King County Sheriff Patricia Cole-Tindall and King County have filed a complaint in United States District Court against Burien's new homeless anti-camping ordinance, asking a federal judge to decide if it violates the U.S. Constitution. 

Burien passed an ordinance last week that establishes exclusion zones where unhoused people are not allowed to camp in a public space if shelter is available. Included in the new city code law are buffer zones where unhoused people cannot sleep within 500 feet of schools, day care centers, parks or other areas deemed “critical.” 

The Sheriff’s office, law enforcement for the city of Burien, has concerns about the law since the exclusion zones can be changed at any time by Burien’s city manager, who determines their location. 

The King County Sheriff’s Office said the city did not reach out to the county when it crafted the ordinance. Cole-Tindall also said Burien did not consult the King County Sheriff’s office or legal experts before swiftly passing it. 

The office said it will not enforce the law until the matter’s constitutionality is resolved. King County will complete an analysis of the legislation and update Burien early next week. 

The complaint is the first step in resolving the constitutionality question, according to King County, which plans to file a motion for preliminary injunction later this week. 

A spokesperson for Burien declined to comment on the matter due to ongoing litigation.

It’s a new era for Seattle’s news and original productions landscape. What we once knew as Crosscut and KCTS 9 are evolving into Cascade PBS starting today. 

What will this mean for readers of Crosscut.com and those who have followed our original programs like Mossback’s Northwest or our podcasts such as Crosscut Reports? Simply, you’ll soon have one place to find all of our award-winning independent news coverage as well as our award-winning local original production work. 

The move away from the Crosscut name does not mean a move away from impactful journalism. Important stories by our political team and investigations team, in addition to our original production work that you’ve come to know and depend on, will remain at the forefront of what we do. It’s the work that has continued ever since Crosscut joined KCTS 9 in 2015. 

When the company made the initial announcement of our new transition last year, we made it clear that bringing KCTS 9 and Crosscut under one banner “reflects two important things: the regional community we serve, and the quality PBS programming and local news you rely on.” 

For now, you’ll still be able to find our work here at Crosscut.com, but later this year we’ll be launching a new site, CascadePBS.org, the new digital home for our local news and original productions. 

This is an exciting move, and we are ready to embrace change to help us continue to serve our community with the thoughtful and impactful local coverage you’ve come to expect from our editorial team. 

The three Tacoma Police Department officers acquitted in the death of Manuel Ellis will resign with settlements of $500,000 each, the city announced this week. The agreement between each officer and the city also states that the “parties agree that the employee separates in good standing.”

The three former officers, Christopher Burbank, Matthew Collins and Timothy Rankine, were cleared of wrongdoing by Police Chief Avery Moore, except for a finding regarding Collins’ violation of the Tacoma Police Department’s policy on courtesy.

Ellis, a 33-year-old Black man, died during a police stop in Tacoma in March 2020 after the officers restrained him. Three other officers were present during the stop, but did not face charges. Ellis’ death came a few months before the death of George Floyd, whose death at the hands of Minneapolis police officers sparked nationwide protests about police brutality.

Moore said he reached his decisions regarding the officers’ conduct based on the police department’s use-of-force policy that was in place when Ellis was killed. It has since been changed.

“The Use of Force policy in place in March of 2020 failed to serve the best interests of the police department or the community,” said Moore, who was hired to lead the Tacoma Police Department in February 2022. He said that the department is undergoing a “comprehensive review” of its policies with the assistance of a consulting firm and the city’s Community's Police Advisory Committee (CPAC).

“While acknowledging our incomplete achievement of reform goals in the past decade, the last two years have witnessed substantial efforts to revolutionize the Tacoma Police Department, placing a strong emphasis on fostering inclusivity and pride among all stakeholders,” Moore said in a statement. “These strides are a result of a collective endeavor.”

Last month a Pierce County Superior Court jury acquitted Burbank and Collins of second-degree murder and first-degree manslaughter charges, and Rankine of first-degree manslaughter. The Seattle Times reported last week that the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Western Washington has launched a review of the state prosecutors’ case. 

Link light-rail riders heading to or through Downtown Seattle will have to navigate significant delays for the next three weeks as Sound Transit repairs a section of worn track near Westlake Station and replaces signal boxes.

The work begins Jan. 13 and will continue through Feb. 4.

Monday through Friday during the work period, trains will run the full length between Northgate and Angle Lake Stations only every 26 minutes. Additional trains will run every 13 minutes between Northgate and University of Washington (Husky Stadium) stations and between Angle Lake and Stadium Station.

Those needing to ride to Capitol Hill, Westlake, University Street, Pioneer Square or Chinatown-International District stations will either need to wait and catch one of the every-26-minute full-service trains or transfer at University of Washington Station or Stadium Station and wait there for a full-service train.

Those boarding from a Downtown station can expect especially long waits for a train going the direction they need. 

On weekends during the work period, trains will not run between SODO and Capitol Hill Stations. All stations from Stadium to Westlake will be closed. Trains will still run every 15 minutes north of Downtown between Northgate and Capitol Hill and south between SODO and Angle Lake.

