Podcasts about snohomish county sheriff

What’s Trending: Seattle restaurant the Virginia Inn is closing after 120 years, but is it really the Landlords fault? That’s what the local media wants you to believe. Jason tells you the one gift not to get your kids for Easter. // Big Local: The Washington Department of Public Health director has come under fire for allegedly creating a toxic work environment. The family of a missing Arlington man is filing complaints against the Snohomish County Sheriff’s office, saying they are investigating the case improperly due to their son’s autism. Alleged hate crimes are about to eclipse last years numbers, but are those statistics inflated? // You Pick the Topic: This years Chicago Cinco de Mayo Parade has been canceled due to fears over Donald Trump’s immigration policies according to organizers.

In this episode, we are joined by Retired Sergeant David Sorenson of the Snohomish County Sheriff's Office. Dave is also the founder of Keep'n Safe, a powerful non-profit organization dedicated to supporting the mental health of first responders. With 43 years of experience in law enforcement, including 10 years as a Reserve Officer and 33 years as a full-time Deputy and Sergeant, Dave is a passionate advocate who has been a leading voice in the first responder community for many years. He was an early advocate for seeking counseling and therapy, recognizing the importance of mental health and receiving therapy himself. Through Keep'n Safe, Dave has helped countless responders and their families navigate the challenges of coping with trauma by providing resources to access the help they need. The mission of Keep'n Safe is twofold: first, to assist first responders struggling with the mental and emotional toll of traumatic events by offering vital resources for treatment, and second, to reduce gun violence—both intentional and accidental. The organization plays a critical role in educating first responders about the resources available to treat and survive PTSD, and it also helps fund treatment-related expenses, including insurance co-pays and travel costs for those who need to seek treatment at specialized facilities. In addition to his advocacy work, Dave shares his fascinating experiences as a hostage negotiator, offering gripping stories from his time in the field. Tune in to hear about Dave's dedication to mental health, the impact of Keep'n Safe, and the powerful lessons learned throughout his remarkable career. To learn more about Dave's work check out: https://keepnsafe.com/ To learn more about Deer Hollow go to: https://deerhollowrecovery.com/ To learn more about 1st Watch Wellness go to: https://1stwatchwellness.com/ If you or someone you know needs help please reach out. We at Finding Strength are passionate about healing and have may resources for anyone who needs it.

Our card this week is Mary Cooper & Susanna Stodden, the Ace of Hearts from Washington.For 18 years, no one has been able to figure out who killed Mary Cooper and her daughter Susanna Stodden while they were out for a scenic mother-daughter hike in the beautiful mountains of Washington state. No one understands why either. Their deaths and the evidence left behind continue to perplex detectives in Snohomish County. If you know anything about the murders of Mary Cooper and Susanna Stodden on the Pinnacle Lake hiking trail in Washington state in July 2006, you're asked to call the Snohomish County Sheriff's Office at 425-388-3845. To pre-order your copy of The Missing Half, please visit  Ashley's website , or wherever books are sold! View source material and photos for this episode at: thedeckpodcast.com/mary-cooper-susanna-stodden Let us deal you in… follow The Deck on social media.Instagram: @thedeckpodcast | @audiochuckTwitter: @thedeckpodcast_ | @audiochuckFacebook: /TheDeckPodcast | /audiochuckllcTo support Season of Justice and learn more, please visit seasonofjustice.org. The Deck is hosted by Ashley Flowers. Instagram: @ashleyflowersTikTok: @ashleyflowerscrimejunkieTwitter: @Ash_FlowersFacebook: /AshleyFlowers.AF Text Ashley at 317-733-7485 to talk all things true crime, get behind the scenes updates, and more!

Disappearances can happen in an instant. On April 19, 2016, 16-year-old Tyler Christensen went on a jog. He wanted to get a short run in on his way to a youth group meeting. But Tyler never arrived. After Tyler's family realized that he was gone, they assumed something terrible must have happened to him. After all, he was a happy kid, living in Edmonds, Washington with a loving family and seemingly no issues. But as the investigation got underway, police began to believe that maybe this disappearance wasn't as quick as it seemed. That perhaps Tyler himself had been planning it for a long time.Anyone with information regarding Tyler Christensen's disappearance is urged to contact the Snohomish County Sheriff's Office 425-407-3970.Buy the ebook! - And Then They Were Gone: True Stories of Those Who Went Missing and Never Came HomeSubmit a caseFind us everywhereGet episodes early and ad-free on PatreonMerch storeFor a full list of our sources, please visit our blogBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/and-then-they-were-gone--5360779/support.

On August 1, 2018, 28-year-old Samantha Sayers was ready for an adventure. An experienced hiker, Sam decided to drive two hours away from her Seattle home and tackle Vesper's Peak. The hike was supposed to only be a day trip, so when darkness fell with no word from Samantha, her boyfriend, Kevin Dare grew concerned. Worried that she was injured, he drove out to the trail. But instead of his girlfriend, he found only her empty car. What happened next was the largest search and rescue operation in Washington State history. When Samantha wasn't found quickly, rumors began to swirl, with people wondering if there was more to the story than a woman who simply got lost.If you have information regarding the disappearance of Samantha Sayers, please contact the Snohomish County Sheriff at 425-388-3393.Buy the ebook! - And Then They Were Gone: True Stories of Those Who Went Missing and Never Came HomeSubmit a caseFind us everywhereGet episodes early and ad-free on PatreonMerch storeFor a full list of our sources, please visit our blogBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/and-then-they-were-gone--5360779/support.

On July 11th, 2006, Mary Cooper, 56, and her daughter Susanna Stodden, 27, embarked on a  hike along the Pinnacle Lake trail, located within the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest near Granite Falls, Washington. The remains of the 2 women were discovered just off the trail that same day. Authorities have not provided a  motive behind the killings. Mary's husband, David Stodden, has sought answers, he is urging anyone with potential leads to come forward and assist law enforcement in unraveling this perplexing case. If you have a tip or any useful information about this case, please contact Snohomish County Sheriff's Office - https://snohomishcountywa.gov/3491/Contact-UsTIPS CAN BE MADE ANONYMOUSLYMusic:oprahme Background Music by CO.AG MusicContact us at: weeknightmysteries@gmail.comInstagram - https://www.instagram.com/weeknightmysteriesTikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@weeknightmysteries

