“I think Mount Rainier, the name will change. I think they’ll change it to ‘Taquoma,’ eventually, probably in our lifetimes. And I don’t think that’s a bad thing,” Banel said on “Seattle’s Morning News” Wednesday.

The exact pronunciation of “Taquoma” is also up for debate. While Banel will give it a softer ‘h’ like ‘Tahoma’ some tribes pronounce the name with a sound emanating from the back of the throat and truer to the ‘qu’ in the name. How to pronounce it will be up to the tribes at the center of the push to rename Mount Rainier.

“With the English language, there’s certain poetry to names like ‘Rainier’ and ‘Baker’. It’s sort of so familiar, but ya know, it’s a terrific debate to keep having continually,” Banel said.

The U.S. Board of Geographic Names would ultimately have to approve of the name change and they are well aware of the Puyallup Tribe’s efforts.

“(They’ve been) engaged in a years long process to create consensus around the indigenous community about what they would like it renamed. So, I do think in our lifetimes, we’ll see a change like that and it’ll be like Denali up in Alaska, but a bigger deal,” Banel said.

More on the history of Denali

I turned to various online sources to understand the history of Denali, and how it might inform the potential fight ahead of local tribes to rename Mount Rainier. The name for Denali was ensnared in a years-long battle between the federal government and Alaska.

In 1975, it was the Alaska legislature who lobbied the federal government to change the name from “Mount McKinley” (after a gold prospector and also President William McKinley) to “Denali,” which would pay homage to the Indigenous tribe that first named the mountain ‘Deenaalee’ meaning ‘the high one.’

It wasn’t until President Barack Obama’s administration that the name change was granted. (Readers can view of a PDF of the Department of Interior’s order to change the name as a PDF here).

Interestingly, according to CNN, when then-President Donald Trump was in office, he met with senators from Alaska to ask about reversing it. But his efforts, apparently, ended there.

Feliks Banel joins “Seattle’s Morning News” every Wednesday and Friday for his features on local history. You can click on the player above or head here to hear the full conversation about Mount Rainier, which began with a brief history of Northwest explorer Captain George Vancouver‘s adventures and the fact that he is still honored to this day at a tiny cemetery in England.

Listen to Seattle’s Morning News with Dave Ross and Colleen O’Brien weekday mornings from 5-9 a.m. on KIRO Newsradio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.

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Idaho’s new law only allows for an abortion during emergency care to save the mother’s life. The U.S. Justice Department sued Idaho on grounds that the law violates the federal Emergency Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA). The lawsuit has made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court. We invited Erin Carr, Assistant Professor of Law at Seattle University, on Seattle’s Morning News to help us wade through the Supreme Court arguments and questions in this case.

“Under EMTALA, hospitals that receive federal funding must provide “stabilizing treatment” for “emergency medical conditions” — even if it ends the pregnancy,” Carr said.

The Department of Justice is asserting that Idaho’s near complete abortion ban conflicts with EMTALA because under the abortion ban in the state of Idaho, there are criminal penalties for doctors who provide emergency abortion care where a pregnant woman’s health may be at risk, but her life isn’t necessarily at risk,” she continued.

Colleen O’Brien: Is the FAFSA loan worth the degree?

That seemed to be what certain justices zeroed in on during questioning. Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Amy Coney-Barrett seemed to be seeking clarity from Idaho’s attorney Joshua Turner about how a doctor might determine if a woman is “near death’s door” or “at death’s door”. Carr said without clarity on the minimum standard of care for a pregnant woman, Idaho’s law could create near-fatal or lifelong harm to pregnant mothers.

“What (Idaho) is arguing is that the Idaho Defense of Life Act is not directly conflict with EMTALA. And that’s because they are not providing abortion care to anyone. And instead of providing that emergency care, the state of Idaho is essentially transporting those patients out of state in order to get that life-saving stabilizing care,” Carr explained.

One Justice brought up that there have already been women transported out of Idaho in order to receive care, so this is not a hypothetical situation. Idaho’s ban is already having real-world implications for women and, in fact, Carr said one in five doctors in Idaho has left to work in another state.

“It really places medical providers in Idaho in an impossible situation. And that’s because the Idaho Defense of Life Act provides very, very narrow circumstances in which abortion will be permissible, and that is where the pregnant person’s life is at risk, not necessarily their health, but their life. And so many providers in Idaho do not feel that they are empowered to provide emergency abortion care unless it is pretty much a given that this pregnant person is on death’s door,” Carr said.

The places women are being transported to from Idaho include Washington State, and we asked Carr if lawsuits are on the way as other states shoulder the financial and ethical burdens born out of these restrictive laws.

You can listen to the entire interview with Professor Erin Carr below.

Listen to Seattle’s Morning News with Dave Ross and Colleen O’Brien weekday mornings from 5-9 a.m. on KIRO Newsradio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.

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“They fix those problems. But now we have a new problem. And that is that some colleges said they received incorrect information from this government FAFSA form, the department of ed said, we get it, we know we have problems, they’re correcting these errors. Most of these problems should be resolved by the end of this month. But that leaves a lot of families sort of in limbo waiting to hear,” Schlesinger told Seattle’s Morning News on KIRO Newsradio.

Other news: Arlington school breaks barriers one vending machine meal at a time

May 1 is typically the date to choose a college or university, but without answers on whether a prospective student got the financial aid needed, there’s no way to declare that. Some schools have extended the deadline by a couple of weeks, which helps, but there is no clear deadline on when FAFSA issues will be resolved.

