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News, factoids, and insights from KUOW's newsroom. And maybe some peeks behind the scenes. Check back daily for updates.

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  • Emerald City's big, small, national, local pop culture balancing act: Today So Far

    Emerald City Comic Con has its reasons to move forward without the Homegrown section, featuring local creators. But perhaps, for local fans, it's about something more.

    This post originally appeared in KUOW's Today So Far newsletter for March 3, 2023.

    Has the Homegrown section outgrown Emerald City Comic Con?

    Our region's premier pop culture event kicked off yesterday and runs through the weekend. Expect to see massive crowds in downtown Seattle, featuring everybody from Darth Vader to that anime character that you think you've seen before, yet you're not sure, but you're pretty sure it's anime ... maybe a video game character, but probably anime. Personally, I predict a lot of Wednesday Addams showing up.

    It feels like every year ECCC rolls around, there are criticisms about how the show is run, the guests that were or were not there, and so forth. This year is no exception. There is much ado about the Homegrown section, which has provided a place to feature the region's local artists, creators, and vendors who never neatly fit in other sections. Where else are you going to find "Firefly" bath bombs, handmade glass chibi figures, or axolotl key chains? It was a veritable buy local corner within one of the nation's largest pop culture events. So when organizers opted to nix the local section this year, it was much to the chagrin of locals.

    This story is interesting for a couple reasons. One, because I don't get to write "chagrin" too often. But also, events like Emerald City Comic Con help our area maintain its DIY, weirdo, Northwest vibe. This event is among the largest flag poles around, letting our geek flags fly. ECCC would not exist without the local mass of geeks, gamers, cosplayers, nerds, larpers, bookworms, cinephiles, and more. So many that tens of thousands of people attend this convention annually, having so much fun that it draws in more from beyond the Northwest.

    Ever since ReedPop purchased and took over ECCC around 2015, there has been a lingering concern that the company would favor large corporate vendors, and the local community spirit would be diminished. This concern has perhaps been heightened by the evolution Seattle has experienced in recent years.

    When word got out that ECCC's Homegrown section would not be included in this year's event, I reached out to an ECCC spokesperson, who told me:

    "For 20 years, Emerald City Comic Con has been a celebration of the incredible Pacific Northwest comics and pop culture community and we are confident that will be evident throughout this year’s show. At our upcoming 2023 event, nearly 50% of our exhibitors and Artist Alley creators are local to the Pacific Northwest and we are so excited to welcome and support so many small businesses and creators from our local community. However, this means we are at the point where we have outgrown the number of exhibitors we can accommodate in a Homegrown section and so we made the decision to sunset the dedicated section. Fans will now find these local businesses throughout our Show Floor and Artist Alley."

    Emerald City Comic Con is in a tough spot. ReedPop is a massive company that produces fan events on a ginormous scale — and fans are passionate. To accomplish this, any company would need the support of high-paying vendors and sponsors. It's a delicate line to walk — bringing in enough to pay the bills, while maintaining that small, distinctive, local community feel. It can be an uncomfortable dynamic. After all, when you come into downtown Seattle, would you rather go to the Pink Door or the Cheesecake Factory? Would you rather hang out at Raygun Lounge or GameWorks? I know what I'd say, yet every year around ECCC, there's a waitlist at the Cheesecake Factory, and for reasons beyond my understanding, people still buy prepaid cards to play arcade games.

    ECCC is also still recovering from pandemic blows, which included layoffs and scaling back or retiring some of its events. It still maintained its Seattle presence, however, by shuffling ECCC through an off-season schedule. In fact, 2023 is the first time since 2019 that the convention has taken place during its usual March/April timeslot.

    On the other side of this delicate line are readers and ECCC fans like Serena, who wrote me after I initially covered this story on KUOW.org.

    Continue reading »
  • Washington ferries still floating back to pre-pandemic service levels

    Washington state's ferry system now has four of its eight routes back to pre-pandemic service levels.

