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    More than 10,000 US hotel workers strike on Labor Day weekend

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    Thousands of US hotel workers went on strike on Sunday for improved pay and conditions in a dispute likely to disrupt many Labor Day weekend holiday travelers, amid union warnings that industrial action could escalate.More than 10,000 workers walked off the job at hotels in Boston, Seattle, Honolulu, Kauai and Greenwich, Connecticut, as well as the Californian cities of San Francisco, Sand Diego and San Jose after contract talks with the establishments’ owners collapsed.The Unite Here union, which represents workers in hotels, casinos and airports across the US and Canada, warned that staff in other city were ready to join the strike.“Strikes have also been authorised and could begin at any time,” a union statement said, adding that hotels in Baltimore, Providence, Oakland, New Haven could be affected.Staff are demanding wage increases and the reversal of pandemic era job cuts that union organisers say has increased the workload of remaining workers and imposed “painful” working conditions.“The hotel industry has rebounded from the pandemic, and room rates are at record highs,” Gwen Mills, Unite Here’s international president, said in a statement. “But hotel workers can’t afford to live in the cities that they welcome guests to. Too many hotel workers have to work two or sometimes three jobs in order to make ends meet.“We won’t accept a ‘new normal’ where hotel companies profit by cutting their offerings to guests and abandoning their commitments to workers.”The union said that, as of Sunday morning, the strike had impacted 24 cities with a total of 23,000 hotel rooms.It was taking place on a weekend which was expected to be the busiest on Labour Day records, according to Transport Security Administration forecasts.Unite Here, which has more than 275,000 members, has accused the hotel industry of using cutbacks triggered by Covid-related lockdowns to permanently cut staff and reduce guest services.It has asked traveling guests at affected hotels to cancel their visit and demand refunds.The strike, which is scheduled to last three days, follows months of talks between workers and the Hilton, Hyatt, Marriott and Omni hotel chains.Hyatt said it was disappointed by the decision to strike. “We look forward to continuing to negotiate fair contracts and recognise the contributions of Hyatt employees,” said Michael D’Angelo, the firm’s head of labour relations. More

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      Divided Washington state to choose Biden or Trump: ‘Everything seems a mess right now’

