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Here Comes the Heatwave: Temperatures will stretch into the mid-80s Friday and could brush up against 90 degrees on Saturday. Summer isn’t over yet. Make sure you check which beaches are safe to swim in this weekend. Madison Park Beach has a high bacteria alert. Mount Baker Beach is dealing with a sewage spill. Yuck.
Tinderbox Weather: This weekend’s hot, dry weather is bad news for firefighters trying to stop the spread of the Bear Gulch fire that’s burned up 8,300 acres on the north edge of Lake Cushman so far this summer. As of this week, the fire was only 11 percent contained. The coming heat could allow the fire to grow.
Monsanto Settles: Everyone’s least favorite agrochemical and biotechnological company, Monsanto, settled with parents, students, and teachers at Monroe’s Sky Valley Education Center after a seven-year-long legal battle. The plaintiffs alleged the fluorescent lights and building caulking in the school were riddled with cancer-causing chemicals known as polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs. They said the PCBs caused 200 of them to experience serious illness and alleged Monsanto knew about the dangers of the chemicals but didn’t tell the public. This case could be the largest PCB settlement concerning a contamination at a single site. While the dollar amount of the settlement remains confidential, the Seattle Times reports Monsanto’s parent company, the German-owned Bayer, “set aside 530 million euros, or about $618 million, for Sky Valley settlements and litigation costs.”
Atrocities Continue: Israel killed at least 71 Palestinians and injured 251 others in the last 24 hours. Of the dead, 24 were seeking aid. Additionally, two more Palestinians died from starvation. Al Jazeera reports the total count of hunger related deaths in Gaza is 273, including 112 children.
BREAKING: At least 71 Palestinians, including 24 aid seekers, have been killed in Israeli attacks across Gaza in the latest 24-hour reporting period, says Gaza’s Health Ministry.
🔴 LIVE updates: aje.io/r3s7v3
— Al Jazeera English (@aljazeera.com) August 22, 2025 at 6:22 AM
FBI Makes House Call at Bolton Residence: The FBI dropped by former Trump national security advisor John Bolton’s house to search it as part of an investigation into the mishandling of classified information. Bolton served Trump during his first term and then became a staunch critic. He’s now a Trump foe. This raid on his house might be the most direct, targeted move from the Department of Justice against one of Trump’s political enemies. Sounds like an abuse of power to me, but what do I know?
Is This Another Misdirection Tactic? Is the dramatic Bolton raid a means to distract from the fact that the first wave of the Epstein files is being sent to Congress today? Nah. Couldn’t be that. Could it?
DeSantis Paints over Pulse Memorial: In his latest anti-LGBTQ move, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis ordered the erasure of the rainbow crosswalk outside Orlando’s Pulse night club where a gunman killed 49 people in 2016. The crosswalk was a memorial to those lives lost. Apparently, the state paved over the memorial in the middle of the night. Orlando mayor Buddy Dyer called it a “cruel political act.”
Colorado Coroner’s Creepy Body Room: During a routine inspection, inspectors with the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies found Pueblo County’s coroner Brian Cotter hid bodies in a secret room of his private funeral home. Upon arrival, inspectors noted a “strong smell of decomposition.” Then, they spotted a door obscured by a cardboard display. When they went to open it, Cotter asked them not to go in there. They did. Inside they found “bodies in various states of decomposition.” Some had been there for as long as 15 years. Cotter said they were awaiting cremation.
ICYMI: On Thursday, ICE arrested Muhammad Zahid Chaudhry, a Pakistan-born US army veteran, and the husband of a former Washington congressional candidate, Melissa Chaudhry. He was taken into ICE detention during a citizenship interview in Tukwila. The Stranger‘s Vivian McCall has the story.
“Crap hole Cities”: Donald Trump Jr. hopped on Newsmax to evangelize about the deployment of federal troops and agents in Washington D.C. In doing so, he suggested the government “should roll out the tour to Portland, Seattle… other crap hole cities.”
Donald Trump Jr on Trump’s DC takeover: “Maybe we should roll out the tour to Portland, Seattle, the other what we’d call craphole cities of the country.”
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) August 22, 2025 at 6:01 AM
Bye, Alligator Alcatraz: A judge ordered the dismantling of the Florida concentration camp immigration detention center in Florida because the state and federal government circumvented the environmental review process when constructing it. No more detainees can be sent to the facility, the order states, and the state and the federal government have 60 days to move everyone out and begin dismantling the site.
A Long Read: DOGE and Elon Musk targeted Mohammad Halimi on Twitter, falsely misrepresenting the work he did for a US-funded non-profit to counter the Taliban and help Americans understand Afghanistan. Due to his career spent in opposition to the Taliban—which he used to work for in the 1990s before switching allegiances to help the US after 9/11—Halimi’s work was highly sensitive. By exposing him, Musk made him a target. Because of DOGE, Halimi’s family was taken by the Taliban.
Something for Your Friday: Here is the YouTube yoga video I do every time my neck and shoulders rebel against my own body (this happens more than I would like). I’ll be doing it this morning.