    But not the Anacortes to Sidney, B.C., run. The state's only international route won't be back until 2030 at the earliest. Only one ferry boat is certified to make that trip, and that vessel is needed in Puget Sound in the meantime.

    "To sail internationally, and that's our only international route, you need specialized equipment on the boat," said Ian Sterling, spokesperson for Washington State Ferries. "We only have one boat now, the Chelan, that is allowed to make that run, and we need that boat for domestic service.

    "It's a great route, it's our longest route. It's arguably our prettiest route, but it's not a route that gets a lot of ridership compared to the core Puget Sound routes. If you talk to people in Anacortes and the San Juan Islands, they want to see that service operating normally rather than going up to Canada, which is nice to have, but it's not a 'have-to-have' at this time."

    Washington State Ferries has been slowing rebuilding service after pandemic slowdowns diminished ridership, along with the number of boats serving each run. Before the pandemic, the system was handling around 24 million to 25 million riders each year. In 2022, 17 million people stepped aboard the ferries.

    Still, riders are slowly returning, Sterling said. Vehicle passengers are nearly at pre-pandemic levels for some routes. Foot traffic remains low, however.

    "Like downtown Seattle, those big commuter boats out of Bainbridge Island and Bremerton, we had a couple of thousand people every morning, on each sailing, we are just not seeing that anymore. Although it is recovering, it is not what it was."

    RELATED: Puget Sound is the classroom for students at Maritime High School

    The ferries also continue to deal with a shortage of maritime workers, and the state is competing with private companies for those potential hires.

    "We're making progress, we're still not where we need to be," Sterling said about hiring new ferry workers. "So if you're looking for a job, state ferries are a great place to be, if you don't want to ride a desk all day; you get the best view in Puget Sound."

    Continue reading »
  • 21,000 overpaid WA unemployment recipients won't have to repay the state

    About 21,000 people in Washington state have learned that they won't have to pay back unemployment benefits they received during the pandemic. But that is not the case for thousands more.

    Washington's Employment Security Department, in the frenzy of the early pandemic, granted unemployment payments that were sometimes too high, or went to people not properly qualified. This added up to a total of 136,000 people, according to the department.

    This week the department said it is giving a blanket waiver to about 21,000 of the overpaid recipients, because they were not at fault for the overpayment. It is reviewing the rest of the cases and may dismiss more. People can be proactive by applying for a waiver later this month by going to the department's website (esd.wa.gov).

    The department has been asking recipients to pay back the money, which sometimes amounts to thousands or tens of thousands of dollars.

    Unemployment appeals are currently taking an average 233 days, partially because of low staffing levels.

    Continue reading »
  • Body of infant found in Ballard remains mystery

    The Seattle Police Department and the King County Medical Examiner are investigating the death of a baby whose body was discovered on a roadside in Ballard last week. But they say it will take time to know more about the case.

    The King County Medical Examiner's Office is tasked with determining the identity, cause and manner of death for the baby, whose remains were found in bushes along Shilshole Avenue in Seattle's Ballard neighborhood. A spokesperson for Public Health Seattle-King County said that analysis could take months.

    “This is a tragic situation,” said Dan Strauss, the Seattle City council member who represents the Ballard neighborhood where the body was found.

    Strauss said he’s been in touch with Police Chief Adrian Diaz to check on the status of the incident.

    “Making sure that it is being investigated, which it is," Strauss said. "Making sure that the medical examiner is doing their analysis, which they are. And then really wanting to make sure that the mother is healthy, and safe."

    Strauss said the mother’s identity is unknown at this point. He added that the medical examiner’s analysis will guide the police response.

    “The police department began their investigation as if it is a homicide, and the medical examiner’s analysis will determine if it is a suspicious death or if it is indeed a homicide,” he said.

    Strauss said if the baby is determined to have been stillborn, it would be classified as a suspicious death rather than a homicide.

    “From what the police department has told me, there’s a high likelihood that this baby was a stillborn baby,” he said.

    A Seattle resident told KUOW he found the body on Sunday, Feb. 19. But the message left on a nonemergency voicemail was not immediately forwarded to Seattle police, which announced the investigation on Feb. 22.

    Continue reading »
  • Amazon pauses construction in Virginia on its second headquarters

    NEW YORK — Amazon is pausing construction of its second headquarters in Virginia following the biggest round of layoffs in the company's history and shifting landscape of remote work.

    The Seattle-based company is delaying the beginning of construction of PenPlace, the second phase of its headquarters development in Northern Virginia, said John Schoettler, Amazon's real estate chief, in a statement. He said the company has already hired more than 8,000 employees and will welcome them to the Met Park campus, the first phase of development, when it opens this June.

    "We're always evaluating space plans to make sure they fit our business needs and to create a great experience for employees, and since Met Park will have space to accommodate more than 14,000 employees, we've decided to shift the groundbreaking of PenPlace (the second phase of HQ2) out a bit," Schoettler said.

    He also emphasized the company remains "committed to Arlington" and the local region, which Amazon picked - along with New York City - to be the site of its new headquarters several years ago. More than 230 municipalities had initially competed to house the projects. New York won the competition by promising nearly $3 billion in tax breaks and grants, among other benefits, but opposition from local politicians, labor leaders and progressive activists led Amazon to scrap its plans there.

    In February 2021, Amazon said it would build an eye-catching, 350-foot Helix tower to anchor the second phase of its redevelopment plans in Arlington. The new office towers were expected to welcome more than 25,000 workers when complete. Amazon spokesperson Zach Goldsztejn said those plans haven't changed and the construction pause is not a result - or indicative of - the company's latest job cuts, which affected 18,000 corporate employees.

    Tech companies have been cutting jobs

    The job cuts were part of a broader cost-cutting move to trim down its growing workforce amid more sluggish sales and fears of a potential recession. Meta, Salesforce and other tech companies — many of which had gone on hiring binges in the past few years — have also been trimming their workforce.

    Amid the job cuts, Amazon has urged its employees to come back to the office. Last month, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said the company would require corporate employees to return to the office at least three days a week, a shift from from the prior policy that allowed leaders to make the call on how their teams worked. The change, which will be effectively on May 1, has ignited some pushback from employees who say they prefer to work remotely.

    Goldsztejn said the company is expecting to move forward with what he called pre-construction work on the construction in Virginia later this year, including applying for permits. He said final timing for the second phase of the project is still being determined. The company had previously said it planned to complete the project by 2025. [Copyright 2023 NPR]

    Continue reading »
  • Why Seattle Public Schools is considering layoffs: Today So Far

    • This Northwest politician says culture wars are like junk food.
    • Seattle Public Schools now faces a $131 million budget deficit. Layoffs are likely.
    • Kelp! We need some seaweed. Kelp! Not just any seaweed. Kelp! Ya know we need some fronds. Kelllp!

    This post originally appeared in KUOW's Today So Far newsletter for March 2, 2023.

    When Marie Gluesenkamp Pérez won the election for Washington's 3rd Congressional District last November, it came as a surprise to some people.

    The campaign was risky. She went up against a MAGA Republican who knocked the previous GOP incumbent out of the running during the primary. The main issue that helped push the Republican contender to the front was his support of Trump and his embracing of conspiracy theories. Still, Gluesenkamp Pérez turned the district from red to blue. It remains to be seen how well she handles the job, or if she can hold onto it — she only won the district by less than a percentage point. It initially appears that Gluesenkamp Pérez continues to take risks — she is shunning culture war politics.

    "I should be thinking about the things that are keeping (my constituents) up at night, or the things that they're afraid to tell their friends about — their credit card debt, or that they're afraid that their kids are going to relapse. Those are the things that should be what we're talking about," Gluesenkamp Pérez told KUOW's David Hyde. She adds that, "It's not fun to think about how we're going to balance the budget — it's complex. Thinking hurts; it's painful to sit down and hash out those issues and understand them."

