Amy Radil
Reporter
About
Amy Radil is a reporter at KUOW covering politics, government, and law enforcement, along with the occasional arts story. She got her start at Minnesota Public Radio in Duluth, and freelanced for Marketplace and other programs from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Amy grew up in Omaha, Nebraska. She graduated from Williams College and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
Location: Seattle
Languages Spoken: English
Pronouns: she/her
Stories
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Seattle City Council Expects To Approve Budget After Clash On Youth Programs
Members of the Young Urban Authors program meet twice a week in a small storefront near 23rd and Jackson in Seattle. The program is one of many funded by Seattle’s Youth Violence Prevention Initiative. In this program, the teenagers spend months writing and editing their own books — fiction or non-fiction — which are then printed in paperback form.One of the young authors is 14-year-old Alrick Hollingsworth. He’s a dancer, rapper and football player. He’s writing a memoir with a heartbreaking title, “Stuck in this World Alone” “ — because it was based on how my grandma passed, and how the family split up after she passed,” he said.On this day he’s browsing through cover art and planning the final details of his own published work. As part of the initiative Hollingsworth also has a mentor and receives a stipend for completing parts of the program.He says the program prevents violence, just by keeping the kids so busy. “If you look at the timeframe that they have us in here, it’s a lot of time that we have off the streets instead of being in the streets.”Kerry-Ann Blackwood’s job is to match kids in Seattle’s central area up with programs that fit their interests. She says the signs that the programs are bringing about a change in kids’ lives are subtle. For example, the kids will start to stop by the office more often, just to say hello.“It’s slight changes that make the huge difference. When they start to buy into exactly what it is we’re here for, you get more information, and with more information you’re able to help more,” Blackwood said.Blackwood says the issue of youth violence has decreased in the central area. But it’s still a problem. Now the question for city officials will be what role the initiative has played in reducing that anxiety.In 2008, five teenagers were shot to death in Seattle. Mayor Greg Nickels proposed the Youth Violence Prevention Initiative the next year. Since then, the city has been spending more than $3 million a year to provide mentors, case management and programs for more than 1,000 kids. Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn requested an additional $1.8 million this year to expand the program.“We know that there are at-risk youth who have been on the waiting list who we’ve not been able to serve because of funding limitations,” McGinn said. “We never cut the program but in bad times we weren’t able to expand it. And now we want to expand it to include 400 more at-risk youth.”Seattle City Council members approved that expansion, but on one condition: the city must spend $360,000 on an audit. Tim Burgess chairs the City Council’s budget committee. “In 2008, I was the lead advocate with Mayor Nickels for this program. I helped move the legislation through the council that established the Youth Violence Prevention Initiative and I have been, and I remain, a strong supporter of it,” Burgess said. “We’ve been frustrated, however, that we’ve not been able to get the evaluation completed.”Burgess said results for the initiative seem mixed so far. He expects the audit goals to be in place early next year. Burgess said one program that is clearly supported by data is the Nurse Family Partnership, which allows first-time mothers living in poverty to get home visits from public health nurses. The council has approved increased funding for that program. Burgess says it’s the first time since he was elected to the council that they’ve been able to contemplate new spending.Mayor McGinn says he’s proud that Seattle is on track to rebuild its Rainy Day Fund after some lean years. He says the fund will be back to pre-recession levels by the end of 2014. Meanwhile, the Young Urban Authors will also be learning about money: they’ll be reading from their work and offering their new books for sale at a celebration on December 20.
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New Washington Democrats Face Tough Choices In Congress
At a post-election lunch for politicians and labor leaders, Democrats were savoring their victories, but also contemplating the tough choices awaiting progressives in Congress this month.
