Pierce County Sheriff's Deputy "involved" in shooting in exactly the way you think: Yesterday afternoon, the Pierce County Sheriff's Office released a statement from the County's Force Investigation Team showing that the person the deputy shot is receiving treatment for a single wound. A few hours after the incident I spoke over the phone with a local resident who lives in the neighborhood where the shooting happened. She said she heard several gunshots and lots of yelling between people, one of whom she concluded was the person who allegedly fled the police on the scene. That's all I've been able to independently confirm of the cops' press release, and so that's all the commentary we're going to give this story until the independent investigation releases more information about the shooting.
In cop news closer to home: Seattle City Councilmember Andrew Lewis is starting to run out of patience with the Seattle Police Department's inability to place a telephone call to their counterparts in Colorado. Emergency responders there have figured out how to operate a crisis response system that doesn't send armed cops to every 911 call, a problem SPD has been struggling with for years now. More from Lewis himself:
Denver effectively determines which crisis calls need police response and which don't. Why can't Seattle? Today, I asked our city's public safety leaders that question. pic.twitter.com/otIEXI0oCs
— Councilmember Andrew J. Lewis (@CMAndrewJLewis) May 10, 2022
Fixing this problem seems pretty basic: Marcus Harrison Green took to the pages of the Seattle Times today to remind everyone that the grandparents saving Washington's overburdened foster care system by caring for their grandkids need help, too. Inflation is hitting these families especially hard due to their reliance on fixed incomes. Plus, many aid organizations prioritize resources for biological parents, an outdated preference that has left thousands of aging caregivers desperate. As Green notes, however, we could easily solve this problem by simply passing a basic income that would allow every single one of these caregivers to provide a supportive home with dignity.
Florida Man excited by common weed. Scientists have proven that plant life can exist in lunar soil, and all I can think about is how perfectly this University of Florida researcher's quote represents my forsaken home state: "Holy cow. Plants actually grow in lunar stuff. Are you kidding me?"
That Moon news couldn't come at a better time, because Mother Nature is really getting insistent about the whole, "it's time for you to move out" thing. In parts of the West that haven't stayed stuck in a never-ending winter, fire season is returning to pre-pandemic levels of inferno. According to the AP, wildfires have already burned more than 2,000 square miles in California and New Mexico.
New free way to take your mind off our melting planet: The Woodland Park Zoo has joined the Seattle Public Library's Museum Pass program, a thing that I discovered existed this morning when I read a wonderfully cheery press release from the fine folks at the zoo. Library card holders can use the program to reserve a free pass each month to any of the participating museums, so get out there and look at a damn painting!
Lawyers in City Hall might need some continuing education: I'm honestly baffled by the war of memos going on between the Seattle Human Rights Commission and the City Attorney's Office. Reporting for the South Seattle Emerald, CE Bick has the latest on the drama surrounding the HRC's effort to join Seattle's woe-begotten consent decree litigation. I'm sure this could be easily explained if Mayor Harrell would answer Bick's questions on the issue, but until then, we'll just have to keep pointing out his stubborn refusal to engage with the topic.
Get used to dealing with Idaho's problems: Daniel Walters at the Inlander has an excellent breakdown of the fault lines in the Idaho GOP that will be on display in next week's primary contests. The intra-party conflict would be more entertaining if the calls for "freedom fighters" weren't being taken seriously by the types of people who train children for holy wars.
I genuinely thought we were done with this clown: Washington State's most infamous chair "shopper" won't stop trying to bankrupt essential social services the rest of us rely on. Yesterday, he posted a wandering, self-aggrandizing 'announcement' that his team of definitely-not-grifters would be abandoning the struggling I-1929 initiative to overturn our new capital gains tax in favor of an initiative to the Legislature with the same objective.
Eyman jumping ship isn't a shock: Advocates opposing the poorly organized I-1929 say it's on its "last legs" anyway due to legal challenges and difficulty securing funding, but that doesn't mean the fight over whether we're going to tax hoarded wealth to fund child care is over. Eyman casts the blame for the initiative's struggles on consultants who "gobbled up all the money," demonstrating a truly comical lack of self-awareness.
It's not entirely a laughing matter, however: With the GOP's victory lap on overturning Roe v. Wade starting to bite them in the collective ass heading into the midterms, Washington's local Trump sycophants will undoubtedly try to piggyback on this initiative to the Legislature in an attempt to make taxes the central issue of the State Legislative elections. Luckily for people who enjoy their bodily autonomy, the WA GOP has been trying this move for the last three straight election cycles and hasn't been terribly successful at it.
According to a new Monmouth Poll, abortion (25%) is now tied with the economy (26%) as the most important issue in the midterms. https://t.co/YqDrRCnCzB
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) May 12, 2022
I will never miss an excuse to post this clip, which I contend is the greatest YouTube video in Washington State political history: