Cascade PBS News - Washington state & Seattle News

What is an attorney general? They’re more attorney than general

Andrew Engelson — Wed, 15 May 2024 05:01:00 PDT

For the first time in more than a decade, Washington voters will choose a new leader of the state’s largest public law office. But what exactly does the Washington attorney general do, and how has the office changed in the 12 years Bob Ferguson has been at the helm?

To answer those questions, we turned to the three most recent holders of the office: Ferguson, a Democrat who decided not to run for a fourth term; Rob McKenna, a Republican; and Chris Gregoire, a Democrat who went on to serve as governor.

“The easiest way that I’ve been able to describe it is to say the attorney general is the lawyer for the entire state,” said Gregoire, attorney general from 1993 to 2005. “It represents all state organizations and institutions of higher education. And it represents you, the consumer. If you have been improperly treated as a consumer, then it represents you.”

With a staff of nearly 800 attorneys, the attorney general manages the state’s largest public law firm, tasked with representing state agencies in court as well as defending the rights of Washington residents by enforcing consumer protection laws, filing civil rights lawsuits, and going after those who have violated the state’s environmental regulations.

Rob McKenna, who served from 2005 to 2013, notes that unlike other states, Washington doesn’t allow individual agencies to have their own legal staff. “So there’s no general counsel office in the state Department of Transportation, for example, or the Department of Corrections,” McKenna said. “As a result, when I was in office, we were the fifth largest AG office in the country.”

With an office of that magnitude, Washington has been at the forefront of major national consumer lawsuits in the past 30 years, including successful settlements against tobacco companies, mortgage lenders and opioid manufacturers.

Current attorney general Ferguson, who has led the office since 2013, said that one of the AG’s critical roles is taking on powerful entities that don’t play by the rules. “If you’re a farmworker in Central Washington, what chances do you really have to take on your company?” he said. “If Comcast is overbilling you five bucks a month on your bill, what chance do you really have to hold them accountable for that? Let’s be honest, it's pretty dang small.”

And while consumer protection is a large part of the office’s docket, in recent years more high-profile civil rights cases – including Ferguson’s lawsuits against controversial Trump-administration policies on immigration – made the post of attorney general even more visible.

Protecting consumers

Because Washington cities and counties are responsible for criminal prosecutions, about 98 percent of the AG’s cases are civil, not criminal. Those few instances when the office does prosecute crimes generally involve serious, complicated felonies for which less-populous counties or municipalities request assistance.

“The role of the attorney general is really quite limited when it comes to the criminal side,” Gregoire said. “We end up doing rather high-profile things – say first-degree murder cases in jurisdictions who do not have the experience to do it.”

A big portion of the AG office’s civil lawsuits center on enforcing the state’s Consumer Protection Act – which covers both fraudulent business practices and antitrust. A recent example is Ferguson’s case against the proposed merger of grocery chains Kroger and Albertsons. In a statement earlier this year, Ferguson said of the proposed sale, “Shoppers will have fewer choices and less competition, and, without a competitive marketplace, they will pay higher prices at the grocery store. That’s not right, and this lawsuit seeks to stop this harmful merger.”

Gregoire, as attorney general, was one of the leading negotiators in a massive multistate tobacco case – which in 1997 led to a record settlement that provided all 50 states with hundreds of billions in continual payments so long as the tobacco companies continue to do business. Washington is expected to receive a total of $4.5 billion from the companies by 2025 for health care and smoking prevention programs.

That lawsuit was sparked by documents released by tobacco company whistleblower Jeffrey Wigand, Gregoire said, noting that “what we came to understand was going on was appalling.”

“So, a couple of states went out and sued,” she said. “The rest of us tried to bring the whole group together, and ultimately we were able to get the largest settlement in the history of the world.”

During his tenure, attorney general Rob McKenna also was involved in a multistate class action suit against national mortgage lenders for fraudulent practices. That eventually led to a $25 billion settlement in 2012, of which Washington received $648 million. “We were able to provide mortgage relief to thousands of homeowners in Washington state,” McKenna said. “That was very gratifying.”

Ferguson’s most prominent consumer protection lawsuit involved holding opioid manufacturers, distributors and pharmacies accountable for the addiction and overdose crisis in Washington, which has claimed over 17,000 lives statewide in the past 15 years. Originally part of a class action with other states, Ferguson’s office chose to reject those national settlements and pursue Washington’s cases independently. “I just felt it wasn’t enough money and we could do better by going our own way,” he said.

It was a calculated risk that paid off. The AG’s office says that individual opioid case settlements, including those with Johnson & Johnson this year, Purdue Pharma in 2022 and other companies, have resulted in a total of $1.2 billion for state health care and treatment programs – about $113 million more than if the state had accepted the national settlements. Ferguson said the size and experience of his team was a deciding factor. “I could reject national settlements because I knew I had the team to prosecute our case. Whereas I know for a lot of my colleagues, their teams aren’t big enough or have the expertise to do it.”

Occasionally, a case doesn’t go their way. Of the 800 or so consumer lawsuits filed under Ferguson’s tenure, the office has lost two, including a five-year case against the thrift chain Value Village. Because the state is by law on the hook to pay for defendants’ legal costs if they lose, the office sets aside a pot of about $10 million from its successful lawsuits for those instances. “Those payments come from bad actors that we’ve held accountable to our protection laws,” Ferguson said. “We simply bank some of those dollars to make sure we wouldn’t have to have taxpayers pay for it.”

Prominent opposition to Trump’s policies

Ferguson rose to national prominence when Washington became one of the first states to legally challenge the Trump administration’s controversial policies – most notably, the administration’s ban on travel and refugee resettlement from seven predominantly Muslim countries in January 2017.

In 2015, Ferguson had created the Wing Luke civil rights division, named for a former assistant attorney general and Seattle City Council member. “I certainly didn’t have in my mind the idea that someday we would be filing a lawsuit against the president,” he said. But over the course of a weekend after Trump signed the order enacting the so-called Muslim ban, Ferguson’s civil rights team filed the first lawsuit against the policy and won a halt to the ban from federal judge James Robart. Later rulings in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals also sided with Ferguson, who notes that the Trump administration “was articulating a shockingly broad interpretation of presidential authority.”

Although that case grabbed national headlines, other Washington attorneys general have also sued the federal government or defended the state before the U.S. Supreme Court, representing the interests of Washington residents.

McKenna, during his tenure, sued the Obama administration in 2010 to oppose the mandate within the Obamacare health care bill requiring people to purchase health insurance. He lost in the U.S. Supreme Court, but the mandates were essentially ended by Congress in 2019.

McKenna also argued before the U.S. Supreme Court defending the state’s “top-two” primary election system, in which Washington voters don’t have to declare a party affiliation. In 2008, the court ruled 7-2 in favor of the state’s system. “We went up to the U.S. Supreme Court and persuaded them that this is not a blanket primary – that this is a qualifying primary, not a nominating primary,” McKenna said. “The top two can advance and so it doesn’t infringe on the First Amendment rights of the political parties.”

For his part, Ferguson doesn’t believe the AG’s office has become more politicized, and he’s quick to point out that his office also joined a multistate lawsuit against the Biden administration this year regarding the Food and Drug Administration’s policies on the abortion medication Mifepristone. “Lots of people called and said hey, this is embarrassing, don’t file a lawsuit against the Biden administration on reproductive rights,” Ferguson said. “But we did that because it’s protecting the rights of Washingtonians.”

Looking toward the governor’s mansion

The attorney general is also tasked with enforcing the state’s environmental regulations, and after Gregoire negotiated an agreement with the federal government as head of the state’s Department of Ecology, as attorney general she was tasked with enforcing that agreement. Ferguson, over the past dozen years, has increased the size of the environmental division and taken numerous companies to court, including a successful case against Crown Resources, owner of the closed Buckhorn Mountain gold mine in north-central Washington, which was found to have broken environmental regulations 3,539 times.

Now Ferguson hopes to become the next resident of the governor’s mansion – and he’s certainly not the first to attempt a leap from attorney general to governor. Ken Eikenberry, a Republican AG from 1981 to 1983, ran for governor in 1992 and narrowly lost to Democrat Mike Lowry. Gregoire was elected governor in 2004 after serving three terms as attorney general, and spent eight years in the governor’s mansion. McKenna entered the gubernatorial race in 2012 against Jay Inslee and lost by a slim margin.

In the current attorney general’s race, voters will decide between Democrat Nicholas Brown, former U.S. Attorney for Western Washington; Democratic state senator Manka Dhingra, D- Redmond; and Republican Pete Serrano, mayor of Pasco.

Gregoire said that while nothing quite prepares someone for the job of being governor, working as attorney general is certainly a logical step and probably why many past AGs have tried to make the transition. “Nothing that I can even fathom will prepare you to be governor,” Gregoire said. “But being attorney general is probably the best preparation you can get.”

“Because you have to represent every state agency. You have to represent the public. And in doing so, you come in with a wealth of knowledge and understanding of how government works – or doesn’t work – and what each agency is actually responsible for.”

Topics: Election 2024, Elections, Elections 2024

Podcast | Learning to swim as a trans man in Idaho

Maleeha Syed — Wed, 15 May 2024 04:59:00 PDT

Topics: Podcast

The carbon cost of return-to-office mandates

Kate Yoder — Wed, 15 May 2024 04:58:00 PDT

When office workers stopped working in offices in 2020, trading their cubicles for living room couches during COVID-19 lockdowns, many began questioning those hours they had spent commuting to work. All those rushed mornings stuck in traffic could have been spent getting things done? Life was often lonely for those stuck in their homes, but people found something to appreciate when birdsong rang through the quiet streets. And the temporary dip in travel had the side effect of cutting global carbon emissions by 7 percent in 2020 — a blip of good news in an otherwise miserable year.

Emissions bounced back in 2021, when people started resuming some of their normal activities, but offices have never been the same. While remote work was rare before the pandemic, today, 28 percent of Americans are working a “hybrid” schedule, going into the office some days, and 13 percent are working remotely full-time.

Recent data suggest that remote work could speed along companies’ plans to zero out their carbon emissions, but businesses don’t seem to be considering climate change in their decisions about the future of office work. “In the U.S., I’m sad to say it’s just not high on the priority list,” said Kate Lister, the founder of the consulting firm Global Workplace Analytics. “It gets up there, and then it drops again for the next shiny object.” Commuter travel falls under a company’s so-called “Scope 3” emissions, the indirect sources that routinely get ignored, but represent, on average, three-quarters of the business world’s emissions.

