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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WSU uses corn tech to make advanced air filter
Scientists from Washington State University have found a way to create more sustainable and efficient air filters. It turns out corn was the key.
Most air filters on the market are made out of petroleum and glass. Those materials can lead to secondary pollution when the filters are thrown away.
WSU's new filter uses corn-based proteins. It’s special because it catches both particles like soot, and toxic chemicals like carbon monoxide at the same time. Current filters are more likely to address particulates in the air. They aren't as efficient when it comes to capturing chemicals in gas form. WSU's corn-based filters capture 99.5% of particulates, and 87% of formaldehyde in the air.
This adds up to a more environmentally friendly air filter.
“Particulate matter is not that challenging to filter, but to simultaneously capture various kinds of chemical gas molecules, that’s more significant,” said WSU researcher Katie Zhong in a statement. “These protein-based air filtering materials should be very promising to capture multiple species of air pollutants.”
It's not just a breakthrough for air filters, but Zhong says this could also lead to better face masks.
“A corn protein is more hydrophobic, that means the protein itself has good resistance to high moisture levels, like, if we use facial masks," Zhong told KUOW.
According to a 2020 American Chemical Society study, 129 billion masks were used and disposed of globally. Zhong says the protein-based technology could help reduce that number.
The study is in April’s issue of the the Journal of Separation and Purification Technology.
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Pay per gallon or pay per mile?: Today So Far
- Would you rather pay 49 cents per gallon of gas, or 2.5 cents for every mile you drive?
- Hydropower in the western US was up 13% in 2022.
- The "holy crap, that's in our products" news just kept coming this week.
This post originally appeared in KUOW's Today So Far newsletter for February 24, 2023.
Washington state was a little more climate friendly last year, at least, considering how we get our energy. Hydropower production was at a 20-year low leading into 2022, largely due to ongoing droughts, but this form of energy increased 13% last year.
There was more snow and rain for the region, which added up to a 17% rise in hydropower in Washington state, and a 19% increase in Oregon. This basically means that the region was using more of a renewable form of energy during that time, instead of relying more on fossil fuels to produce electricity.
As KUOW's John Ryan reports, 11 states in the Western USA produce most of the nation's hydropower, but this region has been suffering under a megadrought for a couple decades. So last year's numbers sound like good news. But hydropower has its critics and drawbacks. Check out the full story here.
Would you rather pay 49 cents per gallon of gas, or 2.5 cents for every mile you drive? That's the big question as Washington state lawmakers consider how to fund roads in the years ahead.
The move to start taxing drivers for every mile they go has long been in the making. The proposal has finally made it to the Capitol in Olympia. The basic idea is that the state's gas tax is taking in less and less money over time. Cars have become more fuel efficient, hybrids are a thing, and electric cars don't even pay the gas tax. Yet, this money is what Washington relies on to maintain roads. Right now, Washington is charging 49.4 cents per gallon of gas at the pump (the feds also charge 18.4 cents on top of that).
The proposed solution to this dilemma is to replace the gas tax with a pay-per-mile tax. Drivers would either plug a GPS device into their car, which would count the miles, or they would manually record it. The state would then charge a tax. Some Democrats seem to like the idea, and some Republicans aren't so into it. And if you're shaking your head over someone tracking you with GPS, and are reading this newsletter on an electric device like a phone or laptop, then you sort of have a pot/kettle situation going on. The thing about this issue is that EVs driving around Washington state don't pay a gas tax. Instead, they pay an extra $225 in registration fees each year. Part of the current proposal would allow EV owners to move over to the pay-per-mile tax. Check out the full story here.
The "holy crap, that's in our products" news just kept coming this week. I already brought up a recent Consumer Reports assessment of popular chocolate bars which were found to have potentially harmful metals in them.
