Good evening from the KUOW Newsroom. This is Seattle now. I'm Patricia Murphy. Here are today's top stories. It's Tuesday, May 21st. It may be wet today in Seattle, but Western Washington's drier than normal winter has officials concerned about the upcoming fire season.

Matthew Deere is the wildland fire meteorologist for the Washington Department of Natural Resources.

For Western Washington, our typical fire season is much later in the summer. It takes a long time for our big, heavy fuels to dry out.

And sometimes they don't ever dry out in time to get an active fire season.

This season is a little bit different.

We're starting a lot drier than we typically do.

And I do think that the fuels in Western Washington will be available to burn later this summer.

Deere expects above average wildfire risks and smoke impacts in the North Cascades, Central Cascades, and the Olympics from late July through early September.

The agency says people should be very cautious with fire this year in those areas.

And while Deere expects normal risk conditions in eastern Washington this year. He notes that normal always includes

a risk of dangerous fires. A Seattle police captain filed a lawsuit this week against Chief

Adrian Diaz. The suit alleges Diaz discriminated against women and people of color at the department.

Captain Eric Greening says Diaz also retaliated

against him for raising concerns about bias in the department. Greening is black. He's been with the

department for 30 years. He is the third former assistant chief to accuse Diaz of racist and

sexist behavior in lawsuits. Diaz's attorney did not respond to KUOW's request for comment.

You can read more of KUOW's reporting on this at KUOW.org.

The Seattle City Council is talking about how to improve transportation and how much to ask voters to pay for it.

Mayor Bruce Harrell proposed a $1.4 billion transportation levy for the fall ballot.

It would cost the typical Seattle homeowner $470 a year.

Advocates for pedestrians and bicyclists say the proposed levy is too small to

address the worsening death toll on Seattle's roadways. Here's councilmember Tammy Morales.

...