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BREAKING NEWS:

A gunman allegedly opened fire at a Santa Fe, TX high school as classes started Friday morning. The school was put on lockdown.

Update: The shooter has been arrested. There have been multiple student fatalities and an officer was wounded, federal and county officials confirmed to local news.

Local asshole is doing his part in the wake of shooting:

Ballard rape case fuels fire of homelessness debate: The sanctioned camp the suspect had lived in, Nickelsville, does not check warrants. The suspect had an outstanding warrant for criminal trespassing in 2017. He was arrested after allegedly sexual assaulting a woman in an auto-dealership restroom on Monday. The story has caught like wildfire especially due to the suspect’s lack of a permanent address. The homelessness crisis has reached a breaking point in Seattle. The virulent response is particularly vehement due to rising tensions around the head tax and the homeless presence in Seattle neighborhoods. People associated with the camp say the suspect’s housing status is irrelevant. Ballard residents are citing this case in their opposition to the new tiny house village expected to open at the end of the month.

Don’t forget about that I-5 closure: I will warn you every weekend because I care about you and because a commute from Tacoma back to Seattle took two hours for me last weekend. The construction has moved on to SoDo. The shutdowns will last from 8 p.m. Friday to 5 a.m. Monday. Portions of the westbound Highway 2 will also be closed.

SDOT is a mess: The people want more: we want repaved roads, more bus trips, crosswalks, renovations, etc. etc. The Move Seattle levy in 2015 made a lot of promises about the kinds of improvements SDOT would make. Now, three years later, the entity is coming up short and over-budget. The First Avenue streetcar project has been stalled. The biggest let down is the RapidRide bus lines that were promised. SDOT said it would make seven new ones. It’s looking like there might only be funding for two. Disappointment abounds. This is why we have trust issues.

HPV, HIV, Potato, Po-tah-to: It’s all Greek to me, says Donald Trump who regularly confuses HPV and HIV, two ailments that differ by only a letter but are semantically vastly different. You knew that. I don’t want to publicly embarrass anyone who didn’t know that like Bill Gates did when he told national tv that Donald Trump asked him on two occasions if there was a difference between the two. HIV stands for human immunodeficiency virus. HPV is human papillomavirus and can cause genital warts or cervical cancer. I imagine Trump yelling down the hall at his staff: “Which is the AIDS one again?” Trump also asked Gates if vaccines were bad.

The space needle reveal is almost here: Crews are removing the wrap on the top of the Needle. It was put up around the scaffolding that was installed for construction on the $100 million renovation. Slowly, the brand spankin’ new Space Needle is being revealed. The suspended work platform, the biggest eyesore, will be removed over the next three to four weeks. Keep an eye out for the new sparkling glass.

Elon Musk and the Los Angeles Tunnels: That would be an okay band name. Musk’s vision is to create an underground tunnel system in Los Angeles to alleviate the suffocating traffic. If his vision comes to pass, Musk will charge $1 a ride for drivers to zoom through an underground Loop system at 150 mph. Musk and his company, The Boring Company, still have to win approval from the city.

Seattle defends Councilmember Kshama Sawant against two lawsuits: They’re defamation suits. Yesterday, a judge threw out a portion of one of the lawsuits saying that some of the complaints lodged against Sawant “failed as a matter of law.” Sawant’s defense has cost $258,752.78 so far.

Puget Sound growth threatens to swallow Cougar Mountain: Real estate developers want to begin development on 57 new houses and a new road on the 46-acres of private land connected to the Cougar Mountain Regional Wildland Park. The opposition says the land is too environmentally sensitive for development.

Commit to the bit:

Trump takes direct aim at Planned Parenthood: He’s at it again with this curbing abortion rights thing. This time, under a new rule, the clinics that provide abortions or refer patients to abortion facilities will lose federal funding. This policy would take us back to 1988 in the time of the Reagan administration and the “domestic gag rule.” It was called that because it “barred caregivers at facilities that received family planning funds from providing any information to patients about an abortion or where to receive one,” reports the New York Times. If the policy is adopted today legal challenges can be expected.

Ex-Russian spy who was poisoned leaves hospital: Nerve agents really take it out of you. Sergei V. Skripal and his daughter were poisoned in England in March. British officials believed it to be a Russian attack. The nerve agent was one known as novichok and was developed by Soviet scientists. Reports suggested that Skripal and his daughter were walking a thin line between life and death after the attack. Skripal is finally well enough to leave the hospital after three months. His daughter left in early April.

New Zealand has its own set of blue whales: The population of 700 blue whales is genetically distinct from those found in the Pacific and Antarctic Oceans. Blue whales have long been seen as migrant creatures, but this population seems to be a resident population. While the news is exciting, it is also troublesome since their home in New Zealand’s South Taranaki Bight is also home to oil and gas rigs and is planned for some seafloor mining operations.

Welcome to the Hawaiian Hellscape: We hope you enjoy your stay.

Speaking of which, happy eruption anniversary:

Did you know that Ukraine has a dolphin army? Not only that, but there’s a Crimean military dolphin center. That’s where they train dolphins to carry out military tasks. But, the dolphin army was stolen by Russia after the annexation of Crimea in 2014. There was speculation that Russia was going to retrain the dolphins to be Russian soldiers. That didn’t work out. In fact, most of the dolphins are dead. A Ukrainian official believes the dolphins died patriotically while defending their country. They went on a hunger strike, he says.

Fun fact for your Friday: The majority of Canada’s population lives south of Seattle.

The best Seattle entertainment options this weekend include: Evan Linder and Andrew Hobgood’s theatrical comedy 5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche, the U District Street Fair, and the end of Seattle Beer Week.

Nathalie Graham covers anything she finds fun, weird, or interesting. You can find a lot of that in her column, Play Date. Her work has also appeared around town in The Seattle Times, GeekWire, and the...