Local News | The Seattle Times

From left, retired Judge Terry Carroll, former U.S. Attorney John McKay, and Colleen Kinerk are among prominent Seattle Catholics seeking the appointment of a panel of laypeople to review the Seattle Archdiocese’s clergy-abuse files. (Dean Rutz / The Seattle Times) — From left, retired Judge Terry Carroll, former U.S. Attorney John McKay, and Colleen Kinerk are among prominent Seattle Catholics seeking the appointment of a panel of lay people to review the Seattle Archdiocese’s clergy abuse files. (Dean Rutz / The Seattle Times)

Local News

Prominent Catholics together call for review of Seattle Archdiocese’s secret clergy abuse files

A group that includes former judges and law enforcement officials, abuse survivors, retired clergy and others delivered a letter and statement of key objectives to new Seattle Archbishop Paul Etienne, requesting his support.

Don't Miss

A box of masks imported from Japan sits inside a Yifeng Pharmacy in Wuhan, China, Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2020. Pharmacies in Wuhan are restricting customers to buying one mask at a time amid high demand and worries over an outbreak of a new coronavirus. The number of cases of the new virus has risen to over 400 in China and the death toll to 9, Chinese health authorities said Wednesday. (AP Photo/Dake Kang) BKWS301 BKWS301

Health

Answers to your most common questions about the Wuhan coronavirus

Thursday January 23, 2020. Lines only LO A mist drizzle envoloped downtown Seattle keeping the pedestrians gripping their bumbershoots. 212768

Weather

It’s been one of the soggiest Januarys ever in Seattle — and more is on the way

Cecile Ann Hansen, chairwoman of the Duwamish Tribe, offers a blessing to open the day of action before a panel discussion called ‘Womxn + Power Seattle: A Conversation on the Intersections of Race and Gender.’

Womxn Act on Seattle, a day of action to maintain the momentum of the women’s march, took over ‘hubs’ in Seattle and on the Eastside Sunday January 21, 2018. The three main components of the events were panel discussions, conversations and trainings meant to center marginalized voices, as well as voter registration and collecting goods for charities at each hub. 204908

Naomi Ishisaka

The Duwamish people were here first. Should Seattleites pay them rent?

A fledgling peregrine falcon under goes a medical check up at PAWS Wildlife Center in Lynnwood. PAWS received three fledgling peregrine falcons taken from a nest in Boeing’s Renton assembly plant this summer. Boeing, wildlife officials and falcon experts are working to remove the adults from the assembly plant while the 737 MAX is out of production.

Local News

Boeing’s assembly plant is shuttered amid 737 MAX crisis. Now the company has a falcon problem.

Times Watchdog

Earlier this decade, Washington had the third-highest rate in the nation of adults with a mental illness, and the second-highest rate for those whose illness interfered with major life activities. At the same time, a government survey ranked Washington’s inpatient psychiatric bed capacity almost last in the nation.This gap between need and specialized care has led to more patients waiting in facilities that aren’t equipped to treat them, and left nearly a quarter of adults with mental illness unable to get the help they needed.Yet one source of mental-health care has expanded rapidly: private psychiatric hospitals.State payments to five private psychiatric hospitals nearly tripled over five years, totaling almost $67 million in 2018.Seven such hospitals have been built or expanded in Washington since 2012. And when three more come online, they will have added more than 850 inpatient beds. All but one of the facilities are for-profit.Until 2012, state regulators hadn’t approved a new psychiatric hospital in years. What changed?As legal pressure mounted on Washington state to add psychiatric treatment beds, the expansion of Medicaid coverage and mental-health benefits created a potentially lucrative opportunity for health care companies.When all the approved psychiatric hospitals open, there will be almost three times as many beds in such facilities as there are in the psychiatric wings of medical hospitals.On paper, this expansion looks like a salve for Washington’s mental-health crisis.

Investigative reporter Daniel Gilbert uncovers problems at private psychiatric hospitals

Politics

Tuesday, January 28, 2020. A Seattle Police mobile precinct sits on the sidewalk on Third Ave. between Pike and Pine Street a half block from the recent shooting at 3rd. and Pine. 212806

Seattle police consider opening downtown storefront after fatal shooting

Project Homeless

Jacob Davis says he’s helping a friend move from the encampment and calls the sweeps and aftermath a “game of keep away.” (I think he’s a resident)

South Dearborn Street and 10th Avenue South.

on I-5, located in the cloverleaf of an entrance ramp to I-5 North. It?s south of Dearborn and 10th Ave,

Tuesday Jan 28, 2020 212799

After drug bust, city starts clearing large tent encampment by I-5 ramps WATCH

About Project Homeless

Project Homeless is a new Seattle Times initiative that explores and explains the region’s complex, troubling problem of homelessness. With strong watchdog reporting and vivid storytelling, Project Homeless seeks to spotlight what is working, and what is not working, in responding to homelessness. We will also feature solutions-oriented reporting from elsewhere in the country.

Transportation

Police attend to a shooting on Third Avenue and Pine Street on Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2020.

Seattle City Council member questions Uber, Lyft over surge pricing after mass shooting downtown

Local News Photography

Six-stories down, a tour group explores the large lock, or chamber drained for maintenance and repairs.

Ref to more photos online

Tour of the Ballard (Large) Lock.
It?s a century-old, empty and will be getting upgrades, repairs.

