New COVID cases, hospitalizations, and deaths have reached early fall levels across Washington as signs point to an improving situation. Although the number of tests given statewide has declined significantly, the positivity rate is at 3.9% indicates adequate testing. With the business world, the medical community, and citizens welcoming the improved situation, the data suggests the state has hit a plateau as more contagious variants are detected.
Several factors are receiving credit for improving the numbers over the last eight weeks. Washingtonians have high mask compliance, and the winter months move more people indoors. Improvements within long-term care facilities in nursing homes helped dramatically lower the number of infections and deaths over the last three months. Some models estimate that 25% of the population has had COVID since last year, reducing the number of people that can still be infected.
One thing not receiving credit for lowering the number of infections is the ongoing vaccination effort. The two-dose vaccine wouldn’t have taken hold until February, and not enough people have received vaccinations to make a statistical difference. That is a factor that should change over the next 60 to 90 days as Washington is now vaccinated 45,000 people daily.
Researchers and epidemiologists are concerned we could there could be a fourth spike this spring. COVID fatigue is battering mental health even for the resilient. Daylight Savings Time brings more people outside and into contact with each other in Washington, while shifting weather will move people into social activities.
Several new variants that are more contagious, including the United Kingdom B.1.1.7 and the South African B 1.351 mutations, have been detected in Washington. A new variant in Oregon that has combined modifications of both the U.K. and South African variant has raised researchers’ interest. Of these three, researchers predict the B.1.1.7 strain will be the dominant virus in the United States by summer. All three variants are more contagious. The South African variant has shown resistance to the Pfizer vaccine and specific treatments.
Despite most craving a return to normalcy, most experts agree we will still need to wear masks into 2022, even after vaccination. Until 70% of the country has been immunized or sickened, COVID will be a part of life. Also, mask-wearing reduces the number of infections, which also lowers the number of naturally occurring mutations.
[SEATTLE] – (MTN) Noriko Nasu was with her boyfriend in the International District of Seattle when a random man attacked her with a sock laden with a rock. He beat her so badly in what appeared to be a random attack she is now suffering from shattered teeth and multiple facial fractures. In a report with KOMO news, Michael Poffenbarger reported he was also struck in the head. “I truly believe he was trying to kill us,” he stated. On Thursday, Seattle Police arrested 41 years old Sean Holdip for the crime. He is being held on unspecified charges as prosecutors mull bias crime charges.
A review of records shows that Holdip has a lengthy history of bizarre and violent behavior spanning across the United States. Holdip graduated from Murry Bergtraum High School for Business Careers in 1997, a public college preparatory secondary school in Lower Manhattan. His promising start brought him to the New York City Fire Department where he was employed as an EMT.
In 2010, the first complaint against Holdip was filed by a coworker. According to the New York Post and public court records, the coworker claimed that Holdip had swung a broom handle at them aggressively because he had insulted his driving ability. There was a misogynist incident with a female coworker and then in 2012, he was accused of pulling a knife on another coworker. In 2014 he told a judge he was going to use the knife to, “clean his nails.” While the case against him dragged through the system for three years, Holdip was assigned to work in a supply room and not interact with patients. He was fired in September 2014 and exhausted his appeals in February 2015.
Public records indicated Holdip has moved between New York and California. His current address is indicated to be in New York, and there is no record of him having an address in Washington.
Nasu is home and recovering from her injuries. Poffenbarger reports he brandished a pocket knife in an effort to deter Holdip, but that he kept coming. Good Samaritans stepped in and broke up the assault, and Holdip fled. There has been a significant increase of violent crime bias attacks against minorities in Seattle through 2020, with a significant increase against people of Asian descent.
[SEATTLE] – (MTN) Seattle Parks supported by the Seattle Police Department completed a homeless sweep of Denny Park on Wednesday. City officials put notices up of the impending sweep several days ago, when the park had approximately 70 tent encampments. By early this morning, approximately 15 tents remained as Seattle police and parks crew, some wearing hazmat suits, gathered inside the park around 8 AM.
At 8:45 AM officials started to secure the park, while some of the remaining unhomed residents packed belongings or started to move to grassy areas just outside the park. Activists and mutual aid arrived, with some shouting at and heckling Seattle Police officers, drawing two squads of bicycle officers. Others associated with mutual aid brought replacement tents, hand warmers, heaters, and propane, while others helped pack belongings and load them into awaiting cars and vans.
[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”33″ gal_title=”Denny Park Homeless Sweep”]
City officials claim that the number of calls and complaints around Denny Park was increasing, as justification for the sweep. The city initially touted success in finding housing and hotel rooms for many of the people initially in the park, but further probing indicated that for most, March 15, will find them back out on the street.
People we spoke with across the political spectrum, including an SPD officer, expressed frustration with city leadership and the temporary nature of solutions offered. There was strong agreement that permanent housing solutions and medical care were needed. The city and the organizations they support largely focus on temporary housing and short-term programs, while long-term care and housing remain grossly underfunded. One man who claimed to be a business owner got into a shouting match with an activist, threatened him, and then drove around the block to confront the group. After a tense exchange we spoke of frustration, but only offered a solution of shipping the unhomed to Yakima to, “pick apples and cherries.”
Seattle officials did appear to apply a lighter touch during this sweep. For some people residing in the park, employees helped them move belongings to be picked up and relocated and waited while others packed belongings. One Seattle Police officer engaged in what could be described as constructive dialog with activists, despite little common ground being found. In contrast to a more community-oriented approach, in other areas of the park, city workers dumped the belongings of tents onto the ground and then gathered them up as trash, making no effort to review or catalog personal belongings.
The city of Seattle through public and private investment spends $1 billion a year in the battle against homelessness. Despite almost $85,000 per unhomed person available annually, Seattle has made little progress on solving the crisis. City officials swept Cal Anderson Park on December 18, 2020, only to have some people move to Miller Playfields and others move to Pioneer Square. Cal Anderson Park doesn’t have a significant homeless presence while business owners in Pioneer Square are complaining about a spike in encampments.
City officials state Denny Park will be closed for months for repair and rehabilitation. However as night fell, the yellow security tape had been torn down in many areas and area residents were ignoring the park closed signs.
With temperatures tickling 60 degrees and the sun shining, Kingsgate Carwash in Kirkland was buzzing. The bays were full, and lines of cars waited to pass through two touchless lanes while an American flag hung outside. Overhead, hard to see on the building wall, the anacronym “WWG1WGA” faces out toward 124th Ave NE. Where We Go One, We Go All is a rallying cry for the conspiracy theory QAnon.
Kingsgate Car Wash in Kirkland was busy on a sunny Wednesday morning
QAnon started in the dark corners of the Internet, with no one exactly sure who “Q” is, but several theories exist. The individual or individuals that started the movement claim to have a “Q level” security clearance within the government. Q now has millions of followers, some of who have become militant and believe Q is working anonymously to expose the deep state.
QAnon believers subscribe to the idea that an illegitimate shadow government runs the United States. The shadow government architects are liberals, Hollywood elites, Jews, the Clintons, George Soros, the Obamas, and others. Believers further think these individuals and groups are part of a vast international child trafficking ring that supports pedophilia and consumes children’s blood to remain youthful and energetic.
The most high-profile QAnon fueled incident before January 2021 involved Edgar Maddison Welch. On December 4, 2016, Welch entered Comet Ping Pong in Washington, D.C., armed with an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle. Comet Ping Pong became ground zero for the QAnon pedophilia and blood-drinking liberal conspiracy theory.
Driving from North Carolina, Welch stormed the family-friendly restaurant, and as employees and customers fled in terror, he spent 20 minutes looking for the basement door. Comet Ping Pong has no basement. In frustration, he fired several rounds into a locked supply closet door before police surrounded the restaurant and convinced Welch to surrender.
Welch was sentenced to prison in 2017 and moved to a halfway house in March of 2020. His supervision ended on May 28. His actions in December became laughable within the moment because no one was hurt, and the ideas of QAnon were not mainstream. Today, the theory stands while the audience has grown much more prominent. The support of former President Donald Trump, the belief the 2020 election was stolen, and QAnon’s “save the children” ideas blend together for millions of Americans.
Since June 2020, the ideas supported by QAnon reached a fever pitch. QAnon espoused a “great awakening” where Donald Trump would be named the legitimate President and that warrants for the arrest of 195,000 people were already in place. The great awakening would be preceded by a total communications blackout, including the Internet and martial law declared. For the true believers of QAnon, these two events would signal that the deep state’s exposure was at hand.
Lawyers such as L Lin Wood, Sydney Powell, and Rudy Guiliani embraced some or all of the conspiracy theories within their legal filings. Believers eagerly awaited for Powell to “release the Kraken,” as she threatened. Any attempt to counter the narrative, including Trump-appointed judges and Supreme Court justices, was met with the accusation of being compromised by the deep state. As each promised event didn’t happen, the phrase “trust the plan” echoed through social media and the dark corners of the web.
By the time January 6, 2021, and the insurrection happened, followers became restless. Promised dates of the great awakening came and went. Q, using its social media channels, then moved the goalposts again to inauguration day. The theory being outgoing President Trump was waiting for all his enemies to be in the same place to start the great awakening. All the National Guard troops deployed to protect the Capitol? With so many deep state members in the same area, deployed troops would support mass arrests.
After Biden’s inauguration occurred, Q believers and the message “trust the plan” were fractured. Ron Watkins, who some believe is Q and is the son of 8Chan founder Jim Watkins, told his followers it was time to move on. Extremist organizations like Sovereign Citizen, listed as a domestic terrorism organization, moved in to scoop up crestfallen Q supporters, and a new theory was born.
Sovereign Citizen believes that Congress turned the United States into a corporation in 1871. Further, they think anything past the 14th Amendment and all Presidents elected after Ulysses S. Grant are illegitimate. Sovereign Citizen’s believe the correct inauguration day is March 4, not January 20. They think this because Franklin D. Roosevelt moved inauguration day in 1933.
The QAnon anacronym WWG1WGA isn’t easily visible to the casual observer
The new QAnon theory is Donald Trump will be inaugurated as the 19th President on Thursday, March 4, 2021, either in Washington D.C. or Mar-A-Lago in Florida. Some believe Trump will form the new government in Florida, making Mar-A-Lago the seat of power. March 4 will also bring the great awakening, the 195,000 arrests, along with the arrests of the Supreme Court, House, and Senate, for betraying Donald Trump. Like previous theories, the promised great awakening will be preceded by a total blackout of communications. If you’re reading this right now on the Internet, it is unlikely those trusting the plan will be happy on March 4.
To the outside observer, this can seem humorous. In December 2016, a lone gunman looking for an imaginary basement filled with blood-drinking liberals appeared comical. In the four years since QAnon has grown more mainstream, Congressional representatives like Marjorie Taylor Greene, former President Trump, and his inner circle have embraced the conspiracy. Blending with Sovereign Citizen, an organization that has murdered more than 40 people, the dangerous belief system continues to tear at our society’s fabric.
Now we come back to the other code of QAnon followers, WWG1WGA. The origin of “where we go one we go all” is a subject of debate. Many believe that the phrase, “where we go one we go all,” was inscribed on the bell of PT-109, the patrol boat John F. Kennedy commanded in World War II. However, there is nothing in the historical record from the U.S. Navy, National Geographic researchers, or the John F. Kennedy Library to support this.
It seems more likely the phrase comes from the 1996 ocean disaster thriller White Squall. The 2004 TV series Battlestar Galactica used a similar expression of “so say we all” to symbolize unity in the face of a common enemy. The sun shines brightly in Kirkland today, as cars line up to get washed under the QAnon code “where we go one, we go all.” If there is one thing that is certain after March 4, there will be a moving of the goalposts and true believers saying to “trust the plan.”
Attempts to reach the owner of the car wash went unanswered.
