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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What to expect when fall finally arrives in the NW: Today So Far
- Fall rain is arriving later this week. That's good news for wildfire fighters and air quality, but it's concerning for health officials bracing themselves for a Covid and flu surge.
- There is also concern among food banks anticipating greater demand once pandemic orders phase out.
This post originally appeared in KUOW's Today So Far newsletter for October 18, 2022.
I know I've been saying this for about a week now, but fall is finally arriving ... soon ... it's coming ... I promise ... eventually. I'm going by information from the National Weather Service, which now says rain is expected to show up on Friday, Oct. 21. It should be a significant amount, too. More rain is expected to drop on Western Washington Friday through Sunday than in the past 3.5 months.
"So that should be good in terms of helping put some of these fires out," Carly Kovacik with the National Weather Service in Seattle told KUOW this morning. "In terms of flooding, we're not gonna be expecting a whole lot in terms of river flooding, because the rivers are pretty dry right now. But we'll have to see, there could be some issues with some flash flooding nearby some wildfires where areas have burned already."
This is welcome news for folks fighting wildfires in the Cascades, and for folks waiting for air quality to improve. But it's also news that makes local health officials concerned. Cold temps and rain usually mean that people head indoors, and that is when the season of sick begins. We often talk about the flu this time of year, and that is still expected to be a major player over the coming months. So is Covid. Europe is already seeing cases rise, and those countries are usually a few weeks ahead of the USA. Dr. Jeff Duchin, health officer for Public Health – Seattle & King County, feels that we are in the "lull before the storm." Right now, levels of cases and hospitalizations are higher than they have been before previous surges. Read more here.
It seems the coronavirus is gearing up for the upcoming, colder season. New variants are emerging and battling it out for dominance. They all have the usual super-catchy names (BA.4.6, BQ.1, BQ.1.1, BF.7). All these variants are showing up in Washington state. Here's the thing to understand: These are all versions of omicron, according to the White House's own Covid-19 data director. So the updated booster, out now, is the best shot (pun!) to prepare for the season. Talking about getting a shot sort of feels like how we talked about the flu shot each year, in the Before Times. I guess that is where we are at now. Come fall, get your Covid and flu shots.
Health officials aren't the only ones nervous about the coming months. Before the pandemic struck in 2020, about 10% of Washingtonians were experiencing food insecurity. That number has tripled since then. As KUOW's Ruby de Luna reports, food bank organizers are "bracing for longer lines and increased demand" when Seattle, and the state, lift any remaining Covid emergency orders at the end of October.
“Everyone else has sort of gone on with their lives, but the people at the low end of the spectrum cannot go on with their lives, because they’re being squeezed terribly at the bottom end of the economy," said Rainier Valley Food Bank Executive Director Gloria Hatcher-Mays.
One last shout out. Check out these photos from Saturday's Mariners game. KUOW's Natalie Newcomb captured some great Seattle moments from the historic game.
AS SEEN ON KUOW
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North Bend activates water-saving measures amid ongoing drought
The city of North Bend is expanding its request of neighbors to conserve water as moderate drought conditions continue spread throughout Washington state.
Starting this Thursday, Oct. 20, North Bend is activating stage 2 of its water conservation ordinance.
That means a series of water-saving measures. Residents are directed to water their lawns and pastures three days a week between 6 p.m. and 10 a.m. in the morning. No watering is allowed on Mondays, and things like street and driveway washing will not be allowed.
Also, restaurants will only serve water upon request. And no water for construction purposes is allowed without city approval.
All of these changes will stay in effect until further notice. See the full list of water-saving measures here.
According to the city: "Earlier this year, the City was hopeful Stage 2 would not be needed - due to the fairly large preceding winter snowpack and cool, wet spring. However, once the dry heat arrived in the Puget Sound region in June, it did not leave. Western Washington is now experiencing its driest summer on record, since 1930 and warmest since the 1890s. In fact, according to the National Weather Service, on October 16, Seattle hit 88 degrees, its second warmest day in October in almost 130 years. The prolonged period with no rain, along with an unseasonably hot September and October, have drawn the Masonry Pool lower at a faster pace than anticipated."
