Also available for printing or downloading, this city-issued ICE unallowed on private property sign.

Mayor Katie Wilson once again failed to commit to blocking a major expansion to the Seattle Police Department’s (SPD) surveillance capabilities that the City approved last fall, but has yet to implement. Wilson sided with advocates for immigrants rights, reproductive justice, and civil liberties, opposing the expansion the former Mayor championed and the City Council passed during her campaign. But now, while she still holds concerns about privacy for vulnerable populations, Wilson said she’s “moved” by arguments that surveillance will help solve crime, echoing the position long held by her cop-tech-loving predecessor and the council’s moderate bloc. At minimum, this blurs the distinction between Wilson and the administration voters thought they were replacing.

Wilson has punted the decision to block the surveillance expansion in the past, but on Tuesday afternoon, at her first state of the City address, the Mayor moderated on her largest stage yet.

She maintained that she still holds the concerns she expressed during the campaign about how the federal government may abuse surveillance technology to target vulnerable communities — think immigrants, out-of-state abortion seekers, trans refugees, protesters, and anyone else who may find themselves in the cross-hairs of this fascist administration. But Wilson said she has been “moved” by what she’s heard from communities impacted by gun violence. She argued surveillance cameras have been a “useful tool” in solving crimes, reducing profiling, and protecting witnesses.

“These are both valid points of view that come from wanting the same thing, to be able to enjoy our neighborhoods and live our lives knowing that we will come home safe,” Wilson said.

This marks a clear shift. Wilson gave no credence to these common, pro-surveillance arguments when she publicly opposed the City Council’s approval of $1 million worth of new cameras in Capitol Hill, the Central District, and near the stadium last September. At the time, Wilson wrote, “Turning on more cameras won’t magically make our neighborhoods safer. But it will certainly make our neighbors more vulnerable.”

On top of that apparent moderation, Wilson did not commit to giving the public an answer any time soon.

“I know this is a contentious issue, and I want to get it right and not rush to a particular deadline, so my team and I will continue to dig in, meet with people who have different opinions, and try to find the best way forward,” Wilson said. “My overriding goal is that whoever you are and wherever you come from, if Seattle is your home, then this is your city, and there is a place for you here.”

While this will disappoint the hours worth of public commenters who opposed the surveillance expansion, Wilson’s comments likely won’t surprise anyone who has been following closely.

Soon after Wilson’s victory last November, The Burner caught her seemingly weasling out of a once strong anti-surveillance position.

“I'm aware of the decisions by Olympia, Redmond, and other cities to turn off their surveillance cameras, and I'm going to work with immigrant rights groups and civil rights advocates to evaluate whether Seattle should also scale back or disable the surveillance expansion that was authorized by the outgoing mayor and council,” Wilson said in a statement to The Burner in December “I'm certainly not going to allow any further expansion of surveillance without an actual independent review of their effectiveness and their impact.”

Advocates also got antsy when Wilson failed to include their demand to turn surveillance cameras off in her list of actions to combat ICE, which she rolled out late last month. At the time, her office told The Burner the public could “expect to hear more from her next week” on the topic of surveillance. That update never came.

Anti-surveillance advocates already anticipated Wilson’s shift on the issue, particularly after two teenagers were shot and killed in Rainier Beach last month. In a recent Instagram post, activists from Stop Surveillance City argued that “cameras do not stop bullets.” Instead, they encouraged the Mayor and the City Council to invest in gun violence prevention programing rather than tech that may help track down shooters retroactively. They even suggested the City defund surveillance technology to pay for it.

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BECU sent an email to members today saying that the $3 monthly reimbursements for using out-of-network ATMs was being eliminated on March 31, 2026.

This was buried in an email reminding customers of the (already existing) alignment with the Allpoint Network of ATMs which members can use for free.

What's Changing

With a large number of ATMs available, most members won’t need to use out-of-network ATMs anymore. For that reason, Member Advantage account holders will no longer receive up to $3 per month in out-of-network ATM surcharge reimbursements beginning March 31, 2026. Instead, members gain thousands more opportunities to avoid ATM fees altogether.

This is several months after the merger with / acqusition of California's SAFE Credit Union.

