KUOW's newsroom is committed to bringing you news and information that informs you and helps deepen your understanding of our region and our world. Hear first-hand from our journalists about the work they do every day in service of this mission.

Q&A with Gabriel Spitzer, Morning News Editor:

Q: What’re the types of stories you’re considering first thing in the morning?

We’re like a little newsroom in miniature: We hoover up announcements, overnight news coverage, stories from regional sources and material from our broader content division, and weave them into our presentation of the show.

We like to check some go-to information sources during the wee hours each morning: wildfire updates, traffic conditions, weather and the like. And we always try to dig up a few quirky, surprising and/or uplifting stories as well. Q: How do you decide which stories are the priority?

In some ways it’s no different from the broader mission of the newsroom: In the public interest, we prioritize stories that inform our listeners and shed light on things that shape their lives.

We work to be mindful of our particular morning audience, considering what they need to know as they get their day underway. We focus on the “new” and the “now,” seeking to advance stories rather than repeating what was reported the day before. Q: How do you balance out different types of stories?

This is a tricky dance, and our dance partner is the network. We are not only balancing our own menu of stories, we’re accounting for the full mix of the national show as well. It’s more art than science, and we’re highly indebted to Morning Edition local host, Angela King’s skills in this regard!

We generally strive for a “balanced diet” in terms of subject, source and tone. Q: How do you balance staff resources and news demands? Easy answer: We muddle through! We are in the same boat as most teams at the station, in that our ambitions outstrip our resources, and that’s not always a bad thing. I hope it indicates that we’re aiming high and striving to do more.

Meanwhile, we try to respect one another’s limits and create some kind of humane work-life balance. It’s a work in progress, of course. Q: Can you share a memorable day on the job? Just after I started full-time with this team, Angela produced her first-person story about revisiting her hometown of Altadena, California after the fires.

It was a beautiful, intimate, gutsy story, and I remember that the day we aired it, I thought: “This is a clinic in how to make a distant, national story feel real and immediate to our local audience.” Hats off to AK.

Gabriel Spitzer, editor of our morning news team, shared his approach with us.

What’re the types of stories you’re considering first thing in the morning?

We’re like a little newsroom in miniature: We hoover up announcements, overnight news coverage, stories from regional sources and material from our broader content division, and weave them into our presentation of the show.

We like to check some go-to information sources during the wee hours each morning: wildfire updates, traffic conditions, weather and the like. And we always try to dig up a few quirky, surprising and/or uplifting stories as well. 

How do you decide which stories are the priority?

In some ways it’s no different from the broader mission of the newsroom: In the public interest, we prioritize stories that inform our listeners and shed light on things that shape their lives.

We work to be mindful of our particular morning audience, considering what they need to know as they get their day underway. We focus on the “new” and the “now,” seeking to advance stories rather than repeating what was reported the day before. 

How do you balance out different types of stories?

This is a tricky dance, and our dance partner is the NPR network. We are not only balancing our own menu of stories, we’re accounting for the full mix of the national show as well. It’s more art than science, and we’re highly indebted to Morning Edition local host, Angela King’s skills in this regard!

We generally strive for a “balanced diet” in terms of subject, source and tone. How do you balance staff resources and news demands? Easy answer: We muddle through! We are in the same boat as most teams at the station, in that our ambitions outstrip our resources, and that’s not always a bad thing. I hope it indicates that we’re aiming high and striving to do more.

Meanwhile, we try to respect one another’s limits and create some kind of humane work-life balance. It’s a work in progress, of course. 

Can you share a memorable day on the job? 

Just after I started full-time with this team, Angela produced her first-person story about revisiting her hometown of Altadena, California after the fires.

It was a beautiful, intimate, gutsy story, and I remember that the day we aired it, I thought: “This is a clinic in how to make a distant, national story feel real and immediate to our local audience.” Hats off to AK.

Every weekday, KUOW reporters produce short radio stories – known as “spots” – to keep listeners informed in our daily local newscasts.

One minute of radio can be surprisingly hard to make. KUOW general assignment reporter Noel Gasca is familiar with this challenge. She’s responsible for producing two to three spot stories per week.

Stories are pitched and assigned at a morning meeting, then Noel has until 3pm to report the facts of the story, talk with sources and cut it into three versions: one for All Things Considered, one for the next day’s Morning Edition and a digital story for KUOW.org.

Some of these stories cover local government, like the Seattle city council’s ban on rent-setting software. In these circumstances, facts and sources are gathered from public meetings and records.

Other stories serve to connect you to humanity, like the story of a memorial to a grandmother killed in a 2024 carjacking incident. It could’ve focused on the developments in the trial for the man accused of killing Ruth Dalton, but Noel and her editor, Derek Wang, decided that it was more pertinent to explore who “Grandma Ruth” was and what she meant to her community. Noel explained, “When considering what is newsworthy, we keep in mind that people matter, and that’s what this story reminds us of.”

One of the strengths of radio is its ability to tell stories through sound and capture a scene. That happened last week when Seattle Public School students protested a new lunch policy. Noel went to the protest and spoke with students. She then had the hard job of selecting just a few voices to represent the sentiments she heard the most. The time constraints of a spot news story in a newscast usually only allows reporters to include one or two voices, and deciding which voices to include is a tricky task. Noel featured different voices for her morning and afternoon stories, but included both in the digital story, which is how most spot producers format their stories. 

