While the fire just north of Skykomish has been largely contained by crews working with the U.S. Forest Service and Department of Natural Resources, “clear skies and slightly higher temperatures created a drying trend … resulting in … smoldering of vegetation,” a spokesperson for the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center wrote in an update on the Bolt Creek fire.

Mudslides, falling debris next big worry after Bolt Creek Fire

That smoldering has increased the fire’s smoke which has pushed its way west, according to University of Washington meteorologist Cliff Mass.

“The plume of terrible surface air quality [has exited] from the Skykomish Valley from the Bolt Creek fire, which then heads south over Seattle,” Mass wrote in a recent blog post.

While air quality in northwestern Washington suffers Tuesday morning — the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency has rated it unhealthy for sensitive groups — conditions are .

“A change in the overall weather pattern is underway. In the past few days, we have had an east-to-west air flow across the Cascades, bringing the wildfire smoke from events in the mountains westward,” said ����Xվ Newsradio meteorologist Ted Buehner.

“Now, the low-level flow will shift to onshore – from the Pacific Ocean inland tonight and through tomorrow, blowing the wildfire smoke in the Puget Sound area eastward, and also bring marine clouds and cooler conditions tomorrow.”

While Thursday marks the fall equinox, bringing an official end to the summer season, warm temperatures and favorable weather conditions are expected to persist into next week.

Higher pressure is expected to build over the Pacific Northwest again next week for a return to more sunshine and above seasonal average high temperatures in the 70s.

The fire displaced all 50 residents of the motel on 2909 Wheaton Way. Medics transported five to the hospital for smoke inhalation treatment of minor burns.

One resident dislocated their shoulder after forcing entry into the room of a wheelchair-bound individual who required assistance evacuating the building.

A spokesperson with the BFD estimates that residents will be able to return to the motel in a matter of days, although the room on the second floor in which the arsonist started the fire requires repair and will be uninhabitable “for quite some time,” John Payne, assistant fire chief with the BFD, told ����Xվ Newsradio.

“It’s an older build we’ve had in town. It’s nice for people … that get housed there. They kind of need it for the longer term … It’s primarily been used by the county to help take care of those in need, kind of a transient population for long-term stays,” Payne said.

2 separate Auburn hit-and-run accidents leave 2 dead

Payne noted that the arson suspect is a resident of the Midway Inn who “had good discussions” with police and fire investigators Sunday morning.

“He was transported to a hospital because of his injuries. I suspect, after that, he will probably be taken by law enforcement — if he hasn’t been already,” Payne added.

Heads up! Keep an eye out for maintenance crews on southbound I-5 on the ship canal bridge. They will be shutting down 2 right lanes for urgent maintenance work. This also means we need to close 2 right lanes of the express lanes. This work is expected to take a couple hours.

— WSDOT Traffic (@wsdot_traffic)

A spokesperson for WSDOT declined to comment on the specific nature of the repair, saying “Earlier this morning we received a call regarding an issue requiring an emergency bridge deck repair on the southbound mainline I-5 ship canal bridge. Two southbound lanes were closed as well as two southbound express lanes, given the repair is being made from below the mainline bridge.”

����Xվ Newsradio Headlines: Striking SPS teachers reach tentative contract agreement with district

����Xվ Newsradio traffic reporter Chris Sullivan reports that the emergency road work could be related to anything from concrete repair to expansion joint replacement.

Update 10:49 a.m.

The two lanes have been reopened just before 10:30 a.m.

UPDATE: All lanes of both the SB I-5 mainline and express lanes at the Ship Canal Bridge in are now re-opened after earlier emergency bridge deck repairs. Thank you for your patience!

— WSDOT Traffic (@wsdot_traffic)

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

The fire between Gold Bar and Skykomish is now more than 14 square miles — larger than Mercer Island.

Fire crews with the Northwest Incident Management Team 8 – a coalition of firefighters and staff largely from the U.S. Forest Service and the Washington State Department of Natural Resources – have nearly doubled the containment of the Bolt Creek fire Monday.

Currently, the containment of the Bolt Creek fire stands at an estimated 5% as of Tuesday morning, according to Jim Cahill, spokesperson for Team 8. Containment refers to the percentage of fire behind fire lines, as well as the professional judgment of a fire’s behavior

“The fire is fairly in place,” Cahill told MyNorthwest, explaining that the fire is not rushed by gusts of wind, making the management of the “moderate” fire more stable than over the windy weekend.

Incredible footage from of the Bolt Creek Fire in Washington near Skykomish. Always cool to see these from 36,000 feet.

— TheHotshotWakeUp: Podcast (@HotshotWake)

The worst offender of fire instability tends to be its movement along steep grades. Natural physics results in fast burns on hills, which has not been a problem with the Bolt Creek fire.

“This fire is staying on the ground,” Cahill added.

Humidity in the Skykomish/ Index area remains at around 80%. That, with a lack of sharp wind gusts, has made for favorable conditions to contain the fire.

Team 8 will deploy a range of crew resources Tuesday to aid fire-fighting efforts: interagency hotshot crews, strike teams performing structure preparation, heavy equipment to clear brush along fire lines east and west of the fire, and five to six helicopters.

Many residents continue to reject evacuation warnings as Bolt Creek Fire threatens homes

The fire’s stability has meant that the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Department has not expanded evacuation zones near the Bolt Creek fire along Highway 2. Index remains under active evacuation, although some residents of the town tell ����Xվ Newsradio that they’re considering returning.

MyNorthwest has reached out to WSDOT for clarity on the reopening timeline for U.S. Route 2.

Mayor Harrell signaled in recent weeks his interest in moving funds away from the KCRHA, even as it asks the county and the city of Seattle for an additional $90 million on top of its base budget of $208.4 million.

