Whos got two thumbs, was the former president of the United States, and has a tome of a memoir coming out? This guy!
Who's got two thumbs, was the former president of the United States, and has a tome of a memoir coming out? This guy! Hannes Magerstaedt/Getty
Welcome to Slog AM, where get into the morning's biggest headlines. Up first...

Group behind Hyatt hoax said the move was meant to pressure the hotel to put up homeless, protect them from wildfire smoke: Anna Humphreys, one of the creators of a fake press release claiming the hotel planned to put up 30 homeless people, said the group was frustrated that the city and county have only opened one 100-bed shelter for refuge, reports the Seattle Times. The Hyatt was targeted because they lit up a side of the building with "BLM" in supposed solidarity with the protests happening earlier this summer.

University of Washington grad student files class action lawsuit against the university: Demanding repayment of tuition and other fees, reports KIRO. A press release from Hagen Berman, the law firm representing the student, stated that despite sending students home and transitioning to online classes, UW "continued to charge for tuition and/or fees as if nothing changed, continuing to reap the financial benefit of millions of dollars from students.”

Barack Obama has a new memoir coming out: It'll drop just after the November election, and it is called A Promised Land. The first of two volumes, the 768-page book will apparently encompass his early political life and his 2008 presidential campaign, ending with the 2011 death/killing of Osama bin Laden. I'm sure the prose will be beautiful and deceptive.

Attorney General William P. Barr told federal prosecutors on a call last week that they should consider charging some protesters with sedition: Reports the New York Times. Many people who were on the call were obviously alarmed at the suggestion to "charge people with insurrection against lawful authority."

Barr also asked the civil rights division of the Justice Department to explore whether they could bring criminal charges against Mayor Jenny Durkan (!!!!!!): For her role in "allowing" citizens to establish the Capitol Hill Organized Protest (CHOP) zone in June.

Durkan called this report "chilling": "Ultimately, this is not a story about me," she said in a statement released yesterday. "It is about how this President and his Attorney General are willing to subvert the law and use the Department of Justice for political purposes." This isn't the first time the Trump administration has targeted the Durkan administration. In the past several months, the president criticized her handling of CHOP and threatened to cut funding from "lawless" cities like Seattle.

Bill was a on a roll yesterday during an event at Hillsdale College: Comparing coronavirus lockdown orders to slavery, calling them the "greatest intrusion on civil liberties in American history." He also criticized a junior justice department staffers, accusing them of improperly interfering with cases involving Trump associates and comparing the prosecutors to preschoolers. Barr should probably stop with the comparisons.

Meanwhile: On June 1, the lead military police officer in the Department of Defense for the D.C. region asked if the National Guard could provide a heat ray to use on protesters in Washington, D.C. The "heat ray" or Active Denial System can direct beams toward a group providing "a sensation of intense heat on the surface of the skin. The effect is overwhelming, causing an immediate repel response by the targeted individual." Good to know that government officials have considered microwaving citizens!

26th woman comes forward to accuse Trump of sexual misconduct: Former model Amy Dorris alleges that the president sexually assaulted her outside the bathroom at his VIP box during the 1997 US Open. "He just shoved his tongue down my throat and I was pushing him off. And then that’s when his grip became tighter and his hands were very gropey and all over my butt, my breasts, my back, everything," she told The Guardian. Trump (through his lawyers) has denied this incident took place.

A possible murder and standoff ended with a dead suspect last night at Cal Anderson: At around 8:00 p.m. Seattle Fire was summoned to the park to resuscitate a woman in critical condition, reports CHS Blog. She was eventually declared dead. Police are now investigating her death as a "domestic violence homicide."

At around same time: There were reports of a man—now considered a suspect in the woman's death—barricading himself inside the Pump House in the park. Seattle Police Department officers surrounded the building, forming a large perimeter around the park with protesters at the scene, reports CHS Blog. SPD negotiators tried to coax the man out of the building, but eventually "a SWAT team was called in to assist," says KOMO.

And now let's turn to my colleague Rich Smith for a little more: A source at the scene said (and live streams show) officers attempted to negotiate with the man inside the Pump House for a few hours. At around 10:30 p.m., officers took a saw to the fence around the building. They used a battering ram to force entry on the door, but eventually gave up. A little over half an hour later, the source said police tossed a flash bang at one of the doors, but the suspect still didn't emerge. Shortly thereafter the cops "deployed gas through a window hole" in the Pump House, the source said. This person said he couldn't tell how the gas was deployed, but he could feel its effects strongly from 200 yards away. Twenty minutes after midnight cops appeared to breach a door on the northwest corner of the building with a saw. "A couple cops came out choking after they got inside," the source said, and a "chlorine smell" filled the air. R.S.

Thanks, Rich! And now back to me: After the lengthy standoff, police found the suspect dead inside the building. Here's what the SPD Blotter said about the incident:

At approximately 12:30 AM, SWAT entered the building and located the man unresponsive inside at the bottom of a 10 foot tank, which contained approximately 50 gallons of 12 percent bleach solution. The man was declared deceased at the scene. Seattle Fire responded back to the scene with a HAZMAT crew to assess the scene and assist the Medical Examiner with the body recovery. The recovery was processed and documented by Crime Scene Investigators and Force Investigation Team detectives. The Medical Examiner will determine the cause and manner of death.

The TikTok quibbling continues: Yesterday President Trump said he's not ready to OK a deal between Chinese company ByteDance and Oracle for the popular video sharing app, saying the deal must be "100 percent as far as national security is concerned." He also objected to the idea of ByteDance retaining a majority stake in the company.

Clean air on the way? Today will still be gross, but it looks like we are generally improving. Maybe we can all open our windows soon!


Teen shot and killed in Kirkland's Houghton Beach Park last night: Witnesses said they saw two male suspects running from the park around the time of the shooting. They still remain on the loose.

ICYMI: Model Emily Ratajkowski wrote brilliantly about reclaiming her image and the male gaze in The Cut earlier this week. Carve some time out of your day to give it a read.

Hawai'i is loosening some restrictions: Starting Oct. 15, out of state travelers can bypass the mandatory 14-day quarantine if they test negative for coronavirus 72 hours before arrival.

OK, Blac Chyna wig-ASMR tension breaker: Maybe that sentence doesn't make sense to you, but you won't regret watching. Plug in your headphones, baybee.

Your headache and sluggishness may not necessarily be caused by all the smoke in the air: You could be feeling the effects of inhaling too much carbon dioxide if you've been limiting the airflow into your home. Liz Brazile at KUOW has more on it here.

Baby Yoda has an Emmy: Well, fine, the visual effects team behind Baby Yoda from The Mandalorian has an Emmy. Last night was the halfway mark of the five-night Creative Arts Emmys, which will culminate in the Primetime Emmys this Sunday. Check out a full list of night-three winners here.

Gov. Jay Inslee accidentally gave maggot-infested apples to wildfire victims in Bridgeport, Malden, and Omak: The governor said he regrets the mistake and this moment is "a good reminder of the importance of awareness around apple quarantine." They were Honeycrisps, in case any of you were wondering.

Spotify is having all-hands meetings about their Overpaid Podcast King: Also known as Joe Rogan. Apparently, many employees at Spotify felt uncomfortable with the company hosting certain transphobic episodes of The Joe Rogan Experience. CEO Daniel Ek has defended keeping those episodes on the platform, says Vice. Content moderation is a problem that's likely to balloon as the music streaming service begins to dip its toes even more into the podcasting space.

Something to groove to this morning: "Sutphin Boulevard," one of my favorite Blood Orange songs.