Morning Fizz
Peaceful, Boisterous, and Playful
Caffeinated News & Gossip. Your daily morning Fizz
1. A troupe of 50 anarchist protesters dressed in black broke off from a crowd of about 500 protesters during yesterday's midday Occupy May Day march and smashed windows at businesses in the downtown corridor (mostly at banks, but hitting other spots as well such as American Apparel, Forever 21, and the Pro Shop). [pullquote]The SPD confiscated about 70 items including a corrugated metal portable barrier with jagged edges.[/pullquote]
Later in the day , however, after the mayor issued an executive order allowing the police to preemptively confiscate sticks and weapons (they eventually confiscated about 70 items including metal poles, sharpened sticks, a shield made from a plastic traffic barrier, and a corrugated metal portable barrier with jagged edges), two largely peaceful afternoon marches—an immigrants' rights march which came downtown from Judkins Park and a larger group of anti-Wall Street protesters from Westlake—converged at 4th Ave. downtown and headed to the Wells Fargo building which was ringed by bike cops. (All four downtown Wells Fargo branches had been vandalized earlier in the day.)
Fizz heard the occasional "Fuck You" shouted at the police from teenagers, and the SPD reported eight arrests at the evening march for assaulting officers), but the large crowd of approximately 3,000 was peaceful, boisterous, and playful, with one protester atop a parade float in the rain wielding a lasso and—playing the role of a Wells Fargo CEO—was casting his rope into the crowd to hog tie customers.
Erica got some pictures:
Awesome PI.com photographer Josh Trujillo (whose pepper spray photo of local 84-year-old protester Dorli Rainey became an iconic image of the Occupy protests last fall) has a photo gallery here ; Seattle Times coverage is here; Stranger coverage is here.
2. Speaking of May Day, 1st Congressional District candidate Laura Ruderman showed her workers' solidarity yesterday by posting a shout out to labor on her Facebook page, thanking unions for the last century of wins including the minimum wage, the eight-hour workday, workplace safety regs, and unemployment insurance.
It turns out, though, that when Ruderman was a state rep in 2003, she pissed off the Washington State Labor Council because she voted for unemployment insurance legislation that, according to WSLC leader Jeff Johnson, "decimated our unemployment insurance system."
Ruderman's campaign spokeswoman Liz Berry says Ruderman voted for the measure at the behest of the machinist union who told her "the vote was necessary to ensure that the 787 would be built in Everett."
However, the legislature repealed the reforms two years later (Ruderman was no longer in the legislature), because the new formula was hurting workers.
3. The city council's utilities committee moved forward legislation yesterday that will create new exemptions from a city law requiring restaurants to use compostable containers and serving implements, in response to complaints by some restaurant operators that compostable spoons, forks, knives, and other servingware tend to dissolve in hot liquids.
The change will allow restaurants to keep handing out single-use plastic forks, knives, and spoons, as well as throwaway condiment containers and straws.
4. Andrew Austin, the longtime field director at the Transportation Choices Coalition, announced yesterday that he's moving on to head up a new transit advocacy group in Washington, D.C. called Americans for Transit.
In a statement, Austin said the new organization's mission is "to create, strengthen, and unite groups that do grassroots transit rider organizing across the America," including groups like TCC. Fizz (a TCC member!) wishes Andrew the best of luck.
1. A troupe of 50 anarchist protesters dressed in black broke off from a crowd of about 500 protesters during yesterday's midday Occupy May Day march and smashed windows at businesses in the downtown corridor (mostly at banks, but hitting other spots as well such as American Apparel, Forever 21, and the Pro Shop). [pullquote]The SPD confiscated about 70 items including a corrugated metal portable barrier with jagged edges.[/pullquote]
Later in the day , however, after the mayor issued an executive order allowing the police to preemptively confiscate sticks and weapons (they eventually confiscated about 70 items including metal poles, sharpened sticks, a shield made from a plastic traffic barrier, and a corrugated metal portable barrier with jagged edges), two largely peaceful afternoon marches—an immigrants' rights march which came downtown from Judkins Park and a larger group of anti-Wall Street protesters from Westlake—converged at 4th Ave. downtown and headed to the Wells Fargo building which was ringed by bike cops. (All four downtown Wells Fargo branches had been vandalized earlier in the day.)
Fizz heard the occasional "Fuck You" shouted at the police from teenagers, and the SPD reported eight arrests at the evening march for assaulting officers), but the large crowd of approximately 3,000 was peaceful, boisterous, and playful, with one protester atop a parade float in the rain wielding a lasso and—playing the role of a Wells Fargo CEO—was casting his rope into the crowd to hog tie customers.
Erica got some pictures:
Awesome PI.com photographer Josh Trujillo (whose pepper spray photo of local 84-year-old protester Dorli Rainey became an iconic image of the Occupy protests last fall) has a photo gallery here ; Seattle Times coverage is here; Stranger coverage is here.
2. Speaking of May Day, 1st Congressional District candidate Laura Ruderman showed her workers' solidarity yesterday by posting a shout out to labor on her Facebook page, thanking unions for the last century of wins including the minimum wage, the eight-hour workday, workplace safety regs, and unemployment insurance.
It turns out, though, that when Ruderman was a state rep in 2003, she pissed off the Washington State Labor Council because she voted for unemployment insurance legislation that, according to WSLC leader Jeff Johnson, "decimated our unemployment insurance system."
Ruderman's campaign spokeswoman Liz Berry says Ruderman voted for the measure at the behest of the machinist union who told her "the vote was necessary to ensure that the 787 would be built in Everett."
However, the legislature repealed the reforms two years later (Ruderman was no longer in the legislature), because the new formula was hurting workers.
3. The city council's utilities committee moved forward legislation yesterday that will create new exemptions from a city law requiring restaurants to use compostable containers and serving implements, in response to complaints by some restaurant operators that compostable spoons, forks, knives, and other servingware tend to dissolve in hot liquids.
The change will allow restaurants to keep handing out single-use plastic forks, knives, and spoons, as well as throwaway condiment containers and straws.
4. Andrew Austin, the longtime field director at the Transportation Choices Coalition, announced yesterday that he's moving on to head up a new transit advocacy group in Washington, D.C. called Americans for Transit.
In a statement, Austin said the new organization's mission is "to create, strengthen, and unite groups that do grassroots transit rider organizing across the America," including groups like TCC. Fizz (a TCC member!) wishes Andrew the best of luck.
