King County's former top landlord gets sued: The Seattle Times reports that three former senior female staffers at the King County Housing Authority have sued the agency and its former Executive Director Stephen Norman. The amended complaint filed in federal court last month alleges that the women were discriminated against based on their race, gender, or both. 

Farewell, pleasant weather: By the time you read Monday's edition of Slog AM, we'll be in the midst of a mini-heat wave. I, for one, would be perfectly fine if this balmy mid-70s with civilized overnight lows in the high 50s stayed around for the rest of the summer.

South King County mayors engage in some light copaganda: King County Prosecutor candidate Jim Ferrell, who also works as Federal Way's mayor, led several of his fellow South King County mayors in fear-mongering about police reform legislation yesterday. KING 5 credulously covered a letter from Ferrell and seven other mayors blaming modest reforms to extremely dangerous police vehicular pursuits for a spike in vehicle theft last year. Conveniently left out of the coverage was the tiny detail that each of the other seven mayors have endorsed Ferrell's campaign. I'm sure this is totally above board.

Monkeypox vaccine clinic at Seattle Central on Saturday: Here's the info from the public health department: 

Community Vaccine Event: Public Health is holding a vaccine clinic at Seattle Central College on Saturday, August 6. Members of the public who are at highest risk and meet the eligibility criteria may attend from 12 to 6. We have enough doses to vaccinate 500 people. We will not have enough vaccine to serve everyone. We hope to offer more vaccine pop-up events when more vaccine arrives from the federal government. Vaccine will be free and no insurance is required. The location of this event is 1701 Broadway, Seattle, 98122 Room BE 1110.

Important note on the monkeypox vaccine clinic: It's ONLY for people "who are at highest risk and meet the eligibility criteria." What's that criteria? 


Eligibility criteria include: 1) People who have had sexual or close intimate contact with someone who has tested positive for monkeypox. 2) People at high risk of recent exposure, including men who have sex with men who have recently had multiple sexual or intimate close contact partners. See additional details about eligibility criteria below.

  • People who have had sexual, close intimate contact or other high risk close contact with someone who has tested positive for monkeypox.
  • People at high risk of recent exposure to monkeypox, including men who have sex with men who have recently had multiple sexual or intimate close contact partners including:
    • Gay, bisexual, or other men or transgender people who have sex with men AND
    • At least one of the following:
      • More than 10 sex partners in the prior 3 months
      • History of early syphilis or gonorrhea in the prior year
      • Methamphetamine use in the prior month
      • Attendance at a bathhouse, other public sex venue, or group sex (sex including at least 3 people at the same time) in the prior 3 months
      • Experiencing homelessness/unstable housing AND currently living in a congregate setting AND had any sexual activity in the prior 3 months.

Vaccination is not currently recommended for members of the general public who are not at high risk of recent exposure to monkeypox.

Don't say I never did nothing for you, Bruce: Mayor Harrell's office has added two additional forums for the public to provide input on what you all want in our next SPD Chief. The first will be Wednesday, August 10 from 6 to 8:30 pm at the Holgate St. Church (2600 S Holgate St, Seattle, WA 98144). The other will be on Thursday, August 11 from 5:30 to 7 pm at South Park Hall (1253 S Cloverdale St, Seattle, WA 98108).

But didn't we do this already? Yes! In fact, the Mayor's Office hosted five conversations last week targeted at various communities across the city. You can see where and when they were held here, at the Mayor's landing page for all things about the SPD Chief search—well, almost all things. The reason I went to the effort of including the full addresses and times of the two additional events in the previous blurb is that, despite sending out a press release advertising those events on Wednesday at 3 pm, the two additional forums were not listed on the site as of 6:30 am this morning.

Do they even want public input? That's the question many are asking after the Mayor's Office did little to advertise the first five sessions. I attended the events aimed at the faith community, youth, and a virtual call for immigrant communities staffed with interpreters to provide their input. When I logged on to the virtual session, I was one of five attendees. At the faith community session, I counted roughly 20 people who didn't appear to be staffing the event. The event targeted at youth was hosted at the Rainier Beach Community Center, and it took place at the same time as a Teen Peace Festival hosted by several organizations, including the City's Parks Department, that featured live music and a DJ. The SPD Chief search event featured a lack of air conditioning during a heat wave and some free pizza.

Staff & panelists outnumbered attendees at the virtual event for immigrant communities by 4:1

Accountability advocates take notice: Amy Sundberg, who serves as co-chair of People Power Washington's Seattle committee, said in an email that her group of police accountability advocates was not surprised by the poor turnout for the forums in July given the short advance notice. She did express optimism that the two additional opportunities for public input could provide a chance for more meaningful engagement, since the Mayor's Office partnered with community groups local to each venue to facilitate the events, but she was disappointed in the lack of a virtual option for the general public. I've emailed the point-person on this from the Mayor's Office and requested more information on the additional two forums, and I will update if I hear back.

What recession? Looks like dancing on the economy's grave was a tad premature.

Dunn's done: After yesterday's ballot drop, King County Councilmember Reagan Dunn conceded to former losing Attorney General candidate Matt Larkin in the 8th Congressional District primary. Rich has more from the rest of the races we're watching in yesterday's ballot drop update.

Just unplug it already: At some point, we all need to admit that there's not much of value happening on Facebook anymore, and the world would simply be far better off without it.

No, this isn't a new Marvel movie announcement: The United Nations issued a warning yesterday that two of the Western U.S.'s largest reservoirs are perilously close to reaching "dead pool status," reports CBS News. That would mean the water levels reached such a low point that water wouldn't flow out of the reservoirs to power hydroelectric dams that serve millions of people across the West. So glad my parents' generation took proactive steps to mitigate global warming so that we could have a remotely livable future... oh wait.

Nothing to see here: Just Amazon continuing to leverage its monopolistic control over most of the retail shopping market to purchase robot vacuum company Roomba for $1.7 billion. If that seems like a lot of money for bougie cleaning devices, consider that Roomba's premium models also sweep up tons of data about customers' homes that a company in the market for smart home devices might find valuable.

Dems' climate deal got a little worse: But on the bright side, it will actually pass. Senator Kyrsten Sinema (D-Goldman Sachs) held the line for her wealthy donors and spiked the attempt to close the carried interest loophole, which keeps her core constituency of hedge fund managers from paying their fair share in taxes.

Now that Sinema's on board, treat yourself to a little optimism: I've been holding off on listening to this frequently recommended podcast episode from David Roberts of Volts breaking down the climate provisions of the bill simply because I couldn't deal with the disappointment if our worst Senator killed the deal. With that threat removed, join me in starting your weekend with a little climate optimism as a treat.