On Wednesday, King County Council Member Claudia Balducci announced her candidacy for King County Executive. Her announcement came the morning after current Executive Dow Constantine announced he would not seek reelection. by Ashley Nerbovig

On Wednesday, King County Council Member Claudia Balducci announced her candidacy for King County Executive. Her announcement came the morning after current Executive Dow Constantine announced he would not seek reelection.

Thirty-ish years ago, Balducci moved from New York into a house in Bellevue’s Lake Hills neighborhood with her then-boyfriend, now husband. She’s stayed right there ever since, not counting a brief return to New York for law school. 

Her political career began at the Bellevue City Council. She served as mayor of that mall town from 2014 to 2016. Voters elected her to the King County Council in 2016. Throughout that time, she advocated for more housing density, defended Sound Transit’s East Link extension, and pushed for improvements to the criminal legal system.

She considers housing, transit, and public safety the pillars of her campaign for King County Executive. Plus, she supports finding progressive revenue streams for the county. When we asked her if, as someone from the Eastside, she felt additional pressure from big business to oppose legislation such as a payroll tax, she responded: “No more so than somebody from Seattle.” Touche, Balducci.

Balducci views herself as a coalition-builder, someone who reaches across the aisle. The biggest difference she sees between herself and her would-be predecessor, Constantine, is her approach: Rather than solely focusing on rallying advocates to push an idea across the finish line, she believes in sitting down with people who disagree with her to reach consensus. 

“You might come out with something that's a little different than what you thought, but hopefully we start to build deeper and more lasting support, not just for that thing, but for all of government,” Balducci said.

If elected as County Executive, Balducci says her first four years in office would focus on addressing the human suffering and disorder in King County’s downtown cores without increasing the jail population. She wants to ensure that people have the services they need to help them address substance abuse, their mental health, and maintain housing. Though she headed up the King County Department of Adult and Juvenile Detention, she was not a “lock-them-up sort of person,” though she did say she’d like to see crime go down in city centers.

She also wants to focus on delivering light rail expansion projects in a reasonable amount of time. 

A Yimby Year One

Balducci found her YIMBY calling in the early 2000s, when the owners of her neighborhood shopping center, Lake Hills Village, sought to redevelop the mall due to a lack of business and businesses. But as the property owners pushed to change zoning requirements to allow a mixed-use, multistory complex Balducci says many of her neighbors came out to oppose the redevelopment. She readily supported the idea and said so in front of her neighbors. Standing up in those meetings almost two decades ago launched her political career, she says. 

On Tuesday ahead of her campaign launch, she showed The Stranger around the redeveloped lot. Shops now fill the storefronts, and the Village houses a branch of the King County Library along with a community space. The large apartments attached to the complex–many three or four bedrooms–are some of the largest in the area. None are “deeply affordable, but they're not outrageously expensive either.” Balducci’s only regret is that the property couldn’t also connect to the light rail. The complex’s large parking lot in the center makes it clear the Lake Hills community still has a car-centric, commuter mindset.

Lake Hills was the first stop on Balducci’s Bellevue Accomplishments Tour. As we drove to our next stop, she chatted about the County’s need to build more housing and Eastside developers’ need to build more townhomes on single lots instead of the giant homes she often sees built in her neighborhood. (She acknowledged those townhomes would be expensive.)

A Defender of Transit

From Lake Hills Village, Balducci whisked us off to Wilburton Station, which she reluctantly called her favorite while saying, “It’s like my children, I love them all equally.” Balducci came alive as she talked about the importance of light rail planning, and how building along the freeway can limit how much density can pop up around a station. She pointed out The Spring District, which happened to be at the end of a rainbow that appeared as the rain slowed to a drizzle. The Spring District is a sort of evolved version of what Balducci did for Lake Hill Village. A developer turned an area of Bellevue made up mostly of warehouses and parking lots and turned it into a housing, shopping, and business core, complete with a light rail station right in the center that had support from private investors. Again, Balducci acknowledged the housing in Spring District probably wouldn’t be something anyone could afford, with the cost of a cheap studio hovering around $1,994, but the project brought more housing and more jobs, all made possible because of the light rail.

Balducci explained how unlike in Seattle, many people in Bellevue vehemently opposed light rail. She fought for years to bring the option to the Eastside as a member of the Bellevue City Council, fighting not only against her fellow council members, but also those who challenged it in court. She came from a city where you could survive without a car and saw the benefit and importance of a reliable transportation system. She called building the Eastline a labor of love. 

