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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'Short staffing equals venti wait times': Seattle Starbucks employees join nationwide strike
Workers at more than 100 Starbucks stores in 25 states are picketing in what's being called the largest labor action since employees started their unionizing campaign.
The walkout on Thursday coincides with the Seattle coffee giant's annual Red Cup Day, when customers who order holiday drinks get special reusable cups. They're considered collector's items and customers line up at the crack of dawn to get their hands on a decorated cup. It's one of Starbucks' most profitable days on the calendar.
Daisy Federspiel-Baier is a shift supervisor at a Starbucks in Seattle's University District. She says the strike is necessary because Starbucks has not been bargaining in good faith with its unionized employees.
"They said that they would, but every single time we have entered a bargaining room, they have left within 15 minutes," Federspiel-Baier says. "Additionally, we have been really short-staffed, and we are protesting not having enough labor."
That may be especially true on what Federspiel-Baier says is her store's busiest day of the year.
"Short staffing equals venti wait times," she says.
Staffing is just one of the issues that Starbucks Workers United representatives say prompted them to launch the so-called Red Cup rebellion.
According to the Starbucks Workers Union, the company has retaliated against union leaders, and Starbucks lawyers have walked out on bargaining sessions or made last-minute rescheduling requests that make it challenging for members to participate.
But A.J. Jones, an executive vice president of communications for Starbucks, disputed that allegation in comments to NPR.
"Nothing could be further from the truth," Jones told NPR, adding that the company has provided Starbucks Workers United with ample notice of bargaining session letters.
Jones said the company has probably been "overly aggressive" in trying to schedule bargaining sessions. The problem with recent talk breakdowns, he said, is that union leaders at the table want to record or broadcast negotiation talks on social media — a legal no-no.
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Why the polls were way off: Today So Far
A red wave didn't happen as some predicted. In Washington, races were not as close as many expected.
This post originally appeared in KUOW's Today So Far newsletter for November 16, 2022.
As Lloyd Christmas would say, once again the polls leading up to the election were "way off!"
"The fact that there is such a difference between the Republican polls and the others indicates something is going on there, and I'm not imagining that they're all sitting in a dark room someplace and making up numbers ... polling comes down to who you ask and what you ask," said Stuart Elway, director of the Crosscut/Elway Poll of Washington voters.
Going through some post-election analysis with KUOW's Angela King, Elway says there are a few reasons why the polls miscalculated things: a lot more younger residents voted than expected, and the people who pollsters spoke with probably weren't the best sample groups. A big reason, however, is that many polls skewed toward the political direction of the groups behind them, and Republicans produced a lot of polls.
Take the Senate race between Democrat Patty Murray and Republican Tiffany Smiley. Elway notes that there were 19 polls after the August primary, 10 of which were conducted by GOP-affiliated groups. Six of the final eight most recent polls were from Republican-leaning organizations. They all put Smiley in a much better position than she ended up having in the election. Other polls from Democrat-leaning groups or media outlets didn't have Smiley as far ahead.
"So I think the Republican-leaning polls skewed the polling averages that everybody looks at and made it look a lot closer than it was. It turns out that was a mirage. Tiffany Smiley ended up with the same vote Loren Culp got for governor two years ago, and Patty Murray got her average reelection vote."
Fueling all these voters were a few key issues. Elway points out that the economy was a top priority for most voters. Abortion came in second. A lot of reporters and pollsters focuses on those two, but there was another issue layered on top of it all: the future of our democracy. That's where independent voters came in.
There is another issue that the GOP may have to reckon with in the coming years — a certain corner of its party, and their rhetoric, which speaks to this democracy concern. Sure, disagree or agree with them, you can dig up some reasonable, sane-sounding, willing-to-work-with-you Republicans from Tim Scott to Lisa Murkowski, or the Mainstream Republicans of Washington. But Republicans also have characters like Marjorie Taylor Greene, Kari Lake, or Herschel Walker who are much louder and claim a lot more headlines and SNL sketches. This attention-getting corner is where conspiracies and 2020 denialism seem to take root. That's my observation, but Elway argues that the issue of supporting our democracy and elections was indeed influential.
"When people got to the polls, they're thinking about abortion and the future of democracy ... Let's fix democracy first and then we'll fix the issues after that," Elway said. "I think that was a large part of the swing vote, and those suburban women we keep talking about always made up a large section of the swing vote. I think that is how it ended up swinging."
You could probably place Joe Kent in that latter group of GOP candidates I listed above. He came into the election with an endorsement from Trump, and he questioned the 2020 election results.
It appears that he won't win in his bid for Washington's 3rd Congressional District, but has not yet conceded (he has already started flirting with election conspiracy theories). A few polls put Kent in the lead ahead of the election. Still, Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp Perez managed to flip the 3rd District from red to blue and is already in DC preparing to get to work.
