According to Seattle-based real estate company Redfin, teachers nationwide can afford about 48% of rentals near their schools. That’s up from 41% last year.

“I’m optimistic this could be a trend instead of just a blip because Seattle has been moving in the right direction when it comes to adding housing supply to the market,” Daryl Fairweather, Redfin’s chief economist, said.

The bad news is this is still significantly below pre-coronavirus pandemic levels, which were closer to 58%.

Redfin looked at 33 cities and found that new leases are sluggish because there are many units on the market.

Teacher salaries are also up almost 4% from last year. The numbers are even better in Seattle.

“In Seattle in particular, there was an 8% rise in median teacher salaries, so that also adds to teacher buying power when it comes to a rental,” Fairweather said.

In Portland, Oregon, teachers can afford 91% of rentals within commuting distance from their school.

In Miami, it’s less than 1%.

The news isn’t so great for teachers who want to buy homes.

Nationwide, teachers can only afford about 14% of homes near their schools. That number hasn’t changed since last year, but it’s down from 39% in 2019.

More teachers may be able to break into the housing market if interest rates start to drop.

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Kenneth Kundert, 65, of Clinton, Arkansas, was arrested for first-degree murder in the case.

On Feb. 23, 1980, 30-year-old Silzel was last seen leaving her shift at a local pizza restaurant. She worked at the pizzeria part-time after her full-time job at Boeing. Silzel had not reported to work for two days, which was highly unusual. Her family and friends became worried and called police for a welfare check at her residence.

On Feb. 26, 1980, Kent Patrol Officer Bob Burwell and a co-worker entered her residence. When they entered they found Silzel’s body.

An autopsy performed by the King County Medical Examiner’s Office determined the cause of her death was homicide.

“They reported that Ms. Silzel ‘s death was due to ‘asphyxia death by cervical compression,'” Kent police said. “They also noted a ‘blunt impact’ to her head. During the death investigation, DNA evidence was collected.”

Evidence that was collected was sent to the Washington State Patrol Crime Lab. Authorities were able to locate DNA evidence belonging to an unknown man, referred to as Individual A.

In February 1996, the WSPCL examined DNA evidence from a bathrobe collected from the crime scene. DNA and polymerase chain reaction analysis was not available at that time. The evidence was sent to the Forensic Science Associates in California for PCR analysis and typing.

In 2002, WSPCL entered the DNA into the Combined DNA Index System, which is a searchable computer program “that manages local, state, and national DNA databases.” The individual’s DNA profile was run through the index system but no matches occurred. In 2016 with the advancements in technology, WSPCL was able to obtain a partial DNA profile from the bathrobe that matched the profile of Individual A.

Kent police said that multiple Kent detectives were assigned over the years to follow up on tips and leads. Multiple DNA samples were obtained for comparison, but no matches were found.

In 2015, Kent Detective Sgt. Tim Ford was contacted by Silzel’s family to revisit her case. Ford personally assigned himself to the case and worked on it for nine years.

“In March 2022 Senior Forensic Genealogist Misty Gillis began to perform additional genealogy comparisons of the DNA profile of Individual A,” Kent police said. “At that time, she worked for Identifinders International, a company that uses forensic genealogy to identify potential perpetrators. Using their advanced technology, they identified 11 potential suspects.”

Two suspects identified through the DNA samples were Kurt and Kenneth Kundert. Kent police said in September 2023, a Kent Detective Unit began looking into the Kunderts. The brothers were both in custody for unrelated assaults.

Ford coordinated with the Van Buren County Sheriff’s Office in Arkansas to request voluntary DNA from the brothers. Kurt voluntarily gave authorities a sample but Kenneth did not.

Kurt’s sample was not a match and he was excluded as a possible suspect. Kent detectives investigated Kenneth’s ties to Washington state. They found out he had worked in the Snohomish County area in 1987.

During their investigation, Kent police determined Kenneth and his brother lived in an apartment complex about 1,200 feet from where Silzel was murdered.

“In March 2024, Sergeant Ford and Detectives in the Kent Police Special Investigations Unit traveled to Clinton Arkansas to conduct surveillance of Kenneth Kundert,” Kent police said. “They were assisted by the FBI, the Arkansas 20th Judicial Drug Task Force, and the Van Buren County Sheriff’s Office. During that operation, they were able to obtain a discarded cigarette belonging to Kenneth Kundert. The DNA on that cigarette was determined by WSPCL to belong to Individual A.”

On Aug. 20, 2024, deputies and investigators VBCSO and the 20th Drug Task Force assisted Kent police with arresting Kenneth.

His bail has been fixed at $3 million cash or surety bond. His arraignment was set for Aug. 29 but it has been postponed. He is fighting his extradition from Arkansas.

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The “Rider Verification” program will verify a passenger’s identity before a driver picks them up. According to a news release, the company will test the program in nine cities: Seattle, Detroit, Jacksonville, Houston, Atlanta, Phoenix, Chicago, Denver and Miami.

