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Good morning. It rained. That was nice. But the news is still terrible. So I’m going to try something a little different for today’s Slog AM. For every dose of bad news I deliver, I will also provide a bit of ✨good news✨. I simply cannot continue living in this waterfall of tragedy and chaos. It’s all about balance. Let’s begin.
DOJ to Investigate Themselves: Trump says there’s a “big investigation” underway for the shooting of Alex Pretti. But it’s not what you think. Unless you think Trump is a lying, immoral piece of shit. Then it’s exactly what you think. The Justice Department has decided they don’t need an independent civil rights investigation into the fatal shooting of Pretti. Instead, they’re gonna have the Department of Homeland Security investigate their own guys. Sounds totally fair and legit and not at all fucking corrupt as hell.
✨In the Land of Good News: In August, a cat named Filou escaped from a camper while his vacationing owners had stopped for fuel in Catalonia. Kitty, no! Patrick and Evelyne Sire searched for Filou for weeks and even involved the Spanish police, but they eventually had to return home to France, heartbroken. Then, weeks ago, five months after Filou went missing, a woman spotted an exhausted cat just 500 meters from the couple’s home. It was Filou! Vox says, “She had traveled 250 kilometers on foot, crossing mountains, rivers and a state border between two countries to return home.” Look at her delightfully grumpy face. Quick! Sufjan Stevens, write an album about her journey!
Parce qu’on a besoin de belles histoires :
Perdu en Espagne, Filou le chat a parcouru 250km en 4 mois pour retrouver sa maison. Bravo Filou !
www.leparisien.fr/herault-34/q…
— Chloé Woitier (@chloew.bsky.social) January 17, 2026 at 1:11 PM
Local Gender Clinic Shutting Down: Yesterday, the Seattle Times reported that Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital in Tacoma plans to shut down its gender clinic. In a memo to staff, hospital leaders explained that “recent developments at the federal level” threaten to halt Medicaid and Medicare payments if it continues to offer gender-affirming health services to minors. Stranger News Editor Vivian McCall reported in September that the clinic axed its waitlist and stopped providing medical care for new patients due to “changing federal expectations,” but said they would continue providing hormones and puberty blockers to trans kids already receiving them. The gender clinic’s closure will leave 320 young people, more than half of whom are under 18, without care.
✨ Supporting Trans Youth Is Delicious: It’s Girl Scout cookie time! And if you’re looking for a cookie hook-up, independent journalist Erin Reed has a list of trans and non-binary Girl Scouts you can support here. They ship the snacks right to your door! I am eating a new “rocky road ice cream inspired” Exploremores as I type. It’s pretty good! The chocolate cookie is crispy and crumbly, almost like a shortbread, and the filling has a nice almond flavor. But the Samoas will always be my favorite. Fuck Trump, buy cookies!
This Is Normal, Right? The US is going to “conduct military exercises” in the Middle East in the coming days. Trump has told Iranian leaders that if they don’t stop killing protesters and come to the negotiating table, “the next attack will be far worse” than when the US blew up those Iranian nuclear facilities last year. According to CNN, 5,800 protestors have been killed so far and the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) said an additional 17,091 deaths are still under review.
✨Something to Look Forward To: No, it doesn’t change the impending war and horror of thousands of dead protestors, but Lucy Daucus is playing some shows in the Pacific Northwest in May. She’ll be at Mount Baker Theatre in Bellingham on May 10 and Vancouver, BC on May 12. Is there anything more romantic than fleeing the country to sing-scream along to “Night Shift”? I think not.
Amazon Cuts 16,000 Jobs: The Seattle Times is calling it a “historic wave of layoffs.” The company cut 14,000 jobs in October, blaming a parfait of corporate buzzwords: “reducing layers, increasing ownership, and removing bureaucracy” in their corporate structure. No word yet on how many of these cuts are employees in Seattle. In other news, Jeff Bezos has become the third-richest man in the world again, reclaiming the spot from Sergey Brin. Isn’t it so fun to watch those guys battle it out? Which one will violate labor laws and human rights in order to squeak out a billion more bucks? You never know with those wild ‘n’ crazy guys.