“For me, the beauty of spot news is that each time is a new puzzle. I’ve gotten comfortable with the idea that I’m never going to perfect them because each one is different,” Noel said. Once the story has aired, reporters and editors start the next day ready to try to better fit that puzzle together to report the news to KUOW’s audience.

Monday to Thursday at noon on KUOW, Soundside deep dives into local and regional stories that help listeners feel more connected to Washington state.

The show’s topics vary widely but we’ve noticed that listeners are particularly interested in interviews with what we call “newsmakers.” These are the politicians, policy makers, and stakeholders who are directly involved in the news.

These guests are particularly adept at defining the narrative to suit their interests and so Soundside’s host Libby Denkmann, the producers, and editor spend many hours refining their interview strategy to ask insightful and challenging questions, and cover as many perspectives and topics as possible. Listeners sometimes express frustration with these interviews, as they did when Libby spoke with Brian Heywood, the political megadonor with Let's Go Washington. Heywood was behind most of the ballot initiatives last year, and is now gathering signatures for a new crop of measures, including one to ban trans girls from playing K-12 girls sports in the state.

During the interview, it wasn’t possible to fact-check every claim in real time but before airing the story, the team reached out to elected officials, the OSPI, and local public health officials to double check specific claims about access to hormone blockers.

Libby prioritized challenging Heywood on several statements such as his use of the term, "biological males" when he referred to trans girls and women. Libby responded by saying many would call this bigoted because it denies the trans person's gender identity. Heywood then shared his view and the conversation moved on. Some listeners were frustrated with Heywood’s use of this term and wanted more pushback from Libby.

Reflecting on this feedback, Libby understood the listeners’ reactions but thinks, “the danger there is the shutdown of communication and understanding of every part of the political spectrum. I think where possible it's important to have difficult conversations, even when there are big ideological differences and underlying assumptions.”

Supervising producer, Sarah Leibovitz, shared that the purpose of these interviews is to provide listeners with access to that newsmaker’s thinking and then they can decide for themselves whether they agree or disagree with it. Some listeners wrote in saying that’s exactly what they got from the interview.

Listen to the whole interview and decide for yourself what you think of Heywood’s perspective and Libby’s interviewing style.

Occasionally listeners write in to express their frustration with the way our broadcasters deliver the news. They hear a neutral tone of voice breaking news or detailing a new government policy which raises concerns for them. They’re frustrated by the news and that the tone of the broadcaster’s voice does not match their level of concern for the details of the story.

Some listeners want us to use more heated language to signify how “bad things are,” and consider our approach to be catering towards whoever they disagree with or not be reflective of reality as they see it. We understand that the news contains information that will be concerning to people. It can be concerning to our newsroom too. All Things Considered host, Kim Malcolm, remembered being on air during the summer of 2015 when millions of people were fleeing the Syrian civil war and the photos of drowned 3-year-old Alan Kurdi on a Turkish beach.

As NPR host Rachel Martin spoke with Alan’s aunt who was in deep shock, Kim was thinking about her sons. “I was wrecked, my throat was closing,” she recalled. But Kim collected herself in order to make it through the show.

“I don't think the listening experience is boosted for our listener by hearing me emote. We don't need to underline what is already so obvious,” Kim explained. “I am not the story. It’s not my role to weigh the story one way or another by the tone of my voice, no matter what my feelings may or may not be on the matter,” she said.

Our reporters have their own reactions and feelings to the stories they broadcast, but their first priority is the job of delivering you the clearest news possible. We understand the news can provoke reactions across the emotional spectrum, which is why clarity in delivery and neutrality in words and tone respects every listener’s personal reaction.

All local political seats are nonpartisan, but most of the candidates in last week’s primary election identify with policies that align mostly with the Democratic party, and the different factions within that party. When it’s not as clear as choosing between two candidates from two distinct political parties, our newsroom needs to help listeners and voters understand the more subtle differences between the candidates.

For headlines and short broadcast updates, reporters only have a few words to convey as much as possible, which means using political labels. In this primary election, the incumbent mayor, Bruce Harrell is widely considered the “moderate” or “centrist” candidate in comparison to his main challenger, Katie Wilson who considers herself as “progressive.” Listener, Kirit M. asked us, “does terming candidates moderate or progressive really convey anything?”

KUOW politics editor, Catharine Smith agrees that the political labelling system is not perfect. “It’s relative based on which candidates you’re comparing and what city you’re in,” she said, adding, “they’re subjective too, some who are further left on the political spectrum might consider Bruce Harrell almost conservative, whereas Harrell himself pushed back on his challenger saying he’s not progressive enough pointing to his legislative record which he believes is progressive.” Harrell has said Wilson has a history of “fringe politics,” which Wilson has not responded to.

Ideally, the newsroom has the time and space to discuss the policy positions, so that voters can decide who they want in office to see their preferred policies implemented. This is more possible in stories on kuow.org and longer conversations between a show host and a reporter. This was particularly necessary when discussing the two final candidates for King County Executive. Claudia Balducci and Girmay Zahilay’s platforms are very similar which means reporters have to state the few policy differences between them in order to help listeners understand what is distinct about each candidate.

