Impeachments, inaugurations, and vaccine troubles this week

Bill Radke reviews the week's news with Geekwire contributing editor Monica Nickelsburg, The Stranger staff writer Jasmyne Keimig, and Q13 correspondent Brandi Kruse.

This week, President Trump was impeached in the House for a second time. But what made this time different is that ten Republicans voted in favor of that impeachment, including Southwest Washington's Jamie Herrera Butler, and central Washington's Dan Newhouse. Previously, both representatives had voted for President Trump, and Representative Newhouse has signed onto a brief in support of an effort to overturn President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in the November election. So what changed?

House majority leader Mitch McConnell has said the Senate won't hold their impeachment trial until after the inauguration. Meanwhile, the FBI is warning of violence leading up to that inauguration. Locally, Governor Inslee has extended increased security measures at the capitol until after the event. At the same time, the legislature is debating a proposal to ban several police tactics and techniques. Including: chokeholds, neck restraints, the use of tear gas and the use of military-grade equipment. The measure would also prohibit no-knock warrants, most police chases and shooting into moving cars. Will the recent violence at the US Capitol and the Governor's Mansion make lawmakers more likely to reject the proposal?

Following the pro-Trump attack on the US Capitol, Mike Solan, the president of the Seattle Police Officers Guild tweeted “Far right and far left are responsible for that sad day." He also retweeted a right-wing blogger who said “an extreme BLM activist” was among those in the pro-Trump mob. Most City Council members have called on him to resign, as did Mayor Durkan. So far he has refused to do so. Will this refusal harm the Seattle Police Department's relationship with local government and Seattle residents?

Meanwhile, while the President of the Police Officers Guild can still tweet, the President of the United States cannot. President Trump was banned from Twitter last week. That same week the conservative social media network Parler was removed from Amazon's web-hosting service for inadequately policing content on the site. Should tech companies be in charge of deciding who has a voice online?

Plus, this week, the Trump administration reversed course, saying it would release the second doses of the COVID vaccine, instead of holding them back to make sure people got both of their required shots. However, this morning we found out there is no reserve. For at least the last two weeks the Trump Administration had stopped holding back the second doses, instead taking doses right off the production line, shipping them out, and hoping supply will keep up. Where does this leave Washington's vaccine plans?

Finally, 2020 was tied with 2016 for the hottest year on record. And Washington, British Columbia, and Oregon were part of the problem. All three had previously promised to significantly reduce their emissions of greenhouse gasses by 2020. Instead, between 2013 and 2018, emissions rose by about 5, 6, and 7 percent. What went wrong here?