Mayor Ted Wheeler took several hits of some noxious tear gas deployed by the feds last night at his first appearance at the protests in Portland.
Mayor Ted Wheeler took several hits of some noxious tear gas deployed by the feds last night during his first appearance at the protests in Portland. Nathan Howard / Getty
Our new National Hockey League franchise is getting a name, logo, and colors today: This post publishes slightly before the news drops, but I'll come back and update once our NHL team is officially crowned the Seattle Freeze/Ferries/Amazon Go Team Members.

UPDATE: Our NHL franchise will be called Seattle Kraken! Not KrakenS, but singular KRAKEN. The colors are navy, light blue, and white with red accents. Here are the jerseys:

First time unemployment claims are on the rise, baby: 1.4 million people filed for unemployment last week, the first time in four months that number has actually gotten higher since its peak in the last week of March (has it really been that long?!). This increase is likely due to premature reopening and rolling back of state's economies as infection numbers go up.

Speaking of infection: The number of total coronavirus cases in the U.S. is "rapidly approaching" 4 million, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University. On Wednesday, our country hit 71, 695 new cases of COVID-19.

Governor Jay Inslee's approval rating among Washington voters is lukewarm at best: But his Republican challengers in the upcoming election? Barely hitting double digits. Republican candidate and Republic Police Chief Loren Culp is the closest to the incumbent, getting support from 14 percent of respondents to Inslee's 46 percent, according to a new Crosscut/Galway poll. Read more here.

After 55 days, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler finally shows up to the protests in his city: Demonstrators repeatedly booed and insulted the mayor with chants of "Fuck Ted Wheeler," calling for him to resign his position. Someone even dumped munitions at his feet. Wheeler railed against the deployment of federal officers to quell the demonstrations, but stated "he was limited in his powers to force them to leave." The crowd really was not having it.

Then Wheeler gets gassed for the first time by the feds, wearing just a face mask and a pair of goggles: The feds threw flash bangs and tear gas into the crowd several times throughout the night to disperse them. “It was not great,” Wheeler said, referring to, uh, getting gassed. “It makes your eyes really burn.”

Meanwhile in Seattle...: The Seattle Times reports a federal judge ended an effort by Mayor Jenny Durkan and Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best to block the implementation of a city council ordinance stopping the Seattle Police Department from using "most crowd-control weapons," like tear gas and blast balls, against protesters.

Capitol Hill also saw some action last night: A group of 150 or so protesters calling for direction action against SPD and the feds marched around the neighborhood, lighting fireworks outside the unopened Uncle Ike's on Olive, smashing the windows on Whole Foods and Key Bank, and reportedly breaking into and looting retailer Likelihood on 11th and Union. There was a huge presence of SPD officers following the demonstrators around the Hill, but no arrests were made.

Most notably: The protesters broke into Rove on 11th and Pine, reportedly pulling out merchandise from the store and lighting it on fire in the middle of the street. The owner of the vintage store is Rachel McNew, who is the wife of Steven McNew, one of two SPD officers who shot and killed Charleena Lyles in 2017.

Taylor Swift is dropping a new surprise quarantine album tonight: It's called folklore and it's a record she apparently poured all her "whims, dreams, fears, and musings into."

A man was stabbed earlier this morning outside the Bailey-Boushay House care facility: The victim was treated at the scene and taken to the hospital, reports CHS Blog. SPD located the suspect and took him into custody.

Alaska Air Group lost $214 million in the last three months: And that was after a sweet, sweet government infu$ion of $362 million in Payroll Protection Program fund$. According to the Seattle Times, net revenue for the quarter was $421 million, down from $2.3 billion last year for the same quarter.

Ugh, I hate this weird weather: It's going to be cloudy and in the 70s today. "Partly sunny" is the bane of my existence.

The Senate Republican's proposed stimulus bill is dropping today: And there will be no payroll tax cut included in it, confirmed Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin today to reporters. The tax cut was primarily advocated for by President Donald Trump, but lacked support among lawmakers. Mnuchin said they were more focused on "direct payments."

If you really thought you'd be going to the movie theaters by now, you have no concept of how bad this pandemic is: Today, AMC Theatres announced they were pushing back their opening from later this month to "mid-to-late" August. The reason? There are no new big budget movies for them to show. Warner Bros took Christopher Nolan's much anticipated Tenet off the release schedule for now and Disney's Mulan is pushed back August 21.

Soon, they'll replace everyone, even you: Fox Sports said that they'd be debuting "virtual fans" in their Major League Baseball broadcasts in an effort to bring back advertisers after barring spectators from games due to the, you know, global pandemic. CNN says the fans, developed by Silver Spoon Animation will "look and move like real people, and can be customized for each game." Variety goes deep on it here. There's something more sinister about virtual fans than cute stuffed animals, but I digress.

Something to groove to: Zhu's remix of Tinashe's Certified Bop "Die A Little Bit" featuring Ms. Banks. Close your eyes and pretend you're at the club!