You can catch a bus near the Capitol Hill light rail station and see this view about 3 hours later.
You can catch a bus near the Capitol Hill light rail station and see this view about three hours later. RS

The bus to the mountains starts running tomorrow: On Saturday King County Metro's Trailhead Direct service will take you out to Mt. Si from Capitol Hill (bus stop at Broadway and East Denny Way) or to Poo Poo Point from the Mt. Baker light rail station. Full routes here. King County Executive Dow Constantine, who is running for reelection, will greet riders at the Capitol Hill stop that morning.

Light rail frequency set to increase next Saturday, June 12: The pandemic slowed the train times to once every 12 minutes during peak hours and once every 15 minutes (and sometimes even longer!!!!) during off hours. That frequency will shift to once every 8 minutes and once every 12 minutes, respectively, according to Sound Transit's blog. "Late evening" shifts will run every 15 minutes, which is down from every 30 minutes.

The Neptune is coming back, baby: Stas THEE Boss, Sango, and Dave B will kick off the venue's weekly, full-capacity "comeback concert series" on July 10, the Seattle Times reports. "Concertgoers will be required to wear face masks when not drinking or eating and must show proof of vaccination (and a matching ID) at the door," and unvaccinated concertgoers must show a neg COVID-19 test and will be relegated to their own section.

Shakespeare in the Parks is coming back, baby: The Wooden O's production of The Comedy of Errors launches July 23 at Riverton Heights Park in SeaTac. We'll get a show at the Seattle Center on July 25, and then one in Columbia Park and another at Seward Park Amphitheater on August 7 and 8, respectively. Each park's host city will determine the health protocols for each show.

Tell the Governor to extend the eviction moratorium so the state has time to set up tenant protections that passed in Olympia this year, baby: According to the U.S. Census' Household Pulse Survey, about 126,106 Washingtonians say they weren't caught up on rent as of mid-May. Right now, Inslee plans to lift the moratorium at the end of June, and all of those people would be at risk of eviction. Tenant advocates say tenant protections passed this year won't be in place all over the state until later in the year, so they're calling on Inslee to show some mercy. If you want to join that call, write to him here.

Culturally competent outreach to the neighborhood
Culturally competent outreach to the neighborhood City of Seattle

If you haven't gotten your vaccine yet, then this week is a good week to do it. The city is hosting pop-up vaccination sites all over town for anyone over 12.

Resident finds woman's body in stream near Interlaken Park: Cops have no leads due to the "condition of the body and the location," and they're asking people to report any relevant information to the Violent Crimes tip line at 206-233-5000, reports Capitol Hill Seattle Blog.

Need to get this in place....

...So that I can snatch up one of the 16 "affordable" condos in Federal Way:

All I'm asking is to swap out my student loan debt with a mortgage debt: Is that too much to ask, Mr. President Joe Biden? (Apparently it is.)

In the meantime, seems like we should tax the people making bank off selling these houses for record high amounts: The good news on that score is Seattle's new payroll tax will do that! But the bad news is it's complicated, according to the Seattle Times. Most brokerages collect commissions but pass them onto realtors after they earn a certain amount. The city can't tax the brokerages for money they passed on to the realtors, so we'll have to tax the realtors themselves. But the individual realtors won't make enough money to be taxed, so the industry will get off. Cool.

Judge says Seattle's new payroll tax is legal: The Seattle Chamber of Commerce, who sued the city over the tax on a weak argument, will likely appeal, but Kevin Schofield over at SCC Insight says "at the appeals court level the result is unlikely to be different." That said, more cases will likely follow once the tax is implemented. Schofield thinks Amazon will be able to make a "good case that they are being subject to punitive taxation."

Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda, who introduced the tax, is very happy about the news: "I'm jumpin' up and down for JumpStart," she said. "Let's go build some housing and help some small businesses."

Alaska Airlines forces flight attendants to wear either "male" or "female" costumes: The ACLU would like them to stop doing that, KING 5 reports, and so they sent a letter telling them to stop. "In response, Alaska Airlines said they have introduced several new guidelines intended to give flight attendants more uniform options."

Facebook will ban Trump for two more years: The book of faces and conspiracies will only allow the former President to use the platform again right when the 2024 campaign season is really kicking into gear, but only if "conditions permit." What are those conditions, you ask? "We will evaluate external factors, including instances of violence, restrictions on peaceful assembly and other markers of civil unrest. If we determine that there is still a serious risk to public safety, we will extend the restriction for a set period of time and continue to re-evaluate until that risk has receded," they say.

Biden "scoffs" at the GOP's latest infrastructure offer: Senate Republicans offered to add $50 billion on top of their measly $928 billion offer, the New York Times reports. Biden proposed a ~$2 trillion plan, and even that's not enough.

Putin doesn't expect much out of his upcoming meeting with Biden: Biden said Russia would "pay a price" for trying to throw the 2020 elections in favor of Trump and also for the hack of the gas pipeline, and now Putin sounds like a mobster in a Scorsese film. From the BBC:

'I heard something about the meat plant,' he said. 'It's sheer nonsense. We all understand it's just ridiculous.'

'A pipeline?' he added. 'It's equally absurd.'

China "snuffed out" Tiananmen Square massacre commemoration vigil: On this day in 1989, the Chinese military killed "at least hundreds of pro-democracy protesters and bystanders" during a student-led protest in the square. Hong Kong has held a mass candle-light vigil ever year since, but China has cracked down on any mass assemblies given the recent pro-democracy uprisings. Chinese officials arrested activist Chow Hang-tung today for posting a request to light candles anyway.