KUOW Blog
News, factoids, and insights from KUOW's newsroom. And maybe some peeks behind the scenes. Check back daily for updates.
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Stories
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Seattle Indian Health Board celebrates new Pioneer Square clinic
Seattle’s Pioneer Square neighborhood saw a grand opening Thursday – for a new health clinic focused specifically on the needs of Native American patients. It’s on the ground floor of a new 80-unit apartment building operated by the Chief Seattle Club.
The clinic is operated by the Seattle Indian Health Board, and started seeing patients earlier this month.
The Board’s president and CEO Esther Lucero said the Chief Seattle Club next door already provides human services to thousands of Native people in Seattle.
“So we knew we had to bring services to an environment where people felt safe and comfortable already, and that’s something that Chief Seattle Club offers,” Lucero said.
The new clinic offers medical care, a lab, mental health counseling ,and medication-assisted treatment for addiction, as well as a pharmacy.
It also has rows of sweetgrass lining the walls of its corridor. It’s meant to have a healing influence. Lucero said the clinic will integrate traditional Indigenous healing practices in its approach to care.
“That means as a federally qualified health center, we see all people," she said. "But we see all people in a Native way. You’re not going to get that kind of service anywhere.”
The Seattle Indian Health Board still operates its larger clinic in the Chinatown International District. And it’s expanding this fall to a clinic in the Lake City neighborhood.
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Music and design highlight Seattle's weekend arts calendar
We reach out for recommendations on arts and culture events around Seattle every week. Today, Paige Browning talked with KUOW's new arts and culture reporter Mike Davis.
Pier Sounds at Waterfront Park
They’re having a free concert this Saturday featuring the Black Constellation Collective. Porter Ray is definitely one of my favorite local rappers. If you hear his laid-back delivery, it is almost like just hearing rainfall on your window. It’s so smooth. And JusMoni, she's so soulful. And Stas THEE Boss, who makes her own beats, if you want to talk about flavor, that's flavor for you right there. I'm very excited for this show. And as a special treat, Larry Mizell Jr. is going to DJ.
Seattle Design Festival in Lake Union Park
This starts with a block party Saturday and Sunday, but the event goes all next week. The theme is connection. They’re talking about how to connect different people. One of the installations I'm super excited to see is called Bridge the Gap. It comes from the Youth Advisory Board at Coyote Central. They went to Seattle schools and community centers to ask the youth to create art that talks about how the pandemic impacted them, and to remind youth in other parts of the city that the community is still very connected. I'm excited to see what those kids made.
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Trans patients often travel out of state, pay more for gender-affirming care, study finds
Getting gender-affirming surgery is considered a critical part of medical care for some transgender and gender-diverse people. But researchers have found that more than half of those seeking that surgery have to travel out of state for it.
That's according to a study co-published this summer by the University of Washington and Oregon Health and Sciences University.
UW epidemiologist Sarah Holt is one of the authors.
"At University of Washington, we get people traveling from quite far, and then they have to go back home and they might not have the appropriate providers in place to help them," Holt said. "And so what we worry about is this patient population possibly having worse outcomes, having more re-admissions."
Holt said one reason these patients are not getting care in their home state is that they can't find a surgeon who can do the procedure.
Holt added that those who have to travel end up paying at least 50% more out of pocket for gender-affirming surgery.
The study is published in JAMA Network.
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Crisis in our 'health care continuum': Today So Far
- Harborview Medical Center is at 130% capacity. Why?
- A new energy source for this Snohomish County PUD.
- Get ready for some more high temps coming our way.
This post originally appeared in KUOW's Today So Far newsletter for August 18, 2022.
Am I the only one who thinks it's a big red flag when Harborview Medical Center starts saying it needs help?
Headlines broke last week that Harborview is at 130% capacity. Dr. Steve Mitchell, medical director of Harborview's Emergency Department, tells KUOW's Seattle Now that "staffing, staffing, staffing" is the root cause of the issue.
"This is, frankly, a new adventure for us; we've never been this high before," Dr. Mitchell said.
Ambulances cannot unload some patients because there's no room for them in the Emergency Department. That department is stalled because there are no beds to move patients into. Many of those patients could be moved to other facilities, where they can get longer-term care, but there is no room at those facilities. And on it goes.
"It's staffing in all parts of the health care continuum," Mitchell said. "...it starts when people call 911 and ask for a medic unit or an ambulance, it continues with hospitals. And importantly, this is where the primary bottleneck is today — what is referred to as the 'post acute care setting' — Harborview right now has 100 patients who no longer require hospitalization ... but we can't release them. They need that next level of care. They need help with various things ... but patients are unable to provide for themselves, or they need help with medications, or they need help with physical therapy."
