Let there be light: Power is back on for most people—96% of Puget Sound Energy customers—after last week’s bomb cyclone. Yet, around 20,000 people are still in the dark. Most of the powerless are east of Lake Washington, in places such as Issaquah, Renton, and Sammamish. PSE crews have been working around the clock to restore what the storm knocked out, but the work is painstakingly slow. 

Moist Monday: Rain again. Though, not forever. The rain should stop by Tuesday. The sun could even return on Friday. 

Cold snaps into place: The weather may be milder this week, but the temperatures are more frigid. 

Bad week for Batu: Woodland Park’s 15-year-old orangutan was pregnant with her first baby, which would have marked the zoo’s first orangutan birth in 35 years. Despite regular check-ups and ultrasounds, Batu tragically lost her baby last week due to a miscarriage.

Police accountability director resigns: Seattle’s Office of Police Accountability Director Gino Betts Jr. resigned over criticism he received from interim police Chief Sue Rahr. While Betts faced controversy over his investigation into former Chief Adrian Diaz and a relationship he maintained with a former chief of staff, most of the flack he received came from his calls for discipline. For instance, Betts faced scrutiny from not only Rahr, but Seattle Police Officers Guild President Mike Solan and an angry right-wing contingent. This came after Betts called for the termination of police union Vice President Daniel Auderer, who was recorded making jokes about a college student who was struck and killed by a police car.

Stop drinking and driving, you freaks! Over just four hours from Saturday night to early Sunday morning, four suspected impaired drivers crashed into Washington State Patrol vehicles. Most of the crashes occurred while troopers were pulled over for traffic enforcement or investigating accidents.

A career pivot: After he withdrew from consideration to be Trump’s Attorney General, Matt Gaetz announced he wouldn’t be returning to Congress. And how could he? He very confidently resigned from the House after Trump made his AG ascension public. Since that didn’t work out, now Gaetz is peddling personalized videos on Cameo for $550 a pop. His bio reads: “I served in Congress. Trump nominated me to be US Attorney General (that didn’t work out). Once I fired the House Speaker.” 

Deadly journalist attack likely intentional: Last month, Israel bombed a guesthouse in southeast Lebanon where three journalists slept. Human Rights Watch determined the attack was intentional; Israel used a bomb “equipped with a U.S.-produced Joint Direct Attack Munition, or JDAM, guidance kit,” according to the Associated Press. Since that Oct. 25 attack, 11 other journalists have been killed and eight have been wounded in the Israel-Hezbollah war. 

Philippines Vice President under investigation: Vice President Sara Duterte said in an online news conference that she’s hired an assassin to kill the President, the President’s wife, and the speaker of the House of Representatives if anyone kills her. The threat, she assured, was real. Naturally, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is not taking that well. He called the threat a “criminal plot” and said Duterte will be investigated. Duterte attempted to walk back her statement by saying she was expressing concern for her own safety over a threat she received. 

Not your average garden gnome: During a drug bust in the Netherlands, police found a garden gnome amongst narcotics. The police thought it was an odd place to keep a garden gnome, so they tested it. That little guy was made of MDMA. The gnome weighed four pounds. 

Someone tell RFK Jr.: A sample of raw milk sold in California came back positive for bird flu. 

Third woman dead from Texas abortion bans: Porsha Ngumezi, 35, died after miscarrying in her first trimester. At the hospital, Ngumezi needed a standard dilation and curettage procedure known as a D&C to clear out the remaining pregnancy tissue and allow her uterus to close, thus staunching her bleeding. But Texas doctors wouldn’t administer the D&C for fear of violating Texas’ abortion bans. They gave her misoprostol to help her pass the tissue. Yet, it wasn’t enough. She died three hours later. 

Something bad: Trump could push out dozens of government watch dogs. 

Something cool: This comic about new parenthood is stunningly rendered. 

Fuck, it’s Thanksgiving: In case you, like me, must contribute a dish to the family meal, but are not on the hook for actually preparing the whole feast, here is a recipe you can make: charred brussels sprouts with a warm honey glaze. 

