Partly Cloudy Day: Our weather today will be mostly cloudy in the morning, before handing us a partly sunny illusion of hope, with highs around 71. That’s what we’ve come to call summer in these parts if you’re into emotional compromise. So wear the light jacket in the morning, switch to a tee later, and enjoy this rare meteorological miracle before the clouds remember they have beef with you.
House GOP Pulls All-Nighter to Move Deadly Bill Forward: While you were sleeping, House Republicans were busy trying to pass a spending bill packed with tax breaks for the rich and deep cuts to social programs, including $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid and food assistance. By 10:30 p.m. Wednesday, they were still scrambling for votes to pass “the rule,” a procedural hurdle required to bring the bill to the floor. Normally, the majority party backs its own rules, but House Republicans are now so chaotic they’ve started mutinying against themselves. Inspiring stuff. By midnight, the rebellion was fading, and the bill looked likely to pass.
As of this writing, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries is entering his sixth hour of speaking in an effort to stall the vote. He said they only need four Republicans with “John McCain levels of courage” to stop the bill. Whether anyone in this Congress has that kind of backbone remains to be seen. Not holding our breath. The bill is headed to a final House vote.
FEMA’s Communication Blackout Is Leaving Disaster Response in Chaos: As hurricane season approaches, FEMA has slammed the door on communication, leaving state and local emergency officials scrambling for answers. From Wyoming to North Carolina, emergency managers say they’re being “ghosted” by FEMA, with vital questions about emergency funding going unanswered. Internal memos reveal top FEMA brass ordered staff to route all inquiries from Congress, the White House’s budget office, and the National Security Council through the acting FEMA administrator. Regional teams have even been told to limit what they share with local partners until supervisors approve it.
The result? A dangerous information bottleneck that’s delaying billions in emergency grants and could cripple disaster response just when it’s needed most. Meanwhile, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is tightening her grip on FEMA as the Trump administration plans to phase out the agency after hurricane season and shift disaster responsibility to the states. State and local officials warn this silence and confusion will cost lives. The DHS calls claims of a communication ban “fake news,” but FEMA insiders say the memos tell a different story. If FEMA won’t talk, who will answer when disaster strikes?
Big Gulag Energy: A new lawsuit says the Trump admin illegally deported Maryland father Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia after a judge told them not to, and he was immediately thrown into El Salvador’s CECOT mega-prison. Upon arrival, a guard allegedly told detainees, “Welcome to CECOT. Whoever enters here doesn’t leave.” So that’s… encouraging. There, guards tortured him for months. According to newly filed court docs, they beat him, denied him sleep and bathroom access, and forced him to kneel for nine-hour stretches under 24/7 lights. Now he’s suing Marco Rubio, Pamela Bondi, Kristi Noem, and other Trumpworld cosplay cabinet members. The feds only brought him back last month, just in time to charge him with human smuggling. Asked about it, DHS mouthpiece Tricia McLaughlin called it a “sob story” and mocked reporters for asking. Charming.
DHS and FBI Warn of Lone Wolf Threats Ahead of July 4: Federal agencies are warning of lone actors and small extremist groups targeting July 4 events nationwide. In a joint statement, the FBI and DHS said, “These individuals are often motivated by a broad range of racial, ethnic, political, religious, anti-government, societal, or personal grievances.” While listing every grievance under the sun, they conveniently tiptoed around the fact that most of these so-called “lone wolves” are white American men with a penchant for violence and plummeting down YouTube rabbit holes, including the recent police-impersonating gunman who killed Minnesota state representative Melissa Hortman. There are also concerns about copycat attacks inspired by recent violence such as the Texas-born assailant who rammed a crowd in New Orleans earlier this year, killing 14.
The statement also noted that unauthorized drones add another layer of risk to public safety and event security. Officials urge vigilance as the nation prepares for July 4 celebrations, though it’s been years since America was a place where people could gather in groups without fearing violence.
