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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Bellevue closed two elementary schools. Are middle schools next?
The Bellevue School District is considering more school consolidations — this time at the middle school level.
District leaders unveiled a timeline for potential school consolidations at a school board study session Thursday, and called for parents, students, and community members to join a Superintendent Advisory Council to help inform their decisions.
The district has also hired two demographers to study enrollment trends for the next eight years across Bellevue’s five middle schools, and assess whether consolidating into fewer schools would allow the district to better maintain existing programs and services for students.
Earlier this year, the Bellevue School Board decided to close two elementary schools — Wilburton and Eastgate — as part of a school consolidation plan. The district had lost about 10% of its students over the last three years, creating a budget deficit of $20 million this school year.
Bellevue is far from alone: School districts across the state and nation have been grappling with severe budget shortfalls in the wake of the pandemic. Consequently, many school communities had to have painful conversations about what programs, services, and jobs leaders should cut — or whether they should close schools.
Earlier this week, Seattle Public Schools leaders also laid out a timeline for this year's budget process as the district faces a $104 million shortfall and may have to consolidate schools next fall. School officials were able to close a $131 million gap last year without closing schools.
In an interview with KUOW earlier this year, Bellevue’s new superintendent, Kelly Aramaki, acknowledged the district is still in a financially precarious time. Enrollment is projected to shrink another 8% over the next decade. But Aramaki says he’s ready to face it head on with structural changes.
“I think the worst thing we could do for our kids and for the community is to not be in control of our finances and then just be constantly cutting and trimming back,” he told KUOW. “That is not the kind of future that we want."
RELATED: Bellevue’s first Asian American superintendent reflects on his family’s 120-year US journey
Under Bellevue’s new timeline, data from the demographers is expected to be made public by the end of this month.
Next month, district officials will review that data as part of community forums at all five middle schools, and create a plan for “equitable and targeted outreach to specific groups.”
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Is Washington state in another Covid surge?
It seems that almost everyone knows someone who has Covid in Western Washington these days, or has heard of someone who has had it recently. But in this post-pandemic emergency era, how do we know if we're in a surge?
Reductions in community testing mean data on case numbers is no longer reliable. However, Pavitra Roychoudhury is a virologist with UW Medicine and she's been watching numbers that indicate local levels of Covid. Roychoudhury keeps track of local hospitalization counts, as well as virus levels detected in wastewater. These indicate if levels are higher or lower in the area.
“The rates of hospitalizations — that is people who are in the hospital either with Covid or due to Covid — is rising in Washington and other parts of the U.S. So that is certainly indicating that something is going on," Roychoudhury said.
She added that while Covid levels detected in wastewater have also been rising, locally, they may be starting to level off.
RELATED: What will virus season look like in Washington state this year?
Nationally, hospital numbers went up to 20,000 at the start of September, the highest that count has been since March. While it's a recent uptick, it's still a low number when compared to the more than 150,000 hospitalizations that were seen in late 2021 and early 2022.
Data published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicates that hospitalizations in King County went up 8.7% in the week leading up to Sept. 9, to a total of 137 admissions, which the agency considers "low."
The uptick in Covid cases has been anticipated, as UW Medicine virologist Dr. Helen Chu told KUOW's Seattle Now in August.
"It doesn't take much to tip this over the edge, and I anticipate that once schools start and the weather gets colder, and people start gathering in doors, and all of the other viruses come back, those hospitalization numbers will start to go up," Chu said at the time.
RELATED: Covid dashboard upgraded to include flu and RSV in Washington state
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Start saving water, Seattle, utility says. We’re in drought conditions
Just a couple days ahead of fall 2023 officially starting, there is snow in Washington's mountains and rain expected soon in the lowlands. Meanwhile, the region continues to deal with drought conditions, which have prompted Seattle Public Utilities to urge residents to voluntarily reduce water usage.
The summit at Crystal Mountain got its first snow of the season Wednesday. It was just a light dusting that didn't stick around for very long. Snow also fell at the Sunrise entrance at Mount Rainier this week.
Heavy rain is expected as early as Monday, when an atmospheric river is slated to arrive in the Puget Sound region. That could continue through Wednesday. The region needs it.
Most of Washington state continues to deal with drought conditions, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. Parts of the Puget Sound region are dealing with "moderate" to "severe" drought conditions.
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Free Covid tests by mail are back, starting Monday
The Biden administration is whirring the covidtests.gov website back to life.
Starting Monday, the federal government will send up to four free Covid-19 rapid tests per household to anyone who requests them.
