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Clankers: If you need another excuse to go Sarah Connor mode, starting January 1, Washington will be one of six states participating in a new federal AI-assisted Medicaid program called “Wasteful and Inappropriate Service Reduction.” Until now, our state’s Medicaid recipients didn’t need prior authorization (permission) for most services. But the magic of Artificial Intelligence will help determine whether or not they qualify for services like pain management, cervical fusion, arthroscopic knee surgery, and impotence treatment.

Democratic US Sen. Chris Van Hollen on Monday became the latest lawmaker to champion Medicare for All as the best solution to the country’s healthcare woes as tens of millions of Americans face soaring private insurance premiums.

Washington state lawmakers next year hope to rein in law enforcement’s use of automated license plate readers amid revelations federal immigration authorities are using the data.

As bipartisan criticism intensifies over U.S. attacks on alleged “drug boats” in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, the White House is defending a September 2 operation that killed 11 people. The Washington Post reports Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered a second attack to kill two survivors of an initial strike, an order that legal experts say would constitute a war crime.

Donald Trump’s hateful, falsehood-filled rant on Thursday blaming immigrants for crime, “social dysfunction” and economic hardship is refuted by a wide range of immigration statistics, which show clearly that immigrants dramatically bolster the US economy and commit crimes at far lower rates than people born in the US.

A new Trump administration policy would force the country to disinvest from an evidence-based approach to homelessness dominant for over two decades, a move that could push 4,500 formerly homeless Seattleites back onto the street. Now, Washington State Attorney General Nick Brown is suing HUD with 20 other states for control of our federal homelessness dollars.

AMY GOODMAN: This is a very strong message to the entire country. It’s not only Republicans who were organized against Mayor Mamdani. It’s the Democratic Party, as well. What are your thoughts on that?

FAHD AHMED: Yeah. You know, in our work, we talk about… the policies of the centrists, whether they’re Democrats or some of the old Republicans, that created the conditions that caused the rise of the right. When people’s needs aren’t being met, they need an alternative, and so far, only the far right was providing an alternative in the form of authoritarianism, in the form of fascism, in the form of hate, turning against immigrants, against queer people, against Muslims. And what this campaign and our movement was able to do was offer a left alternative.

ICE arrested Juan's uncle in late October, on a freeway on-ramp while he was on his way to work early in the morning, around 5 a.m. Juan said his uncle’s arrest — and that of several others — sent a chill through the neighborhood.

A day after his uncle's arrest, Juan said he was stopped by law enforcement on the freeway in the middle of the road. He describes four cars surrounding him, and slowing down to a stop on the freeway. He believes it was ICE. He suspects they followed him from his uncle's neighborhood and were waiting for him the next day.

Protests have erupted in North Carolina after federal agents arrested 370 people in immigration raids. On Monday, Bishop William Barber and other religious leaders gathered in Charlotte to demand an end to ICE raids. “​​What you have is a conglomerate of policy violence, and it’s deadly,” says Barber, who is organizing protests against ICE and Medicaid cuts across the country.

A U.S. Army helicopter pilot named Hugh Thompson Jr. may be the greatest American hero you’ve probably never heard of. On March 16, 1968, Thompson—a warrant officer serving in Vietnam—and his crew were dispatched to support a “search and destroy” mission supposedly targeting the Viet Cong in a tiny hamlet called My Lai.

Instead, the Georgia-born soldier came up upon arguably the most notorious war crime in U.S. history—with thatch hutches ablaze and countless villagers, including women and children, laying dead or dying in an irrigation ditch.

A generation after Thompson’s death, the kind of bold action he took that day in 1968 — disobeying what he correctly understood as an illegal order—is yet again on America’s front burner. This time, the debate is fueled by a video from six veterans who now serve as Democrats in Congress―reminding today’s soldiers about their sworn duty to disobey unlawful commands.

That every expert in military law agrees with this principle hasn’t stopped President Donald Trump or his defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, from going ballistic—calling the Democrats “traitors” or even reposting calls for their death by hanging.

Eight days after the election, Seattle declared that [Katie] Wilson would be the next mayor of Seattle.

“I am a community organizer, and I will not stop being a community organizer when I step into the mayor’s office,” she said in the hours after Bruce Harrell, the outgoing mayor, conceded. “I want a city where everyone has the basics of a dignified life, including healthy food, access to healthcare and supportive communities.”

On Central Avenue in Charlotte, North Carolina, Manolo’s Bakery has become a focal point for resistance to the upscaled immigration raids since border patrol officers descended on the city at the weekend. The owner closed the bakery to prevent his staff from being targeted. Most of the other shops on Charlotte’s busy immigrant-centric street followed suit.

Dozens of people have taken up camp in the parking lot to wave signs of support for immigrants. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have been active in the city for months as part of Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda but things went up a level when border patrol arrived. Agents swiftly began buzzing through the place to make an armed show of their presence, followed at times by Charlotteans honking their horns in warning.

Gerardo Ortiz is Puerto Rican, which is to say, a born American with a Spanish accent, which was good enough for ICE and border patrol, it seemed. Protesting with the group, Ortiz said, he was picked up twice by federal agents prowling Charlotte’s streets this week while they looked to capture undocumented immigrants.