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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Seattle teachers voting on whether strike Tuesday
Update: The union has voted to authorize a strike on the first day of school, Wednesday, September 7.
Seattle public school teachers are set to announce today (Tuesday) whether they've voted to authorize a strike on the first day of school.
Teachers spent Monday afternoon at Judkins Park preparing signs for the picket lines. They will hold a rally at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday afternoon at district headquarters.
The district presented teachers with a "memorandum of understanding" over the weekend that calls for retroactively paying teachers agreed-upon raises if they continued negotiations and started the school year on time.
Seattle Education Association President Jennifer Matter said in a statement, posted on Twitter, the offer was a distraction and called on the SPS to reach a tentative agreement that "better serves students."
Among the concerns expressed by teachers are reasonable workloads, respectful pay and more wrap-around services for students with special needs.
The district wants to include special needs students in mainstream classrooms with paraeducators, but teachers worry the district will make promises it can’t keep.
There's also concern teachers will wind up being responsible for students with complex needs in addition to their own students.
The Seattle Education Association asks each school have a part-time social worker or counselor, and positions that are paid for with PTA funds at schools with wealthier families.
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Omicron-targeted Covid boosters arriving in Washington state this week
The Washington State Health Department says more than 191,000 updated Covid booster shots are on their way to providers around Washington, and will available to patients starting this week.
The bivalent Pfizer and Moderna shots specifically target the omicron variant. The Pfizer shots have been authorized for those 12 and older, while the Moderna shots are authorized for people 18 and older. To receive either booster shot, one must be two months out from their most recent Covid vaccine dose.
Children between the ages of 5 and 11 can be boosted using Pfizer's original, monovalent vaccine dose at least five months out from their most recent dose.
More doses are expected to arrive in the coming weeks. Officials are urging residents to be patient, as the demand for the booster shots may exceed the initial availability.
You can use the state's online Vaccine Locator to find out where you can get the updated shots.
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Pat Wright, Seattle's first lady of gospel, dies at 78
Pastor Patrinell "Pat" Wright, who dedicated her life to gospel music and community service, died Tuesday, Aug. 30 after a long illness. She was 78.
Wright, known for her soulful voice, had four-octave range.
But she was probably best known for founding the Total Experience Gospel Choir in Seattle, a group that has won more than 150 national and global awards.
Pastor Wright performed at Jimi Hendrix's funeral in 1970 and also sang for former President Barack Obama right after he was first elected.
Wright was also known for giving back to the community and helped people of all backgrounds understand the importance of African American gospel music, in Seattle and around the world.
Wright was also known for giving back to the community. She won many prestigious awards, including a Washington State Governor's Heritage Award and the Martin Luther King Humanitarian Award.
At 78 years old, she is now over the rainbow.
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Kent teacher strike continues as other educator unions weigh picketing
Seattle Public School teachers will be busy this weekend, as they vote on whether to authorize a strike.
The results should be tallied by Tuesday, a day before school is scheduled to start.
Meanwhile, no progress has been made in the standoff between the Kent School District and its teachers, who entered their seventh day of striking on Friday.
And teachers in Port Angeles will decide by Tuesday if they will take to the picket lines as well.
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Free transit rolls out for youth across Washington state
As of Sept. 1, people ages 18 and under can ride transit for free in many parts of Washington state.
In King County, passengers can show a youth ORCA card, a student ID, or simply board Metro buses and Link light rail. The county will move toward a more universal youth transit pass in 2023.
King County Councilmember Dave Upthegrove said he sponsored the transit legislation locally in order to reduce conflicts around fare enforcement, to help young people access jobs and other opportunities, and to build a new generation of transit riders.
“I think the vision is that it will be free transit for youth throughout Washington state,” Upthegrove said. “I don’t know of another state that’s done that.”
He said a state legislative initiative provided money for transit systems across the state to offer free public transit for young people at no cost to their budget.
Under the Move Ahead Washington package, King County Metro will receive an estimated $31.7 million in grant funding to implement its free youth fare policy by Oct. 1, according to the county.
The county said the potential money in the package "far exceeds the estimated $10 million in annual fare revenue typically received from youth under age 19.”
Upthegrove said he expects state funding for the program to endure.
“Future legislatures can always change things,” he said. “But we anticipate this is going to be long-term and I predict it’s here to stay.”
