KUOW Blog
News, factoids, and insights from KUOW's newsroom. And maybe some peeks behind the scenes. Check back daily for updates.
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Stories
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Vice President Kamala Harris slated for June campaign visit to Seattle
Politics
Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at an event in Seattle on the one-year anniversary of the Inflation Reduction Act.White House live feedVice President Kamala Harris will be in Seattle Saturday, June 1, 2024.
The Northwest Progressive Institute reports that the visit is to raise money for the Biden Victory Fund.
RELATED: Vice President Kamala Harris visits Seattle, promotes 'Bidenomics'
Few details about the fundraising events are known, however, at least two events for Saturday have been publicized, both scheduled for Seattle. One event states it will be a "reception" with the vice president, and the other says it's an "evening" with Harris.
General admission to the evening event is going for $500 per ticket. Prices range up to $50,000 for premium seating and a photo.
President Biden was in Seattle about three weeks ago, also for a couple of fundraising events.
Just as with Biden's visit, be prepared for road closures and traffic delays while Vice President Harris is in town.
The last time Harris visited Seattle was in August 2023 to promote Bidenomics.
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Out-of-state abortions have risen in Washington since 2022
Health
The number of out-of-state women coming to Washington for abortions went up after 2022, when national protections for abortion care ended, according to a new assessment from University of Washington Medicine.
“The increasing number of abortions, out-of-state patients and delays to care points to the need for increased investment in and resources for abortion care in Washington,” Taylor Riley said in a statement. Riley is a graduate student at UW's department of epidemiology.
“This could include expanding the number of abortion-providing facilities and strengthening existing primary care and telehealth accessibility, financial support and referral systems within the state.”
The UW study points out that certain statistics around this group of patients changed after the U.S. Supreme Court's decision on Dobbs vs Jackson. After that, laws around abortions became a state-by-state issue, with some banning the medical care and others, like Washington, protecting it with local laws.
Since that decision, NPR reports that there has been "a slow and small steady increase in the number of abortions per month" at a national level (there were 82,000 abortions per month in the United States in 2022, and 86,000 per month in 2023). This is based on yet another study, which concluded that telehealth is playing a role in accessing abortions by medication.
UW Medicine study on out-of-state abortions in Washington
UW researchers looked at data from Cedar River Clinics, a network of clinics in Washington state. The clinics' data shows a 50% increase in out-of-state patients seeking abortions (its share of out-of-state patients went from 4% to 6% of all cases).
They also documented that this group of patients experienced, on average, a one-week delay in care.
“While a one-week delay does not sound significant, any delays in receiving abortion care are problematic because it adversely affects the health of the pregnant person,” said Dr. Emily Godfrey with UW Medicine.
Godfrey is the senior author of the paper now published in JAMA. Researchers compared data before and after the Dobbs decision — from January 1, 2017 through June 23, 2022, and then June 24, 2022 through July 31, 2023.
Before the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision, 6% of women seeking an abortion at Cedar River Clinics in Washington were from Texas. After the decision, it went up to 27%. Texas is now the state sending Washington the highest number of out-of-state women seeking abortions.
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Seattle’s Wing Luke Museum closed after staff say exhibit 'frames Palestinian liberation' as antisemitism
Arts & Life
The "Confronting Hate Together" exhibit is displayed on Tuesday, May 14, 2024, at the Wing Luke Museum in Seattle. More than half of the museum staff walked off the job to protest the exhibit, which they said did not include the perspectives of Palestinians, Arabs, or Muslim communities.KUOW Photo/Megan FarmerSeattle’s Wing Luke Museum remains closed after more than half its staff walked out last week to protest an exhibit that addresses antisemitism in the region.
The “Confronting Hate Together” exhibit focuses on the history of discrimination experienced by Black, Asian-American, and Jewish communities in Seattle.
At a press event previewing the exhibit last week, Cassie Chinn, Wing Luke's deputy executive director, said, “We wanted to look towards the past to see how that might inform our present and our future.”
RELATED: Wing Luke exhibit shows how Black, Asian, and Jewish Seattleites confront hate together
But, in bringing the history of prejudice and discrimination to the current day, the museum's own staffers argue the exhibit suffered from a glaring omission — the ongoing plight of more than one million displaced Palestinians in Gaza.
Explanatory panels highlight a rising tide of antisemitism and hate crimes in Seattle. The exhibit says that graffiti sprayed in November on the Herzl-Ner Tamid Synagogue on Mercer Island that said “stop killing” was antisemitism “disguised as anti-Zionism ... as if the Jews of Mercer Island could control the actions of the Israeli government.”
The exhibit also says that the Palestinian protest cry, "from the river to the sea," is "a phrase defined by the erasure of Israel," which pro-Palestinians activists say is not true.
The exhibit did not mention of a similar rise seen in anti-Islamic, anti-Arab, or anti-Muslim hate. According to preliminary data from the Washington chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, almost 40% of Muslims in Washington have experienced heightened discrimination since the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
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Seattle Kraken has a new head coach: Dan Bylsma
Sports
Dan Bylsma in October 2018 as assistant coach of the Detroit Red Wings. The Seattle Kraken announced it hired Bylsma as its new head coach on May 27, 2024.Paul Sancya / Associated PressThe Seattle Kraken announced Tuesday that the hockey team has hired Dan Bylsma to be its next head coach.
"I've witnessed the path the organization is on, the young players coming into the organization, the drafts that have happened, there are a lot of great players coming down the pipe," Bylsma said during a press event Tuesday.
RELATED: NHL on the Eastside? New hockey arena discussed by Seattle Kraken and Kirkland
"We have a great group of leaders, a great group of players, and they're a group that we can have a lot of success with down the road and build a championship organization."
The move comes a month after the organization fired head coach Dave Hakstol, and assistant coach Paul McFarland, marking a new direction for the Seattle team.
Bylsma still has some things to tie up with his current job coaching the Coachella Valley Firebirds in the American Hockey League. The Firebirds are the AHL affiliate of the Kraken, so Bylsma has already been working within the organization.
“Dan is a winner with a proven track record of developing both young and veteran talent, and his leadership will help our team as we move forward,” General Manager Ron Francis said in a statement.
“He has had success at every level, winning the Stanley Cup in 2009, earning a Jack Adams Award as the NHL’s top coach in 2011, and he led the Firebirds to Game 7 of the Calder Cup Finals last year in the team’s first season," Francis continued. "He knows our franchise and has worked with several of our NHL players. We are excited to have him behind the bench and guiding our team next season.”
The Kraken note that Francis interviewed "a number of other candidates with NHL experience" for the job.
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Will closing schools really balance the budget for Seattle Public Schools? Parents have their doubts
Education
Students arrive for the first day of school on Wednesday, September 6, 2023, at Daniel Bagley Elementary School in Seattle.Seattle parents will get more details next week on the school district's proposal to close up to 20 elementary schools by the fall of 2025.
The district is holding three in-person "well-resourced school" meetings at high schools across the city next week, and one on Zoom the following week.
District officials have said distributing students more evenly across fewer schools is key to get back on good financial footing and better serve students. The district faces a $105 million budget gap next school year, and even larger shortfalls of $129 million and $153 million the following two school years.
But a growing number of parents and community members are skeptical that the benefits of shuttering over a quarter of the district's elementary and K-8 schools outweigh the disruption for families.
The district says closing a school saves between $750,000 and $2 million in expenses related to administration, transportation, support staff, building maintenance, and operations.
RELATED: How Seattle Public Schools' budget woes got so bad
Megan Fisher, the parent of a first-grader at West Seattle's Gatewood Elementary, says the district should provide the public with more data showing closures are the best solution to the ongoing budget crisis.
"Like our kids in school, we get taught to show our work when we're doing math," she said. "We just want to see the district show us their work."
Fisher is also a leader of All Together for Seattle Schools, a citywide grassroots advocacy group of parents, teachers, and community members. As of Friday afternoon, their letter opposing the closure plan had gotten nearly 600 signatures in less than a week.
The letter also calls for the district to provide more data and analysis on potential closures, consider alternative plans, and better involve the community in the process.
"It's a bummer to not feel, as a parent, that your voice actually matters or is able to be heard," Fisher said.
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Low-income families in Washington can get free air conditioning, but time is running out
Vladislav Nikonov via UnsplashThis summer could be a scorcher in Washington. Low-income families in the state have about a month left to get free air conditioning units.
Thanks to federal money funneled through community organizations, people living below a certain income can get help paying for their energy bills. And this year, they can also get a voucher to buy an air-conditioning unit for their home, choosing from a few eligible models on Amazon. That’s thanks to a pandemic-era bump in federal funding.
The income cutoff depends on family size. In King County, it’s $45,000 for a family of four.
RELATED: Seattle is now an air conditioning town
People can apply through community organizations, including the Byrd Barr Place in Seattle and HopeLink on the Eastside and in Shoreline.
The state commerce department expects most of the air conditioning funding to run out by the end of June, so interested families should apply soon.
