Night shift: What mussels can teach us about Puget Sound pollution
Crossposted from Headwaters It’s cold and dark when we head to the beach. The mussels in the trunk have been on the road and on ice all day. This morning, ecotoxicologist and shellfish chauffeur Jennifer Lanksbury picked them up from a partner in Penn Cove and now we’re squeezed between two deadlines: these native bay mussels (Mytilus trossulus) can only be out of the water for 12 hours, and they must go back in at exactly the right moment. The mollusks are key players in the Mussel Watch program, a regional effort led… Read More
Minimum wage in unincorporated King County increases to $20.82 on Jan. 1
Crossposted from King County Local On Jan. 1, 2026, the minimum wage will increase in unincorporated King County. The minimum wage is the lowest hourly wage an organization can pay an employee. It will increase from $20.29 an hour to $20.82 an hour, with exceptions for smaller businesses. The increase impacts employees and employers. Unincorporated King County is a wide and diverse area with a variety of workers and employers. To address this, the King County Council proposed a phase-in period for smaller employers based on the number of employees and the… Read More
Approved: King County Metro’s 2026-27 budget adds service, invests in zero emissions, safety and cleaning
Crossposted from Metro Matters The King County Council adopted Metro’s 2026-2027 budget in November 2025. The budget adds more than 400,000 hours of Metro bus service and totals $4 billion across Metro’s operating and capital programs, including all of Metro’s modes of transit as well as safety, cleaning, and zero emissions, among other priorities. Read more.
King County Executive Girmay Zahilay leads Regional Day of Service on first full day in office
On Wednesday, Nov. 26, his first full day in office, King County Executive Girmay Zahilay held a Regional Day of Service focused on food banks and food security across King County. He encouraged all King County residents to volunteer, donate, or find another meaningful way to support the work of our county’s food banks. This Regional Day of Service corresponds with one of Executive Zahilay’s “Four B’s” guiding his administration – “Boots on the Ground,” making King County government more visible, connected, and community-driven. Read more.
Growing from a decade of success, King County’s updated Local Food Initiative has a broader vision, addressing hunger relief, access to farmland, and climate resiliency
King County is updating its Local Food Initiative to address some of the most urgent challenges facing the local food economy, including access to hunger relief, rising farmland cost, a lack of food distribution infrastructure, and increasing threats from climate change. Since launching in 2015, the initiative has guided King County’s efforts to expand access to farmland for farmers, improve the farm-to-market pipeline to get more locally grown food to consumers, and ease access to healthy, affordable food in low-income communities. Read more.
Holiday travel? Metro will help you get there
Crossposted from Metro Matters The holidays are coming! Whether you are going to holiday events, shopping or celebrating with friends and family, it’s a great time to explore your transit options. We have some schedule adjustments to bus, water taxi and other services during the upcoming holidays and sharing them here to help you more easily make travel plans. Tips for holiday travel How do I pay my fare? Tap your ORCA card, show your Transit Go Ticket or tap your Android Google Pay app. Insert correct amount of cash into the farebox. Link tickets… Read More
Keep food poisoning off the menu this holiday season
Crossposted from Public Health Insider It’s the holiday season, and that means FOOD! Whether you’re hosting a big group or bringing your famous side dish to a gathering, you want to make sure your food is both delicious and safe. While anyone can get a foodborne illness, and symptoms like diarrhea and vomiting are never pleasant, foodborne illnesses are most dangerous for children, the elderly, and people with weakened immune systems. Read more.
Honoring Native American Heritage Month
Crossposted from Metro Matters Each November, Native American Heritage Month invites us to honor the history, cultures, and enduring contributions of Native peoples throughout our region and across the nation. At Metro, this is also a time to reflect on how our work connects to the values of stewardship, respect, and community—values long upheld by the Indigenous peoples of this land. We acknowledge that Metro operates on the ancestral lands of the Muckleshoot, Snoqualmie, Puyallup, Tulalip, Suquamish, Coast Salish Tribes, and the Duwamish people. These communities have cared for the land and… Read More
Big day for small runway: 14L/32R reopens after rehabilitation project
Crossposted from the DES Express Before dawn on Oct. 30, promptly at 7 a.m., Runway 14L/32R at King County International Airport-Boeing Field (KCIA) officially reopened for flight operations. Moments later, BETA Technologies’ ALIA electric aircraft quietly took off from the runway (watch a video of the flight), the first plane to do so. Later, airport tenants, guests and employees celebrated the reopening of the small utility runway at a brief gathering over the lunch hour outside the terminal, with Mount Rainier in the background. “This is celebrating the history of Boeing Field,”… Read More
Emergency exercise tests communications ahead of World Cup
Crossposted from the DES Express For the first time, Emergency Management held a drill called a Joint Information Center/Joint Information System exercise involving other local governments and non-profit organizations in addition to the usual King County agencies. A total of 33 people participated, with 13 of those in person and 20 online. They hailed from as far south as Clark County and as far north as Vancouver, Canada. Another eight people were involved in exercise coordination. “This exercise was a great opportunity to have our partners test the communications plans and procedures… Read More
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