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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Washington's largest newspaper publisher sold to out-of-state investors following financial hardship
The largest network of community newspapers in Washington state has been sold to new owners, following tough financial times.
If you get a local newspaper in Western Washington, chances are is it operated by Sound Publishing. Sound owns more than 40 newspapers across the state, as well as three publications in Alaska. In 2013, it purchased the Seattle Weekly, which has since been operated as an online-only news site. The largest newspaper in its collection is The Everett Herald.
RELATED: Seattle area McClatchy newspapers move to printing just 3 days per week
Sound Publishing's parent company, Black Press, has been sold to a partnership between investment groups, as well as Alabama-based Carpenter Media Group. In January, Black Press filed for creditor protection in British Columbia. Similar to bankruptcy proceedings in the United States, the Canadian creditor protection process allows insolvent companies to restructure.
“We are dedicated to serving communities with the best hyperlocal journalism, available 24/7 and produced by passionate journalists living in those communities,” Black Press CEO Glenn Rogers said in a statement published by the Seattle Weekly. “With our strong financial position and the support of our new ownership group, our readers and advertisers can count on us to continue delivering the quality journalism and advertising solutions that we are known for.”
With the sale, Carpenter Media Group gets its foot in the door of the Northwest news market. Washington is its first move outside of the Southeast U.S. and Texas where it operates a small collection of newspapers and magazines. According to The Everett Herald, Black Press is the sixth largest daily publisher in the United States.
RELATED: 'It's really a crisis' — Why small towns are fighting to save local newspapers
Sound Publishing established its roots in 1987 with the purchase of newspapers on Whidbey Island, followed by the purchase of the Bainbridge Island Review and Port Orchard Independent in 1988. It steadily acquired community newspapers across Washington in the years since. According to Sound, Black Press' print audience is about 4.5 million readers across 150 daily and weekly newspapers, magazines, and websites. It also claims to get 19 million users per month on its websites.
In recent years, Sound Publishing has been scaling back some operations, combining newsrooms and offices across Western Washington. Many of its papers operate with a single editor and one reporter.
Black Press employs about 1,200 workers in the U.S. and Canada. It also operates a handful of newspapers in Hawaii. Herald staff members formed a union in 2022.
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Along with cherry blossoms and the budding spring comes... Achoo!
If you have allergies, you already know that something is in the air. Tree pollen is expected to be moderate to high now through the first week of April 2024.
Doctors say allergy season has become a bit of a moving target these days, and research shows the culprit is climate change.
“Since 1990, the statistic is that the allergy season has increased by about 20 days,” said Dr. Mollie Grow, a pediatrician with Seattle Children’s Hospital and UW Medicine Seattle.
RELATED: Pollution is problematic for pollinators — and perhaps your produce
Seasonal allergy symptoms can include congestion and a runny nose, along with itchy eyes and an irritation in the throat, Grow said.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about one in four adults have seasonal allergies, as do approximately one in five children.
Grow advises people to take off their shoes when they come indoors after being outside, and taking a shower “to help wash off the pollen that may be in their hair or clothing, helping prevent that getting into the bedding or in and around the house.”
Tree pollen is expected to be moderate to high through early next week. The top allergens over the next five days are ash, birch, and juniper trees.
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'Belltown Hellcat' charged for raising hell on Seattle streets
After months of tormenting downtown Seattle residents with a roaring exhaust pipe and high-speed street races, an online personality, locally known as the "Belltown Hellcat," has been charged with reckless driving. His own Instagram posts are now being used against him.
"The vehicle is well known to officers, as it has a modified exhaust system, which can be heard from many blocks away and is very distinctive," the police report on the case states.
RELATED: Seattle setting up cameras to combat street racing
The Seattle City Attorney's Office is charging 20-year-old Miles Hudson with reckless driving with willful or wanton disregard for public safety, as well as with street racing. Hudson goes by srt.miles on Instagram. His Dodge Charger, with a custom paint job, is referred to as Hellcat (Hellcat is a particular model of Charger with horrid gas mileage).
Throughout the first few months of 2024, early morning disturbances had Belltown residents roaring nearly as loud as the engine Miles allegedly was revving through downtown streets. By March, police were communicating with the community about the issue and encouraging residents to call 911 the moment they heard the Hellcat scream. Belltown community members organized online to help police catch the driver. Councilmember Bob Kettle was also notified.