The next day, KUOW had another story about a bill in Olympia that would ban harmful substances in cosmetics, such as lead and formaldehyde. I was pretty ignorant about this. Sure, makeup is not a big part of my daily life, but I still spit out my coffee and said a big "WTF" upon learning that such ingredients were actually a thing. Then, the next day, REI announced it will stop selling products with PFAS in them. PFAS are known as "forever chemicals" and have been used in a lot of products over the years, from firefighting foam to shampoos and fabrics. This stuff doesn't break down and go away, and can have harmful effects on health. REI has now committed to stop selling products, like waterproof clothing and cookware, with PFAS in them.
The Friday Five: News you may have missed this week, and other cool stuff
- Mike's adventures in art: A weekend full of wishes
- Hybrid cars are still incredibly popular, but are they good for the environment?
- This group gets left-leaning policies passed in red states. How? Ballot measures
- The Taliban ended college for women. Here's how Afghan women are defying the ban
- Post-Roe, WA is a health care ‘sanctuary’ — for both patients and providers
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Bumbershoot is back!
After being on hiatus since 2019, Seattle’s annual music and arts festival, Bumbershoot, is back.
A new group of organizers, New Rising Sun, recently announced a plan to restore the event for its 50th anniversary, making Bumbershoot one of the oldest recurring festivals in the United States.
Greg Lundgren, co-founder and creative director of New Rising Sun, said this year’s festival will highlight arts in our region in a unique way.
“What you can see this year that's different is we are creating a fashion district, which will have everything from runway shows, to drag makeup artists, to celebrating emerging designers, and to tattoo to nail art, and having this area that focuses on how we present ourselves and fashion and beauty and tattoos. I think that's a part of the festival that really hasn't ever existed.”
He pointed out that people coming to the festival may arrive dressed one way, and after a visit to the fashion district, they may go home with a whole new look. But the fashion district won’t be the only new addition to Bumbershoot.
“You're going to have modern dancers woven through the crowd,” Lundgren said. “You're going to have sculpture woven through the crowd, you're going to have remote control sculpture moving through the audience. And instead of people having to go find it, [art] is really built into the fabric of the festival.”
This year Bumbershoot will add a recess district, with a focus on performance art and movement. It features SOS Pro Wrestling from Tacoma and skaters from Seattle’s Roll Around Seatown.
There will be focus on culinary arts, that highlights food and chefs from local restaurants, and places where arts intersect with technology.
“I think that what I really what makes me the most excited is, recognizing that our community is a lot richer and broader and more diverse than what people really often give it credit for,” Lundgren said. “I started to look at Bumbershoot is something more than a festival, but as an opportunity to really change the course of the city, a way of really celebrating artists, and a way of breaking stereotypes about what a festival can be, or what an artist is.”
Bumbershoot will be at the Seattle Center, Sept. 2-3
Information on lineups and programs will be announced in the coming weeks.
Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly declared Bumbershoot the oldest recurring festival in the United States.
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Boeing plans to end production of ‘Top Gun’ plane in 2025
Even “Top Gun” couldn’t save the F/A-18 Super Hornet.
Boeing announced Thursday that it expects to end production of the fighter jet in late 2025 after a final delivery to the U.S. Navy.
Production of the plane could be stretched out to 2027 if India places an order, the company said.
RELATED: Air India’s historic Boeing purchase is big news for the PNW
The first F/A-18 debuted in 1983 and was built by McDonnell Douglas, which merged with Boeing in 1997. More than 2,000 Hornets, Super Hornets and Growlers have been delivered to the U.S. military and the governments of many allies, including Canada, Finland, Australia, and Malaysia.
But the plane’s fate has been in doubt in recent years. The Navy had planned not to buy any Super Hornets after fall 2021, citing the age of the plane’s design. Only an act of Congress kept production running.
News of the plane’s curtain call comes less than a month after Boeing delivered the last of its iconic 747 jumbo jet that has been used in passenger and cargo service for half a century.
Boeing said ending F/A-18 production will let it focus on future military aircraft, both crewed and uncrewed, and increase production of other defense programs. The company said it plans to build three new facilities in St. Louis, where the F/A-18s are assembled.
“We are planning for our future, and building fighter aircraft is in our DNA,” said Steve Nordlund, vice president of Boeing’s Air Dominance division.