A shuttle bus running every 10-15 minutes will take passengers through Downtown with stops at each closed station. Passengers going to or through Downtown will need to get on the shuttle bus at Capitol Hill or SODO.

The rail replacement is necessary to fix 500 feet of northbound track that curves sharply between University Street and Westlake. Currently the worn-down track makes for a bumpy ride, according to a Sound Transit spokesperson. Over time, the wear could have posed a safety risk.

The agency is also replacing 58 signal boxes that provide connections to the tracks. Sound Transit says the damage was caused by buses between 2009 and 2019 when the Downtown transit tunnel was shared by buses and trains.

A community garden in Capitol Hill’s Cal Anderson Park that was established as part of Seattle’s 2020 Black Lives Matter protests was removed by the city’s Parks and Recreation Department Wednesday.

The city, which did not sanction the garden, cited “public health and public safety issues” including vandalism of the park’s public bathrooms. City crews also removed tent encampments in and around the park.

Black Lives Memorial Garden was created by participants of the 2020 Capitol Hill Occupied Protest (CHOP), an occupation protest against police brutality and racial injustice that took over several city blocks including Cal Anderson Park. CHOP was largely cleared from the streets and sidewalks after about a month of occupation, though marches and rallies continued in the neighborhood and the garden remained.

Parks officials said they had been negotiating with organizers Black Star Farmers Collective to find a new location for several months before dismantling the garden on Wednesday.

Supporters, who posted a petition to save the garden when plans emerged in October to remove it, called the site “an ongoing, occupied protest space started in 2020 by people taking land back and organizing against police violence.” 

“We see this threat for what it is - an attempt to suppress BIPOC-led movements for liberation and decolonization,” petition organizers said on Change.org. Community group Cal Anderson Park Alliance also opposed clearing the garden from the park, according to the Capitol Hill Seattle Blog.

However, other community leaders, including leadership in the state and local NAACP, relatives of Charleena Lyles and Che Taylor, who were killed by Seattle police, and Seattle City Councilmember-elect Joy Hollingsworth, backed the removal of the garden on several grounds, including lack of public safety and accusing organizers of co-opting the call for police reform.

“It’s bewildering to see a memorial meant to address specific atrocities against the African-American community being overshadowed by narratives and causes unrelated to its intended purpose,” said Jonathan Jones-Thomas, environmental climate justice Chairman of NAACP-WA, in the parks department prepared statement. “While acknowledging the importance of addressing wrongs across all communities, the African-American community’s memorial is unfairly bearing the weight of broader issues.”

The Washington Department of Labor & Industries announced it will enforce new permanent wildfire smoke protections for outdoor workers starting Jan. 15, after two years of operating under emergency measures.

Washington joins Oregon and California as one of the few states to regulate outdoor workers’ exposure to wildfire smoke. There are no explicit protections on the federal level, despite the uptick in wildfires in recent summers as a direct result of climate change. 

Wildfire smoke can be especially dangerous to those working in fields such as agriculture and construction as workers inhale fine smoke particles that catch deep in the lungs. Continued exposure can lead to a wide array of health defects – aggravated asthma, heart failure or even death.

L&I enacted emergency wildfire smoke measures in both 2021 and 2022. Under the new year-round protections, employers must monitor daily forecasts and hourly estimates for air quality. The permanent measure also asks employers to draft wildfire response plans, and mandates respiratory protection once the Air Quality Index tops 101 or higher. 

In a preliminary analysis provided by L&I, the agency estimated the permanent rules will cost employers from $10.7 million to $14.6 million a year, and will be offset by another $17.6 million and $27.8 million in “annual benefits.”

In August, Crosscut found that employers wanted clearer instructions on their individual responsibilities when enforcing said protections, while advocates – especially in the agriculture industry – felt L&I could have issued protections starting at a lower AQI.

Sound Transit on Tuesday announced the resignation of CEO Julie Timm. Her final day at the regional transit agency will be Jan. 12, just 16 months after taking the position in September 2022.

The announcement comes on the heels of Timm’s performance review by the Sound Transit Board last week. The review is not yet public, but board members had recently expressed disappointment in the agency for not taking sufficient steps to avoid cost overruns and delays on its multibillion-dollar work to expand the Link light-rail system, according to reporting by Publicola.

In an email to the Sound Transit staff, which was shared with Crosscut, Timm wrote:

“For the past several months I have been struggling to balance the needs of long-distance care and support for my aging father with the intense requirements of leading Sound Transit as CEO. Over the past week in collaboration with board leadership, I came to the difficult, but I believe the correct, conclusion that my family needs more of my focus.”

In a press release, Sound Transit said Timm is moving back to the East Coast to spend time with family. The release continued, “Since joining Sound Transit in September 2022, Timm has overseen a renewed emphasis on the rider experience as Sound Transit approaches the opening of several new extensions, starting with East Link next spring.”

The Sound Transit Board expects to appoint an interim CEO in the coming weeks.

