KUOW Blog
News, factoids, and insights from KUOW's newsroom. And maybe some peeks behind the scenes. Check back daily for updates.
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Stories
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The West Seattle light rail route has been chosen. But can Sound Transit afford it?
A Sound Transit Link light rail station. On Oct. 24, 2024, the Sound Transit Board approved a route for the West Seattle extension of the system that will connect between SoDo and the Alaska Junction.Sound Transit has chosen a light rail route to West Seattle. Construction on the 4.1 mile West Seattle Link extension is expected to start in 2027, with service slated to begin in 2032.
But in the meantime, the agency must come up with the money to actually pay for it.
"Today marks an important milestone in delivering light rail to West Seattle,” Sound Transit Board Chair and King County Executive Dow Constantine said in a statement, filled with just enough wonky jargon to water down any enthusiasm for the moment. “Through the board-directed work plan, our action today allows Sound Transit to use the design process to address cost pressures, reduce impacts, and prepare projects for construction, fulfilling our promise to the voters.”
In other words, the Sound Transit Board has approved a new light rail route into West Seattle (which was previously approved by voters), but it will be more expensive than previously thought. The new light rail route comes with a price tag of between $6.7 and $7.1 billion (in 2023, it was estimate to cost $4 billion), so the agency is looking for "financial opportunities" to account for that.
The Sound Transit Board passed a resolution this week outlining several potential money sources, including grant revenues, federal loans, strategic property acquisition, and improving cost efficiencies. The motion doesn't explicitly propose additional taxes, which currently fund about 63% of the agency's construction and operations, but does mention "new revenue sources."
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Why pensions are a hot button issue in the Boeing machinists' strike
Union members count votes from striking Boeing machinists on whether to accept or reject the latest contract offer from Boeing on Wednesday, October 23, 2024, at IAM Hall in Seattle.KUOW Photo/Megan FarmerA major sticking point in the Boeing machinists strike is the question of a return to a defined benefit plan, or pension. Boeing says that's a no go, and has refused to offer one. So far, the machinists, who gave up their pension benefit in 2014, are standing fast. They want it back and voted down Boeing's latest contract offer Wednesday night.
KUOW’s Kim Malcolm talked pensions and their alternatives with Kevin Bay, a professor of finance at the University of Washington's Foster School of Business.
This interview has been edited for clarity.
Kim Malcolm: What's your short answer on what a pension is and how it's managed?
Kevin Boeh: The short answer is the defined benefit pension plan, which is the traditional pension plan that our grandparents had, is a fixed stream of income that is guaranteed that you will get once you retire, until you pass. It's primarily managed by the company.
How do those kinds of pensions compare with the 401(k) style of retirement plan?
This is what most companies offer today. It's a defined contribution, as opposed to defined benefit. We contribute some defined amount along with your paycheck. Depending on the company, the individual employee can make a lot of decisions, and has a lot of discretion as to where the money is invested and how it's invested.
Part of the difference is that the employee, then, is the one who's taking more of the risk about where those funds are invested, right?
Yes, and that's exactly the good and bad of a defined contribution plan. Some employees just aren't very good at managing it. They may be fantastic at their jobs, but this isn't their profession, and unfortunately, some don't do very well.
Not a lot of companies offer pensions anymore. The preference seems to be for the 401(k) plans. Why is that?
The primary reason is that it's costly. A single company is offering and running a program, a pension plan, a retirement scheme, for a handful of employees. And let's say in the case of Boeing, Boeing is very good at making airplanes. They may not be professionals at running a retirement plan.
One of the other reasons that companies have moved away from these historically, is that they're a guaranteed stream of income to the employee in retirement. The idea is that if the investment returns throughout the course of the employee's employment haven't been sufficient, the company itself is the one who guarantees whether the employee gets the money. In other words, the company is putting itself at risk. And let's say they under-contribute through the years, or they underperform in their investment performance. The company is on the hook.
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Cold, lost sea turtle is returned from the Northwest to warm California waters
Environment
Elba Benabe-Carlo of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service looks on as Moira the loggerhead sea turtle prepares to dive into the Pacific Ocean outside of San Diego Bay on Oct. 23, 2024.SeaWorld California. Activities conducted under agreement with National Marine Fisheries Service.Moira, a subtropical turtle that was found nearly dead in the Strait of Juan de Fuca between Washington and British Columbia, has been returned to more suitable waters near San Diego.
A father and son out fishing off the southern tip of Vancouver Island in February spotted the 80-pound loggerhead turtle floating listlessly in a kelp bed, with a core body temperature of just 52 degrees Fahrenheit.
Loggerheads are an endangered species in the United States and Canada and a rare visitor this far north. The February appearance was only the second confirmed loggerhead sighting on Canada’s west coast and the first confirmed in the Salish Sea, the shared inland waters of British Columbia and Washington.
The Vancouver Aquarium took in the hypothermic turtle, nursed her back to health, and gave her a name: Moira, after the Catherine O'Hara character Moira Rose in the TV comedy “Schitt’s Creek.”
RELATED: Warm-water turtle rescued from Salish Sea after fishermen find her stunned by cold
“With their population dwindling, each turtle —particularly females, who are essential to the species' reproductive capacity — plays a vital role in their survival,” a Vancouver Aquarium press release states.
A nonprofit called Turtles Fly Too, which uses small planes to transport endangered species, medevacked Moira to San Diego on Monday. She spent two days under observation at SeaWorld California, where veterinarians assessed her diving abilities and her fitness for return to the wild.
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Machinist union rejects latest Boeing contract offer, keeping strike alive
Machinists voted Wednesday to reject Boeing's latest contract offer, effectively continuing their strike that began more than a month ago. 64% of the vote was against the offer.
Jack Pleasant, who has worked for Boeing for 15 years, was among those who rejected the contract proposal.
"It's about time that people started to stand up against the machine. It's going to be hard for a lot of people but it's well worth it," he said.
RELATED: Inside the '90s merger that started Boeing's long decline
International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers District 751 received a contract offer from Boeing on Oct. 19. The union credited acting U.S. Secretary of Labor Julie Su with helping the two parties negotiate an offer that it deemed "worthy" of a vote.
According to the union, the latest contract offer would have raised wages 35% over four years. The raise would have started with a 12% bump in the first year, then an 8% raise the second year, 8% for the third year, and finally 7% in the fourth year.
Depending on the labor grade, a machinist's new wage would have fallen between $104,136.45 and $137,276.67 after four years.
Also, vested employees would have received a bump. Union members would have gotten a one-time $7,000 bonus, and 401Ks would have received a one-time $5,000 contribution. Boeing would have matched 100% of the first 8% that members contribute to their 401K, as well as given a 4% automatic contribution.
Machinists have been asking for a 40% pay raise and went on strike in September after rejecting Boeing's first offer that fell short of that goal (Boeing initially offered a 25% pay raise). Boeing came back within a couple weeks and raised its offer to 30%, calling it the company's "best and final" offer. Union leadership rebuffed the move, saying it was not the product of a negotiation. The union also objected to the manner in which Boeing presented the contract — the company released details to the media at the same time it sent the contract to the union. Boeing withdrew the offer.
The ongoing strike, and overall company challenges Boeing is facing, was followed by the company's decision to take cost-saving measures in mid-October. The company announced it plans to lay off about 17,000 employees, which is nearly 10% its workforce. Although Wednesday morning before the union vote, Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg told CNBC that the layoffs and the strike are two separate matters.
"The realities of our business is we're overstaffed for the forecast of our business going forward. So we need to right size and be efficient and I think we need to continue to do that as we go forward. Obviously the later the strike ends the more more impact that will have," he told the cable news outlet.
IAM District 751 represents roughly 33,000 Boeing machinists, mostly working in Washington state but also includes workers in Portland and California. The strike has hampered production of Boeing's 737 MAX as well as the 767 and 777 models.
