The Stranger's morning news roundup. by Vivian McCall Morning: House lawmakers in Olympia debated the millionaires’ tax late into the night and into this morning. Republicans have filed dozens of amendments to derail the bill, but Dems say they have the votes. And Gov. Bob Ferguson has signaled he’d sign the latest version if it crossed his desk. What, No Baby Sheriffs? A bill that would strengthen standards for Washington’s elected sheriffs and make it easier to boot those decertified by the Criminal Justice Training Commission is headed to Gov. Bob Ferguson’s desk. If he signs it, sheriffs would be required to have five years law enforcement experience and undergo background checks through the Washington State Patrol. The minimum age to serve as sheriff would be raised from 18 to 25, and tighten rules around volunteer-run “sheriff’s posses,” preventing them from enforcing the law. The Old West is dead. ICYMI: A report from the King County Ombuds found that officers at the Department of Adult and Juvenile Detention “more likely than not” used excessive force when they punched and Tased a man while booking him to jail in November 2024, and then issued a flawed report on the incident. Department director Allen Nance initially defended the officers, but changed his tune after King County Councilmember Jorge Barón raised concerns. Nance has since released an 11-point plan to address use of force, writing in a letter that “we should have done a better job on multiple fronts related to the handling the matter that prompted your attention,” KUOW reports. A Little to the Left: Activist, communications strategist, and former state legislature employee Hannah Sabio-Howell wants Majority Leader Sen. Jamie Pedersen’s 43rd district crown. She’s betting he’s vulnerable because as he’s gained more power, and played more of a leadership role, his constituency has only grown more progressive than the moderate Pedersen. Interesting stuff. I sat down with Sabio-Howell at Gemini Room in Capitol Hill to chat about her campaign, and took a phone call from Pedersen on a rainy drive home from Olympia, his favorite time to talk to reporters. Goddamn It, Damien/Goddamn It, Davison: Thanks to the combined efforts of Damien, a busted Oregon Trail-ass software the City Attorney’s Office finally tried to move on from after 27 years, and Ann Davison, the former City Attorney, Erika Evans has 3,800 more DV, DUI, child abuse, elder abuse, and other terrible cases backlogged than she had intitally thought. “Knowing we have to not only focus on the stuff coming at us right now, but also tackle this ginormous, 5,100 case backlog is pretty devastating,” she tells Nathalie. Weather: A chance of rain and snow this morning, then rain with titillating gusts up to 23 miles per hour. Tonight, rain is very likely; tomorrow and Thursday, rain is certain. Schrödinger's War: About an hour after the Department of WAR tweeted “We have Only Just Begun to Fight” from the DOW Rapid Response account on X, President Trump told a CBS journalist that the war in Iran was “very complete, pretty much.” And later Monday, he told lawmakers at an event in Miami that the US still needed to achieve “ultimate victory.”   Pentagon today: the war is just getting started! Their commander in chief, less than an hour later: "the war is very complete"[image or embed] — Catherine Rampell (@crampell.bsky.social) March 9, 2026 at 1:42 PM   Meanwhile, Tehran is vowing to launch powerful missiles, Iran’s parliament speaker says the country is “definitely not looking for a ceasefire,” and Trump says he’ll hit Iran “20 times harder” if oil flows stop in the Hormuz Strait. In response, Iranian security official Ali Larijani wrote: “The sacrificial nation of Iran doesn’t fear your empty threats. Even those bigger than you couldn’t eliminate Iran. Be careful not to get eliminated yourself.” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says today will be the most intense day of strikes yet. Grounded: The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) briefly grounded all JetBlue flights while the airline handled a system outage early this morning. The grounded stop was lifted about 40 minutes later. JetBlue did not provide any more information about what happened, simply saying it’s done and it’s back to business as usual. Drives Speaks for Itself: New: A Houston woman is suing Tesla in Harris County, alleging that her Cybertruck, while using Tesla's "Full Self-Driving mode" tried to drive the car off of a bridge. Here is the dashcam footage provided by her lawyers: www.chron.com/culture/arti...[image or embed] — gwen howerton (@kissphoria.bsky.social) March 9, 2026 at 12:06 PM Inadvertent Crook Buster: Alexander Butterfield, the Richard Nixon aide summoned to fuck ol' Dick before the staff of the Senate Watergate committee, has died. He was 99. In 1973, Butterfield, the then head of the FAA who’d previously been deputy chief of staff, told the committee that he was loyal to President Nixon but didn’t want to lie. Yeah, he’d supervised the bugging of the White House and Old Executive Office Building with a voice-activated recording system. “I was hoping you fellows wouldn’t ask me about that,” he said. Three days later, he reiterated his testimony during televised hearings. ICE Out: When Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino left Chicago last fall, he made like Douglas MacArthur and pledged to return with another surge in March. Well, it’s March, and his ass is gone, and so is Kristi Noem’s. There’s little to suggest a Midway Blitz 2.0, reports the Chicago Sun-Times. Is nothing sacred? Creating unrealistic body standards for camels everywhere, about 20 of the sexiest beasts at the 2026 Camel Beauty Show Festival in Oman were disqualified after inspectors discovered that they’d plumped their humps with a botox-like substance. ...read more read less