KUOW Blog
News, factoids, and insights from KUOW's newsroom. And maybe some peeks behind the scenes. Check back daily for updates.
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Stories
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Washington state hospitals are still losing money, leading to 'heartbreaking decisions'
This illustration shows four hands (labeled drugs, energy, salaries, and supplies) reaching out for a jar of money. The jar represents the money available to hospitals, and the hands represent budgetary demands.Illustration by Katie CampbellHospitals in Washington state are still losing money, a downward trend that started during the pandemic. And as they try to cut costs, patients are seeing the effects.
“Over the course of the last year, we've seen hospitals make what seem like mundane but also heartbreaking decisions about service reductions and closures,” said Cassie Sauer, the CEO of Washington State Hospital Association. “If you're someone who's looking for care, it can be a really big deal that your hospital now has less capacity.”
RELATED: Financial losses slow for WA hospitals, but concerns remain
Part of the problem is that the cost of providing care has risen because of inflation; the cost of supplies, drugs, and energy have all increased, as have staff salaries. But payments to hospitals from Medicaid and Medicare have stayed the same.
“We have a very expansive Medicaid program,” Sauer said. “The state has not kept pace with paying a reasonable amount for that care.”
The percentage of Washington residents on Medicaid and Medicare is growing, Sauer said, as the state expands its Medicaid program and the population ages.
RELATED: Washington hospitals continue to report financial losses
On top of that, a recent cyberattack cost some of the state’s hospitals millions of dollars.
Another problem for hospitals is the shortage of space at facilities like nursing homes. Because nursing homes in the state are generally already full, patients who are ready to be discharged from hospitals but need ongoing medical care may not be able to leave. Instead, they wait in hospital beds, taking up space that would otherwise go to someone else. Plus, once patients no longer need hospital-level care, the hospital doesn’t get paid for continuing to care for them.
“It’s bad for hospitals and it’s bad for patients,” Sauer said. Hospitals aren’t meant “for a long-term stay. … You don't get to be outside. You don't get to have social time with your friends. You're eating all your meals in the same room.”
RELATED: 50 years ago, many psychiatric hospitals closed. Did that cause today's mental health crisis?
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Shoreline's secret garden faded into history. The community wants to dig it back up
Who knows how many times Kathleen Lumiere had walked by the dilapidated house in her Shoreline neighborhood before she noticed them? It was on a pandemic-era walk when they could no longer be ignored — plums, peeking over a fence. And they were enticing.
"They were ripe and delicious looking ... and delicious, in fact," Lumiere told KUOW's Seattle Now. "And I was like, ‘Oh, wow. This in an amazing, amazing place.'"
RELATED: What Ciscoe Morris says you should know about spring gardening around Seattle
To the casual observer, the property had long decayed. Paint was chipping off the house with boarded up windows. Blackberry bushes and vines had advanced over the surrounding area. But Lumiere explored and spotted more fruit trees. She found herself returning to the disheveled lot at 16034 Greenwood Avenue North, again and again. There was more than meets the eye to this place.
"It had really, really good soil — my dad was a horticulturist, so I could tell that the soil was amazing," Lumiere said. "It didn't make any sense that an abandoned blackberry patch would have such amazing soil and such vigorous fruit trees. Even though they had been neglected for so long, they were still producing."
It was a mystery to be solved, so Lumiere started asking around, neighbor by neighbor. A story began to take shape, about a once glorious garden, tended to by a locally loved family who not only grew in that soil, they planted themselves in Seattle history. Their life had faded under the tangled weight of blackberry thorns and weeds.
The story became a seed of inspiration for Lumiere, which soon grew and took root with others. It even bloomed in the halls of local government. Now, locals are at the property, clearing, pruning, and cleaning; aiming to return this garden to its former glory.
A Shoreline garden
This wasn't just any home. It was the home of Joe and Jennie Ching. After moving to the area in the 1950s, they spent their life crafting the land, fertilizing it with coffee grounds and kitchen scraps to feed the many organic vegetables they grew. They cultivated fruit trees, spanning Asian pears to figs, apples to persimmon. There was a koi pond and a small bridge. It was constructed as many Asian gardens are, with no straight lines, so visitors could wander along its curves and discover something around each corner.
