Support comes from Washington's National Park Fund, the official philanthropic partner of Mount Rainier,

North Cascades, and Olympic National Parks. Proceeds from Washington National Park license plates

help fund important projects in these parks that might not otherwise receive support. More at WNPF.org.

These days, there's so much news. It can be hard to keep up with what it all means for you, your family, and your community.

The Consider This podcast from NPR features our award-winning journalism. Six days a week, we bring you a deep dive on a news story and provide the context and analysis that helps you make sense of the news.

We get behind the headlines. We get to the truth. Listen to the Consider this podcast from NPR.

Good evening from the KUOW Newsroom. This is Seattle now. I'm Gustavo Sagero with a roundup of today's top stories. It's Friday, December 13th. A quick invite before we get started. KUOW and Seattle Now are people-powered. That means the local news you hear every day is made possible with your dollars and donations.

KUOW is having our winter fundraising drive right now

and we're asking you to join us. Go ahead and tap the link in the show notes to donate and thank you.

The KUOW investigation has found that Seattle frequently uses on-duty paramedics and firefighters

to staff special events like football games

and concerts. As Ann Dornfeld reports, that leaves emergency response coverage gaps across town.

The city requires emergency responders on hand at special events like Sounders games and the

Capitol Hill block party. It's supposed to be voluntary overtime for medics and

firefighter EMTs on their days off. But KUOWW found that the fire department instead

used on-duty neighborhood medic and fire units about 10 times each month in the last year to work

large events. That's not what we want to do, because that complicates the whole system.

Fire Chief Harold Skagins blames understaffing, especially for paramedics. One third of the 89

positions are currently unfilled. The fire department got a $6 million budget increase to recruit and

train more firefighters and medics over the next

two years. But it can still train only a dozen paramedics a year. At that rate, Seattle may still

divert on-duty neighborhood units to special events for years to come. Ann Dornfeld, KUOW News.

...