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Federal Judge Lets Veterans For Peace March In Auburn Parade
US District Chief Judge Marsha Pechman said Veterans for Peace must be allowed to march in the Auburn Veterans Day parade Saturday. She called Auburn’s policy a textbook violation of the First Amendment.The city of Auburn’s Veterans Day parade is one of the largest in the country. It started during the Vietnam War. The group Veterans for Peace started marching in the parade during the Iraq war. They hold signs saying “bring the troops home.”This year the city of Auburn refused to let them take part. The city said the peace group’s rhetoric was at odds with its goal to honor military personnel. But Pechman said reflecting on the costs of war was an appropriate message for Veterans Day. Ruling from the bench, Pechman added, “The First Amendment is a right veterans have fought to defend.” The ruling grants a temporary restraining order requested by the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington against Auburn.Auburn City Attorney Daniel Heid said after the ruling that Veterans for Peace can march this weekend. He said he's not sure whether the city will make policy changes in the future. “The city’s intention was to develop a positive message of thanks for service," Heid said. "And the concern was that telling people their efforts were not worth it is giving a different message."Heid said veterans have complained about the group’s presence in the parade. But Veterans for Peace marcher Mike Dedrick said people seem more supportive lately than they did around the time of the Iraq invasion. “The last two or three years, people clap. They wave at us," he said. "I’ve had people come up to me personally and say, ‘thank you for being here.’”Dedrick said if his group weren’t in the parade, veterans’ issues like health care and the cost of wars for everyone in the US wouldn’t be fully represented. “Those things need to be talked about, especially on Veterans Day,” he said.Pechman’s ruling is a temporary solution that allows Veterans for Peace to march this year. Lawyers for the group say they’ll seek a permanent change to Auburn’s policies.
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Young Washington Republicans Enthused, But Not Always Party Line
When you talk to Madeline Fakharzadeh, a high school senior in Kent, you wouldn’t necessarily think American politics are all that divisive right now. At Tuesday's Republican election night party in Bellevue, she held a campaign sign for her local congressman, Republican Dave Reichert. But she has also volunteered for Democrats and for Washington United for Marriage, the group behind Referendum 74 to legalize same-sex marriage. And she didn’t think she was out of the ordinary in a Republican crowd on election night. “With times changing the way they are, it’s not a matter of, ‘I’m a conservative, I don’t believe in same-sex marriage.’ It’s changing,” she said.Republicans say Rob McKenna’s campaign for Washington governor inspired many young people to get involved in GOP politics. They say more high school and college students volunteered for his campaign than for previous GOP candidates. At Tuesday's party, some young volunteers said their politics do not always fit the Republican mold.The diversity of thought Fakharzadeh represents is prevalent among Young Republicans of King County, whose members are more likely to support Libertarians than Democrats. Many supported Ron Paul’s presidential campaign in Washington. But when Paul failed the get the GOP nomination, some members of the group deserted Mitt Romney to vote for Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson instead.Shannon Ford is the vice president of Young Republicans of King County. She said her pro-Johnson members wanted to "make a statement that the Republican party needed to be brought back to its roots of being more conservative and more libertarian-leaning and curtail the government’s intrusion.” Johnson, the Libertarian candidate, has received more than 20,000 votes in Washington so far.Older party-goers on Tuesday seemed less likely to split a ticket. Lori Terpening is a longtime Republican precinct committee officer in Bellevue. She said she was sad about Republican candidates’ poor showings, and she was most devastated by the passage of same-sex marriage and marijuana legalization. “I’m crying about gay marriage and the marijuana," she said. "It’s very scary, the effect that that is going to have on the rising generation."As news of Romney’s defeat spread throughout the ballroom in Bellevue, some people cried. Others said they were skeptical of the returns. They said they hoped the national news of a Republican loss wouldn't trickle down to statewide races. And people of all ages cheered loudly for gubernatorial candidate Rob McKenna when he told them to stay optimistic, because later vote totals would be “worth the wait.”