This opens up the opportunity for a larger conversation, according to Schlesinger, that should start freshman year of high school but may still be valid at any point: Is your degree worth the loan?

“I think the biggest problem that we have seen maybe in the past 20 years or so, is that people are had been assuming loans and huge loans. And they said, OK, well, I’ll get a great job, I’ll pay it back. But what we have found out is that, of course, many people are really struggling to pay down this debt, because they’ve gotten jobs that didn’t support the amount of the loan that they took out,” Schlesinger said.

So, I think people need to have very frank conversations. This has to be a conversation where we are talking to one another about what this family as a total family can afford? What will that do to whoever is paying these loans back? How will we balance the need for us to plan for our retirement and send you to college, all these things are really important,” she continued.

Schlesinger said college degrees are still valuable. Research has shown college graduates earn more money over their careers, but borrowing too much money means their advantage will begin to narrow.

Colleen O’Brien: Seattle’s new walkability maps

Schlesinger has developed a rule of thumb for student loans: Limit the borrowing for the student to what you believe will be their first-year salary. That may sound tough to calculate, but there are plenty of websites out there that offer a peek into salary ranges.

You can hear the entire conversation with CBS Business Analyst Jill Schlesinger on the April 19 Seattle’s Morning News podcast, where Colleen O’Brien and Travis Mayfield ask her about President Joe Biden’s continued efforts to eliminate or reduce student loan debt.

To listen to the podcast, go here.

Listen to Seattle’s Morning News with Dave Ross and Colleen O’Brien weekday mornings from 5-9 a.m. on KIRO Newsradio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.

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Mayfield: Why centering more women’s voices matter this month and every month

Medicine, for example, has long been a place where women’s pain has been mishandled or downright not believed. I spoke with Dr. Elizabeth Comen, an oncologist and author of “All In Her Head: The Truth and Lies Early Medicine Taught Us About Women’s Bodies, And Why It Matters Today.”

‘We are afraid of making people uncomfortable,’ says Dr. Comen

“The opening of my book is a story of a woman on her deathbed and she would not be the first or last to apologize to me for something in that setting,” Comen said.

In this case, this woman apologized to me for sweating hours before her death. And in a given day when I see breast cancer patients, both who are sick or well, and I’m doing a breast exam, for example, almost every woman apologizes to me for something — not shaving their armpits, not having a pedicure or manicure, sweating during the appointment, asking too many questions. These are basic, either natural phenomena or basic needs that we have and yet mirroring a lot of what women deal with in society. I think we are afraid of making people uncomfortable, including in a doctor’s office and we disproportionately apologize for things that I don’t think we should be apologizing for,” she continued.

Speaking from my own experience, this does not surprise me. Women apologize for a lot — sometimes for just existing.

I’ve been trying to reverse this tendency. I have to say “sorry” when I’m simply standing somewhere and someone comes up alongside me. Like I’m in their way.

Women not getting proper treatment goes back historically

Back to medicine, Comen said women not getting the medical response or treatment they need goes way back in history and reversal of that bias has only just begun.

2016 study: Female physicians are paid $20,000 to $50,000 less than their male colleagues

“It wasn’t until 1993 that women were even required to be part of NIH (National Institutes of Health) funded clinical trials and minorities as well. So many of the drugs that we use, the devices that we use, the imaging techniques that we have, were based on this 70-kilogram reference male and did not include equal participation from women,” said Comen.

And that includes not only human subjects but when we look at drugs or techniques that were developed in the laboratory, it was often male animal models or male-derived cells that much of what we know about medicine was studied upon,” she added.

Comen shared advice for women before they choose a doctor and when they’re with a doctor. The full interview can be heard here:

Listen to Seattle’s Morning News with Dave Ross and Colleen O’Brien weekday mornings from 5-9 a.m. on KIRO Newsradio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.

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Wilcox is a member of the Wilcox family, who owns Wilcox Family Farms. Wilcox Family Farms is an advertiser on KIRO Newsradio.

“I knew in my heart it was time to go,” Wilcox said, remarking that 12 of his 14 years were spent in Republican leadership. “I feel like I’ve just got too much baggage at this point to be as enthusiastic as I used to be and this is a unique job. Most jobs you’re there working for yourself. In this job, if you’re going to do it well you’ve got to be doing it for everybody else.”

Previous J.T. Wilcox coverage: ‘Almost nothing of consequence’ passed, the state House Republican leader said

I was surprised to hear phrases like ‘painful moments’

I was surprised to hear him use phrases like “painful moments” and “too much baggage” in his explanation for resigning his position. He explained part of it has to do with being in the Republican minority for years and working hard despite knowing the work would be overshadowed by Democrat priorities.

For future lawmakers, his advice is to turn off the noise and focus on the work.

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This week, Dave and I called up our KIRO Newsradio colleague and GeekWire’s own Mike Lewis to help us understand what’s happening and if that can give us a glance into the tech world’s crystal ball.

“I’d tell people to expect more,” Lewis answered when we asked if the layoffs would begin to slow.

More on layoffs in WA: Thousands of Raterlabs employees laid off 1 year after pay raise

Lewis said there have been roughly 200,000 layoffs, broadly speaking, in the last two years. All of the Big Five tech companies are involved: Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Google and Meta.

“Any time you’re going to hear about a tech layoff, you’re going to hear about something in Seattle,” Lewis said. “But all of these same companies, while they’re having layoffs, are also doing fairly intense hiring — primarily in the artificial intelligence (AI) sector.”