There were many visitors over the years. Joe had a reputation for taking delight in chatting up passersby and giving them a tour of his home, even strangers. He'd make sure they'd have a bag full of produce when they left. The family even once threw a Hawaiian lūʻau for the entire neighborhood. After a chance drive-by from gardening celebrity Ed Hume, who found the entire site so impressive, the Ching's creation was frequently featured on his TV show "Gardening in America." It wasn't just a garden the Chings were growing — they were digging up warmth and joy to share with Shoreline and beyond.
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Reporter's Notebook: How the Olympus Rally left me in the dust, and in awe
Car 447, driven by Jennifer King and with co-driver Stacy Masters, sends up a trail of dirt and rocks through flying finish at the Olympus Rally's Power Stage on April 21, 2024. The rally drew dozens of volunteers and spectators to the Olympic Peninsula to watch the regional and national competitors.Katie Campbell / KUOWWhen the "Belltown Hellcat" was caught and charged with reckless driving, I asked my car-enthusiast boyfriend if he knew the guy. That's when I learned a couple things: There are car people who enjoy the sort of high-speed shenanigans that the Hellcat bro tormented Seattle with; and there are car people who are a bit more, shall we say, chill about it.
I got to meet the latter bunch this weekend. I volunteered at the Olympus Rally near Shelton, Wash. It's a two-day rally car race with regional and national stakes. Full disclosure: I don't know a dang thing about rally racing, or cars in general. For folk in the know, this rally is a big deal. It's my boyfriend's favorite weekend of the year.
Now, I get it, y'all.
RELATED: More than 20% of new cars purchased in Washington state are electric
Here's how organizers describe it online: "For over 40 years, we've been hosting a world-class event that sees competitors from around the globe come to race on our twisting long and winding stage roads, some in excess of 20 miles. Join us and experience the rush of adrenaline as drivers compete to be the fastest in the Olympic Forests."
And let me tell you, there was a lot of adrenaline — like when driver Brandon Semenuk, behind the wheel of a very fancy blue and yellow Subaru that swept every stage of the rally, came flying by on the last event of the weekend. I was on the sidelines with the crew waiting to capture his time as Semenuk's car threw up a wave of dirt and rocks.
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An uncontained tugboat oil spill fouls Seattle waterways
A tug towing a barge out of the Duwamish River toward Ballard polluted local waters this week. The state Department of Ecology says the tug spilled up to 150 gallons of hydraulic oil on Tuesday. A propeller shaft break may have been the cause.
Kersti Muul, a wildlife biologist and urban conservation specialist who lives in West Seattle, reported the spill to the West Seattle Blog. Muul said these kinds of incidents happen too often, and prevention methods should be required by law.
Photos show an oil sheen on the water off Harbor Island and the West Seattle Bridge. A spokesperson for the Department of Ecology said the agency decided to let the oil dissipate on its own because containment efforts were not likely to be effective. Muul called that the lesser of two evils, because booming oil concentrates it, which can lead to more damage.
Ecology officials told KUOW they’re investigating the timeline of the leak and can't say yet when it was stopped. They said the tug’s owner would have a diver inspect the vessel to determine whether it had lost its propeller and shaft, or if there was a different issue.
Muul said that while any spill is unwelcome, the timing of this one coincides with the arrival of multiple migrating birds, including Caspian terns and purple martins. She added that marbled murrelets also like the area, and are on an exponential decline in Washington state.
RELATED: Most of Western Washington's largest Caspian tern colony is dead. Can the seabirds rebound?
The state hotline for reporting a spill is 800-OILS-911.
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These Northwest snails might need stronger protection than just their tiny shells
An ashy pebblesnail, one of two Columbia River basin snails proposed for endangered-species protection by advocates in April.Courtesy Tyson Ehlers/Center for Biological DiversityEnvironmentalists are urging federal officials to save a pair of Northwest species that you’ve probably never heard of.