The result is that a lot of care at Harborview is actually being done in the waiting room. Patients are being placed in hallways and in what used to be office spaces. Some ambulances are being turned away, Mitchell said.
Harborview Medical Center is a level 1 trauma and burn center. It's our region's disaster control hospital. Patients are flown in from as far as Alaska and Montana. So if a problem gets so big that Harborview is strained, that says something. At the heart of the issue are difficulties with staffing, at the hospital and other medical facilities in the area.
Dr. Mitchell notes that Harborview experienced 40% turnover last year. That means it's hiring as fast as it can, and new recruits for its front line are still getting up to speed. The strain is falling largely on front line nurses and technicians.
"What we've been seeing, unfortunately, our nurses are leaving and choosing ... less stressful positions, in a lower acuity clinic," Mitchell said. "And then we are seeing a larger number of retirements than we've ever seen before as well."
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What Washington's SoS candidates think of ranked-choice voting
The two candidates vying to become Washington's next secretary of state are sharing their views on rank-choice voting, and they don't agree.
Democrat Steve Hobbes and Pierce County Auditor Julie Anderson (running as an independent) will be on the November ballot for the job. They squared off in a debate Wednesday, hosted by the Association of Washington Business.
Anderson says she supports a bill in the Legislature that allows for local communities to adopt ranked-choice voting, if they want.
“Ranked-choice voting is coming to Washington state and I don’t know which local jurisdiction it’s going to land first, but what I do know is that we need a secretary of state that’s not going to stick their head in the sand and who will get ahead of this," Anderson said.
Hobbs, however, said he doesn't support ranked-choice voting, at this point. He argues that it would further undermine trust in elections and can be hard to understand, especially for people like this mom, who is an immigrant, and his son who has developmental disabilities.
“What I would ask the advocates, is to just take a pause; take a moment because there are effects to this that you’re not thinking about — negative effects that affect communities of color and people with developmental disabilities," Hobbs said.
Hobbs is Washington's current secretary of state. He was selected by Gov. Jay Inslee to fill the role after former Secretary of State Kim Wyman left the job to work for the Biden administration.
Voters in a ranked-choice system rank their candidates in order of preference, instead of just choosing one. Then there is a runoff process to select the ultimate winner.
In Seattle, two twists to the city's election system will be up for voter consideration on the November ballot, one of which is ranked-choice voting. That measure is being put forth by the Seattle City Council. Another idea on the ballot will be "approval voting," which also allows voters to pick more than one candidate. The two candidates with the most votes move forward.
Ranked-choice voting is already used for elections in the United States. Alaska and Maine both use it for state and federal elections. New York City used it for its last mayoral primaries. And Minneapolis uses it for city races.
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Children in stolen vehicles account for most of 2022’s Amber Alerts, WA officials say
The Washington State Patrol has noticed a considerable spike in car thefts, and that is spilling over into cases of abducted children — cars are being stolen with kids inside and that accounts for most of this year's Amber Alerts.
So far this year, car thefts in Washington state have risen 78%, compared to the same time period last year, according to the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs.
Carri Gordon coordinates all missing person alerts at the Washington State Patrol. She said Amber alerts generally involve intentional abductions of children under age 17. An alert for a missing child is relayed to local law enforcement, media, and even your smartphone.
But 2/3 Amber Alerts issued so far this year in Washington state have involved children sitting in vehicles that were eventually stolen.
“It’s just a freak thing that just started happening this past year or two,” Gordon said, adding that “kids are being left in running vehicles that are stolen and it’s becoming a problem.”
They include a one-year-old girl in Yakima and a three-year-old girl in Bothell.
A third child was mistakenly believed to be in a stolen vehicle in Seattle. All were found safe.
Gordon said according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the trend is national, and not unique to the state.
She said Washington has averaged 4-5 Amber Alerts per year in recent years. Then there were nine in 2021. Two of those also involved children in vehicles that were stolen.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this story misstated the period of time over which the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs compared car theft data. The story has also been updated with new data from the association.
This story was most recently updated on Thursday, Aug. 18 at 3:50 p.m.
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Seattle resolution condemns harassment against elected officials and political candidates
Attacks on elected officials and people running for office won’t be tolerated. That’s the message behind a Seattle City Council resolution passed this week. The measure follows recent local incidents in which people of color were targeted.