Despite shedding thousands and thousands of jobs, tech company revenue has shot up, but Lewis claimed that’s not necessarily due to shedding jobs. Instead, companies are finding ways to do more with less even with workers not being replaced by AI — yet.

“AI still can’t do everything these companies want it to do,” Lewis said. “And, in fact, the AI departments in all of these companies, Apple included, which is secretly working on something, says it is pretty spectacular. Those areas of the company are actually hiring fairly rapidly.”

More from Seattle’s Morning News: Latest COVID-19 variant escapes natural immunity

The good news for jobs in a story about layoffs? Lewis stated there is a dearth of qualified A.I. engineers and they are getting snapped up by every company because every company feels like they need to have a dog in this fight. Know any future college students looking for an area of study? *hint hint*

Listen to Seattle’s Morning News with Dave Ross and Colleen O’Brien weekday mornings from 5-9 a.m. on KIRO Newsradio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.

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“It just does seem like there’s a lot going on and it’s partially that we’re aware of it and it’s partially that it’s real. None of (the viruses) are especially bad right now, the CDC is calling it a ‘moderate’ year,” Jerome said.

However, he says, we are still experiencing about 1,000 deaths a week in America due to COVID-19. That’s a somber reality as the other seasonal viruses, such as flu and RSV, do not kill at the same rate as COVID-19.

The most prevalent COVID-19 variant circulating right now is JN.1 (pronounced “jan one”) and is a sub-variant of omicron. JN.1 is very infectious, according to Jerome, and good at getting around the natural immunity we’ve built up from other variants.

‘Childcare reaching a crisis point’: State House tries to come up with answers

Jerome, who is the head of the Virology Division in the University of Washington Department of Laboratory Medicine, says that’s why getting updated COVID-19 booster shots will give you your best — shot — at escaping severe symptoms. This virus has not quite figured out how to escape a vaccine-induced immunity. But Jerome added that vaccination rates are not impressive.

“Not as much as probably one would like it from a public health point of view. (Only about 10% of children) have received the updated vaccine. For adults it’s about 20%. So, this is the latest omicron specific booster shot only about 20% of adults. People get the vaccine don’t get very sick from it. They do much better than they would have otherwise. So, that’s good.

“And it’s interesting to start to think about if we get in a world where only a few people are actually getting the shots, it may actually benefit them that everybody else isn’t, quite frankly, because JN.1 is an immune escape variant, but it’s escaping natural immunity because that’s what 80% of people have,” Jerome added.

The SMN interviews: ‘Human jukebox’ Nikhil Bagga, Rep. Monica Stonier, Rob McKenna

We also addressed the bird flu, which was wiping out flocks ahead of Thanksgiving last year and is having a concerning affect on the population of elephant seals in the Antarctic region. Why is that concerning? While it has been proven that avian viruses can jump to mammals, what we’ve seen in the elephant seals is the virus jumping from mammal to mammal. About 95% of that population was wiped out because of a bird flu variant.

Listen to the entire interview here.

Listen to Seattle’s Morning News with Dave Ross and Colleen O’Brien weekday mornings from 5-9 a.m. on KIRO Newsradio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.

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This week, on Seattle’s Morning News, Dave Ross and I interviewed Dr. Judson Brewer, author of “The Hunger Habit.”

“People trying to use willpower to change eating habits is not something that works very well, and from a neuroscience standpoint it’s not even in the conversation,” Brewer said confidently.

First, how do we even form habits around food?

“Everybody shares the same mechanism. There are three elements that trigger a behavior and a result. So, think of our ancient ancestors out on the savanna, they see food, there’s the trigger, they eat the food, there’s the behavior, and then their stomach sends this dopamine signal to their brain that says, ‘Remember what you ate and where you found it.’

“In modern day that’s still in play, where we are starting to learn to eat food, not when we’re hungry, but when we’re angry, sad, lonely, bored, tired — all these emotional reasons,” Brewer continued.  “Or we might eat beyond satiety, such as if we’re part of the ‘clean plate club.’ So, all of those become reasons that we eat not out of hunger, but just out of habit.”

More recent SMN interviews: Kissing booths, ‘creative wayfinding’ lures tourists back to Seattle

Speaking of the “Clean Plate Club,” that was never a mantra in my family, but I have plenty of childhood stories from my millennial peers about this forced ritual at dinner time. To put it kindly, they hated it. And, according to Dr. Brewer and science, this kind of eating is one way our brains get programmed to eat out of habit or for a reward (dessert) rather than out of hunger.

“Kids were taught to not pay attention their hunger and satiety signals, but to their parents wishes and demands instead,” Dr. Brewer noted.

Then, Dave asked what actual hunger should feel like since we’re all apparently so programmed to eat out of emotion or boredom. For that portion of the interview, head here.

Listen to more of our conversation with Dr. Judson Brewer here or just click below.

Listen to Seattle’s Morning News with Dave Ross and Colleen O’Brien weekday mornings from 5-9 a.m. on KIRO Newsradio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.

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This week, we spoke to each of the bill’s sponsors, starting with Rep. Alicia Rule (D-Blaine). Rule’s HB 1716 would establish a Business and Occupation tax rebate for employers who provide childcare assistance to employees. It has bipartisan support but also a number of critics.

“Childcare is really reaching a crisis point for everybody. It’s not just that we are really struggling with childcare for those who can’t afford it, which is definitely an issue, but what we’re learning is that we just don’t have enough childcare spots for anybody, so this is a bill that would bring even more people to the table to solve the problem – particularly business,” Rule told us.

