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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Oregon Road Fire survivor recounts harrowing escape
Justin Knutsen and his family had mere minutes to escape their home in Elk, Washington, as the Oregon Road Fire bore down on them.
"We need to get out of here now," Knutsen recalled, while sharing his experience with UW Medicine from his hospital bed at Harborview Medical Center.
It was Friday, Aug. 18, and Knutsen had just packed up his wife and infant daughter when a sheriff's deputy warned that the wildfire, north of Spokane, had changed direction — it was headed straight for them.
But there were others Knutsen had to warn first. He sent his family to safety in a separate vehicle and took off in his truck to find a friend and his mother. As we was driving back, however, he ran into a think wall of thick black smoke.
"I probably made it 45 seconds past that black smoke, and my truck shut off," Knutsen said.
Nothing worked. It was dead. He then only had one option — he had to run.
He did his best to cover his face with his shirt while he was surrounded by heavy smoke and extreme heat. He could barely open his eyes as he ran.
Knutsen screamed as he ran, and suddenly, he heard a faint honking — "'beep beep.' And then, a second later, 'beep beep.' And then, a second later, 'beep beep.'"
Soon, he saw the headlights.
"At this point, I was watching my skin drip off, like, like, drip off," Knutsen said. "My skin was melting."
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Listen to the last song Toki, the captive orca, sang, a tune her mother taught her
In all the coverage of Tokitae, the captive orca who died at the Miami Seaquarium on August 18, perhaps the most heartrending detail was that Toki sang the songs her mother and pod taught her before she was captured in the Salish Sea in 1970, at age 4. She reportedly sang these songs her whole life in her tank in Miami.
On Sunday on San Juan Island, Lummi tribal members honored Toki’s life and what she meant to them. They played what is believed to be the last recording of her singing before she died, at age 57.
Toki’s song is a clear whistle, starting with four plaintive notes. It is sophisticated and beautiful and haunting:
For those who wished for Toki’s return to her native waters as she grew older, there were small comforts that emerged after her death.
Orca Network Langley posted that as she began to struggle and move onto the next world, “her entire family was off the west side of San Juan Island in what these days is a rare gathering, with all three pods swimming up and down the island, socializing in a superpod.”
A superpod happens with the J, K, and L pods come together. Among the pod is L25, believed to be Toki’s mother. L25, also known as Ocean Sun, is believed to be 94 years old and the oldest living Southern Resident killer whale.
The orca network wrote, “This is often a cultural, social ritual to mark a significant event in their community, and we believe they were welcoming her home.”
They continued, “Toki is finally home, maybe not the way we wanted, but her family seems to know she is with them once again, in ways we may never comprehend.”
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Asian American community on edge after targeted home invasions in South Seattle
Asian American leaders and city officials are reacting to news this week that a series of more than a dozen violent robberies in South Seattle targeted elderly Asian residents and their families.
The crimes have revived concerns that non-native English speakers and first-generation immigrants might be wary of police, even if they are the victims of violent crimes, and renewed a push to provide the Asian American community in South Seattle with resources so they can better protect themselves and their families.
At a press conference Tuesday, Seattle Police Detective Judinna Gulpan said police suspect all 14 robberies since June have been conducted by the same group of teenagers.
During the robberies, some victims have been pistol whipped. In one instance, a 10-year-old was led through their house at gunpoint while the family was robbed.
Connie So, president of the Organization of Chinese Americans of Greater Seattle and a professor at UW, lives in Beacon Hill, one of several neighborhoods that have been targeted.
So said home invasions have been an issue in South Seattle for a long time.
“My mom passed away a few years ago, and at that time, she was always telling me, ‘This person just got a home invasion robbery, that person has gotten a home invasion robbery,” So said.
Some of the people targeted in the most recent string of robberies were first-generation immigrants, part of inter-generational homes, who were not native-English speakers, and might not have trusted institutions like the local government and the police, So said.
“I think what hits home is the fact that so many of the people I know who have been going through these crimes, they don't really want to talk about that much,” she said.
What’s likely driving these home robberies are ongoing problems — a lack of resources and lack of community connection, So said.
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Ingraham High School seeks federal funds to cope with repercussions of school shooting
As a new schoolyear begins, Seattle's Ingraham High School is applying for nearly half a million dollars in federal funding to help it rebound from last November's deadly school shooting, in which one student was killed.
In its grant application Seattle Public Schools said, “The impact the shooting has had on students’ learning as well as student and staff wellbeing is beyond what could have been imagined. Review of the data suggests Ingraham students and staff are hurting. However, with adequate resources and support, we can get back to a routine of consistency, predictability, and structure within the Ingraham school community.”
According to the application, the largest single priority for the $494,000 federal grant would be the ongoing salary for a full-time “house administrator,” a staff member in charge of holding reentry meetings with students who have been disciplined and creating safety plans, among other duties. That position was hired last year.
The grant would also fund an additional security specialist, and resources to contract with community-based, culturally responsive mental health supports.
The Seattle Public School Board voted Wednesday to accept the money from the U.S. Education Department’s School Emergency Response to Violence initiative, or Project SERV, if the federal government approves the grant and awards the funding. An SPS spokesperson said there's no set timeline for that decision.
RELATED: About the gun that killed a boy at Seattle’s Ingraham High School
Seventeen-year-old Ebenezer Haile died on the campus of the North Seattle school Nov. 8, 2022 after being shot by a fellow student. A student who was 14 at the time has been charged with first-degree murder and assault in Haile’s death. Another student was also arrested and charged in connection with the shooting.
KUOW reporters traced the history of the gun that was used that day at Ingraham High School.
According to the Seattle Public Schools’ grant application seeking federal assistance, “After police and school administration determined the school environment was safe, students were led to the auditorium for reunification with their families. The grueling reunification process took over two hours. Students and staff were crying, hungry, and in disbelief. You could see the impact and trauma the shooting already was having on the Ingraham community. The school shooting was also coming days after another Ingraham student had overdosed and died.”
The shooting continued to reverberate throughout the rest of the school year. During the remainder of the schoolyear, officials say Ingraham saw drops in attendance and academic performance, especially among seniors, and spikes in mental health referrals and disciplinary incidents including threats to others. The school also had an increased number of staff on leave.
The federal Project SERV grants are intended to help educational institutions “recover from a violent or traumatic event in which the learning environment has been disrupted.”
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Time and money: The cost of Labor Day 2023 travel plans
Washington and Oregon drivers continue to pay more for gas than the rest of the nation as the Labor Day travel weekend approaches.
The national average for a gallon of regular gasoline is around $3.83, according to AAA's data as of Tuesday morning.
RELATED: Road trip! Kicking the tires on electric travel in the Northwest
Oregon has the fourth-most expensive gas in the U.S. at around $4.80 a gallon, Oregon Public Broadcasting reports. That is slightly lower than prices in California, Washington, and Hawaii. The Medford region has the highest average price in Oregon at about $4.85, one cent higher than the Portland area. Just over the state border, Vancouver has an average of nearly $5.10.
In Washington, the average price is $5.11. King County is averaging $5.31.
OPB notes that West Coast usually sees the highest gas prices because it's relatively far from oil-producing parts of the country. Nationally, crude oil prices have simmered after a recent increase, largely driven by a cut in Middle East oil production this spring.
RELATED: What we do and don't know about high gas prices in Washington
Although national prices may be stagnating, drivers should expect a jump closer to Labor Day weekend as more people book flights and plan road trips.
The Washington State Patrol will be keeping an extra close eye on weekend traffic as drivers hit the roads. WSP is also activating its Mobile Impaired Driving Unit which specializes in DUI calls.
Over Labor Day weekend 2022, Washington State Patrol responded to:
- 448 speeding violations
- 232 aggressive driving calls
- 115 collisions
- 60 distracted driving incidents
- 21 DUIs
- 19 seatbelt violations
- 2 fatal collisions
Sea-Tac Airport
Travelers passing through Sea-Tac Airport are expected to surge to pre-pandemic levels over Labor Day weekend (estimated to be 18% higher than Labor Day 2022), according to the Port of Seattle.
Monday, Sept. 4 is forecast to be the most popular travel day at Sea-Tac — 190,000 expected travelers.
Friday, Sept. 1 is also expected to be a very busy day with an estimated 185,000 travelers. Sunday, Sept. 2 will have about 177,000 travelers.
Before Labor Day 2023, Sea-Tac Airport has already seen 3% more travelers than the Port of Seattle expected summer travel (that adds up to more than 500,000 travelers). In fact, so far, summer travel through the airport has added up to a 14.6% increase over summer 2022. A total of 29 million passengers used the airport between Jan. 1 and July 29.
