We have some of the worst air quality in the world: Did you enjoy your smoky hell weekend? No? Me either! The Air Quality Index in Seattle reached around 190 at one point Sunday evening. Being outside felt like being a chimney sweep trapped inside a chimney in Victorian England. Changing winds started moving into the region Monday morning. Hopefully, the smoke will leave pretty soon. Wish for a strong onshore flow. Wish for rain.

Tell us when the smoke leaves, weather people of Twitter: According to the Seattle Weather Blog’s crystal ball, the smoke might linger most of Monday before it starts clearing out. However, the AQI was already down to 100 as of Monday morning. That’s still bad, don’t get me wrong, but it’s better than 190! It’s all about perspective. 

Best guess is that the Seattle area endures one more day of smoky conditions before influx of ocean air clears us out late Mon/early Tue.

— Seattle Weather Blog (@KSeattleWeather) August 21, 2023

Tokitae goes belly up in Miami: Tokitae, also known as Lolita, was the last remaining southern resident killer whale in captivity. She was supposed to make her journey home to the Pacific Northwest after 50 years, but she died Friday from a renal condition. Ted Griffin, the man who first started capturing killer whales to have them perform in captivity, bagged Tokitae and greatly depleted the southern resident orca population. He said he had “no regrets.”

Mass shooting in Mount Baker: A shooting in a hookah lounger along Rainier Avenue South in Mount Baker at 4:30 am Sunday killed three people and injured another six. Police recovered five guns from the scene. So far, in 2023, the Seattle Police Department has seized 869 guns, the highest amount in 13 years, KING 5 reports.

South King County has brain worms: Elected officials in Des Moines and Federal Way are working to shut down existing homeless shelters or deny permits to fully funded shelter projects because, as the Seattle Times reports, they “think shelter and housing exacerbate the effects of the homelessness crisis in their neighborhoods.” What???? I’m going to hazard a guess that giving people no shelter or housing will actually increase the visible signs of homelessness in your neighborhood and will not help find a solution to end homelessness at all! The state is investigating whether these practices are illegal since they may violate a 2021 law that requires cities have a certain number of shelter beds before regulating shelters or housing projects. 

Earthquake, hurricane tropical storm strikes California: A 5.1 magnitude earthquake struck Ojai, California on Sunday right as the tropical storm Hilary struck. Hilary’s path took her through the Inland Empire and then into the heart of Los Angeles, where she hovered above Dodger Stadium and Compton for a while. Then, she went back on her path up the border of LA and San Bernardino. The deserts are flooding, San Diego had the most rain in a single day since 1873, flash flood warnings abound. More storm updates here. 

Soggy Dodgers:

Dodger Stadium is an island. pic.twitter.com/g2mQrKzgS3

— Don Van Natta Jr. (@DVNJr) August 21, 2023

Here comes the mud: 

A wall of mud surged through California’s Sheep Canyon, carrying wood and debris along with it, as Hilary, then a tropical storm, dropped heavy rain across the region. https://t.co/Hlf8MSlN9S pic.twitter.com/mdtj3yWBEp

— CBS News (@CBSNews) August 21, 2023

Is your package late? I’ll tell you why. A historic drought hitting the Panama Canal means lower water levels and lower capacity for heavy ships. To conserve water, the Panama Canal Authority “reduced maximum ship weights and daily ship crossings.” The line to get through the canal earlier this month was “backed up 160 vessels and delayed some ships by as much as 21 days.” So crazy when climate change interrupts the profits of capitalism, the very thing standing in the way of stopping the impacts of climate change. 

Russia crashed into the moon this weekend: Russia bungled its first lunar landing attempt since 1976 when it lost contact with its unmanned Luna-25 craft and it crashed into the moon. 

