Lilly Ana Fowler | KNKX

Lilly Ana Fowler

Social Justice Reporter

Lilly Ana Fowler reports on social justice issues for KNKX. Before joining KNKX, she worked for the online news organization Crosscut — a partner of KCTS 9, Seattle’s PBS station. She's also worked as a producer with the national PBS show "Religion & Ethics Newsweekly" and a reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Her stories have appeared in The Atlantic, Salon.com, Slate Magazine, Mother Jones, The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times. She was born in Mexico, grew up in the border town of Nogales, and is fluent in Spanish.

Upset by inaction after harassment reports, Casa Latina workers go on hunger strike

By • Jun 9, 2021
A group of workers are on a hunger strike, camped out in front of Casa Latina to protest the leadership there who they say hasn’t done enough for victims of both verbal and physical harassment.
Lilly Ana Fowler / KNKX

 


A prominent Seattle advocacy organization known for getting Latinos hired as day laborers has come under fire after allegations of sexual harassment. 

Listen: Unaccompanied children protest conditions at Northwest youth detention centers

By • Jun 2, 2021
Youths protest conditions at detention centers in Seattle for unaccompanied minors on April 18, 2021.
Lilly Ana Fowler / KNKX


For months, unaccompanied children from the southern border who have made their way to the Pacific Northwest have been protesting conditions at youth detention centers scattered around the region.  

Judge orders WA to stop suspending driver's licenses for unpaid tickets

By • Jun 2, 2021
Ryan Norris, a license service representative at the Washington state Department of Licensing office in Lacey, holds a sample copy of a Washington driver's license on June 22, 2018.
Ted S. Warren / The Associated Press file

A judge has ordered Washington state’s Department of Licensing to stop suspending licenses due to unpaid moving violations, such as speeding tickets, starting on June 8. 

 

Officers plead not guilty in killing of Manuel Ellis

By & • May 28, 2021
The three officers charged in Manuel Ellis' death are, from left, Matthew Collins, Timothy Rankine, Christopher Burbank.
Tony Overman / The News Tribune via AP

The three Tacoma Police officers charged in the death of Manuel Ellis pleaded not guilty Friday in Pierce County Superior Court.

Three Tacoma police officers charged in the killing of Manuel Ellis

By , & • May 27, 2021
Manuel Ellis, who was killed while in Tacoma police custody March 3. Ellis is remembered as a musician and father whose life was marked by by pain, struggle, and a search for redemption.
Courtesy of Tacoma Action Collective


 

Three Tacoma police officers have been charged with felonies in the March 2020 killing of Manuel Ellis, Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson said Thursday, after multiple investigations into a case that has set off protests and resulted in changes in statewide police accountability laws.

 

Black-led organizations in WA receive $1 million in funding

By • May 26, 2021
Sen. T'wina Nobles, D-Fircrest, is one of the founders of the Black Future Co-op Fund, which recently announced it will give $1 million in funding to Black-led organizations.
Ted S. Warren / The Associated Press (file)

Marking the anniversary of George Floyd’s death, a new effort called the Black Future Co-op Fund announced this week that 40 Black-led organizations will be splitting $1 million in funding. 

Vaccine clinics get underway at Seattle schools

By • May 18, 2021
Nurse practitioner Amber Vitale gives Stanley Pena, 13, the first dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine Friday at De La Salle School in Freeport, N.Y. Seattle schools will now have pop-up clinics to vaccinate students.
Mary Altaffer / The Associated Press


Starting this week, the Seattle Fire Department is offering vaccine clinics at schools, with the aim of protecting 17,000 students eligible to receive the Pfizer vaccine from the coronavirus. 

 

Inslee signs off on driver's license suspension law, but controversy persists

By • May 11, 2021
Ryan Norris, a license service representative at the Washington state Department of Licensing office in Lacey, holds a sample copy of a Washington driver's license on June 22, 2018.
Ted S. Warren / The Associated Press file

Gov. Jay Inslee signed a bill on Monday that supporters claim stops the Washington state’s Department of Licensing from suspending driver’s licenses because of unpaid traffic tickets. 

