The Stranger's morning news roundup. by Vivian McCall Serve, protect, mechanize: The FAA granted the Redmond Police Department a waiver that allows them to deploy drones without a second officer to watch the airspace. As long as there’s one pilot-certified officer to fly, the department can deploy drones to any call they want. Redmond is the second department on the West Coast to receive the waiver. While police say drones allow them to monitor dangerous situations without risking human life, there are immense privacy implications to expanding unchecked, warrantless aerial surveillance. Get your shots: Public health experts say COVID, flu, and RSV vaccination rates are low ahead of the holidays and all the travel that comes with it. Vaccination is safe, and protects you and everyone around you. ICYMI: I wrote you a permission slip to spend the holidays how you want. It doesn’t expire, and is for anyone who could use it. Fix it, Joe! Steve Marose, a former Air Force Lieutenant from Renton, was court-martialed in 1990 for having gay sex. He spent 18 months in prison for this “crime.” Since then, the "crimes" have lived on his permanent record. While Joe Biden announced a pardon for similarly court-martialed queer veterans this June, only eight including Marose, have applied because of the narrow limitations and a cumbersome application. The pardon could change lives, restore access to Veterans Affairs benefits, travel to some countries, and the right to vote in many states. We have no clue if Trump will end or sideline the process, so the government should hurry up. Heard about the “People’s Budget” in Seattle, but the process seemed confusing? Oh, it was, but Hannah has you covered on how the Council fumbled your housing and infrastructure needs in service of the police and the rich.   Council Member Maritza Rivera called the recently passed 2025-2026 budget "The People's Budget." I totally agree —- if she's going for a Citzens United, Corporations Are People thing.https://t.co/FZiEVwcgfV — Hannah Krieg (@hannahkrieg) November 26, 2024   Mystery solved? In 1971, D.B. Cooper boarded a Boeing plane in Portland, hijacked it with the threat of a bomb, demanded $200,000 in cash and four parachutes upon landing in Seattle, directed the pilots to take off for Mexico City, and leapt into the air above Ariel, Washington, never to be seen, or heard from, again. Or, was he killed in a police shootout following a similar heist over Utah? According to Cowboy State Daily, Richard McCoy II may be D.B. Cooper. The FBI had suspected McCoy, but closed the case in 2016, unless someone found the parachutes or money. McCoy’s kids and Dan Gryder, a skydiving YouTuber, provided just that: a modified military surplus parachute McCoy had carefully stashed in a storage unit. Last year, the FBI took the chute into evidence, along with McCoy’s skydiving logbook, which aligned with both crimes. Hezbollah strikes a ceasefire deal with Israel: Thousands in packed cars are returning home to Southern Lebanon. International aid groups worry about the aftershocks of the war in Lebanon, which displaced 1.2 million and destroyed 100,000 homes. Half of the population now lives below the poverty line.   The ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militants starts after nearly 14 months of fighting. Follow AP's live updates. https://t.co/sKcwtTtl4j — The Associated Press (@AP) November 27, 2024 No ceasefire for Gaza: An Israeli strike on a school in Gaza City this morning killed at least 12 people. Palestinians who spoke to Al Jazeera hope the ceasefire in Lebanon could lead to one in Gaza. Hamas says it wants an agreement to stop the war, free Israeli hostages in Gaza, and free Palestinians from Israeli jails. More than 44,000 Palestinians have died in Gaza. Now that he’s picked his team, Donald Trump signs a transition deal: They now can meet with outgoing staff and federal agencies, but won’t get any classified information because they’re not allowing the FBI to run security clearances. A smooth, peaceful transition of power ensures stability, but don’t worry, Trump’s Chief of Staff, Susan Wiles, says the transition team didn’t sign the agreement at first because it already had security and information protections built in, meaning they didn’t “require additional government and bureaucratic oversight.” We’re so glad you think so! Make it stop: Trump named gay billionaire Scott Bessent as his pick for Secretary of the Treasury, proving once and for all that democratic governments rapidly deteriorating into kleptocratic autocracies can slay, queen. Speaking of the economy: Can Trump actually impose 60 percent tariffs on China and 25 percent tariffs on Canada and Mexico by executive order, which is sort of like pressing a giant red button marked “inflation” over and over and over and over and over until avocado toast does make the difference between buying a house or not? Yes, probably. Trump’s tariffs would violate existing trade agreements, but presidents have plenty of authority on tariffs. Whether that’d be overreach without congressional approval is an open question. Shh! He speaks for Jesus: Speaker of the House and noted anti-gay bigot Mike Johnson told Family Research Council President Tony Perkins on “This Week on the Hill” that when Delaware elected Sarah McBride to congress, Republicans had to speak with moral clarity and compression on the issue, so he firmly supports banning trans people like her from using the bathrooms and other single-sex spaces at the Capitol. “I ask myself every day, ‘What would Jesus do? I think he would hold, obviously, to the principles we believe in,”’ Johnson said. Buddy, nail down your tables. Jesus is gonna flip ’em if he’s coming back any time soon.