Freak-Offs and Failed Convictions: Sean “Diddy” Combs just swerved a legal freight train, sort of. After a seven-week federal trial filled with graphic testimony, he was found not guilty Wednesday on racketeering and sex trafficking charges but still landed two felony convictions for transporting people across state lines for prostitution. The feds painted him as the baby-oil-soaked kingpin of a criminal sex ring, complete with drugs, violence, and “freak-offs” filmed like twisted episodes of Black Mirror. His defense? Yes, he’s an abuser, but most of these encounters were just consensual kinky fun with girlfriends, and the government was on a puritanical overreach mission. But don’t cue the victory lap just yet: a federal judge denied him bail, citing his “propensity for violence,” so he’s still behind bars and looking at up to 20 years in prison. Turns out “Bad Boy for Liife” hits different when the bars aren’t metaphorical.
Criminology Student Convicted of Idaho Murders: Bryan Kohberger, a criminology Ph.D. student who went from studying serial killers to becoming one, pleaded guilty to the 2022 murders of four University of Idaho students in a plea deal that takes the death penalty off the table but locks him away for life. Prosecutors laid out a grim, calculated plan involving late-night stalking, a military-style knife, and a disturbingly spotless getaway, but still couldn’t explain why he did it or how someone that creepy went unnoticed for so long. The victims’ families were split: some were furious that he won’t face execution, while others are relieved to avoid years of retraumatizing courtroom theater. So we get closure without clarity, a killer without a cause, and a case that feels more like a tragic true crime podcast with no final resolution.
Bench the Bigotry, Not the Kids: In what I’m sure doesn’t portend a judicial decision crowdsourced from the pits of hell, the Supreme Court just RSVP’d to the next round of the culture war, agreeing to hear two cases about whether states can ban transgender athletes from girls’ and women’s sports. These cases, out of Idaho and West Virginia, are a bad-faith legal tug-of-war over equal protection and the right of trans kids to just exist and compete like everyone else. Fresh off blessing restrictions on gender-affirming care, the Court’s signaling it’s ready to weigh in on yet another front in the right-wing campaign to legislate trans people out of public life and follows Penn outright banning trans athletes.
Assessor of Poor Judgment: King County Assessor John Arthur Wilson got himself arrested Wednesday night for allegedly stalking his ex-fiancée and violating a restraining order because apparently, the bar for public office is now somewhere beneath the jail itself. Just hours before his arrest, the man was posting glam shots from an upscale restaurant, toasting what he called a “great day.” Wilson, of course, claims the arrest is all “political,” because in 2025, accountability is synonymous with another deep-state conspiracy.
Wrong Guy, Same Brutality: Vidal Palomar, a disabled father of three who fled cartel violence in Mexico, was violently arrested by ICE in Lynden, despite having no criminal record and, according to his attorney, being the victim of mistaken identity. Eyewitness video shows agents throwing him to the ground twice, even with a disabled placard clearly in view, and when he finally demanded to see a warrant, it showed a photo of someone else. ICE then allegedly offered him $1,000 to “just admit guilt and leave,” because apparently failures of due process now come with a cash bonus. Palomar’s arrest has sent shockwaves through Whatcom County’s Latino community, where the message is loud and clear: being undocumented and brown is enough to get you disappeared.
Vote Wilson: In case you missed our mayoral endorsement, here’s the TL;DR: Bruce Harrell came in promising housing, police reform, and grown-up leadership, then promptly handed us more sweeps, tech bro distractions, and tantrums when asked basic questions. Turns out the real graffiti problem is the one scribbling over his own promises. Meanwhile, Katie Wilson actually has a plan to house people, fund services, and not spiral into finger-pointing every time things get hard. She’s smart, steady, and gives a damn (my own mama has even given her support) so let’s retire Bruce and give Seattle a mayor who doesn’t need a babysitter.
Raleigh is an All Star! Seattle Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh just went full Super Saiyan and got named an All-Star starter for the first time because when you hit 33 home runs before July, people notice. That’s third-most ever before July 1, right behind Barry Bonds and Mark McGwire (aka the Avengers of the steroid era). Raleigh’s basically carrying the Mariners on his back with a 1.024 OPS, 4.5 WAR, and even stealing bases now because apparently he woke up this season and chose MVP-level violence.
