Godless in Seattle: The Seattle metro area is the least religious part of the country according to a new poll. Apparently, 44% of us are atheist, agnostic, or "nothing in particular." For the first time, the percentage of godless heathens is the same as the number of Christians in the area. We aren't the only top godless metro area, though. Seattle tied for the top slot with, you guessed it, Portland.
Small Business Association hightails it: The SBA announced it was leaving its Seattle regional office due to sanctuary city protections. The SBA wants to "put American citizens first by ending taxpayer benefits for illegal aliens" and adhere to federal guidelines. Historically, the SBA has helped with "federal grants, contracting, certification, and disaster recovery," writes the Seattle Times. The SBA is closing regional offices in other sanctuary cities, too, such as New York, Boston, Chicago, Denver, and Atlanta. The closures, the SBA said, “support President Trump’s agenda to secure our borders—which has already resulted in the lowest rates of illegal border crossings in history.” Another day, another quietly dystopian nightmare.
Shhhhhh: Two current Joint Base Lewis-McChord soldiers and a former soldier at the base were indicted for allegedly selling military secrets, as well as bribery and theft of government property. Their scheme involved selling computer equipment and other classified information to China.
Lawmakers look to teacher bonuses to balance the budget: The state budget is in a bad way. A $12 billion deficit. Bad stuff. Yet, instead of looking into progressive ways to find revenue, our lawmakers in Olympia are looking at cuts. One spot they're looking at? A longtime budget program for National Board Certified Washington state teachers. Since 1999, the state has paid teachers who earn the certification—a process that takes 400 hours of their own time to complete. Annually, certified teachers—around 7,800 educators—earn $6,800 from the state. There's an additional $5,000 available for teachers working in high poverty areas, too. It is deplorable that our state would look to cut these small amounts from already under-compensated teachers rather than turn its attention to the wealthy in a state flush with millionaires and billionaires. This particular kind of penny pinching is so emblematic of our upside-down regressive tax system that it's almost satirical.
The weather: Chilly. Cloudy. Tale as old as time.
Good ferry news: Full ferry service will return this summer, according to Gov. Bob Ferguson. To fix the unreliability and low-staffing numbers that have plagued the ferry system since the pandemic, Ferguson is looking for a budget that includes funding for ferry crews. He'll also put plans to upgrade the system's largest vessels and convert them to hydroelectric engines on hold. Hmm. Not sure this temporary fix will avert any longterm pain, especially with the whole climate crisis, but at least the noon ferry to Bainbridge may actually leave at noon soon.
Why does a Democrat want to do this? HB 1252's main sponsor is Rep. Lauren Davis (D-Shoreline). She is joined by two Republicans from the Peninsula in putting forth this very bad, no good piece of legislation that would roll us back years if not decades on bail and pretrial detention. It would not only require judges to explain any decision to offer lower bail or pretrial release in writing, discouraging them from doing so, but also effectively do away with ankle monitoring by requiring "24/7 monitoring and immediate law enforcement dispatch." The bill is theoretically in response to a couple of high profile incidents where people released on bail went on to commit violent crimes but, like the SOAP/SODA legislation and the whole drug recriminalization debacle, it's really about a politician scoring "tough on crime" points. Besides almost certainly violating our state constitution's separation of powers rule, there simply isn't space for all the extra people it would force us to hold in jail. Gods willing, it'll stay in legislative limbo until March 12, the cutoff date for bills to make it out of their house of origin, but technically it's still alive. If you live in Shoreline and you're reading this, you know what to do. (No, we are not suggesting you put a bag of flaming dogshit on her doorstep. However funny that might be, it would be a crime. Besides, there are plenty of other ways to express your displeasure!) (Guest post by Tobias Coughlin-Bogue)
Another SpaceX explosion: Elon Musk's Starship rocket exploded again, raining debris across the sky. I am choosing to interpret this as a good omen.
It’s so pretty… One thing about Elon… He know he can fail!
— Solomon (@solomonmissouri.bsky.social) March 7, 2025 at 4:37 AM
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Jobs: U.S. employers added 151,000 jobs in February, slightly falling short of forecasts. Meanwhile, unemployment ticked up to 4.1%. Likely, these numbers don't yet reflect the federal workers who lost their jobs due to Trump administration cuts. So, expect these numbers to worsen as cuts continue and the economy sags. Thanks, oligarchs!
DEI content purge at the Pentagon: In an effort to remove all references to diversity, equity, and inclusion within the Pentagon, more than 26,000 images have been flagged as well as accomplishments and milestones reached by women, celebrations of non-white war heroes, and references to the Enola Gay, the aircraft that dropped the atomic bomb. The latter was flagged for having "gay" in its name, so that shows you how the Pentagon is weeding out this "DEI propaganda." Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has given the military until Wednesday to whitewash and edit history.
This is why representation matters: Montana's transgender representatives Zooey Zephyr and SJ Howell spoke emphatically in the state legislature to fight legislation that would ban drag performances and Pride parades and a bill that would remove transgender children from their parents. After their speeches, state Republicans flipped their votes. For the drag ban, 13 Republicans switched to voting no. One Republican even spoke up and defended Zephyr. For the other bill, 29 Republicans voted no. Both bills were defeated. Elect people who will defend your right to exist. Elect people who will stand up for you. Elect people who will fight the brain worm-riddled majority.
Trump pens a letter to Iran: He wants to negotiate a nuclear deal with Iran, he said. The goal of the letter is to restrain Iran's advancing nuclear program. Trump described the sentiment of his letter as such: "‘I hope you’re going to negotiate because if we have to go in militarily, it’s going to be a terrible thing.'" Cool, cool, cool. Always good to threaten military action in negotiations. Real art of the deal stuff.
Bye, bye, butterflies: Butterflies in America are disappearing. The number of butterflies are down 22% since 2000. On average, their population is declining 1.3% annually. The culprits are climate change, insecticides, and habitat loss.
Weird and sinister: In Maine, the Social Security Administration is ending Enumeration at Birth, a process that allows newborn babies to receive their Social Security numbers in the hospital upon birth. Instead, parents and their newborns must go to one of the state’s eight Social Security offices to apply for their child's SSN, exposing fresh babies to crowded waiting room germs and inconveniencing parents at a vulnerable time. According to Maine's Portland Press Herald, it's unclear "whether this is a nationwide change, unique to Maine, or if it is a change being piloted in Maine that would expand to other parts of the country." What's also unclear is the purpose of ending Enumeration at Birth, a process that's been in place for decades.
A song for your Friday: Please enjoy this banger. Bonus points for a music video that feels straight out of "Escape from New York."