Friday Oct 25, 2019
211897

Local News

Walking inside the empty Ballard Locks makes you feel small VIEW

With help from two of her chambelanes, honored escorts, Dulce Ramos practices the lift, part of a choreographed dance performed later in the evening during her Quinceanera celebration of her 15th birthday. The lift reveals checked sneakers to be exchanged for high heels signifying transition to womanhood.

REF to more photos online

Northwest Wanderings on the
Quinceanera of Dulce Ramos, the day before her 15th birthday.
Traditional Mexican celebration,
Marysville, WA on Saturday Oct 12, 2019 211806

Local News

Dad had a secret plan for teen daughter’s quinceañera party in Marysville VIEW

Marie-Eve Logan carries her cat Puck with daughter Madison Logan, 8, and Jackson Logan, 6, in Batman costumes at the Halloween Pet Parade and costume contest at Volunteer Park in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle Sunday October 20, 2019. 211861

Local News

Putting on the dog — and cat — at the Halloween Pet Parade VIEW

Native Americans and others watch as a huge group of Native Americans march along 5th Avenue through downtown Seattle from Westlake Park to Seattle City Hall Monday, October 14, 2019, to celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day.
The event will include an opening blessing, a proclamation, speeches, a light lunch and Native cultural dance and song performances. 211809

Local News

Native Americans march through downtown Seattle to celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day VIEW

Education

Washington school district warns of online ‘penny challenge’

TACOMA, Wash. (AP) — A Washington state school district warned parents about a potentially dangerous “penny challenge” spreading on social media. The Tacoma School District said a middle school student in the district took part in the online trend last week, KOMO-TV reports. The school district provided a photo of a burned electrical wall outlet...

Education Lab

Last year, Washington lawmakers made college free for some. This year, they want to make it more accessible.

Washington may mandate ‘comprehensive’ sex education for all public schools. What does that mean, and other FAQs.

About Education Lab

Education Lab is a Seattle Times project that spotlights promising approaches to some of the most persistent challenges in public education.

Health

Japanese evacuation flight brings back workers from Wuhan

TOKYO (AP) — The first group of Japanese evacuees from a virus-hit Chinese city arrived in Tokyo on Wednesday, a dozen of them with cough and fever including two who were later diagnosed with pneumonia. Five of the 206 evacuees were taken to designated Tokyo hospitals specializing in treating infectious diseases, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe... VIEW

Loaded with Lead

The Times investigates lead poisoning at gun ranges

More Special Reports

A photograph of stepfather Sean Rowe and mother Carmen Rowe is taken in downtown Seattle Monday, Dec. 12, 2016. Their son Andrew Westling, 19, died while in the Nisqually Jail earlier this year. They described Westling as friendly and that he loved music, horses and fishing.

Times Watchdog

Fatal confines? A teen’s troubling death in Nisqually tribal jail

Monday, October 31, 2016. Hundreds of untested Rape Kits fill a freezer isle in the Seattle Police Departments evidence room (kits kept at 5 degrees).

Crime

Rape-kit backlog grows at state crime lab — despite new money WATCH

Tom Wales, assistant U.S. Attorney and president of the gun-control group Washington CeaseFire, was the apparent victim of an execution-style slaying Thursday night in his Queen Anne home. The gunman shot Wales through a basement window, hitting the prosecutor in the neck and side.

Thomas Wales

Crime

Unsolved slaying of Seattle prosecutor 16 years ago today has ‘hallmarks of a hit’

Special Report

‘My God, that’s Kimberly!’: Scientist solves perplexing mystery of identity thief Lori Ruff

Data

Make that $1B: New report ups the price to fix King County’s affordable-housing crisis

Two years ago, consulting firm McKinsey & Company concluded in a controversial report that solving Seattle and King County’s homelessness crisis would require twice as much annual spending, not to mention building thousands more affordable-housing units. McKinsey has now returned with more news: the problem is bigger than they thought. About $1 billion bigger. In...

Crime

Sultan man arrested for allegedly stealing car with child inside

The girl was "in distress" during the incident, but uninjured and has since been reunited with her family, the Snohomish County Sheriff's Office said.

Shielded by the Law

Nearly impossible to charge police for wrongful killings in Washington

Seattle Sketcher

This hidden park in Tacoma honors the journey Chinese immigrants took to the United States

Ditch the cold and hop on an indoor climbing wall at Seattle Bouldering Project

Happy 2020! Reflecting on the new year from the Volunteer Park water tower

10 sketches that show how Seattle has changed over the last decade

Eastside

Author and retired journalist Frank Wetzel reflects on his book Victory Gardens & Barrage Balloons as well as his time growing up in Bremerton, while in the study at his home in Seattle on Thursday, Dec. 1, 2016.

Frank Wetzel, former newspaper editor and Seattle Times ombudsman, dies at 93

Environment

Photogrammetry image of an adult male Southern Resident killer whale (L41). This photo shows the tall dorsal fin, curved flukes, and large pectoral fins characteristic of adult males. Images to be used for health assessment. Credit: NOAA Fisheries, Vancouver Aquarium. Taken by UAV from above 90 feet under NMFS research permit and FAA flight authorization. More information at http://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/podcasts/2015/10/uav_killer_whale.html

Another southern resident orca feared dead

Weather

See the latest weather news and forecasts

Science

Mag 7.7 quake hits between Cuba and Jamaica, but no injuries

HAVANA (AP) — A powerful magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck in the Caribbean Sea between Jamaica and eastern Cuba on Tuesday, shaking a vast area from Mexico to Florida and beyond, but there were no reports of casualties or heavy damage. The quake was centered 139 kilometers (86 miles) northwest of Montego Bay, Jamaica, and 140...