Correction: A previous version of Slog AM said that Daniel Auderer was driving the vehicle that killed a college student. He was dispatched after the incident to determine if the other police officer had been impaired. That’s when he made the jokes about her death. 

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...

33 replies on “Slog AM: Power Still Out for 20,000 in Washington, Gaetz Gets on Cameo, A Garden Gnome of MDMA”

  1. “Vice President Daniel Auderer, who struck and killed a pedestrian with his car”

    Factually incorrect. It was another officer. Auderer was fired for joking about it.

  3. “Freaks” are never going to stop drinking and driving.

    All the relentless media messaging has done is significantly reduce the number of “freaks” who drink and drive. It will never eliminate it.

    Only total victory in the War on Cars can do that.

  4. @4, Many transit agencies (E.g. Pierce Transit) won’t let the visibly intoxicated ride.

    The intoxicated have slower reaction time. If a bus has to brake because someone cuts off the bus, they can’t apply leg pressure to their feet on the floor as fast, resulting in the person sliding out of the seat and injury the head and neck on the way to the floor, or the seat in front of them.

    They are also are at more risk of falling entering and exiting the bus? Plaintiff’s attorney ask, “If my client was as visibly intoxicated as the video indicates, why did you let them step onto the bus and risk falling trying to get on the bus? Isn’t it true that if you had not allowed them to board, they could have been impaired in an environment where it isn’t as easy to fall?”

    It’s not a defense for the agency, that they kept the impaired from driving and hitting another car or pedestrian. That is speculative. Nor is the agency liable for what the person does on vehicles or property the agency doesn’t control.

    The driver in such agencies may be subject to discipline and recording a “preventable accident” on their commercial driving record if an impaired person is injured entering or exiting the bus, or while riding the bus.

  11. That comic strip about becoming a parent is so stunningly accurate it terrifies me. My 3 kids are grown with kids of their own and it still sends a shiver to think about the complexities of raising a human being. I honestly don’t know how I survived it.

    (Good enough) parenting isn’t for sissies.

  12. @4,@8, @9 You ever been a driver for Pierce Transit. Didn’t think so. I have.

    Does it mean there aren’t people under the influence on the bus? Of course they are. But if you let them board visibly impaired and don’t call it in, and they get hurt sliding out of a seat, its on the driver. So you tell them not to board, and if unable to prevent it (you don’t physically interfere other than shutting the door if safe to do so), you call it in. If you don’t and they get hurt, you get disciplined. They have to be visibly suffering loss of motor control, staggering, etc. Smelling the bottom of bottle or like fentanyl cloud isn’t enough. That is par for the course.

    Do drivers risk it? All the time. You want to get to your next break on-time, finish your route on-time, etc. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.

    The policy is unique to Pierce Transit in Puget Sound.

    Metro would be like, “Don’t hold up the rolling substance abuse shelter, that is what we are here for.” They would discipline a driver for refusing to allow an impaired rider on the bus.

  14. @12, We’ve stumbled on the one subject you are qualified to speak on — or at least you managed to shoehorn it into the conversation — but no one believes you because you’re always completely full of shit. The next time Pierce Transit rules and regulations come up will be your time to shine, finally.

  16. @12 Who gives a fuck? You cite a largely unenforced rule (assuming we take your word for it that it’s even a rule) at a single transit agency and extrapolate it as a universal truth about why it’s necessary to drink and drive. You’re a moron. And full of shit.

  17. @16, It’s enforced against drivers. It’s an employment and operating policy.

    It also results in transit agency payments to the injured intoxicated. It doesn’t happen often. For Metro its part of the cost of doing business, like fuel. Pierce tries to mitigate the cost.

    The reason you should care, is that its arguably for the greater good to do as Metro does; however, that doesn’t enter into the calculus for an individual public agency. What was the last payout that got management, or the boards attention. That’s the tail that wags the dog. It’s very reactionary.