The company said it will continue to develop upgrades to the current fleet of F/A-18 Super Hornets and EA-18G Growlers. The latter is a carrier-based electronic version of the jet.
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Seattle hits record cold for February 23
Seattle hit a record cold temperature Thursday, Feb. 23 with a high of 35 degrees.
"We only had a high of 35 in Seattle yesterday. That was the coldest February 23 on record. We've only had three colder days in the last week of February in 78 years," National Weather Service meteorologist Dana Felton told KUOW.
That beats the previous record of 36 degrees set in 2022.
Felton said Seattle also broke the record-low temperature for Friday, Feb. 24, before sunrise.
Sea-Tac Airport also hit a record. The airport was at 22 degrees early Friday morning, which breaks the record-low temperature for Feb. 24. It was previously 24 degrees, set in 2011.
The cold weather isn't going anywhere. There's another chance for lowland snow Saturday night into Sunday.
"We're going to stay in this cold pattern," Felton said. "Both Sunday and Monday, the highs will get up into the lower to mid 40s."
So any snow that does fall over the weekend and into Monday will likely melt.
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Democratic state attorneys general sue Biden administration over abortion pill rules
A coalition of state attorneys general is suing the Food and Drug Administration, accusing the agency of excessively regulating the abortion pill mifepristone.Mifepristone was approved in 2000 to induce first-trimester abortions in combination with a second drug, misoprostol. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Washington state by a dozen Democratic state attorneys general, asks the FDA to lift additional layers of regulation above and beyond those for typical prescription drugs.
It accuses the FDA "singling out mifepristone...for a unique set of restrictions," and asks the court to declare the drug to be safe and effective, and invalidate the additional regulation, known as a Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy.
Updated February 24, 2023 at 3:00 PM ET
The suit comes as a federal judge in a separate case in Texas is considering whether to overturn the FDA approval of the abortion drug, setting up the possibility of conflicting rulings by different federal judges.
An FDA official says the agency does not comment on ongoing litigation. [Copyright 2023 NPR]
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WA lawmakers eye ban on 2-mile-long trains
Legislators in Olympia have advanced a bill to limit the length of freight trains.
The bill, approved by the House Transportation Committee Thursday afternoon, would prohibit most trains over 7,500 feet long. Trains up to 10,000 feet — nearly two miles — would require extra crew members and special approval from the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission.
Advocates say the move would reduce the danger of rail accidents.
The Norfolk Southern train that derailed and spilled hazardous chemicals on Feb. 3, sickening people in East Palestine, Ohio, was more than 9,300 feet long.
“I still don’t have an answer to the question if what happened in Ohio can happen here,” Rep. Debra Entenman (D–Kent) said at a hearing on Tuesday. “Sounds to me like the answer is yes, and I would like to prevent that.”
“In Western Washington, we’re seeing 10,000-plus-foot trains almost every day,” said Herb Krohn with the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers. “Longer trains are harder to control.”
Representatives of BNSF and Union Pacific railways testified against the bill, saying it would reduce energy efficiency and increase shipping costs.
“There’s no direct correlation between safety and the average length of a train,” Johan Hellman of BNSF Railway said.
The federal government is responsible for most regulation of trains, but there are no federal limits on train length.
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What would draw you to live in downtown Seattle?: Today So Far
- What would get you to move to downtown Seattle?
- Mayor Harrell focuses on crime, homelessness, affordability, and more in 2023 State of the City speech.
This post originally appeared in KUOW's Today So Far newsletter for February 23, 2023.
If you don't already, what would get you to live in downtown Seattle?
That's a question KUOW's Joshua McNichols recently put forth in his Downtown Reimagined series. For some folks he spoke with, it was about what the area could offer their family, with kids. For others, safety was the top issue. Different folks have different ideas, but I can tell you the number one thing that would get more people to live in downtown Seattle: affordability.
