The Stranger’s morning news roundup.

by Nathalie Graham

More Boeing blues: The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the May 25 Southwest flight that went into a “Dutch roll” mid-flight. A Dutch roll is described as “a yawing motion when the tail slides and the plane rocks from wingtip to wingtip,” mimicking a Dutch figure skater. If my airplane is going to mimic any type of ice skater, then I would choose Apollo Ono: quick and efficient. The plane was a Boeing 737 Max, and the issue may have been the result of a damaged backup power-control unit. 

Counterfeit titanium in planes: Airbus and Boeing bought counterfeit titanium from a supplier that forged the documentation for the authenticity of the material. The FAA is investigating and trying to figure out the short- and long-term safety implications. It’s unclear how many planes were made using parts made with fake titanium. 

Man steals car, then steals kayak: Centralia police tracked a stolen car, but the suspect did not pull over. He drove toward the Chehalis River, hopped out of the car, nabbed a kayak from a nearby home, and fled into the river. According to KING 5, the man “struggled mightily and fell over multiple times, but continued to paddle toward the middle of the river.” He even paddled with arms for a bit. It didn’t work out for this master thief. When he paddled near shore, a K-9 officer apprehended him with a classic teeth-around-ankle maneuver. 

SeaTac flight attendants on the picket line: Around 80,000 flight attendants from major airlines are in the midst of contract negotiations. On Thursday, off-duty flight attendants picketed outside SeaTac airport for better pay and working conditions. 

An unsettled weather pattern: Thunderstorms could be afoot this weekend. Showers will return. Temperatures will drop. It’s maybe not the best idea for a Father’s Day camping trip. Take him to see a weird A24 movie instead. Dad’s love that kind of thing. 

The weather pattern will become unsettled Friday through Sunday. Thunderstorm potential will also increase during this period, peaking Saturday afternoon into Saturday evening! The main threats from storms will be lightning, heavy rain, small hail, and gusty winds. #WAwx pic.twitter.com/cl7y45Xwyb

— NWS Seattle (@NWSSeattle) June 13, 2024

Big One prep: Nothing reminds you of your own mortality like thinking about the Cascadia Quake and how very few parts of our infrastructure will withstand it. One major thing that will crumble when the tectonic plates rumble and shake? Bridges. Five bridges in the city, including the West Seattle Lower Spokane Swing Bridge, have already been retrofitted. Now, the Seattle Department of Transportation is beefing up 16 more bridges. Hopefully all this disruptive construction will save our lives one day. Or, better yet, will save some poor saps’ lives in 200 years. 

Unsurprising: The Business Journal released a list of the 1,000 wealthiest ZIP codes in the US and—would you believe it?—the Seattle-area had 35 ZIP codes on the list, four of which were in the top 100 wealthiest. To this I say, “Duh.” Last week, we learned about how Seattle’s home to at least 54,200 millionaires. You’re telling me this report surveying “per capita income, typical home value, poverty rate, land area, and population” found a lot of hits in this area? Clearly.

Good for her: Jamjuree, 36, unexpectedly birthed two babies, a boy and then a girl. The Asian elephant was so surprised by her second calf that she attacked it. “She had never had twins before,” the director of Jamjuree’s Thailand sanctuary, Elephantstay, reasoned. Twins only make up around 1% of all elephant births, and male-female twins are even rarer. 

WELCOME TO THE WORLD: An Asian elephant in Thailand has given birth to a rare set of elephant twins.

Read more: https://t.co/xMlaFWeezI pic.twitter.com/SMRcIOhvEK

— ABC News (@ABC) June 14, 2024

Related: “Twenty-three sets of twins have graduated from a Massachusetts middle school, making up about 10% of the eighth-grade class.” That’s too many twins. Sorry. 

