Slog AM: Pete Hegseth’s Elite, High-T Warriors, the Great “Chinese Child Pornography” Robbery, and Trump’s Illegal $1 Not-Gold Coin

The Naked and Infamous: Denny Blaine Park, Seattle’s favorite hangout for nude gays, will stay open and partially naked, a judge ruled yesterday. The unsightly anti-masturbation fence will stay up, and the city will have to staff the beach with masturbation spotters, place signs outlining good and bad behavior, and establish buffer zones that block neighbors’ views of the naked. Our contributor Guy Oron has the story.

Think you’re having a bad day at work? Imagine being Rep. Sharon Tomiko Santos’s campaign treasurer, Jeanne Legault, who was hoodwinked by FBI impersonators who told her campaign funds were used to purchase $20,000 in “Chinese child pornography” and the only way to rectify the situation was to go to the bank, withdraw $20,000, gift wrap it, and hand it to an “agent” on her doorstep. Stranger reporter Hunter Pauli has the rest here.

At least she has a job. Veteran local attorney Roger Rogoff, the US Attorney for the Western District of Washington who was unanimously appointed by the district’s judges, was fired by Trump less than an hour after he was sworn in. As you can probably surmise, that’s not usually part of the process of deciding who gets to be lead federal prosecutor in a federal district. Rogoff is considering a lawsuit. As Hunter explains, “the stage looks set for a long rumored showdown between Puget Sound’s federal judges and the Trump administration to determine which branch of government, the judiciary or the executive, gets to choose who leads our US attorney’s office.”

Brian Heywood Got His Wings: Initiative 645 to repeal the Millionaires Tax will be on the November ballot, a victory for the champions of our state’s regressive tax system and its dysfunctional consequences. This month, Heywood’s outfit, Let’s Go Washington, submitted 500,000 signatures to the secretary of state’s office—far more than the 308,911 required. A counter-campaign is already banging the drum against the dumb. No on I-645 boasts “Democratic allies and education advocates and union activists” and Gov. Bob Ferguson, reports The Seattle Times. A lot of money will be spent on this. 

In a video titled “The High-T Department of War,” Pete Hegseth, the former Fox & Friends co-host tasked with leading the US military, announced his plan to annually test the testosterone of every service member over 30 and offer non-mandatory hormone replacement therapy to those with low testosterone. Medical organizations do not have an agreed-upon standard for what “low-T” is because healthy testosterone levels vary widely from man to man, and The American Urological Association says a low-T diagnosis should not be based solely on a test. There is no clear reason to do this, and we don’t know if the military’s health systems labs have the capacity for this testing. Women will also be tested, but it is unclear what they are supposed to make of their results. But we do know it will not make the US more battle ready like, say, the mandatory annual flu shots Hegseth made optional. (Mandatory flu shots were reinstated for some new recruits after, believe it or not, there was a 300-person flu outbreak at Lackland Air Force Base.) The cost of Hegseth’s junk, penis-headed science will cost the taxpayers too much.

Trump to Lie to Nation Tonight: The President’s address will reportedly focus on election conspiracy theories. Tune in at 9 pm ET/ 6 pm PT.

$$$: The US Mint is striking a one-dollar “gold” coin (it does not include gold; it has a “gold-like” finish) with Trump’s likeness. The Wall Street Journal calls this a “rare move.” Close! It’s actually illegal under federal law to put living people on our money.

Headline of the Week: “White House teleprompter operator made more than $100K betting on Trump’s speeches: Sources”

She Ain’t a Hoity-Toity, Fancy-Schmancy Mayor: Publicola reviewed  Mayor Katie Wilson’s travel records and found that she doesn’t fly often, but when she does fly, she flies coach and stays in modest hotel rooms. Mayor Bruce Harrell didn’t have the same thrifty attitude. He spent more than $5,200 on first-class tickets for a three-day trip to Washington DC. On her four-day DC trip to the US Conference of Mayors this January, Wilson spent $600 on a round-trip ticket. 

“Cigarettes are back in vogue. How did this happen?” asks the Washington Post. Easy. They’re cool, and everything sucks.

On a related note, the AI company Realbotix will test robot STEM tutors in a New York school district this fall. The robot, Sally, has “education-specific safety guardrails,” a “human-like appearance,” and “facial expressions” for the kids. By the way, Realbotix was known as “Tokens.com” before it acquired sex doll company RealDoll in 2024. Sally will remain seated with only partial upper-body movements. And where is this subpar replacement for teachers headed? According to Mashable, the district, the Salamanca City Central district, “is located in part of the Seneca Nation of Indians Reservation, and more than a third of its students are Indigenous. Around 79 percent of the district’s students are economically disadvantaged, New York Focus reports.”

The post Slog AM: Pete Hegseth’s Elite, High-T Warriors, the Great “Chinese Child Pornography” Robbery, and Trump’s Illegal $1 Not-Gold Coin appeared first on The Stranger.