Seattle's Only News Roundup. by Hannah Krieg Good morning: Welcome to another gloomy day in Seattle. This morning, you can expect cloudy skies and temperatures in the high 40s. Things should warm up slightly in the afternoon, peaking at 52 degrees at 4pm before the showers roll in for the evening. As many of you may know, I’m extremely dedicated to walking 10,000 steps a day (don’t tell me it's an arbitrary number. I listen to Maintenance Phase, I know), but I’m really struggling to reach 70,000 by Saturday in this rainy weather. Time to fire up the walking pad!   The revenge of Adrian Diaz: Former Seattle Police Chief Adrian Diaz filed a $10 million tort claim against the City, Mayor Bruce Harrell, and Deputy Mayor Tim Burgess, according to the Seattle Times. Diaz claims that they “wrongfully discharged and discriminated, harassed and retaliated against" him after he came out as gay to Harrell and Burgess in February. Months later, in May, Harrell removed Diaz from his position amid several harassment allegations from women within the department. Diaz seemed to brush the women's allegations aside in an interview with conservative commentator Jason Rantz in June where he publicly came out. But remember: You can be gay and harass women! Happens all the time actually.  Budget: Yesterday Budget Chair Dan Strauss unveiled his balancing package, which represents the City Council’s first edit to the Mayor’s budget 2025-2026 proposal. If you’ve been following along, you’ll know that the Mayor’s budget sucks really bad. He sacrificed $200 million in JumpStart revenue legally obligated for affordable housing to fill the huge budget deficit—all to avoid sticking his wealthy donors with more taxes. I kinda thought Strauss might reverse that action since he advocated for more progressive revenue when he ran for office in 2023, but his package continues to steal from the City’s most vulnerable to save the rich some money. Reverse Robinhood type shit.  Get your bag, I guess: The package does include amendments to reverse some of the Mayor’s most outrageous cuts. If passed, it would save the Seattle Channel, restore funding to the Office of Labor Standards, and partially restore funding for tenant services. It also includes the line item below, which made me laugh only because it's so shameless, regardless of Council Member Tanya Woo’s intention.  CM Tanya Woo proposes funding to add what could be a good job for her after she loses the election next week. She must really see the writing on the wall! pic.twitter.com/dGrC9Jbi9t — Hannah Krieg (@hannahkrieg) October 30, 2024 Ballot box: Cops revealed more information about the suspect in the recent attacks on the ballot boxes in Portland, Oregon and Vancouver, Washington. Apparently they believe he’s a thin, balding white guy in his 30 to 40s with a background in welding. Watch out because the cops think he's likely to strike again.  Now Ashley has something to say... Blame it on Antifa: Right-wing journalist Andy Ngo reported that the incendiary devices used to explode the ballot boxes in Clark County earlier this week included a note with the phrase "Free Gaza." The Stranger has not independently verified this. But keep in mind, according to documents obtained by Property of the People, on September 10, the Department of Homeland Security warned that some of the people plotting to blow up ballot boxes said they'd attempt to avoid detection by pinning the attacks on leftist actors. So let's wait to put weight on this until they catch the guy who did it.   Neck-and-neck: New polling from USA TODAY/Suffolk University shows Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are deadlocked in Michigan, a crucial battleground state. Can't fucking wait for this election to be over! Speaking of: If you have not voted yet, there's still time! Your ballot should be in your mailbox or on whatever surface you let your mail pile up on in your apartment. Rip that thing open, fill it out the way we tell you, and then put it in a ballot box by 8pm, November 5. You can take a bike! You can get a free shared e-bike or scooter ride to drop off your ballot.Lime (@limebike) offers two free 30-minute rides: use the code VOTE2024 in their app.Bird (@BirdRide) offers two free rides: use the code RockTheVote2024 in their app. pic.twitter.com/2Z0Za1W3xA — Seattle Department of Transportation (@seattledot) October 30, 2024 Happy Halloween: Here's some of the celebrity Halloween highlights as told by some guy on my FYP this morning.  @louislevanti im OBSESSED with these costumes #halloweencostume #celebritynews ♬ Cooking, bossa nova, adults, light(950693) - Kids Sound North Korea + Russia = BFFs: The Associated Press reports that  as many as 12,000 North Korean troops wearing Russian uniforms and carrying Russian weapons are en route for Ukraine. Bringing in North Korea could further destabilize the region and lead to broader war, according to U.S. and South Korean officials.  Garbage truck Trump: Presidential candidate Donald Trump’s latest campaign stunt involved driving a Trump-branded garbage truck, possibly in effort to appeal to the working class he barely pretends to care about. Or perhaps to push down search results for the racist comments that comedian made about Puerto Rico being an pile of garbage at his recent rally. Trump bashed President Joe Biden to reporters for his controversial remarks calling Trump supporters garbage (to be fair, I think he meant to call their racism garbage, but reading is hard). Trump said, “I can tell you who the real garbage is but I will not say that.” Hm, interesting choice to place the garbage in the front of the truck.pic.twitter.com/CdQzp4fycZ — Mary L Trump (@MaryLTrump) October 30, 2024 SCOTUS? More like suck ass: See what I did there? Very funny for 6am! Anyway, the United States Supreme Court ruled yesterday that Virginia does not have to restore voter registration for 1,600 voters removed from their rolls. The decision responds to a lawsuit from the Department of Justice and civil rights groups against the Republican governor’s recent executive, which directed the state to run daily checks for non-citizens on its voter registration rolls. The groups say the order violates a federal law prohibiting systematic removals of voters within 90 days of election. Seems pretty cut and dry, but leave it to SCOTUS to greenlight voter suppression! I would tell you why, but the justices didn’t explain, as is customary with expedited decisions like these.   ICYMI: Didn’t make it to the Climate Pledge Arena for Maggie Rogers earlier this week? No sweat. Join The Stranger’s own Audrey Vann for a spiked Shirley Temple at the indie pop girly’s first arena tour. Basically like being there!  From Maggie: I’m not so familiar with Maggie Rogers — like, I don’t have a favorite song — so, here’s her latest, I guess.