Depending on the region, Washington state's current drought conditions range between "moderate drought" to "abnormally dry."
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RIP Eclipse: Seattle's bus-riding dog
Eclipse went for a walk, alone, one day in 2015 while his owner was out for a smoke. That walk led to a bus ride, and that bus ride led to a dog park. And the whole trip led local celebrity status for Eclipse, the black lab mix who rides the bus to a Seattle dog park.
Eclipse passed away last week at the age of 10 (64 in dog years), shortly after a vet diagnosed her with cancer, according to The Washington Post.
Eclipse became a regular commuter on King County Metro's D line, hopping aboard near her Seattle home and exiting near a dog park. She never missed her stop and became a local favorite. Fame soon followed.
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MacKenzie Scott gives the Girl Scouts nearly $85 Million
NEW YORK — Philanthropist MacKenzie Scott donated $84.5 million to Girl Scouts of the USA and 29 of its local branches, the 110-year-old organization said Tuesday, calling it a vote of confidence.
"Her support of our organization means honestly just as much as the donation," Sofia Chang, CEO of GSUSA, said in an interview.
It's the largest donation the Girl Scouts have received from an individual since their founding in 1912, she said. The funds will help the organization recover from the impact of the pandemic, which drove down membership. The Girl Scouts plan to support volunteers and staff, make camp properties more resistant to the impacts of climate change, improve science and technology education for youth members and develop diversity and inclusion programming to make their troops more accessible.
The Girl Scout council in Southern Arizona decided to use the $1.4 million it received from Scott to elevate the work they are already doing rather than to start a new program or initiative, said its CEO Kristen Garcia-Hernandez.
"We are a small council and we're certainly not in a major metropolitan hub. So for us, gifts of this magnitude don't come around very often," Garcia-Hernandez said.
The gift accelerates their plan to hire more staff to reach most places in the seven counties they serve in under an hour and provide programming year-round. The council will also outfit a van as a mobile science and technology classroom, a project they have tried to fund for a year and a half. Many local funders seem to think that the Girl Scout's cookie sales cover their expenses, she said.
"While the cookie program sustains us certainly and it's wonderful and the girls are part of that process, which makes it even more beautiful, we certainly need more from the community," Garcia-Hernandez said.
Philanthropic giving to organizations that specifically serve women and girls represents less than 2% of all donations, according to a research project of the Women's Philanthropy Institute at Indiana University's Lilly Family School of Philanthropy. The institute found that proportion has not changed significantly between 2012 and 2019, the years the study has tracked.
Tessa Skidmore, research associate at the institute, said major gifts from women like philanthropists Melinda French Gates, Sheryl Sandberg and Scott could inspire other donors.
"Those are the types of things that have the potential to change that number," she said.
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Seattle's carbon pollution drops with Covid. A rebound is expected
Seattle’s climate pollution dropped sharply in 2020.
The 20% drop in emissions was the first major reduction of the harm Seattle does to the global climate since the Great Recession of 2008.
It was also likely only a temporary blip due to disruptions from the Covid pandemic, according to a new tally of Seattle’s greenhouse gas emissions.
The biggest drop came from the transportation sector as pandemic safety restrictions left people stuck at home instead of driving, busing, or flying anywhere.
Without increased efforts to reduce fossil fuel use, city officials expect pollution to rebound past pre-pandemic levels.
In a press release, Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell called for "bigger, bolder, and more equitable climate action."
Harrell is flying to Buenos Aires, Argentina, this week to attend a summit of world mayors talking about climate change Wednesday through Friday, along with his director of communications and the two top officials at the Seattle Office of Sustainability and Environment.
