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 passes protections for abortion and gender affirming care
The Seattle City Council has passed two pieces of legislation related to abortion protections and gender affirming care.
One measure makes it a misdemeanor to interfere, intimidate, or threaten someone seeking an abortion. The other measure adds new civil rights protections for those people, as well as those seeking gender-affirming care.
It also allows the city's Office of Civil Rights to investigate claims of discrimination against someone based on their pregnancy outcome.
The measures are slated to go into effect 30 days after Mayor Bruce Harrell signs them.
Both bills were sponsored by Councilmembers Tammy J. Morales, Lisa Herbold, and Dan Strauss.
Councilmember Tammy Morales also plans to introduce a proposal on Friday, Aug. 12, that would regulate pregnancy crisis centers to make sure they don't make false or misleading statements to people they are trying to dissuade from having an abortion.
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Why Washington is excited about latest climate initiatives in DC
Climate policy analysts in Washington state are excited about the federal Inflation Reduction Act, which passed the U.S. Senate over the weekend.
It includes $369 billion worth of investments in climate initiatives — things like tax breaks for clean energy producers, rebates on electric cars, and heat pumps for consumers.
Jamal Raad, with Evergreen Action, a climate policy and advocacy organization, said the last time the federal government made a major investment in clean energy was right after the Great Recession. This legislation would spend four times as much on climate action.
”And even that investment, that ... $90 billion in 2009 revolutionized entire industries, drove down the cost of wind and solar significantly," Radd said. "And so I don't think you can discount how big of an investment this is and how powerful it can be in supercharging our transition to a clean energy economy.”
Raad said Washington is in a good position to take advantage of the transition with its numerous clean energy policies.
The U.S. House is expected to vote on the legislation later this week.
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Invasive Japanese beetles devouring Eastern Washington crops
Invasive Japanese beetles are devouring crops and gardens in Eastern Washington.
The small and shiny invasive Japanese beetles were first spotted in Washington in the 1980s. Adult beetles devour fruits, flowers, and plants, leaving ghost leaves behind, says Amber Betts, who works for the Washington state Department of Agriculture.
“It’s important to know that this beetle does have the potential to really devastate our crops and our food supply," Betts said. "And so what we're doing right now is trying really hard to eliminate that before it happens.”
Betts said the agency has trapped more than 24,000 beetles so far this year.
The current infestation area of 49 square miles is around Grandview. This includes parts of Yakima and Benton counties.
Betts said the agency is working toward setting up a quarantine where plants at risk for beetles would be checked. The quarantine is likely to start next month.
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CHIPS and dip: Today So Far
- You might not realize it, but the CHIPS Act is pretty exciting. But not everyone agrees with me.
- More monkeypox (MPV) vaccine has come to Washington state.
- Joe Kent takes the lead in the 3rd Congressional District; Herrera Beutler concedes.
This post originally appeared in KUOW's Today So Far newsletter for August 10, 2022.
I often say that the news stories most folks skip over are the most important ones. Maybe they seem boring on the surface. Maybe they don't have enough flair, ire, or drama. But in the end, you're affected. Well, buckle in for this one because President Biden just signed the CHIPS and Science Act!
Even that story I just linked above — they wrote about CHIPS against the backdrop of the raid on Trump's mansion. That's the equivalent of hiding a news pill in peanut butter. I'd argue that CHIPS is an investment in tech that has the potential to dip into our daily lives for generations to come — so it's more like CHIPS and dip.
This is essentially a $250 billion national investment in semiconductor manufacturing, among other technological capabilities (and has nothing to do with the 1980s TV show of the same name). The aim of CHIPS to make America more competitive with countries like China, which dominate microchip manufacturing. There has been a microchip shortage ever since the pandemic started, and that has hit us hard. For example, have you noticed that cars cost a lot more lately? That's partially because of a semiconductor shortage and cars use a lot of them.
If you're like my wife Nina, who wanted to reward herself for completing a two-year career training program with a new PS5, you've discovered that you can't find one anywhere — because there aren't enough microchips. If you care about new, renewable energy, then you should care about semiconductors. If you care about local, homegrown jobs, then you should care about semiconductors. Do you like working from home in your pajamas, making Zoom calls, and answering emails ... you get the idea.
Like I said, that's the aim of CHIPS, but I have a feeling it will have other outcomes. Think of it this way — we invested in the 1960s to go to the moon and now you make phone calls across the globe and watch endless channels of TV (thank you satellites). We invested in DARPA and now you're likely reading this on a smartphone that uses the internet (thank you DARPA). To try and list the influence of these technologies here would be exhausting. I have hope that further investment can benefit us in years to come, especially in a region like ours that has a potent space economy.