More Colleen O’Brien: Kissing booths, ‘creative wayfinding’ lures tourists back to Seattle

The B&O tax rebate would apply to businesses that have either childcare on-site or provide childcare stipends as a way of putting together a benefits package. According to The Washington Observer, the Department of Revenue figures it would cost the state $170 million per year. And while Rule’s bill addresses childcare cost, I had to ask if it would in any way address the childcare shortage. She was – short on answers.

“There’s affordability, there’s access, and there’s quality. So we continually work on innovative solutions,” Rule said.

You can hear the entire interview with Rep. Rule here:

While Rule enjoys bi-partisan support of her bill, the main critique of it comes from a competing bill, HB 2322. This bill, from Rep. Tana Senn (D-Mercer Island), would require employers who receive preferential tax incentives from the state to provide childcare on-site or pay at least 25-percent of childcare costs for an employee.

Under HB 1716, Senn says large companies that already get tax breaks from the state would also cash in on the tax rebate and she doesn’t think that’s fair.

‘I like what I see in the mirror:’ Struggling addicts get help at Quinault Wellness

“Right now a variety of companies get tax breaks, obviously, the biggest one we think about is a Boeing or other companies like that. It’s a value statement that we’re saying that childcare is so important for businesses so that parents can get to work. And businesses rely on those workers. And so let’s have it all integrated. So it’s a so integration is a win win. Businesses help employees with childcare, businesses get employees, and that helps more thriving economy,” Senn said.

The companies that would be targeted by HB2322 would be determined based on if there are employees there making $250,000 or more annually. The idea being that if the company can pay employees such a high salary, and enjoy tax breaks from the state, they can certainly invest in childcare.

Listen to our interview with Rep. Senn here:

Listen to Seattle’s Morning News with Dave Ross and Colleen O’Brien weekday mornings from 5-9 a.m. on KIRO Newsradio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.

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Now open for nearly a year, some of the first success stories are coming out of the Quinault Wellness Center.

The center is a $20 million dollar gift from the Quinault Nation to treat addiction issues within Grays Harbor County and its own tribal community. The program it will use is based on the same holistic service model the Swinomish Tribe first introduced when it opened the Didgʷálič Wellness Center in 2017. Today, it claims a 75% success rate in keeping people in the program.

More from Colleen O’Brien: Quinault Wellness Center aims to combat ever-growing fentanyl crisis

The Quinault Wellness Center will celebrate its one-year anniversary in October with success stories of its own. Tracy, who prefers only to be identified by her first name, is one of those stories. She was the first person who walked through the door when the center opened.

“I don’t know what made me veer into the parking lot. I guess it was the big open sign. I sat in the parking lot until the security guards came out after me. So, I came in. It was just me,” Tracy remembers. “I was like a wet little bird that walked in hurt, you know, and they embraced me so comfortably that I just gave up right there. And I’ve been here ever since.”

The security guards are designed to act as their job would suggest but are also instructed to be friendly and to create relationships with those who choose to walk through the wellness center’s doors.

Tracy, who is almost 60 years old, tried drugs for the first time at 14. Her sister had been murdered, her parents were alcoholics, and she had no one to teach her how to grieve. It was just her and her pain.

“There was no help, there was no counseling, no nothing. So, the pain that I had was so unbearable that I reached out to the first person who said they would help me with that pain,” Tracy said.

That person gave her cocaine, and Tracy remembers it worked. Her pain was gone. Cocaine, however, was just the start.

“I ran with my addiction for 45 years. This is the first time in my life that I’ve ever been clean this long. It’s all new to me. It’s awesome, but it’s been a long road, and the Quinault Center is sacred grounds for me,” Tracy said.

What Quinault Wellness offers

This center is different from other treatment facilities in that they do it all. They offer childcare, medication-assisted treatment, group therapy, individual therapy and there’s a dentist office.

Quinault Wellness also offers something that is often overlooked: transportation.  Chief Operating Officer Jason Halstead says it is a big draw for those needing help getting sober.

“The transportation includes shuttles that would pick patients up in a catchment area as far north as Queets and as far south as South Bend. We go all the way to McCleary and additionally out to Ocean Shores. So, all of Grays Harbor County, some of Jefferson, some of Pacific counties as well,” Halstead said.

Even if you’re unhoused, that’s not a problem. Their shuttles will find you on whatever corner you call home.

Addiction: ‘It’s insidious. It’s sneaky.’

Colleen Chapin, a clinical supervisor at Quinault Wellness, often starts her counseling sessions with this question: Have you ever been substance-free in the past?

“Most of the time, there’s a ‘yes,’ and even if it was for a few months, it’s like, ‘What was it like back then? What did you like about your life back then?'” Chapin said.

Colleen knows how to get into the mind of an addict because she’s one, too. She’s been in recovery for a long time, but she’s the first to admit no addict is ever truly “safe” from their addiction.

“It’s insidious. It’s sneaky. It’s not something you just wake up one day and all of a sudden you’re an addict. It’s a slow process that happens over time where we justify, we rationalize, we minimize, and you end up over that line,” Chapin said. “Life is never the same. (It has) changed your thinking, (it has) changed the way you believe, (it has) changed your values, (it has) changed the principles that you maybe lived by at one time. Those things can be captured, it turns out, in recovery.”

While the patients at the Quinault Wellness put in the hard work to stay sober and rebuild what drugs tore down, Chapin wants those of us lucky enough to say we’ve never been addicted to drugs to work on something, too.

