One step closer to a new top cop: Or maybe not, since Interim SPD Chief Adrian Diaz counted himself among the three finalists the City announced after a nationwide search to replace former Chief Carmen Best. The other two candidates include current assistant chief Eric Greening and Assistant Chief of Police Kevin Hall from Tucson, Arizona. The public will get a chance to hear from each of the finalists in a Seattle Channel forum on September 15th.

Cop unions lying again: In a move that really shouldn't surprise us anymore, Seattle Police Officers Guild president Mike Solan colluded with a couple of other law enforcement union heads to lure reporters to a press conference where they talked about how much they support Jim Ferrell's candidacy for King County Prosecutor. I chose "lure" and "colluded" because the press release advertising the event made no mention of Ferrell's participation, and it promised a "direct course of action" to address public safety that never materialized at the presser.

For more, we turn to Girmay Zahilay who chairs the King County Council's Law & Justice Committee, and who appears to be fed up with politicians lying about his area of expertise. Zahilay has been on the war path against misinformation about public safety lately, a crusade long overdue from someone in power.

Speaking of lying cops: A new amendment to the plea deal for the officer who admitted she lied to get the warrant to search Breonna Taylor's apartment reveals that her partner also appeared to be in on the scheme. I guess Louisville has no option but to give its department more money for training and equipment to teach its cops how to tell the fucking truth to a goddamn judge.

At least this is an isolated incident, right? Ahem. Once again, we've been researching these issues since I was in FIFTH GRADE. Can someone in government read a white paper?

Congratulations, Everett NewsGuild! Nothing shows solidarity like an unanimous victory in a union election.

Meta disbands internal watchdog: While the company says the people on its "Responsible Innovation" team will do the work of making sure its tools don't destroy our lives, they also admitted that not everyone in the watchdog group was guaranteed continued employment. At least Congress has taken proactive steps to regulate this monstrosity of a monopoly in the social media space so that we're not entirely dependent on the company to regulate itself... oh wait.

Trump has to be the worst client any lawyer has ever had: According to Reuters, Trump may still possess even more classified documents that he and/or his team failed to return to the government at the end of his presidency. What an absolute clown show.

Can confirm the accuracy of the previous blurb: A different judge is tempting me with restored faith in the legal system by tossing Trump's "Russiagate" lawsuit to the curb. When a judge dismisses your lawsuit with an order this long and ends it with the legalese equivalent of "but don't go anywhere, we haven't discussed your punishment yet," it's pretty much the worst day of any attorney's career.

Racketeering lawsuit against Elon Musk expands: The legal action seeking more than $250 billion in damages for Musk's alleged manipulation of the price of Dogecoin added several new defendants, including his tunnel construction business, Boring Co. The lawsuit is still working its way through the legal process, but the idea of a billionaire losing his entire fortune over a pyramid scheme based on a dumb Twitter meme sparks too much joy for me to resist sharing every possible update about it.

Good abortion news from the former Confederacy: After opposition from every Democrat in the chamber and five Republicans who still possess some common decency, South Carolina's Senate nuked a proposed near-total abortion ban after one of the those GOPers threatened to filibuster the bill.

Michigan voters get a chance to protect abortion rights: Yesterday evening, Michigan's Supreme Court directed the state's Board of State Canvassers to allow a ballot measure that would enshrine the right to an abortion in the state's constitution to proceed to the November ballot. 

Alright, I fucked up, I'm sorry: I should not have tempted fate by joking about the state of Florida falling into the ocean in Wednesday's Slog AM, because apparently a "doomsday glacier" about the same size as my abandoned home state is about to break off from Antarctica. Scientists say the Thwaites Glacier is "hanging on by its fingernails" and could cause sea levels to rise as much as 10 feet globally if it melts. I know how it feels. 

This is fine, we're all fine, nothing to see here: Just a new paper in the journal Science dropping in to tell us that even the extremely ambitious goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius could still trigger "tipping points" in our global climate. What are those tipping points? Just minor stuff like coral reefs dying off, ice sheets in Greenland and West Antarctica melting, and melted permafrost releasing a potential cornucopia of prehistoric viruses against which we have no immunity.

Join me in succumbing to some pure, white-hot climate anxiety this morning, dear readers. Enjoy your weekend, and try not to think about this column while wildfire smoke chokes our air!