But not everybody sees things the way I do. There are critics. KUOW's Soundside just covered the range of perspectives on this. On one hand you have someone like Scott Keeney who founded nLIGHT, a semiconductor laser manufacturing company based in Washington. He's excited about the CHIPS Act because it means more jobs and business.
“Everything from your smart phone was manufactured by our lasers, NASA satellites are using our lasers to measure global warming changes — a wide range of applications,” Keeney said.
And then you have someone like Alan Sykes, professor of law at Stanford and "economist by training," who argues that CHIPS could cause the sector to go stale.
“You end up with inefficient, higher-cost production than you would if you would have let the market work on its own,” he said, adding that the government should keep its hands off such innovation and says that the U.S. already has a steady supply of semiconductors from Taiwan.
Sykes says that the CHIPS Act plays into protectionist rhetoric that rose during the Trump administration. Check out the full story on Soundside.
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Washington now has a lot more monkeypox vaccine on hand
Washington state has not had enough vaccines for all the people at high risk of the monkeypox virus, also called MPV. Now, several thousand more doses are on hand with more coming soon. That means more clinics now have the vaccine for those most at risk.
Washington state has roughly 213 confirmed cases of MPV, and 85% of those cases are in King County. Most of the cases have been confirmed via Dr. Matthew Golden’s clinic — the only place that had vaccines back in late July.
"The number of clinical sites that can treat people has grown quite a bit and now includes Kaiser Permanente, Swedish, Poly Clinic, Evergreen, several other UW sites," Dr. Golden said. "And we expect additional clinical sites to be able to treat patients in the weeks to come."
According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, Washington was among 19 states that requested less than a full share of vaccine available to it in July — less than 50%. But Jess Nelson, the public information officer for the Washington State Department of Health, said those figures are misleading.
"The data used in that story was pulled on July 22, and only included Washington’s Phase 1 and Phase 2A orders of 3,550 doses," Nelson explained. As of July 25, the Department of Health ordered 3,660 more doses, and they arrived in the state and were distributed.
The state is operating under a kind of triage, reserving the limited doses for those most at risk, a strategy that has been utilized to help promote equitable vaccine access.
"We know that first-come, first-served approaches aren’t always the most equitable and don’t always reach those at highest risk of recent exposure,” Sharon Bogan with Public Health Seattle & King County said in late July.
With the latest shipment of vaccines, doses have been sent to Whatcom, Skagit, Island, Pierce, Snohomish, and Kitsap counties. More have also arrived in King County, where the majority of cases are located.
To date, Washington has been allocated more than 17,000 doses of the monkeypox vaccine, but it is able to order only 40% of that amount or 6,900 doses, Nelson said. The state will be able to order an additional 5,180 doses on Aug. 15.
The Department of Health is encouraging all those in the high-risk group to get vaccinated. This includes, but is not limited to, men who have sex with men.
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Looking for love, and orcas ... a rom-com review: Today So Far
- Washington's 3rd Congressional District has been watched closely as the primaries heated up, and it has more eyes on it than ever.
- Move over "Sleepless in Seattle." Sorry "Twilight." There's a new rom-com in the Northwest thanks to the formulaic stylings of Hallmark.
This post originally appeared in KUOW's Today So Far newsletter for August 9, 2022.
Washington's 3rd Congressional District has been watched closely as the primaries heated up, and it has more eyes on it than ever.
Votes for Joe Kent have now overtaken incumbent Jaime Herrera Beutler by 960 votes, as of yesterday's count. Kent now has 23% of the vote, and Herrera Beutler has 22%. Washington's primary system sends the top two vote-getters to the main election in November, which means that if the results hold, Kent and Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp Perez will be on the November ballot. Gluesenkamp Perez currently has 31%.
The 3rd Congressional District covers southwestern Washington; basically north of Portland along the Columbia River and includes a range of rural and urban communities. Despite being far away from other parts of Washington, the 3rd has been watched closely because Herrera Beutler was one Republican member of Congress who voted to impeach former President Trump. Kent, on the other hand, is backed by Trump and has favored election conspiracy theories (which have no real evidence). Read more here.
The Herrera Beutler / Kent race is one to watch, which is why I bring it up here. But that's not really what I want to talk about. I want to talk about love.
Move over "Sleepless in Seattle." Sorry "Twilight." There's a new rom-com in the Northwest thanks to the formulaic stylings of Hallmark — "Splash of Love."
And yes, I consider "Twilight" a romantic comedy. I certainly laughed a lot watching it.
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South King County mayors speak up about local crime
Mayors in South King County are calling on state and local leaders to do more to address crime and drugs in their cities.
The mayors of Auburn, Black Diamond, Enumclaw, Federal Way, Kent, Pacific, Renton, and Tukwila detailed their concerns in an open letter last week. They say they are frustrated with recent legal reforms surrounding policing and drug laws. The mayor of Federal Way is currently running for King County prosecutor.