Now that we know who the final candidates are for the November election, the newsroom will be gathering more details from the candidates and their platforms and disseminating that to voters in a variety of formats. Stay tuned for interviews, debates, and policy breakdowns in the coming months.

At the end of every local story on KUOW.org you will find a feedback form, asking three yes or no questions and providing an open ended text box to share your broader thoughts.

We occasionally get questions about these questions, namely what they are used for, why you can only answer yes or no for some of them, and why they are the questions we ask.

The questions are meant to encourage reflection of our coverage and hold us accountable to our mission "to serve a more informed public" and our Ethics Policy in which we commit to striving, “to give our audience confidence that multiple sides and perspectives have been considered and represented fairly.”

The question about one's own perspective is because we're interested in people's understanding of issues and whether they learn something new or have something confirmed in our reporting.

The newsroom track the different trends we see in feedback and build understanding of the varied expectations for what people want from our reporting. The questions are meant to encourage a conversation with our listeners about their expectations of news coverage. So far this year, more than 6000 people have shared their thoughts with us.

On Booming, KUOW economy reporters Joshua McNichols and Monica Nickelsburg help listeners make sense of our ever-changing economy. And since the Trump administration settled into the White House, economic policy has been very dynamic, sometimes changing more than once in the same day. That pace can be hard to track for listeners and reporters alike. It's especially challenging for a weekly show like Booming, which requires planning episodes weeks in advance. So how has the Booming team adapted their reporting approach? “I try to tune out rhetoric that is not implemented policy, because it often changes by the time of episode release. I want to report on what has happened,” reporter Monica Nickelsburg explained.

Reporting on the administration's tariff policies offers one example. The team had heard anecdotal reports that the Port of Seattle looked unusually empty, which many listeners attributed to fallout from the tariffs. Interviews with Port officials countered that, saying there hadn't been an unusual shift in business yet. But Monica and Joshua wanted actual data. They waited until there was a tipping point in cargo traffic before reporting the story. This also allowed them to do the field reporting they needed to get additional context about the flow of traffic through the port. Then, just before publishing releasing the podcast episode, the tariff policy changed. They quickly shifted to take the latest news into account. The resulting Booming episode was both newsy and nuanced, which is the goal of the podcast – to give people the news but also explain what's behind it.

Another area where the administration’s policies have created uncertainty is Washington’s agriculture industry. The Department of Homeland Security has been detaining undocumented immigrants at workplaces but has been inconsistent about carrying out raids on farms. That led to a lot of fear and uncertainty, but Monica saw potential for a story when a local industry began to see an economic consequence. That reporting resulted in this episode: A 'perfect' season for Washington's sweet cherries turns sour because of deportation fears.

In this news environment, it can be overwhelming and difficult – even for journalists – to follow up on every comment and rumor coming out of Washington, D.C. Monica says she sees the role of reporters as helping to filter the noise and give listeners a clear understanding of the big picture. “I know that requires a level of trust in us, which we don’t take lightly,” she said.

What questions do you have about the bigger economic picture? Share them directly with the Booming team.

Two years ago KUOW partnered with StoryCorps' One Small Step program to help Washingtonians connect with each other across political differences. We heard a Republican and Democrat bond over their efforts to ensure their younger relatives don't judge people based on their political beliefs and another pair talk about how their orthodox political beliefs gained more nuance as they were exposed to different people and ideas. These conversations are an encouraging reminder that we are more than our politics.

Listen to these short conversations and watch our live event with some of the participants.

StoryCorps is still matching participants with different political beliefs for virtual national conversations.

KUOW’s state government reporter, Jeanie Lindsay has been keeping us informed on the goings-on inside the Capitol for the past two-and-a-half years. Just as the legislative session wrapped up for the year, she’s finishing up at KUOW to move onto another role. We asked her to reflect on what it’s like to report down in Olympia.

What has been the most surprising thing about talking with people in the Capitol building?

That the people who are making the laws and major decisions about the budget are regular people. There are certainly a lot of different powerful forces at play, but lawmakers are ultimately just people trying to solve intense problems of every type. Even when they care deeply about an issue, they don’t have magic wands. And they don’t always have the answers.

There are also a lot of human moments of connection between legislators across the aisle, especially when the cameras are turned off. A shared joke, high five, that sort of thing. It’s made me more thoughtful about my own news consumption and what we get to see and what we don’t. I know there are intense disagreements over policies, but the lawmakers are working together in a lot of ways too.

What was the most complicated story to cover?

The budget, by far. This year’s had $78 billion worth of stories to tell, and going through hundreds of pages of documents and summaries to figure out which stories to tell is really hard! But I kind of love reading legislation because it affects everyone who lives in or interacts with our state. It can be boring at times, and is less attention-grabbing than divisive issues or campaigns, but it is when I think we should be paying even more attention to what is happening as much as we can. What makes someone a challenging interviewee?

When you’re talking to someone in a position of power and they’re just totally closed off. When they give you wrong or vague information and it’s not tangible for the public. You then need to reframe the question to push for a real answer to give listeners an idea of how they’re thinking about their decision making — or make something sound coherent for the radio.

What was the most fun part of the job?