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'Everybody put their hearts on the field,' as the Mariners' playoff run ends
Smoky haze tinted the lights in T-Mobile park. Fans cheered, put rally shoes on their heads, many also prayed.
The stadium vibrated with energy for 18 innings as the crowd sang, "I believe that we will win", and celebrities like Macklemore, and hall of famer Edgar Martinez reminded fans to not give up.
The six-plus hour long game was one of the longest playoff games ever played. But fans were willing to wait; they waited for the Mariners to return to the playoffs for 21 years.
It wasn’t enough. Once fans registered that the Houston Astros hit a home run, the stadium became significantly quieter.
Fans like 19-year-old Keagan Barnwell were upset. It was the first time the M's made it to the playoffs during his lifetime. He also drove from Washington State University to watch the game.
"We lost a heartbreaking game. We had to stick it out and it didn't turn out in our favor," he said. "Its a Mariner's game, where everyone was just excited to see a game [in the playoffs]."
As the road to the playoffs officially came to a close for the M's, fans cheered “Lets go Mariners!” one last time. It was one of the loudest of the night.
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6 women accused a Seattle hip-hop artist of sex trafficking: Today So Far
Six women accused a Seattle hip-hop artist of sex trafficking. They went to police, but no charges were ever filed.
This post originally appeared in KUOW's Today So Far newsletter for October 17, 2022.
Today's newsletter is going to be a bit different. No news roundup, rather, I'm going to give the spotlight to a single story by KUOW's Ashley Hiruko and The Seattle Times' Rebecca Moss. The following is a segment of a much larger story that opens up allegations into Seattle hip-hop artist Raz Simone.
Simone has built a name for himself in the local music scene, racking up millions of listens on Spotify alone. He garnered headlines in 2020 amid the Capitol Hill Organized Protest zone; you may recall photos/video of him touring CHOP with an assault rifle and a pistol, which went virial. Drawing from police records and interviews with women alleging he abused and trafficked them, another story emerges.
The story out today not only covers six women alleging that Simone trafficked and abused them, but also how local law enforcement handled the cases, ultimately not producing charges.
The following is reporting from this story.
Since 2017, at least eight people — six women and the parents of two others — have told [Detective William] Guyer and Seattle police that Simone entangled women in a multistate sex trafficking scheme, with the promise of love and lucrative jobs, then coerced them into sex work in Seattle, New York, Portland, Las Vegas, and other cities. Some of the alleged crimes dated back to 2012.
They said Simone required them to earn $1,000 a day, which he collected, isolated them from their families, tracked their movements, and controlled their eating habits. Like Campbell, women told police that they had been choked, beaten, threatened, raped, and in some cases imprisoned for days in claustrophobic sleeping containers. Women told police that Simone forced them to call him “master,” “king” or “God.”
Simone has denied these allegations. Police have never charged or arrested him for these alleged crimes.
Seattle’s handling of the allegations against Simone illustrates the complexity and consequences of failing to police sex trafficking. Washington was the first state to criminalize trafficking nearly 20 years ago. But law enforcement across the state, including Seattle, has struggled to use these statutes effectively and train officers to recognize and help trafficking victims. Prosecutions involving adult victims also have a higher burden of proof than for minors, and must show evidence of force, fraud or coercion.
Even as the MeToo movement has taken hold nationwide, Angelica Campbell and other women, who spoke with The Seattle Times and KUOW, said their hours of police interviews felt like screaming into a void.
And so, their complaints languishing with police, five women, including Campbell, filed a civil lawsuit in 2021 against Simone and his recording label, Black Umbrella, alleging that Simone conspired to “ensnare, imprison, and exploit” them for profit.
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Homeless shelter expansion plans halted for Chinatown-International District
Lots of people in Seattle's Chinatown-International District are applauding King County's decision to scrap expansion plans for a homeless shelter in their neighborhood.
"King County was not planning on our community elders becoming such a massive force in demanding the proper community outreach and forcing the permitting process. Thank you! We did it together! The Fight Continues," Friends of Seattle CID wrote on its website.
