The Saturday afternoon tragedy is still being investigated.
The Saturday afternoon tragedy is still being investigated. SERGEI DUBROVSKII / GETTY IMAGES

Investigators open up probe into four companies involved in South Lake Union crane disaster: A tower crane, those huge metal contraptions that dominate Seattle’s skyline, collapsed Saturday while being dismantled, killing four people and injuring four others. The high, gusty winds are believed to have played a part in the collapse that partially fell onto Google’s new building on Mercer Street and also fell across the street on two cars. Two ironworkers in the crane died at the scene, as well as one Seattle Pacific University Student and another victim whose name has yet to be released. Investigators are looking into the causes of the collapse and what responsibility these four companies bear for the fatalities. While there is no sign of wrongdoing at this time, investigators will no doubt look into the decision to dismantle the crane during such high winds and their decision not to close down Mercer Street.

Our lawmakers are procrastinators too: That should either make you feel better about yourself or very afraid. The state Legislature passed a new two-year operating budget with only 18 minutes to spare before midnight, marking the end of their legislative session. This new budget allocates money to completely overhaul the state’s mental healthcare system and fully fund K-12 public schools. The two-year budget is about 17% larger than the previous budget thanks to new taxes on big technology companies, real estate, and nicotine vapor sales. Republicans are not pleased about these taxes, which surprised absolutely no one.

They also found time to pass affirmative action: Well I guess it would be more accurate to say they ended the ban on affirmative action, which has been in place since 1998. Affirmative action will significantly loosen restrictions on targeted hiring for employees and building a diverse workforce.

People actually voted in the 2018 midterm elections: According to the Seattle Times, it was the highest voter turnout for a midterm election in over 40 years with a whopping 53% of eligible voters casting a ballot. It’s kind of depressing that the record high is only every other person. The Seattle metro area did even better with 65% of eligible voters actually making it to the polls, coming in as the fourth highest turnout in the country. Trump really is the best vote motivator we’ve ever seen, even for people voting against him.

Attorney General Barr and the House are at odds: Barr is supposed to testify before the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday, but he’s arguing with the chairman, Rep. Jerry Nadler, about the format of the testimony. The closed-door session to discuss the redacted parts of the Mueller report were the controversial parts. Nadler is ready to fire the subpoena cannon if he needs to but doesn’t want to go there just yet.

Go get your tan on today: Lord knows we could all use some color after this winter.


Hazelnuts are the humanitarian disaster nobody is talking about: That’s right, strap in because I’m about to make you feel terrible about eating Nutella. About 70% of the world’s hazelnuts are produced in Turkey, which has seen a huge influx of Syrian refugees since the civil war started. Now a large part of seasonal hazelnut farmers are vulnerable refugees who make a paltry $10 a day for hard, dangerous work. For many, that is only enough to cover transportation to and from the field and shelter for the night. They are often preyed upon by middlemen who attract refugees with high salaries only to take a large cut when the farmers actually pay. Companies like Ferrero, who makes Nutella, and Nestle do their best to avoid mistreatment on these farms and child labor, but it still happens often.

Speaking of farming: Only about 1% of US farmers are black. It wasn’t always like that; in the 1920s, there were almost 1 million black farmers, but today their numbers have dwindled down to only 45,508 who own only about half of one percent of American farmland. There’s a lot of contributing reasons for this stark decline in black representation on farms, read more from The Guardian here.

Now listen here you $#!%: We're going instrumental this week people because who needs singers anyway? They get all the credit but would be nothing without their band. So, let's kick things off with the 10 minute guitar solo that is "Maggot Brain" from Funkadelic guitar god Eddie Hazel.

Tonight's best Seattle entertainment options include: British post-punk band SWMRS' show, a chance to see Washington Ensemble Theatre's show Singlet, and celebrated bartender Christiaan Röllich's talk about his book Bar Chef.