Local News | The Seattle Times

Seattle police officers gather at the A.L. Humphrey House after reports of a fatal stabbing in September. (Jennifer Buchanan / The Seattle Times) — (Jennifer Buchanan / The Seattle Times)

Law & Justice

Seattle has surpassed 2022 homicide toll — with 3 months left in 2023

King County's homicide count is also only five deaths shy of the 119 killings investigated in both 2021 and 2022. “It’s a concerning trend,” one official said.

Don't Miss

A woman holds two boxes of at-home COVID-19 test kits after a distribution event in December 2021. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Health

Free COVID tests are back. Here's how to order

Tanisha Sepúlveda, right, and Amara Schermerhorn navigate an especially perilous stretch of sidewalk that has been pushed up by a large tree along 16th Ave SW Friday, Sept. 22, 2023 in West Seattle. Sepúlveda often opts to ride her power wheelchair in the street because it is smoother with fewer obstacles that could throw her from her chair but can also be equally perilous due to hostile or distracted drivers. Schermerhorn, who’s vision fluctuates throughout the day, is legally blind and has a hard time seeing surface changes in the pavement, especially when the sun sets. Both advocate for more and better-maintained sidewalks. 225027

Naomi Ishisaka

Why you should ditch your car for a week in October

The city skyline at night from Gas Works Park Saturday, June 24, 2023, in Seattle.

LO

Mental Health

Fentanyl in King County: Join The Seattle Times for a live discussion

Brendan Medbury, hospitality and engagement worker with Evergreen Treatment Services, holds the door for a client Friday morning in the Belltown neighborhood of Seattle, Washington on August 18, 2023.

Local Politics

Seattle boosts first response to drug crisis, still lacks treatment options VIEW

Times Watchdog

LOWER DUWAMISH DREDGING
031217 River water spills from a 7 1/2 cubic yard bucket as it lifts contaminated soil from the bottom of the Lower Duwamish in South Park. 0428630825

Toxic legacy of Seattle’s only river could cost Boeing, taxpayers $1 billion. Talks over who pays more are secret

Politics

Brendan Medbury, hospitality and engagement worker with Evergreen Treatment Services, holds the door for a client Friday morning in the Belltown neighborhood of Seattle, Washington on August 18, 2023.

Seattle boosts first response to drug crisis, still lacks treatment options VIEW

Columnists

Gene Balk / FYI Guy

Marcus Harrison Green

Project Homeless

The city skyline at night from Gas Works Park Saturday, June 24, 2023, in Seattle.

LO

Fentanyl in King County: Join The Seattle Times for a live discussion

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

Tanisha Sepúlveda, right, and Amara Schermerhorn navigate an especially perilous stretch of sidewalk that has been pushed up by a large tree along 16th Ave SW Friday, Sept. 22, 2023 in West Seattle. Sepúlveda often opts to ride her power wheelchair in the street because it is smoother with fewer obstacles that could throw her from her chair but can also be equally perilous due to hostile or distracted drivers. Schermerhorn, who’s vision fluctuates throughout the day, is legally blind and has a hard time seeing surface changes in the pavement, especially when the sun sets. Both advocate for more and better-maintained sidewalks. 225027

Why you should ditch your car for a week in October | Naomi Ishisaka

Photography

The throw to J.P. Crawford isn’t in time to catch the stealing Zack Gelof in the first ininng. The Oakland Athletics played the Seattle Mariners Monday, August 28, 2023 at T-Mobile Park, in Seattle, WA. 224819

Mariners

Photos: Mariners shutout A’s, 7-0 VIEW

Chicago Sky guard Dana Evans pokes the ball away from Seattle Storm guard Jewell Loyd during the fourth quarter. 224833

Storm

Photos: Storm dumped by Sky VIEW

Mariners center fielder Julio Rodríguez celebrates after hitting a two-run home run Saturday, Aug. 26, 2023, as the Mariners take on the Royals at T-Mobile Park in Seattle.

