Good Morning! We’re getting a break from the heat today. Highs in the mid-70s, partly cloudy. The kind of perfect Seattle summer weather that convinces innocent bystanders to move here on a whim. Today’s the day to do all of the things you couldn’t bear to do in yesterday’s 90-degree heat, because it might be coming back later this week.
But to start, let’s do the news.
Seattle’s Proudest Bank Robber: Since June of last year, Seattle has had its very own serial bank robber, and we might finally know who it is. Leena Chang, a 24-year-old in the U District, has been charged with seven counts of first-degree robbery (and one attempt). According to the charging docs, she did a really solid impression of every bank robbery you’ve ever seen on TV: She wore a face mask, sunglasses, or hats, and passed handwritten notes to tellers requesting the cash in their drawers. She later began to carry “a hyper-realistic air soft gun,” the charging docs say. When police searched her home, they found clothes and accessories that matched ones from the robberies. They also found the notes she showed tellers (one says “Thanks in advance” at the bottom) and a painting that she’d made of her own FBI bulletin. “She LOVES that the FBI put out a bulletin on her,” the anonymous tip to police read, “and has never seemed (so, so) proud that the term SERIAL bank robber is what she is being considered.” We all cope with late-stage capitalism in our own ways.
Palantir Lockout: At least a hundred protesters from Jewish Voices for Peace blocked the entrance to the upper offices of Palantir in South Lake Union this morning, calling on Washington State to divest from the company. Earlier this year, the UN Human Rights Council found that the company was complicit in war crimes in Gaza, thanks to its software that allows the IDF to make automated decision making in the battlefield. And in case that wasn’t dystopian enough, Palantir has been a contractor for ICE since 2011, and just got a $30 million contract with ICE to build the totally normally named “ImmigrationOS,” a platform to provide real-time data on immigrants who are self-deporting. Stranger Staff Writer Vivian McCall is on the scene at the protest, so she’ll have more on this later.
Heat Kink: No, it’s not Gen Z’s sex-positive way to deal with climate anxiety. It’s yet another reason why our transit system could be struggling. As the metal tracks heat up (on, say, a 90-degree day in a region used to 75-degree weather), they can expand, causing them to warp or even buckle under the pressure. In hotter regions like Texas, it’s common for trains to have to run slower when the heat spikes, but SoundTransit seems confident that the rails are very good girls, I mean tracks, and trains will still get you where you need to go. “Not to brag,” Henry Bendon, a spokesperson for the transit agency, told KUOW, “but we have really nice track.”
Assassination Attemptiversary: This weekend, Trump acknowledged the anniversary of the shooting that clipped his ear and turned him into a would-be martyr for the far-right last summer. In an interview with Fox News, he pushed the narrative that surviving the shooting meant that his presidency was anointed by God. “A lot of things have happened since then, including the presidency,” he said. “So, I have an obligation to do a good job, I feel, because I was really saved, I was really saved by somebody very special.”
Save Public Broadcasting: Friday is the deadline for Congress to vote on the White House’s proposal to cut $500 million from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Last week, Trump threatened to withhold his support for any Republican lawmakers who oppose the proposal (democracy!) And while NPR and PBS have already said that it would be hugely damaging to their operations, for smaller stations across the country, it could be the end of their local journalism (more democracy!). Fuck that, call your reps.
Trump’s 180 on Ukraine: I guess Putin really isn’t Trump’s authoritarian crush anymore. Trump announced today that he’s sending missiles to Ukraine (through NATO), and Russia has 50 days to end the war, or they’ll see “very severe tariffs” from the United States. Your move, Vlad.
Debora Juarez Is Back, Maybe: City Councilmember Cathy Moore’s last day behind the dais was last Monday, and the list of qualified candidates to be appointed as a “caretaker” for the seat is in! It’s 22 people long, but we already have a presumed front runner: Former City Council President Debora Juarez. She was our first indigenous city council member, and spent two terms at the dais before deciding not to run for reelection in 2023. Ideologically, she’s historically been smack dab in the center of the current council, and the last time she ran, The Stranger’s Election Control Board was lukewarm on her: “While Juarez is not the SECB’s favorite member of the city council, and she’s hardly the best on police reform, and we really can’t believe we’re endorsing someone who’s also endorsed by the Amazon-funded PAC (she’s the one drowning in money in the illustration at the top of this article), she’s also a lot better than her competition.” City Council will whittle the list down to their finalists over the next week, but PubliCola reported that Juarez already has majority support in the City Council. If she’s appointed, she’ll be in Moore’s seat until next year’s election.
Auf Wiedersehen to Nazi Creek: How often do we get good news about authoritarian regimes these days? A creek in Alaska has carried the name “Nazi Creek” since World War II, a vestige of the US Military’s alphanumeric grid that it used to map the area (it was in the “N” square). After 70 years, the creek, which is on a far-western Aleutian Island, practically in Russia’s lap, is getting a new name: Kaxchim Chiĝanaa, which means “gizzard creek” in Unangam Tunuu, the Aleut language of the Indigenous Unangax̂ people.
Save the Orcas: It’s time to get our container ships some mufflers. The waters are too damn loud for our local orcas, and it’s making it hard for them to hunt. Container ships have voluntarily slowed down to 14.5 knots, but experts say they need to get down to 11 to stop messing up orcas’ echolocation. We don’t need any more orca calf heartbreak in these parts. Slow down.
A Good Week for Music: If you’re trying to plan your week, this is your week to show hop. Ghanaian highlife luminary Gyedu-Blay Ambolley will be at Tractor Tavern tomorrow. Or if you’re looking for a little 2000s nostalgia, Macy Gray’s 25th anniversary tour is coming through the Croc. Montreal’s TEKE::TEKE will be at Madame Lou’s on Wednesday.
Not sure if you wanna leave the house this Wednesday? Here’s the full TEKE::TEKE set at KEXP to help convince you.