On this Friday show, we present Part 2 of the Hacks & Wonks 2023 Post-Election Roundtable which was live-streamed on November 13, 2023 with special guests Katie Wilson, Andrew Villeneuve, and Robert Cruickshank. In Part 2, the panel breaks down results for Seattle City Council District 7 and reflects on the implications of Seattle's elections on progressive priorities. For those disappointed in the results, encouragement is given to remain engaged after the election, re-evaluate strategy and messaging, and work on building relationships around issues everyone supports. The conversation then moves outside of Seattle to encouraging results from around the region - a more progressive and more diverse King County Council, success for initiatives addressing cost-of-living concerns in Tacoma and Bellingham, promising municipal election outcomes in Bothell, Spokane, Tacoma, Bellevue, and Redmond, as well as defeat of a right wing incumbent in the Snohomish County Sheriff race. Plus, a discussion of the exciting upcoming move to even-year elections for King County races and the need to address an unintended consequence this turnout-boosting change has on citizen initiatives! As always, a full text transcript of the show is available below and at officialhacksandwonks.com. You can follow Hacks & Wonks on Twitter at @HacksWonks. Find the host, Crystal Fincher, on Twitter at @finchfrii and find guest panelists, Katie Wilson at @WilsonKatieB, Robert Cruickshank at @cruickshank, and Andrew Villeneuve at https://www.nwprogressive.org. More info is available at officialhacksandwonks.com.   Katie Wilson Katie Wilson is the general secretary of the Transit Riders Union and was the campaign coordinator for the wildly successful Raise the Wage Tukwila initiative last November.    Andrew Villeneuve Andrew Villeneuve is the founder of the Northwest Progressive Institute (NPI) and its sibling, the Northwest Progressive Foundation. He has worked to advance progressive causes for over two decades as a strategist, speaker, author, and organizer.   Robert Cruickshank Robert is the Director of Digital Strategy at California YIMBY and Chair of Sierra Club Seattle. A long time communications and political strategist, he was Senior Communications Advisor to Mike McGinn from 2011-2013.   Resources Hacks & Wonks 2023 Post-Election Roundtable Livestream | November 13th, 2023   Transcript [00:00:00] Shannon Cheng: Welcome to Hacks & Wonks. I'm Shannon Cheng, Producer for the show. You're listening to Part 2 of our 2023 Post-Election Roundtable, with guest panelists Katie Wilson, Andrew Villeneuve and Robert Cruickshank, that was originally aired live on Monday, November 13th. Part 1 was our last episode – you can find it in your podcast feed or on our website officialhacksandwonks.com. You can also go to the site for full video from the event and a full text transcript of the show. Thanks for tuning in! [00:00:44] Crystal Fincher: We'll transition to District 7, which we saw the third incumbent running for Seattle City Council, who - this is a very, very close race still, but it looks like Andrew Lewis may have run out of runway to come back in this race. What was your view of this, Robert? [00:01:03] Robert Cruickshank: Yeah, I mean, Andrew Lewis won a close election in 2019 and he appears to have lost a close election here in 2023. I know that there is - we'll see the spending slide in a moment, but there's more spending certainly against him than his colleague Dan Strauss saw. I think that looking at the map - and there it is, I mean, it's almost 2:1. Similar to Davis, Andrew Lewis got nearly half a million dollars spent against him. If you look at the precinct map so far and compare it to 2019 - in 2019, Andrew Lewis held his own on Queen Anne, on the top of Queen Anne - that sort of island up in the sky of privilege and prosperity. Andrew did pretty well, won a bare majority in Queen Anne, just like he won in the district as a whole. If you look at the map from 2023, Queen Anne almost uniformly going to Bob Kettle. Now again, not all ballots are in, but I think you see - another thing that stood out to me is downtown. Downtown Seattle, Belltown - a lot of renters, also a lot of condo owners - that also seems to have gone to Bob Kettle. So I think that the narrative about public safety probably tripped up Andrew Lewis here. And I think Andrew Lewis - he voted against the drug ordinance in June when it first came up, but I think that was the right thing to do from a policy perspective. And then he wound up voting for it after working out a deal with the mayor's office to improve the ordinance. Voters may not have liked that, and certainly Bob Kettle ran pretty hard against that - putting out campaign messaging saying that Lewis was waffling, which is never a thing you wanna have said about you. I think that this is one where Strauss made the pivot that Lewis didn't really wanna make. And I think we, again, as progressives, gotta look at this and think - Lewis stood where we wanted him to stand, especially in that vote in June. And I think figuring out how to support candidates when they do things like that is going to be really important. This is another one obviously where turnout was different - a significant drop-off of turnout from 50% turnout in 2019 to 40% turnout in 2023. Again, you don't need much shift in turnout - especially if it comes among younger voters, renters, people living in dense communities - giving the victory, potentially to Lewis had they shown up. So this is where I feel like we can talk about Lewis - what Lewis should have done. I also look at the progressive movement as a whole and think - what did we all need to do differently in this election? I think finding ways to really fight for someone like Lewis, who's with us on most things, and certainly took up what I thought was a courageous vote in June - We've gotta reflect on that and think how we do better next time in these types of close races. [00:03:55] Crystal Fincher: What did you think, Andrew? [00:03:57] Andrew Villeneuve: Well, I think District 7 is the most conservative of the seven districts. And so the deck was kind of stacked against Andrew Lewis to start out with. And then as Robert said, the public safety piece was kind of big here. How much did voters see and hear about why Andrew Lewis was taking the votes and the actions that he did? Because for those of us who follow politics closely, we are interested in what happens at council, we're interested in the votes, and we pay an inordinate amount of attention and consume a lot more information. We might've been able to follow what Andrew Lewis was saying a lot more easily about why he voted the way he did in June, and then what he did in the fall - the late summer and fall - that caused him to take a vote that many people might've thought was contradictory to the vote that he took in June. And so I'm not sure how many voters were able to follow what was happening there. And it might've looked like, to use the old political cliche, flip-flopping. And if that's the case, if that's how voters perceived that, that could have been a negative. And Bob Kettle certainly being able to capitalize on that - that could be a very powerful thing if people are already feeling a little unhappy, disenchanted. We saw at the beginning of this year - we did a citywide poll right before the election that was for the initiative, the social housing initiative - we had the special election, we did a poll before that. And pretty much everyone in the council got a negative job performance rating, except for Sara Nelson, who had a slightly positive one. And I looked at that and went - Hmm - 'cause we weren't just assessing, how do you feel about the council as an institution? 'Cause that's a separate question. It's possible to like your member of the institution and dislike the institution - we see that dynamic with Congress. But here, people actually - we had in the poll, we had people rate each councilmember and the ratings were not good for most of the incumbent councilmembers. Sara Nelson being the exception, as I mentioned. So people were already unhappy, and then you take this public safety dynamic and this confusing position-taking that is going on, I think for many voters, and it becomes something that leaves you feeling not confident about voting for the incumbent. And I know Andrew Lewis worked really hard. I know he did a lot of door knocking, that I think they did try to leave it all out there in the field. But when you put together the low turnout, the money that was spent against Andrew Lewis, you put in the fact that it's a very conservative district out of the seven to start with, then you have the recipe for a Bob Kettle victory. Bob Kettle had a lot working for him. I don't think he ran the strongest campaign we've ever seen in Seattle city elections history. I think he just was lucky. He was a beneficiary of circumstances. So I'm gonna miss Andrew Lewis on the council - One of our board members is on his staff and I just think he brought a lot to the council. And I hope he runs for something else or stays involved in politics because I appreciate his vision. [00:07:01] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, I do appreciate his vision. And I think you're onto something with the confusing. It's confusing to be able to explain that, and I think that wasn't the only set of confusing votes that he took. There was a notable one last year, early this year - time doesn't mean much to me anymore - that he took there, and while that does happen and while there are certainly justifications, that's a hard thing to explain. And when you do, you better be clear and hope it cuts through to the voters. And I think that's a really hard thing to do for the general public, particularly when you have hundreds of thousands of dollars painting some of your votes in a different light. We saw in one of those ads with Bob Kettle - Sara Nelson blaming deaths on Andrew Lewis, which I think was disingenuous. But it just showed the amount of spending, the type of rhetoric that was in this race and that they really felt he was vulnerable on public safety and they certainly took advantage of that. I wanna shift a little bit and talk about what this means moving forward for the city of Seattle. What does this council mean for the city? I wanna start with Katie. What are we likely to see? [00:08:25] Katie Wilson: [baby crying] Can you come back to me? [00:08:25] Crystal Fincher: I sure can. We'll start with Robert. [00:08:30] Robert Cruickshank: Yeah. I share the baby's thoughts on this. It's not good, folks. I think what this election will have done is turn the 2020s into a lost decade for Seattle. I think we're going to spend the next four years until 2028, when a new council is inaugurated, playing defense. I think it's going to be very difficult to advance new policies, especially around housing, transportation, and climate. I think that especially for the next year or so, some of the most regressive forces in the city are going to feel emboldened. People who don't want new housing, people who want a transportation policy centered around cars and nothing else are gonna feel really like the wind is in their backs and they can really push harder than they might otherwise have pushed. I think there's going to be big fights over a comprehensive plan that's supposed to be approved next year. And this incoming council may not be as friendly to dense urban housing that we need to tackle the climate crisis and the affordability crisis as some of the other candidates would have been. We have to renew a transportation levy next year. Is that going to be focusing on a new sustainable transportation plan that focuses on transit, people who walk, people who bike, or is it gonna be tripling down on cars? Those are some of the things that come to mind. The fight over JumpStart and taxing corporations is going to be significant. It's quite possible that this election turns out to foretell a significant decline in the quality of life in Seattle - if we see budget cuts to major public services, to libraries, parks, and certainly human services, I'd worry a lot about that. It's also possible that we don't see an incoming council that's really focused on building enough housing, especially affordable housing, and transportation options to make it easier for people to live and work here - that we become even more polarized into a city of the very rich and the very poor. So I think we gotta be clear right here as progressives. The messaging we had on public safety, on homelessness wasn't working. Again, I don't think we should throw out our core values, but we've got a lot to learn from here. And the messaging that does work for us - housing, that people want people to fight for their rights as renters, wanna fight for affordability - we didn't do enough of that, I don't think. And finally, we need to figure out what pulls our people out to the polls. Do we need to start running ballot initiatives at the same time as mayoral elections, as city council elections in November? I think we should very seriously start considering that. But we're in for four years of playing a lot of defense and we're gonna lose a decade when we really can't afford to lose it to tackle affordability, racial justice, police reform and climate. [00:11:11] Crystal Fincher: What are your thoughts, Andrew? [00:11:13] Andrew Villeneuve: Well, I like to be hopeful and optimistic about the future. And I think that there's an opportunity to persuade the council to be progressive. And I think that we can see a lot of great things happen with this council if people put in the work to create the relationships and to connect with folks - I'm someone who believes you create the future you wanna see. And I'm not a huge fan of predictions either because I think it's really hard to make them and they're so often wrong. So my advice to those who are concerned about the outcome of this election is it's time to dig in and to build the relationships with those new councilmembers and to talk to them now before they get sworn in and to create that connectivity - that connective tissue - that should exist and make sure that again, people have had a chance to hear what it is we're looking for. There's a lot of research, including NPI's research that shows people want the things that progressives in Seattle have been campaigning for. We want, for example, a more pedestrian-friendly city. We want a city that's not so car-centric. We want a city that has better transit. We want more housing. We want to make sure that as we're building the housing, we're not also losing our tree canopy because that is a critical tool in the fight against climate damage. So there's a lot that can be done, I think, by the council. And the mayor and the council need to hear from people now and not after they make a decision that people are unhappy with. It's not just the public testimony that matters, but it's also the work that's being done in between. I like to think of the holiday season as a time for catch up and preparing for what comes next. And my suggestion to those who are listening is - okay, yes, celebrate the holidays - whatever you celebrate, do it. Don't lose out on your holiday traditions. But while you're preparing your plan for Thanksgiving, send off a note - find the information for the people who won their council races and send them a note and tell them what you're looking forward to in the next council and the policies you're hoping that they'll champion - and see what happens. I think that we don't put enough value on what we do after the election. There needs to be activism that comes after the voting has stopped and the counting is done - and before people take office and start governing - that in-between time to me is a critical time to get opinions shared with people who are coming in. So that's what I would encourage folks to do. [00:13:44] Crystal Fincher: I want to strongly second that encouragement. I think that there is a lot of opportunity and whether you're happy with the results or not, I think it's really important to remain engaged after the election and to push for what you want whether it's a progressive or a moderate council. I also think that there is value in building relationships and there's value in starting a dialogue. Everything that we do is a result of coalitions and sometimes those coalitions don't look exactly like we expect them to. There are several issues that are very, very popular among Seattle residents that you look at what the council ran on and it may seem opposed - maybe that's the opportunity for some dialogue and some movement there. Looking at setting up alternative response - that may be a little - I think most people have something more comprehensive in mind than the trial that just started, getting that spun out in all neighborhoods in a more comprehensive way 24/7 certainly is really popular - one of the highest polling issues in Seattle, there's opportunity there. Progressive revenue polls really high in the city as we head into this time of a pretty significant deficit in the City's budget. There's opportunity for dialogue to say this is absolutely critically important to me, my neighborhood, my neighbors and to make sure that councilmembers understand the impact that Seattle programs, that different things in your community have on your life. This is really a time to get engaged - to let the councilmembers, incoming councilmembers, know it's important. And the existing councilmembers - who knows what they're liable to do. Now, some of them don't have to worry about what voters might think - that may have been part of their equation before. So there may be an opportunity for some bold action even before some of the existing ones end up going. So I just really do second that and point out that there are still some things that are really popular among residents in Seattle that I think they're looking to see these candidates deliver on. Katie, did you wanna add anything? [00:16:00] Katie Wilson: Yeah, and I apologize if this is repetitive since I wasn't listening for a little bit, but yeah, I mean, the thing that is foremost in my mind is progressive revenue in the City budget. Knowing that the city is going into a situation where there's a more than $200 million a year shortfall starting in 2025. And I think there will continue to be efforts to basically repurpose the revenue from the JumpStart corporate tax to fill that gap. And so my kind of worst nightmare - well, maybe not worst nightmare, but one of the bad nightmares for what could happen with the new council aligned with the mayor and kind of pressured by the Chamber of Commerce and similar interests - is that they basically just gut JumpStart, take all of that money away from affordable housing, away from Green New Deal, away from equitable development. And basically it just becomes a general fund slush fund for the police budget. And I could totally see that happening. So that is, I think, something that will be a big issue next year, assuming that the economy doesn't just totally turn around and suddenly the shortfall evaporates. So yeah, I mean, and I think that to what Crystal just said - given that the councilmembers will have an opportunity in the coming weeks as they complete the budget process to vote on potential revenue proposals. I know Councilmember Sawant every year proposes some massive increase to JumpStart, like doubling it or something. So, you know, maybe on their way out, some of the outgoing councilmembers will just say, f--- it and we'll do that. But I'm sure the new council would reverse it right quick, but it would be fun anyway. [00:17:47] Crystal Fincher: Well, and one thing I do wanna add - another thing that is very popular and necessary in the city, and that seeing you with your baby there reminds us all of, is the importance of childcare and how critical it is that the council play an active role on making it more accessible and affordable to the residents of Seattle and how important that is to Seattle's economy. So look forward to seeing what plans and action they have there. I wanna switch gears a little bit. We have talked a lot about Seattle for all this time, but let's talk about some of the other races. Let's talk about the King County Council races. So the first one up was Jorge Barón versus Sarah Reyneveld. We also saw Teresa Mosqueda versus Sofia Aragon. I think with Jorge Barón, we saw him do one of the things that's relatively rare in Seattle politics - and that was lock down both The Stranger and The Seattle Times endorsement, which usually equates to a pretty comfortable victory and I think we saw that here. But we also saw a race with Teresa Mosqueda and Sofia Aragon that was a little closer than some people anticipated. Why do you think that was, Robert? [00:19:03] Robert Cruickshank: So I think that that district includes a fair amount of Burien. And I think Burien's politics this year were very polarized around - you might say The Seattle Times, Brandi Kruse narrative of, we gotta crackdown on visible homelessness in ways that are really just appalling and honestly dishonest. Sofia Aragon had been mayor of Burien and sort of leader in that effort. And so people who were invested in that narrative, whether they're in West Seattle or in Burien portions of the district, had a champion. That said, Teresa Mosqueda is an incredibly effective politician and legislator. I wanna give a shout out to Kamau, @Kamaumaumau on Twitter, who's got a Mosqueda theory of politics - talk about popular stuff, pick a few strategic fights and highlight them, get elected, pass a bunch of taxes to solve people's problems, and then talk about it. The fact that Mosqueda was a very effective and visibly effective leader on the Seattle City Council, I think, helped insulate her a little bit from some of the criticisms that that council got. Those criticisms never really seemed to stick to Teresa Mosqueda - while Lorena González was going down to defeat, and Ann Davison was being elected our city attorney, and Sara Nelson getting elected citywide seat in 2021 - Mosqueda won with 20-point victory citywide that same year. And so I think Mosqueda, you have to give your hat off, take your hat off to Mosqueda for running a smart campaign, being a smart politician, showing that she's engaged on the issues, but also championing some really popular things and making sure voters know about it. So I think there's a lot to learn from Teresa Mosqueda and how she was able to pull out this victory, which was a close one, obviously. They threw everything they had at her and she prevailed. And I think that's a big kudos to the type of campaign she ran. [00:21:02] Crystal Fincher: Do you think the electoral theory of Mosqueda holds up, Andrew? [00:21:07] Andrew Villeneuve: I think so. I mean, Teresa Mosqueda is one of the people who's impressed me the most in local politics the last few years. I've had her at one of the NPI events, speaking about issues that are important. She is someone who understands data and she's very quick to realize - okay, this is the policy that will help us in 20 years. And so I really appreciate that about her. She's very passionate about even-year elections, which I hope we'll say a couple more words about, 'cause I think that is a remedy for some of the things that we've been talking about this past hour. But when you look at her performance on the electoral map, Teresa Mosqueda doing well in places like Georgetown, performing well on Vashon. People sometimes forget that Vashon is a part of King County - it's a critical part of that district, the 8th District. So I see Sofia doing well in some parts of West Seattle. Robert mentioned Burien, another critical place. But that Vashon performance - that is an orange island on the general elections dashboard for Teresa Mosqueda. And looking at some of the precincts - I see 64% here, 73% over there. I mean, those kinds of margins matter. And I think that's how Teresa Mosqueda was able to build that majority. And of course, when you start - maybe it's a close race on Election Night. But when you start in a better position than your opponent, that late progressive ballots are just gonna lift you much higher. So the race - when that certification arrives, it's not gonna appear as close as it was on Election Night. So I do applaud Teresa Mosqueda for running a good campaign for the County Council. And I think, with both Jorge and Teresa coming in, the County Council is getting more diverse. I think it's gonna get more progressive. I think we're gonna see some exciting new policies coming out of the Council. This is what we need. We're at a critical time. King County is on some very steep fiscal shoals, and we need the Legislature to step in, and we need progressive tax revenue options for King County like yesterday. And I'm hopeful that Teresa and Jorge will go down and advocate for that in the Legislature. And knowing them, I believe they're well-positioned to do that and bring that fresh energy that King County needs to the legislative delegation and say - Look, folks, this can't be something we punt and just don't do this year and just leave it to next year, and then it's the same story next year. We've gotta change and break out of that cycle. [00:23:33] Crystal Fincher: Completely agree. And I know Mosqueda put in a ton of time on Vashon, which makes a difference. You have to show up. She's incredibly effective in what she does. She's a budget expert. And I'm excited to see what she does on the King County Council. There's an interesting dynamic that we don't see a lot of times. We saw Seattle move in a more moderate direction, but we saw the King County Council move in what looks to be a more progressive direction. What do you think accounts for that? I'll open it up to anyone. [00:24:05] Katie Wilson: Well, I'll just say one thing about the Mosqueda race. I mean, I don't know - I think, Crystal, you said it was pretty close. But in the end, I don't think it is that close - it's like a 10-point margin, so it's actually kind of a pretty big, major, major victory for Mosqueda. And I just looked up the PDC numbers - I don't think that Sofia Aragon ran that much of a campaign, so I think that's something to consider. Mosqueda, I think around $150,000 for Mosqueda's campaign, around $100,000 for Aragon. So it doesn't surprise me too much that she won by that much, even though so much of the district is outside of Seattle. But yeah, I mean, I think it's super interesting that the King County Council looks like arguably a place where a lot more interesting progressive stuff could happen in the next four years than the Seattle City Council. [00:24:52] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, absolutely. I'll interject really quick. The same thing that we talked about with engaging, building relationships, holding these electeds accountable to what they said they would do in the election and to what your neighborhoods need are just as important in cities like Burien with the results that we saw as they are in Seattle. What do you think we are going to see from the King County Council moving forward with the addition of Jorge Barón and Teresa Mosqueda? [00:25:20] Robert Cruickshank: I mean, I think that there's certainly an opportunity for some more progressive policy, certainly around housing. They're gonna have to solve, as Andrew mentioned, the revenue issue. And that becomes particularly important with King County Metro, which is making a comeback from certainly the pandemic lows, but with a still slightly smaller route network than it had going in. And so a little bit less ridership than it had going in. There's been recovery, I think, on a lot of routes that don't necessarily serve downtown Seattle - there's been recovery on those too. But the way people get around has shifted a little bit, and the system does need to catch up to that and then go ahead. Like Metro and transit are so essential to our ability to tackle the climate crisis. And King County is squarely in the middle of that. So one thing that I think Barón and Mosqueda are going to be confronted with immediately is a need to tackle that question. There's been talk that the county may put as much as a billion dollar ballot measure on the ballot in 2024 to tackle climate issues, potentially including transit. And I think that that's ambitious. That's, I think, correctly ambitious - we need to see what the actual details of the proposal look like. But that's something where Barón and Mosqueda are going to have to take a close look. And certainly they're going to have to advocate the Legislature because, as Andrew mentioned, the Legislature since the mid-2000s has really undermined the ability of local governments, including counties, to raise their own revenue and stay fiscally afloat. And that's catching up to King County real fast. And so they're going to need to lead on that. [00:26:56] Crystal Fincher: What are your thoughts, Andrew? [00:26:58] Andrew Villeneuve: I agree. I think we have to deal with the Metro issues, but we also have rural roads problems in King County that haven't been addressed. And the previous council of the last 20 years had kind of let these issues fester. My councilmember used to be Kathy Lambert and Kathy cared a lot about rural roads, or so she said, but then the rural roads just weren't getting funded. And I think, you know, here's part of the problem with being a Republican in today's environment - and this is setting aside a lot of the Trump cult stuff - but what we see from a lot of Republican elected officials is they're willing to spend money that's already there, but they want to spend it in ways that actually don't help anybody. So like, for example, just canceling certain taxes and sending the money back to taxpayers. Well, you can't fix the potholes over there on the road with your tax refund. So when rural residents, you know - and Skykomish comes to mind, that's a place that many people might think is not in King County, but it actually is. It's part of Kathy Lambert's old district, now represented by Sarah Perry, my councilmember. And, you know, you think about - okay, what's it going to take to repair some of these rural roads? And it's going to take money. And some of the roads are in terrible shape 'cause they haven't been maintained. And when you don't maintain your roads, you know, they fall apart. It's the same thing with bus service. Like if you're not investing in your bus service and, you know, you're not providing like really reliable, consistently good experience for people, people are going to stop riding. They're going to go back to their car if they have one, because they're, you know, those choice riders can choose not to take the bus. And we don't want choice riders to go back to driving their car because that makes traffic congestion a lot worse. So we need to both address the rural roads, we need to address Metro. There's other public services as well that people don't even know the county does that we need to have elevated. What I'm really excited about though is in the next few years, King County Elections, thanks to the work of the Northwest Progressive Institute and all of our partners and allies - we're moving county elections to even years. So that means that starting in 2026, we're going to elect Teresa Mosqueda and Councilmember Balducci and Councilmember Zahilay and of course, new Councilmember Barón - they're all going to be coming up in 2026. That's their next election - that's three years from now, not four years. And of course, that's also when Julie Wise and John Arthur Wilson's seats come up as well. And then in 2025, we elect the executive and five other council positions for three-year terms - that's the last odd-year election for those. And then those come up in a presidential year. And I just can't wait to see how much higher the turnout is and how many more people discover that county government is a thing - and it does things that are really important and meaningful to their lives. And I hope that they start to realize - okay, now I get to help pick these people - because they are even-year voters, and now they're going to have a say in how King County is run and who represents it. So I just think that that is a tremendously positive change that we're doing for King County. We also now need to do that for our cities. [00:29:53] Crystal Fincher: Absolutely agree. And I hope that we see legislation at the state level. I know Representative Mia Gregerson had a bill there to bring even-year elections, which just increased turnout and participation, which is good for everyone. And would love to see it in all of our elections here. Other cities are doing it and we should also do it here in Washington State. I want to, with a little bit of time that we have left, move out a little bit - and I'll go to Katie to start out with. Looking wider in the region, wider across the state - thinking Tacoma, Spokane, Bellingham - there was actually a lot to be excited about and a lot of progressive victories. What did you see around the state that you found encouraging or exciting? [00:30:44] Katie Wilson: Well, the Spokane mayor race, obviously the outcome was encouraging. But the thing that I've paid the closest attention to and that I think is just very, very heartening is the result of a few initiatives on issues. So down in Tacoma, there was a very ambitious renter protections initiative, which will bring Tacoma's renter protections up to, and in some cases beyond, what we have here in Seattle. And that initiative was outspent massively. I think it was like three to one and the opposition - very, very well funded by real estate and landlord interests - with TV ads, mailers, just like everything. They just went balls to the walls on that. And the initiative is winning. And I think that's just like - really, really speaks to the way that the rent increases of the last few years have shifted public opinion and to just the popularity of renter protections. This is something that the Transit Riders Union and lots of other organizations in King County have been working a lot on over the last few years here. And the other couple initiatives were up in Bellingham. There's a renter protections initiative up there that would also do basically landlord-paid relocation assistance for rent increases greater than 8% and more, requirements for more notice of rent increases. And then also a minimum wage initiative that will raise Bellingham's minimum wage to $2 above the state minimum wage. And those both passed by large margins - I believe somewhere around 60% or even more. And I don't think those face any opposition. So that again, just gives you the sense of this kind of like native support for kind of cost of living kind of issues. So that's super heartening. And then one thing I wanted to point out, which is - and I think that also, we're gonna see next February - it looks like we're gonna have in Renton, the Raise the Wage Renton will be on the ballot for people to vote on. So hopefully that also passes with flying colors, although obviously February election is a little bit more challenging. And the one thing I wanted to say in connection to what Andrew brought up about even-year elections, just 'cause it's been on my mind - at least for Seattle and King County, this isn't, it's not the same for code cities, but for Seattle and King County, one unintended consequence of moving to even-year elections will be that it will become harder to run citizens' initiatives because the number of signatures that you need to gather depends on the number of votes cast in the last election for mayor or county executive. And so if we're switching to even years, many more people are voting, which is great. Suddenly you're gonna need to gather a lot more signatures in Seattle or countywide in order to run an initiative. So I hope that alongside those changes, we can try to push for lowering the signature threshold for ballot initiatives in those jurisdictions. Yeah, I'll stop there. [00:33:46] Crystal Fincher: I think that's an excellent point. I will also throw in as we're talking about elections and when they are being so important, we have a King Conservation District election coming up in January, I believe. It would be great to get that onto a regular ballot - that's going to take some legislative action. That would be great to push for, but in the meantime, make sure that you engage in that election, which will be coming up also. Robert, what did you see that excited you throughout this? [00:34:16] Robert Cruickshank: You know, I think that we saw on the Eastside of Lake Washington, a lot of victories for more progressive candidates. In Bellevue, we certainly saw that. Big shout out to Bothell - Bothell elected a bunch of urbanists. They, Mason Thompson, who's the mayor of Bothell, won his election four years ago by five votes. He got 60% this year. So did the other folks running with him - Amanda Dodd and Carston Curd got around 60%. This is Bothell, which is a great city, and I think it's going to become even better, you know, now that they've got some really urbanist folks there. They also have one of the only Palestinian Americans on their city council. So Bothell, you look at - there's some good folks in Redmond. There's definitely some good folks in, I mentioned, bellevue. Tacoma - not only did Tacoma for all pass, but Jamika Scott won, Olgy Diaz is leading. So those are really great, great signs out there. And I think what that shows is that there are lessons that Seattle can learn from other parts of the region. There are also differences. Those races don't have sort of the obsessive Seattle Times, Brandi Kruse eye on them, which changes things. And those races in those more suburban communities also didn't have the avalanche of corporate money, although certainly the Tacoma for All initiative did. But I still think there may be things we can learn about how to turn out voters and how to win some persuadable voters from those. But overall, that's really positive signs to take from around the state, even as we who are in Seattle - we'll gnash our teeth a little bit about how some of these races turned out. [00:35:53] Crystal Fincher: And I'll give you the closing word, Andrew. [00:35:55] Andrew Villeneuve: Well, thank you. It has been a pleasure to share this evening with all of you. I think this has been a great discussion. I want to encourage you to look at all the different election results from the different cities and other jurisdictions, because it is - in a local election cycle, you have this amazing patchwork quilt of elections. And some jurisdictions are dealing with issues that are specific to those jurisdictions, and that really causes their elections to go in a certain direction. But others, you know, don't have those. And what we saw this year in places like Spokane was a really progressive result. Not only did Lisa Brown win a convincing victory, and I hope folks will look at the amount of money that was spent against Lisa Brown - it was enormous. You know, we're talking about the Tacoma tenant rights initiative, which is a huge victory - kudos to those folks. But Lisa Brown also overcame an avalanche of money and of opposition money. And that was a really big deal that she was able to do that. And then of course, for Spokane City Council President, we have a woman of color winning that race. The council in Spokane is gonna stay progressive. You know, that is a really encouraging sign. There's been 12 years of Republican rule in Spokane, and that's coming to an end. And Lisa Brown is gonna be in a position to do some great things for Spokane, and people in Seattle should track what's happening over there. Spokane has fortunately a fairly vibrant media ecosystem - I've been reading all of the reports that their TV stations have been doing for this election. And it's just interesting to see how they covered the mayor's race over there. There were a lot of forums and debates and articles and the controversy over, you know, the Matt Shea appearance that Nadine Woodward, Lisa Brown's opponent had - that was very well covered. People definitely heard about that. So that gives me some confidence. You know, when we're looking at news deserts - and my hometown of Redmond is one - you know, there's not enough information for voters. And Spokane is big enough that it has that media ecosystem that really helps. For me, the most important race this year is the defeat of Adam Fortney. He is the former, soon-to-be former, Snohomish County Sheriff. And he was one of the most right-wing sheriffs this state has ever seen. He had Mark Lamb up here for a fundraiser recently - Mark Lamb is that really scary guy in Arizona who's also a sheriff, and he has some really horrible views that are extremely extreme. I mean, we're talking like more extreme, I think, than people in Washington have ever seen in a candidate around here, perhaps, with the exception maybe of folks like Matt Shea. But this was a guy who really speaks for a fringe, and he came here and he made, you know, merry with Adam Fortney. And that sort of speaks to who Adam Fortney is. He was becoming a favorite of the Washington State Republican Party - he was appearing at like every event they had, talking about rolling back police reform laws. He had done some really terrible things as sheriff, like taking the measuring devices out of police cars that were tracking police officers' driving. He rehired deputies who've been fired by his predecessor for misconduct. He lost the accreditation that had been so hard won under his predecessor. So he was really awful. And Susanna Johnson, who is his opponent, launched a campaign a year ago and just spent a whole year working, working, working, canvassing, canvassing, canvassing, doorbelling, doorbelling, doorbelling. And we did research in this race. And what we found is that, you know, if people knew about Fortney's bad record, they'd vote for Susanna Johnson. And that's what we saw in the election. So my hat is off to all the Stohomish County progressives who worked so hard to get that big victory. Congratulations to you - I think you set the tone for this election. [00:39:23] Crystal Fincher: Absolutely. And congratulations to all of the campaign staff that worked. It is a hard and often thankless job. And we appreciate that you were willing to put yourselves out there and support your candidates. And with that, the roundtable comes to a close. I wanna thank our panelists, Katie Wilson, Andrew Villeneuve, and Robert Cruickshank for their insight and making this an engaging and informative event. To those watching online, thanks so much for tuning in. If you missed any of the discussion tonight, you can catch up on the Hacks & Wonks Facebook page, YouTube channel, or on Twitter where we're @HacksWonks. Special thanks to essential member of the Hacks & Wonks team and coordinator for this evening, Dr. Shannon Cheng. And if you have not listened to the show that she guest hosted about the Seattle budget, you need to. If you missed voting in the election or know someone who did, make sure to register to vote, update your registration, or find information on the next election at MyVote.wa.gov. And as a reminder, even if you've been previously incarcerated, your right to vote is restored and you can re-register to vote immediately upon your release, even if you are still under community supervision. Be sure to tune into Hacks & Wonks on your favorite podcast app for our midweek shows and our Friday week-in-review shows, or at officialhacksandwonks.com. I've been your host, Crystal Fincher. See you next time.