This announcement comes with a recognition that Covid hospitalizations in the U.S. peaked in January for the past three years running and that testing is an important component of minimizing the spread of the infection.
Many of the pandemic programs that allowed Americans to get tested, treated and vaccinated for Covid — all for free — went away this year as the pandemic emergency designation expired.
But now the Department of Health and Human Services, through its Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response, is making a $600 million investment in manufacturing of Covid tests.
The money has been awarded to 12 U.S. manufacturers and will buy 200 million tests. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said the idea is to bolster the U.S. supply chain and reduce reliance on overseas manufacturers.
The first batch of free rapid tests by mail went out during the omicron wave of January 2022 — that was the apex of Covid infection seen so far. The free test offer was renewed several times, with a total of 755 million free tests distributed.
The government suggests you don't throw out unused tests even if the expiration date has passed. First, check the lot numbers of any you have on hand at covidtests.gov — the expiration dates for many have been extended and the website will list them.
The strategic preparedness office also gives free Covid tests to long-term care facilities, low-income senior housing, uninsured individuals, and underserved communities.
[Copyright 2023 NPR]
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Here's when Seattle Public Schools will announce possible school closures
The timeline to potentially close some Seattle schools is getting clearer.
The district has not yet identified any specific schools on the chopping block, but has said closures could happen in fall 2024 as part of a plan to address a $104 million budget shortfall fueled by declining enrollment.
“This year is going to be a tremendous challenge,” Superintendent Brent Jones said Wednesday at a school board budget work session.
Under the new timeline, Jones would lay out the budget proposal in mid-November, which would likely include a list of any schools being shuttered.
Leading up to that, in October, district officials plan to provide an update on the latest enrollment numbers and community feedback from its “well-resourced school” meetings over the summer, and share general budget cut strategies.
District officials were able to close an even larger shortfall last year by draining a $42 million rainy day fund and making more than $30 million in cuts in the central office.
But now, administrators said Wednesday that the district needs to focus on long-term, structural budget cuts — including likely school closures and consolidations.
Despite the Washington state Supreme Court’s landmark McCleary ruling that funneled billions of new dollars into schools, administrators say funding doesn’t allow for students to get all the resources they need in schools with lower enrollment.
“Small schools no longer match up with the state allocation model,” Art Jarvis, deputy superintendent of academics, said Wednesday.
By launching a multi-year budget planning process and starting that process earlier in the year, Jones hopes to head off future deficits. As of Wednesday, district officials project a $129 million shortfall for the 2025-26 school year.
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How to keep carbon in Washington's forests
When forests burn, there is a specific type of environmental harm that might not immediately come to mind: Carbon stored in the trees is released into the atmosphere.
A new study has found locations in Washington state where protecting trees could have the biggest impact on carbon storage and community safety.
“When fire burns through an area, it releases a large part of that carbon by burning the tree up," said Michael Case, a forest ecologist with the Nature Conservancy.
The Nature Conservancy, the University of Montana, and the U.S. Forest Service found forests in Central and Eastern Washington, California, and Arizona are hot spots — they pose the biggest risk of burning and leaking the most carbon into the atmosphere.
Case says prioritizing thinning and burning stands within these hotspots could lower wildfire risks, and help with carbon storage.
This comes after the federal government earmarked billions of dollars for reducing wildfire risks, forest managers are prioritizing what to address first.
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Seattle 'poised' to get serious about public drug use, Mayor Harrell says
Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell made the city's new drug law official Wednesday, when he signed the recently passed bill. The law will take effect on Oct. 20.
“We are poised to address the crisis with the seriousness that it is,” Harrell said, after he and City Attorney Ann Davison toured Evergreen Treatment Services in Seattle's SoDo neighborhood Wednesday.
Next, Mayor Harrell will issue an executive order sometime over the next few days, which will provide guidance for police on when to make arrests, and when to divert people to supportive programs. Seattle’s ordinance emphasizes that police should make arrests only if the person using drugs also poses a threat to others.
“Our officers are up for that,” he said. “So they’re not playing the role of caseworker that has been misdescribed by some accounts. What they’re simply doing is assessing threat as they are trained to do, and quite frankly that is their core competency.”
The tour at Evergreen was the first opportunity for Harrell and Davison to comment on the city's new law, which was controversial as it worked its way through the council process. They said that the tour wasn't timed to coincide with the passing of the ordinance. Instead, the visit was in honor of National Recovery Month. Evergreen offers medication-assisted treatment and wraparound services for adults with opioid use disorders.
The Seattle City Council approved the bill Tuesday with a 6-3 vote, aligning the city's drug law with the state's law, making drug possession and public use a gross misdemeanor.
