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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Body of infant found in Ballard remains mystery
The Seattle Police Department and the King County Medical Examiner are investigating the death of a baby whose body was discovered on a roadside in Ballard last week. But they say it will take time to know more about the case.
The King County Medical Examiner's Office is tasked with determining the identity, cause and manner of death for the baby, whose remains were found in bushes along Shilshole Avenue in Seattle's Ballard neighborhood. A spokesperson for Public Health Seattle-King County said that analysis could take months.
“This is a tragic situation,” said Dan Strauss, the Seattle City council member who represents the Ballard neighborhood where the body was found.
Strauss said he’s been in touch with Police Chief Adrian Diaz to check on the status of the incident.
“Making sure that it is being investigated, which it is," Strauss said. "Making sure that the medical examiner is doing their analysis, which they are. And then really wanting to make sure that the mother is healthy, and safe."
Strauss said the mother’s identity is unknown at this point. He added that the medical examiner’s analysis will guide the police response.
“The police department began their investigation as if it is a homicide, and the medical examiner’s analysis will determine if it is a suspicious death or if it is indeed a homicide,” he said.
Strauss said if the baby is determined to have been stillborn, it would be classified as a suspicious death rather than a homicide.
“From what the police department has told me, there’s a high likelihood that this baby was a stillborn baby,” he said.
A Seattle resident told KUOW he found the body on Sunday, Feb. 19. But the message left on a nonemergency voicemail was not immediately forwarded to Seattle police, which announced the investigation on Feb. 22.
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Amazon pauses construction in Virginia on its second headquarters
NEW YORK — Amazon is pausing construction of its second headquarters in Virginia following the biggest round of layoffs in the company's history and shifting landscape of remote work.
The Seattle-based company is delaying the beginning of construction of PenPlace, the second phase of its headquarters development in Northern Virginia, said John Schoettler, Amazon's real estate chief, in a statement. He said the company has already hired more than 8,000 employees and will welcome them to the Met Park campus, the first phase of development, when it opens this June.
"We're always evaluating space plans to make sure they fit our business needs and to create a great experience for employees, and since Met Park will have space to accommodate more than 14,000 employees, we've decided to shift the groundbreaking of PenPlace (the second phase of HQ2) out a bit," Schoettler said.
He also emphasized the company remains "committed to Arlington" and the local region, which Amazon picked - along with New York City - to be the site of its new headquarters several years ago. More than 230 municipalities had initially competed to house the projects. New York won the competition by promising nearly $3 billion in tax breaks and grants, among other benefits, but opposition from local politicians, labor leaders and progressive activists led Amazon to scrap its plans there.
In February 2021, Amazon said it would build an eye-catching, 350-foot Helix tower to anchor the second phase of its redevelopment plans in Arlington. The new office towers were expected to welcome more than 25,000 workers when complete. Amazon spokesperson Zach Goldsztejn said those plans haven't changed and the construction pause is not a result - or indicative of - the company's latest job cuts, which affected 18,000 corporate employees.
Tech companies have been cutting jobs
The job cuts were part of a broader cost-cutting move to trim down its growing workforce amid more sluggish sales and fears of a potential recession. Meta, Salesforce and other tech companies — many of which had gone on hiring binges in the past few years — have also been trimming their workforce.
Amid the job cuts, Amazon has urged its employees to come back to the office. Last month, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said the company would require corporate employees to return to the office at least three days a week, a shift from from the prior policy that allowed leaders to make the call on how their teams worked. The change, which will be effectively on May 1, has ignited some pushback from employees who say they prefer to work remotely.
Goldsztejn said the company is expecting to move forward with what he called pre-construction work on the construction in Virginia later this year, including applying for permits. He said final timing for the second phase of the project is still being determined. The company had previously said it planned to complete the project by 2025. [Copyright 2023 NPR]
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Why Seattle Public Schools is considering layoffs: Today So Far
- This Northwest politician says culture wars are like junk food.
- Seattle Public Schools now faces a $131 million budget deficit. Layoffs are likely.
- Kelp! We need some seaweed. Kelp! Not just any seaweed. Kelp! Ya know we need some fronds. Kelllp!
This post originally appeared in KUOW's Today So Far newsletter for March 2, 2023.
When Marie Gluesenkamp Pérez won the election for Washington's 3rd Congressional District last November, it came as a surprise to some people.