On this week-in-review, Crystal is joined by Seattle Axios reporter, Melissa Santos!  Melissa and Crystal discuss how Election Night results in Washington state aren't conclusive and can change due to our mail-in ballot system, how four County election offices were evacuated and whether this might explain low turnout trends. Then they dive into where Seattle City Council election results currently stand and the impact that enormous spending by outside interests had on voter communication. Looking outside Seattle, more encouraging progressive results appear to be taking shape across the state in Tacoma, Bellingham, Spokane, Snohomish County, Bellevue, Bothell, and more! The show wraps up with reflection on why celebrated Seattle Police Department Detective Denise “Cookie” Bouldin suing the City for decades of racism and gender bias from SPD management and colleagues is yet another indication of internal police culture not matching their publicly declared values. As always, a full text transcript of the show is available below and at officialhacksandwonks.com. Find the host, Crystal Fincher, on Twitter at @finchfrii and find today's co-host, Melissa Santos at @MelissaSantos1.   Melissa Santos Melissa Santos is one of two Seattle-based reporters for Axios. She has spent the past decade covering Washington politics and the Legislature, including five years covering the state Capitol for The News Tribune in Tacoma and three years for Crosscut, a nonprofit news website. She was a member of The Seattle Times editorial board from 2017 to 2019, where she wrote columns and opinion pieces focused on state government.   Resources Digging into Seattle's Budget Process with Amy Sundberg and BJ Last of Solidarity Budget from Hacks & Wonks   “4 election offices evacuated in Washington state; fentanyl found at 2” by Melissa Santos from Axios   “Business-backed Seattle council candidates take early leads” by Melissa Santos from Axios   “Seattle council incumbents still trail in latest election results” by Melissa Santos from Axios   “Business-backed groups spend big on Seattle council races” by Melissa Santos from Axios   “Tacoma to consider new tenant rights measure on Nov. 7 ballot” by Joseph O'Sullivan from Crosscut   “Tacomans deciding on progressive renter protections” by Lauren Gallup from Northwest Public Broadcasting   “The 4 biggest takeaways from election night results in Tacoma and Pierce County | Opinion” by Matt Driscoll from The News Tribune   “Bellingham voters consider minimum-wage hike, tenant protections” by Joseph O'Sullivan from Crosscut   “Lisa Brown leads incumbent Nadine Woodward in Spokane mayoral race” by Mai Hoang from Crosscut   “Controversial Sheriff with Right-Wing Ties Faces Voters in Washington State” by Jessica Pishko from Bolts   “Johnson defeats Fortney in sheriff's race, new ballot drop shows” by Jordan Hansen from Everett Herald   “Pioneering Black detective sues SPD, alleging racism, gender discrimination” by Mike Carter from The Seattle Times   Find stories that Crystal is reading here   Listen on your favorite podcast app to all our episodes here   Transcript [00:00:00] Crystal Fincher: Welcome to Hacks & Wonks. I'm Crystal Fincher, and I'm a political consultant and your host. On this show, we talk with policy wonks and political hacks to gather insight into local politics and policy in Washington state through the lens of those doing the work with behind-the-scenes perspectives on what's happening, why it's happening, and what you can do about it. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to get the full versions of our Tuesday topical show and Friday week-in-review delivered to your podcast feed. If you like us, the most helpful thing you can do is leave a review wherever you listen to Hacks & Wonks. Full transcripts and resources referenced in the show are always available at officialhacksandwonks.com and in our episode notes. If you missed our Tuesday topical show, it was a special one. Our producer and special guest host, Shannon Cheng, chatted with Amy Sundberg and BJ Last from Solidarity Budget about currently ongoing City of Seattle budget process. The conversation ranged from the fight over the JumpStart Tax to why ShotSpotter is more egregious than you thought. This is the first show that I actually have not hosted on Hacks & Wonks and Shannon did a fantastic job. It's a really informative and interesting show, and I highly suggest you listen. Today, we're continuing our Friday week-in-review shows where we review the news of the week with a co-host. Welcome back to the program, friend of the show and today's co-host: Seattle Axios reporter, Melissa Santos. [00:01:41] Melissa Santos: Hi, Crystal. [00:01:43] Crystal Fincher: Well, good to have you back on this Friday following general election results in Washington state. We have a lot to talk about, a lot that's interesting. I think the first thing I wanna talk about is just the nature of elections and results. As a reminder to people - for so long, so many of us were used to going to a polling place, voting, getting election results on Election Night. We still get that from a lot of other places in the country. It does not work like that here in Washington - and particularly for the City of Seattle, some other, especially major metropolitan areas - where there's, you see differences in where different demographics typically vote in the timeline when ballots are out. What races look like on the first night can look very different than what the ultimate results show. How do you approach this? [00:02:39] Melissa Santos: Well, so I basically - especially in Seattle races - I try to put a caveat at the top of any story I write on Election Night or the next day, sometimes even Friday of election week saying, Races are known to swing by 10 or 12 points in Seattle - this could change. It will change. It could change dramatically, essentially. So that's, I think, what we're seeing here. I mean, as of right now, when we're actually recording - we don't have Thursday's results yet. So we only have a very limited batch of ballots, especially because of something else we're probably gonna talk about later - there was limited counting in some counties, including King County, yesterday and fewer ballots released because of a scare they had at the elections office. So we just don't have a lot of information. Election night - like half the ballots maybe are being reported, so that's just a ton of room for results to change. And we have seen that repeatedly in Seattle, especially when it comes to progressive candidates looking like they're down, and then - oh look, they won by four points, three points, two points. So this happens a lot. And that's just a good caveat to keep in mind as we're talking about election results the week of the election in Seattle. [00:03:49] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, and as you said, we are actually recording this on Thursday morning. Viewers will start to hear this on Friday, but we don't have many results - we might as well talk about it now. The reason why we have even fewer results than we thought, or fewer ballots counted, is that there were some wild things that happened at some elections offices yesterday. What happened? [00:04:10] Melissa Santos: So four county elections offices in Washington state, including in King County, received an unknown powder substance in envelopes that were delivered to the election office. And so the King County Elections office in Renton, that does all this counting, was evacuated for three hours the day after the election - in which counting was not happening because they had HazMat there, they had the Fire Department there, they had the police there checking to make sure this wasn't something super dangerous, that there wasn't a chemical attack, essentially, against the election offices. And in Spokane County, they got a similar thing and they actually didn't - I don't think they released results yesterday at all, actually, in Spokane. Or at least it was very delayed and limited. So in King County, they released many fewer ballots, and counted many fewer ballots, and reported fewer than they had expected to on Wednesday, the day after the election. And then also Skagit and Pierce County offices got mysterious packages. And two of them - in King County and Spokane, it was, there were traces of fentanyl. We're still waiting for more information, so there was some sort of fentanyl in there. Not clear about the other two - might've been baking powder in Tacoma, according to one report I saw, so. But in any case, this is a threat that people are sending stuff that is very threatening. I mean, everyone remembers it was around - Anthrax scares and this and that. So when you get in the envelope as a public servant like that - you're worried it could kill you, it could kill your colleagues, and then you're gonna not keep counting ballots probably. Or your coworkers across the building are gonna stop counting ballots - and that's what happened. [00:05:45] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, absolutely. And people are on heightened alert for a number of different reasons. These bring to mind some of the increased attacks that we've seen that seem to have anti-Semitic, anti-Arab, anti-Muslim bias. There have been envelopes of powder mailed to synagogues in our state. So this has a lot of people wondering - are these ties to election denialists? Is this someone with some other grievance? But people are on heightened alert about that. King County counted about half as many ballots yesterday as they originally intended to, so we have really abbreviated results. The other factor that is a challenge that is not standard - not what we normally see - is turnout is low, is trending really low. And weirdly, it was trending above where we were a couple of years ago until Election Day - 'cause we can track how many ballots are received each day, how that compares - so it was actually up by a few percentage points. But on Election Day, really, turnout seems to have cratered. We don't know why. Again, the results being released - it's so early, so we just may not have the full picture. Maybe people just voted in a really late flux and we don't know that yet. There's just a lot that we don't know. But right now, turnout seems to be trending pretty low in a different way than we've seen before, at least so far. So we're not sure what that means, who might not have turned out, is this gonna wind up low? We just have a lot that we still need to see, both in results and in just the ballots received, and what that means for turnout. So with that said, let's start off talking about the City of Seattle. We had several council races. And I guess thinking, going through the results - overall, the more moderate candidate was leading pretty significantly in a lot of cases on Election Night. Again, as we talked about earlier, several of these races are still within the bounds where it's possible these races could change. And the person who ultimately winds up winning could be different than the person currently leading in several of these races - if ballots trend how they traditionally trend in the city - there's been a few different folks who've done some public analysis of this. But right now in District 1, Rob Saka - this looks to be one of the races that looks pretty conclusive, that Rob Saka currently holds a pretty commanding lead over Maren Costa. In District 2, Tanya Woo is currently leading Tammy Morales. This is a closer race and one that is within the margin where we see late ballots overtake what the early results were. In District 3, Joy Hollingsworth - this seems like a pretty settled race - seems to have prevailed over Alex Hudson. District 4, we have Maritza Rivera leading Ron Davis. This is one that is at the margin of where races come back - if ballots trend in the same way as they had before, Ron could end up eking out a win. If they don't, maybe he comes up a little short, but definitely a race we anticipate tightening up. In District 5, Cathy Moore holds a pretty commanding lead - this looks like one where it's beyond the range of kind of the bounce-back of ballots over ChrisTiana ObeySumner. And in District 6 - [00:09:34] Melissa Santos: District 6 is Dan Strauss, and that is really, really close, with Dan Strauss and Pete Hanning. And we actually saw Strauss, who's an incumbent, and is the more leftward candidate in that race - I mean, of the candidates in that race. [00:09:47] Crystal Fincher: Of the candidates in that race. [00:09:49] Melissa Santos: Not really the most leftward councilmember that is on the ballot necessarily, but in this race he is the more progressive of the two. He was down two points on Election Night, but now it's less than one percentage point. And that's just with the limited ballots we saw on Wednesday. So that's an example of how much you can switch there - we saw about a percentage point gain in a very close race. So I suspect Dan Strauss will actually win his race and be reelected, but we will see. [00:10:18] Crystal Fincher: It would be shocking if he didn't wind up winning this. And in District 7, we have Andrew Lewis and Bob Kettle, with Bob Kettle currently in the lead over Andrew Lewis. This is another one where it is still within the range that this is too close to call. We need to see further results. And if again, ballots trend in the same way as they've trended - particularly in 2021, but also in 2019 - then Andrew Lewis could wind up winning. This week is gonna be interesting with results because we typically get a daily update at between 4p and 5p, depending on the county. And King County - it's typically 4 p.m. But Friday is a holiday, so we won't get updates on Friday. Today, Thursday, will be the last day of updates. And then the next day that we get an update on the vote totals will be Monday. So Monday will probably be a very conclusive day, a day that shows whether people are on track to make it, where a lot of the late ballots are going to be in the tally - because the counting continues over the weekend, even though they don't release the results until Monday. So we'll see what that is. But a lot of races that are currently too close to call, even though if you've seen some other media outlets, particularly some columnists - I think Danny Westneat had a column, that was like - Oh, the progressive era in Seattle is over or something like that - which I think certainly the early results are different than even earlier results that we've seen in prior races, different than even in the primary, I think we would say. So there is something afoot here, and there's certainly going to be a different council with one, so many new candidates. But there's gonna be a new composition on the council, certainly. But saying what that composition is going to be with so many of these races still in the air, I think it's premature to say at this time, and we'll still see. We just don't know about the turnout and don't wanna mislead people, have to rewrite headlines. I think you're one of the more responsible journalists when it comes to setting appropriate expectations and making sure you don't overstate what the results are saying. [00:12:45] Melissa Santos: I mean, I think the one thing you can say, that I got from Danny's column, that I can guarantee will be correct is you will not have Kshama Sawant on the council anymore. And she has been one of the sort of firebrands on the council, very - has strong views that she doesn't shy away from and doesn't - whatever dynamic that is on the council, some people don't like it, some people do like it - that she just says what she wants to do and doesn't kind of do as much backroom compromise sometimes on certain issues. That's gone. So you don't have a Socialist on the council anymore - that is happening - 'cause she didn't run for re-election. There wasn't a chance for her to lose. So either way, that was gonna be different. But a couple of the moderate candidates we were talking about, I'm not really sure which way they'll vote on some of the issues that typically define Seattle moderates. And for me, Cathy Moore comes to mind. She won by - I mean, you can say Cathy won at this point - it was about 40 points. So that is not going to be, that's not going to happen for ChrisTiana ObeySumner. But Cathy, during election interviews, was a lot more forthright actually about taxes, saying - I disagree with the business community actually, that we probably need more tax revenue. And so she was much more open on the campaign trail about the notion of taxing businesses to close the City's budget deficit. And this is one of those issues that typically defines sort of the Seattle centrist moderates, business-friendly candidates - is having a lot more reticence about taxing businesses. Usually the candidates won't say - Absolutely not under any circumstances. But they'll say - We need to do an audit. I'm not, I mean, some of them actually will say, I don't think we have a budget deficit - in the case of Bob Kettle, I think that was something he said regularly, despite what the revenue projections do say. But Cathy Moore was a lot more nuanced on that topic. And also on zoning, potentially, and being willing to have more dense zoning in certain areas. I'm not sure that she'll vote the way - it remains to be seen. People can say things on the campaign trail and do totally different things, so we'll see. But she was fairly consistent about being sort of more on the liberal side of certain issues in that respect. Joy Hollingsworth, who has, I think, pretty definitively come out ahead in District 3 - this is Sawant's district. You know, she's a really - she's just a really compelling personality too. I mean, and I'm not saying this in a negative way - you talk to Joy, you feel like she's listening. She's a good candidate on the campaign trail. I saw her canvassing a lot - like in person, a fair amount - 'cause I live in that district. And her campaign sent out a lot of communications. She had the benefit of independent money, which we will talk about soon, I think, as far as more outside spending benefiting her campaign. So there were more mailers sent out - not even necessarily by her campaign, but on her behalf. And I just don't know if she's a traditional candidate. And she would say this and has said this - When am I the centrist candidate? I'm a queer, cannabis-owning business owner, you know, who's Black, and I just don't, when am I like the right-wing candidate here? So I mean, maybe doesn't fit the profile of what people think of when you're talking about sort of centrist candidates. And again, has done a lot of work on cannabis equity and equity issues, I think, that also helped her relate to a lot of voters in her district. Well, Rob Saka, I think, is more - who I think is pretty clearly winning in District 1 - is probably the most traditional, sort of more business-backed candidate who's skeptical of taxes, skeptical of how the City's spending its money, and then also had a lot of big business backing on independent spending. And is sort of more - we need to hire more cops, more in the traditional line of what you're thinking of as a centrist candidate. And he is going to be replacing a more progressive councilmember in Lisa Herbold. But, you know, they basically have Saka in that mold, clearly. And then the other two races that are decided already, it's not totally clear that it's some - it's gonna be a, exactly what kind of shift it's gonna be. And in fact, Cathy Moore is replacing a more moderate on the council anyway. So a lot is still dependent on what - the results we still don't have. And also, one of the more progressive members on the council is Teresa Mosqueda, who is running for King County Council and is likely to ultimately win that race, and that's gonna be an appointment process, where - to replace her on the council. So who that is - you could end up with a fairly progressive council, potentially, in some respects. If all of these races switch to progressive suddenly in the late results, which certainly may not happen. But it's just a little premature on Election Night to necessarily say the council's going to be way less progressive than it was, I think, potentially. That's all. [00:17:40] Crystal Fincher: No, I completely agree with that. We've talked about on the show - if you know me personally, we have definitely talked about this in person - but painting, you know, the media narrative out there, that - Oh, it's the super progressive council, you know, who's always battling with the mayor, and we want a change of direction. I'm always asking, define what that direction is, because we did not have a progressive council. There were different people in different positions on the council - certainly had progressives on it, but a number of moderates on it. And in this change, as you said - in District 1, I think it's very fair to say that that moved in a more moderate direction. District 5, I think that's moving in a more progressive direction, everything on balance. [00:18:30] Melissa Santos: And if Ron Davis wins in District 4 - which that district has been super swingy in the past because it has - I think university students is a factor, sort of, I do think there's a late turnout surge there in a lot of years, in some years, maybe that's greater than some districts. If he wins, you're going to be replacing Alex Pedersen, who is one of the more - certainly centrist, some would say conservative - but center candidates, and so you'd have a much more liberal person in that respect on, I think, both taxes, on criminal justice, I think on also zoning, definitely zoning, Ron Davis is like the urbanist candidate - is kind of what he's known as, and having worked with FutureWise and these organizations and in advocacy, sort of behind-the-scenes roles. So yeah, that would be, kind of, undermine the narrative to me. If you replace Alex Pedersen with Ron Davis, I'm not sure the progressivism-is-gone narrative exactly will hold up, so that's - but again, we would need some big swings for these things to happen. I'm not trying to act like you're going to get all these progressives. It definitely was a good night for business-backed, sort of, more centrist candidates on Election Night. [00:19:42] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, absolutely, I agree with that. And I think if Maritza Rivera ends up doing that, that's basically a wash on what their representation does - that looks like they have continued with what they generally had. And didn't move in a more progressive direction, but certainly did not get more moderate or conservative than what was already there, I think. I think there are two buckets of candidates that we're looking at, as you alluded to before. I think that Rob Saka, if Bob Kettle were to wind up prevailing, if Maritza Rivera were to wind up prevailing - those, I think, are most firmly in the traditional moderate conservative, very skeptical of taxation, very supportive of carceral solutions, more punitive solutions, lots of talk about hiring and supporting police, different answers to different issues, often involving public safety elements. I think that's fair to say. I don't think most people would put Cathy Moore, Joy Hollingsworth in that same category. I think Tanya Woo is a bit of a toss-up. This is another race where, I think, next to Dan Strauss, the next most likely candidate of what looks the way ballots traditionally go, even with some wiggle room - Tammy Morales, the way ballots trend in Seattle, certainly has a path to finishing in the lead. There is definitely a difference between those two candidates, but I think Tanya Woo has certainly expressed some reservations for taxation, has certainly expressed her support for public safety solutions - Maybe she falls somewhere in the middle there. It seems like she's not as aggressive as some of the other candidates and their zeal for those solutions, but she has signaled that she's open to them. So I think that's a question mark if it goes the Tanya Woo route. But this is a race that is definitely too close to call at this point in time for the way Seattle ballots trend. So that's Seattle. Let's talk a little bit more about the money, which you have written about - basically, everybody wrote about. We have not seen spending of this magnitude in Seattle City Council races since the Amazon money bomb that we saw in 2019. What happened with outside money in this race and what impact do you think it had? [00:22:34] Melissa Santos: So originally in 2019, there was a big - originally, that's not that long ago, I understand, but in recent history of Seattle elections - the Chamber of Commerce had a PAC that was spending a lot on behalf of the business-preferred candidates. And Amazon gave a million dollars plus to that - a million of it right at October, I think, in 2019. And that kind of - especially, Sawant in her race, again, Socialist councilmember, was saying Amazon's trying to buy the election. And then there was a sense that left voters turned out citywide even to kind of object to that. There was one, something that I think a lot of observers thought happened that year. And that one might have helped fuel this surge of left-leaning voters after the initial vote count as well. And also, Trump was in office. There was a lot of sort of motivation, I think, of progressives to kind of vote and make themselves heard wherever they could during that era. Okay, so this year - your original question - this year, we didn't have a chamber PAC doing all of the money. It wasn't all relayed through this chamber PAC. It was different. There were all these little political action committees called Neighbors of this Neighborhood. It was Downtown Neighbors Committee, Elliott Bay Neighbors Committee, and then University District Neighbors Committee. So it sounds, you know, those innocuous, sweet-sounding PAC names, right? But they were all supporting the candidates that were preferred by the, I mean, the Chamber and the Downtown Seattle Association. And they spent a fair amount of money. I mean, in the - I don't think that I had all the receipts when I did the calculations on Sunday, so there's a few more that have come in since then. But I mean, it was $300,000 almost for Maritza Rivera. And when I say for, I mean, a lot of it was spent opposing Ron Davis, but all benefiting Maritza - either in direct support from these external groups that were saying, Vote for this person, or, you know, saying, Don't vote for this person, her opponent, the more left-leaning candidate in that race. So that's quite a bit of money for one race, one district race, you know, you're talking about. And then we saw that for support for Rob Soka as well. And they were some of the similar groups where - there's overlap in who is supporting these PACs, right? Landlords organizations, there were builders and construction and realty interests. And there were - the Realtors PAC actually gave separately to a few candidates like Tanya Woo and Bob - okay, I shouldn't say gave. Let me back up. The Realtors PAC, the National Realtors PAC, actually spent its own money separately from these Neighborhood groups to support Tanya Woo and Bob Kettle. And so you just saw that outside PAC money was coming in. And that was, you know, a lot more than the leftward union side spent this year by a significant margin to kind of help support these candidates. So, I mean, at the end you had $1.5 million almost spent and more than $1.1 million of that, maybe $1.2 million, was from the business sort of backed interest sort of pouring money from outside into these races, supporting their preferred candidates. [00:25:53] Crystal Fincher: So I think - one, something that gets missed or I've seen a lot of questions about - so people are like, Okay, there's a lot of money. Corporations have a lot of money. How does that impact races? What does that mean when it comes to these campaigns and when it comes to what voters see? [00:26:11] Melissa Santos: So what you're paying for is communication. What they are paying for is communication. They're paying for mailers that go to voters, they're paying for TV or radio ads in some cases - maybe not radio this year, but it's, you know, this is some of the things that independent expenditures pay for. Online ads - so reaching voters to tell them about the candidate. And this is what campaigns do. That's the whole point of a campaign. Except when you have someone from outside doing it also, it just really widens your impact as a candidate - even though they don't coordinate, they're not involved together - it still will help get your message out to more people if you have supporters doing this on your behalf and buying mailers. I mean, I live in District 3 and most of the mailers I got were from Joy Hollingsworth's campaign, but I did get another mailer from an independent expenditure committee. And this was one that