The Port of Seattle expects 2023 travel volumes to be near 2019 levels, and 2024 is forecast to break travel records and exceed 2019 levels.
Ferries
"If you don't like waiting in line, and I think most people probably don't, don't travel when everybody else travels," said Ian Sterling with Washington State Ferries. "The way to do that is to travel later at night, or earlier in the morning, if your schedule allows that. The other hack we know doesn't work for everybody, if you can leave your car or truck at home and walk aboard, there's plenty of walk-on capacity."
In Washington state, folks with Labor Day weekend travel plans that include a ferry trip are likely going to have company. Washington State Ferries predicts that 400,000 people will come aboard this weekend, making this summer the busiest since 2019.
Saturday is set to be the peak, but drivers can expect the longest lines and wait times heading westbound to the islands Thursday through Saturday.
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Amazon CEO says ‘it’s probably not going to work out’ for employees who defy return-to-office policy
NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon employees have been pushing back against the company’s return-to-office policy for months — and it seems CEO Andy Jassy has had enough.
During a pre-recorded internal Q&A session earlier this month, Jassy told employees it was “past the time to disagree and commit” with the policy, which requires corporate employees to be in the office three days a week.
RELATED: Most workers want a 4-day work week. Here’s what might make employers come around
The phrase “disagree and commit” is one of Amazon’s leadership principles, and was used often by the company’s founder and current executive chairman, Jeff Bezos.
“If you can’t disagree and commit, it’s probably not going to work out for you at Amazon,” Jassy said, adding it wasn’t right for some employees to be in the office three days a week while others refuse to do so.
His comments were first reported by Business Insider, and later shared by Amazon.
The current office attendance mandate, which was announced in February and went into effect in May, is a shift from Amazon’s previous policy that allowed leaders to determine how their teams worked. But the company said Tuesday it rejects the notion that the prior policy was supposed to be the norm, and pointed to a blog post from 2021 where Jassy noted Amazon would “continue to adjust” things as more information rolled in.
When announcing the updated policy earlier this year, Jassy wrote in a memo to staff that Amazon made its decision after observing what worked during the pandemic and talking to leaders at other companies. He said the company’s senior executives, known internally as the S-team, concluded employees tended to be more engaged in person and collaborate more easily.
But many workers haven’t been convinced. In May, hundreds of Amazon employees protested the new policy during a lunchtime demonstration at the company’s Seattle headquarters. At the time, an internal Slack channel that advocated for remote work had racked up 33,000 members.
Some employees have also been pushing the company to supply data that support Jassy’s claims. During the session, Jassy said the company’s leadership looked at the data it has available and among other things, he said they didn’t feel that meetings were as effective from home as they were before. He added there are a lot of scenarios where the company has made some of its biggest decisions without perfect data, pointing to examples like Amazon’s decision to pursue an online marketplace for sellers and AWS, its cloud computing unit.
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White House plan to cut drug prices could lower costs for over 100K WA seniors
The Biden White House has announced plans to negotiate for lower prices on 10 drugs, which could save seniors in Washington state a lot of cash.
“Americans pay two to three times more than people in other countries for the exact same drug,” said Kristin Link Young, deputy assistant to the president for health and veterans.
The medications are used to treat a range of health problems including blood cancers, diabetes, heart failure, and arthritis. And they’re pricey. Nationally, these 10 drugs cost people on Medicare around $3.4 billion in out-of-pocket expenses last year, according to the White House.
The move to negotiate drug prices directly with pharmaceutical companies was made possible thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act, which became law last year.
For their part, pharmaceutical companies object to the effort, arguing it will mean less money for the research and development needed to create new life-saving medications.
“Politics should not dictate which treatments and cures are worth developing and who should get access to them. The cancer moonshot will not succeed if this administration continues to dismantle the innovation rocket we need to get there,” wrote the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, or PhRMA, in response.
The White House rejects that claim, pointing to evidence that big pharma spends more of its profits on stock buyback and dividend programs to benefit shareholders than it does on research and development.
“While big drug companies made record profits and spent hundreds of millions of dollars on lobbying year after year, millions of Americans were forced to choose between paying for the medications they need to live or paying for other basic necessities,” Link Young said.