Much of Hudson's online presence is videos featuring him loudly revving his car engine, often inducing a backfire, or racing through the streets, generally around 2 a.m. or 3 a.m. One video shows him performing doughnuts in a parking lot, another shows him racing, and others just show him loudly revving his engine (he also discusses anime from time to time).
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You need to earn how much for a 'starter home' in Seattle?!
Rising costs of living and property price tags are hitting first-time homebuyers hard — and even harder in Seattle.
A person would have to earn a $173,378 annual salary to earn what Redfin considers a "starter home" in Seattle, according to the real estate company's February 2024 data.
That salary estimate is up roughly $31,000 from just six months ago, and up 8.4% from February 2023.
RELATED: First-time homebuyers are getting squeezed out by investors
“The pandemic housing-market boom changed the definition of a starter home,” Redfin Senior Economist Elijah de la Campa said in a statement. “A decade ago, many people thought of a starter home as a small three-bedroom single-family house. Now that type of home could cost seven figures, especially in expensive parts of the country, and the most affordable homes are much smaller and may require a lot of work to make them habitable – which makes them cost even more."
A starter home is exactly what it sounds like: A property that a first-time homebuyer can afford to enter the real estate market and become a homeowner. To get wonky, Redfin considers a starter home to be within the fifth and 35th percentile of its listings, with mortgages that a person could afford using 30% of their income.
As of February, the median sale price of a Seattle starter home is $535,000, with a monthly mortgage of $4,334.
Seattle's numbers are a significant uptick from just six months ago when Redfin calculated that a person needed to earn $142,000 annually to afford the purchase.
“The price of a Seattle-area starter home is more than double that of the typical U.S. starter home," de la Campa told KUOW. "And while Americans earning the median U.S. income can still afford the typical starter home, this isn’t the case in Seattle. Local residents earning the median income make about $47,000 less than what is required to afford the metro’s entry-level homes. Given that aspiring first-time homebuyers are more likely to have lower wages, it puts homeownership even further out of reach for them.”
This all adds up to a changing dynamic among those who can afford to buy a home, according to de la Campa, who added that the "most affordable homes are still hard for the average American to afford." With prices on the rise, along with mortgage rates, the median-income buyers are more likely to grab up starter homes, and lower-income buyers are being pushed out of the market.
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More than 20% of new cars purchased in Washington state are electric (boogie woogie woogie)
Demand for electric vehicles has been surging more in Washington than in any other state, according to data provided by the Electric Power Research Institute.
One in five new cars sold in Washington in 2023 can plug into an electrical outlet.
EVs’ market share in the Evergreen State was higher than in any other state except California, and its growth was the highest in the country in 2023.
RELATED: Road trip! Kicking the tires on electric travel in the Northwest
“Washington’s really proud to be second in the country behind California in percent market share of EVs,” Steven Hershkowitz with the Washington Department of Commerce said on a panel organized by Oregon-based trade publisher, NewsData. “We've now exceeded 20%, in several months.”
Electric vehicles’ share of new passenger-vehicle sales rose from 18% in the first half of 2023 to 23% in the second half, according to Washington Department of Licensing data.
Electric vehicles made up 25% of new-car sales in California in 2023 and 15.4% in Oregon, the third-ranked state. Nationwide, plug-in vehicles had 9.4% market share, according to the Electric Power Research Institute.
Despite its high concentration of plug-in vehicles, Washington ranks 12th in the country in the number of fast chargers per capita, according to a tally by climate journalist Michael Thomas.
Having fewer cars burn gasoline is central to Washington state’s strategy for fighting climate change. The rapid adoption of electric vehicles has Washington ahead of schedule on its legal mandates to transition to zero-emission vehicles: 68% of new cars must be pollution-free by 2030 and all new cars by 2035.
Hershkowitz said with Washington’s recent rates of growth, 90% of new car sales would be pollution-free by 2030. But he said he expects the state’s brisk pace to slow down as carmakers adjust to boost electric-vehicle sales in states that are lagging.
RELATED: Pollution is problematic for pollinators — and perhaps your produce
Nationally, sales of plug-in cars, while still growing, are growing more slowly than earlier in 2023.
Eva DeCesaro with Portland General Electric, Oregon’s largest electric utility, said the relatively new technology is seeing a shift from “early adopters” to mass-market buyers.
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Orcas are actually not one species, but three
Newly published science suggests orcas may be not just one but three distinct species.
Researchers say that, based on what they've found, the killer whales deep in the Pacific Ocean should get their own species name. Bigg's killer whales should have their own, too. And the orca we commonly refer to as northern and southern residents should be considered their own species as well.
