Devastating: A Russian court has denied American basketball player Brittney Griner's appeal of her nine-year prison sentence on trumped up drug charges, reports NBC News. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan called today's news a product of "another sham judicial proceeding." Griner will serve her sentence in a Russian penal colony as her chances of release will now likely fall to high-profile prison swap. 

Rishi Sunak is now officially the UK prime minister: He is the first person of color and, perhaps, one of the richest ever to hold that office. In a speech, Sunak said he'd been elected to "fix" former PM Liz Truss's "mistakes" and cautioned of "difficult decisions to come" as the government deals with a "profound economic crisis," reports the BBC. "Difficult decisions" is always a dog whistle for cutting social and cultural programs.

WEED! WEED! WEED! Voters in five mostly conservative states will be voting next month on whether or not to legalize cannabis for adult recreational use: Arkansas, Maryland, Missouri, North Dakota, and South Dakota. According to WaPo, most states will allow possession of up to one ounce, but Maryland is allowing 1.5 ounces and Missouri is allowing three ounces. The polling is looking pretty good for the pro-weed side and, if passed, 24 states will have legal cannabis. Biden, what are you waiting for, my guy? Push to legalize weed nationwide!

In Washington: A new WA Poll came out saying that 55% of WA voters believe that the Supreme Court is "out of touch with the values and beliefs of most Americans," reports KING 5. Over a quarter of WA voters said abortion is their top issue, and 22% said inflation is their first priority. Ten percent said border security was their top issue (not sure if they meant with Mexico or Canada), but 26% of them identified as "very conservative," so, makes sense. 

Authorities charge man who shot and killed beloved community leader, D'Vonne Pickett Jr.: 31-year-old Ashton Christopher Lefall has been charged with premeditated first-degree murder, robbery, three accounts of assault, and a second-degree gun possession charge after going on a shooting spree over several days last week, reports the Seattle Times. Lefall also allegedly shot a Columbia City business owner in the chest and shot two random motorists on Aurora Ave and Rainier Ave. The business owner is still at Harborview in critical condition. Lefall is being held on a no-bail hold and will face arraignment on November 7. 

Weather break: Tried to get cozy this weekend with my radiant space heater and I awoke to sparks flying out of the outlet and the smell of burning plastic. Turns out my house couldn't handle it! Reminder to be safe while trying to stay warm. 

I'm sure when Swifties were watching Taylor's music video for "Anti-Hero" they were thinking, "Hey, where's that random casket from?": GeekWire has the answer. Apparently, the death box is from a direct-to-consumer, Bellevue and Massachusetts-based brand named Titan. Nice. 

WhatsApp went down this morning: The world's most popular messaging app suffered a major outage for almost two hours earlier this morning that prevented users from sending or receiving messages, reports CNN. There were almost 70,000 outage reports on the platform, though the Meta-owned company says service has been restored.

Adidas drops the rapper formerly known as Kanye West: Ye's career is now in freefall as his talent agency, bank, documentary filmmakers, and now Adidas cut ties with him as he continues to double down on antisemitic remarks, reports Axios. "Ye's recent comments and actions have been unacceptable, hateful, and dangerous, and they violate the company's values of diversity and inclusion, mutual respect and fairness," the company said in a statement after facing immense public pressure to drop him. 

Attorney General Bob Ferguson forces American chicken kings to pay the fuck up: Tyson Foods is forking over $10 million to the state for their "price-fixing on chicken products," reports KOMO. Of course regular people getting screwed out of money by corporate blockheads is never funny, but I can't stop giggling at the idea of a chicken price-fixing conspiracy...one of the least hot crimes ever. 

There's a partial solar eclipse today: Unfortunately, us North Americans won't see it. The solar event has already kicked off in Europe, northern Africa, the Middle East, and Asia and will be the last one of the year. If you're for some reason reading this from anywhere where the partial eclipse will be visible, please wear eclipse glasses!

Two killed in mass shooting at a St. Louis high school: A teacher and 16-year-old girl are now dead after an armed former student busted into the school and shot them, wounding seven others, reports AP News. The shooter, 19-year-old Orlando Harris, died after exchanging gunfire with police. Police said Harris entered the school in "an aggressive, violent manner," but they declined to say how he got in. They have not officially named the two people who were killed, but the St. Louis Dispatch identified the teacher as Jean Kuczka. When will this end?

Seattle Art Museum redid its American art galleries to be more expansive and inclusive of art from artists who aren't just old white dudes. In a multi-year process, SAM worked with an 11-person advisory circle, four emerging arts professionals, and three artists to reformat the permanent galleries by theme. Seattle Times' Jerald Pierce wrote more about it in this morning's article. 

Ok, what did we think about House of the Dragon? Despite some quibbles, I actually had a lot of fun watching and now feel compelled to actually read the Game of Thrones series. I wanna cuddle into an epic this winter. One potential trend that might come out of this Targaryen-on-Targaryen series? Icy blonde tresses. 

For your listening pleasure: Listen to this excellent set from Atlanta-by-way-of-Detroit selector and house music aficionado Ash Lauryn. She's coming to Cherry next Saturday, November 5, and you'd seriously be silly to not go. She played the Kremwerk Complex last summer and it was one of the most incandescent and genuinely FUN nights of music I've been to since the pandemmy hit.