Our new neighbor.
Our new neighbor. CB

Bob Iger is stepping down as Disney's chief executive: He will continue to be an executive chairman. The news was very unexpected. When it broke, this was the entire NYT post:

Robert A. Iger will step down as chief executive of Walt Disney after 15 years at the helm of the company, the company said on Tuesday.

He will be replaced by Bob Chapek, who was most recently chairman of Disney’s parks business.

The Democratic presidential candidates are currently debating in South Carolina: The debate is happening on CBS News and features seven candidates: Bloomberg, Buttigieg, Warren, Sanders, Biden, Klobuchar, and Steyer. It's been going on for an hour. It's chaotic and everyone is shouting over each other. It's like every candidate on stage is performing in a separate biopic. Biden just said, "Do we just speak up whenever we want to? Is that how this works?" Apparently, Joe! Watch it here if you'd like to raise your blood pressure:

Ahead of the debate, reporters predicted... It would be everyone vs. Sanders. So far that's been true. People are out for blood, but the criticisms aren't new. Sanders has been hit over his electibility, healthcare costs, and past votes on gun safety. Since Biden is leading (by a slight margin) in South Carolina, it was also anticipated that he would get heat. That hasn't really happened yet. And what about Warren and Bloomberg? They started the night bogged down in a battle over NDAs, again, and people booed. It was unclear which candidate they were booing. Has the disdain between Buttigieg and Klobuchar reemerged? Not yet.

Sanders was quickly pushed on his plans to pay for Medicare for All: He was asked to do the math, then responded: “How many hours do you have?” Buttigieg jumped in with: “It doesn’t take two hours to do the math." Somewhere out there, Andrew Yang is wearing a MATH pin.

Biden is certain he will win South Carolina: He refused to acknowledge that Sanders is "within striking distance" and reiterated: “I will win South Carolina." We'll find out this weekend!

Okay, we've got to move on: Come back in the morning for notes on the rest of the debate. Or, if you're brave, peep the comments.

The coronavirus continues to scare investors: Stocks tumbled for the second day in a row today. "A day after its worst one-day slide in two years, the S&P 500 was down about 3 percent by Tuesday afternoon, a decline that put the blue chip index firmly in the red for the year," writes the NYT.

Bleak: About one in five Washington community college students were homeless last year

Scotland is the first country to make period products free for everyone: The landmark decision is the first of its kind and a big win for a growing movement to make menstrual hygiene a basic right.

Sue Bird is returning to the Seattle Storm: It will be Sue's 19th season with the team. She was out last season after going through knee surgery.

Hold the phone: We've got a news update from The Stranger's Nathalie Graham. Take it away, Nathalie:

Mayor Durkan has opted to neither sign nor veto Councilmember Kshama Sawant's ordinance to establish a moratorium on evictions from December to March. Without her signature, the legislation will still go into effect after 30 days. However, Durkan says she will be transmitting her own proposal next week that Councilmember Andrew Lewis is going to sponsor. It will include $200,000 in funding to United Way of King County's Home Base program, which gives one-time emergency funds to pay rent, provides legal representation to tenants, and connects tenants with social workers. "The Mayor’s legislation—if Council passes it—will do the work of keeping people in their homes," a spokesperson for the mayor's office told The Stranger.

The ordinance was passed in early February with a slew of amendments that whittled down the original bill: Part of the purpose of the amendments, Councilmember Andrew Lewis confirmed to The Stranger in a previous story, was to protect against an expected legal battle. Durkan cited that the legislation "opens up the city to significant legal costs," as one of the reasons for returning it unsigned. She urged council members to come forward with more amendments that would "ameliorate ongoing operational and legal concerns."

Thanks, Nathalie!

Locally, the biggest news of today was Amazon's new grocery store: As Nathalie noted in Slog AM this morning, Amazon opened their biggest grocery store to date today. The Amazon Go Grocery in Capitol Hill has no cashiers or check-out lines, but if you head over there today (it's on Pike between Belmont and Boylston) you'll see plenty of Amazon employees running around. There are already about five Amazon Go locations in Seattle (and more in Chicago, New York City, and San Francisco), but this is the first Amazon Go Grocery, which is basically the same but much bigger. ("The store is about 10,400 square feet and stocks roughly 5,000 items, including fresh produce, meats and alcohol," writes CNBC.)

How does it work? It operates by a complex system of cameras, sensors, and computer vision. (Obviously, there have been security concerns since the Amazon Go concept launched. The level of surveillance gets creepy: "The US Patent and Trademark Office published a patent application from Amazon... for a touchless scanning system that would identify people not by their faces but by characteristics associated with the palms of their hands, including wrinkles and veins.") You scan the Amazon Go app upon entering (you don't need to be a Prime member to use it) and then each time you pick up an item it is added to your receipt. If you put the item back, then the item is removed from your receipt. The app even calculates your trip time down to the second. Spooky. Today, when I visited, my trip time was 11 minutes and 1 second. Here's what I saw:

It was pretty empty when I went this morning, besides PR people, journalists, Amazon employees.
It was pretty empty when I went this morning, besides PR people, journalists, Amazon employees. CB

You just throw the stuff in these free bags. You have to pay for the items, but it feels like youre stealing.
You just throw the stuff in these free bags. You have to pay for the items, obviously, but it feels like you're stealing. CB

Thanks.
Thanks. CB

Even when you pick up little stuff, like these bars, the cameras know which one you grab and how many. Its bewildering.
Even when you pick up little stuff, like these bars, the cameras know which one you grab and how many. It's bewildering. CB

The coffee was the most surreal. It knew what size cup I grabbed.
The coffee was the most surreal. It knew what size cup I grabbed. CB