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Seattle most valuable office buildings, skyscrapers lose $3.7B in value as vacancies surge

Approximately a third of downtown commercial space remains vacant.Among the biggest decreases in value are the Amazon Doppler Tower and Meeting Center (62% drop), Amazon’s Day One Tower and Spheres (59% drop), the DocuSign Tower on 999 Third Street (56% drop), Amazon’s Re-Invent Towers (55% drop), and the US Bank Centre (53% drop).The three Amazon office buildings listed above have lost more than $1 billion in value over the last three years. Amazon has parted with more than 1 millio

Seattle, King County removing César Chávez’s name from park after abuse allegations

Seattle City Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck and King County Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda were the first to push for this change.“Renaming César Chávez Park is not simply about changing signage, it’s about redefining who we choose to honor in shared public spaces and how those choices reflect our values as we are forced to reexamine history,” Rinck said. “Those values must include standing up for survivors of sexual violence. Believing survivors, protecting them, and holdi

World Food Prize goes to food safety scientist for preventing millions of cases of foodborne illness

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A scientist who pioneered the modern food processing safety standards used around the world was awarded this year’s World Food Prize, the organization announced Wednesday, crediting his work for averting millions of cases of foodborne illness and reducing food waste.Huub Lelieveld of the Netherlands earned the award after six decades spent advancing ways to improve food safety and advocating for trade regulations that allow safe food to get around the world more easily.“I

The NAACP names ex-DOJ civil rights chief Kristen Clarke as its top lawyer

The NAACP, the oldest civil rights organization in the U.S., has hired a former Biden Justice Department official to head its legal advocacy work.Kristen Clarke, who previously led the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, will be the NAACP’s next general counsel, the organization announced on Wednesday.According to an announcement shared first with The Associated Press, Clarke will oversee the NAACP’s legal strategy and operations, and she will lead its litigation efforts on voter access, ge

Mason County deputies searching for armed suspect connected to double homicide, considered armed and dangerous

A man wanted in connection with a double homicide investigation is being actively pursued by the Mason County Sheriff’s Office and other local law enforcement agencies.Robert T. Child, 60, is the suspect deputies are searching for. He is considered armed and dangerous, according to the Mason County Sheriff’s Office. He is a bald white man, pictured above, who’s 6 feet tall and weighs approximately 250 pounds.The double homicide Child is allegedly involved with stemmed from a domestic violence incident in Hoodsport.“Deputies are currently working the area as part of an ongoing search for the suspect,” the Mason County Sheriff’s Office stated.Child was last seen driving a white standard-cab Ford dually with a ladder rack, but he may also have access to a gray 2008 Dodge Ram 3500. The Dodge Ram’s license plate is C76622L.“DO NOT APPROACH,” the Mason County Sheriff’s Office wrote. “If you see the suspect or either vehicle, call 911 immediately. This is an active and ongoing investigation. Additional updates will be provided as information becomes available. Community members are urged to remain vigilant and report any suspicious activity.”This is a developing story, check back for updatesFollow Frank Sumrall <a href="https://x.com/FMSumrall" target="_blank" rel="noopener">on X</a>. Send <a href="https://mynorthwest.com/contact-us">news tips here.</a>

Savannah Guthrie in NBC News interview appeals for help finding her missing mother

A tearful Savannah Guthrie, in her first interview since her 84-year-old mother was apparently abducted from her Arizona home, said that “someone needs to do the right thing” and come forward with information to help the investigation.“We are in agony,” she told NBC News colleague Hoda Kotb in a portion of the interview aired Wednesday on the “Today” show. She said she wakes up in the middle of each night thinking of what her mother went through.NBC said Wednesday that a full interview with its

WATCH: AI Takes the Mound — Mariners train against virtual big-leaguers

His video is out of the windup.”Welcome to big league batting practice in the age of AI.The Seattle Mariners are among roughly two-thirds of major league clubs using the Trajekt Arc, a pitching machine that pairs a life-size video projection of a pitcher with a ball launcher capable of replicating his velocity, spin rate, and movement with precision.“Pretty much what it does is it creates every single pitch that’s ever been thrown in the big leagues,” Paparella said. “Our

