Amazon's carbon emissions jumped 16% in 2025. The driver: massive data center buildout ^49.4%

KUOW Public Radio - By Monica Nickelsburg, Stephen Howie - 7/1/2026, 11:05 PM

Framing Effect 32.9% - Negativity Bias 27.8% - Appeal to Emotion 18.6%

Amazon's latest sustainability report shows that carbon emissions from the online retail giant jumped by 16% in 2025, driven in large part by its multi-billion dollar data center buildout. Amazon has pledged to have net zero emissions by 2040, but the data center requirements of artificial intelligence have raised questions about the... more

‘Seattle's lost its economic mojo.’ Downtown Seattle Association report claims taxes are driving out jobs ^68.2%

KUOW - By Monica Nickelsburg - 6/17/2026, 10:14 PM

Appeal to Emotion 21.4% - Negativity Bias 20.9% - Confirmation Bias 19.1%

Seattle is losing jobs to Bellevue. That’s the assertion in a new report from the Downtown Seattle Association, an advocacy group focused on economic development. DSA estimates that between 2023-2025, Seattle lost 1.3% of its jobs, while Bellevue’s labor pool increased 12.6%. “ My top takeaway is Seattle's lost its economic mojo,” DSA... more

Mark Zuckerberg’s mega yacht docks in Seattle in the wake of Meta layoffs ^35.8%

KUOW Public Radio - By Monica Nickelsburg - 5/27/2026, 8:24 PM

Anecdotal 30% - Appeal to Authority 18% - Hasty Generalization 17.7%

Mark Zuckerberg’s enormous yacht is moored near Meta’s Seattle office, where hundreds of people just lost their jobs. As of Wednesday afternoon, the $300 million, 387-foot Launchpad was stationed on Westlake, just a few blocks up Lake Union from Meta's offices. The yacht arrived as news broke that Meta’s mass layoffs hit about 1,400... more

Meta layoffs affect nearly 1,400 Washington state workers ^27.7%

KUOW Public Radio - By Monica Nickelsburg - 5/26/2026, 8:28 PM

Framing Effect 29.8% - Biased Writer Voice 23.8% - Availability Heuristic 17.7%

Meta’s sweeping layoffs over the past week had an outsized impact on employees in Washington, according to a filing with the state’s Employment Security Department. Nearly 1,400 of the 8,000 employees Meta laid off last week were based in Washington. Meta is headquartered in the Bay Area, but has a substantial presence in the Seattle... more

Amazon launches new AI tools, as Microsoft and OpenAI end exclusive cloud deal ^95.8%

KUOW Public Radio - By Monica Nickelsburg - 4/29/2026, 7:11 PM

Unattributed Quote 39.2% - Optimism Bias 38.2% - Biased Writer Voice 21.9%

Big changes are underway for the Seattle area’s tech titans. Amazon and Microsoft just rewrote the terms of their partnerships with OpenAI as all three companies charge ahead into the artificial intelligence frontier. Microsoft is no longer OpenAI’s exclusive cloud partner under their re-hashed arrangement, and Amazon was quick to seize... more

AI as an attorney? Student uses ChatGPT, Gemini to sue UW over alleged racial discrimination ^29.1%

KUOW Public Radio - By Monica Nickelsburg - 4/15/2026, 9:31 PM

Unattributed Quote 14.4% - Confirmation Bias 13.2% - Hasty Generalization 12.1%

Stanley Zhong graduated from his Bay Area high school with a 4.42 GPA, a 1590 SAT score, and high rankings in several international coding competitions, according to his father. Nan Zhong liked his son’s chances for the 18 colleges he applied to, including several University of California schools and the University of Washington. “With... more

The K-shaped economy: Why diners are dying but yachts are booming ^69.3%

KUOW Public Radio - By Monica Nickelsburg - 4/2/2026, 6:28 PM

Ambiguity (Equivocation) 25.2% - Negativity Bias 18.3% - Framing Effect 17.8%

On a sunny February afternoon, Wendy Morales locked up Blue Star Cafe & Pub for the last time. After decades serving oversized omelets, classic bloody marys, and battered french fries, the beloved diner in Seattle's Wallingford neighborhood closed for good. “Our lease is coming to an end,” Morales said. “There really were no options. The... more

Washington passes new AI laws to crack down on misinformation, protect minors ^12.1%

KUOW Public Radio - By Monica Nickelsburg - 3/24/2026, 8:56 PM

Availability Heuristic 20.5% - Anecdotal 11.4% - Hasty Generalization 10.4%

Washington just became the latest state to regulate artificial intelligence. Under a pair of bills signed by Gov. Bob Ferguson Tuesday, companies like OpenAI and Anthropic will have to include new disclosures in their popular chatbots for Washington users. Ferguson asked legislators to craft House Bill 1170 to crack down on AI-generated... more

Could Microsoft's off-grid data center project undermine climate goals? ^60.5%

KUOW Public Radio - By Monica Nickelsburg - 3/19/2026, 7:26 PM

Microsoft’s plan to lease an off-grid, gas-powered data center is raising questions about the company’s carbon footprint. This week, the Redmond-based software giant signed a letter of intent to use up to 1.35GW of artificial intelligence computing capacity at the Monarch Compute Campus in West Virginia. Microsoft is leasing part of the... more

How stores are spying on you (encore) ^81.3%

KUOW Public Radio - By Monica Nickelsburg, Joshua McNichols, Lucy Soucek, Alec Cowan, Carol Smith - 12/24/2025, 8:45 AM

The Booming team is hard at work on some new episodes coming out next year. In the meantime, we wanted to revisit some of our favorite stories this holiday season. We think this one will be particularly useful for those of you still doing some last-minute holiday shopping. It explores the ways AI is being used by some of your favorite... more