As King County Executive, she’d have a huge say in how light rail expanded, because not only would she become a member of the Sound Transit Board, but she’d have the ability to appoint another nine members to the 18 member board. Much of her political life has been dedicated to the issue of improving and expanding transit, and as King County Executive, she says, she’d throw herself into delivering the light rail the county promised to voters as quickly and efficiently as she can.

Not Zero Youth Detention, but Less Youth Detention

Balducci has never styled herself as an abolitionist. She’s a reformer, someone who helped to change conditions at the King County Jail after the US Department of Justice found that the facility had violated people’s constitutional rights by failing to adequately protect them from harm. When the issue of the new youth jail came up, Balducci said she saw a need for an improved youth jail, a smaller one, that could be refitted as the county worked to reduce the number of kids in lock up. But she never saw the existence of the building as a problem, it's more about how the county manages the building and treats the people inside. She also stressed she supports diversion programs and upstream investments to help reduce the number of kids who find themselves on the path to prison. She said she believes in community-based diversion programs and has supported increasing funding to them.

Final Stop

Balducci ended the tour at Porchlight, a men’s shelter in Bellevue that she helped establish during her time as Mayor. The whole process involved a lot of planning, funding, and dealing with community pushback, but it resulted in a 100-bed shelter and the first permanent shelter for men in all of East King County. From there, Bellevue wanted to expand the site, eventually purchasing the property from the county and expanding it to create permanent supportive housing as well as 300 units of family housing, Balducci said. She acknowledged that this particular project may not be the best example of the coalition style governance she wants to represent as King County Executive — a lot of neighbors still had issues with the project — but in the end, many came around. 

Balducci sees herself as somebody who fights Nimby-ism wherever it sprouts. With the drop from her colleague King County Councilmember Girmay Zahilay Tuesday night, announcing he also planned to “strongly consider” a run for King County Executive, Balducci probably won’t end up the most outwardly progressive candidate in the race. However, given Zahilay’s recent retreat on criminal legal system issues, Balducci may be able to style herself as a more consistent, left voice who delivers on her promises. Plus, she’d be the county’s first woman King County Executive in the position’s 56-year history. Wild we haven’t managed to elect one of those yet.

The Stranger's morning news round-up. by Nathalie Graham

Windy in Washington: High winds swept across the Olympic Peninsula overnight. The gustiest gales reached nearly 70 miles per hour in Hoquiam. Winds remain higher than normal and Washington State Ferries says it could impact ferry rides today. If anything, the ferry rides will be bumpier than normal.

Rain, rain, rain: Soggy conditions continue to saturate Seattle. Don't think about when you will see a clear day again—it's not worth it. 

Moderate to heavy rain will continue to move into the region this morning as a strong system moves across W WA. Have a morning commute? Best to slow down and give yourself a little extra time to get to your destination. Rain will transition to showers through the day. #wawx pic.twitter.com/k2PrlLJE5Z

— NWS Seattle (@NWSSeattle) November 13, 2024

Ashley's got some news you can use.

We’ll miss you, Dow: King County Executive Dow Constantine announced last night he would not seek a fifth term in 2025. It’s the end of an era for the county, which Constantine has helmed since 2010. During that time he’s championed funding transit, early childhood education, and housing. He also promised to end youth detention and close the child jail, which he’s kind of skipping out on. But all in all, Constantine pushed for pretty progressive policies and deserves a solid pat on the back for consistency and knowing that when you have power, you can just do stuff and make people accept the results. And you can get lots of haircuts. That’s cool, Constantine. Grab drinks with me and Hannah soon. 

But, onward: King County Council Member Claudia Balducci announced Wednesday she planned to run for Constantine’s seat. I rode around with Balducci ahead of her announcement on a little tour of everything she’s done for the Eastside, from her years as a Bellevue City Council Member to her time as Mayor and finally to her time on the King County Council. Balducci, a transit buff, plans to ride a train straight through King County’s glass ceiling and become the first woman to earn the title of King County Executive.

Thanks, Ashley! Back to the rest of the news.

Low voter turnout: Washington state had the lowest voter turnout this election since 2000. According to the Seattle Times, fewer than 78% of the state's registered voters cast a ballot. That's down significantly from the 84% of people who voted in 2020.

