touching off

It reminds me of when Kennedy Catholic High School in Burien ousted two gay teachers in the middle of the 2019-20 school year for the crime of getting engaged — touching off schoolwide protests.

Ford says in documents filed with U.S. safety regulators that fuel injectors can crack, and gasoline or vapor can accumulate near ignition sources, possibly touching off fires.

That suit caught the attention of prosecutors when it went to trial in 2019, touching off the criminal investigation.

That was also the year Seattle elected its first socialist — a heady time of concern about inequality, but also touching off a movement politics marked more by protest and purity than coalition-building and compromise.

Violence has also spread to the occupied West Bank, with Israeli raids touching off clashes with gunmen and people throwing stones.