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David Mendez @jdmendez.com · 29/09/2026

(I'll have their comments in the full write-up, to be posted online tomorrow.)

David Mendez @jdmendez.com · 29/09/2026

Shoreline staff proposed an amendment to the ordinance, allowing it to fall null and void if the King County Council failed to enact its own tax. However, City Council declined to add it, approving the ordinance as is. The ordinance passed in a 4-2 vote, Council Members Scully and Roberts against.

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David Mendez @jdmendez.com · 29/09/2026

The city's 2025-'26 biennial budget set aside about $2.07 million for its Teen & Youth Development Program, and about $3.6 million for its Housing & Human Services Program.

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David Mendez @jdmendez.com · 29/09/2026

A city staff analysis suggests that the tax would raise between $130,000 to $145,000 each year. That revenue, staff says, can pay for youth behavioral services and rental aid for low-income families.

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David Mendez @jdmendez.com · 29/09/2026

B/G, cont.: If a city adopts the tax, it receives the revenue and keeps it for local purposes. If a city doesn't adopt but a county does, the tax would be applied across the county, with the funds used for purposes *across* the county. So with this ordinance, Shoreline keeps the tax money local.

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David Mendez @jdmendez.com · 29/09/2026

Here's a link to the text of HB 2442: lawfilesext.leg.wa.gov/biennium/202... Note that the tax wouldn't take effect until Jan. 1, 2027.

lawfilesext.leg.wa.gov

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David Mendez @jdmendez.com · 29/09/2026

The new sales tax increase of 0.01% will go on top of the city's existing 10.5% tax... ...which is to say, on a $100 purchase, sales tax paid would bump up from $10.50 to $10.51. Background: A 2026 State House Bill allows municipalities to levy a new sales and use tax for children and families.

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David Mendez @jdmendez.com · 29/09/2026

Hey folks, we're at the Shoreline City Council meeting, where there's a few interesting items running through the agenda. One of note is an ordinance that just passed. It authorizes a new Sales Tax in Shoreline, which the council effectively approved to get in line for the money before King County.

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David Mendez @jdmendez.com · 12/09/2026

Shoreline schools may be closed Monday if the district and the staff union are unable to reach an agreement by Sunday night. www.ospreynews.net/p/shoreline-...

ospreynews.net

Shoreline school staff may strike starting Monday

Union workers

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David Mendez @jdmendez.com · 18/08/2026

The ordinance has passed 5-0, and the meeting is adjourned. A relatively late one tonight!

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David Mendez @jdmendez.com · 18/08/2026

The five council members in attendance appear to be in lockstep on this, all ready to approve the ordinance opposing the anti-trans initiatives. (The other two are away on personal business — and, frankly, I'd be shocked if either of them would oppose this ordinance.)

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David Mendez @jdmendez.com · 18/08/2026

Running behind here, but many speakers — most from Shoreline, others from neighboring communities — are transgender folks here supporting the ordinance and urging the council to move forward on it. More speakers related their own experiences facing anti-trans bigotry and racism in Shoreline.

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David Mendez @jdmendez.com · 18/08/2026

Scott Menzies, founder of Fortify!Washington, paraphrased Megan Rapinoe: This starts with the trans folks and constricts the spaces in which women are allowed to exist.

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David Mendez @jdmendez.com · 18/08/2026

The first comment, from Norbert Steel, called this a "layup" for the council. "It is bare minimum stuff. I expect our city to say 'this is fucked up and we shouldn't do this,'" he said. "These things are the wedge that cracks open everything and rots our society."

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David Mendez @jdmendez.com · 18/08/2026

staff's presentation (which is linked here) is done, and public comment has begun. shoreline.granicus.com/MetaViewer.p...

shoreline.granicus.com

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David Mendez @jdmendez.com · 18/08/2026

City staff *clearly* took *great pains* to not editorialize in the staff report with these "pro and con" slides.

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David Mendez @jdmendez.com · 18/08/2026

quite a few folks here have already offered their thoughts on the council's resolution, all of whom (thus far) have asked the council to support its trans neighbors — and, in some cases, asked them to go further and use city funding to aid the community.

