Real Change

2 weeks ago | realchangenews.org | Guy Oron

Aggressive immigration enforcement by the new Donald Trump administration has begun in Washington state, with migrants subjected to increasing raids and detention at the hands of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The enforcement actions are a direct threat to the more than 300,000 immigrants living without regularized documentation in Washington.

2 weeks ago | realchangenews.org | Guy Oron

On April 4, Microsoft employees and their allies disrupted a high-profile 50th anniversary VIP celebratory event for the company, calling attention to the corporation’s contracting with Israel’s government and military forces. The activists argued that Microsoft’s renting out access to Azure, its cloud computing platform, is the digital equivalent of selling arms, thereby helping perpetrate war crimes against Palestinians in Gaza. They called on Microsoft to stop selling cloud services to Israel.

3 weeks ago | realchangenews.org | Guy Oron

On March 18, the Seattle City Council passed a new ordinance to redesignate several blocks near the city’s baseball and football stadiums as fit for housing, allowing the potential construction of hundreds of new homes there. The rezoned strip of land is located on the border between SODO and the southern downtown neighborhoods of Pioneer Square and the Chinatown-International District. In 2023, it was reclassified as “urban industrial,” allowing for a mix of commercial and light industrial uses.

3 weeks ago | realchangenews.org | Guy Oron

Seattle’s Human Service Department (HSD) has reversed course on the denial of a permit for Nickelsville’s Brighton Village. The proposed tiny house village, which would contain 15 units of shelter for homeless people, was cancelled in August 2024. On March 5, Real Change reported that the city’s decision to pull the permit was made after complaints from around a dozen neighbors in the Rainier Valley area in southeast Seattle.

1 month ago | realchangenews.org | Oscar Castaneda

An estimated 32,000 people have been deported since the new administration has taken power. In an interesting twist, this number is in fact lower than it was at this time last year under the previous administration.