Getting to learn about and witness the energy of those who are engaged in the process, especially those who are not elected to be here. There is also so much creativity that walks into the Capitol building. I’ve witnessed high school proms, quinceañeras and graduation photo shoots, rallies, weird mascots, and so many school field trips. Humanity shows up here in positive ways, not just when people are unhappy with the government.

What is encouraging to you about our local political scene?

It seems like there’s renewed attention on the legislative process. Any time a listener has reached out to me and asked me a question, it’s given me hope that people are paying attention and getting involved. Just like legislators, reporters are regular people too and I have found new depths of motivation when listeners have told me they want to know what’s going on in Olympia.

On April 16, several Seattle crosswalks were hacked to broadcast a spoofed voice message from Amazon co-founder Jeff Bezos asking for people to not “tax the rich.” KUOW’s economy reporter Monica Nickelsburg covered this in a short story known as “spot” news, which is typically under one minute long. Spot news is first filed for the radio and then written up for our website using the same editorial content. On April 22, KUOW’s Casey Martin reported on the security risks to public safety infrastructure that this hacking had raised.

On the web version of the second story, listener Jim M. asked, “Why was a quote of the hacked message provided that omitted the reference to murdering CEOs in the form of "luigied?"

Jim is referring to the full transcript of the deepfake message, which was, “Hi, I’m Jeff Bezos. This crosswalk is sponsored by Amazon Prime with an important message. You know, please don’t tax the rich, otherwise all the other billionaires will move to Florida too. Wouldn’t it be terrible if all the rich people left Seattle or got Luigi-ed and then the normal people could afford to live here again?” We included the full audio on the web story for readers to play, but omitted the emboldened clause in the broadcast and text stories. We did this because “get Luigi-ed” is a reference to Luigi Mangione who is facing the death penalty for the murder of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

This is a violent reference and one that Monica Nickelsburg and her editor, Carol Smith, decided would require much more context than could fit into a one-minute spot. The most important detail of the spot news story was that public safety infrastructure was hacked to broadcast a political message. Rather than include the full quote and not be able to provide the needed context for it within the time limit, Monica and her editor chose to omit it to best serve listeners’ news needs on the hacking of the crosswalks.

In Casey’s story, the focus was on the security risk to public infrastructure not the content of the hacked message, and so to avoid the tangent the reference was also omitted. Spot news stories are some of the harder ones for reporters and editors to produce because there is always more information they want to include in the story. There are also different perspectives on what is the most important detail of a story.

While the reference to Luigi Mangione is striking, our reporters chose to focus on the facts of the hacking to the crosswalks, and how the hacking was possible.

On the campaign trail Donald Trump promised that if elected he would deport and detain immigrants who are found to be illegally present in the U.S. He has moved quickly to act on this promise as President. As of 2022 – Washington has more than 325,000 immigrants without legal status, which means there are many people who could be affected. The vast majority of these residents have lived in the U.S. more than a decade.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are targeting immigrants with a lot of different statuses, as we have reported in stories on workplace raids, legal attempts to stop deportations, revoked student visas, detention of green card holders, and the potential impact on farm workers.

These stories have received a lot of listener feedback. One of the top questions is for more information from ICE on the number of detentions and deportations to put the individuals’ stories into context, and see whether President Trump is living up to his campaign promises.

Sometimes this data is cited in our reporting, such as this example in a recent story related to the ICE detention center in Tacoma:

“The number of detainees at the Northwest ICE Process Center in Tacoma has steadily increased since President Trump took office, up from 718 people on Jan. 21 to 880 people on March 17, according to government data on ICE’s website and TRAC. The facility’s capacity is 1,575.

"According to the most recent data published on ICE’s website, 59% of detainees held at the Tacoma facility are listed as non-criminal, which the agency describes as “immigration violators without any known criminal convictions or pending charges” at the time of arrest.”

Since Trump took office, ICE has gradually released more data about arrests and removals nationwide, but data specific to Washington State is limited. KUOW has filed records requests to get more specific, cumulative data for our region.

We also rely on data from The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse – a data gathering, research, and distribution organization – which has reported that ICE has roughly doubled how many people it arrests per week since President Trump took office. That has not translated to more removals nationwide.

It is still early in this administration and the long-term quantitative consequences have not yet unfolded, but we plan to continue digging into the data more as it becomes available and patterns emerge.

You may have noticed anonymous sources in recent stories such as 'It's a terror campaign.' Federal workers in Seattle area describe snitching, secrecy under Trump and Monisha Harrell breaks silence on her uncle – and former boss – Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell. We wanted to share how we consider the use of unnamed anonymous sources.

Our ethics policy states that our priority is to have sources on the record. If a source requests anonymity, our staff must determine that there is “substantial journalistic justification” for granting it. At this moment, we are hearing from current and former federal employees in Western Washington who fear retribution for coming forward. Our responsibility is to make sure they are a credible and reliable source, and weigh the value to the public of the information they have to share.

In short, granting anonymity in these instances allows us to provide our audience with information we would not be able to get otherwise, strengthens our local reporting, and protects our sources.

Last October in this newsletter, we addressed a comment from Susan, an Evergreen KUOW member who let us know that she is turning off KUOW more often, “because so much of what comes on is sad and unhappy.” She suspected that she is “not alone in [her] need to have something other than depressing news the majority of the time.”