“I didn’t set this stuff up,” Mayor Harrell said of the KCRHA in a speech in front of Seattle Police officers, according to KTTH’s Jason Rantz.

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“I get one vote out of nine, and they criticize my removal efforts,” Harrell said. “So I’m funding an organization that seems to be working against what I’m trying to do.”

“So now we’re looking to revisiting that because my public safety strategy that I’m funding … they criticize that,” Harrell continued. “So why would I then, as mayor, invest $118 million into a group that’s really working against me? That’s the hand that I’ve dealt.”

Harrell delivered those comments behind closed doors. Wednesday, the mayor had the opportunity to contextualize that statement in front of the public in a news conference he delivered to announce additional funding for the Seattle Parks and Recreation Department.

“Yes,” Harrell said when asked whether he would propose a budget cut to the KCRHA in the coming weeks.

“We’ll present our budget in a few weeks … you will see our clear recognition of a lot of the great work they’re doing … But let me say this. That is one tool of many,” he continued.

The head of the KCRHA is Marc Dones, with whom the mayor has clashed in recent months as Harrell pushed for encampment removals in the middle of July’s heat wave.

“(The Regional Homelessness Authority) does not support displacement,” the authority’s communications director Anne Martens to the Seattle Times in response to the removal of a SoDo encampment.

“It’s a startup organization,” Harrell said Wednesday, replying back to the KCRHA.

“They are owed the opportunity to succeed, to have measurable outcomes. But the conversations I had privately, when I met with Marc Dones and King County Executive Dow Constantine, to talk about our expectations … I feel very optimistic. I’m very optimistic. But I’m not going to look at any of the work we’re doing in the city through rose-colored glasses. I will not do that.”

The City of Seattle is likely to face a budget shortfall of up to $140 million annually over the next four years, according to the Seattle City Council’s budget committee. Against that backdrop, the council and the mayor will deliberate how and where to make budget cuts, likely announced in the coming months with Harrell’s 2023 budget.

Editor’s note: A spokesperson for the mayor’s office wrote to MyNorthwest, saying “the mayor was simply acknowledging the question with his ‘yes’, not indicating that he’s seeking to reduce funding.” 

Starbucks Corp. holds that NLRB agents “secretly colluded with the union” to sway election results, according to . Specifically, they allege that labor election votes — intended to be submitted via mail — were cast in NLRB offices. They cite a “career NLRB professional,” a whistleblower, as evidence.

Tuesday, the NLRB met with legal representation from all parties to investigate the claim and determine subsequent action.

Gabe Frumkin, an attorney representing SWU, obliquely compared the charges to Stop the Steal tactics, indirectly referring to former President Donald Trump’s attempt to cast doubt on the election of President Joe Biden by undermining the integrity of the elections process.

“We’re all familiar with the story. A party loses an election … that party is unwilling to accept the legitimate outcome of the election,” Frumkin said.

“Rather than conceding defeat and recognizing the victorious party, the defeated creates an alternate narrative replete with conspiracy theories featuring deep state agents when the defeated party cannot allege that its supporters were prevented from voting.”

“It alleges that some people were permitted to vote when they shouldn’t be, contesting the election result. [That] party is not afraid to cause collateral damage to the very institutions entrusted to protect the democratic processes we value in this country. The party may even want to do this damage.”

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Legal representation, Littler Mendelson, for Starbucks Corp. further explained their issue with the NLRB’s involvement in a recent Kansas City area Starbucks union vote, saying that two ballots were not mailed to Starbucks employees. Rather than resolve the issue “quickly or properly,” those employees were allegedly asked to cast their ballot at the NLRB’s St. Louis office.

“The danger here is that we’re being put to the game, that we’re supposed to now go through procedures where neither the union nor the region is prepared to provide documentary evidence that either corroborates or refutes what we have asserted,” Mendelson said.

“And that’s the danger that we shouldn’t even have to have an argument about that. So if the region and the union are prepared to present documents … then we could probably cut to the core in this case very quickly.”

Starbucks Corp.’s complaint further adds that, in colluding with the NLRB, the union was able to track the status of cast ballots, allowing it to “identify and specifically target individuals who had not yet voted, enabling the union to target and attempt to influence the vote of partners who had not yet voted.”

The company notes that “other available information indicates that the same type of misconduct” has occurred in Seattle and Buffalo.

The NLRB hearing is scheduled to convene Wednesday, Aug. 17,  at 1 p.m. EST.

All lanes of southbound I-5 have opened just north of Mercer Street, according to WSDOT.

And all SB I5 is open again!

— ����Xվ Newsradio Traffic (@����XվTraffic)

4:00 p.m. update:

The fire that engulfed a truck carrying liquid oxygen, shutting down I-5 in both directions, is under control, according to David Cuerpo, a spokesperson with Seattle Fire.

Seattle Fire Department is monitoring the truck for heat before the oxygen tanks can be removed.

Bridge inspectors are on the scene to ensure the integrity of I-5.

Washington State Patrol does not have an estimate of when southbound I-5 will reopen. That decision will be made by the bridge inspectors.

Seattle Fire originally had a .5-mile radius in place for all residents in the area to close all windows and doors, according to Cuerpo. At that time, the department was considering evacuating the area within a one-mile radius.

Before that decision was made, the fire was contained, and the area did not require evacuation.

3:50 p.m. update:

All lanes of southbound I-5 remain closed, although southbound express lanes are now open, according to the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT).

WSDOT recommends using alternate routes, including I-405, SR 99, city streets, or the train.

3:00 p.m. update:

Northbound I-5 has fully reopened, according to Washington State Patrol.

2:30 p.m.:

All lanes of southbound and northbound I-5 near Mercer Street are fully closed Thursday afternoon after a truck carrying oxygen tanks caught fire.

I-5 SB is fully closed at Mercer Street. Truck fire. Seattle Fire is on scene. This will be an extended closure.

