KUOW Blog
News, factoids, and insights from KUOW's newsroom. And maybe some peeks behind the scenes. Check back daily for updates.
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Stories
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Former Seattle Fire Department leader alleges misconduct, sexual harassment went unaddressed
A former top civilian official in the Seattle Fire Department has filed a $2.5 million claim against the city, saying she faced wrongful termination for “refusing to ignore unsafe conduct,” as well as “unlawful harassment and discrimination” occurring at the agency.
Sarah Lee’s claim submitted Oct. 31 lays out dozens of allegations, including a fire engine driver who was found with open cans of White Claw in his locker last August and remained on the job. The claim also alleges a female firefighter who reported harassment by her supervisor later found her uniforms shredded and “destroyed” by a boxcutter. Lee claims that employees failed to cooperate with internal and criminal investigators in that case.
Lee is a lawyer who worked at the Seattle City Attorney’s office before she became director of human resources at the Seattle Fire Department in early 2022. In the lawsuit, Lee claims she was given stellar performance evaluations there for three years in a row, but was fired this fall in retaliation for pursuing appropriate discipline in misconduct cases.
“Number one, I think a change in leadership is needed,” she said. “There is no incentive for the current command staff – both uniformed and civilian – to change.”
Lee says SFD did not follow city policies on progressive discipline, repeatedly awarding minor discipline for “egregious acts of misconduct.”
She said the command staff failed to address a toxic atmosphere for female firefighters, which led them to band together in the workplace.
“They have cloistered together in different fire stations because of the ongoing escalation of the harassment and discrimination,” Lee said.
Lee alleges that an investigator recently substantiated another female firefighter’s complaint that a male firefighter “sexually harassed and assaulted her” at a fire station offsite event. Lee says the investigator found that the male firefighter “breached confidentiality during the investigation and was telling other firefighters that the sexual encounter with the female firefighter was consensual.”
Her claim describes a May 28, 2025 meeting between the SFD Women’s Alliance and Seattle Fire Department Chief Harold Scoggins, where Lee said in her claim, “the tension was palpable.”
The claim says the Alliance "adamantly expressed ongoing concerns that female firefighters were still being subjected to hostile work environment, being defamed by their male counterparts after making reports of discrimination and harassment, and that there was inequitable treatment in discipline” for male and female firefighters.
“What the [SFD] Women’s Alliance told Chief Scoggins was, ‘Look, you want us to go and promote the hiring of females when we don’t feel safe – why would we do that?’” Lee said. “I think Chief Scoggins really never had an answer for it.”
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In Seattle mayor’s race, history gives Katie Wilson supporters reason to hope
While Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell had a seven-point lead with 53.6% of the vote over his opponent Katie Wilson’s 46.4% in initial results on Election Day, the mayor’s race is far from over.
Two days later, on Thursday afternoon, the distance between them narrowed, albeit minimally, giving Katie Wilson 46.9% and Harrell 52.6%.
And pundits are turning to past races to gauge how much later ballot counts have favored the more progressive candidate in Seattle city races.
“There’s been a lot of number crunching,” political consultant Sandeep Kaushik told KUOW’s Soundside Wednesday. “There’s definitely a pronounced left shift in the late count in Seattle, that’s become a feature of our elections.”
The theory is that younger left-leaning voters cast their ballots later, right up to the deadline on Election Day. And the election night atmosphere in their sectors of the city makes it fun: Early evening Tuesday, a speaker with a megaphone welcomed voters to a “party at the ballot box” in front of Seattle Central College, where dozens of people were lined up to drop off their ballots, to live musical accompaniment.
In the last two races for Seattle mayor, that shift in later returns didn’t change the winner, but simply shrank the distance between frontrunner Jenny Durkan and her opponent Cary Moon in 2017, and between a victorious Harrell and his opponent Lorena Gonzalez in 2021.
But Raven Tyler, a political consultant with Northwest Passage Consulting (which represents Harrell among other local candidates as clients) predicted that the mayor’s race is “going to be a nailbiter, it’s going to be super, super close.”
Tyler said she thinks Harrell “will inch ahead” in later returns.
But Kaushik argued the night after election day that Katie Wilson is still favored to win.
“I would say the preponderance of evidence says the shift will be a little bit bigger than seven points but who knows," he said.
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Seattle's new women's hockey team finally has a name
After a long wait, Seattle's newest professional sports team has a name. The Seattle Torrent is the latest addition to the Professional Women's Hockey League.
The team's leaders revealed the name Thursday morning at MoPOP in Seattle, in front of a crowd of fans, media, and local leaders, including interim County Executive Shannon Braddock.
