KUOW Blog
News, factoids, and insights from KUOW's newsroom. And maybe some peeks behind the scenes. Check back daily for updates.
Have any leads or feedback for the KUOW Blog? Contact Dyer Oxley at dyer@kuow.org.
Stories
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King County declares fentanyl a public health crisis
King County’s record-breaking number of fentanyl overdoses has prompted the county council to declare a public health crisis. This year 268 people have died so far — a 46 percent increase compared to this time last year, according to the King County Medical Examiner's Office Overdose Dashboard.
Council members say the goal is to sound the alarm and find solutions.
“It is an issue, that sadly, the trajectory is still very much going up,” said Council member Reagan Dunn, who sponsored the legislation.
Most of the recent fentanyl overdoses and deaths have been linked to illegally manufactured opioids. It’s a synthetic drug that’s fast-acting, addictive, and highly potent.
"I've been working on this a long, long time. And this is unprecedented,” said Caleb Banta-Green, principal research scientist with the University of Washington’s Addictions, Drug, and Alcohol Institute. He said the county has several promising programs that work and can be scaled up.
“Those are programs that combine harm reduction, that is providing services and supplies,” explained Banta-Green, “where people are incredibly engaging, where people are treated kindly and well and not judged for their substance use, and given services to keep them alive today.”
Banta-Green added that the harm-reduction programs need to be expanded to meet the growing need. He said those programs also need to be combined and co-located with services that provide addiction treatment, mental health care and medical care, and made more accessible in a "low-barrier" way.
According to Banta-Green, about 80% of people who would benefit from those interventions are not able to access them. But he also pointed out that not everyone who comes in for harm reduction may want treatment right then. He wants to ensure that the services are available when they're ready.
"I think we can all agree that we want to keep people alive," he said. "And that for people currently using drugs we need to do everything we can to engage them and give them a safe place to be and people to connect to."
It’s now up to the County Executive Office and Public Health to develop response strategies.
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Vaccine boosters provide defense against severe Covid, new study finds
Vaccine boosters can help a person fend off severe Covid illnesses, according to a new study out of UW Medicine.
The most recent pandemic news is that current subvariants of omicron are really good at evading immune response. In other words, the virus is able to get around our body's defenses, even after previous infection or being vaccinated. This is especially true with BA.5, an omicron subvariant that is the dominant version throughout the United States. BA.5 has evolved so much since the original strain that our current immunity is not well aligned to fight it as well as before.
RELATED: Coronavirus variants "evade immunity." Here's what that means
It's important to note that your body will still fight the virus, eventually. But it's like it gets a late start since omicron gets around immunity so well.
The new lab study out of UW Medicine shows that vaccine boosters stopped severe Covid infection. Basically, boosters brought up antibody levels enough that, while a person could still get sick, they weren't aren't as likely to come down with a severe case.
Researchers used blood samples of people who had been infected and who had been vaccinated, and boosted. They put those samples up against the current variant. They used seven vaccines that are available around the world, including the options used in the United States.
Researchers also found that the omicron BA.5 subvariant is about six times stronger in its ability to infect cells, which would explain why it is far more contagious than previous versions. Previous infection did not stand up well against it. Vaccinated, but not boosted, did better. And vaccinated plus boosted samples offered strong protection against severe disease.
According to UW Medicine: “The marked improvement in plasma neutralizing activity for subjects that received a booster dose over those that did not highlights the importance of vaccine boosters for eliciting potent neutralizing antibody responses against omicron sublineages.”
Or, putting it plainly, boosters offer a great defense against these new troublesome variants.
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Gino Betts named new civilian head of police accountability office
On Tuesday, Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell announced his pick for the new civilian head of the police accountability office.
Gino Betts will step into his new role on August first.
Betts will investigate cases of officer misconduct and recommend discipline to the police chief.
In a public forum in Seattle last month, Betts criticized police union contracts for shielding officers from discipline.
"Police accountability should not be negotiated in a labor negotiation agreement," Betts said at the time.
Seattle’s police union is currently negotiating a new contract with the city. Betts said he was unsure what role, if any, he’d play in these negotiations. But he said police unions across the country have used their labor contracts to undermine accountability measures.
