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The FDA signed off on vaccines for kids between 6 months and 5 years on Friday, and the CDC is widely expected to do the same in the coming days, with local healthcare providers and vaccine clinics prepared to start administering the vaccines as soon as they're approved. [KING 5]

There were 1,546 outbreaks in K-12 schools across the state during the 2021-22 school year, tied to around 11,000 individual cases. 58% of all elementary schools in the state, along with 22% of middle schools and 29% of high schools, experienced at least one outbreak. [Seattle Times]

Washington state currently has plenty of supply for several types of antiviral COVID treatments for high-risk folks who test positive, including Paxlovid, which is 89% effective at preventing hospitalization and death; but the general public and many primary care providers often don't realize that they're an option. [Seattle Times]

SPD's average response time citywide is currently just over 10 minutes due to ongoing staffing shortages (which, contrary to the popular local narrative, is part of a nationwide trend of police staffing shortages, in addition to staffing shortages in many other public- and private-sector professions), up from 9 minutes and 15 seconds in 2021 and just under 8 minutes and 30 seconds in 2020. [MyNorthwest]

The King County Auditor's Office released a report based on data from 2019 - 2021 showing racial disparities in use of force by the King County Sheriff's Office during that time, with differences showing up both based on the race of the people being arrested and the race of the officers arresting them. [Seattle Times, Publicola, KING 5]

Councilmember Lisa Herbold proposed legislation to create a formal process the City would use to investigate complaints about police chiefs, after it came to light that Mayor Durkan simply declined to refer three complaints about former Chief Best to outside investigators as requested by the Office of Police Accountability. [The Stranger, MyNorthwest, Seattle Times]

Seattle is poised to see a record number of homeless deaths this year, due in large part to the fentanyl epidemic, the continuing negative health impacts of the pandemic, and an increase in encampment removals. [Seattle Times] 

The amount of money that the City spends funding the construction of affordable housing units nearly doubled last year thanks to tens of millions of dollars apiece from the Mandatory Housing Affordability upzone fees charged to developers and the JumpStart payroll tax on high-earners...but the 1,910 affordable units that were funded last year are still just a drop in the bucket in terms of what we need. [Crosscut]

And in some good news for Real Change's "Social Housing" ballot measure (think fully government-run affordable housing a la Singapore), the Low Income Housing Institute--a local non-profit housing developer who also runs the City's sanctioned tiny home villages--endorsed the measure at the 11th hour and announced that they'll canvass their buildings to get signatures for it. [The Stranger]

After Washington Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler fired a whistleblower who complained in February about his bullying behavior and use of racially offensive language, Governor Inslee and a bipartisan group of state Senate leaders called on him to resign, which he said he has no plans to do. [KNKX, KING 5]

The Olympia office of Republican state Representative Andy Barkis was vandalized by masked men Monday morning, who were also caught on camera 20 minutes later breaking into a nearby antiques store. [MyNorthwest]

And an appeals court upheld an earlier verdict holding Seattle Tunneling Partners (as opposed to Washington State) responsible for more than $300 million in cost overruns on the Highway 99 tunnel. [Seattle Times]

Sol Villarreal
Broker, Windermere Real Estate
sol@windermere.com
solvillarreal.com

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