Step up your mask game yall
Step up your mask game y'all JK

How sick are we? I just checked the county's most recent COVID numbers (you can do it, too, it's actually a very good dashboard IMO) and this is how we are looking: The county reported nearly 5,700 new cases, 55 new hospitalizations, and 8 new deaths since Jan. 5.

How we gonna pay? Thousands of tenants in the Seattle area need help chipping away at their rental debt, but The Seattle Times reported that King County Officials said they may run out of funds with renters still waiting for the government’s help. It’s not great, especially with the potential end of Seattle’s eviction moratorium looming.

COVID-19 fast-tracks prison abolition: Yesterday, Olympia Police Department interim chief Rich Allen suspended all operations at Olympia’s municipal jail for 10 days due continued spread of COVID-19 among staff and inmates. Pretty cool, now do the ICE detention center.

Cloth? In this economy? The mask messaging has been confusing, but right now it seems the consensus is ditch cloth masks and step up your game. Here's a helpful little visual!

My body, my choice: So, the anti-mandate crew — you know, the ones who appropriate the language of abortion rights activists — yeah, those ones. Their libertarian hissy fits are headed to the Supreme Court! The New York Times reports that the Supreme Court will hear challenges to the president’s vaccine mandates.

Remember when like 20 anti-mandate people from SFD and SPD left their shoes at City Hall? Wild
Remember when like 20 anti-mandate people from SFD and SPD left their shoes at City Hall? Wild

Sentencing: Today, the three men who killed Ahmaud Arbery will be sentenced for their long list of charges. But the saga is far from over. The murderers also got slapped with federal hate crime charges to which they all have pleaded not guilty. Jury selection for that trial starts next month.

Unpassable pass: In case you for some reason wanted to take a spontaneous trip to Eastern Washington this weekend, I’m here to kill the vibe. Well, I guess the snow is. All major Cascade passes were closed Thursday morning due to hazardous driving conditions. And it’s likely going to stay that way until Sunday. You can check on the conditions of the passes right here.

More “good” weather for sick freaks: This openly pro-gloom blog strikes again. Today, you can expect mid-40s and rain until about 3 pm, when things will dry up and then cool down to the high-30s. I took a broadcast meteorology class in college, so I’m basically an expert.

Zoom University: Uh oh. Just when the college kids got back to beer pong and studying in petrie dish libraries, it appears online school could make a comeback. Edmonds College will be online for all of winter quarter with exceptions for some hands-on classes. Other colleges said students will return to campus later this month. We’ll see how that goes.

Dont get mad at her, shes trying her best.
Don't get mad at her, she's trying her best. WASHINGTON STATE FERRIES

Ferry’s flop-area: The pandemic has been rough on the ferry system, but the system has been chronically underfunded since 1999 when an initiative cut revenue from car tabs. Friend of the blog Andrew Engelson has the story with Crosscut.

Hollywood mourns the death of an icon:

GameStop strikes again: I won’t go into great detail about the GameStop debacle. I know there are two kinds of people in this world: the people who learned about GameStop against their will and men. But anyway, GameStop is entering the NFT and cryptocurrency game. Hopefully, they can trick some Redditors into falling for the hype again to take their dying company “to the moon” or whatever you rich nerds say.

BIG IF TRUE: Stumbled upon some hard-hitting journalism this morning. Thought I might share with the class. An unnamed source told ET that human-cigarette and SNL comedian Pete Davidson and Kim Kardashian, who needs no introduction, had a "great trip" to the Bahamas. But the gasp-inducing insider information does not stop there. Apparently, Kanye West still "isn't too thrilled" by their romance.