Slog reader Doug Nellis sent in this photo yesterday. He said this Ride the Ducks vehicle was blocking the intersection at 3rd Avenue in downtown Seattle during rush hour. Who cares that 3rd Avenue is a bus-only corridor and that people are trying to get home from work? Doug says. Were tourists with kazoos rocking to Kool and the Gang!
Slog reader Doug Nellis sent in this photo yesterday. He said this Ride the Ducks vehicle was blocking the intersection at Third Avenue in downtown Seattle during rush hour. "Who cares that Third Avenue is a bus-only corridor and that people are trying to get home from work?" Doug says sardonically. "We're tourists with kazoos rocking to Kool and the Gang!" Doug Nellis

Seattle to Begin Crackdown on Intersection-Blockers: The city will carry out a publicity campaign this fall and begin citing drivers who block intersections with $136 tickets. In five separate intersections, city staffers have recorded more than 130 blockages per day, reports the Seattle Times.

SPD Describes Efforts to Catch Shooters: Assistant Chief Robert Merner told reporters on Tuesday that a string of recent murders is "really not a gang conflict... They have personal things going on with ex-girlfriends and so on.” There have been reports of gunfire in the Central District on an almost nightly basis, according to Capitol Hill Seattle, including last night after the SPD press conference. "SPD was out near 24th and Columbia following reports from multiple callers about gunfire in the area," the blog reports. "Callers reported hearing 9 or more shots. Police found no shell casings—and, fortunately, no victims."

Kent Police Identify Suspect in Shooting of 1-Year-Old Girl: Police say the suspect is already in custody stemming from separate criminal charges, KIRO reports. Malijha Grant was killed in a drive-by shooting in Kent four months ago.

Virginia Reporter and Cameraman Killed On-Air: Two reporters from a local TV news station were shot to death while on the air early this morning. "Alison Parker, 24, and Adam Ward, a 27-year-old cameraman, were covering a story at Bridgewater Plaza, a lakeside shopping and recreational sports plaza, when they were shot around 6:45 a.m.," the New York Times reports. As of right now, a massive manhunt is under way for the killer.

About Gun Violence: America has far and away more gun-related homicides than other developed countries, this data compiled by Vox shows. Why? "The US is an outlier on gun violence because it has way more guns than other developed nations... America has 4.4 percent of the world's population, but almost half of the civilian-owned guns around the world."

Another Crosswalk Painted African Colors: "A crosswalk in Rainier Beach was repainted with the Ethiopian colors green, yellow, and red early Monday morning," Goorish Wibneh reports for the Seattle Globalist. "This effort seems to be a continuation of the pan-African flag-themed paint jobs that happened in the Central District a few weeks ago... According to a notes posted nearby, the aim was to raise concerns about gun violence, gentrification and incarceration."

These glaciers are melting faster than theyve ever been.
These glaciers are melting faster than they've ever been. CrackerClips Stock Media/Shutterstock

Mount Rainier's Glaciers Are Melting Faster Than Ever: Geomorphologist Paul Kennard says glaciers on Rainier are melting six times faster than the historical rate. "Kennard says he walked to the edge of the famous Nisqually Glacier just this week and was shocked to see the terminus riddled with holes, like Swiss cheese," KPLU reports. "Normally it would melt more slowly, as a big block of ice does... I’ve just never seen anything like that in my history of working with Mt. Rainer glaciers." He said the mountain's glaciers are "important indicators of climate change... Because they’re up high, they get the effects much earlier than anywhere else."

Soldiers Are Fighting Climate Change in Central Washington: "As the market has failed to do anything meaningful about what the cultural theorist McKenzie Wark calls 'the carbon liberation front,'" Charles Mudede writes, "and as the situation becomes a graver and graver emergency, the state will have to translate the ecological disaster and a course of action into the military terms it best understands. It's sad to say this, but only war gives the state enough power to totally displace market dictates and discourses. Seattle has front-row seats to the future."

Somali Iftar Celebrations in Seattle ...are joyous affairs with plenty of food and appearances from local politicians (Kshama Sawant was the headliner) and cops (assistant police chief Robert Merner was there too). Eric Scigliano takes us along for the ride.

Four Times More Applications for Seattle Universal Preschool Than Spaces Available: The first year of Seattle's universal preschool program—which is far from universal, at this point—is two weeks away, and demand for the program is high: "280 children are enrolled," KING 5 reports. "Next year, the city plans to enroll 750 students. By 2019, when voters will be asked to support the program again, there is expected to be 2,000 children in 100 classrooms across Seattle."

Metro Is Redoing North Seattle Bus Stops: King County Metro is sending its blueprint for a revamped North Seattle bus system to the county council for approval. "Under the new plan," KUOW reports, "riders will have to walk farther to get to a stop. But once they get there, buses will come more often."