The Stranger’s morning news roundup.

by Nathalie Graham

17-year-old dead after shooting outside Garfield: A lunchtime shooting in the Garfield High School parking lot struck a student multiple times in the chest and abdomen. After being transported to Harborview Medical Center, the student later died from his injuries. According to police, the student attempted to break up a fight and then his assailant pulled a gun on him, shooting him at close range. This is only the latest in shootings around Garfield in the last calendar year. In March, a bullet struck a girl waiting for her bus outside the school. In one instance last October and several times last June, shootings by the school, which did not involve students, put Garfield and its community on high alert. Police are still searching for the suspect in Thursday’s shooting, who they believe to be high-school aged. Garfield will not have classes on Friday or Monday due to Thursday’s events. Friday happens to be Gun Violence Awareness Day. 

Dave Reichert’s coy little nod: The former King County Sheriff and current Republican candidate for governor has avoided saying publicly whether or not he’ll vote for Donald Trump for president, since he wants to capture undecided moderates but also Republicans who would see not voting for Trump as party betrayal. Reichert gave his answer at a private Republican event back in March. When asked if he’d vote for Trump, he said Trump has nicknamed him “Sheriff,” and that he has a signed MAGA hat at home, and then he nodded. A Democratic operative in the audience recorded Reichert’s statements and reported the nod, which the Seattle Times confirmed with other people who were present. Bob Ferguson’s campaign for governor sent the recording to the Times. “Behind closed doors, Dave Reichert unmasks who he really is—just another MAGA hat wearing Trump lover,” Ferguson said. 

Good news for mountain lovers: All you sick fucks who love Mount Rainier are going to be so jazzed these next few days. 

Yes, it is.
We all know the question. More mountain viewing the next couple of days with highs in the mid 70s to lower 80s for the interior. #wawx pic.twitter.com/k3vLOWh0cf

— NWS Seattle (@NWSSeattle) June 7, 2024

No Pride flag for Newcastle: The city council for the suburb of Bellevue and Seattle voted 4-3 Tuesday to not raise a Pride flag for the month of June. Mayor Robert Clark essentially argued that the City’s support for Pride would disservice bigots. And, besides, the American flag is already flying, which is the “most unifying symbol in the history of the world,” he said. “That’s diverse enough for me. That includes everybody in the community, everybody. Nobody is left out with the American flag.” Clark also said that raising the Pride flag would lead to a slippery slope of having to raise other flags, such as MAGA flags or Hamas flags. Quite the cognitive leap to connect Pride, a celebration of LGBTQIA+ people’s existence, with extreme politics. 

Get ready for the newest Seattle Trader Joe’s: According to permit plans, the chain’s newest store will be in Greenwood in the bottom floor of an apartment building at Greenwood Avenue North and North 87th Street. 

Bye, Pat Sajak: The Wheel of Fortune legend is retiring after 41 years of telling people to spin the wheel. Friday’s episode will be his last. And, like, good. Take a break, Pat. Let your cheeks rest after 41 years of smiling that perpetual game show smile. Ryan Seacrest will succeed Pat as Wheel‘s host. 

Good for them: A Seattle couple, Larry R. Dalton and Nicole A. Boand, donated $10 million to the University of Washington School of Nursing. Dalton is a former UW chemistry professor and Boand is a former registered nurse. Look, we have 54,200 millionaires in this city, I think all of them should be funneling some of those millions back into their community, especially if the city or the state refuses to tax their wealth. 

I will take credit for this: Sound Transit finally (mostly) fixed its elevator/escalator breakdown problems. Logically, I know they were probably working on the issue before I wrote about it, but I’m going to inflate the importance of the appropriately dramatic exposé on broken escalators I wrote back in 2018 and say that journalism pressured them into fixing this. 

Saw some incredible data at @SoundTransit Rider Experience Committee just now. Over the past few years, the number of hours that elevators and escalators are out of service in the light rail system have plummeted from 17,100 hours/month to 2,500/month. Really great trend. pic.twitter.com/uMf8gOQ2Aw

— Girmay Zahilay (@GirmayZahilay) June 6, 2024

College essay material: Three boys—two brothers and their cousin—discovered fossilized remains of a young Tyrannosaurus rex while hiking in North Dakota’s Badlands. Young T-rex fossils are rare finds. See what happens when you put your phones away, kids? 

Get your ass to jail, Steve: Former Trump advisor Steve Bannon needs to start serving a four-month sentence by July 1. Bannon defied a House committee’s subpoena for an investigation into the Jan 6 insurrection, and he was convicted by a federal judge Thursday for contempt of Congress. Bannon is not going quietly. He will likely “seek a stay of the judge’s order,” the Associated Press reported. He told reporters, “There’s not a prison built or jail built that will ever shut me up.”

Jobs: Hey, I know you can’t get hired anywhere even though you’ve applied to 1,000 jobs on Indeed, but the jobs report is actually better than forecasted. Employers added what CNN has dubbed “a blockbuster” number of jobs last month—272,000 of them—and unemployment dropped from 4% to 3.9%.

Report Finds Encouraging Rise In Jobs That Involve Torturing Somebody https://t.co/uezS0mPDdC

— The Onion (@TheOnion) June 7, 2024

More comeuppance for bad guys: Alex Jones finally agreed to liquidate his assets so that he can start paying back the families of the Sandy Hook massacre who he spread lies about and to whom he owes a cool $1.5 billion in damages for his defamatory comments. Jones has yet to pay the families any money despite being found liable in 2022. With this liquidation of assets, Jones will no longer own InfoWars, his conspiracy theory empire. 

The US is doing well in the *checks notes* cricket World Cup? The USA’s cricket team just upset the cricket powerhouse Pakistan in this year’s Twenty20 World Cup. That’s all I’ll say about that because I don’t know anything else about cricket despite learning the rules in middle school gym class and watching the Vox Explained episode on the sport multiple times. 

Bird flu watch: Bird flu has made its way into cows. Alarming! Many of the infected cows—though we don’t know the exact number—have died from bird flu infections or have been slaughtered after they did not recover from bird flu symptoms. Even more alarming! In South Dakota on a 1,700-cow dairy farm, 12 infected cows died after being infected, and the farmer slaughtered another 12. A Michigan farm killed 10% of its 200 infected cows after they didn’t recover. Michigan has the most cow infections and is where two of three human dairy workers contracted bird flu.

ICYMI: My newest “Play Date” column came out, and this time it’s also in print! Sexy! I learned how to cheerlead for this one.

Isn’t this the land of the free? A Phish fan has been banned from the Las Vegas Sphere after he filmed what he dubbed the first ever bong rip inside the venue. This pioneer, named Acid Fartz, will now not be able to attend this summer’s Dead & Company show at the Sphere. Free Acid Fartz! Let him drop acid at the Dead show at the Sphere! Hot box the sphere with a thousand bong rips until Acid Fartz’s good name is cleared, damn it. 

A song for your Friday: Charli XCX’s new album, Brat, just came out. Here’s a song off of there. I can’t tell how much I like it yet, but some albums are growers not showers. 

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