✨ Dicks for Dimes: To celebrate their 72nd anniversary, Dick’s Drive-In is hawking $0.19 burgers at select locations all week long. Today, you can grab a Dick for less than a quarter at the Queen Anne and Lake City locations. With his $250 billion, Bezos could buy 1.3 TRILLION BURGERS! Just kidding. One per customer, please.
Amazon’s Shutting Down Stores, Too: Amazon announced yesterday that it will close all Amazon Go and Amazon Fresh locations, including 11 stores in Seattle. Many stores will close as early as this Sunday, February 1. Some locations will eventually reopen as Whole Foods, but the company didn’t say how many. Charles Mudede called it in 2024. The closures will leave some serious grocery gaps in the city. The Amazon Fresh on 23rd Avenue, for example, built on the old Red Apple lot, is one of the only full-service grocery stores in the Central District. In semi-related news, it’s not just your imagination: Groceries are getting more expensive in Seattle at a concerning rate.
✨ Fresh Bucks Expands Programming: More than 4,500 households on the Fresh Bucks program waitlist have been enrolled in the program, and as of January 1, low-income households now get $60 a month (up from $40).
Government Shutdown Update: We’re days away from another partial government shutdown. Last week, the House passed the funding bill that would give more money to homeland security, including ICE and Customs and Border Protection. But that was before federal officers shot Alex Pretti, who was the second US citizen killed by federal officers in Minneapolis this month. Now, Dems are feeling even ickier about giving more money to ICE, and they’re demanding that the DHS funding be stripped from the bill. The Republicans are like, “No way, we don’t care that federal officers are gunning down Americans, it’s totally fine, we love it actually, more money plz.” If they don’t advance the measure by Friday, the shutdown will begin at 12:01 EST Saturday morning.
✨National Shutdown Update: Speaking of shutdowns, General Strike US is organizing a national shutdown on January 30. No work, no school, no shopping. If striking isn’t an option, consider calling the seven dum-dum Dems in the House who voted to push that Department of Homeland Security funding through. One of them is Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, from right here in Washington! WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK, MARIE?!
When Rhetoric Becomes Reality: Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Somali immigrant who is constantly being verbally attacked by Trump on social media because racism was physically attacked during a town hall in Minneapolis yesterday when a man in the front row charged at her and sprayed her with a liquid that smelled like vinegar. A security guard tackled the man, and he was arrested. Officials haven’t said what the liquid was, and Omar continued the event, posting on social media later that she was fine and “this small agitator isn’t going to intimidate me from doing my work. I don’t let bullies win.” On Monday, Trump posted on Truth Social about Omar, accusing her of “deflecting from your failures with lies and conspiracy theories about me” and said that the Justice Department is “looking into” her for “fraud,” but really because—say it with me—racism.
✨Put Your Morals Where Your Mouth Is: Graham Granger, a performing arts student, was arrested for criminal mischief after eating an art exhibit at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. The exhibit was a collection of 160 Polaroid pictures that artist Nick Dwyer created with the help of AI. Police say he destroyed about 57 images. Granger said he did it because “AI chews up and spits out art made by other people.” According to The Nation, a witness said “he was tearing them up and just shoving them in as fast as he could. Like when you see people in a hot-dog eating contest.” I don’t know if this truly counts as good news, but I find the whole debacle to be downright delightful.
Let the Record Show: On Monday, a judge ruled that the Seattle Police Department has “routinely” violated Washington’s Public Records Act by “grouping” public records requests and therefore unofficially limiting the number of requests a person or an outlet can submit at a time. According to Publicola, the SPD has been “refusing to work on more than one public disclosure request by the same requester at a time” for years, so last year the Seattle Times sued ‘em. Journalists suing cops is my love language.
Also My Love Language: Gwar covering “Pink Pony Club.” This video has brought me so much joy in recent days. What Gwar song will you cover, Chapell? May I suggest “Pussy Planet” from America Must Be Destroyed? Just an idea.
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Megan Seling
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