Carey Anderson, a Black pastor running for an open House seat in the 30th Legislative District, was among them. Last month he was shot at with a BB gun while placing campaign signs in Auburn.
“I never thought that I would be shot at by doing public service and trying to make a difference,” Anderson said.
According to the police report, the suspect was a white man in his 20s.
In July, police arrested a man with a gun for allegedly standing outside the home of U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal while yelling obscenities. He has since been charged with felony stalking.
“We send a message today with this resolution that racist, sexist attacks, or threatening one’s family or children is unacceptable,” said Council member Teresa Mosqueda, who sponsored the resolution.
According to a 2021 National League of Cities survey, 81% of elected local officials of all races and genders have experienced harassment, threats and violence.
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Seattle City Attorney says her office is filing more cases, more quickly
In a new report, Seattle City Attorney Ann Davison said misdemeanor cases from the office’s criminal division are moving forward more quickly now than at any time in the past five years — and criminal filings have increased significantly compared to last year, at 124%.
Davison said the median time for her office to make a filing decision on a case is now three days.
Over the past five years, it took the office a median of 129 day to offer any response, Davison said, including whether to decline, divert, or prosecute a case referred for charging by Seattle police. Davison said that waiting more than four months to make a filing decision sent the wrong message to victims of crime.
“That tells a victim that what happened to them didn’t matter, that tells an officer that their work didn’t matter and we just sat here and let things go stale,” she said.
Davison said the delays also meant more cases were dropped as victims or witnesses moved away. Last year, the office declined more than a quarter of its domestic violence referrals – 27% – due to difficulty in contacting victims. So far this year, she said, just 8% of domestic violence cases were declined for that reason.
“We have seen that dramatic increase in survivor participation in domestic violence, because we’ve been more responsive,” Davison said.
Davison took office this year after incumbent City Attorney Pete Holmes lost his re-election bid. In February, she announced plans to make filing decisions within five days of every police referral.
The report said over 80% of referrals now receive a filing decision within five business days, noting that “domestic violence referrals are afforded an additional week to engage in a trauma informed approach, which considers input from the victim on their safety concerns. Referrals involving LEAD clients get 30 days for clients to engage in services.”
Davison inherited a backlog of 5,000 cases, and this spring announced plans to dismiss 2,000 of those cases in order to act on new ones more quickly. So far, the new report said her office has made filing decisions on 900 of the backlogged cases.
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Dan Price, Seattle CEO who lowered his pay to $70K, resigns amid sexual misconduct allegations
Seattle CEO Dan Price is stepping down from his job as he faces sexual assault allegations and legal challenges.
Price, 38, has garnered headlines ever since 2015, when he cut his own salary and set a $70,000 minimum wage for employees at his company Gravity Payments.
RELATED: Dan Price accused of sexual misconduct
In May, Price pleaded not guilty to misdemeanor assault and reckless driving charges. A woman accused him of grabbing her throat and alleges that he tried to forcibly kiss her as they sat in his car following a dinner meeting.
Via Twitter Wednesday, Price announced that he is resigning from Gravity Payments, the credit card processing company he founded. He said he made the decision because he doesn't want to be a distraction while he fights "false accusations."
Price tapped Gravity Payments' chief operating officer Tammi Kroll to take over as CEO.
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Second heat wave of 2022 hits Northwest. A third is in the forecast
For the 11th time this year, Seattle-Tacoma International Airport hit 90 degrees on Wednesday, as did much of south King County and the south Puget Sound region.
The Cascade foothills got even hotter.
Maple Falls, on the Mount Baker Highway, hit 94 degrees, while Marblemount, at the base of the North Cascades, hit 95 degrees.
Much of the Pacific Northwest was put under a heat advisory or heat warning for Wednesday through Thursday night.
The National Weather Service has issued an extreme heat warning for most of eastern Washington through Friday night.
Much of eastern Washington hit triple digits Wednesday, with Richland Airport reaching 107 degrees.
In western Washington, the weather service expects the extreme heat to last just a couple days before cooling off for Friday and the weekend.
With this heat wave expected to be less extreme near the cool waters of Puget Sound, Seattle officials said they are not activating emergency resources yet. But air-conditioned libraries in the city will be open regular hours as safe spaces to cool off.
Heat waves are coming more frequently and more intensely with the earth’s changing climate, especially at night, making it difficult for the many Northwesterners who lack air conditioning to cool off after hot days.
