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
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Medical Marijuana Providers Want Access To Forbidden Cities
Marijuana legalization in Washington is taking effect against a patchwork of conflicting city laws. Some cities don’t allow marijuana dispensaries. But Seattle began requiring business licenses for them last year. Some medical marijuana providers see benefits to playing by cities’ rules. Others are fighting their restrictions.
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Medical Marijuana Providers Challenge Seattle Licensing In Court
Medical marijuana providers are challenging Seattle’s licensing rules in court. They say having to obtain business licenses forces them to incriminate themselves under federal law.
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Supreme Court Rulings Could Benefit Same-Sex Couples In Washington
Washington’s law allowing same-sex marriage just took effect this week. And that could be not a moment too soon for same-sex couples hoping to receive marriage-related federal benefits.The US Supreme Court has announced it will review the constitutionality of California’s Proposition 8, which banned gay marriage, and the federal Defense of Marriage Act. DOMA restricts the federal definition of marriage to a union between a man and a woman. DOMA’s provisions mean that same-sex couples cannot receive one another’s Social Security benefits and may not receive the other’s pension benefits when one of them dies. University of Washington law professor Peter Nicolas said the court is unlikely to extend same-sex marriage to states where it’s not already legal, although the court's ruling could pave the way for that. Instead he expects the most immediate repercussions in states like Washington that have legalized same-sex marriage. He said if the court overturns DOMA, it could extend federal benefits to same-sex couples in those states.So Nicolas said Washington’s timing was crucial in switching from domestic partnerships to marriage. “Because if DOMA is struck down,” he said, “then same-sex couples will be entitled to those benefits in a way that they wouldn’t have been if we were still doing domestic partnerships.”Jane Martin said extending those benefits to same-sex spouses would give her some peace of mind. She’s 14 years older than her longtime partner, Alice Goodman. Right now, because of federal policies, Goodman cannot inherit Martin’s pension. So Martin said they’re trying to put other money aside. “We try to do whatever we can to boost her retirement income or we try to save a lot," she said. "And I’m also trying to figure out what I can do to go back to work."Martin is looking for work at age 69. She said if money were no object, she’d rather be traveling and doing volunteer work. She said being in a same-sex relationship causes other hardships, like higher income taxes and worries about traveling outside Washington. But still, things are shifting. Martin said at her partner’s holiday office party this year, she was surprised at the warmth and acknowledgement they felt as a same-sex couple. She’s kind of in shock. Martin said, “It takes a little while to shift social gears from outcast to included, you know?”Martin said people at the party were curious to know whether they’re getting married. They are – they’re looking at an August wedding, in their backyard, with a Klezmer band. Meanwhile, oral arguments in the Supreme Court cases are expected this spring, with a decision in June.
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Medical Marijuana Distributors Divided On New Law
Sean Green is the owner of Pacific Northwest Medical, a medical marijuana collective in the city of Shoreline. Today he’s wearing a suit and tie, a vestige of his former career in real estate. Green says he supported Initiative 502, but he’s celebrating legalization by turning off his phones. That’s because he’s gotten so many calls from recreational users who are under the delusion that it’s now legal for Green to sell them marijuana.A voicemail message advises callers that under Initiative 502, “licenses will not be available for some time” and that the collective can only provide access to “current medical marijuana patients.” “We just don’t have the manpower to take all the phone calls,” Green said. Despite this minor inconvenience, Green embraces the new marijuana law. It requires the state to develop a licensing system for marijuana growers and distributors in the coming year. Once that’s in place, Green wants to build a retail chain to sell marijuana across the state and maybe nationwide.“Initiative 502 is just progress,” he said. “We’re moving forward into a new day. The end of Prohibition. I look forward to seeing this program or something similar roll out across the country.”But there are some serious obstacles ahead. Marijuana is still illegal under federal law. Banks won’t take marijuana businesses as clients – that’s why Green’s office contains a huge black safe.Also, Green said some landlords have become more reluctant to rent space for marijuana storefronts. And zoning in many cities restricts them.And while Green supports I-502, other medical marijuana providers do not. Arthur West is a medical marijuana patient and a board member of the group “No on 502.” The group is also backed by medical marijuana providers. West filed a lawsuit in Thurston County. He’s seeking to have the initiative voided. He said it was deceptive because it didn’t give voters enough information on new penalties for driving under the influence of marijuana.West also said the initiative could be a boon to drug cartels because the state distribution system doesn’t exist yet. “What I see this being is a green light for large-scale manufacturers from out of state to load up truckloads of marijuana and drive it into Washington to sell it,” he said.A hearing in West’s lawsuit is scheduled for Friday, December 8 in Thurston County Superior Court in Olympia. Meanwhile Sean Green says he’ll be making the trip to Olympia frequently this year, to watch as new state rules are put into place.