“Educate yourself. Stop being ignorant about addiction. Stop being ignorant about who the addict is. It’s all faces and all socioeconomic places. We can all become addicted. Blaming people, guilt-tripping people, it just doesn’t work. Incarcerating people doesn’t generally work either. Shame can be very debilitating. it can keep people from getting well,” Chapin said.

Tracy dealt with that shame for years: shame of her own addiction and shame for not being the mother she wanted to be. But at the Quinault Wellness she’s safe — and sober. There’s no shame in that.

“I like what I see in the mirror, when before I didn’t have any mirrors in my house. I can taste and smell food. It’s so different. I cry now when I hurt. Everything is just brighter, and my daughter is finally getting the mother she deserved,” Tracy said.

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In an interview on Seattle’s Morning News with hosts Dave Ross and Colleen O’Brien, Schlesinger said, “there are companies that are doing a really awful job. They are demanding that people get back in the office. They don’t care about what’s going on.”

Hybrid work is a strong model

Schlesinger told KIRO Newsradio’s Dave Ross, “the hybrid model looks like it’s here to stay. I think it is so ridiculous to complain about it. Just adapt to it and move on. The job market is adapting. The generational trends are adapting and technology is adapting. So let’s just do it better.”

She said there is still an upside to in-person work that companies are trying to get across, and the hybrid work model could be the best of both worlds.

“They want you to interact with each other. That’s good. There is something to be said for being back in person, right?” Schlesinger said. “You know, it is true that it’s good to interact with your co-workers, maybe not five days a week, but you know, some of them you might like, and you do have to show up physically if your fuddy-duddy boss cares about that.

“They also want you to get the corporate culture. They want more mentorship,” but she told Ross, there’s even a downside to that. “Some of that corporate culture was lousy, especially for women and people of color.”

‘Quiet Quitting’ is just a work-life balance

The trend of ‘quiet quitting’ isn’t as negative as many believe.

“Just to be clear, ‘quiet quitting’ does not mean that you quit, it just means that you are trying to create a balance between your work life and your home life, right?” Schlesinger said.

“Work-life balance is what we kids called it, back in the 70s, 80s, and 90s,” she went on. “Now they are really struggling because they are seeing their work life and home life blur before their eyes.”

Schlesinger said many companies are concerned about work output from employees. “They say we need more productivity, but people were very productive from home. The corporations made a ton of money during the pandemic.”

Job market changing

“The job market is shifting, and it’s happening in very interesting ways. So we have seen that the pace of job creation is tapering off,” Schlesinger said. “Last year, we had a monthly average of 562,000 jobs every single month for 2021. That helped us recoup a whole bunch of those 22 million jobs lost in the pandemic, then this year, we’ve been averaging 420,000 jobs a month. And now we got the September report 263,000.

US job openings sink as economy slows

“Job growth is tapering off at the same time, wages are increasing,” Schlesinger said. “And we have some big companies like Walmart and Amazon basically saying they’re either going to reduce or freeze their hiring in some parts of their businesses.

“So what does that tell us? It tells us that at a time when the economy is sort of confronting both inflation and higher interest rates, the hiring managers out there are saying, ‘Hmm, let’s rethink what we’re doing.’ And that’s an important piece of information for workers. If you think that a recession is coming, you should not make a lot of demands. And I think that this trend of ‘quiet quitting,’ could be part of that. Like, let’s be careful with that.”

Listen to Seattle’s Morning News with Dave Ross and Colleen O’Brien weekday mornings from 5 – 9 a.m. on KIRO Newsradio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.

Fentanyl is a powerful opioid illegally filtered into our country through Mexico that ravages local communities regardless of age, race, gender, or socioeconomic background. Certainly though, there are groups more susceptible to the ravages of this drug, which is why treatment centers are so needed, especially in parts of the state that can’t easily access big city services, like those in Seattle.

Aberdeen might be a city – maybe town – that comes to mind when you think about the state’s opioid epidemic. Not only is it notoriously known as the hometown of known heroin addict and Nirvana front man Kurt Cobain (who died by suicide while in active addiction to the opioid), but it’s also a place where nearly 30 years after Cobain’s death, they are still dealing with the same demons.

This dishonorable association is what makes Aberdeen the best spot for a new wellness center opening up near the center of town. Just a couple of blocks away from the construction site is like a ghost town with no visible business being done or strolling happening. The only residents spotted on a sunny February afternoon are addicts actively high on their drug of choice or trying to catch some privacy or sleep while they come down.

Mandy Nottingham, 45, is happy to introduce her dog “Betty Boop,” which looks like a cross between a Chihuahua and Jack Russell Terrier. Nottingham’s face has a large gathering of wounds from the corner of her mouth to mid-cheek, indicative of drug use.

Nottingham grew up in Hoquiam – a stone’s throw from Aberdeen – and has lived a hard life. She says she endured an abusive and, in her own words, homicidal boyfriend. She suffers from anxiety due to that relationship, but it was a workplace injury that accelerated her on the road to where she is today.

“I broke my neck. I have three fractures in my neck from a 100-pound box falling off a pallet at work,” Nottingham explained.

‘It just takes one time:’ Fentanyl’s deadly toll across WA, US shows no signs of slowing

She was given oxycodone for the pain and that prescription, she believes, was like the fertilizer for the seeds of addiction she held through genetics. Her mother was a drug addict, too. So, when fully addicted and with her mother’s passing, Nottingham spiraled further. A neighbor found her locked in a closet.

“She asked what was wrong and I kind of told her, and she was like ‘here try this’ and it was some heroin on foil,” Nottingham says, acknowledging that, at the time, it wasn’t what she wanted to do. “But it keeps me stable and the doctors won’t give me the medication I need.”