At the U District light rail station in Seattle, riders welcomed the news.
Jesse Van Hoy was exiting the station with his toddler son.
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Seattle teachers rally ahead of vote on whether to strike
Seattle Public Schools educators held a series of rallies in front of several schools on Wednesday, ahead of the Seattle Education Association's vote this weekend on whether to authorize a strike.
The districts contract with the teachers ends Wednesday. While the two sides have been negotiating, union members say they want administrators to further address their concerns about support for students and staff burnout. They also say they want more manageable workloads and pay increases.
Union members plan to meet Wednesday night to consider an action plan. Students are slated to return to Seattle Public Schools next week on Wednesday, Sept. 7.
Meanwhile, a teacher strike continues in the Kent School District has continued into its fifth day, after the district's school board voted against seeking a court order to compel teachers back into the classroom.
In Port Angeles, contract negotiations between Port Angeles School District and its teachers union remain unsettled. The Port Angeles Education Assocation voted this week to authorize a strike if a deal isn't reached by the time their current contract ends on Wednesday.
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Yes, that's a worm in the blackberry you just picked
Seven years ago, my friend and colleague Ann Dornfeld sent me the photo above, showcasing worms in her blackberries.
She wanted me to find out why there were worms in her blackberries. She had picked them and frozen them, and when she pulled the tray from her freezer, noticed that each berry had a tiny friend frozen on top: a worm that had been nesting inside that then climbed on top to escape the sub-zero temps, to no avail.
The story I wrote exploded. Our readers were disgusted — and also a little annoyed that we gave them information that they did not need to know, as these larvae worms are not dangerous to human health.
Now, every August, I message our social media producer to let them know it's that time of year again — let's gross out Seattle, I say, with no small amount of glee.
And here's a fascinating story about how this region got Himalayan blackberries, by Ann Dornfeld.
P.S. I picked blackberries last weekend. There were probably worms, and it didn't matter. So don't let this story ruin your summertime fun.
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Seattle! You can get free Narcan delivered to you
If you appear to be snoozing on the sidewalk, Meghan Hushagen, a nurse who works on Aurora, will wake you up.
“There are people sleeping on the ground all around Seattle; every time I pass by someone who looks like they’re in too deep a sleep, I ruin their nap, check in to make sure they’re okay,” said Hushagen.
Hushagen worries some of these people may be under the influence of opiates, which is why she gives them a nudge to see if she should deploy her ready stash of Narcan, the brand name for Naloxone, which revives a person who may be fading.
Naloxone is free to anyone who orders it in King County – mailed to your door – and Hushagen said she wishes everyone would carry it with them.
On Monday, Hushagen used her Narcan.
“I was working at my permanent supportive housing building,” she said via Instagram messenger. (She had posted about her experience on the social media platform and I wanted to know more. She is my best friend's sister-in-law.)
“A resident came in and said that there was an overdose happening at the ampm across the street from the building," Hushagen recounted. “Staff and myself ran over to check, after grabbing Narcan and found a man unresponsive on the ground. He was experiencing agonal breathing, was not responsive to sternal chest rub.”
They administered Narcan five times. Hushagen said that fentanyl is so strong at the moment that it’s taking more doses of Narcan to bring someone around. The man had a pulse the whole time, so they waited for emergency medical services to arrive.
“He was slowly coming to when we left,” Hushagen said.
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Port Angeles teachers union authorizes strike as negotiations stall
Teachers in Port Angeles have voted to authorize a strike. And if their issues and concerns aren't addressed, they too could be walking the picket lines come this Thursday, which is the first day of school.
The teachers, who are members of the Port Angeles Education Association, are calling for smaller class sizes and more planning time. Their current contract ends Wednesday.
The 250-member union also claims the district has only scheduled four partial bargaining dates since June, adding the district “has yet to agree to the supports our students and our educators need to be successful.”
The district says resolving this issue as quickly as possible is its priority. But school officials are also advising on the district's website that families "explore alternative childcare."
“If the district team is willing to come in, commit the time and attention then we can reach an agreement,” said John Henry, president of the Port Angeles Education Association in a written statement. “Get the district to the table and we can get this done. PAEA is ready. We have been since February.”