I want a Succession-style drama about this: Tyson Food suspended its Chief Financial Officer and Tyson Food’s heir, John R. Tyson, 34, after he was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol. This is John R. Tyson’s second alcohol-related charge in two years. The first occurred in November 2022, when he was charged with public intoxication and trespassing after breaking into a stranger’s Fayetteville home and falling asleep in her bed. He sent a companywide email apologizing about that and assuring everyone he would seek treatment. John R. Tyson, who is son of the current Tyson Foods chairman, was thought to be a shoe-in for a potential future CEO of the company, since that’s a role typically held by family members. Now? Well, people have “legitimate concerns” about if he’d be good for the role. 

State of emergency in Florida: Southern Florida has seen up to 25 inches of rain so far this week. Gov. Ron DeSantis has declared a state of emergency as multiple counties are literally under water. More rain is expected Friday. With it comes flash flood warnings. How’s the climate denial treating you now, Ron?

The Gaza aid pier is inoperable again: The humanitarian aid pier, the $230 million humanitarian project set up and operated by the US, was deemed inoperable for the third time this month due to weather. The US will move it to an Israeli port until the high seas quiet down. The project was always temporary, targeted to have a short 90-day lifespan before the seas turned woefully turbulent by the end of August. 

This shit again? The Senate Judiciary Committee investigating ethics at the Supreme Court found Justice Clarence Thomas took more trips than previously reported by ProPublica with mega-donor and Republican  Harlan Crow. The trips included six flights on Crow’s private jet in 2017, 2019, and 2021.

No ban for bump stocks: The Supreme Court struck down a federal ban on bump stocks, the device that can juice up semi-automatic weapons so they fire rounds almost as quickly as machine guns. The 2018 Donald Trump regulation came after the 2017 Las Vegas massacre, where a shooter using a bump stock fired over 1,000 rounds at a music festival and killed 60 people. The shooting injured over 500 people. Now the ban is scrapped. 

I liked this piece: It’s about fighting with people at dinner parties. 

A song for your Friday: Sometimes you need a little Norwegian indie pop to punctuate your week. 

The Stranger

Reichert apparently believes that conservatives only leave the house to shoot or pray, and that Republicans need armed vigilantes to protect GOP votes against ballot gremlins or whatever.

by Ashley Nerbovig

Republican gubernatorial candidate Dave Reichert has latched onto the idea that putting ballot boxes at churches, firing ranges, and gun stores could help ensure free and fair elections this November–and increase conservative voter turnout. Reichert apparently believes that conservatives only leave the house to shoot or pray, and that Republicans need armed vigilantes to protect GOP votes against ballot gremlins or whatever. 

Back in February, Reichert told an audience at a Pierce County GOP endorsement meeting that he supports a plan from Washington State Republican Party Chairman Jim Walsh to buy some ballot boxes and put them “in places where conservative voters go.” Reichert pitched his churches and gun store location ideas. 

“Try to steal a ballot from a gun range. How about a gun shop? Places like that where we know we can protect our votes,” Reichert said, in a video from the endorsement meeting.

Reichert has made similar comments during at least five other campaign events, according to audio recordings obtained by The Stranger as well as an article in The Reflector. Reichert did not respond to a request for comment. 

Reichert’s rhetoric seems mostly like a ploy to turn out the most rabid members of his base on the off chance that they’ll have an opportunity to shoot someone near dropping off a ballot. 

In the video, Reichert makes it sound as if these ballot boxes would be official, but in a text message Walsh said that’s not his intention. He wants to create unofficial ballot boxes that the Washington State GOP or county parties would provide and maintain. 

The plan seems unserious, unnecessary, and fraught for a number of reasons. First of all, stealing ballots from official ballot boxes is very hard. King County Elections Administrator Julie Wise described the boxes as “steel tanks” that can weigh up to 1,000 pounds, and they are bolted into the ground. Crosscut published an excellent piece on the ballot collection process that references another article about a time when an SUV hit a ballot box in Thurston County and failed to even dent the thing. That article goes into further detail about how a person can’t even open the boxes with crowbars. The proposed GOP ballot boxes would be smaller, “But sturdy. Secure. Metal,” Walsh said.

