Measles comes to King County: An infant in King County is the first person in Washington state to test positive for measles this year. The baby, who is less than a year old, may have contracted the illness while traveling abroad. Children are supposed to receive two doses of the childhood MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine—the first dose when they are between 12 and 15 months old and the second dose between the ages of 4 and 6 years old. If traveling, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advises 6- to 11-month-old infants to get their first dose. This traveling baby didn’t have its first dose of the vaccine. For herd immunity, communities need 95% of people to be vaccinated. Currently, in King County, 87% of 2-year-olds have had their first MMR dose, while only 72% of 4- to 6-year-olds have had both doses. Shame the anti-vax parents in your life! 

Heads are rolling: The Pike Place Market Foundation refused to host a planned Day of Remembrance Event to commemorate the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II. After public outcry over the decision, the foundation’s executive director Lillian Sherman, who has held the position since 2012, will resign effective March 7. 

The weather: Partly sunny… almost 60 degrees… could it be… spring? No! Don’t be fooled by the illusory siren song that is False Spring. Be cautious in your Vitamin D-dopamine high. 

Cherish those weather reports: Trump cuts to the federal workforce hit the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and National Weather Service (NWS). In two rounds of layoffs, NOAA will first lose 500 employees and then 800 employees—about 10% of NOAA’s workforce. For NWS, 375 probationary employees will lose their jobs. It’s still unclear how the cuts will hit the Seattle arm of NWS and NOAA Fisheries workers. Whatever happens, if they come for our geeky scientists and meteorologists, we should all be mad. The NWS employees curate little playlists that align with their free weather reports during their all-night shifts and they get so excited about snow. The fisheries workers help our maritime commerce and recreational and tribal fisheries. These are critical services that cannot be replaced by the private sector. 

From a climate scientist: NOAA and NWS save lives with their emergency weather reports—and, as we know, extreme weather events will become more and more frequent due to climate change. Plus, most of the forecasts from private companies are built on the systems and information provided by NOAA and NWS. 

 

I have written a short statement responding to mass firings today of #NOAA / National Weather Service (#NWS) staff (which were concentrated among recent hires as well as highly experienced staff who had recently been promoted). Please see below screenshot & below for full text.

[image or embed]

— Daniel Swain (@weatherwest.bsky.social) February 27, 2025 at 3:17 PM

 

Big bad budget shortfall: Whew, it’s penny pinching time at the state. Gov. Bob Ferguson announced $4 billion in cuts, plus another $3 billion in cost savings identified by former Gov. Jay Inslee last year. All these reductions will help patch up an expected $12 billion budget deficit in the state. To bridge that gap, Ferguson announced a plan to make state workers take one unpaid furlough day a month for two years. He’ll also cut around 1,000 full-time employees. He’s making cuts across state government spending, too. Democrats in the legislature think it’s time to consider new taxes to patch these budget holes. Ferguson said taxes are a last resort. You can read more on the Washington State Standard. 

Don’t buy anything today: It’s economic blackout day, baby. Grassroots group The People’s Union USA is urging people not to spend money for 24 hours, and to especially not spend on credit or debit cards to send a signal to the powers that be that we are not down to be ruled by kings. If you do need to buy something, make sure you buy local. Look, I know Mudede had some valid criticism of the economic blackout and argued instead for showing up in person to yell at Republican town halls, but I see validity in a boycott. This is something anyone can do to feel like they’re doing something, like a gateway drug to resistance. Plus, isn’t it always a good thing to reckon with the hold capitalism has on us? Regardless, the economy is a lever we can all try to pull on. This is an action that anyone who is upset, and confused, but not yet ready to take to the streets or risk being dragged out of a Republican town hall, can do. Will anything come of it? Let’s see. 

Unlawful firings: A federal judge in San Francisco found the firings of probational federal workers are likely unlawful and “ordered the Office of Personnel Management to inform certain federal agencies that it had no authority to order the firings of probationary employees.” The ruling doesn’t mean fired employees will automatically be rehired and it doesn’t stop future firings, but it establishes that the courts believe the firings were unlawful. So, maybe that will help?