Mariners

Photos: Mariners try to stay hot vs. Royals VIEW

Seattle Mariners starting pitcher Bryce Miller throws out a pitch during the first inning. 224815

Mariners

Photos: Mariners defeat Royals, 7-5 VIEW

Education

Hudson, 7, left, Callahan, 13, middle, and Keegan Pruente, 10, right, stand outside their school on their first Monday home during the new four-day school week on Monday, Sept. 11, 2023, in Independence, Mo. Hundreds of school systems around the country have adopted four-day weeks in recent years, mostly in rural and western parts of the U.S. Districts cite cost savings and advantages for teacher recruitment. Still, some experts question the effects on students who already missed out on significant learning during the pandemic. (AP Photo/Nick Ingram) XNI101 XNI101

More schools are adopting 4-day weeks. For parents, the challenge is day 5

Education Lab

Mercer Island High School band to play at Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade

High school seniors: Tell us how you’re planning for the future

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

A woman holds two boxes of at-home COVID-19 test kits after a distribution event in December 2021. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Free COVID tests are back. Here's how to order

Times Watchdog

A still from a video shows former Tukwila police officer Nick Hogan used an unsanctioned takedown against Alvin Walker in 2011, breaking Walker’s elbow. Hogan was fired after multiple investigations found he violated department policy, and later pleaded guilty to violating a suspect’s civil rights, but he retained his state certification.

Fired, but still a cop: How Washington state’s decertification process leaves troubled officers with their guns

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

Officers workers and tourists on the streets of the South Lake Union business district in Seattle, Washington on August 25, 2023.
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Seattle really is in a geeky league of its own, new data on tech workers shows | FYI Guy

Law & Justice

Brendan Medbury, hospitality and engagement worker with Evergreen Treatment Services, holds the door for a client Friday morning in the Belltown neighborhood of Seattle, Washington on August 18, 2023.

Seattle boosts first response to drug crisis, still lacks treatment options VIEW

Transparency vs. trauma

Witness Tom Townsend describes during an inquest hearing where he was standing during the confrontation of Damarius Butts and Seattle police officers. (Steve Ringman / The Seattle Times)

Are inquests into King County killings by police worthwhile?

Seattle Sketcher

Even on a hot summer day, these golfers are up for some clubbing

Check out eye-popping exotics every week at Redmond Town Center car show

Seattle’s Uptown got a new name, but a historic landmark shines on

The return of ‘Alki Fridays’ coed volleyball brings energy back to the beach

Eastside

To prep for that moment in the spotlight, the practice on this Wednesday evening involved a snippet of “Holiday Road,” written by Lindsey Buckingham for the 1983 film “National Lampoon’s Vacation.”

Mercer Island High School band to play at Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade WATCH

Environment

Homes were razed by the Gray Fire on the western shore of Silver Lake on Aug. 31, 2023.

2 WA wildfires’ causes are a mystery. Why do investigations take so long?

Weather

See the latest weather news and forecasts

Science

AP Interview: Jennifer Granholm says US aims to create nuclear fusion facility within 10 years

U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm says nuclear fusion is a pioneering technology and the Biden administration wants to harness it as part of the transition to clean energy.

Earthquakes

Get ready to rumble: A guide to quake preparedness

Northwest Wanderings

The astronaut replica suit Ted Huetter of the Museum of Flight gets into is a special-commission for around $10,000 but is not suitable for use in space. It’s lightweight but warm.

from the Museum of Flight, Make-A-Wish people, virtual reality headsets at the Infinite experience.

Saturday July 23, 2022 221069

A spacesuit, a dream and virtual reality meet at ‘The Infinite’ in Tacoma VIEW

Paul Lundy cleans the surface of each key on Muriel Erickson’s 1968 Hermes in for its annual tuneup.

Paul Lundy at his Bremerton Office Machine Co. typewriter repair.

Thursday January 13, 2022

The owner of Bremerton Office Machine Company finds focus and fulfillment among timeworn typewriters — and their fans VIEW

Eleventh-grader Naazneen Vemmerath Kulangara (CQ) asks NASA astronaut Megan McArthur a question from the Museum of Flight. McArthur is aboard the International Space Station during a video hookup Saturday.

Ref to more photos online

Northwest Wanderings

Saturday October 16, 2021 218537

Seattle students virtually Zoom into space for a chat with astronaut Megan McArthur

Professional drummer Chris Anderson is into the beat he’s providing at First Avenue and Pike Street across from the Pike Place Market, busking for five hours.

Northwest Wanderings Friday July 16, 2021 217681

Busker brings A-list drumming pedigree to Pike Place Market WATCH