Thursday Evening Headlines

The fatal shooting of a teenager at a protest in Seattle has gone unsolved for six years. This is open in your face. How are there no answers? Our investigation has uncovered new evidence and witnesses who say they've never talked to police. Did police ever call you? Not once. Listen to We Keep Us Safe, a new true crime series on the Embedded podcast from NPR. Good afternoon from the KUOW Newsroom. This is Seattle now. I'm Patricia Murphy with today's top stories. It's Thursday, August 13th. The owners of the Tacoma immigrant lockup say they'll soon be starting talks with immigration and customs enforcement officials to sell a number of their facilities nationwide. That could include the Tacoma Detention Center. Gustavo Sagrero reports. Many see this as a part of an ongoing strategy to avoid local accountability at privately operated facilities like the Tacoma one. Naina Gupta is policy director at the American Immigration Council. As we watch the federal government use the billions of dollars they received from Congress to buy these facilities, we're seeing both a decrease in accountability and oversight. A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told Time magazine, local government intervention is getting the way of keeping these private facilities operational. Both ICE and Geo Group, which owned the Tacoma facility, would not comment on the potential sale, but Geo Group's founder told investors they aimed to wrap up pricing negotiations of any sale as soon as late September. Gustavo Sagrero, KUOW News. In election news, Washington State will likely get its first openly transgender state lawmaker from this year's November election. State House candidate Jalen Scott currently has a commanding 77 percentage point lead in the primary results for the 37th Legislative District, which represents parts of South Seattle and Renton. The Washington State Standard reports if she wins the November election, Scott would also be the first black transgender person in the country to hold elected office. More election news now. A candidate for Washington's state legislature was arrested for a suspected DUI earlier this week. Reporter Sarah Mises Tan says the candidate narrowly won her primary election. Krista Perez is running to represent parts of Tacoma in the State House of Representatives. She got just 380 votes more than incumbent Melanie Morgan in the primary election. Political consultant Stephen Paulini says the arrest could shift the tide in November. Doesn't it be persuasive to thousands upon thousands of people for it to matter? If it impacts half a percent of people, it may decide the election. According to reporting from Seattle Red,

Perez was arrested on Tuesday morning for allegedly damaging five cars after running into a parked car. She was released on bail. Perez is running as the more progressive candidate to the Democratic incumbent. Her opponent is one of the few Democrats who voted against the state's so-called millionaires tax last session. In Olympia, I'm Sarah Mises Tan. Seattle Public Schools plans to begin an audit of their human resource practices. The step follows a pledge from the superintendent to re-examine how the district responds when teachers are accused of misconduct. Noel Gaska has more. A request for proposals for a human resources internal audit was posted online in June, about four months after Superintendent Ben Sheldinner started in Seattle. Among the list of objectives for the audit is determining if investigations are conducted in a timely manner. In March, Scholdener told KUW that the district lacks solid systems and structures to handle inquiries effectively. If you came up to my office, you would actually see stacks of data around investigations that have happened over the last couple of years and me really pushing to say, where are we with this? A spokesperson for the district said in an emailed statement that the RFP reflects the district's ongoing efforts to improve district operations and business practices. Noelle Gaska, KUW News. In other education news, Seattle's free preschool program is set to offer 100 more spots over the next six years. Mayor Katie Wilson recently approved the expansion. Starting next month, nearly three dozen preschool providers will stay open all year long with care available 10 hours a day, five days a week. The expansion is funded through the family's education, preschool, and promise levy. The program is open to all Seattle 3 and 4-year-olds, but kids experiencing homelessness or foster care are prioritized. Speaking of taxes, Washington State's Department of Revenue is now predicting that the state's new income tax on high earners will affect more people than originally thought and bring in more money. A new analysis by the State Revenue Department predicts the tax will raise about $3.1 billion and affect about $25,000 households, about $400,000 more than anticipated. The Washington State Standard found the state's updated estimates in an online statement about the initiative that seeks to repeal the new tax. Critics of the tax say they don't trust the state's numbers.

A King County Superior Court has issued an order requiring the online company Kalshi to cease many of its operations in Washington State. The New York-based company is a federally regulated financial exchange, trading on what's known as a prediction market. The court order stems from a lawsuit filed by State Attorney General Nick Brown, which argued Kalshi's markets were tantamount to online gambling. That's illegal under state law. The new order directs the company to stop facilitating wagers by Washington residents on sports, elections, and entertainment, among other things. Kalshi has argued it's not a gambling site, and state governments don't have the authority to regulate prediction markets. A red flag warning is in effect for parts of the Cascade and Olympic Mountains in Washington until 9 o'clock tonight. Logan Howard is a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. He says the warning is due to expected lightning. Lightning can start new fires on dry fuels, which we have already seen plenty of this year. So given those conditions and with the fuels being dry, any lightning that strikes has the potential to start new fires and the ruins. have the potential to have it spread rapidly in the very beginning as well. The state's ongoing drought also worsens the fire risk. The Weather Service has also issued a fire weather watch for the mountains through Friday night. Storms might generate winds as strong as 30 miles an hour. The Little League baseball team representing Washington State in the World Series tournament is still in the show. In a win-or-go-home game yesterday in San Bernardino, California, Soundview Little League out of Tacoma won decisively against a team from Bend, Oregon. Workman, flips on out to center field. Go! Ball is caught. The throw is coming all the way home. What a throw? There goes the second, off the glove. Another run comes home. And Washington just opening it up on a wargid. Final score 8 to 2. Soundview will take on Idaho's West Valley Little League in the regional championship tonight, starting at 6. The winner of that game will face other regional champs when the series moves to Williamsport, Pennsylvania next week. The U.S. championship game is scheduled for Saturday, August 29th. The World Series Championship will be played the following day. Next time on Seattle now, it's casual Friday. The Seattle City Council just outlawed some junk fees that landlords typically charge renters, which begs the question, is pet rent a junk fee? I mean, I think responsible pet owners are happy to pay some rent. That's just my take on it. I'm not trying to be boomer about it either. I love dogs, but your dogs be yapping when you're not at home, I promise you.

Hear that and more Friday morning. That's all for today from the KUOW Newsroom in Seattle. Our producer is Bond Jay Jones. I'm Patricia Murphy. Seattle Now and KUOW are members of the NPR Network. See ya. When a natural disaster, like a wildfire, hits your home, will your homeowner's insurance cover the damage? The answer isn't as clear as you might expect. I'm Tio Popescu. And I'm Claire McGrane. We're co-hosts of Control F, a KUAW podcast that uses data to reveal the hidden stories in our daily lives. On our latest episode, how climate change and wildfires are changing the calculus on homeowners insurance. Listen to Control F on the KUOW app or wherever you get podcasts.