RELATED: Why are these killer whales increasingly showing up in the Salish Sea?
This is the conclusion of a paper published in the journal Royal Society of Open Science, which states the orca taxonomy needs to be updated. The proposal to divide orcas up into three species will now be under consideration of the scientific community.
The main difference will be for two groups that swim the Salish Sea. Communities around Puget Sound are familiar with resident orcas, which are commonly seen. Bigg's killer whales spend more time along the coast, but they have been known to come into Puget Sound, too.
Up until now, all orcas worldwide have been considered the same species, Orcinus Orca. But the paper states, "We conclude that eastern North Pacific Bigg’s killer whales should be recognized as Orcinus rectipinnus ... and resident killer whales should be recognized as Orcinus ater."
This change would be similar to how wolves, coyotes, and domestic dogs are different species, but are still under the same genus.
The conclusion is based on a few observations. For starters, these two groups of orcas don't interact. While they sometimes swim the same waters, they generally avoid each other. When they do interact, they can be aggressive. In more than 50 years of observation, the paper states, there are no known cases of these groups interbreeding.
They also have different diets. Bigg's killer whales hunt marine mammals (like seals), while other orcas like to eat salmon. And simply put, they use different languages to communicate. The paper notes that Bigg's killer whales are silent when foraging, and residents are quite vocal. The whistles and clicks that these two groups use are also different, leading researchers to conclude, "Acoustic differences show divergence between the ecotypes, relevant to differentiation associated with culture and feeding ecology."
This would be the first major change to orca taxonomy since 1874, according to The Seattle Times.
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Climate protesters block Amazon’s Seattle HQ to oppose fossil fuel plans
A few dozen climate protesters blocked entrances to Amazon headquarters in Seattle for over an hour Wednesday, chanting “No fracking gas!” as they draped banners and stood across the doorways. They called on company leaders to do more to meet Amazon’s carbon emissions targets. But regular employees denied entrance to their offices were not amused by the tactic.
Protest organizers are part of a new organization called Troublemakers and said they’re trying to send a message to Amazon leadership. The group defines its focus as non-violent civil disobedience intended to raise awareness about the perils of climate change. Specifically, protesters pressed Amazon to abandon plans to use natural gas from a regional pipeline project recently approved by federal regulators — TC Energy’s Gas Transmission Northwest Xpress pipeline expansion.
RELATED: As Seattle lost 10K Amazon employees, the company added corporate workers in Bellevue
Amazon is planning to use the pipeline bringing natural gas from Canada to power its new data centers in Oregon.
“They use a huge amount of power, these data centers, huge amount, so that power needs to be from renewable energy," Troublemakers’ Margo Polley said.
In a statement, Amazon spokesperson Lisa Levandowski responded, noting that the company already embraces renewable energy and other tactics to combat climate change.
“Amazon is the largest corporate purchaser of renewable energy globally, and that’s been the case for four years in a row.” Levandowski said. “We’re deploying the world’s largest fleet of electric vehicles with more than 10,000 on the road today.”
Amazon employees confronted with the blocked doorways, some of them with dogs in tow and carrying the company’s trademark free bananas, ranged in reaction from silent and annoyed, to enraged and vocal.
An employee from Costa Rica, a country which runs almost entirely on renewable energy, said he supports the cause of reducing fossil fuels, but not the protesters’ tactics.
“This is just impacting Amazon employees. What can we do?” he asked.
At one point the doors were breached and a swarm of employees pushed around the protesters, trying to rush inside. A protester who gave her name as Hogan called out, “Amazon has committed to our climate, and this is the opposite of committing to our climate! Be respectful of our planet!” to which an employee shouted back, “You’re not being respectful of us!”
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Muslims observing Ramadan at Tacoma ICE center aren’t receiving timely meals, immigration advocates say
The month of Ramadan is a time of holy celebration, but some Muslim people held at the privately run Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma say they aren’t being given clean clothes daily, nor timely meals before and after fasting.
Naeem, a 52-year-old man being held at the Northwest ICE Processing Center, “expressed that for the past 10-12 days of Ramadan, food has not come on time, which is vital for him as he has diabetes,” according to a statement put out last week by the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ Washington chapter (CAIR-WA). The Seattle-based civil rights organization represents Muslim communities across the state.
“Detained people retain their constitutional rights to freely exercise religion,” said Amanda Azad, CAIR-WA’s deputy executive director. “In the case of Ramadan, fasting being delayed or [being] denied meals before or after fasting is a health issue as well as a religious issue.”