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Seattle Children's nurses hope proposed pay hikes will attract — and keep — new graduates
September 1 will be an important day for nurses at Seattle Children's Hospital. That's when Washington State Nurses Association is urging members to vote "yes" on a new contract proposal.
The tentative deal includes a $10 hourly raise for the 1,700 nurses represented by the group within the next 12 months. And by 2024, newly graduated nurses would earn $47.60 an hour— the highest starting rate in the city. Nurses on the first step of the proposed pay scale would see a nearly 50% wage increase by the end of the three-year contract.
“The best way to retain newer nurses and grow the next generation is to raise the floor,” said Pamela Chandran, labor counsel for the Washington State Nurses Association, in a written statement. “We were able to make the wage scale more equitable for nurses at the lower end of the scale while ensuring that senior nurses received increases we’ve never seen before at Children’s.”
Seattle Children's Nurses held a couple of informational pickets earlier this month, highlighting their calls for better working conditions and staffing shortages. The union says those pickets helped it win unprecedented raises for its members.
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Chinook Indian Nation members rally for federal recognition
Members of the Chinook Indian Nation rallied Monday on the steps of a federal building in Seattle to raise awareness for their long fight to get federal recognition.
Chairman Tony Johnson, whose tribal name is Naschio, said his great-great-grandfather and other leaders first hired lawyers to sue for their lands back in the 1890s.
Federal recognition would mean access to federal dollars for healthcare and housing for this group of tribes, which are based in Southwestern Washington, particularly Pacific County. The rally was the start of a campaign by Chinook leadership, they said, to pressure Washington Senator Patty Murray and Senator Maria Cantwell to use their influence in Congress to get the Chinook recognized.
For a brief time twenty years ago, the Clinton administration recognized the Chinook Indian Nation, but the Bush administration revoked that decision in 2002 after another Indigenous nation in Washington state, the Quinault, appealed to the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Johnson said during a speech on Monday that the Chinook nation, which is made up of five tribes – the Cathlamet, Clatsop, Lower Chinook, Wahkaikum and Willapa, according to OPB – refused to sign a treaty that would force them to lose their land, and therefore was never moved to a reservation.
“That place where I drove from this morning with my wife and two of my five kids is the place where our sovereignty springs from,” Johnson said. “We are a sovereign nation, regardless of the government's confusion, and our sovereignty comes from the land and our ancestors.”
Johnson’s son Tahoma Johnson was there as well, and he said opportunities for work and housing in Pacific County are scarce. He lives in a trailer on someone else’s property, according to his father.
“That really bugs me because a recognized Chinook [nation] would have an opportunity to provide him housing,” Johnson said.
Rachel Cushman, the secretary-treasurer for the Chinook, said she was just 15 in 2002 when she heard the news of the Bush administration’s revocation of her tribe’s status. After crying with her mother, she still had to get on the bus and go to work – at the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs, where she was apprenticed to a fish biologist.
“I didn't want to go into a space that made me feel less than, because that's how I felt my whole life,” Cushman said. “I felt less than. And I was made to feel less than. I went into an office full of Native people feeling less than.”
Cantwell did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Zack DiGregorio, a spokesperson for Murray, said in a statement that she understands how important tribal recognition efforts are and "how critical it is that all voices involved be heard" but didn't commit to making any changes.
"She will continue to do her best to serve as a voice in the United States Senate for Washington’s Tribal governments and Tribal people,” DiGregorio said via email.
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More than $1 million forfeited to Romanian government in connection with federal fraud case
A couple who constructed an elaborate bunker on their property near Olympia will forfeit more than a million dollars to the Romanian government, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office in Seattle.
The forfeiture comes after a years-long saga. It began when the Radu and Diana Nemes, a couple from Romania, allegedly engaged in a massive fraud and money laundering scheme to avoid paying imported diesel fuel taxes.
Eventually, the couple moved to Yelm, Wash., where earlier media reports say they joined Ramtha’s School of Enlightenment led by new age spiritual leader JZ Knight. While in Yelm, the couple purchased several properties.
In 2014, they waived extradition and returned to Romania. That same year, the FBI searched their properties.
According to reporting at the time by NBC News, agents found “a fully equipped and furnished underground bunker” along with weapons. The $1.2 million that will be returned to the Romanian government comes from the proceeds from the sale of the couple’s U.S. property and other assets.
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