A Case for Layers: Today will be partly sunny with a high near 82. Tonight, we’ll drop into the low 60s. Same story on Saturday, Sunday, and Labor Day.
WA Lawmakers Speak Out Against Firefighter Arrests: Yesterday, ICE agents hauled off two immigrants fighting the Bear Gulch fire on the peninsula, currently the largest wildfire in the state. Gov. Bob Ferguson is “deeply concerned.” Rep. Emily Randall (D-Bremerton) posted “THIS IS NOT MAKING AMERICA SAFER.” Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Seattle) said it was cruel, the Seattle Times reports.
Devilish Eggs: Salmonella-tainted eggs have sickened at least 95 people in 14 states including Washington. California’s Country Eggs LLC has halted production and recalled large, brown, cage-free (salmonella-added) “sunshine yolks” and “omega-3 golden yolks.” If they’re in your fridge (cartons “contain the code CA 7695 and have sell-by dates of July 1 through Sept. 16,” the AP reports), toss ’em at your nearest federal agent and be known as “egg guy” forever.
Get Light Railed (the Federal Way): Sound Transit says the trains will start rolling to Kent Des Moines, Star Lake, and Federal Way starting December 6. Between 18,000 and 23,000 passengers are expected to board at the new downtown stations. The tracks and stations cost $2.5 billion (a good chunk came from grants and the federal government, when it still funded shit).
They Didn’t Thrift This: A raid on a south Seattle pawn shop turned up a heap of jewelry that police say was stolen from several celebrities and athletes, including a custom Sounders MLS Cup ring and a Seahawks ring taken from Macklemore’s Capitol Hill home in June. The “primary” robbery suspect was arrested in Renton last week. The pawn shop owner is under investigation for trafficking stolen property and was booked in King County jail. Prosecutors say Macklemore’s children were sleeping during the robbery, but burglars restrained and bear-sprayed their nanny before she bit one of their hands, escaped through the bathroom, and called for help.
ICYMI: The very first thing that comes up when you Google “Joe Fain” KUOW is this 2018 headline: “‘You raped me.’ Former Seattle official accuses Washington state Sen. Joe Fain of rape.” Now he could be elected to the station’s Board of Directors. I reported on it here.
Know the Playbook: Christian supremacist musician Sean Feucht is coming to town and he doesn’t just want to play guitar. He wants to play you! For The Stranger, writer Kate Burns lays out how the rage machine works.
Jesus Fucking Christ We’re All Going to Die of Preventable Disease: Jim O’Neill, a biotech investor who is not a physician, will be new acting head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. O’Neill, deputy secretary at Health and Human Services and ally to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and tech billionaire Peter Theil, takes over after CDC officials resigned because they didn’t want to be party to dangerous anti-vaccine policy. O’Neill says he supports vaccines, but so does RFK Jr., who definitely doesn’t, so we’ll have to watch what O’Neill actually does. Hopes are not high. RFK Jr. and his minions fetishize a “natural” healthy world that doesn’t exist. Nutrition is good, but take medicines away and people hack, gasp, cough, shake, and shit themselves to death. That’s just how it works.
CDC Employees Walk Out: Generally speaking, people who work at the center where they control and prevent diseases like controlling and preventing disease. Workers staged a “clap out” Thursday to applaud the senior leaders who resigned.
White House Will Invade Chicago From Nearby Naval Base: The Trump administration could send 200 homeland security officers to the base ahead of an immigration crackdown. Documents suggest its planning a sustained operation, possibly for the month of September, again using military resources for domestic law enforcement, The New York Times reports. Trump said after Chicago, they’ll “help” with New York. Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, who is, like Gavin Newsom, a steely Trump critic (but unlike Newsom, not a self-serving blowhard staging a presidential run like a Hollywood production) warned Trump not to send National Guard troops to his state.
Israel Bombards Gaza City: Foreign ministers in Ireland, Spain, Norway, Slovenia, Iceland, and Luxembourg have released a joint statement condemning Israel’s new offensive. Israel has killed at least 51 Palestinians since dawn, including aid seekers and several people in the al-Mawasi area, “a so-called ‘humanitarian zone,’” Al Jazeera reports. Gaza’s health ministry says Israel has killed over 63,000 Palestinians. At least 322 have died of starvation, the ministry says.
Israel Asks Global Hunger Monitor to Retract Accurate Report: The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) found a quarter of Palestinians in Gaza are experiencing famine, a number likely to rise by the end of September. Israel told the IPC in a letter that its findings were inaccurate and biased toward Hamas. The IPC didn’t answer this letter.
Trump ends Harris’ Secret Service Protection Early: Under federal law, presidents get a lifetime of Secret Service, VPs usually get it for six months. But before leaving office, Biden signed an order extending Harris’ security detail for an additional year. Her protection now ends on September 1. She’s about to embark on a public, national book tour for A Master Class in Losing in 107 Days, CNN reports.
Frisk This Guy for Poison Vials: Vice President JD Vance says President Trump is definitely fine, but he’s ready to step in if his health fails. I mean, yeah … that is what a Vice President is for… and Trump is the oldest man to ever assume office … but also, why say this to one of America’s largest newspapers, USA Today, which noted Trump’s swollen, veiny, blood sausage legs, even if they ask? Like Vance, it’s just weird. The part that makes me laugh though, is that Vance told the paper he’s gotten “a lot of good on-the-job training “over the last 200 days.” Buddy, obviously standards are low right now, but after 200 days, they wouldn’t let you run a Quiznos with a failing health rating.
— Tim Onion (@bencollins.bsky.social) August 28, 2025 at 3:46 PM
Oh: The family of a Texas man basically cremated alive in his Cybertruck is suing Tesla for wrongful death caused by their tinderbox of a car (the inferno hit 5,000 degrees, partially disintegrating his bones). When Michael Sheehan, 47, crashed his car into a culvert near Houston, the battery failed. Because the doors are electrically operated, and the manual releases are hard to find in an emergency, Sheehan was effectively sealed inside, the lawsuit alleges.
Nathalie recommends this long read: The headline says it all: Sixteen Hours With a Texas Woman Seeking Legal Abortion, from Texas Monthly.