Seattle’s Mt. Joy chicken restaurant closes both locations

Joy underwent an ownership change last year, changing hands as Conscious Hospitality co-founder Daniel Brawer took control in June 2025, according to Washington business license records obtained by The Puget Sound Business Journal.RELATED STORIESMuckleshoot Casino debuts WA's first Heinz sauce machine, serving 2,000 custom sauce combinations'Cursed' Ganesh statue listed on Craigslist by Everett man after he claims it 'ruined his life'Costco CEO jumps on viral social media trend to taste-test bel

Means’ surgeon general nomination is stalled as senators question her experience and vaccine stance

Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who has said he won’t seek another term, told The Associated Press that he’s leaning against voting for Means if her nomination reaches the Senate floor.“Her resume already puts me on alert — and then I don’t think she did herself any favors in the hearing,” Tillis said.Means’ confirmation delay is unusually long At nearly 300 days since her nomination in May, Means’ confirmation process has taken almost twice as long as the average presidential p

Beneath Lake Erie, a vast salt mine works overtime to meet winter road demands

Many municipalities exhausted supplies that typically last through spring, said Cargill spokesperson Emily Tangeman.“Our teams have been working overtime since September to support customers across the snowbelt,” Tangeman said, noting that early, persistent winter weather boosted demand across the industry.The mine beneath Lake Erie, one of the world’s largest, produces 3 million to 4 million tons (2.7 million to 3.6 million metric tons) annually, although that can fall short of demand in especi

Conservatives gather for CPAC with the right openly divided over the Iran war

<block>GRAPEVINE, Texas (AP) — Conservatives are holding one of their largest annual gatherings at a perilous political moment for President Donald Trump and with open division on the right over the war he launched in Iran.While Trump maintains broad support among conservatives, the war in Iran is more than a wrinkle for activists drawn to his “America First” campaign pledge against getting involved in foreign conflicts. The debate will be a subtext — and likely flare publicly — as thousands of activists, influencers and Republican lawmakers gather at the Conservative Political Action Conference that begins Wednesday outside Dallas. The gathering will be a contrast to the celebratory meeting one year ago where Trump, newly returned to office, vowed to “forge a new and lasting political majority” and Elon Musk wielded a chainsaw to symbolize how the administration was slashing the government workforce and red tape.This year, neither Trump nor Vice President JD Vance has been publicly announced as speaking to the gathering. But among those who are slated to speak are big names in the MAGA movement who have voiced conflicting views on the Iran war. “This is obviously going to be a hot topic,” said John Gizzi, a CPAC veteran and columnist for the conservative media outlet Newsmax, who noted the possibility of greater U.S. involvement over an uncertain length of time. <hl2>Some featured speakers are divided over Iran, Israel</hl2>Among the featured speakers scheduled at the four-day event is longtime Trump ally Steve Bannon. Bannon said during his War Room podcast this month that should the war become “a hard slog,” it could cost the GOP conservative voters ahead of the midterms. “We are going to bleed support,” Bannon said. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who supports the war, also is on the agenda at the Gaylord Texan Resort and Convention Center.“I think President Trump was exactly right to act to protect Americans,” Cruz said last week in a CBS News interview.Former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz’s scheduled speaking slot is a reminder of the disagreement among some conservatives about the U.S. military alliance with Israel against Iran.Gaetz, host of a show on the conservative One America News Network, has said the U.S. has been too cozy with Israel as popular conservative personalities such as Tucker Carlson have challenged conservatives’ longtime bond with the country, prompting criticism from GOP groups, including pro-Israel Republicans, of antisemitism.Others scheduled to speak include Trump border czar Tom Homan and former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley, who is running for the U.S. Senate in North Carolina. <hl2>Trump’s standing is strong among base </hl2> <hl2/>A year after Trump presided over the group’s jubilant conference upon his return to office, he is in a much different place. At war while worries about jobs and household costs linger, his approval is down. His signature domestic policy, aimed at tightening voting rules ahead of November’s midterm elections, has stalled in a Congress his party controls, while the House Republican majority is in jeopardy and the party’s hold on the Senate is less certain than a year ago.Despite the dividing lines, Trump enjoys enduring approval from his party’s right flank. Eighty-six percent of conservatives said they approved of the president’s job performance in a February AP-NORC poll. And while Trump’s supporters remain devoted, some within the most conservative circles say division over Iran could signal trouble for Republicans in November. Texas Rep. Steve Toth, who plans to attend CPAC, suggested Trump’s support remains robust among conservatives, but that Republican messaging on the war could be stronger.“From MAGA people, for the most part, I don’t hear frustration with the president,” said Toth, who beat incumbent Republican Rep. Dan Crenshaw in Texas’ March 3 primary. “I don’t know that we’re doing a great job at communicating the full ramifications.”<hl2>Texas’ GOP Senate primary is a lingering issue</hl2>Another stark reminder of the contrast with last year is Texas’s unresolved Senate primary, a particular political headache for Trump. Texas Attorney Gen. Ken Paxton, who is challenging four-term GOP Sen. John Cornyn, not only is attending the event, but has one of the event’s premier speaking roles, the Ronald Reagan Dinner on Friday evening. Cornyn is not attending the Texas conference.Trump said three weeks ago he would soon endorse one of them after Paxton finished narrowly behind Cornyn in the March 3 primary, though neither received a majority to avoid a May 26 runoff. Trump implored whoever didn’t get the endorsement to drop out, writing in a social media post that the bitter contest “cannot, for the good of the Party, and our Country, itself, be allowed to go on any longer.” The deadline for candidates to remove their names from the May 26 runoff ballot passed last week, as Paxton and Cornyn were launching stepped-up attack ads targeting one another.___Catalini reported from Morrisville, Pennsylvania. Associated Press writer Amelia Thomson DeVeaux in Washington contributed to this report.</block>

