Slog AM: Dolores Huerta Dies, a Deadly Spanish Train Crash, and ICE Renews Contract with Tacoma’s Northwest Detention Center 

Good morning, I guess: Sometimes, when it’s my turn to write Slog AM, I wake up around 6 a.m., open a browser and whisper to myself “please no bad news, please no bad news, please no bad news” while the headlines load. Without fail, though, someone great has died, an old war has taken a new, nasty turn, and the Trump administration has meddled in the upcoming election. This morning is no different. There continues to be bad news. So while you read this morning’s dread report, I recommend having the Smithsonian’s live cheetah cam open in another window. These babies are just three weeks old! Eeeeeee!!!!

GROSS. The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement just awarded a $1.5 billion 10-year contract to private prison company GEO Group to keep running Northwest Detention Center (NWDC) in Tacoma, the Seattle Times reports. GEO Group has consistently blocked efforts from the state Department of Health to investigate the NWDC’s conditions. This is the same detention center where more than 140 detainees went on a hunger strike to protest inedible food. I highly recommend following and supporting La Resistencia’s efforts. They’ve been trying to get this shit shut down for years. 

A woman is dead after ChatGPT told her to go off her epilepsy medication. The New York Times reports that Bowen Wan, a Chinese immigrant who was living in Seattle when she died, began messaging ChatGPT when her epilepsy medication wasn’t working, and she had to take disability leave from her software engineering job at Amazon. After using the chatbot to help make sense of her health insurance and disability benefits, she started asking about her medication. The bot told her to taper her dosage. Even when she told it she was feeling worse, it responded, “Maintain 0 mg tomorrow… you must persevere.” It’s a horrifying and heartbreaking story about our country’s fucked up healthcare and insurance nightmare, our fucked up immigration system, and our fucked up lack of mental health resources. Read it, but have a pillow nearby to scream into afterward.

A Washington court ruled Monday “that a lawsuit taking aim at city rental regulations could move forward,” reports the Seattle Times. The suit from a local real estate investment firm alleges city tenant protection laws like limiting winter evictions and requirements that landlords not discriminate based on criminal records “destroyed” a building’s value. This puts Seattle’s tenant protection laws in jeopardy. The Seattle City Attorney’s office could appeal the decision, but chief of staff Dan Nolte told the Times, “We’re reviewing the decision and are meeting internally to discuss next steps. We haven’t made a decision on an appeal yet.”

Accused rapist wants anti-rape lawyer off his rape case. One of the men accused of participating in the alleged gang rape at Cornell University wants Attorney General Letitia James removed as special prosecutor on the case because she expressed support for Jane Doe on X and Facebook before being appointed to the case. This comes weeks after Trump said she should be off the case because she’s a “dirty and disgusting cop.” Calling it now: At least one of the seven accused rapists will end up with a job on Fox News, and another will be offered some token position in the Trump Administration. 

RIP Dolores Huerta: Civil rights leader Dolores Huerta died at age 96. Huerta co-founded the United Farm Workers (UFW) union in the midst of the historic five-year (!!!) Delano Grape Strike. Can you imagine striking for FIVE YEARS? After several more decades of fighting for workers’—and women’s and LGBTQ and immigrants’—rights, former President Barack Obama awarded Huerta the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012. This March, she revealed that UFW’s co-founder, César Chavez, who died in 1993, sexually abused her for years. She never told anyone because she didn’t want it to tarnish their work. But let’s not talk anymore about him in remembering her. Her life’s work was also celebrated in 2019 here in Washington, when then-Governor Jay Inslee officially declared April 10 as Dolores Huerta Day. 

Let’s break for something fun: Audrey, Julianne, and Dave got to go to the unofficial Gremlins museum (AND THEY DIDN’T INVITE ME!!!!!)

One more Stranger thing to throw on the pile: Please read this piece by Hunter Pauli about tax reform and how “the 99 percent and the 0.1 percent join hands to fuck the petit bourgeoise” if only for the very good accompanying artwork.

Nearly 70 people are dead after two high-speed trains crashed in Spain, causing some train cars to tumble down an embankment. The cause is still being investigated.

There’s still no clear winner in Israel’s election. According to NPR, 90 percent of the votes are counted, and “Israel’s election has reached a deadlock.” It’s the first election since the October 7 Hamas attacks. It’s between Benjamin Netanyahu, who has been Prime Minister for 13 years, and Gadi Eisenkot, a former head of the Israeli military, whose son was killed while fighting in Gaza. It could take weeks before a winner is chosen.

Trump’s election meddling has only just begun. As many predicted, Trump and his crooked bootlickers are attempting to discredit the midterm elections every chance they get. A federal judge in California just shot down Trump’s attempt to “segregate” about 20,000 ballots that Trump claims are “likely” not US citizens. The judge said this would “wreak havoc on the midterm elections.” The Justice Department also recently tried this shit here in Washington. 

What are you doing tonight? How about a Halloween pre-funk with a night of death and hip-hop? The Stranger’s own Charles Mudede will join Dr. Daudi Abe and Vitamin D to celebrate some of hip-hop’s greatest songs about death and grief. “Hip-hop’s birth occurred in and around urban communities shaped by socially imposed poverty, violence, and gun culture, and this dire situation, which is still with us today, resulted in a relationship between music and death that’s unique,” writes Mudede. If you saw these three do the same for love and hip-hop songs at the Clock-Out Lounge earlier this year, you know you’re in for a treat. Tickets are just $10 here. See you at the crossroads.

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