Jesse Franz
@jessefranz.bsky.social
830 followers 250 following 24 posts
Unfortunately, not heir to the Franz bread empire. Works for the Seattle City Council. Recovering news producer. Personal views here.
Posts Media Videos Starter Packs
jessefranz.bsky.social
Ichiro is warming up in the bullpen.
Reposted by Jesse Franz
councilmember-amr.bsky.social
The Council approved my amendment to the supplemental budget which will add $300K in legal defense for our immigrant neighbors!

This funding comes out of underspend from a jail contract. Transferring these funds to this urgent need facing community is a major win!
Reposted by Jesse Franz
amysundberg.bsky.social
The Seattle City Council just passed an amendment to the supplemental budget, offered by CM Rinck, adding $300k to legal defense for unaccompanied children facing detention and deportation, taken from underspend from the City's much criticized SCORE jail contract.
Reposted by Jesse Franz
amysundberg.bsky.social
The Seattle Shield Initiative has passed unanimously and will be on the Seattle ballot in November.
Reposted by Jesse Franz
councilmember-amr.bsky.social
Tomorrow afternoon Councilmember Hollingsworth and I will be restoring “Hot Rat Summer” in Cal Anderson Park. This mosaic was wrongfully painted over and we are going to fix it.
Mosaic of a patron saint rat with a sun behind it and a little heart. Below it states “Hot Rat Summer”
Reposted by Jesse Franz
ericacbarnett.bsky.social
I'm sitting in an unusually crowded meeting of the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission, which commissioner Kristin Hawes just said had an "unprecedented" amount of public comment—all of it against changes to the ethics code that would remove recusal reqiurements for councilmembers with conflicts
Reposted by Jesse Franz
mford.bsky.social
DOJ says the Civil Rights Division is investigating a new “anti-Catholic law” in Washington state that requires priests to report suspected child abuse or neglect:
The Justice Department today announced it has opened a civil rights investigation into the development and passage of Washington State Senate Bill 5375, signed into law on May 2, 2025, by Governor Bob Ferguson, which appears on its face to violate the First Amendment.

Washington State’s new law adds “members of the clergy” to a list of other professionals who are required to report information received in a confessional setting relating to child abuse or neglect to law enforcement or other state authorities, with no exception for the absolute seal of confidentiality that applies to Catholic Priests.

Furthermore, the State of Washington’s new law singles out “members of the clergy” as the only “supervisors” who may not rely on applicable legal privileges, including religious confessions, as a defense to mandatory reporting.

The Civil Rights Division will investigate the apparent conflict between Washington State’s new law with the free exercise of religion under the First Amendment, a cornerstone of the United States Constitution.

“SB 5375 demands that Catholic Priests violate their deeply held faith in order to obey the law, a violation of the Constitution and a breach of the free exercise of religion cannot stand under our Constitutional system of government,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “Worse, the law appears to single out clergy as not entitled to assert applicable privileges, as compared to other reporting professionals. We take this matter very seriously and look forward to Washington State’s cooperation with our investigation.”
Reposted by Jesse Franz
robertcruickshank.com
This was an excellent program that worked well and made people's lives easier. Government at its best. Of course Trump wants it gone.
moreperfectunion.bsky.social
BREAKING: The Trump administration plans to eliminate the IRS' Direct File program, an electronic system for filing your tax returns for free.
Reposted by Jesse Franz
typewriteralley.bsky.social
Happy e-bike rebate launch day to all who celebrate. The lottery portal is now open!
ebikeswsdot.aptim.com
Reposted by Jesse Franz
junlper.beer
tesla car vehicles will have more legal protections than trans people
jessefranz.bsky.social
National Parks, humanitarian aid, and civil rights are actually cool as hell. Thank you, federal workers. Hold the line.
Reposted by Jesse Franz
governorferguson.bsky.social
Very proud to announce the Department of Health will now process all requests to change gender designation on birth certificates within three business days. Previously, there was as much as a 10 month wait.
jessefranz.bsky.social
My landlord distributing fire blankets after being hounded by rental inspectors for a year and framing it as a Valentine’s Day present is WILD behavior.
Reposted by Jesse Franz
mlklabor.bsky.social
This is a huge deal for grocery workers and shoppers who fought tirelessly to make sure this disastrous mega-merger never happens.

@ufcw3000.bsky.social
Reposted by Jesse Franz
jessefranz.bsky.social
Ran into one of the new bosses today at Seattle City Hall. Seems pretty cool. @alexis4seattle.bsky.social
jessefranz.bsky.social
Thanks so much for all your work! No doubts y’all are on top of it.
jessefranz.bsky.social
66,990 CUSTOMERS?! Hope this power outage map is wrong. I’m watching it like Kornacki.
Power outage map
jessefranz.bsky.social
The outage map going out can’t be a good omen for this windstorm.
Reposted by Jesse Franz
robertcruickshank.com
Exactly this. As with Obama's presidency, Biden didn't deliver big enough, though he delivered more than Obama did.
donmoyn.bsky.social
"The issue is not that deliverism failed. It is that Democrats convinced themselves that they had delivered, without listening to the voters telling them they had not." From Annie Lowrey.
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
The Cost-of-Living Crisis Explains Everything
The economy under Biden looked good but felt bad.
www.theatlantic.com
jessefranz.bsky.social
FWIW: I think the main reason City of Seattle accounts aren't on here yet is because our public disclosure software doesn't connect to this site yet. We have a software that connects to the other sites and archives posts to more easily response to records requests. Hopefully that gets updated soon!
Reposted by Jesse Franz
fusewashington.org
Seeing more and more familiar faces in #Seattle news and politics on this site!

So we've updated our starter pack to include the new arrivals: @kromandavid.bsky.social @hannahkrieg.bsky.social @naomiishisaka.bsky.social! go.bsky.app/Tdxzvfr