A 10 percent increase in people working remotely could reduce carbon emissions by 192 million metric tons a year, according to a study published in the journal Nature Cities earlier this month. That would cut emissions from the country’s most polluting sector, transportation, by 10 percent. Those findings align with other peer-reviewed research: Switching to remote work instead of going into the office can cut a person’s carbon footprint by 54 percent, according to a study published in the journal PNAS last fall, even when accounting for non-commute travel and residential energy use.

“It seems like a very obvious solution to a very pressing and real problem,” said Curtis Sparrer, a principal and co-founder of the PR agency Bospar, a San Francisco-based company where employees have been working remotely since it started in 2015. “And I am concerned that this whole ‘return-to-office’ thing is getting in the way.”

Many companies are mandating their employees show up for in-person work regularly. Last year, big tech companies like Google, Amazon, and Meta told employees that they had to come back to the office three days a week or face consequences, like a lower chance of getting promoted. Even Zoom, the company that became a household name during the pandemic for its video conferencing platform, is making employees who live within 50 miles of the office commute two days a week.

An evening view of the Pacific Tower on Seattle’s Beacon Hill, with I-5 traffic speeding by. (Matt M. McKnight/Cascade PBS)

Of course, there are many benefits that come with heading into the office to work alongside other humans. Interacting with your coworkers in person gives you a social boost (without the awkward pauses in Zoom meetings) and a compelling reason to change out of your sweatpants in the morning. From a climate change standpoint, the problem is that most Americans tend to jump in their cars to commute, instead of biking or hopping on the bus. A recent poll from Bospar found that two-thirds of Americans are driving to work — and they’re mostly in gas-powered cars. Even though purchases of electric vehicles are rising, they make up roughly 1 percent of the cars on the road.

The climate benefits start falling off quickly when people are summoned into the office. Working from home two to four days a week cuts emissions by between 11 and 29 percent compared with full-time office work, according to the study in PNAS by researchers at Cornell University and Microsoft. If you only work remotely one day a week, those emissions are only trimmed by 2 percent. Another big factor is that maintaining physical office space sucks up a lot of energy, since it needs to be heated and cooled.

So should companies be allowed to claim they’re going green when they’re forcing employees to commute? Many Americans don’t think so, according to Bospar’s survey. Well over half of Millennials and Gen Zers said it’s hypocritical for companies to observe Earth Day while requiring employees to attend work in person.

Sparrer points to Disney, which celebrated Earth Month in April with a campaign to promote its environmental efforts but ordered workers to come into the office four days a week last year. Nike, meanwhile, promoted its Earth Day collection of “sustainable” leather shoes while its CEO, John Donahoe, argued that remote work stifled creativity. “In hindsight, it turns out, it’s really hard to do bold, disruptive innovation, to develop a boldly disruptive shoe on Zoom,” he told CNBC earlier this month.

In this 2016 photo, truck and automobile traffic mix on I-5, headed north through Fife near the Port of Tacoma. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

“We are entering a time of magical thinking, where people seem to think that this is enough, and it’s not,” Sparrer said. “And the frustration I have is that we all got to experience what it’s like to work from home, and we know how it works, and we know how it can be improved.”

Working from home, though, could present its own environmental challenges. Recent research that looked at trends before the pandemic found that if 10 percent of the workforce started working remotely, transit systems in the U.S. would lose $3.7 billion every year, a 27 percent drop in fare revenue, according to the study in Nature Cities, conducted by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Florida, and Peking University in Beijing. Some experts worry that remote work could push people into the suburbs, where carbon footprints tend to be higher than in cities.

Right now, there are many employees who want to work at home full-time but are forced to go into the office, Lister said. She sees the return-to-office mandates as a result of corporate leadership that wants to go back to how things used to be. “As that generation retires,” she said, “I think that a lot of these conversations will go away.”

This article originally appeared in Grist at https://grist.org/economics/return-to-office-carbon-emissions-remote-wo… Grist is a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future. Learn more at Grist.org

Topics: Environment, Transportation

Cascade PBS Ideas Festival | Critics at Large: Crazy for Crime

Cascade PBS Newsroom Staff — Wed, 15 May 2024 04:55:55 PDT

Topics: Multimedia, Video, Cascade PBS Ideas Festival, politics, Crime

Seattle Council approves police union contract with 23% pay bump

Josh Cohen — Tue, 14 May 2024 15:34:58 PDT

The Seattle City Council voted 8 to 1 on Tuesday to approve a new contract with the Seattle Police Officers Guild (SPOG). Councilmember Tammy Morales was the lone no vote.

The new bargaining agreement provides a 23% pay bump for Seattle officers, making entry-level salaries $103,000, the highest in the state. But, to the dismay of police reformers, the new contract provides little in the way of new accountability measures.

The previous SPOG contract expired in 2020, and the city and police union have been locked in protracted negotiations since. The contract ratified Tuesday is entirely retroactive, covering 2021-2023 to provide about $57 million in back pay for SPD's approximately 915 sworn officers. The city is in ongoing negotiations with SPOG for the next contract, to be effective beginning in 2024.

City officials — many of whom ran on promises to re-staff the Seattle Police Department — wanted to provide the pay bump to help stanch the wave of officer departures and incentivize new recruits.

“Today's an important day because it shows our commitment not just to the men and women of the Seattle Police Department, but also our commitment to improving our public safety posture,” said Councilmember Bob Kettle at Tuesday’s meeting.

Kettle argued the department was losing officers to neighboring jurisdictions in part because Seattle salaries were 15th lowest in the state. He continued, “Yes, it is expensive. Yes, it is a challenge for our budget. But if we don't compete in this labor market, we won't accomplish our goal of achieving a safe base in our city.”

According to Council central staff director Ben Noble, current base salaries and benefits for SPD officers cost the city $170 million a year. Retroactive payments for 2021-2023 will cost an additional $57 million. Moving forward, the new salaries will cost an additional $39 million.

This comes at a time when the city is facing a projected $241 million budget deficit. But, said Noble, the city has been adding money to its reserves in anticipation of the new SPOG contract and is only about $9.2 million short of the anticipated additional costs from now until 2026. The Mayor’s office said the contract will only add about $1 million to next year’s project deficit.

The SPOG contract has been a barrier to Seattle’s police reform efforts in recent years. In 2017, the City Council unanimously passed a suite of reforms meant to provide better civilian oversight of SPD and make it easier to discipline or fire officers for misconduct. The reforms included making permanent the civilian Community Police Commission and expanding its powers, as well as creating the Office of the Inspector General of Public Safety.

The 2018 SPOG contract allowed some new measures to go forward, such as the expansion of the Community Police Commission and a mandate that officers wear body cameras. But it also maintained multiple avenues for officers to appeal disciplinary rulings, and stipulated that language in the contract superseded any 2017 reforms. The Council ratified that contract despite a chorus of community opposition.

The adoption of the 2018 contract contributed to a federal judge’s ruling that Seattle had fallen partially out of compliance with its Department of Justice oversight agreement, which began in 2012 after accusations about the police department’s overuse of force.

The 2021-2023 contract ratified Tuesday has a few accountability measures. For example, it adds two more civilian investigators at the Office of Police Accountability, for a total of seven. But police accountability advocates want much more and are now looking to the 2024 contract that’s still in negotiation to once again bolster SPD’s ability to discipline and fire officers. Some reformers fear, however, that city leaders gave away their leverage to do so by already providing a pay bump in the retroactive 2021-2023 contract.

Before her no vote Tuesday, Morales voiced concerns about the lack of new accountability measures in the contract.

“I believe this contract as bargained does not protect the city and the lack of accountability measures puts us in continued violation of the federal consent decree,” Morales said. “And the contract isn't in compliance with the [2017] legislation that this City Council passed to ensure police accountability.”

Of the 18 members of the public who testified about the SPOG contract on Tuesday, all but one urged the Council to reject it. No SPOG members testified at the meeting.

The Community Police Commission has recommended four key accountability provisions for the city to bargain for in the next SPOG contract.

First, they want the city to remove any clauses that allow the contract bargaining agreement to supersede local law.

Second, they want the contract to close any accountability loopholes, including the 180-day limit on misconduct investigations and the heightened burden of proof. Within that, they also want the contract to give the police chief authority to place officers on leave without pay, streamline disciplinary standards, and publicly disclose any investigation findings or officer discipline.

Third, they want the Office of Police Accountability to become a fully civilian entity for the sake of independence. Currently, the office’s investigations are conducted by a mix of sworn officers and civilians.

And finally, the Community Police Commission recommends the city bargain for the ability to give the offices of Police Accountability and Inspector General full subpoena power to compel witnesses to produce evidence that they don’t provide voluntarily.

In addition to recommendations for the contract, the Community Police Commission wants to see the city lobby for state legislative action to outlaw police officer contracts from bargaining over accountability measures.

On the campaign trail last year, District 5 Councilmember Cathy Moore said it was important to her that the next SPOG contract reinstate the 2017 reforms.

During an October debate, District 4 Councilmember Maritza Rivera said, “I would not want to see a contract that negotiates out accountability. We need to hold officers that are committing wrongdoing accountable … so we definitely do not want to have a contract that does not have accountability.”

At Tuesday’s Council meeting, Rivera emphasized the ongoing negotiations and possibility for more accountability measures.

“As part of that ongoing negotiation, it is important to address accountability and wages, both of which are critical to a functioning police department and a safe city,” she said. “The city needs to continue working towards the accountability requirements of the consent decree.”

In a statement released in April after SPOG members voted to ratify the 2021-2023 contract, Mayor Bruce Harrell acknowledged the ongoing accountability efforts. He said negotiations over the 2024 contract will “allow the city to move forward with these important improvements to its accountability structure while continuing to pursue other significant items proposed by the city based on input from community partners and the federal judge overseeing the city’s Consent Decree with the Department of Justice.” This story has been updated with quotes and context from the Council meeting.

Topics: Law & Justice, police, Seattle City Government

Black Arts Legacies: Robert L. Scott set the record

Jas Keimig — Tue, 14 May 2024 05:00:00 PDT

Topics: black arts legacies, Features, Seattle

WA agency fails to reinspect a third of ‘severe violator’ employers

Lizz Giordano — Tue, 14 May 2024 04:59:00 PDT

Following a trench collapse that killed a worker in 2022, Washington state workplace safety regulators classified AAA Contractors as a “severe violator” based on multiple serious safety hazards. The designation came with a warning: “Follow-up inspections of this company will continue at a heightened level until the Department is satisfied that the conditions no longer exist.”