Running from February 19 through February 28, Black Restaurant Week is launching its inaugural campaign for the Northwest Region, highlighting Black-owned culinary businesses in our community.
A surge of societal upheaval was building in 2016 as
American culture grasped for a suitable response to the highly publicized
deaths of Michael Brown, Alton Sterling, Philando Castile, and so many others. Warren
Luckett was working as a wholesale wine distributor in Houston, Texas, at the
time, and his thoughts returned to the visceral realities of those deaths.
For Luckett, the family dinner table was the space he could explore his feelings and ideas about issues larger than himself, and he noticed growing angst among young Black millennials like him, wanting to have a conversation about the reality they saw around them. What better place to hold that conversation than a dinner table?
Pairing his love of food and his background in business, the
dream of Black Restaurant Week was conceived—a solid seven days dedicated to
celebrating the flavors of African-American, African, and Caribbean cuisine
through a series of events and promotional campaigns intended to introduce
Black culinary businesses and professionals to the community. Falayn Ferrell
and Derek Robinson, then cochairs of PR and marketing for the Houston Area Urban
League Young Professionals, responded to his request for help. In April of
2016, the trio launched the first Black Restaurant Week in Houston, providing a
metaphorical table for the community to gather around. Since those local
beginnings, Black Restaurant Week has grown with regular events across the
country.
This is the first year that the event has been in the
Pacific Northwest. Participating restaurants receive marketing and promotional
support aimed at highlighting the diverse cuisine of these eateries. This
support comes during a time when a University of California, Santa Cruz study
revealed that Black-owned businesses are suffering on a disproportionate scale.
Since the pandemic began, 41% of Black-owned businesses have closed, compared
to 17% of white-owned businesses.
The organization recognizes that a week of marketing and promotions isn’t always enough to compete with larger, better-funded chains. They have introduced a series of events to support the restaurant beyond the specified week, with business panels, catering showcases, and food truck festivals. This year, they hosted virtual town hall discussions with access to video of those panels and a summary of tips and ideas from them. Further services include a plethora of operational and financial resources for running a culinary business in the modern market.
Results for the event have been impressive. In 2020, Black
Restaurant Week supported 670 Black-owned culinary businesses and helped them
to realize an average sales increase of 34%.
There are plenty of incentives for diners to “follow your
fork” in support of community favorites. The event hosts special deals, prizes,
and games like Black Restaurant Week Bingo, which rewards diners for multiple
purchases. They have also opened participation beyond traditional dine-in
restaurants and now include food trucks, sweets, and more.
Beyond the original mission, Black Restaurant Week is also
promoting the campaign to support the Texas Emergency Restaurant Relief Fund to
aid Black-owned and Latin-owned businesses affected by the winter storm.
Luckett’s original mission intended to support Black-owned culinary businesses and help establish an environment to have discussions about racial disparities. The event is designed to introduce local customers to a variety of culinary options, and organically provides a starting point for conversations about racial disparities in our community. Just as Black history doesn’t disappear on March 1, these restaurants continue to exist beyond the week of events and benefit from continued patronage, and can hopefully serve as that family dinner table—providing a space and foundation to discuss those larger issues.
[SEATTLE] – (MTN) Superior Court Judge Judith H. Ramseyer rejected the City of Seattle’s attempt to dismiss a lawsuit for wrongful death, personal injuries, and civil rights violations. Attorneys from Stritmatter, Kessler, Koehler, and Moore, and co-counsel Cedar Law PLLC filed the suit last fall on behalf of more than 60 plaintiffs who participated in Black Lives Matter protests. The plaintiffs, including the survivors of Summer Taylor, claim that policing decisions were based on discriminatory practices and negligence causing injuries and death.
In court today, lawyers representing the city argued that the Washington Law Against Discrimination (WLAD) is only applicable for employer-employee law. Lawyers representing the city stated that applying WLAD to this case would be a “radical departure of the law” and represented a new legal theory. “We’ve seen the difference between how the police have handled other protests such as the women’s march and blue lives matters protests versus those for Black lives,” said attorney Sarah Lippek of Cedar Law, PLLC. “We think the differences in treatment are discriminatory.”