    Metro assumes they can’t really stop the payouts for this, any more than they can for fuel. Pierce feels like they can influence with a policy barring employees from boarding the impaired.

    SPD (different context), cops, jails just pay because use of force is inherent in what employees are hired to do, and they don’t see much beyond current policies that they can do to impact use of force payouts.

    The comments on here are about “common sense”, or what seems right in my eyes, indicates employee shouldn’t have done . Therefore employee _ should be fired because they cost us money, shocked my conscience, etc.. The gubernment doesn’t operate that way. What was the policy that the guberment can measure conduct against, assuming they wrote a policy that covers whatever it was?

    For the public, that doesn’t understand the Constitutional limitations that the government, as an employer of citizens, operates under, its maddening.

  19. @14: lol, he still hasn’t cited an actual rule or policy against intoxicated riders. One bitter ex-employee’s personal recollection does not a policy make! 😄 Hey Notmyopic, you want credibility on this issue, why not cite us a line from the rulebook?

  20. @19 Probably because he can’t. Being intoxicated is no problem according to the Pierce Transit Code of Conduct. You can’t consume alcohol or drugs on the bus, but nothing to stop you from doing it before, as long as it’s not at a bus stop.

    https://piercetransit.org/rules-of-the-ride/

    Note also that this calls back to RCW 9.91.025, which is more specific about the problem being consumption of alcohol vs. being intoxicated.

    https://app.leg.wa.gov/rcw/default.aspx?cite=9.91.025

    Once again, Ahab is wrong, even in his area of supposed expertise. Typical. Maybe he just needs better glasses?

  21. @20, The employee policies of Piece Transit are not online. Want to wait on a public disclosure request for two weeks and check back here, I can cite it verbatim. But without a link, many still wouldn’t believe it.

    It’s an employee and operating policy.

  23. @21: lol, best not. Someone could send Pierce Transit a public records request for your public records request and thereby find out your true name, assuming you were unwise enough to put your true name on your request. Don’t dox yourself just to win an internet argument, lol!

    But you’re right, without a citation your claim at @4 isn’t very credible. 😃

    I’d actually be interested in hearing from a tort lawyer as to whether a common carrier might be liable for REFUSING to board a drunk person. Say the carrier denies boarding on grounds of drunkenness and the drunk then gets behind the wheel of his own car and kills someone? Carrier liability? Real lawyers only, no internet lawyers, sorry.

  25. @24: lol, the writing style and the tortuous but ultimately erroneous legal reasoning are very similar. I also see someone by that name in public employment records as a transit operator of many years’ experience, which checks out with @12. I also see a person by that name ranting like a total nutjob on social media about drug use on buses, just like @4. So, I guess, yeah, probably the same dude.

    I am still generally against doxxing people, though. You post lots of dumb shit here yourself, Mike Blob, but I would never post your true name even if I knew what it was, no matter how wrong or annoying you were. 😜 As for the person you named, reading a little more about his personal life only made me feel sorry for him. How am I supposed to dunk on him now that he’s been humanized? 😝

  26. @21 If Pierce Transit has operating policies that conflict with their online code of conduct for riders, they open themselves up to all kinds of legal liability. At a bare minimum, any Black rider who’s denied boarding because of intoxication has an immediate “You wouldn’t let me board because of racism” lawsuit, particularly if the policy is unevenly enforced.

    And you’re right, I won’t believe you without a link. I might believe that the driver is required to call in a visibly intoxicated rider so that PT can make sure to preserve any onboard video in case something happens. I don’t believe that the driver is encouraged to not let an intoxicated person ride. There are of course other options to prove the case, including getting a copy of the policy and posting it somewhere quasi-anonymously.

