Gooooooooood morning. Expect some rain this a.m. and into the afternoon. High of 65 degrees. Typical Seattle summer weather. 

Presidential debate starts at 6 pm tonight: President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump plan to have a little chat tonight, with CNN's Jake Tapper and Dana Bash moderating the conversation. People can stream the debate for free from CNN's site, and multiple networks plan to carry the debate. CNN has really limited how much can happen, with no studio audience and a plan to mute candidates' microphones except for when it's their turn to speak. Should be pretttttttty boring, but it'll be fun to watch Biden topple off the stage as he swings right on immigration. 

Mayor announces plans to expand dual dispatch responders: Mayor Bruce Harrell announced plans to grow the City's Community Assisted Response and Engagement (CARE) team from six responders to 24 and to expand their response areas from just downtown to Capitol Hill and the Central District. The CARE team represents Seattle's attempt to create a policing alternative, an effort that the Seattle police union has continuously stymied, leaving the team underutilized. Harrell plans to revisit the limitations on the program in negotiations with the union, according to the Seattle Times.

Judge catches jurors chatting about verdict in cop's trial: The murder trial of Auburn police officer Jeffrey Nelson had a bit of a hiccup yesterday when King County Superior Court Judge Nicole Gaines Phelps found out that two jurors had talked about the case outside of jury deliberations. Nelson is on trial for killing 26-year-old Jesse Sarey outside an Auburn grocery store in 2019. According to KUOW, one of the jurors told another juror, "'[We’re] not here to be best friends. The 12 of us are here because one person was killed and another person is on trial.'" Honestly, that juror sounds like no fun. Why not leave a jury with 11 new best friends? What a loser.

ICYMI: Republican City Attorney Ann Davison's office dismissed charges this week against a protester who slapped a pro-Palestine sticker on a McDonald's sign earlier this year. The officers recommended charges against the protester under the same property destruction law that other Seattle police officers arrested two protestors for in 2019 after they wrote mean stuff about the cops outside the East Precinct. A jury awarded those protesters $680,000, saying the officers violated their rights to free speech.

Wanna hang out? Have you already set your plans for the weekend, or do you wanna maybe go to Trans Pride on Friday with me? Maybe? Ok, what about, Fremont Dungeness Festival on Saturday? We can eat a bunch of crab? Oh, ok, maybe again. Fine, you pick something, we've written up 39 things to do this week and weekend, so you just pick and let me know. You tell me when you're ready to be friends. 

Bolivian General tried a coup and failed: Armored vehicles rammed into the doors of Bolivia's government palace Wednesday in what Bolivian President Luis Arce described as an attempted coup, according to the Associated Press. A top general led the ramming effort, and Arce appeared to lose control of his country's military for a few hours before he named a new army commander, who told the troops to stand down, which they did. Honestly, I don't understand the dynamics here, but imagine following orders to do a coup and then following orders not to do a coup. Like, if you're couping a guy, why are you listening to him tell you not to coup? [Eds note: The general said Arce directed him to do the coup in order to create a scene that might raise his dismal approval ratings given the economic crisis currently gripping the country, so that could be it, but Arce denies that.]

US Supreme Court pauses rule to reduce interstate pollution: SCOTUS has temporarily halted an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rule meant to help curb the amount of air pollution that drifts over state lines. In a 5-4 ruling, the justices said the rule cannot go into effect while a lower court challenge plays out. In a girls versus boys ruling, Amy Coney Barrett joined with the three liberal justices in their dissent.

Speaking of SCOTUS: The court also ruled Thursday that it plans to allow Idaho's ban on all abortions, except in emergency cases, according to the Associated Press. An earlier version of the decision that the court accidentally posted before quickly removing from its site allowed the state to prevent abortions even in a medical emergency. However, the ruling was mostly procedural, and the court may soon take up the issue of whether abortions can be banned without any exceptions, even in emergency cases.

And one more SCOTUS decision: The court overturned an anti-corruption law that prevented public officials from accepting gifts of more than $5,000 from government contractors that previously won a contract from a local government. The decision somehow drew a line between straight-up bribery and rewarding a government official for a favor. I wonder why SCOTUS would want to create a permissive environment for big gifts to government officials.

But why not one more while we're at it? In perhaps the scariest decision of the day outside of the abortion one, in a 6-3 vote the justices defanged the US Securities Exchange Commission, forcing the agency to take financial fraudsters to federal trial when seeking civil penalties against them. Taking cases to court rather than just using department authority to administer fines requires money and staff the agency just doesn't have and likely will not get from Congress. Mark Joseph Stern over at Slate argues the decision would apply to the Department of Labor, the National Labor Relations Board, the Federal Trade Commission, and the Federal Communications Commission, making it much harder to enforce penalties against bad bosses, tech companies, and deceptive corporations. 

Happy Pride! Enjoy a preview of SOPHIE's posthumous album. 

 

 

 

 

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