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 Jail guard charged with helping deliver drugs into the jail
Six people, including a King County Jail guard, have been charged with crimes in connection with smuggling meth and fentanyl into the jail.
Mosses Ramos, 39, of Milton, Wash., is accused of taking bribes and helping to deliver drugs into the jail last spring. According to the Department of Justice, Ramos worked as a correctional officer at the King County Jail for 17 years before he was fired in September 2023. The DOJ alleges that Ramos took bribes to get meth and fentanyl into the jail.
Charging documents state that Ramos allegedly accepted around $5,000 for the job, in cash and also using a money transfer app.
The drugs were reportedly delivered to Michael Anthony Barquet, 37, and Francisco Montero, 25, who are currently incarcerated at the jail. They face charges for the scheme, along with coconspirators outside the jail who are accused of helping: Neca Silvestre, 38, of Kent; Katrina Cazares, 38, of Burien; and Kayara Zepeda Montero, 27, of Seattle.
Specifically, they face five federal felonies, including two counts of bribery, conspiracy to commit bribery, drug possession with intent to distribute, and conspiracy to distribute drugs. The four defendants not in custody were arrested Thursday morning, and were in U.S. District Court in Seattle at 2 p.m. They pled not guilty and their trial has been set for Jan. 8, 2024.
RELATED: Jail reserved for exceptional cases, as Seattle’s new drug law takes effect
“Fentanyl and meth are horribly destructive in our community, and our correctional institutions are not immune," Acting U.S. Attorney Tessa M. Gorman said in a statement. "The challenge of keeping inmates safe is made much more difficult when correctional staff betray their positions of trust and authority. "
Gorman credited King County law enforcement officials and the FBI for working quickly to identify the people involved in the smuggling conspiracy.
Richard A. Collodi, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI's Seattle office said that local partners in the investigation, which included the King County Jail, Sheriff's Office and Prosecutor's Office, "identified the actions of an employee and brought the case to our attention which resulted in a successful joint investigation."
King County Executive Dow Constantine said in a statement that "the charges against this former employee and his co-conspirators tarnish the work that our corrections officers do every day to serve their community with professionalism and the highest standards of care."
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PCC is closing its downtown Seattle store
Co-op PCC is closing its downtown Seattle location just two years after it opened, and following months of financial losses.
The PCC at 4th Avenue and Union Street in Seattle is scheduled to close Jan. 31, 2024.
“Despite an amazing team, fantastic store conditions, and a supportive landlord, our Downtown store has unfortunately remained unprofitable, and we do not see that changing for the foreseeable future,” CEO Krish Srinivasan said in a statement. “Since continued losses pose a significant financial risk to our co-op’s long-term viability, we are acting now.”
The co-op says that closing the downtown PCC is "an important and necessary step in that journey" to maintain its "long-term viability."
RELATED: PCC stores drop self-checkouts to foster community
About 80 people are employed at the downtown location and will be offered jobs at other PCC locations.
Following PCC's announcement, Downtown Seattle Association President Jon Scholes said in a statement that the closure is "disappointing and unfortunate news for downtown residents, workers, and visitors."
"Today’s announcement could be viewed as turbulence in downtown’s post-pandemic revitalization, but downtown’s overall flight path and progress remains positive with increasing foot traffic, a record residential population and more store openings than closings," Scholes said.
Tough times for PCC
In its announcement, PCC said that it initially planned for its downtown location in 2018, and opened the store in 2022, but the pandemic snarled its success. Managers expected the downtown co-op to serve a range of office workers during lunchtime, as well as grocery shoppers. Grocery shoppers have not shown up enough to keep doors open, according to a message to PCC members Wednesday.
In May, PCC also said that remote work had translated to less traffic from office workers. At the same time, PCC sent a message to its members stating that it had suffered a $250,000 loss in 2022, and in turn, they would not be receiving a dividend this year. The sluggish performance of the downtown location was one factor the co-op blamed for the financial hardship. It also blamed inflation and the city-mandated hazard pay during the pandemic.
“This is a challenging time for shoppers and for retailers,” Srinivasan told KUOW in May. “We're all navigating a post-pandemic society and figuring out post-pandemic ways of working, and the effect that that's been having on city centers, on retailing, and on the way people are behaving in this economic climate with their wallets is very telling.”
