Good morning! We’re shifting into fall mode: lows in the 50s, high of 64. If you leave the house this morning, expect to take off your two  light layers by 2 p.m. Happy Libra Season to all who celebrate. 

Let’s do the news. 

Who Needs Federal Workers? Not the Trump administration, apparently. Once again, the government is looking at a possible shutdown if Congress can’t push a budget through by September 30. This time, it’s healthcare on the line. Democrats are refusing to vote for a Republican stopgap that doesn’t continue Obamacare subsidies that would end in December. They’re also demanding that the budget reverse cuts to Medicaid and other health programs that Republicans made over the summer. Trump clearly felt like there wasn’t enough tension in the room, so his Office of Management and Budget told federal agencies late on Wednesday night to use the looming shutdown “to consider Reduction in Force” notices to lay off more federal employees. He also told agencies to eliminate positions that had been deemed “not consistent” with President Trump’s political agenda. Which is, for the most part, anyone that keeps the government running. 

But He Also Kind of Does: The AP reported yesterday that hundreds of DOGE’d federal employees are being asked to return to work. Employees have until the end of the week to decide if they want to climb back down to hell. 

Violent Left-Wing Extremist Until Proven Otherwise: The Trump administration wants to own the narrative of the shooting at a Dallas ICE facility that, to be absolutely clear, did not shoot ICE agents. He shot three detainees, killing one and injuring the other two.  But Trump & friends are not letting their lack of information get in the way. VP JD Vance called the shooter a “violent left-wing extremist,” with no information to indicate that that’s true, which devolved into a Twitter slap fight with Pod Saves America’s Jon Favreau. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said that “our ICE law enforcement is facing unprecedented violence against them,” about a shooting that didn’t injure any ICE law enforcement. 

The President Directs the DOJ Now: The Trump administration has warped all of our sense of reality, so let’s start with a reminder. For decades, the Justice Department has been intentionally insulated from the executive branch to avoid politicizing our justice system. On Friday morning, Trump went onto Fox & Friends and told his Fox Friends that George Soros, a billionaire who, through a grant network called the Open Society Foundation, funds Democratic candidates and left-leaning causes, should be “put in jail.” This week, the president appears to have directed the DOJ to investigate Soros, and the department directed a team to explore possible criminal cases. The New York Times reported that “possible charges included racketeering, arson, wire fraud and material support for terrorism, according to a copy of the directive,” but all of their intel appears to be from a report from a far-right group called Capital Research Center. 

Starbucks Is on the Rocks: Our hometown burnt coffee purveyor is laying off about 900 non-retail workers and closing more than 100 of their stores (many of which are unionized). One of those stores is the Capitol Hill Reserve Roastery, one of its busiest stores and to my knowledge, the only place in the world that serves a pumpkin spice flight. 

Might As Well Go Win the Whole Fucking Thing: The Mariners are officially Division Champs, and for the first time since 2022, they’re headed to the postseason. 

 

 

ICE Releases One Fire Fighter: After arresting Rigoberto Hernandez Hernandez while he was helping to fight the Bear Gulch Fire, and holding him in detention for almost a month, immigration authorities unceremoniously released him without an order from a judge. It’s rare that immigration’s unpredictable nature works in an immigrant’s favor. 

Build That Wall: Earlier this month, the Seattle Times reported that Christian Sinderman, one of Seattle's most sought-after political consultants and Mayor Bruce Harrell’s top political strategist, has had unusual access to City Hall during Harrell’s term as mayor. Harrell insisted that he'd ended Sinderman’s  contract at the beginning of 2025 to “put up a big wall” and avoid any blurred lines between his reelection campaign and the happenings in City Hall. “Turns out that wall was not so tall,” the Seattle Times reported. Sinderman continued to use his city-issued key card to get into City Hall, including to Harrell's office, 33 separate times this year. And in August, he was awarded a new contract working with the city's Department of Transportation. Time to install an electric fence.

Single Malt Caper: This summer, a freight truck pulled up to the Westland Distillery warehouse in Skagit County. The driver showed warehouse workers a document saying that he was there to pick up 12,000 bottles of whiskey. He was, but he wasn’t supposed to be. They were never seen again. According to the Seattle Times’s Tan Vinh, among the haul were $150 bottles of their award-winning 10th anniversary Garryana whiskey, which the distillery said is irreplaceable. In total, the stolen bottles are worth almost $1 million. Or one really hazy long weekend.

And don’t forget that even while democracy crumbles, we’re still doing Fat Bear Week. 

And for Our PNW Version: The Woodland park zoo has a new wolf pack. They’re brothers, they’re six-years-old, and there are four of them. They're awesome. According to the zoo, the wolves are a subspecies of gray wolf, known as the Mexican gray wolf. They’re obviously not from here, but they’re related to native wolves! And they’re critically endangered. These (not so) little dudes are part of a recovery initiative called SAFE (Saving Animals From Extinction).