Got it?
Got it? CDC

Well, this is a change: The CDC released new “interim public health recommendations” concerning mask use in the United States. The big key point is that the CDC says fully vaccinated people don’t need to wear a mask outdoors unless they’re in a big crowd. The CDC says those who are unvaccinated may also go maskless outdoors in some circumstances. The announcement is a significant shift, coming as more research is published about masks and outdoor transmission and a fourth coronavirus wave hits communities across the country.

Just telling people to “take it outside,” as we’ve done recently, isn’t exactly nuanced: The new CDC guidance helps address that. But are the recommendations too confusing? Walking around Seattle this afternoon, I noticed most people were still wearing masks. What do you think? Will you ditch the mask when you’re outdoors? Let’s have a poll at the bottom of this post.


Good news? Great news.

Microsoft money: There’s still lots of it. Microsoft beat its earnings estimates, writes Geekwire. The Eastside techies reported $41.7 billion in revenue (up 19% year-over-year) for the March quarter. Its profits? $15.5 billion, up 44%.

35 former staff members speak out about Lummi Island’s Willow Inn:


I need to read the entire New York Times expose, but here’s one part of the many allegations in the piece:

Female employees from the island said [chef Blaine] Wetzel and other managers ordered them to lose weight and get manicures and eyelash extensions at their own expense, in order to polish the image the restaurant wanted to project. Mr. Wetzel denied this.

Local girls were assumed by male employees to be sexually mature, they said; “island age” was a running joke. “‘Lummi Island 16’ meant that you were available for sex, and that any kind of creepy and predatory behavior was fine,” said Sarah Letchworth, 21, who was 15 when she started working there. (Several women who worked at the Willows said they did have sex with kitchen crew members. All said it occurred after they turned 16, the legal age of consent in Washington State. None said Mr. Wetzel had sex with staff members.)

We’ve got open appointments at Lumen Field, Seattle: There are open appointments all over the state, too. A manager at the Arlington Mass Vaccination Site in Snohomish County emailed us this afternoon to let us know that they have a “WHOLE bunch of vaccines available this week.” Check out the Arlington spots here and the Seattle spots here.

Heres how many spots were available when I clicked that link this afternoon.
Here’s how many spots were available when I clicked that link this afternoon.

Need an in-home vaccine appointment? Find out if you’re eligible for one in King County here!

Hey Community! In case you haven’t heard, Public Health — Seattle & King County is offering in-home vaccination for…
Posted by South Seattle Emerald on Tuesday, April 27, 2021

A lil’ campaign financing update: Last Friday, The Stranger‘s Nathalie Graham overviewed the net worths of current mayoral and city council candidates based on their financial disclosure reports. Today, the Seattle Times‘ Daniel Beekman grabbed some quotes from the candidates about their net worths. And yesterday, PubliCola‘s Erica Barnett highlighted how first-time candidate Andrew Grant Houston (net worth $0, running for mayor) “is currently in second place in the mayoral fundraising race, after a $129,050 contribution drop last week brought the campaign’s total fundraising to $266,758.” $129K in a week! Damn.

Barnett highlighted that most of Houston’s funding comes from the city’s Democracy Voucher program: Mayoral candidates can redeem up to $800,000 in Democracy Voucher contributions, and Houston told Barnett that his campaign expects to hit its pre-primary election redemption limit ($400,000) by the end of this week.

Thursday marks Biden’s 100th day in office, and the takes are churning:

  • Trump’s first 100 days were sheer craziness. Biden’s are sheer competence
  • Biden’s First 100 Days Have Been Great for the Stock Market. What History Says Happens Next.
  • Lindsey Graham not impressed by Biden’s first 100 days: ‘Russia and China are already pushing him around’
  • 100 days into his presidency, boring is Biden’s superpower (lol)

    • Boring Biden will give his first address to a full Congress on Wednesday evening this week, at the close of his 99th day in office.

    Podcast juggernaut and Spotify star Joe Rogan said on his podcast last week that…

    “If you’re a healthy person, and you’re exercising all the time, and you’re young, and you’re eating well, like, I don’t think you need to worry about this.”

    The “THIS” being getting a COVID-19 vaccine. He’s absolutely fucking wrong, but Spotify doesn’t seem bothered by its most popular podcaster pushing vaccine misinformation.

    Arizona Governor Doug Ducey signed a law restricting who can get abortions: The Republican governor’s action “makes it a Class 6 felony, with a presumptive one-year prison sentence, to terminate a pregnancy if the procedure is sought because of a fetal genetic abnormality.” Doctors, threatened with jail time, are worried about the broad language in the bill, as well as…

    The bill confers civil rights to unborn children, requires fetal remains to be cremated or buried, prohibits educational institutions from performing abortions unless the mother’s life is in jeopardy, forbids the mailing or delivery of abortion-inducing drugs (which doctors use to manage miscarriages as well as to induce abortion) and prevents public money from being used to support research involving abortions.

    And as the Guardian points out today: Towns all over the US are passing new anti-abortion rules.

    Pour one out for Seattle’s Oxbow visual art and performance space:

    Chase Burns is The Stranger's former editor. He's covered everything from gay luchadores to chemical weapons to Isabella Rossellini's favorite pets.