Judge fines San Francisco public defender after finding him in contempt for refusing new cases

He said his attorneys average 60 felony cases and 135 misdemeanor cases at a time, well above the up to 40 felony and 80 misdemeanor cases recommended in a 2025 study by the Deason Criminal Justice Reform Center at Southern Methodist University.Heavy workloads among public defenders often lead to defendants waiting longer than necessary to resolve their cases, he said. He said that so far no one has been left without legal representation in San Francisco because his office coordinates with city-

The FBI exhumed a K-9 commander’s dog in a cold case murder. But what really killed Fuzz?

“Special Agent Hopkins not only suppressed material physical and forensic evidence that would have raised doubts about guilt, he hid proof of actual innocence — helping the real killer escape justice.”Kovacich’s defense team has urged authorities to investigate whether Janet Kovacich actually was targeted by the notorious Golden State Killer, Joseph DeAngelo, who patrolled the area around the Kovacich home before he was fired from the Auburn Police Department. DeAngelo crossed paths with K

Perfect homework, blank stares: Why colleges are turning to oral exams to combat AI

<block>The assignment involves no laptop, no chatbot and no technology of any kind. In fact, there’s no pen or paper, either.Instead, students in Chris Schaffer’s biomedical engineering class at Cornell University are required to speak directly to an instructor in what he calls an “oral defense.”It’s a testing method as old as Socrates and making a comeback in the AI age. A growing number of college professors say they are turning to oral exams, and combining a variety of old-fashioned and cutting-edge techniques, to help address a crisis in higher education.“You won’t be able to AI your way through an oral exam,” says Schaffer, who introduced the oral defense last semester. Educators are no longer naively wondering if students will use generative AI to do their homework for them. A big question now is how to determine what students are actually learning. College instructors across the U.S. are noticing troubling new trends as generative artificial intelligence becomes more sophisticated. Take-home essays and other written assignments are coming back perfect. But when students are asked to explain their work, they can’t. The long-term impact of AI use on critical thinking remains to be seen, but educators worry students increasingly see the hard work of thinking as optional.<hl2>Some colleges shift toward in-person tests </hl2>At the University of Pennsylvania, Emily Hammer, an associate professor of Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures, now pairs oral exams with written papers in her seminar classes.“It comes across as if we’re trying to prevent cheating,” Hammer says. “That’s not why we’re doing this. We’re doing this because students are actually losing skills, losing cognitive capacity and creativity.”Hammer forbids AI use on all writing assignments but tells her class she knows she can’t enforce that. However, if they haven’t written their papers themselves, defending the material face-to-face will likely be “a very stressful situation.”Hammer’s class is part of “a massive shift toward in-person assessments,” both written and oral, at Penn, says Bruce Lenthall, executive director of the school’s Center for Teaching and Learning. The Ivy League school is one of a small but growing number of universities that have started running faculty workshops on oral exams.Oral exams are not traditionally part of the modern American undergraduate system, unlike certain European universities. For instance, in the Oxbridge tutorial system in England, students meet faculty for weekly discussions. Some U.S. colleges saw a move toward oral exams during the COVID-19 pandemic to address concerns about online cheating, and interest has intensified since the launch of ChatGPT in 2022.During the pandemic, engineering professor Huihui Qi launched a three-year study at the University of California, San Diego on how to scale oral exams. Several universities have since invited her to provide faculty workshops or discuss her research.