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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Stories
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Ready, Set, Go: What to know about evacuating Western Washington wildfires
"Ready. Set. Go!" That's the new key to understanding when and how to evacuate a wildfire threat in Western Washington.
"The risk of wildfires has spread to the west side of the Cascades, an area that historically has not seen widespread wildfires," a blog post from West Pierce Fire and Rescue states, introducing the new evacuation system. "Once a rare occurrence, wildfires have now become an annual threat, requiring public outreach and preparation."
RELATED: West Pierce Fire has already put out as many brush fires as it did in all of 2022
Fire officials in King, Pierce, Snohomish, and Thurston counties are pushing an awareness campaign about changes to the way they issue evacuation notices. The new system aims to be more clearly understood.
Instead of using the traditional Level 1, Level 2, and Level 3 notifications (with Level 3 being the most urgent), people will now hear the words, "Ready, Set, Go."
Ready: The lowest level. A fire is in your area, so be aware and be prepared.
Set: Be prepared to evacuate with important papers, medicines, and other needed items in your car. Have an emergency kit handy. People who need more time to evacuate, such as those with disabilities, families with small children, animals, or with certain medical conditions, should leave.
Go: Just like the word says — get out now. Go. You're in immediate danger.
While wildfires have historically been more common in Eastern Washington, the threat has spread to the western side of the state in recent years. So far, over the summer of 2023, the National Weather Service has issued a handful of red flag warnings for the western slopes of the Cascade Mountains, indicating that fire threats are heightened.
Local fire agencies have been prompted to prepare as a result. West Pierce Fire and Rescue, for example, obtained a $400,000 federal grant to pay for new training around "wildland/urban interfaces." These are areas common in Western Washington, where forested land is directly next to residential neighborhoods. Areas like this pose great risks when wildfires or brush fires emerge. Fighting them requires different methods and equipment.
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Light rail coming to Bellevue, Redmond sooner than expected
Eastside residents can look forward to light rail stations between Bellevue and Redmond opening in early 2024.
The Sound Transit Board voted Thursday to open the East Link "starter line."
"The soonest we could open East Link starter line is in spring of 2024, and Lynwood Link would follow in the fall of 2024," said Moises Gutierrez with Sound Transit.
RELATED: Where does Amazon want Sound Transit to build a new Seattle light rail station?
The Eastside's new light rail is called a "starter line" because the full route to Seattle will not be opening, rather just a portion of it — eight stops between south Bellevue and Microsoft's campus in Redmond. Initial service levels will be 16 hours per day, with 10 minutes between trains. Sound Transit expects about 6,000 average weekday riders on this starter line.
The remaining stretch, which goes across Lake Washington, won't be ready until at least 2025 (it was originally supposed to open this year). This portion has faced construction woes, specifically with the tracks over the I-90 floating bridge, which have delayed the full opening.
When voting to open the Eastside's starter line, board member and Everett Mayor Cassie Franklin added an amendment to ensure that the Bellevue-Redmond starter would not pull resources from completing an extension between Northgate and Lynnwood. Franklin argues that the Lynnwood line will have eight times the ridership of the East Link.
Sound Transit estimates that the Northgate to Lynnwood stretch of light rail will average 25,000 to 35,000 riders on weekdays.
Delays aside, the project is still within its $3.7 billion budget, approved by area voters in 2008.
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Mike's adventures in art: The Tempest, Seattle History Remix, Cinema Day
If you're looking for tips on how to experience art in the Seattle area, you're in the right place. In this weekly post, KUOW reporter Mike Davis has suggestions for what to do around Seattle over the weekend so you can have your own adventures in arts and culture.
Theater
"The Tempest" is showing at the Seattle Rep this weekend, and what excites me most is not the piece itself. While Shakespeare fans should definitely check out this production, which boasts a cast of over 60 performers and new music and lyrics by Todd Almond, what's cool here is how this production offers a stepping-stone for community theater to make it to the big stage.
This production is part of the Public Works program at the Rep, which partners with local community organizations to provide people with acting classes. They watch and analyze productions and conclude with a large-scale production. This allows more people to engage with theater, regardless of financial ability, and the final production itself is free to the public.
If you are unable to get a free ticket to "The Tempest," the lobby of the Rep will be open to the public and live-streaming the performance. So anyone looking for a free experience in theater this weekend can head to the Rep and enjoy a classic.
