Slog AM: Luigi Pleads Guilty, DHS Spied on Anti-ICE Protester Groups, West Seattle Light Rail Will Open When You Are Nine Years Closer to the Grave

Guilty: Luigi Mangione pleaded guilty to federal stalking charges and admitted to killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson outside a Midtown hotel in 2024: “I shot Mr. Thompson in Manhattan,” he said in federal court Friday. “I understood that my actions would place him in fear of death of bodily injury. I knew what I was doing was illegal.” Mangione will be sentenced on December 18. He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison. While Mangione wasn’t charged with murder in federal court, he still faces a murder charge in state court. That trial is scheduled to start next month. 

What’s the line on Kalshi’s future in Washington? Prediction market app and grim portent of social decline, Kalshi, must stop all operations in Washington by next week, ruled a King County Superior Court judge. Betting on online prediction markets is online gambling, and online gambling is illegal in Washington. Kalshi, which oxymoronically employs Donald Trump Jr. as a strategic advisor, made the case that a prediction market is regulated by the federal Commodity Futures Trading Commission and doesn’t have to obey state laws. Well, this Washington court says they can shove that reasoning up their ass. Kalshi and their largest competitor, Polymarket, have been embroiled in similar fights in other states. A legal battle over this ruling seems likely. Should we bet on it? 

Field of Lost Dreams: Tapped the baseball experts to tell me about the Chicago Black Sox and also the plot of that movie with the ghosts. Now I am sad. 

Millionaires everywhere! A new report from the Washington state Department of Revenue shows that the millionaires tax will rake in hundreds of millions more than the initial estimates. Lawmakers expected $2.7 billion the first fiscal year and $6.9 billion during the following two-year fiscal cycle. It’s penciling out to be more like “$3.1 billion in the initial fiscal year and roughly $8.3 billion in the 2029-31 biennium,” reports the Washington State Standard. It’s just like what happened with the state’s modest capital gains tax. There is a lot of quiet wealth here. Remember, one in every 14 Seattleites was a millionaire in 2024. They live among us! We could light all that money on fire if voters approve the anti-millionaires tax initiative, I-645, this November election. 

They’re defunding the police: According to Publicola’s Erica Barnett, two members of the top brass under Windy City fan and ex-Seattle Police Department Chief Shon Barnes are out of jobs, too. Together, their salaries equal over half of million dollars. Hey, that’s some budget wiggle room! 

SPD deployed fewer staff at this year’s Bite of Seattle event than last year’s. Staffing dropped by more than a quarter, the Seattle Times reports, with 39 SPD officers present at the event compared to 50 in 2025. 

They’re funding the West Seattle light rail! And the currency is time! Ha. No, it’s actually just $7 billion dollars. It feels like we should add value to the years, though. It’s going to take nine more years—until 2035 (imagine all your extra wrinkles, back pain, seeing your mother/father in the mirror, etc.)—for light rail to connect us with our western brethren, five years later than the day voters were promised in 2016—many things were promised in 2016—and three years after the updated “realignment” date. But, sure, it seems to be happening. Along with the delay, Sound Transit also announced it has a $465 million “right of way” budget to buy up the 55 properties that stand in the way of those future tracks. 

Hasanabi Head Pramila Jayapal: The University of Washington said it canceled the scheduled talk by leftist streamer Hasan Piker because he did not meet “the necessary level of rigor for University-hosted events in the Speaker Series.” Piker believes it was because of his “position as a prominent Israel critic.” Whatever the case, Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal is hounding  UW for answers. This whole situation is so not being boundless. https://x.com/i/status/2087957644271325208 

US spied on protesters it didn’t shoot during Minnesota ICE raids: The Department of Homeland Security infiltrated both leftist and anti-ICE protester groups in Minnesota. They sent undercover operatives to meetings, snuck into group chats, and subpoenaed financial records for groups like labor unions and non-profits. This came to light in records the Department of Justice submitted in its criminal case against 15 Minneapolis protestors accused of “conspiracy to impede” ICE agents during this winter’s ICE crackdown in the area. The DHS’s spying campaign was in line with Trump’s executive order that designated the non-organization “antifa” as a “domestic terrorist group,” which was meant to expose some big conspiracy within these often community-led protest groups. As we saw with Renée Good and Alex Pretti, moms and nurses are among these radicals.

A former undercover FBI agent scoffed at the operation since many of the meetings DHS snuck into were public, reports The Guardian. “It’s hardly a challenge to ‘infiltrate’ this kind of meeting, and that should be a clue this isn’t a criminal group. It’s very rare for criminals to [publicize] discussion of their criminal activities.” He must be unfamiliar with Dr. Evil.

Blood, bone, drama: The author of the popular young adult series Children of Blood and Bone is fucking pissed about the forthcoming film adaptation of her first book. Despite having significant creative control and a screenwriting credit, Tomi Adeyemi has stated she will not promote, watch, or associate further with the movie. Rumor has it that tensions started over a casting decision Adeyemi may have not agreed with. It comes out in January. 

Flooding in Tokyo: A record-breaking deluge flooded Tokyo streets and homes, stalled trains, stranded people in the airport, a government building, and at train stations, and killed four people. 

Hold on, let’s check in with the local car lovers: Oh, um. Seems like they’re doing fine and being normal, and lying to themselves about why Pike Place should not be permanently pedestrianized. 

Le chill the fuck out: French police have arrested 474 people on suspicion of starting fires during this hot, dry, flammable summer. Of those, 70 percent are suspected of deliberately starting fires. More than a third of the suspects are kids, including a 15-year-old boy who’s believed to have started the Bordeaux blaze that killed two firefighters in July. The French mind cannot comprehend peace.

Books behind bars: The state of prison libraries is bleak. A report from New Lines Magazine reveals that none of the 16 federal penitentiaries in the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) employ a librarian in them, including the Federal Detention Center in SeaTac. According to a survey from the nonprofit Prison Book Program, 40 percent of respondents said they could not go to the library in their prison. And at most of these prisons, there are more prisoners than available books. BOP, which has an operating budget of $8.7 billion, spends half a million dollars on books a year. 

A song for your Friday: Okay, fine, I’ll go see him at Bumbershoot. 

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