It was all ball, ref! An unexpected, um, foul occurred before a German soccer match that caused the game’s cancellation. Ahead of the FC Taxi Duisburg II and SV Rot-Weiss Mülheim, while the referee was conducting ID checks on the players, one of the FC Taxi players’ kids ran up to the ref and bit him in the testicle. “He came closer and closer to me, then suddenly—to my complete surprise—gave me a sharp bite in my left testicle,” the ref said. He couldn’t officiate due to the pain, so the match was called off. 

What the hell is going on with the DOJ and the EPA? The Department of Justice and the Environmental Protection Agency are trying to “claw back” $20 billion in grants the Joe Biden administration awarded to climate and clean-energy projects in his Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. Trump’s EPA administrator Lee Zeldin claimed there was fraud involved in awarding these funds. A senior prosecutor resigned “rather than carry out the administration’s demand to freeze the funds over possible wire fraud,” according to the Washington Post. Then, interim U.S. attorney Ed Martin submitted a seizure warrant for the money that was rejected by a U.S. magistrate judge in D.C. for having, essentially, no probable cause that a crime occurred. Even after that, acting deputy attorney general Emil Bove’s office tried to find someone to launch a grand jury investigation. Prosecutors rejected that, too. Still, three grant awardees have reported their accounts from CitiBank, the bank in charge of dispersing the funds, have been frozen. 

Funding ended for 5,800 USAID contracts: “This award is being terminated for convenience and the interest of the U.S. government,” read a wave of emails received by United States Agency for International Development workers around the world. The emails ended the funding for 5,800 projects around the world including refugee camps, tuberculosis clinics, polio vaccination projects, H.I.V. treatment programs, malaria control programs, the main supply channel for tuberculosis medications, and so much more. “People will die,” Dr. Catherine Kyobutungi, executive director of the African Population and Health Research Center, told the New York Times, “but we will never know, because even the programs to count the dead are cut.”

Cats keep getting bird flu: Two different cats in Oregon and two others in Washington contracted bird flu from their food. The raw pet food company, Wild Coast Raw, is recalling two lots of its product. 

A long read for your Friday: “How Elon Musk Executed His Takeover of the Federal Bureaucracy.” 

A song for your Friday: This Italian disco-y song is great for a sunny day. I first found it six years ago on a companion playlist for a Bon Appetit brown butter sage gnocchi recipe. I just discovered this live performance video today:

 

Nathalie Graham covers anything she finds fun, weird, or interesting. You can find a lot of that in her column, Play Date. Her work has also appeared around town in The Seattle Times, GeekWire, and the...

58 replies on “Slog AM: Measles in King County, Budget Cuts in Washington, Funding Ended for 90% of USAID Contracts”

  1. I’m seeing Garry Kasparov has a piece in The Atlantic today, “The Putinization of America”:

    https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2025/02/putinization-america/681837/

    It begins:

    We are barely a month into the second presidential term of Donald Trump and he has made his top priorities clear: the destruction of America’s government and influence and the preservation of Russia’s.

    Unleashing Elon Musk and his DOGE cadres on the federal government, menacing Canada and European allies, and embracing Vladimir Putin’s wish list for Ukraine and beyond are not unrelated. These moves are all strategic elements of a plan that is familiar to any student of the rise and fall of democracies, especially the “fall” part.

  2. It really used to be a slog to get through the daily news recap, but the past few weeks have been so uplifting. I just can’t wait for the blog to post each morning.

  3. No Amazon! No Walmart! No McDonalds! For a single day! How will I survive?

    Fucking lame. Shop local. Every day. And maybe don’t drive everywhere.

  4. ‘The People’s Union’?

    We, the Peeps

    Have a fucking UNION?

    omg

    too bad ‘we’ just

    elected an Anti-Union

    government, Dead-set on

    Busting whatever Union we, the

    Peeps might come up with in our Defense.

    as babyback often makes abundantly Clear

    All the Money all the Riches really oughtta

    go to the Sons a Bitches cunning enough

    to Weaponize Capitalism and use it as a

    Cudgel to Extract every last bit ot Value

    From we, the fucking People.

    fuck him.

    fuck Them.

