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
-
'Please don't break our hearts.' Seattle parents, teachers protest widespread classroom shuffles
Seattle parents and teachers flooded a school board meeting Wednesday night to protest recent class size adjustments at about half of the district’s schools.
The move, announced to families and educators last week, means some students and teachers will be moved to new classrooms, while other students may end up in a larger “split classroom” that combines two grades.
Among the students affected is Naomi Strand’s son, Kitten, a kindergartner at Orca K-8 who already loves his teacher and school, and was just getting used to his new routine.
Strand worries about what will happen when Kitten is moved to a split classroom of kindergartners and first graders.
“I’m deeply concerned that this proposed disruption is going to negatively impact my child and many others,” Strand told the board, before letting her son speak.
“I’m in Teacher Tyler’s class,” Kitten said, “and I love it.”
“Please don’t break our hearts," Strand said.
Seattle Public Schools officials say the shuffling is a result of staffing imbalances at some schools that need to be corrected in order to meet state requirements that encourage smaller class sizes at the lowest grade levels.
If the district were to remain out of compliance with the state’s recommended staffing ratios of one educator for every 17 students in K-3 classrooms, it would lose out on $3.6 million in state funding.
While staffing reconfigurations are typical every October, district officials acknowledge that it’s affecting more students and educators this year.
Continue reading » -
'Shock, disbelief, and disorientation.’ Seattle leaders react to Hamas attack on Israel
Mourners in Seattle gathered Tuesday night at a Capitol Hill synagogue to reflect on the recent surprise attack from Hamas.
“For Israelis and for Jews around the world, we are still in a stage of shock, disbelief, and disorientation that this happened,” said Senior Rabbi Daniel Weiner. “And that this happened to the extent and in the manner that it did that is incredibly reminiscent of some of the darkest days of our not-so-distant history, in terms of the ways in which these atrocities were committed, the number of people that were victims, and that continue to be victims who are held hostage.”
Weiner led the vigil and solidarity event at Temple De Hirsch Sinai that drew an estimated crowd of 1,500. The gathering came just days after Hamas broke through border fences into Israel and launched an unprecedented attack.
Initial estimates are that more than 1,000 armed militants killed at least 700 Israelis and injured more than 2,100 in the initial incursion. As days pass, the number of killed civilians has continued to rise in Israel and in the blockaded Gaza strip. More than 400 Palestinians were killed, and more than 2,300 were injured after the initial military response from Israel. Israel's new unified right-wing government is now vowing to destroy Hamas and appears to be preparing for a full-scale ground offensive into the Gaza Strip.
RELATED: How to talk to children about the violence in Israel and Gaza
For Rabbi Weiner, now is a time for healing, self-examination, and to find a way forward. He noted that part of Jewish theology is to understand this issue through the scope of the lives involved in this conflict.
"We must always rise to the ramparts forced upon us by those who seek a world without Jews,” Weiner told the crowd. “Though our souls are seared with fury, and our faith tried by uncertainty, we must be driven not by the bloodlust of vengeance, but by the clarion call of justice, not by a corrupting hatred, but by a defining determination, not by a desire only to eradicate today's enemy, but a responsibility to combat the evil for which we are the world's eternal witness, with eyes ever turned toward tomorrow's path to peace."
Tuesday night's event also included comments from Washington Senators Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray, who both affirmed the United States' commitment to Israel and opposition to Hamas. Sen. Murray sent a member of her staff to read a statement. According to the statement, Murray plans to work with the president and both sides of the aisle to “ensure Israel has what it needs to defend itself.”
“My heart aches for the innocent civilians in the middle of escalating violence that they had no part in and do not want, including Palestinians who want to live in peace and safety with dignity and justice that has too long been denied,” Murray's statement read. “We must all work toward a future that ensures peace and justice for Israelis and Palestinians.”
RELATED: 'We will stand with Israel,' Biden says as U.S. condemns Hamas attack as 'evil'
Continue reading » -
Cal Anderson BLM garden to be removed by city despite pushback
A community garden planted during Seattle’s 2020 racial justice protests could be gone by the end of this week.
Seattle Parks and Recreation says it needs the space at Capitol Hill’s Cal Anderson Park for other uses, and plans to reseed the area to restore its turf. Last week, the department gave gardeners two weeks’ notice to vacate.
Marcus Henderson is an organizer with the group Black Star Farmers, which maintains the Black Lives Memorial Garden created in the “Sun Bowl” area of Cal Anderson Park three years ago. He was one of the first gardeners to break up the soil to let plants take root that summer.
Henderson said it’s not the first time Parks and Recreation has launched an effort to move the garden. In public surveys, the department has offered to relocate the garden to nearby pieces of land, including in the park — an offer that’s still on the table. But Henderson said the department has never included an option to keep the garden where it currently is.
“We've noticed that Parks and Recreation has started this conversation from a one-sided perspective of ‘You will move the garden’ instead of starting...a conversation around the space [to] talk about why this space is important,” he said.
Seattle Parks and Recreation sees the importance of that area of the park differently.
“The ‘Sun Bowl’ remains one of few spaces that is appropriate to host gatherings and large events at Cal Anderson Park because of its intentional design as a natural amphitheater and proximity to electrical and water hook-ups,” the department said in a statement provided to reporters.
Stephanie Webb is also an organizer of the Black Lives Memorial Garden and said it was once much bigger, with a greenhouse and other sections. But little by little, pieces have been taken away, either through sweeps, people destroying parts of the farm, or things being carried away, she added.
But it hasn’t been all destruction, Webb said. Many people pass through the garden, enjoying and taking in the plants.
Continue reading » -
Financial losses slow for WA hospitals, but concerns remain
Hit hard by the pandemic, hospitals in Washington state have been sounding the alarm since last year over steep financial losses.
Last year’s operating losses totaled over $2 billion for hospitals across the state, according to the Washington State Hospital Association.
This year, things are looking slightly better.
Losses in the first six months of 2023 slowed, compared to the previous year, according to survey results released by the Association this week.
But concerns remain.
“The losses remain significant, which is challenging, particularly when layered on last year’s losses,” said Association CFO Eric Lewis during a media briefing Wednesday.
Total operating losses were nearly $750 million for the first six months of 2023, according to Lewis.
In the first six months of last year, hospitals across the state had a much higher cumulative net operating loss, more than $1.1 billion.
Continue reading » -
Seattle elementary one of two in Washington state named Blue Ribbon school
F
or the first time in 12 years, a Seattle public school has won a national award for academic achievement.
Thurgood Marshall Elementary is one of two schools in Washington state recently named a Blue Ribbon school. The other is Apple Valley Elementary in Yakima.
Katie May, who has been Thurgood Marshall’s principal for a decade, said the school’s heightened focus on early literacy in recent years has been key to its success.
That focus not only makes children better readers, but also helps them in other subjects, May said.
“We’ve seen kids before where they struggle with math, not because they don’t have good number sense, but because math is also really language based,” May said. “And if you can’t read, you just don’t have the confidence for the problem solving.”
And literacy sets students up for long-term success — studies show children who can’t read proficiently by third grade are four times more likely to not graduate from high school on time.
Thurgood Marshall is one of 13 schools in the Seattle school district’s Early Literacy Collaborative. It’s focused on improving reading skills at schools with the largest percentages of African American boys, who the district has prioritized in its academic goals because they are “furthest from educational justice.”
Another success May highlighted is the school’s ongoing parent engagement efforts. A couple years ago, Thurgood Marshall started hosting regular parent meetings focused on how they can support their kids from home.
“Parents would say, ‘That was the most useful school event I’ve ever been to,’ because they really are learning how they can help their child at home,” May said. “Of course, reading with your child at home is critical and important. And there’s other things that parents can do, too, but they don’t always know.”
Continue reading » -
Partnerships to help asylum-seekers at Tukwila church take shape amid city's state of emergency
The growing number of migrants looking for asylum at a church in Tukwila prompted the city to declare a state of emergency on Friday.
The city is asking for help from state, county, and federal governments, and hopes to meet other priorities at the local level.
“The Tukwila community has always been welcoming to refugees and immigrants from around the world. Many new arrivals to the United States have called Tukwila home in their pathway to citizenship,” said Mayor Allan Ekberg.
Jan Bolerjack is a pastor at the Riverton Park United Methodist Church in Tukwila, where roughly 180 to 200 migrants are currently taking shelter. She said there’s a lack of regional infrastructure to help asylum-seekers like them.
“We promote ourselves as welcoming in the Pacific Northwest, and yet we've forgotten this whole group of people that are our new neighbors,” she said.
Bolerjack added that roughly two families arrive each day. To her, this is a racial equity issue — the majority of migrants seeking asylum at the church are brown and Black people.
“The question would be, if these were white bodies, would we not be responding the way we are? I think that's the question.”
On Monday each week, Riverton Park offers asylum-seekers legal consultations about their immigration cases — and there’s always a line. Accessing a consultation requires planning in advance.
The waiting around at Riverton Park also extends to handling basic housekeeping needs, like cooking a meal or drying one’s laundry.
Bolerjack said local nonprofits have been helping out, but they have limited capacity.
Continue reading » -
Tacoma Rail to buy Northwest’s first electric locomotives
City-owned Tacoma Rail is buying the Northwest’s first electric locomotives.
You might have played with electric trains as a child, but most life-size trains in the United States run on diesel, and the rail sector is far behind the automobile sector in moving to less-polluting energy sources like electricity.
Diesel exhaust contains lung-damaging particulates and, like all fossil fuel exhaust, contributes to overheating the planet.
Tacoma Rail has received federal and state funding to replace two of its 14 diesel “switcher” locomotives with battery-powered ones that emit zero pollution.
Switchers maneuver railcars around the tight curves of the rail lines at the Port of Tacoma before handing them off to the larger locomotives that haul freight around the country.
“These are brand new in the industry, so it's exciting to have those in the Northwest, especially with our sister utility Tacoma Power that uses hydroelectric power,” McCabe said. “So, these are about as green as they can possibly be.”
McCabe said each locomotive’s battery would hold more than 2 megawatt-hours of energy, about as much as 29 electric car batteries. Tacoma Rail estimates the two short-haul locomotives and charging infrastructure at the Port of Tacoma will cost nearly $13 million.
McCabe said the funding for the purchase should be available by 2025, when the diesel switchers being replaced will be 60 years old.
Continue reading » -
King County Metro beefs up security after fatal bus shooting in White Center
King County Metro is beefing up security after a recent fatal shooting on a bus in White Center that left one person dead.
“While this was a tragic incident, it was an isolated incident," said Al Sanders with King County Metro. "It's rare, and we're grateful that no one else was was injured."
Still, Metro is responding by adding two teams of security officers to ride the Rapid Ride H bus line for the “foreseeable future.” The agency will accomplish this by transferring four security officers from other areas to patrol this line. Sanders said that the security will be there to protect riders and bus drivers.
RELATED: There's meth on that. Study finds drug traces on Seattle transit rides
“Their job is to drive the bus," he said. "If there are things that involve law enforcement or transit security officers, there are steps and procedures they can take to make sure that those people who can enforce and can enact, get there as quickly as possible.”
The shooting on a metro bus also happened days after another mass transit incident, when a man assaulted riders with a hammer at a Sound Transit train station.
Sanders notes that there is a difference between security officers and Metro Transit Officers. Security is employed by Metro and officers are unarmed. There are about 140 security personnel on the job with Metro. There are also Metro Transit Officers, who are part of the King County Sheriff's Office and are armed.
"Metro currently has 200 security staff across our system between the Metro Transit Police and our ... security officers," Sanders said. "They are spread throughout our system. They give a presence wherever they are assigned."
"The H line, we are adding security; security is put where it is needed. If there are issues that have come up, that is where they will put the transit safety officers and also the Metro Transit Police."
RELATED: King County Metro creates a fast-track to bring back workers
Continue reading » -
Washington state child care providers are struggling to survive. Sen. Murray calls for feds to help
U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, a Washington Democrat, is calling for the federal government to renew its historic investment in the child care industry.
When the pandemic first hit, the Child Care Stabilization Act gave struggling providers across the country $24 billion to help them keep their doors open through Covid.
But that funding expired Sept. 30, and providers across Washington state are already worried they won’t be able to make ends meet.
Since child care providers started receiving those funds, Deeann Puffert said Friday that her organization has heard from providers “every day, every week” that the investment enabled them to recruit and retain staff through bonuses and increased compensation.
“Without those additional funds, they’re going to struggle,” said Puffert, CEO of Child Care Aware of Washington, a nonprofit that helps families connect with child care providers. “That’s just the truth of the matter.”
Puffert shared her concerns with Murray at a roundtable event Friday at Shoreline Community College.
Despite being a critical backbone of the United States’ economy and education, the nation’s child care system has long been broken. For parents, high-quality day care is often difficult to find.
According to the Center for American Progress, about 63% of Washingtonians live in what’s considered a child care desert, which is any census tract with more than 50 kids under the age of 5 that contains either no child care providers, or has more than three times as many children as spots for licensed child care.
Even when child care is available, it's often too expensive for families to afford. In Washington state, the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s annual “KIDS COUNT” report released this summer found the average cost to send a toddler to a child care center had risen to more than $14,000. That amounts to nearly 40% of the median income for single mothers, or 12% of the median income for a married couple.
Laurie Carlsson is among the many mothers in Washington state who has struggled to find and afford child care. Her oldest daughter, JoJo, was born right before she got her bachelor’s degree as a nontraditional student, and she struggled to find affordable options.
“I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to start my new career because of the cost of care,” Carlsson told Murray and other attendees at Friday’s roundtable.
Continue reading » -
Seattle tastes the feeling of Coca-Cola on this ferry route
Hate it or just don't care. Either way, it's the real thing. Those seem to be the common reactions to a Coca-Cola advertisement that recently popped up on a Washington State Ferry route.
It may be difficult to miss the bright red display painted across the face of the Seattle-Bainbridge Island boat, but according to Washington State Ferries, this is not the first time an ad has been given prime Puget Sound real estate.
"Historically, exterior advertising on vessels has been done in the distant past ... and to a lesser extent recently," said Ian Sterling with Washington State Ferries. "We worked with a healthcare provider to place a large mask graphic on front of one of the Seattle-based boats during the pandemic, and with the non-profit Movember to place mustaches on the exterior of some boats in the last few years."
The Seattle Times also notes that 40-foot banners were placed on ferries in 1962 to advertise the World's Fair.
Coca-Cola's ad campaign was not only able to catch a wave on the exterior of a ferry, but also inside the boat, and at the Seattle and Bainbridge Island ferry terminals. The main message, aside from hyping Coke, is that its bottles are recycled.
Not since 2014, when Jägermeister painted a mural in Capitol Hill has an ad placement prompted so much local attention. X, formerly known as Twitter, was ablaze with commentary. An entire Reddit thread got a taste of the feeling from locals, which ranged from "tacky" to "my eyes feel violated," and also the sentiment that WSF can paint the entire boat with ads as long as it pays to keep the ferries on time and in service. Would that be: I'd like to buy Seattle a coke ... and an operational ferry.
"The ad is on a busy route and it's red," Sterling said. "Perhaps that is why it is getting noticed. Revenue from the ad helps offset the price to taxpayers across the state who pay to subsidize ferry ticket prices. The cost to operate ferries is only partially paid by the customers who use ferries, much of the rest is from taxpayers."
Continue reading » -
Small 4.3 earthquake gives Seattle area little shake
An earthquake with preliminary 4.3 magnitude shook beneath Marrowstone Island in the Salish Sea at 7:21 p.m. on Sunday.
The earthquake was shallow -- 35 miles deep, according to the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network.
"We know it was widely felt around the Puget Sound - many of us at PNSN felt it ourselves," the seismic network wrote on Twitter.
There have been small earthquakes registered in that area going back decades, although most are small, almost imperceptible.
There was a 4.9 earthquake in 2009 in Indianola, just south. In 1976, there was a 4.7 earthquake due north, closer to Whidbey Island.
Continue reading » -
Washington counties win initial legal victory over scarce mental health beds
In the battle with state officials over who which populations should receive scarce mental health beds, a group of Washington counties say they won an initial legal victory Friday.
A majority of Washington counties sued the state’s Department of Social and Health Services in August, over the agency’s abrupt release of patients with mental illnesses.
These people had been charged with crimes but deemed incompetent to stand trial. State officials said they needed to make bed space for people who were still awaiting trial.
Now Pierce County Superior Court Judge Michael Schwartz has granted a preliminary injunction in favor of the counties, forcing DSHS to adhere to its previous practices.
That decision means the state must now notify prosecutors and victims before releasing these patients. The state will also have to evaluate their mental health and whether they are likely to reengage in criminal activity, according to David Hackett, general counsel to King County Executive Dow Constantine.
Hackett said the vast majority of those evaluations have typically indicated a need for further mental health services.
“The order doesn’t require treatment, but the evaluation will be there,” Hackett said. He said the ruling will “make sure people aren’t lost in the paperwork” and will receive help.
“We want to collaborate with DSHS and the state to put resources in place to make sure the legal obligations are being met in terms of funding and staffing facilities,” Hackett said. He noted that six more counties will be joining the lawsuit, for a total of 28 plaintiff counties.
DSHS spokesperson Tyler Hemstreet said in a statement that the department is “disappointed” in the latest ruling, which “puts us at odds with the federal court order to limit admissions to the state hospitals.”
The federal court order is focused on speeding up access to mental health services for another population — people in jail facing criminal charges who are in need of "competency restoration" services.
However, Hemstreet said said the agency will continue to seek more “bed capacity” for these complex patients.
Continue reading »