KUOW's News Director Jason Pagano, understood Susan's feelings and noted that on the days when “things are sounding grim, our newscasters are likely feeling the same thing. We do pay attention to the mix of stories in any particular newscast or show, and love the chance to share a 'feel good' story with listeners whenever we can.”

For the last few months we've been working on a way to share those stories and it's now live on our website: The Rain Shadow. It's a spot for stories that spark joy, ignite curiosity and connect us to each other.

The page and newsletter were inspired by the listener feedback we received asking for this type of news coverage.

First published in the 11th March 2025 Politics Newsletter.

When President Trump pardoned the Jan. 6 rioters, KUOW reporter, Casey Martin, was curious to talk with locals who participated that day to hear how the experience might have changed them.

On February 11, we broadcast and published Casey’s story: the story, Pardoned Jan. 6 rioter from Washington state has a new passion — reforming the justice system. The story started with what Kingston, WA man Taylor Johnatakis saw and did at the U.S. Capitol protest in 2021, detailed his conviction for his participation in that day and then explored how his imprisonment changed him into an advocate for incarceration reform.

Listeners had mixed feelings about our choice to feature Johnatakis. Samuel R. was “so disappointed KUOW has highlighted this person who has tried to significantly qualify their actions on J6th.”

On the other hand, Jody S. thought “The subject's perspective of incarceration was clear and enlightening. I would like to see further information on first time offenders [sic] perspective of the prison environment.”

Our reporters are driven to build understanding for those featured in our stories, even if the person’s choices or perspective might be difficult for some listeners to agree with. Casey said his goal “was to learn more about this large group of people that until now I've only really heard about on TV or in court documents.” The pardoning of the Jan. 6 rioters was a significant news story and to hear from a local voice humanized those involved.

By illustrating the shift in Johnatakis’ perspective, the story provided listeners the opportunity to consider that no person is a single decision, action, or perspective, and to then come to their own conclusions about what they think of that individual’s past, present, and future.

First published in the 25th February Politics Newsletter.

Since the new federal administration took office the news cycle has been particularly busy. While we focus on local stories, many of the announcements from President Trump could have local consequences.

Soundside host Libby Denkmann asked listeners how they wanted the show to handle coverage of President Trump and his administration. After hearing certain themes in the feedback, she spoke with KUOW News Director Jason Pagano on what listeners can expect from our local coverage.

What is consistent in KUOW's news coverage through any administration is our commitment to fairness, independence, impartiality, accuracy, and responsibility for what we report.

One way we have adapted is by dedicating two reporters to the immigration beat, based on the administration's promised approach to that issue.

Jason wanted to reassure listeners that, while there is a lot of news to cover, we'll continue choosing stories based on potential local impact to best serve our local listeners.

Read or listen for more details on our planned coverage approach.

First published in the 11th February 2024 Politics Newsletter.

More than 1,000 bills have been introduced into our state legislative session so far, with many more expected. That’s a lot to keep track of, which is why our newsroom have prioritized following the bills most likely to gain support and have significant consequences if they pass.

When KUOW covers developments with a bill we’re looking into the sponsors of the bill, how much money is behind it, where it is in the long process of consideration, what support and opposition there is, and what the consequences could be if it passes. We have a challenging word limit for 1-minute or 3-minute radio stories and typically do not include the bill number as it provides no context for the purpose of the bill, instead referring to them by the issue they address, such as the "rent stabilization bill."

The limitation is not as applicable in a web story. In the past when we have chosen not to include the bill number or legislative link in the online version of the story, readers have written in requesting that information as they want to learn more from the source material. In response to this feedback, we’re working hard to always include the bill number and link in our web stories so that if the bill piques your curiosity, you are pointed in the right direction on the Washington State Legislature website.

First published in the 28th January Politics Newsletter.

KUOW is an NPR-member network station, which means we independently produce local reporting and broadcast NPR produced national reporting. This insight serves to explain how our local newsroom operates.

If you're interested in how the NPR newsroom operates I recommend NPR's Public Editor Newsletter.

The NPR Public Editor is an independent position at NPR created to serve as a bridge between the newsroom and the audience.

In their latest newsletter they detail how NPR is redeploying reporting and editing resources to prepare to document the massive changes that President-elect Trump is promising, and to better meet the needs of the national audience.

You'll hear this coverage on our airwaves and our reporting on the local consequences of those national stories.

First published in the 14th January 2025 Politics Newsletter.

Our newsroom will be reporting on:

• Whether Washington will get a wealth tax and if any other taxes change.

• How lawmakers will approach state spending and what consequences that could have on schools, the homeless, and public safety.

• How Governor-elect Ferguson will depart from outgoing Governor Inslee’s budget plans and vision.

• How Governor-elect Ferguson, state, and city government will interact with President Trump’s administration.

• Who Seattle City Council will select to fill Councilmember Tammy Morales’ seat until the November election.

• The King County executive election.

• The Seattle mayor, city attorney, and city council election.

First published in the 31st December 2024 Politics Newsletter.

On December 4, Seattle City Councilmember Tammy Morales announced that she was stepping down, citing a toxic work environment. KUOW covered the announcement.

Listener Jim P-A. commented, “Please let readers know if Sara Nelson and/or other council members were asked to respond to the allegations.”

