Soundside

Skagit County has been hit by multiple waves of catastrophic flooding over the past week.    Amid the devastation, there is a bright spot: A floodwall in Mount Vernon successfully held off the Skagit River as it rose to a record 37.7 feet . That floodwall only exists because it sits in an area determined by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to be at highest risk of flooding.&n...

Approximately 10,000 people are still under evacuation notice after multiple levee failures across Western Washington. In King County: flood controls have breached in the last 48 hours. As of this morning, residents in the city of Pacific, east of Tacoma, are under a "go now" evacuation order after a flood control breach on the nearby White River. A levee was breached yesterday in Tukwila and Kent...

The Department of Homeland Security may be shifting its approach to deportation flights by ICE.  According to reporting by the Washington Post, DHS recently signed a contract to purchase six Boeing 737 planes. Currently, ICE primarily uses charter planes for deportations. This purchase suggests the agency has plans to expand its capacity to deport people using its own fleet. What implications...

Every Monday on Soundside we catch you up on the top stories that are fascinating right now – and what they say about the Pacific Northwest. It’s our chance to talk about the latest news with a rotation of plugged-in journalists and guests, taking a look at the headlines from the weekend and the stories that we'll be following as the week moves forward. GUEST: KUOW Politics Editor Cat...

It’s been a busy year for the Seattle Police Department.  A new chief was sworn in, the longstanding federal consent decree ended and the city reached a new contract with the Seattle Police Officers Guild that changes how it can approach unarmed crisis response. Plus, a new mayor will take office in January. Mayor-elect Katie Wilson announced this week that she planned to retain Seattle...

Catastrophic flooding continues to threaten Washington.  Around 100,000 people in Western Washington have been advised to evacuate.  Hundreds of Washington National Guard members have been tapped to help with response efforts. And Gov. Ferguson declared a statewide emergency in response to the flooding.  We talked to three KUOW reporters about what they're seeing on the ground and w...

Hey Soundside Listeners! Because our entire show was focused on flood coverage with the Governor's press conference, and live conversations with KUOW reporters Joshua McNichols, John Ryan, and Casey Martin, we decided to skip the Weekend Warmup on the air this week, and drop it here on the podcast feed instead. Stay safe, check KUOW.org for updates, and look in on your neighbors.  With that s...

At 38 years old, Girmay Zahilay is King County’s youngest-ever executive. He’s coming in after the long tenure of his predecessor Dow Constantine, who ran the county for nearly 16 years. Zahilay was sworn in early to replace the temporary acting executive who’s been in charge since Constantine stepped down in March. He says he’s ready to “ completely change ” th...

On Wednesday morning, we spoke with the mayor of Auburn and the city manager in Carnation about flooding in their cities and what they expect to happen next. GUESTS: Nancy Backus, mayor of Auburn, WA Rhonda Ender, city manager, Carnation, WA RELATED LINKS:  ‘Catastrophic’ flooding expected in King, Snohomish, Skagit counties -The Seattle Times Western Washington faces 'catastrophi...

Washington, like the entire country, has been hit hard by fentanyl.  So far this year, King County has recorded more than 650 overdose deaths involving the synthetic opioid, which can be 50 times stronger than heroin .  650 is a devastating number but it’s actually down from a peak in 2023, when more than 1,000 people died from fentanyl-related overdoses in the county. The dro...

For weeks, King County homelessness service providers have been staring down a majorly disruptive change to how they currently operate.  The federal Department of Housing and Urban Development said in November that it intended to redirect billions of dollars in grants that house homeless people. This was in line with President Trump’s rejection of “housing first,” the practi...

A disturbing image shared by Senator Patty Murray has been reverberating across the internet.  It shows a man’s torso, his right side covered in wounds - lacerations, scratch marks, bite marks - after he was mauled by an immigration agent’s canine. Blood splatters the sheets below him. The man, Wilmer Toledo-Martinez of Vancouver, Washington, was detained outside his home last mon...

We could tell this next story with numbers. There is a lot of data.  But at its core: This is a story about Native American kids.  And how year after year, law enforcement and lawmakers in Olympia allow these children to be arrested and jailed at far higher rates than their white peers. Those experiences as children have lasting consequences well into adulthood.  State officials and...

It’s June 26th, 2020, and a group of protesters stands in the midst of the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest. They’re talking to another group of people, including a city employee, about city sanitation workers getting access to the area. Towards the front of the group stands a 16 year old boy, wearing a grey baseball cap, a hoodie, and a surgical mask. He taps a protest organizer’s...

Every Monday on Soundside we catch you up on the top stories that are fascinating right now – and what they say about the Pacific Northwest. It’s our chance to talk about the latest news with a rotation of plugged-in journalists and guests, taking a look at the headlines from the weekend and the stories that we'll be following as the week moves forward. GUEST: Seattle Times city hall r...

GLP-1 drugs that are commonly used to treat diabetes and obesity, like Ozempic and Wegovy – are in big demand. And they’re going to be more affordable.  The Trump administration recently negotiated deals to lower the prices of these drugs. It seems like some details still need to be ironed out ….  but from the looks of it, many Americans who use Medicare will be able t...

It’s already the first weekend of December, and I don’t know about you, but I’m ready for some holiday cheer to lighten up these cold, rainy days. Thankfully, like Santa soaring past with his reindeer, here with all the stuff that’s worth doing this weekend is Soundside Producer Jason Megatron Burrows!! LINKS:  Year in Review 2025 | Town Hall Seattle WTO/99 - Northwest...

Shortly after the shooting of two national guard troops in Washington, D.C., the Trump Administration said it was pausing asylum decisions and halting visas for Afghan immigrants.  The alleged shooter is Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a Bellingham resident who came to the U.S. from Afghanistan in 2021. The motive for the attack is unknown. One victim – 20 year old Sarah Beckstrom – was kil...

Have you ever wanted a pet raccoon?  Well, here’s a possible sign that dream is slowly approaching:  a new study published in the journal Frontiers in Zoology suggests raccoons are getting closer to domestication.  The study is not definitive yet, and more research is required. But it all has to do with researchers observing a shorter snout on the animals we affectionately ref...

Seattle’s brand new Professional Women’s Hockey team, the newly christened Seattle Torrent , faces off against the New York Sirens tonight at Climate Pledge Arena…  Tonight’s game is the third ever for the team, and their growing fan base has both high hopes and big expectations as the season gets started. Soundside Producer Jason Burrows sat down with Libby Denkmann...

Twenty-six years ago, this week over 40,000 people came to Seattle to protest at the World Trade Organization's ministerial conference. Labor organizers, farmers, and environmental groups planned and executed peaceful action against what many saw as anti-democratic elements of the WTO, and the profound risks from the unfettered expansion of global trade.  At events from Memorial Stadium to th...

Some rare bipartisanship is emerging in congress: it focuses on questions about the legality of a September 2nd U.S. strike on a boat in the Caribbean. 11 people were killed, including two men who initially survived the first strike, but were killed by a follow-up attack. This operation was the start of a campaign of strikes the Trump Administration says it is waging to protect Americans from...

We have a new thing we’re trying out on Mondays on Soundside. We're calling it Front Page. It’s our chance to talk about the latest news with a rotation of plugged-in journalists and guests, taking a look at the headlines from the weekend and the stories that we'll be following as the week moves forward. GUEST: KUOW politics reporter Scott Greenstone. TODAY'S TOPICS: National Guard Sho...

Dr. Robert Jones is the new president of our region’s largest educational and research hub. He took the helm at the University of Washington in August, and when we sat down recently, he shared a bit about his background and path to Seattle. Jones says his parents were sharecroppers farming peanuts and cotton in southwest Georgia. “Where most people would tell you the last thing you sho...

On the show today, we’re getting you ready for Thanksgiving leftovers with a little leftovers of our own. We’re pulling some of our favorite segments from Soundside past out of the fridge, and warming ‘em up for you. Up first: edible plants are all around us in the Pacific Northwest. We'll hear how one local author became obsessed with helping people identify tasty greens and sta...