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Assistant chief with Seattle Police put on leave, reasons unclear
Seattle Police Department patch.Facebook Photo/Seattle Police Officers GuildUpdated 5:35 p.m. on 5/24/2024.
Tyrone Davis, an assistant chief for the Seattle Police Department, was put on leave Thursday, according to the police department’s communications department.
Chief Adrian Diaz sent a department-wide email saying that due to allegations sent to the police oversight agency, he had taken “the precautionary step” of putting Davis on administrative leave.
The email came as a surprise across the department, according to several who received it.
The department would not say why Davis was put on leave. The Office of Police Accountability said it received a complaint regarding Davis on May 8.
Reached Friday, Davis said he could not talk.
This is the latest setback in a department plagued nearly weekly by bad news at the top levels.
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Seattle Police must report what it’s doing to hire women: City Council resolution
(Archive) Kimberly Rodriguez, a new recruit for the Seattle Police Department, on her first day at the police academy in 2015.KUOW Photo/Isolde RafteryThe Seattle City Council has weighed in on the five lawsuits filed against the police department — all alleging racial and gender discrimination.
On Tuesday, the City Council passed a resolution mandating that the police department report what it is doing to hire more women and address allegations of sexism and racial discrimination — much of it detailed in KUOW reporting.
“It’s time for the behavior described by women at SPD to end — full stop,” said Councilmember Tammy Morales in a statement.
The resolution came one day after Captain Eric Greening filed a lawsuit saying Chief Adrian Diaz dismisses feedback from BIPOC and female officers.
Women currently make up 12% of officers at the Seattle Police Department. The department has pledged, through its collaboration with the 30x30 initiative, to increase that to 30% of its recruiting class by 2030.
Ted Buck, Chief Adrian Diaz’s personal attorney, wrote in a statement that the police department is “deeply committed to enhancing diversity department-wide.”
Buck noted that Diaz launched the Relational Policing Initiative in 2022, “which focused on changing the future of policing.”
Buck added, “Also, for the first time in department history there is an Executive Director of Employee Support Services to oversee general officer wellness. Her sole focus will be building and maintaining officer resilience.”
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Washington joins lawsuit challenging Live Nation, Ticketmaster's dominance
Arts & Life
The Gorge Amphitheater in George, Washington. The venue is managed by Live Nation Entertainment. In May 2024, Washington state joined a DOJ civil antitrust lawsuit which seeks to split Live Nation and Ticketmaster into separate companies, alleging they have a monopoly over the industry.Washington state has joined the Department of Justice in a lawsuit alleging Ticketmaster and Live Nation Entertainment have a monopoly on event sales in the United States. They seek to split the companies in two, and water down their influence.
“Free enterprise is built on companies competing,” Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson said in a statement. “Instead, these industry leaders squeezed out the competition to increase their profits, at the expense of fans. My office is partnering with this bipartisan coalition to put an end to this monopoly.”
RELATED: Bumbershoot 2024 lineup announced, including Pavement, Cypress Hill, Kim Gordon, more
Live Nation and Ticketmaster merged in 2010. The Attorney General's Office says the lawsuit aims to separate Live Nation and Ticketmaster into two separate companies, and get financial restitution for customers.
Washington is now among 30 states and district attorneys that have joined the DOJ's civil antitrust lawsuit against the event and ticket companies. The lawsuit argues that, together, Live Nation and Ticketmaster have created a monopoly over event sales in the United States.
As NPR reports, the lawsuit comes after years of criticism from artists, venues, Congress members, and customers. The suit alleges that Ticketmaster and Live Nation have leveraged their influence to retaliate against competition and lock them out of popular venues, controlling musicians' access to certain venues, and buying out smaller ticket companies to expand dominance in the industry. All of which, the lawsuit claims, are violations of the Sherman Antitrust Act.
RELATED: How to stretch your summer concert budget around Seattle
Washington's Attorney General's Office claims that Ticketmaster's internal documents indicate that the company handles 70-80% of ticket sales in North America, while Live Nation "owns, operates or has significant influence over more than 250 venues in North America, including more than 60 of the top 100 amphitheaters in the United States," and also has controlling interests in festivals such as Lollapalooza and Bonaroo.
The AG's office also notes that Live Nation manages the Gorge Amphitheater in George, Washington, along with the RV Inn Style Resorts Amphitheater in Ridgefield, and the White River Amphitheater in Auburn.
