Week in Review: climate change, drugs, and graffiti

Bill Radke discusses the week’s news with Seattle Channel’s Brian Callanan, freelance health journalist Joanne Silberner, and Seattle Times reporter David Kroman.

This week, roughly a dozen young Montana residents, one as young as five years old, were in court,suing their state for not acting on climate change. There have been similar climate change lawsuits, but this is the first one to go to trial. The goal is to get the state to require agencies to consider the environment when issuing permits for fossil fuel development. Would plaintiffs have a case here in Washington state?

This week, a federal judge stopped the city of Seattle from enforcing its anti-graffiti law. During the pandemic in 2021, police arrested four people for writing messages in chalk and charcoal on concrete blocks outside of the Seattle Police Department's east precinct. The arrested people said they were targeted because of their political views. The District Court judge said this week that the city did violate their right to free expression. What will the city do?

Also, this week, TW, Seattle's mayor said he'll work out a drug use and possession law that can pass the city council. Last week the Council rejected a law that would have let the city prosecute people for having and publicly using drugs. Mayor Bruce Harrell said he does not want to repeat a hurtful, unfair war on drugs. He wants to send non-violent people to drug treatment and therapy. What will be set up and what will be enforced?

Seattle reopened City Hall Park by the County Courthouse this week. The park closed in 2021 after a bunch of violent assaults. Two million dollars was spent on repairing and restoring it. Another $300 thousand was spent for art installations, concerts and other events. Will things be different than before it closed?

King County Metro says there were 45 thousand more rides last month than the May of last year. Amazon recently told 55 thousand corporate employees to return to the office at least three days a week. How much impact does Amazon workers returning to the office have on the commute?