Washington voters this year are contemplating a wide-open race to replace the state’s Attorney General. The Attorney General manages the state's largest public law firm, overseeing a staff of attorneys charged with representing public agencies and defending the rights of Washington residents, covering issues including consumer protection, civil rights, environmental regulations, and antitrust. This year’s race is an especially interesting one. The current Attorney General, Bob Ferguson, is runni...
Jul 10, 2024•23 min
Oh, voter. You are going to be asked to watch so many races in the coming months. There is, of course, the presidential race, which is sucking the air out of the room. There's also governor, attorney general, congressional seats, state house representatives, land’s commissioner, and, because you live in the great state of Washington, citizen’s initiatives. And, if you don’t have enough to think about, there is a new initiative likely headed to your ballot. It will roll back the state’s efforts t...
Jul 09, 2024•10 min
Perhaps you’ve noticed a lot of construction on Seattle streets this year: new bike lanes along MLK, fresh pavement and bus shelters on Madison Street, and sidewalk replacements across the city. That’s because the Seattle Department of Transportation has money to spend. In 2015, voters passed a $930 million transportation levy called “Move Seattle.” And initially, Seattle was slow moving that money out the door. “Move Seattle” expires this year and Seattle voters will likely be deciding on wheth...
Jul 09, 2024•15 min
DACA, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, is a policy President Obama enacted by executive order in 2012. It’s had a rocky legal journey, but when it was still accepting new applications, DACA was open to undocumented young people who graduated from high school or served in the military and were brought to the U.S. as children. The program has given roughly 800,000 people access to things like a driver’s license, a social security number, and a work permit. When the Trump Administration c...
Jul 08, 2024•38 min
Soundside is revisiting a few of our favorite stories this holiday week, and today, we’re taking an architectural tour of Seattle. First stop, the backstory behind Capitol Hill’s iconic Volunteer Park Reservoir – which isn’t just a pretty pool, but an emergency stopgap. Then, the often-overlooked story of legendary architect Minoru Yamasaki as told by his granddaughter, Katie Yamasaki, author of "Shapes, Lines, and Light: My Grandfather's American Journey." And finally, we’ll visit a Seattle sec...
Jul 03, 2024•51 min
The Soundside team is on a break this week for the 4th of July holiday, so we’re revisiting some of our favorite segments of the year. First up, when Seattle writer and illustrator Tessa Hulls started drafting the story of her grandmother’s life, she wanted to take on the role of neutral narrator, but that didn't last long. We’ll hear about her graphic novel, Feeding Ghosts, and the complicated family history she unraveled. And then, we'll speak with the director of a documentary about renowned ...
Jul 02, 2024•51 min
The Soundside team is taking some time off this 4th of July week; some of us are on vacation, and others are working on upcoming shows. We’re going to revisit some of our favorite segments, and the hardworking producers who make Soundside, will be making the picks. Producer Noel Gasca's picks: Lily Gladstone chronicles Blackfeet Nation's reunion with buffalo in new SIFF documentary In 'Thunder Song,' a Coast Salish punk creates her own form of medicine Guests: Lily Gladstone, Oscar nominee and e...
Jul 01, 2024•54 min
For months, one creature of the night has been drawing the fascination and exasperation of city leaders, police officers, and residents of one of Seattle’s trendiest neighborhoods. Some call him The Belltown Hellcat. Maybe you’ve caught a glimpse of his souped-up 2023 Dodge Charger Hellcat zipping by, or the car’s revving and backfiring has kept you from getting a decent night of sleep. Or you could be one of his roughly 760 thousand Instagram followers – watching as he posts clips of his late n...
Jun 28, 2024•12 min
When it comes to Presidential elections, Washington state's electoral votes are about as blue as you can get. But there are still big stakes here when it comes to how national political conversations affect local races. A recent analysis from the Cook Political Report says that the 2024 Washington gubernatorial race is shaping up to be competitive, even though a Republican hasn't been governor since the 1985. While it may be assumed Democrats will get the votes they need to clinch the governor's...
Jun 27, 2024•24 min
For weeks, Seattle Public Schools families have been waiting for news about school closures. In May, the district announced plans to close 20 elementary schools to shore up its budget. And that left parents, and students, wondering if their local school was on the chopping block. Last night was supposed to be the night they would learn which schools will close, but they’ll have to wait just a little longer to find out. Guest: Sami West, KUOW education reporter Relevant Links: KUOW: Families won'...