If you’ve seen one of them, you might have mistaken it for a pebble on the bottom of a clear-flowing creek.
While salmon get most of the attention, less-charismatic species lose out, too, when Northwest rivers are dammed or damaged.
Two tiny, freshwater snails that thrive in cold, clean, oxygen-rich water have been eliminated from most of the Columbia River Basin, according to the Center for Biological Diversity:
• The ashy pebblesnail. It has pale circles around its tentacled eyes.
• The shortface lanx. It looks like a tiny volcano with its cone-shaped shell.
These tiny snails, less than half an inch tall or wide, still cling to the bottom of a handful of rivers like the Methow in Washington and the Deschutes in Oregon.
The activist group has petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to protect these rare little mollusks.
RELATED: Looking back and looking ahead: the 50-year anniversary of the Endangered Species Act
The shortface lanx is sometimes called the giant Columbia River limpet, though it’s neither giant nor a limpet. It sits on its own branch of the evolutionary tree, being the only species in its genus.
The ashy pebblesnail has no lungs and requires the highly oxygenated environment of clear, cold, flowing water to breathe, as well as a stable, rocky bottom to cling to.
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Auburn police officer’s murder trial tests new state law for police misconduct
Officer Jeffrey Nelson was charged with murder in the second degree, and assault in the first degree, for the death of Jesse Sarey, age 26, in Auburn. Nelson is the first officer in Washington state to be charged under a new law that was passed by initiative, I-940.Auburn Police DepartmentThe first police officer charged with murder in Washington under a new legal standard for police misconduct is heading to trial. Jury selection is scheduled to begin April 22 in the trial of Auburn police officer Jeffrey Nelson.
In August 2020, then-King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg charged Nelson with second-degree murder and first-degree assault for killing 26-year-old Jesse Sarey. Nelson tackled and ultimately shot Sarey while trying to arrest him for disorderly conduct.
Sarey’s former foster mother Elaine Simons said it’s been a long wait to get to this trial date.
“Not only does the Sarey family need resolution but so does Officer Nelson,” she said. “Four years is a long time for everybody.”
RELATED: The silence is maddening: remembering Jesse Sarey
Simons said for her and supporters of the Sarey family, closure would be Nelson’s criminal conviction. Nelson said in his statement about the encounter that he believed Sarey was reaching for the officer’s handgun.
The trial is seen as an important test of Initiative 940, approved by voters in 2018 to remove what was seen as a barrier to prosecuting police for misuse of deadly force.
The law eliminated the requirement to prove “malice” on the part of police officers. Instead prosecutors must convince jurors that deadly force was not reasonable or necessary.
King County Superior Court Judge Nicole Gaines Phelps is hearing the case at the Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent. It’s expected to last several weeks.
Judge Gaines has already determined that the trial testimony will exclude information about Officer Nelson’s tattoos, which could be read as endorsing police violence, and his previous deadly force encounters. The court has also excluded information about Sarey’s history of drug use and public intoxication.
RELATED: Police training commission moves to decertify Auburn cop charged with murder
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Chaos and division erupt at Washington Republican convention in Spokane
Washington State Republican Chairman Jim Walsh speaks to party delegates at the state GOP convention on April 19, 2024, during a raucous vote to allow consideration of gubernatorial candidate Semi Bird for the party's endorsement.Scott GreenstoneOn Friday, the Washington State Republican Party's convention in Spokane erupted with moments of booing, chanting obscenities, and people turning their backs to the party's own candidates.
Lorraine Blacklock, a precinct committee officer from King County, told the convention she'd never seen anything like this in her 30 years of involvement in the Republican Party.
"Civility has kind of disappeared," she said. "Even in our party, and that's sad."
RELATED: Republicans shrug off anti-LGBT comments from top Washington governor candidate
The convention drew delegates, precinct committee officers, and grassroots activists from across Washington for the weekend. The event is designed to develop the party's platform, choose the party's local leadership, and nominate candidates for statewide offices.
