📫 Election day is finally here

SNAP Will Be Partially Funded, But Confusion Remains

The Trump administration said on Monday that it will partially fund SNAP with an emergency fund of $4.65 billion — that’s enough to cover about half the normal benefits. This announcement was in response to two rulings in Massachusetts and Rhode Island requiring the federal government to keep the nation’s largest food aid program running. [AP]

• ICYMI: The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees SNAP, had planned to freeze payments starting Nov. 1 because it said it could no longer keep funding it during the federal government shutdown.
• The Confusion Isn’t Over: It’s not clear how much beneficiaries will receive, nor how quickly. The process of loading SNAP cards can take up to two weeks in some states. The average monthly benefit is usually about $190 per person. And using the emergency fund for November potentially sets the stage for a similar situation in December if the shutdown isn’t resolved.
• Local Resources: More than 900,000 Washington residents — including 300,000 children — receive SNAP benefits, state officials said. We put together a list of places to get free food, but (amazingly) it’s hard to keep track of all the ways Seattle is stepping up. Here’s another one:
  • Community groups in Seattle’s Roosevelt and Ravenna neighborhoods have started a fund to pay for SNAP recipients to shop at Rising Sun Produce.

🫰🏻Will Washington Get an Income Tax? Democratic state senators are eyeing an income tax on people making more than $1 million a year to address Washington’s persisting budget shortfall. Washington is one of nine states that do not tax wages. It could generate an estimated $3 billion. However, Gov. Bob Ferguson says he is wary of tax increases in the coming legislative session. [Washington State Standard]

🚘 Ten Years of Seattle Public Safety Perceptions: Seattle University’s annual Seattle Public Safety Survey recently released its tenth year of data. Most notable? Seattleites are concerned about traffic safety, which makes sense since 2024 was the deadliest year overall on Seattle’s roads since 2006, according to The Urbanist.

🔴 Some Closure for Family of Mary Johnson-Davis: The FBI has matched Johnson-Davis’ DNA to remains found in a remote area in North Snohomish County. Her disappearance while walking on the Tulalip Reservation on Nov. 25, 2020, sparked a successful movement to create statewide alerts for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women. Washington state also created a cold case unit and a toolkit to assist families and friends if someone they know is missing. [KUOW]

🐳 Another JPod Heartbreak: The Center for Whale Research (CWR) confirmed this week that a newborn orca calf, J64, is believed to have died just weeks after being spotted with the endangered Southern Residents. Tragically, mortality among newborn calves has become common due to poor nutrition and exposure to toxins stemming largely from declining runs of Chinook salmon. [KING5]