Second of all, at least in King County, ballot boxes are already pretty accessible. According to Wise, about 90% of people live within three miles of a ballot box, and about 76% live within a mile. Nothing in state law prohibits the county from putting a ballot box at a shooting range, but the office would want to understand the specific gap they’d be filling, Wise said. A lot of data goes into ballot box location decisions, and the county tries to put boxes in places with lower voter turnout to encourage people to vote. While King County Elections (KCE) has found a natural partner with libraries, government buildings, and transit hubs, they’ve also put boxes in Safeway parking lots. I think conservatives still buy groceries. 

Finally, ballot box theft remains a stupid and unlikely strategy for trying to change the results of an election. The prospective thief could guess about the politics of nearby neighborhoods, but they wouldn’t know how the voters voted unless they opened up the ballots, and dumping a whole box would risk dumping ballots the thief would presumably want counted. And if anything, locating boxes in areas with high concentrations of Republicans would only make it easier to target those ballots for theft. Though I guess Reichert assumes no one would dare take a ballot from a box surrounded by gun owners, who would all shoot or threaten to shoot any would-be ballot box robbers instead of calling the police? 

Overall, Wise said KCE doesn’t recommend people submit their ballots to unofficial boxes. Pop-up boxes are legal, but if the organization collecting the ballots turns them in late or loses them, then voters have very little recourse to make sure their ballot counts. In general, the election’s office recommends people only trust themselves with their ballot. 

Wise also encourages people to sign up for text messages and emails alerting them about the status of their ballot. 

The Stranger

The Stranger staffers ate colorful cake, donuts, and more.

by Julianne Bell

Hi, gay! It’s Pride Month, and you know what that means: It’s time once again for local restaurants to hawk baked goods in a rainbow of colors. We here at The Stranger took it upon ourselves to try these prismatic pastries for you and gathered a selection from around town for an informal office taste test. (We can neither confirm nor deny whether this was simply an excuse to consume sugar on the company’s dime.) The delicious results are below.

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A La Mode Pies

In case you didn’t know, Chris Porter’s pie haven is one of the top 20 largest LGBTQ-owned businesses in the Pacific Northwest, and they’re celebrating this month with their limited-time rainbow cheesecake, which features marbled stripes that make for a gorgeous cross-section shot and a dusting of edible glitter. The colors aren’t different flavors—it’s a vanilla bean filling—but I found this slice to be everything I wanted from a basic cheesecake, not too sweet with a pleasant tang and a crisp, slightly salty graham cracker crust.
Ballard, Phinney Ridge, West Seattle

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A post shared by The Flora Bakehouse (@theflorabakehouse)

The Flora Bakehouse

Cafe Flora‘s Beacon Hill bakery sibling goes all out for Pride Month, and this year is no exception: They’re offering a rainbow-swirled chocolate croissant, trans flag-colored milk bread, rainbow cake, rainbow unicorn waffle cone sundaes with an ube and Dole whip swirl, and rainbow-swirled meringue “unicorn horns.” We got our hands on the croissants, rainbow cake, and unicorn horns. The rainbow cake was subtly lemon flavored and topped with cream cheese frosting, while the unicorn horns provided a playful twist on the classic meringue. The chocolate croissant’s flaky exterior was crisp and caramelized—bits of it rained down like edible rainbow confetti with each bite—and the inside was light, oh-so-tender, and buttery. Owner Nat Stratton-Clark will donate proceeds from the above items and others to the Trans Justice Funding Project, GSBA Scholarship & Education Fund, and Queer the Land.
Beacon Hill

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A post shared by Cupcake Royale | Seattle Cupcake Company (@cupcakeroyale)