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David Mendez @jdmendez.com · 18/08/2026

(you might have been asking rhetorically, but my brain is a bit cooked right now, quite honestly)

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David Mendez @jdmendez.com · 18/08/2026

City Councils do, from time to time, take positions for or against statewide initiatives! (I'm *pretty* sure RB's council has done it at least once during my time covering things?) This is a case in which Shoreline — which calls itself "A Welcoming Place for All" — is planting a flag.

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David Mendez @jdmendez.com · 18/08/2026

A few other items of note today, slated for the consent calendar: •Two items regarding the 175th Street Corridor Improvement Project •OKing a beneficial classification for Ching Community Gardens •Obligating grant funding to the 148th Street Non-Motorized Bridge Project

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David Mendez @jdmendez.com · 18/08/2026

We'll get into the meat of those later. First, the council is winding through its usual business, including general public comment. After, they'll wind their way through the consent calendar. (Today the public will have time to comment on the resolution after the report and before council's vote.)

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David Mendez @jdmendez.com · 18/08/2026

We're ⚡️LIVE⚡️at the Shoreline City Council meeting tonight, where the council will discuss an ordinance opposing IL26-638 and IL26-001. The two measures, scheduled for the November ballot, are all but explicitly designed to target transgender kids in Washington public schools.

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David Mendez @jdmendez.com · 10/08/2026

A councilmember asked King County Sheriff Patti Cole-Tindall if deputies would respond to a call about an arrest by someone claiming to be an ICE agent. “We could go out and say, ‘Hello…can I see your credentials?’ And they could say ‘pound sand,’ and that’s what we would do,” Cole-Tindall replied.

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David Mendez @jdmendez.com · 05/08/2026

A handful of federal immigration agents surrounded a man in Shoreline Tuesday, saying that they had gotten into a “fender bender” — one in which agents apparently rear-ended a driver as he was moving through a four-way stop on his way to work. www.ospreynews.net/p/ice-agents...

ospreynews.net

ICE agents surround man on Shoreline side street after 'fender bender' crash

Witnesses reported the incident to Shoreline Police, but it's unclear if SPD investigated the call

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David Mendez @jdmendez.com · 05/08/2026

the candidates too, i guess

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David Mendez @jdmendez.com · 05/08/2026

king county's various politics reporters are so anxious for tonight's early results to post that they're vibrating

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David Mendez @jdmendez.com · 05/08/2026

c'mon king county, we want the digits

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David Mendez @jdmendez.com · 19/07/2026

This is excellent commentary and I *need* you to know that I appreciate it.

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Reposted by David Mendez

Katie Campbell, KUOW @katiecampbell.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

No es falta! Flopa!

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Reposted by David Mendez

Kathleen Gier @kgier.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

Not to keep bringing ✨women✨ into it, but calling this "the most important match in U.S. Soccer history" is crazy work.

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David Mendez @jdmendez.com · 07/07/2026

Listen, this has been a rough World Cup to enjoy on a spiritual level, especially after Mexico was knocked out. But that was a nice first 10 minutes.

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David Mendez @jdmendez.com · 28/06/2026

I recommend Soccer in Sun and Shadow! Lovely, lyrical writing about the game.

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Reposted by David Mendez

Roger Cormier @themetsnewsletter.com · 26/06/2026

Read the damn room, Mr. Met.

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Reposted by David Mendez

Lizzy Lawrence @lizzylawrence.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

EXCLUSIVE: Eli Lilly gave compassionate use access to retatrutide, their unapproved powerful obesity drug, to a 79-year-old man in April. The application was arranged by a top doctor at NIH, and cleared by the FDA. www.statnews.com/2026/06/23/e...

statnews.com

Eli Lilly gave extraordinary obesity drug access to a 79-year-old patient. Who was it?

Exclusive: STAT has learned that Eli Lilly and the FDA allowed a 79-year-old to gain extraordinary access to an experimental obesity drug through the agency’s “compassionate use” program.

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David Mendez @jdmendez.com · 23/06/2026

The city council did not respond from the dais.

