New Seattle Teacher’s Union President Under Investigation: Ibijoke Idowu, the special education teacher at Beacon Hill’s Rising Star Elementary leading the race to become the next president of the Seattle Education Association, was placed on paid leave in December 2025 after the parents of an a utistic, partially verbal third grader with a speech delay accused her of abusing their child. According to the complaint the parents filed to the district, they noticed bruises the size of adult fingerprints on their son’s arm in October and December. Using visual aids, the third grader confirmed that Idowu allegedly caused the bruises. The parents also say their son’s therapist allegedly saw Idowu throw a marker at the student’s head.  What Now? Last week, the Seattle Police Department sent the case as a statutory referral to the King County’s prosecuting attorney’s office. “Police typically send a case and identify the referral as a statutory referral when they do not believe they have evidence for prosecutors to charge a crime,” office spokesperson Casey McNerthney wrote in a statement to The Seattle Times. Old Faithful: Let’s Go Washington, the group that resurrected the Parents’ Bill of Rights, announced Friday that it’ll begin gathering signatures to put a repeal of the popular millionaire’s tax on the ballot this November. UW Student Killed: Police are looking for a suspect in the stabbing of a 19-year-old in an off-campus student housing building last night. When University of Washington police arrived at the Nordheim Court Apartments, 5000 25th Avenue Northeast, they found a young woman stabbed in the laundry room. UW police and Seattle Fire attempted to save her, but she was pronounced dead at the scene. Investigators have not said what led to the stabbing, but they are treating it as a homicide. According to NBC news, the student was transgender. Another Homicide: Police are searching for a suspect who shot and killed an employee at the Growler Guys on Saturday morning. Police say just before 8 a.m., an employee of the North Seattle taproom, 8500 Lake City Way NE, discovered their co-worker laying on the ground with bullet wounds. The Seattle Fire Department declared the employee dead at the scene. Seattle police have not released a description of the suspect nor the name of the employee. Owner of The Growler Guys, Kelly Dole, said the employee, who was in his early 20s, went to Nathan Hale High School with his son. Police are investigating the shooting as a homicide. It Stings: After a five year campaign, Washington officially eradicated the invasive yellow-legged hornet (once known as the murder hornet, but don’t call it that) from the US. Or did we?! Agriculture officials in Vancouver, Washington are asking people to report any sightings of the hornet after an agricultural inspector found a live one at the Port of Vancouver while inspecting a cargo ship that had sailed from South Korea. Keep an eye out, Vancouver. The Whale: An endangered fin whale was stranded and died last week at Samish Island in Skagit Country. While the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration typically lets rotting whales lie where they land, the tragic sight had a tragic smell and the community decided it couldn’t wait for time to gnaw at 61 feet of meat. The Seattle Times has the story of how they moved the 40-ton whale. No, they did not blow it up like that Oregon whale, keeping a spew of blood and chunks out of the local weather forecast.  Bros: Trump is heading to China this week for a summit with the country’s leader Xi Jinping. They’ll discuss Iran, Taiwan, artificial intelligence, trade, nuclear arms, and China’s relationship with Russia—so nothing thorny. Trump and Xi will also discuss extending an agreement that allows rare earth minerals to flow from China to the US. One US official told reporters he was confident that the agreement would be extended, and would be announced at “the appropriate time.” The War: Negotiations are not going so good. Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei has accused the US of presenting “unreasonable” and “one-sided” demands to end the US-Israeli war on the country. On Sunday, via Pakistan, Iran submitted what it considered a “generous” response to our latest proposal, which Trump called “TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE” on social media. His post raised the price of oil nearly 4.7 percent to  $99.95 a barrel during Monday morning trade in Asia.The Strait of Hormuz remains closed. The Latest on the Latest Assassination Attempt: Cole Tomas Allen, the 31-year-old man who allegedly tried to assassinate President Donald Trump at the White House Correspondent’s Dinner last month, pleaded not guilty in federal court Monday. About That Attempt: Nearly a quarter of Americans believe it was staged, according to a survey by Newsguard. Roughly one in three Democrats surveyed believed the shooting was staged, compared with about one in eight Republicans. Living in a stew of fetid unreality is having an effect on people. Jared Holt, a senior researcher at the online extremism tracking group Open Measures, told The Washington Post that the poll numbers were bleak, but not terribly shocking: “Unfortunately, when governments or institutions are hiding the truth about what they’re up to or they’re playing fast and loose with certain regulations or they’re not imposing certain laws on different people,” Donovan said, “it is much easier to believe in a conspiracy against oneself than it is to believe that the system has become rotted.” Cruise from Hell, Continued: Most passengers aboard the hantavirus-striken MV Hondius, now anchored near the Spanish island of Tenerife, are on their way home, CNN reports. Seventeen Americans, including one who tested positive for the hantavirus, have arrived in Nebraska “for evaluation at a highly specialized quarantine unit.” An evacuated American and a French passenger have tested positive. Don’t Freak Out: I know that a lot of people are detecting pneumonia-of-unknown-etiology-in-Wuhan vibes from this hantavirus situation, but health officials are unequivocal that this is not the beginning of another COVID. Literally. That’s almost a direct quote from Maria Van Kerkhove, director of epidemic and pandemic management at the World Health Organization. Epidemiologists are not panicking; neither should you. How It Spreads: While people usually contract hantaviruses by breathing in viral particles from the urine, feces, and saliva of an infected rodent, the specific type of hantavirus picked up by the first man who fell ill is different. It’s called the Andes virus and is known to transmit from human to human, particularly those in close contact for a prolonged amount of time. The first two passengers infected were husband and wife. And compared with the highly contagious and virulent COVID and the flu, hantaviruses spread much less easily and do not mutate nearly as fast as the respiratory viruses that so vex health officials. Just What We Needed: A Wordle television show, which NBC believes will be a hit. The series, hosted by Savannah Guthrie, will be filmed in Manchester, England and in primetime next year. I’ve watched people play Wordle before, and it’s boring. The post Slog AM: Trump Heads to China This Week, Shaky Ceasefire in Iran, Let’s Go Washington Wants to Repeal the Millionaire’s Tax appeared first on The Stranger. ...read more read less