The plan called for expanding the existing 270-bed shelter operated by the Salvation Army, but King County Executive Dow Constantine announced Friday that will not happen. Instead, the shelter will continue to operate at its current level and money for the expansion will be redirected to other homelessness projects.
“Over the past six weeks, community members have shared their feedback about the current state of public safety and other concerns in the Chinatown-International District and surrounding neighborhoods," Constantine said in a statement. “None of these problems will be solved without building more housing and safe, dignified shelter, and we will continue to seek out opportunities in every part of the region to bring more of our neighbors inside.”
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As safety nets expire, Seattle food banks expect more people to come through their doors
Seattle food banks are bracing for longer lines and increased demand when the City of Seattle lifts its Covid emergency at the end of the month. The emergency declaration has provided protections for renters and essential workers.
One of the things that got people through the early years of the pandemic was government money. Now local safety nets are expiring. But agencies like the Rainier Valley Food Bank are busier than ever.
As people lined up, Executive Director Gloria Hatcher-Mays met with Congressman Adam Smith. Smith was among the Washington delegation that worked to help expand people’s access to food. Hatcher-Mays thanked him for the federal support, but said nonprofits like hers still need more.
“Everyone else has sort of gone on with their lives,” Hatcher-Mays said. “But the people at the low end of the spectrum cannot go on with their lives, because they’re being squeezed terribly at the bottom end of the economy.”
Hatcher-Mays expects a slower economic recovery, which means people will continue to rely on food banks to make ends meet.
Smith sympathized. But he said the federal government can’t pass $6 trillion every two years, without a good case.
“We need to really take a deep dive and say where are we spending? What are we getting out of spending?" Smith said. "And then, yes, this makes it easier for me to say, 'Gosh, this program, we got the data, this works incredibly well, let’s get more money.'”
According to a UW survey, 10% of Washington residents experienced food insecurity before the pandemic. But that number nearly tripled last year.
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'Fall arriving Friday.' Rain appears on the Northwest weather forecast
With rain and wind showing up on the Northwest weather forecast, the National Weather Service in Seattle is saying, "Fall arriving Friday."
Not only rain, but more rain than has fallen on the region for more than three months.
The Weather Service had previously indicated that rain would arrive in its weather outlook for Oct. 19-25. It seems that prediction was correct.
The rain comes after the driest summer on record for the Seattle area. Just under half an inch of rain fell on Seattle between July and September. It also comes after a warm start to the fall season.
High temperatures have persisted into October. On Oct. 16, Seattle hit a high of 88 degrees, which is the second warmest day recorded for October in 130 years, the Weather Service notes. The warmest day recorded for the month was Oct. 1, 1987 when Seattle hit 89 degrees. The daily record for Seattle was broken by 16 degrees.
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The calm before the storm? What Covid-19 might look like this fall and winter
Public health officials are concerned that the cold weather months could bring a resurgence in Covid-19 infections in King County and the surrounding region.
The county’s most recent wave of cases and hospitalizations has receded from a peak in July, plateauing at about 10 to 13 hospitalizations per day, according to Dr. Jeff Duchin, health officer for Public Health – Seattle & King County.
By now, this ebb and flow of the pandemic is familiar. Covid-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths rise; they peak, they fall, and then there’s a lull.
“There’s a real possibility we are now in what will turn out to be the lull before the storm,” Duchin said at a press briefing on Thursday.
Current case and hospitalization levels are higher than they were before each of the county’s prior surges, Duchin said. As the weather cools and people spend more time indoors, Duchin said a significant fall and winter surge could arise.
He’s looking to Europe, where increasing Covid-19 spread and hospitalizations are already emerging in the absence of a new dominant variant, as a harbinger for what’s to come.
In the past, Duchin said, surges in Europe have been a good predictor of what can be expected in the U.S. in a matter of weeks. He called the state of Covid in Europe "a clear warning for us."
