Tag Archives: Puget Sound

BIPOC, Local, National

Auburn Police Officer Jeff Nelson Sentenced Finally Bringing ‘Justice for Jesse’

[Kent, WA – WBHG News] – A King County Judge sentenced former Auburn police officer Jeffrey Nelson to almost 17 years in prison for the 2019 murder of Jesse Sarey.

Nelson was convicted in June 2024 for the in-the-line-of-duty shooting of Sarey and became the first police officer convicted under I-940. The 2018 law removed the “malice of heart” standard to charge police officers with negligent shootings.

During the sentencing hearing, Judge Nicole Phelps asked Nelson if he wanted to make a statement on his own behalf, which he declined. The judge handed down a 200 month sentence for second-degree murder and 123 months for first-degree assault, with the sentences to run concurrently – or 16 years and 8 months. The sentence aligned with the prosecutor’s recommendation.

In their sentencing recommendation, King County Special Prosecutor Patty Eakes wrote, “Doing so will reflect Nelson’s long history of violence towards the less powerful, the egregious nature of his conduct, his dishonesty, and the great damage he has caused in our community.”

Nelson’s defense attorney, Kristen Murray, argued that “Officer Nelson chose a career in law enforcement because he was driven by his sense of duty to others” and requested a sentence of 6.5 years.

During the hearing, Judge Phelps had to stop the proceedings and clear the courtroom after people watching on Zoom started holding up pornographic pictures. Nelson’s sentence had already been rendered when the online protest started.

Sarey was murdered on May 31, 2019, after Nelson responded to a disturbance call at an Auburn Walgreens and had a brief interaction with him. Sarey then crossed the street and was outside Sunshine Grocery in the middle of a mental health episode. A manager of a nearby Starbucks called 911, claiming that Sarey was “attempting to access cars” in the parking lot. That claim was never substantiated.

Nelson arrived at Sunshine Grocery and, according to his official statement about the incident, had “the intent to arrest Sarey for disorderly conduct.” The entire interaction lasted 67 seconds. Nelson tried to handcuff Sarey, but he resisted. Multiple videos show that Nelson punched Sarey seven times and tried to throw him to the ground. He then pushed him up against the wall of the store and shot him in the chest. Sarey fell to the ground and, according to the autopsy, was already mortally wounded from the bullet that shredded his liver.

Nelson tried to fire a second time, but the gun jammed. Surveillance videos show he cleared the round, looked briefly, and fired for a third time, shooting Sarey in the forehead. The time from the first to the third shot was under four seconds.

Because of where Nelson parked his police cruiser, the dashboard camera did not record the details of the incident, and Auburn police did not wear body cameras. The barking of his K9 dog drowned out most of the audio from Nelson’s microphone.

In the official police report from the Auburn Police Department, released on August 16, 2019, Nelson claimed that Sarey had tried to take his service weapon from him during the struggle, which is why he shot him. The surveillance videos in the area did not show a struggle for the gun.

Nelson was charged with murder and assault in August 2020 and, due to the COVID pandemic and legal procedures, repeatedly delayed his trial until June 2024. During that time, he continued to collect his salary and benefits from Auburn, almost $100,000 a year.

After his 2024 conviction, Nelson was supposed to be sentenced on July 16. His lawyers appealed and, by the end of the year, had exhausted all legal avenues.

In an 8-1/2 year span, Nelson killed three people in the line of duty, including Sarey. Law enforcement experts said that it is highly unusual for an officer to be involved in three on-duty shootings during an entire police career and that most officers will never draw their service weapon.

In 2011, he fatally shot Brain Scaman after pulling him over for a burnt-out headlight. Scaman, a Vietnam War veteran with a known mental health history, exited the car with a knife, refused to drop it, was was shot in the head. An inquest determined Nelson’s actions were justified.

In 2017, Nelson shot Isiah Obet in the torso and then the head after releasing his service dog on the suspect. Nelson claimed that Obet was acting erratically and was armed with a knife. While the Auburn Police Department claimed there was no wrongdoing, the city reached a civil settlement of $1.25 million with Obet’s family.