But some say the bill doesn’t go far enough.

Washington state prisons to allow visitors again

By • May 6, 2021
Staff members head past razor wire-topped fences and into a building hosting a University Behind Bars program at the Monroe Correctional Complex in Monroe in January 2016.
Elaine Thompson / The Associated Press file

In another sign that life is slowly inching its way back to normal, the Washington state Department of Corrections has announced the public will once again be able to visit their loved ones in prison, beginning on May 9.

Suspending licenses for unpaid tickets is unconstitutional, WA court rules

By • May 4, 2021
Washington State Patrol Trooper Darryl Tolen writes a ticket for violating an HOV lane restriction to the driver of a single-passenger car at an Interstate 5 on-ramp near Arlington, Wash., July 31, 2008.
Elaine Thompson / The Associated Press file


A Thurston County Superior Court judge has ruled that Washington state’s practice of suspending licenses because of unpaid traffic fines is unconstitutional. 

Tacoma launching guaranteed income program

By • Apr 30, 2021
Old City Hall is front and center in this aerial shot of the Tacoma city skyline.
Aaron Bender / Courtesy of Over Tacoma


This summer, money is coming to some Tacoma residents. It’s part of a new guaranteed income program launching in a number of cities across the country.

ACLU files class-action lawsuit against Pierce County over court fees

By • Apr 27, 2021
Pierce County government offices at the County City Building in Tacoma
Courtesy of Pierce County

The American Civil Liberties Union of Washington is suing Pierce County over court fees. 

Chauvin guilty verdict met with relief, renewed calls for reform in Puget Sound area

By & & Jennifer Wing & Kate DeWeese • Apr 20, 2021
A woman holds up a George Floyd poster across from the Hennepin County Government Center, Tuesday, April 20, 2021, in Minneapolis, after jurors found former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin guilty on all counts in the death of Floyd.
Jim Mone / The Associated Press

 


Former police officer Derek Chauvin was found guilty Tuesday on three charges related to the May 25, 2020, death of George Floyd – unintentional second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. That verdict in Minneapolis sent a wave of relief throughout the country, including here in Washington.

WA lawmakers debate whether to make drug possession a crime again

By • Apr 20, 2021
A bag of 4-fluoroisobutyrylfentanyl, a synthetic opioid, is displayed at the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Special Testing and Research Laboratory in Sterling, Va., in 2016.
Cliff Owen / The Associated Press file

Lawmakers and attorneys are still grappling with the so-called Blake decision, a Washington state Supreme Court ruling that struck down the law criminalizing drug possession earlier this year. 

Inslee signs bill banning private prisons, including Tacoma ICE facility

By • Apr 14, 2021
In this photo taken June 21, 2017, a razor-wire fence is shown around a recreation yard at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma. The company that owns and operates the center is planning another expansion.
Ted S. Warren / The Associated Press file

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee signed a bill Wednesday banning all private, for-profit prisons. The new law means the privately run Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center in Tacoma will have to close after its contract expires in 2025.

Taxi drivers push back as Port of Seattle demands payment of airport fees

By • Apr 9, 2021
A taxi driver loads luggage from a traveler into the back of his car.
Rick Bowmer / The Associated Press file

 


 

After falling behind during the pandemic, taxi drivers at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport are pushing back on trip fees officials at one point promised to waive. 

Audit demands changes to curb violence, racial disparities at King County jails

By • Apr 6, 2021
Flickr photo by Manuel W.


Against the backdrop of a recent coronavirus outbreak that sickened dozens of inmates, a new report calls for King County jails to avoid holding people in two-person cells because the practice could lead to a continued decrease in violence. 

WA state Senate passes bill to ban private, for-profit prisons

By • Mar 30, 2021
In this April 15, 2020, photo a protester holds a sign she looks out from the sunroof of a car during a protest at the Northwest Detention Center a facility privately operated on behalf of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, in Tacoma.
Ted S. Warren / The Associated Press file

The Washington state Senate passed a bill on Tuesday that bans private, for-profit prison companies that contract with local, state and federal agencies such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, from operating in the state.