Briefs

A federal judge has ended most judicial oversight of the Seattle Police Department, nearly a dozen years after a federal “consent decree” was issued demanding reform.

U.S. District Judge James Robart said on Wednesday he would continue to monitor Seattle Police in the following areas: officer accountability, including decisions reached during collective bargaining, and use of force in crowd management. But Robart essentially agreed with the city and the U.S. Justice Department that Seattle Police had met most of the requirements of the consent decree.

Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell called the judge’s ruling a critical milestone in the city’s efforts to reform policing, and said it showed the department had made significant changes in its approach to crime, behavioral health incidents and professional standards.

“I am grateful for the excellent work of our police officers that brought us to this point,” the mayor said in a statement. “I am also thankful for the people of Seattle who have, from the beginning of this journey 12 years ago, wanted a police service that is fair, respectful, and effective in keeping everyone safe in every neighborhood.”

The mayor acknowledged there was still work to do in improving police accountability, and promised to keep working with the citizen advisory board to make sure reforms are maintained. 

The Bremerton High School football coach who won a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that said school employees had a right to practice “private personal prayer” on the field has resigned after one game.

Assistant football coach Joe Kennedy submitted the resignation letter to the Bremerton School District this week, the district confirmed on its website. The resignation is pending board approval at Thursday’s regularly scheduled meeting. District spokesperson Karen Bevers told Crosscut that the district would not make any additional statements.

Kennedy confirmed his resignation in a prepared statement on his website:

“I believe I can best continue to advocate for constitutional freedom and religious liberty by working from outside the school system so that is what I will do. I will continue to work to help people understand and embrace the historic ruling at the heart of our case. As a result of our case, we all have more freedom, not less. That should be celebrated and not disrespected,” said Kennedy.

Last year the Supreme Court ruled in Kennedy’s favor and ordered the district to offer him a football coaching job for this season.

His lawsuit gained national prominence as it progressed through the court system as a potentially precedent-setting religious-freedom case, which also was expected to show the effect of the U.S. Supreme Court’s first year with a strongly conservative majority.

The court ruled that Bremerton School District administrators violated Kennedy’s rights when they asked him to stop praying with players on the 50-yard line after games, which Kennedy said he had done regularly since he started coaching at the high school.

The controversy stirred up a media circus during the 2015 season. During one game, members of the public rushed the field to pray alongside Kennedy. At another, a group of Bremerton High School students invited Satanists to pray on the field.

When the district suspended Kennedy with pay in 2015, district administrators said in an announcement at the time that his actions possibly violated the First Amendment’s establishment clause, which states that the government will not favor one religion over another. The following season, Kennedy did not apply to continue his football contract with Bremerton High School, though his lawyers maintained that this was the same as being fired.

Kennedy, who moved to Florida several years ago to help his wife’s family through medical issues, told right-wing personality Glenn Beck last year that he intended to return to Bremerton High School.

“I'm a man of principle, I guess. And that's my hometown. My kids … live right by the school. All my family's there, all my friends.”

Kennedy returned to the Bremerton Knights last month in the run-up to the football season, and was included in off-season communications. The Knights’ season opener was a home game against an out-of-conference high school team, the Mount Douglas Rams from Victoria, B.C., five days before he submitted his resignation.

A federal judge Friday sentenced a Washington resident and leader of the Proud Boys to 18 years in prison for helping to storm the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection.

Ethan Nordean, of Auburn, also received 36 months of supervised release, according to a news release by the U.S. Department of Justice. Nordean, 33, is one of several members of the Proud Boys to be sentenced this week by U.S. District Court Judge Timothy J. Kelly.

A group of right-wing street brawlers, the Proud Boys played a role in the attempt to prevent the peaceful transfer of power as former President Donald Trump sought to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

In May, a jury found Nordean guilty of six federal counts, including seditious conspiracy, destruction of government property and conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding.

Along with Proud Boy members Enrique Tarrio, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl and Dominic Pezzola, Nordean “participated in every consequential breach at the Capitol on January 6,” according to a sentencing memo by federal prosecutors.

“Nordean led a group of nearly 200 men to the Capitol and onto Capitol grounds,” according to another sentencing memo by the federal government. “He immediately moved to the front of the throng and took action by tearing down the fence, which permitted the rioters to proceed further into the restricted area.”