Jun 27, 2024•10 min
After a four year hiatus, the reality television show “Cops” is returning to Spokane County. If you had a TV anytime in the last few decades, you know the show: shaky cameras following police busting drug deals, stopping thefts, chasing down the “bad boys”. Paramount canceled Cops in 2020, amid the George Floyd protests. But it didn’t take long for the show to return. ‘Cops’ began airing again in 2021 as part of Fox Nation -- Fox’s streaming service. Now, after four years away from the limelight...
Jun 26, 2024•29 min
After an 8 month search, the Seattle Art Museum has a new director and CEO: Scott Stulen comes to Seattle from Tulsa, Oklahoma where he led the Philbrook Museum. In their announcement, SAM touted Stulen’s work expanding the role of museums in civic life by using the Philbrook as a polling place and vegetable garden. Stulen’s hire comes at an important time for the SAM, arts organizations are still recovering from the pandemic, the museum is engaged in union negotiations with security guards, and...
Jun 26, 2024•10 min
An influential research team with a focus on fighting false and misleading election information online has reportedly collapsed under pressure from conservative critics. The Stanford Internet Observatory’s future is uncertain now that the team has lost most of its staff. While Stanford told reporters in a statement that the Observatory’s work will continue under new leadership, it appears the rapid analysis work identifying election misinformation that researchers conducted during the 2020 elect...
Jun 25, 2024•36 min
A King County Superior Court Judge has hit the pause button on a few elements of the Parents Bill of Rights, also known as I-2081. The Friday order comes in response to a lawsuit filed by the ACLU of WA in May. LGBTQIA advocacy groups and civil liberties organizations raised concern about the legality of the Parents Bill of Rights and its effect on students. Jeanie Lindsay joined Soundside host Libby Denkmann to talk about which parts of the bill have been put on hold, and what this means for sc...
Jun 25, 2024•13 min
Families of people who died on Boeing jets are renewing their calls for criminal prosecution of the company after Boeing’s CEO appeared before Congress this week. The families are asking the Justice Department to fine Boeing the maximum – 24 billion dollars – for the dual 737 Max 8 crashes in 2018 and 2019. The letter to the DOJ comes the day after Boeing’s David Calhoun testified before on a series of safety lapses and whistleblower complaints at the company. The Senate Homeland Security and Go...
Jun 25, 2024•17 min
For the first time in 25 years, the Makah Tribe of Neah Bay will once again be allowed to hunt the Eastern Pacific Gray Whale. The tribe, which is located in the northwest corner of the Olympic Peninsula, has the only treaty in the US that explicitly includes the right to hunt whales for cultural and sustenance purposes. But, in the past 90 years, they have only been allowed to exercise that right once, in 1999, when tribal members harpooned a whale. The ceremony was controversial: there were th...
Jun 25, 2024•18 min
School is out for the summer, and when students of two Seattle schools return in the fall, there will be some changes. Cell phones will be banned at Robert Eagle Staff Elementary and Hamilton International Middle School. Students will check their cell phone into a small lockable pouch when they arrive at school. Districts across the state and country have taken similar actions. Florida and Indiana have passed laws requiring districts to create policies that restrict phone usage during the school...
Jun 24, 2024•21 min
Employees of Everett’s Daily Herald are on strike today. They’re protesting the management decisions that led to a dozen staffers being laid off from the newspaper last Wednesday. Back in March, Carpenter Media Group purchased Black Press Media, which owned 43 publications in Washington and Alaska, including the Herald. Carpenter says the restructuring is part of plans to improve the economics of the paper and better serve the community. The Daily Herald covers nearly 1 million residents in Snoh...
Jun 24, 2024•12 min
$395 million -- that is one judge’s estimate of how much the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community should receive in a trespassing case. The judgment is not only a monetary victory for the tribe, but points to the legal leverage Tribal governments have when it comes to protecting their sovereignty. Guests: Isabella Breda, environment reporter at the Seattle Times Relevant Links: Seattle Times: Judge orders BNSF to pay WA tribe $400M for oil train trespass Seattle Times: A WA tribe will get paid by a...
Jun 20, 2024•14 min
To make room for the new Sageview High School, Pasco school board members needed to make a decision: which students would go to the shiny new school, and which would stay at one of the older schools: Pasco High School, or Chiawana High? This isn’t the first time Pasco’s school board has had to make a decision like this. When Chiawana High opened in 2009, the district began busing some students across the city to attend the new school, instead of the nearby, much older, Pasco High. The school bou...