In case you forgot, here’s yesterday’s hell sun: This apocalypse sun knows that things can only get worse from here if we don’t figure our shit out: 

Just an orb on the horizon for sunset tonight. And that’s not dust on the camera lens. The thick smoke is making sun spots readily visible without a filter. #wawx pic.twitter.com/Dk86n2j34y

— NWS Seattle (@NWSSeattle) August 21, 2023

Don’t read this if you’re a nervous flyer: The US hasn’t had a major plane crash in over a decade, but close calls are happening way more often than we think, and the problem seems to be getting worse. Just last month, the New York Times found “at least 46 close calls involving commercial airlines.” These close calls seem to all be potential collisions with other planes taking off or landing from airport runways. They’re the result of human error likely caused by understaffed and over-stretched air traffic controllers. “The close calls have involved all major U.S. airlines and have happened nationwide.” Air traffic controllers interviewed by the Times said “they feared it was only a matter of time until a deadly crash occurred.”

In Maui news: There are 114 confirmed dead from the Lahaina fires, with only 27 people identified so far. However, 850 people are still missing. 

Frugals in Tacoma linked to listeria deaths: Three people in Tacoma have died and three others have been hospitalized after drinking milkshakes from a contaminated ice cream machine at Frugals restaurant in Tacoma. 

Big news for organ lovers: Surgeons transplanted a pig’s kidney into a brain-dead man to see if the pig kidney would function. For a month, the pig kidney has worked like a normal human kidney and produced urine. Scientists will continue to monitor the kidney for a second month, but this is a huge scientific step for potentially easing shortages of transplantable organs with animal organs. 

Spain wins Women’s World Cup: Spain’s La Roja vanquished England’s Lionesses 1-0 to take home the Women’s World Cup trophy, the country’s first Women’s World Cup win. Olga Carmona, 23, was one of the breakout stars for Spain. She scored the game-winning goal in the final. Carmona’s father died from a battle with cancer two days before the match, but her family didn’t tell her until after she played. “I know you have been watching me tonight and that you are proud of me. Rest in peace dad,” Carmona wrote on social media. 

23-year-old Olga Carmona loves scoring a game-winner

Spain’s captain nets our Goal of the Day to secure La Roja’s first-ever FIFA Women’s World Cup title pic.twitter.com/Lb5AoZt2t2

— FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) August 20, 2023

In other sports news: The Mariners are on a six-game winning streak and just finished a full sweep of the Houston Astros. Julio Rodriguez is so hot right now he’s had 17 hits in four games—that’s more than the entire New York Yankees team. Rodriguez broke a Major League Baseball record set in 1925.

The post Slog AM: Seattle Smoke Will Clear Quickly, Tokitae Kicks the Bucket, Spain Wins Ladies’s World Cup appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

KEXP expands to San Francisco: Seattle’s favorite nonprofit radio station is growing into California. KEXP announced via a donor email that it purchased San Francisco’s KREV 92.7 with a winning bid of $3.75 million as part of a bankruptcy auction. So long as the Federal Communications Commissions gives them the green light, KEXP will start operations in SF in the next few months. 

THING ditches Port Townsend: Seattle Theater Group’s eclectic arts fest, THING, will no longer take place in Port Townsend. After declining ticket sales in the event’s three-year run, STG determined Port Townsend was the problem. The town is difficult to get to and doesn’t have a ton of lodging for a slew of guests. It is damn pretty, though. Ah well, THING will live on, just somewhere else. STG has not said where, though. 

Good news for this dog: On Monday night, a fire swept through SODO’s dog daycare, Dog Resort. In the hubbub of trying not to die in the fire, Remi, a dog, went missing. Three days letter, Remi turned up after reportedly falling off a ramp near Lumen Field. She is now at a veterinarian’s office in critical condition. Remi’s owner is currently in Japan. The owner’s other dog, Georgie, turned up on I-5 after the fire. 

Hey, I heard you like weather: So, here’s some weather stuff. First off, it will be rainy on Saturday through early Sunday afternoon. Other than that, the weekend and the following week is looking cool, crisp, and dry. Pretty different from the soggy first half of this month.

Already half way through November. Seattle weather stats for the month so far ( thru the 15th ).

Rain, 5.09″, 2″ above normal, 9th wettest in 79 years.
Temps, 49.0°, 0.9° above normal, 24th warmest in 79 years.
Normal for the entire month, rain 6.31″, temp 46.5°. #wawx

— NWS Seattle (@NWSSeattle) November 17, 2023

A modest quake: A 3.1 magnitude earthquake gave Snohomish County a nice little rattle Thursday night. 