<hl2>Harnessing AI to fight ‘fire with fire’</hl2> <hl2/>At New York University, several types of oral assessments are on the rise. More faculty are requiring office hours, assigning presentations and cold-calling on students in class. Instructors are saying, “I need to look my students in the eye and ask, ‘Do you know this material?’” says Clay Shirky, vice provost for AI and technology in education.One NYU professor has put a modern spin on the traditional oral test. Panos Ipeirotis, a professor at NYU’s Stern School of Business, unveiled an AI-powered oral exam last semester for the final exam in a class on AI product management. He calls it “fighting fire with fire.”Students log in from home, at any time that fits their schedule. A voice cloned from a business school professor greets them.“Hi there,” says the voice on their screen. It asks for the student’s name and school ID number and then says, “I’m ready to conduct your exam today.”The chatbot starts with questions about a final group project and drills into details based on each student’s answers. If the student stumbles, the AI agent gives them clues, along with criticism and positive feedback. Ipeirotis grades the exams separately, also with the help of AI.“We wanted to check: Do you know what your team did? Were you a free rider? Did you outsource everything to AI?” says Ipeirotis, who designed the tool with ElevenLabs, a company that develops generative AI voice agents to conduct job interviews.Students in the class this semester are redesigning the AI agent to smooth out some kinks, and Ipeirotis plans to use it in all his future classes.“I want oral exams everywhere now. I want to pair it with every single written assignment,” says Ipeirotis. “I don’t trust written assignments anymore to be the result of actual thinking.”Feedback from students last semester was mixed.Business major Andrea Liu found the chatbot’s voice to be surprisingly human, but the conversation felt choppy with odd pauses. It asked multiple questions at once, which was confusing. And it was jarring to hear a voice but not see a person.“It felt kind of awkward to be talking to what was pretty much a blank screen,” says Liu, 21. But, she agreed with worried educators: “There is no perfect world where AI exists and kids are not abusing it.”<hl2>Schools see benefits even for shy students</hl2>Across the humanities and STEM disciplines, like computer science, educators worry that students who skip the mental struggle that is necessary for problem solving won’t develop the skills they need to advance in upper-level classes and careers. That’s why Schaffer, the Cornell professor, introduced the oral defense in his biomedical engineering class. He requires students to sign up for 20-minute sessions of Socratic-style questioning after submitting written problem sets, which are assigned several times each semester.With a class of 70 students, Schaffer splits the job with his teaching assistants. They no longer grade the written problem sets, just the oral defenses. He calls it “incentivizing” his students to do the work, or at least understand it enough to explain.Schaffer’s class is highlighted in a new “Oral Assessment Workshop” offered by Cornell’s Center for Teaching Innovation.Other examples at Cornell: a religious studies professor who now holds 30-minute “final conversations” with students instead of a final exam; and another engineering course where the professor gives four-minute mock interviews to each student in a 180-person class. Skeptics point out oral exams can be unsettling for students who are shy or have serious anxiety, but clarifying the format ahead of time and starting with softball questions can help, says Carolyn Aslan, who leads Cornell’s oral exam training. “Sometimes it’s actually good to get that quiet student one-on-one, and you finally get to hear from them. Sometimes that is the breakthrough,” Aslan says.Several of Schaffer’s students say they felt nervous at first but ended up preferring the oral exam.“I honestly liked it a lot,” says Cornell junior Olivia Piserchia, a biomedical engineering major. She initially found the oral defense nerve-wracking but came to value the one-on-one time with instructors. It kept her from feeling lost in a large class and helped her build the skill of articulating her technical knowledge, as she would need to in a job. “Having that live check-in holds you accountable,” says Piserchia. “It’s a lot harder to look people in the eyes and say out loud, ‘I don’t know this.’ And, that makes you realize, ‘I should study this.’”___The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s <a href="https://www.ap.org/about/news-values-and-principles/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">standards</a> for working with philanthropies, a <a href="https://www.ap.org/about/supporting-ap/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">list</a> of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.</block>