The Seattle Seahawks return to the Super Bowl Sunday, 12 years after their last and only Super Bowl win. The team’s fan base, nicknamed “The 12s” have a long, loud tradition that dates back to the 80s. The No. 12 jersey has been retired since 1984 to honor the crowd’s spirit and volume.

The number 12, and the Seahawks’ Super Bowl win in 2014 was an important day for Mayan Bomsztyk. She was about to have her first baby that day at Swedish Hospital in Seattle.

“My labor was taking forever,” Bomsztyk said. The nurses at the hospital made a special onesie that would be awarded to the 12th baby born on that Super Bowl Sunday.

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Gates comes up in the Epstein files hundreds of times. In a 2021 interview, he said his relationship with Epstein was a “huge mistake.”

How many "huge mistakes" has Bill Gates made?

"At one point during the trial, jurors were shown video of passengers in the vehicle carrying Mays trying to flag down a city ambulance that drove away from them. "

Whatever their intent, the images and words had the effect of re-brutalizing the women on the screen, who did not consent to be used as examples by prosecutors pushing further criminalization of sex work. Although the prosecutor’s office denied any political agenda, they noted during the presentation that they’re hoping to drum up support for state legislation that would elevate paying for sex, currently a misdemeanor, to a felony, punishable by a prison sentence of up to five years and a fine of up to $10,000.

Original article: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/bruce-harrell-says-his-loss-didnt-cause-reflection-or-at-least-wont-show-it/

Text:

Bruce Harrell says his loss didn’t cause reflection, or at least won’t show it 

Jan. 28, 2026 at 6:00 am | Updated Jan. 28, 2026 at 6:00 am

By 

David Kroman

Seattle Times staff reporter

In the weeks since he left office, former Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell hasn’t done a lot of retrospection. Reflection was woven into his single term as mayor, he says, leaving no need to worry on his time in office now that he’s left.

“Many people can look back retrospectively and think about, ‘I really, really did this well, I did this ineffectively, I could have taken a right turn instead of a left turn,’ ” he said, sitting in slippers and an untucked shirt in the living room of his South Seattle home. “I suppose that’s one method by which a leader can look back at an organization. That is not my style.”

To the extent Seattle has institutional political figures, Harrell is one. His 16 years in City Hall is more than the experience of the current mayor, city attorney and Seattle City Council combined — minus interim Councilmember Debora Juarez’s years.

His tenure as a council member began the year before Barack Obama was elected president, when Amazon’s workforce still fit inside the Pacific Tower on Beacon Hill and the median rent for a studio was $600. By the time he lost reelection as mayor, his time spanned the housing collapse, killing of Osama bin Laden, legalization of marijuana and same-sex marriage and the election, defeat and reelection of Donald Trump.

And now it’s over.

Harrell sought to use his years as a strength during his campaign for a second term as mayor. With so much uncertainty about the direction of Seattle postpandemic against a hostile federal government, the city should want someone who knows his way around the halls of power, he argued.

In fact, for just enough voters, his experience turned out to be a liability and he lost the closest race in a hundred years. Why homelessness has not improved faster, why rent is more than $2,000 for a one-bedroom apartment or why the waitlist for day care extends to before some parents have even conceived were all questions that ultimately fell to him, fair or not, as a person who oversaw the rise of Seattle’s frustrating realities from a position of power.

But Harrell is comfortable in his administration’s response and his legacy, while also glib about the broader state of politics and their ability to deliver solutions.

On one hand, he is bluntly confident about his mayoralty. Resistant to grappling with possible shortcomings, Harrell said his office pulled every lever it could on homelessness, public safety and affordability.

“The fact is, I was an effective leader and was an effective mayor,” he said.

Where there are failures, particularly on issues of affordability, Harrell argued they are broad, the result of a political environment either unwilling or unable to move together. On homelessness, in particular, which was declared an emergency while he was on the council and continued to rise through his time as mayor, “those problems cannot be solved by a mayor or a City Council or city attorney.”

“No one’s delivering,” he said. “Whether it’s centrist, conservatives or progressive, the system is not delivering.”

Asked if that was an indictment of all politics, he answered, “I suppose.”

Simultaneously, Harrell is frustrated he was not given more credit for dropping crime rates.

