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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Changes down the road for Washington drivers: Today So Far
Washington's roads have become more dangerous over the past couple years. Now, local and national officials are attempting to curb the trend.
This post originally appeared in KUOW's Today So Far newsletter for February 1, 2023.
My apologies to regular TSF readers for my absence yesterday. Without getting into details, I had a special appointment at my dentist which resulted in me feeling pretty groovy. I imagine that if I did try to crank out a newsletter, it would have been far out, man. But the experience did offer an interesting "Did You Know" factoid, which you can read about below.
On a recent morning drive into Seattle, Nina and I watched as two cars sparred across all lanes of traffic. It wasn't clear who made the first offense, but one driver clearly made the other driver mad, and a chase ensued. One car would dart to the far right lane before screeching into the far left lane in an attempt to get away. The other car would catch up and steer into the other, forcing it to sway into yet another lane to avoid a collision. I have no idea who was behind the wheel, but it's safe to assume that critical thinking is not strong with them. This dangerous dance went back-and-forth amid countless other vehicles on I-5. We had a view of this drama from about Federal Way to Tukwila before they sped far ahead and out of view. Nina and I had the same comment at the time: "Things feel a bit more chaotic on the road these days."
Road rage is just one problem among a range of issues plaguing Washington's roads ever since the pandemic first struck. From speeding, to recklessness, to driving under the influence, conditions have grown increasingly dangerous whether on a Seattle street or a state highway. Washington's roadway dangers have now garnered attention from local, state, and federal officials who are aiming money and new laws at our roads. Whether it's your ability to turn right on red, or an increase in protected bike lanes and speed bumps, there are some changes coming down the road.
“There were 745 fatalities on roads in the state of Washington in 2022, the most in more than 30 years,” U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell recently said in a statement. “We must reverse this alarming trend."
Cantwell is targeting millions at Seattle and Washington state roads through her "Safe Streets for All" program. Grant funds are headed to 16 Washington cities and counties. Seattle is getting about $25.7 million, primarily for safety upgrades to roads in SoDo.
"The streets in SoDo are some of the most dangerous streets in the city," Urbanist editor Ryan Packer told Seattle Now this morning. "They have a lot of lanes and the streets are designed for freight traffic ... so people are able to head through that neighborhood extremely quickly, and places to cross are few and far between ... SoDo lacks any real way for people on bikes to travel safely through the neighborhood. It also lacks a lot of pedestrian crossings and places for people to safely navigate on foot."
SoDo's street design creates issues unique to the neighborhood, but the problems on the road span the entire city and the state. Traffic incidents have risen over the past few years.
"Ultimately, the pandemic seems to have produced an environment in a lot of American cities, including Seattle, where pedestrians and people outside of cars are at high risk," Packer said, pointing to high speeds, reckless driving, and driving under the influence as common problems.
From Packer's perspective, Seattle needs to steer away from "decades old line of thinking that prioritizes people getting from A-to-B and not the people who live in between and the people trying to get around who are not in cars." That's means "reallocating the vast amount of space that we have in our city away from cars."
Check out Seattle Now's conversation with Packer here. Also, check out Seattle Now's previous conversation about the dangers surrounding Seattle's Rainier Avenue.
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Surge of federal funding targets 'alarming trend' on Washington state roads
Washington's roadways are the target of fresh federal funding, following a rise in unsafe driving and traffic fatalities in the state.
“There were 745 fatalities on roads in the state of Washington in 2022, the most in more than 30 years,” U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell said in a statement. “We must reverse this alarming trend."
Sen. Cantwell is chair of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. One of her recent efforts has been a federal grant program called "Safe Streets for All." The program aims to address a recent increase in traffic fatalities in Washington state. The result is nearly $9.2 million in grants for Washington communities from the Department of Transportation.
RELATED: Roadway carnage has lawmakers pitching everything from more photo radar to fewer right turns on red
"I created the Safe Streets for All grant program which will provide 16 Washington cities and counties with this timely federal funding to improve transportation safety planning and build infrastructure that will save lives," Cantwell said.
