Around 3:00am today, a King County Metro driver was fatally stabbed near the 4100 block of University Way in Seattle’s U-District.

At a press conference this morning, King County Executive Dow Constantine said that the loss is being felt by everyone in county transit. 

"We are not always able to keep what's happening out on the streets away from the transit that operates on those streets," said Constantine. "We are doing everything that we can, and will continue to ramp up our efforts, to make sure that transit is safe for everyone. Including, especially, for our brave operators who are out on the streets every day."

Greg Woodfill is the local president of the Amalgamated Transit Union #587. He said he’d like to see more regional resources dedicated to transit safety. 

"I don't have all the answers. This is a difficult, societal problem. What I know is that we're not doing enough," said Woodfill. "This is bigger than Metro, this is bigger than Seattle, this is the whole community that we serve." 

The attack comes just a couple days after Metro cut service to a cluster of stops around 12th Avenue South and South Jackson Street in the Chinatown International District because of ongoing “safety concerns.”

For the latest, Soundside was joined by KUOW reporter Ann Dornfeld, who attended a press conference with transit and public officials in Tukwila this morning. 

Guests:

• Ann Dornfeld, reporter on the KUOW investigations team. 

Related links: 

• KUOW - King County Metro bus driver killed in fatal U District stabbing
• King County Metro cites safety in closing Little Saigon bus stops | The Seattle Times

Thank you to the supporters of KUOW, you help make this show possible! If you want to help out, go to kuow.org/donate/soundsidenotes

Soundside is a production of KUOW in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR Network.

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Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell has fired former Seattle Police Chief Adrian Diaz. The decision was announced Tuesday in a letter from the mayor to the Seattle City Council. 

Ashley Hiruko is a KUOW investigative reporter who has been covering news about former Chief Diaz for the past year. She joined Soundside's Libby Denkmann to give a little more insight into what’s happening at Seattle's Police Department.

Thank you to the supporters of KUOW, you help make this show possible! If you want to help out, go to kuow.org/donate/soundsidenotes

Soundside is a production of KUOW in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR Network.

GUEST: Ashley Hiruko

RELATED LINKS: 

• Star Wars-themed love letter torpedoed former Chief Diaz's career 

• Seattle mayor fires former Police Chief Adrian Diaz, cites affair
• Seattle police chief contender in national spotlight after Wisconsin school shooting leaves 3 dead
• Seattle police watchdog head resigns in ‘mutual’ agreement with Mayor Harrell, city says

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The light touch of tea glasses. Jasmine vines. Cigarette kisses.

These are some of the images the Redmond-based poet, essayist, and translator Lena Khalaf Tuffaha conjures of Palestine in her most recent poetry collection, Something About Living.

Last month, the collection earned Tuffaha the National Book Award for poetry. 

Through her poems, Tuffaha chronicles the legacy of violence and colonialism in Palestine’s history, while also bringing readers into a homeland that is rich with beauty, family connections, and vivid storytelling.

GUEST:

• Lena Khalaf Tuffaha, author of Something About Living

RELATED LINK:

• Lena Khalaf Tuffaha's author bio 
• Something About Living publisher information

Thank you to the supporters of KUOW, you help make this show possible! If you want to help out, go to kuow.org/donate/soundsidenotes

Soundside is a production of KUOW in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR Network.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What does the Northwest sound like to you? It’s a question we’ve asked local sound artists. And this week, we’ve been sharing some of their  sound choices. 

Yesterday, Christopher DeLaurenti played a recording of the bygone squeak of a metro bus. 

Our next piece of tape comes from Gordon Hempton. 

Guest:

Gordon Hempton, international acoustic ecologist and Emmy Award winning sound recordist 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What does the Northwest sound like to you? It’s a question we’re asking local sound artists. And, over the next week, we’ll be hearing some of those sounds.

Yesterday, Perri Lynch Howard shared the sound of coyotes in the Methow Valley. 

Today’s sound has a bit more of a metropolitan flare. This sound originally appeared on a compilation called phongraphy.org 1 on and/OAR records 

Guest: 

Christopher DeLaurenti, Seattle born composer and phonographer

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Breakups are always hard. Especially when you’re two of the largest grocery mega-conglomerates in the country. 

Last week two judges – including a federal judge in Oregon and a superior court judge based in Seattle – officially blocked a merger between grocery chains Kroger and Albertsons. The companies had argued they needed to unite to compete with the likes of Wal-Mart. 

While an appeal is possible, Albertsons has backed out of the merger altogether and is now suing Kroger for $600 million over legal fees and the shareholder value it claims it lost in the merger attempt. 

It’s a big deal for the state of Washington, and not only because Governor-Elect Bob Ferguson sued to stop the merger as Attorney General. He argued it would lower competition in the industry and raise grocery prices. 

It was also a big deal because it would’ve meant the likely sale of 124 grocery stores here – the most of any state – to a third-party company.

So... the big grocery merger is dead a major victory for Ferguson and FTC chair Lina Khan, who’s credited with reviving the federal government’s role in antitrust enforcement. 

