Let us ride the trainsssssss
Let us ride the trainsssssss Sound Transit

Sportsnews for sportspeople: Former Seattle Seahawk Richard Sherman is back in the NFL, reports ESPN. The cornerback signed a one-year contract with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, saying it was "the best offer" he had. It must've been a very good offer because it means he'll have to be on a team with Tom Brady. Before joining the Bucs, Sherman played three seasons with the 49ers and seven seasons with the Seahawks. This is the last time I'll mention sports today.

A terrible crash on Highway 18 near Auburn: The highway is closed in both directions after a driver drove in the wrong direction around 2 AM this morning, killing the driver and involving three semitrucks.

Idaho needs education. From AP:

A constant barrage of misinformation has Idaho health care workers facing increased animosity from some patients and community members, officials say. It’s gotten so bad in northern Idaho that some Kootenai Health employees are scared to go to the grocery store if they haven’t changed out of their scrubs, said hospital spokeswoman Caiti Bobbitt on Tuesday.

Speaking as someone who spent seven years in the Idaho public school system, I don't think we even learned state capitals. Biology? Virology? No ma'am!

Or maybe Idaho needs a Republican aide to blast "Memory" from the musical Cats across the gem state, just to turn down the temperature a bit.

That's what Trump's aides would reportedly play when he got particularly heated or when he was throwing a tantrum. The purr-fect show tune regularly calmed him down, according to former Trump press secretary Stephanie Grisham's upcoming book. "Mr. Trump’s handlers designated an unnamed White House official known as the 'Music Man' to play him his favorite show tunes, including 'Memory' from Cats, to pull him from the brink of rage," reports the New York Times.

There's a world where Trump was listening to Cats while his idiots insurrected the Capitol, and that world is this world.

Kanzlerins and shushĹŤs: This week could've been a big week for global leadership shakeups. First, Germany voted for its Social Democrats, consequently voting for the boring steady hand of Olaf Scholz to lead Das Land der Dichter und Denker and replace Angela Merkel. Now, it looks like the unpopular Fumio Kishida will succeed the equally unpopular Yoshihide Suga as prime minister of the world's third-largest economy (Japan; Germany is fourth). Both Kishida and Scholz act a lot like their predecessors.

Royal romance doesn't do anything for me, but if you're smitten with that kind of smut, this is for you: "You’ve heard of Harry and Meghan. Now meet Mako and Kei, who have Japan in a tizzy."

Japan's Princess Mako is expected to marry a—gasp—commoner! with a ponytail!

The Sauk-Suiattle Tribal Chairman gave Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan and the Seattle City Council an ultimatum: "Commit to building infrastructure for salmon to get around Seattle’s dams on the Skagit River, or stop using the image of Chief Seattle as the face of the city," reports KING 5. Why not both!

Here's the letter, written in early August, where Chairman Nino Maltos writes, "Sealth, or Chief Seattle, was a person known for his integrity. He believed there was no separation between people and nature. In tribal culture, the bestowal of a name carries with it a duty to live up to that name. City of Seattle, live up to the values of your namesake or cease bearing his image as the Great Seal of the City of Seattle."

Can it be Saturday already? North Seattle is about to open up like never before. I love light rail. I also love "$3 signature food bites." This video makes me giddy:

The area around the new Roosevelt light rail station has "absorbed 1,626 new housing units since early 2016, a 95% increase," according to city records, reports Mike Lindblom for the Seattle Times. "That’s a total of 3,346 homes an easy walk to light rail." More! MOAR!

Taking a trip up to the new Northgate station this weekend? The Urbanist's Shaun Kuo wrote a quick guide to the area.

Republicans in Congress want to force Democrats to raise the country's debt ceiling through reconciliation.


Senate Majority Leader Schumer says nuh-uh.

The Senate could vote as early as today on a bill that would prevent a "catastrophic" government shutdown on Friday. It's gonna be another tense day on the other Capitol Hill today.

Meanwhile, our Capitol Hill is about to get uniquely moist. The National Weather Service says the Seattle area will likely get hit with a "baroclinic leaf" tonight, bringing heavy winds and soaking rains by Thursday. September is going out with a sploosh.

Homicides were up 21 percent in Washington state in 2020, but the, uh, good news, I guess, is that's roughly 9 percent lower than the average national spike, at nearly 30 percent, according to the FBI.

Welp, the ST updated this and issued a... "Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly said homicides increased by 21% in Washington. That number refers to the increase in the proportion of nationwide homicides that took place in Washington. The number of homicides in Washington increased by 46%." A big change.

Anti-vaxxers get the ban hammer: YouTube announced today that it will block all anti-vaccine content on its platform, not just content that's anti-COVID-19 vaccine. That includes blocking Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has peddled measles vaccine misinformation in Olympia, Washington, and Joseph Mercola, a fraud and freak who's somehow still allowed on Twitter.

Brandi Carlile's seventh studio album, In These Silent Days, drops this Friday: Michael Rietmulder at the Seattle Times calls it "the most dynamic and unflinching collection of her career." The album opens with "Right on Time," which sounds like this:

Ryan "Henry" Ward's murals of day-glo critters are everywhere in Seattle, as are his stickers, along with his subliminal messages. KUOW published a long profile of the prolific artist yesterday. Listen here.


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Jas Keimig