In Seattle, people can currently park their RVs overnight in industrial areas or, according to posted signage, up to 72 hours in one place, like other vehicles. However, the new legislation would change the law so that RVs could only park for two hours in one place, and would be forbidden from parking anywhere overnight (from midnight to 6am). Failure to follow these laws could result in towing without notice.

The only exception to this new rule would be for people living in RVs and “fifth wheel” trailers who succeeded in applying for a special permit during a one-time census. In order to receive a permit, residents would have to agree to receive services and ultimately move into other housing or shelter. There would be one permit per person who would have to prove they were the registered owner of the vehicle.

In order to retain a permit, residents would have to abide by a number of regulations, including having the vehicle display a license plate and vehicle identification number, not leaving trash around, not hosting a group of five or more people, not leaving a pet tied up unattended, etc.

Permit holders would be able to turn down up to six offers of shelter or housing, but after that, they would lose their permit.

Strauss framed his plan as a way to help people who live in their vehicles.

“Today, we have zero places for people who live in their vehicles to come inside to. We have no city systems or city teams that are designed to help people that are experiencing homelessness with vehicles,” Strauss told The Urbanist. “We need to create those systems, and from there as well, RVs are a unique type of vehicle that are not built for year-round habitation.”

Since opening in 2024, Baba Yaga has been one of the best new additions to the Seattle music scene. One of two musician-owned clubs to open that year in Pioneer Square, the day-and-night “rock ‘n’ roll clubhouse” has been a key contributor to the historic neighborhood’s music and arts renaissance — one that’s held the beat through spats of late-night violence and a hot FIFA summer.

After consistently strong bookings of both local and touring bands, the club named for a mythical witch is ready to cast its spell across the neighborhood more broadly, launching a new festival the weekend after Halloween.

Dubbed Baba Obscura, the new four-day fest (Nov. 5-8) will be a multiclub affair, filling six stages with (but not limited to) garage, psychedelic and punk rock bands like Texas psych lords The Black Angels, Bay Area post-punks Provoker, Nigerian desert blues guitarist Mdou Moctar (solo), influential garage punks The Gories, and Sub Pop punks Downtown Boys.

“Seattle should be a city where families can feel safe getting where they need to go — whether they’re walking their kids to school, biking to the park, or taking transit,” Wilson said in an announcement of the order. “We’ve made important progress, but every serious injury or death on our streets is one too many. We know what makes our streets safer. This Executive Order is about turning our commitment into action — getting proven safety improvements on the ground and bringing the full City together to prevent serious injuries and deaths.”

The executive order directs the Seattle Department of Transportation to fast-track high-priority safety improvements across high-crash corridors. Key measures include completing the SW Wildwood Place protected bike lane by late 2026, advancing Phase 2 of the 12th Ave S Safety Project, increasing intersection visibility through daylighting, and upgrading 19 high-collision locations along major routes like Aurora Ave N and Rainier Ave S.

Starting Sunday, workers involved in labor disputes must comply with the state’s rigorous job search requirements to receive benefits. This means actively seeking work and recording efforts to find another job.

Since Jan. 1, when the law took effect, Washington’s Employment Security Department waived that requirement because it deemed those involved in labor disputes to be “attached to an employer.”

But this week the U.S Department of Labor told the state agency that this approach does not conform with federal law.

Federal officials said the state’s employer-attached waiver “does not apply in the case of a strike because the employer did not initiate the separation,” Chris Barron, communications director for the Employment Security Department, said Friday.

“While we cannot provide specifics about the number of current claimants, this only impacts a handful,” he added. Barron said the agency is reaching out to those individuals to inform them about the job search requirements.

This requirement will apply to all new claims during a strike. It will not impact previous claims.

The agency filed an emergency rule Friday and will conduct a formal process to adopt a permanent rule change.

Calkins spent 11 years covering sports for the Seattle Times, and announced his resignation from the paper yesterday on Substack. His stated reason for resigning is that his editors refused to publish a column he wrote about anti-trans protestors who gathered outside the arena before a recent Seattle Storm game. After interviewing one of the protestors, he was inspired to write:

One of them was 16-year-old Ahnaleigh Wilson, who’d lost to a biological male in a track and field race in eighth grade and was holding a sign reading “Thank You Sophie for Speaking up for Girls!”

I didn’t know if I was going to write something at that point, but after she allegedly got cussed out by a Storm co-owner during the game, I felt like I had to weigh in.

One thing Wilson emphasized to me at the rally was that she wasn’t anti-trans. Another student-athlete named Frances Staudt — who said she’s endured daily verbal abuse after refusing to play against a biological boy in a basketball game — echoed Wilson’s sentiment.

