Good Morning! The summery weather is back after a brief overcast break yesterday. Expect highs in the mid-60s with spotty cloud cover, and you can expect that over and over again for the next week or so. Soak up that vitamin D! Just remember to wear sunscreen. (More on that below.)
Let’s do the news.
Iran Is Still Mulling: As of Thursday morning, Iran still hasn’t responded to the American peace proposal, but there are signs of progress. While publicly one Iranian official called the proposal a “list of American wishes” and Trump literally threatened to start bombing the country again, everyone’s still talking to the Pakistani intermediaries behind the scenes, and those intermediaries say a deal seems to be coming “sooner rather than later.” In the meantime, both countries are still observing a ceasefire, and both countries claim to have control of the Strait of Hormuz.
FBI Gets to Keep Their Loot: Remember when the Feds seized 660 boxes of election records from Fulton County in Georgia earlier this year? Well, on Wednesday, a federal judge ruled that they can keep them. Judge J.P. Boulee, who was appointed by President Trump in his first term, did acknowledge that “the events leading up to this case are, in a variety of ways, unprecedented,” but he said that the county had not shown that the federal government had displayed “callous disregard” for the constitutional rights of the county. So just some sensitive, thoughtful disregard, then?
NYT Journalist Claims Discrimination: I’ll give you two guesses for his demographic details. This straight white man filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) alleging that the paper had discriminated against him by not giving him a promotion because he is a white male. And Trump’s EEOC jumped at the opportunity to file a lawsuit against the paper, claiming that the man was passed over for the deputy real-estate editor position despite meeting “all requirements” for the job. According to New York Magazine, the final candidate pool was a white female, a Black male, an Asian female, and a multiracial female. The multiracial female ultimately got the job even though “her experience did not meet all its stated basic requirements, including the job description’s stated requirement for experience with real estate journalism,” the complaint states. Sure.
The Children Are Too Pale: Or so says RFK Jr. Back in March, he apparently withdrew a proposed FDA rule that would have banned minors from using tanning beds, and would have required anyone using them to sign a form acknowledging that it increases their risk of skin cancer. Why does RFK want very tan children? Because people in the MAHA movement believe that regular sun exposure is a core principle of wellness, and social media influencers encourage people to stop using sunscreen and build up their “solar callus,” instead. I shouldn’t have to say this, but just in case: There is no such thing as a solar callus. Wear your sunscreen if you don’t want to look like RFK Jr. when you’re 45.
“Looksmaxxing” Influencer Livestreamed Himself Shooting at a Florida Alligator, Now Facing Charges: The headline basically says it all. The influencer’s handle is Clavicular, whose non-social media name is Braden Eric Peters. He and two of his influencer buddies are now facing misdemeanors for discharging a firearm in public.
Did you know Yu-Gi-Oh cards were still valuable? This guy did. A Texas man says he found almost a million dollars worth of rare Yu-Gi-Oh cards in a dumpster, and he’s been throwing the fandom into a tizzy while selling them online. Some people think he stole them, and 404 Media wasn’t able to confirm how he got his hands on the cards, but they did verify his bounty.
Wilson’s Shelter Bills March Forward: On Wednesday, Mayor Wilson’s bill to expand the size of temporary shelter sites passed its committee vote. The bill allows any location hosting tiny homes, vehicles, or other forms of temporary shelter to house up to 150 residents, up from 100. It also allows one site, Camp Second Chance, to house 250 people. This bill is the last of three bills meant to push Wilson’s shelter agenda: The first set aside $8 million in spending to set up and run 500 shelter beds this year (on top of about $9 million that the executive branch found in the couch cushions); and the second lifted the limitations on the size and cost of property that the city could rent. Now the countdown to the World Cup, when she hopes to have 500 new beds, begins.
Judge Rules Legal Act Still Legal: We have a latest chapter in our ongoing tale of rich people policing a queer beach. According to a court filing by Friends of Denny Blaine, the homeowners around the beach have hired private security to enforce the “clothed” section of the beach, and that private security repeatedly told beach-goers to cover up their torsos in the “clothed” section, and reported them to SPD if they didn’t. Apparently, no one told them that toplessness is generally legal in Washington state, because forcing people to cover up nips of one gender but not the other would be sex discrimination. A judge reminded them of that fact on Friday, so get those nips out.
Save Hopvine Pub: The beloved bar, pizza spot, and open mic host on 15th Avenue East has hit some hard times, thanks to the usual culprit of rising costs, and it needs to raise $50,000 to get through it. Their GoFundMe has already raised more than $12,000.
WSJ Should Get Our Name Out of Their Mouths: Their editorial board published an opinion complaining that voters “get no say” on our new Millionaires Tax, after a judge ruled this week that it can’t be challenged in a voter referendum. They wrung their hands about taxation without representation, but failed to mention that the most recent polling shows almost 60 percent support for the tax in Washington state. Even Tim Eyman acknowledged that the referendum would be “doomed.”
Man Charged in Northgate Rape Case: Earlier this week, a 15-year-old girl was waiting for her bus to school when a stranger approached her, asked for her age, and forced her into the woods nearby. According to the prosecutor’s office, he sexually assaulted her until she was able to break free, scream, and get the attention of a construction worker nearby. Joshua Kowalszewski, who prosecutors believe is the assailant, was charged with first-degree rape and second-degree kidnapping and is being held on a $1 million bond.
ICYMI: Earlier this week, Mayor Wilson lifted the city’s restrictions of AI use for their employees. Now, they’re allowed to use Microsoft Co-Pilot for “day-to-day tasks.” “We want to equip our teams with the tools they need to create, learn, and do their best work while having peace of mind that these tools won’t violate the public’s trust and privacy, harm the people we serve, or take away our employees’ jobs,” she said in the announcement. I, for one, would love to know that my city government isn’t using a “tool” that is known to lie, fabricate information, and do whatever it can to tell you what you want to hear.
Meanwhile: Nature just retracted a paper that claimed that ChatGPT had a positive effect on student learning.
Do you love print media? Well then do I have good news for you. Our May print issue is out in the world today. You can read about the SIFF films we couldn’t stop talking about, the arts we’re dying to check out this month, and a comprehensive history of the old Rite Aid building, which was once the Broadway Theater. Find it all over the city—here’s your treasure map.
