🎓Seattle is #1 for adults with college degrees

WA Co-Leads Suit Against Trump Housing Policy

Attorney General Nick Brown is co-leading a multi-state lawsuit challenging new housing funding restrictions by the Trump administration that could take away housing from 170,000 formerly unhoused people nationally. [Seattle Times]

• How Does This Impact Seattle? Assuming current funding levels, the new rules would provide less than $20 million for permanent housing, potentially putting 4,500 people back on the streets in the Seattle area alone. [PubliCola]
• What Does the Lawsuit Do? The lawsuit seeks to block a policy that would take federal homelessness funding away from long-term, low-barrier housing and direct dollars toward short-term shelters that impose sobriety and work requirements. [Seattle Times]
• What Is Seattle Doing to Prepare? We dug into how City Council is attempting to make up for federal funding shortfalls created by this policy shift with our city budget to keep people housed on the podcast with PubliCola’s Erica C. Barnett.
• Track WA’s Federal Lawsuits: Washington has filed 46 cases against the current federal administration. WA Attorney General Nick Brown is leading or co-leading 17 of those lawsuits. The total amount of funding at issue in the cases is more than $15 billion. [Office of the Attorney General]

Seattle Ranks First for Adults with College Degrees 🎓

According to newly released 2024 data from the U.S. Census Bureau, among the 50 biggest U.S. cities, Seattle had the highest share of college graduates. Compare this to 25 years ago, when data shows college graduates were slightly in the minority among Seattle residents at 47%. [Seattle Times]

Reports of ICE Increase in Seattle Suburbs, So Does Community Response 🫱🏽‍🫲🏾

Photos, videos, and news reports show unidentified federal agents making arrests in cities as far north as Everett, edging into Seattle on Aurora Avenue, and in Redmond. In response, communities across Issaquah, Redmond, Bellevue, Bothell, Burien, and others have created neighborhood ICE watch groups and alert systems. [KUOW]

• Redmond ICE Stops Include Indigenous Actor: Elaine Miles, best known for her roles in “Northern Exposure,” and “The Last of Us,” wrote a social media post about ICE stopping her, which came on the same day ICE arrested multiple people at Redmond’s Bear Creek Village shopping center. Miles said an ICE agent called her tribal ID from the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation in Oregon “fake.”

Community Group Hosting Scooter Public Safety Forum with Lime 🛴 According to the Urban Community Councils of Seattle, Seattle has the third-largest Lime ridership in the world. The group is hosting a “public safety forum” on scooters on Tuesday night with a presentation and audience Q&A with Lime Scooters. For more information on how to attend, click here. [Capitol Hill Seattle Blog]

WA State Medicare Users Could Soon Have Claims Denied by AI 🤖

Starting Jan. 1, certain procedures for Medicare recipients will have coverage decided by private AI companies that get paid based on how many claims they deny. Washington is one of six states selected to take part in a federal pilot program called Wasteful and Inappropriate Service Reduction. [KUOW]

• What WA Reps Are Saying About It: “...the Trump administration is using AI to cut Medicare benefits and trap seniors in Washington state in layers of paperwork and bureaucracy, blocking them from getting the health care they need,” U.S. Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) told KUOW via email. “... I will be opposing it every way I can in the Senate.”

Guide to the New Kent Des Moines, Star Lake, and Federal Way Light Rail Stops 🚄

Three new light rail stations opened yesterday. A half-million South King County residents have waited 29 years for the light rail to stretch this far south. The Seattle Times’ Mike Lindblom has this handy guide for the three new stations.