Another Bad Budget: The forecast for the city of Seattle's budget is grim. The analysts have looked into their cursed crystal ball and given Seattle its fortune (or, lack thereof): We'll be dealing with a $140 million deficit this year. Damn, those soothsaying nerds! In response, Mayor Katie Wilson asked city departments to prepare for the worst and issue plans for shaving off between 5 and 10 percent of their budgets. That's not a guarantee anything will happen—Bruce Harrell did the same thing last year before he pulled enough money out of a hat (read: the JumpStart Seattle tax's coffers) to balance the budget.

All of this was expected. For the last couple of years, the city's budget has been similarly cratered. A pandemic and a fascist president will do that to a liberal city. And, Harrell didn't do anything to find new revenue, he just pickpocketed the JumpStart tax to solve the problem in front of him. It will be very interesting to see if Wilson, who helped create the JumpStart tax to primarily fund the creation of affordable housing, will do what every other mayor has done and raid JumpStart to keep the city afloat.

Speaking of Forecasts: It'll be borderline pleasant in Seattle today. There will be sun. It will still be chilly, though. Don't plan a beach day just yet.

Spritzgibbon: House Majority Leader Rep. Joe Fitzgibbon apparently tied one on before Wednesday evening’s House Appropriations Committee meeting where legislators were passing the supplemental operating budget. Fitzgibbon's speech was “slurred and halting” and an unnamed Republican said Fitzgibbon appeared to be sleeping during parts of the night-time meeting. Fitzgibbon has apologized for having a little tipple before his important job. "Being impaired in that situation was harmful to my work and to my co-workers," he said in an apology.

Gig Harbor Stabbing: On Tuesday, a 32-year-old man stabbed and killed his mother and three of her neighbors outside her suburban home near Gig Harbor. According to KING 5, he lived in his younger sister's garage and suffered from bipolar disorder. His sister said he stopped taking his medication three days before the attack. His mother filed a protection order against her son in 2020 that lasted through 2022. In 2025, she petitioned for another one, which a court granted, but failed to serve him  with the order. Therefore, it was not enforceable. The police didn't respond quickly because the order wasn't in effect.

Hey, Cut That Out: Someone shot a harbor seal in the face in Quilcene Bay near Hood Canal. Apparently, this is the second harbor seal that's been shot in the face in a matter of months. The law enforcement arm of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is investigating. Yeah, I am also surprised to hear there's a cop division in NOAA.

Good News: Capitol Hill's Seven Hills Park has been freed from prison. The Bruce Harrell administration locked up the park—and three other small parks across the city—six months ago to stop homeless people from camping there.

A Touch of TB: Someone at Rainier Beach High School was diagnosed with tuberculosis. According to Public Health, around 130 people in connection with RBHS may have been exposed to the airborne disease and will need to be tested. While this is serious, TB takes "repeated and prolonged exposure" to really spread. Tuberculosis remains the leading infectious cause of death around the world. But in wealthy countries, the risk and prevalence is low. Except, TB has been making a resurgence in the US.

War: Pakistan and Afghanistan are at war. Pakistan has bombed Afghanistan’s capital Kabul, and both countries claim to have inflicted substantial losses on the other.

I Did Not Have Sex-Offender Relations With That Man: In a closed-door deposition with members of Congress in Chappaqua, New York, former President Bill Clinton is testifying in the House’s Epstein investigation. A former sitting president has never been compelled to testify to Congress before. Hillary Clinton sat with lawmakers for her deposition yesterday.

I’m Just Chillin’ in Chappaqua: Hillary spent more than six hours with the House Oversight Committee. In a short press conference afterward, she told reporters she wished the proceedings had been public and that her attorneys have asked for transcripts and video to be available as soon as possible.

But Where Will We Watch It? Probably not on any of Warner Bros. Discovery’s subsidiaries. Netflix walked away from a deal to buy the company after David Ellison’s Paramount launched a hostile takeover. The deal may, in the words of WBD’s CEO David Zaslav, create “tremendous value for shareholders,” but it’s also putting a tremendous media empire in Ellison’s flag-waving, Trump-loving hands. It’s an antitrust nightmare, Democrats say.

Big Brother Burger: Burger King is testing new Open AI-powered headsets to assist employees and track if they’re saying “please” and “thank you.” Data on restaurant operations is shared with “Patty,” an AI that will speak to employees through their headsets. Patty can tell them if a drink machine is low on Diet Coke, or when a customer reports a bathroom disaster. Employees can ask Patty for instructions or ask it to remove out-of-stock items from the store’s digital menus. It sounds like torture.

Trump Staffer Runs X Account Johnny MAGA: By day, Garrett Wade is a rapid response manager for the Trump administration. Also by day, he runs a massive X account devoted to kissing his bosses’ feet. Wade tweets as Johnny MAGA and helps run the White House account that boosts Johnny MAGAs tweets. And when he tweets as Johnny MAGA, he tweets things like how great the administration is. OR how it was obvious Trump didn’t watch the entire video showing the Obamas as apes. If Trump had, he would’ve posted the entire thing. “It was a masterpiece,” wrote Johnny MAGA.