'Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel': Today So Far

• A special project leads to a new book for Dungeons & Dragons.
• The August primary is right around the corner and it's heating up.
• New legal action in the wake of Seattle's CHOP.

This post originally appeared in KUOW's Today So Far newsletter for July 19, 2022.

Little fact about me: When I'm not writing newsletters for KUOW, sometimes, I'm a rogue. More specifically, I'm a half-elf, inquisitive rogue with a background in sailing (piracy) who goes by the name "John McClane." Also, I can sprout giant raven wings and fly around when needed. Which comes in handy when you're adventuring through Godswood, a large expanse between the regions of Kjarn and the Red Vale.

John McClane is my Dungeons and Dragons character. The world he lives in is more than a game. It's a story, on par with any fantasy novel you can pull off a shelf, and it unfolds in real time, as you play it. That's the draw of D&D for a lot of people — you're playing a novel. You're experiencing a story beyond words on a page. So it makes sense that D&D has always published its own line of books; stories players can further incorporate into the game.

One such book debuts today: "Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel." It's the result of two years of writing entirely by BIPOC players.

"If you watch a movie and you see a character who's POC, you might identify with that character, and it might feel good to have that representation," Justice Arman told KUOW. "It's very different to play a game and step into someone's shoes and be in their world to be able to interact with it."

The book presents 13 short stories, which can further be used in D&D games at home. Arman said the stories draw inspiration from New York, a place many different people come to, and live together. Read/hear Arman's conversation with KUOW, and more, here.

Washington's August primary is right around the corner and we will be choosing a new secretary of state. As odd as it sounds, this race will be a bit dramatic. Faith in our elections has become an issue this year.

Kim Wyman was a generally well-liked Secretary of State in Washington. But she left the role shortly after her re-election to take a job with the Biden administration. It shook things up in a few ways. Wyman was the only Republican holding a statewide elected position on the West Coast. Gov. Jay Inslee replaced her with a Democrat, Steve Hobbs. But it's a temp position, until voters can choose a candidate to finish the rest of Wyman's term.

Hobbs is highlighting the online ecosystem of misinformation, and disinformation, along with international cyber threats as major issues in his campaign. Those issues echo Wyman's campaign (she literally wrote the book on this stuff). Republican Mark Miloscia says only he can get Republicans and Democrats to work together and restore voter confidence in the system. Pierce County Auditor Julie Anderson is running without a party, because she believes party politics don't belong in the secretary of state's office. Those are just three out of eight candidates going for the job, including four Republicans, two Democrats, and a couple others.

Voters will determine who made the best case on August 2, when two candidates will move forward to the November election. Northwest News Network's Austin Jenkins has the full story here.

There have been dueling perspectives over CHOP, the protest zone that took over a corner of Seattle's Capitol Hill in 2020. To some, it was a peaceful social justice demonstration about inequality and policing. To others, it was a failure that resulted in shootings and deaths of Black teenagers. And there are opinions that exist between those perspectives. The city has been sued multiple times in the wake of CHOP.

The latest legal action is a tort claim, which argues that Seattle failed to provide medical, police, and emergency services in CHOP as tragic incidents unfolded. As a result, the claim states, 16-year-old Antonio Mays Jr. died. During this time, the police department's East Precinct was abandoned.

Mays' death was the last before the city cleared CHOP. The exact details of what happened during the early morning hours of June 29 are unclear. What is known is that a Jeep drove through the CHOP area shortly before 3 a.m., and armed CHOP security responded. It is believed that the security fired upon the vehicle, killing the 16 year old and wounding a 14 year old. The tort claim filed Monday by Mays' family argues that "state created danger" contributed to the situation.

“There were horrible things going on over there and they didn’t do anything to shut it down,” said Evan Oshan, an attorney for the Mays family. “And it really was a result of the poor leadership in the city of Seattle — and just across the board.”

There is a lot more going on with this tort claim. Read the full story by KUOW's Ashley Hiruko and The Seattle Times here.

AS SEEN ON KUOW

Seattle drag queen BenDeLaCreme pours bubbly in a promotional shot for her one-queen show "READY TO BE COMMITTED." She spoke about her rise to fame, and the show, with KUOW's Angela King. (Magnus Hastings)

DID YOU KNOW?

When you see a work of art by Swedish artist Claes Oldenburg, you can't miss it — it's huge. Often working with his wife, Coosje van Bruggen, Oldenburg made a career out of crafting larger-than-life sculptures depicting mundane, everyday items, such as giant lipstick, or a cherry on a spoon. They are scattered across various countries. There's a giant clothespin in Philadelphia, shuttlecocks are scattered across a field in Kansas City, an apple core in Israel, a saw cutting into the ground in Tokyo, and massive binoculars cover the entire facade of an office building in LA.

I usually like to make people guess what Oldenburg/van Bruggen were depicting when looking at their sculpture in Seattle — an orange wheel thing, with blue tassels shooting out the top. Longtime writers (and nerds) know that this dated object is a typewriter eraser. In offices throughout the 1900s, such an eraser was found nearby desktop typewriters in offices across the globe. There are three versions of this sculpture. The other two are in Washington, D.C., and Nevada.

Oldenburg passed away this week at the age of 93. I think it's safe to say that he left a pretty big mark on planet Earth.

ALSO ON OUR MINDS

Decades of 'good fires' save Yosemite's iconic grove of ancient sequoia trees

"The fire entered the grove and luckily we had 50 years of prescribed fire history" there, says Garrett Dickman, a forest ecologist with Yosemite National Park. The park began regular intentional burns in the area in the early 1970s. "So it could have been a very different outcome if we hadn't been preparing for this fire for decades," he says.

SUBSCRIBE TO TODAY SO FAR