    As I've said before, the real issues that affect most people are not the ones that get sensational headlines. They are more often the boring, local matters that come down to dollars and cents at city hall. But voters, and readers, more often want red meat, instead of political vegetables. And they want it now.

    "It's fun to make fun of Marjorie Taylor Greene or Matt Gaetz. That's like a sport for people. But it's like junk food. It's leaving us malnourished intellectually, and in being able to be informed and have policy discussions."

    That brand of rhetoric will certainly help this politician stand out in the crowd. That, and the fact she's the kind of person who says, "buying a Tesla is kind of a shitty form of environmentalism." Check out Gluesenkamp Pérez's full discussion with KUOW here.

    Seattle Public Schools now faces a $131 million budget deficit. Layoffs are likely.

    “We’re in a difficult stage right now,” Superintendent Brent Jones said at a school board meeting this week. “It’s moving from theory to actual action being taken. This is actually impacting employees.”

    Some SPS employees have already been notified that their positions may be terminated. The tough situation is the result of rising labor costs and declining enrollment, and lingering effects from the pandemic. The district is also considering consolidating some campuses, which essentially means closing down schools.

    Seattle is not the only local school district facing similar challenges. Check out the full story here.

    Continue reading »
  • Why Emerald City Comic Con nixed its Homegrown section for 2023

    For years, Seattle's Emerald City Comic Con has featured a space for local creators, artists, vendors and more — the Homegrown section. But for its 2023 event, organizers opted not to include the section, which came as a surprise to vendors who relied on it.

    “Even though the section was tucked at the back of the hall with limited signage, the people who came by Homegrown were excited to be there," said Brittany Otto, and artist and vendor at ECCC. "People liked coming to a big convention and still having a chance to check out local artists."

    RELATED: Emerald City's big, small, national, local pop culture balancing act

    Otto had attended ECCC as a fan for many years before she brought her distinctive, independent art to the event as a vendor, Badger Burrow Studios. Otto is a paper artist who crafts shadow box sculptures.

    "My work is influenced by my struggles with mental health and my love of fantasy, mythology, and biology to create transformative, dream-like portals that draw the viewer into expressive worlds that shine brightest when surrounded by darkness," Otto said.

    RELATED: What I learned at my first Comic Con

    Homegrown was a popular buy-local feature after ReedPop, a large convention company, bought the event in 2015. The big purchase prompted local concern that the new owners would favor large, corporate vendors who could push out the local community vibe. Otto recalls that many vendors pushed for the Homegrown section. ReedPop then established a corner at one of the country's largest pop culture events exclusively for locals. It offered more affordable prices for table space, which was a big plus for artists.

    Otto says that ECCC's communication that the Homegrown section would be nixed this year came late, around January. The region's vendor community began talking, trading experiences and their disappointment in the decision. Otto notes that ECCC organizers attempted to help mitigate the decision by offering Homegrown prices for the main show floor, which she said made it possible for her to attend this year.

    Bigger show, more locals

    The main show floor is where fans will find local vendors, crafters, creators, artists, and more at Emerald City Comic Con this year. According to a spokesperson for the convention, organizers shifted to this approach because the share of local vendors at ECCC is now so large, just one space for them isn't possible. Homegrown has outgrown its corner of the con.

    According to a spokesperson for ECCC:

    Continue reading »
  • Two bills to protect abortion rights move forward in Olympia

    Two bills in Olympia to protect abortion rights took important steps forward on Tuesday. One, known as a "shield law," seeks to protect people who travel to Washington seeking abortions. The second bill would require insurance coverage of abortion care without co-pays or deductibles.

    The shield law bill, HB 1469, also aims to protect those who assist people from states that restrict abortion and gender-affirming care. It also includes protections for health care providers.

    "This bill says that other states will not be able to use Washington state courts or Washington state judicial processes to enforce their laws restricting abortion or gender-affirming care," Rep. Drew Hansen (D-Bainbridge Island) said on the floor of the House.

