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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

  • Small business factor in the Seattle City Council race: Today So Far
    • There are 45 people running for Seattle City Council. One initial takeaway: There's a handful of candidates from corners of business.
    • The Forward Party welcomes Nirvana's Krist Novoselic to its board. Also, Chris Vance leaves the emerging third party.
    • Seattle considers new rules for delivery app companies.

    This post originally appeared in KUOW's Today So Far newsletter for May 25, 2023.

    There are 45 people officially running for Seattle City Council in the upcoming election. It's a lot. But as KUOW's David Hyde points out, "a lot" can be relative. There were 55 candidates in 2019, which is the last time Seattle had seven council seats up for a vote.

    Seattle voters approved the city's democracy voucher program in 2015. It was first used in 2017. It's a way to provide public financing for elections with the aim of encouraging candidates who normally wouldn't have access to big donors (this year, there is $5.25 million in available democracy vouchers). After that, a lot more candidates started showing up. It seems that, this year at least, the candidate count has dipped. The deadline for candidates to file was last Friday.

    Hyde notes that one potential reason behind the lower number of candidates this year is the "increasingly toxic atmosphere in Seattle politics." Four out of the seven open seats have no incumbents. Council President Debora Juarez told The Seattle Times that, “I’m not seen as a person by some people and it’s not safe for me or my family." She is not running for re-election.

    Still, one could assume that Seattle's democracy vouchers are having an influence. At least, they're favored by a majority of candidates — 36 candidates (out of the total 45) are listed as participating in the democracy voucher program, so far.

    While chatting on Bill Radke's "Week in Review" last Friday, I made one observation, despite it being quite early to make such a statement, but it's only become more clear since then. A fair number of candidates from corners of Seattle's business community are popping up, including two cannabis entrepreneurs in District 3 alone.

    • Stephen Brown is running for District 1. He's owner of Eltana Bagels and says his "career has been spent founding and running companies."
    • Tanya Woo is running in District 2, and is a known figure among the business community in the CID.
    • Joy Hollingsworth is running in District 3. She works at Hollingsworth Farms, her family's cannabis business.
    • Alex Cooley in District 3 founded Solstice, a cannabis company.
    • Ken Wilson in District 4 is a small business owner and engineer.
    • Pete Hanning in District 6 is the former owner of Fremont's Red Door, and is currently the executive director of the Fremont Chamber of Commerce. He's also worked with the Seattle Restaurant Alliance, Washington Restaurant/Hospitality Association, and the Seattle Nightlife & Music Association.
    • Jon Lisbin in District 6 built and sold an ad agency in Seattle. He also served on the board of Seattle Entrepreneur Network.
    • Victoria Palmer in District 6 is a personal organizer.
    • Olga Sagan in District 7 is owner of Seattle's Piroshky Piroshky restaurants.

    Then there are what I call "business adjacent" candidates. They're in the business scene, have previously run businesses, are consultants, etc. Like Shea Wilson (District 7), an attorney who helps with business formation, and buying/selling businesses. ChrisTiana Obeysumner (District 5) is the consultant behind Epiphanies of Equity LLC. Maren Costa (District 1) is an advisor for startups, and has worked in a leading role at some of the area's big tech companies (Microsoft, Adobe, Amazon). And Phil Tavel (District 1) who previously ran a business in Pioneer Square, describes himself as an entrepreneur, but primary works as an attorney.

    Add that up and that's 13 candidates, about 29% of the field.

    In other politics news, have you heard much about the Forward Party? The emerging third-party effort has lost its initial local leader, but has added some Seattle music royalty to its ranks at the same time.

    You may recall Andrew Yang as a Democratic hopeful in the 2020 presidential primary. Since then, he's started a movement to develop a third party, mostly filled with folks who don't like the sensationalism, extremes, and general Sharks vs Jets mentality of the two main political parties. The third option he, and a range of other organizers, are offering is the Forward Party.

