More thunder? Yesterday morning, Mommy Nature struck our region with lightning, presumably to give the weather heads something to tweet about. If you missed the lightning (like Jas did, according to Slog PM) then it looks like you won’t get another chance at catching a summer storm today. The Weather Channel forecasts sunny skies and mid-70 degree weather. I’m sure the Seattle Weather Blog will have some calculated response to this good news in order to continue its campaign to make Seattle hate our life-giving sun. SMH

Thunderstorms are not all showmanship: The lil summer storm caused outages for over 10,000 Puget Sound Energy (PSE) customers. As late as 10 pm last night, more than 300 of those customers still did not have power. I checked the outage map this morning, and it looks like PSE got its shit together, because there are no more outages in Seattle or Tacoma.

Reminder: Allowing cops to chase people in cars puts everyone in danger. Early this morning, a truck slammed into a building in Wallingford while being pursed by the police. Thankfully, no pedestrians got mauled in the process. 

If you think SPD’s response time is bad: Not counting crises that happen in jails and hospitals, King County crisis responders—who are supposed to provide a more sensitive, less shooty alternative to police—take on average over 11 days to respond. The Seattle Times has more on the overwhelming demand for crisis responders. 

Seattle Film Commission: Councilmember Sara Nelson is taking up a new cause: supporting the film industry. In a draft, Nelson proposed that the City establish a film commission to advise policymakers and figure out a way to get these people paid living wages. At first, this all seemed out of left field for Nelson–from my quick search, she doesn’t even have a Letterboxd. But, like her earlier legislation to bolster tourism, she explained the policy as an effort to grow our creative economy and make sure moviemakers don’t film their Seattle-set movies in Vancouver. 

Doggo dating app: A new dating and friendship app has launched in the Seattle area to connect pet lovers to other pet lovers. People who make their “smol bean pupper” their entire personality definitely deserve love, but I can’t imagine a particularly enticing pool of suitors on an app for Pet Owners only.

This news also raises a general issue about making new dating apps. I interned for a Seattle-specific dating app EXTREMELY briefly in college, and the app itself was fine, but the big problem was that all the babes were just on Tinder, Bumble, or Hinge. The people that alt apps appealed to were people that didn’t really get any matches on those bigger apps. The upside of the dog app, I guess, is that maybe you will see fewer people on the big apps who think it's cute to stop listening to a conversation when they see the average dog walking down the street. 

Seattle Approves with some post-election analysis: After Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler lost the primary election to a Democrat and some crazy Trumper, Seattle Approves organizer Logan Bowers said on Twitter that Approval Voting (AV), which allows voters to select all the candidates that they approve of, would have won her the primary. He also said this wouldn’t have happened with Ranked-Choice voting (RCV).

If you’ve been paying attention the last several months, AV and RCV advocates have been duking it out online, and now those two reforms will be on the ballot in Seattle this November. Both systems claim they will make elections fairer and lead to better leadership.

In the case of Herrera Beutler, Bowers thinks Democrats would have been enlightened enough to vote for both an actual Democrat and for Herrera Beutler, a Republican (bad) who voted to impeach Trump (better). However, as RCV advocates often note, you can’t communicate preference, which may cause voters to avoid picking anyone but their favorite. I mean, I barely vote for Democrats. I wouldn’t vote for a Republican, regardless of what they think of Orange-Man-Bad. To be fair, Bowers is probably not thinking about bratty voters like me. But I do think RCV advocates could make a case that their system would yield similar results. Herrera Beutler may have been all those voters' second choice if they couldn’t vote for a Democrat or Trumper. IDK, hard to speculate on how these systems would actually play out, but interesting!

Least Rock 'n Roll guitar shop: KING 5 wrote about some guitar store owners who are mad about crime and drug use. This makes perfect sense, as the music scene has been historically anti-drug and pro-cop. 

Uhhhh, Joe? We may not have Democracy for much longer. The Washington Post has the story. 

Defund the FBI: Authorities are monitoring online threats following the FBI’s raid of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate earlier this week. Law enforcement told ABC News that they fear violent retaliation from his base, who in a true moment of horseshoe theory now think the FBI is tyrannical. 

#MeToo: Zhou Xiaoxuan became the face of China's #MeToo movement in 2018 when she accused television host Zhu Jun of sexually assaulting her when she interned for the show. Yesterday, a Chinese court rejected her appeal of the dismissal of her long-running case.  

That’s an expensive phone: The tech world thinks that the iPhone 14 will be much more expensive than its predecessor, the iPhone 13 Pro Max. According to The Verge, you could pay up to 15% more if you’re looking to upgrade. I think I’ll stick with my iPhone 8 for now. Thanks! 

The Pete Davidson jokes are FUNNY. LAUGH:

Just trying to help you plan your evening: You can watch a supermoon rise over Rome in a webcast tonight. That would be very Manic Pixie Dreamgirl of you tbh.Â