news-lead-570.jpg
  • Levi Hastings
King County Voters Hate Poor Old Young Disabled People: The numbers for Metro-bus-saving Prop 1 that came in last night do not look good. It's not impossible for late ballots to make up the difference, just incredibly improbable. We will talk about this more today (and another ballot drop happens this afternoon), but for now, let's just watch the '70s video "It's All Right to Cry."

Ukraine Government Resumes Actions Against Separatists: But they can't violate last week's Geneva deal, so there may not be much they can do.

It's About Time: "Snohomish County council members are considering a moratorium on home construction within a half-mile of landslide prone areas, such as the Oso community hillside that collapsed March 22."

Boeing Profits Up: "Boeing's increased rate of commercial jet manufacturing is starting to pay off for shareholders." Just not for its own workers, who the plane company totally fucked over earlier this year. Thank god the state gave 'em $9 billion in tax breaks to get them through this difficult time.

McDonald's Sales Down: They say it's just the weather, but that's hard to believe.

American Home Sales Tanked in March: The housing market usually improves by this time each year, but right now it ain't improving, falling 14.5 percent last month.

And In Totally Unrelated News: The American middle class is no longer the richest middle class in the world. From the New York Times:

“The crisis had no effect on our lives,” Jonas Frojelin, 37, a Swedish firefighter, said, referring to the global financial crisis that began in 2007. He lives with his wife, Malin, a nurse, in a seaside town a half-hour drive from Gothenburg, Sweden’s second-largest city.

They each have five weeks of vacation and comprehensive health benefits. They benefited from almost three years of paid leave, between them, after their children, now 3 and 6 years old, were born. Today, the children attend a subsidized child-care center that costs about 3 percent of the Frojelins’ income.

Even with a large welfare state in Sweden, per capita G.D.P. there has grown more quickly than in the United States over almost any extended recent period—a decade, 20 years, 30 years. Sharp increases in the number of college graduates in Sweden, allowing for the growth of high-skill jobs, has played an important role.

Today at 4 p.m.: There's a rally outside of City Hall, where labor activists, workers, and other $15 minimum wage supporters plan to "form a human '15'" and then a human chain around the building.

Saving Earth from Asteroids: An Apollo 8 astronaut living on Orcas Island is on the job.

The Broads Must Be Crazy: After the jump, since every video autoplays for somebody out there, I offer two Daily Show videos about ladies in politics. Weepy, emotional ladies in politics. (Wanna see Mitch McConnell, Darrell Issa, and John Boehner cry? Watch video #2.)