    Continue reading »

  • Vance out, Novoselic in: Forward Party gets Washington state switch up

    Chris Vance says he has stepped down as a Washington state lead for the Forward Party, a third-party effort with emerging branches across the United States. At the same time, the party says it has welcomed Nirvana's Krist Novoselic to its national board.

    You may recall Andrew Yang as a Democratic hopeful in the 2020 presidential primary. Since then, he's started a movement to develop a third party, mostly filled with folks who don't like the sensationalism, extremes, and general "Sharks vs Jets" mentality of the two main political parties. The third option that he, and a range of other organizers, are offering is the Forward Party.

    They have been setting up state level branches in recent months. Washington has one of its own. Yang was in town this month for a Forward event. A scroll through the party's recent social media posts features a range of volunteers and leaders who are signed on locally.

    One name that may sound familiar to Washingtonians is Chris Vance, former King County and state lawmaker, and former chair of the state GOP. He left the Republican Party and has run unsuccessfully as an independent ever since. Vance has called for a more moderate third party over the past few years.

    Vance says he was signed on as the Washington state lead for the Forward Party, but recently announced, "I am sorry to say that I just resigned from the Forward Party and am once again politically homeless."

    In a tweet, Vance says that he was expecting a Forward Party convention in 2023, and a new party platform, which isn't happening. Not having a strict platform has sort of been the Forward Party's schtick since day one. Vance doesn't think it will work.

    Around the time of Vance's exit, Yang welcomed Nirvana band member Krist Novoselic to the Forward Party.

    “The only way you do anything is to become really active,” Novoselic said in a statement to Forward Party members.

    In an email to supporters, Yang noted that Novoselic is former chair of his county's Democratic Party, and has a history of political activism in Washington. He is now joining the national board of the Forward Party.

    "I've been in touch with Krist for a number of months, but our first meeting was last month in Seattle.... He joined me in speaking to the Washington Forward Party, and agreed to join our efforts after meeting the local activists and volunteers in the state," Yang wrote.

    Continue reading »

  • Renton grants help high school grads who can’t afford college

    As Dechae Hester started his senior year at Renton High School, he knew he wanted to become a dental assistant. To do that, he planned to take his final year of high school more seriously. And in November, Hester found out he had been accepted into the program at Renton Technical College to become a certified dental assistant.

    But he didn’t know how he would pay for it — until earlier this month.

    “At one point, I just completely gave up. I forgot about it,” Hester said. “And so when I heard them say, ‘Your school is going to be paid for,’ I was like, ‘Wait, what? What are you talking about?’”

    Renton High School graduates like Hester now have a chance to go to the city’s technical college for free. State Rep. Steve Berguist, a Renton Democrat who is also a substitute teacher in the district, spearheaded the pilot program.

    Called the Renton Program, the new partnership’s goal is to create a new pathway to higher education for students who otherwise wouldn’t be able to attend.

    It covers up to two years of a student’s first associate’s degree. Graduates at all four of Renton’s high schools are eligible — regardless of their grade point average, income, or ability. The new state budget provides $400,000 toward the free college program.

    Liliana Urias, another senior at Renton High School, also wasn’t planning to go to college.

    “I didn’t have the resources or a way to pay for college,” Urias said.

    She said she couldn’t afford it on her own and didn’t feel she could ask her parents for help when only one of them is working.

    Urias also didn’t want to take out loans.

    Continue reading »

  • Looking for mushrooms in all the right places: Today So Far
    • Could magic mushrooms also be magic therapy?
    • Spring is prime mushroom foraging season in the Pacific Northwest. Here are a few tips.
    • Bellevue has a safe lot for people living in vehicles, but no one is stepping up to run it.

    This post originally appeared in KUOW's Today So Far newsletter for May 24, 2023.

    Bellevue has a safe lot for folks living in RVs and vehicles. But it doesn't have anyone to run it. This is like having your own airplane to take you where you need to go, but you can't find a pilot.