Rider Verification works by cross-referencing rider information with third-party data sources to confirm the person requesting a ride is who they claim to be.

According to Lyft, it will be seamless for most riders. Most will be verified passively and won’t need extra steps. Under the pilot program, drivers can view a rider’s name, verification status, rating and profile photo before accepting a request.

“The Rider Verification program is a direct response to what our driver community has been asking for — a way to enhance their peace of mind and ensure they can trust who they’re picking up,” said Audrey Liu, EVP of Rider Experience and Community Safety. “Rider verification can help drivers confirm that riders are who they say they are, and is an important step in Lyft’s work to help everyone feel more secure and increase accountability within our entire community.”

Since 2020, there have been at least five rideshare drivers in the Seattle area killed on the job. Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell has been an advocate for more safety measures for drivers following recent shootings involving passengers and operators.

In 2023, Amare Geda was shot and killed. Police said the homicide suspect was not a rideshare customer but carjacked Geda before shooting him and driving away.

“Following the shooting of driver Mohamed Kediye in South Lake Union, Mayor Harrell signed an Executive Order which directed city departments to adopt culturally, linguistically, and religiously responsive practices and procedures to reduce barriers to victim and family support services for immigrant and refugee communities in the city.” the spokesperson added.

In 2022, 48-year-old Kediye was working for a rideshare company when he was killed, according to the local Drivers Union. Police said life-saving measures were attempted on the victim with a gunshot wound, but he was declared deceased at the scene. In January 2024, an Uber driver was shot and killed by a pedestrian in Edmonds.

Witnesses told police a suspect was on foot and fired at least seven shots. The victim, 31-year-old Abdikadir Gedi Shariif from SeaTac, was taken to Harborview Medical Center in critical condition and later died, according to police.

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The Federal Trade Commission is working to stop the merger, arguing that it will be bad for consumers. Both sides delivered opening statements on Monday in a packed courtroom presided over by U.S. District Judge Adrienne Nelson.

FTC Chief Trial Counsel Susan Musser said the merger would result in Kroger “swallowing” Albertsons.

“Stopping this multibillion-dollar deal will keep in place the vigorous competition that acts as a check on rising grocery prices and spurs improvements in quality and innovation,” she said.

Kroger attorney Matthew Wolf said the merger would immediately lower some prices for shoppers at Albertsons, where prices are now 10-12% higher than at Kroger stores. Albertsons and Kroger have also argued the merger will help them compete against Costco and Walmart.

“We’ve seen too much consolidation in the grocery industry. It’s one of the reasons why this kind of gouging and price inflation is, I think, happening the way it has, and we should be going in the other direction. We need more stores, more price competition, shorter lines, not longer lines, not higher prices and not less competition,” Tom Geiger of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union in Seattle said.

It is just one of many unions across the country that have formed a conglomerate to fight this merger. If the merger happens, 124 grocery stores in Washington would be sold to C and S Wholesale Grocers, according to Supermarket News.

Geiger also pointed out that there’s no guarantee the new buyer will keep those stores open.

“With the analysis that the value of the real estate is about 50% higher than the value of the stores that they’re going to be buying. So we fear that they could just unload these properties just as a real estate investment never selling a can of beans or gallon of milk.”

This region’s already had other grocery stores close in recent years, leaving some neighborhoods without one.

“The one about a mile north, the QFC, was closed four years ago,” said local resident Debbie Wheeler, who said she is now frequenting the Wedgewood Safeway in Seattle. Another local, Kiko Van Zandt, said she was also forced to find a new grocery store when the one she shopped near University Village in Seattle closed.

“I come and shop here twice a week. People are friendly. It usually has everything that I need. Right down the street, I was just sitting in a knitting group up the street on the way home. I can stop by, so the convenience and the people I think,” she explained as the reasons she likes this store.

“This is one of these things that connects with almost everybody. It’s almost uncanny how often people encounter a grocery store worker,” Geiger noted. He also argues that grocery workers will lose a lot of ground in bargaining new contracts.

“When you’re bargaining with them for a new agreement, you can kind of weigh one off of the other. But if there’s one company that could strike, there’s no leverage for the worker. That goes away,” Geiger said.

Even if C and S wholesale grocers kept stores like this one open, it’s not known if there would still be a pharmacy inside. The company right now operates and supports 7,500 independent supermarkets, but only one pharmacy.

The hearings in Portland that started Monday are expected to last at least two weeks.

A separate suit to stop the merger brought by Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson is scheduled to begin in mid-September in the U.S. District Court in Seattle.

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Daniel Auderer addressed the controversy

Monday during an appearance on The Jason Rantz Show. It was Auderer’s first public interview since a police officer struck and killed Jaahnavi Kandula as she entered a crosswalk in South Lake Union in Janaury 2023.