Kum & Go? More like Kum & Gone: The midwestern gas station chain is changing its name after 49 years of cum jokes.

Oh, we are so cooked: President-elect Donald Trump is in the midst of hand-picking his cabinet in a process that feels like the Avengers assembling except instead of superheroes these Avengers are the worst people you've ever heard of. On that list now is our new defense secretary. The person Trump picked to lead the world's biggest and most powerful military is, you guessed it, Fox News host Pete Hegseth. The move stunned the Pentagon. The Fox & Friends Weekend co-host is a National Guard officer. He is against "woke" diversity and inclusion programs, is skeptical about women in combat, and has spoken about pardoning war crimes. 

Trump apparently just named Fox News host Pete Hegseth his secretary of defense?

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— Parker Molloy (@parkermolloy.com) November 12, 2024 at 4:11 PM

Dog killer at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS): Trump picked South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, who infamously shot her dog instead of training it after it misbehaved, to lead the DHS. The role should be important in an administration that wants to conduct mass deportations and clamp down on border security. 

The Department of Government Efficiency: Trump announced the creation of a new government office designed to "dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies." Elon Musk and failed presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy will lead the office. During his campaign, Ramaswamy said he wanted to cut down on government spending and discussed eliminating the FBI, the Department of Education, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to do that. Musk, meanwhile, wants to just meme about it all. The acronym for the department is DOGE, Musk's favorite meme. Will the two be able to keep the posts despite clear conflicts of interest? We'll see. Please, someone stop the edge lords. 

wait why does the dept of government efficiency have two co-chairs

— Caitlin Gilbert (@caitlingilbert.bsky.social) November 12, 2024 at 6:15 PM

So much for justice: Special counsel Jack Smith, the guy in charge of the Justice Department cases against Trump, announced he will resign before the beginning of Trump's term. During his campaign, Trump promised to fire Smith within “two seconds” of taking office. Smith has two outstanding cases against Trump, and he plans to write a final report on both before stepping down.  

Hell is empty and the devils are here: A Michigan community theater put on a production of The Diary of Anne Frank. Several Nazis gathered outside waving swastika flags and shouting racist and antisemitic slurs.  

Something to listen to: A friend recently turned me onto this radio drama about a space mission. I've barely scratched the surface of the series, but so far it's a nice escape. 

Award-winning cannabis cultivator Aeriz has debuted a carefully crafted lineup of four new cannabis strains…

In the ever-evolving landscape of pop music, the announcement that a band is going “on hiatus” often doesn’t bode well for its future…

Zomato chief executive officer Deepinder Goyal took to social media to congratulate rival food delivery platform Swiggy on its stock market debut on Wednesday. The Sriharsha Majety-led company listed on the bourses with an 8% premium over its IPO price.

The expansions are expected to be completed over the next 24 months, with phase 1 of the total expansion at Indri plant of malt and ethanol reaching completion in early 2025. At its Indri plant, the company is expanding its warehousing infrastructure to accommodate over 1 lakh barrels.

Cooking oil prices in India rose significantly. Palm and sunflower oil prices increased. International prices surged due to production issues. India's demand for cooking oil remained high. The situation surprised the industry. FMCG companies faced pressure to increase prices.

As part of its strategy to enter the premium whisky market -- that is witnessing the fastest growth in the alchoBev segment -- IGL will distribute and sell select Amrut brands in the premium segment across markets in north India.

India's quick commerce market is booming and is set to reach USD 40 billion by 2030. This surge is driven by consumer demand for fast deliveries, with 46% of consumers reducing their reliance on traditional Kirana shops. Quick commerce platforms are projected to capture 21% of total Kirana sales by 2024.

Onion prices in India are anticipated to decrease further due to the arrival of the new kharif crop. The government has been selling onions from its buffer stock at subsidized rates to combat recent price increases. Over 4,850 tonnes of onions have been transported via railway to major cities, including Delhi, to enhance supply and stabilize prices.

India's economic growth in the second half of this financial year will be driven by rural demand and government spending. The rural economy is gaining momentum. Consumer durables and non-durables are showing strong performance. The manufacturing sector is also exhibiting growth. However, there are signs of a slowdown in industrial growth.