“He defied law enforcement’s calls to disperse, and he ignored calls from his own men to leave. Nordean was there to use force against the government and lead what he viewed as a second American Revolution …” according to the memo, which requested a 27-year sentence for Nordean.

An email from Crosscut to Nordean’s attorney seeking comment was not immediately returned, but his attorney submitted a sentencing memo which stated in part: “The penalties Nordean has already incurred as a result of this case are sufficient to deter him from ever again entering the Capitol, protesting there, and recidivating.”

More than 1,100 individuals have been arrested since the insurrection, according to the Department of Justice.

Hello creative Seattle. While you’re considering who to vote for in November, take a few minutes to think about how you picture your City Council district. Where is the heart of your district? What image represents your community’s place in Seattle?

Does the Fremont Troll best represent District 6? Or is it Waiting for Interurban? Or something else?

Here’s your chance to participate in the Nov. 7 election and show off your artistic vision. Crosscut is asking the voters of Seattle to submit photos of their City Council districts, and we will choose our favorites to illustrate our district election profiles.

This handy district map on the Seattle page of our voter guide will help you find your district or help you submit a photo of another district. Submit your photos here and please let us know why you think this photo best represents your district.

We’ll give the photographers credit for their winning photos, of course, and send you some Crosscut swag as thanks for contributing.

Hello Crosscut readers, what’s on your mind? What questions do you want us to ask the candidates for the local elections in your city? What do you need to know before deciding how to mark your ballot for the Nov. 7 election?

Crosscut’s election coverage is inspired by The Citizens Agenda. Instead of just letting candidates set the campaign agenda, we ask the public what issues they want candidates to talk about on the campaign trail.

We will be asking each candidate mentioned in our voter guide two questions. This is where we need your help. Please submit your ideas here for what you think those questions should be. The best questions require candidates to share a specific idea on how to address the challenges unique to your community. Please stay away from questions they can answer with a yes or no.

Instead of attending a public forum where you may hope to get your questions answered, ask them in a much bigger room, where the answers can be seen by everyone who visits the Crosscut voter guide. Become part of Crosscut’s citizens agenda and help yourself as well as your neighbors.

The general election voter guide will be posted in mid-October.

Washington will hold its third carbon auction on Wednesday under its new cap-and-invest  program.

The first two auctions sold pollution credits totaling about $800 million. The third is expected to put the total for the year well over $1 billion.

This is the first year of implementing the state’s new Climate Commitment Act, which passed in 2021. Businesses generating more than 25,000 metric tons of carbon emissions must participate in the program or face fines of up to $10,000 per violation per day. 

During the 2023 legislative session, lawmakers made decisions about how to spend the money raised through these auctions, focusing on projects to slow or adapt to climate change. Those investments include money to electrify buses and ferries and build a charging infrastructure, restore salmon habitat, accelerate clean-energy projects and help ease the burden of pollution on vulnerable communities.

The May auction sold pollution for more than $500 million. The February auction raised almost $300 million. 

The Washington Department of Ecology announced this week that the May auction sold nearly 8.6 million 2023 allowances and another 2.5 million 2026 allowances. Each unit represents one metric ton of greenhouse gas emissions.

The price on carbon was higher at the May auction, where bids were received almost entirely from energy companies and utilities. 

A conservative advocacy group has filed an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court to challenge Washington’s capital gains tax.

Passed by the Legislature in 2021 and signed into law by Gov. Jay Inslee, the tax on some capital gains was upheld this spring by the state Supreme Court in a case known as Chris Quinn v. State of Washington.

In a 7-2 decision, the court upheld the 7% tax on profits from the sale of stocks and bonds over $250,000, ruling that it is not a tax on income, which could have led to it being struck down. The court instead ruled that it is an excise tax.

Now the Freedom Foundation is appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court, according to a statement by the advocacy group. The appeal contends the tax “violates the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution, which reserves to Congress the right to regulate interstate commerce, thus depriving states of the ability to do so.”

“If the Supreme Court decides to accept the case and concludes that the tax violates the Commerce Clause, it could strike down the entirety of the tax and potentially open the door for the refund of taxes previously paid,” according to the statement.