Since Nelson’s 2020 arraignment, the City of Auburn settled a $4 million civil rights claim with Sarey’s family and has paid out almost $2 million additional to settle other civil claims against Nelson and other officers.

Local, National

Seattle’s Cyberstuck Tesla Cybertruck has Become Cyberjunk

[WBHG NEWS – Seattle, WA] – The Seattle-area abandoned Tesla Cybertruck, known on the internet as “Cyberstuck,” ended up in a Copart junkyard waiting to be sold at auction.

Back in early September, pictures were shared on Reddit about the Cybertruck parked on Martin Luther King Way. The $90,235 Tesla, with its love-it-or-hate-it looks, had its license plates removed and its rear wheel twisted in an odd way. In the following days, news articles spread around the world, and the truck even became a listed tourist attraction on Google Maps called “Cyberstuck.”

A Redditor claimed to have spoken to the owner in early September, who said that his Cybertruck had “a kid hit [it]…a few weeks ago and was still trying to figure out the insurance to get it fixed.”

The fun of the Cyberstuck tourist spot didn’t last long. On the night of September 10, the City of Seattle had the Tesla towed away. A video showed the Cybertruck, with its unique suspension damage, being towed by Lang Towing, Inc., which has been providing “towing and storage services in District III” for the Seattle Police Department since 2001.

https://malcontentment.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Cyberstuck-Cybertruck-Towed-Away-Seattle-Lang-Towing.mp4

Video credit – Reddit user CartographerFun69

Even though the visible body damage was limited to some plastic pieces by the driver’s side rear wheel, the Cyberstuck turned into Cyberjunk, ending up at a junkyard in Arlington, Washington. In mid-November, it was listed on Copart’s website with 12 photos. The company says the salvage value of this once $90,000 truck is now down to $31,156. The mileage is officially listed as “zero,” but there are no keys, so no one can check the odometer.

Photo credit – Copart

Claims on social media that the Seattle Cybertruck was vandalized are untrue. Pictures that recently circulated claiming to show the windows smashed and other damage are from a different wrecked Tesla in a Texas Copart yard.

Many reviews of the Cybertruck, which started selling in November 2023, have pointed out that its suspension might not be strong enough for its 7,000-pound weight, especially considering Tesla’s marketing claims. Owners have posted photos of bent or broken parts of the rear suspension. These issues are often seen in photos and videos where some of the wheels are twisted, just like Seattle’s Cyberstuck.

However, the photos raise more questions than they answer. The only clear damage is around the driver’s side rear wheel, with just a bit of rust on the front trunk from sitting in the rain. Today, Copart has 21 salvage Cybertrucks up for sale across the U.S. Three of these are totaled because of front or rear suspension damage, but they have more damage than the famous one in Arlington.

It will remain a mystery how Seattle’s Cyberstuck Cybertruck ended up as Cyberjunk unless its eventual new owner shares more information.

Breaking News, French Toast Emergency, Local, Weather

39,000 Customers Without Power After Puget Sound Windstorm

[WBHG News – Kirkland, WA] Puget Sound Energy reported almost 39,000 customers were without power after a late morning windstorm moved through Puget Sound. Whidbey Island was the hardest hit, with scattered outages reported in Kirkland, Bellevue, Sammamish, Mercer Island, and Bainbridge Island.

Sustained winds at Paine Field in Everett reached 30 MPH with gusts to 56 MPH. At Seatac International Airport, a gust of 47 MPH was recorded. At the storm’s peak, over 64,000 homes and businesses were without power. Trees weakened by the November 19 windstorm, which knocked out power in some areas for a week, were toppled across the region.

December 14, 2024 – Downed trees tore down powerlines and damaged electrical infrastructure in Kirkland, Washington. Photo credit – David Obelcz

In Kirkland, NE 112th Street was blocked by a down tree, which damaged utility poles, power lines, and Internet cables. Kirkland police had blocked off the area. At the time of publication, Puget Sound Energy’s outage map indicated that many ongoing outages should have been resolved between 1 PM and 5 PM but did not have crews assigned.

This is a breaking new story.