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Marijuana Use Becomes Legal This Week But Many Questions Remain
Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes has been a longtime supporter of legalizing marijuana. But when he was elected in 2009, he said he never would have
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Washington State Patrol Expects No Big Changes From Legalized Marijuana
Officials with the Washington state Patrol say about 8 percent of the drivers they pull over turn out to be impaired by drugs. A lab test verifying marijuana in the blood is a factor in showing driver impairment, they say, but there’s never been a legal limit the way there is for alcohol. That changes with the new law allowing marijuana possession, which takes effect Thursday, Dec. 6. It contains a new limit on marijuana components in a driver’s bloodstream.Bob Calkins is the Washington State Patrol spokesman. He said the new limit doesn’t change how state troopers do their job. They’ll still pull people over based on driving behavior. “It takes so long for the blood test to come back after the actual contact and arrest that it’s going to be more of an issue for prosecuting attorneys and defense attorneys to hash out,” he said. “It really isn’t going to change what the trooper does on the street at the roadside at the time of contact and arrest.” The Washington state Patrol also runs the state crime lab. Calkins said the impact there is not clear either – while there could be more blood tests on impaired drivers, there may be fewer tests to verify marijuana use in criminal cases.A major question with the new law is how the federal government will react, since it still outlaws marijuana. An analysis by the state’s Office of Financial Management says the state patrol could have to return some federal grants and be denied others as a result of the law. Calkins said those federal grants help pay for the emphasis patrols that put more troopers on the roads around holidays. “We certainly hope that whatever the federal government does in response to this, they won’t attempt to influence our behavior by using traffic safety grants as a leverage point,” he said.The state’s financial review predicts that more drivers will lose their licenses because of driving under the influence of marijuana. It estimates a 4 percent increase in the number of suspension and revocation hearings by the Department of Licensing. Those hearings are expected to generate $4.2 million in fees for the state over five years.
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Seattle City Council Expects To Approve Budget After Clash On Youth Programs
Members of the Young Urban Authors program meet twice a week in a small storefront near 23rd and Jackson in Seattle. The program is one of many funded by Seattle’s Youth Violence Prevention Initiative. In this program, the teenagers spend months writing and editing their own books — fiction or non-fiction — which are then printed in paperback form.One of the young authors is 14-year-old Alrick Hollingsworth. He’s a dancer, rapper and football player. He’s writing a memoir with a heartbreaking title, “Stuck in this World Alone” “ — because it was based on how my grandma passed, and how the family split up after she passed,” he said.On this day he’s browsing through cover art and planning the final details of his own published work. As part of the initiative Hollingsworth also has a mentor and receives a stipend for completing parts of the program.He says the program prevents violence, just by keeping the kids so busy. “If you look at the timeframe that they have us in here, it’s a lot of time that we have off the streets instead of being in the streets.”Kerry-Ann Blackwood’s job is to match kids in Seattle’s central area up with programs that fit their interests. She says the signs that the programs are bringing about a change in kids’ lives are subtle. For example, the kids will start to stop by the office more often, just to say hello.“It’s slight changes that make the huge difference. When they start to buy into exactly what it is we’re here for, you get more information, and with more information you’re able to help more,” Blackwood said.Blackwood says the issue of youth violence has decreased in the central area. But it’s still a problem. Now the question for city officials will be what role the initiative has played in reducing that anxiety.In 2008, five teenagers were shot to death in Seattle. Mayor Greg Nickels proposed the Youth Violence Prevention Initiative the next year. Since then, the city has been spending more than $3 million a year to provide mentors, case management and programs for more than 1,000 kids. Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn requested an additional $1.8 million this year to expand the program.“We know that there are at-risk youth who have been on the waiting list who we’ve not been able to serve because of funding limitations,” McGinn said. “We never cut the program but in bad times we weren’t able to expand it. And now we want to expand it to include 400 more at-risk youth.”Seattle City Council members approved that expansion, but on one condition: the city must spend $360,000 on an audit. Tim Burgess chairs the City Council’s budget committee. “In 2008, I was the lead advocate with Mayor Nickels for this program. I helped move the legislation through the council that established the Youth Violence Prevention Initiative and I have been, and I remain, a strong supporter of it,” Burgess said. “We’ve been frustrated, however, that we’ve not been able to get the evaluation completed.”Burgess said results for the initiative seem mixed so far. He expects the audit goals to be in place early next year. Burgess said one program that is clearly supported by data is the Nurse Family Partnership, which allows first-time mothers living in poverty to get home visits from public health nurses. The council has approved increased funding for that program. Burgess says it’s the first time since he was elected to the council that they’ve been able to contemplate new spending.Mayor McGinn says he’s proud that Seattle is on track to rebuild its Rainy Day Fund after some lean years. He says the fund will be back to pre-recession levels by the end of 2014. Meanwhile, the Young Urban Authors will also be learning about money: they’ll be reading from their work and offering their new books for sale at a celebration on December 20.