Supporters expressed hopes that the new law will strengthen the city’s ability to respond to open-air drug markets and steer people to treatment and support before they overdose.
City Attorney Ann Davison says she is “relieved” that the law was passed.
“We really do need to be intervening with people in a meaningful way and making our public spaces safer, so I’m glad we can proceed on that,” she said, adding that her office will look at the cases that are referred by police to see if there are further opportunities to help people seek treatment and avoid prosecution.
“We will look at each case and make that determination based upon the facts of that case,” she said. “Knowing that we are an additional place for that exit way into treatment.”
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First lady Jill Biden coming to Seattle this week
First Lady Jill Biden is slated for another visit to Seattle this week. Unlike many high-profile visits in the past, when politicians fly in and out of town within a day, Biden will spend Thursday and Friday in the area.
The first lady is fundraising locally for the Biden Victory Fund, as part of the 2024 election campaign. This includes events in Shoreline and on Mercer Island, according to The Seattle Times, which cost thousands of dollars to attend.
She also plans to talk about President Joe Biden's "Cancer Moonshot Initiative" at Seattle's Fred Hutch Cancer Center on Friday.
RELATED: Vice President Kamala Harris visits Seattle, promotes 'Bidenomics'
Biden is expected to arrive at King County International Airport in Seattle on Thursday evening, Sept. 21. As she is transported around the city, expect traffic delays throughout the region's roadways, especially on the freeways, such as I-5 through Seattle, and I-90 across Mercer Island.
Biden's trip to Seattle is part of a West Coast tour that also includes Los Angeles and San Diego. She will travel through California on Saturday, following her appearances in Seattle.
This is Biden's third visit to the Seattle area during her tenure as first lady. She previously visited the area in October 2022, when she spoke to students at Bates Technical College in Tacoma, and also came to support events for military caregivers and wounded soldiers. Biden also visited with military families and organizations during her March 2021 visits to Joint Base Lewis-McChord and Whidbey Island.
The first lady's September visit to Seattle comes nearly a month after Vice President Kamala Harris came through to promote "Bidenomics" and the administration's efforts to combat climate change.
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Want some winter work? Seattle is offering free snow shovels
Live in Seattle and want a free snow shovel? You're gonna have to work for it.
The city of Seattle is handing out free snow shovels to volunteers willing to clear walkways in their neighborhood during snowy times. The city is also handing out free snow melt and "shoveling tips."
RELATED: Seattle snow advice for (snickering) Midwest transplants
The idea is for local volunteers to keep walkways clear for residents who cannot easily do this themselves, such as the city's seniors.
If you want in on the free work supplies, act fast. The deadline to apply is Sept. 30.
In order to apply, Seattleites are instructed to inquire with their local block watch captain. No block watch captain? Then email 684-Road@seattle.gov.
The Northwest is about to enter the fall season, and it's too early to make accurate winter predictions. In other words, it's unclear how much snow we can expect over the coming months. So far, weather officials are predicting a warmer than average fall season with slightly less than average rainfall. The same outlook goes for the upcoming winter, too. Still, as true Northwesterners know, it only takes a tiny amount of snow on the ground to create deceptive and dangerous icy conditions.
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Seattle City Council passes controversial drug ordinance
The Seattle City Council voted 6-3 Tuesday to make drug use and possession a gross misdemeanor under city law, ending a period of uncertainty about who is responsible for enforcing those minor crimes.
The vote allows the city attorney to prosecute drug cases, but also encourages a “public health approach” to addiction, which would emphasize pre-trial and pre-arrest diversion and treatment programs.
The bill doesn't contain any new funding for drug treatment.
RELATED: Seattle program addresses gap in opioid crisis — post-overdose support
Mayor Bruce Harrell said he will “not waste any time in signing” the law and will also be issuing an executive order which, among other things, will clarify how he wants Seattle Police to enforce the new law.
Councilmembers Lisa Herbold, Debora Juarez, Andrew Lewis, Sara Nelson, Alex Pedersen, and Dan Strauss Voted in favor of the new drug law. Voting against it were Councilmembers Tammy Morales, Teresa Mosqueda, and Kshama Sawant. The bill's passing was greeted by a mix of applause and boos in the council chambers.
Earlier this year, the council considered a similar law that failed by one vote. Councilmember Andrew Lewis was viewed as the swing vote in that failed attempt. He had been leaning “yes,” but changed his mind and voted against the bill after heated public comment in which some community members raised concerns that the law would resurrect the failed “war on drugs,” which disproportionately harmed people of color.
