Yikes: The Stranger made a classic amateur-hour mistake in its supreme court election results writeup, reporting only King County (Seattle-area) results in statewide races. The statewide results are completely different, which makes their analysis inaccurate. Amazing that no one there caught this.

Not seeing anything too surprising in the primary election results in the Seattle area so far (I'll be covering some of these races in the fall, but this is an "off" year for city candidates except in North Seattle's District 5).

Issues With Former Police Chief Barnes Weren't Just About His Travel or Where He Lived In a frenzy to condemn the mayor, her opponents seem to have forgotten why Barnes' future at the city was tenuous to begin with.

Issues With Former Police Chief Barnes Weren't Just About His Travel or Residency - PubliCola

By Erica C. Barnett Mainstream media outlets and many Seattle City Councilmembers have expressed outrage over Mayor Katie Wilson’s decision…

publicola.com

Seattle City Councilmember Bob Kettle had an emotional meltdown at a meeting this morning, calling Mayor Katie Wilson's decision to study police camera surveillance "unconscionable."

yeah, the "AI" people have too much money to burn. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/04/u...

These Employees Like Their A.I. Boss. Its Shop Is Kind of a Disaster.

A new study of a bot running a first-of-its-kind San Francisco store finds it is really friendly, but not very smart.

nytimes.com

Maybe there's a compelling case beyond "kids are getting in bike crashes!!" to argue for heavy regulation of all e-bikes, but this op/ed doesn't make it. Lots of vague stats, unrelated/irrelevant info (teens have "hormones" and don't wear helmets), and unsupported claims ("ask any ER doc," etc.)

E-bikes aren't like ordinary bikes, and WA kids pay the price | Op-Ed

We don't let 12-year-olds drive cars or own firearms. Why do we let them ride unregistered, unlicensed vehicles that can weigh three times as much as a bicycle?

seattletimes.com

New column by @joshfeit.bsky.social : Greater Seattle! Headlining this week's spicy debut: Reasons to fire the police chief > Reasons not to fire the police chief.

New Column! Introducing Greater Seattle - PubliCola

By Josh Feit PubliCola isn’t making endorsements this year, but election season (see item 3 below)  gives me the perfect…

publicola.com

This story is fine, but the headline the Seattle Times chose implies that a new bus lane is forcing drivers to just "find a new" route to I-5. No, the engineering project actually includes a new route to I-5. Anything to make it look like a progressive mayor is causing chaos, I guess?

Thousands of Seattle drivers and bus riders are in for a big change

How will Mayor Katie Wilson's move to speed the "Late 8" change Denny Way for transit riders and as many as 30,000 motorists who drive it on an average weekday?

seattletimes.com

Update: I asked SPD about KUOW's claim that they said Barnes' travel was no different than previous chiefs. They told me that's not what they said—according to the spokesperson, SPD told KUOW his travel to major police conferences like IACP was normal, not his frequent trips to his home in Chicago.

Erica C. Barnett@ericacbarnett.bsky.social · 3d ago

KUOW says that "influencers" like me are the reason you should give them money. If you want "police say" statements, I guess go for it. If you want deeply sourced, in-depth investigative reporting by someone who's been a journalist in Seattle since 2001, support PubliCola! publicola.com/support/

This week on PubliCola: Ten original stories, two podcasts, and a brief response to @kuow.org, whose guests this week maligned my reporting to their tens of thousands of listeners, calling it "unfair" and belittling me as an "influencer"who "hung out a shingle" and called myself a "news person."

This Week on PubliCola: August 2, 2026 - PubliCola

Police chief resigns, Burien city manager fired, school meals resolved, and much more. By Erica C. Barnett It was a…

publicola.com

I misstated the title of Angela Poe Russell, a guest on KUOW's Week In Review who trashed my work and characterized me as an "influencer" who just "hung out a shingle" and "called myself a news person" this week. In the interest of not messing up the thread more, this is a blanket correction!

Erica C. Barnett@ericacbarnett.bsky.social · 3d ago

Oh HELL no. @kuow.org people trashing my work and calling me an "influencer" on Week In Review, claiming—with no receipts whatsoever—that Gil Kerlikowske, Carmen Best, and Adrian Diaz also spent a quarter to a third of their time outside Seattle. www.kuow.org/podcast/week...

Oh HELL no. @kuow.org people trashing my work and calling me an "influencer" on Week In Review, claiming—with no receipts whatsoever—that Gil Kerlikowske, Carmen Best, and Adrian Diaz also spent a quarter to a third of their time outside Seattle. www.kuow.org/podcast/week...

