Oooh. It feels so good. Do you do it?
Oooh. It feels so good. Do you do it? Getty Images

Oh no please stop not *354* SPD personnel reportedly not submitting proof of vax: COVID, the great defunder, slayer of police... literally.

Today's the deadline for SPD officers to submit proof of vaccination, as outlined in a letter from Chief Diaz last week. "Monday, October 4th is your last day to receive the second of your Pfizer or Moderna vaccine OR your single dose Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine in order to qualify for October 18 vaccine mandate deadline," wrote Diaz.

AP reports that the oil spill off the coast of Southern California this weekend was caused by a pipeline that was apparently split open and dragged more than 100 feet along the ocean floor, possibly by a ship’s anchor, officials announced Tuesday. The spill released an estimated 126,000 gallons of heavy crude oil into the ocean and onto the shore of Huntington Beach.

There's a climate and environmental justice mayoral forum wrapping up right now. You should be able to rewatch it once it finishes.

Washington State Sen. David Frockt will retire from the Senate when his term ends in December 2022, he announced today. Frockt is a Dem representing the state's 46th legislative district, covering North Seattle, Lake Forest Park, and Kenmore. He was elected to the Washington State House in 2010 but quickly moved to the Senate after the passing of Sen. Scott White in 2011. He's held the position since then. In 2018, we called him "a very nice man who is open to compromise and agonizingly slow, incremental change. So, not our favorite." The race for his seat will be juicy!

The current map of the 46th LD.
The current map of the 46th LD. Ballotpedia

Democratic State Rep. Javier Valdez, who currently represents the 46th District with Frockt and Rep. Gerry Pollet, immediately announced that he intends to run for Frockt's Senate seat, reports the Seattle Times. Other State Senate seats that will be freshly open include Republican State Sen. Ann Rivers (this Ann, also this Ann) in the 18th LD and Democratic Sen. Jeannie Darneille in the 27th LD (she's going to work for the Department of Corrections). Rivers will step down before the Senate convenes in January, and Darneille will leave sometime this fall.

Honking culture is changing in Seattle. A new poll from PEMCO Insurance suggests more people in Seattle and Portland are honking their car horns, a behavior that people used to consider anathema 'round here, in the old days when Hempfest was lit and the Sonics were on top. How do you honk your car horn, Seattle? A little toot toot? A big beep beep? Or do you just sit there, smiling while fucking swearing in your head, like a true Seattleite?

Former Facebook data scientist Frances Haugen spoke to a Senate subcommittee today about the company’s reluctance to address misinformation on the site because the recommended changes could hurt its profits. Haugen recommended greater government oversight over the company and some easy fixes—like returning to chronological social feeds and adding one more click before users can share content—which she believes would reduce misinformation. “A lot of the changes that I’m talking about are not going to make Facebook an unprofitable company, it just won’t be a ludicrously profitable company like it is today,” Haugen said.

If there's one thing that seems to unite Democrats and Republicans right now, it's coming together to give Facebook a good old-fashioned finger-wagging. Catch this exchange from this afternoon, noted by NPR:

At one moment in the hearing, Republican Sen. Jerry Moran of Kansas turned to Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut. Moran said they should put aside their partisan differences to tackle a common goal: reining in Facebook.

On such regulation, Blumenthal said: "Our differences are very minor."

"I share that view," Moran replied.

Later, during a press conference, Blumenthal referenced the bipartisan unity at the hearing.

"If you closed your eyes, you wouldn't know if it was a Republican or a Democrat," he said. "Every part of the country has the harms that are inflicted by Facebook and Instagram."

Johnson & Johnson is asking the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to approve the vaccine maker’s booster shots: If approved, the boosters would be authorized for people 18 and older who received their single-dose of the vaccine two to six months prior. After approving Pfizer booster shots last month, the FDA is convening an advisory group next week to evaluate data on booster shots for both the J&J and Moderna vaccines.

Looking to get a booster shot in King County? Want to know if you're eligible? Seattle Met has a quick guide.

King County confirmed that a rare blood clotting syndrome killed a woman in King County, as a result of her receiving the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine. This is the first confirmed death in the county from this very rare* vaccine complication, the county writes. (*A reported rate of 7 cases per 1 million women vaccinated in the 18 to 49 age range.) The woman received the vaccination in late August and died on September 7. The CDC has reported only three other deaths nationally due to this syndrome, known as thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome.

The profile described in King County's press release matches the obituary of Jessica Berg Wilson, 37, posted on OregonLive by Wilson's family. The obituary described Wilson as being "vehemently opposed" to the COVID vaccine, and it suggests the state's mandate moved her to receive the vaccine. It's a horribly sad story and one that we should put in context.

"Over the last 30 days in King County, an unvaccinated person’s risk of dying from COVID-19 was 57 times higher than a vaccinated person of the same age," according to King County's data dashboard. "The risk of being hospitalized with COVID-19 was 41 times higher for an unvaccinated person, compared to a vaccinated person of the same age."

Conservative media ran with Wilson's death yesterday, particularly focusing on how Twitter fact-checkers added a "misleading" label to her obituary, which described vaccine mandates as heavy-handed and stripping away freedoms.

Straight to hell: French clergy of the Catholic Church abused an estimated 216,000 children over the past 70 years, an investigation by an independent commission found, reports Reuters. Most of the victims were boys between the ages of 10 and 13. A leader of the French bishops asked for forgiveness and vowed action, but did not specify if the church would adopt the report’s recommendations of instituting background checks for anyone in the church interacting with children, providing priests with training, and financially compensating all identified victims of abuse.

Today, an Oregon jury found self-proclaimed Proud Boy Alan Swinney guilty of assault, menacing, and unlawful use of a weapon during two Portland protests in August 2020: Swinney shot paintballs, sprayed bear mace, and pointed a gun at counter-protesters during a rally on August 22 last summer, when Proud Boys and antifa protestors clashed for hours in downtown Portland without police intervention. While Swinney claimed his actions were in self-defense, prosecutors described him as a “vigilante cowboy” who came to Portland with the intent to fight antifascist protestors. A sentencing date has yet to be set.

Do you dream of operating a tiny cultural space in Seattle? Built for you by the City? The Office of Arts and Culture wants to make it happen. They're looking for their next recipient of their Tiny Cultural Space Program, which works with Sawhorse Revolution to build innovative cultural spaces on "snippets" of City-owned land. It's a cool project. Here's a little more info:

This space will be custom designed and built by a youth cohort under professional mentorship with you and your organization as the client. It will be built to your needs and sited on a small piece of City-owned property (a “snippet” property), at a location to be determined by the City of Seattle. The structure will belong to the community organization, and the property on which it sits will be available for at least five years. If in those five years the community organization can responsibly steward the space, the City will at its discretion initiate a process to transfer the ownership of the property to the organization outright.

A lot more info: Here.

Maybe your tiny cultural space would look something like this.
Maybe your tiny cultural space would look something like this. Courtesy Rafael Soldi/Seattle Office of Arts & Culture

The tune that keeps looping through our heads is this single off Japanese Breakfast's new video game soundtrack for Sable. It's inspired by Yo La Tengo and Alen Menken's Disney Themes, and Japanese Breakfast's frontwoman Michelle Zauner talked with NPR about how it's one of the best songs she's ever written. The band came through Seattle last week.