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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Excessive heat warning remains in effect through Saturday
An excessive heat warning is in effect in the Seattle area until Saturday night. With temperatures topping 90 degrees, many people are retreating indoors to beat the heat.
But for some, like those who live or work outdoors, that's not an option.
For people like Tim Sonia, the labor foreman at a construction site in Seattle’s Green Lake neighborhood, the heat is hard to escape.
When asked Wednesday how he and his colleagues were faring during the high temperatures, he replied, “It’s terrible.”
Sonia said crews went through the same thing during last summer’s extreme heat wave and they have protocols in place to help them stay safe, like taking frequent breaks.
"Pretty much we work for about an hour, we take a 10- 15-minute break, hydrate in the shade, try again and repeat all day," he said.
Sonia said people are aware of the signs of heat stress and keep an eye on one another as they work.
Heat wave risks
Extreme heat can be deadly. Last year’s heat wave was the deadliest weather-related disaster in Washington state’s history with an estimated death toll of about 400.
Outdoor workers, older adults, young children and people with chronic health conditions are among those who are at higher risk for health problems in the heat, according to Public Health – Seattle & King County.
Across the region, hospitals are coordinating in anticipation of a higher patient load due to heat-related illness.
Dr. Marie Vrablik is the medical director for the emergency department at University of Washington Medical Center — Montlake .
She said hospitals are on alert to see whether things this year will be as bad as they were last year, and trying to work out how to care for heat-related patients in a system that’s already strained due to staff shortages, delayed care during the pandemic, and rising numbers of Covid-19 patients.
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Low tides go out a bit earlier amid heat wave, endangering fewer shellfish
Some potentially welcome news for shellfish and their fans: While Puget Sound is having fairly low tides this week, exposing tidepool life to extreme heat, they're mostly morning lows — before the worst heat of the day — at least in Seattle and central Puget Sound.
Low tides are predicted between about 10:15 a.m. and noon this week in Seattle, according to tidal forecasts by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. In south Puget Sound, the tides will go out about an hour later, as late as a 1:07 p.m. low tide on Friday in Olympia.
Last year, extreme heat and very low afternoon tides combined to kill many millions of shellfish in Washington and British Columbia.
“All the butter clams in that one section had unburied themselves and were basically frying in the sun,” Swinomish Tribe shellfish biologist Julie Barber recalled. “It's not an easy thing to see.”
Low tides during last year’s three-day heatwave hit between 1 and 3 p.m. in Olympia. The tides ebbed up to 2.5 feet lower than those forecast for this week, exposing many more tidelands to lethal heat.
In addition, this week’s temperatures in Western Washington, while extreme, are not expected to match the record-shattering temperatures of the 2021 heat wave.
University of British Columbia biologist Chris Harley estimated that hundreds of millions of mussels, if not more, died in the June 2021 heat wave in Washington and British Columbia.
“The total number of animals that died is probably well over a billion,” he told KUOW last year.
More on that salty heat disaster from KUOW here and here.
More updates on KUOW's Today So Far Blog
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It's no longer the 'murder hornet': Today So Far
- It's no longer the "murder hornet."
- This is your cooling window during this week's heat wave.
- The 988 hotline is live and specialists have observed a few things about the job.
This post originally appeared in KUOW's Today So Far newsletter for July 27, 2022.
I hope you were able to get up early today and stick some box fans in your windows. The overnight lows dipped into the 60s, but not for too long, so that was our opportunity to cool down our homes after record-breaking heat on Tuesday.
Bellingham, Olympia, and Seattle (really SeaTac) broke high temperature records yesterday. And it's looking like we will be reaching daily highs in the 90s through Friday around Puget Sound, according to the most recent Weather Service forecast. Folks out on the coast or up around Bellingham are a bit more lucky. It still looks like overnight lows will continue to dip down into the 60s in the early, early morning hours this week — that is your window to cool down your home.
The new 988 suicide prevention hotline just went active and specialists on the other end of the line have observed a few things since starting the job.
"These are just regular people in your everyday life calling, and I look around at people, and it really just further drilled into my head that you never know what somebody's going through," said Kai Cuevas, a 988 crisis call specialist. "And that's why you always have to prioritize kindness and respect."
You never know what that irate person is dealing with when they cut you off on the road, get snippy with you in line, and so on. I often have to remind myself that. It's a lot easier to just say someone is a jerk and file them in your brain as a simple undesirable. But something is going on there. And on the extreme end of this is the issue of suicide and other drastic actions. That's what 988 is for. You never know if a person you crossed paths with will be dialing it later. Soundside has the story here.
We were introduced to it as the "murder hornet." It also went by its other name, the "Asian giant hornet." But now it has a new name.
The Entomological Society of America has dubbed this invasive bug as the "northern giant hornet." The name is meant to focus in on the region of northern Asia where the hornet comes from. It also distinguishes it from the "southern giant hornet" and the "yellow-legged hornet" which are also quite large and similar to the northern variety.