The 16 Washington cities, counties, councils, and other agencies include:
- City of Ellensburg: $160,000
- City of Lacey: $68,000
- City of Montesano: $200,000
- City of Toppenish: $80,000
- Grant County: $280,000
- King County: $800,000
- Kittitas County: $429,504
- Thurston County: $264,000
- Walla Walla County: $201,696
- Whatcom Council of Governments: $200,000
- Cowlitz-Wahkiakum Council of Governments: $200,000
- Island Regional Planning Organization: $403,200
- Northeast Washington Regional Transportation Planning Organization: $352,000
- Puget Sound Regional Council: $4,860,363
- Spokane Regional Transportation Council: $400,000
- Southwest Washington Regional Transportation Council: $300,000
The grant funds are part of the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which Cantwell's office says is funneling $7.6 billion into Washington state for transportation investments. So far, it has funded about 500 transportation projects in the state.
Seattle gets $25.7 million
Safe Streets for All is also delivering $25,654,000 to the city of Seattle, which is specifically targeted at the city's SoDo neighborhood. The aim is to make streets safer for pedestrians and bicyclists in SoDo.
Cantwell said the money "will help improve 117 intersections where 60% of the fatal and serious pedestrian collisions occur, create 1.4 miles of new sidewalks, and four miles of protected bike lanes" in SoDo.
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Robot joins the ranks at Spokane hospital
Hospitals across Washington state continue to struggle with staffing levels, and some are getting creative with potential ways to lighten the load for nurses.
A Spokane hospital has welcomed a robot named Moxi to its care team.
It's about 4 feet tall, it moves around the hospital on its own, and its main purpose is to help give nurses more time for patient care.
"Our nurses were spending, on average, 70 minutes out of a 12-hour shift moving equipment from here to there, getting supplies, taking specimens somewhere,” said June Altaras, executive vice president and chief quality, safety, and nursing officer for MultiCare Health Systems.
“A human being doesn't need to do that,” she said.
MultiCare Deaconess Hospital in Spokane is the first in the state to try out this specific bot.
They’ve got four Moxi robots that they’ll use on a trial basis for three months, before they decide whether to roll out more at other locations in the state.
Moxi does no patient care but can run errands like taking samples to the lab, getting equipment, or delivering medication to providers.
Equipped with a pincer arm, the robot can press elevator buttons, pick things up, and carry items in its drawers.
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NW Wizards forced into a saving throw: Today So far
Perhaps it emerged from a forest of middle-management cubicles, or worse, the bowels of C-suite offices. Nobody knows for sure. What is known is that someone at Wizards of the Coast summoned nefarious warlocks who speak legalese and practice the dark arts of corporate law. Dabbling with such forces is dangerous, which is what this Washington company just learned as its fans revolted.
This post originally appeared in KUOW's Today So Far newsletter for January 30, 2023.
Whether or not you play "Dungeons & Dragons," this is a lesson for anyone relying on a fanbase, or merely a customer base — know your product and know your customer. Or if you just want to know why your geeky loved one has been so irate in recent weeks, read on.
"It's a lot of corporate stupidity," said Woody Arnold, an indie comic book publisher and game creator. "The problem they are faced with is they have destroyed the foundation on which their brand was built."
Recent drama surrounding D&D has put indie creators like Arnold in a tough spot, and has prompted fans to pack up everything into their bags of holding and march away, despite the company's attempts to smooth things over.
Wizards of the Coast is based in Renton and produces highly popular games, such as "Dungeons & Dragons" and "Magic: The Gathering." These are social, fantasy based games that have had an immense impact on pop culture. But Wizards is now backtracking and nursing some wounds after a campaign of drama surrounding D&D. The game has had an "open gaming license" (OGL) since 2000. That means fans could take its rules and lore and make their own games and products. Large companies have risen since then, using this OGL. But fans were recently spurred to rebel against the Wizards after a corporate document was leaked. It indicated that Wizards was considering changing its gaming license. The "open" part of it was threatened.
"It's one of those things where people are essentially being told by a giant corporation what they can do with their imaginations; after 23 years of Dungeons and Dragons saying, 'Do what you want,' and now 'Maybe not everything you want,'" Linda Codega told KUOW's Soundside.
Third-party publishers using D&D as a foundation for their own games became worried. Could Wizards come for royalties, no matter how large or small they are? Would Wizards attempt to take control of fan-created content? A rebellion formed across the landscape of D&D. Codega notes that there was a mass unsubscribe movement targeting Dungeons & Dragons Beyond, the game's paid online extension.