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      Had he heard it, Joe Biden would surely have been delighted by Bianca Siegl’s comment – and the fact she barely paused before making it.“Of course I will be voting on Tuesday,” says the 47-year-old, speaking at a farmers’ market in Seattle’s University district. “If Trump were to get elected, it would be incredibly dangerous for the world and for my family.”After Nikki Haley suspended her campaign following disappointing results on Super Tuesday and the US president made an unusually partisan and pugnacious State of the Union address, America is in general election campaign mode. While polls show up to 70% of people do not want to see a rematch between Biden and Donald Trump it appears that is set to happen. As the campaigns step up their efforts, Washington state holds its presidential primary on Tuesday. Selections for local legislators and federal lawmakers get made in the summer, so Tuesday is solely a choice for voters to show their preference between the 77-year-old former president and the 81-year-old incumbent.Tina Sutter is also backing Biden. The 46-year-old registered nurse says she tends not to get involved in politics as it does not make a “lot of difference”. Things are complicated by the fact her parents support Trump, and she “cannot speak to them about politics”. She is not voting on Tuesday, but will definitely do so in November.“Trump is terrifying and everybody needs to make sure we don’t go through that again,” she says. Her policy priorities are reproductive rights, social justice and the environment, all areas in which she believes Trump would move the nation backwards.Washington state’s heartland is famous for its fruit farms and being the nation’s largest producer of apples, so cities such as Seattle and Tacoma are known for markets where city residents are hours away selecting from apples such as Cosmic Crisp, Fuji and other less common varieties. Eastern and central Washington are more conservative than the west – the state’s two GOP-held congressional districts, the fifth and the fourth are in the east – and the markets can be a rare coming together of people who live on either side of the Cascade Mountains. At the same time, politics per se tends to be avoided.In 2020, exit polls showed more than 90% of Black women voted for Biden. But a 63-year-old stall holder who asks to be identified as Marylynn P says she is not prepared to say who she is voting for.“Everything seems a mess right now,” she says. “But there seemed to be [less undocumented immigration and] people pouring into our cities under Trump.”Trump certainly has his supporters, and they tend to be very committed indeed.Loren Culp, a former police chief, was backed by him in 2022 to oust the Republican congressman Dan Newhouse, one of 10 GOP “traitors” in the House who voted to impeach Trump over January 6. (While Newhouse held his seat, another Washington member of Congress who voted against Trump, Jaime Herrera Beutler, lost hers albeit to a Democrat, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, who saw off a Trump-backed military veteran, Joe Kent.)Speaking from Goldendale in the south of the state, Culp says he is convinced Trump will win a second term.Biden rarely campaigns in Washington; the last Republican president to win the state was Ronald Reagan, but he comes for private fundraising events and to tap into the wealth of liberal-leaning tech-rich millionaires.In 2020, Biden beat Trump here 58 to 39, and a poll posted recently by the website FiveThirtyEight puts Biden leading Trump 54 to 38.Yet Biden may not have things entirely without a bump. As in Michigan and Minnesota, where 100,000 and 45,000 people respectively voted as “uncommitted”, activists in Washington are looking to send a similar protest message over the administration’s support for Israel’s military operation in Gaza that has killed more than 31,000 Palestinians.Most Washington voters cast ballots by mail once they are sent out in late February. The first release of results in the state typically skews more conservative than the electorate as a whole, then moves farther to the left over time as more results from later mail returns and same-day voting comes in.Rami Al-Kabra, the deputy mayor of the city of Bothell and an organizer for the uncommitted group, says “enough is enough”.“We need to do more than just calling and protesting in the streets. As Americans, the most precious tool we have is our right to vote.”Al-Kabra, who believes he is the only elected Palestinian American official in the state, added: “And in Washington, we have this uncommitted delegates option to leverage this.”Professor James Long, a political scientist at the University of Washington, says he will be watching how many vote “uncommitted”. Though he suspects some of those “uncommitted voters” will “return home” in November, there could be a number on Tuesday who want to express dissatisfaction.“We don’t have as large a pro-Gaza, or pro-Palestinian, cause as in Michigan, but we have a lot of people on the left,” he adds.While the Guardian spoke to several Democrats who said they would prefer a younger candidate than Biden, nobody said they had thought about picking “uncommitted”.Many said they felt the election of 2024 was too important to do anything that might weaken Biden’s chances.Roger Tucker, 68, a retired architect who was browsing the stands with his wife, Becky, 65, a former university administrator, said: “If Trump is in office for another four years, he’s going to be more powerful than before and less worried that people are going to push back on him.” More

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      Seattle police faked radio chatter about Proud Boys during 2020 racial justice protests – watchdog

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      Seattle police faked Proud Boys threat during race protests, says watchdogInvestigation finds police used an ‘improper ruse’ and exacerbated an already volatile situation, but consequences are unlikely Seattle police exchanged detailed fake radio transmissions about a nonexistent group of menacing right-wing extremists at a crucial moment during the 2020 racial justice protests, an investigation by the city’s police watchdog group shows.Seattle protesters seek recompense for injury and death linked to police actionRead moreThe radio chatter about members of the Proud Boys marching around downtown Seattle, some possibly carrying guns and then heading to confront protesters on Capitol Hill was an improper “ruse”, or dishonest ploy, that exacerbated a volatile situation, the Seattle Times reported. That’s according to findings released Wednesday by the city’s Office of Police Accountability (OPA).The Proud Boys is a far-right extremist group with a reputation for street violence with several members, including one from a Seattle suburb, charged with terrorism over alleged actions related to the 6 January attack on the US Capitol.The ruse happened 8 June 2020, hours after the police department abandoned its East Precinct and as protesters were starting to set up the temporary zone that was later called the Capitol Hill Organized Protest or CHOP.The officers who participated described a group gathering by City Hall and delivered reports such as, “It looks like a few of them might be open carrying,” and: “Hearing from the Proud Boys group. They may be looking for somewhere else for confrontation.”Social media posts warning about the Proud Boys group by people monitoring police radio transmissions caused alarm in the protest zone.Though some people in the zone may have brought guns regardless of the chatter, the ruse “improperly added fuel to the fire,” Andrew Myerberg, director of the Office of Police Accountability, concluded.The 8 June radio chatter was part of an approved “misinformation effort” that police leaders knew about, according to Wednesday’s closed-case summary by Myerberg, which is now under review by police department leaders for disciplinary rulings. Fabricating the group of Proud Boys violated department policies, Myerberg determined.It appears unlikely, however, that anyone will face punitive actions. The two employees who ordered and supervised the misinformation effort and who Myerberg sustained allegations of policy violations against have left the department, according to the case summary.Myerberg didn’t sustain allegations of policy violations against four officers identified as having taken part in the chatter. The officers used poor judgment, but their supervisors were mostly to blame for failing to provide adequate supervision, Myerberg determined.The Proud Boys ruse was deployed at an extremely tense moment. The murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police in late May had sparked large-scale protests in Seattle, with the police barricading streets around the East Precinct and deploying tear gas.There was no investigation into the hoax until late 2020, when Converge Media journalist Omari Salisbury asked OPA for body camera video from the officers who had supposedly tailed the Proud Boys group. OPA couldn’t locate any relevant video and launched an investigation.OPA contacted the department’s operations center and intelligence unit and learned there had been a miscommunication effort approved, ordered and led by a captain who later became an assistant chief and then left the department.TopicsSeattleBlack Lives Matter movementUS Capitol attackUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