Betts has previously been an attorney with Chicago’s police accountability agency. He currently serves as an assistant state’s attorney for Cook County.
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'Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel': Today So Far
- A special project leads to a new book for Dungeons & Dragons.
- The August primary is right around the corner and it's heating up.
- New legal action in the wake of Seattle's CHOP.
This post originally appeared in KUOW's Today So Far newsletter for July 19, 2022.
Little fact about me: When I'm not writing newsletters for KUOW, sometimes, I'm a rogue. More specifically, I'm a half-elf, inquisitive rogue with a background in sailing (piracy) who goes by the name "John McClane." Also, I can sprout giant raven wings and fly around when needed. Which comes in handy when you're adventuring through Godswood, a large expanse between the regions of Kjarn and the Red Vale.
John McClane is my Dungeons and Dragons character. The world he lives in is more than a game. It's a story, on par with any fantasy novel you can pull off a shelf, and it unfolds in real time, as you play it. That's the draw of D&D for a lot of people — you're playing a novel. You're experiencing a story beyond words on a page. So it makes sense that D&D has always published its own line of books; stories players can further incorporate into the game.
One such book debuts today: "Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel." It's the result of two years of writing entirely by BIPOC players.
"If you watch a movie and you see a character who's POC, you might identify with that character, and it might feel good to have that representation," Justice Arman told KUOW. "It's very different to play a game and step into someone's shoes and be in their world to be able to interact with it."
The book presents 13 short stories, which can further be used in D&D games at home. Arman said the stories draw inspiration from New York, a place many different people come to, and live together. Read/hear Arman's conversation with KUOW, and more, here.
Washington's August primary is right around the corner and we will be choosing a new secretary of state. As odd as it sounds, this race will be a bit dramatic. Faith in our elections has become an issue this year.
Kim Wyman was a generally well-liked Secretary of State in Washington. But she left the role shortly after her re-election to take a job with the Biden administration. It shook things up in a few ways. Wyman was the only Republican holding a statewide elected position on the West Coast. Gov. Jay Inslee replaced her with a Democrat, Steve Hobbs. But it's a temp position, until voters can choose a candidate to finish the rest of Wyman's term.
Hobbs is highlighting the online ecosystem of misinformation, and disinformation, along with international cyber threats as major issues in his campaign. Those issues echo Wyman's campaign (she literally wrote the book on this stuff). Republican Mark Miloscia says only he can get Republicans and Democrats to work together and restore voter confidence in the system. Pierce County Auditor Julie Anderson is running without a party, because she believes party politics don't belong in the secretary of state's office. Those are just three out of eight candidates going for the job, including four Republicans, two Democrats, and a couple others.
Voters will determine who made the best case on August 2, when two candidates will move forward to the November election. Northwest News Network's Austin Jenkins has the full story here.
There have been dueling perspectives over CHOP, the protest zone that took over a corner of Seattle's Capitol Hill in 2020. To some, it was a peaceful social justice demonstration about inequality and policing. To others, it was a failure that resulted in shootings and deaths of Black teenagers. And there are opinions that exist between those perspectives. The city has been sued multiple times in the wake of CHOP.
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GOP activists ready to spy on Washington ballot drop boxes to 'guard the vote'
Voters turning in their ballots around Washington state for the upcoming August primary may have a few extra eyes on them this year.
The Seattle Times first reported on the drop box watch program. Emailed questions to the group behind the program were not immediately answered.
RELATED: Trump's revenge targets Washington state's 2022 primary elections
RELATED: Spending and ads ramp up ahead of Washington's August primary
Since the 2020 election, former President Donald Trump and many of his supporters have fanned false claims of stolen elections and massive voter fraud. Now comes the 2022 election and evidence of that deep mistrust is on display.
In Washington state, with the August 2 primary approaching, a group calling itself "Guard The Vote" is recruiting volunteers to sign up for its Drop Box Watch Program. Citing the election fraud movie "2000 Mules," the group says it wants to surveil ballot drop boxes to watch for “suspicious activity” including people “dumping an inordinate amount of ballots.”
