Slog PM: County Scraps SODO Shelter Expansion, Seattle Retains City Hall Park, Mine Explosion in Turkey Kills at Least 22

Shelter and services for 150 homeless people evaporate: King County Executive Dow Constantine spiked a plan to add 40 much-needed high-acuity beds and 40-50 tiny shelters to the Salvation Army site in SODO after neighborhood groups in the Chinatown-International District, Republicans, and a right-wing think tank protested the move for more than a month. Hannah wrote about the project, which aimed to alleviate visible homelessness in the CID, here. The county now plans to spend the money on a "one-time wage boost for providers" and "investing in any community in the county able to quickly house residents experiencing homelessness," according to a release. 

Time to bust out the concrete ping pong tables and the hop-scotch paint, Seattle, because it's time to "activate" some public space. The County decided to let us keep City Hall Park after "residents worried that the downtown neighborhood could lose one its few green spaces," The Seattle Times reports. The Mayor's budget proposal includes nearly $3 million to post security at nearby bus stops, get some food trucks in there, and add "new moveable and fixed seating areas." 

Big news in the local arts world: Seattle needs to build pipelines to supply us with the artists who remind us that "people don't totally regret life." Jas wrote about one such pipe coming online soon: the Space Station on the second floor of King Street Station.

Speaking of not totally regretting life, what are you doing this weekend? Meeting up with some gay pirates? Catching the Vitamin D show at Earshot? Trying on an Oaxacan Smoking Jacket? Editing the Stranger Election Control Board's endorsement package, which drops next Thursday? Find (some of) those suggestions and others in our Stranger-recommended events roundup.  

Going to the Ms game on Saturday? Bring your shoes, bring your baguettes, and maybe try to get there an hour earlier than normal. Find more tips and the most aggressive video auto-play in the business over at KING 5.

It's gonna be nice and warm and sadly smoky this weekend:

Here's a meteorological explanation of WHY it will become so warm & smoky this weekend.

1) We've got a strong ridge of high pressure in the upper levels of the atmosphere. It's deflecting any weather away from us. It's also composed of sinking air that warms as it does so. pic.twitter.com/pY4mKL13qW

— NWS Seattle (@NWSSeattle) October 14, 2022

The Braden Abraham era ends at Seattle Rep: The theater's artistic director since 2014 will move on to the Writers Theatre in Chicago this January, according to The Seattle Times. Abraham has worked at the Rep in some capacity since 2002, and it's hard to imagine the place without him. But that's what the org's board will now have to do. They won't have a replacement in place by the beginning of next year, but a hiring committee will form "in the coming weeks." 

Island County Sheriff deputy arrested on two rape charges: Skagit County cops accused Patrol Sargent John Nieder of date-raping two women after drugging their drinks, KIRO 7 reports. Sounds like the Island County Sheriff's department could use some more money for training and equipment.

Wanna know which Seattle streets will stay open exclusively for walking, rolling, and general recreating? The West Seattle Blog has the map.

Another Herschel Walker scandal: Though he slams incumbent U.S. Senator Raphael Warnock for his wife asking for more child support money, family lawyers told the The Daily Beast that Walker gave the mother of a child he hasn't seen in six years "a raw deal" on child support. This mother is the same one whose abortion Walker paid for. 

I wonder if that scandal has come up at the debate yet? Walker and Warnock faced off in a televised debate this evening, and shit got weird early when Walker again falsely implied that he's worked in law enforcement before. 

OH MY GOD https://t.co/pbgxcw8DSL

— Yashar Ali ???? یاشار (@yashar) October 14, 2022

Today in Trump world: The DOJ wants to look at the 11,000 "or so" secret documents that a Trump-appointed judge blocked them from looking at, and so they've asked an appeals court to nix the "special master review" she ordered, The New York Times reports. After SCOTUS declined to overturn an order allowing the DOJ to look at 100 documents in that batch, the department is hopeful it'll get to see the rest.

No way is this man going to testify: In an insane letter, the former President declined to say whether he'll answer the Jan 6 committee's subpoena calling on him to testify about his attempt to overthrow the 2020 election. Nobody thinks he will answer that call due to "multiple criminal inquiries" into Trump's role, Politico reports. 

British conservatives are weeping after their new Prime Minister, Liz Truss, fired her finance minister and put the big, unpopular corporate tax cut back on the menu. As some party loyalists rally around her, "privately many Conservative MPs admit they have gone through despondency and into despair over the past 24 hours," the BBC reports.