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It’s hot: There’s a heat advisory from the National Weather Service until 10 p.m., significantly increasing the risk of heat-related illness, particularly for pets, the old, the young, and anyone without water and AC. Save your jog for this evening, but if you have to be outside, take breaks inside or in the shade. Expect sun and a high near 87 today. We’ll cool down to the mid-70s tomorrow, the low 70s Thursday, and the high 60s with likely showers Friday.
Another Day, Another Primary Election Ballot Drop: Seattle mayoral candidate Katie Wilson holds 50.72 percent of the vote to Mayor Bruce Harrell’s 41.24 percent, widening her lead to more than 9 points in the latest drop.
Other Progressives Still Leading: With 58.42 percent of the vote, Dionne Foster is far ahead of City Council President Sara Nelson (35.36 percent). Erika Evans has 55.82 percent of the vote to City Attorney Ann Davison’s 33.43 percent. Alexis Mercedes Rinck has 78.28 percent of the vote.
The Man Bellevue Police Killed on Friday: Bellevue police say 60-year-old Patrick Sathyanathan shot at them with a “high-velocity air rifle” that shot “metal projectiles,” before they shot him in the head with a gun. As part of King County’s Independent Force Investigation Team, the State Patrol is on the case. Some high-velocity air rifles are used to hunt deer and small game, but it’s still unclear what kind of air rifle Sathyanathan had, or how powerful it was. According to The Seattle Times, the Bellevue Police Department did not release new details Monday.
Misidentified: King County Prosecutors dropped arson and murder charges against the 25-year-old Amazon software engineer police suspected of setting fire to a house in Wallingford. Letian Shi’s attorney alleges Seattle Police got the wrong man “based off a rushed and racist misidentification.” Seattle Times reporter Sara Jean Green talked to KUOW about the case yesterday.
Not a Drag Queen, Just Corruption: A new report from InvestigateWest and the Mercer Island Reporter found that the Mercer Island School District kept quiet about a longtime English and journalism teacher accused of pursuing one student and sexually abusing another years later. Read more here.
Another Day, Another Shooting: Three people are dead after a shooting at a Target in Austin, Texas. We’re not going to pass legislation to prevent this from happening. Here’s the last 72 hours of gun violence in America, tracked by the Gun Violence Archive.
Two Seattle Shootings Monday: Two men were shot and killed at Virgil Flaim Park in Lake City. Another man was seriously injured after he was shot in the parking lot behind a South Park bar.
Speaking of Things We Have the Power to Stop: Israel has starved five more Palestinians to death, according to Gaza’s health ministry. The agency attributes 222 deaths in the past three weeks to severe hunger.
Even More Good Supreme Court News: A Washington gun shop is asking the Supreme Court of the United States to review our state’s ban on high-capacity magazines, and Kim Davis, the ex-Kentucky clerk jailed for refusing to issue a marriage license to a gay couple, is appealing her case and asking the court to overturn Obergefell v. Hodges, the case that legalized same-sex marriage 10 years ago.
Nothing Surprising Here: President Donald Trump says he had to send the National Guard to DC. He had to exploit the Home Rule Act and had to seize control of the city’s police. There was a crime emergency (read: crime is down). I’ve heard and seen people call Trump a hypocrite for calling in the National Guard for this, and not on January 6. Trump is a proud, bold, and intentional liar. He coats the world in a slime of lies. Of course he is a hypocrite. January 6 was an insurrection, or a coup, depending on who you ask. In either case, it was for him. So of course he was cool with it. Like he was cool with sending the National Guard to Los Angeles, another city that did not need the National Guard, to scare people and flex his power. Like he was cool asking former Defense Secretary Mark Esper in 2020 if soldiers could shoot protesters outside the White House “in the legs or something?” While Esper wouldn’t do that, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth just might.
Soon to a City Near You! The Trump Administration is evaluating a Pentagon plan for a “Domestic Civil Disturbance Quick Reaction Force” composed of 600 National Guard troops ready to deploy to protests in American cities at all times, according to internal documents reviewed by The Washington Post. In these documents, National Guard officials wrote that through the Pentagon’s traditional budgetary process, this program could not be created and funded before 2027. It’s unclear if an alternative funding source could establish this program sooner, or if Defense Secretary Hegseth has seen this plan.
Smoke up, Folks: To distract our great nation from all the goosestepping and Jeffrey Epstein’s naughty list, Trump is floating the idea of kicking marijuana down from the list of Schedule I drugs like meth and heroin, to Schedule III with testosterone and Tylenol with codeine. Reclassifying pot wouldn’t #legalizeit, but would lessen criminal penalties and provide tax benefits to the pot industry, which has so generously poured millions into Trump’s political groups, according to The Wall Street Journal. This wasn’t Trump’s idea; it’s been in motion. President Joe Biden asked HHS and the DEA to review marijuana’s classification in 2022, and both agencies have since recommended this transfer.