The Stranger's morning news round-up. by Ashley Nerbovig I'm cold: Usually my radiator has kicked on at this point in the morning, but I'm relying on a little space heater instead today and I'm shivering. Had to write Slog from bed. High of 47 degrees today with a slight chance of sprinkles. Should drop to 41 degrees tonight.  Ding-dong, the plan to close schools is gone: Seattle Public Schools Superintendent Brent Jones withdrew his plan to close four schools, according to the Seattle Times. This came after Jones already backed off a plan to shutter 21 schools. Now, Jones says he plans to fill the district's $94 million budget deficit through legislative advocacy. Time for the state to do a JumpStart tax, aka a payroll tax. We need some progressive revenue  ASAP.  Monorail makeover: The City plans to renovate the monorail to create more access on the north side entrance at the train's Seattle Center main campus and hopefully reduce lines, according to KOMO. As sporting events and concerts at nearby Climate Pledge Arena have increased, so has monorail usage. The piece included a little hint at the possibility for the Sonics to return in 2027. Honestly, if I were Mayor Bruce Harrell I'd be scared to bring the Sonics back to Seattle. In the same way Democrats will never give us a national abortion law, Harrell really needs to maintain the Sonics return as an important wedge issue for this city.  Return-to-work strains budgets: The Seattle Times took a deep dive into how return-to-office policies have reduced people's take-home pay, in part due to their need to battle the morning commute. Just as a reminder, if people in the professional classes organized their offices and unionized their fellow workers, they could actually have a say in whether they returned to in-office work. We're looking at you, Amazon workers. New youth prison proposal just dropped: Governor Jay Inslee proposed opening a new youth prison in an unused housing unit at the state prison in Aberdeen, according to KING 5. The new unit would house 48 people who committed their crimes as children and will be part of the Stafford Creek Corrections Center. The transfer would require legislative approval. Meanwhile, even as Inslee mentioned the increase in youth offenders—something that you would think would result in a call for increased funding statewide for school programs or even universal free school lunch—the state simply plans to expand places to lock up people who committed crimes while their frontal lobes were still in development. Flying robots with pepper spray: State lawmakers in Texas filed a bill proposing that drones equipped with pepper spray could guard schools that cannot afford armed security, according to KRLD News Radio. No timeline yet for when legislators may vote on that proposal. It's real galaxy-brain thinking to leap frog over "gun control" and land on "arming drones" as a solution for increasing school safety.  Well then pic.twitter.com/jvOdnaBIx3 — Keri Blakinger (@keribla) November 26, 2024 Trump's trials and tribulations: On Monday, Special Counsel Jack Smith requested all charges be dropped against President-Elect Donald Trump in his election interference case, which stemmed from Trump's actions on January 6, according to Axios. Prosecutors and the courts continue to wind down the court cases against Trump as his ascendency to the highest power in all the land draws closer. Speaking of Trump: His proposal for a 25% tariff on products coming from Canada and Mexico drew sharp criticism from our country's northern and southern neighbors. China's also upset about Trump's proposal for a 10% tariff on all imports from them. The tariffs are likely to endanger free trade agreements between Mexico, Canada, and the US, will cover 40% of US trade, and, if the market doesn't immediately freak out about this, they will probably be implemented, according to Deutsche Bank. A long read for your holiday commute: An IVF clinic mixed up the embryos for two couples. They didn't realize the mistake until the babies were three months old.  The ultimate way to lose a rap battle: Remember how Kendrick Lamar absolutely eviscerated Drake in his chart-topping song "Not Like Us"? Well, that wasn't the end of Drake's humiliation. In a massive self-own, Drake filed a pre-action lawsuit against the record label Universal Music Group (UMG) and Spotify for allegedly conspiring to artificially inflate the popularity of "Not Like Us." To make things wilder, Drake has spent his entire career working with UMG. In a statement, UMG said, "No amount of contrived and absurd legal arguments in this pre-action submission can mask the fact that fans choose the music they want to hear.” Happy Turkey week everyone: Here's what you should play as you walk into your childhood home for a family meal.