The campaign was risky. She went up against a MAGA Republican who knocked the previous GOP incumbent out of the running during the primary. The main issue that helped push the Republican contender to the front was his support of Trump and his embracing of conspiracy theories. Still, Gluesenkamp Pérez turned the district from red to blue. It remains to be seen how well she handles the job, or if she can hold onto it — she only won the district by less than a percentage point. It initially appears that Gluesenkamp Pérez continues to take risks — she is shunning culture war politics.
"I should be thinking about the things that are keeping (my constituents) up at night, or the things that they're afraid to tell their friends about — their credit card debt, or that they're afraid that their kids are going to relapse. Those are the things that should be what we're talking about," Gluesenkamp Pérez told KUOW's David Hyde. She adds that, "It's not fun to think about how we're going to balance the budget — it's complex. Thinking hurts; it's painful to sit down and hash out those issues and understand them."
As I've said before, the real issues that affect most people are not the ones that get sensational headlines. They are more often the boring, local matters that come down to dollars and cents at city hall. But voters, and readers, more often want red meat, instead of political vegetables. And they want it now.
"It's fun to make fun of Marjorie Taylor Greene or Matt Gaetz. That's like a sport for people. But it's like junk food. It's leaving us malnourished intellectually, and in being able to be informed and have policy discussions."
That brand of rhetoric will certainly help this politician stand out in the crowd. That, and the fact she's the kind of person who says, "buying a Tesla is kind of a shitty form of environmentalism." Check out Gluesenkamp Pérez's full discussion with KUOW here.
Seattle Public Schools now faces a $131 million budget deficit. Layoffs are likely.
“We’re in a difficult stage right now,” Superintendent Brent Jones said at a school board meeting this week. “It’s moving from theory to actual action being taken. This is actually impacting employees.”
Some SPS employees have already been notified that their positions may be terminated. The tough situation is the result of rising labor costs and declining enrollment, and lingering effects from the pandemic. The district is also considering consolidating some campuses, which essentially means closing down schools.
Seattle is not the only local school district facing similar challenges. Check out the full story here.
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Why Emerald City Comic Con nixed its Homegrown section for 2023
For years, Seattle's Emerald City Comic Con has featured a space for local creators, artists, vendors and more — the Homegrown section. But for its 2023 event, organizers opted not to include the section, which came as a surprise to vendors who relied on it.
“Even though the section was tucked at the back of the hall with limited signage, the people who came by Homegrown were excited to be there," said Brittany Otto, and artist and vendor at ECCC. "People liked coming to a big convention and still having a chance to check out local artists."
RELATED: Emerald City's big, small, national, local pop culture balancing act
Otto had attended ECCC as a fan for many years before she brought her distinctive, independent art to the event as a vendor, Badger Burrow Studios. Otto is a paper artist who crafts shadow box sculptures.
"My work is influenced by my struggles with mental health and my love of fantasy, mythology, and biology to create transformative, dream-like portals that draw the viewer into expressive worlds that shine brightest when surrounded by darkness," Otto said.
RELATED: What I learned at my first Comic Con
Homegrown was a popular buy-local feature after ReedPop, a large convention company, bought the event in 2015. The big purchase prompted local concern that the new owners would favor large, corporate vendors who could push out the local community vibe. Otto recalls that many vendors pushed for the Homegrown section. ReedPop then established a corner at one of the country's largest pop culture events exclusively for locals. It offered more affordable prices for table space, which was a big plus for artists.
Otto says that ECCC's communication that the Homegrown section would be nixed this year came late, around January. The region's vendor community began talking, trading experiences and their disappointment in the decision. Otto notes that ECCC organizers attempted to help mitigate the decision by offering Homegrown prices for the main show floor, which she said made it possible for her to attend this year.
Bigger show, more locals
The main show floor is where fans will find local vendors, crafters, creators, artists, and more at Emerald City Comic Con this year. According to a spokesperson for the convention, organizers shifted to this approach because the share of local vendors at ECCC is now so large, just one space for them isn't possible. Homegrown has outgrown its corner of the con.
According to a spokesperson for ECCC:
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Two bills to protect abortion rights move forward in Olympia
Two bills in Olympia to protect abortion rights took important steps forward on Tuesday. One, known as a "shield law," seeks to protect people who travel to Washington seeking abortions. The second bill would require insurance coverage of abortion care without co-pays or deductibles.