Washington state climatologist Nick Bond said as the climate continues to heat up – due to the heat-trapping gases humans continue to pump into the atmosphere – we can also expect to see extreme temperatures later in the year.
“That window in which we see temperatures that have impacts on humans and our ecosystems is liable to lengthen, especially later in the summer,” Bond said.
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Do the right thing and go check out this MoPOP exhibit: Today So Far
- Good news for Washington's green and clean businesses.
- Tacoma gardeners have a solution to the "zucchini problem."
- MoPOP's newest exhibit shines a spotlight on Ruth Carter's iconic costume designs from Hollywood classics.
This post originally appeared in KUOW's Today So Far newsletter for August 17, 2022.
You feel that? Excitement is in the air throughout the Northwest (it's not just the aroma of Tacoma).
Clean energy and climate-friendly businesses just got a big financial boost from the federal government, and that is good news for Washington businesses.
“It’s a great turning point,” said Tim Acker of Seattle-based Biosonics. “We have so much here in the Pacific Northwest to support this. So, we see nothing but really positive times in the next 10 years.”
Biosonics is a good example. It produces monitoring equipment for marine life — perhaps not what someone would immediately think of when it comes to businesses that will be benefiting from the federal government's $375 billion investment in renewable energy and reducing climate pollution. But this effort has the potential to reach many corners of the clean industry. Other corners include modern nuclear power and hydrogen production, which are also present in the Northwest. Northwest News Network's Tom Banse has the full story here.
If you're strolling around Tacoma's Jefferson Park on a Sunday afternoon, you just may find a treat — zucchini!
“Gardeners always call it the zucchini problem,” David Thompson said while handing out free produce. “And it’s always a big joke that you’ll leave it in the neighbors' cars and whatever you can to get rid of that zucchini. This solves the zucchini problem.”
It's not just zucchini. There's kale, carrots, onions, Swiss chard, to name a few. And it's all free for folks who want it. The Thompsons have always grown extra food in their own gardens. In 2015, they started giving it away for free to those in need. As the pandemic struck, and food insecurity rose, the Thompsons and other neighbors increased their efforts. Food rescue groups have chipped in to get the food to where it is needed. KUOW's Ruby de Luna has the full story here.
Average movie goers may not immediately know the name Ruth Carter. But they should. Carter is an Academy award winning costume designer whose fingerprints are all over blockbuster, critically acclaimed, and highly loved films. Pay attention and you'll find her name in credits for films like "Amistad," "Serenity," "Malcolm X" or "Black Panther." I'd like to also give a shoutout to 1988's masterpiece "I'm Gonna Git You Sucka."
Actors and directors often get the most attention when it comes to films. We often wait until the very end of an award show to hear who the "best actor" is, and we don't tune in as much to hear about "best sound editing." But there is a range of talent that makes a movie what it is, from cinematographers to editors, and costume designers. It is difficult to experience "Black Panther" without the aesthetic provided by Carter.
One great thing about MoPOP is it often ensures that you don't miss such talents throughout pop culture. It's latest exhibition, "Afrofuturism in Costume Design," showcases Carter's work, from "Do the Right Thing" to "Coming 2 America," "Selma" to "Malcolm X." Behind each film, and each costume, is a work ethic, and, as Carter puts it, a "heart and soul." KUOW's Mike Davis has the full story on this new addition to MoPOP.
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Not as many apples are coming from Washington this year
This may not be a big apple year in Washington, a state renowned for its apples.
Washington's apple crop is expected to be smaller than average this year, thanks to a cool and wet spring, and a slow start to the summer.
The Washington State Tree Fruit Association announced this week that is is projecting a total of 108 million apple boxes for 2022. That's down 11% from 2021 (122.3 million boxes).
Keep in mind that those boxes weigh 40 pounds each.
Washington's top apples, by production, are Gala, Red Delicious, Honeycrisp, Granny Smith, and Fuji.
Oregon Public Broadcasting reports that this year's harvest will be 20% Gala; 14% Red Delicious; 14% Honeycrisp; 13.4% Granny Smith; 12.7% Fuji.
The one apple bucking this trend is Washington's own Cosmic Crisp, according to the Yakima Herald, which is in a unique spot. Cosmic Crisp is expected to be 4.6% of the harvest this year. Last year it was 3.2%. As a newer apple on the scene, it's been growing over the past years.
This is not the only crop that the extended spring and cooler summer has affected. In June, cherry growers were noting that their harvest would likely be delayed this year. In mid-April, snow was falling on many of Washington's cherry orchards — 40% had not even bloomed at that time.
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