The newsroom asked Morales for an interview on December 4, but her office said she would not be speaking further. The following day, our midday show Soundside asked Morales and Council President Sara Nelson for interviews. Nelson declined and referred us to her original statement. Morales accepted and appeared on Soundside on December 9.

As Nelson did not make herself available, we considered what her perspective might be on this issue and incorporated it into our interview with Morales. We mentioned that there was an open invitation for Nelson to appear. After Nelson heard the Morales interview, she agreed to join Soundside on December 12 to "respond to attacks on the integrity of the [Council]."

Listeners rely on KUOW to keep them up to date and our newsroom works hard to cover the news as it happens. Sometimes that means hearing from one party while we work to gather additional reaction. In this instance, we were able to expand on our initial reporting and bring listeners the two voices at the center of the story.

First published in the 17th December 2024 Politics Newsletter.

Latino voters are being credited as one factor in the outcome of last month’s presidential election, including in Washington’s Yakima County, where President-elect Trump won 56% of the vote. You can find our story here: In Trump-leaning Yakima County, Latino voters express mixed feelings.

One KUOW listener, David F., had a question about who we chose to speak to for the story:

“The interview only questioned a small number of people in only a single community. With a population around 50% Latino, couldn’t you have talked to more in the community? … No interviews with people here under temporary asylum, no dreamers. How safe do they feel as undocumented residents who haven’t committed crimes about getting caught up in a deportation net?”

For this story, reporter Gustavo Sagrero wanted to hear from Latino citizens who voted in the presidential election, “because they hold a level of power that other people in their community might not. We wanted to hear their reflections on the consequences of that power.” He visited a church, a swap meet, and several grocery stores and spoke with more people than could be featured in the story. That includes people who have not been given federal authorization to live or work in the United States, or what’s commonly referred to as undocumented.

He was able to speak with many people about their feelings on the presidential election, but struggled to find anybody who voted for Trump. Gustavo chose to end the story with quotes from a shopkeeper who wanted to remain anonymous because of his immigration status.

KUOW stories feature voices who provide the most context for our listeners to find understanding. We recognize there are many different viewpoints and experiences to feature and while one story might not be able to include them all listeners can hear many different voices across our reporting.

First published in the 3rd December 2024 Politics Newsletter.

On November 8, we published, Seattle police arrest suspect following 'arbitrary' stabbings of 10 people in Chinatown-International District. The suspect was, “described by police as being between 30 to 40 years old” and had not yet been formally charged at time of publication. Bob H. asked, “Why do we only get the age of the suspect?”

KUOW does not publish names of suspects until they are formally charged and police charging documents are released. This ensures we are sharing the most accurate information from the police charging documents. It also avoids naming someone who is arrested but then not charged, which could be harmful to the person's public standing. On November 14, we were able to share the name and other details about the suspect who was charged, and also details about the police’s efforts to catch him. You can read about it here, Man charged with multiple stabbings in Seattle's CID. Here's how one police sergeant helped catch him.

First published in the 19th November 2024 Politics Newsletter.

• Live and up to the minute local race results on kuow.org.

• Live broadcast of elections coverage 3 - 12 p.m. on Tuesday, 2 - 9 a.m. on Wednesday.

• Bonus Sound Politics episode published late Tuesday night.

• Seattle Now episode published after initial results posted.

• Reporters out in the field talking to voters and candidates about the results in local and national races.

• Analysis of the candidate and initiative results and what they mean for Washingtonians.

First published in the 4th November 2024 Politics Newsletter.

On primary election night when reporting the results of the gubernatorial race, KUOW noted that Republican candidate “Dave Reichert, who has run a law-and-order [gubernatorial] campaign and frequently notes his role in catching the Green River Killer, came in second.”

Anne M. wrote in as they were “really disappointed that KUOW doesn't question gubernatorial candidate Dave Reichert's inaccurate claim to have caught the Green River Killer. He's been riding that myth for decades and going virtually unquestioned by major media outlets.”

Independent of this feedback, managing editor, Isolde Raftery had also heard from veteran crime reporters that Reichert’s claims were exaggerated. We believed it was important to look into Dave Reichert’s claim that he was integral to the Green River Killer case as he makes that a big part of his gubernatorial campaign. Raftery asked reporter Ashley Hiruko to examine how the case impacted him and informed him as a politician. Hiruko conducted 13 interviews, reviewed Reichert’s book about the Green River Killer case, and completely vetted the public record, including media reports.

It turns out he was integral to the case, and last week we published the story, The Green River Killer and the man who chased him for decades: How the case shaped Dave Reichert. Raftery said “it was a really illuminating deep dive. He truly did the most intense work to catch a killer who preyed on girls no one cared about – and it cost him a lot personally.”

We have also discussed Democratic candidate Bob Ferguson’s campaign claims about his record as Washington Attorney General. Bob Ferguson: Aggressive AG, future governor? For more reporting on these candidates’ policy positions, you can listen to Soundside’s interviews with them both.

The Race for Governor: Bob Ferguson

The Race for Governor: Dave Reichert

First published in the 29th October 2024 Politics Newsletter.

Last week, Soundside interviewed InvestigateWest reporter, Paul Keifer about his reporting into Why one Constitutional Sheriff has created a growing volunteer posse.

