The one way Seattle is actually dying: The Seattle Times asked 647 artists how much they make, and they confirmed what has become obvious: this city is too expensive for them. The paper’s survey found even the region’s most successful visual artists, writers, filmmakers, and other creatives can’t keep pace with the rising cost of living. Of the 611 artists who shared their income with the Times, 62% made less than $50,000, and 80% made less than $75,000. According to the MIT Living Wage Calculator, a living wage for a single adult living in this area is $59,696. A Consumer Affairs analysis of Zillow rent data estimated a single adult needs about $87K a year to live here comfortably.

Don’t light the grass on fire, kids: The National Weather service issued a red flag warning for our region over the possibility of dry thunderstorms and gusty, erratic winds, conditions ripe for quick-spreading fires. This week has been bad enough, so listen when I say outdoor burning is really not recommended.

One-third of our council may not get to vote on renters' rights: Why? Conflicts of interest. Council Member Maritza Rivera makes $29K a year in income from a property in Ravenna, Council Member Tanya Woo owns at least 10 percent of the Louisa Hotel apartment building, and Council Member Joy Hollingsworth’s family rents out a triplex in the Central District. While Rivera is a landlord and Woo and Hollingsworth are not, the financial interests of their immediate families could disqualify them from voting. Hannah has more here.

GET YOUR NEW PARKING RATES! The Seattle Department of Transportation released new parking rates for the city and they’re fine, I guess. Half the rates will remain the same, a handful will decrease by 50 cents an hour, and the rest, in Seattle’s busiest neighborhoods, will now cost 50 cents extra per hour. On Pike and Pine in Capitol Hill, night rates hit six bucks. Pride month is definitely over.

New numbers in the Governor’s race: If the 564 likely voters surveyed were to cast their ballot today, 42% would vote for Attorney General Bob Ferguson, 33% would vote for former King County Sheriff and former Republican Congressman Dave Reichert, 7% percent would vote for Semi Bird, and 4% would vote for state Sen. Mark Mullet. While it looks like Ferguson has a comfortable nine-point lead over Reichert, 14% of voters don’t know who they’d vote for yet. Assuming that Mullet voters will party with Ferguson and Bird voters will flock to Reichert, the gap between the frontrunners would close to just six points. Jinkies. The Stranger endorsed Ferguson in the race, and you can read all about why in our 2024 primary endorsements. If you’re the TL;DR type, here’s our Cheat Sheet.

Adopt a sweet little guy: The Seattle Animal Shelter broke my heart yesterday afternoon when it posted a video of a packed kennel of sad, barking dogs to announce the shelter was full again. If you’ve got room in your home and heart, consider adopting! If dogs are not your speed, they’ve got cats and rabbits and lizards (and a “pigs” tab, but no pigs right now). For more information, visit their website.

There was reportedly a separate foreign plot to kill Donald Trump: The Secret Service had tightened security around Trump weeks ahead of the rally in Butler, Pennsylvania because US intelligence had briefed them on a separate, unconnected and alleged plot by Iran to kill him. Secret Service officials had also issued general warnings to the Trump campaign against holding outdoor rallies. Yet 20-year-old Matthew Crooks was still able to climb a rooftop and shoot. The inspector general of the US Department of Homeland Security has announced an investigation into the Secret Service's handling of the rally.

Laughs nervously: Bird flu is spreading in the nation's dairy farms, and while we're testing cows for the virus, we're not testing many people. As of Monday, the outbreak has spread to 157 herds of cows in 13 states, and only 60 people have been tested. While just four dairy workers and five poultry workers have tested positive so far, infectious disease experts believe many more have caught the virus and that we seem less prepared than we should be, given the fact that the virus is infecting more mammals and could mutate to jump from person to person.

Democrats perfect science of losing elections: Democratic National Convention leadership is presumably worried that the calls from voters and from Congress to replace Biden as the nominee will grow even louder than they already are, and they seem to think the best way to win back support and project party unity is to make sure that never, ever happens by accelerating the nomination process with a virtual roll call for delegates before the end of July.

Is that really a good idea? Polls conducted before the attempt on Donald Trump’s life show Biden is still lagging far behind in all seven swing states. Not one of Biden’s attempts to steady the ship–the George Stephanopoulos interview on ABC, the Lester Holt interview on NBC, the NATO presser, the speech after the attempted assassination of Trump, the interview with Complex’s Speedy Morman, the speech to the NAACP in Las Vegas yesterday–has done enough to assuage millions of ordinary Americans who will decide whether or not Biden will stay in the White House until January of 2029. Nevertheless, under party rules Biden remains the nominee unless he decides to release his delegates.

Dems aren’t giving up yet: In one incredibly long week that began on the hill with closed-door meetings about the future of the party and that culminated with the assassination attempt outside of Pittsburg, calls for Biden to step aside dropped down to terse whispers. Some Dems have told reporters that the election is as good as lost, and that trying to push Biden out will do more harm than good. But on Saturday, center-left Dems lambasted the President in a call meant to stem, rather than stoke, further defection. Politico reported that since June Nancy Pelosi, who is convinced Biden will lose, has privately worked the phones and plotted with top Dems to get him off the ticket. CNN reported Barack Obama is concerned about Uncle Joe’s ability to win, and that Dem pollster Stanley Greenberg, who advised Bill Clinton’s two winning campaigns, is sending out memos to Biden’s team about the impending loss of the Oval Office and seats in both Houses of Congress.

Lying does not help, DNC! On X, formerly known as Twitter, DNC chair Jamie Harrison justified the accelerated nomination timeline by claiming Democrats needed to lock in their nominee by August 7–before the convention in Chicago–to get on the ballot in Ohio. That is total bullshit. In June, Ohio Republican Gov. Mike Dewine signed a law that extended the deadline to August 31. Rest assured, whoever is nominated at the convention will be on the ballot in Ohio.

JD Vance’s secret speech: ProPublica discovered that in 2021, Trump’s VP pick JD Vance told a group of influential young conservatives they should stick up for “nonconventional” so-called truth tellers like conspiracy theorist Alex Jones of Infowars. According to Vance, Jones’s worldview was “a hell of a lot more true than Rachel Maddow’s view of society.” To review, Jones has spent three decades promoting baseless conspiracies about the Oklahoma City bombing, 9/11, Sandy Hook, and the demonic forces he believes to be controlling our world, which, by the way, is a theory Vance seems to agree with: “I believe the devil is real and that he works terrible things in our society,” Vance continued. “That’s a crazy conspiracy theory to a lot of very well-educated people in this country right now.” Yeah, you’re right, it is. Here’s a full transcript of the speech, and a video published by ProPublica. Vance is expected to be the belle of the ball at day three of the Republican National Convention.

Unity-shmunity: According to the Washington Post, the same Republicans calling for civility and an end to violent political rhetoric after the attempted assassination of Trump on Saturday preached the apocalypse in Milwaukee on Tuesday. We're so back? Gov. Jim Justice, a Senate candidate in West Virginia, warned the country would become "totally unhinged" if Trump was not elected. In a pre-recorded video, Trump accused Democrats of destroying the country. At one point, this dumb rap video played.

I doubt any stingy Republicans at the RNC are reading this, but:Â