More than 600 days later, records showed safety officers from the state’s Department of Labor & Industries had yet to reinspect a worksite of the Kent-based general contractor.

For Seasoft Scuba, it’s been four years without a return visit from L&I after the company made the severe violator list in February 2020 for the unsafe handling of lead.

A Cascade PBS analysis of L&I records found that safety officers have not returned to inspect the worksites of more than a third of companies that have been labeled a “severe violator” over the past five years.

Most of the subsequent visits to severe violator companies resulted from new complaints or referrals based on potentially hazardous working conditions — not from the enhanced attention required as part of their violation status.

L&I launched the Severe Violation Enforcement Program in 2011 to track companies with “willful” or repeat serious citations due to a fatality or hospitalization. More than one willful or repeat serious citation stemming from hazards with a high severity and probability rate of injury can also land employers on the list, as can any “egregious” violations.

This story is part of Cascade PBS’s WA Workplace Watch, an investigative project covering worker safety and labor in Washington state.

Craig Blackwood, the assistant director of L&I’s safety division, has said the program targets employers who demonstrate disregard for the safety and health of their employees. The program aims to focus resources on employers who are “resistant or indifferent” to enforcement activities, according to the program’s manual. It also helps officials share information on repeat violators who work in several states.

Severe violator companies range from massive corporations like Boeing to small contractors. L&I has added 121 employers to the program since it started, according to agency data. Officials later removed 37 companies after their citations were modified. Six entities have met the criteria to be removed. Currently, 78 businesses remain on the list. Some have made the list multiple times.

L&I data shows officials added 22 employers to the list in fiscal year 2023, twice as many as in any previous year.

Matt Ludwick, L&I’s deputy statewide compliance manager, said the program is intended as a deterrent to encourage companies to keep workers safe.

“It’s somewhat effective,” he said. “It’s not as effective as it could be.”

A plaque in the Worker Memorial Garden at the headquarters of the Washington State Department of Labor & Industries in Tumwater. (Lizz Giordano/Cascade PBS)

AAA Contractors contested the fines and later settled with L&I in 2023 over the citations that had landed them on the list, according to agency documents. The settlement included a 75% reduction of their fines. L&I often reduces financial penalties as part of its appeals process.

AAA Contractors did not respond to multiple messages seeking comment for this story.

Seasoft Scuba, which makes scuba gear such as leaded weights, also received hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines from the Washington State Department of Ecology for unsafe handling of lead. Those violations landed the Chehalis-based company on the list four years ago, but owner Bruce Justinen said he has received little help from L&I or Ecology since then.

“I didn’t know that you couldn’t clean up lead with soap and water until after the third visit from L&I,” he said, adding, “They don’t have my best interest at heart.”

Justinen confirmed that L&I officials have not returned to his worksite since the company was put on the severe violator list, but the classification still leaves him terrified.

“We expect them every day,” he said. “There’s a constant tension of stress because they could come through the door and fine you.”

Find tools and resources in Cascade PBS’s Check Your Work guide to search workplace safety records and complaints for businesses in your community.

Less than 5% of those companies added to the list since 2019 have been subject to a specific “follow-up” inspection to ensure the hazards have been abated, according to L&I documents.

Rather, it’s usually a safety complaint or tip that brings L&I back to a job site of a severe violator, not a planned “follow-up” inspection. As happened in the case of Allways Roofing, a company which has made the list eight times in the past five years — the most of any in the state. Since the company was labeled a severe violator, L&I has not conducted any specific “follow-up” inspections.

The 13 inspections that have occurred since the company first landed on the list were all spurred by complaints or referrals from the public or from L&I employees after workers were reportedly seen on roofs without using fall protection, according to L&I documents.

“Thirteen inspections in that time frame is a significantly higher rate of inspection than the average company,” said Matt Ross, a spokesperson for L&I, in response to questions from Cascade PBS. “So when a company is being inspected frequently just based on referrals alone, doing additional follow-up inspections isn’t an efficient or effective means of increasing scrutiny or worker safety.”

Ross added that “follow-up” inspections and inspections triggered by a referral or complaint perform the same function, but the latter type takes priority.

A ceremonial bell is rung during the state’s annual Worker Memorial Day event in Tumwater. Officials and families gathered to honor 93 workers in 2024. (Lizz Giordano/Cascade PBS)

In the past eight years, at least 18 Allways Roofing workers have been injured on the job, including three falls from roofs, according to an L&I press release. During that same period, L&I issued the company 96 citations – many for workers not using fall or eye protection – accompanied by $4.1 million in fines.

The company has paid $132,000 toward those fines, according to L&I, and also owes the agency $21,339 in workers’ compensation premiums and $9,000 in contractor registration infractions.

“Clearly, Allways Roofing is undeterred in their willingness to put profit ahead of worker safety,” Ross said. “We don’t believe that means SVEP is ineffective in every case.”

John Ovak, owner of Allways Roofing, told Cascade PBS in a text message that the company has not had any work since January.

“L&I put me out of business and put employees out of work,” he wrote.

Ovak said he spent tens of thousands of dollars training workers, but “at the end of the day if I leave a job and they take their rope off their harness, I get the fine [and] they don’t.”

Nine companies, including Allways Roofing, have been added twice or more.

L&I’s Ludwick said finding the work sites of construction companies or other contractors can pose a significant challenge for conducting follow-up inspections.

“They’re out at different work sites,” he said. “For those, literally the best way for us to get to them is through a complaint or a referral, or the inspectors out driving around.”

Records show construction companies make up about 70% of the severe violators.

An L&I report by its research arm, the Safety and Health Assessment and Research for Prevention program, also known as SHARP, found inspections “make substantial contributions” to reducing rates of workplace injury and illness.

For companies on the severe violator list, Martin Cohen, a teaching professor in the University of Washington’s Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, said it’s important to conduct follow-up inspections.

“It just makes sense to follow up,” Cohen said. “It may take the wind out of the sail of something called a Severe Violators Enforcement Program, if you’re not really treating it as such.”

Cohen, who for a decade worked for SHARP, suggests that the agency engage companies more to understand why they keep getting violations.

Boeing, one of the state’s biggest employers, made the list in 2022 after multiple citations for marking holes on its manufacturing floors with yellow warning cones rather than with a cover or guardrail system as required by safety laws. The repeat citation came with a $8,800 fine. Boeing is contesting the citation and fine. The company declined to comment.

Companies remain on the list for at least three years. To be removed, all previously identified safety hazards must be fixed, all fines need to be paid and L&I needs to conduct a follow-up inspection, according to L&I documents.

L&I officials updated the program’s rules in May 2023 to impose a deadline for conducting a follow-up inspection: two to three months after a citation is finalized and the company has had a chance to appeal. The two companies that would have qualified for a follow-up inspection within the new deadline have both ceased operations in the state.

Ludwick said L&I also initiated a new process this month to provide compliance managers with a monthly list of companies in their region that are due for a follow-up.

“It’s something that’s been needing to be done,” he said. “It’s been a bit of frustration for us.”

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Topics: Labor, Washington Workplace Watch

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Sara Bernard — Tue, 14 May 2024 04:58:00 PDT

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Cascade PBS Ideas Festival | Hear Me Out: Living History

Cascade PBS Newsroom Staff — Tue, 14 May 2024 04:55:55 PDT

Topics: Multimedia, Video, Cascade PBS Ideas Festival, politics

Political heavy hitters criticize Mayor Harrell’s housing plan

Josh Cohen — Mon, 13 May 2024 16:45:46 PDT

More than 50 organizations and businesses representing a broad and influential swath of Seattle politics have called on Mayor Bruce Harrell to significantly increase housing density citywide or risk exacerbating Seattle’s affordable-housing crisis.

The letter concerning the city’s Comprehensive Plan Update was spearheaded by the Complete Communities Coalition, which includes the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, Habitat for Humanity’s Seattle-area chapter, the Housing Development Consortium, NAIOP and House Our Neighbors, among others. The latter three groups represent affordable-housing developers, commercial real estate interests and social housing, respectively.

The Coalition’s letter, sent Monday, garnered signatures from nearly four dozen organizations and businesses representing real estate, hotels, restaurants, climate, urbanism, architecture, homelessness, disability rights, grassroots community advocacy and more. Click here to read the letter and see the full list of signatories.

Seattle’s Comprehensive Plan dictates what kind of housing and how much of it can be built in each neighborhood. Once adopted, it will guide how Seattle grows for the next 20-plus years.

The city released a draft of the plan in March, which largely builds off of the Seattle's existing “urban village” strategy of concentrating apartment construction in the urban core as well as in the commercial cores of outer neighborhoods, while leaving most of Seattle’s residential space for low-density, mostly single-family housing.

The plan was met immediately with criticism from local housing advocates that it wouldn’t allow for enough new housing construction. State Rep. Jessica Bateman, D-Olympia, flagged that Seattle’s proposal might not even comply with a new state law legalizing four-to-six unit buildings in all residential zones.

The Complete Communities Coalition builds off those arguments in its call for Harrell to do more. On its website, the Coalition points out that the draft Comprehensive Plan was written to accommodate an average annual construction rate of 5,000 homes, less than the 6,800-12,500 homes Seattle has built each year since 2015. They argue that 5,000 homes a year are insufficient to keep up with the city’s growth.

The group states: “Simply put, the current Draft Plan is a plan to make Seattle more expensive. This will most impact renters, low-income people, and people of color, as we face rising rents and displacement pressures. This is a step back in our efforts to meet the growing demand for housing.”

In its letter to the mayor, the Coalition outlines five changes it wants to see to allow more and larger housing.

First, they want the plan to allow larger fourplexes and sixplexes to facilitate construction of three- and four-bedroom homes that can accommodate families, which the current proposal mostly would not allow.

Second, they want the plan to allow midrise construction and mixed-use apartment/commercial buildings within a five-minute walk of bus lines, instead of just along arterial streets near frequent transit, as currently proposed.

Third, the Coalition has asked the mayor to expand the boundaries of the plan’s “Neighborhood Centers” from an 800-foot radius to a quarter-mile. Neighborhood Centers are a new designation in the plan: smaller-scale mixed-use zones with four- to six-story apartment and condo buildings with ground-floor shops, grocery stores and restaurants. The plan proposes 24 Centers.

