Slog AM: Supreme Court Saves Mail-In Voting, Europeans Love Seattle, and We Have Budget Holes Everywhere

Good morning! Pride weekend is over, and you’re still standing. Hungover? Maybe. Exhausted? Definitely. Finding glitter places it really shouldn’t be? Most likely. (Didn’t get the glitter person’s number? Submit an I Saw U!) We’ll ease you out of the weekend with some recovery weather: highs in the 60s and some cloud cover. Weather to take it slow in. 

But first, the news. 

Supreme Court Protects Mail-In Voting: This morning, the court ruled that Mississippi can continue to allow election officials to count ballots postmarked by Election Day, which means Washington will also be able to have an election in November without absolute chaos. The vote was 5 to 4, with Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett joining the three liberal justices. The court reminded the feds that while Congress decides on Election Day, the states set regulations for the process. 

But the Supreme Court Served Trump Another Win: The court also ruled in two companion cases that questioned whether Trump had the power to fire independent government regulators despite federal laws that theoretically protect against that. The courts gave the president broad power to fire anyone except the chair of the Federal Reserve. The ruling came down along ideological lines, 6-3. In her dissent of Trump v. Slaughter, Justice Sotomayor called the decision a “maximalist view of presidential power.” 

Venezuela Update: After two back-to-back 7.2 and 7.5 earthquakes on Wednesday, officials estimate that more than 1,400 people have died, 3,150 others are injured, and about 12,700 people have been displaced. Rescuers are still digging through the rubble, so all of those numbers are expected to climb. 

The War: The US and Iran spent four straight days bombing each other, after Iran bombed a cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz. But both countries claim to be coming back to the bargaining table in Qatar on Tuesday. 

The Results Are In: And it seems like Seattle might be doing a pretty good job of hosting the World Cup. Restaurant sales are up. Beer sales are way up (212 percent!). Light rail shuttled an all-time high of 280,000 passengers on June 19 without breaking down or causing delays. We hosted a game with a country while our government was actively bombing them, and it seemed to go off without a hitch. The Irish Times called Seattle “magical,” and said we might be the US’s “natural football home.” (“Lumen Stadium may be one of the more remote football grounds in the gloriously daft geographical stretch of this World Cup,” they wrote, “but it’s definitely one of the most soulful sports arenas in the entire United States.”) We’ve got two more games, one of which could be a US game, if we don’t fuck it up. Let’s keep this train going. 

Meanwhile: Europeans are losing their minds over American air conditioning. (Did you know it was invented in Brooklyn in the early 1900s?) About 20 percent of European households have AC, compared to 90 percent in the US. “Absolute bliss,” said one British food blogger. “The best thing in the world.”

What’s Next for the Cup? This week is the Round of 32—15 knockout rounds to winnow down the tournament. Seattle is hosting Match 82 between Belgium and Senegal. On the same day, the US will play Bosnia and Herzegovina in San Francisco. If they win, they’ll play the winner of the Belgium-Senegal game here in Seattle. No matter who wins, though, that’ll be Seattle’s last World Cup game, so soak it up!

Shit That’s a Bear: A woman was walking her dog in the Canadian Rockies when a Grizzly galloped right onto the trail toward her. She got the whole encounter on video, and the whole time you can hear her shouting and scolding the bear until it decided she wasn’t worth the trouble. She then ran into a stranger’s tent, and stayed there for 15 minutes until the bear got distracted by a moose. 

New Tiny Home Village Opens: The mayor cut the ribbon on a 14-unit shelter village on Rainier Ave called Nickelodeons, a project that’s been in the works since 2024, but was stalled out by Bruce Harrell for months due to neighbor complaints. “The NIMBYs didn’t prevail,” said George Hacker, who serves as spokesperson for the Nickelodeons. “We want to be good neighbors. We’re out to prove we aren’t bringing crime to the neighborhood, just happiness.”

More Budget Bummers: Officials say we’re looking at a $500 million revenue shortfall, and the governor says he’s not willing to create new taxes to close that gap. Ol’ Bob says he’s not surprised by the shortfall, and he has a plan: “Preserve core services, protect our state’s most vulnerable, don’t raise taxes, and address the structural challenges in our budget to achieve long-term financial stability and protect our AAA bond rating,” he says. Nothing like an austerity budget in the middle of an authoritarian regime. 

Which is a great time for the teachers union to have to start bargaining a new contract. The Seattle Education Association only signed a one-year extension when they came to an agreement last year, which means it’s time to start bargaining again. The Seattle Public School System has its own $100 million budget hole, and they only have two months to come to an agreement. Their contract expires on August 31, and school is scheduled to start on September 2. 

I’ll leave you with something sweet. Researchers think they might have figured out the origin of laughter. “Scientists analyzed recordings of laughter from four orangutans, two gorillas, three bonobos, four chimpanzees, and four human children during bouts of playtime, roughhousing, and tickling,” 404 Media reports. They found that “great apes have been laughing in a recognizable way to modern humans for at least 15 million years.”

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