    The city has set aside a piece of land near I-405 in downtown to be the safe lot. It's already being used by a homelessness charity, so it's a known spot, plus it has bathrooms. The city kicked off an effort to set up the safe lot earlier this year and asked for local service providers to apply to manage it ... no one spoke up.

    It can be a tall order. A service provider would have to know how to deal with substance abuse disorders, and provide things like job training, etc., plus manage the safe lot where people are living. There are local organizations who can do that, but according to Nico Quijano, Bellevue’s homelessness program outreach manager, such groups are already too busy with their current workload.

    "This really highlights the crisis of homelessness in King County and Western Washington. Eastside suburbs have been criticized before for not enough shelters," KUOW reporter Casey Martin told Soundside recently. "When a pretty affluent city like Bellevue steps up and wants to offer half a million dollars for a one-year pilot program to open up a safe parking lot, and they still can't even open this, it really speaks to that — a lot of service providers are a little overwhelmed."

    So Bellevue is left sitting on $450,000 for a safe lot pilot program slated to last until 2024. Read more here.

    The Washington state Legislature has ordered UW researchers to get people high on mushrooms. OK, not exactly, but you're super curious now, aren't you? Clickbait!

    Last session, lawmakers passed a bill that mandates a study into the therapeutic potential of psilocybin. That's the super fun ingredient in magic mushrooms that makes them so magical. There is a growing body of evidence that psilocybin could remedy ailments ranging from depression to addiction. The doses we're talking about, however, are probably far from psychedelic levels that lead to Hunter S. Thompson books, or make it possible to listen to Pink Floyd's "The Darkside of the Moon" all the way through, nonstop.

    Instead, what researchers are focused on are ways to treat PTSD and addiction, specifically among military veterans and first responders.

    “Our hope is that in targeting this specific population with these two co-morbidities, we could better understand if this could be a viable treatment moving forward,” said Dr. Nathan Sackett, who is currently setting the study up at UW.

    Instead of taking the mushrooms and hiking Cougar Mountain or going to a laser show at the Pacific Science Center, participants will get a dose while with psychiatric professionals in a therapy session. There's a bit more to this, so read here for the full story.

    Continue reading »

  • Are Seattle's democracy vouchers working? The results so far are mixed

    Dozens of people are running for Seattle City Council this year, 45 to be exact. And they’re vying for just seven council seats.

    But when you look at the last comparable election, the candidate field isn’t as crowded as you might think. There are about 18% fewer candidates than 2019, which is the last time we had seven council seats on the ballot in Seattle.

    That's not the trend “democracy voucher” advocates hoped to see.

    Democracy vouchers are Seattle’s system of public election financing. Each qualified resident gets four vouchers worth $25 each to donate to the candidates of their choice.

    The program is designed, in part, to increase the number of people who donate to campaigns, and that is exactly what’s been happening.

    It’s also intended to address some of the problems with “big money in politics,” to give candidates who aren’t wealthy or well-connected a leg up with campaign expenses. When the program idea went to Seattle voters, advocates said it would help level the playing field, neutralize the power of big money in politics, and encourage more regular people to run.

    The number of council candidates dramatically increased in 2019, according to one academic analysis.

    But this year, the number of candidates has gone in the wrong direction, with 45 candidates running for council compared to 55 in 2019.

    It’s not entirely clear why fewer people have thrown their hats in the ring this year. But several incumbents decided not to run for re-election, with some hinting that the increasingly toxic atmosphere in Seattle politics is one reason why they decided to get out.

    Continue reading »

  • Balancing downtown Seattle and the future of remote work: Today So Far
    • Seattle is at a crossroads. Can it balance helping downtown's struggling businesses with a future of remote work?
    • There's that word again — "gubernatorial."

    This post originally appeared in KUOW's Today So Far newsletter for May 23, 2023.

    Well this is awkward. On one hand, you have downtown Seattle struggling out of the pandemic era, with low foot traffic and businesses eagerly watching for office workers to return. On the other hand, there are office employees now being asked to come back to the office, but perhaps don't really want to and are willing to protest over it.