Local, Terra Firma, Weather

Record-setting January heatwave in Seattle ends

[WBHG News 24 – Kirkland] – It isn’t unusual for Seattle to tickle 60 degrees in January, but to reach or pass 60 degrees four days in a row was enough to set a new heatwave record. It stayed above 50 degrees for 5.5 days – 131 hours from January 27 to February 1, and three new high-temperature records were added to the books.

Weather records

DateNormal LowNormal High2024 Low2024 High
January 2738° F49° F48° F -50° F at 11:00 AM56° F
January 2838° F49° F51° F61° F – record
January 2938° F49° F51° F61° F – record
January 3038° F49° F51° F60° F – record
January 3138° F49° F53° F60° F
February 138° F49° F47° F – 50° F at 10:00 PM58° F
High and low temperatures versus average at Seatac Airport from January 27 to February 1, 2024

The four-day streak broke the previous three-day record set in 2015, which was also the warmest January in modern history, with an average high of 49.9 degrees. Because 2024 was a fire and ice experience with a cold snap from the 11th to the 18th, the average high was 45.74-degrees, but still more than 4 degrees above normal.

Does this prove climate change

Weather is not climate, and climate is not weather. A singular weather event, like a four-day heatwave, does not prove climate change, just as a seven-day cold snap does not disprove it. Since 1981, the average daily high in January has increased by 1.4 degrees, and the average low climbed 2.6 degrees. Almost all climatologists agree that part of that broader increase, and our increasingly wet weather, has been caused by human activity.

What was unusual about the 2024 winter heatwave was how warm the low temperatures were from January 28 to 31 – 13 to 15 degrees above normal. Had the January heatwave been in July, Seattle’s low temperatures would have been 70, 70, 70, and 72. How warm would that have been? The warmest low temperature in Seattle’s history was 73 degrees during the June 2021 “heatpocalypse.” It would have been misery for the region, which has the second-lowest number of air-conditioned buildings and homes in the United States.

What’s next

As for the week ahead, starting Saturday, normal temperatures are returning, with highs near 50 and lows close to 40. Saturday will be cloudy but dry, and Sunday should be pleasant under party-cloudy skies.

Local

Drive uninjured in Kirkland crash caused by bypassing I-405 construction barriers

[WBHG News 24 – Kirkland, WA] – The Washington State Patrol shared a picture of a vehicle that went around construction barriers on I-405 and drove into the ongoing roadworks at the Exit 18 bus terminal and highway interchange expansion project. No one was injured.

According to Washington State Patrol Trooper Rick Johnson, the driver of the Subaru SUV went around the construction barriers, continued southbound on the Exit 18 offramp, and drove into the construction area. The driver was not impaired, and Trooper Johnson alleged the driver said they “forgot” there was a road closure. It is unclear how they drove around the barriers.

The Washington State Department of Transportation, King County, and the City of Kirkland had previously announced that parts of Northeast 85th Street and the I-405, Northeast 85th Street Interchange would be closed from January 26 to 29 to demolish the off-ramp bridges at I-405 and Northeast 85th Street. A second set of closures is planned for February 2 to 5 to replace the existing infrastructure with new four-lane intersections.

The picture shows skid marks leading to the dropoff and a piece of construction equipment well below where the car stopped, suggesting the accident could have been more serious.

The most recent data from Washington state about construction zone accidents is from 2021, which posted a 10.8 percent increase over 2020, with accidents in interstate construction zones increasing by 15.4 percent. Both years had significantly reduced traffic due to the COVID-19 pandemic and work-from-home mandates. The biggest increases were among rear-ending accidents and crashes involving commercial vehicles, with fatal work zone accidents increasing by 18 percent. There was no data available on accidents caused by drivers who wilfully ignore road closures.

Breaking News, French Toast Emergency, Local, Weather

Freezing Rain Poised to Glaze Parts of Puget Sound on Tuesday

[WBHG News 24 – Kirkland, WA] – Seattle temperatures rose above freezing for the first time in 89 hours on Monday, but a sloppy weather system is poised to bring snow, sleet, and freezing rain to the Puget Sound lowlands on Tuesday night.

