Boeing's bad year continues: The company will pay $487 million and plead guilty to defrauding the Federal Aviation Administration for its part in two fatal plane crashes that occurred in 2018 and 2019. While that seems like a lot of money, Boeing avoided paying the $24.8 billion desired by the families of the 737 MAX 8 crash victims. Boeing will now need to operate under a government-appointed independent monitor for three years.  

Yikes! Seattle Police Deputy Chief Eric Barden is under investigation for allegedly asking a deputy to lie on a police report to protect a former domestic partner who was accused of violating a protective order. Barden, who is the second in command at SPD, also faces charges for possible domestic abuse. While looking at those charges, Pierce County prosecutors were tipped off about this incident of alleged interference. Oh, isn't it fun to see how rotten our little police department is and then to remember how much money we give them every year?

SPD still paying ousted chief: In May, after being accused of sexual harassment and gender discrimination by six women, SPD Chief Adrian Diaz resigned as chief and opted to say in the department by working on "special projects." However, Publicola found that Diaz is still cutting a check for his chief salary of $338,000. In fact, internal payrolls still list him as chief. Those payrolls also list his replacement, Sue Rahr, as interim chief with an annual salary of $349,000. So, is SPD really spending over $687,000 of city money on two police chiefs? 

It's too fucking hot: The sun baked us this weekend. It scorched our skin, turned our apartments into ovens, and bleached all the grass across the city from green to brown. The heat will continue, and it will worsen. Tuesday could see temperatures flirt with triple digits in the Puget Sound area. Temperatures are 15 to 20 degrees hotter than normal for this time of year. Drink lots of water, don't light anything on fire, and stay cool if you can. Having trouble staying cool? Here's a list of the City's cooling centers.  

It's hot all over: The whole West is sweltering. An excessive heat warning is in place for 36 million people, which amounts to 10% of the US population. Much of the heat is breaking records, like Redding, California reaching 119 degrees and Las Vegas reaching 120 degrees, or the literally deadly heat in Death Valley at 128 degrees, which killed a tourist over the weekend. 

More broken records: Breaking temperature records is becoming a broken record. That's climate change, baby. We are the frog in boiling water. 

Drones down: The city of SeaTac paid $40,000 for a Fourth of July drone show over Angle Lake. For some reason, 55 of the 200 drones fell out of the sky and into the lake. Each drone cost $2,600, so the total damage was $143,000. It's unclear who will foot that bill. The drone company doesn't know what went wrong, but it believes outside interference such as a cell tower or someone with a "drone jamming gun" could be to blame. Whatever it was caused the drones to lose touch with their GPS so they "didn't know where home was." Poor little drones. 

Read the room! Joe Biden has no intention of leaving the presidential race. Despite the influx of elected officials asking him to step aside, Biden still believes he's the best person to beat Donald Trump. He said as much in a letter he wrote to Congressional Democrats. So far, Congressman Adam Smith is the only member of Washington's delegation to ask Biden to step down. 

France's scrambled Parliament: France's snap election, which could have seen the far-right party gain a majority, concluded Sunday. The good news is the far-right did not gain a majority, but neither did any party. In fact, the leftist alliance won the most votes, dealing a hit to the right and to President Emmanuel Macron's centrists. So, the French parliament is heavily divided. As Reuters put it, "the election will leave parliament divided in three big groups... with hugely different platforms and no tradition at all of working together." Whatever. Anything is better than being ruled by a far-right majority. Keeping spitting in the face of fascism, lefties. I wish our politicians would take some notes. 

NASA astronauts emerge from Mars simulation: The four-person crew from NASA spent over a year—378 days—in a simulated Mars environment to see what possible conditions could look like for an eventual mission on Mars. The crew lived and survived together in a 1,700 square foot space. They simulated spacewalks, grew their own vegetables, and communicated with anyone not in the simulation through a 22-minute delay, like the one they would actually experience on Mars. On Saturday, they were finally able to leave their 3D-printed enclosure. 

Russia bombards Ukraine: According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Russia fired 40 long-rage missile strikes across Ukraine. One strike hit a children's hospital in Kyiv. 

Fined for a kiss: French cyclist Julien Bernard was fined for stopping to kiss his wife while competing in the individual time trial stage of the Tour de France. UCI, cycling's governing body, said Bernard engaged in "unseemly or inappropriate behavior during the race and damage to the image of the sport." I think it's romantic. Bernard wrote on Twitter, "I’m sorry for having damaged the image of the sport, but I would pay 200 CHF ($220) every day to relive this moment." 

A song for your Monday: Something about a non-dissipating delirious heat makes me want to listen to this song.