Washington Blocked Again from Inspecting ICE Jail: State health inspectors were set to find out just how bad conditions are for immigrants detained in GEO Group’s private ICE jail in Tacoma last week, only to be blocked at the last minute by a federal court order, per the Seattle Times. The state has been trying to inspect the facility after receiving thousands of complaints about poor conditions for detainees.
Kohberger Now Says He Didn’t Kill Idaho Students: Convicted last year for murdering four University of Idaho students after pleading guilty, Bryan Kohberger says he’s innocent and wants a trial, according to the New York Times. He’s petitioning to change his guilty plea.
Forest Service Kidnap Suspect Had Dark History in Washington: The man accused of kidnapping two Forest Service biologists in a Northern California forest earlier this month previously terrorized his neighbors near Bellingham. According to a joint investigation by the Sacramento Bee and the Bellingham Herald, a Washington judge ordered Joseph Charles Henrichsen admitted for psychiatric treatment, but instead he sat in jail until his release.
“Henrichsen’s 2022 incarceration in Washington came after he left two zip ties looped together like handcuffs outside a neighbor’s door. After county sheriff’s deputies arrested him, they removed around two dozen guns from his home. Last week, Henrichsen, now staying in a trailer in a Northern California forest campground, again took out his zip ties. This time he used them to bind the hands of the two biologists after confronting them with an AR-15 style rifle.”
Millionaires Backing Millionaires Tax Repeal are Mad the State Says Their Bill Will Cost the State Billions: After decades of successful slopulist tax rollbacks passed by conservatives on the ballot, Washington passed a law back in 2022 that spells out for voters exactly what they’re defunding when they vote for Republican/Seattle Times Editorial Board austerity. The conservative backers of the ballot initiative to repeal the Millionaires Tax don’t like that the state’s public investment impact disclosure says their plan will lose the state money (it will; that’s the point), so they’re formally contesting the language the state drafted to inform voters, the Washington State Standard reports.
Canadian Government Still Working With Group That Pushed Monument to Nazi Collaborators: After some of Canada’s few remaining real journalists publicized that many names planned for Ottawa’s “Victims of Communism” memorial were in fact Nazi collaborators who butchered Jews in the Holocaust, the government decided to take a step back. But not so far as to stop working with the group on the next phase of the memorial, Jacobin reports.
Thousands of Nazi collaborators escaped to North America after the war, including ultranationalists from Western Ukraine, the Catholic part of the country, where the church was deeply involved with the Nazis, even supplying chaplains to the Waffen-SS. Some congregations carried antisemitic traditions with them to America, where antisemitic caricatures feature prominently in Christmas season Ukrainian church pageants. The Pope and the Vatican have remained silent on the matter, according to the Forward.
Ukraine Bombs Iran: While most of the Don’t Call It a World War is anchored on Donbas and the Persian Gulf, the Ukrainian government publicly announced an expansion of the war Saturday into the Caspian Sea, Iran’s comparatively peaceful northern maritime border. Ukraine bombed oil platforms and civilian ships, killing at least one sailor. Iran’s foreign minister says it’s an attempt by Israel to drag Europe into war with Iran and said he made it clear to the EU and Russia “that what the freeloader in Kyiv did CANNOT GO UNANSWERED.”
Saudi Oil Closed due to Yemeni Fire: When Iran retaliated against America’s illegal bombing campaign by closing the Strait of Hormuz to Gulf oil exports, the Saudi plan was to maintain exports by piping oil west to the country’s Red Sea ports instead. But the Saudis had to provoke Yemen again by bombing their airport, and now the Yemenis have closed the Bab al-Mandab Strait to Saudi oil. Satellite photos show the Saudis’ refinery on the Red Sea adjacent Yemen is on fire.
I-84 Open After Closure due to Oregon Fire: An 80-mile section was closed yesterday between Baker and Ontario after one of the many large fires burning in the Oregon Outback cut the road. But the Oregon Trail is back open as of this morning.
The Weather: It won’t be too hot today, so hopefully we will all stop hurting each other.
The Choir of All Saints from Honiara, Solomon Islands:
