Those Hazy, Crazy Days of Summer: The air quality sucks, the sun looks like the fireball it actually is, and the summer breeze feels like soup. Seattle has smoke from at least six wildfires hanging over us right now, and the experts say we should take the usual precautions: close your windows, run an air purifier (if you have one), and avoid physical activity outdoors. It sucks, but it’s not for long. Showers should help clear the smoke over the weekend. Happy Fire Season!
New Pigskin: Seeing the Seahawks at Lumen Field? Your seatmate could be an undercover cop. The Seahawks announced on Thursday that cops will be wearing opposing teams’ jerseys in the crowd during home games this season to try to catch fans violating the stadium’s code of conduct. Turns out, though, this was just a friendly reminder. The Seahawks have had undercover cops in the crowd since 2012. Don’t get wasted and throw a dildo on the field and you should be fine.
Hate Crime in Capitol Hill: According to Capitol Hill Seattle Blog, SPD is investigating a hate crime on the Hill that happened on Tuesday night on 11th and Union. Witnesses reported that five or six young men assaulted a group, yelling anti-trans slurs. Fortunately, the victims’ injuries were minor, but cops say they don’t have much to go on to ID the assailants.
In Case You Didn’t Know What the Pentagon Does: Trump is expected to sign an executive order on Friday changing the name of the Department of Defense to the Department of War. “Words matter. Titles matter. Cultures matter. And George Washington founded the War Department,” said television personality and future Secretary of War Pete Hegseth. (The same man who renamed a ship because it sounded too gay. Because words matter.) As usual, it’s not clear if Trump actually has the authority to do this. It’s probably Congress’ job.
Showing His War Face: Unfortunately, this is more than just Trump wanting to feel like a Big Boy. We stopped calling it the Department of War as the threat of nuclear war escalated. According to David E. Sanger from the New York Times, it’s “more than just a throwback, a restoration of tough-guy nomenclature. At a moment when deterrence is more critical than ever…Mr. Trump argues that the answer is to go back to the good old days.” Of looming nuclear war. The good old days of looming nuclear war.
Diplomacy at Its Finest: Just one week after Trump hosted the South Korean president and got him to pledge to invest $150 billion into the US, immigration agents arrested 475 mostly South Korean people at a construction site for a Hyundai lithium ion battery plant in Georgia on Friday morning. The battery manufacturer, LG Energy Solution, co-owns the plant with Hyundai and told the New York Times that employees of both companies, including executives, had been taken into custody.
Bad News for Needlephobes, Good News for Needlephiles: While Washingtonians were trying to figure out who they had to lie to for their next COVID vaccine this fall, the Washington State Health Department decided to do us a solid. According to a standing order signed by the State Health Officer, anyone in our state can get vaccinated without consulting their doctor. The order provides legal cover to pharmacists after RFK Jr.’s Department of Health and Human Services riskily restricted access for anyone who isn’t deemed “high risk.” If you’re worried your local pharmacy will deny you a shot, the state health department suggests bringing along a physical, printed copy of the order to your appointment.
Meanwhile, in DC: RFK Jr. tried to defend his wildly dangerous decisions to reduce access to the COVID vaccine and fire the head of the CDC in a three hour Senate hearing. He continued to spew anti-vax pseudo-science, and claim that masking was harmful to our children. But my personal favorite moment was when Sen. Maria Cantwell looked him in the eye and said, “Sir, you’re a charlatan.” (If you’re wondering, she voted against his confirmation.)
Eat the Rich: Tesla just proposed a compensation package that could make Elon Musk the world’s first trillionaire. I don’t want to talk about it.
2A for All? On Thursday, the DOJ announced that their senior officials are considering limiting transgender Americans’ Second Amendment rights because a person who identified as transgender at one time shot up a Catholic school in Minneapolis last week, killing two kids and injuring 21 people. We asked the NRA if it plans to defend trans people’s right to bear arms as voraciously as they’ve defended our access to assault weapons, or the right to buy a gun from a dude in a garage without getting a background check. They haven’t replied to our email.
The Whistleblower Blues: The former head of our state’s juvenile detention system claims she was fired in retaliation for repeatedly warning that state’s youth prisons were overcrowded, and she’s filed a multimillion dollar lawsuit saying just that. For five years, Felice Upton oversaw the state’s two youth jails, Green Hill School in Chehalis and Echo Glen Children’s Center in Snoqualmie, until April, when she says she was fired without explanation. During those years, state law changed, and the Department of Children, Youth and Family Services started placing young adults up to 25-years-old in youth detention. The population in the detention centers, unsurprisingly, ballooned. And Upton says that she was fired for saying as much. The state denies it. Meanwhile, just last week, a Washington appeals court ruled that conditions at Green Hill violated state law because kids were being forced to pee in jugs and go weeks without mental health counseling.
Grief Is a Hell of a Drug: Joseph Emerson, the off-duty Alaska Airlines pilot who tried to cut the engines in a passenger flight in 2023, reached a plea deal with prosecutors on Thursday. Emerson told police he was coping with a friend’s recent death and had taken shrooms two days before the flight. He then didn’t sleep for over 40 hours and got on that plane. When he tried to cut the engines, he believed he was dreaming, and was trying to wake himself up by grabbing two red handles that cut off fuel to its engines.
Fall Arts Is Here! The Stranger’s fall arts issue is finally out in the world. You can read about Fantasy A’s newest film project, an artist making free-range neon, a new and exciting jazz scene, and so much more. You can read more about it online, but I think you should pick it up out in the world. Who doesn’t want to hold 90 pages of Seattle arts in their hands?
If you were at Bumbershoot last weekend, you might have gotten to see the dazzling Janelle Monae on stage, but she didn’t play this groove and a half from Dirty Computer, so let’s enjoy it here.