    I Am PRO the

    People’s Union.

    sign Me UP.

  5. I didn’t vote for Fergi, but by god I’m thankful he is actually trying to make some much needed cuts in state gov, it’s about time!

    @2, I’m with you, it’s a joy to read slog (and Huff Po) these days, some good news for a change!

  6. I’m learning that “Probationary Employees” includes people promoted to new positions within agencies, not just new hires. IOW, people who know what they’re doing.

    The intent is not to reduce the “bloated” budget, it’s to break the agencies that Repukes have always objected to.

  9. “…planned Day of Remembrance Event to commemorate the incarceration of Japanese Americans…”

    Does the Japanese community in Seattle host a month of remembrance for all the American soldiers their relatives in Japan killed (not just incarcerated) during the war? I’d like to attend those events. (It’s MAGA’s reaction to stupid crap like this that gave us Trump & Musk. Not a reaction to a remembrance…..a reaction to throwing someone out of office over it.)

  10. @8 The people locked up in the U.S. were mostly American citizens, and none of them were Japanese soldiers. A big reason we have Trump and Musk is false equivalencies drawn by racist fucks like you.

  11. “but I see validity in a boycott”

    A single day off from using your debit / visa card is meaningless (not to mention the US financial system is far from real time). Wholesale change is needed, not meaningless performance. Drop X, don’t shop on Amazon, support local businesses (that support local businesses), etc. – be more thoughtful in who and what you support with your money / time. Somehow I’ve made it through life not shopping at Walmart or Amazon, not using Grubhub or UberEats, etc. – it’s really not that hard to avoid shitty corporations.

  12. @8: The Japanese-American internees have no connection with, and are not answerable for, the actions of the Japanese soldiers in Japan. You, sir, are a racist! 😜

  13. Jesus, the Trump-Vance-Zelensky presser is painful to watch. Good for Zelensky for standing up to these assholes. I’d rather have him for president than anyone else in that meeting! 😃 Trump getting ready to throw yet another American ally under the bus… 😝

  14. the boycott’s an

    Experiment to see

    if it may be Plausible to

    get unbridled Capitalism’s

    attention — tho it’s equally

    plausible the djt’ll Outlaw The

    Citizen’s Union along with All Unions

    speaking of the djt:

    his & Zelensky’s Summit:

    nyt:

    Trump-Zelensky

    Meeting Turns In-

    to a Shouting Match

    ‘You Either Make a Deal

    or We Are Out,’ Trump

    Tells Ukrainian Leader

    President Trump and Vice President JD Vance berated President Volodymyr Zelensky, accusing him of being ungrateful for aid and not acceding to U.S. demands.

    oodles: nytimes.com

    a shouting match!

    Making America

    Grotesque

    Again.

  15. thumpus @12, I’m seeing this from The New York Times: “President Trump reiterated claims he made during the explosive meeting, saying that Zelensky ‘disrespected the United States of America in its cherished Oval Office,’ by pleading his case for country’s security by pressing for more than just a cease-fire.”

    I think it’s more accurate to say that our two Russian stooges, Donald Trump and J.D. Vance, have just desecrated the Oval Office. Looking forward to hearing all these homegrown cucks and suckers cheering them on as they destroy our once great nation.

  16. I wouldn’t be complaining about Ferguson. He is a rational governor in a blue state. All of us should be grateful as hell we are in Washington State. One furlough day per month means one 3 day weekend per month.

    @12 Remenber every accusation by Trump is a confession; “America is disgusting and fat” means Trump is disgusting and fat. “You’re going to start World War III” means Trump will start WWIII through his insane and evil incompetence.

    If you weren’t alarmed before, you should be now. People have expected Trump to hit rock bottom for the last 10 years. Guess what? It hasn’t happened.

