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Amy Radil

Reporter

About

Amy Radil is a reporter at KUOW covering politics, government, and law enforcement, along with the occasional arts story. She got her start at Minnesota Public Radio in Duluth, and freelanced for Marketplace and other programs from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Amy grew up in Omaha, Nebraska. She graduated from Williams College and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

Location: Seattle

Languages Spoken: English

Pronouns: she/her

Stories

  • Washington Agency Seeks Marijuana Experts

    The Washington State Liquor Control Board is forging ahead in its new role creating access to legalized marijuana. Next, the board will issue a request for consultants to gauge pot consumption in Washington state. Under Initiative 502, possessing marijuana for recreational use is already legal. The Liquor Control Board now must create a structure for people to legally grow and sell it.The first step is a system to license marijuana growers. These people will ultimately supply state-licensed marijuana stores. Liquor Control spokesman Brian Smith said the job of the marijuana licensing manager is open until filled. “I think we’re up to about 70 applications in the first couple weeks, so I think they’ll be sorting through those applications and starting to line up some interviews,” he said. The next hire for the agency will be a consultant to try to figure out how much marijuana Washington state residents will likely buy. The state’s Office of Financial Management estimated that 363,000 people will consume marijuana in Washington this year.Smith says the new consultant will study the issue in greater depth. One thing the state doesn’t want to do is issue too many licenses and create a marijuana glut. “Where’s that commodity going to go? It’s clearly out there and it can be transported out of the state or other places where people will want to buy it on the illegal market,” said Smith.State legislators are also worried about that. Three Democratic representatives including Ross Hunter of Medina sent a letter to the Liquor Control Board last week asking the agency to slow down. Hunter said he’d first like to get more clarification on how federal officials will react to Washington’s regulatory scheme, given that marijuana remains illegal under federal law.  “From what I’ve seen so far, the US Attorney for Western Washington, Jenny Durkan, doesn’t seem to have much of a sense of humor about this,” Hunter said, “and we’re about to license people to commit a felony.”Hunter said the new system leaves state employees and others vulnerable to prosecution. His letter also said the agency should not be diverting money that was meant for other purposes into marijuana regulation.  Hunter says if federal officials shut down that system, all the money could get wasted. In addition, Hunter said people who write initiatives often do so to make money and he doesn’t want the state to become complicit in allowing criminal activity.“We just want to make sure that we are, in fact, doing something that’s reasonable and not something that either creates this corporate behemoth or recreates the days of Al Capone,” he said. To that end, Hunter wants the control board to create a tracking system, to make sure licensed growers aren’t sending their product out of state.The board says it plans to charge a $1,000 licensing fee for marijuana growers, processors and sellers. The legislators say the state should charge much more, given the profits producers stand to reap.
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    Losing Bidders Want A Shot At Tully's

    The Seattle-based Tully’s Coffee company was sold at a bankruptcy auction Jan. 3. But a number of bidders and stakeholders are contesting that sale. Now US Bankruptcy Judge Karen Overstreet will review the deal.Global Baristas, the investor group headed by “Grey's Anatomy” television star Patrick Dempsey, agreed to buy all 47 Tully’s stores for $9.15 million. But other bidders are trying to persuade the court to not accept that bid. Patty Edwards is the chief investment officer with Bellevue-based Trutina Financial. She said the fight is so intense because Tully’s has many stores in prime locations. She said the stores located in Boeing facilities are among the most lucrative. “That is just a gold nugget in this otherwise slightly tarnished bowl of fruit,” she said.Starbucks Corporation submitted a higher bid along with another firm, AgriNurture Inc., for $10.53 million. But Starbucks only wanted 25 Tully’s stores. Edwards said the successful bid from Global Baristas included all the stores and the corporate headquarters.  “It’s a tidier, neater way of doing things even if it’s a lower bid,” she said. “The question is, 'How much is the hassle worth?'”Edwards said Tully’s financial problems are not reflective of the local coffee scene as a whole. She said coffee remained one of the little luxuries people declined to give up, even during the recession.Tully’s filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in October and subsequently closed 19 unprofitable stores.
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    McGinn Launches Bid For Second Term

    Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn announced Wednesday that he will seek a second term. At his press conference McGinn was flanked by leaders of nonprofits that
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    SPD Confronts Another Inflammatory Video