“With waning immunity from past infection and vaccination, with increasing activity and indoor gatherings in the fall and winter, and people returning to their pre-Covid lifestyles, with other environmental changes that promote Covid-19 spread…and a bucketful of worrisome new variants on the horizon, with low booster rates — especially in our older adults — we remain vulnerable to what could be a significant fall and winter surge,” he said
Duchin and other health officials are pleading with the public to get all recommended Covid vaccines and boosters. They say it’s the single most important thing to do to help build protection against the disease.
Booster uptake has been dwindling in recent months. Across Washington, just over 10% of eligible people have received the updated omicron booster, according to the state Department of Health.
READ: It's so hard to find Covid boosters in WA, experts worry people will give up
Everyone aged five and older is eligible for the updated boosters as long as it’s been at least two months since their last Covid-19 shot.
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Can independents turn out the vote in the Northwest?: Today So Far
There is a small trend of independent candidates running for office in the Northwest.
This post originally appeared in KUOW's Today So Far newsletter for October 14, 2022.
At this point, does anybody take campaign ads seriously? Does the performative demonizing feel a little thick and extra sensational these days? And it's not even a presidential election year.
It doesn’t matter who the candidate is, love them or hate them, or be indifferent to them (if that’s even allowed anymore), they all have the same ingredients: fodder for your base, a dab of culture war, stir in a headline with a hint of fear, and then a sprinkle of truth (not too much) to help it go down. Top it off with a photo of your opposition that was taken midsentence (so they look a little off) and set it to an ominous soundtrack fit for a Michael Bay movie.
I'm not saying there aren't serious issues at play, or risks, or concerns on our upcoming ballots. But the current crop of campaign ads that I'm seeing bear the quality of late-night infomercials.
"Is your economy unhealthy? All Patty Murray wants to do is spend your tax dollars on Jack LaLanne Power Juicers, Ninja blenders, and George Foreman Grills (bom bom!). Say 'no' to kitchen ninjas, and say no to Murray."
"When Tiffany Smiley is not posing for photos with this person you don’t like, she’s says she will purchase every household Thigh Masters, Slap Chops, and a subscription to Miss Cleo’s Psychic Friends Network (bom bom!). Say 'no' to psychic con artists, and say no to Smiley."
Yes, I know those made-up examples are very stupid. In my defense, I’ve gone a bit delirious after being bombarded with so many of these ads. Don't even get me started on the PAC-backed commercials. By the time November rolls around, folks will either be so turned off by it all that they'll skip voting, or be just irate enough to fill out a ballot ... maybe that's the point.
By the way, scammers have taken notice of all of these inflamed tensions and hot button issues and are turning it into a big payday.
Perhaps the sensational tone woven throughout campaigns is, partially, why independents are getting a lot of attention this year. Northwest News Network's Tom Banse has been covering a trend (a small trend) of independent candidates across the Northwest this election season. This group of candidates is viewed as a sort of test to see if a "third way" is possible amid our strict two-party system.
Oregon state Senate candidate Rich Vial used to call himself a Republican, but he's more comfortable with the "nonpartisan" label these days. It's a similar story for Chris Vance, who Washingtonians might remember as the former Washington State Republican Party chair. Vance has cut ties with the state GOP, however, and is running for state Senate as an independent. Betsy Johnson is running for Oregon governor. Once a Democrat, she is opting to nix any party affiliation as she runs for the job.
Another corner of this non-partisan issue is the race for Washington's secretary of state. Democrat Steve Hobbs was appointed to the position after Republican Kim Wyman resigned from the SOS office in October 2021 to take a job with the Biden administration (she voiced concerns about the state of the GOP before that). Since Hobbs is appointed to fill the role, voters have to give final approval via a new election this November. Julie Anderson has emerged to challenge him. Anderson is not affiliated with any party. In fact, she is partially running on the idea that the Secretary of State's Office should not be partisan.
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