"King County cities are seeing a disturbing rise in violent crime, as well as drug offenses and property crimes including auto thefts, burglaries, and robberies. Our community of residents, businesses, and visitors – the victims of these crimes – are fed up and action is necessary," the letter states.
The letter continues to point out SB 5476, which offers drug offenders options for treatment; HB 1054 which restricts when an officer can pursue a suspect in a patrol car; and a range of other arguments around the current legal and jail system. The letter also notes that the mayors are in ongoing discussions with state leaders and the King County Prosecutor's Office, and the King County Executive.
They mayors, however, did not send a copy of the open letter to the Prosecutor’s Office, and that has the office's spokesperson, Casey McNerthy, questioning the motivation behind it. He said prosecuting attorneys currently are filing 20-30 felony charges a day.
“We’re charging drug dealing cases all the time," McNerthy said. "We’re charging a gun crime every day, multiple gun crimes every day.”
He added that police officers are referring fewer crimes to their office each year, because they can only charge cases with sufficient evidence. McNerthy said the prosecutor's office filed nearly 600 cases in July alone. He also pointed out that prosecutors are filing between 20-30 cases each day while violent crime and property crimes are a priority, and that this work never halted during the pandemic.
"What we're going to do is work with police every day like we have been. and we're going to work with community groups, and we're going to work with mayors, collaboratively, for long-term solutions," McNerthy said. "Not only for prosecuting crime, but also to get at the root causes that cause this crime, because that's how you get long-term, effective change."
Kent Mayor Dana Ralph told KUOW that the message wasn't intended as an "open letter."
“This wasn’t a letter, there seems to be some confusion,” Mayor Ralph said. “This was really more of an open statement, media release … because we’re just continuing to hear significant frustration on the part of residents with the follow up of, ‘Why aren’t you doing something?’
“So it’s about this entire system not functioning together and at the end of the day, that is resulting in our residents and businesses not being safe.”
In response to the open letter/statement, Executive Dow Constantine's office released its own statement:
"It is incumbent on officials in positions of public trust to rely on facts, not hyperbole as is the case with this assertion regarding jail bookings. Over the course of a single Sunday night in July, bookings were limited to only the highest priority cases so limited jail staff could prioritize safe operations in the jail. When that one-time limitation went into effect, jail staff continued to field calls from law enforcement and allowed them to bring in high priority cases in if needed, and in fact at least one jurisdiction did so.
"Public safety is at the top of our priorities, and that means holding people accountable while also addressing underlying causes. Every level of government has a role to play in solving the issues in our streets, which have been exacerbated by a criminal court backlog created by the pandemic, decades of an underfunded behavioral health system, and centuries of institutional racism. We will continue to partner with any government committed to working productively to deliver safety rather than clinging to obsolete practices and mindsets that no longer keep our communities safe."
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FAA clears Boeing to resume deliveries of 787 Dreamliner
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal regulators said Monday they are satisfied with changes Boeing has made in the production of its 787 Dreamliner passenger jet, clearing the way for the company to resume deliveries.
American Airlines said it expects to get its first new 787 in more than 15 months as early as Wednesday.
The Federal Aviation Administration announcement confirmed reports late last month and came days after the agency’s acting chief met with safety inspectors who oversee Boeing.
The FAA said acting Administrator Billy Nolen wanted to hear about steps Boeing has taken to fix manufacturing problems and ensure independence for Boeing employees who work with regulators.
Production of the big, two-aisle 787 has been marred by several problems including gaps between panels of the carbon-composite skin, and use of unapproved titanium parts from a supplier in Italy. Those issues prevented Boeing from delivering any of the planes for most of the last two years, and about 120 have been parked while Boeing tried to fix the production process.
The FAA said it will inspect each plane before it is approved for delivery.
American Airlines was hit particularly hard by the halt in deliveries. Earlier this year, it delayed some planned international flights because Boeing wasn’t able to deliver the planes on schedule.
American said Monday that its newest 787 will come from a Boeing factory in South Carolina and is expected to begin carrying passengers “in the coming weeks.” American said that will make 47 active 787s in its fleet, with another 42 on order.
Shares of Boeing Co., which is based in Arlington, Virginia, gained less than 1% on Monday after being up nearly 4% earlier in the trading session.
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Has the current Covid wave 'crested' in King County?
King County's Public Health Officer Dr. Jeff Duchin says the "CoV-19 BA.5 wave appears to have crested in King County."
What exactly does "crested" mean? Dr. Duchin says Covid levels remain higher than previous spikes in King County, aside from the recent huge omicron wave, but levels are continuing to decline.
The county's online Covid dashboard now states that the community level is "low."