Jun 20, 2024•15 min
This year marks the 25th anniversary of the WTO protests in Seattle, a raucous action by 50,000 protesters who descended on the city in the fall of 1999. Their aim? shutting down a conference of top decision makers at the World Trade Organization. When this coalition of activists succeeded in stopping the WTO’s opening ceremonies, the “Battle of Seattle” became an inflection point in a growing struggle between advocates for free trade and groups fighting for the rights of labor, farmers, the env...
Jun 18, 2024•25 min
The U.S. Coast guard says it is still investigating the cause of a catastrophic implosion that destroyed the Titan submersible on a dive in the North Atlantic, killing all five passengers onboard. Titan was built and operated by Everett-based OceanGate. The company was a player in the nascent deep sea tourism industry, shuttling people to the site of the Titanic wreck at a cost of $250,000 a ticket. A new article in WIRED magazine details that, for years before Titan disappeared, engineers and e...
Jun 18, 2024•25 min
Since the Supreme Court struck down the right to an abortion in 2022, Idaho has enacted some of the strictest abortion laws in the country. For Idaho medical students at the University of Washington, the near total abortion ban creates uncertainty about whether they will go back home to practice. Guests: Dr. Sarah Villarreal, associate professor at the University of Washington and practicing OB/GYN Emina Gulbis, 4th year Idaho WWAMI medical student Related Links: Cascade PBS Medical residents ar...
Jun 17, 2024•16 min
It’s been a tumultuous few years for rental laws in Washington state. When the pandemic caused widespread job and income losses, state, county, and city governments passed a series of protections to keep tenants housed. That included funds for back-paying rent and moratoriums on evictions. But many of those protections have ended, and over the last year, eviction cases have spiked in the state. In King County’s court system specifically, that massive demand is leading to delays ranging from six ...
Jun 17, 2024•20 min
Microsoft continues to face tough questions about its security protocols and commitment to safety after a whistleblower says he warned the company about a serious vulnerability involving third party software years ahead of it being exploited in the infamous SolarWinds attack. Experts believe that it was in September of 2019 that Russian hackers gained access to SolarWinds - a network infrastructure monitoring software relied on by hundreds of thousands of computer systems across the country. By ...
Jun 17, 2024•14 min
At a time when many voters are deciding which candidate to support in the August primary, voters are also witnessing very public conflicts between Democratic candidates. Ethics and finance complaints filed by gubernatorial candidate Mark Mullet against front runner Bob Ferguson point to the gulf between moderates and progressives. Guests: Scott Greenstone, KUOW politics reporter Related Links: KUOW: Bob Ferguson's campaign funds under fire from rival Democrat in governor's race KUOW: Will the re...
Jun 13, 2024•19 min
Seattle Police say they have stepped up their presence today on the Garfield High School campus in the Central District. Interim Police Chief Sue Rahr told King 5 that Seattle Public Schools reached out to ask for the support – following the shooting of 17-year old Amarr Murphy-Paine on campus last week. Parents, teachers, and students gathered at Garfield on Tuesday to talk about what safety and security needs to look like at the school. There have been at least six shootings in and around Garf...
Jun 13, 2024•23 min
An estimated 45% of riders paid to get on the light rail in Seattle according to Sound Transit estimates from 2023. When you tap your Orca card at one of those yellow stands, or maybe you don’t, you’re making a difference to Sound Transit’s bottom line because the organization has been hoping to rely on that revenue to make up 40% of light rail’s operating budget. Last year, only 14% of the budget was covered by fares. It’s an ambitious goal, one that Sound Transit has had since the agency forme...
Jun 12, 2024•14 min
It was Thanksgiving in 1996. Seattle newscasters are reporting that the “Hollywood” Bandit has locked himself in an old camper in a backyard in Ravenna after robbing the Lake City branch of Seafirst Bank of over 1 million dollars in cash. The Seattle Police and FBI Task Force that’s been hunting him for years finally have him surrounded… But to understand how we got here, like any good crime story, we’ve gotta flash back to the beginning, where Scott Scurlock, inspired by movies like Point Break...
Jun 12, 2024•33 min
Western sandpipers migrate thousands of miles each year, from their breeding grounds in the upper reaches of Alaska to the coasts California and South America. One location, in particular, is an irresistible pit stop for sandpipers: a wide mud flat on the Fraser River Delta near the U.S./Canada border. Not far away from those mud flats is one of British Columbia’s most important shipping terminals, and a new report by Seattle Times reporter Lynda Mapes says an approved expansion of that terminal...
Jun 11, 2024•17 min
