KUOW Blog
News, factoids, and insights from KUOW's newsroom. And maybe some peeks behind the scenes. Check back daily for updates.
Have any leads or feedback for the KUOW Blog? Contact Dyer Oxley at dyer@kuow.org.
Stories
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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AG pushing for largest environmental fine in Washington history
Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson wants a hydropower company to pay a $1 million penalty for dumping two football fields worth of artificial turf into the Puyallup River.
The AG's office says, if approved, this would be the largest fine and restitution for an environmental crime in Washington's history.
The turf and plastic liner was placed in the Puyallup River during a construction project in 2020. The liner ripped. Turf and shredded tire bits spread downriver for two weeks, as far as Commencement Bay in Tacoma. Such materials are toxic. The AG's office says this violated the state's Water Pollution Control Act, Fish and Wildlife Enforcement Code, Shoreline Management Act, and Pierce County's local code.
RELATED: Dam owner pleads guilty after spilling turf, tire bits in Puyallup River
Electron Hydro, LLC, which operates a hydropower plant on the Puyallup River, has already pled guilty to a gross misdemeanor for operating an unlawful hydraulic project. A judge still has to sign off on the penalty amount. The company was ordered to pay another half million dollars to improve salmon habitat in the river.
Most of the potential penalty money, $745,000, would go to help restore the river. Pierce County would get $255,000.
“When I took office, very few environmental crimes were criminally prosecuted,” Ferguson said in a statement. “I created our Environmental Protection Division to take on bad actors who endanger our shared environment. Electron Hydro and (CEO) Thom Fischer’s reckless conduct damaged this waterway and put species like salmon at risk. My office will hold accountable any companies that pollute our rivers, put aquatic life at risk and endanger the health of communities.”
Company officials were not immediately available for comment.
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It's an election year. What are Seattle City Council members up to?: Today So Far
- February comes to a frosty end in Western Washington.
- Some medical facilities in Seattle are taking steps to mitigate the impacts of commonly used anesthetics on the environment.
- It's a big election year for the Seattle City Council. Let's take a look at what council members are planning.
This post originally appeared in KUOW's Today So Far newsletter for February 27, 2023.
Weather update: We hit some record cold temperatures last week in Seattle, and it doesn't look like things will change anytime soon. Temperatures will be dipping into freezing territory and then rising into the 40s for a few days, which means anything that falls will be going between wet and ice.
The National Weather Service says to expect a rain/show mix around Western Washington today. Also, about three inches of snow is possible around Seattle this evening. NWS is calling the weather over the next couple days a "minor impact." With this sort of Northwest weather, I predict a lot of minor (and major) impacts on the roads out there, so be very careful.
If you're like me, then you've really appreciated nitrous oxide at the doctor or the dentist. My last trip to the dentist involved a lot of needles and drills ... but I didn't seem to mind. It turns out, anesthetic gases like nitrous oxide or desflurane also happen to be very potent greenhouse gases. That's why some medical facilities in Seattle are taking steps to mitigate their impacts on the environment.
Seattle Children's Hospital, for example, has an extensive system of pipes that carry nitrous oxide throughout its facilities. But those pipes can leak about 90% of its gas supply. That's not very efficient when you think about it. Those pipes are now slowly being turned off and the hospital is transitioning to individual tanks. It's a fascinating corner of our everyday, medical lives, and the response to climate change. Check out the full story here.
Right about now is a good time to bring up the Seattle City Council. As of late last week, all council members up for election this year have revealed their plans for the future. Will they run for re-election? Will they step down from politics? The answers are "yes," "no," and "other."
The big takeaway here is that seven of the nine council seats are up for election this year, four of these positions are wide open with no incumbents. Yet another seat may open up early. This has the potential to shake things up in Seattle, which faces challenges from homelessness to growth. I emphasize the word "potential." Changes like this could be like trading members of the Ramones, or switching up members of the Scorpions. You're either going to get pretty much the same tune, or you can get rocked like a hurricane by the wind of change.
Running for re-election
Andrew Lewis: Lewis joined the council in 2020 and is running for re-election. He is participating in the city's Democracy Voucher Program.
Tammy Morales: Announced in early February that she is running again for District 2 and is participating in the city's Democracy Voucher Program. Morales joined the council in 2020.
Dan Strauss: Announced this week that he is running for re-election in District 6. Strauss joined the council in 2020.
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How the West Coast seafood industry feels the impact of the war in Ukraine
The economic ripple effects of Russia’s war against Ukraine have been felt for more than a year. This includes the West Coast’s seafood industry.