Week In Review

Host Bill Radke and his guests make sense of the week's news. New episode every Friday.

kuow.org

What a batshit first sentence to an editorial excoriating the mayor of Seattle for removing a controversial police chief appointed by her predecessor, something our mayors have routinely done. The conspiracy brain at play: "How dare this scheming woman try to distract us from her incompetence!"

wow NYT really had to get a doctor on the line to tell them this

Absolutely incredible that Westneat and other critics of the mayor believe Shon Barnes was appointed by her and that SHE should have "worked out" his desire to travel constantly with him as part of his contract, when he was appointed by Bruce Harrell in 2024. www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news...

Seattle City Hall rarely runs smoothly. This week it hit new lows

The spectacle of the neophyte mayor and the frequent flyer police chief, both failing at their jobs when they were needed most, is not going to pass lightly.

seattletimes.com

This week I learned that there are a lot of people running around calling themselves reporters in this town who get enraged when they aren't spoonfed information by people in power. (Most of the reporters are awesome, and have credited my scoops, but a special few appear to be giant babies)

Just a reminder, after a week full of scoops and general insanity at Seattle City Hall, that my work is funded directly and entirely by reader contributions and subscriptions. LOTS of options here, from newsletter subscriptions to one-time donations to my physical address, for checks!

To state the obvious, I’m sure this payment is a strategy to avoid spending much more on litigation. Still wild to get paid two years’ salary to go away when you weren’t even police chief for that long.

Seattle police chief Shon Barnes is getting $700,000 in a settlement for leaving the department, PubliCola has confirmed.

Wilson, New Interim Police Chief Sayles Address Barnes' Ouster, SPD's Future The new interim chief's family lives in Illinois, while he maintains another home in East King County and visits his family regularly. Yes, we know it sounds familiar. publicola.com/2026/07/31/w...

Wilson, New Interim Police Chief Sayles Address Barnes' Ouster, SPD's Future - PubliCola

By Erica C. Barnett A press conference with Mayor Katie Wilson and new interim Police Chief Andre Sayles revolved, somewhat…

publicola.com

Interim chief Andre Sayles says he has a home in Illinois rather than Wisconsin, as I previously reported based on sources inside the city, including multiple sources in SPD. His wife and kids live in their home in Illinois. He said he also has a home in East King County.

Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson, speaking at a mobbed press conference at City Hall now, said she's confident in new interim police chief Andre Sayles, picked by former chief Barnes to be his second deputy chief, because he's "done this job before." He was police chief in Beloit, WI, population 36,000.

Just found out that under his settlement, ex-Seattle police chief Shon Barnes gets to keep his entire $50,000 hiring bonus—a bonus created to hire more rank-and-file officers from other departments. Under the terms of this "lateral" bonus, he had to return some of it if he left before 5 years.

Fascinating scene at today's Seattle press conference to introduce the new interim police chief, Andre Sayles. (I want to find out how much time he plans to spend here in Seattle, since—like ousted chief Shon Barnes—his family home remains in the midwest.) But much of the front row is activists!

New podcast, recorded before yesterday's announcement that Seattle Police Chief Shon Barnes had resigned but after we knew his likely fate. seattle-nice.beam.ly/episode/emer...

Emergency Edition: Seattle Police Chief Shon Barnes Refuses to Resign, Then Does | Seattle Nice

Note: This episode was recorded Thursday morning, before Barnes's resignation was confirmed.  Hosts Erica C. Barnett, Sandeep Kaushik and David Hyde break...

seattle-nice.beam.ly

One thing I’ll try to ask about at rhe presser today, and which I exclusively reported in my piece: how much is the new acting chief in town, given that (like Barnes) he rents here while his family lives out of state, in Wisconsin?

Erica C. Barnett@ericacbarnett.bsky.social · 6d ago

Mayor Finally Confirms: Police Chief Shon Barnes is Out, His Deputy Andre Sayles Will Serve as Interim Chief publicola.com/2026/07/30/m...

My computer picked an awesome time to completely break down. Posting will be minimal while I spend the night cursing Apple and its AI-based “support”

Mayor Finally Confirms: Police Chief Shon Barnes is Out, His Deputy Andre Sayles Will Serve as Interim Chief publicola.com/2026/07/30/m...

Mayor Finally Confirms: Police Chief Shon Barnes is Out, His Deputy Andre Sayles Will Serve as Interim Chief - PubliCola

By Erica C. Barnett After a silence of nearly 24 hours, Mayor Katie Wilson announced at 3:30 this afternoon…

publicola.com

Email just went out internally at City Hall: Shon Barnes has (officially) resigned as police chief of Seattle.

Sitting here in City Hall waiting on an interview with the mayor about what's happening with the police chief. Guess they scheduled me late in the day, because the Seattle Times just went up. Not like I've been working 12 hours a day on this or anything!