Chicano Studies program pioneer Rudy Acuña dies at 93

university, has died at 93.Acuña’s landmark 1972 textbook “Occupied America: A History of Chicanos” continues to be taught in schools.He died Monday, said Carmen Ramos Chandler, a spokesperson for California State University, Northridge, where he taught for nearly half a century.Although Acuña described himself as a teacher, he was also a prolific writer who authored more than a dozen books, several dozen academic papers and scores of essays and opinion pieces.He founded one of the first Chicano

A timeline of the deadly collision at LaGuardia Airport

<block>NEW YORK (AP) — It took less than a minute for a routine landing to spiral into a deadly crash Sunday at New York’s LaGuardia Airport. But the collision between an Air Canada flight and a fire truck crossing the runway was the culmination of a series of events that began much earlier. The Associated Press created this timeline based on a review of air traffic control recordings and information from the Federal Aviation Administration, publicly available flight tracking data and the National Transportation Safety Board, including information it obtained from the jet’s cockpit voice recorder.<hl2>A late departure from Montreal</hl2>10:12 p.m.: Air Canada Express Flight 8646, operated by Jazz Aviation, leaves Montréal–Trudeau International Airport, two hours and 13 minutes late. By the time the aircraft reaches New York, it is part of an influx of late-arriving flights, including some waiting extended periods for a gate.<hl2>Issues on the ground at LaGuardia</hl2>11:16:42 p.m.: A United aircraft, Flight 2384, aborts takeoff for a second time because of an anti-ice warning light in the cockpit.11:20:48 p.m.: “We have an odor on the plane as well here at this time,” the United pilot reports. “We are going to be going back to the gate, request fire as well,” using shorthand for the airport’s fire rescue team.11:21:12 p.m.: Another pilot chimes in: “If that’s a sewer smell … we smelled that too going around the terminal there.”11:22:24 p.m.: A controller asks the United pilot if it is a smoke odor. He responds: “No, it was a weird odor. I don’t know exactly how to describe it,” and says he can’t get ahold of anyone to obtain a gate assignment.11:24:49 p.m.: The controller confirms there is no gate available. He asks the pilot, “Do you still need us to send fire there?” The pilot says yes, citing the odor.11:27:44 p.m.: United 2384’s pilot tells the controller he doesn’t plan on evacuating the plane. The controller instructs the pilot to move to another taxiway.11:29:54 p.m.: United 2384 makes a wrong turn and ends up in a different part of the taxiway, but the controller doesn’t sound concerned. “You can just stay over there … and we’ll have the guys go over there,” he says.11:31:41 p.m.: United 2384 declares an emergency. The pilot says: “The flight attendants in the back are feeling ill because of the odor. We will need to go into any available gate at this time.”11:31:59 p.m.: The controller asks again if there’s an available gate, telling the person he’s speaking with, “now they’re declaring an emergency. They want to get out.”11:33:39 p.m.: The controller tells United 2384 there is still no open gate, but fire trucks are headed over with a stair truck if they want to evacuate. “Let me know if you do,” he says.<hl2>Flight 8646 is cleared to land</hl2>11:34:18 p.m.: In a routine step near the end of a flight, the air traffic controller handling approaches into LaGuardia instructs the pilots of Air Canada Express Flight 8646 pilots to contact the airport’s control tower, which will guide them the rest of the way.11:35:08 p.m.: Flight 8646 is cleared to land on Runway 4/22.<hl2>Fire truck is cleared to cross</hl2>11:36:45 p.m.: At the airport, a controller asks: “Is there a vehicle that needed to cross the runway?”11:37:00 p.m.: “Truck 1 and company, LaGuardia Tower, requesting to cross 4 at Delta,” the firefighter says, meaning he is requesting clearance to use Taxiway D to cross Runway 4 — the same runway where Flight 8646 is about to land.11:37:05 p.m.: “Truck 1 and company cross 4 at Delta,” the controller says, authorizing the truck and other emergency vehicles to cross Runway 4. Simultaneously, on a different frequency, the pilot on the odor-stricken United flight reports that his plane has finally been cleared to go to a gate.11:37:08 p.m.: “Truck 1 and company crossing 4 at Delta,” a firefighter in Truck 1 repeats, confirming that the controller has cleared the vehicle to cross. 11:37:11 p.m.: An electronic call out in Flight 8646’s cockpit indicates the plane is 50 feet above the ground.11:37:12 p.m.: A controller tells the pilot of an outbound Frontier Airlines flight to stop on a taxiway.<hl2>Flight 8646 lands and collides with the fire truck</hl2>11:37:15 p.m.: “Sorry, Truck 1,” a controller says as Flight 8646 bears down on Runway 4/22.11:37:16 p.m.: A controller then frantically tells the fire crew: “Stop. Stop Stop. Stop. Truck 1. Stop. Stop. Stop. Stop.”11:37:17 p.m.: Flight 8646’s cockpit voice recorder captures a sound that investigators say is consistent with the plane’s landing gear touching down..11:37:19 p.m.: Flight 8646’s first officer, who was flying the plane, transfers control to the captain.11:37:20 p.m.: The controller continues, “Stop Truck 1. Stop. Stop Truck 1. Stop.” As he speaks, an alarm begins to beep.11:37:25 p.m.: Flight 8646 slams into the fire truck. The cockpit voice recording stops.<hl2>Aftermath</hl2>11:37:45 p.m.: A controller tells the pilot of the next plane set to land to “go around,” meaning he should keep flying instead of landing.The controller then tries to raise the pilots of Flight 8646. “I see you collided with a vehicle there. Just hold position. I know you can’t move. Vehicles are responding to you now.” Other rescue vehicles race to the crash site.11:55:37 p.m.: The pilot of another plane tells a controller: “That wasn’t good to watch.” The controller responds: “Yeah, I know. I was here … We were dealing with an emergency earlier. I messed up.” The pilot says: “Nah, man, you did the best you could.”</block>

