Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day to the country that never deserved him.
Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day to the country that never deserved him. Library of Congress

Car-tab tax cut could really “bone” Sound Transit 3: After this sentence I will not be mentioning Tim Eyman’s name. Thank you. Now, we can proceed. Democrats in Olympia are trying to navigate the sticky situation of car-tab taxes. A new bill in the works would change how a car’s value is calculated for taxing purposes. The projected changes would cost ST3 a whopping $780 million over the next 11 years, The Seattle Times reports. Through 2041, with indirect financial costs weighed, it would cost a measly $2.1 billion. Commitment to a car-tabs cut would have to come with other ways to lessen ST3’s financial burden. This could include making it easier for ST3 to lease land, streamlining the legislation permitting process, and a potential $500 million education fund. Transit is expensive and there will have to be tradeoffs if any car-tab burden is recalculated. Just goes to show that you can’t have your ST3 and eat it too.

Trump clears the air before Martin Luther King Jr. Day: By declaring he’s not a racist: In fact, he’s the least racist person you've ever interviewed. Additionally, the incendiary comments he made last week — The Shithole Shitstorm (Category 4) as it might be dubbed in future history books — didn’t exist. You know, despite the people who corroborated that Trump, in fact, did say those things. I wonder if they celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day in whatever parallel universe Donald lives in.


Rand Paul unsure of what “racist” means: As he leaps to Trump’s defense by contending we shouldn’t “draw conclusions” and assume someone is “all of a sudden” a racist. Actually, according to Rand, Trump cares very deeply about Haiti. Didn’t you hear? The newest love language is saying an entire nation is riddled with AIDS. Nope, Rand purports, not a racist bone in his body.

Representative John Lewis, confident of what “racist” means and is: Thinks Trump is indeed a racist. Lewis was a huge player in the Civil Rights Movement (did you know he was one of the original 13 Freedom Riders?) and has significantly more authority to comment on racism than Rand Paul of all people. On ABC’s “This Week” he said, "I don't think there's any way that you can square what the president said with the words of Martin Luther King Jr. and what he said about Dr. King," Lewis said. "It's just impossible. There's not any way you can do that. It's unreal. It's unbelievable. It makes me sad. It [makes] me cry."

Washington Department of Licensing figures it out: And stops giving information to ICE. This development occurs after The Seattle Times broke a story last week concerning DOL giving sensitive information to ICE 20 to 30 times a month. To put this into context, I call my own mother maybe twice a month (sorry, mom). Suffice to say, DOL had some ‘splainin to do. Gov. Inslee had no idea this was happening and leapt into action. Now, DOL won’t be releasing any information without a court order (unless required by the law, of course). DOL will also be coordinating directly with the governor’s and attorney general’s office as well as hiring a liaison to the public.

On Friday, Jeff Bezos donated $33 million to a nonprofit: That funds college scholarships to DACA recipients. This is awesome, fabulous news that Jeff (all hail) is doing some charity. After cracking the record for richest person ever he can probably spare a few bucks for the less fortunate. Stings a little when you do the math like this guy did:


This could be Bezos turning over a new leaf, who knows. According to this borderline masturbatory article by the New York Times, it definitely is. Next time he gets serious about developing a philanthropy plan he might actually do something after he polls twitter for ideas.

Another ballistics missile-free weekend in the Hawaiian Islands: It was a weekend of beautiful weather in Hawaii with absolutely zero missiles in sight. Unfortunately, an accidental alert was sent out telling people that a missile was incoming, to seek shelter, and that they had minutes left to live. An employee pressed a wrong button and mass panic ensued. But, on the bright side, no missile.

Washington takes going-green to new heights: Sustainable energy and environmental consciousness are tackling the highest peak of them all: Mount Everest. As more and more people tackle the peak, more and more man-made waste accumulates. Thousands of human waste has to be hauled down from the mountain which is no easy feat. A Washington-based team is creating a biogas unit to mitigate this problem on Everest. The biogas system can be assembled on the mountain and contains a tank and bacteria to break down waste. It can also capture methane gas, one of the most potent greenhouse gases, used for cooking and heating. The system could solve the unexpected problem of outdoorsy people being assholes to nature.

Finally, a solution for the Seattle shopper: A meat vending machine was installed in the downtown Seattle Nordstrom. It’s an answer to the region’s prayers. I remember walking through Westlake Center the other day hearing people complain about how little meat was available for them instantaneously. There’s quinoa everywhere, a superfood on every block, but no decent chunk of animal protein to rip into on a shopping spree. Luckily, now they only need to go to the men’s section at Nordstrom to find the “candy store for the carnivore” as the company, Owen’s Meats, has dubbed its vending machine.

Fuck your racism, H&M: Says the band of South African protesters who stormed a local H&M store in response to a really shitty ad. They promoted a new sweatshirt that said “coolest monkey in the jungle” and used a young black model to feature it. There was a global angry response. South Africa’s Economic Freedom Fighters wanted shopping malls to evict H&M. The company has since apologized and removed the image as well as the product.

A Kent school district united two high schools in celebration of MLK Day: Kent has the 11th most diverse school district in the country and the most diverse district in the state. To say the past year was tough for Kent and its school district would be a massive understatement. A Sikh man was shot in his driveway in a hate crime, hate speech showed up on the walls of Kent-Meridian High School’s bathroom, and the district faced significant underfunding. The two high schools came together Thursday night in a multimedia gospel-type rally to honor Martin Luther King Jr. but also to allow students to unite together and discover more about themselves.

What are you doing on MLK Day?: National Parks are free today. There’s a rally and march planned in Seattle today. Maybe you’ll participate in the pause on Sound Transit or King County Metro that is occurring today at 4:04 p.m. for 50 seconds to honor the 50 years that have passed since Martin Luther King Jr’s death.