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Ferguson Takes Lead Over Dunn For Attorney General
Two members of the King County Council waged an aggressive battle for the Washington Attorney General’s Office. Initial results show Democrat Bob Ferguson with a nearly six-point lead. His opponent, Republican Reagan Dunn, says he’s still “in the hunt.”By the time all the votes are counted, Dunn will likely be welcoming a new baby to his family as well.Bob Ferguson and Reagan Dunn have had to work together on the King County Council while challenging one another for the Attorney General’s Office, in a race that attracted outside money and bitter attack ads. The Republican State Leadership Committee spent nearly $3 million in attack ads against Ferguson. They criticized his work on behalf of a death row inmate.A Democratic group, the Washington Committee for Justice and Fairness, responded by attacking Dunn for negotiating plea deals as a federal prosecutor.Speaking to supporters on election night, Ferguson was jubilant over his lead in the face of the attack ads. “I want it written on my tombstone, ‘He defeated a Karl-Rove multi-million-dollar Super PAC attack!’” Ferguson said.But Dunn told his supporters that he’s still in the race and needs to see more votes counted. Speaking to reporters, Dunn said he and Ferguson get along well and respect each other despite running tough campaigns.“The national groups that we aren’t allowed to consult with had those pretty brutal ads back and forth,” Dunn said.But Dunn’s wife Paige, who is pregnant with their second child and due any time, had to interrupt his election recap to say she was having contractions. “We have to go,” she informed him.Dunn tried to quickly finish the interview, but a reporter gestured at Paige and said, “You’re having a baby!”“I know, it’s right now. Right now,” Dunn answered before heading out with his family.Dunn has already announced that their second child is a girl and that they plan to give her the middle name Jennifer after his mother, the late Congresswoman Jennifer Dunn.
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Republicans Chase Ballots With Minivans, Smart Phones
This year campaigns are able to make faster and more nimble use of ballot returns than ever before and target those voters who have yet to cast their ballots.Republicans say Democrats had a stronger get-out-the-vote effort in Washington in 2010, but this year they’re determined to learn from that example. Some of those efforts haven’t been well-received by elections officials, though.On a recent weekday afternoon in Bellevue, Stephen Barrett was picking up his latest voter list from the King County Republican Party headquarters. He’s headed to Issaquah. “It’s the get-out-the-vote efforts, but we also call it ballot-chasing,” he said.His list of likely Republican voters is freshly updated to reflect those people who haven’t yet sent in their ballots. Those are the doors he’ll be knocking on.Barrett said the memory of Republican Dino Rossi’s narrow loss in the 2004 governor’s race is what still motivates him. “I still feel bad that Dino Rossi did not win by so few votes, if we just made a little extra effort. That will stick with me for the rest of my life,” said Barrett.Republican strategists say they’re also taking a cue from Democrats’ tenacious get-out-the-vote efforts in Washington state in 2010. Alex Hays is the executive director of Mainstream Republicans. He said Washington state Democrats helped fend off the Republican wave that swept the rest of the country two years ago.“Oftentimes it’s about the Democrats staying home and that’s what was happening in 2010 all across the country," said Hays. "Democrats noticed that here locally, solved it by putting people on the ground and kind of went door-to-door to actually remind people to vote. This year the Republicans are doing the exact same thing.”Hays said the opportunity to elect Republicans to open seats is getting voters and volunteers motivated. For example, he’s running the phone bank for voters in the 6th Congressional District, where Republican Bill Driscoll is running against Democrat Derek Kilmer for Congressman Norm Dicks’ old seat. They just bought more phones. “We had to order more because we just had more volunteers than we could handle with the number of phones we had set up. That’s a lovely problem to have,” Hays said.Every day, elections officials release the names of voters whose ballots they’ve received. That information has always been public, but now campaigns are able to refresh their list of targeted voters every 24 hours.Paul Hess chairs the 46th Legislative District for the King County Republicans. “We get a download every day by precinct and we can tell who has not voted, and then we actually go and call that person or knock on their door and get them to send in their ballot,” Hess said. “That’s how we’re using technology. That has never been done before.”Hess said having that human contact by phone or in person remains vital. And in Seattle, he’s not confining his door-belling just to likely Republican voters; those numbers would be too small. He’s approaching Democrats and trying to persuade them to split their ticket between Democrat Barack Obama for president, and Republican Rob McKenna for governor. “The key to McKenna’s victory for the first Republican elected in 32 years is to get a higher percentage in Seattle,” Hess said. The King County Republicans are also offering to shuttle ballots by minivan, or what they call Victory Van. In the last few days, they’ve stationed 10 of the white vans mostly around the Eastside, with people in attendance to answer any last-minute questions.Lisa Shin is the executive director of the King County Republican Party. She says the idea for the Victory Vans came from the three vans that King County is using to collect ballots in addition to its usual drop-boxes. Shin said the Victory Vans will ferry ballots to official drop-boxes or elections headquarters.She said, “Some people just don’t feel comfortable putting their ballot in their own mailbox, especially if it’s not a secure mailbox.”But King County officials are not flattered by the Republicans’ efforts to imitate them. On Sunday, they held a press conference advising voters not to use the Victory Vans and to turn in their ballots only at official drop-boxes or through the mail. King County Elections Director Sherril Huff said she contacted the King County GOP with her concerns. “I just asked them if they would explain what their process was going to be," Huff said. "[I] told them that we would be advising against this and they were aware of that, and that there is a risk involved with this.”Republican Secretary of State Sam Reed also weighed in on the issue in published reports Sunday. He said his office would discourage such activity, but it’s not illegal.King County Executive Dow Constantine, a Democrat, agreed. He said if any ballots don’t show up it will be hard to know what happened to them. “So that ballot, which is the only one you’ll get, is now in a van, it could be unlocked, you don’t know where it’s sitting, you don’t know the person who’s supposed to deliver it. There’s a chain-of-custody problem now with your ballot,” said Constantine.He noted that failing to deliver any ballots would be against the law.