The new ordinance includes suggestions to the Seattle Police Department (SPD), encouraging officers to consider whether a drug user “presents a threat of harm to others” before making arrests, for example.
RELATED: UW researcher says there's a simple way to help people addicted to fentanyl
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The best time to apply for an AC unit, before federal funding cools off in Washington
A program that helps low-income families in Washington state access air conditioning units is at risk, as pandemic funding runs out.
“There hasn’t been a widespread need for cooling until the 2021 heat domes,” said Brian Sarensen, director of Washington state's Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program.
The program helps families access AC units, furnace replacements, and other home heating and cooling needs. Sarensen notes that the state has historically focused on helping people heat their homes. The AC program came online in late 2020.
During the pandemic, the federal government nearly doubled the budget for this program, but now that extra funding is coming to an end; funding that is crucial to the AC program, Sarensen said.
“We've been able to get cooling to low-income households," he said, adding that without more funding, the program will start asking difficult questions. “How much should we set aside for the summer? Does that impact keeping people warm in the winter?”
The program tried to spread out the extra federal funding to avoid going over a funding cliff, however, it still won't have enough money to serve everyone.
The state's program uses heat disparity maps and other calculations to determine how much money each area needs. Then money is distributed to local community action agencies. Families can apply for assistance through these local agencies, however, if your local agency uses all of its funding for the season, you cannot get an AC unit.
Sarensen said that, this past summer, almost half of the local agencies shut down before the end of the season due to running out of funds.
The next round of AC funding begins October 2. It is recommended that families apply for air conditioning units during the off season — fall and winter — for better chances at receiving a unit before funding runs out.
Sarensen understands that getting an air-conditioner, as temperatures cool down, is not at the top of people’s minds, noting that “with the population that we're serving, they're moving from crisis to crisis.” He says people are worried about winter, “they're not thinking about cooling their houses in the summer. They're thinking about whether I can afford to live above 60 degrees and put food on my children's plates.”
Recent studies have shown that neighborhoods that have more people of color and lower incomes tend to be hotter. These areas generally have less green space and more buildings, creating a heat island.
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Little Mermaid makes a big splash at Seattle's 5th Ave Theater
The 5th Avenue Theatre’s original production of the Disney classic, “The Little Mermaid,” is a magical experience with familiar characters, recognizable songs, and a few wonderful surprises that wowed the opening night crowd in Seattle, packed with kids.
We meet Ariel and Prince Eric who are both struggling with finding their place. They come from royalty in their respective worlds — Ariel, the daughter of King Triton in the sea, and Eric, heir to the throne on land — but neither has a sense of belonging.
Prince Eric wants the freedom of life at sea as a sailor, and Ariel often skirts her duties as princess. Her desires are crystalized when she wonders, “What if home is not where you are, but a place you discover?”
Through song, dance, and fantasy, this production explores the meaning and significance of finding where you belong, and also tackles the relationship between parents and their adolescent youth who are finding their paths in the world that may not meet the parents' expectations.
Here’s what to expect
Being the 35th anniversary of this Disney classic, most attendees will likely know the story being told. What impressed me with this production was the work of flight sequence choreographer Paul Rubin, scenic designer Kenneth Foy, lighting designer Charlie Morrison, and choreographer John MacInnis. While viewing a story I knew so well, the staging and choreography made for a performance that still felt fresh.
The production created the illusion of characters swimming by using cables that suspended the sea creatures high above stage. The fluid motions by the actors dazzled the young audience, and Scuttle the seagull was able to spend most of his stage time flying above the stage. The seamless transitions from suspension to being grounded were a highlight. We would see mermaids swimming above, then be grounded momentarily, and whisked back into the air, as they swam away.
A standout moment in the production was Ariel’s performance of “Part of your World.” Diana Huey, who played Ariel, sang this song while suspended high above the stage and audience. Huey kept the illusion of floating in the water, while providing an incredible vocal performance that captivated us all and concluded in an uproarious applause.
Another memorable moment featured Ursula, played by Shaunyce Omar, performing “Poor Unfortunate Souls.” The dark and tentacled background design, and eerie green and purple lighting that engulfed not only the stage, but the walls and ceiling as well, set the tone for this villainous rendition. The fractured lighting looked like it was refracted from water, and the way it exceeded past the stage itself put us as the audience inside Ursula's evil lair. Her henchmen, clad in light-up costumes, would glide across the stage in wheelie shoes. This was a nice touch and added to the different forms of motion on stage with characters flying and swimming. It also helped keep the attention of younger audience members, like my daughter, who is 6.
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