RELATED: Human rights group raises alarm about use of force, chemical weapons at Tacoma ICE center
Since 2005, the Northwest ICE Processing Center has been privately operated by GEO Group, Inc. under contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Advocates have long expressed concern over the effects of the facility’s privatization on matters of transparency and accountability.
Azad said CAIR-WA sent a letter addressed to Northwest ICE Processing Center Warden Bruce Scott, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the Department of Homeland Security about the alleged failure to accommodate people observing Ramadan but only received a response from the Department of Homeland Security. In an email obtained by KUOW, a spokesperson for the agency said ICE officials “would be in contact with the facility … to remedy the situation.”
In a statement provided to KUOW, a Geo Group spokesperson said “GEO rejects these politically motivated and baseless allegations. As a service provider, we adhere to the federal government’s Performance-Based National Detention Standards (PBNDS) and provide religious accommodations for individuals of all faiths in accordance with these standards. This includes the provision of meals that accommodate religious customs in compliance with the detailed federal standards on Food Services.”
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security did not respond to KUOW’s requests for comment.
Earlier this month, the Northwest ICE Processing Center came under renewed scrutiny after Charles Leo Daniel, a 61-year-old detainee from Trinidad and Tobago, was found dead at the facility. Daniel had spent several years prior to his death in solitary confinement, according to a report published by the University of Washington’s Center for Human Rights.
RELATED: Police find man dead at Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma
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Inslee signs Washington's 'Strippers' Bill of Rights' into law
Strippers in Washington state will have some of the broadest workplace protections in the country under a bill signed into law by Gov. Jay Inslee on Monday.
The so-called "Strippers' Bill of Rights" requires strip clubs in Washington to conduct sexual harassment training for all employees, hire full-time security guards, and install panic buttons, among other safety measures.
RELATED: Strippers say Washington state is terrible for dancing. They want a 'bill of rights' to fix that
"It's pretty simple why we're passing this bill," Inslee said during the bill signing. "These are working folks, and working people deserve safety in the environment in which they work."
The legislation also caps the fees clubs can charge to rent the stage, which dancers report are higher in Washington than other states. They've said that because strip clubs are forbidden from selling alcohol, charging dancers higher fees is one of the few ways to make money.
The new law also creates a pathway to legalizing alcohol sales in strip clubs. It strikes down a Liquor and Cannabis Board rule that outlines different types of "lewd conduct" that are forbidden in establishments that serve alcohol.
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'Uncommitted' vote campaign to send 2 Washington state delegates to Democratic National Convention
The "uncommitted" vote in Washington state's Democratic presidential primary has attracted just enough support to send two delegates to the party's national convention this summer, the Washington State Democratic Party confirmed to KUOW on Monday.
The protest campaign won more than 15% of the Democratic vote in Washington's 7th Congressional District, which covers most of Seattle, the Seattle Times reported on Friday. That was the threshold the campaign needed to reach to send delegates to the national convention in Chicago in August.
RELATED: These Washington Democrats are voting 'uncommitted' to send message to Biden
Local activists organized the "uncommitted" vote to send a message of disapproval to President Joe Biden over his handling of the Israel-Hamas war. They've called for the president to support a permanent ceasefire.
Biden easily won the vast majority (84.5%) of Democratic primary votes in Washington, compared to the 9.9% that voted "uncommitted" statewide. Biden has secured 90 of Washington's pledged Democratic delegates.
The party elects delegates at its state convention in June.
"We encourage every Democrat in Washington to consider running for delegate," party spokesperson Stephen Reed told KUOW in an email.
A representative of the "uncommitted" campaign in Washington told KUOW that it will be "vetting very thoroughly" candidates for its two delegate positions.
The "uncommitted" campaign was behind on election night on March 12 but gained ground as ballot counting continued.
RELATED: How did Washington's 'uncommitted' voters do on presidential primary night?
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Blocked by prosecutors, Seattle judge reassigned to parking and traffic tickets
A Seattle judge who recently came under fire from city prosecutors has been reassigned. KUOW has learned that Judge Pooja Vaddadi will focus on parking tickets and traffic infractions instead of criminal cases.
A spokesperson for Seattle Municipal Court said Thursday that Judge Vaddadi will remain in this role as long as the Seattle City Attorney’s Office continues to file affidavits disqualifying her from future criminal cases.
RELATED: Why is Seattle’s rent so high? Justice Department investigates possible price fixing
Earlier this month, Seattle City Attorney Ann Davison said her office will seek to exclude Vaddadi from all future criminal cases after encountering “a pattern of biased rulings.”