The shield law bill, HB 1469, also aims to protect those who assist people from states that restrict abortion and gender-affirming care. It also includes protections for health care providers.
"This bill says that other states will not be able to use Washington state courts or Washington state judicial processes to enforce their laws restricting abortion or gender-affirming care," Rep. Drew Hansen (D-Bainbridge Island) said on the floor of the House.
Among other things, the bill blocks out-of-state subpoenas related to abortion and reproductive health care locally.
"We will use every tool that we have to protect abortion laws in other states from anti-abortion laws elsewhere," Hansen said.
HB 1469 has passed the House, making it the first abortion rights bill to pass the that body this session. Washington’s state Senate is expected to consider the proposed law in the coming weeks.
Another bill, SB 5242, would require insurance companies to pay for abortion coverage without charging any co-pays or deductibles also moved ahead. That bill passed in the Senate on Tuesday afternoon.
A proposed amendment to anchor abortion rights in the Washington Constitution has failed. Abortion rights advocates say the proposed constitutional amendment would have made it harder for the U.S. Supreme Court to take existing reproductive rights away.
But state Democrats did not have enough votes this year to get an amendment onto the general election ballot.
Several other abortion rights bills are still under consideration in Olympia, including a data privacy law, HB 1155, which would regulate period-tracking apps and other health sites that are not protected by federal privacy laws like HIPAA.
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Arrest warrant issued for Tacoma woman with TB refusing treatment, isolation
An arrest warrant has been issued for a Tacoma woman diagnosed with tuberculosis, who has refused treatment and will not isolate.
The Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department has been aware of the woman with tuberculosis for more than a year. She has refused treatment and has further refused orders to isolate. The county's director of communicable disease control, Nigel Turner, has previously noted that the risk to the public is low, but has also said that, "People can die from TB if they don’t get treatment. And they can expose other people to unnecessary risk of getting TB."
The health department has gone to the court 15 times to pursue legal steps. The court has issued an order for the woman to either accept treatment or to voluntarily isolate. The health department says it has also attempted to work with the woman's family to persuade her and has offered support.
On Feb. 24, the health department went into court for a 16th time and Judge Philip Sorenson ruled that the woman was in civil contempt.
"He issued a warrant for civil arrest by law enforcement on or following Friday, March 3 for the woman to be taken to a specially designated facility at the Pierce County Jail for isolation, testing and treatment," Turner said in a statement. "If the woman complies before March 3, we may ask the court to lift the arrest warrant."
The health department notes that it encounters about 20 cases of TB each year. The current situation is the third time the department has had to get a court order for someone refusing treatment for TB.
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Black-led nonprofits need volunteers. This local newspaper is helping
As the pandemic eases, Seattle’s nonprofits are coming back to work in person. Some don’t have the volunteer staff to match demand, and the support they received at the height of the pandemic isn’t what it used to be.
That’s especially true for Black-led nonprofits, which is why the Seattle Medium newspaper has launched a new website called supportblackorgs.com.
Chris B. Bennett is publisher of the paper. He said the project started even before the pandemic, with the initial goal to highlight the efforts that people were making in the community.
The aim of the project is to help attract more volunteer staff, and other resources to Black-led nonprofits, which includes the large ones – but also the smaller organizations, which are sometimes run by one person alone.
“Many of them, their budget is more kind of what some people would term as a “pocket book budget,” Bennett said. “Whatever they have, in their wallet or pocket book at that time, is the budget for that organization.”
During the pandemic, he added, many nonprofits saw an uptick in donations — and also saw a surge in support amid the 2020 racial justice protests — but he and collaborators didn’t expect it was going to last forever.
“We knew that the amount of resources were going to diminish, but that we’d still [have a] need in our community for these nonprofits,” he said.
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Dam owner pleads guilty after spilling turf, tire bits in Puyallup River
The head of a hydropower company has pleaded guilty after putting two football fields’ worth of artificial turf in the Puyallup River in Pierce County.
The Washington Attorney General’s office is recommending that Electron Hydro and owner Thom Fischer pay a $1 million penalty for a misdemeanor violation, with most of the money going to help restore the river.
The company put the turf and a plastic liner in the river during in-stream construction work at the century-old Electron Dam in July 2020.
The liner ripped, and turf and shredded tire bits spread as far as Tacoma’s Commencement Bay, 41 miles downstream.