The lawsuit has been filed with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
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Campaign kicks off to save Washington's capital gains tax
Government
Diana Llanes, owner and operator of Once Upon a Time Bilingual Childcare Center in Burien, plays with children outside on May 22, 2024 after the official launch of the campaign to defeat Initiative 2109. The initiative will appear on ballots in November and aims to repeal Washington's capital gains tax. The tax helps fund early learning and child care.KUOWIt's been just over two years since Washington's capital gains tax went into effect, and already there's a ballot initiative to repeal it. But a new campaign is pushing back, fighting to preserve the tax.
Opponents of Initiative 2109 gathered in Burien and other cities across the state on Wednesday to officially begin campaigning against the measure. I-2109 will appear on the November ballot and will ask voters if the capital gains tax should stay or be repealed.
RELATED: Capital gains tax receipts in Washington state tumble
Democratic state Rep. Tana Senn (D–Mercer Island) would like to save it. She said revenue from the tax funds school construction and child-care programs. She argues that just a few Washingtonians are subject to the capital gains tax.
"What we need to really emphasize is that less than 4,000 people in our state pay this tax and maybe a handful in Eastern Washington," Senn said. "These dollars go across our state."
Diana Llanes runs a bilingual childcare center in Burien. At the kick-off event Wednesday morning, she said that repealing the tax could hit the state's child-care industry hard.
"Not only the parents need the child care, but if the funding ends, it will affect the families, and will affect my own business, my small business," Llanes said. "And I won't be able to provide work for my staff."
Under Washington state's capital gains tax, individual profits from the sale of long-term stocks or bonds above $262,000 are taxed at 7%. Real estate sales are not subject to the tax.
Voters will decide on the November 2024 ballot whether to overturn the tax, alongside other conservative-backed initiatives, including one that could dismantle the state's carbon credit market and another that aims to make participation in WA Cares, the state's long-term health care program, optional.
RELATED: Campaign to defend Washington state's climate law raises $11 million, far outpacing opposition
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‘It was David and Goliath.’ Eyewitness describes shooting in murder trial of Auburn police officer
On the fourth day of the murder trial of Auburn Police Officer Jeffrey Nelson, a witness described the moments that led to Nelson fatally shooting Jesse Sarey, 26.
Steven Woodard watched as Nelson shot Sarey twice, and the struggle beforehand, after he and his family pulled into the parking lot of the Sunshine Grocery convenience store in Auburn in 2019. Nelson was charged with second-degree murder and first-degree assault in 2020.
On Wednesday, Prosecutor Angelo Calfo had Woodard describe what happened that day nearly five years ago.
Kristen Murray, Nelson’s attorney, shared several video clips showing interviews Woodard gave police the day of the shooting, seemingly in an attempt to point out inconsistencies.
During his testimony to the jury, Woodard compared the two to “David and Goliath,” because Nelson’s stature was three times larger than that of Sarey’s.
The altercation “all happened so quickly,” Woodard said, his neck tattoos peeking out from the neckline of his black T-shirt. It was his favorite shirt, and reduced his anxiety, the prosecution explained to the judge. It was also the shirt he wore the day Sarey was killed.
Sarey asked Woodard for change, “in a soft, polite voice,” Woodard said, but he didn’t have any change to give him.
Sarey sat on the concrete outside the convenience store, and was digging through a cardboard box of trash looking for something to drink, when Nelson approached him, Woodard said.
Nelson commanded Sarey to put his hands behind his back and a fight ensued. Woodard said Nelson and Sarey grappled.
“They were going around in circles like the Tasmanian Devil in the old Bugs Bunny cartoons,” he said.
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How much are safer streets worth? Seattle leaders, voters to decide
Traffic on Second Avenue in downtown Seattle.Flickr Photo/Oran Viriyincy (CC-BY-NC-ND)/http://bit.ly/1irsJLdMaking roads (and sidewalks and trails) safer for everyone can be an expensive proposition.
The Seattle City Council is considering how much to ask taxpayers to cough up for the November 2024 transportation levy.
Mayor Bruce Harrell has proposed a $1.45 billion levy for the fall ballot. The city council gets to say what goes in the package before it goes to voters.
Harrell’s proposal would double funding for the city's Vision Zero program aimed at eliminating traffic deaths, build 250 blocks of sidewalks in four years and add barriers to a third of the city’s bike lanes.
RELATED: $1B for sidewalks, bike lanes, and road repairs: Seattle transportation levy ahead
Advocates for pedestrians and bicyclists say the proposed levy is too small to address the toll of deaths and injuries on Seattle’s roadways. Traffic crashes killed 27 people and seriously injured more than 250 in Seattle in 2023, according to the Seattle Department of Transportation.
“This is really important to me,” Councilmember Tammy Morales said Tuesday at a public meeting on the levy.
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