Data breaches in Washington are way up: The pandemic-era push to work, go to school, play, shop, and make fun of Mark Zuckerberg online has come with a shockingly high increase in cyber crimez, according to a Seattle Times analysis of a new report from Attorney General Bob Ferguson’s office. In 2018, a record-setting 3.5 million breach notices went out to Washingtonians. This year brought 6.3 million data breach notices.

If you don’t want to get data ransomed, lock down your shit, and tell your state representatives to back policies that expand “the definition of personal information to include individual tax identification numbers as well as the last four digits of a Social Security number.” Lol why is that not already the law.

It rained on the anxivaxxer parade: The same group of brave patriots who demand the freedom to continue spreading a deadly respiratory virus rallied at the Capitol steps in Olympia again this afternoon. Looks like the rain may have soaked their swastika needle flags:

Now: Demonstrators gathered at the Capitol protesting WA’s vaccine mandates.

Gadsden flags, some Trump flags, a swastika depicted by syringes. And now a decent rainstorm has opened up. #waleg pic.twitter.com/cwExNnZ9c2
— Joseph O’Sullivan ⛰ (@OlympiaJoe) November 5, 2021

The cruelty is the point example #28,318: Washington told GEO Group — the creeps who run the private ICE jail in Tacoma — that they had to pay the state’s minimum wage to detainees participating in the jail’s Voluntary Work program rather than the $1 per day wage they were paying. In response, GEO Group shut down the program while they fight the decision in the courts. Now the jail is getting all gross, the Associated Press reports. One example: “The guards were saying it wasn’t their job to clean the toilets. … It caused a lot of animosity between the detainees and the officers because of that.”

The Seattle Times called the City Attorney race for Republican Ann Davison: Though around 17,000 Seattle ballots remain to be counted, abolitionist Nicole Thomas-Kennedy would need to win 87% of those to get ahead, according to the Times. Though she improved her score today, she didn’t improve it that much.

We turn now to NTK for comment:

Looks like Ann really needed every cent of that $365k in PAC money and all 8 of those ridiculous op-eds after all.
— Nicole Thomas-Kennedy for Sea City Attorney (@ntkallday) November 6, 2021

The mountains and passes will finally get some snow this weekend: The relatively dry Cascades will see up to a foot of snow above 5,000 feet, KING 5 reports. Snow and slush will trouble the passes, as well, so prepare accordingly.

That includes exercising your patience: Staffing shortages at WSDOT mean it will take longer to clear the newly snowy passes, according to KIRO 7.

H-Mart coming soon to a Capitol Hill near you: Born ready, raised ready, continued my training in readiness well into college and grad school, and am now prepared to stay ready until those sliding glass doors open.

Getting closer! https://t.co/8LXaLbrFVB pic.twitter.com/SHvjGvATfP
— jseattle (@jseattle) November 5, 2021

Progressive majority on the City Council strikes again: They destroyed this city so thoroughly that you could now sell a house you bought in 2010 for 73% more than you paid for it. Anyway, home prices were flat last month, but supply is lower, so it’s still hard out there for buyers.

https://t.co/Yd2IYm5SzG pic.twitter.com/dgStibB3jC
— Heidi Groover (@heidigroover) November 5, 2021

Ray broke a string last night at Benaroya Hall: Taiwanese-Australian violin genius Ray Chen busted a string while he was shredding up Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto — one of the showy warhorses of the violin repertoire — along with the Seattle Symphony orchestra. Symphony spokesperson Dinah Lu said, “The orchestra kept the music going, with Maestro Ludovic Morlot holding everything steady. Concertmaster Noah Geller offered up his violin, Ray swapped it for his and caught right up to the orchestra, then handed over a new string from his pocket during a brief pause. The first violins then executed a string replacement onstage.” Absolutely love when shit like that happens. Reminds you that the orchestra is nothing if not a solidarity machine.

Some new contemporary dance films are headed our way: Next week Seattle Dance Collective will release HERE & NOW, three new films choreographed by Robyn Mineko Williams, FLOCK (Alice Klock and Florian Lochner), and Juliano Nunes. I’ve loved most everything SDC produces, but that’s mostly because its founders, Pacific Northwest Ballet Principal Dancers Noelani Pantastico and James Yoichi Moore, have such good taste. The vids will stream from November 11-21. Tickets start at $20. Find more info here.

To complete my highbrow arts trifecta: WE MUST SAVE OPEN BOOKS AT ALL COSTS. In an Instagram post, Open Books owner Billie Swift said the shop’s lease expires next March, and the whole building will go on the market shortly thereafter, so they’re looking for a new spot. They’ll continue slinging the best and most beautiful books of poetry you’ll find anywhere in town in person and online, but they’re nixing events for now. Open Books is a holy poetry shoebox, and it is one of the few poetry-only bookstores in the country. If you’ve got some space, let Billie know.

COVID cases on the rise in Europe, again: Europeans tried to take a vacation from COVID this summer and lifted restrictions, traveled for holidays, and ran around without wearing masks. Now the World Health Organization “warns of 500,000 more deaths by February” in the region, Al Jazeera reports.

Tell ’em, Greta: The Swedish climate activist told a packed Glasgow crowd that COP26 was “no longer a climate conference” but rather “a global north greenwash festival,” the BBC reports. She went on to call the summit a “two-week long celebration of business as usual and blah, blah, blah,” noting that there have already been 25 such summits that have led nowhere.

Negotiations on the infrastructure and social spending bills fall apart again: Because Republicans are lockstep lemmings, Democrats are still fighting amongst themselves on passing Biden’s infrastructure and social spending packages, according to this summary from the New York Times. Conservative Dems want to wait for an essentially meaningless CBO score on the social bill. Seattle Rep. Pramila Jayapal said she and the progressives were willing to wait for that, but that wouldn’t mean movement on the infrastructure bill. Pelosi tried to move forward with a procedural vote on the infrastructure package anyway and met resistance from upwards of 20 progressives, and now the vote is stalled on the House floor. Love to see that spine.

Americans gave up on exercise bikes: Peloton stock dropped 35% after revenue projections dropped by a billion, the Washington Post reports. The news comes as “hordes of isolation-weary Americans set aside their home-based workout routines and head back to the gym.” None for me, thanks!

Article Source: https://www.thestranger.com/slog/2021/11/05/62597923/slog-pm-seattle-elects-a-republican-city-attorney-greta-calls-cop26-a-global-north-greenwash-festival-save-open-books