also was like - You like weed, vote for Joy Hollingsworth. Literally, that's what it said. I wish I was not kidding. So, I mean, again, that's - again, muddying the who's progressive and who's not a little. I mean, the mailers contribute to that, but anyway. And I got one mailer from Alex Hudson's campaign. So it just was like 5-1 on the communications I got from Joy Hollingsworth just to my own house. And so that's just an example of - even though only one of them was independent spending, you know, you can have a lot more mailers come and reach someone on behalf of a candidate if you have this outside money paying for it. [00:27:37] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, and communication is really everything. I think, you know, most people know I do this kind of work during the day, this podcast is an extra thing, this is not the main thing that I do. But it really all comes down to communication. Like you talked about before, there are things that the campaign can do to directly communicate with voters - phone calls, canvassing is the most effective thing they can do. And if a candidate and their campaign is on the campaign trail doing that, that is certainly generally a really positive thing for their campaign and one of the most effective things that you can do to win votes. But Kshama Sawant is notorious and the DSA - people passionate about Kshama are notorious for mounting really formidable, substantial ground games where they are covering most of the district. Most candidates are not knocking on most of the doors in their district. They're knocking on, you know, a pretty small percentage of them. And even though to them and their supporters - they see the candidate talking all the time, attending events every night - you're only reaching 15, 20% of the people in the district probably. And so the other 80% of voters have not heard anything directly, have been busy living life. The thing that many candidates don't realize is that the hardest thing isn't getting them to understand that you're better than your opponent, especially for candidates who have not run for office before. The hardest thing to do is to let voters know that you exist overall. Most voters don't know that candidates exist. Most voters don't know that there's an election coming until they see the ballot arrive in their mailbox. People, like a lot of the people who listen to Hacks & Wonks - we're not the normal ones. We've talked about this before on this show. Most people do not pay attention to the news, to candidates, to elections as much as we do. That's really important to remember when it comes to this, because that spending - the type of communication, whether it's mail, the digital video ads that you see, cable TV ads, banner ads, text messages. One, that all costs money. And so having money enables you to do more of that. And getting that in front of voters is generally the most meaningful exposure that they have to candidates - that's how they're learning about a lot of them. So if they are bombarded with information from one candidate, they hear predominantly about one candidate - usually their communications talk about how wonderful the candidate is, all the wonderful things that they're saying or planning to do, or the version of that that they're spinning in that communication - that makes a big difference. And that's how people get to know who the candidates are. If someone isn't doing much of that, they can't win. That's kind of just a structural Campaign 101 thing. So again, talked about this on the show before - if you know me, we've definitely talked about this. Sometimes when people are making sweeping pronouncements about - This narrative clearly won the day and this is what voters are saying - that may be the case in a race where there's robust communication coming from all sides, where the amount of money spent is a lot closer with each other on both sides. But in these races where one candidate is outspent by hundreds of thousands of dollars and the communication that that equates to, you rarely see those candidates win in any circumstance, regardless whether the one outspending is moderate, conservative, progressive, what kind of message they have - if it's good or bad, it can be really mediocre, it can be pretty bad. If you spend and communicate that much and so much more than your opponent, that in and of itself usually is enough to win, which is why people talk about the influence of money and the communication that that buys being corrosive or toxic or such an issue, because that in and of itself is oftentimes enough to move enough voters to win the campaign. [00:31:57] Melissa Santos: And we should mention - Seattle has a Democracy Voucher system and I think all of the candidates, I think all of the candidates use Democracy Vouchers. Crystal can correct me if I'm wrong. But certainly some of the business backed ones receiving outside money also were limited - this limits their spending as a campaign, right? So the outside money takes on an even bigger role when each of the candidates can spend - I mean, gosh, the limit is, it starts at like $90,000, then it goes up if you all raise a lot of money. But you're limited, you're not spending more than $150,000, or $125,000, or something as a campaign. I forget the exact limits, but somewhere like around there or even lower. And then you have - so think about that - the campaign spending, we say $115,000 and really can't spend more. And then someone else is spending almost $300,000, right? So - separately - so you're having these, sometimes it's gonna be the majority of money in a race because the third party committees are not limited in how much they can raise and how much they can spend. So that's how you can get millions and millions of dollars. This year, it wasn't millions, but it was more than a million backing a certain slate of candidates. And that gets a big impact when you have fairly low-cost campaigns and everyone's limited to that to a certain degree. [00:33:12] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, absolutely. So I think that is the picture of Seattle races at this point in time. I think it is fair to say that even if a number of the candidates come back, I think it's an over-pronouncement to say that there was a broad shift in direction one way or another. But I think it's absolutely fair to say that no matter what the results end up being, they're not going to be celebrated by progressive candidates, that moderates are going to wind up happier than progressives are gonna wind up with these results - in the city of Seattle. But I wanna talk about elsewhere in the state because I think the broad picture in the state - even though Seattle's likely to dominate the media conversation - that the picture in the rest of the state was more positive for progressive people than it has been in quite some time, that we see trends moving further in a Democratic and progressive direction, particularly in purple and red cities in some of the many metro cities. So Seattle, the biggest city in the state there, moved and had their results. But looking at Tacoma, looking at Spokane - these are two cities that seem to have moved definitively to the left in the composition of their councils, in Spokane's case - including the mayoral race - and also with some ballot initiatives. So starting with Tacoma - what's happening in Tacoma? [00:34:47] Melissa Santos: Well, they do have a measure on the ballot that's about sort of renter protections, which actually looks like it might prevail. It was down a little bit on Election Night, but again, we don't have a lot of results from Pierce County yet, and it's super close right now. And given the way the ballots so far have sort of trended, even with this limited amount of ballots released, I suspect that this sort of measure to enact a lot more protections for renters against eviction - and I'm blanking a little on some of the details of it - but that's sort of a priority for more liberal voters and certainly policy makers. That looks like it may pass still, still uncertain. But you also - what I thought was interesting, you know - you had, I'm just making sure I did not, two days ago with my Tacoma results, but it looked like Jamika Scott was doing really well and likely to win her race in Tacoma. And Jamika has run for mayor before and she's sort of a known, you know, pretty serious policy person, I think, in Tacoma on advocating for ways of getting rid of systemic racism. I mean, getting rid of it would be difficult, obviously, but sort of ways to mitigate and kind of make lives better for people who traditionally have not benefited from our systems. And she was really active with, or I mean, leader of the Tacoma Action Collective, which has been a group that's been sort of protesting different institutions in Tacoma, as far as their treatment of Black people and treatment of people of color more broadly, I think, as well. But especially with police brutality. This is someone who has been kind of consistently saying, We need some change in our system. And she's being elected, and people like her message in Tacoma - enough of them - to really catapult her into office, it looks like. And so that's something that was interesting. We saw Olgy Diaz, who is an appointed councilmember - oh gosh, no, she won an election by now - has she-- [00:36:51] Crystal Fincher: No, she was appointed, and she's running for her first actual election now, following the appointment. And she just took the lead. She was narrowly down on Election Night. Again, the same caveats apply - that that Election Night is a partial tally. It is not a result. So on the initial tally, she was down just by a smidge. Now she is actually leading. And just with the way ballots trend, it looks like that lead will continue to grow. So you had the more progressive candidates, certainly, in both of those races prevail. I think interestingly, particularly in Jamika's race - Jamika was not endorsed by The News Tribune, which has been very consequential in endorsing folks. And despite that - and I think, as a credit to the work that Jamika has been doing in community for a while and the coalition that Jamika built - speaking directly to issues that are impacting so many people. And a lot of times speaking meaningfully to communities, as you said, that have not traditionally been served very well by government. And really inspiring a coalition to rally around her, to vote in support of her, to turn out for that. I think that was helpful. In the same way, the Tacoma for All tenant protection measure, which had a storied path to the ballot - the City of Tacoma was basically looking to put a competing, less impactful measure that did less than this initiative did - looked like that was motivated by some of the opposing forces who didn't wanna see this measure prevail. They ended up going to court over it and the process wound up being flawed. So this wound up being the only measure - the citizens' initiative - on the ballot. And that attracted a ton of outside spending - the realtors, a number of landlord organizations, developer organizations spent a lot - hundreds of thousands of dollars in opposition of this initiative. And for - one, to be as close as it is, given all that spending, is pretty miraculous and I think goes to show the depth of the problem and how extremely it is felt to have this much support. But it looks, based on the way that ballots traditionally trend, like it's on track to eventually take the lead and win. So this is not the only initiative - there are others across the state, including other tenant protection initiatives that are speaking to what's - the large percentage of renters in the state are facing the seeming imbalance between how landlords can technically treat tenants and how important it is to put more safeguards around. And I think generally it's not controversial to say that treating being a landlord like any other business is not good for society when we're talking about a basic need for people. And putting more protections around whether the timelines of being able to raise rent, how you can evict people, the kind of notice that's required, and assistance that may be required. If you are forcing someone to move out, the issue of economic evictions, or just putting someone out - not because they did anything, but just because they want to earn more money from that property - are things that people are willing to revisit across the state. And I think a lot of people can learn that lesson. The other thing, just - I, as someone who does this for a living, get really excited about - that we're seeing in Tacoma and play out elsewhere in the state, is that sometimes these initiatives come and I'm speaking as a consultant, so obviously this happens - it has a lot of good results sometimes - but this wasn't the result of consultants getting around, establishment party entities saying, We want to put an initiative on the ballot, what should it be? And deciding what that's going to be in rallying support. This was something that truly did come from the community. This was a response from people in the community to problems that people in the community were having. They got together, they made this happen, they knocked on doors and advocated for it. This was not funded by an outside source - anything like that. And I think those are wildly successful. I think we've also seen this with the Tukwila Raise the Wage initiative that was successful that the Transit Riders Union did - that kind of model, which oftentimes is a reaction to inaction sometimes by people in power, which is frustrating to a lot of people, not seeing the issues that they feel are most important being addressed. We're having another very viable path with municipal initiatives being initiated, not just by the same old players with money, but people in community learning how to advocate and move policy themselves. I think that's a really powerful thing. We're seeing that across the state and I think we're gonna see more of it. I think that's a positive thing. [00:42:24] Melissa Santos: Yeah, Bellingham looks poised to raise its minimum wage as a city. And they passed a measure that actually - they've been doing tenant protections as a city council, but I think that what they look on track to pass - I should say the minimum wage is leading, I should say. I guess I'd have to look just close at the results. But they're on track to pass something that requires landlords to help tenants relocate if they raise their rent by 8% or more. I mean, that's like a pretty - Bellingham is a fairly liberal city, a lot of college students from Western and all this. But that's a level, that's like sort of testing out new policies at a city level that I don't think we've - I don't think Seattle requires the landlords to do rent - well, anyway, it is kind of, I'm rambling now, but it is kind of some creative, interesting stuff happening in some of these cities that is very on the progressive edge. And Spokane's mayor looks like they're going to be replaced with a Democrat - Lisa Brown, who used to be the state Senate majority leader and has been working in Governor Inslee's administration as Commerce Director. And so that's a big change there too. And that is certain - I think that is a very clear contrast in candidates where you have some voters rebuking the sort of far-right ties potentially of the mayor. Crystal has probably been following this more than me, but there was a big controversy recently with the mayor of Spokane sort of engaging with Matt Shea, who is like - oh my God, I forget all of this. [00:43:56] Crystal Fincher: Domestic terrorist, an advocacy, an advocate of domestic terrorism, someone who was planning to partake himself. [00:44:02] Melissa Santos: Yeah - who, an investigation that was commissioned by the State Legislature when Matt Shea was a legislator found that he engaged in acts of domestic terrorism. The current mayor were kind of hobnobbing with that, became an issue in that race. And voters are saying, Let's try something different - it looks like in Spokane with a more Democratic mayor. So that is a different than maybe what progressives might be seeing in Seattle. You're seeing other cities have sort of different results. [00:44:33] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, absolutely. This was one where there's - in Seattle, it's on the centrist to progressive spectrum. This was a clear Democrat versus far-right Republican who did hobnob with Matt Shea, who attended - Matt Shea, who now is well-known as someone who was found to engage in domestic terrorism, to support a variety of far-right, extremist, insurrectionist type beliefs. Nadine Woodward appeared at one of his events, hugged him, seemed to be hobnobbing with his people. And even after that was palling around with Moms for Liberty - which are notoriously anti-LGBTQ, particularly anti-trans - candidates pushing for policy, pushing for book bans in school districts across the nation, basically. So there was a clear contrast here. These issues were front and center, and voters made a clear choice here and made the decision to change direction. And there're also - three of the four Democratic councilmembers are leading in Spokane. And so this is definitely moving in a more Democratic direction in Spokane, which is a really big deal. We saw similar in Tacoma. We were looking at a lot of suburbs - I mean, looking at the Eastside, just in King County - so many of those races. Now, Bellevue may have a more progressive council than Seattle. We've seen in a number of these cities, whether it be Bothell or others, where they have moved on affordable housing policy, transit and transportation, mobility policy in ways that Seattle has not. They seem to be outdoing Seattle when it comes to some of the implementation of progressive policy that lots of people have been asking for in the city of Seattle. Other cities have been moving beyond them and it seems like, in those cities, voters have responded well. There has been vigorous opposition to these, we hear reporting about pushback to expanding zoning and the types of housing that's able to be built in all areas basically. But those debates were had and it looks like in most of these situations where there were competitive candidates fielded, they prevailed. So I think that Seattle certainly looks one way. A lot of the state has really, really positive signals and directions. And as someone who works in elections, the map for what's possible in Washington state, I think, has expanded even more with this cycle. And there are some absolute blueprints to look at moving beyond to other cities, whether it's kind of party supported, establishment supported, well-funded efforts or more grassroots initiatives - that there are multiple routes now to passing policy that helps more people and especially the people who need the help most. So we will see what that is. Also in some pretty high profile races, like the Snohomish County Sheriff, where we had someone who billed themselves as a constitutional sheriff, who had said that they didn't plan on enforcing all of the laws, especially when it comes to gun legislation that we've passed, some gun control legislation - just some real extreme views. And voters picked the more moderate sheriff candidate there - certainly not revolutionizing what the traditional practice of public safety is among sheriffs, but I think voters definitely want to put more boundaries in place, and are worried about accountability, and really focusing on what makes people safer from all perspectives, and wanting to make sure people's rights are respected. And not necessarily feeling like violating people's rights is just a necessary price we have to pay to be safer as a community - that allowing that perhaps is part of what is making us more dangerous, what is contributing to some of the challenges in recruiting police officers. And addressing some of those systemic issues or at least promises of doing that from people are more convincing to voters in areas that have been comfortable voting for Republicans even - that they aren't just willing to just say, Do whatever you say you need to do regardless of whether it violates rights, or doesn't jive with the law, or whatever that is. So interesting results across the state certainly. Now with that, I want to talk about a couple of other things that we saw, including news. We saw news, we saw coverage before - I think particularly from PubliCola, from Notes from the Emerald City - about one of the most well-known officers in the Seattle Police Department suing the department. Detective Cookie Bouldin - suing the department saying that she has witnessed and experienced racism, gender discrimination over several years with the department. What do you see with this? [00:50:19] Melissa Santos: I mean, I don't think it's necessarily a surprise that over time, especially over decades, a woman of color, Black women in particular, may not have felt at home in the Seattle Police Department. This is something I believe she's raised before, now it's just there's a formal lawsuit. It's something that - it's not a huge surprise, but I think that it is a blow to the department to have someone so recognized as a leader and over time, to make these claims. It's kind of like when - not to change the subject to another thing, but when Ben Danielson, who worked at Seattle Children's, is a very respected Black pediatrician - is also suing Seattle Children's for discrimination and racism - maybe not discrimination, but discriminatory policies. And this has a huge impact when you have someone that you've held up as sort of an example of your best, in some ways, as a department or as an agency or as a hospital. And who is sort of someone you've said - This is someone who shows how we are including communities, who has been working on these issues. And then they say - Actually, there's been a lot of problems and there's been discrimination and racism that I've encountered in unacceptable ways. It's a huge blow to the police department, Seattle Children's. These are things that really are not good for the - not just the image of the police department, but because - they point to real problems. I'm not saying this is just an optics issue or something, but it signals that maybe what you've been saying publicly isn't what's happening internally, and it isn't what's happening privately, or how people are experiencing your actual policies and your actual operation. So that's not great. And I know for the police department - and I know that Chief Adrian Diaz has been really vocal about stamping out racism in the department. I mean, it's something he talks about a lot. But this indicates that there's been problems for a long time, at least in the minds of one of their really esteemed long-time officers in the Seattle Police Department. And I don't know that one chief talking about stamping out racism and trying to talk about culture change can - I don't know that the boat shifts that fast, right? So if you're pointing to deeper issues that have been - for decades, someone who's been there for decades, or was there for decades - gosh, I mean, it kind of, it raises questions about how much is still persisting of this and then how quickly it can change if it still is persisting. [00:53:11] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, I mean, I think lots of people aren't surprised to hear that it is persisting, given a number of the things that we've seen coming out - whether it's the video of the SPOG Vice-President mocking the value of the life of a pedestrian that was killed, Jaahnavi Kandula, that was killed by a police officer speeding without lights and sirens on on the way to a call, whether it's the tombstone that they saw, whether it's just a number of the incidents that have resulted in complaints against several officers, consistently against a consistent group of officers, it seems, in several situations. And it's particularly notable just because Detective Cookie, as she's known by so many, has really been such a PR boon for the department, really is a face of the department. When people talk about community policing, when they talk about building relationships with community, when they talk about - Hey, there should be officers that really care, really get to know people, look out for people - a lot of them are directly thinking about Cookie Bouldin. They're directly thinking about things that they've seen her do in community. There's a park named after her. She's known for almost mentoring people, working, getting kids involved with chess - really someone who, I think, regardless of where you stand on the institution of policing where people would say, even with people that disagree, but if you're like Detective Cookie - She's okay, I've seen her help, I've seen her care. Certainly what I think a lot of people would want police to aspire to be, would want the role to aspire to be in a best case scenario. And for her to say - Yeah, well, this institution certainly, in Seattle, is one that is racist, is discriminatory, and has harmed people like me, people who it's held up as paragons and examples of what the job really is and how it can be done in the community - is troubling. We've seen this happen several times before in other departments - not with, I think, officers as publicly visible and known as Detective Cookie. But certainly a lot of discrimination suits - particularly from Black officers, other officers of color - saying that there have been systemic issues that they have been the victim of. Or even off-duty incidents where people have not recognized that they were officers and just saw a person of color and treated them in a different way than they were supposed to. So we'll see how this turns out, but certainly a stain, another stain on the department. I don't think anyone can say this is coming - this is just grievance, or sour grapes, or someone who just hates the institution of policing and is using anything to just tear down police, or who isn't supportive of policing overall. This is someone who has kind of built their life and they're living on that, is known for doing that and seemingly cared about that, yet went through all this. And maybe because they cared, endured through all of it - don't know the details there, but it is challenging. And I think one of the things that came out of the debates and the campaigns, the conversations that people had is really a reckoning with - maybe this is a big problem for recruiting. Maybe it's not the money that has been thrown at them that we've tried to use, that now even police officers are saying this is not a problem about money. People are talking about - it's not an attractive job. Maybe is it actually what's happening within departments the part that's not attractive and not external reaction to it. I hope that whoever winds up being elected on the council contends with this in a serious way. I think no matter what the view is on police, and I think there's a range of them within the candidates who are currently in the lead and even those who are not. But I do think this needs to be taken seriously. And I think even if you look at polling of Seattle residents - their views on public safety and policing are more nuanced than some of the like flat, simple - either you back the blue, you support cops, or you don't. Think people are, I think it's fair to say that at least most voters are generally supportive of having police respond when they call 911, but they want that to be an effective response. They want it to be a constitutional response that does keep everybody safe, and respect everybody, and build trust in the community. And we're just seeing too many things that are not that. And with that, I think that we have come to a close today. Thank you for listening to Hacks & Wonks on this Friday, November 10th, 2023. The producer of Hacks & Wonks, and this past week's guest co-host, is the incredible Dr. Shannon Cheng. Our insightful co-host today was Seattle Axios reporter, Melissa Santos, who does a wonderful job reporting on all things political and beyond. You can find Melissa on Twitter @MelissaSantos1. You can follow Hacks & Wonks on Twitter @HacksWonks. You can find me on all platforms, basically, as @finchfrii - that's two I's at the end. You can catch Hacks & Wonks on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you get your podcasts - just type "Hacks and Wonks" into the search bar. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to get the full versions of our Friday week-in-review shows and our Tuesday topical show delivered to your podcast feed. If you like us, please leave a review wherever you listen. You can also get a full transcript of this episode and links to the resources referenced in the show at officialhacksandwonks.com and in the podcast episode notes. Thanks for tuning in - talk to you next time.  

