Crosscut's Focus series seeks to elevate and examine some of the most significant issues facing the people and places of the Pacific Northwest through in-depth reporting and inventive multimedia storytelling.
How did the Dobbs decision on abortion affect Washington state in 2023? Whatever happened with local district plans to consolidate schools? Crosscut provides updates on top stories and more. Keep up with our Revisiting Series here.
Grunge. Mystical modernism. Jazz on Jackson Street: Seattle has long been a hotbed for creativity. But it’s getting harder and harder for artists to afford to live here and continue making work. Many arts organizations were struggling before the pandemic, and are now finding it more difficult to draw people back to live shows. While precarity has long been part and parcel of the arts scene, many creatives say the pandemic has shone a light on just how unsustainable the creative sector is. What will it take for the local arts ecosystem to flourish? In this series of stories Crosscut reporter Margo Vansynghel explores the solutions that could help Seattle arts not just survive, but thrive.
After two holiday seasons of COVID shutdowns, surges and safety precautions, many communities are coming back together this year to celebrate sacred traditions in person again. From October through February, Crosscut photographers are publishing a series of photo essays on various religious holidays and cultural celebrations in the region.
Did you know Washington has Sasquatch, serpents and flying saucers, oh my? To celebrate Halloween, we’ve compiled some Crosscut stories of the weirdest, wackiest and wildest Pacific Northwest lore. Read if you dare.
Lake Union from the Space Needle observation deck in 2018 in Seattle. Haze from wildfires caused a decrease in air quality in the area. (Sarah Hoffman/Crosscut)
On the afternoon of Wednesday, Oct. 19, Seattle was ranked as the worst city worldwide for air quality and pollution, according to IQAir. Western Washington has been under an air-quality alert since Friday, which was extended until 5 p.m. Thursday.
The Puget Sound Clean Air Agency issued a wildfire smoke alert for the region on Tuesday, saying smoke will cause the air quality to reach unhealthy levels near active fires and reach the unhealthy-for-sensitive-groups level or worse in other areas.
If the smoke is making you concerned about yourself and your surroundings, you're not alone. Revisit these Crosscut articles to learn how wildfire smoke intersects with climate change, public health and the environment.
Crosscut explores the question: Do you have to be rich to buy a home in Seattle? In this series of stories and videos, you will meet people who found a way to buy a home in one of the most expensive real estate markets in the country, without the benefit of wealth behind them. We also offer a primer on the resources available to middle class buyers. And you'll meet some folks who have given up entirely on buying in Seattle.
As Seattle’s theaters, museums and music venues gear up for a busy art season full of new shows, exhibits and festivals, Crosscut’s arts and culture desk brings you a curated selection of must-see fall art events and continues our coverage of the pandemic's effects on the cultural sector.
As Washington prepares for a summer of visitors, the Crosscut news desk is exploring the economic and cultural effects of tourism in the Evergreen state.
After the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police, Crosscut decided to find out how many officers in Washington state had landed on prosecutors’ lists of cops with credibility issues. These lists, commonly known as Brady lists, flag officers for issues such as lying, filing inaccurate reports, showing racial bias or using excessive force – anything that could cause an officer’s word to be questioned in court.
By examining prosecutors’ files across 39 Washington counties, Crosscut identified 183 cops who had been flagged by prosecutors as having credibility issues, yet who continued to work in law enforcement. Additional reporting revealed some of these officers had initially been fired for their actions, but were later reinstated through arbitration. Others had changed departments even after prosecutors labeled them as having credibility issues. One such officer was later elected as a city council member in the same town that had once pushed him out of its police department.
Seattle-based journalist Eric Scigliano spent months digging into a legal process that allows police to seize and sell homes, money and other property they contend are connected to crimes, even when no charges are filed. Washington's civil forfeiture laws are among the nation's most favorable to police, and powerful police lobbies have knocked down legislative efforts to restrain them. Cities and counties in the state increasingly rely on forfeiture to underwrite policing, taking in $11.9 million in 2020, more than in any other year since 2005, even as the drug war winds down.
Native communities everywhere have always led the charge to reclaim ancestral lands taken through settlement, treaties and outright theft. Sometimes called the “Landback” movement, these efforts have seen recent major gains in mainstream momentum: Under that term and the accompanying hashtag, activists have fought all across the world for the return of sacred spaces to their original stewards and for the reclamation of cultural practices that come with them. (NDN Collective’s demonstrations at the base of Mount Rushmore demanding the return of both that land and the surrounding Black Hills is one high-profile example.)
This year’s confirmation of Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo) as Secretary of the Interior anoints her as the first Indigenous person to serve in the U.S. cabinet. She has pledged to make protecting public lands and restoring Indigenous sovereignty top priorities, setting the stage for the Landback movement to shape America’s future.
In Washington, these efforts are thriving, from Indigenous farming projects within cities to fundraisers meant to buy back ancestral homelands. We spoke to Indigenous leaders throughout the state, examining the history of Native reclamation in Washington and how recent efforts to regain sovereignty will make space for generations of Indigenous people to come.
