John Ryan

Reporter

Good thing John was a clumsy traveler.

Otherwise his cheap microcassette recorder wouldn't have fallen out of his pocket in an Indonesian taxi, a generous BBC stringer wouldn't have lent him some professional recording gear, and he wouldn't have gotten the radio bug. But after pointing a mic at rare jungle songbirds and gong–playing grandmothers for his first radio story, there was no turning back.

In the past decade, he's freelanced for shows such as All Things Considered, Living on Earth, Marketplace and The World. He also continued his print career by reporting for newspapers including the Christian Science Monitor, Los Angeles Times and Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce.

In 2009, John moved back to Seattle after two exciting years covering avalanches, political intrigue and just about everything in between for KTOO FM, the NPR station in Alaska's capital city.

John has won awards for KUOW as a freelancer (check out "As the Sound Churns") and now as a staff reporter, most recently the Society of Professional Journalists' Sigma Delta Chi Award for Public Service in Radio Journalism. He believes democracy only works when journalism holds the powerful accountable for their words and actions. He says he's happy to have one of the few investigative reporting jobs in public radio and to get to explore new ways of telling investigative stories at KUOW.org.

John welcomes story ideas and feedback from listeners.

In addition to the recent stories below, John's stories from September 2012 and before are archived here.

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Ready For Arctic Oil Spill
5:16 pm
Tue April 23, 2013

Shell's Arctic "Beer Can" Passes Federal Test In Puget Sound

Shell Oil Co. had to postpone its Arctic drilling until 2014 after one of its oil rigs ran aground off the Alaska coast this winter, but Shell’s efforts to open a new frontier of oil exploration in the Arctic Ocean continue in Puget Sound.

The oil giant passed a key test with federal regulators in March in the waters off Anacortes, Wash., north of Seattle.

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Deadly Blast
7:06 pm
Mon April 15, 2013

Seattle Area Marathoners Recount Explosions In Boston

Runners from the Seattle area spoke to KUOW about the explosions at Monday’s Boston Marathon. Please write weekday@kuow.org or call 206.685.2526 with your stories.

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Says Unrelated To Scrutiny of SPD
12:46 pm
Tue April 9, 2013

Seattle Police Chief John Diaz Steps Down

Credit Seattle Channel
Outgoing Seattle Police Chief John Diaz announcing his retirement

Seattle’s police chief stepped down on Monday. John Diaz announced his retirement 33 years after starting with the Seattle Police Department – and one week after a pair of outside reviews criticized SPD under his tenure.

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Investigation Long Overdue
5:11 pm
Fri April 5, 2013

Safety Problems Old And New At Anacortes Oil Refineries

Credit KUOW/John Ryan
Chemical Safety Board chief investigator Bob Hall in Burlington, Wash., in April 2010, when he said investigating the Tesoro refinery blast would take 18 months

The Shell Oil Co. refinery in Anacortes, Wash., sprang a leak last week. Shell quickly shut down the equipment that was boiling oil to make gasoline, but the shutdown led to a release of toxic gases.

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Terrorism Or Entrapment?
6:59 pm
Mon March 25, 2013

Seattle Man Gets 18 Years For Terror Plot

A Seattle man received an 18-year prison sentence on terrorism charges on Monday after plotting to attack a military installation in South Seattle.

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Executive Pay
5:17 pm
Fri March 15, 2013

Striking Providence Hospital Workers Criticize Nonprofit CEO’s $6 Million Pay

More than 500 workers at Providence St. Peter Hospital in Olympia are on strike.

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Greens Disappointed
7:16 am
Fri March 15, 2013

US Blames Shell For Mishaps, Remains Committed To Arctic Drilling

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar had some tough words for Shell Oil Thursday as he announced the results of an investigation into Shell's Alaskan accidents in 2012. But he did not announce the tough consequences that environmentalists were hoping for in the wake of Shell’s year of Arctic mishaps.

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Safety Vs. Freedom
6:37 pm
Thu March 7, 2013

The Sanka Party Brews Activism Inside A Mental Hospital

The Tea Party has become a fixture in American politics. But the Sanka Party? Not so much. Other than an interest in hot beverages, the two activist groups have little in common. The Sanka Party got started last summer near Tacoma, Wash., in the unlikeliest of places: inside the walls of the state’s largest psychiatric institution.

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Caps A Year Of Mishaps
4:52 pm
Wed February 27, 2013

Shell Cancels Arctic Drilling For 2013

Shell Oil Co. has put Arctic drilling on hold. The company announced Wednesday that it will not attempt to drill for oil in the Arctic Ocean this year. The announcement comes after a year of accidents and setbacks for Shell’s Arctic drilling efforts.

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Arctic Drilling In Doubt
5:06 pm
Wed February 13, 2013

Shell's Arctic Vessels: To Asia For Major Repairs, Anacortes Area For Tests

UPDATE: Shell plans to use three tugs to tow the damaged Kulluk oil rig to Dutch Harbor in Alaska's Aleutian Islands, where it will await a longer trip to an unnamed Asian drydock. Shell and the US Coast Guard have disbanded the joint command formed after the Seattle-bound rig broke free from its sole tugboat, then ran aground. Officials said the Kulluk's outer hull was damaged but not breached. They did not specify the degree of damage, saying only, "The outer hull did receive damage as expected with a vessel being aground during adverse weather." 

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