King County is currently averaging 562 Covid cases each day, 21% down from a week ago. Hospitalizations have increased by 19%, however (17 daily Covid hospitalizations). Only 7% of hospital beds are occupied by Covid patients.
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Dramatic twist in WA-03 as MAGA candidate overtakes Trump impeacher
The race in Washington's 3rd Congressional District in the state's southwest took a dramatic turn Monday evening, sending shockwaves through the local Republican party.
Trump-backed Republican Joe Kent pulled ahead of incumbent GOP Congresswoman Jaime Herrera Beutler. The two are vying for second place in an open primary, where the top two candidates from any party advance to the general election.
Kent now leads Herrera Beutler by 960 votes.
Thousands more ballots will be counted this week, but if current ratios hold, a recount looks possible. That would happen after election officials finalize the votes later this month. The Secretary of State's office did not immediately return a request for comment on the possibility of a recount.
Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp Perez has already secured her spot in the general election in the 3rd district. She has 64,718 votes (31%).
Kent has 47,623 (23%), and Herrera Beutler has 46,663 (22%).
Kent, a former Green Beret, has boosted Trump's lies about 2020 election fraud and endorsed the racist "white replacement theory." Kent announced his candidacy in the 3rd district shortly after Herrera Beutler, along with nine other Republicans, voted to impeach Trump.
On Election Day last Tuesday, Herrera Beutler was leading Kent by thousands of votes. But her lead narrowed with each day of counting.
Earlier on Monday, Kent said he was notified by election officials that his signature was not accepted when he first submitted his ballot. His signature and ballot have since been accepted.
Meanwhile, in the 4th Congressional District, another Washington Representative who voted to impeach Trump after the Jan. 6 insurrection, Dan Newhouse, is leading his Trump-backed challenger, former gubernatorial candidate Loren Culp, by 6,000 votes. The Associated Press Friday called that race for Newhouse and Democrat Doug White, who advance to face off in the general election in November.
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Culp refuses to say whether he'll endorse GOP incumbent who voted to impeach Trump
In the primary election for Washington’s 4th Congressional District, Donald Trump’s pick, Loren Culp, has lost. And so far Culp is not endorsing anyone for the general election.
Incumbent Republican Dan Newhouse’s vote to impeach Trump drew several Republican challengers, including Culp, a former gubernatorial candidate and police chief. Now Newhouse faces Democrat Doug White in the general election.
In an email Monday, Culp refused to tell KUOW if he will endorse Newhouse. That “no comment” comes after Culp spent months calling Newhouse names like “swamp monster” and “RINO” (short for “Republican in name only”) over the incumbent’s vote to impeach Trump.
In 2020, Culp falsely blamed a stolen election for his loss in the Washington gubernatorial race against Democrat Jay Inslee.
This time Culp told KUOW he blamed four other Republicans for his primary loss: state lawmaker Brad Klippert, businessmen Jerrod Sessler, marketer Corey Gibson, and army vet Benancio "Benny" Garcia III.
Culp called the four “spoilers” for failing to get out of the way after Trump endorsed him.
“The biggest headwind was from spoiler candidates who claim to be America First and yet stayed in the race after the endorsement by President Trump — the de facto leader of the Republican Party," the Culp campaign wrote in an email.
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Sue Bird's last Storm game (potentially): Today So Far
- Throughout her WNBA career, Sue Bird's jersey proudly stated "Seattle."
- It's National Farmers Market Week.
- Anxiety over last week's primary election hasn't subsided. If fact, it's become more intense in some races.
This post originally appeared in KUOW's Today So Far newsletter for August 8, 2022.
I'm not much of a football fan, but I know who Russell Wilson is. I'm not much of a golfer, but I know the name Tiger Woods. I might not personally be into sparkly vampires, but I am well aware of Edward roaming the Olympic Peninsula in "Twilight."
And I'm not much of a basketball fan, but I certainly know who Sue Bird is. That's the thing about people who do great things, or moments that are so culturally significant they become part of our collective awareness. Sue Bird is a four-time WNBA Champion and five-time Olympic gold medal winner — to name just a few of her many accolades. Throughout her WNBA career, her jersey proudly stated "Seattle."
That, and more, is why a sold-out audience at Seattle's Climate Pledge Arena chanted "Thank you Sue" Sunday, as Bird played her final regular season game with the Storm. After Bird was drafted by the Storm in 2002, she became synonymous with Seattle sports, a hometown hero, and a point of local pride. Through time, the city will always remember a class of athletes whose names are known among fans and and non-fans alike — Ken Griffey Jr., Ichiro, Payton, and Russell. And now, Sue Bird. Read more here.
While this was the last regular season game for Bird, those who still want to see her on the court may have a chance with the playoffs ahead.
It's a good thing that National Farmers Market Week takes place over a whole week, and isn't just a day, because it takes a whole week to get through all the markets across Seattle.
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