voter-registration-form

It's highly recommended to avoid election day voting in person, and vote early.

The quote "art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable" is often cited when a piece of art elicits strong reactions.

That principle, in part, is behind a display of Ku Klux Klan robes passersby can see through a window at the Dexter Horton Building in downtown Seattle.

The robes are globally recognized as symbols of white supremacist ideology and violence.

...

They’re part of the American History Traveling Museum: The Unspoken Truths exhibit. The installation shares American history through an Afrocentric social lens. Delbert Richardson, the exhibit’s curator, guides visitors through the history.

When asked about the “uproar” his work was causing online, he said, “If you're uncomfortable, and you want to grow, stay there. Because [for] Black and brown people, it's a life of discomfort every single day. If you're inconvenienced with some uncomfortability, then I've done my work.”

Richardson primarily works with K-12 grade students. He told KUOW kids come to his exhibit and take in the information just fine.

“It's the adults where the work is needed," he said. "Not just white people, Black and brown people also too, because there's a socialization that's happened for us based on how we've had to navigate. Very seldom is a space created where white people are almost forced to connect to a feeling."

His work is divided into four sections: Mother Africa, which highlights the numerous contributions by African in STEM fields; American Chattel Slavery, which delves into the brutal treatment and psychological impacts on African Americans of the diaspora; The Jim Crow Era, which examines the racial caste system and the creation and enforcement of legalized segregation; and Still We Rise, which focuses on myriad contributions made by Black inventors in the Americas.

You'll notice that this message is intended for Republicans. I'm just being a good neighbor. Since I'm democrat I'll have to completely ignore this message.

This year marks a remarkable milestone. It has been 50 years since Toshi Kasahara introduced Seattle to its very first teriyaki shop.

Half a century of sizzling grills, loyal customers, and a sauce so beloved that it has its own fan club. In a region known for innovation, Toshi's story is a quiet, delicious revolution that began with a simple idea and grew to an entire city claiming it as part of its identity.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/73215553

Up against budget pressures and a plan to snuff out a deficit, the Seattle City Council is considering an ordinance to authorize the Seattle Department of Human Resources director to offer eligible city employees a “voluntary early separation program.”

The legislation would amend municipal code to give SDHR authority to design, bargain, and implement early retirements. While the city offered similar programs in 1996 and 2002 to “mitigate layoffs on the City’s workforce in anticipation of significant revenue shortfalls,” a council analysis noted that unlike those prior initiatives, the legislation being proposed this week would not require explicit council approval to enact.

The City Budget Office estimates payouts will cost around $6.5 million, in addition to $2.3 million of sick/vacation cashouts above normal. The CBO expects departments to absorb these costs using “vacancy savings” without additional appropriations.

According to council documents, officials do not anticipate savings in 2027 due to upfront incentives, but CBO “aims to save around $8 million GF per year ongoing” starting in 2028.

The plan comes under Mayor Katie Wilson’s 2027-2028 budget proposal which would wipe out a $175 million deficit without tax increases or withdrawals from city reserves. The proposal would cut roughly $50 million annually in General Fund spending by eliminating 128 positions and aligning departmental budgets with historical costs, pairing these cuts with $50 million in shuffled funding by leveraging JumpStart payroll tax revenues to cover core services and homelessness programs.

A grocery store in Seattle's Chinatown-International District says it is losing customers, seeing sales decline and fielding angry calls after a viral social media video accused the business of participating in food stamp fraud.

The operations manager of Lam's Seafood Asian Market, a fixture in the Chinatown-International District that has operated for more than three decades, said the backlash has been unlike anything the business has experienced before.

"We had people calling and cursing us over the phone, saying we're cheating customers," said Teizi Mersai, the market's operations manager.

Mersai said the fallout quickly extended beyond social media.

"The worst thing that really hurt is when an actual customer calls and says, 'I've shopped with you guys for years. I'm never coming back,'" Mersai said. "Those are the ones that really sting."

Mersai said revenue declined roughly 8% to 10% in the days following the video's release and that the store saw a noticeable drop in customer traffic.

The controversy stems from a viral video created by conservative social media personality and self-described independent journalist Nick Shirley. In the video, Shirley purchases food stamps, also known as an EBT card, from a woman on the street before accompanying her to Lam's Seafood Asian Market, where he alleges the store participated in a food stamp trafficking scheme.

At the center of the dispute is a transaction Shirley portrayed as a customer paying roughly $120 for a single can of luncheon meat and another food item.

But a closer look at the video tells a different story, according to Mersai.

The register screen visible in Shirley's own footage shows the customer was being charged for an entire case containing 24 cans of luncheon meat, not a single can. The woman can also be heard speaking Vietnamese with the cashier and requesting a full case before the purchase is completed.

Mersai says those details were left out of the video's portrayal of the transaction and helped fuel public outrage against the store.

Following the video's release, Shirley tagged the FBI, Department of Justice and White House on social media, calling for Lam's Seafood to be investigated and shut down.

The store later posted its own social media response disputing the allegations.

Though compact, Styled by the Streets covers over 40 years of fashion history. Walking into the exhibition, a showroom encased in a shell of pink enamel, the visitor is greeted with the gold motorcycle jacket and matching bodysuit Mary J. Blige wore in a 2016 Hard Rock Cafe appearance. While this particular outfit might not be immediately recognizable, it consumed the room with its iridescent twinkle. Flanking it are two other ensembles: a spiky pleather top worn by Doja Cat for her 2019 PAPER Magazine photoshoot and a purple fringe bodysuit worn by Cardi B on her Femme It Forward tour.