Mudede has taken a surprising amount of tree pics for this publication
Mudede has taken a surprising amount of tree pics for this publication. Charles Mudede

News from Minneapolis: Minnesota prosecutors declined to file charges Wednesday against a Minneapolis police SWAT team officer who killed 22-year-old Amir Locke during an early morning no-knock search warrant in his cousin's apartment in February, reported the AP. Prosecutors said that body cam footage showed Locke grab a gun, which justified the cop killing Locke, but Locke's family argues that the cops startled Locke awake, causing him to grab a gun, which he is licensed to carry, out of defense. In a news conference, Locke's mother, Karen Wells, called out the cop who killed her son: “This is not over. You may have been found not guilty, but in the eyes of me, being the mother who I am, you are guilty. And I’m not going to give up. Continue to have your restless nights, because I know you do. ... Because the spirit of my baby is going to haunt you for the rest of your life.”

Employers can't be so sneaky: Today, Governor Jay Inslee signed a bill into law that mandates Washington employers will have to post salaries in their job listings. Cannot believe some of you evil, evil employers want to waste people's time. At least tell me up front that you're going to screw me over and you're counting on the state housing me.

They found her! In my last Slog, I told y'all about a little girl that got kidnapped in her mother's car. The girl turned up about 10 minutes away from her home.

Watchdragon: Carolyn Bick is at it again. This story is big, big, and huge. The South Seattle Emerald even made a serial killer-style diagram. Basically, looks like SPOG lied about what they knew before protesters came to SPOG headquarters on Labor Day 2020, allegedly to burn it down. Bick asks: If SPOG President Mike Solan and others thought protesters wanted to burn down the building, why did a handful of officers stay inside? They say they were inside for a BBQ. But they canceled that BBQ. Things don't add up.

Damage control for Amazon: Workers couldn't unionize this hellscape until this month, but KOMO ran some PR, writing that "Amazon ranked No. 1 company to work for in 2022, per LinkedIn." More accurately, the LinkedIn list said that Amazon is the most sought-after place to work. LinkedIn looked at how companies attract and retain candidates and how often recruiters from other companies search for employers at a particular workplace. This was not based on like Yelp reviews from employees. The people who Amazon made piss in water bottles were likely not contacted for the survey.

The Lorax is rolling in his grave: Are u a monstrous cooperation actively making the planet unlivable for the sake of profit? Boy, do I have a deal for you! Like a tithe, you can buy "carbon credit" to achieve reductions in your carbon emissions. All jokes aside, in a new Washington program, big polluters can essentially purchase the protection of trees. According to Hilary Franz, Washington Commissioner of Public Lands, in the first ten years of the program, the hope is to "sell 900,000 credits reducing carbon emissions to the atmosphere by the equivalent of 2 billion vehicle miles traveled," reports the Seattle Times.

LIGHT RAIL! LIGHT RAIL! LIGHT RAIL: In two years, you'll be able to light rail from Northgate to Federal Way. As a big fan of the Northgate Target and also someone who at 18 drank too much tequila and got stranded at the worst party ever in Federal Way, I love that these two places will soon be connected. A younger me needed it.

First COVID-19 death: When I read this headline, I got very confused because I thought the first death just happened and I knew that couldn't be true. The real tea is that we have a better idea of what happened during the early days of the pandemic. The Department of Health once thought a man in his 50s, a patient at EvergreenHealth hospital in Kirkland, was the first to die of COVID-19 in the US. Now, the department thinks the country's first death was Lovell “Cookie” Brown, a 78-year-old Kansas woman who died on Jan. 9, 2020. The first death in Washington is believed to be a Snohomish woman in her 30s.

Fire: Firefighters responded to a fire this morning at an apartment building in the Rainier Beach neighborhood. One person jumped out of the window to escape (they're okay!) and the others got rescued by firefighters.

Stop killing pedestrians: This morning a car killed a pedestrian in Renton. All pedestrian deaths are tragic, a systemic failure, and avoidable by better city planning. Not to get political.

The age-old issue: As the United States begins to welcome refugees from Ukraine, just after welcoming refugees from Afghanistan, the World Relief Seattle Executive Director said that the agency is being pushed to its limits. The biggest issue for agencies helping refugees resettle is finding permanent housing.

Speaking of the war: The Mayor of Mariupol said Russia killed more than 5,000. Over 200 were children. The AP has the story.

Jas defies gravity: Someone please explain how they fell like this??? Like???

Please help me be a bad bitch: The girlies and I have recently got into espresso martinis. We had a round this weekend. The drink was both life-changing and face-warming. In pursuit of more espresso martinis, I discovered that the Starbucks Reserve offers a flight of espresso martinis. I am begging for someone to find me another way. I would love to sip an assortment of tiny caffeinated cocktails, but I just can't imagine dressing all cute, doing my hair and going to the Starbucks Reserve. So basically, do we know of an espresso martini flight at a bar that is not a mega-corporation? Email me.