RELATED: Seattle scores a professional women's hockey expansion team
The Torrent's name has thematic ties to both of Seattle's existing pro women's teams, the Seattle Storm and Seattle Reign. The choice to stick with a weather motif has drawn early celebration for the name and brand, connecting the threads of the city's beloved teams.
"Torrent" has received a lukewarm welcome from online commenters, however. But fans at the announcement event still gave the name some early love.
"I think the Torrent is a great name," said hockey fan Natalie Weiss, who also plays hockey in local recreational leagues. "It really identifies us as coming from the Pacific Northwest — the rain, the weather. It's a great name."
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See no emissions? State attorneys say Trump plan to stop tracking climate pollution is illegal
A coalition of 15 states including Washington and Oregon says a Trump administration proposal to turn a blind eye to greenhouse gas pollution is illegal.
Under a proposal from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, major polluters would no longer have to tally or disclose the damage they do to the global climate with their emissions of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping pollutants.
Trump officials say the longstanding federal requirement to keep track of pollution overheating the planet is “burdensome,” costing the oil and gas industry $256 million a year and other industries $47 million annually.
“The Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program is nothing more than bureaucratic red tape that does nothing to improve air quality,” Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Zeldin said in a Sept. 12 press release. “Instead, it costs American businesses and manufacturing billions of dollars, driving up the cost of living, jeopardizing our nation’s prosperity, and hurting American communities.”
“They don't think it's necessary to regulate or track greenhouse gases at all,” Washington state Assistant Attorney General Chris Reitz said. “This is another major pillar of federal greenhouse gas policy that they're tearing down.”
The proposal is part of a larger push by the White House to remove regulations on fossil fuels and “unleash American energy.”
Decades of scientific evidence have established that greenhouse gas emissions endanger human health and ecosystems worldwide, now and in the years ahead, by raising the earth’s temperature, increasing heat waves, and worsening both droughts and storms.
Despite the overwhelming scientific consensus, the Trump administration argues that climate change does not endanger human health, which would mean the government lacks authority to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act.
The 15-state coalition of attorneys general say that failing to keep tabs on the most urgent environmental problem of our time will not make it go away.
“The proposal is a blatant attempt to hide the actions of the most egregious corporate climate polluters in the United States from public scrutiny,” the coalition said in a letter submitted to the Environmental Protection Agency on Monday, just before the agency’s deadline for public comment on its proposed rule.
The 15-state coalition also includes the chief legal officers of Chicago, New York, and Washington, D.C.
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Starbucks sells 60% stake in China business in $4 billion deal
Starbucks said Monday it is forming a joint venture with Chinese investment firm Boyu Capital to operate Starbucks stores in China.
Under the agreement, Boyu will acquire a 60% interest in Starbucks’ retail operations in China, which is valued at $4 billion. Starbucks will retain a 40% interest in the joint venture and will own and license the Starbucks brand.
RELATED: Starbucks to close hundreds of stores, lay off 900 workers as part of turnaround plan
Starbucks said its business in China will have a total value of more than $13 billion, including the proceeds from the sale of the controlling interest to Boyu, the value of its 40% stake and the value of its royalties.
Starbucks entered China almost 30 years ago, and has been credited with growing coffee culture in the country. China is Starbucks’ second-largest market outside the U.S., with 8,000 locations.
But in recent years, the Seattle coffee giant has struggled in China with cheap, fast-growing Chinese startups like Luckin Coffee. Starbucks’ same-store sales in China have fallen in both of its last two fiscal years.
As a result, Starbucks has been looking for a partner to help it grow its business in China, particularly in smaller cities. In July, Starbucks Chairman and CEO Brian Niccol said the company was evaluating around 20 offers for a stake in the company.
“Boyu’s deep local knowledge and expertise will help accelerate our growth in China, especially as we expand into smaller cities and new regions,” Niccol said in a statement.
Boyu Capital Partner Alex Wong said Starbucks has built a deep connection with Chinese consumers over nearly three decades.
“This partnership reflects our shared belief in the enduring strength of that brand and the opportunity to bring even greater innovation and local relevance to customers across China,” Wong said in a statement.
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Endangered orcas return to Puget Sound without newborn J64, presumed dead
Almost the entire population of southern resident killer whales gathered in central Puget Sound on Sunday, but the newest member of J Pod, a newborn known as J64, was not among them.
According to a tally by the nonprofit Orca Behavior Institute, 59 of the endangered population of 74 whales swam, hunted, and splashed as far south as Vashon Island , delighting onlookers on both sides of the sound.
