So long, anarchist jurisdiction.
So long, anarchist jurisdiction. Portland Mercury Staff
Here's your daily evening round-up of the latest local and national news. (Like our coverage? Please consider making a recurring contribution to The Stranger to keep it comin'!)

More Americans are self-identifying as LGBT: A new Gallup poll says 5.6% of US adults identify as LGBT, up from 4.5% in Gallup's previous poll based on 2017 data. Some noteworthy bits from the data:

  • Bisexuals run the initialism: "More than half of LGBT adults (54.6%) identify as bisexual."
  • The kids are getting gayer: "Younger generations are far more likely to consider themselves to be something other than heterosexual."
  • Gen Z is hella bi: "The vast majority of Generation Z adults who identify as LGBT — 72% — say they are bisexual."

    A "natural" gas leak caused over 2,000 people to lose power this afternoon in the Central District: Seattle Fire Department also evacuated the blocks around Gerber Park. Take a look at this flaming streethole:


    I guess this is what it's really like to explore "natural gas town." As of around 4 PM, Puget Sound Energy secured the gas leak and power returned to some of the neighborhood.

    A driver killed a pedestrian near Capitol Hill this morning: The fatal crash happened at 10th Ave. E. and E. Newton St. SFD tweeted that the pedestrian was a man in his 50s. The driver was a woman in her 50s. SFD medics transported her to Harborview Medical Center.

    For all you disaster kinksters... Make sure you're set up to receive the ShakeAlert test, happening tomorrow at 11 AM. The ShakeAlert system should roll out in Washington state in May. We're excited to jump under our kitchen tables just to feel something.

    Welp, time to yet again update our stationery! Seattle, Portland, and New York City are no longer run by anarchists. Wow. Just like that!


    The Seattle City Council is down with Rainier Valley Creative District: At a meeting yesterday, the council passed a resolution in favor of creating the first state-designated Creative District (CD) in Seattle. Jasmyne Keimig wrote about the push behind the CD proposal in southeast Seattle last week—read it!

    That AMBER alert you got on your phone this afternoon? Solved! The child was found.

    Fry's Electronics is closing for good.

    Do you have your HUMP tix? Get 'em while you can.


    The second installation of art for the AIDS Memorial Pathway (AMP) in Capitol Hill begins today: Last December saw the installation of the poet and interdisciplinary artist Storme Webber's "In This Way We Loved One Another" inside the Capitol Hill Housing’s Station House. Starting today, crews will install two of Seattle-based design practice Civilization's three groups of statues called "We’re Already Here." Placed on the north end of the plaza, the south end of the plaza, and near the edge of Cal Anderson Park, the statues resemble protest signs that evoke "historic moments of public convergence." They plan on finishing by Friday, intending to install all four planned artworks by this summer. Jasmyne will visit the site later this week and report back with updates.

    Joe Manchin is likely a no on Neera Tanden but a yes on Deb Haaland: That means Haaland, Biden's pick to lead the Interior Department, will likely be confirmed. Tanden, Biden's pick to be the director of the Office of Management and Budget, is in limbo. It's Joe Manchin's Senate, baby! đŸ€ź

    In statehouses across the country, Republicans are pushing a torrent of new bills that would make it harder for people to vote in a US election. Apparently the lesson they took from the 2020 election was "cheat more," rather than "create policies people like."

    All hail this ridiculous (but safe!) new USPS truck design:

    Surprising absolutely fucking no one: A close ally of Marjorie Taylor Greene (the crossfit lady turned space laser lady turned congresswoman) took part in the January 6 riot at the Capitol.

    So much for Trump supporters' love of classical art: The curators at the U.S. Capitol request $25,000 in emergency funding to cover the restoration and repairs of art damaged during MAGA Nation's storming of the Capitol building in January. The art and statues on display mainly suffered damage from "pepper spray accretions and residue from chemical irritants and fire extinguishers" that will require "expert cleaning and conservation."

    An op-ed for the evening: Biden is locking up migrant children. Will the world still care with Trump gone?

    Huzzah! More blood! A bill that would allow teens to give more blood passed the Washington State Senate today. (Currently, teens are allowed to donate whole blood, but they aren’t allowed to undergo a process known as “apheresis,” which separates platelets from donations before the blood is returned to the donor’s body. We wrote about it here.) Now the bill moves to the House, where they will have to decide if the state should drain more teen blood. It should!! Let sexually active gays give blood too, you homophobes!!

    A former aide to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo alleges Cuomo kissed her on the lips without consent, reports AP:

    A former member of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration who previously accused him of sexual harassment offered new details Wednesday, saying he once kissed her on the lips without consent.

    Lindsey Boylan said that during her more than three years in the Democrat’s administration, Cuomo “would go out of his way to touch me on my lower back, arms and legs,” compared her to one of his rumored ex-girlfriends and once remarked they should play strip poker.

    Cuomo’s spokesperson Caitlin Girouard said that all Boylan’s “claims of inappropriate behavior are quite simply false.”

    Portland city attorneys have agreed to pay more than $2 million to settle a federal lawsuit filed by the family of Quanice Hayes, a Black teenager who was fatally shot by a Portland cop in 2017. In doing so, the city will be absolved of responsibility for Hayes' death. While the decision will bring welcome closure to a stressful legal battle, the Hayes family is determined to continue their fight for police accountability outside of the courtroom.

    Yikes:

    A win for renters, via Heidi Groover at the Seattle Times: "A judge on Wednesday rejected a landlord group’s challenge to three Seattle laws meant to protect renters from eviction once the pandemic moratorium expires. King County Superior Court Judge Johanna Bender found the laws, including Seattle’s ban on winter evictions, largely constitutional."

    This is a true statement.
    This is a true statement. KT
    A Sticker Patrol reader spotted a rare Mudede sticker in the wild: We're insanely jealous that we didn't get to spot this bad boy for ourselves (though it has been spotted before). Its style suggests that someone has made a block print of the Stranger's philosopher-in-residence's face, which we absolutely need so we can stamp it on our official correspondences. If this is yours please fess up so we can buy 20 stickers!