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Seattle takes a cold plunge to help kids with 'butterfly-like' skin
8-year-old Patterson McKenzie was diagnosed with epidermolysis bullosa when he was born in 2015.Courtesy of the McKenzie familyOn Sunday, a crowd of Seattleites will brave the cold waters of Alki Beach to increase awareness for the group of genetic skin conditions known as epidermolysis bullosa, which cause painful blistering and tearing. The plunge was organized by the nonprofit EB Research Partnership, which aims to raise $80,000 for research that could help cure and improve treatment for the disorders.
8-year-old Patterson McKenzie was diagnosed with epidermolysis bullosa when he was born in 2015. He said taking a cold plunge and having his condition are both pretty painful, and offered some pointers.
“I breathe heavily in through my mouth a little bit before,” he said.
Annie McKenzie, Patterson's mom, added that they also use distraction methods like singing songs that help guide him and other cold-plungers through the shock. Both of them will be at the beach this weekend, with a playlist featuring Willie Nelson, Pearl Jam, and Marvin Gaye, cheering people on.
“The reason we plunge is to be uncomfortable for a minute, to be in solidarity with kids who have EB who are in pain from birth,” said Jill Vedder, chairwoman of EB Research Partnership, in an organizational meeting earlier this year. “So duck poop is nothing.”
Jill Vedder, along with her husband and Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder, founded the organization in 2010.
The annual cold plunge was started in Massachusetts in 2018 by Emily Kubik and her friends and family, two years after her daughter Elodie was diagnosed with a form of epidermolysis bullosa.
“In some of the dark days in the beginning, which I know so many families have gone through, we were struggling to just keep our heads above water trying to understand what we were dealing with,” Kubik said earlier this year.
They wanted to raise awareness and show Elodie that people cared about her with this plunge, Kubik added. There’s also a fundraising component to the tradition.
“I don’t think in that first year we thought we would raise maybe $30,000, honestly,” Kubik said. “So the fact that just a few years later we’ve raised just over $2 million is really incredible.”
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Angry birds: Hummingbirds are cute, but they’re primed to fight
Two hummingbirds, not willing to share space at a feeder. Hummingbirds often fight or chase each other away in competition for food and territory.At first, I didn't know what I was seeing — a tiny blur at the edge of a bush in Seattle's Wedgwood neighborhood, from which emitted a dramatic, high-pitched scream.
Then the scene became clear: Two hummingbirds were brawling, violently, think barroom at 1 a.m. And one was clearly losing.
Hummingbirds, I realized, are not just adorable. They're also jerks.
Yes, jerks. But don't take my word for it.
“'Hummingbirds are jerks' is a pretty good tagline for how hummingbirds operate. I use that word a lot to describe them. They fight all the time," said Alyssa Sargent, a PhD candidate at the University of Washington working in the behavioral ecophysics lab.
RELATED: UW researcher slows down hummingbirds to study them. What he found is amazing
I witnessed the ultimate victor bashing its foe into the ground as it held on with its feet, stabbing its competitor with its needle-like beak the entire time.
It was a sobering moment. Should I have broken up the fight? Perhaps offered each bird complimentary nectar and let them chirp out their woes until they calmed down?
"Trying to break up a hummingbird fight, you’d be fighting a losing battle there," Sargent said.
Sure, hummingbirds are renowned for their beauty and rapid, graceful flight. They are a treat in any garden and are generally greeted with joy.
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City could tear down dangerous vacant buildings under Seattle Mayor Harrell's emergency proposal
Seattle fire crews respond to a two-alarm fire at a vacant warehouse in the 1000 block of South King Street on July 20, 2023.The city of Seattle would be allowed to demolish unsafe vacant buildings to prevent them from catching fire under emergency legislation proposed by Mayor Bruce Harrell.
There were 130 vacant building fires reported in Seattle last year, three of them deadly. There have been 30 more such fires so far this year.
RELATED: E-bike fires are sparking trouble in Seattle. Here's how to use them safely
“While the city has taken steps to encourage adaptive reuse of vacant structures for new purposes, we cannot allow these unmaintained structures to put lives and property at risk from trespassers, arson, and other crimes,” Harrell said.
