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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Sea-Tac Airport's holiday travel rebounds out of pandemic
This is going to be one of the busiest travel weeks of the year, and Sea-Tac Airport spokesperson Perry Cooper says nearly 1 million visitors will pass through Sea-Tac terminals between Dec. 19 and Jan. 3.
Cooper notes that the airport continues to rebound from the pandemic travel slump.
"So, Thanksgiving was about 95% of pre-pandemic numbers, now we're at 100%," Cooper said. "And we're asking people to be wary of that, bring your patience, and give yourself some extra time."
The Friday before Christmas, the Monday after Christmas, and after New Year's Day are expected to be the busiest days at Sea-Tac.
Drivers should expect extra company on the road. Congestion is expected on I-5 from Lacey to Tacoma, starting midday Thursday.
Traffic over the passes on I-90 and Highway 2 is forecast to be busiest in both directions on Monday, Dec. 26.
Chains are currently required over Snoqualmie Pass. Traction tires are required over Stevens Pass. Drivers are encouraged to carry chains and winter supplies.
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All I want for Christmas is rent: Today So Far
- KUOW gets advice on the best ways to give during this season of goodwill.
- The Little Free Bakery effort grows in the Seattle area, baking up free food for those who need it.
This post originally appeared in KUOW's Today So Far newsletter for December 16, 2022.
I don't want a lot for Christmas
There is just one thing I need
I don't care about the presents
I might not even have a Christmas tree
I just want a secure home
More than you could ever know
So I'm saving every cent
All I want for Christmas, is rent
I'm sorry/not sorry for getting that song stuck in your head. But it's a tune that a lot of folks in the Seattle area are singing this season, according to Patrick Barredo, director of social outreach and advocacy at St. James Cathedral. While speaking with KUOW about positive ways to give this holiday season, Barredo said one need sticks out more this year.
"The needs that I'm seeing are more requests for rental assistance," Barredo said. "People have been drastically affected by the pandemic. I know that we're a growing region. We are experiencing a lot of good things here. But it's also coming at a cost, where people just aren't able to afford housing. There's not enough affordable housing units, and of course, jobs. Many people want the dignity of being able to say that they are earning their own paycheck, but there are not enough jobs in our region that allow for people to be able to afford rent."
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Rural incarcerations are on the rise in Washington state
Incarceration rates in Washington state’s urban and suburban areas are on a downtrend, but in rural areas, police are booking more people into jail, often for minor offenses.
As a professor of sociology at Washington State University, Jennifer Schwartz started to notice a pattern in her research. While urban area incarcerations in Washington are going down, the number of people imprisoned in rural areas is going up.
“It wasn't the serious transgressions, or the serious criminals that are a danger to the community that kept coming back in," Schwartz said. "It was these sort of minor transgressions that kept the revolving door spinning.”
RELATED: Suicide and staffing issues at King County Jail, ‘a radioactive subject’
Those minor offenses include things like driving with a suspended license or not showing up in court. Schwartz and her colleague Jennifer Sherman received a three-year grant to continue researching rural incarceration. They hope to find potential solutions for policymakers.
Sherman notes that having fewer services in rural areas can contribute to people ending up in jail, such as lack of access to health care.
“Mental health is a huge concern," Sherman said. "And for a lot of people, if that could have been stabilized, if they could have gotten services a lot earlier in their lives, they may never have ended up in the situations that they ended up in and that caused them to end up in jail.”
RELATED: Powwows return to Washington's prisons
Connecting recently released people with social services, assisting people with finding housing, and helping people access medication might help curb these arrests, Sherman said. She also said greater access to health care for rural areas overall would benefit the community as a whole.
Read the full story on Northwest Public Broadcasting.
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Sea-Tac Airport now hosting Little Free Libraries
SeaTac is one of the first international airports to install little free libraries. Two such libraries are now active at the airport, thanks to the efforts of locals and artists.
According to a port blog post, the idea came from Anika Klix, a former employee at the port. Klix had already volunteered to spruce up little free libraries around Kent. The idea for Sea-Tac Airport emerged last year.
The libraries at Sea-Tac were painted by two Seattle-based artists, Elizabeth R. Gahan and Ilana Zweschi. The libraries are located in front of the children's play area and at the top of the underground escalator.
In their blog post, Klix notes that the port has also signed a Read in Color pledge, "to ensure that it provides and distributes books on diverse issues such as racism and social justice as well as in celebration of BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and all marginalized voices for readers of all abilities, ages, and experiences. As an official Read in Color steward, SEA will receive shipments of diverse books at no charge, purchased from BIPOC-owned independent bookstores whenever possible and encourages book donations by BIPOC and Indigenous authors."
Little Free Libraries began in 2009 in Wisconsin. Since then, more small libraries, usually small book cabinets, have popped up in cities across the world. Today, there are more than 150,000 little free libraries across the globe.
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Plenty of Amazon plastic to go around ... the Earth
There is more plastic from Amazon's packaging swirling in Earth's oceans, according the environmental advocacy group Oceana, which says the amount of plastic from the online retailer can circle the planet more than 800 times in the form of air pillows.
A new report by the environmental group states that plastic waste from Amazon packages increased by 18% last year. Oceana estimates Amazon's plastic waste jumped from 599 million pounds in 2020 to 709 million pounds in 2021.
“The science is clear, the type of plastic used by Amazon for its packaging is a threat to the oceans. Customers and shareholders are calling for the company to act. It’s time for Amazon to, as it has on climate, step up and commit to a global reduction in its use of plastic packaging,” said Matt Littlejohn, Oceana’s senior vice president for strategic initiatives, in a statement.
RELATED: Amazon to give millions for affordable housing around Seattle
Amazon has also recently claimed that its use of single-use plastic has dropped. For its part, the company said this week that it used slightly more than 200 million pounds of single-use plastic last year to ship orders to customers.
"In 2021, we reduced average plastic packaging weight per shipment by over 7%, resulting in 97,222 metric tons of single-use plastic being used across our global operations network to ship orders to customers," the company stated.
Amazon further notes that "plastics, especially single-use plastics, are difficult to recycle, so they are more likely to create waste in the long term. Although the plastic packaging Amazon uses today is recyclable, it generally requires our customers to take the materials from their homes to store drop-off locations."
The company also says it is phasing out some of its plastic packaging in favor of paper versions that can be recycled. Of the plastic that remains, it says it is using "less material and more recycled content." Amazon says it was using 50% recycled outgoing packaging in 2021.
The company's data leaves out a considerable source of other plastic packaging made possible through its online-shopping platform, Oceana notes. Third-party merchants sell items via Amazon, but don't use the company's fulfillment services. That packaging isn't included in the company's numbers.
According to Oceana: "While Amazon claims to have reduced average plastic packaging weight per shipment by over 7% in 2021, it has not disclosed by how much its global plastic packaging footprint grew from 2020 to 2021. Amazon’s sales are reported to have grown by 22% in this time period. As sales increase, the company’s plastic footprint grows too. Oceana estimated a plastic footprint growth of 18%, accounting for the plastic reduction measures Amazon has taken in some countries (such as India)."
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Remote learning options mean no more snow days for Seattle schools
As Seattle Public Schools students prepare to go on winter break (next week), they are being told to make sure they take their laptops and other electronic school devices home with them. The main reason is because school officials want students to switch to remote learning if snow cancels in-person classes.
It's the district's solution to making sure the end of the school year isn't delayed any further by unforeseen disruptions, such as snow days.
That's fine by Tamar Rosenblum, a freshman at Franklin High School.
“I actually kind of like it," Rosenblum said. "Because we get some down time that we can just, like, pop outside if it's snowing. So, I like this. And it's also gives us time to just chill at home. And in a more stress-free environment, that's nicer for me, personally.”
Students are already using their built-in weather make-up days to make up for the teacher's strike that delayed the start of the school year. Without the option of remote learning days, Seattle students could be in class until July.
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Starbucks workers plan a 3-day walkout at 100 U.S. stores in a unionization effort
Starbucks workers around the U.S. are planning a three-day strike starting Friday as part of their effort to unionize the coffee chain's stores.
More than 1,000 baristas at 100 stores are planning to walk out, according to Starbucks Workers United, the labor group organizing the effort. The strike will be the longest in the year-old unionization campaign.
This is the second major strike in a month by Starbucks' U.S. workers. On Nov. 17, workers at 110 Starbucks stores held a one-day walkout. That effort coincided with Starbucks' annual Red Cup Day, when the company gives reusable cups to customers who order a holiday drink.
RELATED: Seattle Starbucks employees join nationwide strike
More than 264 of Starbucks' 9,000 company-run U.S. stores have voted to unionize since late last year.
Starbucks opposes the unionization effort, saying the company functions better when it works directly with employees. But the company said last month that it respects employees' lawful right to protest.
Tori Tambellini, a former Starbucks shift supervisor and union organizer who was fired in July, said she will be picketing in Pittsburgh this weekend. Tambellini said workers are protesting understaffed stores, poor management and what she calls Starbucks' "scorched earth method of union busting," including closing stores that have unionized.
Workers United noted that Starbucks recently closed the first store to unionize in Seattle, the company's hometown. Starbucks has said the store was closed for safety reasons.
Starbucks and the union have begun contract talks in about 50 stores but no agreements have been reached.
The process has been contentious. According to the National Labor Relations Board, Workers United has filed at least 446 unfair labor practice charges against Starbucks since late last year, including that the company fired labor organizers and refused to bargain. The company, meanwhile, has filed 47 charges against the union, among them allegations that it defied bargaining rules when it recorded sessions and posted the recordings online.
So far, the labor disputes haven't appeared to dent Starbucks' sales. Starbucks said in November that its revenue rose 3% to a record $8.41 billion in the July-September period. [Copyright 2022 NPR]
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5th Avenue Theatre performances canceled due to Covid outbreak
All weekend performances, December 15-18, of The Wiz at Seattle's 5th Avenue Theatre have been canceled due to multiple Covid cases reported among the cast and crew.
Ticketholders were notified via voicemail and email and were offered refunds or a chance to reschedule their tickets. The 5th Ave Theatre says it will have more information about the status of future performances by Monday, Dec. 19.
RELATED: 'The Wiz' brings Black song and joy to the 5th Avenue Theatre
A spokesperson for Public Health Seattle & King County says they don't have any further information about the cancellation. There have been no public reports of an outbreak among audience goers, but local health officials say they are continuing to see very high levels of respiratory viruses and a rise in Covid hospitalizations.
There is no indoor mask mandate, but state and local public health officers are strongly encouraging people to wear face masks in crowded indoor spaces, particularly among older adults.
Public Health Seattle & King County suggests everyone wear a mask in indoor spaces when they're around others. A spokesperson for the department said, "unfortunately, it’s not particularly surprising that various activities, including shows, may be experiencing the repercussions of illness among staff."
The 5th Avenue Theatre also encourages its audience members to wear highly effective masks — N95, KN95 or KF 94 — but doesn't require them.
RELATED: The two shows in Seattle that should not be missed this holiday season
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Washington man charged with violent, racist threats against members of Congress
A 48-year-old Washington state man was arrested Wednesday and later charged in federal court for making threats against members of Congress.
Officials with the Justice Department allege that Mark Leonetti, of Longview, left hundreds of violent, racist, and antisemitic voicemails, most recently talking about murdering elected officials, using detailed and graphic language.
Over the last two years, Leonetti was warned several times by law enforcement and mental health professionals, but the voicemails continued, officials said.
Nick Brown, the U.S. Attorney for Western Washington, said law enforcement and the Department of Justice are seeing “a dramatic increase” in “political threats.”
U.S. Capitol Police told KUOW there were nearly 10,000 cases involving serious threats of violence aimed at members of Congress last year. That's up nearly 150% over a five-year period.
Brown said as U.S. Attorney he needs to take verbal threats seriously, in part because of concerns that verbal threats can escalate into physical violence.
“We've all seen horrific acts of violence against elected officials or their family members, most recently with Speaker Pelosi's husband in California,” Brown said.
Paul Pelosi, husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, was attacked by an intruder in his San Francisco home in October.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s office in Western Washington did not release the names of the lawmakers Leonetti allegedly threatened.
Leonetti appeared Thursday in the U.S. District Court in Tacoma. If convicted, he could face up to five years in prison because threats were made across state lines.
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Tacoma pastor calls Pierce County Sheriff’s acquittal ‘troubling but not surprising'
“Disappointing” and “troubling.” Those are the reactions of one Tacoma pastor to the not-guilty verdict for Pierce County Sheriff Ed Troyer.
This week a jury acquitted Troyer of both misdemeanor counts stemming from his confrontation with Sedrick Altheimer, a Black newspaper carrier, nearly two years ago.
Annie Jones-Barnes is pastor of Rock City Church in Tacoma. She said it seems like Troyer is avoiding any penalties for the trauma he caused Altheimer.
“What does that do for this young Black man — and there are a lot of other people that look just like him and feel like the system is rigged against them,” Jones-Barnes said. “As a person who really holds hope high, when you consistently get things that are more of the same, it really depletes the hope for change.”
She said Troyer’s trial was top of mind among her acquaintances, and she saw the signs in Tacoma’s Hilltop neighborhood calling on him to resign.
Jones-Barnes says she would feel more hopeful if the case could spur people to seek more common ground and understanding. And if there were some next steps by the people and agencies involved.
“I feel like the Sheriff’s office and many offices around here need to be in trainings around anti-racist behaviors," Jones-Barnes said. "How do we set up policies to ensure that everybody thrives?”
But instead Troyer “just gets to walk away,” she said.
“I have grandchildren that I don’t want to have to deal with these issues,” she said.
Troyer said he was unfairly accused of lying and racism for following Altheimer on his paper route and calling in a police response. Troyer said he couldn’t see Altheimer’s race until Altheimer confronted him, and that Altheimer threatened to “take him out,” which Troyer took as a threat on his life.
Altheimer has filed a federal lawsuit seeking $5 million in damages against Troyer and Pierce County.
Update 12/16/2021 :
Dr. Gregory Christopher of Shiloh Baptist Church is the president of the Tacoma Ministerial Alliance. He called the jury verdict perplexing, and a setback for building community trust. "Sedrick Altheimer could have been killed," he said. "Naturally we're frustrated. We're trying to build better relationships with law enforcement, but this makes it difficult."
Christopher said he appreciated the courage of Tacoma police officers who testified, including Detective Chad Lawless who said Troyer told him that night that he was not threatened by Altheimer.
Christopher said Troyer's defense attorneys "demonized Sedrick Altheimer, and tried to make Troyer look like an angel." Christopher said that clashed with his memory of Troyer's misstatements about the facts of Manuel Ellis' death at the hands of law enforcement in 2020.
Christopher said "we've got great Tacoma police officers and great sheriff's officers," but added, "in every group there are some people that don't have the temperament for the job, and should be held accountable."
The Washington Coalition for Police Accountability, which is led by family members of people who died in police encounters, also issued a statement on the verdict in Troyer's case:
"Just because a person has a badge doesn't give them the right based on a person's color to deem them a threat to the community, resulting in harassment and lasting trauma. Mr. Altheimer was simply doing his job. WCPA will continue to push legislation for transparency and accountability, and challenge the narrative so that this type of conduct doesn't happen to another community member in any jurisdiction across Washington state."
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Washington’s youngest kids can now get an updated Covid-19 booster
Kids under 5 are now able to get an updated Covid-19 booster shot in Washington state.
Federal regulators approved the omicron-specific shots for young kids last week, and providers in the state started receiving doses Monday.
Michele Roberts with the state Department of Health said Tuesday that kids 6 months and up are becoming eligible for the booster at a crucial time.
"Our hospital systems in Washington state are being overwhelmed with pediatric cases of many respiratory illnesses," Roberts said. "Having updated protection against Covid-19 is an essential step towards keeping our kids out of the hospitals and our community safe.”
Last month, children’s hospitals across the state were seeing an unprecedented influx of young patients with respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).
Public health officials say RSV cases appear to have peaked in the state and are now leveling off, but flu and Covid-19 cases continue to rise in various age groups.
