The Stranger's morning news roundup. by Vivian McCall Back to Bobness: Bob Ferguson issued three executive orders on his first day as governor. The first directed the Department of Health to gather experts, doctors, and policymakers and come up with a plan to strengthen our strong reproductive health laws. The second told state agencies to examine, streamline, defer, or eliminate various regulations on housing, permitting and new construction. The third directs the state to speed up the permitting process and will refund application fees when the state misses deadlines. The Seattle Times reports Ferguson reiterated his three top priorities during his inauguration speech, which are housing affordability, universal free lunch, and public safety. Not for you: After growing the power and size of the state attorney general’s office for 12 years, Ferguson wants to take away tens of millions of dollars from the office to cover the state’s budget gap. New Attorney General Nick Brown says that would directly impact the office’s ability to take on civil rights and antitrust cases. As AG, Ferguson aggressively fought the Trump administration. With Trump coming into office with more power, and serious threats of mass deportation, it seems counterintuitive to dull the state’s best defensive weapon. Republicans liked what they heard in Ferguson's inaugural speech. Ferguson didn’t mention climate once and said he wasn’t there to “defend government. I’m here to reform it.” Governor Ferguson’s Inaugural Ball tonight is hosted by the Chamber of Commerce; with a swearing-in speech that made no mention of taxing the rich to fund services we all use, many Washingtonians may wonder whether his economic agenda is as well. — Shaun Scott 🌹🤝 (@eyesonthestorm) January 15, 2025 Military doctor sentenced for sexually abusing patients at JBLM: Maj. Michael Stockin, an anesthesiologist and pain-management specialist at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, was sentenced to 13 and a half years in prison Wednesday. Last week, he pleaded guilty to 36 counts of abusive sexual contact and five counts of indecent viewing. Between 2019 and 2022, 41 patients accused Stockin of fondling or staring at their genitals for no medical reason. Stockin faced a 330-year sentence before taking the plea deal. Bus $$$: The federal government granted King County $79.7 million to launch the Metro RapidRide I Line to expand speedy service to Renton, Kent and Auburn. Officials say we’ll be able to hop on in 2027. Weather: Nothing exciting. Expect temperatures in the mid 30s, low 40s and showers. Ceasefire: Israel's 15-month assault on Gaza, which killed at least 46,000 Palestinians—and possibly as many as 64,000—since Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack, could stop this week. Israel and Hamas have reached a deal to stop the war and exchange hostages. It's expected to begin Sunday, although Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says a last-minute “crisis” is holding up Israel’s approval. Since the deal’s announcement, Israel has killed at least 72 people in Gaza. President-elect Donald Trump and Biden both claim credit for the deal. They shouldn’t be so proud. The United States supplied money and weapons that made Israel’s war possible and has always had outsized power and influence over the destruction and indiscriminate killing. The timing, so close to Trump’s inauguration, is interesting. Someday, we’ll know who did what and why. If the ceasefire holds, Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank will still live in a fundamentally-unequal state. LA fires update: Firefighters there still contend with “extreme hazards and the potential for fire growth,” as one Cal Fire official told CNN. Particularly dangerous conditions have waned, but forecasters said the Santa Ana winds could pick up next week. FOX11 Los Angeles reported this morning that the combined efforts of fire crews from California, the country, Canada, and Mexico have not yet contained the massive and destructive Palisades (22% contained) and Eaton (55% contained) fires that have killed 25 people and left thousands more homeless. LA landlords have done their part by jacking up the price of rent. How do the LA fires compare to the great Seattle fire? KUOW mapped it out. TL;DR: way, way bigger, and our fire destroyed much of old Seattle. Los Angeles is so sprawling that maps can distort our perception of how much has burned. Send in the clowns: Our senators are evaluating Donald Trump’s picks to lead federal agencies. On Wednesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee questioned Pam Bondi, Trump’s pick for attorney general who held the position in Florida. Bondi wouldn’t say if Biden legitimately won the 2020 election, or rule out probes of Trump’s political enemies. Trump’s CIA nominee John Ratcliffe told senators he wouldn’t fire people based on their perceived political beliefs or let politics skew the agency’s findings. (If Ratcliffe means that, he may not be around for long). Speaking of politics and intelligence: Speaker of the House Rep. Mike Johnson removed Ohio Republican Rep. Mike Turner as chair of the powerful House Intelligence Committee. Turner supported Ukraine and disagreed with Trump’s stances on foreign policy, and pissed off the right when he voted to reauthorize a surveillance bill last year (bad, to be clear). Johnson said the “intelligence community and everything related to [the committee] needs a fresh start.” The Mar-a-Lago-friendly Rep. Rick Crawford of Arkansas is expected to replace Turner, according to CNN, but it's not official. Senate confirmation hearings continue today for Scott Bessent, the billionaire who may become treasury secretary, and Lee Zeldin, Trump’s pick to dismantle lead the Environmental Protection Agency. Committees will also question former North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum for Secretary of the Interior and Scott Turner for Housing Secretary. Outside witnesses will speak on Bondi. So long, Joe: In a farewell address to the country, President Joe Biden warned the concentrated economic power of oligarchs and the emerging “tech-industrial complex” threatens democracy in America. This much is clear, but what has his administration done to curb these dangerous and powerful forces, which prolonged economic pain, class resentment, and political instability have in part enabled? Biden failed to deliver on his central promise that his presidency would return the country to normalcy and end the chaos of the first Trump administration, which quieted only for a moment. Oligarchs like Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, and Jeff Bezos will have prime seats for Trump’s inauguration. President Joe Biden used his farewell address to the nation Wednesday to warn of an “oligarchy” of the ultra-wealthy taking root in the country and of a “tech-industrial complex” that is infringing on Americans’ rights and the future of democracy. pic.twitter.com/O1UfbOKaQB — The Associated Press (@AP) January 16, 2025 The other President: Poor Steve Bannon. He won’t kick “evil” Elon Musk out of the Trump administration before Inauguration Day after all. The New York Times reports Musk, the richest man in the world who makes billions from federal contracts, is expected to have office space in the White House to run his and Vivek Ramaswamy’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). It’s unclear if Ramaswamy will have office space or the same privilege and remarkable access to the president. We should probably stop calling DOGE a department. Departments are congressionally-authorized parts of the government. DOGE is an advisory commission. We still do not know exactly how it will work, what it will do, how much it may cut, what authority it will have to make cuts, and so, so much else. As the Times noted, it’s unclear how Musk’s position will interact with our criminal conflict of interest laws and government transparency laws. But maybe we’re entering our "it-doesn’t-matter-actually" era.