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'Love Hurts': Former Seahawk Marshawn Lynch steps further onto the big screen
Arts & Life
Ke Huy Quan and former Seahawk Marshawn Lynch in a fight scene for "Love Hurts," slated to be released in movie theaters in 2025.Courtesy of Universal PicturesWatching the recently released trailer for "Love Hurts," it won't take long for Seattleites to gasp, press pause, and ask, "Is that Marshawn Lynch?!"
Yes. It is. Lynch will be on the big screen alongside Ke Huy Quan in February 2025 (just in time for Valentine's Day). It marks yet another step into Hollywood for the former Seahawk, with more films to come.
RELATED: In 'Joker: Folie à Deux,' the joke's on you
The trailer for "Love Hurts", released this week, features Lynch, whose acting chops appear to have evolved quite well since his "Stop freakin, call Beacon" days. In the trailer, Lynch goes Beast Mode on Ke Huy Quan in the middle of a kitchen. There are lots of sharp things around.
Quan leads the film as realtor Marvin Gable, whose face is plastered on billboards across Milwaukee's suburbs. He's a real estate success, but this mild-mannered persona covers a violent history in a criminal underworld. Gable has run and hidden from that history (which makes you wonder why his face is on all those billboards), but his cover is blown and he is thrown back into the mix. Behind everything is his evil brother and crime lord Knuckles (Daniel Wu) who is not happy with him. And if that wasn't enough, Gable must mend fences with Rose (Oscar winner Ariana DeBose), his former partner who he left for dead — she also isn't too keen on Gable these days. Lynch appears as a hitman on his trail.
It adds up to an action/comedy that production company 87North says is accompanied by a "killer soundtrack." And that soundtrack better include some version, or versions, of the song "Love Hurts." Otherwise, what's the point?! Obviously, the Nazareth rendition or Joan Jett's version are apt for a film like this, but they could get away with the original Everly Brothers' song. Personally, you can't go wrong with Roy Orbison's "Love Hurts." There are a couple cowboy hats in the trailer, so perhaps we'll get the Emmylou Harris and Gram Parsons duo. For the love of God, please don't play Incubus in the film. But I digress.
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Teen faces 5 potential first-degree murder charges for Fall City mass shooting
Crime
King County Superior Court Judge Joe Campagna presided at the first hearing for a 15-year-old boy accused of killing five people near Fall City.KUOW Photo / Ann DornfeldThe 15-year-old boy who allegedly shot and killed five family members at a home near Fall City early Monday morning waived his right to attend his first appearance Tuesday in King County Superior Court. One of his public defenders, Amy Parker, spoke on his behalf.
RELATED: 5 people dead and teen in custody following shooting near Fall City
King County prosecutors requested that Judge Joe Campagna find probable cause for five counts of first-degree murder, and one count of first-degree attempted murder.
The teen has not been officially charged. Prosecutors are expected to file formal charges on Thursday, including whether they will seek to try the boy as an adult. An arraignment is scheduled for Friday.
Judge Campagna described the allegations as of the "gravest possible seriousness," and ordered the teen to remain in secure juvenile detention and to have no contact with his sole immediate family member who survived the attack, an 11-year-old girl, who was hospitalized.
Parker did not argue for her client's release, but stressed that the 15-year-old is a child with no criminal history who "enjoys mountain biking and fishing."
A spokesperson for the sheriff's office previously said that the home where the mass shooting took place was not a "problem house," and that officers had not been to the house for “any significant reason for years.”
After police responded to 911 calls for the incident early Monday morning, a sheriff's office spokesperson said, the 15-year-old was taken into custody without confrontation with deputies.
Two adults and three teenagers were found dead inside the house. A fourth child, the girl, suffered injuries and was rushed to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.
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What do women and female orcas have in common? A lot in midlife
Books
Seattle author Angela Garbes is working on her third book. She is the author of "Like A Mother" and "Essential Labor."Photo by Elizabeth Rudge/Courtesy of Angela GarbesSeattle author Angela Garbes has found a distinctly Pacific Northwest way to talk about female middle-age: a conversation about orcas, featuring a whale researcher who goes only by Giles.
