Good Morning and Happy Groundhog Day! Phil saw his shadow this morning, so the fates have promised us another six weeks of winter. Which makes sense. It’s February.
ICE Out: From New York to Kansas City to Portland to Seattle, everyone hit the streets this weekend. The marches came out of an amorphous social media call for a “general strike” on Friday, but after spending the entirety of January watching ICE brutalize Minnesota on the screens in our pockets, people needed to shout about it. In Seattle, we had a critical mass bike ride, and three separate rallies held by tech workers, healthcare workers, and educators. It all came together to mean thousands of people were in the streets telling ICE to fuck off.
Best News All Week: Five-year-old Liam Ramos is home. After immigration agents took the Ecuadorian preschooler and his dad from Minneapolis more than a week ago and shipped them 1,300 miles to an ICE detention center in Texas, a judge ordered their release this weekend. His written decision is brief, scathing, and sassy. “The case has its genesis in the ill-conceived and incompetently-implemented government pursuit of daily deportation quotas, apparently even if it requires traumatizing children,” US District Judge Fred Biery wrote. “Apparent also is the government’s ignorance of an American historical document called the Declaration of Independence. Thirty-three-year-old Thomas Jefferson enumerated grievances against a would-be authoritarian king over our nascent nation…We the People are hearing echos of that history.” He then goes on to cite “that pesky inconvenience called the Fourth Amendment.” Read the full text below.
ProPublica Does the Government’s Job: For the last week, the government has protected the identities of the two agents who shot Alex Pretti 10 times while he was pinned on the ground. ProPublica’s editors said, in their much more diplomatic way, that that’s bullshit. According to the investigative outlet, which identified them based on government documents, the two men are Border Patrol agent Jesus Ochoa and Customs and Border Protection officer Raymundo Gutierrez. They are both from South Texas, and neither are new recruits—Ochoa joined in 2018 and Gutierrez in 2014.
A note from our editors:
— ProPublica (@propublica.org) February 1, 2026 at 1:10 PM
Speaking of the Government’s Job: We’re back in a partial government shutdown. Dems finally refused to fund ICE, which means, as of this weekend, we’re working with the backup generators. On Friday, the Senate did pass a two-week patch to fund DHS and give Republicans time to offer an alternative that doesn’t fund Trump’s personal secret police, but its future in the House is uncertain. Fortunately, this shutdown won’t impact essential services like SNAP benefits, but this spending bill does include FEMA and TSA.
Trump Doesn’t Want You at His Arts Center Anyway: Nobody wants to perform at the Kennedy Center after Trump gutted its board and scribbled his name on the side of it, so he’s closing it down for two years for “renovations.” He’s closing it on July 4, the country’s 250th birthday, presumably so he doesn’t have to remember another date. And he says he’ll make it “new and spectacular.” Tell that to the East Wing.
He Did Not Have Sexual Relations With That Plane Broker: Like every other filthy rich person you’ve ever heard of, the former Seahawks quarterback’s name cropped up in the Epstein files, apparently trying to buy one of his planes. Wilson hopped on the porn generator formerly known as Twitter to set the record straight: “NOPE!!! ABSOLUTELY NOT! Not TODAY satan!,” he wrote. “Some Random plane broker tried to sell me a plane. I had no idea whose plane and never bought the plane. Never talked nor Never met the man. Thank God!!!”
Beware the Memes! There’s a massive winter storm getting ready to wallop most of the US, which means most of our roadways are going to be covered in warning signs. But the DHS has asked FEMA to pretty please avoid the word “ice” in their warning, because they just can’t handle the memes. They’ve asked FEMA to use “freezing rain” instead. Snowflakes.
Would Ya Lookit That: The Grammys still happen in an autocracy. A lot happened at the award show last night, I think, but I really only want to talk about Chappell Roan’s nipples.
In Non-Nipple Related News: Bad Bunny won Album of the Year last night for Debí Tirar Más Fotos, the first all-Spanish album to win the award. In front of a crowd full of musicians wearing “ICE OUT” pins, he was the first to actually say the thing out loud. “Before I say thanks to God, I’m going to say ICE out,” he said. “We’re not savage, we’re not animals, we’re not aliens. We are humans, and we are Americans.”
What’s it like outside? We’ve got soft weather today. Standard drizzle. Highs in the 50s. Lows in the mid 40s. Like Punxatawney Phil said, it’s still winter.
Bus Stop Shooting: Four Seattle schools are starting late this morning after two teenagers were killed at a Rainier Valley bus stop on Friday, right after school let out. The kids haven’t been identified by the coroner’s office yet, but about 100 friends and loved ones gathered at a vigil at the bus stop on Saturday. “He didn’t deserve this,” said one of the victims’s moms. “He was a great kid. He’s my only child, and he’s gone.” SPD thinks the shooting was targeted, and doesn’t believe that the community at large is in danger, but they have increased patrols in the area.
Evictions Are Up, Again: They’ve been climbing up consistently since the pandemic, and 2025 was no different. Both Washington State and King County recorded more evictions last year than they ever have before. Almost half of renters in Washington pay more than 30 percent of their income on rent, which means they’re often just one setback away from an eviction notice. And with the rise in corporate landlords, they’re less likely to negotiate with tenants who are behind on rent.
A Few Suggestions to Take That Edge Off: In San Francisco, if you make $230,000 or less, childcare is now free. And if you make up to $310,000, you still have access to a 50 percent subsidy. And in Massachusetts, Governor Maura Healy announced her plan to ban medical debt from being reported to credit agencies. Alright, Mayor Wilson, you’re up!
I’m not saying we made this happen, but…: In December’s complaints issue, The Stranger’s Nathalie Graham put her foot down. “Around the world, transit riders are waving their phones or gently tapping their credit cards to enter the glorious universe of a bus, a train, a ferry. In some parts of China, people pay for transit with their palms. Meanwhile, in Seattle, we are stuck in the past,” she wrote. Not anymore! The RapidRide G Line is soft-launching a Tap-to-Pay system on Monday. Riders can use debit cards, credit cards, or their phones to pay the $3 fare. The program should expand to the rest of the system by the end of the month, but don’t worry, your ORCA card won’t have to retire anytime soon. It’s still the system’s “preferred” payment method.
A Song for Your Monday: Sometimes you want your morning to sound like the beginning of a jolly adventure. Haruomi Hosono will always deliver on that.
Hannah Murphy Winter
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