The penalty, which awaits approval by a judge, would come in addition to another $501,000 Electron Hydro agreed to pay the Washington Department of Ecology to improve salmon habitat in the river.
The company is also facing a lawsuit from the Puyallup Tribe and the Environmental Protection Agency.
“Fish don’t care about fines and bank accounts. They care about safe, unobstructed passage and clean water,” Puyallup Tribal Chairman Bill Sterud said in a press release after the ecology department issued its fine in June 2021. “The dam must be removed.”
Electron Hydro officials said in a press release on Tuesday that the spill was an unfortunate and unintentional permit violation that the company immediately took responsibility for and worked to clean up.
“Not a single fish has been shown to have died or suffered any injury because of the accident,” the press release states.
Shredded tires are known to be lethal to coho salmon.
“We plan to continue to provide clean energy to our customers, remaining ever mindful of the fragile ecosystem in which we are privileged to go to work each day. The lessons learned from this accident in July 2020 will not be forgotten,” Fischer said in the Electron press release.
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Lawmakers want an airport mulligan: Today So Far
- Some lawmakers in Olympia want officials to go back to the drawing board to find a site for a new airport in Washington.
- Three years ago, this happened...
This post originally appeared in KUOW's Today So Far newsletter for February 28, 2023.
The potential to place a new major airport in Western Washington has prompted as much pushback as it has excitement. Now it seems that the whole idea could be sent back to the drawing board.
If and when it does go back to a drawing board, there are at least a couple politicians from the east side of Washington state who are wondering why a new major airport can't be built in their neck of the woods. It's a notion that may have many Washingtonians saying: "Duh!"
A bill that essentially calls for a mulligan on the airport issue just passed out of a committee with support from lawmakers in Olympia. The basic story here is that the region's travel needs will dramatically increase in the coming years, so state officials with some foresight want to place a new major airport somewhere in Western Washington. Three sites are being looked at, which are referred to as "greenfield" sites — two in Pierce County and one in Thurston County. And no surprise here, nobody wants the airport placed near them.
"People live in these quote unquote 'greenfields,'" Laura Orion from Thurston County recently said at a committee hearing.
The bill in Olympia right now proposes to start a new workgroup, different than the first workgroup that came up with the three potential sites. Maybe a fresh look can come up with different options.
"We want to be looked at," Yakima City Councilmember Patricia Byers recently said.
Another interesting point in this story by Northwest News Network is that the bill's co-sponsor is Rep. Tom Dent from Moses Lake. That might make folks wonder why this Western Washington issue has gotten the attention of a politician on the other side of the Cascades. Dent has not come out and said, "Put that airport in Eastern Washington," but he has said that the three proposed sites are "wrong" and that the new airport should be at least 90 miles away from Sea-Tac Airport. Such a distance could reach over the Cascades. Dent has also been vocal about building the "airport of the future."
My Dyer prediction: There is going to be growing interest in placing such a new airport a bit farther from the overcrowded chaos that is Western Washington. If the current bill in Olympia does make it through, expect this to be a big part of the conversation. Read more here.
Let's take some time to reflect. It was this week, three years ago, that KUOW ran its first local coverage of an emerging concern called "the coronavirus."
News of the virus had been making headlines for a few months by February 2020, but it started to make local news around this time. Back then, I was a new KUOW employee. I recall a chat with Editor Gil Aegerter, who I have to credit with calling it accurately. "This is going to be the big one," he said, indicating that Covid-19 was going to shut things down and alter our lives. He said this weeks before local headlines, working from home, toilet paper shortages, etc.
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AG pushing for largest environmental fine in Washington history
Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson wants a hydropower company to pay a $1 million penalty for dumping two football fields worth of artificial turf into the Puyallup River.
The AG's office says, if approved, this would be the largest fine and restitution for an environmental crime in Washington's history.
The turf and plastic liner was placed in the Puyallup River during a construction project in 2020. The liner ripped. Turf and shredded tire bits spread downriver for two weeks, as far as Commencement Bay in Tacoma. Such materials are toxic. The AG's office says this violated the state's Water Pollution Control Act, Fish and Wildlife Enforcement Code, Shoreline Management Act, and Pierce County's local code.
RELATED: Dam owner pleads guilty after spilling turf, tire bits in Puyallup River
Electron Hydro, LLC, which operates a hydropower plant on the Puyallup River, has already pled guilty to a gross misdemeanor for operating an unlawful hydraulic project. A judge still has to sign off on the penalty amount. The company was ordered to pay another half million dollars to improve salmon habitat in the river.