The city’s argument was, in part, that since protesters are not city employees, the protesters were not protected by WLAD even if the city behaved in a discriminatory way. Karen Koehler argued that protesters of all races advocating on behalf of Black lives and then brutalized by police due to their advocacy should be covered under the non-discrimination law.
Judge Ramseyer sided with the plaintiffs and upheld the claim that authorities’ actions over the summer could be considered discriminatory under WLAD. “The judge upheld our cause of action that protesters of all races advocating for Black lives could bring discrimination claims against the police for their brutal and disproportionate response,” said attorney Lara Hruska.
Another finding in today’s case is that the streets are “places of public accommodation” protected under WLAD. In 2019 the Washington State Supreme Court found that places of public accommodation are broadly defined as facilities or businesses used by or open to the public. Judge Ramseyer’s decision expands that protection. “The court decided that the streets are an area of public accommodation, and the police can’t discriminate against protesters on those streets,” said Lippek. “I mean, what is more public than the streets?”
DISCLOSURE: Renee Raketty, field editor for Malcontent News is a plaintiff in this case.
Raymond Bryant, 44 years old, of the Spokane suburb Airway Heights was arrested on February 18 for painting swastikas on a Holocaust memorial and vandalism at the Spokane Synagogue Temple Beth Shalom
Bryant was well known by Temple security due to multiple interactions with him, threats against congregants, and continued harassment by him, and the hate group he is a member of
Bryant is a member of the anti-Semitic Group 14First Foundation which has taken responsibility for hate crimes, vandalism, and assaults on the Jewish population across the United States
Surveillance video caught Bryant painting the swastikas and other Nazi symbolism, along with his 2008 Nissan Altima with “88” and “White Pride” bumper stickers
Bryant is facing two felony charges with hate crime tags and bond was set at $2,000
SPOKANE, Wash. — The man arrested in connection to the anti-Semitic vandalism at a synagogue on Spokane’s South Hill is reportedly a member of a white supremacy group and previously harassed members at the temple, according to newly filed court documents.
Spokane police arrested 44-year-old Raymond Bryant on Thursday morning in connection to the vandalism at Temple Beth Shalom on the morning of Feb. 8. Bryant is facing charges of second-degree malicious mischief and malicious harassment, which are hate crimes, according to Washington law. Bryant appeared in court on Friday, during which he was given a $2,000 bond.
[MOUNT VERNON] – (MTN) A Skagit County judge reduced bail for Angela Conjin, 55, to $250,000 in a hearing on Wednesday, as new details emerge about the events that left 32-years old Kamran Cohee dead from a gunshot wound to the head.
Cohee’s boyfriend, Joshua Tyron said that he and Cohee were out for a day of sledding, and stopped to lower the air pressure in the tires of his truck before driving further on the snow-covered road, according to KING 5 of Seattle. He admits to seeing the Loren Culp sign in the yard and removing it.
John Conjin, the spouse of Angela emerged from the home and he and Tyron got into a physical fight. Both parties provided different stories of how the physical fight started and what happened during it, but both parties are consistent in the actions committed by Ms. Conjin. After the fight had ended and both Cohee and Tyron were at their truck, Conjin emerged from her home with a gun firing several shots, striking Cohee in the head, killing her. Both sides stated that Cohee wasn’t involved in the theft of the sign or the earlier fight between the two men.
John Conjin has been charged with fourth-degree assault for his actions on Saturday. Tyron has not been charged, but prosecutors have not ruled out potential charges for him. Prosecutors have charged Anglea Conjin with second-degree murder using a magistrate warrant, which provides prosecutors 30 days to process formal charges. During her bail hearing, Brett Purtzer, Conjin’s attorney, argued this was a self-defense case. Prosecutors countered that by reports from all parties the fight was over and Cohee wasn’t involved in the altercation when Angela shot the 32-year-old woman.
Ms. Conjin was able to post bail and is out of jail. As part of her bail conditions, she had to surrender all firearms and ammunition in her home.
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