— Washington State DOT (@wsdot)

Washington State Patrol is considering evacuating the area within a mile radius, according to Rick Johnson, public information officer with Washington State Patrol.

— Vanessa Rodriguezh (@vanerodh)

Boeing field is sending specialized trucks that deal with airplane fires to the scene of the crash.

AlertSeattle: if you live near SB I-5 at Lakeview Blvd. E, close windows and doors to avoid smoke exposure from fire incident on I-5. Follow for incident updates.

— AlertSeattle (@AlertSeattle)

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

Those percentages follow a nationwide trend: with inflation rates rising — the Consumer Price Index recorded a 9.1% year-over-year price increase across all consumer items as of June — investors have looked to real estate acquisition to hedge against inflation, with residential rentals and their annually variable rental prices attractive to investment firms looking to get ahead of the curve.

Across the U.S., investment firms acquired 13.2% of residential homes in 2021, up from 11.8% in 2020. The tri-county area rests slightly below that national average. Independent analysis conducted by the (NAR) offers the idea that a relatively high number of households, a density of minority groups and Millennials, and a disproportionate percentage of renters are market conditions most compelling for “institutional buyers” of residential homes, defined as companies, corporations, or LLCs.

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“A big portion of homes that otherwise will be sold to first-time homebuyers, institutional buyers purchase this home,” Nadia Evangelou, NAR’s senior economist, told MyNorthwest.

“We also see, for example, in areas with a higher market share of institutional buyers, they’re purchasing homes above the median price compared to all buyers, so they increase the home prices … they offer all cash. First-time homebuyers cannot compete with, for example, international buyers because first-time homebuyers … don’t have equity … They do not have this equity to make a downpayment … While rents are rising fast as well, this also means a downpayment is becoming more challenging for first-time homebuyers.”

All cash offers have obvious benefits for sellers, with institutional buyers also guaranteeing sales and waiving the inspection process, according to a NAR survey.

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Institutional buyer shares are higher in areas with disproportionate numbers of renters: counties with renter shares closer to 30% recorded the highest percentages of investment acquisition. Of note, areas with relatively high numbers of institutional investments had roughly twice the number of black and minority households.

At the national level, 42% of properties sold to institutional investors were converted into rental properties, according to a NAR random sample of approximately 50,000 residential transactors. 45% were sold back or “flipped.”

More locally, a MyNorthwest analysis of King County real estate excise tax affidavits processed by the recorder’s office for June 1, 2022, through June 30, 2022, found that RedfinNow Borrower LLC acquired the most property of any buyer, purchasing 15 of the 5,630 properties recorded by the county for that month. The second most prolific buyer was the City of Seattle, purchasing 12 properties in June of 2022.

Employers deny claims of collusion, price-fixing as Seattle-area concrete strike nears fifth month

Friday morning, a cement truck rolled over on northbound Interstate 5 just north of the Ship Canal Bridge, spilling several yards of concrete into I-5 and closing all northbound lanes for nearly four hours. That driver was cited for negligent driving, according to Washington State Patrol.

NB I-5 just north of SR 520 fully blocked after concrete truck rolls over

The owner of the truck, Ready Mix Delivery, has been contracted to supply an I-5 project: replacing existing bridge rail and curbs with new traffic barriers in a nearly $16 million contract.

The concrete pours associated with the project were originally scheduled to start Saturday morning and last 18 hours, involving 600 cubic yards of concrete, according to the Teamsters. Ready Mix Delivery will be down a truck after Friday’s accident.

“I don’t know how they’re going to do that job without breaking the law,” a shop steward for Cadman-Lehigh Hanson told MyNorthwest.

The shop steward pointed to a lack of experience among Ready Mix Delivery’s drivers. The inertia involved in driving concrete can make sharp turns at high speeds especially challenging, and that shop steward believes that to be a contributing factor in Friday’s overturned cement truck.

Ready Mix Delivery acknowledges the mistake made Friday that caused the shutdown on the interstate.

“Well, it’s a big [expletive] mess, and we’re cleaning it up,” the owner of the company, Joshua Gribble, told MyNorthwest.

Gribble could not confirm the extent to which Friday’s accident will affect their work on I-5.

“We expect all of our contractors to meet high standards … We haven’t heard from the contractor, and don’t believe this will cause any delays to work this weekend,” Tom Pearce, WSDOT spokesperson, told ����Xվ Newsradio.

Those four pens are owned by Cooke Aquaculture, a company that, up until recent years, farmed Atlantic salmon in Puget Sound waters until their fish pens outside Cypress Island broke, spilling an estimated 4,000 non-native salmon into the Sound and the Pacific Ocean. Cooke Aquaculture would settle with the nonprofit Wild Fish Conservancy in 2019, agreeing to transition their product to native steelhead trout.

Cooke’s leases on four pens in Skagit Bay, Clam Bay, Fort Ward, and Orchard Rocks, five-year leases issued between 2020 and 2021, have withstood recent challenges in the Washington State Supreme Court. In January, the court handed down a unanimous ruling upholding the permits through a challenge by environmental groups including the Wild Fish Conservancy.

Following that decision, NOAA released a — risk analysis of aquaculture’s impact on native, threatened, or endangered species — in the assessment of Cooke’s leases through the EPA.

The opinion concludes that the lease “is not likely to jeopardize the continued existence of Chinook salmon, steelhead, Hood Canal summer-run chum … Further, we conclude that the proposed action is not likely to result in the destruction or adverse modification of the designated critical habitats for any of the listed species.”

The opinion analyzed a number of potential impacts the pens could have on native species, largely concluding that the farmed fish will “adversely impact” native species and habitat, with the clarification that the pens alone are not likely to bring endangered species such as Chinook salmon to extinction.