Before Russian forces invaded Ukraine in February 2022, American exports of Pacific hake — or whiting — to Ukraine added up to nearly $95 million worth of fish. But that market’s been gutted in wake of the ongoing hostilities.
“The war in Ukraine, compounded with various trade restrictions that we've been dealing with Russia, have just really put into jeopardy our biggest market for Pacific Hake, which is really the bread and butter for a lot of seafood processors here on the West Coast," said Lori Steele, executive director of the West Coast Seafood Processors Association.
The wartime blow comes as many seafood suppliers and processors are recuperating from the pandemic’s disruption over the last three years. Seafood processors and suppliers are hopeful that congressional support will compel the U.S. Department of Agriculture to purchase such fish products for a third year.
“The USDA supplies food banks, assistance programs around the country," Steele said. "So they're really viewing this as an opportunity to take some of these products that are largely exported and start introducing them to domestic customers and really growing the consumer base for some of these products here in the United States.”
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WSU uses corn tech to make advanced air filter
Scientists from Washington State University have found a way to create more sustainable and efficient air filters. It turns out corn was the key.
Most air filters on the market are made out of petroleum and glass. Those materials can lead to secondary pollution when the filters are thrown away.
WSU's new filter uses corn-based proteins. It’s special because it catches both particles like soot, and toxic chemicals like carbon monoxide at the same time. Current filters are more likely to address particulates in the air. They aren't as efficient when it comes to capturing chemicals in gas form. WSU's corn-based filters capture 99.5% of particulates, and 87% of formaldehyde in the air.
This adds up to a more environmentally friendly air filter.
“Particulate matter is not that challenging to filter, but to simultaneously capture various kinds of chemical gas molecules, that’s more significant,” said WSU researcher Katie Zhong in a statement. “These protein-based air filtering materials should be very promising to capture multiple species of air pollutants.”
It's not just a breakthrough for air filters, but Zhong says this could also lead to better face masks.
“A corn protein is more hydrophobic, that means the protein itself has good resistance to high moisture levels, like, if we use facial masks," Zhong told KUOW.
According to a 2020 American Chemical Society study, 129 billion masks were used and disposed of globally. Zhong says the protein-based technology could help reduce that number.
The study is in April’s issue of the the Journal of Separation and Purification Technology.
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Pay per gallon or pay per mile?: Today So Far
- Would you rather pay 49 cents per gallon of gas, or 2.5 cents for every mile you drive?
- Hydropower in the western US was up 13% in 2022.
- The "holy crap, that's in our products" news just kept coming this week.
This post originally appeared in KUOW's Today So Far newsletter for February 24, 2023.
Washington state was a little more climate friendly last year, at least, considering how we get our energy. Hydropower production was at a 20-year low leading into 2022, largely due to ongoing droughts, but this form of energy increased 13% last year.
There was more snow and rain for the region, which added up to a 17% rise in hydropower in Washington state, and a 19% increase in Oregon. This basically means that the region was using more of a renewable form of energy during that time, instead of relying more on fossil fuels to produce electricity.
As KUOW's John Ryan reports, 11 states in the Western USA produce most of the nation's hydropower, but this region has been suffering under a megadrought for a couple decades. So last year's numbers sound like good news. But hydropower has its critics and drawbacks. Check out the full story here.
Would you rather pay 49 cents per gallon of gas, or 2.5 cents for every mile you drive? That's the big question as Washington state lawmakers consider how to fund roads in the years ahead.
The move to start taxing drivers for every mile they go has long been in the making. The proposal has finally made it to the Capitol in Olympia. The basic idea is that the state's gas tax is taking in less and less money over time. Cars have become more fuel efficient, hybrids are a thing, and electric cars don't even pay the gas tax. Yet, this money is what Washington relies on to maintain roads. Right now, Washington is charging 49.4 cents per gallon of gas at the pump (the feds also charge 18.4 cents on top of that).
The proposed solution to this dilemma is to replace the gas tax with a pay-per-mile tax. Drivers would either plug a GPS device into their car, which would count the miles, or they would manually record it. The state would then charge a tax. Some Democrats seem to like the idea, and some Republicans aren't so into it. And if you're shaking your head over someone tracking you with GPS, and are reading this newsletter on an electric device like a phone or laptop, then you sort of have a pot/kettle situation going on. The thing about this issue is that EVs driving around Washington state don't pay a gas tax. Instead, they pay an extra $225 in registration fees each year. Part of the current proposal would allow EV owners to move over to the pay-per-mile tax. Check out the full story here.