So that was the thesis of my column (which you can read here) — that supporting the separation of biological females and males doesn’t automatically make you transphobic, so let’s stop throwing those labels around.

Calkins claims that his editors held onto the column for almost a week before informing him that the paper wouldn't be running it, at which point he resigned.

If Calkins's editors deserve any criticism, it is only for how long it took them to communicate their decision. A column with a thesis as obviously wrong as the one Calkins produced should be spiked without too much consideration. If a writer brings an editor a poorly written or poorly argued column that the editor never asked for, it is the editor's duty to put it into the trash can as quickly as possible, so that the writer can find a better idea on which to spend their time.

“The current executive leadership is saying and doing the right things, and the management team that met with us appeared sincere, solution-focused and genuine in their efforts to right the past errors of their predecessors,” a statement from SPEEA reads. “Still, the membership has made clear that the current offer falls short, and without significant improvements to the last offer, they are prepared to strike.”

Boeing vice president and functional chief engineer of production engineering Ben Nimmergut said in a statement that the company gave a "strong contract offer to position our employees among the market leaders in pay and benefits in the Pacific Northwest."

"We’re disappointed our engineers and technical workforce voted no on our offer," the statement continues. "As a result, we are now implementing our strike contingency plan and diverting the dollars we had wanted to invest in our SPEEA-represented team to prepare for a potential strike.

"We have no choice but to implement our contingency plan. We have a responsibility to the rest of our workforce and our customers to build on our progress over the last two years and maintain our momentum."

According to Nimmergut, no further talks with SPEEA are scheduled.

SPEEA represents about 13,000 engineers and scientists in its professional unit and more than 4,000 analysts, designers and technicians in its technical unit.

About 64.3% of the professional unit and 71.9% of the technical unit rejected the contract.

The vote came after SPEEA negotiators endorsed Boeing’s proposed contracts, saying the pay increase would be the largest wage pool increase for its members since 1983.

However, the union negotiation team acknowledged its members “deeply mistrust” Boeing management, and the technical unit’s bargaining council recommended member reject the deal. The professional unit’s bargaining council didn’t reach a recommendation.

That mistrust stems from the loss of SPEEA jobs and concerns about deteriorating quality and safety, according to the union.

SPEEA said it planned to survey members about what changes they would like to see in the contract in order to approve it and continue negotiating with Boeing.

This is the union’s first full contract negotiation with Boeing in 14 years. SPEEA members last approved a contract extension in 2020.

When negotiations began in July, SPEEA laid out its contract priorities, which include higher pay, better benefits, more flexible work and accountability measures.

Remember all of a few weeks ago when the council threw a big old pissy fit because they weren't consulted about the mayor firing the police chief? How the mayor needs to be collaborative? Rob Saka just came out of nowhere with a council bill that reproduces most of what Mayor Wilson's Executive Order does. Wilson's EO bill has been bouncing around council and the city depts for months as they refine it and get input and THE DAY BEFORE the Mayor is scheduled to announce it, Saka tries to frontrun Wilson and steal her victory.

https://council.seattle.gov/2026/08/19/chair-saka-proposes-safer-streets-act-to-turn-seattles-vision-zero-commitments-into-durable-law-and-accelerate-traffic-safety-improvements/

I'm very excited to hear Strauss, Rivera, and Hollingworth shit all over Saka for this obviously nasty political play. Any minute now. I'll just wait. They'll do it any minute.

C-sections for gorillas are quite rare, largely because birth complications are uncommon and risks of surgery can be high, said Dr. Tim Storms, Woodland Park’s director of animal health. Fewer than a dozen have been recorded globally to date, according to the zoo, which attributed the anecdotal estimate to gorilla experts around the world, like the Gorilla Species Survival Plan.

In the case of Olympia, a 30-year-old western lowland gorilla who’s lived in Seattle since 2022, the emergency surgery brought together a team of animal and human medical providers to serve a critically endangered species and accomplish a feat they’d never practiced.

“We were all just in awe,” said Dr. Suzanne Peterson, a maternal and fetal medicine specialist at Swedish First Hill. “This was a moment that we will have with us forever.”

Woodland Park Zoo, more than 120 years old, has worked with “human-based” medical experts for decades, said zoo spokesperson Gigi Allianic. Specialists in care ranging from cardiac to orthopedic to ophthalmology have consulted on Woodland Park’s animals in the past, including in 2017 when a gorilla received a leg exam from the head physician of the University of Washington’s football team.

The organizational changes affect the company's coffeehouse and design teams, as well as employees who were offered positions in Nashville but chose not to relocate. The affected roles are in Seattle and other markets.

Starbucks announced in May that it was eliminating about 300 U.S. support roles as part of its Back to Starbucks strategy.