Bald and Back, Baby! A bald eagle in Tacoma just pulled off the ultimate comeback story. Rescued starving and grounded in May, it got the full wildlife VIP treatment and took flight again Wednesday like it never missed a beat. This bird had broken bones, was dehydrated, basically one step away from starring in a wildlife tragedy but thanks to the good folks at PAWS and Featherhaven, it’s back in the skies, hopefully reconnecting with its eagle boo.
Look, I don’t know what it is about Postmodern Jukebox covers, but they get me every, single, time. Like, why does a jazzed-up, gospel-fied version of U2 hit harder than catholic guilt on a Sunday morning? I can’t explain it. But here we are. So let’s start the day right:
Apparently Noisy Creek has become naked capitalists. The anti-gun crowd doesn’t buy enough from advertisers or enough concert tickets from Bold Type Tickets, so they quite highlighting stories that appeal to them in the SLOG.
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/law-justice/1-dead-another-injured-after-shooting-at-a-golf-course-near-burien/
https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/nation/chicago-police-say-a-shooting-has-wounded-multiple-people/
Either that or they were wrong on the merits previously.
BTW, handguns aren’t more lethal than other weapons apparently. Only 5 out of 20 hits were fatal.
That’s a full fledged Slog AM write up Marcus. Good show.
Bahaha the contrast in Wilsons running for office in this SlogAM.
“There are also concerns about copycat attacks inspired by recent violence such as the Texas-born assailant who rammed a crowd in New Orleans earlier this year, killing 14.”
That’s some serious weasel-wording to try to obfuscate the fact that the attacker was a black ISIS-supporting Muslim. The way you worded it, emphasizing “Texas born”, and failing to name the attacker, especially in conjunction with the immediately previous sentence about “white American men with a penchant for violence”, is a great example of The Stranger’s biased, horrible “progressive journalism”.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/suspect-new-orleans-attack-bourbon-street/story?id=117247072
“New Orleans truck attack suspect: What we know about Shamsud-Din Jabbar
Shamsud-Din Jabbar proclaimed his support for ISIS, the FBI said.”
Dear Marcus,
Thank you for writing “pleaded” instead of the Stranger’s usual “pled” (Ugh). It is appreciated.
@1 – “BTW, handguns aren’t more lethal than other weapons apparently. Only 5 out of 20 hits were fatal.”
It’s called “Sailer’s Law of Mass Shootings”, look it up.
FEMA has shown themselves to be politically motivated and should be eliminated. The National Guard can fill their role.
Good luck with your lawsuit, Abrego-Garcia. 😆 Have fun accessing the courts when you are in South Sudan. Make no mistake, several courts have ruled he can be deported, just not to El Salvador. I hope Africa is more to his liking. Of course, it would be good to hold him here long enough to secure a conviction for human smuggling.
I think we know how SCOTUS will rule on transgender athletes given that every major athletic organization has thrown them under the bus. Their participation robs women and girls of their accomplishments and is not supported by the vast majority of Americans.
Who cares if Palomar is disabled or arrested under false identity? He’s still here illegally and has got to go. It was nice for ICE to offer him the thousand bucks self deportation offer though. He should have taken it. Being brown won’t get a person disappeared, but being here illegally certainly will.
@6, Sailers Law relies on a lot of racial stereotypes and assumptions.
A better source of causation of the lethality of a mass shooting. would be whether the firearm was a rifle or a handgun.
A rifle round is heavier, longer, and going twice as fast. The resulting wound channel is highly likely to be long enough and wide enough to cause the rapid blood loss required to involuntarily disable a determined attacker. Its also more likely to be lethal, for the same reason.
Of course handguns are what are most often used because a rifle is not readily carriable or concealed.
(A knife makes a wider wound channel than a bullet, and a club can create substantial internal bleeding. It’s the blood loss that diasbles and kills, but folks disregard that and get hysterical when a firearm is the tool)
@8,
You’re fucking sick and gross and disturbed.
And stupider than a bucket of boiled peanuts.
@8 When your psychopath ass finally snaps and kills a bunch of people there will be nobody left here to complain that the Stranger didn’t cover it.
