It's no longer the 'murder hornet': Today So Far

• It's no longer the "murder hornet."
• This is your cooling window during this week's heat wave.
• The 988 hotline is live and specialists have observed a few things about the job.

This post originally appeared in KUOW's Today So Far newsletter for July 27, 2022.

I hope you were able to get up early today and stick some box fans in your windows. The overnight lows dipped into the 60s, but not for too long, so that was our opportunity to cool down our homes after record-breaking heat on Tuesday.

Bellingham, Olympia, and Seattle (really SeaTac) broke high temperature records yesterday. And it's looking like we will be reaching daily highs in the 90s through Friday around Puget Sound, according to the most recent Weather Service forecast. Folks out on the coast or up around Bellingham are a bit more lucky. It still looks like overnight lows will continue to dip down into the 60s in the early, early morning hours this week — that is your window to cool down your home.

The new 988 suicide prevention hotline just went active and specialists on the other end of the line have observed a few things since starting the job.

"These are just regular people in your everyday life calling, and I look around at people, and it really just further drilled into my head that you never know what somebody's going through," said Kai Cuevas, a 988 crisis call specialist. "And that's why you always have to prioritize kindness and respect."

You never know what that irate person is dealing with when they cut you off on the road, get snippy with you in line, and so on. I often have to remind myself that. It's a lot easier to just say someone is a jerk and file them in your brain as a simple undesirable. But something is going on there. And on the extreme end of this is the issue of suicide and other drastic actions. That's what 988 is for. You never know if a person you crossed paths with will be dialing it later. Soundside has the story here.

We were introduced to it as the "murder hornet." It also went by its other name, the "Asian giant hornet." But now it has a new name.

The Entomological Society of America has dubbed this invasive bug as the "northern giant hornet." The name is meant to focus in on the region of northern Asia where the hornet comes from. It also distinguishes it from the "southern giant hornet" and the "yellow-legged hornet" which are also quite large and similar to the northern variety.

RELATED: Washington takes out a hornets nest

Whatever you call it, the hornet is still invasive and is spreading through British Columbia and Washington state. And it still kills bees, which we sort of need. I know a lot of folks weren't keen on the name "murder," but I sort of liked it. How often do you get such sensational biological names? Going from "murder" hornet to "northern giant" hornet is like Metallica going from "Kill 'em All" to "Load" (kids, ask your parents about '80s heavy metal and '90s hard rock). It's the same deadly bug (to bees), but the branding just isn't so hard.

AS SEEN ON KUOW

Travonna Thompson-Wiley argues that community pressure brought Amazon to heel, convincing it to drop a warehouse project in the Rainier Valley. Amazon announced that it was backing away from its plans for the new warehouse last week. (Joshua McNichols / KUOW)

DID YOU KNOW?

If you've ever walked through Seattle's Volunteer Park you may have noticed a large reservoir in the middle of it. Turns out, as KUOW's Soundside reports, that reservoir was around before the park even existed.

It was created in the early 1900s and is a feat of engineering. Seattle used gravity to force water up into the reservoir, atop a hill. Then, gravity sent water downhill to all the homes and businesses. Seattle has an updated water system today and no longer uses the reservoir at Volunteer Park. But the city keeps it around in case any emergencies pop up and drinking water is needed, or water for fighting fires. Read the full story here.

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