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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Bird flu continues to spread in Washington state. What to know about the virus
Health
Health officials continue to monitor the spread of bird flu in Washington state, where notable cases emerged over 2024.
The first human infections in the state were recorded this year, with more than a dozen people testing positive, mostly after close contact with infected poultry. The virus (H5N1) has also been found in commercially raised chickens, seals, and dairy cows, since first emerging at the beginning of the decade.
RELATED: More than 100,000 pounds of ground beef are recalled for possibly having E. coli
Late last week, Woodland Park Zoo announced that a red-breasted goose died in a suspected case of bird flu. The zoo quickly isolated birds and restricted access to them. The Centers for Disease Control considers the current public health risk of bird flu to be low, but Peter Rabinowitz, the director of the University of Washington’s Center for One Health Research, says that can change.
“It’s certainly not going away and as long as it continues to circulate in farms and wild birds, it’s going to continue to pose a risk to people who have direct contact with infected animals," Rabinowitz told KUOW's Soundside.
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Amtrak engineer on Seattle-bound train nearly impaled by fallen tree
A tree nearly impaled an Amtrak engineer near Stanwood, Washington, on Nov. 19, 2024.Washington State Department of TransportationA railroad engineer was nearly impaled Tuesday night when a Seattle-bound Amtrak Cascades train hit a fallen tree.
Heavy winds had blown the tree onto the BNSF Railway tracks near Stanwood, about 15 miles north of Everett in Snohomish County.
A weather station on Camano Island, just west of Stanwood, reported a 63 mile per hour gust shortly before the train ran into the tree.
The tree smashed through the rail car’s front window.
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Climate pollution surges in Washington state after pandemic lull
Environment
Traffic flowing into and out of Seattle along I-5.Megan Farmer / KUOWThough up-to-date information is hard to come by, energy use and climate-altering pollution appear to be on the rise again in Washington state.
After sharply dropping 14% in 2020 with the reduced commuting and economic activity of the Covid-19 pandemic, the state’s carbon dioxide emissions have bounced back 7% since then, according to data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
If you want to keep tabs on the health of the state’s economy, you can track indicators like employment, home prices, and exports on a monthly basis. (Did you know that Washington exported $2.99 billion of manufactured commodities in September?)
But if you want to track the economy’s impacts on the planet’s health, you have to wait years.
Policymakers and advocates are essentially driving blind as they pursue the difficult goal of slashing fossil-fuel pollution fast enough to help stabilize the planet’s rapidly heating climate.
The Washington Department of Ecology plans to publish the state’s greenhouse gas emissions for 2020 and 2021 in December 2024.
The Seattle Office of Sustainability and Environment plans to publish an inventory of Seattle’s contribution to climate change for the year 2022 in December as well.
“It is a significant lag,” Washington Department of Ecology spokesperson Andrew Wineke said. “Everybody wants it to happen faster, and we are putting a team together to do that.”
The Environmental Protection Agency released state-level data for 2021 and 2022 in September 2024.
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Seattle recycling faces 'unprecedented challenges' as bottle maker closes
Environment
Employees remove items that cannot be recycled from a conveyer belt on Friday, Oct. 26, 2018, at Cascade Recycling Center in Woodinville, Washington.KUOW Photo/Megan FarmerUtility officials say glass recycling in the Seattle area faces “unprecedented challenges” as the region’s main manufacturer of glass bottles shuts its doors.
The Ardagh Glass Packaging plant in Seattle’s Duwamish Valley shut down temporarily in July and permanently in November. The plant, a property of Luxembourg-based Ardagh Group, laid off 245 workers.
The multinational company blamed competition from subsidized bottle makers in China and those in Chile and Mexico.
Ardagh and United Steelworkers had petitioned the U.S. government for relief, but the U.S. International Trade Commission ruled in October that subsidized glass wine bottle imports from China were not materially threatening the U.S. industry.
Now, with no local buyers for recycled glass, Seattle Public Utilities is scrambling to find new markets for Seattle’s old glass.
“Glass is heavy and presents logistical challenges when it comes to transportation,” utility spokesperson Brad Wong said by email.
Wong said demand for recycled glass remains strong nationally and the utility and business partners are working to develop new customers and better rail transportation options for the heavy product.
For now, crushed glass is being stockpiled for future recycling.
Already, local glass processor Strategic Materials Inc. has stockpiled 6,000 tons of cleaned, sorted glass near Seattle’s South Transfer Station, according to Wong.
The utility urges customers to keep recycling their bottles and to make sure glass is clean and dry to maximize the quality of the recycled material.
Environmental activists in the Duwamish Valley said the Ardagh plant had long been one of the industrial valley’s worst polluters, with multiple violations of clean-air and clean-water laws, especially for emissions of heavy metals.
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Western Washington to see high winds again Friday
High winds are expected to return to Western Washington Friday, days after a Pacific Ocean bomb cyclone sent heavy blows throughout the region.
The winds on Friday are not expected to be as severe as earlier this week, though they will be noticeable. The National Weather Service in Seattle warns that more power outages can be expected, as well as more falling trees and tree limbs. The strongest winds will strike the coast.
The National Weather Service has issued wind warnings for the coast as well as the Cascade foothills.
Winds between 20 to 35 mph are forecast throughout Bellevue and the East Puget Sound lowlands, with gusts up to 50 mph, between 10 p.m. Thursday through 10 a.m. Friday.
Another wind advisory has been issued for the central and north Washington coastline from 10 a.m. Friday through 4 a.m. Saturday. Winds from the south are expected to be as high as 40 mph, with gusts up to 55 mph.
The National Weather Service in Seattle said Friday's winds will come in a one-two punch. First, easterly winds will blow through the Cascade Mountains and through the Eastside early Friday morning. Later that morning, the wind will shift and start blowing from the south.
This is a developing weather story. Check back for updates.
Still recovering from Western Washington wind storm
This week's storm killed two people, left hundreds of thousands without power, and caused widespread property damage. As of Thursday morning, more than 300,000 people across the region still lacked power after the lights went out on Tuesday. Puget Sound Energy says that it expects power to be restored for every customer by noon on Saturday.
RELATED: 2 killed, more than 600,000 without power in Western Washington amid pacific bomb cyclone winds
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How the Seattle City Council plans to patch a budget hole with JumpStart revenue
Government
The Seattle skyline at night, with I-5 running through downtown.Seattle will use money originally earmarked for affordable housing to plug a $250-million hole in the city’s budget.
The money comes from the JumpStart Tax, a tax on big companies with highly-paid employees.
Tuesday's vote on a budget package at the Seattle City Council included a showdown on the future of JumpStart Tax revenue.
On one side, Councilmember Cathy Moore wanted to force the mayor to spend at least some of the money on affordable housing.
"It's a choice between putting some guardrails on the executive or not," Moore said. "I have tried to find the middle ground, in terms of those guardrails. Where I come down on mandating guardrails is with affordable housing."
On the other hand, Councilmember Bob Kettle wanted the government to spend less money, and that can mean painful cuts.
"We need budget reform," Kettle said. "And I'd like to thank [Budget Committee] Chair [Dan] Strauss for the efforts that have been ongoing this year, but we need more. We need to complete the mission of budget reform."
In the end, Kettle's arguments won the day: By providing maximum flexibility on how the JumpStart tax is used, there's less need to find new sources of revenue.
RELATED: How city leaders want to patch Seattle's $250 million budget deficit
Strauss warned that a path of continually raiding the JumpStart Tax would prove unsustainable.
"We’re not out of the woods," he said. "We're so far in the woods, it's a thicket that some folks are having trouble seeing the trees."
Council Bill 120912 adjusting how JumpStart taxes are spent has one more vote Thursday before it heads to the mayor’s desk for a signature as part of the budget package. However, Thursday's vote is considered a technicality, as the budget committee already includes all nine council members.
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Dam siren blares false alarm to Skagit Valley town
Environment
Puget Sound Energy's Lower Baker Dam in 2009.WikipediaSome residents of the Skagit Valley got a scare early Monday morning: An evacuation siren went off at 6:53 a.m. near the town of Hamilton.
Puget Sound Energy operates two dams on the Baker River, a tributary of the Skagit River, that turn runoff from Mount Baker and Mount Shuksan into hydropower.