Inslee, GOP spar over push to breach Snake River dams as endangered salmon populations decline

“After years of meticulous research and study, the scientists at NOAA have concluded, with full scientific certainty, that net-pen aquaculture in Puget Sound is safe for the environment and safe for the endangered species that live in these waters,” Northwest Aquaculture Alliance president Jim Parsons wrote in a statement.

“The fact that this industry is celebrating their operations won’t cause the immediate extinction of our threatened and endangered species, but rather will only continue to contribute to their decline is an unacceptably low bar,” Emma Helverson, executive director with the Wild Fish Conservancy, wrote in a statement.

In clarifying the discrepancies between how the two organizations have interpreted the opinion, NOAA spokesperson Michael Milstein told MyNorthwest:

“It’s not to the point of jeopardizing the future of the species … while there could be some impacts, it’s not rising to the level of destroying or adversely modifying to the fact that a [pen] can’t be used anymore.”

Potentially damaging effects of fish farming include the use of antibiotics, fertilizers, and disinfectants which can damage sediment and water quality, escaped fish which can disrupt the gene pool of wild fish, producing hybrid offspring that are too weak to survive.

In 2015, Victor Manuel Castro-Huerta was charged by the State of Oklahoma with child neglect of his Cherokee Indian step-daughter while living in Tulsa. Following a change in federal classification of eastern Oklahoma’s Creek Nation reservation, Castro-Huerta appealed, arguing that only the federal government had the authority to prosecute his case.

In a 5-4 ruling on Oklahoma v. Castro-Huerta, majority opinion author Justice Brett Kavanaugh held that a state can prosecute crimes committed by non-Indians against Indians on reservations, writing “as a matter of state sovereignty, a State has jurisdiction over all of its territory, including Indian country.”

Authoring the minority opinion, Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote, “Native American Tribes retain their sovereignty unless and until Congress ordains otherwise, referencing legal precedent in which the Supreme Court rejected the state of Georgia and former President Andrew Jackson’s attempt to “flout” state authority over tribal lands as “a show of force.”

“Where this Court once stood firm, today it wilts. After the Cherokee’s exile to what became Oklahoma, the federal government promised the Tribe that it would remain forever free from interference from state authorities. Only the Tribe or the federal government could punish crimes by or against tribal members on tribal lands … Now, the State seeks to claim for itself [that] power.”

SCOTUS limits EPA’s ability to regulate emissions in ‘stunning reversal of environmental laws’

As for how the ruling will affect Washington state’s tribes, the ruling is colored by which grants the state select authority to prosecute crimes committed on tribal land provided the tribe in question has granted consent. Under Public Law 280, the state’s authority was explicitly delineated, whereas now the state and the federal government have concurrent jurisdiction over tribal land.

The local impact of Castro-Huerta will be contingent on how the law is implemented in Washington state.

“When we all went to bed on Tuesday, the law was one thing. And when we woke up on Wednesday, it was new, and it’s changed the status quo that has been in place in Indian country for hundreds of years,” Anthony Broadman, a partner with Indigenous rights law firm Galanda Broadman, told MyNorthwest.

“Nationwide, this is a significant change for tribal sovereignty, because we’ve essentially invited states into another area of criminal jurisdiction.”

“Federal Indian law looks at sovereignty as the idea that tribal people can make their own laws and be ruled by their own laws. This decision allows for state encroachment in an area that previously the federal government had filled. Whenever you invite states into areas that they had not previously occupied, it diminishes tribal sovereignty.”

Broadman claims that no current cases in Washington will be immediately impacted by the ruling because the Supreme Court’s decision represents such an abrupt heel-turn in indigenous law.

“There isn’t a case out there where a state had claimed concurrent jurisdiction … because until Wednesday, they simply didn’t have concurrent jurisdiction,” Broadman continued.

“The way that this case will be tested in Washington would be for … the state to assert concurrent jurisdiction with the federal government over a particular crime. And if it moves forward with that prosecution, that would be the implementation of Castro … But the reason why I don’t think we’re there yet is because of Wednesday’s large change.”

Gov. Inslee addressed the decision Thursday, saying the federal government will have a difficult time crafting policy to mitigate climate change after the decision.

stems from the state’s challenge to the EPA’s ability to regulate carbon emissions at existing coal and natural gas plants under the Clean Power Plan, a 2015 Obama-era policy.

The EPA, via the Clean Power Plan, cited a section of the Clean Air Act, Section 111, which authorizes the federal agency to regulate emissions and pollutants from existing sources.

The Clean Power Plan sought to control emissions with a three-pronged system, two of which involved “generation shifting,” a move in electricity production towards renewable energy. Broadly, the Court, in a majority opinion authored by Chief Justice John Roberts, ruled that forced transition into renewables strays too far from the original intent of the Clean Air Act.

In summarizing the Court’s majority opinion, Sen. Reuven Carlyle said Thursday that “[Congress must now] pass a bill that is explicit on every single technical element,” referencing Roberts’ analysis that, broadly, generational shifting was not defined well enough to constitute pollution regulation from existing sources under Section 111.

The relevant section of Roberts’ opinion can be found below.

Prior to 2015, EPA had always set Section 111 emissions limits based on the application of measures that would reduce pollution by causing the regulated source to operate more cleanly—never by looking to a ‘system’ that would reduce pollution simply by ‘shifting’ polluting activity ‘from dirtier to cleaner sources,’ the Court’s opinion reads.

But in that regulation, EPA set the emissions limit — the ‘cap’ — based on the use of ‘technologies [that could be] installed and operational on a nationwide basis’ in the relevant timeframe. By contrast, and by design, there are no particular controls a coal plant operator can install and operate to attain the emissions limits established by the Clean Power Plan.