"Like Prince or Madonna," Garbes said of the preeminent Southern Resident killer whale researcher formerly — and formally — known as Dr. Deborah Giles.
RELATED: She needed answers about pregnancy. So she wrote them herself
Together with award-winning author Putsata Reang and poet Laura Da', Garbes and Giles will set out to answer a question that surely every Pacific Northwestern woman and feminine-presenting person has pondered: What can we learn from orca whales about perimenopausal and postmenopausal sexuality?
That's the question for one of three free talks Garbes is moderating for Seattle Public Library over the next three months. The series, "Midlife: Private Parts in Public," kicked off Thursday. The next will be a book group discussion of Miranda July’s "All Fours" on Nov. 7, followed by the orca talk on Dec. 12.
As curator of the series, Garbes said she had a chance to "shoot her shot" and find creative ways to talk about a still taboo topic. Hence, whale sexuality.
"Orca whales are like humans," Garbes said. "Their usefulness outlasts reproduction ... postmenopausal female orca whales are resources of knowledge. They are navigators. They pass skills and teach the younger generation. And they engage in a tremendous amount of sexual play ... so, there's a sort of sensuality that exists, again, post being fertile or reproductively critical to the species."
RELATED: Subscribe to the KUOW Book Club newsletter here
Garbes said she chose the focus of the series "for purely selfish reasons," as she processes her own midlife and the changes that life stage brings, from new pains to irregular periods.
"Perimenopause — it's a four- to 10-year period of your life in which there are 37 listed symptoms, which indicates to me that nobody has any idea what's going on," she said, joking-not-joking.
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Fewer staff, longer reviews? Seattle Mayor Harrell proposes cuts to city's construction department
Politics
Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell introduces his 2023-24 budget proposal while speaking to a crowd of city employees at the Charles Street Vehicle Maintenance Facility, Sept. 27, 2022.Seattle Mayors OfficeSeattle’s Department of Construction and Inspections would lose about 30 positions under Mayor Bruce Harrell’s proposed budget, which would reduce general fund support for the department by $2.9 million in 2025 and $2.5 million in 2026.
The city says there’s been much less demand for land use permits in recent years due to the cyclical nature of construction, and a long spell of high interest rates.
Master use permit applications are anticipated to be down 65% by the end of this year compared to 2019, meaning less need for zoning inspectors on projects like mother-in-law units or townhomes.
RELATED: How city leaders want to patch Seattle's $250 million budget deficit
Jamie Fackler, a city building inspector and union shop steward, argues that those jobs will be needed when the cycle goes back up and that slashing positions would delay building permits now.
“Whether you're building a house, building a backyard cottage, whether you want to cut a tree in your backyard, we're going to have longer review times," Fackler said. "We're seeing significant reductions in the groups that review all those things.”
Fackler says the job cuts would equate to half as much staff time for those permit reviews.
Department spokesperson Bryan Stevens said the job cuts are not anticipated to lengthen permit wait times, and that the city has to cut the budget to account for the major drop in revenue from user fees that make up 90% of the department's budget.
The Seattle City Council is holding budget hearings this week with a final vote scheduled for Thursday, Nov. 21.
RELATED: Reduced hours, closures hit Seattle Public Library branches amid city's budget struggles
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Will voters choose an insider or outsider to become the next Pierce County Sheriff?
Patti Jackson, left, is Patrol Bureau Chief at PCSO. Keith Swank is a retired Seattle Police Captain. They are seeking the open seat for Pierce County Sheriff.Photos courtesy of the Jackson and Swank campaigns.With Ed Troyer stepping down, there’s an open seat in the race for Pierce County Sheriff this fall. One candidate to succeed Troyer is a 35-year veteran of the same agency; the other is a former captain with 33 years at the Seattle Police Department.
Both candidates have emphasized an intention to restore accountability for petty crime to the county, which they say has deteriorated in recent years.