  17. @14: Hamas got a ceasefire on favorable terms, Putin’s probably going to get a ceasefire on favorable terms, we’ve once again ditched the Kurds to face Fajr al-Hurriya and the Turkish Air Force on their own … in every conflict where there are decent liberals lined up on one side and corrupt fascists lined up on the other, we’ve begun choosing the fascist side under this president. 🤪

  18. thumpus @14, Putin doesn’t want a ceasefire. He wants to keep fighting while giving the pretense that he wants peace and Zelenskyy is the one who is (to use Trump’s words) “not ready for peace.” Of course, the reality is just the opposite. What happened today was a setup.

    I’d love to continue having this conversation, but this will probably have to be it for me.

  19. I cannot be grateful to be in the state that ranks 49/50 (only one spot higher than florida) on fair tax system. Rich keep getting richer, poor keep getting poorer. A 1% wealth tax on the richest 3100 people in our state would prevent these cuts from happening. When turdison wants to cut programs and staffing for mental health and vulnerable populations while his rich buddies get richer because they don’t pay their fair share, living ever more comfortable lives, this is criminal. Turdison is a Republican in a faux blue wool coat. He was only slightly better than Dicky Reichart is why he got the win. Tax the rich or eat them, I don’t see much else for choice as the times progress.

  20. @8, 9, 11:

    The PPMF backed out of the DOR because “…Organizers planned to highlight similarities they see in the Trump administration’s anti-immigration rhetoric and actions today.” (Sea Times)

    So, PPMF didn’t want to be endorsing what was becoming more a protest rather than a memorial event. Sure, cowardly, but it had a logic to it, likely protecting their non-profit status from the vengeful morons running the Fedrul Gubmint.

    I can’t think of other protest events that were hosted by the Market previously. I remember Clinton held a rally in Victor Steinbreuck Park, and I’d guess the Market was involved with that? Not sure.

  21. “The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”

    George Orwell, 1984.

    Donald Trump, his cabinet, and Elon Musk are traitors and criminals in the pale.

  25. @18 “I cannot be grateful to be in the state that ranks 49/50 (only one spot higher than florida) on fair tax system.”

    The amount of revenue the state brings in has no bearing on fairness. You will continually notice state officials use fairness whenever they discuss tax increases yet they never discuss lowering regressive taxes. It’s always about new revenues for more spending.

    “A 1% wealth tax on the richest 3100 people in our state would prevent these cuts from happening.”

    This is wishful thinking. The capital gains tax is already bringing in less than expected because guess what? Bezos moved to Florida: https://washingtonstatestandard.com/2024/05/21/capital-gains-tax-receipts-in-washington-tumble/. Assuming other wealthy people won’t leave the state or take steps to avoid a wealth tax is foolish especially since wealth taxes have been tested elsewhere and never live up to the hype (they often cost more to administer than they collect).

    All of this ignores the fact that revenue has already increased faster than both inflation and population growth. Adjusted the state is taking in more in taxes that it has at other time in history. Yet spending has grown even faster. Just a couple years ago the state had a $14B+ surplus. It’s crazy and no amount of tax increases is going to fix it.

  28. @19: The head of the Pike Place Market Foundation has lost her job for doing it well. Such intolerance should have no place in Seattle. It’s no better than Trump firing anyone who dares disagree with him.

    The Pike Place Market is one of Seattle’s crown jewels, and needs all the protection it can get. It should not be abused for political graffiti. As @9 noted, this Day of Remembrance recalls an injustice wherein American citizens lost their rights to due process, their homes, and their livelihoods, including their farms — farms which supplied the Pike Place Market, hence the connection — because of racism. It was primarily a racist attack upon Americans, not immigrants. Current immigration policy is another matter entirely, and this Day of Remembrance should not be abused to make a modern political point which is tangential (at best).

  29. I’m old enough to remember when the Left called Reagan a fascist for standing up to Russia, especially after invading Afghanistan. Now the Left is calling Trump a fascist for bending over like a leftist bitch for Russia.

    So confusing.

  30. Most people have bills that are automatically paid with their debit card or bank accounts; thinking that an “economic blackout” on the last day of the month is going to have any real, substantive impact is political theater.