"Wizards of the Coast paid attention because the reaction was so swift and so great," Codega said. "If those subscriptions don't come back, it will have a marked impact on their bottom line at the end of the year."
In short, Wizards rolled a 1. That's what the company said when it issued a sort of saving throw apology. Wizards has since stated that it's placing its core aspects in the creative commons for anyone to use. A statement from the company added that it never considered concerns that emerged among fans (it eventually did a fan survey), such as threatening fan-created games. Rather, it says it was attempting to find ways to prevent D&D from being used and published in hateful or discriminatory products. It also wanted to address how the game will exist in online formats, and make a distinction between small creators and large companies.
One such creator is Arnold. After publishing his indie comic "Cybersymbiosis" for years, he decided to expand it into a role-playing game. This got rolled into a Kickstarter that aimed to compile the first editions of his cyber punk comic into a graphic novel, while also producing a few extras, like the game. The plan was to fund the project and have it ready for Emerald City Comic Con in March. The Kickstarter was successful. He was fully funded, which meant he had work to do. But then news of the OGL dropped.
"I have spent the last three years playtesting and developing this game," Arnold said. Playtesting is the process of playing a game, testing it, and making adjustments until it is ready. "I was getting ready to send this to the printer. I was going to have books at Emerald City Comic Con."
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Seattle's Regal Meridian theater closes amid an evolving movie culture
Seattle's Regal Meridian movie theater is slated to close in February.
Regal Cinema's parent company, Cineworld, filed for bankruptcy last September. The company is now closing 39 theaters across the United States, including Seattle's Regal Meridian on Seventh Avenue and Pike Street.
“I think we'll see another theater, or theaters, or other ways to experience cinema, reemerge downtown," said Jon Scholes, CEO of the Downtown Seattle Association.
Scholes says he is seeing increases in people coming to experience theater and art galleries downtown. He says the theater's closure is more a reflection of the bankruptcy troubles at Cineworld than people's desire to see films in downtown Seattle.
The absence of Regal Meridian leaves a 16-screen void in downtown Seattle, which Scholes speculates will be seen as an opportunity for a new theater operation to set up shop.
"It might look a little different than what we are used to seeing in a traditional movie theater," he said. "I think the experience that consumers are looking for, with higher end food and beverage, maybe the scale of the theater is different — I think there is an opportunity there to provide a different kind of offering."
Some change in movie culture is something that Tom Mara, executive director of the Seattle International Film Festival, predicts as well.
SIFF operates three theaters in Seattle's Capitol Hill, Uptown, and Seattle Center. Mara notes that the modern film scene is different. People can watch movies on their phones now, for example.
"How the studios, distributors are working with theaters has changed as well," Mara said. "We are seeing more cases of films playing a shorter run before they go to a [streaming] platform ... we do know this is a time of change."
Mara says the Regal Meridian closure is "really unfortunate," and it will have a negative "affect on the vibrancy of the Seattle film ecosystem." Still, he doesn’t believe it will have a larger effect on Seattle’s film industry, as a whole.
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Just as Seattle sues over car theft, another Hyundai is stolen
Seattle is suing carmakers Hyundai and Kia for an ignition issue that makes some of their vehicles targets for theft. Both say they are working on software fixes now.
Consuelo Crow looked out her window Tuesday morning to where she parked her Hyundai Elantra.
"There was nothing but a pile of shiny glass," she said. All that was left were the scattered remains of what had been her car window. The car itself had clearly been stolen.
Hundreds of Seattle residents know all too well the feeling Crow had that winter morning. Hyundais and Kias were stolen 197 times in December alone, according to the Seattle City Attorney's office.
RELATED: Seattle sues Kia and Hyundai after rise in car thefts
But this was the first week Crow heard of the viral videos circulating that show how easy it is to steal Hyundai and Kia models made from 2011 to 2021.
It takes a screwdriver and USB cord, the videos boast, and it's led to an uncontrolled wave of joyrides and complete theft of the cars in the past year.
Seattle City Attorney Ann Davison says the companies could prevent theft by recalling these cars and installing common anti-theft devices, but that they've failed to do so. She is suing both companies in federal court.
