King County's sheriff goes back to school: Today So Far

• The story of our current King County sheriff is fit for a sitcom. So get on that Hollywood! And by "Hollywood," I really mean Vancouver, BC.
• Researchers are noting a significant upward trend in rural Washington incarcerations.
• Could offshore wind farms become a whale of a problem?

This post originally appeared in KUOW's Today So Far newsletter for December 21, 2022.

King County got a new sheriff last May — Patti Cole-Tindall. There was just one lingering thing she had to do for the job, however: Pass the police academy. That's what King County's sheriff is up to these days. KUOW's Amy Radil says the premise might seem like a sitcom, but it's very real life for Cole-Tindall.

“I am much older than many of my classmates, and some days, it’s hard, you know, I’m bumping up to 60 here so it’s tough, right?” Cole-Tindall told KUOW.

The sheriff, now in her 50s, already went through the academy, years ago. But since then, she moved into more administrative law enforcement roles that did not require the academy certification. Therefore, her certification lapsed. Becoming sheriff meant she had to go through the course all over again.

Which brings me back to Amy's point about how this sounds like a sitcom. This should be a sitcom! It's comes stocked with fresh comedy ingredients: generational friction; office smarts vs street smarts; novelty; feel-good moments of the main character defying expectations; an ensemble cast; reflections on societal issues of our day delivered across a comedy medium where we can all come together. This premise was already, sort of, enough for a seven-film franchise. So I'm calling on Hollywood — and by "Hollywood" I really mean Vancouver, BC — to get on this. Set it in Seattle, and start filming!

Cole-Tindall has, so far, completed five weeks of the 19-week program. She's spending Monday through Thursday at the academy, starting each morning with pushups, wearing full gear. Read more here.

In not-so-funny law enforcement news, researchers are noting a significant upward trend in rural incarcerations. In urban and suburban Washington, fewer and fewer people are ending up in jails. But in rural Washington, more and more folks are ending up behind bars.

Jennifer Schwartz is a professor of sociology at Washington State University who is studying incarcerations in the state. She notes that many of the offenses that rural residents are being incarcerated for are minor, such as driving with a suspended license. Schwartz is now part of a research program looking into Washington's trends. Read more here.

Offshore wind farms are all the rage these days. Well, at least, I like saying that. These wind farms just seem so logical. It's windy out there, and they're placed out of the way.

They might not be totally out of the way, however. Oregon State University just got a lot of federal funds to study how often whales (and other marine life) could come into contact with these power operations. Birds too. The big question is: What is the potential impact of offshore wind farms on wildlife. It's a big question if we end up pursuing this form of renewable energy. Read more here.

Finally ... happy winter everybody! Today is the first day of winter, and the weather seems to know it. So first, let's get a quick weather update out of the way. Temps are slated to stay near or below freezing for the next couple days. Warmer temps are expected this weekend. But in the meantime, know this: Ice! Walking, driving, roller skating — there's gonna be ice. And before conditions improve, another round of snow/sleet/rain will come into the area tomorrow afternoon-ish.

"Things are gonna get interesting again as we get into Thursday and Friday, which may bring another accumulation of snow. At this point, if it were to occur, maybe looking at an additional couple of inches," Carly Kovacik, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Seattle, told KUOW this morning.

AS SEEN ON KUOW

A volunteer with Food Lifeline organizes food at the food bank's warehouse. Lifeline is one of the largest food banks in Western Washington, and its inventory is down 75% for this time of year. Food banks saw a declining demand for their services while many pandemic-era government supports were still active, but once they ended, demand considerably shot up. Inflation has made matters worse, and the banks are struggling to keep up. "It's a huge shift, and it's very concerning," Lifeline CEO Linda Nageotte told KUOW. (Courtesy of Lifeline)

DID YOU KNOW?

It's winter solstice! That's good news. Sure it's super cold right now, and it's dark most of the time, but that's about to change...slowly. From here on out (through June) the days are going to get longer.

"Solstice" is a combo of two Latin terms. "Sol" is the name for our sun. Yep, it has a name. It's why we say that we live in the Solar system — the system around our sun, Sol. Also, remember when Luke went to search for Yoda in "The Empire Strikes Back"? Luke found Yoda in the Dagobah system, which is a sun named "Dagobah Prime" and all the planets orbiting it. Any who ... back to "solstice."

"Sol" is the first Latin term the word is rooted in, and "sistere" is the second, which means to stand still. In other words, winter and summer solstices are times of the year when the sun appears to stand still in the sky. You might notice that the sun's position in the sky moves a bit throughout the course of the year, except during these solstices. Beyond that, we could get into the Earth's orbit and how it plays into all this, but I'll spare you. Just know that after the winter solstice, the days get longer, and after the summer solstice, the days get shorter.

ALSO ON OUR MINDS

Hazardous winter weather could threaten holiday travel across the U.S.

Dangerous winter weather conditions across the USA will add extra challenges to an already-stressful season as millions of Americans travel for the holidays this week. Americans are traveling for the holidays in numbers not seen since before the pandemic, with nearly 113 million people expected to travel at least 50 miles from home this holiday season.

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