Slog AM: Seattle Teachers Approve New Contract, Medicare Bots Are Denying Too Many Claims, and Ed Sheeran Is Over

Bots are denying Medicare claims in Washington at a “staggering” rate. The program, which launched in six states in January, is called the Wasteful and Inappropriate Service Reduction program, aka WISeR. Ironic! The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) expected it to weed out between 10 percent and 22.5 percent of claims, but in the first three months in Washington, it denied 53 percent. 

Want to know the most infuriating part? The Seattle Times reports, “To run WISeR, CMS contracted with third-party tech companies to approve or deny requests for certain medical services using ‘enhanced technology,’ such as AI and machine learning. Contractors receive a portion of the money they save Medicare.” This is why people root for Luigi, you scumbags!

Watch out, Trump, the EU’s gonna steal your girl. The European Union has offered to make Canada an “Associate Member.” Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Union’s executive arm, said in a speech this morning that it’s “not a partnership against anyone else, but for our common strength,” but c’mon. This is definitely, at least in part, because Trump so badly wants to annex Canada and make it the 51st state. Shouldn’t have taken away their lake, idiot.

Trump is also losing his battle with mail-in ballots. On Monday, the Supreme Court blocked his attempt to “drastically change how Americans vote by mail ahead of the midterm elections,” and he threw a tantrum on Truth Social, saying shit like, “It is a Court that will go down as having rendered some of the most destructive, hurtful, and damaging decisions in our Country’s history.” He’s not wrong! But not for the same reasons. Those fuckers overturned Roe v. Wade! At least they got this one right.

Seattle teachers voted to approve new contracts and get raises. Seattle Public School teachers went back to work on September 2 without actually ratifying a contract with the district. It was a tentative deal. Finally, yesterday, union members voted to approve a new contract, and the Seattle School Board will likely approve it this evening. The Seattle Times says, “The deal includes wage increases for union members totaling about 10% over three years. The agreement also addresses staffing concerns by guaranteeing full-time counselors or social workers will be present at all elementary schools that have more than 350 students.”

Speaking of new contracts, the longest hotel strike in Washington state history is over. Harry Cheadle has the details here for The Stranger.

This is awful. A news helicopter crashed while covering a fatal bus collision for NBC Los Angeles. The two people onboard, photojournalist Eliana Moreno and pilot George Marciniw, died, and the crash also killed a pedestrian on the ground.

If you were at the Genius Awards, then you likely heard Betty Wetter quip during her acceptance speech that polyamorous people are becoming a protected class, and guess what? It wasn’t a joke! KUOW reports, “The Seattle City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to extend legal discrimination protections to people in polyamorous relationships and people who identify as pansexual and asexual.”

Ed Sheeran fuuuuucked up. Earlier this week (Seattle’s own!!!!) Macklemore was dropped from his opening slot on Ed Sheeran’s tour after saying “free Palestine” during his shows at MetLife Stadium. Macklemore, who has spoken out in support of Palestine for years, released a thoughtful statement here. Sheeran released a statement of his own, essentially saying it wasn’t his fault, a billionaire in the Epstein files told Sheeran he couldn’t play his concert if Macklemore stayed on the bill, and Sheeran said his opening acts are counting on him to feed their families. What’s a boy to do? Within hours, all of Sheeran’s opening acts dropped off their respective dates, including his own fucking backing band, Beoga. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Macklemore’s music is charting again. Several of his songs and albums are selling on iTunes like it’s 2012. And people are defending Macklemore and calling out Sheeran all over social media. Beloved children’s YouTube star, Ms. Rachel, has chided him several times now on her Instagram account, writing, “If more than 20,000 white children were killed in another part of the world, everyone would be shouting about it at their concerts. Treating some children’s lives as less worthy of outrage is racist. Silence during a genocide is not neutral.” Roger Waters of Pink Floyd called him a “little prick.” And delightful weirdo Zach Woods did this.

But who booked Macklemore in the first place? As Sheeran tells it, Mack asked Sheeran if he could join his tour, and Sheeran said sure. But then later in his statement, which Sheeran definitely wrote himself and definitely wasn’t shoddily written by someone on his PR team, Sheeran says Mack had a contract with the promoter, not Sheeran. Ultimately, the responsibility falls on whoever the fuck booked Macklemore, whose most recent hit is “Hind’s Hall,” a 2024 protest song with the lyrics, “Block the barricade until Palestine is free.” Y’all knew what you were getting! Macklemore should sue the fuck outta Sheeran for lost wages and give the money to Palestinians. 

Lastly, some fascinating news that came in just as the newsroom was starting to close up shop yesterday. I will let Hunter Pauli tell you allll about it…

Trump nominates far-right Eastern Washington lawyer as top federal cop for Seattle area in latest US Attorney’s office chaos: You might recall The Stranger’s reporting earlier this year on the drama surrounding who exactly decides to prosecute federal crimes in Western Washington due to a power struggle between our local federal judges and the Trump administration.

Well, we have a new, even worse, even more confusing update for you! Pete Serrano, the far-right lawyer originally picked by Trump to be the US Attorney for the Eastern District of Washington, has now been officially nominated to be US Attorney for the Western District of Washington (where you, the reader, likely live). The previous US attorney in the Eastern District resigned rather than prosecute Spokane anti-ICE protesters, but Serrano was happy to.

We distinguish between “picked” and “officially nominated” because the nomination process requires the Senate to sign off on the appointment, and home-state senators wield an effective veto over candidates they think won’t vibe with their constituents. Washington’s senators have long promised to do that to Serrano in the East and ICE man Charles Neil Floyd in the West, so Trump never officially filed their paperwork. That led to their temporary appointments expiring, the judges of the Western District appointing their own US attorney (Roger Rogoff) under federal law to replace the lapsed Floyd, Trump’s DOJ immediately firing Rogoff, and Rogoff suing. 

Still with us? Thought so. Won’t Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell just torpedo Serrano’s nomination? Does Serrano’s nomination quash Rogoff’s lawsuit? Is Floyd heartbroken? We’re all working to figure all that out. The Washington State Standard has the details so far.

Thank you, Hunter! 

Now, I leave you with “Hind’s Hall” because it’s a legit banger. I was skeptical in 2024, too! “Thrift Store” guy wrote a protest song? The same straight guy who wrote a navel-gazey ballad about gay marriage? The same white guy who centered himself in two (2) songs about “White Privilege”? The same guy who wore this costume because he was too dumb to know it was fucking antisemitic? He can be ham-fisted, it’s true! But people can grow, people can learn. As Stranger music writer Audrey Vann wrote in last week’s Pop Loser newsletter, “Get in losers, we’re stanning Macklemore.”

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