If we could just build the downtown street car it would connect ALL of the street cars. Credit: Lester Black
If we could just build the downtown street car it would connect ALL of the street cars.
If we could just build the downtown street car it would connect ALL of the street cars. Lester Black

SDOT begs to get this First Avenue Streetcar thing rolling: It’s been a several-month delay for the embattled and expensive project that would connect the streetcars already in South Lake Union and First Hill. But Mayor Durkan threw a wrench in that plan—the one that would have seen the project completed by 2020—when costs kept rising. Now, the Seattle Department of Transportation needs City Council approval to start the planning process again. They also need $9 million to do that.

A deluge of things to find and fix: The Find It, Fix It app sure is popular these days. Except, most of the requests are fake. After posters telling people to snitch on homeless people in tents through the app and “fix” that problem, there was a viral campaign to flood the app with false requests. A lot of those had to do with REI. One person tagged REI as the location and wrote: “Can’t believe how many tents are at this place, genuinely horrifying. all shapes and sizes, too.” Someone in Australia submitted a response. People in Alabama sent in things they wanted fixed in their city.

Amazon finds out that one-day delivery is hard: And expensive. The neighborhood bookseller is throwing all it’s got into making one-day delivery not just a thing but a default for Prime members. It’s not easy to do and the costs have exceeded earlier expectations. During the second quarter of this year, Amazon spent $8.1 billion on shipping, according to GeekWire. Amazon doesn’t seem too worried, though. Anything is worth it when you can get ahead of the curve, gut the competition, and leave Target and Walmart to cry over their broken, useless, bodies.

Jeffrey Epstein and the Victoria Secret guy were as thick as thieves: Epstein, the New York financier charged with federal sex trafficking, was tight with Leslie Wexner, the CEO of Victoria’s Secret (Yes, I am also upset that his name is not Victoria). He managed Wexner’s finances, signed his tax returns, hired people, and a whole lot more. Epstein got rich—er, richer>—off his relationship with Wexner and even positioned himself as a Victoria Secret recruiter that put him in close proximity with many young women trying to make it as underwear models. My skin? It’s crawling.

Kent gets credit for lunar landings: Kent has some moon buggies that just got the city a landmark designation from the King County Landmarks Commission. The City of Kent will forever be cemented in our hearts as the city where Boeing produced moon buggies that were used in Apollo 15, 16 and 17. Washington as a whole now wants the same moon-adjacent historic resignation.

Massachussetts man dies on Mount Rainier: Last week, The Mountain claimed another life. Last week, a hiker fell 100 feet off Barrier Peak near Owyhigh Lak.

Hong Kong protests extend to the airport: Airport staff and flight attendants joined protesters at Hong Kong international airport participated in an 11-hour protest to condemn the attacks on Hong Kong residents last week by suspected gang members, the Guardian reports. It was a protest against the police and the government that also urged international visitors to give a shit about what was happening in Hong Kong. Protests started earlier this summer when Hong Kong officials were considering a bill that would extradite residents to mainland China.

A mass arrest of Camp Pendleton Marines: Sixteen marines were arrested on Thursday. The Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) did the arresting (I still have a hard time believe that the show based on that organization is the third most popular broadcast show). Anyway, the marines were arrested for drug stuff but also human smuggling. Agents saw the marines transporting undocumented immigrants from the border. They allegedly were going to receive $8,000 from the migrants to transport them to Los Angeles. The drug charges and the human smuggling charges were different cases.

Give this guy a raise in his allowance: Love it when someone takes the trash out without having to be prompted.

For the first time, authorities tell French not to worry about bread: Farmers have been ordered to stop harvesting wheat in some parts of France. Harvest season is currently in full swing for the European Union’s largest grain producer and exporter. But intense heat has caused wildfires to break out. Five hundred hectares of farmland have burned. One farmer died. France is burning. Think of the people, think of the baguettes.

After 16 years, the federal government is going to start executing people again: The death penalty was on its way to being phased out. Multiple states imposed bans, others had governors enact moratoriums, and the Supreme Court imposed restrictions (Did you know that it was still okay to execute a juvenile until 2005?) But, all of that progress was pre-Trump. With two conservative, corporal punishment loving fiends appointed by Trump on the Supreme Court, the death penalty is a go.

Um, who the Fuck is going to swim in this pool: Okay. You’re right. I would swim in the pool. But the water around me would get a touch warmer for just a second.

People are petitioning to move the date of Halloween: When I read this headline, I thought it was dumb. Except… I think they have a point. The petition is lobbying to move Halloween to the last Saturday in October instead of just October 31. It’d be like how Thanksgiving is with Thursdays so you don’t get stuck celebrating Halloween on a Tuesday, arguably the worst day to celebrate Halloween. The Halloween & Costume Association (yes, I am also ashamed I’m not part of this club) started the movement and it’s gained 60,000 signatures. Make that 60,001, baby!

Oh these motherfuckers: Three University of Mississippi students were suspended from their fraternity (but not the school!) after they posted a picture of themselves posing with guns in front of the memorial for Emmett Till at the site where his body was found brutalized in 1955. There were bullet holes in the plaque comemorating Till. Thursday was Till’s birthday.

The best Seattle entertainment options this weekend include: The BAM ARTSfair, the Othello Block Party, and the Seafair Torchlight Parade.

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...