King County Council passes ban on ICE agents at county-owned properties after protestors disrupt meeting

Protesters waved anti-ICE signs and chanted during the meeting, according to KOMO News.KOMO News also noted that most of the crowd supported the ordinance, but several people told the media outlet they believe more action is needed to protect immigrant communities.The meeting was eventually moved online after the council chambers were cleared due to the heated public comments and protestors.Measure codifies Zahilay’s executive orderWith the measure passing, an executive order signed by Kin

As New Mexico jury finds Meta platforms harm children, social media firms await more legal decisions

In his opening statement, prosecuting attorney Donald Migliori said Meta has misrepresented the safety of its platforms, choosing to engineer its algorithms to keep young people online while knowing that children are at risk of sexual exploitation.The Los Angeles case centers on addictionJurors are still deliberating in a landmark social media case that seeks to hold tech companies responsible for harms to children. The plaintiff has argued the platform design features of the two remaining defen

1 lane of SR 109 has reopened in Grays Harbor County after landslide

One lane of State Route 109 (SR 109) near Taholah in Grays Harbor County has reopened after a landslide blocked the road and interfered with power lines.The road is partially blocked south of Taholah near Canyon Way.While only one lane is open, alternating one-way traffic is in place, controlled by a stop sign near Canyon Way, according to the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT).Final Update: One lane of SR 109 near Taholah has reopened. Alternating one-way traffic is in place

Jewish communities boost security and continue observances amid rise in hateful incidents

Law enforcement officials on Tuesday said they are taking steps to monitor and counter threats to Jewish and Muslim communities nationwide since the onset of war in the Middle East, multiple hate crimes and an attempted terror attack prompted increased security measures at places of worship and investigations into extremist activity.As the FBI conducts an investigation into a March 12 incident in West Bloomfield, Michigan, in which a driver drove a vehicle through the doors of Temple Israel, the