The Stranger's morning news roundup. by Vivian McCall I miss the sun: Expect a cloudy day with a high near 50 degrees. There’s a 40 percent chance of rain near midnight, which will likely carry into tomorrow morning until around 10 am. Take that midday walk if you can. The sun sets around 4:18 pm tonight. Watch out for your immigrant neighbors: The Edmonds School District cancelled an immigrant know-your-rights event with the Mexican Consulate of Washington after receiving a flood of threats and hostility inspired by a post from the far-right account Libs of TikTok. The school wanted to help prepare immigrant families with children for Donald Trump’s mass deportation plan, but cancelled for safety reasons. Libs of TikTok has been linked to threats of violence before, including bomb threats against gyms, children’s hospitals, doctors, drag shows and more. The district says it remained committed to helping families prepare for enforcement. It didn't say how, but the district encourages undocumented parents to submit up-to-date emergency contacts to care for their children if Immigrations and Customs Enforcement detains them.  Bye, bye Spotts: Seattle’s head of transportation, Greg Spotts, resigned yesterday, announcing his last day will be February 12. Spotts took the job a little over two years ago, promising to review the City’s safety policies, passing a new property tax, and speeding along department projects. He got a $1.55 billion levy, streamlined some projects, banned right on red at many intersections, but couldn’t revive a now dead dream: the First Avenue Streetcar. He loves buses, too. Seattle is Beautiful pic.twitter.com/4c1qBBlmn2 — Greg Spotts (@Spottnik) September 14, 2024 Alaska Airlines to add direct flights from Seattle to Tokyo and Seoul: This rocks if you’re planning a trip to Tokyo or Seoul, and maybe sucks if you’ve already booked your connecting Alaska flights. (Alas, poor moneyrichbags. A fellow of infinite flights, of most inconvenienced vacations). Flights will run daily starting May 12. Strange car: A “suspicious” vehicle parked at the Crossroads Mall in Bellevue prompted a bomb squad investigation that closed a few stores yesterday. Police say mall security called them around 8 am Tuesday to report an odd abandoned car with notes on the dashboard and cameras mounted inside and out. The investigation found no threat, but Bellevue police say they’re looking for the Colorado man who owns the car. $$$: Sonic Guild dropped ten $10,000 no-strings-attached grants on ten lucky Seattle-area musical artists as part of its Tour Support grant program I wrote about in September. Sonic Guild will celebrate this year’s recipients at an award ceremony at The Triple Door on Saturday, February 22nd.  Israeli strikes on Syria: Israel has struck Syria more than 350 times since Bashar Al-Assad fled the country Sunday, and encroached on the demilitarized zone along the Golan Heights that’s separated the countries since 1974. Israel claims it is destroying military infrastructure to keep it from “falling into the hands of extremists.” In a video message, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the main rebel group that ousted Assad, it would “respond forcefully” if they allowed Iran to “re-establish itself in Syria.” The man on everyone’s mind: Police dragged Luigi Mangione into a courthouse in Altoona, Pennsylvania yesterday, where the folk hero/heartthrob/back pain sufferer/Goodreads user suspected of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson is fighting extradition to New York. According to the Associated Press, Mangione was carrying a short handwritten note expressing his anger toward “parasitic” insurance companies and corporate greed. “Delay, Deny, Defend,” the name of a 2010 book which inspired the inscription on three of Mangione’s bullets ("deny," "defend," "depose"), soared to number two on Amazon’s nonfiction bestsellers list so fast it ran out of copies. officer frye patrolling the mcdonalds. was deputy mcnugget there https://t.co/KQiWAM7umO — adam’s ribs (@dirkdelacroix) December 10, 2024 Eye roll: A few of Mangione’s friends told NBC that it was ironic that the guy they played the video game “Among Us,” with during the pandemic turned out to be a killer among them. The reporter described Mangione as belonging to a group of “Ivy League gamers who played assassins.” Other outlets copied this framing, as if a popular, cartoon-y spin on the Thing many guys his age played during lockdown means anything when it’s barely a coincidence and certainly not ironic. Ironic would be Mangione and his friends being super into “Assassin’s Creed” or “Hitman.” um — Among Us 🚀 (@AmongUsGame) December 10, 2024 Monarch butterflies may be listed as threatened species: US Fish and Wildlife says it plans to put this gorgeous bug on the threatened list after a lengthy public comment period next year. The proposed listing would ban purposely killing a monarch and designate more than 4,000 acres across seven coastal California counties as critical habitat. Pete Hegseth’s chances looking better: Trump’s pick for Defense Secretary, a former Fox News host and current liar accused of sexual assault who promises to stop drinking if the Senate just lets him control the world’s most powerful military, seemed a long shot nominee a week ago but now appears to be back in the game after key Republican senators have indicated they will endorse him. Past his fetish for the crusades, it’s hard to emphasize how unqualified and dangerous Hegseth is. “How do you like that, business dorks?” is what I would say if I were the Oregon federal judge who blocked the $25 billion merger between Kroger and Albertsons, the fifth and tenth largest retailers in the country. It’s not a great comeback, but is a victory for people who don’t want a hypothetical “Krogersons” jacking up prices and lowering wages. The companies claimed the deal was an attempt to merge their mostly-unionized workforces to beat back non-union companies like Walmart, Amazon, and Costco. Nice try, suits, but unions didn’t want this, and neither did Lina Khan’s merge-blocking, big tech-suing Federal Trade Commission (FTC). In a twist ending, Albertsons pulled out of the deal and sued Kroger. Speaking of Khan: President-elect Donald Trump wants to replace her with FTC member Andrew Ferguson. Former solicitor general of Virginia, and chief counsel for long-running worst guy in America contenders Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Sen. Lindsey Graham, Ferguson is popular with Republicans. Unlike Hegseth or RFK Jr., Trump can appoint him without a Senate confirmation because he’s already part of the FTC. Speaking of McConnell, too: He tripped and fell during a Senate Republican lunch yesterday, cutting his face and spraining his wrist when he hit the ground. He’s “fine,” but he doesn’t seem fine, generally speaking. Last year, McConnell was out for six weeks after a fall at a Washington DC hotel. A couples months later, he twice froze in front of television cameras. As a reminder, McConnell is 82 years old.  Leader McConnell’s injuries after his fall earlier today. (AP Photo/ J. Scott Applewhite) https://t.co/G0VMkVMP2y pic.twitter.com/1K0SyrVF9X — Farnoush Amiri (@FarnoushAmiri) December 10, 2024 2+2=chicken: The Ohio Supreme Court denied a request to reconsider its bold ruling that "boneless" chicken wings can have bones. In so many words, the court told a man who could have died after the long thin bone in his boneless wings tore his esophagus that his dumb ass should have known chicken has bones in it "just as a person eating 'chicken fingers' would know that he had not been served fingers."  Get ready to rock, folks: For $1 billion, Trump says you can avoid environmental regulations pic.twitter.com/1fo795a0I5 — Sam Stein (@samstein) December 10, 2024