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The (Theater Formerly Known as) Cinerama reopens December 14: Fuck yes. The Seattle International Film Festival announced plans to resurrect Paul Allen’s favorite movieplex as the SIFF Cinema Downtown this May, and they were able to do so quickly with financial support from Seattle and King County. But will there still be chocolate popcorn? Well, here’s a hint: SIFF is screening Wonka at the Cinema Downtown first (sǝ⅄ :ɹǝʍsu∀). Read more from Megan here.
The owner of HoneyHole is missing: Evan Bramer disappeared last week, leaving workers unpaid and unable to run the Capitol Hill sandwich shop. Read more strange details here. Bramer took over the restaurant from Kristin and Patrick Rye, after The Stranger, Capitol Hill Seattle Blog and Eater Seattle reported on allegations of a toxic workplace culture.
First injured Palestinians taken to Egypt: Ambulances drove the injured across the Rafah border crossing today. It’s the first civilian movement out of Gaza during this war. Foreign nationals and dual citizens are also waiting at the border. Hundreds are expected to leave.
Bolivia cuts diplomatic ties with Israel: Representatives from the South American country met with Palestine’s ambassador to Bolivia on Monday and reached this decision because of Israel’s ongoing siege of Gaza. Meanwhile, Chile and Colombia have recalled their ambassadors from Israel for consultations, according to CNBC.
Israel bombed a refugee camp: Humanitarian groups have denounced the country’s deadly air raid in Northern Gaza that killed more than 130 and wounded 300 people at the Jabalia refugee camp. Three strikes hit densely populated camps in a 24-hour period. Video and images of the strike show people digging through the blasted concrete barehanded in a desperate search for survivors. A nearby hospital was also bombed, killing 400 people. IDF leaders said the camp was in the middle of a Hamas “stronghold” and the strike killed a senior commander. A Hamas spokesman said the commander wasn’t there.
Ahead of a visit to Israel, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken encouraged the country to follow humanitarian law, but repeated that Israel “had a right to defend itself.” He did not call for a ceasefire, as the majority of the UN has done. For 34 hours this weekend, communications including internet and emergency services went dark in Gaza as the IDF invaded. Gaza’s health ministry said 8,500 people have died in Gaza since Oct 7.
CNN’s Wolf Blitzer: You knew that there were innocent civilians in that refugee camp, right?
IDF spox: This is the tragedy of war. We told them to move south.
Blitzer: So you decided to drop the bomb anyway.
IDF spox: We’re doing everything we can to minimize civilian deaths. pic.twitter.com/oAtW7jV0pc
— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) October 31, 2023
Breathing expert testifies in Tacoma police trial: Lawyers for the three Tacoma police officers charged with killing Manny Ellis tried to convince the judge not to allow state pulmonology (or respiratory) expert Dr. Curtis Veal to speak. They argued that his testimony about what happens when you apply pressure to the back of someone lying on the ground would repeat information in a trial already running behind schedule. The judge allowed Veal to take the stand.
Veal explained how Ellis would’ve had greater demand for oxygen because of the altercation with officers and the methamphetamine the medical examiner found in his system. He said this smothering sensation would’ve caused Ellis to act out in a desperate attempt to breathe. Before he died, Ellis told the officers who restrained him that he could not breathe. Two weeks ago, the defense argued against a forensic audio expert and former cop presenting his analysis of video and audio taken on the night of Ellis’s death.
Seattle’s “Chef in the Hat” died Sunday at 64: Famous for his food and his fedora, Thierry Rautureau won the James Beard award for Best Chef: Northwest in 1998 for his work at Rover’s, a Seattle fine-dining institution. By the time he closed Rover’s in 2013, Rautureau had already opened Luc downtown, and he would open Loulay in 2014. He closed both restaurants in 2021 because of economic pressures related to COVID-19. Rautureau died from the lung disease pulmonary fibrosis.
Nirvana’s former bassist supports Tanya Woo: Libertarian activist Krist Novoselic donated $7,500 to Friends of Southeast Seattle, a mostly real estate-backed PAC that supports Woo over Morales for City Council District 2, the Seattle Times reports. In an email to the Times, Novoselic said the past four years have been “rough,” and that it is painful to step over drug addicts downtown. “These are human beings, everyone has a story. It’s a tragedy,” he wrote in that email. His heart seems to be in the right place, but the SECB can’t say we feel Woo is the solution to that problem. After all, she led protests with King County Republicans against a homeless shelter expansion in SODO and doesn’t support any progressive revenue taxes, and did not say what programs she’d cut to balance the budget.
Swift Slow justice: The Massachusetts Witch-Hunt Justice Project is seeking apologies for victims not recognized in the Salem exonerations. Take little Dorothy Good, a four-year-old child arrested on suspicion of witchcraft who spent seven months chained in a dungeon. While her mother Sarah was hanged for witchcraft, Dorothy was never charged, but the trauma drove her to insanity. There are 200 never-pardoned or exonerated victims like Dorothy, who were imprisoned, indicted, or swept up in witch hunts outside Salem during the late 1600s. Read more about this fascinating project here.
Home Depot, the skeleton dream factory: Nothing improves your home like a giant 12-foot skeleton. This excessive monstrosity, aka “Skelly,” is the star of countless viral videos–one woman turned hers into an enormous disco ball–and one of the most stupid fun lawn ornaments that exist. But did you know that before it struck gold, Home Depot had workshopped this thing with hundreds of tinier skeletons? Writer Ana Diaz told the story over at Polygon.
Donald Trump fraud trial continues: When Trump bid $1 billion for the Buffalo Bills in 2014 (weird, I thought he liked winning?), New York Attorney General Letitia James said he deceived insurers and banks by massively inflating the value of his assets. Trump said, if anything, he lowballed his wealth–and claims this whole fraud thing is an attempt to kill his campaign. Anyway, when he offered to buy the team, he claimed he was worth $8 billion. He didn’t actually provide any proof. Instead, he handed bankers copies of Forbes that included him on a list of wealthy celebrities.
Judge throws out land-use petition to block Pierce County homeless village: Advocacy group Friends of Spanaway Lake claimed the proposed micro-home village constituted illegal “spot zoning,” basically selecting a parcel of land for a single purpose that is different than the surrounding area, and sought to dissolve one county ordinance that approved the $62 million project. It’s not yet clear if they’ll appeal the judge’s decision. The Growth Management Hearings Board will rule on an environmental group’s challenge to the ordinance later this month.
Shameless promotion: If you’re not done with Halloween, check out this story I wrote about my old building, the Biltmore Apartments, and the paranormal experiences I had there. I’m not sure what to believe, but, yikes, that was weird. I spent my favorite holiday, Halloween, writing the news, so indulge me.