But this is also an inflection point for the future of antitrust. President Trump has tapped new leaders for the FTC and the Justice Department’s antitrust division.

Today, the Senate Judiciary Committee is wrapping up a hearing on “A Bipartisan Path Forward for Antitrust," where Senator Amy Klobuchar says she hopes to highlight the ways Democrats and Republicans can work together on tackling anti-competitive monopolies, including in the tech industry.    

So what happened to spoil the Kroger-Albertsons partnership plans, and will the next big merger go forward under Trump? 

Soundside spoke with John Kirkwood, a professor at Seattle University School of Law. He’s a nationally-renowned antitrust expert and established the first antitrust policy office at the FTC. 

Soundside also spoke with Stacy Mitchell, the co-executive director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. The group opposed the Albertsons-Kroger merger. Mitchell wrote two recent articles in The Atlantic exploring the history of food deserts what the merger's failure means for the FTC going forward. 

Guests:

• John Kirkwood, professor at Seattle University School of Law. He’s a nationally-renowned antitrust expert and established the first antitrust policy office at the FTC. 
• Stacy Mitchell, co-executive director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance.

Related links: 

• Read Stacy Mitchell's story in The Atlantic here: The Hidden Cause of Food Deserts - The Atlantic
• Lina Khan Goes Out With a Bang - The Atlantic
• Building an oasis in a rural WA ‘food desert’ | The Seattle Times
• KUOW - Albertsons calls off merger with Kroger. Now what?

Thank you to the supporters of KUOW, you help make this show possible! If you want to help out, go to kuow.org/donate/soundsidenotes

Soundside is a production of KUOW in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR Network.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Emily Randall has been a “person to watch” in Washington politics for a while now. 

Randall’s first electoral victory was in 2018, when she flipped a Republican held state house seat in the 26th district. 

Now, Randall is headed to congress. Last month, she won the election to become the US Representative-elect for Washington’s 6th district. That includes both peninsulas, most of Tacoma, and counties including Kitsap, Mason, and Grays Harbor.

Randall is heading to the other Washington where, unlike this one, Republicans control the House, Senate and executive branch. And Democrats are weighing their options for how to maintain any semblance of power in the new administration.

Guest:

• Emily Randall, US Representative-elect for Washington's 6th district 

Thank you to the supporters of KUOW, you help make this show possible! If you want to help out, go to kuow.org/donate/soundsidenotes

Soundside is a production of KUOW in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR Network.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What does the Northwest sound like to you? Is it light drizzle on you window? The sound of waves pushing against rocky beaches or dry grass blowing in the Palouse. 

It’s a question that we’ve asked local sound artists in the area. And, over the next week, we’ll be hearing some of those sounds. 

Today, we take you to the Methow Valley.

Guest: 

Perri Lynch Howard - Independent artist based in the Methow Valley

Thank you to the supporters of KUOW, you help make this show possible! If you want to help out, go to kuow.org/donate/soundsidenotes

Soundside is a production of KUOW in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR Network.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Washington State has a brand-new Superfund site: the Upper Columbia River. It’s the latest development in the federal government's attempts to force a Canadian company to pay for pollution that flowed down stream into U.S. waters.

So what’s the next step for cleaning up the river? Well, it’s a long process, which Seattle-ites can see in their own backyard. Cleanup is also beginning on another Superfund site, the Duwamish Waterway, nearly a decade after the EPA released a plan. 

Guest:

Isabella Breda, Seattle Times Environment Reporter

Links:

Seattle Times: Upper Columbia River in northeast WA listed as a Superfund site

Seattle Times: Full cleanup begins at Lower Duwamish Superfund site

Thank you to the supporters of KUOW, you help make this show possible! If you want to help out, go to kuow.org/donate/soundsidenotes

Soundside is a production of KUOW in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR Network. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For the first time in 24 years, Washington has a new state Insurance Commissioner stepping into the role.

Patty Kuderer is currently a state senator representing the 48th district, which covers areas including Redmond, Bellevue, and Medina. 

She’ll become Washington’s 9th insurance commissioner in January.

It’s a big job - Kuderer will be in charge of licensing and regulation for every insurance industry in the state, as well as handling consumer complaints, and lobbying the legislature to change laws that impact Washingtonian’s insurance policies.

Today, we’re focusing on just one part of the job: health insurance.

Because Kuderer is jumping in at an interesting time: she’ll be taking office at the same time the second Trump term begins – which could have major implications for how healthcare is managed. The president-elect has tried to repeal the Affordable Care Act, and changes are expected to subsidies and regulation under the new administration. 

Meanwhile, the murder of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson and subsequent wave of vitriol toward the healthcare industry is bringing problems in the American healthcare industry into sharper focus. 

Guest:

• Patty Kuderer, currently a state senator representing the 48th district. 

  She’ll become Washington’s 9th insurance commissioner in January.

Thank you to the supporters of KUOW, you help make this show possible! If you want to help out, go to kuow.org/donate/soundsidenotes

Soundside is a production of KUOW in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR Network.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.