Soundside

After a week of gloom & drizzle, we’ve finally got a 70 degree day or three in the forecast! We won’t talk about what’s happening with Saturday’s weather, it knows what it did…  THAT SAID - if you need a few more excuses to go out & do things, we’ve got you covered!  Soundside Producer Jason Megatron Burrows is here with a VERY SPECIAL Weekend...

For people addicted to fentanyl, the desire to quit is often overshadowed by the fear of withdrawal. Incredible nerve pain, diarrhea, chills, vomiting. It’s been likened to the worst flu you’ve ever experienced.  Buprenorphine, the medication often used to aid in easing addiction, can trigger withdrawal symptoms, making it tough for patients to continue treatment.  Here in Se...

A new law waiting to be signed by the governor would give you more options when your technology breaks. House Bill 1483 establishes a “right to repair” for consumer electronics, including tech like phones, laptops, and home appliances. Its partner bill in the Senate ( SB 5680 ) also establishes the right to repair electric wheelchairs. This is part of a larger, nationwide movement to c...

When tech companies began announcing advanced artificial intelligence systems like ChatGPT, there was widespread enthusiasm. AI was going to make mundane jobs more efficient; it was going to reshape entire industries and creative processes; and it was going to free up time for humans to do things that were, well, more human – things like creating art.  But in the last few years, it&rsqu...

Today marks the 100th day of Donald Trump’s presidency. How about some more numbers: Since taking office, the President has signed more than 140 executive orders, pushing major policy shifts on issues from  immigration, to climate policy, and DEI in schools and workplaces . As of Monday, court rulings have blocked or paused Trump policies 128 times,  according to the New York...

Sheriff Patti Cole-Tindall has headed up the King County Sheriff’s Department since 2022.  The King County Sheriff’s Department serves unincorporated King County and 12 contract cities, in addition to policing King County Metro buses and Sound Transit trains. Since she took over the role, overall crime numbers have been  trending in a positive direction – felony referra...

The debate over how to address homelessness in Spokane continues to simmer after a decision this month from Washington’s Supreme Court. The ruling struck down Proposition 1, a camping ban introduced by a citizen-led initiative that was overwhelmingly passed by Spokane voters in 2023.  The court’s decision wasn’t based on the merits of the camping ban, but rather on whether t...

Companies have increasingly shifted the responsibility of saving for  retirement onto workers. Pension plans have mostly disappeared from the private sector, in favor of 401k style plans. For example, the Boeing Machinist union tried unsuccessfully get their pension plan reinstated during last year’s strike. For most public employees, including Washington state workers, though, Pensions...

Do you ever wonder why you turn to Google so often to search for a recipe or a news article or how to properly use a semicolon?  If you ask Alphabet, Google’s parent company, they’ll tell you it’s because they just have the best results.  The Department of Justice has a different take: it filed an antitrust case against the company in 2020 accusing Google of using its p...

Have you been outside this week? It’s GORGEOUS.  If you need a few more excuses to go out & do things, then you’re in luck. We’ve got Soundside Producer Jason Megatron Burrows here with one or two or three more reasons to leave your house LINKS: Seattle/King County Clinic - Seattle Center Crescendo: A Symphonic Celebration of Washington Landscapes Seattle Independent Boo...

Vauhini Vara’s new essay collection opens with a heart to heart with ChatGPT.  In her prompt, she asks the program to give her feedback on a few chapters of her upcoming book.  “I’m nervous,” she tells it.  “That’s completely understandable,” it responds with a cheery exclamation point. “Sharing your writing can feel really personal, b...

On Monday, the Department of Education announced that it will resume collections on defaulted loans on May 5th. That’s after a five year pause started in the midst of the covid pandemic. More than 42 million people in the United States have student loans through the federal government.  And, according to the Department of Education, five million have not made a payment in the last year....

"Our world is changing. It's changing rapidly. Like, we can see climate changing our world as we speak, but also, we're losing nature at unprecedented rates, and there's an equity crisis as well." That was University of Washington professor Phil Levin two years ago. At the time, he’d just been tapped by the Biden Administration for a one of a kind mission: writing the most all encompassing r...

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear arguments over an executive order ending birthright citizenship.  President Trump signed that order in his first days in office. A federal judge in Seattle temporarily blocked the Trump administration from enforcing the order nationwide. And two other legal challenges – in federal courts in Massachusetts and Maryland – also prompted injunctions...

The Pentagon is roiling over yet another Signal group chat. No, not  that one with the Trump Administration national security team that accidentally included an editor at the Atlantic. This is… another Signal group chat scandal.  The New York Times reports that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth shared operational details for a March 15th U.S. strike on the Houthis in Yemen wi...

An old faded rice cooker. A blue two piece suit. A vial of water from the Ganges River. For the past four years, Poet Shin Yu Pai’s podcast, Ten Thousand Things, has explored how objects – from the extraordinary to the mundane, the literal to the figurative – communicate stories of Asian American meaning, identity, and culture. As of last month, the stories in the series have bro...

News has not been good lately for research universities in the United States. The Trump Administration has proposed slashing the National Institutes of Health Budget by about half – eliminating tens of billions of dollars for the largest public funder of biomedical research in the world. The White House had earlier announced a 15 percent cap on indirect costs for NIH grants. That money...

“With dignity, but like any Christian, because the bishop of Rome is a pastor and a disciple, not a powerful man of this world.” That’s part of the instructions from Pope Francis to “lighten” the formality of his funeral arrangements. Francis wrote about his wish for a simpler ceremony in his autobiography , published earlier this year.  The attitude reflected hi...

The Trump administration is pushing for more logging on public land, pledging to boost America’s domestic supply of wood products and increase wildfire resilience.  In March, the President issued an executive order directing federal agencies to begin finding ways to expand timber production by 25% over the next few years.  Last week, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins sent a memo...

It's CONVENTION WEEKEND... But also Easter Weekend... And the start of Bellingham Beer Week, and National Park Week. It's the Weekend Warmup! Enjoy! LINKS: Norwescon Sakura-Con Bellingham Beer Week National Park Week Climate Pledge Arena – Phish Spring Fair | Washington State Fair Events Center Skagit Valley Tulip Festival KUOW - Meet Me Here Thank you to the supporters of KUOW, you help mak...

We are three weeks into the Major League Baseball season and one of the main story lines of the nascent season is the bats. On the second day of the season, the New York Yankees hit 9 home runs against the Milwaukee Brewers. Many of the Yankees players were using a new type of bat – shaped kind of like a bowling pin. This bat bulges at the center and narrows at the end. It’s calle...

The James Beard Award has been a kingmaker in the food business since the 1980s. Even getting a nomination can be life-changing.  Chef Jay Blackinton – a punk musician and self-described wannabee skateboarder – has been nominated seven times. He’s self-taught and runs a buzzy two-man kitchen on Orcas Island. And this year, he’s been named a James Beard Award finalist i...

Mindie Lind is a Seattle-based musician. In a new short animated film called "View from the Floor", Lind and co-director Megan Griffiths explore Mindie’s life as an artist grappling with imposter syndrome. Mindie was born without legs. And as she came of age, she couldn’t shake the idea that the praise and attention she received was more about her disability, and people looking to...

Today, a federal judge reprimanded the Trump Administration over its failure to comply with a court order to facilitate the release of Kilmar Abrego Garcia to the United States.  Abrego Garcia is a 29 year old Salvadoran citizen who is married to a U-S citizen and was living in Maryland when he was mistakenly deported despite being under court-ordered protection from being sent back to El Sal...

In an executive order called “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” President Trump criticizes  Smithso nian exhibits that examine how race interacts with power and privilege. He claims they “portray American and Western values as inherently harmful and oppressive.”   The executive order also threatens to take away funding from exhibitions within t...