Welcome back to Pop Loser! This week, Hayley Williams has a suggestion for “Nazi bitches,” Kelly Clarkson admitted to being “obsessed” with AI (sigh), Chrissie Hynde shared one of her hottest takes ye...

Former Seattle Police Chief Shon Barnes will now bring home the bacon by way of the private sector. He joined MissionRT, a company that “advises law-enforcement agencies on leadership, technology, and organizational change.” Why does all of this remind me of that book by the late anarchist and anthropologist David Graeber, Bullshit Jobs, A Theory? […]

On Monday morning, the Washington State Ferries (WSF) announced that 13 of its 18 ferries were out of service, after 23 engine room employees “called in sick.” Additionally, every qualified employee s...

The allegations against the Spokesman Review’s suspended editor in chief are extensive: When longtime Spokesman Review editor Rob Curley was suspended by the paper’s owner in August, followed by a vot...

MONDAY 10/5 Week Without Driving (COMMUNITY) The annual Week Without Driving kicked off on October 1 and runs through October 8. Are you participating? Even if you haven’t yet, it’s not too late. It’s...

I am a global citizen. Just read my wedding diary. Maybe that’s why the news out of Brazil (where I started my career) and Morocco (where much of my family is from) caught my eye this morning. Don’t w...

Kruse control: When the current interim Seattle police chief Andre Sayles was still deputy police chief, he filed a misconduct complaint against veteran detective Beth Wareing for speaking at a press ...

As Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) boasts record-levels of arrests nationwide, and  Seattle ICE watchers report a local uptick ahead of the election, the financial collapse of a Washington n...

Dozens of unionized Seattle Times workers picketed near the newsroom on Denny Way yesterday after they say the newspaper’s owners refused to satisfactorily raise wages or agree not to replace workers with AI during contract negotiations. The picket is the Seattle Times’ first big labor action in decades, and a sign that disagreements between those […]

Welcome back to Pop Loser! Spiritually, I’m in a place of the 2001 VMAs when Britney Spears debuted “I’m a Slave 4 U,” and apparently I’m not alone—the track is having a moment with Gen Z. I’ll dive i...

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Orchids may lure pollinating insects with ingenious illusions rather than nectar. Some mimic the look or fragrance of other flowers. Others resemble female insects so convin...

More than 10,000 refugees, asylum-seekers, and other lawful immigrants in Washington are losing their healthcare, starting today, thanks to language in Donald Trump’s House Resolution 1 (aka that mons...

Seattle just can’t stop dying. The 2026 Global Cities Index by Oxford Economics clearly shows it has one foot in the grave. How else to explain the city being rated fourth in the whole fucking world w...

There’s a draft of an open letter to Mayor Katie Wilson and the Seattle City Council that’s been making the rounds on social media and racking up signatures over the past few days. The request: divert $8 million from SPD’s $68 million proposed budget increase and give that money to the arts. The reasoning? Art […]

Suspect in Juniper Blessing killing still not competent to stand trial: He’ll remain in treatment for now, a judge ruled Monday. KUOW has details on his specific issues. Governor Bob Ferguson hasn’t c...

Last week, the Washington Public Disclosure Commission, which regulates state political finances, dismissed a complaint against the conservative initiative group Let’s Go Washington (LGW) alleging the...

MONDAY 9/28 Show Me the Body, Whispers, Lip Critic, Truck Violence (MUSIC) New York progressive punk trio Show Me the Body has always cut their art like a skater with a pen knife. Their early shows of...

The weather: Don’t let the gorgeous Seattle weather (60s, sunny, almost October?) fool you, it’s freezing up in the mountains and stormy out in the ocean. A kayaker needed a rescue after capsizing out...

“Who the fuck is Madeline?”  It was the question echoed around the world when Lily Allen released West End Girl last fall. Madeline—introduced on the album’s fourth track “Tennis”—was immediately indu...

I am leaving The Stranger. Before the keyboard warriors get too excited, there’s no palace intrigue here. I’m not ragequitting, fleeing, or resigning in protest. I even sat on the hiring committee for...

Welcome back to Pop Loser! This week, we’ll honor our lord and savior, Joan Jett, who turned 68 on Tuesday. It was a slow news week, so I’ll dive into that weird time in the ’80s when rock musicians tried rapping. Plus, a Macklemore update, a new book from Michelle Zauner, and some much-needed wisdom […]

Lorax mode: A grassroots conservation organization has successfully saved a fuckload of trees on the Olympic Peninsula. After the Department of Natural Resources sold a 74-acre plot of state forest to...

The Seattle City Council voted Tuesday to limit how companies use personal data to set prices in grocery stores. The move will prohibit large grocery stores from using algorithmic pricing for individu...

I play varsity high school girls basketball, and if I were old enough to vote, I would vote NO to stop ballot Initiative 638 from passing this November.  To enforce excluding trans girls from sports, ...

Been away for two weeks — happy to return to a packed inbox. Let’s get to the questions! — Dan I’ve wavered on sending this but I need advice. There’s this woman I’ve known most of my life. We are ver...

States fold in Paramount-Warner Bros merger lawsuit, broadcast media will consolidate under Trump ally: The twelve states suing to stop the creation of a broadcast media monopoly allied to the president decided actually, it’s OK, announcing a settlement Monday greenlighting the merger. Washington Attorney General Nick Brown said in a press release that the settlement […]

Street purgatory: The Seattle Convention Center closed down the block Ninth Avenue between Pike and Pine in front of the Paramount Theater for a weekly night market in August. They painted the street ...

The average price a worker pays to commute in the Seattle area? $10,018 a year, according to a study by Consumer Affairs. And the amount of time a worker spends driving to and from a job? An hour, whi...

This is the best books news I’ve heard since Roxane Gay and Debbie Millman bought The Rumpus: Charlie’s Queer Books is opening a new location in Seattle’s original gayborhood, Capitol Hill. Next door ...

All summer long, if you walked around Seattle’s Stadium District during the day you probably heard the sounds of the labor movement at work—chants and exclamations from the striking unionized employee...

Dear Readers: I’m on vacation — second and last week — and will be back with new columns next week. Please enjoy this selection of letters from three previously published columns in the meantime. — Da...

Your uncle is wrong about crime in downtown Seattle: Crime is down citywide in 2026 compared to 2018, contrary to the popular television news narrative. The neighborhood with the lowest crime rate is ...

Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson is rolling out a plan to tackle gun violence by better integrating city departments and maintaining services for youth. The announcement comes after weeks of relentless crit...

I have seen reviews of Hope bewildered by its third act, confused as to how the competent action movie they were enjoying could culminate in such an awful conclusion. Why did director Na Hong-jin botc...

Want more? Here’s everything we recommend this month: Music, Visual Art, Literature, Performance, Film, Food & Drink, and This & That. Slayyyter, Pearly DropsSept 4With a sound described as “Charli XC...

Two people financing efforts to stop a millionaires’ income tax and to ban transgender girls from girls sports are also financially backing the Center Square, a  conservative national news operation w...

MONDAY 9/14 Alexis Nikole Nelson (FOOD & DRINK) Known as “BlackForager” on Instagram and YouTube and “alexisnikole” on TikTok, Alexis Nikole Nelson has charmed millions of followers with her joyful ap...

Good morning, humans and AI agents. My name is Cedar Attanasio, and I was born in a teepee and raised in a school bus off the grid in the woods in New Mexico. So, don’t blame me for the boffins in Sil...

Dear Hendrix, I don’t know the exact number by heart, but it’s pretty safe to say that I’ve played around 10,070 rock shows in my life—give or take a dozen—with my band the Black Tones. And while your...

Dear Readers: I’m on a vacation (and bed rest) this week. Please enjoy this selection of letters from three previously published columns. — Dan Borrowing Gen Z’s love for labelling everything, I’m a 4...

I was going to write this whole bit about the Genius Awards from the perspective of a Costco sheet cake, but then fucking Dolly Parton died, so fuck jokes. She was 80 years old. Older than old enough ...

Seattle’s media and political classes have inundated readers for months now with dubious stories about what the election of socialist New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and a slate of aligned New York...

Welcome back to Pop Loser! This week, I’ll catch up on some news that transpired while I was on vacation for the last three weeks. (I’m so glad nothing major happened, like the passing of Dolly Parton...

Forest rangers help ICE abduct campers in Snoqualmie National Forest midnight raid: The rangers pretended there was a “garbage issue” in order to approach five families and photograph IDs for potential citations, KING 5 reports. Around midnight, the rangers returned with ICE agents who arrested 5 men, who are now held in Tacoma’s notorious immigration […]

Bumbershoot’s lineup is an unusually bookish bunch this year: Lucy Dacus has a famous Goodreads account with over 2,100 books cataloged, Noname founded a book club with chapters all over the country, ...