What she’s talking about is the anti-anxiety medication that she ran out of and couldn’t get refilled because of her drug use. But even for Nottingham, ravaged and scared by the street drug that now brings her comfort, she won’t touch fentanyl.

“I know people that are doing the fentanyl powder and the pills and those have to be the worst things that have ever hit the streets. People thought meth addicts and heroin addicts were bad? They ain’t seen nothing,” Nottingham says. “Nothing compared to these people who do those blues. They would kill their mother to get one. They are horrible. Absolutely horrible.”

Nottingham says a group used to hand out fentanyl testing strips to drug users, but that program stopped. And, she says, programs available to find housing don’t work because you need to get sober first. She feels defeated by the hurdles in her path to sobriety, but she’ll also admit that she’s gotten sober before and went back to drugs because nothing seemed to get better for her while sober – so why bother?

An hour’s drive away, another woman is tangled in the web of drug addiction, but in a different way. Christine Winn, CEO of Quinault Nation Enterprise Board, talks about the two deaths that inspired her to spearhead the new Quinault Wellness Center in Aberdeen.

“July of 2020, we lost a young tribal member. His mother – about six weeks later lost her other son to overdose as well,” Winn explained. “I’m a mother. I have children. I have five children, and I can’t imagine the pain that woman went through to lose two children just weeks apart.”

The Quinault Wellness Center is a gift to the community from The Quinault Nation, whose reservation rests along Washington’s central coast. Tribal leadership, at the behest of Winn, approved spending $20 million to build it. The program it will use is based on the same holistic service model first introduced by the Swinomish Tribe when it opened the didgʷálič Wellness Center in 2017. Today, it claims a 75% success rate in keeping people in the program.

“When you walk into that clinic in Swinomish, they can get you registered for treatment within about 17  minutes. Our clinic will provide dental care, medical care, chemical dependency therapy, and behavioral health therapy. There are social workers that will be there to help people rebuild their lives, if they need help getting on public assistance or housing, or signing up for school, writing resumes, job skills, etc.” Winn said.

In other words, the reason why the Swinomish and Winn believe this program works is because it offers everything. The Quinault Wellness Center will also provide childcare, which is a barrier for any working parent trying to lead a successful life, but especially necessary for an addicted parent.

“The patient can go in, get their OTP (opioid treatment program) treatment, they can go get their behavioral health therapy, their chemical dependency therapy, they pick up their baby and go home,” Winn explained. “Eliminating barriers. That’s the whole theme of the program. We provide shuttle service, we’ll pick you up from your house, we will bring you to the clinic, we’ll get you your treatment, and then we will drive you home.”

Winn could go on, but cuts herself off to say this:

“It would be really hard for you to get kicked out of our program. The whole point is to help these people get healthy. No matter how many times we have to help them. No matter how many times they relapse. We just want them in the program to be healthy.”

She turns momentarily serious and gives a mother’s stern look as she explains, “I will personally drag you back if that’s what it takes.”

While these programs are being funded, introduced, and sustained by Native American tribes, It’s essential to Winn for anyone reading this to know the Quinault Wellness Center is for everyone.

“That’s ingrained in our community. It’s ingrained in our culture. I think we have always been that way. I think that our people are very generous people to everybody regardless of how we’ve been treated. My father, born in 1941, tells me about the ‘No Redskins’ signs on businesses here in this county when he was young. The relationship between The [Quinault] Nation and Grays Harbor hasn’t always been as good as it is now. It’s really good now. If there’s a problem in this community that they need help with, the Quinault Nation is going to be there and we are here to help.”

That might be precisely what people who are addicted, like Mandy Nottingham on the streets of Aberdeen, need. They need a place where people won’t give up.

“I’ve been clean. I’ve literally detoxed myself and gotten clean for nine, 10 months at a time. The last time I got clean, I got clean for nine months. It’s hard to explain. If getting sober hasn’t changed anything in my life, if it hasn’t changed people’s outlook on me, then why not still do it?” Nottingham admits.

However, when the Quinault Wellness Center opens on the date given as “tentatively October,” it might be the first that means it when it says ‘come as you are.’

“It’s been a tremendous effort for the leaders of our tribe to get a place at the table and have an opportunity to help when we can. But we’re here now,” Winn says.

Listen to Seattle’s Morning News with Dave Ross and Colleen O’Brien weekday mornings from 5 – 9 a.m. on KIRO Newsradio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.

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Three local Girl Scouts joined KIRO Newsradio’s Dave Ross and Colleen O’Brien in studio this week to talk about the new cookie that’s available this year, why they sell cookies, and what they love about being a Girl Scout.

“The new cookie is called Adventurefuls,” Alyssa said. “It has fudge in it, and it’s really good.”

“Better than a Thin Mint?” Colleen asked.

“I wouldn’t say better than a Thin Mint,” the young scout replied.

“That’s a pretty high bar,” Dave noted.

Opinion: Parents shouldn’t sell their daughter’s Girl Scout cookies for them

This year, the Girl Scouts are able to sell cookies in person again after having to move to sales online during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It’s very nice since we’re going back to in person. It’s a lot easier than doing virtual and stuff since the whole pandemic,” Sofia said. “I think a lot of girls will definitely be able to reach their goals this year, especially going out and being able to sell cookies in front of stores. We all still keep our masks on, but pretty much everything is back to normal.”

For 8-year-old Margaux, this is her third year selling Girl Scout cookies, and she has someone who has pledged to match her cookie sales.