    Just weeks after Amazon started mandating that employees return to its Seattle offices at least three days a week, a group of workers have started organizing a walkout in protest. The hour-long walkout is slated for noon on May 31, but organizers say they'll only do it if they can get 1,000 co-workers to sign on to participate. Employees at Amazon offices outside of Seattle are encouraged to walk out, too. According to The Seattle Times, there are folks at other offices aiming to participate.

    There are two employee activist groups behind this protest. One you've likely heard of, which is Amazon Employees for Climate Justice. They've organized demonstrations in the past, pushing for the company to adopt more climate-friendly policies. The second group emerged after the company recently began its new in-office policy on May 1. The group "Amazon Remote Advocacy" reportedly came about after 30,000 co-workers joined a "remote advocacy" Slack channel in recent weeks. Among their arguments is a statement that employees should have a say in decisions that affect their lives (and the climate), such as returning to the office, as well as the effect on more vulnerable employees.

    According to a statement from the groups: "The world is changing, and Amazon needs to embrace the new reality of remote and flexible work if it wants to remain an innovative company that attracts and retains world-class talent."

    KIRO Radio recently looked at traffic data and noted that since Amazon's in-office move started, traffic times leading into Seattle have slowed by as much as 38% on some routes. It's anecdotal, but it's being called the "Amazon effect." It should be noted that Amazon is not the only company in town doing this. Starbucks started a similar policy this year.

    This is where things get awkward, because there is no easy answer around all of this. For months now, downtown business leaders have been begging everybody from city hall to local offices to bring employees back into Seattle. The core argument here is that foot traffic downtown is a shadow of the Before Times. The presence of office workers is about 26% of pre-pandemic levels (according to reporting from March). Without such people coming into town and leaving their dollars behind, local businesses have been suffering.

    The Downtown Seattle Association's most recent data states that incoming worker traffic "continues to improve."

    "April 2023 saw the second-highest level of daily worker foot traffic since the start of the pandemic, averaging more than 73,000 visits daily."

    It has been a struggle to improve conditions downtown, and that struggle has put Seattle at a crossroads. The city can either double down on the way things were before pandemic disruptions, or carve a new sustainable path. Which is best? Which is easiest? Right now, it seems that the city's leaders are leaning back into the old office ways.

    To borrow an oft-used tagline from Mayor Bruce Harrell, this crossroads could be an opportunity to hit "reset" on the city, and build back better to manage our region. That's an argument going around town right now as one solution to downtown woes. The old way meant getting people in their cars to commute into Seattle, cramming everyone into one spot — spend a couple hours in a car to work in a cubicle eight hours. A new way would mean redefining Seattle, perhaps creating a downtown where people can actually live, and those residents can support the local neighborhood. There are indications that this sort of local support happened more widely among Seattle's suburbs during pandemic shifts, places where people live and work remotely. Those Seattle neighborhoods have remarkably low retail vacancy rates. The fact that things worked out differently in downtown should be big red flag for city leaders. Actually, the businesses that catered to downtown residents were the ones who fared better during this time. After all, the downtown area is about half office space ... much of which has not been recently used.

    It should be noted that the DSA also recently reported that occupied downtown apartments are at record highs. It also states that the "the pace of growth is moderating" when it comes to downtown apartments.

    Fewer commuting office workers means better roads for those who don't have a remote-work option. I'm primarily thinking about our region's health-care workers who are commuting in from more affordable communities. Lower income workers are more likely to hit the road, too.

    That's what Seattle faces right now. Groups of employees who prefer to work at home, and a downtown community that would like to see more folks in offices (and their shops). Will the Amazon activists get enough co-workers to sign on and walk out? Will someone point out that this demonstration is essentially over the lunch hour? Will Amazon feel the need to respond? We'll find out on May 31.