Sales of personal luxury goods are projected to decline by 2% this year, marking the industry's weakest performance since the 2008-09 financial crisis. This downturn, attributed to price increases and economic uncertainty, has particularly impacted China, a key market for luxury brands. The shrinking customer base and shift towards higher price points have prompted concerns about the industry's recovery timeline.

iPhone shipments in the third quarter of 2024 crossed 4 million units for the first time, driven by steep discounts, multiple financing options, and a strong demand for premium handsets during the festive season, said research firm IDC in a report released Wednesday.

Indian traders are worried about quick commerce platforms. CAIT says these platforms are using unfair practices to control the market. They are accused of hurting small businesses like Kirana stores. The traders want the government to take action. They want stricter rules for these platforms to protect small businesses.

In a blog post on Wednesday, the company said the new Amazon Haul storefront will mostly feature products that cost less than $10 and offer free delivery on orders over $25.

Koala intruder in bedroom startles couple getting home from work. Something soft and cuddly on a bed can be a welcome sight if that something is inanimate, like a pillow — but in the early hours of Wednesday morning an Adelaide couple were forced to contend with a friendly, if unexpected, intruder.

Hi all, this is a message from MetaFilter's BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) board. In the interest of highlighting and growing the global perspective here on our little corner of the web, we want to encourage BIPOC members to post a bit more to the site. So we're going to use this second week of November to encourage members who don't consider themselves Western world natives (Diasporic BIPOC welcome here) to make a post or two about their culture.

To that end, we have a few suggestions/themes, but no one has to feel bound to use them, they're merely suggestions: How does your culture use rice cookers? What is one thing about your culture that people have misconceptions about or have stigmas within Western cultural perceptions? How does your country or culture view/treat cats (past and present)? What's a particular food item that is popular in your culture and what are some of the popular variants? The posts don't have to be long or filled with links, but it's ok if they are! Single link posts are absolutely fine on MetaFilter and have a long history on the site. We're doing this as a way to showcase the width and breadth of MetaFilter's global community. No other community is forbidden or discouraged from posting during this event, we merely ask other communities to highlight or share their culture with others on MetaFilter. Keep in mind that MetaFilter is more than front page posts. If there's a particular Project you've been working on, music you've created, or media you like, then you can share all these things on the Projects, Music, or FanFare pages! Our only request is that you tag these posts with 'BIPOC' or let the mods know and we'll add the tags.

Oblique Strategies [Max for Live] (subtitled Over One Hundred Worthwhile Dilemmas) is...

I know this topic is going to be coming up more and more, but I haven't found much information on my own. Are there reputable companies that help US citizens in all aspects of becoming expats in Europe?

From the initial research we've done, the road to becoming an expat is long and difficult. There are so many things to consider, from the types of Visas necessary to the logistics of the actual move, and all the bureaucracy in the middle. Certainly, there must be companies whose specialty is guiding Americans through it all. I'm guessing we will see a lot of scammy ones pop up, too.

Please let us know if anyone here has found and used such a (reputable) service!

A couple of weeks ago, my old colleague (lets call her M) passed away tragically, and turns out all signs point to spousal abuse and eventual tragedy. We weren't super close, but I was her first manager, and over the years, we ended up working together a lot, with her even managing me at times. She was a pretty big deal in our company eventually. I know that some of my other current and ex colleagues knew her. They may not know about the situation, I am conflicted about letting people know and also pushing for our company to address it. Some details inside

My company was pretty small, 200 people, which was as close as you could get to a company with people distributed across the country. We got bought by a huge company and M left a year or two into the acquisition. My company is still a formal entity in the new large company. Many but not all of these people live in the same area that M resided. Circumstances of the situation, which are rich attractive white people means that this is already BIG NEWS (like local tv, and local paper) in the city but outside city have not likely reached.

I'm not sure why exactly I have the urge or the urge not to pass on the information. My non-urge is if you didn't interact with this person on a daily basis after you left, your life would be same if you didn't hear it. On the other hand, if you do find out and nobody told you would feel out of the loop and a weird sensation fo not knowing. Also there's something about me maybe processing this grief. But rather not put it on others. It feels like gossip almost too?

