Slog AM: Supreme Court Says No More Deportation Protection for Haitian and Syrian Immigrants, Europe Bakes, Mayor Katie Wilson Hires Temporary Communications Staff

According to state records, part of the chemical tank that ruptured in an implosion at the Nippon Dynawave Packing Company pulp mill that killed 11 and injured eight last month had sprung a leak in late 2023 and early 2024. Records also show that state regulators have cited the mill for clean air and water violations since the mill’s parent company took over in 2016, including a 5,000 gallon spill of caustic white liquor in 2020 and a spill in March that submerged a worker in scalding pulp stock for about 40 seconds. The resulting fines and enforcement were “relatively minor,” reports the Seattle Times.

A house exploded on Whidbey Island yesterday afternoon, injuring three firefighters and damaging homes nearby. All three firefighters are in stable condition. Two homes were completely destroyed and a third was damaged. The cause of the blast is being investigated by the Region 3 Arson Task Force and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, KING 5 reports.

Be Careful on The Trails: A hiker tumbled off the Lakeshore Trail near Lucerne Monday. The 76-year-old man reportedly fell 100 feet, hitting his head on the way down. He was airlifted to Harborview Medical Center.

But, By All Means, Go Nuts with Guns: The US Supreme Court struck down a Hawaii law that banned guns on any private property open to the public where the owner has not explicitly condoned them. “This regime hobbles what the Second Amendment protects: the right of Americans to carry arms for self-defense as they go about their daily lives. We hold that the law is unconstitutional,” wrote Justice Samuel Alito in the majority opinion. Hawaii passed the law after the Supreme Court enshrined public carry as a Second Amendment Right in this certified cowboy nation.

The Court also ruled in favor of “metering,” a policy of turning away, and even physically blocking, asylum seekers fleeing persecution and violence before they cross the border onto US soil and make their asylum claim under the Immigration and Nationality Act. The practice originated with Obama, was refined by Trump, and was rescinded by Biden. The government argued that migrants can’t arrive in the US while technically on the Mexican side of the border, a middle school bully argument if I ever heard one. But it convinced the court’s conservative majority. In the majority opinion, Alito wrote: “We hold that an alien who is standing in Mexico does not ‘arriv[e] in the United States’ by attempting, and failing, to set foot in this country. An alien ‘arrives in the United States’ only when he crosses the border.”

More Racism: The Court is allowing the Trump administration to end deportation protections for Haitians and Syrians, which they’ve had since 1990 under the Temporary Protected Status program created by Congress. The majority opinion found nothing overtly racial in the President’s statements about Haitians. “So here are some of those statements,” Justice Elena Kagan wrote in her dissent: “[The Haitians] are eating the cats. They’re eating—they’re eating the pets of the people that live [in Springfield, Ohio];” Haitians in the United States “probably have AIDS;” Haiti is a “shithole country,” which is “filthy, dirty, [and] Disgusting;” Haitian immigration is “like a death wish for our country;” Haitians, along with some others, are “poisoning the blood” of our country; and “Why is it we only take people from shithole countries” like “Haiti [and] Somalia”? “Why cannot we have some people from Norway [and] Sweden?” The ruling could clear the way for the deportation of these groups and could put other TPS holders on shaky ground.

As Kagan writes, “The majority briefly replies that those remarks are not “overtly racial,” … but it is hard to know what that means. Haitians are Black. (Norwegians and Swedes not so much.) The references of filth, disease, and primitiveness-are shot through with racial stereotypes and tropes.”

Mayor-itime Communications: Publicola reports that Mayor Katie Wilson has hired two temporary communications staffers. Crystal Nicole Fincher, co-owner of KVRU and host of the Hacks & Wonks podcast, will be Wilson’s strategic communications consultant, while longtime Seattle Department of Transportation spokesperson Dawn Schellenberg will take over as communications director. Wilson’s original spokesperson, Seferiana Day, was asked to resign this month after months of medical leave.

Wilson’s deputy mayor, Brian Surratt, has reportedly been interviewing for Day’s permanent replacement. “According to internal and external sources, Surratt has communicated that the mayor’s office is looking for a Black man, specifically, to fill the position,” reports Publicola.

Meanwhile, several members of City Council have issued a verbal blank check to the Seattle Police Department—they won’t support a hiring slowdown, no matter how much money SPD needs to hire new officers, reports Publicola. Councilmembers Bob Kettle and Rob Saka are leading the charge. Saka called the police budget “sacrosanct.” Unless the department slows hiring, it will go $1.7 million over budget this year, and Seattle already has to contend with a $200 million budget shortfall.

Someone Pinch Me: It’s a beautiful cloudy day with a high of 69. Rain rolls in tonight and will stick around till Saturday at the least and could linger through Sunday night. Next week, we’re looking at clouds and cooler temperatures.

The same can’t be said for Europe—the world’s fastest-warming continent is a kiln. A record heat wave in France has killed dozens, knocked out power for thousands. The country experienced its hottest day ever on Tuesday with temperatures reaching an average of 29.8 Celsius (or 85.6 Fahrenheit to us American rubes), leading the Eiffel Tower and Louvre to close hours early. The heat wave is being compared to another in 2003 that killed 15,000 people, many of them older and living in sweltering, un-airconditioned apartments and retirement homes.

In Spain, officials warned heat-related deaths could spike, while the United Kingdom set a June temperature record of 96.8 degrees Fahrenheit, though it could feel like 105 Fahrenheit. “That’s down to a combination of factors: an unrelenting heat dome, high humidity, and back-to-back tropical nights,” reports the BBC.

Within a minute of each other, two earthquakes shook Venezuela Tuesday and killed at least 164 people. Back-to-back quakes are rare, reports the Associated Press; the quakes, which measured magnitudes of 7.1 and 7.5 and closed Venezuela’s main airport, were the strongest to hit the country in decades. On the other side of the world, a 7.2 magnitude earthquake hit Japan during Thursday morning rush hour. Shaking towns in Japan’s northeast, and only lightly jiggling Tokyo, the earthquake did not kill anyone or trigger a tsunami warning. Closer to home, the sticks east of Fort Bragg, California experienced its strongest quake (5.6) since 1940. 

After telling an audience in St. Paul, Minnesota he felt “dizzy” and “strange,” 77-year-old singer Lionel Richie cut his concert short and took an ambulance to a nearby hospital. Before calling the show, he performed “Dancing on the Ceiling” sitting down. He’s never played the song sitting before, he told the crowd, but “When you’re feeling dizzy, sit your ass down.”

Hmm, All Bad News: If anyone reading loosed a grimacing statue, jewel-encrusted skeleton, or blood-colored gem impossibly heavy for its size from the earth (or perhaps a grotto) this week, please rebury it and tell no one what you found.

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