At a recent forum hosted by the League of Women Voters of Tacoma-Pierce County, both candidates for Pierce County Sheriff said the level of local theft is unacceptably high and they want to bring more vigorous enforcement.
Retired Seattle Police Captain Keith Swank said retailers have become overly resigned to these losses.
“We’re going to work with the box stores and say, “Listen — we don’t want you to let things walk out of your store, we want the security that’s here to try to help dissuade that from happening, and we want to work with you and partner with you to stop doing this,’” he said. “It’s criminal enterprises that are working these theft rings and we want to stop that.”
His challenger, Patti Jackson, is the patrol bureau chief and former head of corrections at the Sheriff’s Office. She said the wave of theft has been a “perfect storm” that started during the pandemic but needs renewed urgency.
“Then we suffered the staffing crisis and it just seems like we have settled at a status quo,” she said. “People are tired and they’re starting to react to that, and we need to be able to respond to what our public needs.”
Jackson noted that this period has coincided with booking restrictions that did not allow people to be jailed for theft cases.
“We will arrest people who are engaged in criminal activity,” Jackson said. “If we can’t hold them in the jail, we will at least get them accountable to the fact that we book them [and] we give them their fingerprints and photograph, which starts towards their criminal history.”
In a question about homelessness in Pierce County, the two candidates showed different emphases.
“We understand it’s not a crime to be homeless,” Jackson said. “But make no mistake: If you’re engaged in criminal activity, those are the things you’re going to be held accountable for.”
In other cases, Jackson said she’d seek partnerships with “subject matter experts” to provide social services.
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SPD's on track for release from federal oversight despite flawed police contract, judge says
Interim Seattle police chief Sue Rahr addresses the press after Mayor Bruce Harrell announced that former chief Adrian Diaz would be stepping down on Wednesday, May 29, 2024, at City Hall in Seattle.KUOW Photo/Megan FarmerAt a hearing Wednesday, the federal judge overseeing policing in Seattle made clear he’s disappointed with the city’s latest police contract. But he offered praise for improved practices at SPD as well.
U.S. District Judge James Robart said this year’s retroactive contract with the Seattle Police Officers Guild made little progress on accountability provisions, but he said he is “structurally unable” to intervene in the collective bargaining process.
Still he said, “I wonder why I keep pushing this rock uphill only to have it roll down again.”
RELATED: Seattle's police horse program to trot into the sunset
Kerala Cowart with the Seattle City Attorney’s office responded that the contract contained some improvements to the accountability system, and increased wages to address the staffing shortage at SPD.
Now, she said, recruitment is improving and the city and the Seattle Police Officers Guild have been meeting twice a month to negotiate a “forward-looking” contract. Cowart said all accountability provisions “are still on the table.”
Robart has overseen a consent decree involving Seattle police since 2012 when federal officials found a pattern of unconstitutional excessive force.
Aside from concerns with the labor agreement, during the hearing Robart praised SPD’s efforts to improve transparency and oversight. He said the agency is one of the strongest in terms of tracking data to monitor for possible racial bias by police.
RELATED: Seattle Police lost 23 guns and doesn’t know where they went
He said the Office of Police Accountability website has seen “a night and day change” in transparency of its complaint records. And he said the Office of Inspector General is well-prepared to take on the roll of SPD monitor once the federal monitor’s role concludes.
Robart called SPD Interim Chief Sue Rahr his “personal hero” for coming out of retirement to the lead the agency at a critical time. Rahr said after the hearing that she’s feeling hopeful.
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Fear and intimidation on both sides. UW releases report on Anti-Semitism and Islamophobia
Education
Palestinian and Israeli flags during a protest at UW Red Square. Seattle, Oct. 12, 2023Juan Pablo ChiquizaThe University of Washington has released a report on the tense "campus climate" over the past academic year, amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.
The report is the result of two task forces charged with looking into the perceptions and feelings of Jewish, Israeli, Arab, and Palestinian students.
RELATED: These Seattle restaurateurs are raising money for Lebanon amid conflict with Israel
"The differences in perceptions of comfort and safety are rather stark depending on one’s own identities," the report states in its findings. "Members of all affected communities perceived less openness to diversity of opinions compared to members of the broader campus community and expressed greater perceptions of discomfort and unsafety for those who share their identities compared to those who do not."
The report states that students reported both Anti-Semitism and Islamophobia on campus, including anti-Israel bias and a "perceived alienation and lack of support for Palestinian and Muslim communities." Insults, intimidation, and a desire to hide their identities were reported all around.
"The intent of this joint submission is not to equate antisemitism and Islamophobia, but to acknowledge that this particular moment puts into sharp relief the need to examine both in a shared context, as the present conflicts shine light on issues that impact members of our campus community who have experienced pain, isolation, fear, and discrimination," the report states.
According to UW's report, during the 2023-24 academic year:
- About two-thirds of Palestinian students said they had experienced insults and intimidation over the previous year. About half to one-third of Muslim and Arab/Middle Eastern/North African (MENA) students reported the same.
- One-third of Jewish students and 70% of Israeli students said they experienced insults and intimidation.
- 72% of Arab or MENA, 80% of Muslim students, and 78% of Palestinian students in the focus groups said they were unwelcome because of their identities.
- 60% of Jewish students and 92% of Israeli students in the focus groups said they were unwelcome because of their identities.
- 69% of Arab/MENA students, 74% of Muslim students, and 77% of Palestinian students reported a desire to hide their identity at least once (38% of Arab/MENA students, 40% of Muslim students, and 50% of Palestinian students said this happened frequently).
- 65% of Jewish students and 95% is Israeli students said they needed to hide their identities at least once (42% of Jewish students, 81% of Israeli students said this happened frequently).
Read the full 143-page report here.
RELATED: How Seattle’s Palestinian community is marking one year since the Israel-Hamas war began
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How new flu, RSV vaccines could help protect more kids this year
Health
Kindergartener Dariana Xilot Serrano looks at Erika Sandoval, a nurse with the Seattle Visiting Nurse Association, before receiving a flu shot on Tuesday, October 22, 2019, at Concord International Elementary School in Seattle.KUOW Photo/Megan FarmerCold and flu season — otherwise known as mid-October — is upon us. But this year, several advancements in vaccines could help families keep viruses at bay.
One of the new developments is a nasal spray flu vaccine, aptly called FluMist, that people can self-administer. The spray was approved by the FDA just last month.
“You can get a prescription from your doctor to pick up FluMist from the pharmacy, and give it to yourself or to your children at home,” said Dr. Helen Chu, an infectious disease physician at UW Medicine. “And it really will help, I think, especially when families are very busy.”
Chu said she’s hopeful this change will lead to more kids getting the flu vaccine.
So far this fall, there have only been a few dozen cases of the flu recorded in King County. Experts expect the worst of the wave to hit in December and January.
But it’s not just the flu families have to protect against.
In the past, the respiratory virus RSV has been the leading cause of hospitalization for babies. Last year, new RSV shots hit the market, an advancement that Chu said could keep a lot of infants out of the hospital. “If you give doses to infants when they are born, you can prevent 70 to 80% of hospitalizations due to RSV,” she said. That means hospitals will be less likely to reach capacity and won’t have to send babies to other hospitals, a challenge children’s hospitals have faced during past RSV seasons.
Last year, the U.S. didn’t have enough of the new RSV shots for babies to go around, but that’s not a problem this year.
The CDC recommends people get the RSV shot during pregnancy, or babies should get it at birth. High-risk babies are supposed to get a second shot a year later. That includes:
- Children who were born prematurely and have chronic lung disease
- Children who are severely immunocompromised
- Children with severe cystic fibrosis
The CDC also recommends that American Indian and Alaska Native babies and toddlers get a second shot, because recent research suggests they are at increased risk of severe RSV. That's in part because of social factors like living in multigenerational homes or homes with lower air circulation.
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