Horse thief in Portland: A 29-year-old Idaho woman was visiting Portland for a model horse show. She brought her whole collection of 100 custom, hand-painted model horses worth $10,000 and won best-in-show. The next day, someone smashed her car window and stole her entire collection, hawking “piles of her horses” on the street for $5. Police arrested a suspect. Please, if you obtained a beautiful model horse in the Pearl District, return it to its rightful owner.
Fuck this grifter: Right-wing influencer Nick Shirley has retracted his claim that he witnessed food stamp fraud at Seattle grocery store Lam’s Seafood Asian Market. The video retraction comes a month and millions of views after Shirley made the claim. It also came after Lam’s hired a lawyer and threatened to sue Shirley.
A grim Outlook: Microsoft is entering day two of a global outage that’s hobbling Outlook, Teams, and AI assistant Copilot. As of Friday morning, the company said it was making “headway” on restoring services. This little technological world we’ve built is so fragile. Enjoy your work holiday, Outlook users.
Due to the Microsoft outage, Japanese stock markets are switching to fax machines.
ICYMI: Did you know that when its staff tried to unionize, immigration nonprofit Washington Immigration Solidarity Network hired a law firm known for busting unions, and paid them thousands of dollars despite a year of financial hardship? Cedar Attanasio and Hunter Pauli have the story here.
Fish fry: Sound Transit is trying to mitigate the fish electrocution happening underneath the crosslake connection. The agency believes underwater wires known as anodes are zapping and killing fish that swim by them. Sound Transit is installing 13 mesh tube cages to encase those wires and prevent fish deaths. If these work, they’ll install mesh tubes on all 113 pontoon anode strings, reports KUOW.
AG won’t defend trans sports ban: Attorney General Nick Brown will not defend Initiative 638, the trans sports ban, against the lawsuit brought by the ACLU of Washington, Legal Voice, and Pacifica Law Group. Brown said he has conflicts of interest since his office has argued against trans sports bans in the past and Brown’s former employer, Pacifica Law Group, is part of the suit.
The weather: Today it will be wet. The weekend will be wet. Seattle!
Lay a flower on his Nvidia grave: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang—the only CEO the chipmaker has ever had—has resigned after reports that he was honeypotted by a Chinese spy and subsequent reports about affairs he had with a subordinate and a member of the board. Huang has been summoned to testify before Congress about “serious” national security concerns.
Buck Chuck: That’s Sen. Chris Van Hollen’s plan. The Maryland senator has announced he’ll challenge Sen. Chuck Schumer for majority leader. He has the support of progressives in the Senate like Sen.-elect Abdul El-Sayed and Sen. Bernie Sanders. Schumer remains confident he has the votes to win.
Brooklyn building collapse death toll rises: Eight people are dead after an apartment building collapsed in Brooklyn’s Flatbush neighborhood on Wednesday.
Data centers on public lands: Interior Secretary Doug Burgmun wants to build data centers on public lands controlled by the federal government. Burgmun is heavily invested in the AI industry and seems singularly focused on building up data centers, in spite of public opinion souring on them.
Should we drain Lake Powell? The lake on the Utah-Arizona border formed after the 1960s construction of the Glen Powell dam flooded Glen Canyon. It’s now a pivotal source for hydroelectric power and a key reservoir for Lower Basin states. But drought has made Lake Powell less reliable. This summer, it reached a record low—almost so low that water wouldn’t be able to flow through the Glen Powell Dam to create hydroelectric power. That drought will likely worsen. Low water levels also reduce levels in Lake Mead, another key reservoir, to help prop up Powell. Groups are calling for Lake Powell to be drained. They say it will restore the Colorado River, help Lake Mead, and uncover Glen Canyon.
A self-plug for your Friday: If you are need of Friday plans, why not come watch an improv show at the Fremont Abbey? I’ll be in this one.
The post Slog AM: Microsoft Outage Persists, Sound Transit Tries to Stop Killing Fish, A Schumer Challenger Appears appeared first on The Stranger.