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Want to buy a home in Seattle? Better make more than $200K, Redfin says
Homebuyers are going to have to earn a lot more money this year if they want to purchase a home in the Seattle area.
A new report from Redfin says people looking to buy a median-priced home in Seattle need to earn at least $205,000 a year. That's up from last year's figure of approximately $141,000.
That figure of $141,000 has now shifted down to Tacoma. That's how much is recommended if you want to buy a home in Grit City. Other Northwest cities are seeing the same increases, according to the Redfin report that compares salary recommendations for October 2022 to October 2021.
- Seattle: $205,000 ($141,000 in 2021)
- Tacoma: $141,000 ($99,000 in 2021)
- Boise, Idaho: $132,000 ($94,000 in 2021)
- Portland, Oregon: $145,306 ($100,146 in 2021)
Nationwide, those making $107,000 annually can afford a typical home, which is a 46% increase from last year. Redfin notes that hourly wage has only gone up 5% over the past year, and inflation is still straining wallets.
Meanwhile, the median home price in Seattle continues to fall. The latest data from Redfin shows it was sitting around $760,000 in September. That's about $90,000 less than it was in May.
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Why eastern states are getting all of our Northwest weather right now
It's mid-November and we've got the cold, we've got the dark, but where is the rain?
National Weather Service forecaster Dustin Guy says this Saturday is supposed to be the wettest day of the year in the Seattle area, with rain 73% of the time.
"That's not going to be the case this year," Guy said. "We've had almost a week of dry weather, we've got at least six or seven days to go before we see any rain."
He says the current weather trend could be one of the longer dry stretches Washington has seen in a November. The region went 13 days with no rain back in 2000.
Guy says, however, that this dry spell is more of a "blip," and rain is going to return around Sunday or Monday.
"As we get into the week of Thanksgiving, things are going to look a lot more like normal around here," he says.
The cause of Washington's dry weather is a "persistent ridge along West Coast" that is sending all of Washington's usual weather off to the east.
"A lot of that weather is being deflected into the northern plains states," Guy said. "Basically, the eastern two-thirds of the country is getting the weather we are not ... It just doesn't really want to budge, but eventually it will."
Guy adds that the lack of clouds isn't just robbing us of rain, it's sending overnight temperatures lower and lower. Cloud cover is like a blanket that helps keep heat, even winter temps, up. That's why there has been so much frost in the morning lately.
Statewide, there has been some progress when it comes to dry conditions. The US Drought Monitor says a small corner of Southeast Washington (Asotin, Garfield, and Columbia counties) along with parts of Whitman County are no longer dealing with any type of drought. But that's it.
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WA polls got the Senate race wrong. What happened?
The outcomes from last week's midterms are still being finalized, but already some results stand in stark contrast to polling ahead of Election Day.
Stuart Elway, the director of the Crosscut/Elway Poll of Washington state voters, he spoke to KUOW's Angela King about the discrepancies.
This interview has been edited for clarity.
Angela King: Stuart, I want to start by asking about the Senate race between Democratic Senator Patty Murray, who won reelection, and Republican Tiffany Smiley.
We spoke to you just a few days before the election, and you’d said it looked like Smiley was actually closing the gap by quite a lot. Murray won by about 14 percentage points, though. So, what happened?
Stuart Elway: There were 19 polls on that Senate race after the primary, including 10 in the last month. Of those 19, 10 of them were conducted by Republican-affiliated organizations, including six of the last eight and all of the last three. The average of those Republican polls, over that whole period, was Murray plus three. [In other words, Murray led Smiley by just 3 percentage points.] The other polls conducted by media organizations and a couple of Democratic-leaning firms had the race at Murray plus 10, if you average it out. [Or, Murray led Smiley by 10 percentage points, according to those polls.]
So, I think they Republican-leaning polls skewed the polling averages that everybody looks at. That made it look like it was a lot closer. It turns out that was a mirage.
Tiffany Smiley ended up with the same vote percentage that Loren Culp got in the governor's race two years ago. Patty Murray got her average reelection vote plus two points.
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State audit: local governments should use data to address homelessness in WA
Local governments need to rely more on data to address homelessness in their communities, according to a recent state audit that focused on two cities —Seattle and Spokane, and two counties — Snohomish and Yakima.
“When it comes to determining which services to procure, we found decisions were often driven by grant requirements and approval from elected officials,” said Sohara Monaghan, a senior performance auditor with the Washington State Auditor’s Office.
Monaghan said data can help them better evaluate how service providers are performing, and which programs are meeting goals.
“We found that there are some governments that are not using data to find out which of their programs are not meeting goals, that are intended to move people out of homelessness,” she said.