Fourth, the letter calls for the plan to include more density bonuses and other incentives to encourage developers to build more income-restricted affordable-housing units that don’t rely on public subsidy. The Coalition also wants those incentives to be made available to Seattle's new social housing developer. The policy idea in the Coalition’s letter is similar to a recent bill from Councilmember Tammy Morales to create a community development pilot project. The full Council rejected the legislation 7-2.

Finally, the Coalition calls on the city to allow 12-18-story buildings in all of the “Regional Centers” designations, including Capitol Hill, the U District, Northgate and Ballard.

The Chamber points to its own recent polling data showing Seattleites support affordable-housing construction. In its April poll of Seattle registered voters, 69% of respondents said they thought building more affordable housing would improve quality of life, and the same percentage said they supported the building of a wider variety of housing types in their neighborhood.

“We need more housing – that’s why the Seattle Metro Chamber has spent years working in coalition advocating for policy changes including more middle housing, increased access to homeownership for people of color, and pushing for aggressive city comprehensive plans,” said Seattle Metro Chamber President Rachel Smith in a press release announcing the Coalition letter.

Asked for a response, a mayoral spokesperson told Cascade PBS their office is still reviewing the letter, but has been in conversation with many of the signatories about the plan over the past few weeks. They continued, “We believe the draft One Seattle Plan, with more middle housing options in urban residential neighborhoods and continued focus on climate-friendly growth near premium transit investments and amenities, achieves the goal of housing abundance and diversity.” The Office of Planning and Community Development (OPCD) is still drafting more detailed plans for each of the seven Regional Centers. The spokesperson said Harrell has asked OPCD to look for ways to increase density as part of that process. Finally, the spokesperson emphasized that the Comprehensive Plan is not yet finalized and that they are still accepting public comment through May 20. This story was updated to clarify that the letter is asking for bonuses and incentives for both traditional affordable housing developers and Seattle's new social housing developer.

Topics: Housing, Seattle City Government

Who’s running for office in Washington state this year?

Venice Buhain — Mon, 13 May 2024 16:22:56 PDT

About a thousand people filed to run for office in Washington this year, as election season officially kicks off.

Voters will decide on eight statewide races: governor, attorney general, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, treasurer, commissioner of public lands, superintendent of public instruction and insurance commissioner; all seats in the Washington House of Representatives; and about half of the seats in the state Senate, plus some judges, ballot items and local races.

Washington will also vote on the U.S. Senate seat held by Democrat Sen. Maria Cantwell and on all 10 of Washington’s Congressional seats, including wide-open races for Washington’s 5th and 6th Congressional Districts.

Most of the races are slated to first appear on the Aug. 6 primary ballot, with the top two vote-getters in each contest proceeding to the general election on Nov. 5.

Here are a few highlights from filing week:

Governor

Primary voters in August will see 28 candidates for the open seat of governor on the ballot.

Democrat Bob Ferguson, the current attorney general, has been running for the seat since last September He has raised $6.9 million and currently leads all Washington gubernatorial candidates in fundraising. Ferguson emerged as a top contender after Gov. Jay Inslee announced that he would not run for a fourth term.

Other high-profile candidates for governor include former Congressman Dave Reichert, a Republican, who is in second place in raising money for the gubernatorial campaign; and Semi Bird, a former Richland School Board member whom voters recalled last year from that seat and who was endorsed by the Washington State Republican Party at its convention last month. Washington State Sen. Mark Mullet, D-Issaquah, is currently in third place in fundraising for this race, with more than $1 million in campaign contributions.

Originally, two other Bob Fergusons, also listed as Democrats, had been recruited to run by conservative activist Glen Morgan, the Washington State Standard reported over the weekend. The Secretary of State’s Office must come up with an identifier to differentiate the three Fergusons, the news site reported.

But by Monday evening, the other two Bob Fergusons had withdrawn their names from the ballot, according to the Secretary of State’s Office, which is in charge of statewide elections.

Attorney General Bob Ferguson held a press conference Monday, announcing that his campaign had asked the other two to withdraw from the race and for the Secretary of State’s Office to highlight the differences. Former King County Prosecuting Attorney Dan Satterberg also addressed the press, saying the last-minute Bob Ferguson filings violated state law, citing a clause against filing with “the intent to confuse and mislead” voters.

“We all kind of laughed about it, it was a prank, it was a meme, but it’s not funny. It is also a crime,” Satterberg said.

“Any serious candidate for any serious office should understand that they too could be the victim of such a fraud,” Satterberg said.

Ferguson also said his campaign sent cease-and-desist letters to the other two Bob Fergusons urging them to withdraw from the ballot, and that his campaign would urge local authorities to prosecute if they do not.

Ferguson also asked Secretary of State Steve Hobbs to list the other two as “Robert Ferguson” with their middle initials or middle names; to list candidate occupations alongside their names; and also to list the three Ferguson candidates next to each other on the ballot.

“If the ballot order remains unchanged, there is no question that thousands of Washingtonians will think they’re voting for me and they’re really voting for one of these other two individuals,” Ferguson said. “That is a fact. That is going to happen. The only question is how many thousands, how many voters will essentially be disenfranchised.”

Asked if there was a possibility that the other two were serious candidates, Ferguson demurred.

“Glen Morgan even said in the press he tried to recruit more Bob Fergusons to run. Like, respectfully, give me a break,” Ferguson said.

“Steve Hobbs has a duty here because if he does not take the steps we’ve outlined, this will be the new normal in your politics, take it to the bank,” Ferguson said.

But by Monday evening, Hobbs confirmed that the other two Fergusons had withdrawn by the deadline. Hobbs also said in a statement that his office has policies in place to mitigate voter confusion when multiple candidates have similar names.

“Instances of people filing for office with names similar to well-known officeholders go back nearly a century in Washington and other states,” Hobbs’ statement said. “That is nothing new. We know how to address such issues as elections officials.”

Superintendent of Public Instruction

Two former Republican lawmakers who had previously announced plans to run against Chris Reykdal, the incumbent superintendent of public instruction, ultimately did not end up challenging him. Chad Magendanz and Brad Klippert suspended their campaigns after the Washington State Republican Party endorsed David Olson, a member of the Peninsula School Board in Gig Harbor last month. While the party made an endorsement, the position is nonpartisan. Magendanz is now running for his old state Senate seat in Legislative District 5 against Democrat Bill Ramos for the seat vacated by Mark Mullet, who is running for governor. (According to state law, a person can appear on the ballot for only one race at a time.)

Remaining in the race along with Reykdal, a former Democratic state lawmaker running for his third term as superintendent, and Olson, is Reid Saaris, a founder of Seattle nonprofit Equal Opportunity Schools and a substitute IB teacher at Rainier Beach High School. Saaris is the current fundraising leader in the race to run Washington’s public schools, with more than $258,000 in campaign contributions. The fourth candidate in the race is John Patterson Blair, a former Vashon School Board member who has run for the seat before.

Other state races

With current Attorney General Bob Ferguson running for governor, Washington voters will have a wide-open race to replace him. Three people filed to run for this office: two Democrats, Nick Brown, former U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Washington, and state Senate Deputy Majority Leader Manka Dhingra, D-Redmond; and Republican Pete Serrano, the mayor of Pasco.

Public Lands Commissioner Hilary Franz is seeking a Congressional seat and seven people are running for that open seat, including former U.S. Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, a Republican ousted from her 3rd Congressional District seat in 2022. Others running for lands commissioner include state Sen. Kevin Van De Wege from Lake Sutherland and King County Council chair Dave Upthegrove, both running as Democrats. Upthegrove and Herrera Beutler have currently raised the most money for this contest.

U.S. Senate

Sen. Maria Cantwell will face 10 challengers on the August primary ballot, including Republican Raul Garcia, a moderate conservative who ran for governor in 2020 but was shut out in the primary by Inslee and fellow Republican Loren Culp. Garcia had earlier announced a 2024 run for governor, but switched to a bid for U.S. Senate after Reichert announced his candidacy.

Democrat Cantwell has held her seat since 2001 after defeating longtime Republican Sen. Slade Gorton. Cantwell has raised over $10 million for this campaign. Garcia is currently in a distant second place, with $406,000 in contributions listed on the Federal Elections Campaign website.

Congress

For Congress, voters across the state will see a familiar face-off in southwest Washington and several familiar faces throwing their hats into the race for the 3rd Congressional District.

U.S. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez will again face Republican challenger Joe Kent, whom she defeated two years ago in a close contest that switched the district’s party representation. Former U.S. Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler was shut out in the 2022 primary by Gluesenkamp Perez and Kent, who was endorsed by Trump that year and ran to Herrera Beutler’s right. Herrera Beutler was one of 10 Republican representatives nationwide who voted to impeach former President Donald J. Trump over his actions during the Jan. 6 insurrection. This year, two other candidates, Republican Leslie Lewallen, a Camas City Council member, and independent John Saulie-Rohman, also of Camas, also filed for the seat.

In Washington’s Fourth Congressional District, U.S. Rep. Dan Newhouse will face fellow Republican Tiffany Smiley, who two years ago raised millions in her attempt to oust U.S. Senator Patty Murray in what was then the state’s most expensive race in history. Newhouse, now in his fifth term, was another Republican Congressperson who voted to impeach Trump and thus drew challengers to his right two years ago. Other challengers this time around include Republican Jerrod Sessler; Democrats Mary Baechler, Barry Knowles and “Birdie” Jane Muchlinski; Benny “BG3” Garcia, listed as an independent; and John Malan, listed as a “MAGA Democrat.”

Two of Washington’s Congressional Representatives, Derek Kilmer, D-WA 6, and Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-WA 5, previously said they are not running for reelection this year, opening two seats to represent the state.

For Kilmer’s seat, which covers the Olympic and Kitsap peninsulas, Democrats Hilary Franz, currently state commissioner of public lands, and Emily Randall, the state Senate deputy majority leader, filed to run, along with Republicans Drew MacEwen, a Republican state senator, and Janis Clark of Federal Way. J. Graham Ralston, an attorney from Port Angeles, also is running for the seat as an independent.

