King County Sexual Assault Resource Center experiencing a new normal as survivors seek out services

Real Change

Protesters urge officials to remove dams to help save local orca pod

by Stephen Quirke | December 12th, 2018

As the loss of the Puget Sound orca pod known as the Southern Residents continues to make headlines around the country, public pressure has also grown to protect this critically endangered species by restoring its food source — starting by breaching four low-performance dams on Washington’s Snake River.
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Grappling with addiction problems

by Ashley Archibald | December 12th, 2018

The nation is in the middle of a epidemic of opioid drug abuse. What are local, state and federal officials doing to address the crisis?

It isn’t hard to administer the naloxone nasal spray.

Hold it to the patient’s nasal passageway and press the plunger. That’s about it. It’s a lifesaving drug that turns around the effects of opioids, be they prescribed or otherwise. There is a trick, of course. Naloxone is effective only if you are there when the overdose happens.

That’s why health care professionals distribute naloxone to people who use: They aren’t going to be able to save themselves, but maybe they can be saved by someone else if things go too far.
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Reporter's Notebook: increased home density recommended by commission, private email usage and green card proposal

by Ashley Archibald | December 12th, 2018

Dustbin of history

The Seattle Planning Commission recommended that city leadership consider opening up areas of the city currently zoned for single-family homes to denser types of housing. The move would create opportunities for more housing in a growing city.

Strategies include loosening rules around minimum lot sizes, enlarging denser urban village zones and allowing home conversions, among others.
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Initiative I-128 hopes to flatten the Seattle sugary beverage tax

by Ashley Archibald | December 5th, 2018

A new local initiative aims to repeal Seattle’s tax on sugary beverages, a move that could hurt programs that aim to broaden access to healthy foods for low-income households.

I-128, or Restore Consumer Choices, would kill the controversial tax that levies 1.75 cents on each ounce of certain beverages with added sugar. That tax was approved in 2017 and went into effect in 2018.
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Hate crimes in Washington state up by 32 percent in 2017

by Ashley Archibald | December 5th, 2018

The graffiti said “JEW” in big, red letters. A family in West Seattle found it scrawled on the side of a garage. Another message referring to Jewish people as thieves was spray painted onto the pavement.

The vandalism, first reported by West Seattle Blog, is another in an escalating trend of hate crimes that have been reported in Seattle and in communities across the country.
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Reporter's Notebook: dismissing warrants and affordable housing decision

by Ashley Archibald | December 5th, 2018
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Reporter's Notebook: Build me up, buttercup

by Ashley Archibald | November 28th, 2018

Housing advocates in Seattle nearly broke their mice hitting the refresh button on Wednesday afternoon, waiting for an update on the fate of the city’s controversial Mandatory Housing Affordability (MHA) policy.

At 4:30 p.m. they got their cheese:

The Seattle Office of the Hearing Examiner ruled largely in favor of the city in a suit brought by a coalition of neighborhood groups that tried to overturn the city’s MHA policy.
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Navigating the turbulence of Social Security Insurance

by Ashley Archibald | November 28th, 2018

His name isn’t Wyatt Avery, but when this reporter asked him, jokingly, what name he’d like to use for the piece you’re currently reading, the question left him a bit flummoxed.

“Oh, I don’t know — Katie,” Avery said, laughing the laugh of a person who really doesn’t care but feels like maybe they should humor you. A pity laugh.
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Swamped with plastic waste, Malaysia struggles as global scrap piles up

by Reuters | November 28th, 2018

By A. Ananthalakshmi and Emily Chow

Hundreds of sacks filled with plastic waste from the United States, Britain, South Korea and Spain spill onto the streets of an industrial zone in Pulau Indah, an island town just an hour’s drive from Kuala Lumpur, home to Malaysia’s biggest port.

The stench of burning plastic and fumes from nearly a dozen recycling factories wafts through the neighbourhood, even as more boatloads of plastic waste are unloaded.
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King County Sexual Assault Resource Center experiencing a new normal as survivors seek out services

by Lisa Edge | November 28th, 2018

Robin Hopkins is a married mother of two, regularly attends Bible study and is a survivor of childhood trauma. She tells her story with ease and determination while sitting in an office at King County Sexual Assault Resource Center (KCSARC) in Renton. Today she’s self-assured, but that wasn’t the case before she made the life-changing decision to seek help at KCSARC. Hopkins survived being sexually abused for years by her step-father.
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