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
-
Seattle Police employee fired after being accused of spreading rumor about chief
A Seattle Police Department employee was fired Wednesday afternoon after the employee was accused of fomenting a rumor about Police Chief Adrian Diaz having an alleged romantic relationship with someone Diaz would later hire to be a top-level advisor.
The employee was in the department’s media relations division. Sources confirmed to KUOW that the employee, who was on a temporary contract, was no longer employed as of Wednesday afternoon.
The firing comes less than one day after KUOW published an investigation outlining the probes and internal inquiries that have been launched as a result of the rumor’s spread through the department.
The employee fired was not one of KUOW’s 23 sources for the investigation.
The rumor spread throughout the department after the woman started her employment in May. As one employee told KUOW, “Everyone was talking about this.”
The temporary employee became the subject of an Equal Employment Opportunity investigation, an internal human resources inquiry, after admitting to talking about the rumor with others, Diaz's attorney Ted Buck said.
The employee was placed on paid administrative leave in July, days after a conservative Facebook group posted about the chief’s alleged romantic involvement.
Seattle Police declined to comment on the firing.
Diaz has denied the relationship was ever romantic through his attorney Buck. Buck told KUOW that Diaz and the advisor are friends, nothing more.
“Are they romantic friends? No, they're not,” Buck said. “Has Adrian helped her put dimmer switches on some of her electrical outlets because that's what he does? Yeah, that's the kind of friendship they have.”
When asked about the internal investigation into the temporary employee, Buck said it was deemed to be the “appropriate method for the investigation, based upon interference with a police department employee's ability to do her or his job without having to deal with things that they shouldn't have to deal with.”
Diaz learned the rumors were spreading roughly seven months ago, Buck said. He said that rumors were partly sparked by officers seeing the chief’s vehicle more frequently at one of the precincts, which is located close to the woman’s home.
Diaz was seen going on several occasions into the woman’s apartment building. Buck said the chief would meet with the woman and her friends inside her residence, to help her friend prepare for police exams, and that Diaz had helped the woman with home improvement projects.
Continue reading » -
2 men have now pleaded guilty to Christmas power grid attacks
Two men attacked four substations in Pierce County on Christmas Day 2022, in order to rob stores and ATMs where the power went out. Nearly one year later, they will be sentenced for the crimes after pleading guilty.
Jeremy Crahan, 40, of Puyallup, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Tacoma this week. Sentencing is slated for December. The Department of Justice says that Crahan has admitted to helping plan the attacks and was a lookout during the incidents.
Matthew Greenwood, 32, of Puyallup, pleaded guilty to the crimes in April. He is scheduled to be sentenced in November.
RELATED: Washington grid attacks flew under the radar for months
Crahan and Greenwood could face up to 20 years in prison for the grid attacks. According to a plea deal, prosecutors agreed to push for a shorter sentence for Greenwood, as he has participated in a drug treatment program since his arrest.
The plan was to knock out power at four substations in Pierce County, then rob stores and ATMs where the power went out. On Dec. 25, 2022, they cut through fencing and vandalized four substations, mainly by manipulating switches on electrical equipment:
- Puget Sound Energy's Hemlock Substation in Puyallup, which caused 8,000 customers to lose power. Also, Puget Sound Energy's Kapowsin Substation in Graham.
- Tacoma Power's Elk Plain substation in Spanaway and its substation in Graham. Together, these attacks caused a power outage for 7,500 customers.
Following the round of robberies, the two men began planning to do it again, this time by cutting down trees so they would fall over transmission lines, knocking out power, after which they would steal from more businesses and ATMs. Police arrested them on Jan. 3, 2023, however, before they could enact this second plan.
RELATED: FBI warned of neo-Nazi plots as attacks on Northwest grid spiked
The two men attacked the substations in Pierce County amid a spike in similar attacks across the Northwest that began over the summer of 2022. A KUOW / OPB report found (before the Christmas grid attacks) that the Northwest power grid had experienced more attacks in 2022 than in the past six years combined.