“I had somebody donate so I could go to camp,” she said.

Besides from helping scouts go to camp, Sofia says cookie sales will her troop get to see “Hamilton,” and, personally, will help fund her Silver Award, “which is a project that takes a lot of hours and you can do something for your community, and you create a team and get funding if it’s needed. It’s just a really great project you can use to help other people.”

Alyssa said some of the money will go to charities as well, for medical workers and to the food pantry.

The cookie program aims to help the young people involved to learn life skills, including goal setting, decision making, money management, people skills, and business ethics.

Vanessa, who works with Girl Scouts of America at large, says the best way to support scouts in your area would be to “buy as many cookies as you can.” But there are other ways to help.

“You also can donate to Girl Scouts of Western Washington. Donating actually helps us maintain our camps so that all of these adventures can happen at camp. We’ve had Girl Scouts go to camp and learn how to row and become part of varsity rowing teams. We’ve had Girl Scouts go to camp and learn survival skills and become part of their local FEMA chapters,” she explained. “So if you can’t buy cookies this year, or maybe cookies aren’t something you necessarily eat all the time,” there are still ways to help.

You can also buy cookies and donate them to your local military troops and military service members, or donate directly to financial assistance or camp maintenance.

Listen to Seattle’s Morning News with Dave Ross and Colleen O’Brien weekday mornings from 5 – 9 a.m. on KIRO Newsradio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.

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RELATED: Find Santa photos, trees, and winter fun with our Holiday Map

Colleen O’Brien of Seattle’s Morning News talked with Bankrate data analyst Adrian Garcia, who warned that the holiday spending season can cause undue pressure on a variety of groups.

“This time of year, we’re all feeling stress about reaching deeper into our wallets than we’re comfortable with — 45 percent of people responded to our survey saying they’re feeling the pressure,” Garcia said.

Specifically, Garcia noted that parents are the group that experiences the most stress, with 54 percent of them “saying they feel uncomfortable with how much they’re expected to spend.” Additionally, women feel more pressure than men, while millennials feel it more than baby boomers.

For O’Brien, despite the stress, the timing couldn’t be better for teaching children to manage their expectations.

“I feel like this a great time to teach your child restraint [and] teach your child respect for the things that they have,” she noted. “Truly I feel like it’s a challenge to teach my daughter, ‘okay, if you do get these things, we’re going to donate them.’ It’s a swap for her because she needs to learn that she’s not just given things.”

“I think that’s what financial experts would recommend, that we do have those discussions with our children,” Garcia agreed.

Meanwhile, millennials are doing what they can to find ways around spending big.

“The interesting thing is that millennials are putting their own spin on how to deal with stress. Millennials have a trend of going to curated thrift stores — they’ve really helped to revitalize that industry,” Garcia said. “Another thing millennials are more likely going to do is make homemade gifts.”

Overall, Garcia said experts expect upwards of $1 trillion in total spending over the holiday season, and that on average people are expected to spend $1,000 each. Those numbers would represent a record high for holiday spending in the United States.

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Cindy is the sister of one our sales account executives at KIRO Radio, which is how I found out about her story.

Today, that kidney donor has not yet been found. And this past July — a year after our initial story — Cindy did have to go on at-home dialysis. I spoke to her about her health today.

“My filtration for my kidneys went down to nine percent and so at that time we decided to go ahead and do the surgery to put the catheter into my stomach, and I’ve been doing dialysis ever since,” Cindy said.

She spends about eight hours every night hooked up to this dialysis machine. She has to in order to stay alive as she waits for a donor. As a reminder, it’s really hard to find a kidney donor for Cindy. Not only is her blood type O — she also has a rare blood sensitivity that would cause her body to reject most donations. Only about one percent of the population would be a match for her.

But she and her family remain undeterred. Chalk it up to many of them, Cindy included, being Washington State University alumni. The Pullman school’s hearty fan base is certainly the picture of hope and faith – sticking with their school and teams through thick and thin. Why wouldn’t they take the same stance on Cindy’s kidney failure?

Maybe that’s why a few weeks back it occurred to Cindy’s family to tell her story on the Die Hard Cougs Facebook fan page. Cindy was at her sister’s house watching a WSU football game when the time came to hook up to dialysis. Rather than miss the game, she brought a portable TV with her to a separate room, a picture of dedication to both health and the Cougs.

Cindy’s sister snapped a couple of pictures of this scene and Cindy’s daughter posted them to the Coug-centric Facebook fan group.

“It went crazy viral. We had over 650 ‘likes’ to the [post], we had 116 comments and I’ve had over 20 amazing Cougs supporting Cougs reaching out and wanting to test for me,” Cindy said.

I spoke to some of those potential donors. Autumn Lamb is all the way in Ohio. She’s not a Coug, but her friend is.

“A friend of mine shared [Cindy’s] sister’s post. So basically she’s a friend of a friend. The friend of mine that posted it — we were friend since elementary school — and I just completely trust her and know she wouldn’t share something if it wasn’t legit,” Autumn said.

I asked Autumn how one prepares themselves to possibly give a body part to a stranger.

“Because she does have such a high percentage rate of potential rejection from her body – to me that just seems like a faith thing that if I’m supposed to be that donor for her then all of those details would work out,” Autumn said.

There’s also Julianne Chandler in Portland, who said this was the second time she’s come across Cindy’s story on Facebook.

“The first time I saw it I had just had a baby and I knew I was O blood type, but I’d just had a baby so everything was scrambled,” Julianna said with a chuckle. “But this time I was like ‘oh yeah I totally forgot about that,’ so I figured my husband and I are both O blood type, so I sent her a message and figured I’d just see where it went.”