Listener Alex K. wrote in with some feedback.

“Writing to express my deep disappointment on the Soundside piece covering the 'constitutional sheriff' in Klickitat County, which understated facts and carefully avoided conclusions to the point of actively misinforming listeners. The program described the constitutional sheriff's legal theories as 'debated.' Technically true, I suppose, in precisely the same way that the beliefs of election deniers, sovereign citizens, and posse comitatus are debated. In fact, the constitutional sheriff movement emerges from the same fever swamps and shares a great deal of intellectual DNA with those other far right conspiracy theories. I am fully certain the legal expert ... likely told your reporter as much in the full interview.

I am especially disappointed because this misleading coverage appears to be born not of ignorance but a willful decision to elide the truth, presumably in the interests of some delusional fair-and-balanced principle. One key tell was, for instance, when the reporter mentioned that the deputies often talk about politics — but then failed to mention what they have to say about it, and the interviewer failed to ask..."

Alex wanted us to focus on the link between constitutional sheriff posses and efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Paul Keifer’s InvestigateWest story, which we linked to in our online story, acknowledges this concern in other state’s posses and that Songer is distinct from them on this issue.

“Songer does not seem focused on the results of the 2020 election. When asked by Mack about the possibility of voter fraud in Klickitat County during a radio appearance earlier this year, he explained that he had reviewed several ballots brought to him by the county clerk and found nothing untoward.”

While the link between posses and election interference is an important facet of these posses in other places, as it was not a concern with Klickitat County our focus was on the local issues. The Klickitat County community’s causes for concern are the potential for negative incidents between the community and the posse, county liability of such a large posse fulfilling responsibilities of sworn officers, and Sheriff Songer’s statements about refusing to cooperate with state and federal authorities when he considers their orders unconstitutional.

In regard to the moment that Paul Keifer mentioned the posse "talked about politics," he did so to acknowledge it was a topic, but wanted to focus on what he observed as the most prominent concern in the meeting he attended, which was wildfires.

The details of a story that we don’t include are rarely motivated by an intention to “elide the truth” but enforced by the limited time to fit in all details, and a difficult decision of what we think is most important for listeners to know about an issue. We agree there is much more that could be said about this topic and thank Alex for registering where their interest lies for this issue.

First published in the 22nd October 2024 Politics Newsletter.

Last month, KUOW documented the start of a new school year with a web story, Photos: First day fits lowkey slapped at Seattle's Roosevelt High. It consisted of high school students posing for photos on their first day of school and explaining how they chose their outfits. Amongst the feedback we received, S. Martinez asked, “Why is this news?”

Determining what is newsworthy is a subjective endeavor for both the newsroom and the news consumer as we each get to decide what is worthy of our attention.

KUOW Interim Managing Editor, Isolde Raftery wanted to celebrate the whimsy and fun of this important day by showcasing how this year’s students were expressing their identities. It gave news readers a chance to hear and see what the first day outfits meant to the teenagers. It also inspired a moment of levity in the newsroom as they brainstormed the headline.

Another piece of feedback from S. Peak contrasted the reporting with other school coverage when they commented, “Very nice story. Nobody got shot, just kids going to school.”

There is no simple objective way to decide what is worth our time and attention, it is a personal choice. One of the reasons we ask for feedback on our reporting is to understand what you think is worth your attention. This newsletter is focused on politics, which is widely understood to be a prime type of news.

First published in the 7th October 2024 Politics Newsletter.

In the last two weeks, Soundside dove deep into two of the more complicated initiatives on the November ballot, which we linked to in the Headlines section. These 20–35-minute interviews are the result of more than 75 hours of the two producers, Hans Anderson and Alec Cowan, and show host Libby Denkmann’s research.

Hans Anderson is known as Soundside’s most enthusiastic policy wonk, which made him a good fit for investigating I-2117. He sought out all available data on the impact of the cap-and-invest program — which would be repealed by I-2117 — identified what data is missing that would provide valuable context and explored the potential consequences of repealing the program. He then had to cross-check each side’s conflicting calculations for the success of the program so far and sift through their spin, so Libby had the clearest picture of the data.

For I-2066, known as the “Natural Gas Policies Measure,” both campaigns are arguing over how to interpret a significant piece of legislation passed earlier this year: ESHB 1589. The bill creates a framework guiding Puget Sound Energy on their transition away from natural gas to 100% clean energy. Proponents of I-2066 say it’s necessary to change the law and protect access to natural gas into the future; opponents say that access is unchanged and already protected in state law. In truth, the ramifications of both HB 1589 and the changes brought about by I-2066 are technical and wide ranging, meaning producer Alec Cowan had to understand all the policies, industries, and people who are — and could be — impacted by the law if it stands or changes.

We intentionally did not invite the guests in to debate each other, instead opting to fully explore their arguments one at a time with Libby. She presented critiques, challenged claims, and offered opportunities for rebuttal to give listeners the most thorough examination of the current legislation and the potential consequences of the initiatives. As Libby was getting in the weeds with Washington Policy Center's Todd Myers, he joked, “This is a good discussion. I wish we had these kinds of discussions in Olympia.”