In many counties across Washington, sheriffs are nonpartisan, at times running unopposed. But this year's election in Snohomish County is different. Bothell Deputy Chief of Police Susanna Johnson, who is currently leading with 52% of the vote, is running against incumbent Sheriff Adam Fortney, who so far has garnered 47% of votes.

On August 1, 2018, Samantha Sayers went missing during a hike and she remains missing. If you have any information about her disappearance, please call Snohomish County Sheriff's Office at (425) 388-3393. Sources: https://vocal.media/criminal/the-disappearance-of-samantha-sayers https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/a-year-after-officials-call-off-search-for-hiker-sam-sayers-her-mother-is-still-looking/ https://www.goerie.com/story/news/2020/12/06/dateline-nbc-missing-seattle-cascades-hiker-samantha-sayers/3847754001/ https://www.namus.gov/MissingPersons/Case#/51798 --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/adatewithmurder/support

On August 1, 2018, Samantha Sayers went missing during a hike and she remains missing. If you have any information about her disappearance, please call Snohomish County Sheriff's Office at (425) 388-3393. Sources: https://vocal.media/criminal/the-disappearance-of-samantha-sayers https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/a-year-after-officials-call-off-search-for-hiker-sam-sayers-her-mother-is-still-looking/ https://www.goerie.com/story/news/2020/12/06/dateline-nbc-missing-seattle-cascades-hiker-samantha-sayers/3847754001/ https://www.namus.gov/MissingPersons/Case#/51798 --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/adatewithmurder/support

Two men went missing under very similar circumstances not only to each other but to a missing person case that I covered back in December 2021.If you have any information on the disappearance of Mansoor Riaz please call either the Bellevue PD at 425-452-4629 or the Island County Sheriff's Office at 360-678-7967If you have any information on the disappearance of Bernard Anthony Quiba aka Bong please call the Snohomish County Sheriff's Office at 425-388-3849Support the showDisclaimer: I am not an investigative journalist or a reporter. I am a widowed mom of 3 who works in healthcare and is passionate about giving the people who don't have a voice the attention that they deserve.

Today we meet a Navy Veteran, Father, Sheriff Deputy of 23 years and Sheriff of Snohomish County, Adam Fortney. Sheriff Fortney is well versed in the complex and neverending system that is Snohomish County as well as a man of accountability and integrity. In this episode we will be exploring the steps that drove him to his current path. Everything will be covered from: vehicular pursuits, LEAD THE WAY, Responding to high stress calls, decompressing, breaking the political boundaries, helping others, serving the community, what qualities the office looks for in new candidates and the difference we can make in others lives! I apologise in advance, my microphone came in low during the conversation and will be replaced immediately for future episodes. As always thank you for tuning in to another episode and if you are looking to sit down for your own episode (anonymous options available for sensitive topics) please don't hesitate to reach out to our Facebook page “Eddie Lowery Off The Deep End Podcast or our Instagram page @thisiseddielowery Disclaimer: the views of the Eddie Lowery Off The Deep End Podcast are that of its own and do not reflect, represent or speak for the values, law enforcement standards and is not associated with the Snohomish county sheriff's office in any way. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/offthedeependwitheddie/support

Bird Flu and drought concerns reappear; a local study on the effectiveness of the Covid-19 Vaccine; and the Snohomish County Sheriff's Office appears to be making progress on filling some vacant positions. It all happened this week. Let's get you caught up.

For our 5-year celebration episode, we take a look back at the impact Crime Junkie has made. From funding DNA testing to solving crimes, nothing would have been possible without the support of everyone who has tuned in every week for the last 5 years! To learn more about National Crime Junkie Day and the organizations we have supported over the years, visit www.nationaltoday.com/national-crime-junkie-day!If you want to donate directly to help solve cold cases, you can visit the website Season of Justice. Law enforcement, victims and families can also submit grant applications on the website for funding! Check out our full episodes for more information on the cases you have helped make a difference in: UNIDENTIFIED: Sumter County DoesHEADLINES: January 2022HEADLINES: June 2022UNIDENTIFIED: Flathead CountyUPDATE: Flathead County DoeMISSING: Alicia NavarroMYSTERIOUS DEATH OF: Kaysera Stops Pretty Places MURDERED: Owachige OsceolaMURDERED: Reyna Marroquín // Michelle SchroaderWe still need your help, Crime Junkies! If you have any information about the death of Steven Lee Knox, you can call the Snohomish County Sheriff's Department tip line at 425-388-3845.If you have any information about the death of Steven Gooch, you can call the Flathead County Sheriff's Office at 406-758-5600, or submit a tip online at flathead.mt.gov.If you have any information about Alicia Navarro's disappearance, contact the Glendale Police at 623-930-3000, or the Anti-Predator Project at 305-796-4859. Or you can email your tip to tips@antipredatorproject.comTo sign the Justice for Kaysera Stops Pretty Places petition, visit Change.org petition pageYou can find contact information for Big Horn County Sheriff Lawrence C. Big Hair here.If you have any information about the murder of Owachige Osceola you're asked to call the Norman Police Department in Oklahoma at 405-366-5208.Please join us in writing a letter to the Oklahoma Attorney General's Office calling for a formal independent review of the methodology used during Owachige Osceola's autopsy. Below you will find a prompt you can use and the address to send the letter to.(WHERE TO SEND)Mr. John O'ConnorOklahoma Attorney General's Office313 NE 21st StreetOklahoma City, OK 73105eric.pfeifer@ocme.ok.gov----To Whom It May Concern:I'm writing in regard to the criminal investigation related to the mysterious death of Ms. Owachige Osceola in September 2013, which is being conducted by the Norman Police Department.As you may be aware, Ms. Osceola's cause and manner of death were classified by the Oklahoma Office of the Chief Medical Examiner as "undetermined" despite credible evidence that she was intentionally strangled to death in the bedroom of her apartment.After hearing concerns expressed by Norman Police Department investigators working this case and closely listening to details about the criminal investigation into her death as reported by Audiochuck Podcast Network's "The Deck," I'm deeply troubled that the medical examiner's office has been unwilling to reconsider its original ruling — directly hindering further investigative efforts to pursue justice for Ms. Osceola and her loved ones.I implore the Oklahoma Attorney General's Office to reexamine evidence in this case and to insist that the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner consider that Ms. Osceola's death was the result of a homicidal act. I also kindly request that this office publicly publish its conclusions in the matter.Respectfully,[YOUR FIRST & LAST NAME]----Did you know you can listen to this episode ad-free? Join the Fan Club! Visit https://crimejunkieapp.com/library/ to view the current membership options and policies.Source materials for this episode cannot be listed here due to character limitations. For a full list of sources, please visit: https://crimejunkiepodcast.com/bonus-5-years/

Five-year-old Hassani Campbell disappears without a trace, leaving behind a community desperate for answers. No one knew four-year-old Tianna Kirchner was missing for four years, until a chilling phone call shocks law enforcement and the public. Though not connected in life, one thing is clear: they both deserve justice.  To learn more and support the efforts of ChildHelp, you can visit ChildHelp.org. And if you are in need of the Child Help National Child Abuse Hotline, you can contact them at 1-800-422-4453.If you have any information about what happened to Hassani Campbell, you are asked to contact Oakland Crime Stoppers at 510-777-8572. If you have any information about the death of Tianna Kirchner, you can reach out to Snohomish County Sheriff's office at 425-388-3845For current Fan Club membership options and policies, please visit https://crimejunkieapp.com/library/.Source materials for this episode cannot be listed here due to character limitations. For a full list of sources, please visit: https://crimejunkiepodcast.com/wanted-justice-hassani-campbell-tianna-kirchner/

Cable news speculates as to why more Latinos are turning republican. U.S. Senators have asked intelligence community to investigate potential deal between Apple and a Chinese company. Burglar breaks into 9 stores in Tacoma. // A video released by the Snohomish County Sheriff's Office seeks the public's help in urging Washington State Representative to allow police more authority to engage in pursuits. // Bryan and producer Greg check the texts.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In episode 9 of Sheriff Fortney's podcast, hear from Cold Case Detective Jim Scharf on his 38-year career with the Snohomish County Sheriff's Office. In 2018, Det. Scharf was ready for retirement when a new technology, Investigative Genetic Genealogy, cracked open a whole new way to solve decades old cold cases. Detective Scharf made an arrest in 2018 for a 1987 double-homicide; it went to trial in 2019 and was the first conviction in the world using Investigative Genetic Genealogy.

Listen as Washington Hospitality Association President & CEO Anthony Anton discusses public safety with Eva Glosson from the Washington State Department of Labor & Industries and Sgt. Chris Marino from the Snohomish County Sheriff's Department.  Links: Late Night Retail Worker Crime Prevention Workplace Violence: Awareness and Prevention for Employers and Employees Workplace homicides by gender Request consultation Thank you to our sponsor, My Hospitality Insurance.  Subscribe to Washington Hospitality Industry Podcast on Soundwise

Detectives from the Snohomish County Sheriff's Office have identified a suspect for the 1990 murder of 17-year-old Michelle Koski. https://www.facebook.com/SnoCoSheriff https://parabon-nanolabs.com/news-events/2022/06/snohomish-mixed-dna-solve?fbclid=IwAR0JRQaCSZadrJ5sexv748O11rQHHS4rADKT-IxSKD8FLfWvO7Cv3HMyXXg https://www.kiro7.com/news/local/suspect-identified-1990-cold-case-murder-seattle-teen/BXG4554ONZHZVLRYBVMLIF7MQU/ WTF A cautionary tale https://www.newser.com/story/321983/social-media-posts-derailed-bodybuilders-disability-scam.html?fbclid=IwAR1xFc21bGrwaF3pAlI3hNi3v8SlS25Rp0WLHBNtrbyKOPCS4b2K1XE3_qY Crime Update William Reece https://www.foxnews.com/us/serial-killer-oklahoma-death-cold-case-murders-texas?fbclid=IwAR2qzhDYrxFscA-rqaFs3hqCZtGS6go3kLiDgAZZN0wZIqfgkvLc-1AcHCQ SUBSCRIBE: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCd85RJRW6kn51aM2un6ButA/featured *Social Media Links* Facebook: www.facebook.com/truecrimeparanormalTPS Facebook Discussion Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/215774426330767 Website: https://www.truecrimeparanormalpodcast.com/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@truecrimeparanormal Our Latest Video: https://youtu.be/jpFL8LmF5u4 Check Out Some of Our Previous Uploads! Serial Killer Update, Bradford Weitzel, Detective Duck https://youtu.be/QXjCAt0oz1Y The Daybell Vallow Case Synopsis https://youtu.be/p0vaojqqJmM In Search of Ella Mae #MMIW https://youtu.be/MemknaBfNYc True Crime Paranormal on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/5gIPqBHJLftbXdRgs1Bqm1 True Crime Paranormal on Apple https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/true-crime-paranormal/id1525438711?ls=1 Kristi's Crystal Shop https://www.ehcrystals.com/

What's Trending: Eastlake High School forced students to support BLM, abortion, open borders to join its Link Crew program, and KIRO7 TV misled its audience on COVID. Snohomish County Sheriff make big staffing changes. The Jan. 6th hearing is going to be political theater.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Every day I learn something new and continue to be shocked by what's going on in our government and politics. Tarra Simmons believed to be first felon to win state legislative office in Washington | The HillA Breakdown of Police Reform Bills in the State of Washington | Top Story | nbcrightnow.comWA Bills sponsored by Tarra Simmons Bill Info Detailed Legislative Reports (wa.gov)HB 1054: Establishing requirements for tactics and equipment used by peace officers."The key part of this legislation is the state has moved the legal bar to pursue for a violent offense to “probable cause” rather than “reasonable suspicion.” For example, if a deputy sheriff was to respond to an armed robbery and the suspect vehicle was described as a blue F150 and a deputy saw a blue F150 driving at a high rate of speed in the same area as the robbery occurred, a law enforcement officer could still try to make a traffic stop this vehicle, however if the suspect vehicle decides to flee we can no longer pursue it under House Bill 1054." Snohomish County Sheriff, Adam FortneyFacebook - Adam Fortney Facebook message about "police reform" legislationConnect with me!Julie Barrett (@juliecbarrett) / TwitterJulie Barrett Womansplaining | FacebookHome - Conservative Ladies of Washingtonjulie@conservativeladiesofwa.comSupport the show (https://www.paypal.me/conservativeladies)