McMorris Rodgers’ seat attracted 11 contenders, including six Republicans and five Democrats. Among the Republicans are Spokane County Treasurer Michael Baumgartner, who is also a former state legislator who unsuccessfully challenged U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell in 2012. Also running as Republicans are State Rep. Jacquelin Maycumber, R-Republic; Spokane City Councilman Jonathan Bingle; Ferry County Commissioner Brian Dansel; Rene Holaday, a radio host and former aide to former State Rep. Matt Shea; and Rick Valentine Flynn of Cheney.

Democratic contenders for McMorris Rodgers’ seat include Ann Marie Danimus, who has run for the seat before; Carmela Conroy, a former U.S. diplomat; physician Bernadine Bank; Matthew Welde, deputy prosecuting attorney for Spokane County; and Bobbi Bennett-Wolcott of Pullman.

The full list of candidates and races is available through the Secretary of State’s website.

Update May 13, 2024, 5:56 p.m.: The story has been updated with new information from the Secretary of State’s Office regarding the two people, both named Bob Ferguson, who had withdrawn their names from the ballot. Bob Ferguson, the current attorney general, is now the only one with that name running for Washington governor.

Topics: Election 2024, Elections

Dueling Israel/Palestine protests on UW campus remain peaceful

Scarlet Hansen — Mon, 13 May 2024 12:21:18 PDT

Around 500 people gathered in Red Square on the University of Washington campus Sunday afternoon for a “United for Israel” march, the largest counter demonstration at UW since students established their “Popular University for Gaza” in early May.

While the student encampment is demanding the UW cut ties with Israel and Boeing, speakers at the pro-Israel march and rally called for University President Ana Mari Cauce to resign and condemned administration for allowing the encampment to remain on campus.

Several hundred people showed up at UW for a “United for Israel” march on Sunday. (Genna Martin/Cascade PBS)

The event was led by Pursuit NW, a nondenominational Christian church with locations in Snohomish, Kirkland and on Greek row in the U District. The church’s head pastor, Russell Johnson, has voiced staunch support for Israel in the past few months and has been involved in multiple pro-Israel demonstrations on campuses including the University of Southern California and Columbia University, where multiple instances of harassment were reported. Johnson is based in the Seattle area.

“The political cowardice of this administration is on full display. Either do your job or resign in disgrace, this encampment must end,” Johnson said Sunday afternoon to a cheering crowd of demonstrators. “Isn’t it time that we say enough is enough?”

Soon after 4:30 p.m. a sea of Israeli and American flags waved through Red Square as speakers condemned the University administration and called for the return of Israeli hostages from Gaza. Although other campuses like UCLA have seen violence during counter protests, the afternoon remained peaceful with only verbal disagreements.

At a barricaded south entrance to the Quad where hundreds of community members, pro-Palestinian demonstrators and University police were stationed, chants of “Bring them home, bring them home,” and “Free free Palestine” echoed during the 15-minute encounter.

Although the group had planned to march directly through the encampment, sparking significant safety concerns, Johnson informed the crowd shortly before the march began that police had asked them to go around the Quad.

A few verbal confrontations ensued as some pro-Israel demonstrators approached the barricade. As the group marched toward Greek row on Memorial Way toward the Pursuit church, protesters chanted “Take off your mask, take off your mask” at pro-Palestinian demonstrators.

A man from the “United for Israel” march walks back and forth in front of the pro-Palestinian encampment barricade on Sunday. (Genna Martin/Cascade PBS)

Nearly two weeks after the “Liberated zone” was established, University administration has faced mounting pressure to respond as opposing groups grow increasingly vocal in calling on UW to take action. While groups like Pursuit say the encampment should be shut down, demonstrators continue to demand that the University divest and cut ties with Israel and companies like Boeing amid Israel’s war in Gaza, which according to local health authorities has killed over 34,000 Palestinians.

“The University of Washington is demonstrating that they are willing to protect investments in genocide above all else,” United Front member and UW graduate student Cera Hassinan said. “We want our University to care about changing the world, not contributing to killing people in Palestine.”

A “United for Israel” march gathers Sunday, May 12, in Red Square at the University of Washington. The event, organized by Pursuit Seattle Church, involved some confrontation between the pro-Israeli group and existing demonstrators at the pro-Palestine encampment at the UW Quad, but remained peaceful. (Genna Martin/Cascade PBS)

University police walk through campus at Sunday's “United for Israel” march. (Genna Martin/Cascade PBS)

Pro-Israeli counterprotesters yell as they pass the UW Quad during the “United for Israel” march. (Genna Martin/Cascade PBS)

Sunday’s “United for Israel” march at the University of Washington. (Genna Martin/Cascade PBS)

Police keep protesters and counterprotesters apart at Sunday's “United for Israel” march. (Genna Martin/Cascade PBS)

Congregants of Pursuit Seattle Church and others gather in Red Square for the “United for Israel” march. (Genna Martin/Cascade PBS)

Pro-Palestinian protesters chant as a “United for Israel” counterprotest march passes the UW Quad on Sunday, May 12. (Genna Martin/Cascade PBS)

Pro-Palestinian protesters link arms at the “United for Israel” counterprotest. (Genna Martin/Cascade PBS)

Throughout the afternoon, Johnson called out “vitriolic antisemitism” on the University campus, emphasizing concern about the safety of Jewish students.

United Front members say they support their Jewish community members, and Jewish students in the encampment say they have felt safe, supported and welcomed. The encampment has remained peaceful since its establishment.

“It’s very disappointing to hear the conflation of anti-semitism and anti-Zionism; they are not the same thing, they are completely separate,” United Front member Juliette Magid said. “We stand in solidarity with so many of our Jewish community members who are present here at the Liberated zone and across the nation who are taking stands against Zionism.”

Although the UW encampment has not been filled with the overt antisemitic signs or chants present on some campuses, how one defines Zionism – as a core Jewish belief or a modern and oppressive movement – has influenced individual understanding of what constitutes antisemitism.

Both university administrators and pro-Palestinian demonstrators raised serious security concerns before the “United for Israel” event, as they did before right-wing activist Charlie Kirk’s recent visit to campus,

A UW campus map sign covered in spray paint and stickers. (Genna Martin/Cascade PBS)

The United Front called for community members to come to the encampment Sunday afternoon to show support, reaffirming their conviction of “We keep us safe.” University administration responded by setting up barricades at entrances to the Quad and stationing University Police, Seattle Police and State Patrol troopers throughout campus.

On Friday evening, the University released its first substantial public statement since the “Popular University for Gaza” was established, calling on demonstrators to voluntarily disassemble the encampment.

“Every day the encampment remains, the security concerns escalate and become more serious – for our UW community and for the people in the encampment itself,” the statement posted on the University website said. “The University’s response to students’ call for change will not be based on an encampment. It will be through constructive engagement on issues that are important or meaningful to our students and broader campus community.”

Students protesting Israel’s war on Gaza have continually reaffirmed their commitment to remain on the Quad until their demands are met, and say they have no plans to disassemble the encampment.

University police guarded a blockade at Sunday’s “United for Israel” march. (Genna Martin/Cascade PBS)

In the past few weeks, the Liberated zone has seen growing student and faculty support. By Thursday, both the Board of Directors and the Senate of the Associated Students of the University of Washington passed resolutions asking the University to meet the zone’s demands. Also on Thursday, members from the Liberated zone rallied outside the Board of Regents meeting and spoke to the regents during a public comment period.

The University’s Board of Regents is responsible for managing the University’s investment portfolio, and oversees an Advisory Committee on Socially Reponsible Investing which evaluates proposals for divestment from companies whose actions are deemed “morally reprehensible.”

The board weighs support from University students, staff, faculty and ASUW resolutions in considering divestment proposals, United Front members noted.

“When you see a family being killed in Gaza, when you see the windows of an apartment building being blown out, that bomb was most likely tied in some way to Boeing or the plane that dropped it was manufactured by Boeing, and that’s what we’re targeting here,” UW Progressive Student Union member Mathieu Chabaud said at the encampment earlier.

As the evening came to a close, hundreds of pro-Israel demonstrators gathered at Pursuit for an evening service. Back on the mostly quiet University campus, chants of “The people united will never be defeated” rang out through the Quad.

Topics: Education

Volunteers power wildfire mitigation efforts in the Tri-Cities

Mai Hoang — Mon, 13 May 2024 05:00:00 PDT

Wildfire season is likely months away in the Pacific Northwest, but the work of mitigating those fires has begun. Earlier this month, dozens of volunteers were cutting down trees and removing dead branches and brush in a 68-acre park in Kennewick, one of the Tri-Cities in southeastern Washington.

Karl Kaiyala, 72, a retired University of Washington researcher and instructor, was one of 37 volunteers working in Zintel Canyon with Team Rubicon, a nonprofit that deploys volunteers to respond to natural disasters and prevent future ones from happening.

Kaiyala says he has found his second passion: working on reducing — and putting out — wildfires. He knows that every dead tree he cuts now means one fewer tree that can catch and spread a wildfire later.

“I think fire mitigation is one of the most important components of reducing fire risk,” said Kaiyala, who previously researched topics such as obesity and drug addiction and taught statistics but now spends summers as a wildland firefighter.

An axe lies on the ground as Team Rubicon removes wood from the area. (M. Scott Brauer for Cascade PBS)

The nonprofit dispatched volunteers in nearly 24 wildfire mitigation efforts throughout the U.S. in the past 16 months, including the one at Zintel Canyon earlier this month. In Kennewick, volunteers cut trees and removed branches and other overgrown vegetation that could contribute to wildfire spread.

Such work is crucial in southeastern Washington, where the fire risk is high due to the region’s dry, warm weather and strong winds.

Wildfires where wildlands and urban areas interface are a growing concern. When houses overlap with vegetation, the risk of human-caused wildfires increases, and so does the threat to lives and property.

Last summer, the Gray Fire destroyed nearly 260 homes and killed one person in Medical Lake outside of Spokane. In Zintel Canyon, the site of the recent Team Rubicon effort, a 30-acre fire a year ago caused damage to several structures, destroying one home.

“As things build out and we start looking at a lot of cities … pushing into more rural areas, you get that interface mix,” said Chad Michael, fire chief of the Kennewick Fire Department. “You have small pockets [in a city] still left fairly natural. Those are real hazards. It doesn’t take a lot of fire to get going.”

Mike Dutter, of Portland, Ore. (right), a Team Rubicon Sawyer 1, and Brian Miller, an Advanced Sawyer 1, make a plan to cut down a tree while working on a fire mitigation project. (M. Scott Brauer for Cascade PBS)

Growing risk

In a 2019 report, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said fires in the wildlife urban interface are a “rapidly growing threat to lives and property.” At the time of the report, the agency estimated that 46 million residences in 70,000 communities were at risk. And FEMA says the wildlife urban interface grows about two million acres a year.