Categories of colleagues:

- Set of ex colleagues i talk to almost daily on slack: where I found the information, we are processing it daily
- ex/current Colleague/friends who I talk to monthly (On text/chat): im thinking about texting and telling them about if they've heard
-Current colleagues i dont talk to but are all part of the same organization: I'd like to ask leadership to make a statement, or something acknowledging it. This situation is traumitizing to me and i cannot fathom how it would make the women in my organization or those who work with them closely feel

So I was watching a movie that's close to 40 years old that featured not only the "I'm too old for this shit!" line but also the trope where there's a cop announcing he's due to retire in a few days who more or less immediately gets killed. What is the earliest appearance of this trope? (This will by its nature be a spoilery thread. Since I'm looking for examples that are 40+ years old, I don't think that should be an issue for most people, but if you're some kind of anti-spoiler monastic even on movies old nearly enough to retire from the police force themselves, feel free to opt out.)

The movie I was watching was To Live and Die in LA, by the way.

I'm fully expecting someone who frequents those movie trope pages to have a handy link for this, but I'm also figuring some example by example sorting may be in order.

I figure there were probably antecedents to this trope, like maybe WWII movies where a guy's stint is up the next day, then he gets killed by a sniper or what have you. I'm interested to hear about those too, but I'd also like to know where it started with cop movies, what some classic examples are (Lethal Weapon springs to mind), and even if it's appeared much since it's 1980's heyday.

My desktop computer accesses the internet via cable connection. Years ago, my son connected a router to my desktop computer so that I could use my laptop via the router. My laptop will no longer connect to the internet via the router. The router seems to have died from old age (everything is blinking and it looks okay ... it's like the lights are on but nobody's home), and so I've decided to disconnect it, but I don't know what steps I need to take to do so.


I clicked around on my laptop and encountered a diagram that shows the laptop is active, and the diagram has an arrow that points to a router icon and shows that the router is active, and there is an arrow that points to a globe icon and shows that the worldwide web is NOT active.

I assume that I should assume that the router has died, and so I want to disconnect the router to get it out of the way. How do I do this?

Is it a matter of just unplugging the router and all of the connections? If I do this, will my desktop that is connected to the internet via cable still be able to access the internet without the router, or do I need to somehow tell my desktop that the router is gone and that it needs to start using the cable, instead, now?

I'm usually quite successful finding answers via YouTube tutorials, but I have had not luck with this so far.

My family and I are greatly interested in events featuring people who were directly involved with the Civil Rights movement, specifically the fight against segregation and racism. I am keenly aware that time is limited for hearing them speak in person, and I want my kids to be able to meet them and hear their stories.

To give you an idea of the sorts of things I mean: over the past year, we have been able to book a tour of Selma with Joanne Bland (which was an incredibly wonderful experience!), and attend a panel discussion with Bernard Lafayette and other Freedom Riders.

Aside from repeatedly doing internet searches for names of people we would be interested in seeing, is there a way for us to keep track of upcoming events along these lines that we might be interested in? We're willing to travel, so we're looking for more than local options. And if you happen to know of upcoming events along these lines, please share!

Thanks in advance for any ideas you may have.

There are plenty of famous examples of ad campaigns explicitly targeting competitors going back a few decades. What are some examples in the modern era, possibly using social media and/or other new forms of attack?

Can you suggest holiday dinner dishes that would satisfy a group of three that includes a pescetarian, a traditionalist, and a pre-diabetic? Bonus points for an entree, recipe, and being easy to cook (especially if it can be prepared ahead).

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Agenda: Overview of Reinvestment Housing Incentive Districts (RHIDs); Lead and Copper Rule Revision Project Update; Floodplain Management and Community Rating System (CRS) Program Annual Update; 2024 Street Maintenance Update; City Manager Briefing View full agenda online at https://cityofmhk.com/Ar....

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More than 80 New England Conservatory alumni and faculty have been honored with 41 Grammy nominations, maintaining a longstanding presence among the world's leading musicians. NEC-affiliated artists have been nominated across 27 categories for this year’s Grammy Awards, with winners to be announced at the Los Angeles ceremony on Sunday, February 2, 2025....

Birds descended from the dinosaurs, but researchers have known relatively little about how the bird's brain took shape. An 80 million-year-old bird fossil that sheds light on that mystery.

Fire officials say they've stopped the spread of the deadly Jennings Creek wildfire that's burning in rugged terrain on the New York-New Jersey border. But drought is causing more fires.

In this episode of _Making Contact_, we sit down with Kev Choice, a classically trained pianist, rapper, composer, and educator, who has reshaped the Bay Area music scene. Raised in […]

The post Making Contact: Love, Growth, and the Power of Music appeared first on KKFI.

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