Cupcake Royale

It’s the end of an era—Jody Hall’s proudly queer-owned bakery chain, which helped pioneer the ubiquitous cupcake trend of the early 2000s, announced via email earlier this month that the business plans to close all of its remaining locations: “We’re exploring various options to reinvent ourselves to flourish for the next 20 years. This includes our decision to eventually close our retail cafes and rebuild the business to offer better cupcake pricing, richer compensation for our team, and ability to maintain a sustainable business. It’s a tough but necessary call.” Still, the business continues its commitment to Pride-themed baked goods this month. In addition to the year-round signature confetti “Gay” cupcake adorned with rainbow sprinkles and a sugar rainbow, the selection includes mini rainbow “gaybie” babycakes, a trans pride cupcake (vanilla cake filled with strawberry whipped cream and swirled with blue vanilla buttercream), a lesbian pride cupcake (vanilla cake filled with raspberry jam, swirled with orange vanilla buttercream, and topped with raspberry dust and a candied orange peel), and a bi pride cupcake (ube cake, swirled with coconut frosting and topped with blue sprinkles and marionberry jam). As a notorious bisexual, it comes as no surprise that the bi pride cupcake was my favorite—I loved the coconutty ube flavor, which reminded me of my true love, the ube pancakes from Ludi’s.
Various locations

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Dough Joy

One thing I love about Sean Willis and Christopher Ballard’s whimsical, queer joy-fueled vegan doughnut shop, which debuted a new location in Ballard last month, is that they’re committed to being “queer all year”—their vibrant rainbow sprinkle-dusted Pride doughnut is available year-round, and they also regularly contribute to queer-focused community organizations like A Space Inside and SPU’s LGBTQIA2S+ space Haven. Unfortunately, the famous rainbow doughnut was sold out the day we conducted our tasting, so I opted instead for their “Popstar,” a strawberry Pop Tart-inspired doughnut bar with gooey strawberry jelly filling, rainbow sprinkles, and a dusting of streusel topping. As a jelly doughnut fan, this was one of my favorites—it really scratched that nostalgic Pop Tart itch, and The Stranger’s advertising coordinator Evanne Hall noted that it had a jammy flavor profile reminiscent of a Toaster Strudel “in the MOST DELIGHTFUL way (I love you, Dough Joy!).”
Ballard, Capitol Hill, West Seattle

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A post shared by Hood Famous Bakeshop (@hoodfamousbakeshop)

Hood Famous Cafe + Bar

Stranger arts and culture editor Megan Seling writes, “The Queer-eal Milk Ice Latte at Hood Famous is espresso poured into oat milk infused with Fruity Pebbles and topped with ube cold foam and a sprinkle of Fruity Pebbles. I am very pro-cereal milk in desserts and drinks so I loved it. I especially liked that they didn’t skimp on the cereal milk flavor—it was strong, bold. Some places try to be delicate with their cereal milk and like, why? It’s cereal milk! It should be sugary and sweet! GO HARD OR DON’T GO AT ALL.”
Chinatown-International District

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Tres Lechería

This Mexican-influenced bakeshop from pastry chef Kevin Moulder, who’s won Netflix’s Sugar Rush: Christmas and Food Network’s Winner Cake All, purveys luscious tres leches cake by the slice. The bakery teamed up with The Infatuation for their Pride Bake Sale to offer an exclusive flavor dubbed “Lil’ Fruity”, which is available through June 29 and features a rainbow medley of fruits (peach, banana, mango, orange, and berries) blended into a classic tres leches milk soak and poured over sponge cake, topped with whipped cream, sprinkles, and a sugar rainbow. I love what Moulder had to say about his inspiration behind the special: “Growing up, this was something I was called regularly. ‘Hey, fruit.’ ‘You’re a little fruity.’ ‘Stop being so fruity.’ What the bullies didn’t realize was this was my superpower, and I’m proud to reclaim and channel it into this limited edition tres leches cake slice.” The Infatuation will donate $50,000 to the Queer Food Foundation on behalf of Tres Lechería and the other businesses participating in the bake sale. This cake was extremely moist and saturated with fruity flavor—definitely recommended if you enjoy your tres leches on the wetter side. We also tried the seasonal sweet corn and honey flavor, which was a summery delight.
Wallingford

Still hungry? Check out our list of 20 great queer-owned restaurants in Seattle here!

The Stranger

Can You Consume Marijuana On Ozempic

It is the current hot silver bullet to slim down and look good. But can you consume marijuana on Ozempic?

The post Can You Consume Marijuana On Ozempic appeared first on The Fresh Toast.