Kennewick has fought numerous fires within or just outside city limits over the past six years. Michael said 2018 was a notable year, including the Bofer Canyon Fire, which started outside city limits but spread quickly into city limits, destroying several homes, vehicles and other personal property.

“I would say that was when wildfire was put on the radar for the community,” Michael said.

The fire was cited in the 2019 Benton County Comprehensive Plan Update, which emphasized that Kennewick had several other high-risk areas, including Zintel Canyon, the site of numerous fires, including nine in 2018 alone.

U.S. Forest Service data indicates Kennewick has a higher wildfire risk than 92.3% of communities in the nation. That ranking is notably higher than other high-risk cities in the Tri-Cities region, including Richland at 85.6% and Pasco at 71.4%.

Left: Karl Kaiyala rests his hand on a fresh stump after cutting down a tree. Right: Team Rubicon patches adorn the backpack of Advanced Sawyer 1 Brian Miller of Eugene, Ore. (M. Scott Brauer for Cascade PBS)

Meeting a need

In late 2018, Kennewick’s fire, police and parks and recreation departments began exploring solutions for the Zintel Canyon fire risk, including community outreach to promote ways residents can make their homes more resilient against fires.

But it was clear that a large-scale effort to remove burnable materials from Zintel Canyon needed to be part of the plan. That led to the partnership with Team Rubicon. U.S. Marine Corps veteran Jake Wood started the organization after he led a small group in 2010 to aid people impacted by a massive earthquake in Haiti.

Over nearly 15 years, that first group of seven volunteers has ballooned to more than 160,000 working nationwide and internationally. Veterans make up about 70% of volunteers for many projects, but plenty of non-veterans participate, too. During the fire mitigation work in Kennewick earlier this month, the group was evenly split between veterans and non-veterans.

Team Rubicon’s first fire-mitigation stint took place in 2019. The most recent effort, earlier this month, was more extensive, with nearly double the number of volunteers and more time spent on site — 10 days vs. three.

Lyle Knigge (center), Incident Commander and Team Rubicon Pacific Northwest Field Readiness Deputy, speaks with Team Rubicon members in an old Kennewick Fire Station, the location of the “Forward Operating Base” for Team Rubicon, during a fire mitigation project in Zintel Canyon. (M. Scott Brauer for Cascade PBS)

Another notable development is that Team Rubicon has been ramping up its wildfire mitigation program in Washington and around the U.S.

While many will remember 2020 for the COVID-19 pandemic, there were also historic levels of fires throughout the Pacific Northwest, including a firestorm over Labor Day weekend that burned tens of thousands of acres throughout Central and Eastern Washington.

Team Rubicon, noting the historic level of wildfire activity, particularly close to homes and residents, saw a need to up its efforts to not just help after fires but to prevent them, said Duane Poslusny, the organization’s wildfire mitigation project manager. They started putting more effort into the mitigation process, which included developing a comprehensive playbook outlining their strategies and formalizing training for those who would cut trees. Today, the organization has 4,000 trained volunteer sawyers nationwide.

Poslusny said the organization needed to work with county and city fire and emergency service agencies that may require more staffing or funding to undertake such efforts.

“You have your local community experts. They know what work needs to be done, and we can provide the extra labor and soft skills to get it done,” Poslusny said.

Cots are set up in various rooms of the old Kennewick Fire Station, called the “Forward Operating Base” by Team Rubicon, where volunteers sleep during a fire mitigation project in Zintel Canyon in Kennewick. (M. Scott Brauer for Cascade PBS)

Indeed, Michael, the Kennewick fire chief, said grants and other money are available. However, it’s still a challenge to make staffing available for such mitigation efforts when they are busy responding to day-to-day emergencies, underscoring the importance of volunteer organizations like Team Rubicon to fill this gap.

Michael said that what Team Rubicon volunteers could do at Zintel Canyon in a week would probably take staff much longer due to the fire department’s regular work. “It’s hard to get capacity,” he said.

The ongoing need in Zintel Canyon was apparent when the greyshirts—the term for volunteers based on the color of their shirts—arrived.

They saw signs of last year’s fire: charred and dead trees.

Jeff Sesak, of Samuels, Idaho, a Team Rubicon Sawyer 1, sharpens a chainsaw during a break. (M. Scott Brauer for Cascade PBS)

The Zintel Canyon job sought volunteers within a 450-mile radius but also drew locals like John P. Buckley, a Hanford worker who served as planning chief for the Kennewick operation. Buckley got involved on Team Rubicon to expand his skills and boost his career in emergency services, but the camaraderie kept him volunteering.

Indeed, the volunteers in Kennewick each had their own story about what drew them to their first volunteer effort with Team Rubicon and why they stayed.

Dan Altmayer, a U.S. Army veteran from the Seattle area, heard about the organization in 2020 during a visit to a Veterans Affairs office. Altmayer’s volunteer work with the organization has varied, including helping Afghan refugees settle into new homes in Puget Sound.

Altmayer said the organization is valuable not just for the people it helps but for the volunteers: “We have a continued sense of mission and purpose,” he said.

A whiteboard displays the “Battle Rhythm” schedule of Team Rubicon’s daily activities and work in the old Kennewick Fire Station, which the Team calls the “Forward Operating Base,” during a fire mitigation project in Zintel Canyon. (M. Scott Brauer for Cascade PBS)

Left: Karl Kaiyala, of Briar, Wash., a Team Rubicon Advanced Sawyer 1 and retired UW professor. Right: Michael Chiu, Team Rubicon PNW Wildfire Fuel Mitigation Planning Coordinator and chainsaw instructor. (M. Scott Brauer for Cascade PBS)

Preventing wildfires that could damage homes and cause injury — even death — has become a top priority for many volunteers like Michael Chiu, who serves as the organization's wildfire fuel mitigation planning coordinator.

Chiu retired in 2016 from the Bellevue Police Department. Walking around the Zintel Canyon site, he could articulate why the volunteers’ work mattered. All he had to do was point to the homes up the hillside from where the volunteers were removing and cutting trees, as well as noting the wind blowing beside him.

The dead trees, branches and debris, plus the wind and nearby homes, are a recipe for future problems.

The more fuel the volunteers could remove, the more likely those homes could stay intact in a fire, Chiu said.

“It gives structural firefighters more time to defend the homes,” he said. “We’re giving the Kennewick Fire Department a fighting chance.”

Team Rubicon volunteers, including PNW Wildfire Fuel Mitigation Planning Coordinator Michael Chiu (left), take a lunch break while working on a fire mitigation project in Zintel Canyon. (M. Scott Brauer for Cascade PBS)

Topics: Eastern Washington, fire, wildfire, Kennewick

Three progressives take on Tanya Woo in Seattle City Council race

Josh Cohen — Mon, 13 May 2024 04:59:00 PDT

If it feels to you like there’s an overabundance of Seattle City Council elections, it’s not your imagination. This fall, Seattleites will vote in a special election to decide who will fill the citywide Position 8 seat through the end of former Seattle City Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda’s term on Dec. 31, 2025.

Friday, May 10, was the filing deadline for the race, and four candidates are running.

Chinatown-International District activist and business owner Tanya Woo was appointed by the Council in January to temporarily fill Position 8 and is running to stay in the seat.

Woo will face three candidates in August’s primary — Alexis Mercedes Rinck, Saunatina Sanchez and Tariq Yusuf — who are positioning themselves as progressive alternatives to the new Council majority’s more moderate business-friendly, pro-police politics.

Rinck is an assistant director at the University of Washington working on state budget and policy issues for the school. Prior to that she held engagement and policy analyst positions at the King County Regional Homelessness Authority and the Sound Cities Association.

She is running on a promise to seek progressive revenue rather than spending cuts to address the city’s looming budget shortfall; expand the affordable-housing supply and help keep low-income renters from falling into homelessness; and tackle the root causes of violence and crime.

Sanchez is a community organizer who’s worked and volunteered with a swath of local progressive organizations, including the Transit Riders Union, Disability Rights Washington, Seattle Renter Organizing Council and the League of Women Voters. She grew up in south Seattle’s New Holly and has relied on biking and public transit to get around her entire life.

She supports social housing, wanting to emulate New York’s right to shelter for homeless residents and reform zoning laws to build more housing. Sanchez also supports expanding transit, tackling the root causes of crime, and stronger worker rights. When it comes to the deficit, she wants to comb through existing city spending before raising new progressive revenue.

Yusuf is a lifelong Seattleite who also grew up in New Holly and says he benefited tremendously from social services and safety net programs to get him to where he is today. He has spent the past decade working on data privacy for tech companies.

He is running on a platform to build more affordable housing, redirect money for homeless encampment sweeps to social services, limit taxes on small and medium businesses, bolster transit and expand police alternatives.

Woo ran for south Seattle’s District 2 City Council position in 2023, losing to incumbent Tammy Morales. During the pandemic, Woo helped found the Chinatown-International District Community Watch to conduct safety patrols and hand out basic supplies to people experiencing homelessness. Woo and her family also co-own the historic Louisa Hotel, which was redeveloped into low- and middle-income affordable housing after a 2013 fire.

Last year, Woo campaigned on promises to focus on police hiring while also supporting police alternatives, expand homeless shelter options, support small businesses and look for ways to cut spending in the city budget before raising taxes, among other issues. She gained the support of big business, who spent more than $70,000 on her behalf and more than $100,000 against Morales.

Following Mosqueda’s departure to the King County Council in January, the Seattle City Council appointed Woo to the citywide seat, with the understanding she would have to run this fall to keep that seat for one more year, if she wanted it.

With the filing deadline passed, campaign season will kick into high gear. The primary is Aug. 6, when Seattle voters will choose the top two candidates to advance to the general. Whoever wins in November will have to run again in 2025 if they want to keep the seat for the next four-year term.

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Topics: Election 2024, Seattle City Elections

Cascade PBS Ideas Festival | The Journal: Just how bad is the U.S Economy?

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Podcast | CNN journalists on covering the Israel-Hamas war

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Advocates say Seattle’s $1.45B transportation tax isn’t enough

Josh Cohen — Fri, 10 May 2024 05:00:00 PDT

Within Seattle’s 84 square miles, repaving roads, building bike lanes, repairing sidewalks, maintaining bridges, planting street trees and generally keeping the transportation system functional is a multibillion-dollar proposition.

