You can't put a price tag on integrity: Unless that price is $2.3 million. That's how much the City of Seattle needs to pay the two employees who blew the whistle when texts from Mayor Jenny Durkan and other City officials mysteriously vanished. The settlement will cover general damages and attorneys fees. In return, the whistleblowers must drop their case, destroy the city documents in their possession, and never work at the City again.

So, how much taxpayer money has Seattle wasted on this? A cool $770,000 in attorney fees plus this settlement puts the number at just over $3 million. 

Some danger in this premature summer: The quick pivot from spring to summer weather means more danger. If you go for a hike around Snoqualmie Pass, keep your head on a swivel for avalanches from a suddenly melting snowpack. Also, be wary of not-quite-summer conditions, such as still-icy trails. Plus, swimming right now, when the water is nowhere near as warm as the air, could lead to hypothermia. Full-blown summer in May has some drawbacks. 

Did the sun take it out of you this weekend? Don't worry, it's not because you're a weak, unsubstantial waif blistering and wilting in the heat. In fact, unseasonably premature warm weather can stress humans who have yet to acclimatize to the heat. According to the Washington Post, "Acclimatization to increased temperatures requires at least two hours of exposure to heat for a period of four to 14 days." In that period, the body responds to heat better, and people change their habits and start to drink more water.

More heat on the horizon: It'll be hot again, with temperatures flirting around the high 80s today. The possible good news is we'll get some thunderstorms. 

Piroshky Piroshky owner enters the city council race: Olga Sagan announced her intent to run against incumbent Andrew Lewis for the District 7 position in a Twitter thread. As you can imagine, the small business owner's platform—or what I can glean from her thread and her bare bones website—aims to "revitalize downtown, clean up our streets, and get City Hall working for us again." [Eds note: Should have seen this coming. Never seen anyone so thirsty for TV news coverage in my life.]

As baby boomers die off, inheritances flow: The New York Times has pegged the die-off of America's 60-to-80-year-olds as "the greatest wealth transfer in history." Of the $140 trillion in family wealth in this country, around $14 trillion of it will be transferred to heirs in the next decade. This wealth could come in the form of millions of dollars, or passed-down houses in hot markets. Predictably, this is an instance where the rich—and the white—get richer since the "the wealthiest 10% of households will be giving and receiving a majority of the riches." There's lots more to chew on in the article. 

Turkey's first run-off: Twenty-year incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdogan won just 49.5% of the vote in Turkey's election. Erdogan's opponent, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, who represents a newly formed alliance of six opposition parties, won 44.9% of the vote. Both camps agreed to a run-off election. In the last two elections (in 2014 and 2018), Erdogan won handily. This tight race shows he may have lost some support in the wake of high inflation and a catastrophic string of earthquake earlier this year.

Florida man known as "Dr. Deep Sea" breaks record for living underwater: Joseph Dituri, a University of South Florida educator, has been living underwater for 74 days in an undersea lodge situated 30-feet down at the bottom of Key Largo. He intends to stay 100 days to really solidify his record and to complete a mission called Project Neptune. The record is cool and all, but I have to know more about this undersea lodge. 

Okay, as promised, more on the lodge: The underwater facility is called Jules' Undersea Lodge, and it's situated in a nursery area of a reef in a Key Largo mangrove lagoon. The space started its life as a research facility, but now it's a place where you can stay the night, or 100 days. However, you can only get to your room by scuba diving. There are only two bedrooms in the whole place. Stays cost $1,125 a night for one person. Since I've read Michael Crichton's Sphere multiple times, I'm not sure this hotel is for me:

Bellevue's safe parking lot needs an operator: The City of Bellevue secured a clean, off-street lot for people living in their vehicles to stay overnight. The lot at Lincoln Center can accommodate up to 20 vehicles. Yet, the fully funded $450,000-per-year program can't find an organization to operate the lot. 

Now this is my kind of dog park: A Montreal dog park outlawed barking. Owners can be fined between $500 and $2,000 for letting their dogs "bark, whine, or howl."

Happy birthday to him: Bobi, the world's oldest dog, turned 31. He is Portuguese. Personally, I think this is too old for a dog to be. Let Bobi rest. 

Austrian train plays Hitler speech: The intercom on a Vienna-bound train Monday played 30 seconds of an Adolf Hitler speech and sounds of a crowd shouting "sieg heil." According to train officials, there have been "several such incidents in recent days." 

Yesterday, white nationalists marched through D.C.: Over the weekend, the white supremacist group Patriot Front marched through Washington, D.C. wearing masks and carrying upside American flags. They were escorted by police.

Pickleball feasts on the corpses of dying malls: America's fastest-growing sport is hungry for more courts. Seriously, the dearth of courts is an issue—have you been to Miller Park recently? It's packed at all hours. The pickleball frenzy sweeping the nation means everybody wants more courts. Some pickleballers are looking to malls as a solution. In Connecticut, Pickleball America is turning the husk of a two-story Saks 5th Avenue store into a pickleball destination. An outdoor mall in Missouri is in the process of turning its rotting Bed Bath & Beyond space into pickleball courts. What to do with empty Burlington Coat Factory and Old Navy spaces in New Jersey? Add pickleball.