The fish-eating orcas rely primarily on Chinook salmon, but in autumn, they also chase after chum, the second-largest salmon species, returning to the Nisqually and Puyallup rivers and other drainages in south Puget Sound.
Though all of the orcas’ J Pod and K Pod and most of L Pod were present, the newborn J64 was notably absent.
The nonprofit Center for Whale Research announced on Saturday that its researchers had repeatedly spotted J64’s mother, known as J42, swimming without her newborn in October in British Columbia’s Gulf Islands, just across the watery border from Washington’s San Juan Islands.
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Human remains identified as missing Tulalip woman whose disappearance helped spark movement
Mary Johnson-Davis’s disappearance while walking on the Tulalip Reservation on Nov. 25, 2020 sparked a reward, a documentary film, and fueled a successful movement to create statewide alerts for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women.
Now, the FBI said DNA from human remains found in a remote area in North Snohomish County on June 13, 2025 has been confirmed as matching Johnson-Davis.
Her two sisters have persisted in their calls to investigate her disappearance — and in their hopes that she would somehow be found alive. Nona Blouin and Gerry Davis said in a statement that their hearts were heavy at this development.
“We are in disbelief that we will never see Mary again. We all wanted her to come home. She is now being brought back to us, but not like we hoped,” they said. “It feels like we are in a dream, wanting to wake up and see her. At the same time, our family finally has closure.”
Local and federal law enforcement agencies announced the news in a joint statement Friday.
“With deep respect for the family and Tulalip community, the Tulalip Police Department is heartbroken to confirm that human remains have been positively identified as Mary Johnson-Davis, a member of the Tulalip Tribes of Washington,” said Shawn V. Ledford, Chief of the Tulalip Police Department. “Identification was confirmed through DNA analysis conducted by a forensic laboratory.”
W. Mike Herrington, special agent in charge of the FBI Seattle field office, said: “Every victim leaves a space in that community which cannot be filled. We recognize the process can be lengthy and frustrating, but we assure everyone the FBI and our partners are doing everything we can.”
They emphasized that the investigation of Johnson-Davis’s disappearance remains active and a $60,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the person responsible remains in place. The cause and manner of her death are undetermined.
"We hope the recovery brings us one step closer to finding the truth about what happened to Mary," said Snohomish County Sheriff Susanna Johnson. "I want to extend my personal condolences to Mary’s entire family and to the Tulalip Tribes, and express our deep appreciation to community members whose initial reporting led to the discovery and identification of her remains."
Mary’s sisters, Davis and Blouin, spearheaded the attempts to find Mary, who they said was estranged from her husband and attempting to meet someone who had agreed to give her a ride when she disappeared from Fire Trail Road on the reservation.
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Federal protection sought for Olympic Peninsula marmots
Environmentalists are suing the Trump administration to protect an animal found only on Washington state’s Olympic Peninsula.
The Olympic marmot lives in mountain meadows of Olympic National Park.
A warming climate is reducing the marmots’ habitat and making it easier for hungry coyotes to prey upon the rare rodents.
The nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in May 2024 to protect the housecat-sized rodent, known for its loud whistle, under the Endangered Species Act.
The agency is required to issue an initial determination on such petitions within 90 days. Within one year, it is required to make a final determination whether the species warrants federal protection.
An Olympic marmot whistles at Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park on July 31, 2016, recorded by Jeff Rice for Montana State University's Acoustic Atlas.
The environmental advocates sued the wildlife service and its parent agency, the U.S. Department of the Interior, on Thursday for missing both deadlines.
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Seattle mayor’s race goes into overdrive as Election Day nears
Seattle mayoral candidate Katie Wilson says polls show a neck-and-neck race between her and incumbent Mayor Bruce Harrell. This weekend her campaign got some help from the East Coast.
Former New York City congressman and “Squad” member Jamaal Bowman endorsed Wilson, Harrell’s progressive challenger and founder of the nonprofit Transit Riders Union.
Bowman told the crowd at Washington Hall in Seattle’s Central District that he hopes to celebrate election victories by Zohran Mamdani back home in New York and Wilson in Seattle on Nov. 4.
"I’m excited to build a local, grassroots progressive movement in every city, county, zip code, jurisdiction, state in our country," Bowman said.
RELATED: Katie Wilson can barely afford to live in Seattle. That's why she wants to be mayor
Bowman said he came to campaign for Wilson through his friendship with Seattle teacher Jesse Hagopian, who also spoke at Sunday’s rally for Wilson along with Seattle Port Commissioner Toshiko Hasegawa.