Part of the audit included meeting with stakeholders, who noted that governments could do a better job prioritizing procured services.
The audit comes at a time when statewide spending on homelessness jumped to $357 million dollars last fiscal year — up by $108 million.
Many programs faced different challenges including staff shortages, turnover, and administrative changes.
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Washington state is nixing fish farms in public waters
Washington state will no longer lease state-owned aquatic land for fish farms. The Department of Natural Resources informed Cooke Aquaculture that it will not renew its leases for two Puget Sound fish farms.
The department is reviewing its policies for similar farms across the state.
Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz said that the move is a "critical step to support our waters, fishermen, tribes, and native salmon."
Cooke Aquaculture’s request for lease renewal for two fish farms off Bainbridge Island and Skagit Bay was recently denied. The company has until Dec. 14 to finish its fish farm operations and remove its aquaculture facilities.
In 2017, a net pen at its Cypress Island farm collapsed. State investigators estimated as many as 263,000 fish escaped, which is twice the number that Cooke originally had reported. Cooke was fined more than $330,000.
“Since the catastrophic Cypress Island net pen collapse in 2017, I have stood tall to defend the waters of Puget Sound,” Franz said. “This effort began by terminating finfish net pen operations due to lease violations. Despite years of litigation – and a company that has fought us every step of the way – we are now able to deny lease renewals for the remaining net pen sites. Today, we are returning our waters to wild fish and natural habitat. Today, we are freeing Puget Sound of enclosed cages.”
Since the 2017 incident, the Legislature phased out Atlantic salmon farming. The company has since shifted to steelhead trout for its remaining leases.
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Powwows return to Washington's prisons
Powwows for Native American prison inmates in Washington state have been an annual tradition, but they were halted amid pandemic shutdowns. Now, the celebrations in the state’s 12 correctional facilities have returned.
Wearing borrowed blue and white regalia, Richard Dennison is ready for his first powwow at the Airway Heights Corrections Center. Dennison grew up on the Spokane Indian Reservation, about 50 miles west of here. He went to powwows when he was young but drifted away as he grew up.
Several family members, including Dennison’s children, have driven to Airway Heights to celebrate this day with him, and he’s nervous.
“My kids and my mom and dad, nobody’s ever really seen me dance like this before," Dennison said.
“I didn’t really get into dancing and stuff until I came to prison because I was running around, doing other things I shouldn’t have been doing.”
Dennison’s prison sentence began in 2019 and it’s set to end in 2026. Now, he’s rediscovering his heritage, as are many of the Native American men here. When they learned there would be an in-person powwow, inmates hurriedly began preparing for their visitors.
This powwow, and 20 others in Washington prisons this fall, were sponsored by a nonprofit Seattle Indigenous rights group called Huy, led by attorney Gabe Galanda. He’s a member of the Round Valley Indian Tribes of California. Galanda says correctional officials also thought it was time to bring the powwows back, so they negotiated how and when to do it.
“They typically start in the spring, in May, and run until September. But we had to delay the start and the sequence of the powwows because Covid was still hitting, including Airway Heights and Walla Walla, as recent as September," Galanda said.
The powwows are scheduled to return to Washington’s prisons in the spring of 2023, if health conditions allow it. State corrections officials say 45% of Native inmates in Washington eventually return to prison. They hope bringing back the powwows will help to reduce the recidivism rate.
Read the full story on the return of powwows to Washington's prisons at Spokane Public Radio.
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Before and after the IHS shooting: Today So Far
The tragedy at Seattle's Ingraham High School has now moved into the court system. Meanwhile, students and school officials are responding in the wake of the shooting.
This post originally appeared in KUOW's Today So Far newsletter for November 15, 2022.
It started as conflict between a handful of high school students. It ended with the death of a teenager in the halls of Seattle's Ingraham High School. The result is now a murder charge, school officials rushing to respond, and an eruption of student voices demanding safety.
A 14-year-old boy has been charged with first degree murder, first degree assault, and unlawful possession of a firearm after a shooting left one student dead in the halls of IHS. The King County Prosecutor's Office has requested that the murder case be moved out of juvenile court and up to adult court. A judge will ultimately make that determination. If the case does go to adult court, the big difference will be the potential sentences the teen could be subject to.
A 15-year-old boy has also been charged in relation to his case. Court documents state that the two teens appeared upset in class less than an hour prior to the shooting. Following that morning class, two groups of students, including the two suspects, got into a physical fight in a bathroom. Prosecutors say that one group found out that a student brought a firearm to school and were demanding that they give it to them.
