Northwest Reports

WA Armenians on War and Hope

Azerbaijan’s push for territory has forced thousands to flee. Reporter Taija PerryCook spoke with local communities about erasure and resilience.
Azerbaijan launched an offensive in September to claim land that Armenians have long considered home.
The move has driven about 100,000 ethnic Armenians from the disputed territory, known as both Nagorno-Karabakh and Artsakh, and raised fears of ethnic cleansing.
Over the past year, reporter Taija PerryCook spoke with Armenians in Washington, who watched from afar as tensions heightened.
In this episode of Crosscut Reports, PerryCook and host Maleeha Syed discuss the history of the region and how decades of war and erasure are affecting local Armenian community members. Many describe a need for more awareness of what’s happening — and a confidence that their culture will prevail.
Read our full report on what Armenian communities in Washington have to say here.  
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Credits
Host/Producer: Maleeha Syed and Sara Bernard 
Reporter: Taija PerryCook
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.

Meet Our New Co-Host + Mossback Preview

You probably noticed a new voice in the past few episodes of Crosscut Reports.
That’s Maleeha Syed, the show’s new co-host. She’ll be working alongside Sara Bernard to bring you weekly updates on the stories coming out of Crosscut’s newsroom. 
This episode of Crosscut Reports starts with a casual conversation between the two co-hosts. Syed, previously Crosscut’s communities reporter, talks about what it’s like to switch from written to audio storytelling and shares a few podcasts she has had in rotation lately.
Bernard then gives listeners a sneak peek into the fourth season of Mossback, the companion podcast to our award-winning video series about Pacific Northwest history, with a snippet from one of the newest episodes.
Read Knute Berger's essay about Season 8 of Mossback's Northwest here.
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Credits
Host/Producer: Sara Bernard and Maleeha Syed 
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.

WA Teachers Face Public Backlash

Politics reporter Joseph O’Sullivan talked to teachers about the increasing criticism they face at school over race and LGBTQ+ topics.
Teachers have found themselves embroiled in a national culture war as parents and politicians question what children are learning in school, from critical race theory to gender identity. 
These days, educators in Washington say they’re feeling reverberations from this conflict. 
Crosscut’s state politics reporter, Joseph O’Sullivan, wrote about how these confrontations are contributing to burnout among educators and union leaders at a time when their field is experiencing a labor shortage. 
In this episode of Crosscut Reports, host Maleeha Syed spoke with O’Sullivan about the pushback these educators are getting from their communities – and how these encounters are impacting them.
Read our full report on the pushback that educators in Washington are experiencing here.  
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Credits
Host/Producer: Maleeha Syed and Scot Michael 
Reporter: Joseph O’Sullivan 
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.

Nurses Leave Jobs for New Careers

Reporter Megan Burbank spoke with former nurses who, amid grievances like staffing shortages and low pay, changed their careers.
Nurses took on immense responsibilities as COVID-19 raged across the country, overloading hospitals and overextending health care workers. 
Today, some of these nurses have left the field completely due to mounting pressures that were exacerbated by the pandemic – but had existed long before.
Freelance reporter Megan Burbank talked to several former nurses in Washington about the stressors that led them to leave their field for new career paths like massage therapy and web development.   
In this episode of Crosscut Reports, host Maleeha Syed talks with Burbank about what drew these nurses to the field; what pushed them out; and how their lives have changed for the better since leaving. 
Read our full report on how people are adjusting to life after nursing here.
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Credits
Host/Producer: Maleeha Syed and Scot Michael 
Reporter: Megan Burbank
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.
 

The Push to Preserve Mobile Home Communities

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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Credits
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.

Free Speech vs. Civil Rights

Reporter Mai Hoang explains how the court decision to exempt a Colorado web designer from LGBTQ+ antidiscrimination laws could have a ripple effect.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June that a Christian website designer in Colorado can refuse to provide wedding websites to same-sex couples, because doing so falls within her First Amendment right to free speech.
As Crosscut reporter Mai Hoang found, the ruling in Colorado was the first to address whether prohibiting discrimination against a protected class can be set aside for someone’s free-speech rights.
This decision signals a marked shift from a Washington Supreme Court case, settled in 2021, that required Barronelle Stutzman to follow public accommodation laws after she refused on religious grounds to provide custom floral arrangements for a same-sex marriage.
In this episode of Crosscut Reports, host Sara Bernard talks with Hoang about the significance of this Supreme Court ruling; its potential implications in Washington; and the tenuous balance between upholding First Amendment rights and protecting vulnerable communities from discrimination.
Read our full report on the impacts of 303 Creative in WA here.  
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Credits
Host/Producer: Sara Bernard
Reporter: 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.

The Fight Over Public Libraries

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.

The Hidden World of WA Surveillance

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.

Biking Every Single Street in Seattle

Reporter Conor Courtney explains how cyclist Danny Roberts began the passion project — and what the journey meant to both of them.
In late 2021, freelance writer and photographer Conor Courtney noticed some strange patterns on the fitness app Strava. An acquaintance, Danny Roberts, was posting about riding his bike all over Seattle—but not on typical bike-friendly routes. He would consistently zig-zag back and forth on every street in a given neighborhood.
Turns out Roberts was doing this for a specific purpose. He’d decided to bike every single street in the city of Seattle. In the end, it took him about 13 months of riding hard. And Courtney thought it was worth asking why. 
Along the way, Roberts found unique, hidden corners of Seattle and learned a whole lot more about the city he loves. But he was also hit by a car and suffered fairly serious injuries. That didn’t stop him.
In this episode of Crosscut Reports, host Sara Bernard talks with Courtney about Roberts’ unusual project and what it meant to him; the joy and challenges of riding bikes in Seattle; and why Courtney was inspired to report on this project in the first place.
Read our full report on Danny Roberts' Seattle cycling journey here.
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Credits
Host/Producer: Sara Bernard
Reporter: Conor Courtney
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.

Fixing a Fundraising Gap in WA Schools

PTSAs can reduce resource gaps, but also exacerbate inequities among schools. Reporter Venice Buhain shares local efforts working to change that.
Seattle public schools, like most public schools, don’t all have the same resources to offer students. And they tend to rely on parent-led fundraising to fill in the gaps. But that can exacerbate the inequities that already exist, as wealthy families can often afford to donate the money and time that low-income families can’t.
Crosscut associate news editor Venice Buhain recently dug into this issue in Seattle, exploring why these fundraising efforts, run by Parent Teacher Student Associations (PTSAs), have recently come under scrutiny.  Some parents and advocates now hope to change the paradigm altogether.
For this episode of Crosscut Reports, host Sara Bernard talks with Buhain about what these parents are doing to make PTSA-based fundraising more equitable, with the goal of reducing the schools’ significant disparities in staffing and supplies.
Some local PTSAs, for instance, have begun pooling resources and distributing raised funds among schools in their neighborhoods – and questioning why parent groups are relied on for fundraising in the first place.
Read our full report on the effort to change PTSA fundraising in Seattle here. 
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Credits
Host/Producer: Sara Bernard
Reporter: Venice Buhain
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.