    The Seattle Police Department is facing another use-of-force lawsuit accompanied by video footage. Friday the department defended its conduct at a press conference.In 2010, Seattle police officers came across Isaac Ocak’s car left running outside a West Seattle mall. Officers suspected the owner might be shoplifting, so when Ocak came to claim it they told him to put his hands on the hood of the patrol car. In a dashboard camera video Ocak seems agitated and asks officers why they’re so rude to him. Suddenly the encounter escalates. Four officers wrestle Ocak into handcuffs. As Officer Larry Longley tries to push Ocak’s face back onto the patrol car, Ocak bites Longley’s gloved finger. Longley then punches Ocak repeatedly in the face.The City Attorney’s office charged Ocak with assault but later dropped the charge. SPD spokesman Sean Whitcomb said that officers did nothing wrong during the encounter. “We believe that the force during that contact, once the officer’s finger was bitten, was also reasonable and necessary to get him into handcuffs."However, after the U.S. Justice Department accused SPD of using force too readily in its 2011 report, SPD implemented a new curriculum called “Listen and Explain with Equity and Dignity." Whitcomb praised the officers as diligent and proactive for spotting the car and stopping Ocak. But he acknowledged that the resulting confrontation was not what the department is striving for. “I think it’s fair to say that if the LEED training was in place," he said, "then this would not be an example we would use for training."The officers involved were not investigated or reprimanded. Even after the Seattle City Attorney’s office flagged the encounter for SPD’s Office of Professional Accountability, SPD officials found the use of force justifiable. Now OPA will examine the incident because Ocak’s attorney, James Egan, has filed a complaint with the office. He’s also preparing to sue the city. Egan said his client committed no crime that day, and police officers had no right to get aggressive. “We live under the U.S. Constitution where you have a right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures," Egan said. "What they should have done is say, ‘don’t park there, you got our attention, get out of here.’”At the press conference SPD also gave journalists copies of a police report from Ocak’s past when he was a juvenile. His name was blacked out since juvenile records are normally sealed, but Whitcomb confirmed that the report pertained to Ocak. Egan called his client’s record irrelevant in this case and said this incident happened because officers view any disrespect as a violation of law.
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    Compass Post Office Provides Mailing Address For 3,500 Homeless In Seattle

    The holidays often bring extra presents and messages from loved ones. But to receive those messages, you have to have an address.Anyone who needs a mailing address can have the mail sent to 77 South Washington St. in Seattle's Pioneer Square. That’s the post office run by the Compass Housing Alliance. Most of the 3,500 people in Seattle who use that address are homeless or in temporary housing.Compass program manager Teresa Dillard points to a pile of packages in the mail room as a sign of the holidays. One says, “Do not open this box until Christmas!”“Typically we wouldn’t have quite that many,” she said. “We would have maybe a quarter of that number of packages.” Some packages say “perishable” so she hustles them to a refrigerator.Compass offers banking and mail services at one counter, so clients line up at two tellers’ windows to access their savings accounts and get their mail.One client, Ernest Pitre, looks excited when he’s handed a sizable box from Walmart. “I got my Christmas present,” he said. “I got my 9-inch digital portable TV so I can watch the games and stuff.”Games for Pitre mean one thing: his beloved 49ers football team. He said he can’t wait to open his package in the men’s dorm upstairs where he stays. He said he already sent off gifts to his kids and has no intention of waiting until Christmas to open his own. “I’m going to open it now!” he said.Compass director of development Cindy Jackson said the organization has held mail for people since it started as a church mission in 1920. “It started off as a reading room, a place where loggers or sailors or people that were down on their luck could come get a meal, receive their mail, spend some time. And then it’s evolved over the years to what we have today.”This is the most mail they’ve ever dealt with – right now they’re adding about a dozen names a day. Nathaniel Bergstein works with clients at the tellers’ window. He does a job that’s part banking, part mail clerk and part social worker.  He said the hardest part of the job is the sheer volume of mail they receive.  “I would say that’s difficult because everyone here is committed and wants to process things as quickly as possible,” Bergstein said.  “But that gets harder and harder the more clients we add to the system.”They log all the mail they receive into a computer, especially since about half the recipients get benefits from state agencies. There were also 800 King County ballots sent to their mailroom this year.Some other homeless shelters also hold mail for clients, or people can have mail sent “general delivery” to the downtown post office. But once someone who’s homeless picks up mail, there’s the question of how to keep it safe and dry. Stephen Emory said he sleeps at a shelter in the University District. He’s been homeless in Seattle for over a year. “All I have right now is what’s in my tote,” Emory said.  “Because at our shelter you’re allowed to keep one plastic tote with a lid on it.”Emory also has access to a locker in another location downtown. He travels between those places, a job in South Park, the public library to check email, and Compass to pick up his regular mail, like some boots that his brother sent him. "[Someone my brother works with] ordered some boots for me on Amazon, had them delivered right here. I get all my mail, obviously there it is right there. So it’s pretty important.”Emory said he’s dealing with alcoholism and bipolar disorder. But he juggles the logistics that allow him to find meals, medication and a place to stay. He said getting his mail here helps him stay connected and get things done.  “I’ve lost everything, many times over,” he said. “But what are you going to do today? That’s my question. What are you going to do right now.”A lot of the people who get their mail here are waiting for something – for a job offer, to get off a housing waitlist, or for a question about their benefits to be resolved.  But like everyone else, they say the mail they look forward to most is a personal letter.