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      Seattle socialist Kshama Sawant keeps city council seat after recall election

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      Seattle socialist Kshama Sawant keeps city council seat after recall electionThe result, in her favor by 310 votes, clarifies how much of a polarizing figure she has remained in her district Seattle socialist Kshama Sawant has narrowly avoided being ousted from her seat on the city council, following a widely watched recall election.By Friday afternoon, just over 41,000 ballots had been counted, with the no recall vote leading by 310. Though a recount request is possible, it is considered unlikely. “For us to have overcome that in this spectacular manner really speaks to not only the organizational strength of our campaign, of Socialist Alternative, of working people in general, but also the political ideas on which this victory has been based,” Sawant told the Guardian on Friday.Recall fever: Seattle socialist is one of hundreds targeted amid Covid rowsRead moreThe recall result for Sawant – who became the first socialist on the Seattle council in nearly a century after she beat out a Democrat and 16-year incumbent in 2013 – was viewed as a win for progressives and a rebuff of big business.The recall attempt was one of hundreds across the US this year in response to covid 19 and racial disputes. In September, California governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, defeated a recall bid.But with a significant subsection of residents in Sawant’s district voting to remove her, the result also clarified just how much of a polarizing figure she has remained.The recall effort was based on claims that she opened city hall to demonstrators during a protest, disregarding Covid-19 restrictions, used city resources for a “Tax Amazon” effort, and led a march to Seattle mayor Jenny Durkan’s home despite the address being protected under state confidentiality laws.The Kshama Solidarity Campaign has pushed back on the charges, and Sawant said the recall was rather an “attempt to have a do-over of the election result in 2019 which big business did not like”.She added: “In reality if the rightwing, if big business was allowed to win in this recall [then] they would only be emboldened to go after progressive movements both in Seattle and nationally.”The election drew widespread national attention and both sides have seen substantial financial contributions, some coming from states away.Two groups in support of the recall, Recall Sawant and A Better Seattle, raised just over $1m combined, while the Kshama Solidarity Campaign has raised almost $1m, according to the Seattle ethics and elections commission.Henry Bridger II, campaign manager and chairman of Recall Sawant, said in statement Friday: “While this election will not end with removing councilmember Sawant from office, her narrow escape sends a clear message: Seattle voters are yearning for constructive representation and will not tolerate slash-and-burn politicians who shirk accountability and divide the city. Sawant is supposed to represent all of us, not just those who agree with her, and we hope that this election leads her to see that.”On election night, 7 December, the recall had the lead, but as more votes were counted in the following days (Washington state runs a vote-by-mail system that means final results may take days to appear), the no recall side soon took a slight lead.Eva Metz, 29, who lives in Sawant’s district and works as a nursing assistant and restaurant host, said she was motivated to volunteer in support of the councilmember because of her work for renters’ rights. She said she spent virtually the entire weekend before the vote going door-to-door and speaking to voters from a table on the street.“The goal was to make it so that you couldn’t really walk around District 3 and miss the campaign,” she said. “So, I think we did that job pretty well.”Sawant, now in her third term, has helped to increase Seattle’s minimum wage to $15 an hour – a first for a major US city – and helped to secure more rights for renters, while pushing for the city’s police budget to be slashed.But after seven years in office, some of her constituents have grown increasingly tired of what they view as more talk than actual results.“It’s like she represents District 3, but we don’t see her, we don’t hear from her,” said Victoria Beach, 62, chair of the Seattle police department’s African American Community Advisory Council. “She has not done anything. I just don’t like the way she handles her job.”The recall effort was initiated by a Seattle resident within a year after Sawant clinched her latest re-election victory, in 2019, overtaking an opponent with unprecedented financial support from Amazon.TopicsSeattleUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