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Latest Washington Poll Bodes Well For Ballot Measures
A newly released poll of likely Washington voters indicates that the race for governor is virtually tied with Democrat Jay Inslee slightly ahead.The latest results of the Washington Poll include responses from 632 likely voters. Democrat Jay Inslee has a three-point lead over Republican Rob McKenna, which is within the poll’s margin of error.UW political science professor Matt Barreto runs the Washington Poll. He said one cue to watch for on election night will be the support McKenna gets in King County. In past elections candidates have needed at least 40 percent of the vote there to win. Barreto said a majority of independent voters say they support McKenna, but that those people are less likely to vote overall. Their turnout will be another crucial question. “They are less likely to be contacted by the parties," Barreto said. "But in this very important block here, McKenna does continue to have a very strong lead and that could be very, very important for him, if those independents turn out at high rates.”In the race for attorney general, Bob Ferguson has a ten-point lead over his rival Reagan Dunn. But Barreto noted that a sizeable number of voters, 21 percent, said they were still undecided in a race that has seen escalating numbers of attack ads.On state ballot measures, the poll suggests that support is building for marijuana legalization and charter schools. The Washington Poll surveyed voters earlier in October, and both measures have gained several points since then, taking them each well over 50 percent. Barreto said advertising from supporters of the two initiatives has dominated the airwaves, while there have been almost no negative ads.“When you have a very lopsided advertising campaign like you do on 1240 and 502, there’s almost been no public debate on those issues," Barreto said. "And I think that to some extent is a disservice to voters on both of those initiatives.”The poll finds that support has also remained steady for Referendum 74 to legalize same-sex marriage. But Barreto said issues of values and morality are hard to pin down in voter surveys. In 2009, the ballot measure to enhance domestic partnerships passed, but by a smaller margin than polls had predicted. Barreto said people who opposed the initiative were reluctant to admit that to pollsters. He said that same bias may also affect polling for Referendum 74. “We have gone through the data, looked very carefully at places where people may be giving us an inconsistent or socially desirable answer, not wanting to admit they’re against the initiative,” Barreto said. Taking that into account, he predicts the same-sex marriage referendum will pass with 52 percent of the vote.
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State Auditor Wants Tighter Billing Procedures At Seattle Utilities
Washington state Auditor Brian Sonntag has issued a report citing significant deficiencies in the billing systems at Seattle City Light and Seattle Public Utilities (SPU). His report is based on annual audits by accounting firms.
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Frustrated Police Monitors Could Hold Lessons For New Commission
The city of Seattle is seeking citizens for its new Community Police Commission. The commission is being established as part of an agreement with the U.S. Justice Department to reform the Seattle Police Department.
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Civil Liberties And The Race For Supreme Court: McCloud Vs. Sanders
The race for the open seat on the Washington Supreme Court has drawn two staunch defenders of individual rights. One is former justice Richard Sanders, who hopes to return to the court after losing his seat two years ago. The other is appellate lawyer Sheryl Gordon McCloud. Both are passionate about constitutional issues, and even praise one another’s work. But they cite important differences in their positions and personalities.