Continue reading » -
Seattle passes grim milestone with record high homicides
Seattle has passed a grim milestone — 57 homicides, so far, in 2023. It's the highest level of homicides the city has seen in nearly three decades.
RELATED: 7 graphics on kids and guns in the Seattle area
The Seattle Police Department confirmed the homicide count with KUOW on Thursday. The statistic makes 2023 Seattle's bloodiest year in recent memory.
Callie Craighead, a spokesperson for Mayor Bruce Harrell, called the spike in homicides "tragic, abhorrent, and unacceptable."
"Public safety is a core charter responsibility, and Mayor Harrell believes that every person in our city deserves to be and feel safe," Craighead told KUOW.
The city saw 69 homicides in 1994, according to data from the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs, which tracks crime data from across the state as far back as 1980. Those data show 1994 had the highest number of recorded homicides in Seattle. The recent rise in slayings may put Seattle on pace to exceed that figure in 2023.
A spokesperson for Seattle Police did not directly address the city's homicides when asked for comment. The spokesperson instead referred to staffing issues in the department. Seattle has lost hundreds more officers than it's hired in recent years.
"However, SPD continues to re-allocate resources to areas of concern in our communities," the spokesperson wrote in an email.
The city set out to aggressively recruit more police in 2022. So far, the effort has failed to meaningfully add to the ranks of SPD. Other cities across the country are facing similar challenges.
The mayor's office also nodded to police staffing: "Our office will continue with efforts to support a well-trained and well-staffed police department, ensuring SPD has the resources to respond to the needs of the community and conduct swift, thorough investigations."
Continue reading » -
Bainbridge ferry passengers battle route restrictions
Passengers on the Seattle-to-Bainbridge Island ferry are having to make some big adjustments today.
From now until Sept. 13, wheeled vehicles, including bikes and scooters, are not allowed on the ferry, and half the sailings are canceled.
The restrictions were met with some frustration and confusion Thursday morning.
Danni Burrus-Prince commutes from Poulsbo to Seattle for work. Her usual ferry didn't run today, putting a damper on her regular schedule.
"For me it's a four-hour commute regularly, two hours in the morning and two hours at night, essentially," she said. "So, it's just a bigger inconvenience, and now, I'm just not sure when I'll be able to get to start my work day today."
Some passengers complained there wasn't adequate notice about the changes.
Angie Tabor, a musician who travels to Seattle for rehearsals and performances, said they learned about the prohibition on cars from a friend of a friend, not through an official channel.
"I have the app, and I get the notifications," Tabor said. "I didn't get any notification about that. It might have been good to just have like a, 'Hey, this is happening. Heads up in case you're traveling.'"
Continue reading » -
Understanding 'familicide' after Seattle's murder-suicide in Wallingford
Four people died in the house fire in Seattle’s Wallingford neighborhood on Saturday: A father, Salvatore Ragusa, 48, mother, Lana Stewart, 40, and two children, Sebastiano Ragusa, 7, and Valentina Ragusa, 4 months.
An 11-year-old child escaped, police said.
Salvatore Ragusa died by suicide, the medical examiner said. Lana Stewart died by “multiple sharp force injuries.” The baby died from smoke inhalation; the boy died of “asphyxia, inhalation of toxic products of combustion.”
The crime follows many of the classic patterns of “familicide” — killing one’s partner and children.
Familicide is rare: According to one review study, the incidence rate is about 1-2 per 10 million people annually. The rate of intimate partner homicide is 100 times that.
That study found that the perpetrators are almost always men, usually in their 30s or 40s, and often with financial difficulties and mental health problems — including depression, psychosis or paranoia, and personality disorders. King County District Court records say Ragusa suffered from “paranoid delusions and grandiose beliefs.”
Ragusa had completed a required, 24-month supervision and treatment plan from the Mental Health Court on Feb 8, 2022.
A timeline of events
The vast majority of familicide victims are killed in their own homes, usually with guns but sometimes by suffocation, poisoning, fire, or other methods.
Researchers have suggested that there are at least two kinds of familicide. In “despondent” familicide, the perpetrator kills the family for “pseudo-altruistic” reasons, believing the family will not be able to cope without him. Researchers call that an “extended suicide.”
