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Jun 25, 2024 · 16 min
Boeing's CEO got grilled by Congress, and this could just be the start
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 Governmental Affairs subcommittee hearing was the first time Calhoun had faced lawmakers since the door plug of a MAX 9 ripped off an Alaska Airlines plane back in January. Members of congress have already heard from a bevy of whistleblowers, as well aviation and engineering safety experts testifying on what’s gone wrong at the company. Tuesday’s hearing was a rare instance of bipartisan agreement on the Hill: Calhoun faced the heat from Democrat and Republican lawmakers. Guest: Richard Aboulafia, managing director of AeroDynamic Advisory See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Jun 25, 2024 · 18 min
After 25 years, the Makah will be allowed to hunt whales once again
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 threats of violence, protestors on boats tried to stop the hunt. At vigils, activists held signs that said “Save the whales, kill a Makah.” It also sparked decades of court battles, scientific reviews, and bureaucracy. Now, following the 2021 recommendation of a judge to grant the Makah a waiver, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, also known as NOAA, has authorized a return of whaling. Guest: Makah Tribal Council Chairman Timothy J. Greene Sr Relevant Links: KNKX: https://www.knkx.org/makah-tribe-waiver-noaa-whale-hunt-marine-mammal-act-washington The New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/13/us/makah-whales-hunting-noaa.html NOAA: https://www.noaa.gov/news-release/noaa-fisheries-authorizes-makah-tribe-to-resume-gray-whale-hunt See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Jun 24, 2024 · 20 min
Should schools ban cell phones?
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 day This all comes amid a growing body of research on the impacts that smartphones have on teen learning and mental health. Guests: Lucía Magis-Weinberg, assistant professor at the University of Washington School of Psychology Kris Hagal, executive director of digital learning at Peninsula School District Links: Seattle Times: Two Seattle schools ban cellphones WA State Standard: Should Washington’s public schools ban students from using cellphones? Tacoma News Tribune: Local school district bans social media use at school. Here’s how they’ll enforce it See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Jun 24, 2024 · 12 min
Layoffs at Everett's Daily Herald leads to a Strike
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 Snohomish and Island counties. Carpenter reportedly has plans to eliminate 62 positions across Sound Publishing, of which the Herald is its largest publication. This decision comes amid years of contraction within local journalism. To get more on the potential impacts, Soundside spoke with Caleb Hutton. He’s the local news editor of the Everett Herald, and is among the newsroom members who is being let go. KUOW requested to speak with representatives from Carpenter Media Group, but they have not responded. Guests: Caleb Hutton - Local News Editor, Everett's Daily Herald Relevant Links: HeraldNet.com - ‘This breaks my heart’: Roughly half of Everett Herald news staff laid off KUOW - Everett Herald’s new owner appears to censor story about layoffs WA State Standard - At one of WA's oldest papers, deep cuts and an uncertain future See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Jun 20, 2024 · 14 min
BNSF ordered to pay almost $400 million for trespassing on Swinomish land
$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 railroad that trespassed. The question is how much KUOW: BNSF Railway ordered to pay $395 million after years of trespassing on Swinomish land See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Jun 20, 2024 · 14 min
What's more important for WA school students: proximity, or diversity?
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 boundaries they drew back then were aimed at evening out the share of lower income students at Pasco schools. To create economic diversity at the schools. This time, the Pasco school board has taken a different approach - listening to parents value proximity over economic diversity. That's raising bigger questions about how demographics like race and income affect student learning and school performance. Guests: Eric Rosane: civic accountability reporter for the Tri-City Herald Saba Bireda: Co-Founder of Brown's Promise, an organization that works to end racial and economic segregation in K-12 schools. Related Links: Tri-City Herald: https://www.tri-cityherald.com/news/local/education/article289202959.html Tri-City Herald: https://www.tri-cityherald.com/news/local/education/article288980625.html See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Jun 18, 2024 · 25 min
The 1999 'Battle of Seattle,' as told by those who lived it
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 environment and more. Comprising over 100 interviews, author DW Gibson’s new book, “One Week to Change the World,” tells a new oral history of the protest through the eyes of people who participated. Guests: DW Gibson, journalist based in New York and author of "One Week to Change the World." See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Jun 18, 2024 · 24 min
Why didn't OceanGate CEO heed warnings before Titan sub implosion?
