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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Extra patrols watching for Washington drivers using their phones behind the wheel
Attention Washington drivers: state law says it’s illegal to use your phone when you’re behind the wheel. Now through August 6, law enforcement agencies throughout King County plan to enforce that ban with extra patrols.
Washington's rules around cell phone use in cars apply even when a driver is completely stopped, such as that driver holding their phone at a red light, and completely missing the light turning green, making everybody else wait.
The extra patrols are part of the King County Target Zero Task Force’s efforts to minimize distracted driving. A first-time E-DUI ticket will cost $136, and a second will cost about a hundred bucks more.
Sara Wood, Target Zero Manager for South King County, has some advice on how to comply with the law.
"If you need your GPS, set up before you put your car in drive," Wood said. "Utilize your vehicle technology. We just want everyone to put the phones down and focus on the drive.”
In addition to Washington State Patrol's participation, nine police departments will take part in the effort, including Federal Way, Issaquah, Kent, Kirkland, and Maple Valley. Wood says those jurisdictions were not chosen at random.
"Those areas are where we do see higher numbers of distracted driving, serious injury and fatal crashes," Wood said. "But also those are the agencies that could commit to do any extra enforcement because of the staffing constraints that are put on our other departments."
MORE UPDATES ON KUOW's TODAY SO FAR BLOG
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Murder hornet gets a new name
You may know them as "Asian Giant Hornets," or "murder hornets," but entomologists have decided that the invasive bee-killers in British Columbia and Washington state should now be known as "Northern Giant Hornets."
The Entomological Society of America has settled on this new name, in a bid to reduce confusion. The insect has different monikers in different areas. The term "northern" refers to the hornets' native habitat in northern Asia.
The state Agriculture Department says it will abide by this name and update all its relevant material. According to the Washington State Department of Agriculture:
"The proposal to establish an ESA common name for V. mandarinia came from Dr. Chris Looney, who has been actively involved in WSDA’s hornet research and efforts to eradicate northern giant hornet from Washington.
In conjunction with 'northern giant hornet,' ESA also adopted Dr. Looney’s proposals for 'southern giant hornet' as the common name for the species Vespa soror and 'yellow-legged hornet' for Vespa velutina. Vespa soror is a closely related—and similarly large—species to V. mandarinia, and the descriptors 'northern' and 'southern' refer to the species’ native geographic ranges in Asia."
By the end of last year, the department had destroyed four nests belonging to the Northern Giant Hornets.
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Trump backs Joe Kent in Washington state
Former President Trump is urging Washingtonians to vote for Republican Joe Kent for Congress.
Kent is challenging Republican Congresswoman Jamie Herrera Beutler to represent Washington's 3rd District. Herrera Beutler voted to impeach Trump, a move that has drawn criticism from the former president.
RELATED: Trump's revenge targets Washington state's 2022 primary elections
Trump criticized Herrera Beutler Monday evening during a virtual campaign event.
"She voted for the radical Democrats second impeachment hoax where the Republicans stood up tall for me but she didn't," Trump said.
Herrera Beutler is a target for Trump's wrath because of that impeachment vote. She blamed Trump for his inaction during the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Like Trump, Joe Kent claims, falsely, that the 2020 election was stolen.
Kent is also being endorsed by other high-profile Republicans, including Florida House Republican Matt Gaetz.
Other candidates in the race include Republican Heidi St. John and Democrat Marie Perez.
The top two vote getters in next week's primary from either party will move on to the general election.
Want to know more about the voting records and issue positions of candidates? Use the VoteSmart tool below to find out more.
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What if we could see an outbreak coming?
What if scientists could see a virus outbreak coming, before the virus is even identified?
That could be possible, according to new research published by a team at the University of Washington.
Lead author Dr. Natalie Cobb says it comes down to testing people for the flu. If numerous people have symptoms, but test negative for influenza, we might have a new virus on our hands, or an outbreak of a known virus starting up,
They can find out through surveillance of data. Dr. Cobb studied 28 countries, and found that an unknown illness spiked in 16 out of 28 regions, long before Covid was identified.
"If there are big deviations it may kind of serve as an early warning signal to epidemiologists or public health officials to say, ‘Hey there may be something unusual going on here,'" Dr. Cobb said.
In hindsight, that's what happened with Covid-19.
Cobb's team found that illnesses resembling the flu jumped up about 3 months before the first confirmed peaks of Covid in 2020. She says this indicates data surveillance could be utilized much more than it is now, to watch for upcoming outbreaks.