Mary Hall, the auditor in Thurston County, calls the situation unfortunate and says she’s concerned about voter intimidation. Meanwhile, King County Elections says it’s gotten reports of signs being placed near drop boxes saying surveillance is underway.
In Washington, there’s no prohibition against dropping off another person’s ballot for them. Furthermore, all voters must sign a voter declaration on their ballot envelope under penalty of law. Before the ballot is counted, that signature is matched to the voter signature that’s on file.
King County's election department issued a statement Tuesday evening that said it's removing the signs and asking the sheriff's office to investigate.
This story has been updated.
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Random Covid testing begins at 4 Canadian airports
Officials at four of Canada's major airports are going to start issuing random, mandatory, Covid tests for international travelers, starting today.
The program for fully vaccinated travelers was suspended last month so the government could move some of the testing offsite and reduce long delays at the airport, according to the CBC.
But the random testing has resumed for international travelers who fly through the airports in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, and Montreal.
Selected travelers should receive an email notification within 15 minutes of passing through customs. Those who test positive will have to isolate themselves for 10 days.
And those who test negative, but start experiencing Covid-19 symptoms will still need to isolate for the same length of time.
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Recent Seattle gun violence part of growing trend
Several shootings around Seattle over the past weekend are part of a growing trend, according to investigators.
The King County Prosecutor’s Office tracks gun violence and the number of shots fired every year. Analyst Rafael Serrano says most shootings involve people between the ages of 18 and 24. But this year has been different.
RELATED: Weekend of shootings across Western Washington
“During the pandemic years, so 2020 and 2021, we saw increases in an older demographic, but this year is more pronounced, absolutely," Serrano said, noting that there are more shootings among older adults than before.
And also more guns fired during incidents of domestic violence.
“They’ve nearly doubled every year," Serrano said. "Last year was a record for us in terms of our total domestic violence related gun violence incidents and this year is on pace to pass that so far.”
One thing Serrano says is helping to prevent gun deaths is Washington’s red flag law, or "extreme risk protection orders." People can ask a judge to block someone from owning a gun who may be a risk to themselves or others.
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Hospitals across Washington state operating at 130% capacity
Hospitals across Washington state are operating at 130% capacity.
That means gun violence victims and people experiencing other emergencies may have a hard time receiving timely care — even if the patients arrive via ambulance, according to Steve Brooks, president of the Washington State Fire Chiefs Association.
"When our units arrive at a hospital, we're more often now even being told to wait inside the vehicles, out in the receiving area for the ambulances," Brooks said. "You know, our vehicles have limited capacity for onboard oxygen and you can easily run through those if you're sitting with a patient out in a parking lot without the ability to receive that patient inside for periods of time."
The Washington State Hospital Association says that non-Covid patients and severe staffing shortages are leading to the increased need for care. So officials are spreading the word that hospital wait times could be long. Please be patient with healthcare workers who are doing their best.
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Washington Democrats sound alarm over incidents against Black candidates
Washington Democrats are sounding the alarm over recent incidents involving Black candidates running for office and their campaign staff.
The Everett Herald reported this month about an incident where a man was seen removing campaign signs for two Black Democratic state lawmakers — April Berg and John Lovick. That man then allegedly assaulted another man who confronted him about removing the signs.
The incident occurred shortly after Berg's field director, who is Black, was confronted by a white man on a bike during an afternoon of voter outreach in Mill Creek. The man used an expletive to tell the staffer, Julian Jackson, to leave the neighborhood. Jackson recorded video of the confrontation.
“Get out!" the resident demanded.
Julian Jackson: “You don’t own the neighborhood, I’m doing my job," Julian Jackson replied.
“I do not, you’re correct," the resident replied. "But I don’t want you here.”
In a separate incident earlier this spring, one of Berg’s campaign signs was defaced with a Nazi symbol.
In King County, Carey Anderson was shot twice by a man with a BB gun while placing campaign signs near Auburn. Anderson, a Black pastor, is a candidate for state representative.
“We have to be so careful even placing signs. I wonder if I’d been white if the same thing would have happened — I just don’t know,” Anderson told KUOW.
In a statement, Speaker of the House Laurie Jinkins and other members of the House Democratic Caucus said they are “profoundly troubled by the ways in which racist rhetoric and violence have been normalized in recent years.” They added: “We invite all Washingtonians to recognize the particular commitment and risk that Black candidates and campaign staff take on in their work to represent their communities.”