    Among other things, the bill blocks out-of-state subpoenas related to abortion and reproductive health care locally.

    "We will use every tool that we have to protect abortion laws in other states from anti-abortion laws elsewhere," Hansen said.

    HB 1469 has passed the House, making it the first abortion rights bill to pass the that body this session. Washington’s state Senate is expected to consider the proposed law in the coming weeks.

    Another bill, SB 5242, would require insurance companies to pay for abortion coverage without charging any co-pays or deductibles also moved ahead. That bill passed in the Senate on Tuesday afternoon.

    A proposed amendment to anchor abortion rights in the Washington Constitution has failed. Abortion rights advocates say the proposed constitutional amendment would have made it harder for the U.S. Supreme Court to take existing reproductive rights away.

    But state Democrats did not have enough votes this year to get an amendment onto the general election ballot.

    Several other abortion rights bills are still under consideration in Olympia, including a data privacy law, HB 1155, which would regulate period-tracking apps and other health sites that are not protected by federal privacy laws like HIPAA.

    Continue reading »
  • Arrest warrant issued for Tacoma woman with TB refusing treatment, isolation


    An arrest warrant has been issued for a Tacoma woman diagnosed with tuberculosis, who has refused treatment and will not isolate.

    The Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department has been aware of the woman with tuberculosis for more than a year. She has refused treatment and has further refused orders to isolate. The county's director of communicable disease control, Nigel Turner, has previously noted that the risk to the public is low, but has also said that, "People can die from TB if they don’t get treatment. And they can expose other people to unnecessary risk of getting TB."

    The health department has gone to the court 15 times to pursue legal steps. The court has issued an order for the woman to either accept treatment or to voluntarily isolate. The health department says it has also attempted to work with the woman's family to persuade her and has offered support.

    On Feb. 24, the health department went into court for a 16th time and Judge Philip Sorenson ruled that the woman was in civil contempt.

    "He issued a warrant for civil arrest by law enforcement on or following Friday, March 3 for the woman to be taken to a specially designated facility at the Pierce County Jail for isolation, testing and treatment," Turner said in a statement. "If the woman complies before March 3, we may ask the court to lift the arrest warrant."

    The health department notes that it encounters about 20 cases of TB each year. The current situation is the third time the department has had to get a court order for someone refusing treatment for TB.

    Continue reading »
  • Black-led nonprofits need volunteers. This local newspaper is helping

    As the pandemic eases, Seattle’s nonprofits are coming back to work in person. Some don’t have the volunteer staff to match demand, and the support they received at the height of the pandemic isn’t what it used to be.

    That’s especially true for Black-led nonprofits, which is why the Seattle Medium newspaper has launched a new website called supportblackorgs.com.

    Chris B. Bennett is publisher of the paper. He said the project started even before the pandemic, with the initial goal to highlight the efforts that people were making in the community.

    The aim of the project is to help attract more volunteer staff, and other resources to Black-led nonprofits, which includes the large ones – but also the smaller organizations, which are sometimes run by one person alone.

    “Many of them, their budget is more kind of what some people would term as a “pocket book budget,” Bennett said. “Whatever they have, in their wallet or pocket book at that time, is the budget for that organization.”

    During the pandemic, he added, many nonprofits saw an uptick in donations — and also saw a surge in support amid the 2020 racial justice protests — but he and collaborators didn’t expect it was going to last forever.

    “We knew that the amount of resources were going to diminish, but that we’d still [have a] need in our community for these nonprofits,” he said.

    Continue reading »
  • Dam owner pleads guilty after spilling turf, tire bits in Puyallup River

    The head of a hydropower company has pleaded guilty after putting two football fields’ worth of artificial turf in the Puyallup River in Pierce County.

    The Washington Attorney General’s office is recommending that Electron Hydro and owner Thom Fischer pay a $1 million penalty for a misdemeanor violation, with most of the money going to help restore the river.