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Washington Republicans casting doubt on vote-by-mail, but it's not new
Polls show a majority of Republican voters question whether election results can be trusted. Much of this can be attributed to former President Donald Trump and his allies.
But even before GOP activists organized to watch ballots boxes this year, and before the 2020 election, some Washington Republicans were sowing doubt about the state’s vote-by-mail system.
RELATED: GOP activists ready to spy on Washington ballot drop boxes to 'guard the vote'
It was January of 2020, just before Covid hit and months before President Trump lost his re-election bid. House and Senate Republicans in the Washington Legislature gathered for their once-a-week legislative session press conference. A reporter asked about a pilot project in King County to let voters cast a ballot by smartphone. The late-Republican state Senator Doug Ericksen of Whatcom County pounced. He used the question as an opportunity to assail Washington’s election system.
“We currently have vote-by-mail and that is voter fraud, happens every single day and it’s rampant and it’s real in Washington state," Ericksen said at the time.
Ericksen was an early Trump supporter who died last December after contracting Covid. Without offering evidence, Ericksen asserted that spouses routinely vote for each other and that parents vote for their adult children. He also alleged that election officials count ballots even if the signature doesn’t match or when the ballot envelope isn’t signed at all. When challenged for evidence of this, Ericksen said.
“The sky is blue, I mean it’s just reality in terms of what happens with the ballots," Ericksen said.
In fact, when ballots aren’t signed or the signature doesn’t match – they are set aside and the voter is contacted. That day in January of 2020, Ericksen and another Republican state senator extolled the virtue of in-person voting. And later that year, Ericksen announced legislation to do away with vote-by-mail. Now, two-and-a-half years later, the belief that mail balloting can’t be trusted has taken root among many Republicans. And some GOP candidates this year have made it a part of their platform.
MORE UPDATES ON KUOW's TODAY SO FAR BLOG
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Politics, nuance, and the upcoming primaries: Today So Far
- Politics is often not what we think it is. Perhaps, I'm not supposed to say that...
- Be prepared for a Western Washington heat wave this week.
This post originally appeared in KUOW's Today So Far newsletter for July 25, 2022.
Politics is often not what we think it is. Perhaps, I'm not supposed to say that. It serves news stories well when there is little nuance and plenty of tension to tune audiences in — left vs right, and pro this and anti that.
The truth is, there are Mexican immigrants who voted for Donald Trump, and there are Liberal gun owners; Conservative environmentalists, and Seattle Liberals who says Seattle is not liberal. Beyond that, some younger voters may be questioning this whole Conservative / Liberal dynamic altogether. Actually, a lot of voters are.
All that speaks to nuance among politics. Take this story from KUOW's David Hyde who just visited Leavenworth to take the political temperature of Washington's 8th District. Kim Schrier turned this district blue after it was red for many years, indicating that this district has some sway. Now, a range of GOP candidates are aiming to unseat her and take it back. The district is said to be a toss-up this year. But what do voters in Leavenworth say? Well, you got one loyal Democratic Party voter who has "mixed feelings" about the overturning of Roe v Wade; they don't come down on any strict side of the abortion debate. Also, you have a couple GOP voters who would welcome Trump back into the White House. They say abortion is “a mother’s right.”
The 8th District race is expected to be a tight one this year. Schrier flipped the district in 2018 with 52.4% of the vote, and held it in 2020 with 51.7%. Since then, Washington has redrawn its district map and the 8th District has expanded into rural areas of Snohomish County. That has led to speculation that the district could be weighted more to the right. Snohomish County, however, did favor Biden in 2020 — though I'd throw out there that for many voters, perhaps, voting for Biden wasn't so much a political stance as it was a palette cleanser. Again, that would have us consider more nuance. Which points us back to the toss-up expectation for the 8th District.
Perhaps all this nuance is why I just watched a campaign ad for Schrier where she states "I'm taking on the Biden administration, to suspend the gas tax .... I got more funding for local police." Some of that may seem counterintuitive to some bluer voters, but perhaps it works well for purple voters, or even red.
The first clues to how the 8th District toss up will play out will come with the August primary, about a week away. Read more of Hyde's Leavenworth story here.
Speaking of temperature checks, it's about to get pretty hot around here. This week is slated for a heat wave with record-breaking temps stretching into the 90s. In fact, Western Washington is potentially facing four days in the 90s starting tomorrow, according to the National Weather Service in Seattle (or fewer, depending on the forecast you are looking at). Public Health Seattle & King County is reminding us all about the often neglected health risks on such hot days, such as heat stroke and heart attacks.