@8 – and yet, once again, as in relation to the Chicago mass shooting at the release party for rapper “Mello Buckzz”, Sailer’s law is correct, as is almost always the case.
https://wgntv.com/news/chicago-news/river-north-mass-shooting-mello-buckzz-melanie-doyle/
Good for Jeffries for doing what he could, and especially for listening and being responsive to constituents. Credit where credit’s due, someone in Dem leadership didn’t just roll over for once.
Unrelated, the description of the Diddy verdict is bizarrely pro-prosecution. Based on everything I’ve read “the government was on a puritanical overreach mission” sounds like a pretty accurate description. The jury obviously agreed anyway. And it’s pretty messed up to deny him any bail at all when he beat the (by far) more serious charges.
No fun winning at a physical sport with an unfair advantage.
Honestly, I found the cover kinda “meh” (so a slight improvement on the original) except the harmonica solo which was electric, but all too brief.
@9, I am sorry you find those facts gross and disturbing. That doesn’t change those facts. Somethings in the world aren’t pleasant, but that doesn’t make them less factual and accurate.
If you want laws in the field, then those facts, unpleasant as they are, matter.
For example its why there are really only two levels of force in our criminal laws. Deadly force, and less than deadly force.
When the law talks about proportionate levels of force, it doesn’t mean, they pulled a knife and attacked me, so I can use one, it means, they used deadly force, so I can.
Civics.
@1 what is your deal with getting so upset that a fucking brief blog doesn’t cover literally everything story. It’s short news roundup and not everything makes it in bc that would be impossible. Also it’s an alternative newspaper that couldn’t meet that demand anyway.
Get over yourself dude.
@11 nice
@17, I don’t care whether it covers that stuff or not.
I do care that The Stranger used to make it a point to cover those kinds of stories like flies on shit. Now they don’t.
So where they wrong to focus obsessively on it then, or are they wrong to ignore it now?
Why the change in focus? Could it be the change to a new owner? Is The Stranger giving up on progressive obsessions and causes? It would appear so.
If that is the case, and that is the fact pattern of late, then why aren’t folks like 13twelve and mike blob calling them out on it? Do they not have any convictions they are committed to? Apparently not.
The stranger has never covered the news, even when it was a fully staffed weekly. Slog am is just one person every day spending an hour tops finding a handful of stories to post on a blog. It’s not that fucking deep, man.
@20, Yes, but the percentage of the news they chose to cover, and include in SLOG, that was dedicated to so called “gun violence” and “car violence” was much higher and much more consistently included. It was much higher percentage of the total words of their news coverage and SLOG summary.
Now its omitted entirely even with two high-profile stories on the Seattle Times Home Page to read and link to when they do their scan for items to cover. Those kinds of stories where what they focused on and linked to with the SLOG. Apparently that focus has changed. Now they just scroll past them, while still linking to other ST stories (and other sources) when they scan other news sources for what to include.
They are abandoning their former emphasis now that they are owned by Noisy Creek.
So why aren’t they losing progressive street cred with progressive commenters like you by reducing the percentage of words dedicated to those progressive causes?
@20, And the omission is even more striking when the SLOG poster is Marcus Harrison Green, who has written extensively on the topic, to the point of it being a major theme in his body of journalistic work, both for The Stranger and elsewhere.
Did Noisy Creek spike it?
Yeah i got your stupid argument 1000 posts ago i don’t need to hear it again. All im saying is no one but you gives a shit about any of this.
@24, Intellectual inconsistency doesn’t bother you? A go-to, trusted source, because of what they cover and the positions they take on what they cover, potentially changing their position, without saying so, doesn’t bother you?
It be one thing if they said, “We don’t give a shit, or nearly as much of a shit, about these issues, so we aren’t going to use as many keystrokes on it.”
That would be open and transparent. They are free to change what “hills” they want to die on. Just be transparent with readers and let the reader decide if they care that they may have sold out on what has historically been a leading issue for Progressives.
@8 FEMA is about as apolitical as one can get. Fortunately, gutting FEMA and the cuts to MedicAid and SNAP will disproportionately effect red states and rural areas that are where your fellow MAGAts dominate. Your Fascist idol has guaranteed a blue wave in the mid-terms.