When I returned to the Seattle area a few years ago, I went apartment hunting (because you can't get a liveaboard spot in this city anymore). I found one spot I could afford, and it was downtown — a small room in a two-bedroom apartment. Upon closer inspection, it turned out that this second bedroom was a former hallway in a remodeled building. The hallway used to be the front entrance to the apartment, but it was upgraded with a loft bed bolted into the walls. That made space for a small closet underneath. An accordion door closed it off. If you laid down to sleep on the loft bed in this room, you could open that accordion door and look directly into the kitchen. I learned, quickly, that's what downtown affordability looks like in Seattle. (I opted not to take the apartment.)
A quick, anecdotal look through Craigslist posts shows that, if you're lucky, you can find a downtown "deal" in the $2,000 range. You're more likely to find rents in excess of $3,000 or $4,000 per month, should you need two bedrooms, because ya know, families are a thing. While you can find better rents outside of downtown, maybe even a unicorn apartment, Seattle generally has an affordability problem. Assessments vary depending on the source, but they all say the same thing: It's expensive around here. One recent assessment states that the cost of living in Seattle is 68% higher than the national average. Another assessment states housing is 114% more expensive than the national average.
Add that up and it's easy to see how Seattle has gotten itself into a few of its modern woes. For many, many years, Seattle has relied on a particular downtown lifestyle — work in downtown, live in Issaquah, and commute. Basically: "Come get some money, leave some of that money, and get the hell out. Where? Don't care, just make sure you leave some of that money before you drive out of town. Also, climate change sucks, so why are you driving so much?"
This leaves a Seattle rental market fit for Frasier Crane, and not so much the barista serving him coffee at Café Nervosa. I doubt any of the "Singles" cast could afford to live in that Capitol Hill apartment anymore (certainly not Cliff). And I hope the Hendersons held on to that Wallingford house, because at this point, they'd have to move in with Harry. Lower the rents, and they will come. Read the full story here.
Such issues were among the topics Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell focused on in this State of the City address this week.
“Candidly, my direction on our housing levy is simple: We must give the voters of Seattle the ambitious — and achievable — plan that lives up to the scale of the housing crisis and does more than ever to prevent homelessness,” Harrell said in his address.
According to KUOW reporter David Hyde, that translates to, "Building affordable housing is expensive, and the price tag for this one could be big."
Seattle has slated $250 million for affordable housing in its current budget. The mayor also said that it's possible to change zoning codes so that current office spaces could be converted to living spaces. And he indicated that an affordable housing levy could be on an upcoming ballot.
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Dan Strauss will seek re-election to Seattle City Council in 2023
Seattle City Councilmember Dan Strauss will run for re-election this year.
In a statement announcing his 2023 campaign, Strauss said Seattle is experiencing "another rebirth" after a decade of growth.
"This work is already underway, the proof-of-concepts have already been tried, the prototypes are currently being used, and now we are scaling these plans city- and District 6-wide," Strauss said. "Born and raised in this city, I know where we have come from, and I see the horizon of the next growth spurt that our city will take to the world’s stage — all while taking care of our own backyards.”
RELATED: A highly charged public meeting in Seattle's Greenwood — but don't you dare record it
Strauss represents District 6, which covers much of Seattle's northwest neighborhoods, such as Ballard, Fremont, Magnolia, Phinney Ridge, and Green Lake. Strauss, who was first elected to the council in 2019 with 56% of the vote, and officially took office in January 2020, will run for a second term.
“During the past four years, we’ve been hit with a pandemic, an exploding homelessness population, a racial reckoning over policing practices, increasing crime rates, and a shortage of housing,” Strauss said. “I’ve worked hard to help improve northwest Seattle, and I have an ambitious plan to tackle Seattle’s problems."
In his announcement, Strauss laid out a list of accomplishments, leaning heavily into law enforcement and public safety. He noted that he's supported fully funding the Seattle Police Department's staffing and hiring plans, holds weekly meetings with law enforcement and local residents, and created a public safety coordinator position for Ballard.
Strauss has also said in the past that he supported defunding SPD by 50%, and wanted to discuss how that would break down.
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Idaho bill would bring back execution by firing squad
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Idaho could bring back firing squads as a method of execution under legislation introduced by a panel of lawmakers Wednesday.