During the evening commute, precipitation will arrive in Puget Sound, rapidly spreading. From Tacoma north, expect snow and sleet before a transition to freezing rain and rain.

Focusing on our forecast area of eastern Puget Sound – Kirkland, Bellevue, Bothell, Kenmore, Redmond, and Woodinville – snow will be falling across the entire region by 7 PM. Up to 1/2 an inch of wet accumulation is possible before the transition begins. Higher hills and along the King-Snohomish County line may see a little more.

Between 8 PM and 10 PM on Tuesday, the snow and sleet will transition to freezing rain and rain. Up to 1/10 of an inch of accumulation is possible on the east side of central Puget Sound, but there is a lot of disagreement in the forecast models. We’re forecasting a transition between 1 AM and 3 AM on Wednesday morning, but keeping an eye on the situation.

The center of Seattle will have a mostly rain event, with the line between rain and a period of freezing rain roughly in the middle of Lake Washington. Kenmore and Northgate will also be in the area of freezing rain. If you’re driving east from Seattle on I-90, you may enter the tunnel on Mercer Island with it raining and exit the other side into freezing rain!

The Euro, which is the best model for predicting winter weather in our area is forecasting a transition between 5 AM and 7 AM. If this model is correct, the Wednesday morning commute will be even more challenging.

You should put off any travel on Tuesday after the evening commute, especially during the overnight hours. Low traffic and convective cooling will accelerate ice build-up on ramps, bridges, and side roads. If you have to drive, give yourself plenty of extra time, route around hills, leave extra room between you and other vehicles, and plan ahead as you approach traffic lights and stop signs.

Health and Lifestyle, Local, Safety, Terra Firma, Weather

Wildfire smoke might make an unwanted visit by the end of the weekend

Smoke season has become a new summertime feature in Puget Sound during the last decade, and after a cold, wet spring suppressed fire season, our area’s luck might be running out.

Wind could carry smoke from a wildfire burning near vantage over the Cascades late this weekend and into the start of next week during a period where high temperatures will tickle 90 degrees. This won’t be a repeat of 2020 or 2021 when thick blankets of smoke choked the area, but there is the potential to impact vulnerable populations and put the taste and smell of smoke into the air.

If you haven’t restocked your smoke season supplies and revisited your plan, now is the time to get prepared.

  • Get some N-95 masks, especially if you work or exercise outdoors. N-95 masks work when tightly fitted to the face. Surgical masks don’t block fine particulates, so they aren’t effective in the smoky air. The particles in smoke are accumulative in your lungs. Repeated exposure over the years can have health implications decades later.
  • Smoky days in Puget Sound typically go hand-in-hand with our hottest days due to the onshore flow carrying smoke into our region. In 2018 and 2020, we avoided 100+ degree heatwaves because the dense blanket of smoke kept daytime highs down by 3 to 6 degrees. Ideally, on the worst days, you should keep your windows closed. Now is the time to consider a portable air conditioner if you haven’t been convinced yet for at least one room to create a clean air space in your home.
  • If your choices are sitting in dangerous heat in an enclosed space or opening a window to regulate temperatures while allowing smoke to circulate, you should open your windows. If you have vulnerable family members or care for the elderly, consider finding relief in air-conditioned places.
  • Along with a room with AC, having a box fan with a furnace filter taped to the “intake” side (the side that pulls the air) has been shown to reduce particulate matter in the air dramatically. If you can’t afford an AC, a $35 box fan and a $15 filter can significantly improve air quality in a single room.
File photo – a homemade smoke filter using a box fan, duct tape, and a 20X25 standard furnace filter
  • Smoke typically is at its worst after sunset and during the overnight hours. As the air cools overnight, it sinks, which tends to pull the blanket of smoke to lower altitudes. After sunrise and the air starts to heat up, the rising warm air lifts the smokes up to higher elevations.
  • When you drive your car run your AC in the “max” or “recirculation” mode. This recycles the air within your cabin. If your car doesn’t have a working AC, consider wearing an N-95 mask when driving.
  • On the worst smoky days, don’t do outdoor activity if you can. If you work outdoors, your employer should provide N-95 masks. This is vital on days where there is ash fall.
  • Exercise should be done indoors in a climate-controlled setting. If you have medical issues, talk to your primary care physician about what is best for you.
  • Contact lens wearers should make sure their glasses prescription is up to snuff. Smoke can irritate the eyes, which can be made worse by contacts.
  • Ash is very alkaline and damaging to car paint. Additionally, ash can create spiderweb scratches in auto finishes. On days with bad ashfall, consider gently rinsing your car off with a hose or using a leaf blower. Don’t brush ash off your car or use an automated car wash before removing the particles.
Local, National