    The company put the turf and a plastic liner in the river during in-stream construction work at the century-old Electron Dam in July 2020.

    The liner ripped, and turf and shredded tire bits spread as far as Tacoma’s Commencement Bay, 41 miles downstream.

    The penalty, which awaits approval by a judge, would come in addition to another $501,000 Electron Hydro agreed to pay the Washington Department of Ecology to improve salmon habitat in the river.

    The company is also facing a lawsuit from the Puyallup Tribe and the Environmental Protection Agency.

    “Fish don’t care about fines and bank accounts. They care about safe, unobstructed passage and clean water,” Puyallup Tribal Chairman Bill Sterud said in a press release after the ecology department issued its fine in June 2021. “The dam must be removed.”

    Electron Hydro officials said in a press release on Tuesday that the spill was an unfortunate and unintentional permit violation that the company immediately took responsibility for and worked to clean up.

    “Not a single fish has been shown to have died or suffered any injury because of the accident,” the press release states.

    Shredded tires are known to be lethal to coho salmon.

    “We plan to continue to provide clean energy to our customers, remaining ever mindful of the fragile ecosystem in which we are privileged to go to work each day. The lessons learned from this accident in July 2020 will not be forgotten,” Fischer said in the Electron press release.

    Continue reading »
  • Lawmakers want an airport mulligan: Today So Far

    • Some lawmakers in Olympia want officials to go back to the drawing board to find a site for a new airport in Washington.
    • Three years ago, this happened...

    This post originally appeared in KUOW's Today So Far newsletter for February 28, 2023.

    The potential to place a new major airport in Western Washington has prompted as much pushback as it has excitement. Now it seems that the whole idea could be sent back to the drawing board.

    If and when it does go back to a drawing board, there are at least a couple politicians from the east side of Washington state who are wondering why a new major airport can't be built in their neck of the woods. It's a notion that may have many Washingtonians saying: "Duh!"

    A bill that essentially calls for a mulligan on the airport issue just passed out of a committee with support from lawmakers in Olympia. The basic story here is that the region's travel needs will dramatically increase in the coming years, so state officials with some foresight want to place a new major airport somewhere in Western Washington. Three sites are being looked at, which are referred to as "greenfield" sites — two in Pierce County and one in Thurston County. And no surprise here, nobody wants the airport placed near them.

    "People live in these quote unquote 'greenfields,'" Laura Orion from Thurston County recently said at a committee hearing.

    The bill in Olympia right now proposes to start a new workgroup, different than the first workgroup that came up with the three potential sites. Maybe a fresh look can come up with different options.

    "We want to be looked at," Yakima City Councilmember Patricia Byers recently said.

    Another interesting point in this story by Northwest News Network is that the bill's co-sponsor is Rep. Tom Dent from Moses Lake. That might make folks wonder why this Western Washington issue has gotten the attention of a politician on the other side of the Cascades. Dent has not come out and said, "Put that airport in Eastern Washington," but he has said that the three proposed sites are "wrong" and that the new airport should be at least 90 miles away from Sea-Tac Airport. Such a distance could reach over the Cascades. Dent has also been vocal about building the "airport of the future."

    My Dyer prediction: There is going to be growing interest in placing such a new airport a bit farther from the overcrowded chaos that is Western Washington. If the current bill in Olympia does make it through, expect this to be a big part of the conversation. Read more here.

    Let's take some time to reflect. It was this week, three years ago, that KUOW ran its first local coverage of an emerging concern called "the coronavirus."

    News of the virus had been making headlines for a few months by February 2020, but it started to make local news around this time. Back then, I was a new KUOW employee. I recall a chat with Editor Gil Aegerter, who I have to credit with calling it accurately. "This is going to be the big one," he said, indicating that Covid-19 was going to shut things down and alter our lives. He said this weeks before local headlines, working from home, toilet paper shortages, etc.

    Continue reading »
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