"Manufacturers have chosen to not install what is almost universal in anti-theft technology in these models of their cars, when it has been shown how easy it is to steal them, and so really it is making our roads less safe," Davison told KUOW.
From July 2021 to July 2022, Seattle had a 620% increase in reported thefts of Hyundais and Kias.
"As a result of that, our police force has had to tackle a huge rise in vehicle theft with already stretched resources," Davison says. "And now, frankly, Seattle taxpayers are shouldering the burden of that increase in theft."
The same companies are already facing a consumer lawsuit over the theft issue, in Iowa.
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Four white men who attacked Black DJ sentenced for federal hate crime in Seattle
Four white men were sentenced in federal court in Seattle Friday for a 2018 assault on a Black DJ in the city of Lynnwood. All four were convicted of committing a hate crime and making false statements. The man they attacked said his life is forever changed.
The defendants are Jason DeSimas of Tacoma, Washington; Jason Stanley of Boise, Idaho; Randy Smith of Eugene, Oregon; and Daniel Dorson of Corvallis, Oregon.
DeSimas and Stanley were each sentenced to four years in prison; Randy Smith was sentenced to 42 months in prison; and Dorson was sentenced to 28 months in prison.
Meanwhile the man they attacked, Tyrone Smith, spoke publicly outside the federal courthouse. “It’s a lot that I’ve lost,” he said.
Smith said the defendants’ actions changed him from an outgoing person who DJ’ed for his friends for fun, to someone who struggles with anxiety and uses a cane to walk.
“As we can all see, it’s been a long road for me,” Smith said. “But I had enough courage to come down and make sure this process was handled and justice was actually served.”
In a victim impact statement, Smith said he suffered a traumatic brain injury in the attack. He wrote that he lost his home and job as a result, and that "I now spend my life dealing with post-traumatic stress, depression, fear, anxiety, pain."
Federal officials said the four defendants admitted to being members of a white supremacist group. They were taking part in a larger white supremacist gathering on Whidbey Island at the time of the attack.
Nick Brown, the U.S. Attorney for Western Washington, said seeking consequences for the attack was a high priority for the Justice Department and the FBI.
“A number of white supremacists targeted him, attacked him, and have forever altered his life,” Brown said. “And whenever we have a case like that, we want to do everything we can to make sure those individuals are held accountable and that we treat hate crimes as the virus that it is.”
Rick Collodi, the FBI’s special agent in charge of Seattle’s field office, said the defendants tried to conceal their actions, but the truth ultimately came out.
“The defendants chose to assault him because of the color of his skin — a crime motivated by hate,” Collodi said. “Hate crimes are the highest priority of the FBI’s civil rights program because of the devastating impact they have on families and communities.”
He said hate crimes can be difficult to investigate because they must demonstrate that the crime was motivated by the offenders’ bias.
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Can Washington's capital gains tax survive the Supreme Court?: Today So Far
- Arguments for and against Washington's capital gains tax are being heard by the state Supreme Court.
- The Bellevue School District is considering the closure of three elementary schools because enrollment is down. Where are all the kids going?
- I don't know who needs to hear this, but it should be said...
This post originally appeared in KUOW's Today So Far newsletter for January 27, 2023.
Will Washington's capital gains tax survive the courts? It's an important question, because lawmakers are currently making state budgets in Olympia right now, and some are counting on that tax to make the numbers work. But a challenge to this tax has made it all the way up to the state Supreme Court.
In 2021, Washington passed a 7% tax on the sale of stocks and bonds worth more than $250,000. Anyone familiar with tax battles in Washington knows that this is very tricky legal territory. In short, Washington's courts ruled in the 1930s that income is property. The state constitution says all property has to be taxed equally. That's why McMansions are taxed the same as the shack on the other side of town. Because of this legal setup, passing taxes on anything that relates to income has been difficult in Washington. And the profits made off assets like stocks and bonds could be considered income. Lawmakers had an idea, however. They got a capital gains tax through by calling it an "excise tax," not "income." So it's taxed like a good or service would be. The folks challenging the capital gains tax argue that this is just word manipulation and capital gains income is just income. A lower court has already ruled in favor of opponents.
The Bellevue School District is considering the closure of three elementary schools, a move that has spurred deep concerns among parents.