We first brought you Antonio's story in June of 2018. At that time, Antonio was still missing. His case had gone from a missing person case, to an active homicide investigation, and back to a missing case again. Antonio's mom was left in limbo, not knowing what had happened to her son. All she had were the strange stories coming from people who had been in the house with Antonio when he disappeared. Was it true that Antonio had stabbed Andrew in the neck, completely unprovoked, then ran out of the house, disappearing forever? Jenny never believed that this version of events was true, but there was no evidence to prove what had happened. Then, six months after our original episode aired, and more than two years after Antonio had vanished, people walking along the shore of Jetty Island made a gruesome discovery.If you have any information regarding the disappearance and death of Antonio Neill, please contact the Snohomish County Sheriff's Office at 425-388-3393. Crime Stoppers is currently offering a $1000 reward for information on Antonio's case. To submit a tip anonymously through Crime Stoppers, go to www.P3Tips.com or call 1-800-222-Tips.This episode was sponsored by:The Jordan Harbinger Show- Search for The Jordan Harbinger Show on Apple Podcasts. Spotify, or where you listen to podcasts.Shopify- Go to Shopify.com/vanished, ALL LOWERCASE, for a FREE fourteen-day trial and get full access to Shopify's entire suite of features.IMPACT by Interactive Brokers- Download the app today and use code VANISHED to get $30 of stock credit.Note: The podcast ad for the IMPACT app is unscripted and being recorded live. It may contain some slight differences. Please visit https://impact.interactivebrokers.com/ for full details of products and services. Interactive Brokers, LLC member FINRA/SIPC. The projections or other information generated by IMPACT app regarding the likelihood of various investment outcomes are hypothetical in nature, do not reflect actual investment results and are not guarantees of future results. Please note that results may vary with use of the tool over time. The paid ad host experiences and testimonials within the Podcast may not be representative of the experiences of other customers and are not to be considered guarantees of future performance or success. The opinions provided within the ad belong to the host alone.If you have a missing loved one that you would like to have featured on the show, please fill out our case submission form.Follow The Vanished on social media at:FacebookInstagramTwitterPatreonSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

On July 11, 2006, Susanna Stodden, 27 and her mother, Mary Cooper 56, set out for 4-mile hike to Pinnacle Lake. At 10am, they chatted with a couple at the trailhead.The couple would stumble upon their bodies just off the trail hours later on their descent.Their murders remain unsolved today.Anyone with information on the case or who was in the vicinity of Pinnacle Lake on the July 11 is urged to contact CrimeStopper s at (2 0 6 ) 3 4 3 -2 0 2 0 or 1-800-CRIME-13. Snohomish County Sheriff's tip line at 425-388-3845You can follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.If you'd like to help support the show, you can join our Patreon here.Don't forget to rate, review, and subscribe wherever you listen. Thank you so much for listening!SOURCES:https://www.seattlepi.com/local/article/Investigators-have-persons-of-interest-in-1210064.phphttps://www.wta.org/news/magazine/magazine/1207.pdfhttps://www.heraldnet.com/news/murder-case-is-cold-but-memory-still-burns/https://www.king5.com/article/news/local/pinnacle-lake-murders-to-be-a-documentary/281-333222209https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/law-justice/10-years-after-his-wife-daughter-were-killed-on-hike-lack-of-answers-haunts-north-seattle-man/https://snohomishcountywa.gov/346/Cold-Case-Cards?fbclid=IwAR128feQhaBcAU8PTQpt3HvEiAAG_bX8r_lL2RA6SM4w0jCvLo-pnNIOMZ8https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/crystal-meth-plague-in-the-heartland-38456/Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/MurderOnMyStreet)

This is Toby Sumpter with your CrossPolitic Daily News Brief for Friday, April 24, 2020 26.5 Million Have Filed for Unemployment in the US  https://apnews.com/e17fdbbd8a49169e9a5d131d961d472c Another 4.4 million Americans filed for jobless aid last week, brining the total to over 26 million in the last five weeks since the corona virus panic set in. That's 1 in 6 American workers. That's more than the number of people who live in the 10 largest US cities combined. Economists are estimating that the unemployment rate could hit 20% by the end of April. This is the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. But most economists do not believe this downturn will last near as long as the Great Depression. Discussion centers around whether the rebound will be quick and “V-shaped” or slower and more “U-shaped.” During the Depression, unemployment stayed high for nearly a decade, with the jobless rate remaining above 14% from 1931 all the way to 1940. But unemployment is considered likely to remain elevated well into next year and probably beyond. Europe's economies, too, are headed for severe recessions, with surveys of economic activity released Thursday hitting all-time lows. The downturn is putting at risk up to 59 million jobs — 26% of employment in the European Union — according to McKinsey, the consulting firm.  Snohomish County Sheriff Adam Forney Says Washington Isolation Order is Unconstitutional https://www.facebook.com/adamfortneyforsheriff/posts/2754200934627471?__tn__=K-R Noting that the virus is real and has taken 97 lives in Snohomish County. Forney wrote: “This is a very serious issue and the appropriate precautions need to be taken to protect our most vulnerable populations.”  Sheriff Forney wrote, “I am worried about the economy and I am worried about Washingtonian's that need to make a living for their family. As more data floods in week by week and day by day about this pandemic I think it is clear that the “models” have not been entirely accurate.  As elected leaders I think we should be questioning the Governor when it makes sense to do so. Are pot shops really essential or did he allow them to stay in business because of the government taxes received from them? That seems like a reasonable question. If pot shops are essential, then why aren't gun shops essential? Our Governor has told us that private building/construction must stop as it is not essential, but government construction is okay to continue. So let me get this right, according to the Governor if you are employed or contracted by the government to build government things you can still make a living for your family in spite of any health risk. If you are a construction worker in the private sector you cannot make a living and support your family because the health risk is too high. This contradiction is not okay and in my opinion is bordering on unethical.  If this Coronavirus is so lethal and we have shut down our roaring economy to save lives, then it should be all or nothing. The government should not be picking winners or losers when it comes to being able to make an income for your family. If the virus is so lethal it shouldn't matter whether you are building a school for the government, building a new housing development, restaurant owner, or you happen to be an independent contractor.  If we are going to allow government contractors and pot shops to continue to make a living for their families, then it is time to open up this freedom for other small business owners who are comfortable operating in the current climate. This is the great thing about freedom. If you are worried about getting sick you have the freedom to choose to stay home. If you need to make a living for your family and are comfortable doing so, you should have the freedom to do so.  Forney: “I have not carried out any enforcement for the current a stay-at-home order. As this order has continued on for well over a month now and a majority of our residents cannot return to work to provide for their families, I have received a lot of outreach from concerned members of our community asking if Governor Inslee's order is a violation of our constitutional rights.  As your Snohomish County Sheriff, yes I believe that preventing business owners to operate their businesses and provide for their families intrudes on our right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  As your elected Sheriff I will always put your constitutional rights above politics or popular opinion. We have the right to peaceably assemble. We have the right to keep and bear arms. We have the right to attend church service of any denomination. The impacts of COVID 19 no longer warrant the suspension of our constitutional rights.  Along with other elected Sheriffs around our state, the Snohomish County Sheriff's Office will not be enforcing an order preventing religious freedoms or constitutional rights.  Also in Washington State, Franklin County is back open for business, for one day https://www.tri-cityherald.com/news/coronavirus/article242178586.html The unanimous decision Tuesday by the three county commissioners defies Washington Gov. Jay Inslee's stay-at-home order, which is in effect until May 4. “As far as I'm concerned the county is open, and I'd encourage people within the law and within the parameters of their own safety — we're adults, we can make decisions — to behave accordingly. That's what I'm doing,” said Commissioner Brad Peck. The commissioners, all Republican, decided to reopen their county one month after Inslee, a Democrat, announced the shutdown in light of the coronavirus pandemic. But the governor's office pushed back Tuesday evening calling their decision “a wrong-headed approach” that could expose them to legal liability. David Postman, Inslee's chief of staff told reporters at a statewide telephone news conference that Franklin County is “putting businesses in (legal) jeopardy” and putting “citizens' health in jeopardy.” “Local governments can be stricter than the state if they choose, they can't be looser. The law doesn't allow it,” he said. “The order is clearly rooted in statute and constitutional authority, and a county governing body does not have the right, the legal authority in any way, to take a vote and deem something unconstitutional. That's a role for the courts,” he said. He said the state is preparing a letter to the commissioners. The three commissioners, along with the Benton County commissioners, make up the governing board of the Benton Franklin Health District.  Didier said Inslee's emergency proclamation is unconstitutional, and wrote that the commissioners “support the reopening for all builder [sic] and small business [sic] that want to work.” Pasco City Manager Dave Zabell said the “commissioners' motion does not have an impact on the incorporated portions of the county: Pasco, Connell and Kahlotus.” Zabell added that he's heard the county motion is under review by Prosecutor Shawn Sant and is interested to see what the attorney's legal opinion is on this. “Franklin County commissioners do not have the authority to do this,” said Tara Lee, communications director. “Only the Washington state Supreme Court can declare something unconstitutional.” Inslee's Proclamation 20-25 cites RCW 43.06.220(1)(h) in declaring a statement of emergency.  Peck read from the same state law during the meeting but based his statement on the second and fourth sections, which are not mentioned in or applicable to the governor's order. The Legislature has approved extending the order on April 15. https://mynorthwest.com/1825940/live-updates-washington-state-coronavirus/ But, the Franklin County Jail Break was short lived as the Board of Commissioners voted Thursday to rescind their previously-passed motion that had declared the county “open for business” in the midst of the state's ongoing stay-at-home order. This comes after General Counsel for Gov. Inslee Kathryn Leathers sent a letter to county officials Wednesday, stating that its bid to reopen early was “unlawful,” and that if individuals or businesses refuse to comply with the state's stay-at-home order, the governor would “direct that criminal and/or civil charges be pursued.” Justin Trudeau Promises Ban on Assault-Style Weapons After Mass Shooting  https://disrn.com/news/ban-on-assault-style-weapons-coming-to-canada-trudeau-says-after-mass-shooting/ Laura Mize with Discern News reports: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has promised a ban on "assault-style weapons" after a weekend mass shooting in Nova Scotia that has now claimed at least 23 lives. The shooting began late Saturday and lasted almost 14 hours as the gunman acted like a policeman in a mock police car and pulled over victims across many communities before killing them. It is the deadliest shooting in Canada's history. It is not known what type of weapon was used in the shooting. "I can say that we were on the verge of introducing legislation to ban assault-style weapons across this country," Trudeau said in a press briefing Monday. "It was interrupted when the pandemic caused parliament to be suspended, but we have every intention of moving forward on that measure, and potentially other measures, when parliament returns." During the 2019 Canadian federal election, Trudeau's platform included a prohibition against military-style assault weapons. He also promoted a policy to allow territories and provinces to design their own laws against handguns. This is Toby Sumpter with Crosspolitic News. You can find this show and all the others on the Fight Laugh Feast Network at Crosspolitic.com or Fightlaughfeast.com or on our app, which you can download at your favorite app store, just search “Fight Laugh Feast”. Our app is the only way to get In the Bullpen with Mark Dewey – maybe the best worldview baseball podcast ever. Support Rowdy Christian media, and become a Fight Laugh Feast Club Member, and for a limited time you can get your very own Fight Laugh Feast t-shirt and access to tons of content with Dan Fischer, Douglas Wilson, George Grant, David French, Erick Erickson, Walter Williams, Maj Toure, Curt Kennedy, Gary Demar, and our very own Worldview Shotgun Series. You also get $100 off your registration for our first annual Fight Laugh Feast Conference, where we hope to meet many of you in Nashville, TN October 1st through the 3rd. Go to fightlaughfeast.com to register now. Have a great day. https://flfnetwork.com/coming-soon/

Samantha Claire Sayers was 27 years old when she disappeared while hiking alone on August 1, 2018 in the North Cascades National Park in Washington state. She was last seen climbing down the southwest side of the mountain. No trace of Samantha has ever been found, and she has never been seen again. Samantha is described as a white female, small build, with hazel/green eyes and a bald head with star tattoos. If you have any information regarding her disappearance, please contact the Snohomish County Sheriff's Office at 425-388-3393.

Episode Notes Join us this week as Meredith tells us about the unique way Snohomish County Cold Case Detectives use playing cards to drum up leads. You will hear the story of Susan Schwarz, the Queen of Hearts. Many of the Snohomish County cold cases are still unsolved, so if you have any information we urge you to contact Crime Stoppers of Puget Sound at 1-800-222-8477 or The Snohomish County Sheriff's Departments tip line at 425-388-3845. For astrology, on August 16th Venus enters Libra. On August 19th the Sun in Leo will be in opposition of Jupiter in Aquarius. On August 22nd we will see another full moon in Aquarius and the Sun enters Virgo. This podcast is powered by Pinecast.

The Monologue: Seattle Public Schools is lying about an encampment on school grounds, The Interview: Senate candidate Tiffany Smiley says she'd stand up on the issue of homeless, The Monologue: The mainstream media doesn't accurately cover the uptick in crime, The Interview: Julie Barrett is the founder of Conservative Ladies of Washington. Morale was down at the Snohomish County Sheriff's Office so the group is raising money for care packages to give to WA cops!  LongForm: Katie Herzog interviewed the crazy psychiatrist who fantasizes about killing white people. She explains how it all went down.  The Quick Hit: Councilmember Andrew Lewis wants to legalize mushrooms, The Last Rantz: There's a new attempt to shift the debate on CRT.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

24-year-old Jacob Hilkin was last seen in Tulalip, Washington, on January 23, 2018. He had been at a casino with some friends and left, stating that he would catch a bus home. Jake was spotted in the area but then disappeared without a trace. We first covered Jake's story nearly three years ago, and today we are bringing you an update on how Jacob was found and what has happened since that time.If you have any information regarding the death of Jacob Hilkin, please call the Snohomish County Sheriff's Office at 425-388-3845. You can follow his case on Facebook: Find Jacob Hilkin.Dr. Taft earned a bachelors, masters and doctorate in psychology from Baylor University. He has been a licensed psychologist since 2000. He has served the Corsicana community in private practice since 2002 and was the Director of Clinical Services at the Corsicana Residential Treatment Center from 2000-2005. Dr. Taft provides clinical counseling services, consultation services, and forensic services.For more information on psychologist, Dr. Taft, please visit his website or Facebook page.This episode was sponsored by:Sleep Number- Save 50% off the Sleep Number 360 limited edition smart bed. Plus, special financing on all beds. Only for a limited time at Sleep Number stores or SleepNumber.com/VANISH.thredUP- Get an extra 30% off your first order at thredUP.com/VANISHED.QUIP- Go to GetQuip.com/VANISHED to get a free plastic dispenser with any refill plan.Listen ad-free with Wondery+. Join Wondery+ for exclusives, binges, early access, and ad-free listening. Available in the Wondery App. https://wondery.app.link/thevanishedIf you have a missing loved one that you would like to have featured on the show, please fill out our case submission form: http://www.thevanishedpodcast.com/case-submission/.Follow The Vanished on social media at:FacebookInstagramTwitterPatreon

A growing number of sheriffs across the state and the country, have taken it upon themselves to decide which public safety laws they're going to enforce, and which ones they won't. Snohomish County Sheriff Adam Fortney is refusing to enforce laws around gun safety and the pandemic. The Recall Fortney Campaign, being led by my guest Colin McMahon is looking to hold Fortney to account. We talk about the history of the so-called "Constitutional Sheriff," and about what you can do to help in the recall effort. Links: Website: http://www.recallfortney.com Fundraiser: https://recallfortney.nationbuilder.com/constitutional_sheriffs

In this episode, we finish our follow-up conversation with Tom Davis, Police Chief, Lynnwood Police Department; and Scott Parker, Captain, Snohomish County Sheriff's Office about the COVID-19 response in Washington state. They discuss how they view their responsibility in communicating accurate COVID-related information from a central source and avoiding the politicization of the pandemic. They also talk about the development and distribution of a potential vaccine, the possibility of a third spike, and how the pandemic's permanent impact on the public health and emergency management fields.