I know it gets said often, but that's because it needs to be. Do not leave your pet in the car on a hot day. It's actually against the law in Washington state, and law enforcement can bust your windows open if they find an animal inside on a hot day. Also, here a few pet-cooling tips.
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Western Washington prepares for heat wave this week
The Northwest is slated for a heat wave this week, with temperatures reaching the 90s and potentially breaking records.
High temperatures are expected to hit the low 90s Tuesday, and potentially stay that high through Thursday or Friday (depending on the forecast you are looking at), lowering into the 80s through the weekend.
RELATED: The 2021 heat wave 'was a wake-up call.' But Seattle's still unprepared for high temps
The National Weather Service in Seattle has a heat advisory in effect starting at noon Tuesday through Friday for most of Western Washington.
It’s going to be especially hot this week for the majority of people in the Seattle area who have no air conditioning. Seattle is opening recreation centers, senior centers, and libraries along with pools and spray parks to give people a place to cool down.
But Kate Hutton, with Seattle’s Office of Emergency Management, says they’re hoping to go beyond that.
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Amazon backs off plan for warehouse in Seattle's Rainier Valley
Amazon announced late Friday that it is not pursuing the construction of a warehouse in Seattle's Rainier Valley.
Neighborhood advocates had been fighting the warehouse development proposed at the site of a Lowe’s home improvement store for more than a year.
At a rally over this weekend, Travonna Thompson-Wiley declared victory, but demanded more assurances from Amazon.
“Even though they stay that the warehouse is not gonna happen anymore … I’m about that action and I want action behind those words and I want them to pull the permit," Thompson-Wiley said. "Because the permit is still active. We want that permit pulled, that’s what the community is asking for.”
The warehouse site is just two blocks from the Mount Baker light rail station. Advocates say what the community really needs there is affordable housing.
The city of Seattle has zoned the property for denser development.
Read the full story here.
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USFWS seeks public input for barred owl management plan
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is developing a plan to manage the invasive barred owl population on the West Coast. The barred owl is more aggressive than native spotted owl species, and is contributing to their decline.
The invasive owl has already spread throughout the northern spotted owl range in the Pacific Northwest, and is slowly making its way south into Central California.
“So our intent in the California spotted owl range, however, because there are so few Barred owls, is to limit the extent of invasion into that area," said Fish and Wildlife’s Robin Bown, who is helping develop the plan.
Bown says the plan will have to be extensive, to cover the entire range of both spotted owl species.
The agency is seeking input from the public as they develop the plan, including areas they might include or exclude, and alternative population control methods that could be effective.
A virtual public meeting will be held Thursday night, July 28, to answer questions. Bown expects the plan to be completed by the end of next year.
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What's in a name? (maybe some uncomfortable history): Today So Far
- The Seattle Audubon Society is dropping "Audubon" from its name.
- Kirkland police have taken in 151 guns in exchange for more than $18,000 in gift cards this summer.
- Overall crime in Washington is down ... but violent crime is up.
This post originally appeared in KUOW's Today So Far newsletter for July 22, 2022.
The Seattle Audubon Society is changing its name. What it will eventually be called ... that's still to be determined. What is known is that "Audubon" will be dropped. The Seattle birding group voted to change its name this month after considering the history of the name it honors. John James Audubon is known for his work in ornithology and for spurring a love of nature in 1800s America. He also owned, sold, and bought enslaved African Americans through his general store in Kentucky. It was part of his business. And he was very anti-abolition.
This character doesn't align with the values of the modern birding organization, so the Seattle chapter is nixing the name. No word yet on what it will eventually be called. While they are brainstorming a new title, I have a few recommendations:
- "The Seattle Awesome Society." I'm a bird nerd, but let's be honest, some folks don't see the appeal of bird watching and conservation. This kicks things up a notch, plus they can keep the same SAS acronym.
- "Seattle Bird Nerds." Nerds rule the world now. Lean into it.
- "Birds and brews." The Northwest has lots of birds and lots of beers. Why not put them together?
- "The Murie Society." Margaret Murie may have made a mark in Alaska and spent a lot of time in Wyoming, but she was born in Seattle. Murie was an important figure in the work for the Wilderness Act and establishing the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. She was given awards from the Audubon Society and the Sierra Club, and also received the Medal of Freedom. Murie reportedly spent her honeymoon bird watching. And members could be called "Mardys," which is the name she went by.