Julianne and her husband are going to get tested for Cindy. For Julianne, it seems, giving a kidney is as easy as the give a penny take a penny expression.

“It doesn’t worry me at all. I just hope there’s a match somewhere and if it happens to be me I would gladly give something, you know? If it was my child I would hope that somebody would step up and help so I don’t have any fear about it. Just kind of do what you gotta do,” Julianna said.

That’s the power of the Washington State University Cougar community.

Cindy says despite the hard year-and-a-half since we last spoke, she is not losing hope.

“It’s a numbers game for me, so the more people that test I know the closer I am to finding that donor. But it just goes to show you that we Cougs stick together. I never thought I would get any kind of a response like this, but it’s been absolutely incredible,” Cindy said.

Cindy says her insurance covers the cost of testing if you’re interested in trying out. You can email me at cobrien@kiroradio.com for her contact information.

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The girls settled on buying pet oxygen masks for the Everett Fire stations. This was a very “on brand” decision for this troop, according to troop leader Tina Fish.

Photos from the presentation

“They’ve done various different things for animals over the last few years. Recently, I have a friend of mine who is also a Girl Scout volunteer, who lost their home due to a fire,” Fish recalled. “In the process of that they also lost their two pet dogs. And when we started talking about it they wondered, you know, what they might have been able to do. We had picked up a collection to help the family but what might they be able to do further on from that?”

They found out there were six fire departments in Everett. So, that would be it. All six stations would get a pet oxygen mask. Everett Fire’s Rachael Doniger says this was a necessary and heart-warming gift.

“We did not have any pet oxygen masks,” Doniger said. “Usually what the firefighters do is they makeshift one out of a normal mask that they would use for a human and these masks allow for a better seal to go over the snout of the animal.”

Lucky for Everett Fire, cookies sales were good this season. The troop sold 11,000 boxes. They smashed their goal, and with those profits they made the purchase of six, tiny pet oxygen masks.

The group invited firefighters to their gathering at Legion Memorial Park for an end-of-season celebration. That’s where they handed over the masks.

“Certainly an honor for the fire department,” Doniger said. “Those girls worked extra hard. They sold 11,000 boxes of cookies to make this happen, to use a portion of their cookie funds, and it shows their hard work. It shows them that they put an effort into their community and fire department. We’re very appreciative of them.”

Fish says this act of kindness – and generosity – gave the girls a big life lesson.

“I think that the biggest thing is knowing that they can make an impact in our community,” Fish said. “Hopefully they won’t have to use these masks, but if they do knowing that they actually contributed to helping protect something or someone in our community I think will have a really lasting impression on them.”

And these girls may not be done giving back.

“There has been some discussion about maybe moving out more into Snohomish County and that’s something that we’ll talk about as the next cookie season rolls around,” Fish said.

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“We would start doing some of these crime watch meetings and we’d come into the summer months and see some of the kids come and you’d see that their shoes were just worn out,” Officer Brian Nolff said.

So, he started collecting new shoes.

“I remember when I was younger and you got a new pair of shoes you just felt better, you had more confidence and it was a good thing,” Nolff recalled.

WFAA TV says this year he collected 650 pairs of shoes and started touring around town, bringing them to places like the Dallas Parks and Recreation Summer programs, where Diane Ware says she had plenty of feet for them to fit.

“It’s an excellent, positive thing for them to see them. Especially the men – our boys need to see more men,” Ware said.

This visit isn’t just about shoes — Officer Nolff wants these young men and women to know that their neighborhood cops care about them.

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He’s traveled more than 13,000 miles and put in 1,700 hours of service for Meals on Wheels. Those numbers will continue to grow because even at age 101 he’s still an active volunteer with the senior meal program.

What’s more – his 73-year-old daughter joins him for his Meals on Wheels route. She told USA Today he’s the post centenarian for the mantra “engage at every age.”

He says the reason he’ll turn 102 in July is because he’s stayed active.

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WPRI TV says the Ketcher family, of Brooklyn, was recently in Rhode Island when their 4-year-old’s stuffed cheetah was lost.

Will’s parents didn’t know what to do except encourage him to write a letter to Rhode Island State Police, who might keep an eye out for it.

“We take every case serious,” Corporal Lawens Febrier said about receiving Will’s letter.

Months went by and the Ketchers (the adult Ketchers anyway) mostly forgot about it, but then a box showed up. Inside was a letter and a brand new stuffed cheetah. The letter read:

“Hello Will,

On behalf of the Road Island state police we are so sorry that Roger was lost. We had to make him a cheetah trooper. The very first cheetah trooper in the history of the Rhode Island State Police…”

The Ketchers say their son was ecstatic and they are floored at the lengths these officers went to make this happen.

“Random acts of kindness are so sadly rare. It’s so refreshing to have something like this happen that just reminds you that there are really good people out there,” Will’s mother said.

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He wanted to build a space ship out of that box.

Two weeks had gone by before that Lowe’s delivery truck finally pulled up.

But when driver rolled the refrigerator up the driveway 6-year-old Brandon was disappointed to see that there was no box.

The Lowe’s driver could feel the heartbreak. So, after installing the refrigerator he drove all the way back to the store, picked up a refrigerator box and brought it back to Brandon.

His mom posted to Facebook thanking the driver for going above and beyond. She said, “there’s one thrilled 6-year-old in my house this morning who also learned an important lesson today about kindness.”

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