Calls continue to defund police in Seattle, following weeks of protests over police brutality and racism sparked by the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan has refused to cut the police budget by 50 percent. But, she says, for bigger change you have to look beyond the budget. KNKX Morning Edition host Kirsten Kendrick talked more about this with Durkan.

Imagine getting out of prison after almost two decades, and being released into … this. That’s what was on Jennifer Tilford’s mind as she stood in the parking lot at Cedar Creek Corrections Center, waiting for the man she’s been married to for three years, but has never been alone with. Life for both of them is about to change radically. “There is no normal and there's not going to be the same normal ever again,” Jennifer said. “Not only because Jason's coming home, but because of the whole

We have all been dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic in our own ways. And the Sound Effect team has been doing our best to cover it in a podcast called Transmission. Today on Sound Effect, we share some more stories that have stood out to us from the series. First, we meet Dr. Julian Perez, a doctor in Seattle’s White Center neighborhood who has firsthand experience dealing with Latino patients disproportionately affected by COVID-19. Then, storyteller Mary Anne Moorman shares a story about her

Since the COVID-19 pandemic landed in Washington, the economic fallout has driven more than a million people in the state to apply for unemployment insurance. Those payments have become the safety net for workers during the worst recession in many decades. The federal government beefed it up significantly in the CARES Act — a recognition of how urgent the situation is for tens of millions of Americans. But now, after weeks and, in some cases, months out of work, large numbers of unemployed

Manuel Ellis has been a focus of national attention for the way he died: saying he couldn’t breathe while lying on the ground, handcuffed by Tacoma police officers, one night in March. Ellis’ 33 years of life also were marked by trauma and struggle against forces pressing down on him ⁠— as well as a long, slow road toward stability, according to friends and family members.

The state Supreme Court issued a letter earlier this month calling on the legal profession, themselves included, to do the hard work of addressing systemic racism. “As judges, we must recognize the role we have played in devaluing black lives,” it says. “This very court once held that a cemetery could lawfully deny grieving black parents the right to bury their infant. We cannot undo this wrong – but we can recognize our ability to do better in the future. We can develop a greater awareness of

The state Supreme Court issued a letter earlier this month calling on the legal profession, themselves included, to do the hard work of addressing systemic racism.

Dr. Micheal Kane is a clinical traumatologist, a practicing therapist with specialties in PTSD, racial identity, and depression. He's also Black, as are many of his clients. All through the COVID-19 crisis, and now during the protests following the police killing of George Floyd, Kane has spent around 50 hours a week listening to his clients work through how they're dealing with the moment. And what's coming up is a lot of trauma. The trauma of simply being Black in America.

A lot of us this year have gotten used to relying on computer models for projections of how many new COVID-19 cases we can expect, or when the economy might start to rebound. But those models can’t tell us how we’re going to feel, or how lockdown and grief and social breakdown will change the way we see and experience the world. Well, turns out there’s a model for that, too.

Crowds gathered Sunday for a major march in Seattle’s most racially diverse area. Protesters assembled at Othello Park in the city’s Rainier Beach neighborhood to demand an end to police violence and systemic racism, in the wake of the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. KNKX asked people at the "We Want To Live" march and rally what it feels like to be part of this moment.