Thursday Evening Headlines

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Music Hey there, good afternoon.

From the KUOW newsroom, this is Seattle Now.

I'm Paige Browning with today's top stories.

It's the last day of April. It's Thursday, April 30th.

And we start our show with a police controversy.

A law setting up new standards for elective sheriffs was supposed to go into effect today.

But a judge put it on hold.

State government reporter Sarah Meises Tan has more.

A judge from Thurston County filed an injunction against the law just hours before it was set to take effect.

Supporters say the new rules would hold elected sheriffs to the same standards as police chiefs.

But others like Sheriff John Knowles of Spokane County say they believe the law is unfair.

If this law was allowed to go into effect, it would also trespass on our constitutional right to run for office.

And to have unfair qualifications put on sheriffs that are put on no one else.

The law would require candidates for sheriff to be certified by a commission before running for office.

They would also be subjected to a background check and have at least five years of experience as a law enforcement officer.

The pause on this law comes just about a week before candidates file to run for office.

In Olympia, I'm Sarah Meises Tan.

Just coming in this afternoon, six people are injured and one person's in custody in Tacoma after a stabbing incident at FOS High School.

It happened around 130 this afternoon.

Shelby Boyd is the public information officer with the Tacoma Police Department.

We located four victims all were transported to local area hospitals.

They were students of the school.

We also located an adult security guard.

They were also transported to the hospital.

The suspect was taken into custody and also sent to the hospital.

As of this afternoon, the conditions of the injured are not yet known.

The suspect is believed to be a student at the High School.

Police say the school is now safe and is in lockdown.

Parents are welcome to pick up their students in an area that's been set up for reunification.

Community members have rallied this week online in a flap about the Laurelhurst neighborhood of Seattle.

The issue is a decades-old agreement concerning helicopter landings at Seattle Children's Hospital.

A since-deleted social media post said if a child wasn't in extremely critical status,

pilots are required to land at an alternate helipad more than a mile away.

People on social media blamed Laurelhurst neighbors for setting flight and noise limits.

A spokesperson for Children's told KUW on-going efforts by some Laurelhurst neighbors to restrict helipad access

have put, quote, an unnecessary burden on the system.

Hospital leaders say they want to revisit the policy.

Laurelhurst Community Council President Colleen McAllier tells KUW Her Association has not pushed for new rules

to restrict landing sick children at the hospital.

In other health news, Washington State Health Officials fear that measles is spreading undetected

after three cases were discovered in Kittitas County and Spokane County.

K and KX's Mitch Borden reports.

After a thorough investigation, public health officials have been unable to determine

how three recent measles patients were exposed to the highly infectious disease.

According to a press release from the Washington State Department of Health,

this is a new, more dangerous stage in the spread of measles.

Over the last four months, at least 40 people in the state have been diagnosed with the disease.

That is more than triple the number found in all of 2025.

Health officials are asking anyone who develops measles symptoms to stay home and call their doctor.

Those symptoms include high fever, coughing, and a rash that starts on the face.

The measles' mumps and rebella vaccine is a safe and effective way to protect yourself from measles.

It's recommended for both children and adults.

I'm Mitch Borden reporting.

This Mayday, tomorrow, marks the 20-year anniversary of one of the largest immigration protests in U.S. history,

called the Great American Boycott, or a day without an immigrant.

Gustavo Sugraro has more details on tomorrow's demonstrations.

A big issue that drove the protests 20 years ago was a bill that tried to make it a felony

to be in the U.S. without legal status.

This year, legal by this junior is one of the lead organizers for Seattle's March.

He says much of the tensions that led to that historic march still exist today.

The reality for us is that we are seeing authoritarianism targeted against workers that are immigrants,

regardless of their status.

This is a dangerous time that we're living in.

Marches are planned in Tacoma, Yakima, Seattle, Spokane to protest widespread immigration enforcement,

but also billionaires, and U.S. involvement in foreign wars.

Seattle's March meets at Cal Anderson at noon, and Tacoma starts downtown at 4pm

across the water from an ice lockup.

Gustavo Sugraro, KUOW News

Gas prices across the entire state have reached a new all-time high.

AAA reports the average price for a gallon of regular gas in Washington is now $5.57.

That breaks the old record of $5.55 set back in 2022.

I saw regular gas in Seattle's Capitol Hill today going for $6.49.

Meanwhile, Washington Congressmember Kim Schreyer is co-sponsoring a bill

calling for the federal government to suspend the national gas tax until the end of the year.

Seattle area tech giants are reporting strong earnings and rising profits

for the first quarter of the year driven by growth in cloud computing.

Microsoft said yesterday it's a juror cloud business grew by 40% compared to the same period last year.

Meanwhile, Amazon reported sales in its cloud computing division rose by 28% compared with the first quarter of last year.

Moving on to our growth beat, Northgate Mall is becoming a transit-oriented neighborhood.

Where there were parking lots, there will be apartments, shops, and even a park.

Joshua McNichols reports.

When Northgate Mall opened in 1950, it changed how developers thought about new buildings.

The key question became, is there enough parking?

Just a decade ago, a sea of parking lots surrounded Northgate Mall.

Now, nine-story apartment buildings are going up there instead.

They'll still include garage parking, but with sound transit next door,

parking no longer drives every decision.

Patrick Peterman is with Simon Property Group.

His company is redeveloping many of its malls, but he says Seattle's stands out.

This is a unique case in that, you know, we have a light rail station,

so we're now a transit-oriented hub for a whole community here in North Seattle.

It's a shift from designing around cars to designing around transit.

Joshua McNichols, K-O-W News.

Some numbers stories to end the show today.

First, a six-figure fine.

Washington's Department of Ecology has fined a sheaeless farm more than $870,000

for illegally dumping its slaughterhouse wastewater.

The state says the owners of county L farms dumped millions of gallons of things like animal blood

and cleaning products near the sheaeless river in Lewis County.

The farm has 30 days to appeal.

A number four fairy riders, three percent.

That's the rate fairs are going up on average starting tomorrow,

and a 35 percent summer season surcharge for single ride vehicles and motorcycle fairs

also starts tomorrow.

And finally today, we're starting to hear some rumblings about who might want to buy the Seattle Seahawks.

The team is officially up for sale following the late Paul Allen's directive

to sell the team and donate the proceeds to charity.

Front office sports is reporting Meta co-founder Mark Zuckerberg

and outgoing Apple CEO Tim Cook have expressed interest.

But there's skepticism that they actually want to.

The news site Puck reports today that neither billionaire is interested in purchasing the team.

Forbes values the Seahawks at $6.7 billion.

Next time on Seattle now, it's casual Friday.

And Washington State is suing Albertsons for deceptive bogo or buy one get one free offers.

Because if you're going to buy one watermelon and somebody's like,

would you like to? It's like, yes!

But what are you doing with it? Are you going to eat that much watermelon?

Evidently!

Hear that and more Friday morning.

That's all for today from the KUOW Newsroom in Seattle.

Our producers Andy Hearst and I'm Paige Browning.

Seattle now and KUOW are members of the NPR network.

Have a great night and see you tomorrow.

Seattle's economy is complicated.

Inflation, tariffs, AI, layoffs.

It's a lot to keep track of.

That's where we come in. I'm Joshua McNichols.

And I'm Monica Nicholsburg.

We host booming, a podcast about the economic forces shaping our lives here in the Pacific Northwest.

Every week, we dig into the big questions about our economy and where you fit in.

Find booming on the KUOW app or wherever you listen to podcasts.