In response, the executive director for Invest in WA Now claimed that those challenging the tax “are desperately trying to grab $800 million a year from Washington’s child care and education to give it to ultra-millionaires and billionaires.”

“Polls show Washingtonians strongly support making the wealthiest pay what they truly owe in taxes for services all of us depend on,” Treasure Mackley, whose advocacy organization has supported the capital gains tax, said in a statement. “Only when we have a fair tax code can we undo decades of racism and disinvestment that hurts families, communities, and small businesses.”

Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdal now has two challengers for the 2024 race to run Washington’s education department.

Reid Saaris, who started national education nonprofit Equal Opportunity Schools, announced his run on Wednesday, joining former state Rep. Brad Klippert, a Republican from Kennewick, who registered with the PDC and launched a campaign website earlier this year.  They both challenge Reykdal, who announced a bid for a third term earlier this year.

The Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction oversees state school budgets and statewide education policies. It is a nonpartisan position.

Reykdal, Klippert and Saaris are so far the only people who have registered with the state Public Disclosure Commission, which enforces state campaign finance laws, including reporting contributions and expenditures. The official candidate declaration period for the 2024 election starts next May.

Saaris, who grew up in Bellevue, was a teacher in South Carolina before spending 10 years heading the nonprofit that helped students of color and low-income students enroll in advanced high school courses. On his website, Saaris said his priorities include focusing on tutoring opportunities, student mental health, post-high school education and career development.

Reykdal, who had served on the Tumwater School Board and in the state Legislature before being elected state superintendent in 2016, said his priorities in his third term include increasing support for student mental health, expanding technical education, providing universal access to school meals and fully funding education.

Klippert, who left the state Legislature in 2022 for an unsuccessful bid to unseat U.S. Rep. Dan Newhouse, said he would focus on providing more school choices, including some charter schools and online schools; re-examining the state school funding formula; and increasing transparency in school curricula and budgets.

Correction: Feb. 20, 2024. An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated the date of the filing period of the 2024 election.

A federal judge on Thursday ordered the state of Washington to redraw one of its legislative district boundaries after finding that the Central Washington political boundary impairs the ability of Latinos to choose candidates from their own community.

The ruling comes after a coalition of Latino voters early last year sued Washington’s bipartisan Redistricting Commission, contending that the new once-a-decade political maps perpetuate the disenfranchisement of Yakima County’s minority voters.

The legal challenge focused on the commission’s decision to exclude heavily Latino communities in Yakima County that are adjacent to the new 15th District map. Instead, the new district map pulled in more white and rural communities from Grant, Benton and Franklin counties.

In his ruling released Thursday, U.S. District Court Judge Robert S. Lasnik found merit in that argument and gave the state until Feb. 7 to adopt new legislative district maps for the region.

“The question in this case is whether the state has engaged in line-drawing which, in combination with the social and historical conditions in the Yakima Valley region, impairs the ability of Latino voters in that area to elect their candidate of choice on an equal basis with other voters,” wrote Lasnik. “The answer is yes.”

As such, “the Court finds that the boundaries of LD 15, in combination with the social, economic, and historical conditions in the Yakima Valley region, results in an inequality in the electoral opportunities enjoyed by white and Latino voters in the area,” he added.

King County voters are heavily supporting the renewal of a levy for veterans, seniors and human services, which was on Tuesday’s primary ballot. So far, more than 71% of voters have voted yes on the levy.

The levy revenue, which has been collected since 2006, has been directed at assistance for military veterans including housing-stability services and mental health counseling; senior centers and programming and assistance for older people; hotlines and advocacy services for survivors of domestic and gender-based violence; and affordable housing and shelter beds, according to the county. 

This week’s ballot measure authorized a six-year property tax levy starting next year: 10 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation – or $80 for an $800,000 home – with 3.5% increases between 2025 and 2029. Eligible seniors, veterans and people with disabilities would be exempt from the property tax. According to the county, the levy will bring in $564 million over six years.

Earlier this year, the King County Council rejected a levy rate increase to 12 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation, despite housing advocates pushing for the tax increase to address rising construction costs.

County voters first approved a veterans and human services levy in 2005 and renewed it in 2011. In 2017, the county voters approved the levy after the county added assistance for seniors to the measure.