The Stranger's morning news round-up. by Vivian McCall That was a big storm: The winds from the bomb cyclone eased around 4 am, but last night the National Weather Service in Seattle clocked winds of 77 mph winds on Mount Rainier, 74 mph in Enumclaw, 57 mph in Federal Way, and 55 mph at Sea-Tac Airport, a speed that diverted flights. A buoy in Canadian waters recorded the highest windspeed of 101 mph at around 6 pm last night. At least two people are dead. One woman died when a tree fell on her while she took a shower, another woman died after a tree crushed her at a homeless encampment in Lynnwood, and hundreds of thousands are still without power. As of 2:45 am, Seattle City Light was down to 92,000 customers without power, after getting the lights back on for 29,000 people overnight. At least 641,000 people lost power overnight across Western Washington. This probably goes without saying, but if you see a downed power line, don’t touch it. Excess electricity is bad for you health. A quick sample of highest gusts recorded across the area: Sunrise - Mt. Rainier 77 MPHEnumclaw 74 MPHCrystal Mountain 74 MPHSeaTac Airport 59 MPHSedro-Wooley 56 MPHArlington 49 MPHMore complete list: https://t.co/h50bbv35T3 pic.twitter.com/zu8pZmb3cf — NWS Seattle (@NWSSeattle) November 20, 2024 We’re due for another bomb cyclone: A second system may develop Thursday or Friday, coming further north and possibly much closer to the shore. Seattle City Council approves budget: After a hard-to-follow process packed with last minute amendments, the Council approved its budget in a committee hearing yesterday, and will take a final vote on Thursday. Hannah will have more later, but the Council is planning to divert money from  JumpStart, a tax on big Seattle businesses to fund affordable housing, to plug the $250 million deficit. Your vote does matter: In a bit of a squeaker, Tacoma trial attorney Sal Mungia came out on top in the statewide race for the seat, beating Federal Way Municipal Court Judge Dave Larson by a mere 21,000 votes out of the more than 3.2 million votes counted. Mungia will replace Justice Susan Owens who is stepping down after reaching the mandatory retirement age of 75. On the 2,199th day of Christmas, Boeing said to me: 2,199 layoffs in Washington state…. and a partridge in a pear tree. Last week, the company told KUOW that it would notify workers in mid-November that they’d be out of a job come January 17, but it looks like they’ll find out a few days before the holiday instead. A Christmas miracle. The machinists, who recently ended an eight-week strike, won’t lose their jobs, and the company’s CEO said the layoffs were a separate issue anyway. Boeing is a mire of corrupt executives, shitty working conditions, and catastrophic failure that sent profits in a tailspin. Boeing reported a third-quarter loss of $6 billion in October, and has a backlog of 5,400 airplane orders. Will they/won’t they: Seattle Public Schools Superintendent Brent Jones said at last night’s board meeting that he’s considering withdrawing his latest proposal to close Seattle schools. After hearing emotional testimony from parents, School Board President Liza Rankin said she couldn’t imagine hearing anything between now and December that would allow her to vote for Jones’s plan. Jones said it was clear the direction is shifting, and he needs to consider “when it comes back, if it does.” It’s unclear what happens next, but, if the public hearings are postponed, it would be the second time the district has backed off from closure plans this year, according to The Seattle Times. Dave Reichert conceded to Bob Ferguson—yesterday: Reichert is always late to the party. Catching serial killers. Acknowledging election losses. You just wish he knew earlier, you know? But after two weeks of ballot counting he finally conceded the race the Associated Press called on election night for Ferguson, who earned 56% of the vote. Whooping cough’s banner year in the PNW: Pertussis, or the p in the Tdap vaccine, is a highly contagious bacterial illness that’s particularly threatening to infants. Washington state saw cases soar from 51 last year to more than 1,193. Idaho reported 700 cases this year, over just 34 in 2023. Oregon is expecting to break its record of 910 cases in 2012. This is what it sounds like. Do you want a baby to make this horrible sound? Make sure your shots are up to date. Go see that Keith Haring exhibit at MoPop: Charles did, and he wrote about it here. (I also went a few weeks ago and really recommend it). More cabinet picks: Trump tapped heart surgeon and snake oil-selling former talk show host Dr. Mehmet Oz to run the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the insurer to over 140 million poor, elderly and disabled Americans, and the World Wrestling Entertainment mogul Linda McMahon to run the Department of Education.  There’s more to hate than I have space for: During his unsuccessful Senate campaign, Oz supported funding privatized Medicare Advantage plans with a 20 percent payroll tax, basically subsidizing the private sector with public dollars, a move he would benefit from financially because he and his wife own stock in private insurance. McMahon, board chair of the America First Policy Institute, a think tank to advance Trump’s policies, ran the Small Business Administration during his first term. McMahon has barely any education experience, which might not matter if Trump lets her dismantle the department and send “Education BACK TO THE STATES.” Linda and her husband Vince McMahon, who she’s separated from, are also facing a lawsuit by five former WWE “ring boys,” who claim the couple knew that high-ranking WWE employees were sexually abusing them and did not stop it. They deny the allegations. Trump won’t ever play by the rules: Donald Trump is an authoritarian, so what is supposed to be a peaceful transfer of power looks like a “hostile takeover” of the federal government, as one close ally of the President-elect told The Washington Post. So far, Trump has almost fully cut out the federal agencies his predecessors have relied on to take charge of the government. He has yet to collaborate with the General Services Administration, which handles the handoff between administrations, because he hasn’t signed requisite pledges to follow ethics rules. He’s cut out the State Department—with its secure lines and official interpreters—of calls with foreign leaders. He’s not supposed to negotiate foreign policy before he’s sworn in, but that statute is rarely enforced. As Nathalie wrote Monday, he’s not letting the Federal Bureau of Investigation background check those insane cabinet picks. The plans to decentralize federal agencies and replace civil servants with political loyalists seem very plausible at this moment. It’s worth saying that so far, all of this is legal, and that should scare us, because many of our institutional norms are norms, not laws. Trump has repeatedly shown that he is an amoral bad actor willing to cross any line he can legally cross, and then some. https://t.co/nMfshamMzi pic.twitter.com/9I4FcxudVv — Amanda Yee 余美娜 (@radiofreeamanda) November 12, 2024 Republican bigots target first trans congresswoman: Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina has introduced a bigoted resolution intended to keep newly-elected Delaware congresswoman Sarah McBride and transgender staffers and visitors to the Hill from using women’s bathrooms and locker rooms at the Capitol, a policy that will be well-insulated if anti-LGBTQ House Speaker Mike Johnson folds it into the House rules package. Republicans want to manipulate Americans into believing Mace’s resolution is about protecting women’s rights and spaces, when it is a policy designed to embarrass and denigrate a single person because her aggressively-normal vibe threatens to undermine propaganda that suggests trans people are dangerous to cis women and a sign of moral decay, rather than a minority seeking basic freedoms and equal treatment under the law.  Rep. Mace took it farther: As of Wednesday morning, she’s introduced a bill to ban trans people from bathrooms, locker rooms and changing rooms on all federal property. As trans people have said for years, the fanatical Republican crusade against trans people was never about sports or kids. Oh you thought threatening me would silence me? No. I just doubled down and filed a new bill to protect women and girls across the entire country on all federal property everywhere. pic.twitter.com/TmRgtSQqFx— Rep. Nancy Mace (@RepNancyMace) November 20, 2024 Spain to legalize 300,000 undocumented migrants by 2027: In contrast to the US and most of Europe, Spain is embracing immigrants. The country’s leaders see the migration crisis, propelled by young men from countries like Mali, Senegal and Mauritania making dangerous voyages over the ocean, as means to support an aging workforce, maintain the welfare state, and compensate for the low birthrate, in what is one of the fastest growing economies in the European Union. Added legal protections will also curb the rampant exploitation of people seeking a better life and feeling political instability and violence. Jesus in schools: Officials from the Texas Board of Education voted Tuesday for an optional curriculum that includes lessons with biblical teachings, so students can “better understand the connection of history, art, literature, and religion on pivotal events like the signing of the US Constitution, the Civil Rights Movement, and the American Revolution.” The Texas Federation of Teachers condemned the state board’s decision which they said violated the “separation of church and state.”