RELATED: Washington takes out a hornets nest
Whatever you call it, the hornet is still invasive and is spreading through British Columbia and Washington state. And it still kills bees, which we sort of need. I know a lot of folks weren't keen on the name "murder," but I sort of liked it. How often do you get such sensational biological names? Going from "murder" hornet to "northern giant" hornet is like Metallica going from "Kill 'em All" to "Load" (kids, ask your parents about '80s heavy metal and '90s hard rock). It's the same deadly bug (to bees), but the branding just isn't so hard.
AS SEEN ON KUOW
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WA primary may offer hints at mood of voters this year
Washington state's August primary is next week. All state House members and about half of state Senators are up for election. Democrats currently control both chambers.
The results of the primary could provide some clues as to the mood of voters this year.
Big picture: I’m going to be watching how incumbents perform — especially Democrats up against their Republican challengers in this primary. I see the primary as sort of a snapshot poll to see how vulnerable or weakened Democrats seem to be heading into November. The Republicans have really been pounding them on crime and public safety issues — is that having an impact?
Most legislative seats are fairly safe. Some of the more competitive match ups are in Whatcom County, in the district that includes Whidbey Island, on the Kitsap Peninsula, and in south King County.
Republicans are also making a push in some of the suburban districts around Seattle where they haven’t fared well in recent years.
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'The lack of integrity ... it gets me,' says new leader for Washington's Mainstream GOP
A state political action group called Mainstream Republicans of Washington has a new leader — Deanna Martinez of Moses Lake.
The Mainstream Republicans see themselves as political moderates.
In the upcoming August primary, the group is supporting Dan Newhouse, who represents the 4th Congressional District in central Washington.
Newhouse voted to impeach former President Donald Trump.
"I want my representative to speak the truth, even when it's a difficult truth," Martinez said.
Trump is backing a Republican challenger in the race, Loren Culp. Culp ran for governor against Jay Inslee in 2020 and continues to claim the election was stolen. Martinez said that’s a problem for mainstream Republicans like her.
"The lack of integrity just ... it gets me. I can't vote for something like that," Martinez said.
Primary ballots are due on Tuesday, Aug. 2.
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Washington's first missing Indigenous person alert is issued
Washington state's Missing Indigenous Person Alert system went live in early July. The first notice for a missing person was sent Tuesday morning, July 26.
Within 24 hours, the person was found.
RELATED: Washington's Missing Indigenous People Alert system goes live
The Washington State Patrol issued the alert on behalf of the Lummi Police Department for a 38-year-old woman who was last seen in Ferndale, Wash. Subscribers to the alert system were asked to call 911 with any information.
On the morning of Wednesday, July 27, the alert was canceled. WSP said the person was located and was safe.
“This is a significant step for our state and agency,” Carrie Gordon, director of WSP's Missing and Unidentified Persons Unit, told KUOW when the system first went live. “We know that indigenous people go missing at a significantly higher rate than the general population. WSP currently has two full time tribal liaisons that work with tribal law enforcement and advocacy groups to coordinate state communications and response to this issue. The new M.I.P.A. system will be one more tool in rapid response by the state that will hopefully allow us to find and assist Indigenous people who are in danger.”
You can subscribe to alerts for missing Indigenous persons here.
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King County lawmakers want to create permanent gun return program
King County has limited options for people to dispose of firearms and ammunition. King County lawmakers want to create a permanent program to fix that.
In a unanimous vote Tuesday, the county council passed a measure directing the executive to consider a year-round gun turn-in program.
Under the measure, the county will assess how feasible it is to pay people for disposing of guns and ammo, and the cost for the county to destroy them.
"Fewer firearms in homes reduces the risk of theft, of firearms falling into wrong hands, and being used in crime," said Councilmember Rod Dembowski, who sponsored the bill. "But also, just the risk that somebody having a really tough time makes that fatal decision to use that firearm on themselves or maybe loved ones. This program is not a be-all-end-all of course, but it is one piece of the puzzle."
The intent is to reduce the number of guns in people's homes, and prevent gun violence.
The measure was initially proposed in June. At the time, council members pointed to recent mass shootings and the rise in local gun violence. Shots fired in the county were up 54% in 2021, shooting victims were up 70%, and fatal shootings were up 54%.
Gun sales have spiked in the region, and nationally, over the past couple years and have stayed at heightened levels. For example, the Seattle Police Department ran 6,707 background checks for gun purchases in 2019. That number more than doubled in 2020 to 15,825 background checks. In 2021, Seattle ran 10,766 checks.
While King County doesn't have a program set up for turning in guns, Kirkland has recently operated its own Gift Cards for Guns program. During an event in June and another in July, Kirkland police handed out more than $18,000 in gift cards for a total of 151 firearms.
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High temp records broken on first day of Western Washington heat wave
High temperature records were broken in three Western Washington cities on July 26, 2022.
- Bellingham hit 90 degrees. It's previous high of 86 degrees was recorded in 1988.
- Olympia hit 97 degrees. It's previous high of 96 was recorded in 1998.
- And Seattle (SeaTac) reached 94 degrees, beating the 92 degree record set in 2018.