A memo from Davison's office stated, “The resounding input from attorneys that have appeared in [Judge Vaddadi’s] courtroom believe that her decisions demonstrate a complete lack of understanding, or perhaps even intentional disregard, of the evidence rules, even on basic issues.”
In an interview with KUOW, Judge Vaddadi, speaking on her own behalf and not for the court, denied any bias and said Davison never raised those concerns before seeking to have her disqualified.
“That’s why it did come as a surprise because in my head, in my heart, I have been impartial in every way that I have approached each case that comes in front of me,” Vaddadi said. “I only look at the facts before me, I only look at the law, and I do my balancing with community safety and what’s best for the defendant that’s in front of me.”
She said the criminal division of the city attorney's office has not supplied the case numbers that would allow her to examine the rulings they object to, but she would welcome the chance to discuss those concerns. In the meantime Vaddadi said handling parking tickets and traffic infractions is the best way to ease the strain on the court created by the city attorney’s actions.
“Technically it’s not a demotion, honestly I wouldn’t consider it one anyway,” Vaddadi said. “And judges in other jurisdictions do cover infractions so it’s not outside of what a judge does.”
Vaddadi said Seattle Municipal Court is somewhat unique in that parking tickets and traffic infractions are usually handled by appointed magistrates rather than by elected judges. But some of those magistrates may now be assigned to criminal cases to rebalance the workload.
“I really just want to help the best way that I can here,” Vaddadi said. “I would love to sit in my own courtroom to do the criminal cases that I’ve been elected to do. But ultimately I am a part of the court and – I don’t want to just be sitting around doing nothing.”
The city attorney disputes Vaddadi's version of events. A spokesperson for Davison's office told KUOW that Vaddadi was given prior warnings about concerns related to her performance. "At least one of the conversations – in which specific concerns were raised – took place in August of last year," Tim Robinson, communications manager for the Seattle City Attorney's Office, wrote in an email to KUOW.
Experts say prosecutors and defense lawyers routinely file "affidavits of prejudice" to disqualify judges from individual cases. But it’s a rare step to block a judge from all criminal matters.
This week, the court announced the response from the municipal court’s Presiding Judge Faye Chess.
“Under court rules, the Presiding Judge has reassigned Judge Vaddadi to handle traffic infractions and parking tickets since she is unable to hear criminal cases in formal court due to the affidavits,” court spokesperson Gary Ireland said.
The Seattle City Attorney’s Office, as well as the King County Department of Public Defense, declined to comment on the judge’s reassignment.
Prior to her election to the bench in 2022, Vaddadi worked for seven years as a public defender and practiced in Seattle Municipal and King County Superior Courts.
RELATED: Week in Review — The legislative session, a plan for growth, and a Seattle judge disqualified
This post was updated on 3/22/24 with Judge Vaddadi's response to the reassignment announcement, and on 3/25/24 with a comment on her statement from the Seattle City Attorney's Office.
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Put cops back in school and shut down the street, Garfield High parents say after another Seattle shooting
Fiona is familiar with gun violence around Seattle's Garfield High School. The 17-year-old senior has sheltered in place while in a classroom, at basketball practice, and while jumping hurdles on the school's track — all in response to shots fired nearby.
Listen to this full story on Seattle Now
Still, when her mom called to let Fiona know that her friend was shot at a nearby bus stop on March 13, it came as a shock.
“My heart, like, immediately dropped … I was so sad," Fiona said. "I know they are going to be alright, but still — the PTSD and this ongoing cycle. Nothing has been done. I dunno, it needs to stop.”
RELATED: 7 graphics on kids and guns in the Seattle area
At around 2:40 p.m. that day, someone fired a gun from a light-colored SUV toward a bus stop near Garfield High School where many students were standing, according to the Seattle Police Department. A 17-year-old girl was shot in the leg and injured. She was not the intended target.
Such incidents are now familiar to the Garfield High School community. The school has experienced frequent shootings in recent years. For example, a series of altercations put Garfield and other nearby schools on lockdown last October. In June, three nearby shootings that did not involve students prompted another lockdown.
Garfield parents have had enough.
On Wednesday afternoon, some parents organized a demonstration to call attention to local gun violence, and to urge city leaders to take greater action. Some parents say they have solutions, despite what they perceive as little movement from city leaders.
“We feel a little forgotten here," said Melanie Skinner, Fiona's mom and an organizer of the event.
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