So far this summer, the Kirkland Police Department has paid out more than $18,000 in gift cards, in exchange for guns. KPD's Gift Cards for Guns program has held two events — one in June and one this week. Between the two events, Kirkland police have taken in 151 firearms that are now slated for destruction. Depending on the type of gun that was turned in, residents received a Visa gift card worth between $25 and $250. KPD plans to hold a third event in September.
These events come after crime rates have risen in Washington state. Actually, it's more accurate to stay that violent crime has spiked in our state. Overall crime rates (everything added up) have actually declined, mostly due to drops in fraud, property crimes, and others. There was a 12.3% increase in violent crime over 2021, however, and a record number of murders (325). Hate crimes also went up.
This issue can be easily witnessed via the recent weekend of shootings we just had. The King County Prosecutor's Office noticed a rise in such crimes over 2020 and 2021. Though more recently, it has also noticed a change in the age demographic of suspects, which has shifted to older populations. The prosecutor's office also reports that guns are becoming more common among domestic violence incidents.
“They’ve nearly doubled every year," KCPO Analyst Rafael Serrano said. "Last year was a record for us in terms of our total domestic violence related gun violence incidents and this year is on pace to pass that so far.”
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Kirkland paid $18K for turned-in guns this summer
Kirkland Police Department has paid out a total of $18, 350 in gift cards in exchange for residents' firearms.
KPD held its second Guns for Gift Cards exchange Wednesday, July 20. It took in 60 firearms from 21 people (two AR/AK style weapons; 34 handguns; 22 rifles/shotguns; two non-functioning guns or pellet guns). Those firearms are now slated for destruction. Added up, they were worth a total of $6,975 in Visa gift cards.
At the first event of this kind that Kirkland organized on June 24, a total of 45 residents handed over 91 guns. Kirkland paid out $11,375 in Visa gift cards for that exchange.
At that first Guns for Gift Cards event, Kirkland took in: three AR/AK style weapons; 32 handguns; 47 rifles/shotguns; and nine nonfunctioning guns or pellet guns.
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Why the Seattle Audubon Society will drop 'Audubon' from its name
A Seattle Audubon Society by any other name, would be just as birdy.
That's partly the idea behind why the Seattle Audubon Society is dropping "Audubon" from its name, citing an uncomfortable history behind the man the organization is named after.
“Knowing what we now know and hearing from community members how the Audubon name is harmful to our cause, there is no other choice but to change," said Seattle Audubon Society's Executive Director Claire Catania in a statement on the chapter's website.
According to the statement, the Board of Directors voted to drop the "Audubon" from the name on July 14. They have not chosen a new name, and no timeline has been determined for the ultimate title change. According to the statement, the chapter wants to have a "thoughtful and inclusive process" before making the change.
The roots of the Audubon Society go back to the late 1800s, but it was officially incorporated in 1905. It was named after John James Audubon, who died decades before in 1851. Audubon came to North America with a passion to document the region's bird species, and further the science around them. His work was influential, and spurred conservation efforts to save bird populations as they were declining. His name has since been commemorated in street names, parks, counties, cities, and more.
But John James Audubon wasn't just an artistic ornithologist. He also made money buying and selling enslaved African Americans at this general store in Kentucky. He enslaved people himself throughout his life, sold them, and was against abolition. That history is not sitting well with the society that uses his name.
“The shameful legacy of the real John James Audubon, not the mythologized version, is antithetical to the mission of this organization and its values,” Catania said. “Our members, volunteers, and staff are focused on a future where the perspectives and contributions of all people are valued—especially those who have been systemically excluded. The challenges facing humans and birds alike demand that we build a radically inclusive coalition to address them."
Other Audubon groups have also chosen to change their names, such as the Audubon Naturalist Society in the Washington DC area. It has been going by "ANS" until its new name is chosen. The Seattle chapter says it is "the first large chapter in the National Audubon Society network to publicly declare its intention to remove 'Audubon' from the organization’s name." The Seattle chapter also notes that ANS is not affiliated with the National Audubon Society.
According to a statement from Andrew Schepers, president of the Seattle Audubon Society's board of directors, the name is not what the organization stands for. It's about birds.
“We are here for the birds, for the people, and for nature, not to defend a harmful legacy. We’ve got too much good work to do to let this continue to stand in our way. Our organization has a bold history of over a century of activism and impactful conservation. Our work will require all hands and voices to more fully serve our communities today and into the future. Complacency towards antiracism is not an option if we are to fulfill our mission.”
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