If owners of dangerous buildings don’t secure or demolish them when ordered to do so by the fire department, the city could take those steps itself and put a lien on the property for reimbursement under the proposed law change.
“This legislation will give the Seattle Fire Department a new tool to take quick action to remedy derelict buildings that threaten the health and safety of our neighborhoods,” Harrell said.
The Seattle Fire Department is already tracking more than 40 vacant buildings that could be affected by the proposed law, and estimates it could take action on about 10 buildings a year.
On New Year’s Day, a three-alarm fire in a First Hill vacant building forced the evacuation of a neighboring apartment building. There had also been a three-alarm fire in the same building in 2022.
Fire officials say one factor contributing to the city’s 69% increase in derelict buildings catching fire between 2013 and 2021 is the growing number of homeless people who use the buildings for shelter. Fires lit to keep warm — or to smoke fentanyl and meth — can spread.
RELATED: Investigators sound alarm over string of Seattle fires and
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Here's why car insurance just jumped nearly 25% in Washington state
If you have a car insurance policy in Washington state, you may have noticed that it's gotten much more expensive this year.
In a recent article in The Seattle Times, reporter Victor Whitman shared the stories of Washington drivers who saw their insurance premiums jumping hundreds of dollars. This comes after the state's insurance commissioner approved a bigger than usual increase to average auto premiums in Washington, nearly 25%.
RELATED: Both hands on the wheel, Washington drivers. Your insurance rates are about to jump 24%
So what's going on with auto insurance? Why are we on this rocket ship?
To find out, Soundside sat down with Kenton Brice, the president of the Northwest Insurance Council, a trade group funded by insurers.
While there are many reasons why insurance premiums have risen so dramatically, the simplest answer is that it's just much more expensive to fix vehicles today.
"It used to be that if you got in a fender bender in a parking lot, replacing the bumper of your vehicle might cost $1,500," Brice said. "That same bumper today has sensors and cameras and so forth in it and can cost thousands of dollars to replace."
So, while there's no question that the complexity and technological advances of modern cars have made driving safer, they're also much more expensive to fix.
Another big factor is the number of people on the roads. That plus the feeling of safety in a tech-heavy modern vehicle means that people are getting into increasingly worse wrecks.
"So cars are safer, they have a lot more technology that helps prevent injuries. But people are maybe taking advantage of those or don't know how those safety features work," Brice explained. "So they're driving faster, they're driving angrier, and the crashes that they're getting into are more severe."
You can listen to the entire conversation with NW Insurance Council president Kenton Brice by clicking the play button above.
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More aboard! Activists, officials disagree about how to boost Amtrak Cascades ridership
The Amtrak Cascades heads north in Shoreline, Washington, on Nov. 30, 2023.KUOW Photo/John RyanOfficials and climate activists disagree about the best way to get more people on board passenger trains between Oregon and Canada.
Ridership on the Amtrak Cascades, running between Eugene, Oregon, and Vancouver, British Columbia, has not returned to pre-pandemic levels, though it came close in 2023.
The line served 746,000 passengers in 2023, nearly doubling its 2022 ridership and reaching 90% of the Cascades’ pre-pandemic peak of 824,000 in 2019, according to the Washington State Department of Transportation.
The transportation department, which pays Amtrak to operate the Cascades line, has been asking the public how to improve service over the next 20 years.
RELATED: Dude, where’s my train? Why freight makes Amtrak late
The feedback has emphasized faster, greener, more frequent, and more reliable trains, as well as better connections to other modes of travel at train stations.
Major employers contacted by rail officials called for faster travel times and better Wi-Fi on the Cascades line.
Retired scientist and climate activist Arvia Morris with the Climate Rail Alliance says planners aren’t taking Amtrak’s need for speed seriously.
“We do 53 miles an hour today, and in their current plan, in 20 whole years, they would get us to 58 miles an hour,” Morris said. “We just don't think that plan is good enough.”
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