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 experts in the submersible industry had warned OceanGate, and its CEO Stockton Rush, that Titan had potentially fatal design problems. Guests: Mark Harris, investigative tech journalist Related Links: Wired: The Titan Submersible Disaster Shocked the World. The Exclusive Inside Story Is More Disturbing Than Anyone Imagined See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Jun 17, 2024 · 16 min
WWAMI brings Idaho students to UW School of Medicine, will they go back home?
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 are avoiding abortion-ban states, survey finds KUOW Post-Roe, WA is a health care ‘sanctuary’ — for both patients and providers Boise State Public Radio 'Idaho will suffer for this:' Doctors worry about attracting medical residents due to abortion bans See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Jun 17, 2024 · 19 min
Eviction cases are spiking. How tenants and housing providers are dealing with the backlog
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 months to a year. Some see this bottleneck as a frustrating bureaucratic mess; but others see it as growing pains in a system that's shifting from favoring landlords to more equally representing tenants. Soundside host Libby Denkmann spoke with Philippe Knab from the Office of Civil Legal Aid and Sean Flynn of the Rental Housing Association of Washington. Guests: Philippe Knab, eviction defense and re-entry program manager at the Washington State Office of Civil Legal Aid Sean Flynn, executive director of the Rental Housing Association of Washington Related links: Seattle Times: King County aims to speed up some eviction cases See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Jun 17, 2024 · 14 min
Whistleblower says Microsoft was warned ahead of SolarWinds hack
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 inserting malware in a SolarWinds update, hackers got a backdoor to those systems, including Microsoft and its customers: the largest of which is the U.S. government. They gained access to sensitive federal agencies, like the departments of Energy and Treasury. When the hack was discovered 14 months later – it brought home the threat of cyber warfare and the ability of malicious foreign actors to find tiny weaknesses in computer code to cause major damage. Now, new reporting by ProPublica sheds light on what Microsoft knew about the SolarWinds vulnerability before the attack – and the extent of the hackers’ access. including breaching the agency that maintains America’s nuclear weapons stockpile. Guests: Renee Dudley, a tech reporter at ProPublica Related Links: ProPublica: https://www.propublica.org/article/microsoft-solarwinds-golden-saml-data-breach-russian-hackers ProPublica: https://www.propublica.org/article/microsoft-solarwinds-cybersecurity-house-homeland-security-hearing See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Jun 13, 2024 · 18 min
Ethics and finance complaints point to division among Democrats
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 real Bob Ferguson please stand up? Name doppelgangers rattle Washington governor’s race Seattle Times: AG Bob Ferguson faces ethics complaint in ‘three Bobs’ saga See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Jun 13, 2024 · 23 min
Garfield High parent calls out school board - demands action for safer schools
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 Garfield over the past year, either on campus or within a few blocks of the school. And one Garfield parent says she’s tired of seeing the same response from the district, over and over. Guests: Carol Rava is the parent of both a current and former Garfield student. She’s also a one-time Seattle Public Schools employee, and wrote an op-ed for the Seattle Times on school safety, published this week. Related Links: https://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/stop-the-bleeding-sps-needs-to-do-better-to-keep-students-safe/ https://www.king5.com/article/news/local/seattle/seattle-police-presence-garfield-high-school/281-2594b875-e5b1-4a30-af2d-1fd58618ed00 https://www.kuow.org/stories/mapped-shootings-around-seattle-s-garfield-high-school-this-year See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Jun 12, 2024 · 13 min
Sound Transit lowers farebox recovery expecations
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 formed in the 90s. Sound Transit’s board says that goal is probably too ambitious. It’s time to revise expectations downwards to reflect the reality of lowered ridership, increasing costs, and rampant fare evasion. Guest(s): Ryan Packer, contributing editor at The Urbanist. Related Links: The Urbanist: Sound Transit Lowers Farebox Recovery Goals, Opens Door to Fare Capping, Is Sound Transit Closing In on Fare Gates for Link and Sounder? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Jun 12, 2024 · 32 min
Netflix's new hit "How To Rob A Bank" chronicles Seattle in the 90's
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, gets the wild idea to move on from cooking meth… to robbing banks. GUESTS: Co-Directors: Stephen Robert Morse & Seth Porges LINKS: https://www.netflix.com/watch/81427740 https://historylink.org/File/9043 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Jun 11, 2024 · 16 min