Auderer, who was responding in another cruiser, was caught joking about the incident on his body camera, saying to his colleague, “Yeah, just write a check,” followed by laughter. He continued to say, “She was 26, anyway. She had limited value.”

Auderer was on a phone call with Seattle Police Officers Guild President Mike Solan, whose role in the interaction has never been publicly detailed. In September 2023, Solan insisted he and Auderer were remarking on “how the city is going to have to pay out a ton of money to the family.”

During Monday’s radio appearance, Auderer said his comments were never meant to make fun of Kandula or her loved ones.

“I’ve spent too much time and seen way too many things to mock anyone’s death and I’m horrified that family is continually pounded by this story,” he told Jason Rantz. “It weighs on me and it’s something that will never, ever go away in my soul.”

Instead, Auderer insisted his comments were meant to mock the attorneys hired by the City of Seattle to look into the case. Auderer said he believed those lawyers would attempt to avoid reaching a settlement with Kandula’s family.

As a result, he said that he and Solan joked about their belief that the legal process would be stymied by certain legal officials. Auderer then maintained that the joke was merely “gallows humor.”

Despite this, he insisted his department-issued body camera only captured one side of that conversation.

“You have to remember that this is a free-flowing conversation between two people,” he said. “We could take a phone call of anybody in this office that they make today and take one side of it and build whatever we want around it.”

Auderer’s first public interview occurred one month after he was fired from SPD. At the time of his termination, SPD Chief Sue Rahr cited his conduct as a reason for his firing.

“It has been quite striking to me the number of people I talk with in this community who feel the dehumanizing laughter was more disgraceful and disturbing than the death of Miss Kandula,” Rahr wrote. “There is no coming back from such a betrayal of that sacred trust.”

In Monday’s interview, Auderer said his termination caught him by total surprise.

“It was not only my career, but a way of life for me and it never crossed my mind I’d be in the position to be terminated. I thought I was going to be disciplined,” he said. “I was expecting the ‘high end’ of the discipline due to the media coverage this received. The allegation itself normally doesn’t ever have a real, high threshold for discipline.”

Two weeks after his firing, Auderer filed a $20 million claim against the city of Seattle.

In the claim, Auderer said SPD leaked false information concerning “wrongfully initiated disciplinary proceedings as well as my personal information, including my home addresses.” Auderer also insisted he was wrongfully terminated by the department, noting the decision was retaliatory due to his union leadership.

Auderer cited personal reputation harm, wrongful termination, and mental pain and suffering under the injury section of his claim. He is seeking $200,000 annually in the aforementioned claim.

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King County prosecutors charged Andy Chu who told detectives he “may have been responsible for killing her.” Documents indicate the victim was Chu’s girlfriend who was visiting from Hawaii.

Seattle police were called to Chu’s townhome in Lake City’s Olympic Hills neighborhood Saturday. According to charging documents, the woman’s body was discovered after neighbors saw water coming from the home and called the landlord.

Once police and fire made entry, they found a bathtub full of water and the bathroom sink running. Police said the woman was found on her back with a throat laceration and “an ice pack on her throat and a small block behind her neck, supporting her head.”

She also had “possible dried blood on her arms, shoulders, and chest as well as a granular substance covering these areas,” documents stated.

In addition, the autopsy revealed a large, heavy white ball that was lodged in her throat at the base of her tongue.

According to charging documents, the victim was killed sometime between Aug. 9 and Aug. 10.

Prosecutors said Chu twisted her neck and held her underwater in a bathtub. The autopsy also noted that the woman had sustained blunt force trauma to her face, head, neck, chest, arms, and legs. Police reports also detail there was “no shower head on the pipe.”

Security footage provided by a neighbor showed Chu and the woman identified in court documents walk into the townhome with groceries on Aug. 9.

The next day, Chu is captured on video leaving his house alone before friends take him to the hospital because he was acting “erratically.”

Police arrested Chu at UW Medical Center Northwest early Sunday after staff there called 911 to report that a nurse had been assaulted. Court documents state “a patient in the ER assaulted her by groping her breasts and attempting to pull her head down by hooking the back of her neck.”

Once arrested Chu told detectives he had “a crisis condition” which caused him to leave the townhome. He told police he took two molly pills and smoked marijuana.

Court records state “he said his girlfriend was there after just arriving from Hawaii where she resides. He said he thought he may have killed her.”

He also told police he “has a memory of choking her, twisting her neck, holding her down underwater in the tub.” He said he thought he broke her neck and “remembered her bleeding from her nose, which he wiped away.”

During the interview, documents indicate that he told investigators that he pulled her from the tub and put her on the bathroom floor.

“He then tried several things to revive her, including sprinkling the Acai powder all over her, placing a ball similar to a golf ball in her mouth to fix her jaw,” according to documents.

Court records also state that he admitted to taking two doses of MDMA, which is a drug also known as ecstasy or Molly.

The state set Chu’s bail at $5 million. His next court date was scheduled for Aug. 28.