State Department Firings Today: Today the State Department is firing more than 1,300 employees, according to the AP. Layoff notices are going out to “1,107 civil servants and 246 foreign service officers with domestic assignments in the United States.” Back in May, the State Department said they’d be cutting 18 percent of jobs to, as the Trump administration wrote in a memo obtained by the AP, “to reshape American diplomacy and scale back the size of the federal government.”
Still Talking Tariffs: Trump is still obsessed with tariffs, like a toddler who just learned a new word. This week, the administration threatened to raise several rates to absolutely bonkers levels if the countries didn’t fall in line and accept his initial tariff rates proposed in April. (Remember that big dumb sign he had made? What an idiot.) He says he’s going to impose a 25 percent tariff on Japan and South Korea, a 35 percent tariff on all Canadian goods, and a 50 percent tariff on products from Brazil. That last one is because he’s mad about the “witch-hunt” trial against former president Jair Bolsonaro, btw. (Remember when they said women were “too emotional” to be in office? Sigh.) The Guardian has a handy explainer if you want to feel like you’re punching yourself in the brain over and over and over again with a fistful of nails.
Suspended Secret Service: Six Secret Service agents have been suspended without pay for a range of 10 to 42 days after an “official disciplinary review process” of the shooting at Donald Trump’s campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. The Biden-ordered independent review of the shooting found that Secret Service personnel at the event demonstrated “a troubling lack of critical thinking.” It’s contagious.
Trump’s Going to Texas: I wonder if he’ll look at all the catastrophic flood damage, in which more than 100 people died and 150 people are still missing, and boast about his plans to “phase out” FEMA.
Potential Mass Overdose in Baltimore: At least 25 people were hospitalized in Baltimore, in serious or critical condition, after a suspected mass overdose. All the incidents happened near the same road intersection, and officials haven’t yet named any suspected substances. Please carry Naloxone or Narcan! The People’s Harm Reduction Alliance will send you some for free! The Washington State Health Department has info on where to find it locally, too.
Get ‘Em, Mahmoud: Now that Mahmoud Khalil has been released from 104 DAYS in ICE detention, he has filed a $20 million claim against the Trump administration, claiming he was “falsely imprisoned, maliciously prosecuted and smeared as an antisemite as the government sought to deport him over his prominent role in campus protests.” Gonna be hard to prove it didn’t happen since the whole world watched it play out!
John Wilson’s Out: John Wilson has suspended his campaign for King County Executive. “FUCKING FINALLY,” The Stranger’s newsroom cheered upon hearing the news. For months, Wilson has been accused of stalking and harassing his ex, and was arrested last week outside his ex-fiancée’s home for allegedly violating a restraining order. Last month the King County Council voted unanimously to call for him to step down.
We Got an Electric(ish) Ferry! Washington’s first hybrid-electric ferry, the Wenatchee, set sail yesterday. It’s been out of commission for the past two years, having its two diesel engines replaced with “two new engine-driven generators, 864 batteries capable of 5.7 megawatt-hours of energy storage.” That sounds like a lot! I don’t know anything about batteries! But at this point, there are no charging facilities at our ferry docks, so the ferry is gonna run like a hybrid car, on diesel fuel until 2029. It should reenter service next week.
Save Little Red Hen! Green Lake bar Little Red Hen—which is 92 years old!!!—may have to close at the end of the month. Property owner Ruoxi Zhang sent a notice to the bar’s owner, Dominic Shim, demanding that the Hen “vacate and surrender the premises to landlord on or before July 31, 2025.” We love the Little Red Hen! In our city guide—101 Things to Do in Seattle—Nathalie Graham says it’s the best place to “line dance your pants off.” Shim is fighting to stay. Visit savethehen.com to see how you can help.
In Better Small Business News: Pitch the Baby, Seattle’s newest women’s sports bar, (soft) opens today!
Say Their Names, Say Their Names: Six Seattle cops who participated in the January 6 “Stop the Steal” rally are still fighting to keep their names hidden after a Seattle resident, Sam Sueoka, requested their names in a 2021 public disclosure request. Now Sueoka’s lawyer, Neil Fox, is asking the judge to “hold the four officers in contempt and levy daily financial sanctions against them” until they identify themselves in court documents. (In 2021, DivestSPD, a grassroots police watchdog group, found the officers’ names, and the Urbanist reported on it here. Two of the six, married couple Alexander Everett and Caitlin Rochelle Everett, were named after they were fired for their actions on January 6.) Only cowards don’t put their name on their shit.
Happy 7/11 Day! Don’t forget to get your free Slurpee.