Indeed, the Agency nodded to the novelty of its approach when it explained that it was pursuing a ‘broader, forward-thinking approach to the design’ of Section 111 regulations that would “improve the overall power system,” rather than the emissions performance of individual sources, by forcing a shift throughout the power grid from one type of energy source to another. This view of EPA’s authority was not only unprecedented; it also effected a ‘fundamental revision of the statute, changing it from [one sort of] scheme of . . . regulation’ into an entirely different kind.

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In a minority opinion, dissenting justices point to the idea that “Market forces alone caused the power industry to meet the Plan’s nationwide emissions target—through exactly the kinds of generation shifting the Plan contemplated.” The Biden administration had looked to , but the Supreme Court’s decision preemptively limits the EPA’s ability to act on those carbon reduction goals.

The minority makes the point that Congress delegated to the EPA to identify the best system to reduce carbon emissions, and the Supreme Court’s ruling is more “an advisory vote” than anything else.

The relevant section of the minority opinion can be found below.

The Court’s docket is discretionary, and because no one is now subject to the Clean Power Plan’s terms, there was no reason to reach out to decide this case. The Court today issues what is really an advisory opinion on the proper scope of the new rule EPA is considering … This Court could not wait—even to see what the new rule says—to constrain EPA’s efforts to address climate change,” the minority opinion reads.

The limits the majority now puts on EPA’s authority fly in the face of the statute Congress wrote.

The majority says it is simply “not plausible” that Congress enabled EPA to regulate power plants’ emissions through generation shifting. But that is just what Congress did when it broadly authorized EPA in Section 111 to select the “best system of emission reduction” for power plants. The “best system” full stop — no ifs, ands, or buts of any kind relevant here.

In a press conference Thursday, Gov. Jay Inslee described the SCOTUS decision as a “stunning reversal of environmental laws.”

“This morning, the U.S. Supreme Court took a wrecking ball to the ability of the federal government to restrain pollution … to Americans, including Washingtonians … from coal-fired plants.”

“The good news on this is that our efforts to transition off of coal and our Centralia plant will not be affected … but we have to understand that now the federal government is going to have a much, much more difficult role in trying to find some way to restrain climate change,” Inslee continued.

The law would’ve made it easier for workers to sue the federal government for compensation benefits over illnesses associated with radioactive waste generated at the nuclear facility — one of the first full-scale plutonium production reactors in the world, used in the Manhattan Project to develop the atomic bomb.

End of World War II was dawn of new era of military spending in Northwest

The Court invoked the Supremacy Clause, or intergovernmental immunity, in its decision — constitutional law which guarantees federal precedence over state law. In a slip opinion, the Court held that the workers’ compensation “singled out the Federal Government for unfavorable treatment,” referencing the estimated millions of dollars of cost.

This ruling explained that because the law specified the ability for workers to specifically take action against the federal government, it oversteps the state’s ability to regulate federal authority, which is interpreted as unconstitutional.

, the law in question, was updated in 2022 to preempt a ruling against Washington state, and the Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson argues that Tuesday’s ruling “has little practical impact” on Washington workers.

United States v. Washington et al dates back to a 2018 Trump administration challenge. In the case’s current iteration, the State of Washington argued that, because the law was updated in 2022 to more broadly apply to most workers at any nuclear waste facility, rather than just federal contract workers at Hanford, the law no longer discriminates against the federal government.

“Because the legislature already fixed the issues the federal government raised, there is little practical impact in Washington as a result of this ruling,” Ferguson wrote in a news release

“Hanford workers, and all others working with dangerous radioactive waste, remain protected. The federal government has not challenged this new law. If they do, we will defend these protections all the way back up to the Supreme Court again if we have to.”

In the unanimous ruling, Justice Stephen Breyer responded to Washington’s argument that the updated law renders Tuesday’s ruling moot.

“The United States asserts that, if we rule in its favor, it will either recoup or avoid paying between $17 million and $37 million in workers’ compensation claims that lower courts have awarded under the earlier law,” Breyer wrote, referencing at least $17 million already paid out by the federal government to Hanford workers

“Washington argues that, even if the United States wins, the Government will not recover or avoid any payments because the new statute applies retroactively and is broad enough to encompass any claim filed under the earlier law.”

“But it is not our practice to interpret statutes in the first instance … and we decline to do so here by deciding the retroactivity or breadth of Washington’s new law. Nor do we know how Washington’s state courts will resolve these questions. It is thus not ‘impossible’ that the United States will recover money if we rule in its favor, and this case is not moot.”

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers operates the four lower Snake River dams that supply 1,000 average annual megawatts of electricity, helping Washington state meet its peak power loads and maintain its power grid.

Those dams also have altered the physical, chemical, hydrological, and biological composition of the Snake River, limiting the ability of salmon to spawn.

The Ice Harbor, Lower Monumental, Little Goose, and Lower Granite dams were constructed with fish ladders to facilitate fish passage. However, the dams have transformed the lower Snake River into an effective series of reservoirs and have been held responsible for a “significant impact” on spring/summer Chinook salmon populations that spawn in the Snake River, according to a commission by Gov. Inslee and U.S. Senator Patty Murray.

42% of Chinook populations that spawn on the Snake River are at quasi-extinction thresholds, with continued decline forecasted by the Columbia River System Operations. Forecasting models conducted by the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) indicate that breaching the lower dams would “significantly improve passage for salmon,” correlated with increased spawning rates.

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Cost estimates associated with replacing the services the dams provide range between $10.3 and $27 billion. The dam’s replacement would be contingent on Congressional approval.

“We continue to approach the question of breaching with open minds and without a predetermined decision,” Inslee and Murray wrote in a joint statement.

“We look forward to hearing much more as this document is available for public review,” referencing their request for public comment and community engagement available until July 11.

U.S. Congressional Republicans are already crying foul, nine of whom are sponsoring legislation that preserves the lower dams from structural modifications.

“Our country is officially facing the worst energy crisis since 1973. Gas prices have surpassed $5 a gallon nationwide, and there is a growing concern that blackouts this summer are imminent,” Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) wrote in a statement.

“Meanwhile, there are groups focused on tearing out the lower snake river dams, which we now know could cost up to $27 billion and drastically reduce energy reliability in our state. This approach is misguided, it’s alarming, and it needs to be stopped.”

Inslee and Murray’s report notes that binary framing around the issue of whether or not to breach the lower Snake River dams misses important context. Namely, summer droughts and declining snow packs have already called into question the long-term viability of the dams as recurring sources of renewable energy. Additionally, federal court orders protecting Chinook salmon from continued decline into extinction could restrict the operational function of the dams.

“In addition to changes in the system resulting from increasing spill, there will be changes in system operations to meet water temperature standards and other requirements to protect water quality for native in-river species,” the report continues.

Seattle City Attorney launches partnership to address prolific offenders

The case of one prolific shoplifter at Aurora Ave’s Home Depot shows the program in practice as the attorney looks to prosecute 118 such high utilizers.

Every person on their initial list has been referred by police to the City Attorney’s Office 12 or more times in the past five years and at least once in the past eight months, most often for theft or trespassing.

Late in 2021, the Home Depot on Aurora Ave. called Seattle Police over a reported retail theft and court order violation. Witnesses reported the suspect, Dylan Jackman, concealing tools under his jacket. The detective assigned to the case discovered that Jackman had been reported for theft at the same location eight times since 2020. Jackman had trespassed from the property three separate times within a similar time frame. Employees at the store recognized him on sight, according to King County Prosecution charging documents.

“Even more concerning is his failure to abide by terms of the valid Anti-Harassment order … that prohibited him from returning to this Home Depot … The defendant’s behavior demonstrates that he is likely to commit a violent offense,” the charging documents continue.

“He threatened to kill [one employee,] pulled a sharpened spearhead on another and had to be talked into dropping a shovel that he was wielding as a weapon in a separate instance. It is clear that, if released, the defendant will return to this location and commit yet another violent offense.”

Individually, the 18 misdemeanor cases sent to the Office of the Seattle City Attorney in a 15-month period against Jackman were not sufficient to hold him in custody. Upon his latest trespass from Home Depot, the city attorney was able to package his case under three felony counts: Burglary In The Second Degree, Felony Harassment, Burglary In The Second Degree, and Burglary In The Second Degree.

Ann Davison, elected to the city attorney’s office this year, has previously couched the high utilizer initiative as an attempt to improve the level of treatment options available to repeat offenders.

“What I’m anticipating is there’s going to be some treatment options that are just not available at the misdemeanor level that are available at the felony level,” Davison told KTTH’s The Jason Rantz Show in March.

As of June 2022, it is not clear exactly what those treatment options entail.

“As of the date of your request, our office does not have records that demonstrate that individuals on the HUI list accessed resources not available to them if they had been convicted of a misdemeanor,” a public disclosure representative with the city attorney’s office wrote to MyNorthwest.

Seattle’s Public Defender Association has previously signaled its concern that the idea of expanded treatment options at the felony level is a mischaracterization of competency restoration: wherein suspects are deemed legally competent to stand trial with the ability to recall basic facts.

“This has little or nothing to do with someone being stabilized, treated, and equipped to manage independently in the community and to reduce problematic future behavior,” Lisa Daugaard, director with the PDA, wrote to MyNorthwest.

“Creating greater obstacles for someone in order for them to get help is one of the central distortions that the legal system interposes into the realm of health care and recovery,” Daugaard said. “This is not to say that people who commit harmful felonies should not be charged with felonies to achieve temporary interruption/incapacitation, or accountability. But this should not be rationalized in terms of access to different or better ‘treatment.’”

‘We’re so far behind on this’: Seattle council looks to catch up on affordable housing data

That legislation was intended to help the city identify where its below-market rental properties are located before Seattle begins crafting its 2024’s Comprehensive Plan for housing policy and growth management into the next decade. Councilmember Alex Pedersen, the legislation’s primary sponsor, admitted in March before the bill’s passage that the city primarily uses Census tract information “that is too high level and too infrequent.”

“The amendments made to our legislation already addressed concerns about timing, budget, and implementation. Rejecting this law seems to be a victory for landlords unwilling to share data and a loss for those seeking data to make informed decisions on preserving and expanding affordable housing in our city,” Pedersen said Friday, in reference to Harrell’s veto.

In a addressing his decision to veto, Harrell spoke to “the reliability of the data’s accuracy.” That letter borrows from the policy analysis of James Young, director of the (WCRER), a policy group with a board consisting of real estate developers including Windermere, Re/Max, and John L. Scott.

Young makes two points in his critique of the legislation: that reported information on rents must be voluntary to ensure accuracy, and that “owners are concerned about disclosure of commercially sensitive information that could adversely affect their businesses.”

“I’m a data geek, and I love this stuff. But the biggest problem I have is, if it’s not a voluntary system, how can you ensure that the data is going to be accurate at all?” Young told MyNorthwest

“Everybody who works with rental data wants accurate data … [but] everybody keeps shooting themselves in the foot because landlords ultimately have to trust who they’re giving the data to, to make sure that those confidential arrangements are met. And they get something out of it in terms of accurate data. Because the landlords also benefit from getting accurate data, in terms of what the pricing is, and where they fit competitively in the marketplace.”

As written, the data collection bill would have contracted with a public university to facilitate the collection and analysis, with the council informally referencing in committee meetings the University of Washington as a likely primary candidate. Critics of the veto have made the point that landlords are disinterested in having rental information subject to public disclosure requests.