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Spending and ads ramp up ahead of Washington's August primary
The Washington state primaries are two and a half weeks away, and outside spending is starting to ratchet up in the race for Southwest Washington's 3rd Congressional District.
RELATED: Washington primary will winnow large field for Secretary of State
Commercial voiceover: "Heidi St. John. She's the real deal. Protecting life..." states an ad for St. John that hits airwaves this week.
The ad supports Christian podcaster and public speaker Heidi St. John, but she didn't pay for it. A group called Conservatives for A Stronger America is spending about $740,000 on TV and radio to back the candidate.
With Washington's August 2 primaries right around the corner, outside money is arriving, too.
Just since May, groups have raised more than $130,000 to support incumbent Republican Representative Jaime Herrera Beutler, and spent almost $100,000 against Trump-endorsed candidate Joe Kent.
Kent has accused the recent spending spree for St. John of being an indirect support for Herrera Beutler. He says the goal is to split the district's staunchest Conservatives.
RELATED: Trump's revenge targets Washington state's 2022 primary elections
RELATED: Congressional candidate Joe Kent distances from white nationalist
RELATED: Primaries are heating up in the NW
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Black WA legislative candidate shot with BB gun, raising questions about possible hate crime
Legislative candidate and pastor Carey Anderson said a man fired a BB gun at him Thursday night in South King County in what may have been a racist attack.
Anderson is the senior pastor at the First AME church in Auburn and Seattle, and running for a House seat in the 30th legislative district, which includes Federal Way, Auburn, and Des Moines.
Anderson, who is Black, said he and a volunteer were placing campaign signs at an intersection in unincorporated Auburn when a young white man rolled down the window of his car and fired a BB gun.
Anderson said he heard a popping sound and realized he was hit. The shots grazed Anderson in the hip.
He said he hopes police find the man, but Anderson doesn’t want him to go to jail.
“I would want to talk to the young man," he said. "I would want to find out what motivates him to operate in that kind of behavior and get him the help and treatment that he needs."
A deputy from the King County Sheriff’s Office responded to the scene and filed a report. A spokesperson said they don’t currently have additional information on the suspect.
Anderson said the man drove away without saying anything, but he believes he may have been targeted because of his race.
“We have to be so careful even placing signs. I wonder if I’d been white if the same thing would have happened — I just don’t know,” Anderson said.
He said he and his campaign staff put up signs late at night to avoid traffic, but now he feels reluctant to continue that practice.
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Weekend of shootings across Western Washington
Shootings erupted across Western Washington over the weekend, sending many to the hospital.
Seattle
Police arrived after the incident and found several casings at multiple locations around the 1200 block of Pine Street. Several nearby buildings and cars had their windows shot out, causing thousands of dollars in damages. Officers also found an "apparent" ghost gun.
No victims were located at the scene, however, about 15 minutes after the shooting, a 35-year-old man arrived at Harborview Medical Center with a bullet wound. He said he had been shot near the nightclub. A 32-year-old man also arrived at the hospital, but refused to provide details.
Also in Seattle:
- On Sunday afternoon, police responded to reports of a man who had overdosed on narcotics in Seattle's Chinatown/International District. Officers found the man slumped over on a park bench in Kobe Terrace Park, but they quickly discovered he was dead and had been shot.
- Seattle police say a man was shot and killed at an encampment near NE 96th Street and Aurora Avenue North. Officers found a 38-year old male victim shortly before 10 p.m. Sunday evening. That man was pronounced dead at the scene.
SPD is asking that anyone with information about the shootings to call its Violent Crimes Tip Line at 206-233-5000.
Bellingham
Two groups got into a fight outside The Underground, a nightclub in downtown Bellingham, in the early morning hours of Sunday, the Bellingham Herald reports. Local police report that confrontation led to a 23-year-old man reportedly grabbing a gun, firing it, and injuring a 42-year-old man, a 30-year-old man, and 25-year-old woman. Police also say that another, unknown man fired a gun into the crowd, injuring a 20-year-old man in the leg.
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