The state eliminated its never-used firing squad option in 2009, but has been unable to secure the drugs needed for lethal injection executions. Only Mississippi, Utah, Oklahoma and South Carolina currently have laws allowing firing squads if other execution methods are unavailable, but a judge has put South Carolina’s law on hold until a lawsuit challenging the method is resolved.
In the bill sponsored by Idaho Rep. Bruce Skaug, a Republican from Nampa, firing squads would be used when lethal injection isn’t available. Skaug noted that the state canceled the planned execution of Gerald Pizzuto Jr. late last year after Idaho Department of Correction officials said they were unable to get the chemicals needed for lethal injection.
Pizzuto has spent more than three decades on death row for his role in the 1985 slayings of two gold prospectors.
“The way it stands now, they may never get those materials for the lethal injections,” Skaug told the House Ways and Means committee. “This is a rule of law issue: Our criminal system should work and our penalty should be exacted.”
By Rebecca Boone, Associated Press
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Next steps for Seattle's (passing) social housing initiative
Seattle’s social housing initiative is leading by 14% and the final vote tally could be certified next week. What are the next steps?
Initiative 135 proposes to set up a public developer in Seattle City Hall. This office would create or buy housing, which would accommodate a range of renters — from low income to those earing as much as 120% of the area's median income.
Three things are happening now. There’s a scramble to line up money, people, and space. Officially, this work begins after certification of election results, but some people are preparing now.
First, the money. Some startup funds will come from the Seattle City Council. How soon? The people behind the initiative say they they’re entitled to it this spring when council members solidify their mid-year "supplemental budget," but funding may get pushed to the fall budget. Which timeline occurs depends on how aggressive Seattle's elected leaders want to be about getting the new publicly-owned social housing developer started.
More money could come from Olympia this session. Rep. Frank Chopp (D–Seattle) has promised to put in a "member request" for a budget line item after the election results are certified.
Early estimates suggested that startup costs would be less than $1 million. An analysis by City of Seattle staff put the amount around $750,000, about the cost of a single–family home in Seattle.
But it's unclear at this time whether that would pay for the full 18 months of the startup's operational costs, or just for a couple extra city staff members to oversee administration. Board members, the majority of whom are renters on modest incomes at the most, are guaranteed compensation for their time. And computers and desk space aren't free, either.
Right now, the City of Seattle is on the hook to pay for 18 months of all overhead costs, minus whatever Olympia provides.
Later, the social housing provider will need a lot more money from the city — or from the state — to actually start buying property.
Tiffani McCoy, who heads Advocacy for Real Change, led the “yes” campaign for I-135. She said if no one steps up with that kind of money, there's a backup plan: another initiative.
“If we as the coalition of House Our Neighbors have to go to the voters and put forward a funding source on our own, because the mayor and the city council won’t act, even after this decisive vote, then that’s what we will do,” McCoy said.
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Seattle renames block to honor D'Vonne Pickett Jr.
The city of Seattle renamed a block on Union Street for community activist and business leader D'Vonne Pickett Jr., Wednesday. Pickett was fatally shot last October in the Central District.
D’Vonne Pickett Jr. Way runs from 21st to 22nd Street in the Central District. The block had a lot of history for Pickett, who, along with his wife Keanna Pickett, ran a shipping and mailing business called "The Postman" less than a half mile away.
It’s on the corner of 21st and Union where Pickett met Bernando Mendoza, who runs a food trailer with his family called "Fonda El Costeño." He's been in the Central District for several years. Mendoza says Pickett would grab a bite to eat at his family's food stand from time-to-time.
RELATED: Remembering D'Vonne Pickett Jr., a pillar of Seattle's Central District
“Yo platique con él, buena persona,” Mendoza said, “siempre nos ayudaba, incluso nos hizo varios signs para la traila.”
Mendoza says Pickett was a good person, always helping, even making some of their signage.
A few yards away from Fonda El Costeño, a crowd of family and friends were present as the street sign honoring Pickett Jr. was unveiled.
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