The Stranger's morning news roundup. by Nathalie Graham Two students dead in 24 hours at Western: Two Western Washington University students died last week in unconnected incidents. On Wednesday, an 18-year-old student died from a fall off a residence hall. The medical examiner ruled it a death by suicide. The second student, also 18, was found unresponsive in their residence hall Thursday morning from a suspected drug overdose.  Did you drop your improvised explosive device? Maybe you last saw it in Burien? On Friday evening, a boom and blast rattled drivers at the intersection of South 116th Street and 1st Avenue South. Officers found what was left of an improvised explosive device they say was tossed onto the road. No one was injured, but authorities wonder whether the explosion is related to Saturday's I-90 bomb scare.  That I-90 bomb threat: If you sat in snared I-90 traffic on Saturday it's because two idiots fled a police traffic stop and threw what police suspected were explosive devices out their window as they zoomed away. Authorities shut down traffic in both directions on I-90 in Mercer Island for over two hours so they could locate and detonate the explosives.  EXPLOSIVE DEVICES SAFELY DETONATEDBellevue PD saying the bomb squad safely disarmed 2 of the 3 devices found. The 3rd was described as an elongated firework. Below is a picture of the explosive device. Police telling @fox13seattle the suspect attempted to light and throw it… pic.twitter.com/XWfJC9kzuO — Dave Detling (@DetlingFOX13) October 13, 2024 Just take the bus: Parking fees are going up across the city. In central Ballard and Columbia City, expect to pay $6 per hour. It'll cost $6.50 per hour to park in Fremont or the Pike-Pine area of Capitol Hill. I can already feel the gripes from the car-clingers among you. You can find cheaper rates in places where not a lot of people are driving and parking. Or, you could pay $2.75 for a bus ride. The weather: I hoped you spoiled brats enjoyed your balmy weekend. It'll be chilly, cloudy, and drizzly today. Let the real fall weather reign.  Charity for homeless youth shuts down: The privately funded charity A Way Home Washington, which focuses on reducing youth homelessness, announced it will be closing its doors since philanthropic donations have run dry. In concert with similar government programs, A Way Home Washington contributed to a 40 percent reduction in youth and adult homelessness between 2016 and 2023, according to the Seattle Times. Despite success, the money has stopped flowing, so the charity must die. This is why we can't look to philanthropy to replace government programs. It's nice to get private money to fill in gaps and fund services ... until those funds turn fickle. Israel keeps slaughtering Gazans: Over the weekend, Israel aimed strikes at Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, where people displaced from the war had been sheltering. The strike and the fires it lit that engulfed tents in the encampment killed four people and injured dozens more. Separate from that atrocity, Israel struck a school compound overnight where families were sheltering and where a polio vaccination site had been planned. Those attacks killed 20 people. This is genocide.  pic.twitter.com/n5KEf1qSbT— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) October 14, 2024 Starvation as a weapon: According to the World Food Programme, no food has entered Gaza since October 1. Additionally, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants to seal off all humanitarian aid into Gaza, trapping hundreds of thousands of people without food, water, or other basic necessities. And, yet the US pledged even more arms and forces to Israel. The Pentagon announced Sunday it would send "an advanced missile defense system to Israel, along with about 100 American troops to operate it." The move comes as Israel plans a retaliatory attack against Iran, which launched a volley of 200 missiles at Israel on October 1. Additionally, over the weekend, a Hezbollah drone attack at an Israeli base killed four soldiers and injured 61. Israel already responded to that strike by killing civilians in Lebanon—a strike targeting an apartment building killed 18. So, the US will become even more complicit in this killing. Protesters shut down Wall Street:  BREAKING: A group of Jewish-led protesters in Lower Manhattan just stormed the New York Stock Exchange.They’re calling for an end to Israel’s genocide in Gaza and to war profiteering by companies like Raytheon and Lockheed Martin pic.twitter.com/YcjBCJNxFX — Noah Hurowitz (@NoahHurowitz) October 14, 2024 Right to bear arms and kill cats: The new chief of the National Rife Association, Douglas Hamlin, was charged with a misdemeanor for brutally torturing and murdering the cat at his fraternity house. Hamlin, who was president of Alpha Delta Phi at the University of Michigan, was charged alongside four of his frat bros in 1980 for the abuse of their cat, BK. I really don't want to recount the abuse here since it makes my stomach churn, but this is the guy helming the NRA, and his atrocities are worth knowing. When their frat's cat, BK, didn't use its litter box, Hamlin and company cut off its paws, strung it up, and then lit it on fire. Hamlin and the rest of the accused were expelled from the school, but their charges were expunged after completing community service.  Another assassination attempt? A man with false press and VIP passes toting a loaded shotgun, handgun, and high-capacity magazine was intercepted at a checkpoint a half-mile from the entrance of Donald Trump's rally in Coachella Valley, California on Saturday. The local sheriff said he believed the man was gunning to gun down Trump, but that it was all speculation. The suspect claimed he was a Trump supporter and brought the guns for his own safety.  Balloon fiesta fiasco: Albuquerque's annual hot air balloon festival had a few big kinks this year. One balloon caught on fire after it flew into power lines and then landed in a construction site. A different balloon knocked over a radio tower. Still another balloon hit a tree while trying to land on a golf course. A passenger in that balloon suffered a head injury and two other passengers had to be rescued since the balloon's basket remained stuck in the tree 25 feet above ground. A song for your Monday: As a rehabilitated Southern Californian, I like to listen to this song whenever the rains start again in Seattle.