School districts from Northshore to Shoreline and Lake Washington have experienced student enrollment declines of 2–5%. Seattle has seen a decline of about 7%. In Bellevue, it's worse — more than 9% over the past three years.
The above mentioned enrollment declines were brought up by Bellevue Deputy Superintendent Melissa deVita at a recent open house to discuss the developments with families. A core issue is that some schools are well below their capacity, yet the district is paying to keep their full operations up and running.
"The question really comes down to what is the priority in our school district?" deVita said. "Is it the location of the school building, or the services our students receive when they arrive at school? We cannot keep the same service levels in all of our schools if we keep the same number of elementary schools that we currently have, and allow our enrollment to drop down as low as 200 students per school."
Floating around Bellevue's situation are many possible factors: lower birth rates, the rise in housing prices and the cost of living, the pandemic, etc. But KUOW's Soundside points to another possible cause: Private schools. Bellevue doesn't seem to be losing kids in the K-12 age range. So where are all these kids going to school? Soundside notes that private school enrollment has shot up across Washington state over the past three years, with more than 8,300 (11%) ditching public school and going with a private option. Local private schools also tell KUOW that there have been considerable spikes in enrollment in recent years. Public school funding is partially based on the number of its students, so fewer kids means less money. Check out Soundside's full story here.
I just have one last thing before I get to the Friday Five. There's a story on KUOW.org that I just have not been able to shake. It's not local, but it will keep me up at night. Some folks are suing the company that makes Fireball whiskey because they found out the mini-bottles of Fireball don't actually have any whiskey in them. Unlike the large bottles of cinnamon-flavored whiskey, the tiny bottles just have wine and malt beverage, and cinnamon flavor. What?! The irate consumers argue this amounts to fraud. I don't know who needs to hear this, but if you're worked up over the quality of Fireball — the whiskey equivalent of Cheez Whiz in a can — it's time to stop and take a hard look at your life, and maybe come to terms with some regrets. You might also need to hear that Cheez Whiz isn't exactly cheese; Axe body spray will not actually prompt hordes of potential mates to uncontrollably chase you down and cuddle with you; and when when Milli Vanilli sang "Girl you know it's true," they weren't being very truthful (it's still a catchy tune though).
The Friday Five: News you may have missed this week, and other cool stuff
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WSU removing Covid vaccine requirement for most students
Washington State University will nix its Covid-19 vaccine requirement for most students.
The new Covid vaccine policy will go into effect over the summer quarter. According to Joel Schwartzkopf, who oversees Cougar Health Services, the move is prompted by changes to pandemic conditions.
“Requiring the Covid‑19 vaccine for students was essential during the peak of the pandemic to help protect the health of our communities across the state,” Schwartzkopf said in a statement. “Our understanding of the virus and the tactics to combat it are evolving and we continue to follow the best available evidence from local, state, and national public health authorities, just as we have done throughout the pandemic.”
WSU also says that the majority of its students are following vaccine recommendations anyway.
While the rest of the university will have the vaccine policy change, the Covid vaccine requirement will stay in place for WSU Health Sciences students.
"WSU continues to recommend that all members of the university community get vaccinated against COVID‑19 and stay up-to-date on their boosters in keeping with recommendations from CDC. The university also encourages individuals to take appropriate precautions if they are feeling ill, such as wearing tight-fitting masks and staying home when sick."
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Aren't really rules at all
By: Kelly McBride, NPR Public Editor
The following is a segment from NPR's Public Editor newsletter
American journalism has no universal set of rules. Every newsroom sets its own standards. This is sometimes perplexing for news consumers and even for journalists. As a journalism ethicist, I'm told by people all the time that they thought journalists weren't supposed to:
- Show dead bodies
- Report on a suicide
- Name a rape survivor
- Label someone as mentally ill
- Name children accused of crimes
- Publish hacked information
- Name a mass shooter (which is the topic we are about to address)
But newsrooms only have guidelines. When the founders of this country wrote the First Amendment, "Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of the press," they created a system where the only regulating forces on professional journalism are self-regulation, civil courts and public pressure.
The only standards that can be enforced are those imposed from within, by the news organization itself. Although there are universal values that journalists agree upon, like truth and independence, across the thousands of newsrooms in America, there are thousands of applications of those values.
