Soundside

In April, former Richland School Board Director and military veteran Semi Bird received the GOP's endorsement for governor. He has since faced controversy. Last week, conservative talk show host Jason Rantz published letters pertaining to Bird’s time in the Army. In those letters, a brigadier general reprimanded Bird for wearing medals he did not earn and submitting false performance evaluation documents. On Soundside, Bird pushed back on those claims and said his meritorious service, including earning a Bronze Star and Purple Heart, are being overshadowed by these politically motivated attacks.  Guests: Semi Bird, candidate for Washington governor Scott Greenstone, KUOW politics reporter See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The different factions of the Republican Party were clearly on display this past weekend, at the “Cascade Conference” in Yakima.  The conference was hosted by a group called the “Mainstream Republicans of Washington”. Their self-stated mission is to push for the election of more qualified and moderate candidates for public office. Including former congressman and King County Sheriff Dave Reichert, who took the spotlight as keynote speaker.    Mainstream Republicans of Washington has endorsed Reichert in the gubernatorial election. That’s in opposition to the official state GOP, which tapped former Richland School Board member Semi Bird.   It points to an ideological split in the party as it tries to rally to be competitive in a state where Republican support has steadily eroded in recent years.  Guest: Jeanie Lindsay, Northwest News Network state government reporter See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Congratulations class of 2024, you've graduated from college. But now what?  If you look at statistics, new graduates today have better than average job prospects.  At a macro level, the US job market is looking good. 175,000 new jobs were added in April, and the unemployment rate remained low - at just 3.9 percent. But, that may not be how it feels to every job seeker. Expedia, Amazon, and Microsoft are just a few of the local tech companies that have laid off employees recently.  And it’s not just tech: there have also been layoffs at REI, Dollar Tree, and at local media organizations - like KUOW. There are ripple effects of these layoffs. Workers with more experience are now also looking for work, along with new graduates. And that’s leading some recruiters, and job candidates, to say that finding a job is getting harder, and taking longer. Guests: Hart Hodges: a Professor in the Department of Economics at Western Washington University and Director of Western's Center for Economic and Business Research Bonnie Dilber: a recruiting manager at the tech company Zapier, and content creator who talks about job searches, recruiting, and the workplace. Briana Randall: executive director of the career and internship center at the UW Seattle campus See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Soundside host Libby Denkmann sits down with Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell to discuss Seattle Police Chief Adrian Diaz's removal from his job on Wednesday, under pressure from a series of lawsuits including allegations of discrimination and harassment at the department. Sue Rahr, the former King County Sheriff and head of Washington State’s Criminal Justice Training Commission is now serving as interim chief, as a national search begins for the next head of the Seattle Police Department.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Seattle's Cheryl Glass was a sprint car racing sensation. She won the season finale at the Skagit Speedway in 1980, took the Pacific Northwest racing world by storm, and had serious aspirations of racing in the Indy 500.  Even today, Glass remains one of the most well known Black female race car drivers in U.S. history. But after a series of accidents and setbacks, she left the racing world. Her life came to a tragic end in 1997.  Soundside spoke with author Bill Poehler about his new book "The First Lady of Dirt: The Triumphs and Tragedy of Racing Pioneer Cheryl Glass."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Seattle’s Chief of Police, Adrian Diaz, has been dismissed from his job. Diaz and the department have endured a flurry of allegations and lawsuits from employees over the past year. including claims of discriminatory behavior by Diaz toward women and people of color, and rumors of a relationship with an employee that roiled the department.  Hanging over all of this is the department’s ongoing struggle to recruit and retain officers. Soundside spoke with KUOW Online Managing Editor Isolde Raftery to break down the latest. Raftery and KUOW’s Ashley Hiruko have been out in front doing watchdog reporting about Seattle’s Police Department and its chief.  Related: Seattle Police Chief Adrian Diaz out; former Sheriff Sue Rahr interim ‘Appearance of segregation’ at Seattle Police Department, captain says in lawsuit Seattle cop accuses Chief Diaz of ‘predatory behavior’ and ‘grooming’ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Seattle Public Library’s services remain limited today after a ransomware attack took much of the library’s technology systems offline.   In a blog post, the Library said it had been preparing to take computer systems down for maintenance over Memorial Day Weekend when workers discovered a ransomware event affecting the entire network. At this point, it is unclear what the ransomware attackers are after, or how long it will take for the Seattle Public Library’s systems to be back to full operation. Ransomware attacks against large institutions have multiplied in recent years. This week, a hacker group claimed credit for an attack on the auction house Christie’s. The group has threatened to release sensitive information about art collectors unless demands were met.    Soundside is joined by Quentin Hodgson, a senior researcher specializing in cybersecurity at RAND, a non-profit, non-partisan research organization, to discuss the proliferation of ransomware attacks in recent years.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The H5N1 bird flu continues to spread to U.S. dairy cows – affecting dozens of herds in at least ten states. The dairy industry has been hesitant to test cows for the virus. The FDA says pasteurized milk is safe to drink. A team of University of Washington and Fred Hutch Cancer Center researchers is working to track the avian influenza by sequencing the virus’ RNA found in milk from the grocery store. Guests: Pavitra Roychoudhury, research assistant professor at the University of Washington School of Medicine who also works at the Fred Hutch Cancer Center. Related links: STAT: Move over, wastewater. Store-bought milk could be another way to track the bird flu outbreak in cows USDA: Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) Detections in Livestock NPR: Limited testing of raw milk for bird flu leaves safety questions unanswered FDA: Updates on Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When author Noé Álvarez was growing up in Yakima, WA he remembers hearing accordion music wafting in the orchards where his parents picked fruit, at dance halls, and at house parties. But his grandfather Eulogio – a traveling accordion player – remained a figure steeped in mystery and infamy.  The path to understanding that “ancestral tragedy” sent Álvarez across state and country borders in search of his family’s history and a deeper knowledge of the music that propelled it. That journey is detailed in Noé Álvarez’s new book, “Accordion Eulogies: A Memoir of Music, Migration, and Mexico."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Over the last 18 months, thousands of asylum-seeking migrants have found a temporary home at the Riverton Park United Methodist Church in Tukwila. The church isn’t set up to be a long term shelter - but with few beds open in King County’s family shelters each night - this temporary solution has become a lifeline for asylum seekers. But how did this church become a de facto shelter for so many people? A new report from the Seattle Times found that the first asylum seekers to seek shelter at the church were sent there by Seattle city workers, and while Seattle has a plan in place for an emergency shelter to house migrants in the city, Mayor Harrell has so far refused to implement it. Soundside host Libby Denkmann talked to Seattle Times reporter David Kroman about what's behind this breakdown to get migrants the housing they need. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.