Ed Ronco

Negotiations continue in the U.S. Senate around massive infrastructure and budget measures. U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Washington, is among the Senate Democrats pushing provisions aimed at addressing climate change.

This week, we are going to hear some stories from Seedcast, a locally produced podcast that debuted this past fall. It shares stories of the Indigenous experience around the world.

After a pandemic hiatus last summer, Seattle’s All-City Band is back on the field this weekend. The group brings together music students from across the city. 

Seattle’s Central District once was a Black neighborhood.

New arrivals and rising property values have pushed African Americans out, but many who have stayed hope to preserve and grow the Black culture that remains.

The lifting of most pandemic restrictions in Washington state is just days away, set for June 30. Ahead of it, KNKX has been talking with people in the health-care community about how they feel. Today, we focus on what reopening means for people who are unsheltered.

It’s been a decade since I cooked my first salmon, while living in Alaska — three hefty filets from some Chinook I’d caught and saved, frozen, to impress my Michigan parents on their first trip to visit me.

I baked it in foil with garlic and lemon, and when we were done, my mom put her fork down on her clean plate, looked at me across the table and said, “I hate salmon.”

The first time we see the African American Cultural Ensemble all together, they’re standing on brick steps, swaying gently, singing, each dressed in a different, bright color -- yellow, purple, pink, maroon and robin egg blue. 

“Ooh, child, things are going to get easier. Ooh, child, things will get brighter.”

As the state prepares to lift COVID restrictions at the end of this month, KNKX is talking with health-care leaders about what they're anticipating. 

Friday was the last day on the job for the head of Public Health – Seattle & King County. Patty Hayes retires after seven years in charge of the agency and after 30 years in public health.

Washington state is on track to fully reopen its economy by June 30. The state has been under some form of pandemic-related restriction since mid-March of 2020. 

The plan to return to business (mostly) as usual follows surprise guidance from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention earlier this month, saying fully vaccinated people no longer need to wear masks.

The COVID-19 pandemic took students out of school for most of the last year – away from friends and activities, and away from resources that can connect them to help when they’re struggling with a behavioral health concern.

A new law drafted by teens aims to change that.

The missionary Marcus Whitman has been lionized through generations of Washington state history. A county is named after him, plus a college and a handful of other things.

But his place as a hero in state history is fading. A statue of Whitman – one of two the state gets to display in the U.S. Capitol – is about to be replaced with one of the late Billy Frank Jr., a Nisqually tribal member and Native fishing rights activist. And the truth about Whitman is becoming more clear.

If you spend any time in the Northwest, it isn’t long before you start hearing about “the big one.” That’s the giant 9.0 earthquake and tsunami predicted for our part of the world.

The use of Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine remains paused this week as U.S. regulators study a possible link to rare blood clots. They’re expected to review the pause on Friday.

In the meantime, there are a lot of questions. To help us think through some of them, KNKX got in touch with bioethicist Thomas May of the Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine at Washington State University.

Starting Friday, three Washington counties will be back in Phase 2 of the state’s pandemic reopening plan.

Gov. Jay Inslee’s office announced this week that Pierce, Cowlitz and Whitman counties had case counts or hospitalization rates that warranted things like lower restaurant capacity, tighter limits on indoor gatherings, and other steps.

The King County Council is spending $2 million for gun violence prevention. The recently approved money creates a grant program and comes from a larger $94 million pool of funds for COVID-19 relief measures. 

The public library where I grew up had an old claw-foot bathtub right in the middle of the children's section. The tub was lined with carpet, and it was there for kids to sit in and read.

U.S. Rep Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) has joined Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.) in introducing the Ultra-Millionaire Tax Act.

This is part two of a conversation KNKX had with Claudia Balducci, chair of the King County Council. Listen to part one, which focuses on housing and homelessness.

In November, voters approved a change to the King County charter. The sheriff would be appointed, not elected. Under the change, the county executive will appoint the sheriff, and the King County Council will confirm the appointment.

Communities in western Washington have grappled with how to address homelessness for decades. And Claudia Balducci, chair of the King County Council, says local governments, like the one she's part of, must “start and lead with the humanity of trying to help people who are suffering.”

Black History Month is being celebrated around the region through a series of programs and events, mostly virtual this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Russia and the United States have extended a nuclear arms treaty, just before it was set to expire. The New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or New START, was set to expire Feb. 5.

When you call Alfredo Arreguin on the phone, you aren’t strangers for long.

Arreguin, 86, has built a reputation as a painter of bright, vibrant works – full of bold colors and animals and nature … big shots of warmth in what has, lately, felt like a cold world. His work is in two Smithsonian museums, and he’s been widely praised and awarded for his painting.

When Steven González was first named to the Washington state Supreme Court, as an associate justice in 2011, he brought his family to the Temple of Justice – that large, sandstone building in Olympia where the court meets.

They were in a hallway looking at portraits of the previous justices – black-robed white men with serious expressions on their faces, staring out from the walls.

More than a century ago, a Yakama Nation fisherman named Alec Towessnute was stopped while fishing near Prosser, and prosecuted for using a gaff hook, a traditional fishing method.

He cited his treaty rights, and the county court dismissed the charges. But the state Supreme Court, in 1916, reinstated them, ignoring the treaty and using racist, demeaning language.

The state Supreme Court has a new leader.

Chief Justice Steven González was sworn in Monday as the court began its new term in Olympia. González, who is Latino, becomes the first chief justice of color in state history. He’s also the first Jewish chief justice.

Author's note: After the death of George Floyd, we had a series of conversations about race. This one, with state Rep. John Lovick, still sticks with me. Lovick's background — having grown up in the Jim Crow south, and a long career in law enforcement — provided a unique perspective on a moment when the nation was focused on the intersections of race and policing. I appreciated that he spoke from the heart. It's not easy to do that under the best of circumstances, let alone at such a painful time for so many people. And while there was pain in this conversation, I also heard hope. (This story originally aired June 4, 2020.)