I agree with the others who consider you sick and disgusting. I am absolutely certain that if you were a German in the 1930s, you would have joined the party and turned Jewish folks into the Gestapo.
@25 try harder: FEMA worker fired who told underlings to ignore houses with Trump signs. Not very apolitical, but I’m sure you’ll have an answer for that.
https://apnews.com/article/fema-worker-trump-signs-hurricane-milton-09ef2e10f7cb5fb17f110ac4c6156e54
24 i have never considered the slog morning news posts a trusted source of anything and I don’t think anyone else does either, except for you obviously, because we all have full lives outside of these comments and plenty of other places to get news and opinion. I also don’t think the coverage has changed any more or less than it has over the years as different morning news bloggers come and go but i wouldn’t care either way because i am not counting on slog am to tell me everything i need to know each day or how to feel about it. Not sure how many times you need to hear this.
26 the article says she was fired last november? A rogue employee getting caught and disciplined for political activity is what makes the agency apolitical.
@28: The discipline doesn’t erase the history or change the problem, otherwise Trump’s fines would have made him a Pope by now.
@29, If you were fair you would judge the agency by how they respond to improper behavior, not how individual employees behave. They employ tens of thousands of people, each with their own free will. The only thing they can do is respond appropriately.
If fema were politicized their employees would be allowed to, say, deny support to people or entire states for supporting democrats and punished/fired for denying aid to trump supporters. It would be a systemic problem with mounting examples of impropriety and systemic bias, not an isolated anecdote.
@27, If they don’t give you a perspective or information you are looking for, why look at them at all? If they do, and that’s changing, without any disclosure and transparency about it, why stick with them?
@31 Why do YOU stick around, if you are so displeased with their reporting?
I’m guessing you like the abuse you get for trying to stir up shit.
I know why I still check in, not sure why you are.
Why don’t you start your own blog and spare the rest of us from your tedious blathering. Unless that’s your point… to be a tedious asshole.
Actually, I’m changing my guess to tedious asshole.
@32, To keep a pulse on the dipshit ideology that has lead to the increased rates of homelessness that is killing people as they become increasingly unsheltered and drug dependent. To point out the inconsistency and adverse outcomes of their own positions. If the ideology that drives the positions that they take doesn’t conform to reality, why hang with that?
Just remember folks, just because you hit someone with a vehicle and injure them, most of the time, its not a crime.
“Although the Tahoe ran a red light before crashing into the restaurant, Seattle police officers determined the driver wasn’t under the influence of drugs or alcohol, and the driver wasn’t arrested, a police spokesperson said.”
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/suv-smashes-into-crowded-seattle-pizzeria-3-hospitalized/
Oh for fuck’s sake.
You aren’t keeping a pulse, you are vomiting into an open wound.
Yes, I said that.
Go write your own blog somewhere else.
I never thought I’d miss kristofarian!
@31,
Every time a reporting outlet gains or loses a writer their overall ideological position is going to shift to some degree along the Overton window. Such shifts will be more noticeable when it happens to a paper with a tiny writing/editorial staff such as The Stranger, and even more so when those writers are tasked with compiling a daily news roundup of their own curation. I wouldn’t doubt they probably did nudge a bit toward the ideological center with the departures of Ashley & Hannah, though this doesn’t require any sort of transparency or disclosure with regard to editorial practice, same as they’ve not offered with any of the other hundreds of staffers to have come & gone over the course of the past quarter century. The very next piece of objective and non-circumstantial evidence that you can offer in support of this strange, obsessive conspiracy of yours will be the first.
Also, you’re a fucking idiot.
WTF: Some bro shooting fireworks from car driving down 2nd Ave in downtown Seattle last night
https://x.com/SEATTLESUBMISS/status/1941679509050359905
@ Phoebes…
I know, right? I’m still not sure what happened.
Same with Auntie G. Haven’t seen her for a while.
@26 One worker out of thousands does not indicate bias in an agency. So by your logic, all Trump supporters are Nazis because some Nazis support Trump. To be fair, anyone who still supports him is either a Nazi, or fine with Fascism as long as the regime is oppressing the right people.