In “hostile” familicides, the perpetrator is motivated by jealousy and revenge, and is much less likely to kill himself.
In both cases, the perpetrator usually has a patriarchal, proprietary perspective on the family, and does not view the children as separate from his partner.
Perpetrators of familicide tend to be different from those who kill just their partner or just their children.
Continue reading » -
Bumbershoot's new look attracts large crowds over Labor Day weekend
Bumbershoot’s triumphant 2023 return after a three-year hiatus surpassed its new organizers' attendance expectations and introduced crowds to a new-look for the festival.
That new look included arts districts, kid-friendly attractions, a cat circus, and of course, plenty of music. Greg Lundgren, co-founder and creative director of New Rising Sun, the new producer of the festival, said that their first Bumbershoot curation was a success.
“We had 40,000 people, which definitely exceeded our expectations,” Lundgren said. “It's like throwing a party. You buy all this food, and you buy all this booze and you're like, ‘I hope people show up’. But we were really pleased with the numbers.”
The last Bumbershoot, back in 2019, was produced by One Real. That event had fewer than 30,000 attendees over the three-day-weekend.
One factor that may have contributed to the increased attendance at this year's two-day event was the reduced ticket prices. Early bird tickets were $50 for one-day pass and $85 for the weekend. Day-of tickets were $75. In 2019, ticket prices started at $109 per day.
Continue reading » -
Federal judge salutes 'the end of the beginning' of Seattle’s police reform efforts
In a hearing Wednesday, U.S. District Judge James Robart said the Seattle Police Department has made substantial progress in major issues at the heart of a decade-long federal consent decree. He predicted the decree will pass away "in the near future."
Robart said he will file his written order Thursday finding the department in compliance with the decree except for the outstanding issues that the U.S. Justice Department and the City of Seattle had already agreed should remain under court oversight for now: crowd control policies and the disciplinary system for officers found to have committed misconduct.
Police command staff including Chief Adrian Diaz attended the hearing. While officials said they will await the written order to formally comment, Diaz did say he was gratified by the judge’s acknowledgement of the hard work of rank and file officers, saying this moment is “a good place to be.”
Diaz said he agreed with Robart’s paraphrase of Winton Churchill that while this is not “the beginning of the end” for the goal of attaining constitutional policing, it is at least “the end of the beginning” of those reforms.
In announcing this milestone Robart cited improvements to the police department's use of force numbers, crisis intervention, stops and seizures, and supervision.
He said he was most proud of the department's robust system to investigate complaints of misconduct: the Office of Police Accountability, the Office of Inspector General to make system-wide recommendations, and the Community Police Commission, which he said has made progress in defining its mission.
Rev. Patricia L. Hunter, co-chair of the Community Police Commission, said the CPC is in agreement with the steps Robart is proposing, to wind down the consent decree and return to local control. She said the commission shares concerns Robart mentioned over the culture at SPD, including revelations of a pro-Trump campaign sign that hung in the East Precinct.
Robart also expressed concerns over staffing shortages at SPD and potential impacts on officer wellness. Hunter said those issues also resonated for her.
“When one is under stress, some poor decisions can be made, and those poor decisions can impact Black and Brown communities disproportionately,” she said.
While the joint motion filed last March by the U.S. Justice Department and the City of Seattle sought to close out and replace the consent decree with a new agreement addressing the last remaining concerns, Robart said he is denying that aspect of the motion. It’s not clear whether the consent decree will technically remain in place while the remaining issues are addressed.
But Robart suggested that he will not re-open any completed provisions of the consent decree in response to isolated high-profile incidents.
“I take the systemic view as opposed to being focused on individual incidents,” he said. He noted one of the most recent headlines, about a possible leak of body camera footage in the case of a pedestrian killed by an SPD officer. Robart said it’s “infuriating that we battle in the court of public opinion” over these cases.
Continue reading » -
Speed cameras could be coming to a Seattle street near you
The city of Seattle is primed to deploy a series of speed enforcement cameras along city streets.
“As part of our comprehensive strategy to increase traffic safety, we know automated cameras are an effective tool because they reduce reckless driving, reduce collisions, and reduce direct interactions between drivers and police,” said Councilmember Alex Pedersen, who sponsored the legislation approving the new speed cameras.
The City Council approved the new speed enforcement cameras Tuesday. While it is unknown how many will actually go up, the council approved up to 74 new cameras. The move is partially related to the council's effort to counter street racing, however, these cameras are slated for hospital zones and areas around public parks, as well as the "restricted racing zones" the council established in July. It also comes after state lawmakers expanded the laws around speed cameras earlier in 2023.
RELATED: Street racing cameras coming to 10 Seattle roads
The cameras will be automated. A driver will receive a warning for the first infraction reported by a speed enforcement camera. A citation will be issued after the second infraction. The funds coming from camera citations (speeding tickets) will be directed at transportation projects that prioritize traffic and pedestrian safety. Revenue from the cameras is not expected until mid-2024.
“We will use the net revenue from the new cameras to build more sidewalks and crosswalks, while also calming traffic on dangerous arterials," Pedersen said in a statement. "Many of those projects will take years to design and construct at a large scale across our city, so this needs to be a 'Yes AND' effort to increase safety. If we’re serious about reducing the harm of traffic injuries and deaths today, we need to use the tools available to us today and that means installing this technology along dangerous roadways and intersections, especially where our most vulnerable residents are simply trying to cross the street.”
According to council materials, it is unknown how much the cameras will cost to operate, however, the city points to similar programs for its block-the-box and transit-lane camera citations. Those cameras cost $4,000 each month to operate. The city estimates that once speeding ticket revenue arrives, the cameras will pay for themselves. After the cameras are up and running, the city expects that speeding citations will drop within six months to a year.
According to an SDOT presentation given to the council's transportation committee, the cameras will operate similar to the school zone cameras already deployed in the city. These speed enforcement cameras, however, will be running 24 hours a day (unlike school zone cameras that operate during school hours). Cameras capture photos and video of a speeding car. A citation is issued to the driver associated with the license plate number.
Continue reading » -
Bremerton's praying coach Joe Kennedy resigns after brief return
Assistant Coach Joe Kennedy has resigned after returning to Bremerton High School's football team for one game, and one final prayer.
In a statement on his website, Kennedy announced his resignation from the Bremerton School District, saying that he will focus on work outside of the school system for religious liberty. Kennedy just returned to the job after a U.S. Supreme Court decision in his favor that culminated an seven-year legal battle over his post-game prayers at the 50-yard line.
“As I have demonstrated, we must make a stand for what we believe in. In my case, I made a stand to take a knee. I encourage all Americans to make their own stand for freedom and our right to express our faith as we see fit," Kennedy said.
Read Kennedy's full statement below.
Continue reading » -
Pink salmon are on the move and Seattle anglers are lining up to reel them in
A
s the sun set over Puget Sound, Tom Molinas stood in a line of a half-dozen anglers spaced evenly along the beach at Lincoln Park in Seattle, casting and reeling in, their poles rising and falling in an uneven rhythm, everyone waiting for a bite.
Molinas had already had some luck. Two pink salmon flapped sporadically on a line in the lapping tide by his feet.
Molinas has been fishing these waters for three decades. He pulled out a photo protected in a Ziploc bag that shows him standing at Pier 52 downtown in a rain jacket and sunglasses smoking a cigarette and holding a line of half a dozen salmon. He was 22.
Molinas, a veteran of the Vietnam War, said, over the years, fishing has played a big part in maintaining his mental health.
“For me, this is therapy,” he said.
RELATED: Pink salmon are having a great 2023 return in Puget Sound
This year’s run has the potential to calm many a soul. State officials say 2023 could be one of the largest runs of pink salmon in the past decade. Pink salmon only return to their spawning grounds on odd-numbered years.
They are sometimes called "humpies" because of the hump males develop as they make their way up rivers and streams to spawn.
Continue reading » -
Seattle Public Schools narrowly averts strike, allowing kids to return to classes
Seattle Public Schools averted a strike, allowing the district’s nearly 50,000 students to return to classrooms on time for the first day Wednesday.
In a message to families late Tuesday, the district said it had come to a tentative agreement with the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 302.
The union represents about 600 SPS employees, including school custodians, gardeners, food service workers, and security staff. Their contract with the district had expired Aug. 31, and a representative for the union said Sunday that a strike was becoming increasingly likely.
“SPS appreciates all the hard work of both bargaining teams to reach a tentative agreement,” Bev Redmond, the district’s chief of staff, wrote Tuesday. “We are excited to have the members of Local 302 join us as we welcome our students, families, staff, and community partners for the 2023-24 school year tomorrow.”
After closing a $131 million budget gap for this school year, Washington's largest district will face another deficit of roughly $100 million. School closures are likely on the horizon for the 2024-25 school year.
Continue reading » -
Housing and parks could be built over I-5. Seattle councilmembers are officially into it
As Seattle officials plan for the city's future, placing a lid over I-5 will be in the works thanks to the City Council's latest resolution.
A "lid" over the freeway would mean significant construction to turn portions of I-5 into a tunnel. The newly created space above it could be dedicated to housing, park space, and commercial uses.
The Seattle City Council approved a resolution supporting the idea to construct a lid over I-5. The approval allows for the city to pursue federal funding. The resolution was approved with three yeas, two abstained, and none opposed, with Councilmembers Andrew Lewis, Dan Strauss, and Lisa Herbold approving.
"This is a big step forward," Councilmember Lewis said at the meeting. "This resolution represents the first formal council action recognizing an interest in expanding our lid zones throughout the city."
Lewis said he expects it to be the first of many resolutions. It is meant to place the I-5 lid project into consideration as officials develop a new comprehensive plan, budgets, and other goals. Such plans are unknown currently, but council members mentioned partnerships with the state Legislature and federal agencies to get it done. Councilmember Dan Strauss said that private investment could play a significant role in funding the projects.
Lewis also likened the lid I-5 proposal to the projects along the city's waterfront that are just now coming together. He called lidding I-5 Seattle's "next big challenge."
There are currently several lids on SR 520, including one under construction in Seattle's Montlake neighborhood. There are also lids over I-90. One is part of the Mount Baker Tunnel (the western entrance is actually a lid that leads into the Mount Baker tunnel; Sam Smith Park is up top), as well as a portion of I-90 over Mercer Island. That lid is now known as Aubrey Davis Park and has 90 acres of park space.
Ideas for placing a lid over I-5 through parts of Seattle have floated around the city for many years. The group Lid I-5 has actively pushed the idea forward. It's gained supporters over time, such as Phen Huang with the Foster White Gallery in Seattle.
“It’s an open sore in the midst of the city of Seattle,” Huang said. “Having the traffic noise and just the cleaving of our city by the I-5 being the first thing people see when they approach us from the airport – how sad is that? That’s not who we are.”
Instead, Huang says a lid over I-5 through downtown Seattle could support housing and parks with lots of trees.
"It seems to me there's no question that there needs to be an I-5 lidding,” Huang said. “It's just a question of how far does it need to go. It'd be great if it's more than just Madison to Denny; if it kept going. Because then you wouldn't have these cement walls, you wouldn't have these ugly approaches. You'd see so much more green."
A recent city report estimated a lid project could cost billions of dollars, but the state is currently studying the need for major seismic upgrades for I-5. Backers say building a lid during those upgrades could bring the cost way down.
In the past, many stretches of the freeway have been pointed to for lid potential. Some have proposed covering the freeway through downtown. Others feel North Seattle is a good candidate.
On Tuesday, Councilmember Strauss pointed out North Seattle, between 50th Street and 45th Street, and said a lid could connect separated neighborhoods while producing millions in new property tax revenue for the city.
"If we can have 14 acres of public and private land, that would be amazing," Strauss said.
"I'd like to see a lid up at 130th station as well," he added.
Continue reading »