PCC's 2022 financial report stated that there was a 9% rise in company expenses, which could not be covered by a 6% increase in net sales and an 8% increase in memberships.
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Sound Transit will start issuing tickets to riders who don't pay their fare share
Sound Transit will once again issue tickets to passengers who don't pay their fare at Seattle-area Link and Sounder stations.
Back in 2020, Sound Transit paused fare enforcement on its rail rides. Transit workers have only issued warnings since then. Now, the agency's new fare ambassador team is primed to start writing tickets again.
- Sound Transit fare enforcement resumes on Nov. 15.
- Violators will get two warnings per year. After that, they get hit with a $50 to $75 citation on the third and fourth violations. The fine for a fifth violation goes up to $124, and the person could be referred to district court.
- Riders who don't pay, and who can't provide a valid I.D., will also be asked to leave.
And all riders will start with a clean slate; any warnings issued before Nov. 15 will be nixed. Fare ambassadors can be spotted by their bright yellow hats.
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New name, same chocolate popcorn: Seattle's Cinerama reopens as SIFF Cinema Downtown in December
After a four-year hiatus, and an acquisition by the Seattle International Film Festival, Seattle’s beloved Cinerama movie theater, home of the chocolate popcorn, huge screens, and fancy seats, is scheduled to reopen.
Under its new name, SIFF Cinema Downtown will reopen Dec. 14, becoming the fourth venue operated by Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF). This makes SIFF the latest owner of the historic theater, which first opened in the 1960s. It was previously owned by billionaire Paul G. Allen.
The first movie screening will be the Warner Brothers holiday-season release, “Wonka,” a family film starring Timothée Chalamet, the latest remake of Roald Dahl's classic novel, “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.”
RELATED: Seattle proposes $1 million grant toward Cinerama reopening
“It’s a little full circle for us,” SIFF Artistic Director Beth Barrett said. “Not just in the fact that it is the ultimate experiential film. But it combines scents and taste and you know, the idea of just chocolate everywhere, and tying it to that to the chocolate popcorn. But it's also great for the entire family.”
Cinerama was widely known for its chocolate popcorn. Not only will the popcorn be back for the theater's return, but SIFF is working to maintain some of the old theater’s aesthetic, too. It has a partnership with MoPOP to bring film relics into the space, a remnant of the days when costumes from popular movie characters donned the lobby.
“We're working with MoPOP now,” Barrett said. “And we've got a couple of replicas. We have R2D2 and a character from 'The Land Before Time,' I believe it is. And they're replications. Paul Allen himself owned those costumes. And the estate did give them to MoPOP as part of the estate succession. But putting them in close proximity to butter is not really great for original items. So we're working with MoPOP on these amazing reproductions.”
The original Cinerama opened in 1963. At the time, the theater had the groundbreaking technology of screening three-strip Cinerama films on its epic 97-foot curved screen consisting of 2,000 vertical strips.
In the 1990s, the building was in disrepair and facing closure, but it was purchased by art enthusiast and philanthropist Paul G. Allen. Allen did a multi-million dollar renovation of the building that included interior updates, like Italian leather seats, to updating the screens with the ability to show both classic movies and new productions.
RELATED: Paul Allen's big-money legacy haunts the Seattle arts scene
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Seattle school closures are a top issue for school board hopefuls. Where do the candidates stand?
The possible closing of schools is shaping up to be one of the biggest, most divisive issues in the upcoming Seattle School Board election. And whether to close schools and/or which schools to close might be among the first votes the new board takes.
Right after the new members of the Seattle School Board are elected, they're poised to vote on a plan for budget cuts — including likely school closures.
With only two incumbents running for reelection, the board will get — at minimum — two new members after the Nov. 7 election. The budget cut plan vote is slated for Dec. 13.
Candidates are divided on school closures, but at least half have said they should be used as a last resort.
The district has not yet identified any specific schools on the chopping block, but officials have said closures could happen next fall to close a $104 million budget deficit. Superintendent Brent Jones is scheduled to present a recommended plan to address the shortfall in mid-November.
Ahead of King County's Nov. 7 ballot deadline, here's a roundup of KUOW's candidate questionnaires. We asked each of the candidates about what solution they'd support to address budget gaps in the coming years, as well as their top priorities, their stance on some students and educators' push to require ethnic studies and Black history classes, and how the district should work to boost academic achievement.