The new drug prices will go into effect in 2026.
According to the White House, these 10 drugs, which include Eliquis for the prevention and treatment of blood clots, and several diabetes drugs including Januvia, are just a start. Medicare will negotiate prices for up to 60 covered drugs over the next four years, and up to 20 drugs per year after that.
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Are you ready for a full, super, blue moon ... that might actually be red?
Blue moons aren't actually blue. Keep that in mind Wednesday, Aug. 30, when a very rare type of moon passes overhead.
What type of rare moon? Adding it all up, the moon will be a full moon, a supermoon, and a blue moon all at once. But again, "blue moon" is just a saying, which means something that doesn't happen very often. The moon won't actually be the color blue.
However ... since we are in the territory of rare occurrences, Alice Enevoldsen, an astronomy teacher at South Seattle College and a NASA solar system ambassador, noted that there is a (tiny) chance that conditions could align to actually give us a blue, blue moon.
"If you go out and you see the moon tomorrow night, if you get lucky, and you happen to see it through the clouds, and it does look blue, the reason for that is going to be a specific kind of wildfire smoke," Enevoldsen said. "If there are particulates in the air of about one micron, then that can actually filter the light that we're seeing and make it so that the moon will look blue, usually."
RELATED: How to watch a supermoon
This phenomenon is the same reason that the moon could look red or orange at night. It's because particulates in the air can scatter different wavelengths of light (similar to how light breaks into different colors when it passes through a prism, or ya know, like that Pink Floyd album cover). It's also why sunlight can look more red or orange. Enevoldsen noted that it's the size of the particulates that can influence what hue shines through.
"But if we happen to just have a gust of the right kind of smoke go across the moon, that would be one micron particulates, then we would actually see that blue color, which has nothing to do with the fact that it's a blue moon; that could happen at any time," she said. "It's absolutely mind boggling that there is a thing going on right now that could turn it blue, probably won't."
Again that's rare. It's more likely that, with the potential of wildfire smoke, the moon could appear red — a red ... full ... super... blue moon.
The moon rises shortly after 8 p.m. Wednesday, and sets around 7 a.m. Thursday morning. Even if the blue doesn't shine through, Wednesday's moon is still a rare sight to behold.
While it is close to a circle, the moon's orbit around the Earth is an elliptical journey (just like all orbits) — sometimes it is closer and sometimes it is farther away. On Wednesday, Aug. 30, the moon will be the closest to the Earth in its orbit. That makes it a supermoon.
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Jack Kerouac wrote about this fire lookout, currently threatened by fire in WA
As crews battle the Sourdough Fire in Washington's north Cascade Mountains, one corner has received particular attention for its place in literary history.
"I believe it's an author. I learned about this today, actually. Author Jack Kerouac ... he based some work off of a person who was operating out of that lookout,” Thomas Kyle-Milward with the state Department of Natural Resources told KUOW about the Sourdough Lookout.
“So it has some historical significance, which is one of the reasons why such pains were taken to make sure it was safe.”
RELATED: Evolving ecology — wisdom from 30 years as a fire lookout
Kerouac stayed at a nearby lookout, Desolation Peak, and wrote about the Sourdough location, where fellow poet Gary Snyder previously worked. For a few years, this corner of the Cascades served as a summer home, place of inspiration, and source of boredom for writers before their bylines garnered fame.
Both the Sourdough Mountain Lookout and the Desolation Peak Lookout have views of Ross Lake, where a nearby wildfire has threatened hydroelectric operations that power the city of Seattle. Crews have dropped fire retardant around the Sourdough Lookout. Kyle-Milward noted that it's the second time retardant has been used in the park. Tin-foil-like material has been wrapped around the structure to protect it from any flames, making it look like a big baked “potato,” as KUOW's John Ryan reported in early August.
The Sourdough Lookout is no longer operational, and is only staffed when needed, according to Kyle-Milward.
Across Ross Lake, a few miles north, is Desolation Peak, surrounded by dry tinder and a rocky landscape. Rocks are space, and space is illusion when it comes to wildfires that rip through a mountainside.
Desolation Peak gets its name from Lage Wernstedt. He was the first recorded person to scale the peak in 1926, after which he gave it the name that stuck — Desolation Peak — because a wildfire had recently charred the vast surrounding landscape.