“When all of those numbers go in the wrong direction, all of the politicians are blamed, particularly the mayor, but when they trend in the right direction, it just happened organically,” he said. “And that’s not true.”

When Harrell first left office at the end of 2019, he saw it as his retirement from public office. But with former Mayor Jenny Durkan opting against a reelection campaign and the city still reeling from the pandemic and protests of 2020, he felt his style would be “conducive to right the ship, so to speak.”

“It’s obvious I don’t need a job,” he said, motioning to his more than 6,000-square-foot South Seattle, water-view home. “I’ve worked very hard and I’ve been a successful attorney. I had effectively retired from the city in 2019 so it was truly a calling to serve more than anything else.”

In Harrell’s eyes, the power of being mayor came from what tone and image he set for the city. How he presented himself to both his staff and the public was central to his style of management, a view of the position of mayor rooted in formal leadership training and study, akin to a CEO or head coach. For Harrell, it was important that the public and the people around him never see him sweat.

“I’ve always been the kind of leader that will walk in the office and I try to make things look easy,” he said. “I don’t want people to get stressed out.”

Harrell’s backslapping personality sometimes led to questions about whether he had the policy chops to back up his public face. Harrell said he heard those criticisms, but rejected them.

“Often critics can advance a theory that someone is all show and no substance,” he said, “and make no mistake about that, there are even racial overtones associated with that.”

“You become the face of the city,” he said, “and then based on that vision and that image of the city, then you develop policies and commence actions to drive that imagery to make it a reality.”

As for why he lost, Harrell answers: “I didn’t get enough votes.”

He insists he’s not bitter about its result, calling his strength his positive attitude. But if he felt otherwise, he’d likely not want anyone to see him sweat.

And best of all, it's one quick bus ride from my place!

Snip this clip at 33:38 for future amusement:

Reporter: You said you envision the WA National Guard would be deployed, if necessary, to protect public spaces - sort of a buffer between the federal agents and maybe public protests?

Gov Ferguson: That's a fair way to put it, yeah.

Reporter: And then secondly, on the accountability question, can, in your opinion, local law enforcement and state patrol detain a federal law enforcement officer they see doing something that violates state law? In the moment?

AG Brown: It's obviously incredibly complicated when you're talking about the division of authority between state law enforcement, local and the federal government. What I would say is, as a general matter, state and local law enforcement do not have to simply watch or look away if the law is being violated. If they see somebody being assaulted unlawfully or attacked unlawfully or otherwise having their legal rights violated, we do not expect state and local law enforcement officers to simply watch or do nothing.

It is important that each of those jurisdictions talk to their lawyers and legal teams to understand where those lines are drawn, and after an incident, the lines of investigative authority or prosecutorial authority can be very challenging to navigate.

But I think the WA public expects their local sheriff or local police chief or officers that work for either to not simply watch if somebody in their community is having their rights violated. We hope we're not ever in that circumstance in WA state, but I think as a general matter that is the expectation, if not the duty, that we would anticipate our local forces having.

So the WA National Guard can be deployed to protect "public spaces" while ICE terrorizes and murders WA residents. And we can totally rely on local cops to make sure the feds aren't breaking the law.

Have these two obtuse clowns ever met a cop before?

Let me introduce y'all to Pierce County Sheriff Keith Swank. Here he is, commenting before the state Law & Justice committee on the upcoming law prohibiting cops from wearing face coverings, threatening to command a mob to surround the state building in Tacoma if they ever try to remove him from office (Jan 15 2026, 12:08 PM, at 1:16:58 in the video):

https://tvw.org/video/senate-law-justice-2026011149/?eventID=2026011149

This video was from 10 days ago.

Get past the paywall: archive.ph

... House Bill 2641 specifically applies to ICE agents who were hired after President Donald Trump began his second term on Jan. 20, 2025. Simmons told The Seattle Times that the reasoning for applying the law to only agents hired after that date is because of the way those agents have been trained and is not based on political affiliation.

“I think the people who are signing up to be part of this administration’s immigration enforcement and the tactics they’re using across Washington is really concerning, and I don’t want people that are trained in that culture to come and infiltrate our culture,” Simmons said. ...