According to the National Weather Service in Seattle, the region probably won't break any high temp records the rest of the week. That doesn't mean it won't be hot, however. Temperatures are slated to reach into the 90s through the weekend for many areas, such as Seattle and Olympia.
The Weather Service has Seattle sticking to highs in the 90s through Friday. Its excessive heat warning will be in effect through Friday.
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Keep an eye on Western Washington air quality during this week's heat wave
The Puget Sound Clean Air Agency is cautioning sensitive groups to watch the air quality this week as temperatures rise into the 90s. Heat waves can cause smog levels to rise.
As of Tuesday afternoon, most of Western Washington's air quality was "good," with some pockets of "moderate" levels.
Also, as KUOW's John Ryan points out, smoke from wildfires in British Columbia is drifting down into Washington state. Whatcom County has already caught a whiff of the smoke, which is expect to float as far as Olympia.
The Puget Sound Clean Air Agency is noting that air quality is lowering a little, amid the heat, saying some areas are "unhealthy for sensitive groups." It has issued an ozone advisory for the Cascade Foothills, particularly eastern parts of King and Pierce Counties, such as Issaquah or Enumclaw.
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Traffic cops are looking for phones behind the wheel: Today So Far
- Big allegations about a chicken conspiracy in Washington state.
- Law enforcement is on the lookout for phones behind the wheel.
- It's hot out. Do you know where your local cooling center is?
This post originally appeared in KUOW's Today So Far newsletter for July 26, 2022.
Let's get the obvious out of the way — it's hot out. I hope you're staying cool, or know where your local cooling shelters are.
Such shelters are often needed more than you'd think in an area like ours. Most folks in the Northwest do not have an air conditioner to fend off heat waves. Facts like that still sting after last year's deadly heat dome. That has local officials starting to think about keeping cool during heat events in the future, investing in cooling shelters, etc. And that will take time and money.
"Last year’s extreme weather was a wake-up call,” King County Councilmember Girmay Zahilay told KUOW, adding that preparing for extreme heat “is a growing priority because every year our region is just going to get hotter and hotter.”
Why is it that the person parked directly in front of the stoplight never seems to be in a hurry. I feel red lights should be like Mario Kart, with all of us revving and ready to go. But that person right up front always seems to take a sigh first, then puts their car into drive, and slowly moves ahead in time for the light to turn yellow for the second car to pull up.
OK, that is more of a personal gripe and doesn't have much to do with our reporting ... though, perhaps that driver is distracted by their phone and isn't paying attention. That scenario is prevalent enough in Washington that law enforcement is upping patrols out on the road, especially looking out for drivers distracted by their cell phones. Washington has distracted driving laws that specifically relate to phones behind the wheel — basically, you can't use your phone when you're driving, even if you're stopped.
King County's Target Zero Task Force is upping traffic patrols through early August to send the message that phones are not allowed behind the wheel. The first E-DUI ticket will cost $136, and a second ticket will cost about a hundred bucks more. This will not just take place on county roads; nine cities are participating where law enforcement has noticed increased distracted driving involving cell phones. Read more on the Today So Far Blog.
The Washington State Attorney General's Office is claiming that a major chicken conspiracy has taken place in our state. AG Bob Ferguson has filed a lawsuit that claims 19 poultry producers artificially inflated the price of chicken in Washington. One allegation is that the producers intentionally destroyed chickens to create less supply, and in turn, up the demand (price) on the meat. But the lawsuit goes further and alleges the companies colluded to fix prices.
"If you purchased chicken in Washington state in the last 10 years, you were harmed by the conduct of these companies and these individuals," Ferguson said.
Soundside has the full story here.
AS SEEN ON KUOW
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Seattle Schools and its educators are in contract talks
Seattle Public Schools and its teachers union are hammering out a new contract this summer.
The Seattle Education Association represents teachers and school support staff. Union Vice-President Uti Hawkins said the stresses of the pandemic have made teaching even harder, and that nearly all of their educators report working unpaid hours.
“To be an educator really needs some incentivizing right now, our districts, our public schools need to showcase how they honor and appreciate educators, not just call them heroes, and not just thank them afterwards.”
Seattle Schools spokesperson Tim Robinson declined an interview during bargaining.
In a statement, the district said it has its own set of priorities including supporting students of color, making classes more inclusive for students learning English and those with disabilities, and keeping staffing levels stable throughout the year.
Although contract negotiations in recent years have included a focus on Covid health and safety protocols, Hawkins said she thinks the district and its union "are in a good place" in that regard contractually, and that this bargain will not need to focus on preventing Covid in schools.
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Wildfire smoke drifting into Western Washington from Canada amid heat wave
If a heat wave wasn't enough, here's another good reason to try to stay indoors today — smoke from a wildfire in British Columbia is now drifting south toward parts of Western Washington.
The smoke is already drifting into Whatcom County, but Canadian forecasters say some smoke could reach as far south as Olympia by this evening.
The fire is burning near Lytton, B.C., about 100 miles northeast of Bellingham.
Lytton is the town that was mostly destroyed in last summer's heat dome and wildfires.
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