Northwest Reports

In April 2020, Washington distributed $10 million to businesses navigating the pandemic, the first of many rounds of grant funding delivered by the state.

The Working Washington grant program was established to get money to small businesses overlooked by federal COVID relief efforts, with officials calling on the Department of Commerce to emphasize “historically disadvantaged” and BIPOC businesses.

Crosscut filed records requests for the individual grants, finding large corporate chains among the recipients.

In this episode, host Maleeha Syed speaks with reporter Brandon Block, who recently published a story on these findings, about where the relief dollars went – and if the state made good on its plan to reach small and historically disadvantaged businesses.

Read more about Crosscut's analysis of Working Washington here.

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Credits

Host/Producer: Maleeha Syed and Sara Bernard

Reporter: Brandon Block

Story editor: Ryan Famuliner

Executive producer: Sarah Menzies

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If you would like to support Crosscut, go to crosscut.com/membership. In addition to supporting our events and our daily journalism, members receive complete access to the on-demand programming of Seattle’s PBS station, KCTS 9.

Federal relief funds are financing new surveillance technology across the state. Reporter Brandon Block discusses why privacy advocates are concerned.

If you walk around downtown Seattle and look closely, you may notice that you’re being watched. From traffic cameras to automated license-plate readers, surveillance technology is all around us. And thanks to new funding from the American Rescue Plan, many cities across Washington and the country are buying even more technologies that can collect personal data.

As Crosscut reporter Brandon Block discovered, the laws that govern this kind of technology are limited, and vary from city to city.

Police and other city departments say these new devices and software will help them do their jobs far more effectively. But privacy advocates say they allow government agencies to track innocent people, with little regulation or transparency around how sensitive data is being used or shared.

For this episode of Crosscut Reports, host Sara Bernard talks with Block about his tour of existing surveillance technology in downtown Seattle; what kinds of surveillance federal funds are now making possible in police departments around the state; and the potential ramifications of all of this.

Read our full report on surveillance in Washington here.

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Credits

Host/Producer: Sara Bernard

Reporter: Brandon Block

Executive producer: Sarah Menzies

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If you would like to support Crosscut, go to crosscut.com/membership. In addition to supporting our events and our daily journalism, members receive complete access to the on-demand programming of Seattle’s PBS station, KCTS 9.

Calls for censorship of LGBTQ+ young adult books in Columbia County mirror a national political debate. Meg Butterworth shares her reporting.

A fight has been raging nationwide over book-banning in schools and libraries. According to the American Library Association, calls for censorship of specific titles nearly doubled between 2021 and 2022, and the vast majority targeted books by and about the LGBTQ+ community and people of color.

But as reporter Meg Butterworth found, in one rural county in Washington the battle has gone beyond the books themselves. It could end up eliminating an entire library system.

That’s because, after a year of tense board meetings, misinformation and demands to censor half-a-dozen titles, one local resident collected enough signatures to put a petition to close the library on Columbia County’s November ballot.

For this episode of Crosscut Reports, host Sara Bernard talks with Butterworth about what’s been happening in Columbia County, how closely it tracks with the national debate and what all this says about political polarization, censorship, the role of librarians and the meaning of a public library.

Read our full report on the local and national battle over books here.

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Credits

Host/Producer: Sara Bernard

Reporter: Meg Butterworth

Executive producer: Sarah Menzies

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If you would like to support Crosscut, go to crosscut.com/membership. In addition to supporting our events and our daily journalism, members receive complete access to the on-demand programming of Seattle’s PBS station, KCTS 9.

Residents say that WA-based management company Hurst & Son LLC is responsible for price hikes, reduced services and other grievances.

Mobile home communities have long served as an affordable-housing option for Washington residents, but many say they’re now being priced out of their homes.

Crosscut reporters Farah Eltohamy and Mai Hoang investigated allegations against Hurst & Son LLC, a company that has acquired dozens of mobile home parks across the state in recent years. Some residents allege that the company is responsible for rent hikes, new fees and reduced services.

Now these community members are pushing back against Hurst & Son – which is not the only company that has been accused of these practices.

In this episode of Crosscut Reports, host Sara Bernard talks with Eltohamy about why mobile homes are not in fact mobile; the different ways community members are advocating for themselves; and why it’s so important for them to stay where they are.

Read our full report on the fight to preserve mobile home communities here.

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Host/Producer: Sara Bernard and Scot Michael

Reporter: Farah Eltohamy and Mai Hoang

Executive producer: Sarah Menzies

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If you would like to support Crosscut, go to crosscut.com/membership. In addition to supporting our events and our daily journalism, members receive complete access to the on-demand programming of Seattle’s PBS station, KCTS 9.

With 45 candidates vying for a district seat, a lot could shift this fall. Crosscut reporter Josh Cohen talks it through.

Today, at the launch of Seattle’s 2023 campaign season, we examine some of the biggest issues our city faces. Crosscut city reporter Josh Cohen recently spoke with campaign consultants, pollsters, pundits, and representatives of big business and labor to get a sense of what’s at stake in this election and what voters might want.

Complicating these issues, and the search for solutions, is that the Seattle City Council could face a seismic shift: Four incumbents have announced they will not seek re-election, and a fifth, Teresa Mosqueda, is running for King County Council; if she wins, that will leave her seat open too.

For this episode of Crosscut Reports, host Sara Bernard talks with Cohen about what exactly voters might choose in November. While the Council has almost always been left-of-center, and is likely to remain so, the possibility of change leaves plenty of room for speculation.

Read our full report on the Seattle election and the issues likely to be at the center of it here.

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Credits

Host/Producer: Sara Bernard

Reporter: Josh Cohen

Executive producer: Mark Baumgarten

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If you would like to support Crosscut, go to crosscut.com/membership. In addition to supporting our events and our daily journalism, members receive complete access to the on-demand programming of Seattle’s PBS station, KCTS 9.