Of the 110 SPD whove called it quits this year, most are retiring to cash in on something called a pension plan.
Of the 110 cops who've called it quits this year, most are retiring to cash in on something called a "pension." RS

More like rats fleeing a sinking ship, I'd say: Axios reports that Trump's campaign manager thinks the President is going to lose, according to three "senior Trump advisers." The manager, Bill Stepien, "likens the campaign to an airplane flying through turbulence, saying: 'It's our job to safely land the plane.'"

What did you miss at the dueling Trump/Biden town halls last night? Not much. Biden again said he's "not a fan" of packing the Supreme Court, but also said, "it depends on how this turns out," referring to the confirmation process for Amy Coney Barrett. Trump refused to disavow QAnon and said his lungs were a "little bit different, a little bit — perhaps infected," reports the Washington Post.

But Biden beat Trump on the only measure the President cares about: Ratings.

Some highlights:

And here's about 5 mins of "key moments" from Biden's relatively (and welcomely) snoozy town hall:

Remdesivir "has little to no effect on Covid patients' chances of survival:" The BBC reports on a new study from the World Health Organization, which finds that the drug Trump got doesn't do much to prevent deaths from COVID-19. The study hasn't been peer-reviewed yet, and the big pharma company who makes the drug dismissed the findings, but this could be a little bit of an issue, as Gilead expects to make about $3.5 billion on the drug. Watch us buy it anyway.

No vaccine until after the election, Pfizer said: The drug company joins Moderna in saying they ain't playing Trump's game. Pfizer expects to have a good idea about whether its vaccine is effective by Halloween, "but won't have the safety data the FDA wants [to seek an emergency authorization] at least until the end of November," Politico reports.

Experts continue to warn about a new COVID peak: Seventeen states are "seeing surges unlike anything they experienced earlier in the pandemic," the New York Times reports, and cases are trending upward in 41 states.

Trump administration rejects California's request for disaster relief funds: The president denied Gov. Gavin Newsom's request for a major presidential disaster declaration to help clean up damage from recent wildfires, the LA Times reports.

In case you still find it fun to hear Republicans dunking on Trump even though they could have stood up to him when they had the power, here's the sassy Sasse audio:

Intelligence agencies warned Giuliani was target of Russian influence operation: The Washington Post reports U.S. intelligence agencies worried Rudy Giuliani was being used to feed Russian misinformation to the president.

Security guard will face second-degree murder charge for shooting at Denver protest: The guard was working for a Denver TV news station when he allegedly shot a man at a “patriot rally.” The shooting was caught on video and in photographs. The Denver Post has more.

Some bad stuff happened Thursday night: According to the Seattle Times, a man was shot and killed in a North Seattle parking lot, a man was shot and injured in another parking lot in Georgetown, and a small plane crashed outside a Party City near Puyallup. (The pilot suffered minor injuries.)

Some police leaving before layoffs: The mayor's office released data showing 39 members of the Seattle Police Department left last month, “the highest monthly total since at least 2018," according to Crosscut. In 2018, 17 people left in one month. In total, 110 officers have left this year, "slightly more" than in past years. Most have been officers who retired and 72% were white, Crosscut reports.

More on that footnote in yesterday’s Washington Supreme Court ruling on car tabs: “In striking down its 1960 opinion, the Supreme Court said on Thursday it was trying to reckon with the court system’s long history of racial discrimination,” writes David Gutman at the Seattle Times. “It was taking one small, symbolic step to try to undo centuries of systemic racism in America.” Theo Myhre, a professor at the University of Washington School of Law, told the Times: “It’s institutionally really important that the courts look backward in time and acknowledge when things are really wrong, when they accomplish an injustice rather than justice.”

Former Coulee City police chief allegedly files misleading workers comp report: And it's a wild one, people. According to KXLY, in 2012 Brenda Lynn Cavoretto said she couldn't work because a hanged body in a barn fell on her, which traumatized her. She started collecting workers comp the following year, but L&I investigators say they caught her working as a photographer, a pageant organizer, and a pin-up model who goes by the names “Tuff As Nailz” and “The Black Widow Bettie." She collected $67,000 in workers comp. This is a story about a scam, but honestly if a basic income program turns cops into pin-up models then I think we've found a compromise solution to the defund movement.

None for me, thanks: A nighttime "snake safari" in Hong Kong.

Reported Mayor Pete sighting in Everett:



King County Superior Court orders insurance company to stop using branding similar to state health care exchange: Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson says that on the same day Washington announced its state insurance exchange, Washington Healthplanfinder, a Seattle health insurance company called Health Insurance Team bought 12 domain names with the phrase 'healthplanfinder,’ the Seattle Times reports. The insurance company also used a phone number one digit off from the exchange's number and used the exchange's logo on Twitter, according to the Times.

About the police rifle allegedly stolen during protests downtown on May 30: A Bremerton man was charged with arson and three firearms charges for allegedly helping light a police car on fire and stealing a police rifle during protests downtown on May 30, the Seattle Times reports. Prosecutors say the man removed a black canvas bag containing an assault-style rifle belonging to a police officer and then another person attempted to take the bag from him and the two got in a scuffle. A third person picked up the bag and the gun was later returned to SPD, according to the charges. According to the Times: “The complaint said there were three rifles in the vehicle and that the other two were locked up. There was no room to lock up the third, the charges say.”