Director’s farewell

Jobs, Journalism, Justice

Seattle

State budget cuts loom, starting with dental benefits

by Ashley Archibald | November 18th, 2020

Dr. Wade Kendall remembers the last time Washington state had to dig deep to balance its budget.

It was 2011 and the state was still in the throes of the Great Recession. Revenue projections for the biennial budgets from 2007-2009 to 2011-2013 fell in 16 out of 17 quarters, according to a postmortem authored by the Office of Fiscal Management. In total, the revenue decline hit $12.6 billion.

Read more in the Nov. 18-24, 2020 issue.

Holidays, canceled

by Ashley Archibald | November 18th, 2020

After a week of increasingly dire warnings from public health officials about a surge of coronavirus cases, Gov. Jay Inslee announced the most sweeping restrictions on daily life in Washington since the original stay-at-home order in March.

Read more in the Nov. 18-24, 2020 issue.

Court win with uncertain outcome for state farm workers

by Ashley Archibald | November 18th, 2020

The Washington Supreme Court ruled that dairy farmworkers are entitled to overtime pay — a decision that collapses a loophole in labor law that excluded farmworkers.

The 5-4 decision found that dairy workers had extremely dangerous jobs — work made even more dangerous by long hours — and were therefore covered under the existing Minimum Wage Act, which “is to protect the health and safety of Washington workers,” the justices wrote.

Read more in the Nov. 18-24, 2020 issue.

Culture

Taking up space, even on the Eastside, even during COVID

by Kamna Shastri | November 18th, 2020

Angie Hinojos Yusuf encourages curiosity with public art

When Angie Hinojos Yusuf exhibited her lit sculpture work “Adelita,” depicting one of the women soldaderas of the Mexican Revolution, a mother and daughter approached. The daughter was around five years old, Yusuf remembers, and from afar the air carried their voices as they sang “La Adelita,” the Mexican corrido that told the story of a woman who followed Madero, madly in love with him while also fighting in the revolution.

Read more in the Nov. 18-24, 2020 issue.

Book review

Social media is anti everything

by Joe Martin | November 18th, 2020

‘Antisocial: Online Extremists, Techno-Utopians, and the Hijacking of the American Conversation’ By Andrew Marantz

“Since World War II, the lunatic fringe in the United States had always included a few hundred freaks with swastika tattoos; now there was an increasingly organized white-supremacist movement in America, one that had several points of contiguity with both Congress and the White House. This was novel, and terrifying; yet it was often referred to in the mainstream press as merely ‘edgy’ or ‘controversial.’”

Read more in the Nov. 18-24, 2020 issue.

Opinion

It’s not a moment; it’s a movement

by Jill Mullins | November 18th, 2020

As I write this, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are the president- and vice president-elect. She is the first woman, second person of color, first Black person and first Indian person elected to the vice presidency.

We saw record-breaking turnout as a nation and a state. Washington likely had at least one million more people vote than ever before.

I think we are witnessing a major shift in our voting patterns as a result of incredible grassroots organizing.

Read more in the Nov. 18-24, 2020 issue.

Tough guys never give up. That’s what makes them cute

by Dr. Wes Browning | November 18th, 2020

I’m writing this from last Friday the Thirteenth. Unlike most people, I like Friday 13thses because I’ve always had good times during them. Ever since I flew a red-eye flight across the country on a Friday 13th and asked specifically for a 13th-row seat and had the whole row to myself, I have known that other people’s superstitions can work in my favor.

Read more in the Nov. 18-24, 2020 issue.