Wilson said if elected she’ll champion the rights of workers and renters, and make opening new emergency shelter and housing her top priority. Wilson said her biggest differences from Harrell include her willingness to tax corporations, her emphasis on economic realities like the cost of food, and her urgency to address homelessness.
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Furloughed feds pick up Seattle beach trash to keep serving the public
Furloughed federal employees were out in the rain picking up cigarette butts, bottle caps, and other trash at Seattle’s Golden Gardens Park on Friday.
Their sodden volunteerism was part of a national week of service for civil servants prevented from doing their jobs by the federal government shutdown.
Rather than professional skills, officials with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration used tongs to keep pollution from entering Puget Sound and harming things like salmon and orcas, which their agency is responsible for protecting.
RELATED: White House says 'substantial' layoffs of federal workers have begun, with few details
Other members of International Federation of Professional & Technical Engineers Local 8a, a union that represents NOAA employees, volunteered at the Seattle ReCreative facility in Georgetown to sort used art supplies and keep them out of landfills.
“As federal workers, we signed up to serve the American people and to serve the public, and while we're on furlough and we can't do that as part of our jobs, we want to find other ways to give back to our local communities,” said one employee who asked not to be named for fear of retaliation.
She said a lot of scientific research on oceans and the atmosphere has ground to a halt with the shutdown, now in its fourth week.
“A lot of stuff that people wouldn't necessarily see day to day but is really important for the long-term health of our oceans and the health of our commercial and recreational fisheries is not getting done right now,” she said.
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Is Seattle ready for a Portland-like federal response? Police, city leaders take preemptive steps
The Trump administration’s practice of using masked federal agents during immigration detentions has sparked panic over whether people are being abducted, and if so, by whom.
If Seattle Police are called to these encounters, Chief Operating Officer Brian Maxey said they will treat them as Priority 1 calls attended by an officer and a supervisor.
“We do our best to identify [if] this is a legitimate federal agency of some kind,” Maxey said. “What we’ve been hearing from other jurisdictions is while the agents don’t always identify themselves to community members that ask, they typically do to local law enforcement.”
Maxey said SPD is developing new guidance for officers responding to these calls, as announced in executive orders signed by Mayor Bruce Harrell on Oct. 8.
Maxey said police can’t obstruct federal enforcement, but under state and city laws they won’t facilitate or help coordinate it either.
“What we’re very focused on are the collateral effects of any actions they take,” Maxey said. “If a demonstration gathers, we don’t abdicate our responsibility to the people of Seattle to facilitate that demonstration and make sure it proceeds lawfully and peacefully. That could be seen as us facilitating ICE, it’s not. We’d be responding to that within our jurisdiction."
RELATED: As tensions rise in Chicago, volunteers patrol neighborhoods to oppose ICE and help migrants escape
Maxey said a supervisor's presence is meant to provide a coordinated response to any issues that arise.
“We just don’t want to be in the world of having an officer having to make these high-level complicated nuanced decisions without access to additional guidance as necessary,” he explained.
Greg Wong, Seattle’s deputy mayor and general counsel, said SPD’s presence can at the very least shed more light on federal operations.
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Can Seattle's next mayor bring down the cost of rent — or pizza?
In the Seattle mayoral race, many voters are focused on the cost of living in an ever-more-expensive city. They’re pressing the candidates on who can build more housing and make the city more affordable.
Incumbent Mayor Bruce Harrell is seeking a second term. Katie Wilson, the founder of an advocacy group called the Transit Riders Union, came out ahead in the primary and is hoping to unseat him in November.
In one campaign ad, Wilson takes aim at affordability in Seattle, through the lens of a pizza restaurant on Capitol Hill that charges $8 a slice.
“Not faulting the folks who sold it to me,” she tells viewers, “that’s kind of just what pizza costs these days, what food costs in Seattle these days — it’s crazy expensive!”
Wilson’s explanation is that those restaurant prices are related to scarce housing. She said employers have to pay more to retain workers whose own living expenses are too high, and she pledges to build more housing if she's elected.
The high costs of food and housing are weighing heavily on voters as the mayor’s race enters its final weeks. Stacey Jones is a teaching professor of economics at Seattle University who checked out Wilson’s ad.
“I don’t know if it would lower the cost of pizza," Jones said, "But I think a strong case can be made for more housing density."
Jones studies economic inequality — which has been growing in King County since the pandemic. Jones said she might use this pizza ad to help her students understand theories of supply and demand.
“You’d say it’s a supply-side explanation for why pizza costs a lot, right,” she said. “It’s because one of the inputs costs a lot. And that input is labor.”
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