“You can sign confidentiality agreements that cover that, just like you do with a medical school if you’re UW Medicine [for example] … individual data is not going to be disclosed in such a way where it’s identifiable. And that takes on various forms in the rental market … The university engages in research all the time where individual records are kept confidential … Were we aggregating data in a certain way, which would expose someone in terms of their business interests, or whatever. The university collects that data all the time, so it wouldn’t necessarily be subject to public disclosure.”

Proponents of the bill among the council are at a loss to reckon with concerns about rental data transparency, pointing to similar legislative pushes in New York and California.

“The fact is that several forward-thinking cities across the nation already require this rental information from New York to California so, if this common-sense policy is increasingly common elsewhere, why would Seattle want to lack transparency and remain behind the times?” Pedersen wrote to MyNorthwest.

“A competitive Request for Proposals would have identified numerous research universities that already have the knowledge, objectivity, and technological capability to do this at a low cost.”

The councilmember also pointed to the fact that landlords are already required to register and submit information to the city: this latest ordinance would have added to those requirements.

Seattle loses nearly 3,000 rental properties in less than a year

“Regardless of that proposal to provide rental rate information, landlords already need to comply with the existing Rental Housing Inspection Ordinance (RRIO) and, per their recent report, the Seattle Department of Construction & Inspections (SDCI) is staffing back up to ramp up their enforcement to ensure compliance,” Pedersen continued.

SDCI does not know exactly why the number of units registered decreased recently — it’s probably a combination of demolitions for redevelopment, pandemic-related slow-downs, rentals converting to homeownership, and non-compliance from some landlords. Solving this mystery could warrant a City audit if SDCI needs assistance getting to the bottom of this important data on this long-standing program.”

Seattle landlords will soon be required to report rents, but will they comply?

Young offered up the Washington Center for Real Estate Research as an alternative candidate to field the housing data that the city needs to understand where to construct subsequent affordable housing under the Comprehensive Plan.

“The WCRER must work closely with the private sector to gather adequate data resources and to continue its activities … the WCRER is also in a unique position with experience to critically assess research and data reliability issues in a broader context.”

“Based upon the experience of WCRER, informal discussions with city officials, and interested parties, there are several research and reliability issues likely to arise when collecting rent and vacancy data through a mandatory system,” Young’s memo to the council’s housing and finance committee reads.

Update 7/5:

The Seattle City Council failed to overturn the mayor’s veto in council sessions on June 5. The vote failed on a 5-3 margin, with Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda not present.

Thursday’s ruling concludes that “we [the Court] formally recognize what has always been true: in interactions with law enforcement, race and ethnicity matter. Therefore, courts must consider the race and ethnicity of the allegedly seized person as part of the totality of the circumstances,” the court opinion reads.

The ruling stems from an incident wherein a Pierce County Sheriff’s deputy approached an Asian man, Pallo Sum, sleeping in a vehicle at a location that had previously been the site of an arrest connected to a stolen car.

Police monitor finds Seattle police conducted fewest on-record stops in 2021

The deputy asked for the man’s identification, and upon returning to his police car, Sum fled the scene, ultimately crashing. Sum was later charged with multiple felony counts stemming from that flight, as well as his possession of an unregistered firearm.

Sum would appeal, claiming that he was unlawfully seized without reasonable suspicion, noting “there is no justification—aside from unacceptably ignoring the issue of race altogether—for courts considering the totality of the circumstances to disregard the effect of race as one of the circumstances affecting evaluation of police contact.”

“For purposes of this analysis, an objective observer is aware that implicit, institutional, and unconscious biases, in addition to purposeful discrimination, have resulted in disproportionate police contacts, investigative seizures, and uses of force against Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color (BIPOC) in Washington,” the court opinion continues.

“Finally, in accordance with our precedent, if the person shows there was a seizure, then the burden shifts to the State to prove that the seizure was lawfully justified by a warrant or an applicable exception to the warrant requirement.”

The original considered designs involved five different options, largely split according to tunnel or bridge choices. In a before the Seattle City Council Tuesday, the transportation committee expressed its preference for a tunnel, with an Interbay Station retained cut north of West Dravus Street, between 17th Avenue West and Thorndyke Avenue West; a Ballard Station tunnel east of 15th Avenue Northwest and south of Northwest Market Street.

That decision exists within the context of servicing a Seattle neighborhood that is the fastest-growing urban village in the city, adding 6,200 people since 2010. The committee made the point that bridge construction over the canal would present a barrier to commercial and recreational activity in the canal.

They also addressed the point that a bridge over the canal has engendered “concern from Fisherman’s Terminal regarding bridge impacts on maritime dependent businesses.”

‘Superyacht facilities’ resize Sound Transit’s draft bridges for light rail over Lake Washington Canal

“The two bridge alternatives … and associated construction activities could affect a wide range of cargo, fishing and other industrial operations, hamper freight movement, and ultimately result in a loss of jobs in our community,” Kathy Roeder, a spokesperson with the Port of Seattle, wrote to MyNorthwest.

“The Port cannot support [a bridge option] because of impacts to Fishermen’s Terminal and the variety of operations on the site, the impacts to the regional economy due to impacts on seasonal-provisioning homeport activities and the impacts to maritime and landside access… Further, the construction impacts along Elliott and 15th Avenues W corridor make the Elevated 15th Avenue … and the Elevated 14th Ave Alignment Option … untenable.”

A Sound Transit navigation impact report, obtained by MyNorthwest, which analyzes the ramifications of bridge construction for maritime activity through the canal, notes that “if a bridge alternative is ultimately selected for construction, Sound Transit would prepare a bridge permit application and identify the proposed and completed mitigation for affected waterway users,” with the context that the proposed bridge height is 136 feet, identical to the Aurora Bridge and therefore has enough clearance for most vessels that move through the Lake Washington Canal.

