An affordability crisis: Why aren't the people going to shows? Why aren't they going to restaurants? Because the rent, the housing, and the cost of goods are too damn high. Meanwhile, income levels—which can't keep pace with rising living costs—are too damn low. In Seattle, half of renters are paying 30% of their monthly income on rents, and 15% of those renters are spending more than half of their take-home pay to keep the roof over their head. Buying a house is nothing but a pipe dream, even for the wealthy among us, as housing costs continue to skyrocket; "the median single-family home in the Seattle area costs nearly seven times the median household income last year," the Seattle Times reports. And, in case you were considering high-tailing it out of state, this is a reality that's true countrywide. 

Police accountability? In this country? A jury found Auburn Police Officer Jeffrey Nelson guilty of murder and assault for shooting and killing an unarmed 26-year-old named Jesse Sarey outside a grocery store. Nelson is the first Washington officer "convicted of state charges for an on-duty death" since 1938. It is incredibly hard—almost, it seems, intentionally hard—to hold police officers accountable for their actions. Initiative 940, which Washington voters passed in 2018, "changed the legal standard used to measure whether police use of deadly force was legal," according to the Seattle Times, by literally removing specific language that made "charging an officer almost impossible." Nelson could face life in prison for the murder charge and up to 25 years for the first-degree assault charge. 

Teen shot, killed in Beacon Hill: At Thursday around 8 pm, police responded to calls of a shooting on Beacon Hill. When they arrived, they found a 14-year-old on the sidewalk with a gunshot wound. A police helicopter tracked a vehicle that fled from the scene to Everett and detained three people in connection with the shooting. The boy died from his injuries. This is the sixth shooting in Seattle in a week. 

The family business: To help their star player's dreams come true, the Lakers drafted Bronny James, LeBron James's oldest son, onto the team in the 55th round of the NBA draft. LeBron has often spoken about how he longed to play in the NBA alongside his son—and now he may get the chance. This is the first time in NBA history a father-and-son duo have been on the same team. Making things more interesting—and making this move less sweet and more calculating—is that LeBron will enter into free agency next week, so he could choose to up and leave the Lakers. But why would he now, when he could play professional basketball alongside his little baby boy, who, it's worth mentioning, is now one of the shortest players in the NBA at barely over 6'1 inches tall? 

Juneary still in full swing: How's your frigid June treating you? 

Shitty fucking climate change: Southwestern Minnesota is not handling a month full of relentless rain very well. The deluge flooded 17 manure pits across 15 farms. The pits overflowed and released manure-flavored water into the broader environment. Just when you think you've figured out all the ways the effects of climate change will fucking suck, the earth hits you with something like "livestock poop water deluge."

More species face extinction: The International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species came out and it contains 6,000 more species of plants and animals at risk for extinction than it did last year. The list totals 163,040 species. Newly joined animals include the Bornean elephant and the Gran Canaria giant lizard. 

"Weeks or months" until full library services return: The ransomware attack targeting the Seattle Public Library has hobbled the library. Officials say it'll be "weeks or months" until everything is back to normal. They'll release a recovery timeline next week. It'll take a similar amount of time to determine whether the attack stole any personal data, and, if so, what was stolen. So, I'm assuming there's a chance some hackers will know just what kind of fairy smut all of you sickos have been reading. 

 
 
 
 
 
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Debate leaves country feeling hopeless, icky: Oh, dear. Where do we even start? Former president and current convicted felon Donald Trump and President Joe Biden squared off on the debate stage last night. Sort of. Trump, full of bluster, spewed unchecked lies and nonsense that revealed his true stances: he's proud of dismantling Roe v. Wade, he defended the Jan 6 rioters, he wants to withdraw from NATO, etc. And yet somehow, watching a lifeless, mouth-breathing, face-frozen, glitchy Joe Biden stumble through answers felt even worse. It should have been easy to rebut Trump, to hold strong to Democratic values in the face of thinly veiled fascism, and to assure the American people that we are—and will be again—in good hands, hands that will stop anyone from ripping away our human rights. But Biden did the opposite. I came away from the debate with a simple, hollow feeling. I'll sum it up for you: We are so fucking cooked. 

Here, watch these two bozos talk about golf: 

What happened: Whether true or not, the optics of the debate confirmed the fears and rumors swirling around about Biden's age. Regardless of the statements Biden strung together defending abortion, immigration, the economy, and calling out Trump as a threat to democracy, he did so in a stilted, inconsistent tone and with a soft, reedy voice that sounded like a sad, broken clarinet. America is a country ruled by image, and this image did not inspire confidence. In fact, several articles with the central thesis of  "Is it too late for a new Democratic nominee?" cropped up in the wake of the debate. 

So, wait, can we get a new nominee? Since all the states have already held their primaries, the only way we could get a new nominee is if Biden dropped out and pledged all his delegates to someone else. He'd also need to drop out before the Democratic National Convention in August. 

It's so bleak: Here are funny tweets.

Just in case you had hope for something different: Biden not only is not dropping out, but he's going to subject us to watching him debate again in September. Please, allow him access to a fat line of stimulants beforehand. For all of our sakes. 

Anyway, back to other news.

NCAA says a little weed is okay: The governing body for college sports removed cannabis from the banned drug list for college football players participating in championship games or post-season football since weed does "not provide a competitive advantage."

Supreme Court does another quietly evil thing: On Friday, the Court released a 6-3 decision to kill off the judicial doctrine known as Chevron deference. Since the Reagan era, the doctrine "required judges to defer to agencies’ 'reasonable' interpretations of 'ambiguous' federal laws." This means judges can rely more on their own readings of laws and they can more easily, as Politico put it, "upend regulations on health care, the environment, financial regulations, technology and more." The 6-3 decision was split along ideological lines. This ruling amounts to a massive judicial power-grab, effectively making the nine justices the heads of the EPA, the FDA, the FCC, etc. This meme sums up the impact nicely: 

The Supreme Court did an overtly evil thing, too: Another 6-3 decision from the Supreme Court came down the pipe Friday morning. Also along ideological lines (shocking), the Court issued an opinion overturning the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision on Grants Pass v. Johnson, a case which "invalidated" an Oregon town's anti-camping ordinance, making it harder to sweep homeless people. The Supreme Court's decision found that arresting and criminalizing people for violating camping bans—or, in other words, sleeping outside when they have nowhere else to sleep—is not "cruel or unusual punishment" in violation of the Eighth Amendment. The Court opined "that the power to decide how to address homelessness largely rests with local officials." Well, there you go, American cities, you've been given license to continue to perpetuate the cycle of poverty.

Oh, god, another one: In another ruling released today, the Supreme Court "made it harder to charge Capitol riot defendants with obstruction, a charge that also has been brought against former President Donald Trump." Guess what? Another 6-3 ruling. Hahahahaha. At least the ghouls are transparent. But, yeah. The ruling adds a teensy detail that states that any charge of obstructing an official proceeding "must include proof that defendants tried to tamper with or destroy document," which only a few of the Jan 6 insurrectionists did. You can bet your ass this will somehow benefit Trump and his insurrection trial. As NPR states, "The decision could be used as fodder for claims by Trump and his Republican allies that the Justice Department has treated the Capitol riot defendants unfairly."

Wow, I hate to end it on that note: But there has simply been too much news today. You're sick of me by now. My fingers are seizing up and my heart is shrinking into a withered raisin now that it's been leached of its daily (albeit foolish) allotment of hope. Here is the only happy story I can cleanse your palate with: The Guardian asked its readers to tell stories of their best friends, and they delivered.