Just to the south, eight sirens spread along a 12-mile stretch of Highway 20 are designed to blare should a dam fail.
The upper dam, 312 feet tall and 65 years old, holds back Baker Lake, while the lower dam, 285 feet tall and 99 years old, holds back Lake Shannon.
Here’s what blasted from a Puget Sound Energy loudspeaker just east of Hamilton:
The utility notified county emergency officials, who then notified residents that the dams were not in trouble: "Skagit County Department of Emergency Management: PSE siren is sounding. This is a siren failure. The dams are NOT failing. Do NOT evacuate."
Puget Sound Energy officials say they are investigating the false alarm.
“PSE takes this malfunction seriously and is working to troubleshoot the cause of the equipment failure,” Puget Sound Energy spokesperson Andrew Padula said by email.
Padula said the utility’s seven other dam sirens along Highway 20 stayed silent and are working as they should.
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Western Washington braces for severe rain, wind storms brought by Pacific bomb cyclone
High winds and rain are expected to strike Western Washington on Tuesday. Meteorologists are advising residents to prepare for power outages and other stormy disruptions.
"We're going to see pretty strong easterly winds throughout Puget Sound and along the coast," Maddie Kristell with the National Weather Service told KUOW.
Washington's coast can expect winds up to 55 mph, and gusts up to 70 mph, through Wednesday. The National Weather Service has issued a high wind watch alert for the coast through the east Puget Sound lowlands. Stormy weather is expected to peak Tuesday night through Wednesday morning.
"We are going to have some pretty strong and elevated seas, which can make the beach very hazardous to be on as well," Kristell said. Hazards will not only include high winds, but also rain and some snow in the Cascade Mountains, she added.
Western Washington can expect power outages, downed trees, and property damage. Coastal areas could experience some flooding, even as the recent King Tide fades away. The mountains will get snow around 3,000 to 4,000 feet, and passes may be impacted.
The rest of November is expected to be rainy.
The severe weather is caused by a bomb cyclone abut 300 miles out in the Pacific Ocean, where atmospheric pressure has considerably dropped in a short period of time. That creates a significant storm, so much that it is sending high winds and precipitation all the way to Western Washington.
National Weather Service Seattle meteorologist Dana Felton told KUOW that that heavy winds will spread throughout the "Cascade foothills, along the coast, west part of the Strait of Juan de Fuca; the winds could come down I-90 and even get as far as Bellevue or Lake Sammamish."
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Boeing is laying off nearly 2,200 Washington employees before Christmas
Business
The Boeing Renton Factory is shown on Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2020, in Renton.KUOW Photo/Megan FarmerAs the holiday season arrives, and people begin wrapping presents in red, green, and gold paper, Boeing is sending pink slips to some of its employees, including 2,199 in Washington state.
The aerospace company notified Washington's Employment Security Department on Nov. 15 of the staff reductions.
RELATED: Boeing, my dad, and Airplane Economics 101
Last week, a Boeing spokesperson told KUOW that most "affected U.S. employees will be notified mid-November and leave the company on Jan. 17." According to the notice filed with the state, the permanent layoffs in Washington are slated for Dec. 20, 2024.
The layoffs have been expected. The company announced in October that it planned to reduce its workforce by 10%. Boeing has about 170,000 employees companywide. Layoff notices were expected this month.
The company statement further said, “We are supporting these teammates with additional resources such as severance pay and career transition services."
RELATED: Could be a decade before Boeing is back to normal, analyst says
Workers that are not expected to be affected are the machinists who recently ended their eight-week strike. Union members approved a contract offer from Boeing by 59%. That new contract raises machinists' general wages by 38% over four years.
In October, Boeing's CEO Kelly Ortberg noted that the strike and layoffs were separate issues.
"The realities of our business is we're overstaffed for the forecast of our business going forward," Ortberg said on CNBC. "So we need to right size and be efficient and I think we need to continue to do that as we go forward. Obviously, the later the strike ends the more more impact that will have."
Boeing reported a third quarter loss of $6 billion in October. The company has a backlog of more than 5,400 airplane orders.