    KUOW's Bill Radke is dissecting our language even more this week in the latest edition of "Words in Review" all focused on the term "gubernatorial." TSF also covered this work in a recent "Did You Know" segment — you know, that section below that you humor me with as I nerd out about random factoids, which I inevitably link to movies in some way. The gist of that section was that "gubernator" and "gubernatorial" were the original Latin version of the word. It evolved from there and the French added a "v," which the English took on and today we have "governor." Yet, in the USA, we use "gubernatorial" when referencing elections, instead of saying "governor's race" or "race for governor."

    Continue reading »

  • Washington is about to dive deeper into the world of psychedelic research

    In a place where "magic mushrooms" grow freely, it's still illegal to possess them in Washington, but the state is preparing for a legalized future.

    The Washington state Legislature has mandated that the University of Washington's Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Department study the drug's effects on the mind.

    Dr. Nathan Sackett, co-director of the Center for Novel Therapeutics in Addiction Psychiatry, is developing the study now. About 40 military veterans and first responders will undergo therapy and supervised sessions on psilocybin. The study will focus on patients who have both post -traumatic stress disorder and alcohol use disorder.

    Sackett expects the psilocybin treatment, paired with therapy, will help with PTSD and alcohol use disorder. Patients' sessions will begin by 2025.

    RELATED: He helped cancer patients find peace through psychedelics. Then came his diagnosis

    “Our hope is that in targeting this specific population with these two co-morbidities, we could better understand if this could be a viable treatment moving forward,” Sackett said.

    A growing body of research points to psilocybin, the psychoactive element in the mushrooms, as a treatment for depression, addiction, and other mental health ailments. In 2019, the FDA granted psilocybin "breakthrough therapy" status, which opened the door for expedited study of the drug.

    However, “There are large gaps in the literature that need to be addressed before we make this a widespread, available treatment,” Sackett said.

    Sackett will be looking for how effective the drug is, and how long effects last after the psilocybin session.

    “For a lot of people, we have a story in our mind that kind of loops around, that’s informed from our childhood and our history and our experiences. That story is often reinforced, kind of day in and day out. And if your story is that you're depressed or that you have trauma or that you need to use alcohol or substances, it gets very difficult to step out of that story. My hypothesis is that, in using these compounds in a therapeutic setting, you are allowed to step outside of that narrative for a certain time period and question the validity of that story.”

    This will be UW's second recent study involving magic mushrooms. It is the first ordered by state lawmakers. The previous study involved health care workers during the pandemic.

    RELATED: Could a psychedelic trip help burned out health care workers cope? This scientist thinks so

    Continue reading »

  • Amazon employees plan walkout over return-to-office policy, and more

    Amazon employee activist groups are trying to rally colleagues for a one-hour walkout in protest of various grievances with the company, including its new mandate that employees return to the office three days per week.

    The walkout will be held between noon and 1 p.m. on May 31 if organizers can get commitments to participate from at least 1,000 Amazon employees.

    RELATED: Seattle employers beckon workers back to the office. Downtown can’t wait

    Two groups are organizing the demonstration. Amazon Employees for Climate Justice has been pressuring the company to take a more aggressive approach to reducing its carbon footprint for years. More recently, a group called Amazon Remote Advocacy has sprung up to protest the company’s return-to-office (RTO) policy.

    “RTO, layoffs, and a broken Climate Pledge all show leadership is exhibiting Day 2 behavior and taking us in the wrong direction,” the groups say in a statement, giving a nod to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ catchphrase, “it’s always Day 1.”

    According the groups' statement:

    "The world is changing, and Amazon needs to embrace the new reality of remote and flexible work if it wants to remain an innovative company that attracts and retains world-class talent. Many of us, including women, people of color, and workers with disabilities report that having autonomy in where we work improves not only our relationship with it, but also our ability to be seen and treated as equals. Amazon's top-down, one-size-fits-all RTO mandate undermines the diverse, accessible future that we want to be a part of. Amazon must return autonomy to its teams, who know their employees and customers best, to make the best decision on remote, in-person, or hybrid work, and to its employees to choose a team which enables them to work the way they work best."

    Amazon has laid off a total of 27,000 employees in the past year after approximately doubling its headcount during the pandemic. On May 1, the company implemented a new policy requiring employees to go into the office three days per week.

    A recent analysis by KIRO Radio suggests workers are largely returning to the downtown HQ, evident through the increased strain on commuter traffic. Dubbing it the "Amazon Effect," traffic reporter Chris Sullivan dug up data indicating traffic speeds have slowed by as much as 38% on some routes into Seattle ever since the company's return-to-office mandate took effect.

    While employees appear to be complying with the order, that doesn’t mean they’re happy about it. About 30,000 Amazon workers joined a “Remote Advocacy” Slack channel when the company first announced its RTO plans.

    An Amazon spokesperson said, "we respect our employees’ rights to express their opinions," in a statement to KUOW. Amazon Employees for Climate Justice did not respond to questions about the walkout.

    If it happens, the walkout will come a week after Amazon’s annual shareholder meeting, where activist investors and employees often raise controversial issues.

    A previous version of this story stated that the walkout would happen a week before Amazon's annual shareholder meeting. The correct date of the shareholder meeting is May 24, which is a week before the planned walkout.

    Continue reading »

  • Why some folks in Kent are celebrating: Today So Far
    • A busted up, inoperable guitar onced owned by Kurt Cobain was just auctioned off for $596,000.
    • Pandemic blows to education greatly depended on your zip code (aka your tax bracket).
    • Folks at a Kent-based company are major players in the USA's return to the moon.

    This post originally appeared in KUOW's Today So Far newsletter for May 22, 2023.

    Concerns about kids' education rose during pandemic shutdowns. Now we're getting a picture of exactly how much of a hit education took during that time.

    Recent studies indicate that how much of a setback a student experienced depends on where they live. I'll break this down real easy: High-income students did OK, lower-income students were hit pretty hard.

    KUOW's Sami West reports that learning loss greatly depended on economic status over the past few years. One example is looking at Mercer Island and the Highline School District. Only about 3% of students in Mercer Island are on a free and reduced lunch program. Down the road in the Highline School District, 65% of students qualify for this low-income program. Such programs are often used to measure the level of lower-income students in an area. Mercer Island only registered minor learning losses, while Highline students were set back seven months in math and reading.

    There are other Washington districts that West looks into, but the story is generally the same. There are a lot of reasons that could be behind this. Wealthier students could have more access to tech for remote learning, or could have extra guidance that the parents could afford. One official tells KUOW that many students in lower-income areas suffered more trauma during the pandemic from losing family members. Read the full story here.

    I once heard Nirvana band members say in an interview that the reason they destroyed their instruments at the end of a show was so they didn't have to do encores. They destroyed a lot of guitars, drums, and amps. One such destroyed guitar, played by Kurt Cobain, was put back together and saved. It was just auctioned off for $596,000, which was 10 times the opening bid ... and still not nearly enough to buy a home in Seattle.

    The black Fender Stratocaster was beat up in 1990, before the release of the "Nevermind" album that rocketed Nirvana to historic heights. After being pieced back together, the guitar was signed by members of the band and gifted to Mark Lanegan, singer of the Screaming Trees. Lanegan was known for collaborating far and wide. He worked with members of Pearl Jam and Alice in Chains. He was a member of Queens of the Stone Age and wrote music with Belle & Sebastian singer Isobel Campbell. He also collaborated with Cobain, mostly around their mutual love for blues musician Leadbelly.

    Lanegan passed away in 2022. Read more about the auctioned Cobain guitar here.

    Growing up, my knowledge of Kent was mostly based on "Almost Live" parodies with trucker hats and big hair. How things have changed. Kent is now a key player in the journey back to the moon.

    Kent is where Blue Origin is based. That's Jeff Bezos' aerospace company. It just landed a major NASA contract to help develop vehicles to both travel into lunar orbit, and land on the moon's surface. Folks at the Kent operation will now develop systems for the Artemis 5 mission, slated for 2029. Check out the full story here.

    This mission will take a crew to the moon's surface (after SpaceX takes a crew there first). It's a significant story for a few reasons. One is that it shows there is business competition for space travel and contracts, which implies where the economy is headed. And two, the moon is the first step toward larger goals. We've been to the moon, but it's still impressive to go there. It will be even more mind expanding to go to Mars, which is the next stop. Think of the moon as a space station of sorts. With its lower gravity, it could be a more economical place to launch longer missions from. If there is ice discovered there, then that makes it even better. You can make rocket fuel from ice.

    Continue reading »

  • 5 locations where King County child with measles visited


    A case of measles has been confirmed in a King County child and public health officials are sounding an alarm for anyone who may have had contact while they were infectious.

    “Measles is highly contagious. If you don’t have immunity, you can get measles just by being in a room where a person with measles has been,” Elysia Gonzales, Medical Epidemiologist for Public Health – Seattle & King County, said in a statement. “The best protection against measles is to get vaccinated. Two doses of measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine provides about 97% protection against getting infected by measles and that protection lasts a lifetime.”

    The child visited the following places at these times:

    • 5/11/23 noon to 5:45 p.m. Aki Kurose Middle School 3928 S Graham Street, Seattle, Wash.
    • 5/12/23 8:45 a.m. to 5:45 p.m. Aki Kurose Middle School 3928 S Graham Street, Seattle, Wash.
    • 5/13/23 3:45 p.m. to 6:45 p.m. Pike Place Market
    • 5/13/23 4:15 p.m. to 6:45 p.m. World Market, 2103 Western Ave, Seattle, Wash.
    • 5/15/23 2 p.m. to 5:45 p.m. HopeCentral Pediatrics & Behavioral Health 3826 S Othello Street, Seattle, Wash.

    If you were at these locations, and have not been vaccinated against measles, health officials are urging you contact your doctor and watch out for symptoms, including a rash and fever. They estimate that anyone who might have gotten the highly contagious infection could get sick between now and June 5.

    The vaccination status of the child and where they could have been infected are unknown.

    Public Health – Seattle & King County previously warned of a potentially infectious case of measles in January. At that time, an adult woman with measles passed through Sea-Tac Airport and visited the emergency department as Providence Swedish First Hill.

    Continue reading »

  • Mike's adventures in art: Wolf Play, Strange Weather, Storm

    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 arts 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

    "Wolf Play" is showing at ACT Theater. This is my pick of the week. When I learned this play would tackle the complexities of rehoming an international adoptee, the phenomenon of rehoming children using the internet (in this case Yahoo message board), gender ideology, gender in relation to professional athletics, and homophobia all in one 2-hour play with no intermission — I was skeptical. Not of the ability of writer Hansol Jung to craft the story, but of my ability to absorb it all in a 120-minute sprint without a breather.

    I was way off base with that assumption.

    Before seeing the play, I spoke with director Rosa Joshi. She explained that even though the topics themselves are heavy, we experience the play through the eyes of a 6-year-old boy. So the tone of the play naturally becomes lighter. Sitting in the audience, I marveled at the execution. The contrasting moments where the adults are parsing through heart-wrenching discussions, and we get narration directly from the little boy who is at the center of the action, allow the audience to laugh. Even though we as adults understand what we are seeing, we are allowed to transition into the perspective of a child. And in this production, the child believes he is a wolf.

    "Wolf Play" tells the story of a little boy, known as Wolf, who is struggling to find his pack. His family. Before the play starts, we learn that while the boy is Korean, the story is about Americans. We are slammed into the middle of the “rehoming” process. We see Wolf delivered to a new family and through his eyes we experience his world shift as his father explains to him that he will have a new home. The emotions from the adults, the terror of the child, a pressure cooker situation that eventually explodes into violence - this scene will live with the audience long after seeing the play.

    Wolf's new parents are a lesbian couple, one of which did not want to adopt. So not only do we get the dynamic of a reluctant parent causing ripples in a marriage, but this parent is also a non-binary boxer preparing for their professional debut against a male fighter. So, in the midst of training for a historical bout, now a child has invaded their world.

    There is so much more I could say about this play, but I encourage folks to see it for themselves. There is so much to unpack. The little boy is a puppet. His puppeteer, who is an adult, plays the character of a wolf. And that wolf speaks for the little boy. It is not only creative artistically, but adds a unique dynamic to production. The puppeteer speaks the boy's thoughts which cannot be heard by the other characters, and speaks directly to the audience, breaking the fourth wall, and also has moments where he speaks to other characters as the little boy. It adds so much to the production having this element.

    Puppetry, staged-boxing, and the quest to find love round out this amazing production. I see a lot of plays. This is easily one of the best I’ve seen this year.

    Wolf Play, showing at the ACT Theater May 5 - 21

    Visual Art

    Continue reading »

  • Why Seattle is watching its wallet: Today So Far
    • The city of Seattle will have a balanced budget this year. Maybe next year, too. After that ... well, we'll see.
    • Seattle School Board believes it has a solution to next year's budget woes, but it's more of a patch.
    • PCC just announced to its members that it won't be distributing dividends this year.

    This post originally appeared in KUOW's Today So Far newsletter for May 19, 2023.

    Months of inflation, lingering pandemic effects, taxes, avocado toast ... OK, not really avocado toast. It's just a popular thing to complain about and use to blame people for things. Like Millennials. Stupid avocado toast-loving Millennials ruining our economy.

    In reality, there's a cluster of factors colliding to make people nervous about upcoming budgets, especially around Seattle's city hall, school district, and grocery stores. Such as the inflation and pandemic shifts mentioned above, but also some factors unique to our city.

    The city of Seattle will have a balanced budget this year. Maybe next year, too. After that ... well, we'll see.

    The city's number crunchers say that inflation, uncertainty, lower tax revenue, are among factors threatening the city's overall revenue. Inflation means things cost more. Lower revenue means there's less money to pay for those increased costs.

    The pandemic caused fewer people to drive into the city for work, which in turn, lowered the amount of parking tax Seattle took in. The city also has a head tax on high-earning employees at local companies. But those earnings can be heavily influenced by stock prices, which have taken some hits. Lower stocks means lower pay, which means many employees fall under the high-earning threshold for the tax. It's probably worth noting the high number of layoffs in the local tech industry, and the fact that Amazon is moving a lot of jobs over to Bellevue.

    These are the sorts of effects that Seattle leaders are considering now as they look at the budget ahead. Read the full story here.

    The Seattle School Board believes it has a solution to address its $131 million budget gap, but as KUOW's Sami West points out, this is more of a patch. The temporary fix will help the district get through the upcoming school year, but it is looking at millions more in cuts down the road. Seattle Schools is also figuring out which schools could be consolidated in the future.

    The funding issue largely comes from declining enrollment at Seattle schools. The district gets funding from the state based on the number of students attending its classes. Fewer students means less funding.

    In non-government budget news, local businesses are also pinching pennies. The upscale grocery co-op PCC just announced to its members that, for the first time in its history, it won't be distributing dividends this year. The market saw increased revenues over the past year, but costs and inflation have grown beyond those gains, leading to an overall loss of $250,000 for the market.

    PCC is pointing to a lot of the same factors that the city and school district have brought up, mainly inflation. But it's also pointing to the influence of pandemic changes. It opened a store in downtown Seattle last year, which failed to produce a decent customer base. Remote work is being blamed for that — instead of importing folks from outside of downtown to do their grocery shopping, people stayed home and shopped locally. Monica Nickelsburg has the full story here.

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