  27. They can go beyond the published rules for riders, and all transit agencies do.

    E.g. Pierce Transit also has a policy that drivers quit taking passengers when they exceed the seating capacity by 50%. The bus is rated to take more weight than that, but they want an additional safety factor. So they stop boarding passengers on a 37 seat bus when they have 18 people standing, bypassing people waiting for pick-up, until less than 18 people are standing, after flipping on a sign that says “coach full,” even though it technically isn’t. You can cram on as many standing as sitting, but stopping distance goes up, passenger stances narrow, making them less able to brace, etc. It’s in the same policies manual for drivers at PT as the other policy you want me to link to. PT doesn’t make that policy manual available other than providing it to drivers and making it available to the public through the public disclosure request process mandated in law (don’t ask me why, it’s not close to having anything sensitive or exempt from disclosure in it).

    Metro on the other hand requires stopping for pick-up at every stop no matter how many people are crammed in the bus and if the passenger can cram themselves in behind the “standee line” on the floor near the front door (nobody rides in front of that by Federal Law, the driver can’t see their mirrors) then Metro will require the driver to let them ride.

    As far as preserving video, that happens automatically. It’s done on the bus on a huge storage device that doesn’t over-write very often. Video has to be manually retrieved for longer-term storage. It is in response to any incident report.

    Another PT policy. You see kids climbing up on the backs of seats, not facing forward, etc. Under PT policy, the driver that doesn’t pull over at the next safe place, like a bus stop, and hold the bus there until the matter is corrected, is responsible for injuries if the kids get hurt. They make an announcement over the intercom trying to get the adults with the kid to get them down and sitting facing forward. If the parents don’t, or get in the driver’s face about it, it’s then a security matter, and they and the kids get asked to leave by a responding supervisor, or if necessary a cop.

    Every other passenger on the bus may be pissed at the delay, sometimes ganging up to yell or harass the driver together. Choose between getting “tarred and feathered” by the riders (or worse), or continue. If the kid goes flying down the aisle when you dynamite the brakes because someone pulled in front of the bus, it might be your job. Dammed if you do, dammed if you don’t. Good times.

    Metro requires all riders to get off the bus at the end of route, even if they are going to ride back the other way when the bus leaves in 5 minutes or an hours. That isn’t a published rule for rider conduct either and excludes people from a public bus, even if the fare is paid up to ride back the other way, at least for the duration of the buses layover at the end of the line. That isn’t a published rule or law either.

    Most of these policies are reactionary to the last time some Plaintiff scored a settlement against the transit agency.

    There are tons of reasons you can be excluded from riding that aren’t published in the RCW or local statutes. You just can’t be charged with the crime of “unlawful conduct.”

    The public doesn’t see them because they don’t do a public disclosure request

  28. @26, I’ll give you another one just for giggles, that doesn’t have to do with rider exclusion. ST buses are operated by PT, Metro, or CT. It’s ST equipment operated by local transit agency drivers and maintained by local transit agency mechanics under contract with ST.

    The 595 from Gig Harbor to Downtown Seattle is over an hour, with most of the morning routes operated before sunrise. Under ST policy it was permissible to turn the interior lights off so people could sleep on the way to the office. Some gal got felt up in the dark by another passenger. She filed a police report and sued ST and PT alleging but for the insecure, dark environment, she would have been unmolested. ST then changed policy to require that interior lights be left on. This lead to a big passenger petition to get the light turned back off. ST relented, then faced another incident. The lights went back on. The petitions started, elected officials on the board got cranky phone calls and e-mails, and the lights went back off. Rinse, wash, repeat. The poor drivers had to check their inboxes (paper) before every run to see what the policy of the week was for about 18 months. Finally ST left them off and left the matter settled.

    Much of the policies are just a reaction to the latest successful lawsuit, public relations debacle, etc. It’s reactionary and has little intentional, purposeful rationale of maximizing the public good or some broad public interest other than a reaction to the last “crisis.”

  31. @29: Actually a bunch of people dog-piled Notmyopic on this specific issue. One of them felt so strongly about it he even doxxed Notmyopic’s true name in a spiteful attempt to embarrass and intimidate him. It’s not the case that nobody else cared about this, if anything too many people cared too much lol!

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