The "holy crap, that's in our products" news just kept coming this week. I already brought up a recent Consumer Reports assessment of popular chocolate bars which were found to have potentially harmful metals in them.
The next day, KUOW had another story about a bill in Olympia that would ban harmful substances in cosmetics, such as lead and formaldehyde. I was pretty ignorant about this. Sure, makeup is not a big part of my daily life, but I still spit out my coffee and said a big "WTF" upon learning that such ingredients were actually a thing. Then, the next day, REI announced it will stop selling products with PFAS in them. PFAS are known as "forever chemicals" and have been used in a lot of products over the years, from firefighting foam to shampoos and fabrics. This stuff doesn't break down and go away, and can have harmful effects on health. REI has now committed to stop selling products, like waterproof clothing and cookware, with PFAS in them.
The Friday Five: News you may have missed this week, and other cool stuff
- Mike's adventures in art: A weekend full of wishes
- Hybrid cars are still incredibly popular, but are they good for the environment?
- This group gets left-leaning policies passed in red states. How? Ballot measures
- The Taliban ended college for women. Here's how Afghan women are defying the ban
- Post-Roe, WA is a health care ‘sanctuary’ — for both patients and providers
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Bumbershoot is back!
After being on hiatus since 2019, Seattle’s annual music and arts festival, Bumbershoot, is back.
A new group of organizers, New Rising Sun, recently announced a plan to restore the event for its 50th anniversary, making Bumbershoot one of the oldest recurring festivals in the United States.
Greg Lundgren, co-founder and creative director of New Rising Sun, said this year’s festival will highlight arts in our region in a unique way.
“What you can see this year that's different is we are creating a fashion district, which will have everything from runway shows, to drag makeup artists, to celebrating emerging designers, and to tattoo to nail art, and having this area that focuses on how we present ourselves and fashion and beauty and tattoos. I think that's a part of the festival that really hasn't ever existed.”
He pointed out that people coming to the festival may arrive dressed one way, and after a visit to the fashion district, they may go home with a whole new look. But the fashion district won’t be the only new addition to Bumbershoot.
“You're going to have modern dancers woven through the crowd,” Lundgren said. “You're going to have sculpture woven through the crowd, you're going to have remote control sculpture moving through the audience. And instead of people having to go find it, [art] is really built into the fabric of the festival.”
This year Bumbershoot will add a recess district, with a focus on performance art and movement. It features SOS Pro Wrestling from Tacoma and skaters from Seattle’s Roll Around Seatown.
There will be focus on culinary arts, that highlights food and chefs from local restaurants, and places where arts intersect with technology.
“I think that what I really what makes me the most excited is, recognizing that our community is a lot richer and broader and more diverse than what people really often give it credit for,” Lundgren said. “I started to look at Bumbershoot is something more than a festival, but as an opportunity to really change the course of the city, a way of really celebrating artists, and a way of breaking stereotypes about what a festival can be, or what an artist is.”
Bumbershoot will be at the Seattle Center, Sept. 2-3
Information on lineups and programs will be announced in the coming weeks.
Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly declared Bumbershoot the oldest recurring festival in the United States.
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Boeing plans to end production of ‘Top Gun’ plane in 2025
Even “Top Gun” couldn’t save the F/A-18 Super Hornet.
Boeing announced Thursday that it expects to end production of the fighter jet in late 2025 after a final delivery to the U.S. Navy.
Production of the plane could be stretched out to 2027 if India places an order, the company said.
RELATED: Air India’s historic Boeing purchase is big news for the PNW
The first F/A-18 debuted in 1983 and was built by McDonnell Douglas, which merged with Boeing in 1997. More than 2,000 Hornets, Super Hornets and Growlers have been delivered to the U.S. military and the governments of many allies, including Canada, Finland, Australia, and Malaysia.
But the plane’s fate has been in doubt in recent years. The Navy had planned not to buy any Super Hornets after fall 2021, citing the age of the plane’s design. Only an act of Congress kept production running.
News of the plane’s curtain call comes less than a month after Boeing delivered the last of its iconic 747 jumbo jet that has been used in passenger and cargo service for half a century.
Boeing said ending F/A-18 production will let it focus on future military aircraft, both crewed and uncrewed, and increase production of other defense programs. The company said it plans to build three new facilities in St. Louis, where the F/A-18s are assembled.
“We are planning for our future, and building fighter aircraft is in our DNA,” said Steve Nordlund, vice president of Boeing’s Air Dominance division.
The company said it will continue to develop upgrades to the current fleet of F/A-18 Super Hornets and EA-18G Growlers. The latter is a carrier-based electronic version of the jet.
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