Slog AM: Seaplane Crashes Near San Juan Islands, Congress Wants to Kill Seals to Save Salmon, Is Jimothy MAGA?

Kenmore Air Plane Crash: A seaplane flying from Seattle to Roche Harbor in the San Juan Islands had to make an emergency landing in a bay near Sucia Island. After landing, the plane caught fire, and pieces of the plane had fallen off. All 11 people on board survived, though four people were injured and one was in critical condition. The cause of the crash is unknown. Kenmore Air cancelled all flights on Friday.

Drones Please: The Seattle Fire Department would like to acquire some drones to assist in specific situations such as “building fires, brush fires, water rescues, mass casualty events, technical rescues, and hazardous materials and energy responses,” reports The Seattle Times. Maybe the drones could carry life preservers or tools to victims in need, Chief Harold Scoggins said. To get these new surveillance toys, SFD needs approval from Seattle City Council and the Mayor. To mitigate security concerns, SFD says the drone will point its cameras horizontally until it arrives at the scene, and the footage won’t be retained. If you feel any type of way about this, you can fill out this survey or send an email to the city here. 

Grant County Fire: A 680-acre fire forced evacuations in the towns of Beverly and Schwana. Seven homes have been destroyed. 

A Lil’ 180: Three of the council members who voted for the controversial amendment to delay universal free meals at Seattle Public Schools—Council President Joy Hollingsworth and Councilmembers Dionne Foster and Dan Strauss—announced they would find money in the general fund to start the free meal program this coming school year after seemingly every person on Bluesky bullied them about their votes. Stranger contributor Guy Oron has more here. 

Life after Seattle: Longtime Seattle urban planner and former city council candidate Cathy Tuttle now lives in the Netherlands and paints beautiful watercolor postcards of the bike culture there. It gets better!

The Weather: It should be sunny and hot, but not too hot. Well, maybe too hot for some. But it for sure won’t be sweltering. 

Trolley Problem: Washington representatives in Congress proposed legislation to make it easier to kill pinnipeds—seals and sea lions—to aid salmon recovery. Pinnipeds eat salmon, so killing them would help the fourteen species of salmon and steelhead trout in Washington deemed at risk of extinction, right? Well, ecosystems are a bit more complicated than that. Predation is just one small piece of the pie, and easing restrictions on the Marine Mammal Protection Act to waste some baby seals won’t solve everything, critics say. Climate change, habitat loss, and pollution are bigger threats. 

In Jimothy News: Gov. Bob Ferguson named the beloved wonky raccoon “Washingtonian of the Day” on Thursday. He’s going to be in World of Warcraft. Google gave him his own easter egg and he will scamper across your screen if you search “Jimothy raccoon.” The Trump White House discovered Jimothy and tweeted a photo of him with a red MAGA-style hat on his head-body that reads “TRUMP WAS RIGHT ABOUT EVERYTHING.” I do not think Jimothy actually wore this hat and highly suspect it was doctored. 

Subpoenas Dropped: In response to a US District Court judge’s ruling, the Justice Department withdrew subpoenas seeking phone records and testimony from the New York Times reporters who wrote about the security capabilities, or lack thereof, of Donald Trump’s new Quatari-built Air Force One jet. The Times saw the subpoenas as an intimidation tactic. That’s all they amounted to—questioning from the US District Court judge revealed factual errors, omissions, and irregularities in the Justice Department’s legal filing. The judge ruled the government could subpoena reporters again in the future, but it must follow appropriate procedures. 

Welcome Back, Juan Ponce de León: Brian Johnson, the millionaire who injected himself with his son’s vibrant, 17-year-old blood, is so afraid of aging that he has announced he’s cloning himself “as a newborn” to harvest the organs so he can live forever. Perhaps it will also help with autoimmune gastritis, the incurable disease he was diagnosed with earlier this month. “With this clone, I can become my own blood boy, test therapies on the clone, grow organs for transplantation, develop new treatments, and inject young cells,” he said. Currently, the clone exists as a bunch of cells in a petri dish. 

It’s very House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer and (spoiler alert?) Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro.

Big News for a Niche Portion of My Audience: To anyone who read my opus on Dungeon Crawler Carl, this news is for you. Jeff Hays, the guy who narrates the audiobooks, will voice Princess Donut in Seth McFarlane’s TV series adaptation. According to author Matt Dinniman, the majority of readers “read” the series via audiobook, so this is some good ass fan service. As a physical book reader, this means less to me. 

Big News for an Even Nicher Portion of My Audience: I don’t suppose any of you reading this own a second home in New York City worth more than $5 million, but if you do, Mayor Zohran Mamdani is trying to reach you.

Privacy for Me But Not for Thee: Madison Square Garden’s state-of-the-art security system documents and logs biometric data during Garden events like Knicks games and concerts but also during private events like the New York Police Department Police Academy graduation. But not during Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s wedding. If you are rich enough, you can enjoy the newest luxury: privacy. 

It’s Tariff Day: New Trump tariffs take effect today. They will impose taxes of 10 percent to 12.5 percent on imports from 85 countries, or the trading partners that account for 99 percent of US imports, reports the Associated Press. After the Supreme Court ruled against Trump’s usage of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to enact tariffs, the administration had to find other avenues. He’s settled on “failed forced labor enforcement” as the reasoning for these tariffs.

We’ve Reached a 35 Year High! For what? US cases of the preventable, highly infectious disease measles. According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 93 percent of those infected were unvaccinated. 

A Song for Your Friday: This is my song of the summer. 

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