Fire lookouts were constructed in the years that followed to watch for such fire threats. That’s when the writers came.
What is that feeling when you're fighting a wildfire away from where a beat poet once looked out on the plain? It's the too-huge flames vaulting us, and its good-bye, but we lean forward to the next crazy fire erupting beneath the skies.
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13 South Seattle home invasions targeted elderly Asian Americans, police say
Robbers have been forcing their way into the homes of residents living in South Seattle in recent months, leading city leaders and police officials to address the spree. Police said some victims have been pistol whipped.
There have been 14 incidents reported to police since June in several neighborhoods in the following zip codes: 98108; 98118; 98144; 98178.
Elderly people of Asian descent have been targeted in all but one of these incidents, police said Tuesday during a press conference.
"They're going after people they think are easy targets," said John O'Neil, police spokesperson.
Although police said it appears they're targeting Asian Americans, police said it doesn't amount to a hate crime.
Police described the suspects as working in groups ranging in size from three to seven people carrying guns who either rob people outside their homes or force their way inside to steal money and valuables. In one instance, a 10-year-old was led through a house at gunpoint while the family was robbed.
This pattern has emerged before. In 2016, detectives investigated several cases in which Asian American families in the Beacon Hill area were targeted. At the time Seattle Police wrote that in each of these cases, the suspects targeted households that had large amounts of cash on-hand.
Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell spoke on the recent increase of robberies on Monday.
“It’s just unacceptable,” he told KUOW.
Harrell said he’s recruiting police officers everywhere he goes, alluding to the ongoing staffing shortage within the Seattle Police Department. The department has a goal of recruiting 125 officers a year, a target which Harrell hopes they’re on track to reach this year.
“I hope that our City Council understands the need for strong public safety in all these areas as well,” Harrell said.
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Pink salmon are having a great 2023 return in Puget Sound
Did you know pink salmon are quite considerate? They schedule their returns during odd-numbered years. That makes things easier for folks watching salmon communities around Puget Sound, and in 2023, they are observing one of the largest pink salmon runs in the past decade.
Matt Bogaard with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife is one such salmon expert who keeps track of these numbers.
"We're forecasting to see about four million Pink Salmon returning to Puget Sound this year. That's right around the 10-year average," Bogaard said. "We did see a run size of a little over 8.5 million in 2013. And we've had several large run sizes since, but in the last two pink salmon cycles, we've seen declining run sizes. So it's great to see a larger number coming back this year."
RELATED: One way to help coho salmon survive NW pollution
The 2023 pink salmon run is expected to peak now through early September.
In 2021, about 3.7 million pink salmon returned to Puget Sound.
"Pink salmon tend to swim in high-density aggregations, sort of at the shoreline, so they are a bit easier for folks to observe. They're typically chasing their preferred food source and honing in on their natal stream habitats," Bogaard said.
In recent years, the Pacific Ocean experienced consecutive La Niña cycles, which created favorable conditions for the young salmon. That could be one reason that pink salmon numbers are so high for marine observers, recreational catches, and commercial observations this year.
"We've also seen an increase in abundance in some of our other stocks," Bogaard noted. "Baker [River] sockeye, for example, has had one of the highest run sizes on record. So we're hoping that the pink, and other stocks, follow suit."
"I think we have some really positive inclinations, so far, that we should see a higher abundance of pink salmon communities here, which is great for us to meet our conservation objectives, but it's also going to be excellent to hopefully provide an increase in both recreational opportunity, as well as commercial opportunity, and for tribal co-managers as well," he said.
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Stop flying drones near wildfires. Firefighters are grounding planes as result
"Our firefighting operations are more important than those 12 likes you'll get on Instagram."
The Washington State Fire Marshall's Office has often reminded people that it's not a good idea to fly drones through wildfire zones. There are, after all, firefighters and aircraft in those same areas trying to operate amidst the chaos. But last week, the office felt the message might hit a bit harder if translated into the language of the internet.
RELATED: Ready, Set, Go — What to know about evacuating Western Washington wildfires
In case that wasn't clear: Don't fly a drone near wildfires.
Fires continue to surge in Washington state.
More firefighting personnel are set to arrive at the Gifford Pinchot National Forest Monday after lightning strikes sparked more than 45 new fires southeast of Mount Rainier on Aug. 24-25.
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