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New Washington Democrats Face Tough Choices In Congress
At a post-election lunch for politicians and labor leaders, Democrats were savoring their victories, but also contemplating the tough choices awaiting progressives in Congress this month.
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Federal Judge Lets Veterans For Peace March In Auburn Parade
US District Chief Judge Marsha Pechman said Veterans for Peace must be allowed to march in the Auburn Veterans Day parade Saturday. She called Auburn’s policy a textbook violation of the First Amendment.The city of Auburn’s Veterans Day parade is one of the largest in the country. It started during the Vietnam War. The group Veterans for Peace started marching in the parade during the Iraq war. They hold signs saying “bring the troops home.”This year the city of Auburn refused to let them take part. The city said the peace group’s rhetoric was at odds with its goal to honor military personnel. But Pechman said reflecting on the costs of war was an appropriate message for Veterans Day. Ruling from the bench, Pechman added, “The First Amendment is a right veterans have fought to defend.” The ruling grants a temporary restraining order requested by the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington against Auburn.Auburn City Attorney Daniel Heid said after the ruling that Veterans for Peace can march this weekend. He said he's not sure whether the city will make policy changes in the future. “The city’s intention was to develop a positive message of thanks for service," Heid said. "And the concern was that telling people their efforts were not worth it is giving a different message."Heid said veterans have complained about the group’s presence in the parade. But Veterans for Peace marcher Mike Dedrick said people seem more supportive lately than they did around the time of the Iraq invasion. “The last two or three years, people clap. They wave at us," he said. "I’ve had people come up to me personally and say, ‘thank you for being here.’”Dedrick said if his group weren’t in the parade, veterans’ issues like health care and the cost of wars for everyone in the US wouldn’t be fully represented. “Those things need to be talked about, especially on Veterans Day,” he said.Pechman’s ruling is a temporary solution that allows Veterans for Peace to march this year. Lawyers for the group say they’ll seek a permanent change to Auburn’s policies.
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Young Washington Republicans Enthused, But Not Always Party Line
When you talk to Madeline Fakharzadeh, a high school senior in Kent, you wouldn’t necessarily think American politics are all that divisive right now. At Tuesday's Republican election night party in Bellevue, she held a campaign sign for her local congressman, Republican Dave Reichert. But she has also volunteered for Democrats and for Washington United for Marriage, the group behind Referendum 74 to legalize same-sex marriage. And she didn’t think she was out of the ordinary in a Republican crowd on election night. “With times changing the way they are, it’s not a matter of, ‘I’m a conservative, I don’t believe in same-sex marriage.’ It’s changing,” she said.Republicans say Rob McKenna’s campaign for Washington governor inspired many young people to get involved in GOP politics. They say more high school and college students volunteered for his campaign than for previous GOP candidates. At Tuesday's party, some young volunteers said their politics do not always fit the Republican mold.The diversity of thought Fakharzadeh represents is prevalent among Young Republicans of King County, whose members are more likely to support Libertarians than Democrats. Many supported Ron Paul’s presidential campaign in Washington. But when Paul failed the get the GOP nomination, some members of the group deserted Mitt Romney to vote for Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson instead.Shannon Ford is the vice president of Young Republicans of King County. She said her pro-Johnson members wanted to "make a statement that the Republican party needed to be brought back to its roots of being more conservative and more libertarian-leaning and curtail the government’s intrusion.” Johnson, the Libertarian candidate, has received more than 20,000 votes in Washington so far.Older party-goers on Tuesday seemed less likely to split a ticket. Lori Terpening is a longtime Republican precinct committee officer in Bellevue. She said she was sad about Republican candidates’ poor showings, and she was most devastated by the passage of same-sex marriage and marijuana legalization. “I’m crying about gay marriage and the marijuana," she said. "It’s very scary, the effect that that is going to have on the rising generation."As news of Romney’s defeat spread throughout the ballroom in Bellevue, some people cried. Others said they were skeptical of the returns. They said they hoped the national news of a Republican loss wouldn't trickle down to statewide races. And people of all ages cheered loudly for gubernatorial candidate Rob McKenna when he told them to stay optimistic, because later vote totals would be “worth the wait.”