For the past nine years, the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) has relied on a $930 million property-tax levy to pay for about 30% of its budget. That levy expires at the end of 2024. In November, Seattle voters will be asked to renew it for $1.45 billion over eight years.

For the owner of a median-valued $804,000 Seattle home, the expiring transportation levy costs $276 annually. The $1.45 billion renewal would increase that to $468 a year. Owners of rental units would also see their taxes go up, which they would likely pass along to renters.

Though that would make it the largest levy in Seattle’s history, a coalition of street safety and climate advocates are pressing the City Council to increase the tax to pay for more sidewalks, bike lanes, dedicated bus lanes and crosswalks. The coalition includes Disability Rights Washington, Seattle Neighborhood Greenways, Transit Riders Union, 350 Seattle, Puget Sound Sage, Seattle Subway and more.

Mayor Bruce Harrell and SDOT released their final proposal for the transportation levy on May 3. After initially proposing a $1.35 billion levy in April, Harrell added $100 million to the price tag to pay for sidewalks, bicycle and pedestrian connections to light-rail stations, bus lanes and other projects in response to the request for more. On May 7, the City Council began its work on the proposed tax.

“The work we do here in this committee will be some of the most impactful work any of us do in our entire time on the Council,” said Councilmember Rob Saka, chair of the Transportation Levy Committee, at its May 7 meeting. “It’s an opportunity that comes just once a decade to build a better future for Seattle.”

In his opening remarks, Saka discussed the huge swath of work the levy touches, from keeping Seattle’s aging bridges in good repair to reshaping Downtown’s Third Avenue for a post-pandemic world. But mostly he focused on safety implications.

“This transportation levy is about making our roads safe for everyone and allowing people to better connect in our neighborhoods no matter whether they are walking, biking, rolling, driving or using transit,” said Saka.

The majority of the more-than-two dozen public commenters at the committee meeting asked the Councilmembers to do more for pedestrians, bicyclists and transit riders in order to meet Seattle’s Vision Zero and climate goals. Seattle and Washington share a goal of reaching zero traffic fatalities or serious injuries, but are nowhere near accomplishing it.

And about 61% of Seattle’s annual carbon emissions come from transportation, meaning reaching climate goals will require getting people out of their cars.

In her testimony, Rita Hulsman illustrated the stakes of getting road safety right. Her husband Steve was hit and killed by a driver while biking in West Seattle last December.

“Four days before Christmas, Steve became a Seattle traffic fatality statistic, but he was so much more than a statistic to me,” said Hulsman, fighting back tears. “He was a loving dad to our three kids and grandpa to our young grandson. He was also a much-loved brother, uncle, friend and my husband of over 40 years. We would’ve celebrated our 42nd anniversary tomorrow. Please don’t let this happen to anyone else. Please fund Vision Zero and safety well.”

The proposed transportation levy would provide $114 million for bicycle safety projects, $135 million for pedestrian projects and $162 million for Vision Zero, school and neighborhood safety projects. It also would provide $423 million for street repaving projects, which would include bike and pedestrian safety elements. For example, when a street undergoes a full repaving, it can get new bike lanes and additional crosswalks.

But advocates argue even a nine-figure investment will be insufficient to move the needle on pedestrian and bicyclist safety. For example, with the current proposed funding levels, SDOT will build 280 blocks of new sidewalks, 250 of which would come in the levy’s first four years. But the city is missing well over 10,000 blocks of sidewalks.

“The challenge of the 13,000 missing blocks of sidewalks is really, really significant and beyond the ability of one levy to address,” said Meghan Shepard, SDOT’s deputy director of Downtown mobility, in a presentation to the Council. “But we can take some firm steps forward in looking at this. And one of them is the proposed sidewalk surge to deliver 250 blocks in four years.”

Shepard said SDOT was also forming a work group to seek outside grants and funding that could help build additional blocks of sidewalks after those first four years.

The coalition of advocates is asking Councilmembers to increase the levy to around $1.9 billion. Polling data from Change Research shows Seattleites might support it. The online poll of more than 600 likely Seattle voters was commissioned by the Northwest Progressive Institute in partnership with the street safety coalition.

Asked about renewing the levy at its current funding levels, 71% of respondents were supportive, 41% strongly supportive and 31% somewhat supportive. Voters’ top priorities were to repair bridges and repave streets in poor condition, followed closely by improving safety on Seattle’s most dangerous streets, building sidewalks where they are missing, and investing in improvements to help kids walk and bike to school safely.

Asked to choose between increasing the levy price tag to $1.7 billion or $1.9 billion and hearing an explanation of what the additional money could pay for, 54% of respondents said they preferred the $1.9 billion option. Another 25% said they preferred the $1.7 billion option, while 21% said they opposed renewing the levy. The poll had a margin of error of 4.1%.

At the May 7 Council meeting, Saka acknowledged the call for increasing the size of the levy, and said that he’d read the coalition’s February letter calling for a $3 billion levy renewal. But he signaled a reluctance to do so.

“Even if we had a $3 billion levy it wouldn’t meet the need. We’re unlikely to meet the total need at whatever size,” Saka said. “But what we do need is a plan and a strategy to meet the needs.”

Topics: Elections 2024, Seattle City Elections, Seattle City Government, Transportation

AI is already impacting the 2024 elections. Experts are nervous.

Josh Cohen — Fri, 10 May 2024 04:59:00 PDT

Do you know President Joe Biden’s voice well enough to tell it apart from an AI imposter?

That was the challenge audience members were tasked with during a live taping of the Radio Atlantic podcast at this year’s Cascade PBS Ideas Festival for an episode about artificial intelligence’s potential impact on elections.

Audience members listened to three clips of Biden speaking, two real and one generated by AI audio software capable of mimicking anyone’s voice. Asked to identify the imposter, the crowd was divided fairly evenly among the three clips, meaning about two-thirds of attendees were fooled by the robot president.

The exercise wasn’t just theoretical. In January, just two days before the presidential primary, about 5,000 New Hampshire voters received a robocall purporting to be Biden and urging them to save their vote until November. An investigation revealed that a Democratic political consultant named Steve Kramer had paid a New Orleans magician to produce the call. Kramer claimed he did it to sound the alarm about the dangers of such technology.

“The call went out on a Sunday morning. Are you really going to question, especially if you’re not paying close attention to technology, if that’s your president calling? The software is working out the kinks, but the believability has crossed a threshold, which is alarming,” said Atlantic Magazine tech reporter Charlie Warzel at Saturday’s talk.

Warzel recently published a story about ElevenLabs, a small British software startup that’s leading the charge on AI audio technology. Long-term, the company wants to enable seamless, real-time language translation. Shorter-term, they want to improve voice dubbing for television and movies. Right now, for $22/month, anyone can upload audio samples into the program and spit out clips that sound convincingly like a person. Some authors are using it to record audiobooks. The Atlantic uses it to produce audio versions of its articles.

Journalist Hanna Rosin, host of Radio Atlantic, used ElevenLabs software for the Biden test as well as another in which she played two clips of herself saying the same phrase, one she recorded and one produced by ElevenLabs AI. Once again, the audience was divided on which was which.

The implications of this readily available technology are frightening. In the political sphere, bad actors could use it to make deepfakes of candidates saying damaging statements or for robocalls a la the New Hampshire primary. Elsewhere, scammers are already using it to extort ransom money in fake kidnappings and defraud banks.

Warzel said that some big tech companies have pledged to work on potential defenses, such as a digital watermarking that would help people discern the origins of an audio clip, and that the founders of ElevenLabs have acknowledged the potential pitfalls of their technology. But to date there isn’t any real regulation of AI audio that might mitigate its harm.

“The only bulwark against this stuff is I do think people are generally pretty dubious of most things. … We have a little more of a defense now than we did in 2016. A lot of people are just kind of beaten down by the misinformation in the world. They’re less willing to pick up the robocall,” said Warzel.

But, he acknowledged, skepticism and tech savvy go only so far.

“It only takes one: some person in late October or early November that puts out something that’s just good enough and it’s the last thing someone sees before they go to the polls,” Warzel explained. “Those are the things that make you nervous. I don’t think we’re at a godlike ability to change reality. But it’s somewhere in between.”

If you want to watch this whole session, it will air on Cascade PBS on May 18 at 7 p.m. and stream on cascadepbs.org and crosscut.com the next day. Listen to all sessions on the Cascade PBS Ideas Festival podcast.

Topics: Cascade PBS Ideas Festival, Election 2024, Tech

Mossback’s Northwest: Early WA eco-advocacy captured in color

Knute Berger — Fri, 10 May 2024 04:58:00 PDT

In “Upon Further Review,” Mossback’s Northwest’s series within a series, host Knute Berger and producer Stephen Hegg reflect on and update an older episode after viewer feedback. Here, they look back on last December’s half-hour anthology, “Wild Times,” on the history of the Northwest wilderness, focusing on Supreme Court Justice and Washington native William O. Douglas, an avid hiker and wilderness advocate.

On the Court, Douglas was a great advocate for wilderness preservation – helping to “save wild areas all across America from the Potomac to the Pacific,” Berger points out, but always retaining a special fondness for his Northwest roots. “In the 1950s,” Berger continues, “[Douglas] led a group of activists and enthusiastic hikers down the wild Pacific coast of Washington from Cape Alava to La Push … to protest a proposed highway down that coast.”

Asked about his interest in Douglas, Berger says, “I’ve been an admirer of Douglas since the 1960s … in high school I wrote him a fan letter and he replied. He’s always embodied the Northwest environmental ethic.” Amazingly, footage of that 1958 hike exists: “[Douglas] invited activists, government people, the media to come along. And one filmmaker did, Louis Huber,” who specialized in filming the outdoors.

Justice William O. Douglas leads a group of hikers in a still from Louis R. Huber’s film “The Beach Hike.” (Oregon State Historical Society)

“After the special aired,” Berger says, “I was contacted by Mossback viewer Philip Fenner, who said he had found that film in the basement of the founder of the North Cascades Conservation Council … He had it digitized and it was in terrible condition. He contacted another filmmaker [who] found Huber’s films were donated to the Oregon Historical Society.” Huber’s own print, restored in 2015, was the one used for this episode – and is available on YouTube for everyone to see, simply titled “Beach Hike,” with the original narration: “Something was at stake that concerns you and me and our children, and the children of our children,” he intones ominously.

