Measles involves King County: An toddler in King County is the primary particular person in Washington state to check constructive for measles this yr. The child, who’s lower than a yr outdated, might have contracted the sickness whereas touring overseas. Kids are imagined to obtain two doses of the childhood MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine—the primary dose when they’re between 12 and 15 months outdated and the second dose between the ages of 4 and 6 years outdated. If touring, the U.S. Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention advises 6- to 11-month-old infants to get their first dose. This touring child did not have its first dose of the vaccine. For herd immunity, communities want 95% of individuals to be vaccinated. Presently, in King County, 87% of 2-year-olds have had their first MMR dose, whereas solely 72% of 4- to 6-year-olds have had each doses. Disgrace the anti-vax mother and father in your life!
Heads are rolling: The Pike Place Market Basis refused to host a deliberate Day of Remembrance Occasion to commemorate the incarceration of Japanese People throughout World Struggle II. After public outcry over the choice, the muse’s government director Lillian Sherman, who has held the place since 2012, will resign efficient March 7.
The climate: Partly sunny… nearly 60 levels… might or not it’s… spring? No! Do not be fooled by the illusory siren music that’s False Spring. Be cautious in your Vitamin D-dopamine excessive.
Cherish these climate experiences: Trump cuts to the federal workforce hit the Nationwide Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and Nationwide Climate Service (NWS). In two rounds of layoffs, NOAA will first lose 500 staff after which 800 staff—about 10% of NOAA’s workforce. For NWS, 375 probationary staff will lose their jobs. It is nonetheless unclear how the cuts will hit the Seattle arm of NWS and NOAA Fisheries staff. No matter occurs, if they arrive for our geeky scientists and meteorologists, we should always all be mad. The NWS staff curate little playlists that align with their free climate experiences throughout their all-night shifts and so they get so enthusiastic about snow. The fisheries staff assist our maritime commerce and leisure and tribal fisheries. These are vital companies that can’t be changed by the personal sector.
From a local weather scientist: NOAA and NWS save lives with their emergency climate experiences—and, as we all know, excessive climate occasions will turn out to be increasingly frequent on account of local weather change. Plus, a lot of the forecasts from personal corporations are constructed on the techniques and data offered by NOAA and NWS.
I’ve written a brief assertion responding to mass firings right this moment of #NOAA / Nationwide Climate Service (#NWS) workers (which had been concentrated amongst latest hires in addition to extremely skilled workers who had just lately been promoted). Please see under screenshot & under for full textual content.
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— Daniel Swain (@weatherwest.bsky.social) February 27, 2025 at 3:17 PM
Huge unhealthy finances shortfall: Whew, it is penny pinching time on the state. Gov. Bob Ferguson introduced $4 billion in cuts, plus one other $3 billion in value financial savings recognized by former Gov. Jay Inslee final yr. All these reductions will assist patch up an anticipated $12 billion finances deficit within the state. To bridge that hole, Ferguson introduced a plan to make state staff take one unpaid furlough day a month for 2 years. He’ll additionally lower round 1,000 full-time staff. He is making cuts throughout state authorities spending, too. Democrats within the legislature suppose it is time to take into account new taxes to patch these finances holes. Ferguson stated taxes are a final resort. You possibly can learn extra on the Washington State Normal.
Do not buy something right this moment: It is financial blackout day, child. Grassroots group The Folks’s Union USA is urging individuals to not spend cash for twenty-four hours, and to particularly not spend on credit score or debit playing cards to ship a sign to the powers that be that we’re not all the way down to be dominated by kings. In the event you do want to purchase one thing, be sure you purchase native. Look, I do know Mudede had some legitimate criticism of the financial blackout and argued as a substitute for displaying up in particular person to yell at Republican city halls, however I see validity in a boycott. That is one thing anybody can do to really feel like they’re doing one thing, like a gateway drug to resistance. Plus, is not it at all times an excellent factor to reckon with the maintain capitalism has on us? Regardless, the economic system is a lever we are able to all attempt to pull on. That is an motion that anybody who’s upset, and confused, however not but able to take to the streets or danger being dragged out of a Republican city corridor, can do. Will something come of it? Let’s have a look at.
Illegal firings: A federal choose in San Francisco discovered the firings of probational federal staff are seemingly illegal and “ordered the Workplace of Personnel Administration to tell sure federal companies that it had no authority to order the firings of probationary staff.” The ruling does not imply fired staff will mechanically be rehired and it would not cease future firings, nevertheless it establishes that the courts consider the firings had been illegal. So, perhaps that may assist?
It was all ball, ref! An sudden, um, foul occurred earlier than a German soccer match that brought on the sport’s cancellation. Forward of the FC Taxi Duisburg II and SV Rot-Weiss Mülheim, whereas the referee was conducting ID checks on the gamers, one of many FC Taxi gamers’ youngsters ran as much as the ref and bit him within the testicle. “He got here nearer and nearer to me, then out of the blue—to my full shock—gave me a pointy chunk in my left testicle,” the ref stated. He could not officiate because of the ache, so the match was known as off.
What the hell is occurring with the DOJ and the EPA? The Division of Justice and the Environmental Safety Company are attempting to “claw again” $20 billion in grants the Joe Biden administration awarded to local weather and clean-energy initiatives in his Greenhouse Fuel Discount Fund. Trump’s EPA administrator Lee Zeldin claimed there was fraud concerned in awarding these funds. A senior prosecutor resigned “quite than perform the administration’s demand to freeze the funds over attainable wire fraud,” in response to the Washington Submit. Then, interim U.S. legal professional Ed Martin submitted a seizure warrant for the cash that was rejected by a U.S. Justice of the Peace choose in D.C. for having, basically, no possible trigger {that a} crime occurred. Even after that, performing deputy legal professional common Emil Bove’s workplace tried to seek out somebody to launch a grand jury investigation. Prosecutors rejected that, too. Nonetheless, three grant awardees have reported their accounts from CitiBank, the financial institution accountable for dispersing the funds, have been frozen.
Funding ended for five,800 USAID contracts: “This award is being terminated for comfort and the curiosity of the U.S. authorities,” learn a wave of emails acquired by United States Company for Worldwide Growth staff world wide. The emails ended the funding for five,800 initiatives world wide together with refugee camps, tuberculosis clinics, polio vaccination initiatives, H.I.V. remedy applications, malaria management applications, the principle provide channel for tuberculosis drugs, and a lot extra. “Folks will die,” Dr. Catherine Kyobutungi, government director of the African Inhabitants and Well being Analysis Heart, advised the New York Occasions, “however we’ll by no means know, as a result of even the applications to depend the lifeless are lower.”
Cats preserve getting chicken flu: Two totally different cats in Oregon and two others in Washington contracted chicken flu from their meals. The uncooked pet meals firm, Wild Coast Uncooked, is recalling two plenty of its product.
An extended learn to your Friday: “How Elon Musk Executed His Takeover of the Federal Paperwork.”
A music to your Friday: This Italian disco-y music is nice for a sunny day. I first discovered it six years in the past on a companion playlist for a Bon Appetit brown butter sage gnocchi recipe. I simply found this dwell efficiency video right this moment:
