An emergency drought declaration, the case of the missing texts, and the sky is falling (over the freeway). Discussing what happened, this week.

Bill Radke reviews the week’s news with Seattle City Council Insight founder and writer Kevin Schofield, Publicola publisher and editor Erica C Barnett, and author of the Wild West News letter on Substack, Eli Sanders.

Governor Jay Inslee announced an emergency drought declaration order this week after unprecedented conditions baked Central and Eastern Washington. In a tweet, the governor said this year Washington “...could be facing the worst wildfire season to date, and the impact on people, wildlife, and property could be devastating.” Though, you don’t have to look that far for the last wildfire record -- 2020 saw the highest number of individual fires in the state. State Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz has said that firefighters are already working at an unsustainable pace of 18 hours a day, and her department received a large chunk of funding from the state this month to help train firefighters and bolster their helicopter fleet -- some of which were used in the Vietnam War. This also means that inevitably, Seattle will be hit with wildfire smoke. What does our state firefighting team need to keep up with wildfire growth? What should people and the city be doing to prepare for wildfire smoke?

In other news, King County ballots are officially on their way to voters. And endorsements are out to help people decide who to vote for in races such as city council, King County Executive, and Seattle Mayor. This week The Stranger endorsed Lorena Gonzalez for Mayor, and Joe Nguyen for King County Executive. The Seattle Times, in comparison, endorsed Bruce Harrell and Dow Constantine. And those are only a few names in what's shaping up to be a crowded election season. What are candidates doing to separate themselves from the pack?

Also, this week, a KUOW investigation discovered who likely made the call to abandon the SPD's east precinct. The moments leading up to the decision are chronicled in a scenario built from nearly two thousands pages of public records. Finding out this information hasn’t been easy, either, largely due to the fact that critical text correspondence from the mayor over a 10 month period is missing. The Seattle Times is suing the city over this issue, claiming they violated public disclosure laws by mishandling and destroying texts, alongside a failure to respond to records requests in a timely fashion. The city concedes that the mayor’s texts are gone but filed a counter claim, stating it “complied with all relevant provisions of the Public Records Act.” Why didn’t officials just say who made the call?

What’s more, the Washington Supreme Court reinstated a King County inquest system that expands inquiry into police-caused deaths. The opinion was unanimous and means that coroner’s juries can note if an individual killed by police died by “criminal means.” This now means that, for the first time in 40 years, a coroners jury can also ask for police to testify in future and past cases (which they will now do for the 2017 case of Charleena Lyles and Damarius Butts, who were both killed by SPD). Why has it been so difficult to get officers to testify in officer-involved deaths?

Lastly, on Monday, the Washington State Patrol said that there have been 161 cases of rocks being thrown at cars on the freeway in King County. And it’s not just rocks. A scooter, shopping carts, and propane tanks have also been thrown off of overpasses into oncoming traffic. Multiple people have been arrested, and the State Patrol has even taken to the air, searching for more rock throwers. But, even with two more arrests this Monday, there are still rocks and other debris being thrown at cars. Why do is this happening now? The highways aren’t new, and neither is traffic -- so what is it about this summer that has so many people throwing objects at our freeways?