In this episode, we catch up with Tom Davis, Police Chief, Lynnwood Police Department; and Scott Parker, Captain, Snohomish County Sheriff's Office about how the COVID-19 response in Washington has evolved since our first conversation in March. This week, we discuss law enforcement's role in providing accurate COVID information, their plans for tracking infections within departments, the importance of collaboration among departments to remain proactive during the pandemic, and how they are looking ahead to both the upcoming flu season and a potential COVID vaccine.

Jordan covers the tragic murders of Susanna Stodden and Mary Cooper along the Pinnacle Lake trail in Washington. This story still haunts the hiking community around the PNW today. If you have any information regarding the events at Pinnacle Lake trail in July of 2006, please call the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office tip line at 425-388-3845. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/deathinthenwpodcast/support

This week, we are rebroadcasting our very first episode of the LSU NCBRT Preparedness Podcast. Beginning on October 27th, we'll be airing a follow-up series with these guests where we will check in with them to see how the response has been since we last spoke. In this episode, we talk to Tom Davis, Police Chief, Lynnwood Police Department; Cherie Harris, Police Chief, Kirkland Police Department; and Scott Parker, Captain, Snohomish County Sheriff's Office about the COVID-19 response in America's first epicenter: Washington state. They share their insights on dealing with the crisis in Washington and offer advice on how other states can be proactive in their responses as the pandemic spreads. The conversation topics breakdown is listed below: Local Responses: 03:02 Administrative Concerns and Employee Wellness: 19:10 Resource Management and Mutual Aid: 30:08 Workforce Capacity Planning and Planning Thresholds: 40:30 Arrests and Court Closure Considerations: 47:17 Recommendation and Actions: 51:32 For more information on LSU's National Center for Biomedical Research and Training and our available resources on COVID-19, please visit our website at ncbrt.lsu.edu.

Facebook Avatars are everywhere, but why does Ryder’s look like Drew? Today’s the 40th Anniversary of Mt St Helens erupting and we take some very vivid calls from P1’s who remember it like it was yesterday. In the What Are You Kidding Me stories, a guy replaces his buddy’s sunscreen with white paint, a small town mayor giggles when she says “balls” discussing COVID tennis rules, and a TV camera man is in trouble for an expletive-laden rant that went out live. The Peak and the Pit of our weekends include Fitz teaching his little boy football routes, Drew knocking down walls in his new house, Claire attending a Zoom Baby Shower and Ryder fishin’. In the Hourly Bulletin, the 40th Anniversary of Mt. St Helens, Sea-Tac now requires face masks, petition to recall Snohomish County Sheriff approved, a Canadian Royal Air Aerobatic Jet crashes in BC. We remember Phyllis George, a former Miss America and first-ever female NFL Broadcaster; Mama Fitz knew her and calls in. In the Fitz Files, Noah Cyrus’s EP claims her family never really supported her, we remember Fred Willard, the “American Idol” season finale had famous former contestants singing “We Are the World” and “Graduate Together” featured a “National Anthem” with High School Seniors. In the Good Stuff, some Texas band teachers went to each band student’s home to play the school fight song for them. In Rip Us a New One, don’t scream at your kids - let us have it instead! Luke Bryan calls in to talk about fame, getting his start, and appreciating the little things. Today’s Troop Salute is Dan Mendenhall of the US Navy. Fitz reviews What’s Trending, including “Last Normal Photo” and Facebook Avatars. Monday Motivation has positive quotes and spirit snaps to get your week started right!

It’s National Nurses’ Day and we want your shout-outs for your favorite nurses. In the What Are You Kidding Me stories, a guy battles his HOA over his blue lights for First Responders, a worker in a Storm Trooper costume at a Star Wars Café is arrested for having a blaster, and Murder Hornets are a delicacy in Japan. The Bathrooms in our office building are epically clean these days, and Fitz learns about the special bathroom on the top floor. In the Hourly Bulletin, Governor Inslee details his phase-in plan, experts wonder about the second wave of Coronavirus, the Snohomish County Sheriff could face recall, Tacoma General is taking part in a study of a promising drug for Coronavirus, thousands of WA Golfers flocked to courses Tuesday and Nike donates thousands of shoes and socks to frontline medical workers. In the Fitz Files, Dr. Fauci was the inspiration for a Romance Novel Character 30 years ago, and NASA confirms that Tom Cruise will film a movie on the International Space Station. In the Good Stuff, we salute our favorite nurses. All Jacked Up includes Holly who smells her toe nails, Stuart who takes pre-workout powder straight with no water, and Carrie Ann who has gotten so lax on laundry and thinks she’s gone nose blind. On Bethany’s Baby Blog she reports from 25 weeks along and hopes this week to get confirmations on the twins’ genders. Today’s Troop Salute is Simon Peter Hemmingway of the US Army. What Do Moms Want Most this Mother’s Day? Fitz has a list, and he calls Momma Fitz to ask her opinion on BoyzIIMen’s “Song For Mama”. We call the Prime Minister of Twang to with him Happy Birthday. And we end the show with several more of your shout-outs to out Nurses!

3PM - Hanna Scott: Snohomish County sheriff who blasted stay-at-home order faces recall fight // Republican-led states signal they could strip workers’ unemployment benefits if they don’t return to work // Alex Jones Says He Will Eat His Neighbors to Survive Coronavirus Pandemic

Welcome to the first episode of the LSU NCBRT Preparedness Podcast! In this episode, we talk to Tom Davis, Police Chief, Lynnwood Police Department; Cherie Harris, Police Chief, Kirkland Police Department; and Scott Parker, Captain, Snohomish County Sheriff's Office about the COVID-19 response in America's first epicenter: Washington state. They share their insights on dealing with the crisis in Washington and offer advice on how other states can be proactive in their responses as the pandemic spreads. The conversation topics breakdown is listed below: Local Responses: 03:02 Administrative Concerns and Employee Wellness: 19:10 Resource Management and Mutual Aid: 30:08 Workforce Capacity Planning and Planning Thresholds: 40:30 Arrests and Court Closure Considerations: 47:17 Recommendation and Actions: 51:32 For more information on LSU's National Center for Biomedical Research and Training and our available resources on COVID-19, please visit our website at ncbrt.lsu.edu.

23-year-old Brock Holmes was last seen in Sultan, Washington on the evening of October 7, 2009. He played pool and had some drinks with friends at a local bar, and then headed across the street to a restaurant before ending up at the home of two of his friends. Two stories would emerge about Brock leaving the home that night, one was that he got into a car and the other that he left on foot to walk several miles home. Brock never made it home and he was never seen or heard from again. If you have any information about the disappearance of Brock Holmes, you are urged to call the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office at 425-388-3849.You can follow Brock’s case on social media at Missing: Brock Holmes.This episode was sponsored by:ThirdLove- Go to ThirdLove.com/Vanished now to find your perfect-fitting bra AND get 15% off your first purchase!FirstLeaf- To get the exclusive intro offer of six bottles of wine for only $29.95, plus free shipping, go to firstleaf.com/VANISHED.You can find new episodes of The Vanished, completely ad-free, only on Stitcher Premium. For a free month of Stitcher Premium, go to stitcherpremium.com/wondery and use promo code WONDERY.

On June 2, 2011, Angela Gilbert was walking on timber land used for logging in Granite Falls, Washington with an acquaintance named Colt White . At some point, Colt returned without Angela. When asked about this, he allegedly said that she had continued to walk along the land near the Stillaguamish River. Unfortunately, no one ever got a chance to ask Colt more about what happened on that warm spring day walk because he disappeared shortly after Angela. Several weeks later, Colt’s body was found in the Stillaguamish River. During searches, some of Angela's belongings were found in the area but police told her family they believe the items were planted. It has been eight long years since Angela disappeared and her family believes there are more people out there who know what happened. If you have any information about the disappearance of Angela Gilbert, please call the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office at 425-388-3849.You can follow the search for Angela on social media at: Missing Angela Gilbert.This episode was sponsored by:Ritual- Visit Ritual.com/Vanished for 10% off your first 3 months of Essential for Women vitamins.Sleep Number- You’ll only find Sleep Number at one of their 600 Sleep Number stores nationwide. Visit sleepnumber.com/VANISH find the one nearest you.Native- For 20% off your first purchase, visit nativedeodorant.com and use promo code VANISHED.You can find new episodes of The Vanished, completely ad-free, only on Stitcher Premium. For a free month of Stitcher Premium, go to stitcherpremium.com/wondery and use promo code WONDERY.

Chapter 1 – Snohomish County Council member Nate Nehring Nate Nehring may look young for a Snohomish County Council member, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have a lot of experience. Born and raised in Marysville, Nehring was appointed to an open seat on the county council in 2017 at age 21. He is also the son of Marysville Mayor Jon Nehring. “I remember going out and doorbelling for him,” Nehring says of his father, who was first elected mayor in 2010. Before that, Jon Nehring served as a Marysville City Council member for eight years so service to the community through local politics has swirled around Nate Nehring for most of his life. Before his appointment, Nate Nehring says, “I was asked if I’d follow in his footsteps. I said, ‘No don’t think so because of divisiveness.’” If not through politics, Nehring says his father’s lesson of service was not lost on him: “I got into education.” A graduate of Western Washington University, Nehring came back home for a job as a middle school teacher with the Marysville School District. But local governance continued to be a draw. Nehring married and he and his wife moved to Stanwood where he was appointed to the city’s planning commission. “I highly encourage anyone with an interest to look at the opportunities in their community,” Nehring says. “They are always looking for people to volunteer.” Nehring says the issues he saw on the Stanwood Planning Commission are similar to the one he’s seeing representing the residents of county council District 1, which includes most of north Snohomish County. “The general issues are around growth,” Nehring says. “We will be looking at those for the foreseeable future.” He says one of the main themes for the north part of the county is jobs. “We’ve been lacking is job opportunities and a lot of people are traveling for jobs,” Nehring says. “We need more jobs in north Snohomish County so people can live and work there.” The other big issues, he says, revolve around the opioid crisis, homelessness and mental health. He points to a collaborative program with the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office that pairs a deputy and a social worker as an innovative approach that is making a difference. “We started with a goal of getting 25 people in the program and so far we’ve had 70 people go through treatment,” he says. Chapter links Nate Nehring State of the County message Snohomish County Council  Snohomish County Council District 1 Stanwood Planning Commission Opioid crisis, Snohomish County Sheriff's Office  Ending Homelessness Program Community mental health North Snohomish County employment efforts Chapter length: 46:33 Chapter 2 – Spotlight on Sue Norman If you like libraries and live on Whidbey Island, there’s a decent chance you’ve run into Sue Norman. Or something she has helped make happen. “I’ve lived on the island for 29 years and been active with the Friends of the Oak Harbor Library for 25 years,” Norman says. Norman says her connection to libraries began at an early age. “Mom was a school teacher and my father was a newspaper reporter and then editor,” she says. “I’m proud to say we were the last family on our block to have a TV.” After moving to Oak Harbor to open a business, Norman says she kept thinking she wanted to get involved with the library in some way. “I went to a Friends meeting and got roped in pretty quickly,” she says. Norman hasn’t limited her volunteer time to the Oak Harbor Library friends group. “There’s the Sno-Isle Libraries Foundation, the Trudy Sundberg Lecture series and Whidbey Reads,” Norman says. Norman says she’s been asked why the focus on libraries. “I guess because I have such a reading habit, I could never afford to buy them all,” Norman says. Chapter Links Friends of the Oak Harbor Library Oak Harbor Library Trudy Sundberg Lecture Series Whidbey Reads Chapter length: 3:46 Episode length: 57:41

The man accused last year of murdering a young B.C. couple in Washington state more than 30 years ago has been found guilty. A jury in Everett, Washington, delivered the verdict against William Earl Talbott II, who was arrested in 2018 after investigators used genetic genealogy to link him to the 1987 crime. Guest: CeCe Moore Chief genetic genealogist at Parabon - involved in the Talbot case You'll also find her work on Finding Your Roots on PBS, and 20/20 on ABC. Guest: James Scharf Detective for the Snohomish County Sheriff's Office, who worked on this case

Chapter 1

This very special episode of Check It Out! is a podcast, looking at a podcast which looks at one of the most pressing issues facing our communities today: the opioid crisis. Anna Boiko-Weyrauch and Kyle Norris, both with KUOW Public Radio in Seattle, created Finding Fixes, a podcast focusing on how communities and agencies across Snohomish County are coming together to respond to the opioid epidemic. In November 2018, Sno-Isle Libraries hosted the two podcasters for an event-based conversation facilitated by Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office Director of Communications Shari Ireton. The event was livestreamed on Facebook and a transcript of the livestream is also available. Snohomish County Sheriff Ty Trenary was in the audience. He was joined by representatives from agencies involved in Snohomish County’s Opioid Response MAC (multi-agency coordination) Group, including: Snohomish Health District; Snohomish County Executive’s Office,  Human Services, Department of Emergency Management, Medical Examiner’s Office, Public Works, Planning and Development Services, and County Council); South Snohomish County Fire & Rescue; Fire District 7; the cities of Everett, Arlington and Marysville, and the police departments of Everett, Lynnwood, Edmonds, Marysville, Monroe and Arlington. This episode of Check It Out! includes a conversation with “Finding Fixes” podcasters Boiko-Weyrauch and Norris to learn more about why they pursued the Finding Fixes podcast project, selected segments from the November event and comments from some of those who attended. Episode length: 1:11:16

22-year-old Antonio Neill was last seen in Everett, Washington on December 12, 2016. Antonio spent most of that day with his mom, Jenny, and later with to a friend's place to spend the night. In the days that followed, a bizarre story surfaced about what had transpired on the evening of December 12th. A story that has left both Antonio’s family and detectives wondering what is the truth and what could possibly be a cover-up. Antonio has been missing for over 18 months and in those 18 months, his case has gone from a missing persons case to a no body homicide investigation and back to a missing case. If you have any information regarding the disappearance of Antonio Neill, please contact the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office at 425-388-3393. They also have an anonymous tip line: 425-388-3845. Follow Antonio’s case on Facebook where Jenny runs Missing Antonio Neill. February 2019 UPDATE:From the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office “On January 1, 2019, detectives with the Everett Police Department recovered a human foot found on Jetty Island in Everett. The Snohomish County Medical Examiner has positively identified the remains as belonging to Antonio Neill who was reported missing by his family in December of 2016. He was 22 years-old. The cause and manner of death have yet to be determined by the ME, but detectives with the Sheriff’s Office Major Crimes Unit continue to investigate the case and conduct searches of the area where the remains were found. Anyone with information about Antonio Neill’s disappearance is asked to call the Sheriff’s Office anonymous tip line 425-388-3845.”The episode was co-researched and written by Marissa Jones and Anna Priestland.This episode was sponsored by:Brooklinen- Visit Brooklinen.com and use promo code MIA at check-out for $20 off and free shipping.Lending Club- Go to LendingClub.com/Vanished to check your rate in minutes and borrow up to $40,000.

63-year-old Henry Groeneveld disappeared from Snohomish, Washington on December 11, 2017. Henry is known as kind man who was very dedicated to his family, his faith and his job as a U.S. Postal Service mail carrier. The local community has come together to search for Henry but no clues have surfaced.If you have any information about the disappearance of Henry Groeneveld, you can contact the Snohomish Police Department at 360-568-0888 or you can call the Snohomish County Sheriff’s office at 425-388-3592. Please follow the Help Find Henry Groeneveld group on Facebook. You can find the printable flyer in the group and also contact Henry's family there.January 30, 2018 UpdateThe following update was posted in the Help Find Henry Groeneveld Facebook Group:"My Kind, Sweet Father’s body was found at Dagmar’s Landing in Everett just before 10am this morning.