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      ‘We’re redefining what leadership looks like’: Asian Americans show rapid rise in US politics

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      US politics‘We’re redefining what leadership looks like’: Asian Americans show rapid rise in US politicsWins this week mark significant step for community that’s been under-represented and borne the brunt of pandemic-driven racism Maya YangTue 9 Nov 2021 05.00 ESTLast modified on Tue 9 Nov 2021 05.02 ESTAfter a series of historic wins across the US last week, Asian Americans will now serve as mayors and city council members in large cities including Boston, Seattle, Cincinnati and New York, signalling the rapid rise in Asian American political power.The victories mark a significant step forward for a diverse community that has seen historically low representation in political offices and in the last two years has borne the brunt of a rising tide of pandemic-driven anti-Asian sentiments.On Tuesday night, voters chose Boston city councilor Michelle Wu to serve in the city’s top political office. The 36-year-old Taiwanese American who was Boston’s first Asian American city councilor will serve as the city’s first mayor of color.“Growing up, I never ever thought that I would or could or should be involved in politics. I didn’t see anyone who looked like me in spaces of power. We are redefining what leadership looks like,” Wu told reporters.In Cincinnati, Aftab Pureval made history by defeating former Democratic Congressman David Mann, making the 39-year-old the first Asian American to hold the city’s mayoral post.The son of a Tibetan mother and Indian father, Pureval addressed a crowd saying: “Cincinnati is a place where no matter what you look like, where you’re from, or how much money you have, if you come here and work hard you can achieve your dreams.”Meanwhile in Seattle, Bruce Harrell, 69, who is of mixed heritage, is projected to become the city’s first Asian American mayor and second Black mayor. In New York City, five Asian Americans were elected to the city council, the most the council has ever had. The record-breaking group includes the first Korean Americans, first South Asian Americans and first Muslim woman to be elected to the council.Traditionally, Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) mayors have been elected in places with significant Asian demographics, such as California and Hawaii. However, the recent rise in anti-Asian racism seems to have prompted a significant portion of Asian Americans to become more involved in politics. More than 9,000 anti-Asian incidents have been reported in the US since the pandemic began.“What’s different about mayoral elections is that this is a citywide office. To win at that level requires forming a broad coalition of support that’s certainly going to cross racial boundaries,” said Sara Sadhwani, an assistant professor of politics at Pomona College specializing in American and ethnic politics.Sadwhani cited the spike in anti-AAPI hate as a key factor for increased political participation, saying, “The discrimination that AAPIs faced throughout the last two years during the pandemic has galvanized them politically and we’re seeing that in terms of the people who are choosing to run for office, as well as voters on the ground. When Asian Americans feel socially excluded or discriminated against, it typically does lead to greater political activism.”The AAPI population is ethnically, linguistically and culturally diverse, but is under-represented in elected offices. AAPIs make up 6.1% of the national population. Yet, they consist of just 0.9% of elected leaders in the country, according to the Reflective Democracy Campaign.As one of the fastest growing demographics in the country, AAPIs also suffer from severe invisibility in the criminal justice sector. Southeast Asian Americans are at least three times more likely to be deported due to past criminal convictions than other immigrants.Of the 2,539 prosecutors that were elected across the country in 2020, only six were of AAPI heritage, or 0.24%. AAPIs also make up only 0.07% of county sheriffs.In March, after a 21-year old white man killed six Asian women and two others in the Atlanta area, many Asian American communities sought greater political recognition while vowing to stand against hate.Raymond Partolan, the national field director of APIAVote, a nonpartisan organization dedicated to promoting civic engagement across AAPI communities, spoke of the intensity he witnessed at rallies after the deadly shooting.“I’ve been working in the community organizing space for around the last ten years or so and I’ve never seen so much interest among AAPIs to involve themselves in the decision-making processes that happen at every level of government, and it’s truly inspiring,” said Partolan.The AAPI Victory Fund, a Super Pac that mobilizes AAPI voters and candidates, endorsed Wu and Pureval. Varun Nikore, the organization’s president, attributes their victories to a ripple effect that emerged through local community building efforts.“Getting to know your communities at that micro-local level ensures more long-term successes because you are forced to discuss kitchen table issues. This provides a roadmap for our community going forward,” Nikore said.Yet despite the celebratory attitudes towards the historic wins, some remain apprehensive towards their potential “tokenization”, fearing that traditional stereotypes may pigeonhole the incoming leaders.“I think by having the focus of [Wu] being hailed as the first female mayor of Boston, she’s being held to a greater standard than any other white man. People would be looking for her to fail rather than trying to see where she can succeed,” said Yasmin Padamsee Forbes, executive director of the Commonwealth of Massachussett’s Asian American Commission.As a result, Forbes urges people to look at what leaders like Wu and Pureval can bring to their cities and evaluate them according to how much they achieve, along with their platforms.“Whenever we have elected officials that share our racial background, it’s important for us to hold them accountable,” said Partolan, who echoed Forbes’ sentiments. “People don’t get a free pass in public office just because they share our racial background. We have to ensure that we elect people that share our values and that once they are in public office, we encourage them to move policies that are beneficial for everyone.”Nevertheless, this week’s victories still prove to be a major step forward in inclusive representation across the country.“We need thousands of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders to run for local office so that we have the future pipeline for a statewide office and then federal office in this country,” said Nikore.TopicsUS politicsRaceBostonSeattleNew YorknewsReuse this content More

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      Recall fever: Seattle socialist is one of hundreds targeted amid Covid rows

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      SeattleRecall fever: Seattle socialist is one of hundreds targeted amid Covid rowsGavin Newsom’s survival as California’s governor was just one of hundreds of recall attempts on the west coast this year Hallie Golden in SeattleThu 7 Oct 2021 07.00 EDTLast modified on Thu 7 Oct 2021 11.38 EDTRecall attempts across the US in recent months have hit a fever pitch in response to Covid-19 and racial justice disputes, and a socialist city council member in Seattle has become the latest prominent seat to be targeted.Occupy Wall Street swept the world and achieved a lot, even if it may not feel like it | Akin OllaRead moreOpponents of Kshama Sawant have spent months collecting thousands of signatures in an attempt to unseat the council member, who became the first socialist on the Seattle council in nearly a century after she beat a Democrat in 2013. Last week, the recall effort officially qualified for an election in December.The attempt to oust Sawant during her third term was based on claims that she opened city hall to demonstrators during a protest, disregarding Covid-19 restrictions, used city resources for a “Tax Amazon” effort and led a march to Seattle mayor Jenny Durkan’s home despite the address being protected under state confidentiality laws.Across the US, there have been at least 500 recall attempts this year, with the majority in the west, according to Joshua Spivak, a senior fellow at the Hugh L Carey Institute at Wagner College, and the author of Recall Elections: From Alexander Hamilton to Gavin Newsom. Although many have not qualified for the ballot, he said the number of attempts is already one of the highest in more than a decade.“It appears that the restrictions around the pandemic have fueled a boost in recall attempts,” he said. “To a significantly lower degree issues surrounding the Black Lives Matter protests and other social justice related matters, such as the teaching of critical race theory, have led to recalls that we normally don’t see – more of a national level issue as opposed to a strictly local level policy debate.”Just last month, California governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, defeated a recall bid that was spurred in part by safety measures in response to Covid, to remain in office. In Washington state, Durkan also faced a recall effort, after she was accused of mishandling protests, but last fall the state supreme court nixed the effort.Spivak said: “They see the Gavin Newsom recall, and they also maybe remember the Scott Walker recall, and feel this is a good weapon. Part of the problem, of course, is that the Scott Walker and Gavin Newsom recall … neither of them worked in the end. And arguably both of the governors were strengthened by the recall effort.”According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 19 states and Washington DC allow the recall of state officials, while at least 30 states allow the practice in local jurisdictions.The push to oust Sawant was launched last summer by a Seattle resident, less than a year after she beat out an opponent with unprecedented financial support from Amazon, which is headquartered in Seattle.In April, Washington’s supreme court allowed the effort to move forward, stating that three of the recall petition’s charges against Sawant “are factually and legally sufficient to support recall”.King county elections announced it had accepted more than 11,000 signatures collected through the recall process, and it would be on the ballot during an election on 7 December. The effort needed about 10,700 signatures to move forward.Sawant’s supporters have framed this as her latest fight against big business, the right wing and the political establishment as a whole. They have also argued that the timing of the election is akin to voter suppression, saying her opponents coordinated their effort so it would be during an election that they anticipate will have a lower turnout rate.In response to the charges, Bryan Koulouris, the Kshama Solidarity Campaign spokesperson, said that the crowd was masked in the after-hours visit to city hall, Sawant didn’t lead the protest to the mayor’s house and doesn’t know her address. He also said that the “Tax Amazon” claim is misleading and that Sawant “was doing exactly what she was elected to do, which was use her council office to build the type of movements that are necessary for working people”.Sawant told the Guardian she is not surprised her seat on the city council is being threatened.“I think the fact that it is happening now obviously has a lot to do with our Marxist approach and the way we have used our position so effectively, absolutely refusing to be marginalized and at the same time absolutely refusing to sell out … In that context we should expect attacks like this,” she said.Henry Bridger II, campaign manager and chairman of Recall Sawant, said that he is not a billionaire and is in fact a Democrat. He also said the timing of the election came down to how long it took to collect the signatures and validate them.Bridger said he was happy to see that the recall was moving forward, as it already shows just how many people in her district are not supportive of the council member.“She thinks she’s above the law, and she is not,” he said. “This is something that we’re really excited that the citizens – she gets to face her constituents now. And they get to decide if she broke the law or not. And with all of these signatures, it shows that there’s a huge support to remove her from office and hold her accountable.”The Seattle Times reported this may be the first time a push to recall a member of the city council has reached voters.The recall proponents have raised over $637,000, while the Kshama Solidarity Campaign has raised over $687,000, according to the Seattle ethics and elections commission.The yes or no recall question is expected to be the only one on the ballot in December, according to King county elections. If Sawant is ousted, voters will not choose a replacement candidate, the seat will instead be filled through an appointment process.During Sawant’s time in office she has helped lead the push to boost Seattle’s minimum wage to $15 an hour – a first for a major US city – and helped to secure more rights for renters. TopicsSeattleUS politicsCoronavirusnewsReuse this content More

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      Colleen Echohawk aims to be Seattle's first indigenous mayor: ‘We have to find ways to change’

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      Colleen Echohawk, a Native American woman and key advocate in Seattle’s homelessness crisis, is running for mayor of the Pacific north-west city and laying the groundwork for it to potentially elect its first indigenous mayor.Echohawk, an enrolled member of the Kithehaki Band of the Pawnee Nation and a member of the Upper Athabascan people of Mentasta Lake, is a progressive Democrat, but one, she said, “with strong roots in pragmatism”.Her success in the race would be truly distinctive. It would mean the city that over 150 years ago approved an ordinance expelling the Native community, would be run by an Indigenous woman.As the founder of the Coalition to End Urban Indigenous Homelessness, she said she launched her campaign after recognizing over the summer that the city needed to do much more to help its homeless population amid the Covid-19 pandemic.“The status quo has been failing a lot of people in this city and we have to find ways to change, we need a fresh face up there in city hall and a prudent person who can make decisive visionary decisions because this is really a once in a generational chance,” said Echohawk, speaking to the Guardian from her campaign headquarters in the basement of her house.Echohawk is not Coast Salish, but she has lived in Seattle for 24 years. And before she announced her candidacy, she said she called the leaders of a few of the region’s tribes – Muckleshoot Indian Tribe, Suquamish Tribe and Tulalip Tribes – to let them know she was considering a run.“This is their territory and I will continue to lift them up in every way that I possibly can,” said Echohawk, who since 2013 has been the executive director of the Chief Seattle Club, a non-profit aimed at supporting the city’s Native American and Alaska Native residents, through food, housing assistance and healthcare.Echohawk is one of only a few people who has announced her candidacy after Jenny Durkan, Seattle’s mayor, revealed she would not seek a second term. But others are expected to join the race before the May filing deadline.Addressing homelessness, which has been at crisis-levels in Seattle for years, will be a key focus for Echohawk. She said she will look to ramp up affordable housing and permanent supportive housing. But she also hopes to employ more innovative ideas, while bringing together people of color, some of whom have been pushed out of the city because of soaring prices, to help develop alternative affordable housing solutions.The city’s police system is another important issue for Echohawk. At a time of nationwide reckoning over police violence and as some in the local community are calling to defund the police department altogether, she said she was prepared to start reimagining law enforcement in Seattle.She explained she has seen some great officers in the city. But added: “I’ve also seen some who have been completely brutal to some of my relatives out there experiencing homelessness. That means we have to have accountability, true accountability.”A revamp would probably involve removing some funds from the agency, and establishing a public safety department filled with mental health workers and neighborhood liaisons who could address mental health and homelessness issues. It would also mean taking law enforcement out of homeless encampment outreach.“A person who’s experiencing homelessness already has so much trauma and pain going on and then all of a sudden they’re expected to interact and try to get services from a uniformed police officer? It’s just not effective,” she said.Echohawk would also like to create an elder leadership group that, if she’s elected, she would be able to meet with every couple of weeks in an effort to receive feedback on her ideas.“That’s the traditional value that I’ll bring that other mayors might not bring because I’ve been taught to value and listen to elders and to hear from their wisdom,” she said.Echohawk’s own ancestors have been on her mind a lot since making the decision to run. She’s descended from the Pawnee people, who saw their numbers violently and dramatically reduced in the face of white expansion in the 19th century.“They suffered and they worked so hard so that I could be doing this work that I am right now,” she said. “And I hope that they’re really proud of me. I feel that they’re proud of me. I feel them with me.”This article was amended on 3 February 2021 to clarify that Echohawk is executive director, not founder, of Chief Seattle Club. More

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      Trump signs memo to defund 'lawless' cities but experts raise legality doubts

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      Donald Trump signed a memo on Wednesday that threatened to cut funding to Democratic-led cities that the administration has characterized as “lawless” and “anarchist jurisdictions”, using his office to launch an extraordinary – if legally ineffective – attack on his political opponents ahead of the November election.“My administration will not allow federal tax dollars to fund cities that allow themselves to deteriorate into lawless zones,” the memorandum reads. “It is imperative that the federal government review the use of federal funds by jurisdictions that permit anarchy, violence, and destruction in America’s cities.”The document compels William Barr, the attorney general, to develop a list of jurisdictions that “permitted violence and the destruction of property to persist and have refused to undertake reasonable measures to counteract these criminal activities” within the next fortnight. It also instructs Russell Vought, the White House budget director, to issue guidance in the next month on how federal agencies can restrict or disfavor “anarchist jurisdictions” in providing federal grants.Today @POTUS made clear that we will not continue to funnel taxpayer money to lawless cities that fail to restore law and order in their communities. We will explore all options. https://t.co/BDScgIG2uK— Russ Vought (@RussVought45) September 3, 2020
      The president has often suggested that his political opponents, including Joe Biden, want to defund the police departments, despite the fact that most Democrats, including Biden, have said they do not endorse that approach to police reform. Pushing hardline “law and order” rhetoric, Trump has also pushed baseless conspiracy theories about leftwing violence amid protests against police brutality and systemic racism while refusing to condemn rightwing and white supremacist vigilantism.The memorandum that the White House shared on Wednesday night, which specifically names Portland, New York City, Seattle and Washington DC as examples of jurisdictions might lose federal funding, is unlikely to result in any of those cities losing significant funding, according to legal experts. Congress determines how funding is distributed, and agencies cannot “willy nilly restrict funding”, said Sam Berger, a former senior policy advisor at the Office of Management and Budget during the Obama administration.The five-page memorandum “reads like a campaign press release”, Berger told the Guardian. “The first two pages are a bizarre diatribe – that’s not what a government document looks like.”Even if federal agencies are able to find justification to reduce funding to certain cities, perhaps via grants linked to law enforcement, any funding restrictions are unlikely to hold up to legal challenges, he added.“The president obviously has no power to pick and choose which cities to cut off from congressionally appropriated funding,” said Laurence Tribe, a constitutional law scholar at Harvard, and recently the co-author of To End a Presidency: The Power of Impeachment. Trump “has no defunding spigot. The power of the purse belongs to Congress, not the Executive. Donald Trump must have slept through high school civics,” Tribe said in an email.New York governor Andrew Cuomo said the memo was “an illegal stunt”, noting that Trump “is not a king. He cannot ‘defund’ NYC.”This latest move from the president follows through on his growing disdain for American cities run by Democrats. During his speech at the Republican National Convention last week, Trump railed against “rioters and criminals spreading mayhem in Democrat-run cities” and spoke of “left-wing anarchy and mayhem in Minneapolis, Chicago, and other cities”. More