Uno Reverse: After a struggle over whether to fund universal free school meals or targeted food assistance for the neediest students in the district, the Seattle City Council voted to pay for both. The first year, funding will come from the City budget, which is facing a $175 million deficit. Money from the $1.3 billion Families, Education, Preschool, and Promise property tax levy will support the programs starting next year.
Bar Cancelled: The Washington State bar exam, administered only twice a year, was cancelled yesterday over technology issues. The 645 law school graduates who organized their lives around this test—and drove to Yakima for it—now must either take a makeup exam in September or the next regularly scheduled exam in February. Either way, their lawyerly lives are delayed by a few months, a complicating factor for those students with jobs already lined up.
They’re Heeeereeeee: Good news, citizens, it is time to pay your respects to the military-industrial complex. The Blue Angels are here, and they demand your attention. They will do this by shaking whatever walls enclose you, holding your eardrums hostage, and proving that, though encased in your soft flesh, skeletons can rattle whenever the armed forces decide. If you want to avoid the jets, mark these dates and times on your calendar:
- Thursday, July 30 (Practice Runs): 12 pm – 4:00 pm
- Friday, July 31 (Full Air Show): 3:15 pm – 4:30 pm
- Saturday, August 1 (Full Air Show): 3:15 pm – 4:30 pm
- Sunday, August 2 (Full Air Show): 3:15 pm – 4:30 pm
Got Blood? Give it away. The American Red Cross has declared the second-ever national blood crisis. The first was deep in the COVID-19 surge of winter 2022. People are likely not donating this summer due to “extreme heat, poor air quality, and widespread foodborne illnesses.” Summer is when hospitals need blood the most since more traumatic injuries happen this time of year. Donate! Especially if you have Type O-positive blood.
Got Life? Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear called Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell “to directly and verbally address the people of Kentucky and provide proof of your capacity to serve, or resign.” Surely an alive person could do that. If McConnell won’t do that, then Beshear says he’ll ask Senate Majority Leader John Thune to “investigate” McConnell’s condition and possibly begin the process of replacing him in the Senate.
Ballard Goodwill’s Days Could Be Numbered: A new 300-unit apartment building is slated for development at the same address as the Ballard Goodwill that has been slinging secondhand goods in the heart of Seattle’s sleepy fishing village for 20 years. Plans show that the building is slated for demolition. The store hasn’t received notice from its property manager and will continue operating like normal. Who knows, perhaps the new building’s bottom-floor commercial retail could be a thrift store?
Okanogan County Fire: The Kaiser Canyon Fire is burning over 126,000 acres now. Level 3 evacuation orders have been issued for parts of the Colville Reservation.
Meanwhile, in France: Fire crews are battling a “mega-fire four times the size of Paris” in the Gironde region. The hot weather, with temperatures climbing to 104 degrees Fahrenheit, is not helping things.
The Weather: It will be perfect in Seattle today.
Fauci Invokes the Fifth: Former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention head Dr. Anthony Fauci appeared before a Republican-led Senate committee hearing to answer questions about the origin of the coronavirus. Sen. Rand Paul, who subpoenaed Fauci to investigate his pandemic response, is a conspiracy nut who believes COVID-19 leaked from a Chinese laboratory and that Fauci’s previous work at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases “funded dangerous research in China” and caused the coronavirus. Fauci plead the Fifth after highlighting Paul’s “obvious obsession with calling for my prosecution.” Even though President Joe Biden issued Fauci a preemptive presidential pardon, many Republicans, including Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., have said that Fauci could still be criminally prosecuted if he lied under oath. So, no comments then.
Biting His Tongue to Keep Up His Fifth Amendment Right: Because Fauci will not answer questions, the idiot brigade is using their question time to spout medical misinformation and conspiracies.
Japan Quake Kills 13: A 7.1-magnitude earthquake rocked southwestern Japan yesterday, collapsing buildings, derailing trains, and rupturing roads. At least 13 people died.
OnlyMarms: With Trump-led funding cuts to universities and scientific research threatening their research on marmots, biologists at the University of California, Los Angeles decided to upload wildlife videos of the squirrel-like rodents to OnlyFans. He hit one snag: His ID, proving he was over 18, did not match the marmots in the videos. He worked this out. Sadly, they have only earned $650 in tips from their free subscribers on the subscription porn site. People want hole on there, not marmots.
Back to the Drawing Board: After backlash, New York’s Salamanca City Central School District is reconsidering its decision to put an AI-powered humanoid robot “with long dark hair” into its classrooms. Some of it had to do with the fact that the company that makes the robot, Realbotix, has a sister company with ownership stakes in RealDoll, the maker of hyper-realistic sex dolls and AI-brained sex bots.