As of earlier this week, 71,700 doses of the updated boosters for kids 6 months and up had been ordered in Washington state, according to the state Department of Health. More than 60,000 of those doses had been delivered to providers.
Providers will continue to receive more doses in the coming weeks as the state is allocated more inventory.
Eligibility for the updated boosted differs slightly for state’s youngest kids, compared to other age groups, like no mixing and matching.
According to the state Department of Health, the criteria include:
• Children 6 months through 5 years of age who received the two-dose Moderna Covid-19 vaccine series are now eligible to receive a booster of the updated Moderna Covid-19 vaccine two months after their last dose.
• Children 6 months through 4 years of age who have not started or completed their three-dose Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine series will now receive the updated Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 booster as the third dose following two doses of the original vaccine.
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What is legal, what is logical, and what happened: Today So Far
- Pierce County Sheriff Ed Troyer has been found not guilty by a jury.
- Housing and homelessness are a major focus of Gov. Inslee's new proposed budget.
- Hospitals face a considerable funding crisis while flu and Covid cases rise.
This post originally appeared in KUOW's Today So Far newsletter for December 15, 2022.
Pierce County Sheriff Ed Troyer is not guilty, according to a jury's conclusion that came down last night.
Troyer was charged by the state with false reporting and making a false or misleading statement to a public servant. He was acquitted of both charges. The state accused the sheriff of telling a dispatcher one thing (that a Black newspaper carrier threatened to kill him), and then telling responding officers something else. Troyer said that was not the case, and that he did tell officers he was threatened, but that they reported otherwise. The state argued that Troyer was not threatened, he was disrespected (perhaps not just by the newspaper carrier, but later, when officers called him a "douchebag" in private messages).
Troyer has laid out a counter narrative, which basically says that the attorney general and governor were going after him, and the media was targeting him. “The media’s made me out to be a racist, and the state’s made me out to be a liar,” is the big quote that emerged from his testimony.
There are a lot of angles to the Troyer trial (and there will be more legal challenges over this), but a big issue here is one that I've seen happen in a lot of cases: What is legal and what is right/wrong. They're not always the same. Without getting into the specifics of the case (I'm not a lawyer), sometimes there is what is written down in the law, and therefore what juries are deciding on, and then there is what the rest of us are thinking.
It's 2021, you're a sheriff, but you're in a city's jurisdiction, and you see something suspicious. Just call 911 right away. Why are you getting up close and nosy like that one annoying neighbor everybody avoids (and who always seem to mess with delivery drivers)? If you really think you're spotting a thief, a porch pirate (in the early a.m. hours when no deliveries are being made), then stay in your lane and call the appropriate authorities. Do you honestly think that if you, the sheriff, calls a dispatcher, you're not going to get every patrol car within radio distance? That seems logical to me, but it's not what happened. That's the sort of conversation I've had. But that's not the same conversation a jury is charged with. We're all likely to eventually hear the reasoning behind the jury's decision. My Dyer prediction is that it could fall along these lines.
KUOW's Amy Radil has covered this trial well over the past couple weeks. Check out her coverage here.
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee has put forth his budget proposal for next year. As I brought up yesterday, this proposal places a significant focus on housing. The proposal still has to be approved by lawmakers, but if Inslee's plan gets a thumbs up, voters may have to ultimately decide whether or not they want the state to spend $4 billion to address affordable housing and homelessness. As the Associated Press reports, that money will likely come from bonds.
We're not in the "pandemic era" anymore. At least, not like we were over the past couple years.
I'll say that in another way — we are not experiencing the pandemic anymore, however, our medical and emergency systems are still in a similar state as during the lockdown times. Currently, Washington's hospitals face a dire financial situation. Revenues are not covering expenses.
The concept a lot of people had difficulty understanding during the pandemic is that we were trying to protect our hospitals from becoming overwhelmed. So while it's great that Covid wasn't bad for you, it was still bad for the next person, and the person after that who got sent to hospitals. If Covid patients fill all the rooms, that's bad news for the heart attack patient, or the car crash patient — there's just not enough medical personnel, beds, and funding to go around.
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