The Fresh Toast

Classic Marijuana Infused Peanut Butter Fudge

A boozy version is on the rise, but what about making this classic marijuana infused peanut butter fudge?

The post Classic Marijuana Infused Peanut Butter Fudge appeared first on The Fresh Toast.

The Fresh Toast

Plus, Sturgill Simpson and More Event Updates for June 13

by EverOut Staff

Top 40 rapper G-Eazy will stop by Seattle this fall to support his forthcoming album, Freak Show. Rising alt-R&B star Omar Apollo has announced his God Said No tour. Plus, reigning king of outlaw country Sturgill Simpson is coming to Gorge this September on his Why Not? tour. Read on for details on those and other newly announced events, plus some news you can use.

ON SALE FRIDAY, JUNE 14

MUSIC

Andy Grammer – Greater Than: A One Man Show
Moore Theatre (Wed Oct 9)

ANOHNI and the Johnsons
Paramount Theatre (Mon Oct 7)

Apocalyptica Plays Metallica Vol. 2 Tour
Moore Theatre (Feb 25, 2025)

The Stranger

See someone? Say something!

by Anonymous

Cathedral yoga cutie

You: redhead who complimented my Metro sweatshirt after yoga at Saint Marks. Me: blond on the mat in front of you too shy to talk more!

Mutual awe at Shorty’s

U were gawking at my pinball game on Pulp Fiction, I said I loved your outfit. You were celebrating a friend’s graduation and I wish I got your info.

Near Seattle Central College

I saw The Stranger’s own editor Rich Smith leaving Seattle Central College on Thursday morning; I was too star-struck to yell “I love your work”

Talk nitrogen soil cycles to me??

me: lonely bisexual babe with opinions on local blackberry bushes. you: sexy weed control consultant with knotweed knowledge

Hoochie daddy shorts @ Bangrak Market

You have an “all you can eat” pussy tattoo on your thigh and asked me about a tasting room on Queen Anne. I wish you had come taste me in my room.

funky at funk night

us: curly hair with bangs we smoked a cigrarette while you changed your shoes and discussed a spliff later, i left b4 saying goodbye 🙁

Tatted Cyclist on the Sammamish River Trail

To the gorgeous man in navy blue, stars & triangles tatted on your left calf. You said hi & overtook me in the gray Rapha jersey. Let’s go for a ride.

Georgetown Carnival Hottie Hanging at Star Brass

You: mustachioed man in a bucket hat, talking to your mom(?). Did we lock eyes (I was the blonde in a tube top) or did the heat make me imagine this?

Is it a match? Leave a comment here or on our Instagram post to connect! 

Did you see someone? Say something! Submit your own I Saw U message here and maybe we’ll include it in the next roundup!

The Stranger

Beer, Bratwurst, and More

by EverOut Staff

This Father’s Day, thank your father figure for all the sage advice and corny jokes with a feast fit for a king. Whether he prefers beer or chocolate, we’ve got your back with food and drink specials and gift ideas. For more ideas, check out our Father’s Day calendar and our food and drink guide.

Hellbent Brewing Company
Hellbent invites you to “juice up” Father’s Day with a four-pack of their Lucky Juiciano Hazy IPA, which is made with a blend of Ekuanot, Mosaic, Simcoe, Sabro, and El Dorado hops and “bursting with coconut, stone fruit, and just the right amount of bitterness.”
Olympic HillsThe Stranger

Marijuana Might Help The Liver After Bing Drinking

Over one-quarter of people aged 30 to 50 do it, research shows marijuana might help the liver after bing drinking.

The post Marijuana Might Help The Liver After Bing Drinking appeared first on The Fresh Toast.

The Fresh Toast

The horror of Octavia Butler’s ‘Parable of the Sower’ is today’s Seattle.

by Charles Mudede

On the morning of June 10, I saw a cloud of grayish smoke rising from Little Saigon. I was walking down Elder Street. I had just passed the King County Juvenile Detention. The plan was to catch the 36 bus to Beacon Hill at a stop near the intersection of 12th and Jackson. But my plan was undone by a fire that, according to reports, “broke out at midnight” and destroyed much of the building vacated by Viet-Wah Supermarket in 2022. The Seattle Fire Department was still fighting the fire nearly 12 hours after it started. Buses, automobiles, streetcars, bikes, and pedestrians could not enter the area surrounding 12th and Jackson. 