The exceptions are “nine recreational vessels/superyachts with air drafts greater than 136 feet,” serviced by “two marine facilities that reported providing services in the past to vessels with air drafts over 136 feet and having a desire to do so in the future, as well as one upstream marina that could accommodate and service vessels with air drafts over 136 feet,” the report reads.

The Port of Seattle, National Marine Trade Association and businesses that cater to superyachts are actively working to attract them to Salmon Bay and Elliott Bay by creating a cluster of superyacht service facilities … Superyachts with air drafts over 136 feet have entered Salmon Bay over the last several years. Those few tall superyachts cannot transit the Ship Canal east of the Aurora Bridge and must use the superyacht marinas and services available in Salmon Bay and Elliott Bay. SBMC (Salmon Bay Marine Center), which is located downstream/west of both bridge alternatives bills itself as “the premier superyacht moorage and refit facility on the West Coast” (Port of Seattle 2019b; SBMC 2020).

Other businesses in Salmon Bay and the Fremont Cut that can offer services to superyachts and/or other vessels over 150 feet LOA include Pacific Yacht Management, Fishermen’s Terminal, Stabbert Maritime, Pacific Fishermen’s Shipyard, Waypoint Marine Group,
CSR Marine, S3 Maritime, Bowman Refrigeration., Foss, LeClercq, and Ballard Marina.

The Port of Seattle is also planning to replace Docks D and E at the Salmon Bay Marina, located downstream/west of the proposed bridge alternatives. The current design would replace the existing floating docks with concrete docks and a steel bulkhead, allowing recreational vessels up to 150 feet long with hull drafts up to 16 feet to dock at the marina (Poor 2020). While it appears that superyachts and other tall vessels with air drafts over 136 feet cannot currently moor at the Salmon Bay Marina, the new docks may be able to accommodate such vessels in the future.

The Sound Transit Board is expected to vote on a motion to confirm or modify the preferred alternatives for the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) on July 14, 2022, with Sound Transit Board action anticipated on July 28, 2022.

Following a Request for Proposal (RFP) over the course of the current school year, the district had originally awarded the rights to First Student, the primary transportation contractor to the district for over thirty years. That decision was appealed by Zum, citing a series of alleged errors made by the district in their evaluation of the competitive bid process.

Rival to First Student exposes Seattle Schools’ fumbled bus-bidding war

Broadly, Zum alleges two mistakes made by the district, both resulting from the scoring metric SPS used to evaluate and, ultimately, award the contract: their true best and final offer was not reflected by SPS; the district failed to differentiate among types of buses stipulated in the contract, resulting in inaccurate price evaluations of the bids.

First Student disputes those claims made by Zum, citing a “misunderstanding of procurement guidelines and the discretion afforded SPS.” SPS could not be reached for comment on either allegation.

“We were disappointed that the district did not award the entire contract to First Student. We believe there are significant economies of scale in providing services for student transportation. We stand ready to serve the district in any way and value the continued partnership,” a spokesperson on behalf of First Student wrote to MyNorthwest.

“We are pleased to see the district move toward awarding a substantial portion of the contract to Zum, introducing a safe, trustworthy, student-centered partner to thousands more Seattle families … We are excited to expand that service and begin transforming student transportation for every Seattle school community we are tasked to serve,” a spokesperson for Zum wrote to MyNorthwest.

The details and scope of the split award have yet to be negotiated among SPS, First Student, and Zum Services.

“A shorter contract term is planned to see how First Student and ZUM can accomplish the task of providing transportation for the first year. This will guide the district’s decision on transportation services for upcoming years,” the memo reads.

Seattle Public Schools declined to comment on the contract award decision.

Seattle mulls first-of-its-kind minimum wage for app-based delivery drivers

To do that, it faces the challenge of regulating a labor market that claims to not have traditional employees.  Companies like DoorDash and Instacart, instead, tout their relationship with independent contractors.

The legislation, dubbed “PayUp,” attempts a solution by requiring the equivalent of minimum wage for a combination of both “engaged time,” which starts as soon as an offer is accepted, and “engaged miles,” which ensures a baseline wage for miles driven.

The problem is that not all of the companies that fall under PayUp’s original scope have a business model that slot neatly into those categories.

The legislation defines app-based service providers as “network companies.” From there, it differentiates “on-demand networks,” like DoorDash, from “marketplace networks,” those that offer pre-scheduled services and do not use the “engaged miles” aspect of the minimum wage equation. They also allow their contractors to set their own rates.

PayUp, as passed out of a Seattle City Council committee Tuesday, excludes marketplace networks, services that primarily let customers pre-book appointments. It only applies to on-demand services.

Councilmember Alex Pedersen, with support from Sara Nelson and Andrew Lewis, successfully narrowed the scope of the legislation: they redefined the excluded marketplace networks as those app-based companies that “primarily” provide on-demand services, as opposed to, as originally drafted, companies that “exclusively” provide on-demand services. It also expands the definition of marketplace networks to include geo-tracking of their contractors in their model.

“I want to make sure we’re being very careful not to stifle innovation and flexibility, benefits to consumers, workers, and small local businesses,” Pedersen said.

“I support a minimum wage for gig workers who have no say in their wages. At the same time, marketplace network companies who provide their brand, their customer base, or application technology to workers who actually set their own compensation rates should be exempt from this experimental new law so that we limit unintended negative consequences.”

The issue, as put forth by Councilmembers Teresa Mosqueda and Lisa Herbold, is that expanding the scope of exempted companies gives app-based networks the option to readjust their business models to slot into the exempted definition, skirting the minimum wage law altogether.

“It could vastly expand the definition of marketplace network company, creating such a loophole … the ability of the Office of Labor Standards to track on-demand jobs …could be nearly impossible. It could be a barrier for enforcement, requiring an assessment of the entirety of a company’s offers before determining whether workers are being paid what they need,” Mosqueda said.

PayUp will go to a final vote on May 31.