"The Tempest," at the Seattle Rep Aug. 25 - 27
"A Seattle History Remix" is showing at the Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI). This production is a partnership between the Seattle Children’s Theater (SCT) and MOHAI, and is a great pick for kids, but it’s written by SCT Artistic Director Idris Goodwin, and if you saw “The Boy Who Kissed the Sky,” which Goodwin also wrote, you can be sure this will be fun for people of all ages.
This show will blend theater, variety show, and mixtape to present a fun and silly theatrical story of Seattle’s history. It leans into the themes of innovation and imagination to bring the history alive through music and poetry.
This show runs all weekend at MOHAI and is free to the public.
"A Seattle History Remix," showing at MOHAI Aug. 25 - 27
Film
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Former tribal cop sentenced to 34 years for sexual abuse of minors
A 69-year-old member of the Lower Elwha S’Klallam Tribe was sentenced this week to 34 years in prison for sexually abusing children as young as 6 and 7 years old.
Joseph Anthony Turrey of Port Angeles was convicted after a seven-day jury trail earlier this year. He was sentenced Monday in U.S. District Court in Tacoma for crimes that occurred on tribal land between 2008 and 2016 involving three victims.
U.S. District Judge Benjamin H. Settle said Turrey had shown no signs of remorse.
“You demonstrated a wantonness, a cruelty, and mercilessness,” Settle said. “No restitution can give [your victims] back what was stolen from them.”
Turrey previously served as a law enforcement officer for both the Hoh Reservation and later for the Lower Elwha Tribe. He also served on the tribal council of the Lower Elwha S’Klallam Tribe.
In a statement to the court, Assistant U.S. Attorney Kristine Foerster said Turrey “held positions of power while exploiting children.”
He was convicted of six counts of aggravated sexual abuse of a minor, two counts of sexual abuse of a minor and one count of abusive sexual contact.
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Save a kitten, win the lottery? Tacoma man credits good deed with $717,500 payout
Joseph Waldherr was outside the spot where he picks up mail and packages for his daily deliveries when he first heard it — the urgent meowing of a trapped kitten.
Waldherr, a postal worker from Tacoma, looked everywhere for the source of the sound, but he couldn’t locate it and had to get on with his day.
When he returned the next day, he heard the same meowing. This time, he was determined.
After extensive searching, he discovered a tiny black-and-white kitten with peach-colored cheeks, stuck in a tight spot that Waldherr could barely reach.
He put the kitten in the pocket of his sweatshirt, where it quieted down.
On his way home that evening, with the kitten still nestled in his sweatshirt, Waldherr stopped at his local convenience store on a whim.
“I’m having a lucky day,” he thought. “Maybe I should buy a lottery ticket.”
That hunch turned into a $717,500 Hit 5 payout for Waldherr. That’s half of the $1.4 million July 31 jackpot, which Waldherr split with another winning ticket. The payout is close to the game’s biggest payout of $1.6 million.
Waldherr said he and his wife credit the win to the kitten, who they have named Peaches and plan to keep.
As for the money, Waldherr said he plans to save some of it, help his parents with their home so they can live more comfortably in retirement, and donate to several charities.
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Some Amazon employees opt to leave company instead of moving closer to offices
Amazon gave a portion of its employees a choice last month: Move closer to a company office, or maybe, ya know, go work somewhere else. It seems that at least a few employees have opted to take the second option.
CNBC reports that some Amazon employees are choosing to quit the company rather than follow its new relocation requirement. The news outlet only spoke with a handful of employees, yet they provide insight into the dilemmas Amazon workers face as the company attempts to bring more staff into its offices.
RELATED: Amazon takes Washington regulators to court over alleged safety violations
Amazon has advanced efforts to get employees back into its offices over the past few months. It began a hybrid work model on May 1, requiring workers to be in an office three days a week. Part of its argument for this move was that downtown Seattle businesses needed employees to return. Some employees protested the policy.
By June, 51% of all downtown Seattle employees returned to local places of work. Seattle traffic has suffered as a result.
Amazon eventually cranked up the pressure. In July, management sent a letter to employees, encouraging them to move closer to its offices and adhere to its hybrid-work policy. The other option was for employees to quit.
RELATED: South Lake Union businesses welcome Amazon workers' return to office
A handful of employees told CNBC that they were told to move closer to an Amazon office hub by the first half of 2024. They chose to leave the company, and to not to break leases, force their families to move, or move to an area with much higher housing costs. Three employees CNBC spoke with were asked to relocate to Seattle, despite currently living in Colorado, Utah, and California.
Amazon says this policy only affects a small percentage of its employees and it is providing relocation benefits.
The relocation policy also comes as Amazon endeavors to downsize its own workforce. In January, the company announced plans to lay off 18,000 employees. Other layoffs have been announced in the months that followed.
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Red flag warning for central Cascades; smoke returns Western WA
The western slopes of the central Cascade Mountains in Washington state will be under a red flag warning through 5 p.m. Friday, Aug. 25.
In addition to the dry conditions, low humidity levels, and gusty winds, there is also a chance for thunderstorms throughout the region, especially on Friday morning. All of these factors are raising the fire danger in the mountains, generally above 1,500 feet. Any fires that start are likely to spread quickly.
The central Cascades roughly stretches from outside the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue area down to the Oregon border.
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Do you carry Narcan? Today So Far
- One official thinks Narcan should be in schools as much as fire extinguishers.
- No law for you!
- Animals needing shelter amid fires in Spokane County.
This post originally appeared in KUOW's Today So Far newsletter for Aug. 24 2023.
Quick hits
- Rain, soft and wonderful, comes too late for many near Spokane
- Burglar dressed as firefighter to rob home evacuated in wildfire near Spokane
- Fuel, heat, drought, wind: Recipe for big Spokane wildfires
The director of our nation's Office of National Drug Control Policy carries Narcan with him at all times. That's one takeaway from Dr. Rahul Gupta's visit to Washington state this week. Narcan is an emergency drug that can counter an opioid overdose. As the death toll from the opioid crisis is rising fastest in Washington state, Gupta says that more people should carry Narcan with them. In fact, he thinks Narcan should be stocked at Washington's schools, and be just as visible as fire extinguishers. KUOW's Sami West has the full story.
It's not just people who have had to evacuate to escape wildfire flames in Spokane County. Animals are also without a home. Today, there are more than 325 animals (at last count) at a shelter set up at the Spokane County Fair and Expo Center. They range from horses to mules, goats to chickens, and more. Northwest News Network's Anna King has the full story.
The lawyer who represented former gubernatorial candidate Loren Culp says he doesn't want to practice law anymore, and if he did, he wouldn't want to do it in Washington state. That's good, because he's not allowed to anyway. Stephen Pidgeon has been banned from practicing law in Washington for a year. The decision has been a long time coming. Pidgeon basically alleged that Washington's 2020 gubernatorial election was a sham, and filed a lawsuit over it on behalf of his client. That raised some eyebrows in the local legal community. The Washington State Bar moved to discipline him, and now the state Supreme Court is upholding that action.
AS SEEN ON KUOW
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T-Mobile plans 5,000 layoffs, 3 years after pitching Sprint merger as job-creator
When T-Mobile was seeking Congressional approval to merge with Sprint, then-CEO John Legere made a promise.
“This merger will be a tremendous jobs creator at New T-Mobile and across our county,” he said to a House committee. “Our merger will be jobs-positive from day one and going forward.”
Specifically, Legere committed to adding 11,000 jobs by 2024.
Skeptics saw through the refrain, repeated for months as T-Mobile made its case to regulators. After all, mergers create duplication by nature; some jobs become redundant. How could the combined company avoid making cuts?
It doesn’t appear the New T-Mobile could. The company said Thursday that nearly 5,000 jobs — about 7% of the workforce — will be eliminated in the coming weeks.
It’s the latest in a series of layoffs T-Mobile has carried out over the past few years. An investigation by GeekWire earlier this year found T-Mobile had about 9,000 fewer employees than the combined headcount of the two companies before the merger. That was before the 5,000 cuts announced today.
“They just wanted to get the merger done and they were going to say whatever they needed to say in order to get it done,” said a former T-Mobile employee who was laid off earlier this month. She spoke on the condition of anonymity so her comments won’t impact her search for a new job.
“I feel like they didn't think that the merger would go through if they were honest,” she said.
T-Mobile did not respond to KUOW's request for an interview, or to a list of questions by the time of publishing.
The latest round of layoffs will primarily be in corporate and technology roles and shouldn’t affect retail positions, according to a filing with the SEC. T-Mobile didn’t say where jobs would be eliminated, but the company’s corporate headquarters is in Bellevue, Wash.
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Who just paid $45 million to connect Seattle's waterfront?
When cruise ships are docked at Seattle's waterfront, walking the narrow sidewalks on this part of Alaskan Way can feel like being a salmon swimming up a narrow stream. A handful of private donors hope a few million dollars can open things up.
“I think all of us, when we come down to a public space, we want to be able to walk, we don’t want to bump into people and their luggage,” said Colleen Echohawk, who is on the team in charge of improving this corridor.
RELATED: A guided tour of Seattle's new waterfront
Seattle's Waterfront is undergoing a major remodel in the wake of the Alaskan Way Viaduct coming down. Colman Dock has undergone major upgrades to handle considerable crowds of ferry commuters and tourists. The nearby Seattle Aquarium was just approved to take out millions in loans to complete its own remodel.
There's also a lot of open public space along with new, wide sidewalks slated for this stretch, but all the features stop just north of the Seattle Aquarium. From there to the Olympic Sculpture Park, a much narrower sidewalk becomes uncomfortably crowded with tourists when the cruise ships are in. This is a sort of "missing link" among the pedestrian and bike improvements linking Seattle's waterfront parks. A $45 million donation aims to change that by funding the Elliott Bay Connections project.
The donation comes from a handful of sources with ties to Seattle's tech business community, such as Melinda French Gates, Mackenzie Scott, and Expedia’s Barry Diller. Expedia's headquarters is located along Seattle's waterfront, just north of the projects the donation will fund. The donation also means that this project won't be paid for with tax dollars.
Seattle's Elliott Bay Connections project includes a range of waterfront features, from Pier 62 to Pier 70. It proposes to connect Waterfront Park with the Olympic Sculpture Park, and restore Myrtle Edwards and Centennial Parks. It also aims to bring back public fishing at Pier 86. It will ultimately create a nearly one-mile protected greenway, add 2.5 acres of open area to a total of 50 acres of waterfront public space.
Echohawk noted that the donations will pay to rip out old trolley tracks, and replace them with new bike and pedestrian paths that will fill in a "missing link" among the string of waterfront parks, “and it’s just gonna make it better for everyone who lives in our beautiful city.”
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Climate-friendly heat pumps are not cheap. Rebates can help
Heat pumps have become a popular, energy-saving way to both heat and cool a home.
Installing one can easily cost $10,000 (for ductless systems) or $30,000 (for ducted systems).
Federal, state, and local governments want to encourage their adoption to help fight pollution and protect public health during extreme heat and wildfire smoke.
Here are some incentives available to lower the steep upfront cost of heat pumps, with more becoming available in 2024.
Federal tax credit
A 30% federal tax credit is available through the Inflation Reduction Act for energy efficiency and electrification projects. This can save you up to $2,000, if you pay federal income tax.
Utility programs
• Seattle City Light offers rebates of $300 to $600 for heat pumps purchased through a contractor.
• Puget Sound Energy offers rebates of $1,500 to $4,000 for converting from an electric forced-air furnace to a heat pump and, for low-income customers, a $2,400 rebate for energy efficiency upgrades.
Local Incentives
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Burglar dressed as firefighter to rob home amid wildfire near Spokane: sheriff
It probably seemed like a brilliant idea – until they got caught: Drive across Washington state to the Gray Fire in the Spokane area, dress as a firefighter, and break into a home that had been evacuated.
A Tacoma man and woman in their late 30s were arrested by the Spokane Sheriff’s Office on Monday for doing just that. They allegedly drove five hours to case evacuated homes amid raging wildfires, and stole $300 in drills from one home.
Someone nearby sniffed out their ruse.
At 8:15 a.m. on Monday, a relative of the homeowner saw a blue Audi pull into the driveway. The man driving the car was alone and wore a “high visibility long-sleeve shirt similar to a firefighter,” according to the sheriff’s office.
The homeowner's relative called out to the driver, wondering why he was there. The man responded that he had a flat tire. This made sense to the relative, who noticed one of the Audi's tires was low in air.
But the relative became suspicious when a woman emerged from behind the house and got into the Audi.
The relative checked the house and found that the back door was unlocked, and that it appeared cabinets had been rifled through. The relative called the cops.
At 4:10 p.m. that afternoon, a sheriff’s deputy saw a blue Audi in the area. When the deputy stopped the car, he noticed yellow clothing inside. The couple in the car told him they had just changed a tire and were en route home to Tacoma.
In fact, they were en route to the Spokane County jail, booked for residential burglary. They have since been charged.
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