B.C. container port could threaten regional shorebirds and the miraculous mud they flock to
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 could threaten the unique organisms sandpipers stop to feast on. Guests: Seattle Times environment reporter Lynda Mapes. Read Mapes' full reporting on sandpipers, phytoplankton, and British Columbia's push to expand a container port here. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Jun 11, 2024 · 20 min
Mayor's Gun Violence Liaison highlights need for community led solutions
Community members greeted kids on their way into Garfield High School in Seattle’s Central District, after Mt. Zion Baptist Church, and the organization 100 Black Parents organized a massive show of support. Classes started up again Tuesday morning after a shooting on campus that claimed the life of 17-year old student, Amarr Murphy-Paine. The shooter, believed to be another high school aged boy, has not been found or identified by Seattle Police. Monday, a 15-year-old boy pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, among other charges, in the shooting death of a classmate at Ingraham High School in North Seattle in 2022. In the wake of that shooting, Seattle Public Schools and local elected leaders pledged to step up mental health support for students and improve safety on school campuses and in surrounding neighborhoods. But nearby gun violence has since repeatedly shattered the peace at Garfield, putting the school on lockdown, and now another Seattle student has lost their life at school. So – what’s the answer? How do we protect kids at school – the place where the LAST thing they should be worried about is dodging gunfire? GUEST: DeVitta Briscoe, Gun Violence Prevention Liaison for the city of Seattle, and founder of the Black Women’s Coalition to End Violence. LINKS: KUOW: https://www.kuow.org/stories/gun-violence-prevention-advocate-starts-work-in-seattle-mayor-s-office South Seattle Emerald: https://southseattleemerald.com/tag/devitta-briscoe/ Seattle Times: https://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/a-lesson-from-my-losses-we-cannot-afford-to-completely-dismantle-the-police/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Jun 10, 2024 · 11 min
How a glut of California almonds could mean fewer Northwest honeybees
Most of us are familiar with how our food grows. Fruit trees, crop plants -- they all put out blossoms. From there, honeybees spread pollen and collect nectar to grow their local hives. That buzzy work is a critical piece of agriculture, because without bees, the food we'd like to grow... won't grow. But a recent glut of almonds in California is disrupting a bee renting ecosystem -- a "bee-cosystem," if you will -- that Northwest farmers depend on. Soundside caught up with Anna King about her recent story on local beekeeping and its relationship with California almonds. King covers Washington and Oregon mainly east of the Cascades for the Northwest News Network. Read Anna King's full reporting on the Washington beekeeping industry here. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Jun 10, 2024 · 40 min
Interim SPD Chief talks SPD culture, school safety, and whether to bring officers back to campuses
Interim Seattle Police Chief Sue Rahr has a big mandate: Hire more officers, and clean up a department culture that has led to half a dozen lawsuits from high ranking SPD officers who say they were the victims of discrimination, harassment or retaliation. Many parents and city leaders are also asking what more can be done to protect kids in Seattle schools, following a shooting at Garfield High School on June 6 that left one 17-year-old student dead. One idea that’s gained some attention – and pushback – is to bring Seattle Police Department community resource officers back to Seattle Public Schools campuses. Soundside host Libby Denkmann sat down with Chief Rahr to discuss her vision for the Seattle Police Department, and the crisis of school safety. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Jun 6, 2024 · 12 min
King County Regional Homelessness Authority votes in a new permanent CEO
The King County Regional Homelessness Authority (KCRHA) has a new leader: the agency’s board announced this week that starting Aug. 1, Kelly Kinnison will head the agency. Kinnison is a policy director at the US Department of Health and Human Services in Washington, D.C. and takes over at an uncertain time for KCRHA. The agency has been without permanent leadership for more than a year after the agency’s founding CEO, Marc Dones, left in May of 2023. Additionally, the city of Seattle -- one of the KCRHA’s largest funders -- announced in February that it was pulling back financial support from the agency, and there have been calls from local officials to restructure the organization. So what kind of agency will Kinnison be taking the helm of? Soundside is joined by Erica Barnett, co-founder and publisher at PubliCola. Read Erica Barnett's latest reporting on the KCRHA's vote for a new permanent CEO here. Read PubliCola's broader reporting on the KCRHA here. Read the latest reporting from the Seattle Times' Greg Kim on the departure of the agency's interim CEO, Darrell Powell, here. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.