But then as now, environmental preservation was a magnet for controversy, and the opposition made an economic argument: The proposed highway would increase access to the coast and the tourist dollars would benefit the Olympic Peninsula. “So, at the end of the hike,” Berger says, the party is “confronted by a protester and his son, and they’ve made a whole bunch of signs. And my favorite one was ‘Bird Watcher Go Home.’”

A man and his son confront Justice Douglas with a counter-protest. (MOHAI)

But Douglas wasn’t alone in spearheading the movement. A woman named Polly Dyer had moved to Washington from California about 1950, bringing a deep and energetic commitment to environmental activism, says Berger: “[Dyer] testified for the Wilderness Act. She was involved in helping to preserve parts of Olympic National Park. She was a co-founder of the North Cascades Conservation Council, which won the fight to create North Cascades National Park. She served on their board for nearly 60 years” before her death in 2016.

Polly Dyer interviewed by media before the hike. (Oregon State Historical Society)

“The early A-Team,” Hegg calls Dyer and Douglas for their work in preserving parts of the wild Northwest, a team whose environmental advocacy was preserved on film – “activism in action.”

Topics: Environment, History, Mossback, Mossback's Northwest, Multimedia, Video

ArtSEA: Seattle arts venues are putting on a good face

Brangien Davis — Thu, 09 May 2024 16:57:04 PDT

If you’ve spent any time checking out the red carpet looks from the Met Gala this past weekend, you know the high-fashion museum fundraiser was aglow with sparkles and aflutter with curious headpieces. (I especially enjoyed the large bouquet hat plopped on Zendaya’s head, and hope to see people following her lead at Pike Place Market flower stalls this summer.)

The avant-garde toppers were a coincidental precursor to the bedazzling headpieces featured in Les Nuits Barbares (The Barbarian Nights), coming up at Meany Center for the Performing Arts (May 10-12). Created by French-Algerian choreographer Hervé Koubi, the performance combines contemporary and street dance with movement found in Mediterranean traditions and the Afro-Brazilian art of capoeira.

The result is an astonishing display of athleticism, as the all-male company of West African and Algerian dancers faux-fight and take flight. (Catch a captivating sneak peek here.) With faces at times fully obscured by the spellbinding, glimmering masks, the dancers employ canes, blades, muscle and emotion to embody Koubi’s question surrounding Mediterranean history: Who were the real “barbarians”?

If a dance performance sounds like the perfect way to celebrate Mother’s Day — plus a chance to affix flowers to your head — Seattle company Whim W’Him is right on time with a new show. Spring ’24 (May 10-18 at Cornish Playhouse; May 15 at Vashon Center for the Arts) is a mixed bill featuring three contemporary pieces from a global mix of acclaimed dance minds. Watch for world premieres by Spanish choreographer Gustavo Ramírez Sansano (of Luna Negra Dance Theater); London-born, Switzerland-based choreographer Ihsan Rustem (of Cie. La Ronde); and the revival of “Silent Scream” by Seattle’s own Belgian-born Olivier Wevers — who founded Whim W’Him 15 years ago and has been bringing international dance voices into the local mix ever since.

Left: “I AM,” by Jeremy G. Bell (ArtX Contemporary). Right: “Medicine Man Mask,” by Robin Rorick at Stonington Gallery (Brangien Davis/Cascade PBS).

After being mesmerized by the dancers’ masks in The Barbarian Nights, I realized I’ve been seeing a lot of altered and unusual faces around town.

You’ll find the most faces in one place at Mini Mart City Park in Georgetown, in the show Face Off (through May 19). For this group show, more than 50 emerging and established artists contributed creative takes on the portrait. Lock eyes with work by Preston Wadley, Roger Shimomura, Morgan Peterson, Margie Livingston, Brandon Vosika, Syd Bee and many others.

Stonington Gallery — always a source of captivating masks by contemporary Native artists — has several stunners on view in Pioneer Square. Some transform the wearer’s face into animals of legend (wolves and ravens by various artists, plus a man/beaver hybrid with big buck teeth by Kwagiulth carver Stan Hunt). But I was particularly taken with a “Medicine Man Mask” by Haida artist Robin Rorick. His carved yellow cedar face topped with cedar bark “hair” is not only unbelievably smooth, it also features cheekbones precisely positioned with the round swirls of the tree’s rings.

Also in Pioneer Square, Seattle painter Jeremy G. Bell presents Cosmic Tapestry at ArtX Contemporary (through June 22), featuring his portraits of Black faces partially obscured by electric splashes of color that come across as thoughts and dreams.

Left: “Up Against It,” by Robert Arneson (Studio e Gallery). Right: “FFS,” by Ben Ashton (Roq La Rue Gallery).

For Seattle’s Got the Blues at the Home Team Gallery in Occidental Square (through May 31), Seattle artist Baso Fibonacci has covered the back wall with 200 small works painted on found fentanyl foils. Crafting a unique skull on every crumpled foil — death masks of sorts, representing each fentanyl death in downtown Seattle last year — he hopes to draw attention to the ongoing drug crisis.

Another face that demands eye contact is part of Roq La Rue’s new group show Spectacle du Petite (through May 25). These miniature works at the Madison Valley gallery pack a big (and sometimes spooky) punch. That includes “FFS” by London artist Ben Ashton, known for creating hyper-realistic portraits with Regency Era flair — then sliding the subject’s face out of whack and into the uncanny valley.

Lastly, at Studio e in Georgetown, the group show Coastal Funk (through May 18) is an homage to Bay Area sculptor Robert Arneson (1930-1992). A pioneer of the 1960s-’70s era “Funk” movement, Arneson rejected the cold distance of abstract art and instead looked within, creating personal portraits in clay. Among works by several other artists is Arneson’s fantastic self-portrait “Up Against It,” in which his face looks smashed against glass.

“Thelma,” starring June Squibb and Fred Hechinger. (Seattle International Film Festival)

More things to do on Mother’s Day weekend

< The Seattle International Film Festival officially kicks off tonight (May 9) with the comedy Thelma, starring Oscar winner June Squibb as a 93-year-old grandmother hellbent on getting her money back from a phone scammer. The festival is showing 261 films over the next 11 days; read my picks for local flicks in last week’s newsletter.

< Pacific Bonsai Museum is celebrating its annual BonsaiFEST! (May 11-12), featuring a whole lotta artfully pruned trees in spring bloom. If you haven’t been to this outdoor ode to tiny trees set among tall evergreens, this is the perfect reason to go (bonus: great weather predicted!).

< If Mom prefers printed matter to plants, consider the Seattle Art Book Fair (at Washington Hall, May 11-12). This charming festival of more than 80 vendors celebrates handcrafted and small-press books, cards, screen prints and other paper gems.

< Here’s a novel combo: Seattle rock-and-roll band Thunderpussy is playing with the Seattle Symphony (May 10) to commemorate the band’s 10th anniversary and the release of a new album. Special musical guests and local dancers will take the stage amid guitar solos and string sections and plenty of high kicks.

Meanwhile, Black Arts Legacies: Season 3 continues with 10 stellar artists who’ve made a big impact on the Seattle arts scene, past and present. We’re revealing the names of these artists once a week through June. Missed this week’s reveal? It’s painter Moses Sun, whose abstract works dance with music and movement.

Topics: Arts, ArtSEA, Dance, Features, Things to do

The Newsfeed: Mayor Bruce Harrell shares thoughts on SPD, Downtown

Paris Jackson — Thu, 09 May 2024 05:00:00 PDT

Topics: Multimedia, Video

Ta-Nehisi Coates on ‘apartheid’ Israel and support for Gaza

Farah Eltohamy — Thu, 09 May 2024 04:59:00 PDT

Ta-Nehisi Coates said it took only one day into his 10-day trip across Palestine and Israel to call it what it is.

“I first thought about it and said – well, these people have actually advanced past Jim Crow by segregating water itself,” said the prominent author and activist before the keynote crowd at Cascade PBS’ Ideas Festival. Coates, drawing on his experiences in the West Bank, was referring to an Israeli policy on water cisterns that he witnessed firsthand, effectively restricting Palestinian access to water resources and water-related infrastructure.

Coates, in conversation with Slate’s Jason Johnson for a live podcast recording, drew parallels between the Black and Palestinian struggles for freedom, and called on both his audience and the media to stand face-to-face with American complicity in Israel’s war on Gaza.

“We owe it to ourselves as American citizens who are bankrolling this, to be absolutely clear on what we are bankrolling,” he said. Since Oct. 7, 2023, the U.S. government has authorized billions in military aid and weaponry to Israel, which, according to the latest numbers from the Gaza Health Ministry, has helped kill at least 34,000 Palestinians, approximately a third of whom were children. That number is an estimate, and does not account for the thousands of Palestinians who died trapped under rubble.

“I think one of the things that people are missing in this moment is just – in Gaza, with over 30,000 dead, we are seeing access to food used as a weapon, we are seeing hospitals bombed,” Coates said. “This is being done to secure an apartheid state, and that was so clear.”

In the culminating moments of his session, Coates expressed support for the pro-Palestinian protests sweeping college campuses across the country, calling them “one of the most democratic moments in American history” because the “Palestinian cause has never had this much gravity” in past years.

“I would have hoped that, if my child was on college campus right now – well, anywhere – in the country that he pledged his allegiance to, was bankrolling a bombing of hospitals, I want them disturbed,” he said. “I really, really hope that he would be upset about that.”

While Johnson and Coates were quite steeped in their discussion on the war on Gaza, Johnson also asked Coates his thoughts on other issues plaguing the media industry – with artificial intelligence being among the first words to roll off his tongue.

Coates replied by saying that large language models pose no threat to him, as simply put: Writing is a fundamental part of being human, and real writing is rooted in real experiences.

“I think writing is really, really important,” he said. “I think it's really, really important for people who are not professional writers to learn how to write. I think there’s a real direct relationship between writing and thinking.”

Watch the entire interview with Coates at the Cascade PBS Ideas Festival at 7 p.m. on May 19 or stream the session the next day on cascadepbs.org. Listen to all sessions on the Cascade PBS Ideas Festival podcast

Topics: Cascade PBS Ideas Festival

Your Last Meal | The Leftovers with Jesse Tyler Ferguson

Rachel Belle — Thu, 09 May 2024 04:58:00 PDT

Topics: