Bye, bud.
Bye, bud. OTTO GREULE JR/GETTY IMAGES

"One of the biggest — if not the biggest — trades in Seattle sports history" happened today. That quote comes from the Seattle Times—not anyone on staff at The Stranger, we know you don't come to Slog for sports. They report the Seahawks agreed to trade Russell Wilson to the Denver Broncos for "a mammoth haul of five draft picks and three players, including two first-round picks and quarterback Drew Lock." I have no idea what that means, but I do know what Russell Wilson smells like. My only question is if this means Ciara is moving to Denver.

No more Big Macs in Russia: Temporarily. I'm sure Russians are devastated. "McDonald's has decided to temporarily close all our restaurants in Russia and pause all operations in the market," McD's CEO said in a statement today. McDonald's says they employ around 62,000 people in the country.

Starbucks is also out: "Today, we have decided to suspend all business activity in Russia," said Starbucks' CEO. They've got around 2,000 Russian employees.

And Coke: The soda corporation, not the drug.

Lots of companies are pulling out: No more Ferraris for you, Putin.

Company politicking aside: The war in Ukraine is getting worse. The World Health Organization reports that Russia's attacks on Ukrainian hospitals and ambulances are increasing "rapidly." The EU is preparing more sanctions against Russia. As we mentioned this morning, Biden said no to Russian oil. Russia said it would open "humanitarian corridors" in multiple cities so Ukrainians could flee, to mixed results. In one instance, over a thousand students and civilians escaped. Still, in another notable example, Ukraine accused Russia of violating a ceasefire agreement in the city of Mariupol and attacking a corridor. In the last few hours, Poland announced it wanted to give the US its MiG-29 fighter jets to give to Ukraine—the US said the plan wasn't "tenable." The New York Times has a daily blog on the war. Among today's takeaways is this "dark historical first": "One million children have fled Ukraine in less than two weeks."

Last month marked the 80th anniversary of Executive Order 9066, which authorized the US government to "evacuate all persons deemed a threat from the West Coast to internment camps," laying the groundwork for the incarceration of Japanese Americans. Today, a new feature out in Crosscut interviews two people who lived through EO9066. Here's a snippet:

Eileen Yamada Lamphere: I think a lot of the general public thought of it as camp. But they had no idea what these camps were like.

That they were surrounded by barbed wire. That they only had a single light bulb and a potbelly stove. There was no running water. There were no closets. There were no chest of drawers. There were metal cots and for some of them, they had to stuff their own mattresses with straw.

And that’s what’s happening right now. You look at pictures from those detention centers that are down on the border and even up here in Tacoma.

Unless you’re an American, we’re saying that it’s OK for that to happen because they’re not citizens. I just need to let people be aware of what happened and what’s happening now. And is this going to be our legacy?

Another reason not to go back to Florida: The "Don't Say Gay" bill cleared the Florida Senate and now heads to Gov. Ron DeSantis's desk for his signature. The bill will broadly "forbid instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade," reports AP, and allow parents to sue school districts if they appear to violate the policy. In a very rough estimate in 2019, UCLA's Williams Institute estimated there are over 48,000 gay couples in Florida (the third-highest state in the country), with around 13% of them raising children.

DeSantis's spokesperson has tried to reframe the bill as an "anti-grooming" bill, linking homosexuals to pedophiles. Wonderful. Just great. DeSantis is slobbering to pick up Trump's MAGA baton and run it straight back to the White House.

Meanwhile: Idaho, like so many states, is advancing anti-trans legislation. The latest horror-bill: House Bill 675. The bill passed Idaho's House 53-12 and would make it a felony to provide gender-affirming care to anyone under 18. Under the current version of this bill, that felony punishment would extend to any person who "knowingly removes or causes, permits, or facilitates the removal of a child from this state for the purpose of facilitating any act prohibited" by the bill. If passed by Idaho's Senate, which appears likely, it could go into effect on January 1, 2023. Time to get the fuck out. (I know, "getting out" can range from hard to impossible. I lived in rural Idaho from around 7 to 14. I got out, but I was very lucky.)

In the PNW: DCHO or GTFO? Probably depends on if you're in a URM.

This ^^ great post from Oregon State University geologist Chris Goldfinger complicates the "Drop, Cover and Hold On" (DCHO) advice that's often recommended when shit starts to shake. Instead, he proposes "situational awareness," which includes analyzing the condition of the building you're in during an earthquake. If you're stuck inside a building with unreinforced masonry (URM), your best bet might be to get the fuck out (GTFO). Lots of factors to consider, but we should be considering them.

Quite a headline: Man buys Pokémon card worth almost $58K with COVID loans, gets 3-year prison sentence

If you love Seattle City Attorney Ann Davison, maybe you'll love Jim Ferrell: The Federal Way Mayor is running a tough-on-crime campaign for King County Prosecutor. Elizabeth Turnbull called his run a "throwback approach" in her profile on him for Capitol Hill Seattle Blog today, although you may not need to throw it back that far. There's connective tissue between Davison and Ferrell: Dean Nielsen, the founder of the consulting firm CN4, is helping Ferrell with his campaign, riding off his recent success at blue-washing Davison's campaign for Seattle City Attorney. Here's a different type of candidate running to lead the King County Prosecutor’s Office.

The Seattle Police Department released video of them killing an armed man on Saturday night: The video (which is disturbing, obviously) shows the man ramming his truck into a federal building's garage in downtown. He then gets out carrying a rifle, shooting multiple times into the air. After someone calls 911, cops arrive and surround the man, who gets on the ground. They shout that they're with SPD and demand he put his gun down. A cop suggests tasing him, but they're clearly too far away. There are many calls for him to drop the weapon. A cop suggests the man is “trying to shoot himself in the head." The man then stands up, picks up the gun and moves toward the cops, who then shoot him multiple times, killing him. The investigation is ongoing.

That's a lot of depressing news: Here's something to look forward to? The Seattle International Film Festival is in-person this year, the first in-person SIFF since 2019, from April 14 to 24. Details are dropping in drips—today they announced which venues are participating in the 11-day fest: the Paramount Theatre, SIFF's three theaters, AMC Pacific Place, Majestic Bay Theatres, Ark Lodge Cinema, and Shoreline Community College. SIFF says it'll feature more than 300 films from almost 80 countries, with a line-up dropping closer to the fest. SIFF will offer some of those films virtually. Individual tickets available March 31; passes available now.

And here's a lovely song: It's Hot Freaks' new track "Lovely." These freaks were one of my favorite bands until they broke up in 2015. Then they went viral on TikTok last year. Now they're famous. A fun story!

The kids can really make anyone famous.

Or: Don't listen to me, listen to Dave: Dave recommends you listen to this:

There's a spooky drone track in Dave's Inbox Jukebox this week: In the immortal words of Low, "drone, not drones."