The agency is in the midst of its next phase of expansion, which will extend the existing line north to Lynnwood and south to Federal Way and build new light rail across Lake Washington from Seattle to Bellevue and Redmond.

Sound Transit is also in the planning stages of its third phase of expansion, which was approved by voters in 2016 as a $54 billion ballot measure. Once completed it will connect Tacoma to Seattle to Everett and build new lines in Seattle connecting West Seattle and Ballard to Downtown. The agency's most recent financial plan estimates it will spend $148 billion on operations and new construction between 2017 and 2046.

Update: This article was updated to clarify Sound Transit's estimated operations and construction costs.

A new state auditor’s report says only 26% of Washington children enrolled in Medicaid are being tested for lead exposure, even though the federal government requires them all to be tested twice between their first and sixth birthdays.

“Although Washington has multiple factors that can increase a child’s risk of lead exposure, most children with the highest risk have never been tested,” said the performance audit report issued Tuesday.

Children in areas with more risk for lead exposure were tested at higher rates; however, some counties with elevated risk tested the fewest children, according to the report. The auditor also notes that the state does not have an adequate process to make sure children are getting the required testing.

As the report notes, Washington children may not be as much at risk as children from more industrial states, but no level of lead exposure is healthy for kids. The auditor’s office did make some positive findings, including connecting better community outreach with higher testing levels.

Report recommendations to the Washington Department of Health and the Health Care Authority include:

– Make sure health insurance companies involved in Medicaid have a clear understanding of testing requirements.

– Increase awareness of lead exposure testing among health care providers.

– Implement a state monitoring process for lead testing.

– Assess lead exposure risk at the community level, at least annually.

The Health Care Authority responded to the report saying it is working on improving education, outreach and test monitoring structure. They also promised to look into mandatory tracking.

“Please thank your team for their work on this audit. We will use the information and recommendations as an opportunity to improve. Many improvements are well underway,” concluded the DOH and HCA response, which was also signed by David Schumacher, director of the Office of Financial Management. 

Washington Healthplanfinder, the state’s health insurance exchange, will offer a few days of extended phone hours through Jan. 15, including some weekends, as deadlines approach to get health coverage through open enrollment for 2024.

People who sign up by Dec. 15 will get coverage starting on Jan. 1. Those who sign up by Jan. 15 will get coverage starting on Feb. 1. About 232,000 people were enrolled for 2023 health insurance through the program. 

The health insurance exchange’s website is https://www.wahealthplanfinder.org/ and the customer support center is available at 1-855-923-4633.

According to the state, about 75% of people who are getting coverage through Washington Healthplanfinder could lower their monthly premiums by comparing plans, including checking their eligibility for assistance through the state subsidy program, Cascade Care Savings.

Regular business hours for the customer support center is 7:30 a.m. to 7 p.m., Monday through Friday. Extended call center hours are:

• Dec. 15, 7:30 a.m. to midnight
• Dec. 16 (Saturday), 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
• Jan. 14 (Sunday), 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
• Jan. 15, 7:30 a.m. to midnight

The call center will be closed on Dec. 25 (Christmas Day), and Jan. 1 (New Year’s Day).

People can also get assistance signing up through the exchange at no additional cost through independent brokers and health insurance navigators.

Earlier this year Washington became one of the few states to make coverage available to all of its residents, regardless of citizenship or immigration status. While federal subsidies are not available to undocumented adults, those who qualify by income could be eligible for Cascade Care’s state subsidies.

Washington’s Department of Labor & Industries handed a Yakima orchard $290,000 in fines after two workers died in tractor rollovers this summer, the safety agency announced today. 

The agency issued Borton & Sons five willful serious citations for the two deaths, citing them for failing to ensure a rollover protection system was being used and that workers wore seatbelts. Willful violations are given when L&I believes employers knew or should have known the safety standards, but failed to make sure they were being followed. 

Farmworker Gilberto Padilla died on May 7 as he was driving a tractor between orchards, according to the inspection summary. The vehicle rolled after he drove over front counterweights that had fallen off. About a month later, on June 8, Oscar Rodriguez-Olivera died in a tractor rollover after he made a sharp turn traveling down a hill, according to L&I.

In both deaths, the protection system to prevent workers from being crushed in a rollover was not in use, according to L&I. Nor were the workers wearing seatbelts. L&I officials stated they had directed Borton & Sons to ensure the proper use of rollover protections and seatbelts after the first death. The agency also cited the company for allegedly altering the scene of the second fatality before an L&I inspection began.

“Using a rollover protection bar and seat belt is such a simple way to save workers’ lives. These incidents should not happen,” Craig Blackwood, assistant director for L&I’s safety and health division, said in the press release. “Orchard owners have the responsibility to make sure workers use safety systems. If Borton & Sons had been vigilant, these workers might be alive today.”

Borton & Sons has a history of safety citations and penalties violations, according to data collected by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The fruit grower is contesting the 2023 fines. 

L&I issued more than $14.7 million in fines last year to companies for violating health and safety laws. A recent Crosscut investigation found the agency later reduces many initial penalties, and sometimes struggles to head off repeat safety violations even after a worker has died.