Hey, I heard you like the moon: So, here’s some moon stuff.

Tonight 15.8% Crescent Moonset over the Space Needle pic.twitter.com/FSVIgBtgZz

— Steven.T.Luong (@steven_t_luong) November 17, 2023

Diddy sued for rape, sex trafficking: The signer Cassie filed a suit Thursday against Sean “Diddy” Combs, the rapper, hiphop mogul, and billionaire. Combs signed a then-19-year-old Cassie to his label in 2005. At the time, Combs was 37. Several years later, the two entered into a romantic relationship. However, according to Cassie, Combs “raped her in her home after she tried to leave him, ‘blew up’ another man’s car after learning of his romantic interest in the singer, and often beat and kicked her,” NBC News reports. She also alleged Combs forced her to engage in sex acts with other men while he filmed it. Cassie named Combs as well as Bad Boy Records, Bad Boy Entertainment, Epic Records, and Combs Enterprises as defendants.

UN stops delivering food to Gaza: After telephone and internet service in Gaza failed due to a lack of food, the United Nations said it was forced to stop delivering food and supplies. The UN warned of widespread starvation. Israel budged a tiny bit and said it would allow “‘very minimal’ daily shipments of fuel into Gaza for use by the UN and communications system,” according to the Associated Press. However, the UN said the amount Israel has greenlit will not be enough “to fuel water systems, hospitals, and trucks to deliver aid.”

Protesters block bridges: Over 200 protesters blocked the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge to urge President Joe Biden to call for a ceasefire in Gaza. Biden was in San Francisco for a global trade summit. Protestors blocked all lanes of the bridge’s upper deck with their cars. Some even threw their keys into the bay. Police arrested 80 people and had 29 cars towed. Bostonian ceasefire protesters also blocked some car infrastructure, stalling traffic across the bridge connecting Boston to Cambridge for two hours. 

Rep. George Santos faces expulsion—again: On Thursday, the House Ethics Committee found “substantial evidence” that Santos “used campaign funds for personal purposes, defrauded donors, and filed false or incomplete campaign finance and financial disclosures,” the New York Times reports. According to the report, Santos may have used that campaign money for personal Botox and to pay for OnlyFans subscriptions. Santos announced he would not be running for reelection. On Friday, Republican Rep. Michael Guest, chairman of the House Ethics Committee, filed a resolution seeking to expel Santos from Congress. 

We’re living in an episode of VEEP pic.twitter.com/5F05LsibI4

— Jordan Alexander (@JordnAlexnder) November 16, 2023

Nazis are no good for business: IBM will stop paying for ads on Twitter/X after an ad for the computing company ran alongside pro-Nazi content. The move comes after Media Matters posted analysis of Elon Musk’s platform showing ads for major companies (IBM, BCUniversal’s Bravo, Oracle, and Comcast’s Xfinity) running on pages affiliated with pro-Nazi and pro-Hitler ideology. 

Forget Black Friday: In the American plumbing world, the day after Thanksgiving is known as Brown Friday. It’s their busiest day. 

Snoop cuts out kush: Snoop Dogg, who is famously good pals with Mary Jane, announced via Instagram: “After much consideration & conversation with my family, I’ve decided to give up smoke. Please respect my privacy at this time.” It’s unclear whether Snoop will just stop smoking weed, or whether he’ll cut out all marijuana from his life. 

How to stop the orcas from sinking your ship? Sailors are blasting death metal to ward off the killer whales.

ICYMI: A new “Play Date” came out yesterday. This time I went to an accordion social club and had the time of my life.

A recommendation for your Friday: Maybe I’m behind the times on this, but have you watched The Righteous Gemstones on HBO? It’s sort of like if Succession were a ridiculous comedy about an ultra-wealthy mega church family in the South. I’m having a ball with it. 

The post Slog AM: KEXP Expands to San Francisco, UN Warns of Mass Hunger in Gaza, Diddy Sued for Rape, Intercourse Trafficking appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.