Following the reported bathroom fight, the students exited into the hallway, but the suspected shooter reportedly believed his phone was taken during the altercation. About 10 minutes later, the two groups met again in the hallway. A witness told a Seattle detective that one group taunted the suspected shooter, saying he would not fire the gun, and began walking away. The suspect reportedly then took the handgun out of a backpack and fired at one student in the back. He then allegedly fired another shot at a student fleeing the scene.
The 14-year-old and 15-year-old were arrested at a nearby bus stop within hours of the shooting. A handgun found in their possession has since been matched up with shell casings from the scene.
The above information was derived from witness statements and security footage from the school. It is the foundation for the murder and assault charges that KCPO has filed. The final charge of unlawful possession of a firearm is because the teen is not allowed to posses a gun, given his age.
That is also why the 15-year-old boy has been charged with unlawful possession of a firearm. He has also been charged with felony rendering criminal assistance.
It's important to note that the information above is strictly from court documents, meaning it comes via police reports and the prosecutor. The two teens involved in the case have not spoken about the incident with any authorities, including detectives. It is likely that more information will come out as this court case proceeds, such as where the firearm came from. What is currently known is that the gun was reported "lost" in Snohomish County in late October.
The two teens have their next court date Tuesday afternoon.
Prosecuting documents also state that the two teens made a stop after the shooting, and before they were arrested at a nearby bus stop. A resident at a home near the school reported to police that she saw two teens walking through her backyard. She confronted them and they told her that there was a shooting at their school and they appeared frightened. She invited them inside her home, and gave them some water as they made calls attempting to find a ride home. After about 30 minutes, they continued walking to the bus stop. The neighbor took a photo of the teens in her home, without them knowing, and showed that to police.
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Two teenagers charged in deadly Ingraham High School shooting
The King County Prosecutor’s Office filed charges Monday against two teenagers for their alleged involvement in the shooting at Ingraham High School last week that left one student dead.
A 14-year-old, who is currently detained at the county’s youth jail, is now facing three charges: assault with a deadly weapon, unlawful possession of a firearm, and murder in the first degree.
In a statement online, the prosecutor’s office said it had requested the 14-year-old be tried in adult court because of the murder charge. It’s now up to a judge to decide if the teenage suspect will be transferred out of juvenile court.
Charges were also brought against a 15-year-old who prosecutors say was arrested with the alleged shooter shortly after the incident with a gun in their backpack.
That person is being charged with unlawful possession of a firearm and rendering criminal assistance in the first degree, which is a felony. Their case will remain in juvenile court, prosecutors said.
Monday’s charges come after a first court arraignment last week. At that hearing the alleged shooter waived his right to an appearance but the other suspect did appear in court with his parents.
On Monday afternoon, thousands of Seattle students walked out of class protesting gun violence in response to the Ingraham shooting.
The next hearing for the two teenagers is set for Tuesday, prosecutors said.
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Human services in, costly renovations out in new Seattle City Council budget
The city of Seattle could slim down its programs in 2023 and 2024, now that it's facing an additional $80 million revenue shortfall, on top of the $140 million deficit it had already forecasted.
Today, Seattle City Council Budget Chair Teresa Mosqueda proposed a re-balanced version of next year's budget.
The council proposes doubling the amount of school-zone red light cameras and raising vehicle license fees by $10. Both are intended to bring in more revenue, while the city projects it will have revenue losses from the Real Estate Excise Tax, sugary drink tax, and other sources in 2023-2024.
"In some ways, this is not a feel-good budget and it cannot be in the midst of an economic downturn", Mosqueda said. "But overall, I feel good about the decisions made to balance this budget and balance those priorities."
Mosqueda said to slim down the budget Mayor Bruce Harrell proposed, she and council members want to reduce spending on new programs or those that don't directly serve residents. Those reductions include, but are not limited to:
- Cutting the proposed Unified Care Team (which responds to and clears homeless encampments) from 10 to five employees
- Reducing play area renovations by $322,000
- Reducing Bumbershoot workforce development by $200,000
- Reducing a proposal for renovating City Hall Park by $2.5 million
- Reducing sidewalk safety repair by $4 million
- Taking out a proposal for three new graffiti abatement staff
Instead, Mosqueda said the focus is on funding for housing, health and safety, and making Seattle a connected city.
The council also wants to keep traffic enforcement under the Department of Transportation, denying Harrell's plan to move enforcement officers to the Seattle Police Department.
The city council plans to vote on the budget by the end of the month. They learned of the city's projected $80 million revenue shortfall from city finance staff earlier this month, mid-budget proposal.
As for whether to create a new tax to fill the budget hole, Mosqueda has said the city needs new progressive taxes. But she said the budget is not the place to have policy discussions.
Update notice: This story was updated on Tuesday, Nov. 15 at 3:23 p.m. to clarify that the city is projecting an additional $80 million shortfall, in addition to an anticipated $140 million budget deficit.
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