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Gov. Inslee in Azerbaijan for global climate talks
Environment
2024 is on track to be the Earth's warmest year on record and the first to pass 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.Washington Gov. Jay Inslee is spending the week in Azerbaijan, an oil-producing nation between Russia and Iran, for the latest round of the United Nations’ global climate talks.
Each year, world leaders try to hash out plans to reduce fossil-fuel pollution and help poorer nations survive the planet’s overheating.
Agreements don’t come easily.
At the 2024 summit, Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev called fossil fuels “a gift of the God.”
At a protest in the neighboring nation of Georgia, Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg said holding a global climate summit “in an authoritarian petro-state is beyond absurd.”
RELATED: Trump's reelection casts a shadow over the start of global climate negotiations
European Union scientists say 2024 is “virtually certain” to be the hottest year on record.
Since the first global climate talks in 1992, the world’s carbon dioxide emissions have grown 47%, according to the nonprofit Global Carbon Project.
Since Inslee became governor in January 2013, Washington’s greenhouse gas emissions have increased at least 11%, though the state’s published data only covers emissions up to 2019.
Inslee first attended the climate talks as governor in 2017 in Germany, after a newly elected President Trump announced he would withdraw the United States from the 2015 Paris climate agreement. This week marks Inslee’s fourth appearance at these annual summits.
Inslee has argued that “subnational” governments, such as cities and states, can tackle emissions faster than nations and helped found an alliance of U.S. governors aiming to accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels.
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Jeff Bezos, other tech leaders congratulate Trump on ‘extraordinary political comeback’
Politics
In this Sept. 13, 2018, file photo Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and CEO, speaks at The Economic Club of Washington's Milestone Celebration in Washington.AP Photo/Cliff Owen, FileGone are the days when Amazon founder Jeff Bezos joked about sending Donald Trump to the moon on a rocket to keep him out of the White House.
Bezos took to X on Wednesday to congratulate Trump on “an extraordinary political comeback and decisive victory.”
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Apple’s Tim Cook issued similar statements following Trump’s second presidential win.
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Could be a decade before Boeing is back to normal, analyst says
Business
A Boeing B-747-400 landing at Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield, Calif.After a few PR emergencies, federal scrutiny, legal proceedings, a machinists strike, and other business woes, it will likely be 10 years before Boeing can be back to business as normal.
That's according to Scott Hamilton, an aviation analyst with Leeham Company, an aviation news outlet. Hamilton told KUOW's Angela King that the labor contract Boeing's machinist union approved Monday is just one hurdle the company is facing. Boeing has a lot of work ahead to build itself back up.
RELATED: Inside the '90s merger that started Boeing's long decline
"The future is going to be bleak in the near term, because they are losing billions of dollars a year, and the cash flow is still negative," Hamilton said. "The cash flow is probably going to be negative well into next year ... Here at Leeham company, we think it'll take Boeing a decade to get itself back to its 2018 level, where everything was going smoothly, all the production lines were producing a good rates, they were making profits, good cash flow."
After rejecting multiple contract offers from Boeing, members of the machinist union IAM District 751 approved a labor contract with the company Monday evening by 59%, bringing an eight-week strike to an end.
"It's better than 50 plus one [percent], no question about that, but it still tells you that 41% of the members voted no," Hamilton noted, adding that the contract offer was a good one, and Boeing was never likely going to give in on a demand for a pension, a sticking point for many union members.
The contract approval even spurred a shoutout from President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
"This contract is also important for Boeing’s future as a critical part of America’s aerospace sector," Biden said in a statement, while also highlighting the fact that his administration intervened to help negotiations. (Labor Secretary Julie Su and National Economic Advisor Lael Brainard came to Washington state to meet with both parties.)
While Hamilton believes it will take Boeing about a decade to get back to smooth operations, the relationship between the company and its employees could take even longer.
"It's going to take decades, because the relationship between management and labor at Boeing has been toxic for a long, long time, and [new Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg] is not going to come in and be able to walk the factory floor, and glad hand, and just say, 'Everything's fine. Let's do a reset.' Some of the way that Boeing handled these contract offers really irritated some of the members. This one was characterized as an ultimatum. Well, none of us like to be faced with an ultimatum. It's going to take him a long time to change the tone here."
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