District 1
Debbie Carlson is challenging Incumbent Liza Rankin for the school board's District 1 seat. The district spans the northernmost areas of Seattle, including North Beach, Northgate, and Lake City neighborhoods.
Read more about the candidates and their top priorities if elected in KUOW's questionnaire.
District 2
Incumbent Lisa Rivera Smith faces challenger Christina Posten for her District 2 seat. The district includes the Green Lake, Greenwood, Fremont, Maple Leaf, and Wallingford neighborhoods.
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What to know before trick-or-treating in Western Washington
Halloween is a fun night for kids, but these days, it can also be a nervous one for parents. From traffic cautions to candy concerns, there is a range of Halloween safety factors to consider.
For starters — candy. And not just because the sugar bombs could create poor lifelong dietary habits. The emergence of rainbow fentanyl has created legitimate concerns and alarmed parents.
In August 2022, the Drug Enforcement Administration issued a warning that the multicolored pills appeared to be a deliberate attempt by traffickers to make the drug attractive to youth. At the time, the DEA had discovered rainbow fentanyl in 26 states. In September 2022, the Pierce County Sheriff's Department warned parents about the brightly colored drug (while rainbow fentanyl had been found in Oregon, there was no indication that it had shown up in Western Washington at the time). That added up to some fears around candy filled Halloween.
RELATED: Why the urban legend of contaminated Halloween candy won't disappear
Dr. Beth Ebel, a pediatrician with UW Medicine, said folks shouldn't worry too much about fentanyl ending up in a child's goodie bag.
"I don't think this is a risk for Halloween and there is no evidence showing that it has been," Dr. Ebel said. "But it is a risk for kids in general, especially kids who are starting to get into a little bit of substance use."
Rainbow fentanyl appears to be the latest Halloween boogieman. Like how razor blades can be hidden in just about anything. Or how someone might poison candy (well, that one actually happened once). Just a few years ago, before there was fentanyl, there were fears about ecstasy pills being handed out on Halloween. In general, urban legends of candy tampering have been with us for a long time.
"I have data going back to 1958, and I have yet to find a report of a child that's been killed or seriously hurt by a contaminated treat picked up in the course of trick-or-treating," Joel Best, a professor of sociology and criminal justice at the University of Delaware, told NPR recently.
Instead, Dr. Ebel argued that the biggest threat to trick-or-treaters is being hit by a car. A 2019 study in JAMA Pediatrics found children ages 4 to 8 years old are ten times more likely to be killed in a traffic accident while trick-or-treating.
“This is the fundamental issue: Kids getting hit by cars in the dark of night,” Ebel said. “As you're planning costumes, think about ways to add lights to those costumes.”
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What to know about trunk-or-treating, a trick-or-treating alternative
This Halloween, some trick-or-treaters, instead of trekking through neighborhoods, will opt for a more stationary form of candy collecting: trunk-or-treating.
Trunk-or-treating is an alternative to trick-or-treating, in which parents and guardians gather their vehicles in one spot, typically a parking lot, open their trunks and give out candy as children walk from car to car.
Some candy-givers decorate their trunks with scenes and themes, such as pumpkin patches, spiderwebs and monsters.
Here's a rundown of how it started and how to find one nearby.
How did it start?
Early mentions of trunk-or-treating date as far back as 1994 and are commonly associated with churches, who present the events as safer alternatives to door-to-door trick-or-treating.
A 1994 article in The Birmingham News, in Alabama, centered on the Hilldale Baptist Church of Center Point, where children up through the sixth grade could participate. The gathering touted attractions such as a ball pit, a game room and prizes, including bicycles.
By 2003, the Providence Presbyterian Church in South Carolina was hosting its second annual trunk-or-treat, with hot dogs served for dinner, according to an article in The Greenville News.
Trunk-or-treating has also been referred to as "Halloween tailgating."
Though often dubbed as the safer option to trick-or-treating, child psychologist David Miller of the University of Albany says there is little evidence pointing to trick-or-treating being dangerous.
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Hong Kong drops gun charge against Washington state Sen. Jeff Wilson
Last week, Washington state Sen. Jeff Wilson said it was an honest mistake when he arrived in Hong Kong with a gun in his briefcase.
Wilson was promptly arrested, charged with possession of an unregistered firearm, released on bail, and instructed to remain in the country.
Now, a Chinese court has dropped the charge against him. His passport has been returned and he has been allowed to continue on his trip, according to a statement from his office.
“The Chinese authorities conducted themselves in a professional manner, and I commend them for their diligence,” Wilson said in a statement. “The mistake, after all, was fully mine. I am relieved we were able to resolve this matter efficiently, and I want to apologize for the concern I created."
"I think we all can learn from what happened here. First, of course, to always check your carry-on baggage before you go through airport security. But more important, when you make a mistake like this one, the right thing to do is to show respect and accept responsibility.”
RELATED: An $8 rifle spurred a change to Washington's background check law. Here's how
Wilson, a Republican from Longview, was on a trip to Asia with his wife, partially for a vacation and partially in his role as a port commissioner. During the flight between San Francisco and Hong Kong, he opened his briefcase and discovered he had left his firearm inside.
“This was a mistake on my part, and I regret it,” Wilson said in a statement. “I packed quickly and failed to check the contents of my briefcase. Over the Pacific, I reached into my briefcase for gum and felt my gun instead. My heart sank. I understood immediately what had happened, and that my only option was to report to the proper authorities, cooperate fully, and respect the laws of the land where my plane was about to touch down.”
Wilson's office says the firearm was unloaded. The gun made it through security checkpoints at Portland International Airport before Wilson transferred to an international flight out of San Francisco.
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Boo! 7 scary (and perhaps true) stories from the Seattle area
The Seattle area is scary. Not just because of the history of serial killers. Or the chilling rain and thunder. Or the dreary local dating scene. Or the grotesque appearance of all the new, boxy, panel-sided apartment buildings they call "luxury" to lure you inside before trapping you in a 5x5-foot box for $2,500 a month, no utilities included!
No, Seattle is scary because of all the dark corners filled with stories that cannot be explained. Like when Julian Tudor, grappling with an insecure family life in the 1980s, saw his estranged father stopping and idling his car in front of his house ... after he had passed away. Hear and read the story in Tudor's own words here. But he's not the only local to report mysterious occurrences.
From ghosts to mysteries, here are a few tales from the KUOW archives.
What's Your Favorite Color, Sweetheart? 'The Blood'
When asked what her favorite color was, 4-year-old Chloe said, "the blood."
"My favorite color is the blood. I like red like the blood, I like pink turning into blood," she told KUOW.
Hearing a 4-year-old say her favorite color is blood can be a little off-putting. But it makes sense given that her dad, Matt Woerner, started a tradition of watching slasher flicks with his daughter at a very young age. Only in a city like Seattle can you find a father and daughter bonding over a love of screams and scares.
"She's running to the car ... she doesn't have the keys ... she should've stayed in the car," Chloe said while watching "Scream" with her dad.
KUOW caught up with Chloe a few years after this story was originally published, and got some horror movie recommendations from her 13-year-old perspective.
The Fourth Window At My U-District House
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Kaiser reaches tentative deal with WA health care workers, avoiding strike
Thousands of Kaiser Permanente health care workers in Washington have a new tentative contract.
The tentative deal comes after months of negotiations and staves off a strike at 36 locations across the state, which was scheduled to start this week if a deal was not reached by the end of October.
Specific details of the tentative deal have not yet been made available, but workers have been pushing for better staffing levels, and better wages to help recruit and retain employees.
In a statement, SEIU Healthcare 1199NW, the union representing roughly 3,000 Kaiser workers in the state, said the tentative four-year labor contract complements a tentative deal reached earlier this month by the health care giant and a national coalition of unions.
The national deal came after a three-day strike by tens of thousands of Kaiser health care workers in other states, and some in Southwest Washington.
Health care workers in Washington represented by SEIU Healthcare 1199NW said previously that a strike here would be a last resort.
However, just a few weeks ago, workers voted to authorize a strike starting on Nov. 1 if no new contract agreement was reached. That’s no longer on the table.
“If ratified, the agreements offer SEIU Healthcare 1199NW members and Coalition-represented employees competitive wages, excellent benefits, generous retirement income plans, and valuable job training opportunities that support their economic well-being, advance our shared mission, and keep Kaiser Permanente a best place to work and receive care,” the union said in a statement.