“We are taking further action under the Back to Starbucks strategy, building on our strong business momentum and working to return the company to durable, profitable growth,” a Starbucks spokesperson said at the time.

The company said leaders had reviewed their functions to sharpen their focus, prioritize work, reduce complexity and lower costs.

Starbucks also said it was reviewing its international support organization and expected additional impacts outside the U.S.

“We are streamlining our real estate footprint, including consolidating U.S. regional support office space and taking several other steps with leases and lease commitments,” the spokesperson said.

"We're taking two immediate actions," Wilson said. "One of those is the interdepartmental team on permitting, which is going to better coordinate our City departments to shorten permit timelines, and then proposing funding in the budget for next year for the affordable housing ombuds that can help our developers navigate those processes."

The mayor's housing task force "will bring together communities most impacted by City policy to craft recommendations to build needed housing, support affordable and community‑based developers, prevent displacement, and attract development to Seattle," according to a press release timed with the roll out.

Housing starts have been in a nosedive in Seattle after a boom period that lasted more than a decade, allowing Seattle's population to grow beyond 820,000 residents. The Emerald City's housing starts collapsed to a decade-long low of fewer than 2,000 units permitted in 2025 – down 88% from the 2020 peak of 17,400 units permitted.

Builders have pointed to a number of factors that create a drag on homebuilding, including high interest rates, high construction costs, and waning interest from financers – some of which are beyond the City's control. Permitting delays and fees are something the City does control, however, leading to calls for streamlining.

“Housing that people can afford is critical to a city that works for everyone," Wilson said. "We can't control every force that drives up the cost of building homes, but we can act where it counts. This Executive Order is about clearing the path, cutting the delays, and building the housing Seattle needs — now.”

....

"I just want to emphasize that we have not waited until this point to take action on housing affordability," Wilson said. "The city council just unanimously passed our ordinance banning rental junk fees, which will improve stability and affordability for renters, and we're also working on a larger scoping for the next phase of the Comprehensive Plan, so that we have more options for increasing housing production across the city. So this is additive, and we are not waiting for September 2027 to take action."

Earlier this month the University of Washington disinvited the popular streamer after questions arose about the school’s internal process for choosing speakers.

A university spokesperson has said the Office of Public Lectures had an informal agreement for Piker to speak. But the office never sent a speaking contract, and ultimately pulled back its invitation. Piker, in a statement on X, suggested his strong criticism of Israel played a role in the cancellation.

Over the years, Piker has made controversial statements like, “America deserved 9/11.” He later called that sentiment a “dumb” oversimplification of his views.

Rep. Chris Corry, R-Yakima, referenced that statement when saying why he reached out to the university.

“I’m very wide on the Overton window when it comes to political discourse,” Corry said, referencing a concept of what the general public considers to be acceptable at a given moment in history. “And I argue on the side of free speech.”

....

Corry and Rep. Mari Leavitt, D-University Place, said they each reached out to UW’s governmental affairs representatives to relay their concerns.

In an email, UW spokesperson David Rey wrote: “No such concerns from lawmakers regarding this event were relayed to the Office of Public Lectures, which made the decision not to proceed with the event on its own.”

Leavitt echoed Corry’s sentiments about the distinction between a student-run speaking engagement and the university’s lecture series, saying it would be fine for a student group to bring Piker.

“Bringing him as part of the lecture series would create a firestorm for UW, I think,” said Leavitt, who relayed that concern to a university representative. “I didn’t say, ‘Don’t do it.’ I can’t direct the university what to do, in that regard, but I certainly expressed my strong concerns.”

Job titles listed in the notice are almost entirely TikTok Shop and Global E-Commerce roles in Bellevue, Wash., including anti-fraud and governance program managers, seller and creator operations staff, campaign managers, data scientists, and backend and frontend engineers.

It’s part of a steady stream of tech layoffs this year. Zillow cut more than 500 jobs this month, including 91 in Washington state. Microsoft eliminated 605 positions in the state in July as part of a broader reduction of 4,800. Google cut 52 jobs and Salesforce cut 59 locally this month.

The notice Tuesday was filed by TT Commerce & Global Services LLC on TikTok letterhead, and lists two ByteDance employees as contacts. It gives the affected facility as Lincoln Square North at 700 Bellevue Way NE, with a separation date of Oct. 19.

Seattle’s Hey Bagel was selected to compete at New York BagelFest, joining more than 25 acclaimed bagel makers from 10 states and five countries, according to BagelFest. The shop earned its invitation after sweeping Best Bagel and Best Bagel Sourdough at BagelFest West.

