Boeing on strike: Last night, 33,000 Boeing Machinists union members rejected a new contract and went on strike. "We strike at midnight,” International Association of Machinists District 751 President Jon Holden said. As of Sunday, Holden had urged his members to accept the deal. Yet, 96% of the union rejected the contract due in large part to a wage increase they viewed as far less than what they wanted. Before the official declaration of the strike, at union headquarters Thursday union members made picket signs and cut their union initials into steel barrels. They'll light these barrels to keep picketers warm through the night. That's fucking metal. Last time the machinists went on strike, the 2008 recession started days later. Hopefully, the economy keeps its cool this time around. HMW and Billie drove up to Everett to watch the walkout and will have more on the blog later. 

Good boys, girls, and theys get new buses: Calm down, everybody. Let's not all nut at once. The Rapid Ride G Line, the reason for all the hell on Madison Avenue for the past couple of years, is complete. The line will connect Martin Luther King Jr. Way with First Avenue downtown and will run every six minutes. Voters approved the line when they approved the 2015 Move Seattle and 2016 Sound Transit 3 ballot measures. The line cost $144.3 million to make, which is a bit more than the projected bill of $120 million. But, it ran into pandemic-caused delays, federal funding issues, and issues with bus technology, according to the Seattle Times. Not only is the line different, but the bus is sexier than any other bus. It has a left-side boarding door! Bikes can go on this bus! The new route will impact existing bus routes, including the 11, 12, 3, 10, 47, 49, and 60. 

Mostly cloudy: Fall really hit hard, huh? It's the darker and darker mornings that really signal the change for me. At least the weather feels appropriate for the first palpable signs of us inching toward the dying of the light that is winter. Today, it will be mostly cloudy and mostly crisp. The rain will come tonight and stay through tomorrow. Find some sun on Sunday, appropriately. 

River otter goes rogue: A mother and her young child walked along the Bremerton Marina dock. Out of nowhere, an otter pulled the child into the water. The mother then pulled the child out as the otter kept attacking. The child was treated for "scratches and bite wounds to the head, face and legs" and "the woman was bit on the arm," according to KING 5. 

Ring-a-ding-ding: Good news for the University of Washington football staffer whose college football rings were snatched: most of the rings are back! The UW Police Department identified two suspects in the theft and recovered eight of the 12 rings.

Moscow murder trial moved: The murder trial for Bryan Kohberger, the ex-Washington State University grad student accused of brutally murdering four University of Idaho undergrads, will take place in Boise, Idaho rather than in the original location—and the place where the murders took place—Moscow, Idaho. Kohberger's team had been pushing for this trial relocation. The Idaho Supreme Court made the call to move the trial since all the buzz around it could mean Kohberge wouldn't get a fair trial in Moscow. The Court also appointed a new judge to oversee the proceedings, which won't occur until next June. 

Tesla battery hellfire: When an Aug 19 crash along Interstate 80 in California ignited a Tesla Semi's battery, it took 50,000 gallons of water to extinguish the flames, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. The battery fire reached temperatures of 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The fire department had to use an aircraft to drop fire retardant on the area. Firefighters closed the highway for 15 hours to ensure the battery had cooled down enough to move the truck.

Mpox vaccine: While the mpox virus has been detected in 120 countries in the last two years, it's spreading the fastest in Africa. Around 723 people have died from mpox in a dozen countries on the continent. The World Health Organization granted authorization for an mpox vaccine to fight the virus in adults and slow the spread in African countries. 

Election-deniers in positions of power: In a sign of what could come to pass in November, the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) watchdog group has identified a significant role that people who believe the 2020 election was "stolen" and who have outwardly whittled away at election integrity are playing in swing state politics. Across Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, CMD found "50 Republicans running for Congress; six vying for state executive offices; 81 leaders of local Republican organizations; and 102 current members of state and county election boards" who were all election-deniers. Some even participated in the Jan 6 insurrection, according to the Guardian.

Highly coveted Rick Steves endorsement just dropped: 

Who could've seen this coming? Donald Trump's racist, deranged, untrue tirade about Haitian immigrants stealing and eating pets is having real-life consequences. A bomb threat made in Springfield, Ohio on Thursday forced the evacuation of city hall, two schools, and other buildings. Springfield's mayor said the threat “used hateful language towards immigrants and Haitians in our community.” Words, especially hateful rhetoric, have power. People will get hurt over these lies. 

Portland mayoral candidate's bad driving record: Mayoral candidate Carmen Rubio lost her endorsement from a construction workers and laborers union after her bad driving record came to light. Rubio "racked up 150 parking and traffic citations in Multnomah County and had her license suspended six times." Her unpaid tickets were sent to collections at least 100 times, according to local reports. That was enough for Laborers’ International Union of North America Local 737 to rescind its endorsement. 

Bad passenger reaps what he sowed: A passenger behaved so badly on a September 2023 Australian flight from Perth to Sydney that the plane had to turn around and fly back to Perth. Now, a judge has ruled the passenger not only must pay a steep fine for his bad actions, but he must also reimburse the airline for the cost of the wasted fuel. The fuel costs around $5,806 USD. 

Microsoft hypocrisy: Microsoft is big on climate and the environment—or, so the tech company would have you believe. A new Atlantic report found that Microsoft is peddling its AI technology to fossil fuel companies as a tool to find and develop "new oil and gas reserves and maximizing their production." How true were those 2020-era climate commitments, hmmm? 

A song for your Friday: Have you heard of Portland's Kenzy Peach? She only came on the scene about a year ago, but she's already tearing it up. I'm becoming obsessed with her. Look, this is one of those moments where you can get in on an artist early, because I think Peach has star-making stuff. Here's her latest single: