Week in Review: Wildfire, teacher strikes, and the West Seattle Bridge

Bill Radke discusses the week’s news with Seattle Times Amanda Zhou, KUOW’s Mike Davis and Geekwire’s Mike Lewis.

The Bolt Creek fire, which covered more than 9,000 acres, shutdown a stretch of Highway 2 and caused evacuations at nearby towns. This is significant because wildfires like this west of the Cascades are rare, and the west side is less prepared for something like this. How would more fires like this change our westside identity?

On Tuesday, Seattle educators voted to suspend a strike, and will vote to ratify a tentative agreement that was reached. The start of school was delayed for a week. The contract is said to maintains or improves the same special education student/teacher ratios, adds mental health staffing to every school, and boosts staff pay, but has not yet been released to the public. What do we know about the agreement?

The wreckage of a floatplane that crashed into Mutiny Bay killing 10 has been found 190 feet below the surface of Puget Sound by using sonar. The cause of the crash is still under investigation. What happened and why?

The West Seattle Bridge reopens to the public on Sunday for the first time in two and a half years. The bridge passed final strength tests, clearing the way for the 100,000 Seattle commuters to have a trip to work that is back to normal for the first time since March 2020. How will it affect lives?

Census data released this week show that Seattle had the second highest percentage of people who worked from home, trailing only Washington D.C. The data showed that 47 percent of Seattle workers worked from home in 2021, a nearly sixfold increase from 2019. What are the implications of that?