Hey Bagel, located in University Village, makes all of its bagels from 100% organic flour, 50% of which is sourced from Washington, according to the business’s website. Every bagel is vegan and sourdough-based. The shop also offers a lineup of house-made schmears, including a coconut-based vegan cream cheese, spicy scallion, chili crisp, strawberry graham cracker, vegan scallion, raspberry curry, and hot honey.

Hey Bagel owner Andrew Rubinstein, who also founded Rubinstein Bagels, told The Seattle Times he was nervous weeks before BagelFest West.

“I was worried I would be embarrassed,” Rubinstein said.

Now, with a regional win under his belt, Rubinstein is heading to New York to compete for the national title.

On Tuesday night, the Milwaukee Brewers did all those things and more and, in the process, handed the Mariners their worst loss in franchise history with a humbling 22-0 embarrassment before 36,870 at American Family Field.

The situation got so bad that Leo Rivas pitched the eighth inning and allowed nine runs, one of which scored because Julio Rodríguez forgot how many outs there were and threw the ball into the outfield stands.

It was that kind of night when the best team in baseball improved to 30 games over .500 while leaving the M’s shamed by their performance.

In celebration of their 50th season, the M’s added a record, topping the 21-1 loss to Houston in 2019. The 22 runs tied the most allowed in franchise history with a 2015 loss in Boston.

The closures will run from Friday, Aug. 21, through Monday, Aug. 24.

WSDOT says travelers should expect congestion and delays on Interstate 405, Interstate 5, State Route 520 and State Route 99, with major closures in Bellevue, Seattle and Renton.

The job cuts are part of a transition plan that will move most of the homeless service contracts KCRHA currently oversees back to the city of Seattle and King County, which managed them before KCRHA took them over in 2021.

In April, a forensic audit found that the KCRHA lacked basic financial controls and used casual accounting practices to keep track of and balance its budget, lost track of at least $8 million in spending, and had an ongoing, steadily growing negative cash balance that required it to take out ever-larger loans from the county, resulting in interest payments that the agency couldn’t afford.

Since then, agency leaders have downplayed the problems and blamed them on early mistakes by previous KCRHA management, including founding CEO Mark Dones. As Kinnison and her recently hired deputy, William Towey, insisted the problems identified in the audit were fixable, the city and county worked out a plan to largely dismantle the agency. King County and Seattle are now in the process of taking back control of homeless contracts the two governments previously controlled and staffing up with the expectation that KCRHA will dramatically reduce its workforce.

....

Last week, staff represented by the PROTEC17 union sent a letter to the agency’s governing board urging the board to lay off Kinnison and Towey, whose combined compensation tops $600,000—”the direct financial cost of five to six full-time operational staff,” the letter says. “In a crisis, preserving positions that directly manage vendor contracts, coordinate shelter logistics, and administer Coordinated Entry produces a far higher operational yield than maintaining executive overhead.”

The union members also cited controversies that, they argued, could put the KCRHA’s reputation at continued risk, including bias complaints and allegations of retaliation as well as evidence that Kinnison sought to withhold records from public disclosure, in potential violation of the state Public Records Act.

I-001 would restore Let’s Go Washington’s so-called Parents’ Bill of Rights—a deeply flawed piece of legislation the Legislature had to fix in order to align with existing state law—and discourage students facing domestic violence, sexual abuse, or bullying at home from seeking help from trusted teachers and school counselors, who would be required to release students’ confidential records to their parental or guardian abusers. It would also force schools to knowingly put LGBTQ+ kids in increased danger of violence and homelessness by outing them to abusive families.

That’s why the Washington State Nurses Association, WA Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault, law enforcement, doctors, teachers, dozens of parents’ organizations, and school counselors oppose this measure. I-001 further endangers already vulnerable child abuse victims by forcing schools to hand over sensitive information to parents under criminal investigation for raping, abusing, or otherwise harming their own child, according to a legal analysis from Pacifica Law.

But let me tell you why I’m going to vote No on I-001. I spent my high school years in Washington’s foster care system. Prior to that, I relied on school nurses and counselors to support me through the trauma I experienced at home.

My mom was physically and emotionally abusive, thanks in part to alcoholism. It was just the two of us; I didn’t have another adult I could talk to about what was happening. When I was in middle school, my teachers noticed something was wrong and that I needed help. They connected me with a school counselor named Mr. Parrot. (Yes, I still remember his name, but with a name like that, who could forget?) He was the first person I could talk to about my situation without fear it would get back to my mom. The counselor gave me information about Al-Anon, an organization that operates peer support groups for people who are impacted by another person’s alcoholism, and sources for confidential therapy.

This was a pivotal moment in my life. Accessing a safe space with school counselors gave me confidence that I could talk to people and take steps to get out of a bad situation. Without having an adult on my side, I would have probably stayed in an abusive household, and who knows how I would have ended up.