An NPR audience member wrote in to discourage journalists from using the name and image of school shooters beyond initial reports.
The audience member's reasons are solid: Researchers believe media coverage of mass shootings contributes to a contagion effect. With several recent mass shootings getting a lot of coverage, it's important for newsrooms to note their role in influencing this contagion.
In principle, an internal ban on naming mass shooters could potentially undermine NPR's core promise to inform the public. And on a practical level, newsrooms are competitive and might never agree to unified behavior. One newsroom withholding a name would have no impact on whether the public actually knew the name.
Does this lead to the lowest common denominator when it comes to standards? It has the potential to, unless news organizations can foster an environment where journalists understand the many values that underpin their decisions, the way those values compete with each other, and how to make thoughtful choices with clear journalistic intentions every time a question arises.
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Capital gains tax challenge reaches Washington Supreme Court
The debate over whether wealthy people in Washington should pay a capital gains tax has reached the state Supreme Court, which heard oral arguments in Quinn v. Washington on Thursday.
Supporters say it’s an issue of tax fairness. Opponents say this is yet another unconstitutional attempt to pass an income tax. This was the determination of the lower court, which ruled against the tax last March.
Supporters of the state’s capital gains tax say the lack of an income tax in Washington has created a structure where poorer people pay a much greater share of their income in taxes than wealthier people.
In 2021 lawmakers passed a 7% tax on profits from sales of assets like stocks and bonds over $250,000. They called it an excise tax on those transactions.
Anti-tax groups sued, calling it an income tax. Former Attorney General Rob McKenna argued the case on behalf of the plaintiffs Thursday, and said the excise tax label is incorrect.
“There’s nothing new under the sun when it come to this issue, in the sense that trying to call an income tax an excise, trying to tax income by imposing an excise on the privilege of receiving income has been tried several times in this state by state Legislature and it’s been struck down every time,” McKenna said.
The state constitution says property taxes must be uniform, so the property of wealthier people can’t be taxed at higher rates. The Washington Supreme Court ruled in 1933 in the case Culliton v. Chase that income is property and therefore any income taxes are subject to the same constitutional restrictions.
The Washington Supreme Court could agree with the Douglas County Superior Court and find the tax unconstitutional. Even if the court determines that the capital gains tax is an excise tax, justices had a lot of questions about whether the state could legally tax transactions that occur in New York and elsewhere outside Washington when people sell off assets.
UW constitutional law professor Hugh Spitzer, who spoke at a press briefing on behalf of backers of the tax last week, said a second path would be for the court to determine that the capital gains tax is not an income tax, but instead a legitimate excise tax. That would be a relatively narrow decision that would allow the tax to survive.
But it wouldn’t touch the consequential issues around whether the state constitution prohibits a progressive income tax. A third pathway would be for the court to revisit the Culliton case from 1933 which struck down a voter-approved graduated income tax.
Justice Debra Stephens asked attorney Paul Lawrence, who argued in support of the capital gains tax, “Can you address how we look at a bench of nine second-guessing a former bench of nine on arguments that were raised and dismissed in prior cases?”
Lawrence responded, “I think the second part of your question is the problem here. The arguments we are raising and the arguments on why Culliton is wrong have never been thoroughly discussed by this court.”
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WA could expand resources for solving cold cases with Indigenous victims
Washington state lawmakers are considering a proposal that would create a cold case unit for missing and murdered Indigenous women and people.
The Washington State Patrol’s list of missing Native American people includes 136 names of men, women, and teenagers.
RELATED: Washington's Missing Indigenous People Alert system goes live
Last year, the state Attorney General’s Office established a task force to look at how these cases are being handle and recommend changes. The task force produced a series of recommendations for state leaders.
House Bill 1177 follows up on one of those recommendations, and proposes a cold case assistance unit dedicated to the issue.
The unit would work on cases with local and tribal police, and prioritize jurisdictions with limited resources for these investigations. The unit would also include a liaison who could work with impacted families and keep them updated. Before that could happen, investigators would have to make requests to reopen cases in each jurisdiction.
A House committee voted to pass the measure forward Thursday.
In 2018, a report found that Seattle had the most missing and murdered indigenous women of any U.S. city, and Washington had the second-highest number of any state.
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