A Kaiser Permanente spokesperson echoed the statement via email.
Workers will begin voting on the contract this week.
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Wildlife advocates push back on pickleball in Seattle's Lincoln Park
A city proposal to expand pickleball courts in Seattle’s Lincoln Park has run into opposition from wildlife advocates.
Members of Birds Connect Seattle and other conservation groups say Seattle Parks and Recreation's plan to create six new pickleball courts on disused tennis courts is moving too quickly, without sufficient research or public input.
Kersti Muul, a wildlife biologist and volunteer with Birds Connect Seattle, said the additional noise and lights from the pickleball courts could pose a hazard for birds nesting in nearby tree groves.
“It’s a raptor haven,” Muul said. “We have bald eagles, peregrine falcons, Cooper’s hawks, several species of owls.”
She said the city's plan to light the courts at night would be “catastrophic because Lincoln Park is this huge, dark square in Seattle — it’s totally dark, there’s no light in here.” A 2020 study in the journal Nature found that noise and light pollution affect bird nesting habits and success.
RELATED: No, pickleball is not displacing unhoused people
Muul noted that Lincoln Park was the site of Seattle’s Urban Bird Treaty celebration in 2017, in which then-Seattle Parks and Recreation Superintendent Jesús Aguirre agreed to support habitat conservation in a signing ceremony with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Seattle Parks said in a statement that no studies or public engagement are required for the pickleball project because it involves converting decommissioned tennis courts, rather than new construction. More recently, the tennis courts have been used to store maintenance equipment and materials.
“We plan to move quickly to develop these courts, with the goal of the courts be open for play in late fall 2023,” the statement reads. A Parks and Recreation spokesperson said the department "may consider adding lighting down the road.”
Last Friday, Seattle City Councilmember Lisa Herbold issued a letter asking Parks and Recreation's current Superintendent AP Diaz to host a meeting to listen to the concerns about the project. Herbold said the public response she's received "has been overwhelming," adding that “meeting with community members who are pleading to be heard is the least we can do.” Herbold also asked Diaz for more details on the process that led to the choice of Lincoln Park for the pickleball expansion.
“The asphalt that was once tennis courts is an ugly eyesore, so to have it used by pickleball, which is in high demand, seems like a reasonable option,” said Greg Tuke, a co-leader for the 24 by '24 Pickleball Campaign, an effort to expand pickleball courts in Seattle, in an email.
RELATED: Why pickleball fans ended the Seattle Open tournament with a funeral
But Tuke also sounded sympathetic to Herbold’s request.
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Thousands of pro-Palestinian marchers gather in Seattle after communications cut off in Gaza
Following a night in which both power and internet service were largely cut off in the Gaza Strip, at least four thousand people, by a KUOW crowd calculation, marched through downtown Seattle on Saturday in support of Palestinians and to demand that elected officials call for an immediate ceasefire.
“[I’m here] to speak for the people who can’t speak right now,” said Layth, a protester who has extended family in Gaza. They did not want to provide their last name. “There's no communications in Gaza. No power or nothing. We're here to get their voices heard.”
Protests have been held every week since Oct. 7, when a surprise attack by Hamas, the terrorist group that runs the Gaza Strip, killed 1,400 Israelis, including many civilians.
In response, the Israeli military has been bombing the Gaza Strip and has started a ground incursion that has killed at least 8,000 Palestinians, the majority of which are women and children, according to figures recently released by the Gaza Health Ministry.
The widespread destruction and rising death toll in the Gaza Strip has prompted a growing outcry from the international community and from activists and Palestinians in Seattle.
Several protesters referred to the Israeli military’s bombardment and invasion of the Gaza Strip as a genocide, echoing nearly 800 scholars who signed onto an Oct. 15 letter warning of the potential for genocide.
A red truck guided protesters down Pine Street from Westlake Park to a building that houses federal offices as activists led chants of “Free Palestine.”
A man wearing a keffiyeh – a black and white checkered scarf that represents Palestinian identity and solidarity -- read a statement over a loudspeaker.
“We bear witness to the 7, 000 lives taken from Gaza,” he said. “We bear witness to their names, to their lineages, to their family trees.”
Ahmad, a protester, said he was there for friends and family in Gaza. “They're all getting bombed by Israel,” Ahmad said.
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