As I approached the police’s “Do Not Cross Tape” on the east side of Jackson, as more and more smoke drifted across the otherwise sunny sky, as I noticed a number of people sleeping in the shady space between the sidewalk and walls of this and that business, the intensity of a dread-filled feeling struck and surprised me. It was as if my own experience of this city’s not-unusual (and self-imposed) scenes of misery, degradation, and destruction were displaced by someone else’s. But who was making me feel this way? A moment of thought revealed the answer: Octavia Butler. 

Celebrate our 2024 Seattle Reads selection “Parable of the Sower” by Octavia Butler by attending an event! Learn more at https://t.co/wvQO4aTsj5 pic.twitter.com/hdOYv1fjh6

— Seattle Public Library (@SPLBuzz) May 2, 2024

At the end of May, I began reading two books, David Bohm’s Wholeness and the Implicate Order and Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower. The former concerns a metaphysical interpretation of the strange world revealed by quantum physics; the former is a 1993 novel that begins in the year we are now in, 2024. The timeliness of Parable of the Sower made it an obvious pick for Seattle Public Library’s 2024 Seattle Reads. I decided to join this “city-wide reading book group,” as I had never read what has to be Octavia Butler’s second-most famous novel. (For reasons related to my obsession with time and quantum physics, I kept returning to Kindred, Butler’s most famous work.) 

From Seattle Read’s webpage for Parable of the Sower:

When global climate change and economic crises lead to social chaos in the early 2020s, California becomes full of dangers, from pervasive water shortage to masses of vagabonds who will do anything to live to see another day. Fifteen-year-old Lauren Olamina lives inside a gated community with her preacher father, family, and neighbors, sheltered from the surrounding anarchy. In a society where any vulnerability is a risk, she suffers from hyperempathy, a debilitating sensitivity to others’ emotions.

Hyperempathy is the key to the novel and the novelist and the intense dread I felt while watching Viet-Wah Supermarket’s former location go up in smoke. Lauren Olamina, Parable‘s teenage narrator, suffers from a condition that makes her feel the pain of others (and other animals). The condition, medically called “organic delusional syndrome,” resulted from her mother’s abuse, during pregnancy, of a prescription drug, Paracetco, that was “as popular as coffee.” The drug, initially made for people with Alzheimer’s disease, turned out to be great for a competitive society. It improved intellectual performance and gave its users (mostly professionals) an edge with calculations and computers. Lauren’s mother did not survive her birth. And, worst of all, she is hyperempathetic in a world that has lost almost all empathy.

Climate change has turned much of the country into a wasteland. Old diseases are returning; new diseases are arriving. Blizzards are freezing these states; tornadoes are ripping through those states. The man in the White House, President Donner, is basically Donald Trump on steroids—in fact, the “carnage” America in Trump’s inaugural speech is almost identical to the one in Parables. Nearly everyone is homeless or in a gang. There is still law enforcement but nothing that resembles law and order in the usual sense. There is still capitalism, but no jobs, no middle class, no social services. The latest drug makes young people get high at the sight of fire. Food is too expensive. Everyone is armed to the teeth. If you are lucky, you live in a gated community. If you are really lucky, you live in Oregon or Washington or faraway Canada (the novel is set in Southern California). 

The horror never ends. Page after page. It’s relentlessly intense. The corpses, the misery, the stench, the broken bones, the fires, the smoke. The reader becomes one with Lauren’s hyperempathy. You see and feel it all the way she does—and also her creator, Butler, whose vision of America’s post-everything future was so present to her senses that she, like Lauren, decided to leave Southern California and move to the Pacific Northwest. Butler spent her last years (1999 to 2006) in Lake Forest Park. She was possibly the region’s first climate refugee. Here before the shit really hit the fan. I saw Seattle 2024 through her eyes.

The Stranger