Laws like these are typically decided in long legislative committee meetings by lawmakers paid to make these decisions. But Washington state gives citizens the opportunity to “provide a check over the decisions of their Legislature.” With these interviews, we hope you feel more informed to make your decision. Stay tuned for similar thorough discussions of I-2109 and I-2124 in the coming weeks.

First published in the 24th September 2024 Politics Newsletter.

Susan, an Evergreen KUOW member, wrote to let us know that she is turning off KUOW more often, “because so much of what comes on is sad and unhappy.” She suspects she is “not alone in my need to have something other than depressing news the majority of the time.” She then asked for our views on optimistic, informative programming. KUOW's News Director, Jason Pagano shared that on the days, “that things are sounding grim, our newscasters are likely feeling the same thing. We do pay attention to the mix of stories in any particular newscast or show, and love the chance to share a 'feel good' story with listeners whenever we can.” NPR’s Public Editor looked into the same concern for national programming in 2023.

We don’t get to decide what happens in the world, but the daily news teams make an effort to feature stories that explore serious subjects in ways that can spark optimism and curiosity. Examples of recent stories are how the 988 crisis hotline is helping King County residents in moments of need, a boxing program that helps youth overcome conflict, and the new light rail stations’ impact on surrounding neighborhoods.

When covering an election year, there's a lot of partisan rhetoric that could be disheartening. It's why we believe in sharing nonpartisan organization Braver Angels' podcast with you. A Braver Way host Mónica Guzmán is joined by guests from across the political spectrum to unearth tools, insights, and messy real life stories that can guide you over the divide in everyday life. Take a listen to hear stories of hope.

Our politics reporters are striving to bring you all the information you need to understand your ballot choices. It might be dense and require serious consideration, but we believe helping you feel informed and empowered to vote is a form of optimistic programming.

First published in the 10th September 2024 Politics Newsletter.

During the last legislative session, six policy initiatives qualified for consideration in the Washington Legislature and inclusion on the November ballot. In January, we covered this in a Seattle Now episode titled, “Republican initiatives you’ll be voting on in Washington state.” Listener Teri-Lee had some feedback for us:

“Calling the current initiative movement as "backed by Washington State Republicans" is a cheap shot and misses the target. I am a moderate Democrat and I support all six of these initiatives whole-heartedly.”

The six initiatives address varied issues from the state’s long-term care program and police pursuits to capital gains tax and the Climate Commitment Act. They have one unifying quality: they’re all backed by the state Republican party and Washington-based Republican megadonor Brian Heywood. We believe this is important context to include, especially as they all aim to undo key policies passed by Democrats who have controlled the state legislature in recent years.

But this listener feedback helped us consider that describing the initiatives as, “Republican,” places a political value judgement on the policies. Since this discussion, we’ve been more in favor of using, “Republican-backed initiatives” and “voter initiatives” when referring to them.

The Legislature passed three of the original six initiatives this March, and have added another one for a total of four initiatives on the November ballot. Sound Politics spoke about them with our State Government reporter, Jeanie Lindsay earlier this month.

First published in the 27th August 2024 Politics Newsletter.

Elections week requires a lot of co-ordination to bring you the results and candidate reactions in the timeliest manner. In the past, this meant we had a web editor glued to their computer refreshing the Secretary of State’s website for new ballot counts and then manually updating our website. This year, we decided to find a more efficient system, which was good timing as we’d run out of glue.

We worked with Decision Desk HQ, a nonpartisan organization that uses data-scraping and other technologies to automatically update the clear, colorful graphics on our website.

With the results taken care of, it meant we could focus on reporting from gubernatorial candidate watch parties like Semi Bird’s in Enumclaw, Bob Ferguson’s in Seattle and Dave Reichert’s in Puyallup.

A week after the voting deadline, the tight race for Public Lands Commissioner still has our newsroom on the edge of their seats. Polling predicted two Republican candidates would make it through to the November ballot, but it’s turned into a much closer race than anticipated.

Republican candidate Jaime Herrera Butler has made it onto the general election ballot with just about 22% of the vote, but the second spot is between Dave Upthegrove, a Democrat and Sue Pederson, a Republican. At the time of writing, Upthegrove leads Pederson by less than half a percentage point, with more than 42,000 ballots still to be counted. As soon as they are, we'll have the results updated on our website.

In the meantime, Soundside explored the job responsibilities and the three candidates’ platforms with reporters from the Seattle Times Climate Lab.

First published in the 13th August 2024 Politics Newsletter.

To be fair to each candidate, we request the same amount of time with each of the candidates, but each has varied availability. We ask several of the same questions and a few specific to their areas of interest. KUOW reporters thoroughly research their interviewees’ previous public comments to understand what they prioritize talking about. We prepare questions that try to dive deep on both their casual comments and get past their stump talking point answers. We study the policies and issues that the candidates have said matter to them so we can provide context and ask follow-up questions based on their answers. We anticipate where we might need to push them for a clearer answer and consider whether it better serves the listener to use the limited time that we get with them challenging their claims or move on to another topic we also believe is important to hear their perspective on. Our role is to provide access to the powerful so you can be informed on how they think and what they’re offering as a candidate. You might not agree or like what they say, but it means you have more information to evaluate your election choices. Keep an ear and eye out for more candidate interviews in the coming months.

First published in the 30th July 2024 Politics Newsletter.