Good Morning! It’s still spring in Seattle, so we have another partly cloudy, 60-something degree day ahead of us. It’s farmer’s market weather. It’s weather to take your (or someone else’s) dog on a long, breezy walk. Smoke season comes for us all eventually, so just get outside.
But first, the news.
Kissing the Ring: In a new analysis, the New York Times reviewed over a dozen hours of cabinet meeting footage to analyze how Trump’s administration spoke to him—and it’s exactly what you’ve seen on TV and on social media. They found that at least one of every six sentences either flattered Trump, gave him credit for work in the administration, or criticized his political opponents. Marco Rubio flattered the president the most, followed by Scott Bessent and Pete Hegseth. EPA chief Lee Zeldin repeatedly said Trump was “willing to take a bullet for this country.” JD Vance’s go-to was to insult Trump’s political opponents. Check out the whole analysis here.
Trump Does Corruption Again: The president said Wednesday that he plans to officially nominate Todd Blanche—acting attorney general and Trump’s personal lawyer—to replace Pam Bondi as AG. This is the dude that rabidly defended Trump’s $1.776 billion slush fund, and is perfectly happy to make Trump’s enemies his enemies.
Speaking of the Slush Fund: The Senate will vote on a motion to bar Trump from establishing his “Anti-Weaponization” fund. Acting Attorney General Blanche has already said that the fund is dead, but it seems like Trump didn’t get the message. He publicly said yesterday that he “loves” the fund. “Republicans are trusting the word of Todd Blanche, who built a career on lying, that the administration will just drop this slush fund,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told the NYT. It only needs 50 votes to pass, and while Dems don’t have a majority in the Senate, even Republicans are grossed out by this degree of corruption.
Vote-O-Rama: The Senate is also voting on the $70 billion ICE and Border Patrol funding bill after many weeks of Trump-induced delays. Republicans don’t need any Dem votes to get the bill through, but they do have to hopscotch through a maze of amendments that could help chip away at the unity of the GOP.
House Republicans Got in on the Action, Too: On Wednesday, the House voted to tell Trump to withdraw US forces from Iran unless he’s able to win Congressional approval to continue the war. Four Republicans sided with the Dems to get the vote through. Republican leaders had previously delayed the vote to try to court some more “nay” votes, but they failed. Probably had something to do with the fact that midterms are hard to win when your constituents can’t afford to drive to the ballot box.
Goodbye to MAVEN: On Wednesday, NASA announced that their Mars orbiter’s mission had come to an end. MAVEN has orbited Mars for 11 years, trying to answer one question: What happened to the air that once made the red planet habitable? MAVEN stopped responding to NASA in early December, and a review found that she started rotating unexpectedly, draining her batteries and cutting the power to her communications system. Rest well, little robot.
Cyclist Killed by Garbage Truck: Christian Salyer, a 30-year-old teacher at Thurgood Marshall Elementary, was hit and killed by a Recology truck on Monday in the intersection of 12th and Yesler Way. As of this morning, the GoFundMe to support his family has already raised more than $75,000.
Slot Machine in One Hand, Dick’s Deluxe in the Other: Dick’s Drive-In is opening their 11th location, and it’ll be 30 miles away from Seattle on the Tulalip Reservation, across from the Quil Ceda Creek Casino.
Longview Investigation: It’s hard to imagine how you could justify cutting funding for an agency called “the US Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board,” but Congress was about to gut their funding by more than 40 percent. The cuts would have severely limited the agency’s ability to investigate the Longview paper mill implosion. Representative Marie Perez Gluesencamp did us a rare solid and pulled off a last minute deal to save the funding.
Sea Creatures Ready to Strike: As Harry Cheadle reported in The Stranger yesterday, unionized workers at Renee Erikson’s Walrus and the Carpenter voted to authorize a strike. While their main contention in their contract is compensation, the union says they’re threatening to strike because of the company’s unfair labor practices. According to union leaders, management has often cancelled bargaining sessions, and changed working conditions without consulting the union.
Did You Know that FIFA Asks for Volunteers? Apparently 35,000 of you did, because that’s how many people applied for the 2,000 volunteer slots available in Seattle. It took an application and an interview to find out if you could volunteer for an event that makes billions of dollars every four years.
Now It’s Time to Brag a Little Bit: This week, the Society for Professional Journalists announced the winners of their Northwest Excellence in Journalism Awards, and The Stranger won eight of ‘em! You can check out the full list of them here, and read any of the stories you missed the first time around. PLUS: This is also (probably) the first time The Stranger has won awards for both sports writing (first place for “How to Make a Hockey Team in 205 Days”) and sports photography (second place for one of West Smith’s photos from Cinco de Margo). So we’re jocks now.
