All of our brains while reading the Mueller report.
All of our brains while reading the Mueller report. Sebalos/Getty Images

Seattle Goodwills are up to no good: Of all the stores people steal from in Seattle, prosecutors go after people who steal from Goodwill more than any other. Goodwill, you know, that place that sells clothes and items they literally got for free from people who decided they were worthless, touts its success in providing job training to low-income and homeless people. But almost a third of the people Goodwill charged with theft over 12 months were homeless, according to a KUOW investigation. Many of these people ended up in jail for weeks as a result, making finding a job even more difficult. It seems super hypocritical for Goodwill to prosecute the very people they claim to help.

The Mueller Report is finally here: Congress will receive a redacted version of the report today that will make its way into the public sphere. Attorney General William Barr held a press conference this morning to preempt the release of the report and repeat much of what he said in his summary a few weeks ago. He talked about the redactions, how he gave Trump’s lawyers access to the redacted report earlier this week, and stood by his claim that there was no obstruction of justice despite Mueller not making that claim. Many are saying he sounded more like a defense lawyer than a prosecutor. Now Democrats are calling for Mueller to testify before Congress because they’ve had enough of Barr. Eli Sanders ! will be following the report here.

The Mueller Report is finally almost here: Congress will receive a redacted version of the report today that will then likely make its way into the public sphere. Attorney General William Barr held a press conference this morning to preempt the release of the report and repeat much of what he said in his summary a few weeks ago. He talked about the redactions, how he gave Trump’s lawyers access to the redacted report earlier this week, and stood by his claim that there was no obstruction of justice despite Mueller not making that claim. Many are saying he sounded more like a defense lawyer than a prosecutor. Now Democrats are calling for Mueller to testify before congress because they’ve had enough of Barr. Check back in Slog PM for more details.

Washington Senate votes to end personal exemptions for MMR vaccine: But the bill isn’t quite done yet. The House passed it last month, but the Senate added amendments so it’s headed back to the House for a final vote. Don’t you love government? Once the two chambers reconcile their bills and Gov. Inslee signs it, that anti-vax parent you know will have no choice but to give their kid the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine. Or I guess they could just lie about their religious beliefs, which is not unheard of. These bills only apply to MMR vaccines, other common vaccine requirements for school will still be eligible for personal and philosophical exemptions. Let’s just get rid of all of them at once.

United Airlines might ask Boeing for compensation for this 737 MAX fiasco: United has 14 MAX jets, all of which have been grounded and likely won’t return until at least July. That means United has to use whatever planes they have available, which results using larger, less fuel-efficient planes on domestic routes where they are definitely not needed. It also prevents some spare planes from getting off-time to undergo maintenance work that could extend the lifetime of these planes. Boeing may be asked to pay up for all these extra costs that grounding hundreds of brand new planes caused. Now the question is whether they’d pay it.

It’s raining as I write this: So your commute is probably going to suck. It sounded like real raindrops, not those little misty ones, so maybe bring an umbrella. Heresy, I know.


King County population growth hits 10-year low: It was bound to happen eventually after the record-breaking population growth we’ve seen. If you want more people, don’t freak out, we still added almost 29,000 people between July 2017 and July 2018, that's just lower than it has been in a long time. BUT, we did have record high migration from international countries to Seattle! In 2018, about 21,500 people migrated to Seattle from outside the US, according to the Seattle Times.

Scientists partly reanimate a dead pig brain: Could this be the first official zombie? No probably not, but it does absolutely rock the conventional wisdom about brain cell death. Researchers at Yale used brains from pigs slaughtered earlier that day (probably to make bacon) to test out their experimental brain fluid called BrainEx that, when pumped into the brain, brings oxygen to brain tissue and restarted blood vessel pumping. They intentionally added a nerve-blocking chemical because they weren’t quite ready to open up the Pandora’s box of restarting consciousness, so the brain wasn’t quite alive but it was cellularly active. This research is bonkers and could revolutionize the way we treat traumatic brain injuries.

Washington Senator tells a scary story to sway vote: Sen. Tim Sheldon told the tale of of an unnamed Washington official's wife being kidnapped in Mexico as a direct result of the official's public financial disclosure posted online. The Senate then promptly voted to not post their finances on the internet to deter criminal acts toward them or their families. The problem is this story is complete bullshit. That official, who Crosscut tracked down, said that his wife was never kidnapped in Mexico. No senator could name a single instance of criminal acts inspired by a politician's personal financial disclosure forms. More likely, this was a bald-faced play to make their financial disclosures just a bit harder to access.

Khal Drogo, I mean Jason Momoa shaved off his beard so you’ll stop using plastics: So stop using plastics already! It’s not that fucking hard. Actually scratch that, it is very hard to avoid plastics but try doing as much as you can. At the very least, keep track of all the plastics you use today and find the ones you can cut out of your day.


Now listen here you $#!%: Day four of our week of musicals! You're either really enjoying it or want me end this whole segment prematurely, so here's another musical for you.

Tonight's best Seattle entertainment options include: A reading with former Nirvana manager Danny Goldberg, an evening of modern jazz fusion with the Dawg Trio, and the worldly cine-poetry exhibition Refrain Cadence.