Plane crashes near waterfront: A small plane crashed into Puget Sound near the Seattle waterfront yesterday evening. A group of nearby boaters rescued the 42-year-old pilot who had exited the sinking wreck, but was having trouble swimming. They scooped him up and took him to land.

Speaking of saving people in the water: Seattle's lifeguard shortage continues. This summer, Magnuson Park, Seward Park, and East Green Lake Park beaches won't open for swimming because there aren't enough lifeguards to staff them. Seattle needs an average of 340 lifeguards to staff indoor and outdoor swimming areas. 

Some weather for your Friday: It'll be a balmy 75 degrees today and partly cloudy. As you can probably taste, there's still some smoke lingering in the air. However, winds should push that to our friends in the eastern part of the state by the weekend so we don't have to deal with it anymore. Sorry, to everyone else. 

Pivoting to video in 2023: Crosscut's parent company, Cascade Public Media, announced it will be laying off five newsroom employees effective July 1. In their place, the company plans to hire five video and podcast producers. All of the laid-off workers are women and women of color. This is a bad look and a huge loss for local journalism. Making a viral Tik Tok is not going to save your media company! 

Seven dead in Oregon crash: Driving is so dangerous. Every day, there's another gruesome car-related tragedy. Take what happened yesterday near Albany, Oregon for instance. In a crash involving two semi-trucks and a van, seven people died. Witnesses say the van was crushed between the two trucks. It's unclear how many people are injured. Personally, I would not like to shuffle off this mortal coil after being smushed between two semi-trucks. 

New York is sinking: The weight of the Big Apple's skyscrapers plus climate change-caused sea level rise mean the city is slowly sinking by "approximately 1-2mm each year on average," though some parts of the city are sinking more. New York won't become Atlantis any time soon, but severe flooding events will likely increase. Also, this is not an isolated incident. Rising sea levels will submerge cities around the world. 

Starbucks strikes up a deal with the Seattle Mariners. Starting this week, T-Mobile Park will exclusively serve coffee products from the anti-union local coffee company. The video of M's faves Ty France and JP Crawford (who are both part of a union) serving coffee at a Seattle Starbucks and learning it's actually hard fucking work to sling macchiatos and frappes all day is cute:

All aboard to G7: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will likely be there and you can bet your ass he'll be asking for aid in the war as he plans a counter-offensive against Russia. 

Did you hear about this Horses drama? First off, there's a buzzy, trendy, reservations-required restaurant in LA called Horses. Whatever, dumb name. In divorce documents, chef Will Aghajanian's wife and business partner accused him of multiple instances he abused her and of killing all of the cats they've ever owned together. In the filing she said, "Will and I have had cats that mysteriously ended up dying." She describes a cat who was grievously wounded, a cat Aghajanian shook so hard it died the next day, and other disturbing incidents. Aghajanian has taken a leave of absence from Horses. 

Oh, I'd be fuming: The British government spent $200 million on Queen Elizabeth II's funeral. I bet they spent an equally ridiculous amount on King Charles III's coronation. Doesn't Britain have real problems they could spend money on instead of using it all for this protracted game of make-believe that is having a monarchy in 2023?

LA Pride pulls out of Dodgers Pride Night: The Los Angeles Dodgers rescinded an invite to the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a famous drag group that was slated to perform at the team's LGBTQ+ Pride Night. The team said in its un-invitation that the drag performance would run counter to the event's "spirit of unity." Yikes! As anti-drag legislation sweeps across the country and fear and misinformation swirls around this art form, you would expect LA institutions to be a safe haven for drag. And yet, here we are. Now, LA Pride will not participate in the Dodgers' pride event. The Dodgers' decision, according to NBC News, comes after people such as Florida Sen. Marco Rubio complained about the drag troupe's presence as "anti-Catholic" group that encourages a "perversion of Jesus’s command to 'go, and sin no more.'" 

More on Sen. Diane Feinstein's brain: New details arose about the ancient senator's recent health issues as she returned to work voting on laws and such after missing months of work. Feinstein reportedly had a case of encephalitis, a swelling of the brain that can cause memory loss and other impacts to the brain. Feinstein, who is 89 and already allegedly suffered from memory issues before her combo bout of shingles and encephalitis, doesn't seem to be doing too hot. Just let yourself retire already, Diane. Go sit on a beach! 

First Amendment fight in Florida: Authors, publishers, and activists filed a federal lawsuit against a Florida school district for censoring books. The suit asks for the return of censored books to the school's library. The plaintiffs say the book censorship violates the First Amendment because the district's actions "have led to viewpoint discrimination and violations of the right to receive information."

ICYMI: Read my newest Play Date column. I played softball with a bunch of random people who became a team last year. 

Bouncy castle king's reign of terror: Australian James Balcombe desired power. His domain? Bouncy castles. He elevated his bouncy castle business, Awesome Party Hire, by hiring three arsonists to commit 11 attacks on his bouncy castle competitors across two months. He paid them $2,000 per fire. During one attack, the arsonist chucked a molotov cocktail into a factory window and destroyed 110 bouncy castles. Once the plan worked and Balcombe's company was the only one left, he got nervous of people's suspicions since his business wasn't attacked. So, he staged an attack on his own business while pocketing the insurance money. Police arrested the arsonist three days later and the arsonist ratted on Balcombe.