Some Puget Sound gas stations running on empty with truckers in short supply

[KIRKLAND] – (MTN) Some Puget Sound residents were out of luck when they found a handful of area stations were out of gas – but this isn’t due to a gas crisis or shortage. A check on the Gas Buddy app indicated that about a dozen stations in the Kirkland-Bellevue-Woodinville area reported they were out of fuel this morning, with some complaints on social media. The culprit isn’t a lack of gasoline and diesel. It is a national shortage of truck drivers.

Trucking industry officials are reporting that the country is short approximately 50,000 drivers nationwide. Additionally, there is a shortage of engineers, mechanics, fuel carriers, and specialists to inspect and repair the tanks that haul gasoline and diesel. The deficit has been looming for years. The lack of drivers created a perfect storm at the pump with the arrival of the 4th of July holiday weekend and the end of COVID restrictions.

According to Business Insider, trucker pay has dropped as much as 50%, with the average annual salary falling to $50,000 a year. Long hours, time away from home, regulations, and technology that tracks time on task and driver actions caused an exodus of experienced drivers. Many drivers are paid by the mile, not by the hour. Inexperienced drivers are hit the hardest, and time spent during load, unloading, or inspections are not compensated.

When COVID restrictions slowed down the economy, many trucking companies laid off or offered early retirement to their drivers. The loss of experienced operators hit the motor fuel carriers hard.

Federal regulations require additional experience to haul motor fuel and other hazardous cargo and have more extensive background checks than regular cargo haulers. Insurance companies won’t cover inexperienced drivers, forcing motor fuel carriers to look for seasoned operators in an environment of low pay and low reward.

Independent truckers have been hit hard by several regulations and the debate over “gliders.” Gliders are older trucks that are remanufactured and cost 25% to 30% lower than a new rig. They are a popular choice for owner-operators to enable them to be competitive. EPA regulations have bounced around to force gliders to meet current EPA standards, essentially eliminating the remanufacturing industry. The 25% to 30% cost increase is enough to keep independent truckers from jumping in and forcing others out when their rigs require replacement.

The Pacific Northwest is practically a “closed-loop” system, with most crude oil processed in the region coming from Alaska. The Rocky Mountains create a significant engineering challenge to build large pipelines into the Pacific Northwest. Local refineries aren’t calibrated for tar sands from Canada, and Pacific Northwest ports are a long journey from the Middle East.

Almost all of the fuel Washingtonians use is refined in Washington state. Outages earlier this year in Texas and issues like the Colonial Pipeline shutdown have no material impact on our supply. These issues impact what we pay at the pump, despite being separated from the rest of the country.

Spot outages are expected to continue through the summer driving season, but local drivers should not have problems finding gas, even if their station of choice is empty at the time they need to fuel up.

According to the Energy Information Administration, the average price of gasoline in the Seattle area is $3.71 a gallon, an increase of a dollar a gallon from last year when COVID shut the country down. It is up 30 cents a gallon from 2019 and 35 cents a gallon from 2018.

Local, Weather

Rain comes on Tuesday as Puget Sound lowlands precipitation deficit grows

[KIRKLAND] – (MTN) Less than an inch of rain fell in April at Seatac International Airport (KSEA) and halfway through May, only .52 inches has fallen so far, and more than half of that on May 4. With temperatures tickling 80 degrees on the eastside today, it is easy to ignore the growing deficit as our dry season inches closer.

Significant drought is already gripping the nation from eastern Washington to Minnesota, south to Texas, and then back west to California. In Los Angeles, the Palisades Fire has grown to more than 1,000 acres with mandatory evacuations ordered in fire-ravaged Topanga. In April, during a near historically early fire weather alert, a dozen fires popped up in western Washington, with one burning in Auburn for almost a week.

Only the Cascade and Olympic Mountains ranges are normal in the state of Washington, as drought conditions grow through the rest of the state

Monday will be cloudy and much cooler, with temperatures in the low 60s. Monday night and into Tuesday morning, rain will move in with .25 inches possible on the eastside. Rain will gradually give way to clouds but some drips are possible into Wednesday morning.

The long-range forecast is more seasonable with temperatures in the mid-60s to around 70, but the dry weather pattern returns. The Puget Sound lowlands get most of its water from snowpack melt in the summer months, and the snowpack was at or near record levels this year.

The continued dry weather will increase wildfire risk as the summer progresses. In 2020 wildfires tore through the western side of the Cascades from Oregon to Washington, shrouding the area in dark clouds of smoke for weeks.

BIPOC, Local

Black Restaurant Week comes to Puget Sound

Running from February 19 through February 28, Black Restaurant Week is launching its inaugural campaign for the Northwest Region, highlighting Black-owned culinary businesses in our community.

A surge of societal upheaval was building in 2016 as American culture grasped for a suitable response to the highly publicized deaths of Michael Brown, Alton Sterling, Philando Castile, and so many others. Warren Luckett was working as a wholesale wine distributor in Houston, Texas, at the time, and his thoughts returned to the visceral realities of those deaths.

For Luckett, the family dinner table was the space he could explore his feelings and ideas about issues larger than himself, and he noticed growing angst among young Black millennials like him, wanting to have a conversation about the reality they saw around them. What better place to hold that conversation than a dinner table?

Pairing his love of food and his background in business, the dream of Black Restaurant Week was conceived—a solid seven days dedicated to celebrating the flavors of African-American, African, and Caribbean cuisine through a series of events and promotional campaigns intended to introduce Black culinary businesses and professionals to the community. Falayn Ferrell and Derek Robinson, then cochairs of PR and marketing for the Houston Area Urban League Young Professionals, responded to his request for help. In April of 2016, the trio launched the first Black Restaurant Week in Houston, providing a metaphorical table for the community to gather around. Since those local beginnings, Black Restaurant Week has grown with regular events across the country.

This is the first year that the event has been in the Pacific Northwest. Participating restaurants receive marketing and promotional support aimed at highlighting the diverse cuisine of these eateries. This support comes during a time when a University of California, Santa Cruz study revealed that Black-owned businesses are suffering on a disproportionate scale. Since the pandemic began, 41% of Black-owned businesses have closed, compared to 17% of white-owned businesses.

The organization recognizes that a week of marketing and promotions isn’t always enough to compete with larger, better-funded chains. They have introduced a series of events to support the restaurant beyond the specified week, with business panels, catering showcases, and food truck festivals. This year, they hosted virtual town hall discussions with access to video of those panels and a summary of tips and ideas from them. Further services include a plethora of operational and financial resources for running a culinary business in the modern market.

Results for the event have been impressive. In 2020, Black Restaurant Week supported 670 Black-owned culinary businesses and helped them to realize an average sales increase of 34%.

There are plenty of incentives for diners to “follow your fork” in support of community favorites. The event hosts special deals, prizes, and games like Black Restaurant Week Bingo, which rewards diners for multiple purchases. They have also opened participation beyond traditional dine-in restaurants and now include food trucks, sweets, and more.

Beyond the original mission, Black Restaurant Week is also promoting the campaign to support the Texas Emergency Restaurant Relief Fund to aid Black-owned and Latin-owned businesses affected by the winter storm.

Luckett’s original mission intended to support Black-owned culinary businesses and help establish an environment to have discussions about racial disparities. The event is designed to introduce local customers to a variety of culinary options, and organically provides a starting point for conversations about racial disparities in our community. Just as Black history doesn’t disappear on March 1, these restaurants continue to exist beyond the week of events and benefit from continued patronage, and can hopefully serve as that family dinner table—providing a space and foundation to discuss those larger issues.

For more information, you can visit BlackRestaurantWeeks.com.