Most of the potential penalty money, $745,000, would go to help restore the river. Pierce County would get $255,000.
“When I took office, very few environmental crimes were criminally prosecuted,” Ferguson said in a statement. “I created our Environmental Protection Division to take on bad actors who endanger our shared environment. Electron Hydro and (CEO) Thom Fischer’s reckless conduct damaged this waterway and put species like salmon at risk. My office will hold accountable any companies that pollute our rivers, put aquatic life at risk and endanger the health of communities.”
Company officials were not immediately available for comment.
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It's an election year. What are Seattle City Council members up to?: Today So Far
- February comes to a frosty end in Western Washington.
- Some medical facilities in Seattle are taking steps to mitigate the impacts of commonly used anesthetics on the environment.
- It's a big election year for the Seattle City Council. Let's take a look at what council members are planning.
This post originally appeared in KUOW's Today So Far newsletter for February 27, 2023.
Weather update: We hit some record cold temperatures last week in Seattle, and it doesn't look like things will change anytime soon. Temperatures will be dipping into freezing territory and then rising into the 40s for a few days, which means anything that falls will be going between wet and ice.
The National Weather Service says to expect a rain/show mix around Western Washington today. Also, about three inches of snow is possible around Seattle this evening. NWS is calling the weather over the next couple days a "minor impact." With this sort of Northwest weather, I predict a lot of minor (and major) impacts on the roads out there, so be very careful.
If you're like me, then you've really appreciated nitrous oxide at the doctor or the dentist. My last trip to the dentist involved a lot of needles and drills ... but I didn't seem to mind. It turns out, anesthetic gases like nitrous oxide or desflurane also happen to be very potent greenhouse gases. That's why some medical facilities in Seattle are taking steps to mitigate their impacts on the environment.
Seattle Children's Hospital, for example, has an extensive system of pipes that carry nitrous oxide throughout its facilities. But those pipes can leak about 90% of its gas supply. That's not very efficient when you think about it. Those pipes are now slowly being turned off and the hospital is transitioning to individual tanks. It's a fascinating corner of our everyday, medical lives, and the response to climate change. Check out the full story here.
Right about now is a good time to bring up the Seattle City Council. As of late last week, all council members up for election this year have revealed their plans for the future. Will they run for re-election? Will they step down from politics? The answers are "yes," "no," and "other."
The big takeaway here is that seven of the nine council seats are up for election this year, four of these positions are wide open with no incumbents. Yet another seat may open up early. This has the potential to shake things up in Seattle, which faces challenges from homelessness to growth. I emphasize the word "potential." Changes like this could be like trading members of the Ramones, or switching up members of the Scorpions. You're either going to get pretty much the same tune, or you can get rocked like a hurricane by the wind of change.
Running for re-election
Andrew Lewis: Lewis joined the council in 2020 and is running for re-election. He is participating in the city's Democracy Voucher Program.
Tammy Morales: Announced in early February that she is running again for District 2 and is participating in the city's Democracy Voucher Program. Morales joined the council in 2020.
Dan Strauss: Announced this week that he is running for re-election in District 6. Strauss joined the council in 2020.
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How the West Coast seafood industry feels the impact of the war in Ukraine
The economic ripple effects of Russia’s war against Ukraine have been felt for more than a year. This includes the West Coast’s seafood industry.
Before Russian forces invaded Ukraine in February 2022, American exports of Pacific hake — or whiting — to Ukraine added up to nearly $95 million worth of fish. But that market’s been gutted in wake of the ongoing hostilities.
“The war in Ukraine, compounded with various trade restrictions that we've been dealing with Russia, have just really put into jeopardy our biggest market for Pacific Hake, which is really the bread and butter for a lot of seafood processors here on the West Coast," said Lori Steele, executive director of the West Coast Seafood Processors Association.
The wartime blow comes as many seafood suppliers and processors are recuperating from the pandemic’s disruption over the last three years. Seafood processors and suppliers are hopeful that congressional support will compel the U.S. Department of Agriculture to purchase such fish products for a third year.
“The USDA supplies food banks, assistance programs around the country," Steele said. "So they're really viewing this as an opportunity to take some of these products that are largely exported and start introducing them to domestic customers and really growing the consumer base for some of these products here in the United States.”
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