King of running his mouth: Donald Trump is such a gossip. He allegedly spilled "potentially sensitive information about U.S. nuclear submarines" with Anthony Pratt, an Australian billionaire, who was kicking it at Mar-a-Lago. Pratt then turned around and spread the news to a bunch of people "including more than a dozen foreign officials, several of his own employees, and a handful of journalists." The information Pratt said Trump told him? ABC News writes: "The supposed exact number of nuclear warheads they routinely carry, and exactly how close they supposedly can get to a Russian submarine without being detected." All of this came up in the investigation into Trump's handling of classified documents.
Federal aid for fire victims: Earlier this week, Gov. Jay Inslee formally requested federal aid and a major disaster declaration to help people recover from damage wrought by August's wildfires. Inslee said the Gray fire and Oregon Road fire "destroyed more primary homes than any other wildfire in Washington state history." The fires destroyed more than 450 homes. The aid will also help the state deal with debris disposal. We don't want that nasty stuff getting into Washington waterways, do we?
Drama alert: According to former Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch, while he was on the team, quarterback Russell Wilson blocked his phone number. Lynch said he had to go through Wilson's manager just to get in touch with him. "I can't pick up the phone and call old boy or nothing," Lynch said. Wilson is such a diva.
Seaplane crash solved: Last September, a float plane crashed in Mutiny Bay near Whidbey Island. It sank under 200 feet of water and killed all 10 people on board. The National Transportation Safety Board found the crash occurred when the plane was at level flight, pitched up slightly, and then suddenly pitched down "descending at an estimated rate of more than 9,500 feet per minute." According to the report, this happened because "the actuator that controls the pitch of the airplane was disconnected from a control linkage, making it impossible for the pilot to control the airplane's pitch." Yup, seems like you'd want that part connected.
Seasonal confusion: The weekend will look a bit more like July than October, with temperatures pushing up into the mid-to-high 70s. We should return to our regularly scheduled fall programming next week.
Here's a look at the high temperatures over the next week. Summer tries to make a comeback today into the weekend. Fall fights back next week. #wawx pic.twitter.com/qcSmMwEJwI
— NWS Seattle (@NWSSeattle) October 6, 2023
Job report rebounds: American employers added 336,000 new jobs in September. That's up from 227,000 in August. The unemployment rate is still near a half-century low, coming in at 3.8%.
MyPillow Guy needs a new lawyer: MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell is fighting three defamation suits from voting machine companies after he cried wolf about election fraud in 2020. In an odd legal strategy, he doesn't seem to be paying his lawyers. The law firm representing him said Lindell owed them millions of dollars in unpaid legal fees.
Pour one out for the Cinerama sign. As the Seattle International Film Festival takes over the old 'Rama space, it can't keep the rights to the Cinerama name or brand. Dumb.
Boooo https://t.co/1G2CQfb1WO
— nathalie graham (@gramsofgnats) October 5, 2023
Those weight-loss drugs might not be good for you: A new study on the side effects of popular weight-loss drugs Wegovy and Ozempic (which is only technically for diabetics, but people are still using for weight loss), found the drugs can cause nasty issues such as stomach paralysis. The drugs work by slowing digestion and quelling appetites. That can go wrong and paralyze the stomach by slowing or completely stopping "the movement of food from the stomach to the intestine," which "can cause symptoms like persistent vomiting."
Imprisoned activist wins Nobel Peace Prize: Narges Mohammadi is an Iranian activist who has spent much of her life fighting for human rights in Iran. She has been imprisoned 13 times for her work. Currently, she's serving a 10-year sentence. She hasn't seen her children in eight years. She's continued her activism in prison and received an additional year to her sentence for speaking to the media about sexual assaults in jail. She's written letters calling out the country's mandatory hijab law. She's written books about the treatment of female prisoners. The Peace Prize seems to be in good hands.
A long read for your Friday: Remember Kony 2012? The online movement to compel the US military to do something about the Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony rose to great heights and then crashed and burned. This story explains how and why it all happened.
Woman sues New York hospital system: Tara Rule, a New York woman who suffers from debilitating cluster headaches, is suing Albany Medical Health Partners because a doctor in a hospital in its system denied Rule medication that could fix her ailments because the medication could cause birth defects. Rule said she didn't want kids and would have an abortion if she became pregnant. The doctor, referring to the overturning of Roe v. Wade, said prescribing this sort of medication to women "of childbearing age" was "trickier now with the way things are going.” The reality that a woman could be denied care because her body is capable of having a baby is horrifying. Valuing a hypothetical life over an existing life is insane.
What happens when a glacial lake overflows? The mountain lake in northeast India overflowed, smashed through a hydroelectric dam, and killed at least 41 people as it flooded into a valley. The reasons for the overflow are unclear, but a year of unusually heavy monsoon rains and a 6.2 earthquake in nearby Nepal didn't help matters.
More than a dozen people were killed and over 100 are missing in floods after heavy rains caused a Himalayan glacial lake in northeast India to burst its banks https://t.co/vxo9Z6izsl pic.twitter.com/M2CiI23Be1
— Reuters (@Reuters) October 5, 2023