    If you want to have a real impact on the shit that goes on in D.C. with either the president or the Congress, get off your ass and vote in every election (it’s really easy in WA since they mail us a postage paid ballot weeks in advance).

    Additionally, don’t “take your ball and go home” for an election because a candidate didn’t 100% acquiesce to your political purity. Nobody should have needed convincing that Donald Fucking Trump was going to be an even bigger train wreck in a second term. Hell, they put it down on fucking paper in Project 2025. But here we are…

  31. @9, @11, Because I asked a simple question, “Is there a day of remembrance……” you call me a racist. And our nation HONESTLY protecting themselves, significantly or not, in a deadly war, you call racist. Yet you don’t consider your mindless pursuit of an ancient, immaterial grievance to be misguided bigotry? America has officially apologized for the incident and paid reparations to those aggrieved, but you, who probably have no standing in the issue, can’t let it go. I don’t think I’m the one with the problem.

    @19, Which is why I asked the question. Thank you.

    And, in asking my question, I’m not unaware of the heroic service of the US 442nd Infantry Regiment of which @9 & @11 seem to be unaware.

  32. @10 you missed the critical next sentence after the part you quoted: “I see validity in a boycott. This is something anyone can do to feel like they’re doing something”

    Like the “In This House We Believe” signs all over this town a one-day boycott with no demands is something people can do to signal to everyone around them that they’re one of the Good Guys, and also “feel like” they’re doing something meaningful.

    @15 “One furlough day per month means one 3 day weekend per month.”

    Ya and being fired by Elon means those federal employees get a permanent vacation! If you just ignore the lack of income these moves are awesome!

  33. @30 You’re a racist because you can’t differentiate a person of Japanese descent who lives in America from a Japanese soldier fighting American soldiers in Japan. They’re all the same to you.

  34. @30 Your comment is racist because you can’t differentiate people of Japanese descent living in America from Japanese soldiers fighting American soldiers in Japan. They’re all the same to you—an enemy based on nothing but race.

  36. @20 C Dizzle (Garb Garblar?): +1 For the WIN!!!

    I had to get groceries yesterday (02/28/2025), but shopped at my local community food co-op.

    And my beloved little Love Beetle is tucked safely away in winter hibernation, not burning fossil fuels in bumper-to-bumper traffic. Griz and her VW both are actively doing our parts to economically protest Mu$k’s and his Mein Trumpf’s criminally insane capitalism and federal spending cuts run amok.

  37. @34 He signed an inherently racist order, so yes. I’m guessing if he were alive today, he’d recognize that. Unlike some people on this thread.

  39. @36: “I’m guessing if he were alive today, he’d recognize that.”

    You’d be surprised how often racists are blind to their own racism, even as they vigorously defend their racism! 😄 Over in the Books section, for example, there are a couple of commenters right now denying there is any such thing as a “Jewish nation.” And these people think they are being ANTI-racist! 🤣🤣🤣

  40. @8 &30…

    Every day at the Arizona Memorial there are dozens, if not more, of Japanese tourists that come to pay respect to the people that their ancestors killed. Maybe not an “officially recognized” whatever, but it is there.

    Daily.

    If I ever got the chance to visit Japan, I would go to the Atomic Dome in Hiroshima to do the same thing. Pay my respects to the innocents that my ancestors killed.

  46. @44: Comes down to quibbling about “remote” – but I admit – ancestors to you, parents and grandparents to me.

    a person, typically one more remote than a grandparent, from whom one is descended.

  52. @45…

    So, when you are proven wrong, it is just a “quibble”.

    Yeah, just go fuck yourself and spare us from your tedious wanking.

    You asswipe.

  53. @51: No, it really is a quibble. There is no definitive number of generations when ancestors should or should not be used. You taking offense over such an innocuous topic is what’s tedious.

  54. @40, 42, 45, 47, & 52

    reveling in your Clue-

    lessness trolling for attention

    tenacity & tediousness rivaling even

    tentsores’ — FINALLY gotchyur beatdown.

    congratulations

    you Won.

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