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David Mendez @jdmendez.com · 23/06/2026

Norbert Steel, Solano's husband, slammed the council, saying their "unwillingness to fight has culminated in groups of masked, armed men abducting and attempting to abduct people in this city." "You may not have thought you'd be signing up for this, but you did. This is your fucking job."

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David Mendez @jdmendez.com · 23/06/2026

The woman she hugged, Solano said, was left alone. But she later found out that the woman's partner was taken by the masked men. Unconfirmed reports say two people were arrested in Seattle's nearby Broadview neighborhood, and that another person was arrested later in Shoreline, all on Saturday.

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David Mendez @jdmendez.com · 23/06/2026

Solano has previously urged the council to take action against ICE agents operating in Shoreline. This time, she admonished the council. "Months ago, we told you this was going to happen. We asked you to do something to prepare," she said. "You did nothing."

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David Mendez @jdmendez.com · 23/06/2026

"I rushed in, and I pulled this woman, my neighbor, into my arms. I held her, and I told her how sorry I was. I'll never forget how she sobbed against my shoulder," Solano said. "I don't know how long I held her there. I wanted her to know she wasn't alone."

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David Mendez @jdmendez.com · 23/06/2026

Solano did as instructed at a town hall by Rep. Pramila Jayapal: She took out her phone and started recording. The men pulled up their masks. Spooked, they left the woman alone and drove off. (One masked man, according to another woman's testimony, tipped his hat at her as he got into the car.)

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David Mendez @jdmendez.com · 23/06/2026

Sobs broke out of Nicole Solano's throat as she told her story. She, her husband, and some friends were visiting a bank on Saturday, June 20, when they watched multiple cars pull into the parking lot. Masked men cornered a woman outside her car, she said.

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David Mendez @jdmendez.com · 23/06/2026

Witnesses to an averted arrest of a woman by federal immigration agents shared their accounts, and demands for action, before the Shoreline City Council this evening.

A sign, posted at a median along Aurora Avenue North in Shoreline, near 175th Street NW, indicates where a person was arrested by federal immigration officials on June 20, 2026. The sign itself, in black text over a white background, reads "ICE abducted our neighbor here 6/20/2026." The word "abducted" is underlined in red.

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David Mendez @jdmendez.com · 21/06/2026

Tunisia is getting absolutely dogwalked at this point. (This statement could have been posted at any point in the match.)

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David Mendez @jdmendez.com · 12/05/2026

So, one thing about this avenue for funding the pool: by creating a metropolitan park district, Shoreline would only need a simple majority, greater-than-50%-of-votes-in-favor to pass. Per state law, a metropolitan park district can impose up to $0.75 per $1,000 annual assessed valuation.

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David Mendez @jdmendez.com · 12/05/2026

Making sure we're clear, the council won't be making a final decision tonight. Rather, it's expected to come back for a final vote at the council's June 1 council meeting.

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David Mendez @jdmendez.com · 12/05/2026

The former Shoreline Pool was built in 1971, was scheduled to shut down in 2021, but permanently closed early in 2020, during the height of the COVID pandemic. The 2019 measure would have built an aquatics, recreation and community center, replacing the Spartan Rec Center.

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David Mendez @jdmendez.com · 12/05/2026

Shoreline's Proposition 1 in 2019 won only 54.01% of the vote — well short of the 60% supermajority needed to pass. The 2019 measure would have added a levy of about $0.56 to every $1,000 of assessed value to one's annual property tax.

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David Mendez @jdmendez.com · 12/05/2026

Hey folks, we're back at Shoreline City Council! This week, they'll be discussing placing a measure on the Nov. 2026 ballot to set up a metropolitan park district to build and operate a regional swimming pool. Shoreline last asked voters to fund building a pool in 2019. That measure failed.

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David Mendez @jdmendez.com · 28/04/2026

And, just like that, it’s been approved unanimously! No surprise there, tbh. Little discussion, save for a statement by Councilmember Ademasu that’ll go into the writeup. Next, a study item discussing the city’s climate action plan

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