All bus routes… free? CHARLES MUDEDE

Craigslist gets sued: A woman from Western Washington has filed a lawsuit against the online marketplace and several hotels, alleging that they fully knew that their services were being utilized by people who were sex trafficking children. The hotel chains she has accused of this are Motel 6, Wyndham, and Howard Johnson. The woman says that she was forced into prostitution when she was 12 years old and was allegedly kept by a pimp at four hotel locations in South Seattle.

Active shooter at Naval Air Station Pensacola: A gunman opened fire Friday morning at the Florida base. Two people have been killed and 11 are injured. The gunman was also killed. This shooting comes just two days after a shooting at Pearl Harbor where two people were shot, one was wounded, and the killer killed himself.

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Washington workers rejoice: Starting in January, Washington State is giving all its workers up to 18 weeks of paid family leave. The range is 12 to 18 weeks, and you can start applying in January. Anyone who worked 16 hours a week (otherwise known as 820 hours) in 2019 is eligible.

Scientists are listening to the sea: Ocean gliders, technology out of the University of Washington, have revolutionized this experiment. The gliders are able to record the ocean from its depths to just above the surface. Scientists have a bunch of questions about sound in the sea. One big concern is if humans, with our boats and our freighters, have made the ocean too noisy.

Finally, some weather:

Kansas City goes fare-free: All bus rides are free in Kansas City as of Thursday’s city council vote. This makes Kansas City the first major American city with free public transit (the city’s light rail was already free). The free bus fare will cost roughly $8 million. Look, I don’t want to be pushy, but if Kansas City is doing it, why isn’t Seattle?

Gates Foundation CEO steps down: Dr. Susan Desmond-Hellmann was the first CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to come from outside of Microsoft. She had a background as a research scientist and physician. Desmond-Hellman was the third-ever CEO.

Jobs! An unprecedented 266,000 jobs were added in the United States in November. The end of the General Motors strike probably helped bolster that number. Unemployment was also down and came in at around 3.5 percent.

Heartwarming surveillance video: Look, this video is super-sweet, but Ring doorbell cams still weird me out! Anyway, this resident left out snacks and drinks for delivery drivers, and this guy’s reaction is so pure:

A measles “collective failure”: The World Health Organization is fuming over preventable measles outbreaks across the world. In 2018, nearly 10 million people were infected and 140,000 were killed. The dead were mostly children. According to WHO, 2019 is looking even worse.

I am being haunted by the Washington State troopers’ “Elf on a Shelf”: His name is Leo. He has a tiny little state trooper uniform. Look at his tight ass in those pants. I will pen an entire op-ed about this elf before the year is out. Trust me on this.

Texas is dangerous for pregnant women: This ProPublica report is a must-read. Texas is terrible when it comes to maternal mortality. One big factor that plays a role in that? The state’s lack of health insurance access.

Bonney Lake man pleads guilty to disrupting flight: He was on his way to rehab in California. He decided to use some meth before the flight, not exactly the best time to use meth. The plane had to be diverted to Portland when the man started pacing the aisle, yelling about someone having a gun, and exhibiting other symptoms of being on meth on an airplane. He’s expected to face four months of house arrest.

Chinese president and Thai king are “worst dressed”: According to British GQ magazine, China’s president Xi Jinping and King of Thailand Maha Vajiralongkorn deserve to have the fashion police called on them. The two world leaders made the list of 10 worst dressed men in the magazine. Except, in the online version, the list had just eight men, Xi Jingping and Maha Vajiralongkor weren’t included. British GQ said this was because they didn’t want to “cause unintended offense.”

NBC News tries to unionize: And someone created an anti-union Instagram page to try to deter staffers from joining the union. They went for a very minimalist, influencer aesthetic that is really boggling the ol’ brain right now. Is this an ad for hip lip gloss or being a fucking scab?

How… did this happen? “A man arrested in Russia is accused of building a fake border with Finland 15 miles from the real one and charging migrants $11,000 to cross it.”

A fun fact for your Friday: It’s illegal to hold a children’s beauty pageant in France. Anyone who enters a child younger than 16 years old into a beauty pageant could get up to two years in prison.

This weekend’s EverOut picks are: The Winter Beer Fest, the Dina Martina Christmas Show, and an Urban Craft Uprising market. See more on our EverOut Things To Do calendar.